Baby Animal Days!

Every year they have baby animal days at the American West Heritage Center. I have been looking forward to going this year with Ellie and Patrick. It had been so nice, and then on the weekend of baby animal days, it decided to snow and snow and snow. We went anyways(April 9) and just bundled up really good. It was not as good this year because of the cold weather, but it was still a lot of fun and I'm glad we went. Ellie really enjoyed the animals too. Here is Patrick and Ellie ready to go in.This year they had a horse carriage ride which was kind of fun. Ellie loved the horses. She would grunt and squeal every time they came close. Me and Ellie waiting in line to see the animals. It was really wet and cold. She was able to pet a bunny and a lamb, I'm not sure what she thought of this, but seemed to like it:) A nice lady bought Ellie a balloon, which she loved! I actually just heard that Thanksgiving Point does a baby animal days each year too and it is this Saturday. We are headed down that way for the weekend, so I think we will try it out. Hopefully it stays a little warmer!

10 Months

Once again I am so far behind on my blogging. I really want to keep it up to date, so I remember all these things....since I am far behind on Ellie's journal too....oh well. Ellie is now 10 months....well 10 and a half months, but this is her 10 month post:) I like to take a picture each month to chart her growth....with a sign and a monkey. It is getting so much harder to take any pictures where she is looking at the camera, but especially hard to get any picture that are posed with other items.....Here is how it turned out.At least we got a cute one with a little smile. Some things Ellie has been doing lately are.

• Walking along things-she will try to take a step and will stand for a long time, but won't actually go anywhere. She gets so excited about standing though and will clap and giggle.
• Climbing on everything and over everything-she especially loves the stairs and is getting so much better at it. I have been trying to teach her to go down backwards, but she won't have it. The thing is, she is pretty good at going down forward. She will slowly turn around and put on foot over the stair, then the other and stand up on the lower stair, then she squats and starts again. She is always so proud of herself. Ugh....I am sure this will lead to a bump or bruise sooner or later. (Apr 17)
• She really likes to clap and wave. We can sing If your happy and you know it, or have it on in the background and all of the sudden she will start clapping. She also will clap when she has accomplished something-like going up or down the stairs. We sit at the window when daddy's coming home and as soon as he pulls in, she will start squealing and waving like crazy. She gets super excited! She also will do a little of the wheels on the bus and roll her arms.
• She mimics us a lot and will try to say things we are saying. She tries up, hi and more a lot. She is always jabbering though and I wonder what she is thinking about and saying. She cracks me up.
• She is getting a little bit of an attitude lately and has been 'chewing us out' When I take something away-most of the time this is dvd's that she is getting into-she will look up at me and just start scream jabbering with an angry look on her face. I have to do everything I can not to laugh because it is hilarious, but I don't want her to continue with this attitude and have a problem getting rid of it later:)
• Ellie is a great eater. She loves almost everything, especially if we are eating it. Some things that she really likes are, strawberries-(Apr 24)I can just hand her a strawberry and she will chew off little pieces, lunch meat-strange to me that she likes this so much, but when Patrick is eating in the car on the way to campus, he will share with her and she thinks its great. We had her try french fries and she didn't care much the first time, but now she loves them. She tried black beans and sweet pork last night from Cafe Rio and devoured them. She loves grahams, Ritz, spaghetti, mac n cheese and of course ice cream and cake:) You can tell when she's done too because she will lean to the side and look exhausted. It's really funny. (March 26)
• She has had a cold the last few weeks and it just won't go away. (I actually took her in to the dr cause I was so worried about her cough, she was okay, just really bad cold. She weighed 19lbs 7oz. I can't believe how big she is getting) I hate when she is sick, it is miserable. The one thing that is great is that she will actually sleep in my arms when she is sick. She doesn't like to sleep on anybody ever lately and it makes me a bit sad not to be able to cuddle her while she sleeps, but I know if it really good because she will just go right to sleep when we put her in her crib. She is a really good sleeper too. She still sleeps really good at night 10-12 hours. She is even doing a couple of short naps during the day.
• Ellie is a crazy sleeper. Here are some of the many pictures we have of her sleeping.(Feb 4)(Feb 23)(Apr 10)(Apr 12)(Apr 24)-I can't believe how long she is getting. It really shows in this picture
• I had a friend watch Ellie a while back and when I picked her up, she had her toenails painted. I finally tried it myself and it is the hardest thing ever!!!! But it turned out pretty good.
• She really likes to feed herself and if we put food in her mouth, most of the time she will take it out just to be able to put it in herself. She is very independent. The other day(April 9) I had some snacks out for her and she thought it was so funny to just put her mouth down in the bowl. She will do this on her highchair too, especially if her hands are already full and she can't pick anything else up. I thought this was hilarious because they all stuck to her face.
• She has been getting many bumps and bruises. The one in the picture above was from the dishwasher. She likes to stand up holding on to the dishwasher while I am doing dishes, and she slipped somehow and must have hit the corner and scraped her lip up.
• She's also started doing a little cheese smile(You can tell in one of the the 10 month pictures) and fake laugh. It is really funny. I can't start fake laughing and she will look at me and do it right back.
• Ellie still really loves peek a boo. She will seriously play it with anything and everything she can find. Patrick went in to get her from a nap and found her like this....playing peek a boo. (March 26)Then the other day she was playing with my jacket on the bed and while playing peek a boo, he head when through the sleeve. She couldn't quite figure out how to continue.(Apr 14)

First Plane Ride

Warning: Lots and Lots and Lots of Pictures!

A couple weeks ago we decided to take a little trip to see my sister. My niece, Kelsey, was baptized and we thought it would be fun to go. Our flight left really early....7am:) So we stayed at Grandma Judy's the night before and then headed to the airport. Patrick didn't come because he had lots of homework and needed to be back for work/school on Monday.(We flew standby because my sister works for an airline, so you never know if you will really make it on the flight....turns out we wouldn't have made it home Sunday night, so it was really good he didn't come) He was pretty sad about it because he really wanted to be on the plane with Ellie and I and see my sister's family, but it was for the best. I met my mom at the airport, so at least I wasn't braving a plane by myself with a 10 month old, but I really had no reason to be worried...Ellie did awesome. We were able to all sit together also, so she had a little more wiggle room. She was happy as can be and content to just play around on our laps. She didn't even cry on the plane. She did decide that she wouldn't sleep on the plane too. It was so funny cause both times she fell asleep, the plane was landing and she would wake up when we got off the plane. I kind of didn't think she would sleep just because she's not a big fan of sleeping in arms anymore:( I was so glad for that. Here she is waiting for the plane to take off.

I will say though, I didn't want to have to worry about changing her on the plane and she decided to go right as we took off....I did find out that our plane actually had a changing table in the bathroom...AWESOME!!!

I just had thought this was cute. I was eating an apple and she, of course, had to have it. She chewed on it for a long time and loved it.

After the first day and the long trip(my sister lives 2 hours away from the airport) She was plum tuckered. She did so good though and was so happy pretty much the whole time. When we got to our motel, I took her out of the seat, put her on the bed and set up the pack n play, with all the lights on, and she slept through it all. Kelsey's baptism was the next day between conference and was really good. I didn't get any pictures of her though:( I did get this picture of us during the lunch. My sister Denise let Ellie try cantaloupe and she loved it. Here she is with my mom gnawing on a piece.Here are a couple of pictures of us just hanging around watching conference. I am so glad it is on the internet so we didn't have to dress all up and go to the church to watch.Another new thing for Ellie to try was a trampoline. I was a little(lot) nervous for this, but she had such a good time. She would just sit there and bounce up and down. It was hilarious. I even got on the tramp and let me tell you...I am so out of shape. I never realized how much energy it takes to play around on a trampoline.The weather was so nice there. We went on a walk Sunday between conference and everybody wanted to push Ellie in the stroller. I even had my hair done, courtesy of Spencer. I love my hair played with and here is the result of the braid:)Ellie did fall asleep on the plane ride home. I guess my mom just has the touch. We had quite a long layover in Denver, so it was nice that she slept this time around.I had to get a picture of the clouds in honor of Patrick:) Whenever we go on trips, we always come home with tons of pictures of clouds from the plane:)And here we are at the end of the trip. This is after a long day of traveling-getting up and leaving our motel at 3am. I think we look pretty good:) It was so much fun to get a way for the weekend and see family. Ellie had a really great time with all the kids and I'm so glad we were able to go.

Dancing!

Sorry I post so many things about Ellie, but let's face it....our lives pretty much revolve around her. One day I will post something else.....I promise:) Almost every night when we wait for Patrick to come home, I have Ellie stand on the couch and look out the window. Then she can see when he pulls up and he will honk and wave to her. She gets so excited. Tonight we were sitting on the couch, watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and I just said dada's coming home soon. She crawled right over to the window and stood up on the pillows and watched for him. It was so cute! Then the hot dog song came on at the end of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and she started bouncing and moving her hands all around. Her little dance was so cute and didn't want to forget it, so I had to write about it. Hopefully I can get a video soon! A couple of nights ago, Patrick was bouncing Ellie on his knee and singing. When he would stop, she would keep on bouncing. I am thinking this is where the dancing started.

Baby Banana Brush!

How cool is this!?! My mom came up to visit today and we had a great day. She came to institute with Ellie and I and I think I got quite a bit more out of it with her holding Ellie instead of me:) Then we just hung out and watched a really dumb movie....and then we went to Jacks Pizza....again! I just love it that much and now I have my mom addicted too:) Anyways, back to the lovely picture, my mom went to a dental convention for work and found this awesome toothbrush for Ellie. It is soft and bendable and perfect for infants teething. They can grip it better too and it can be washed in the dishwasher! I just think it is so dang cute that I had to post about it. I unfortunately didn't get a picture with my mom....again! I don't know why, but I never seem to get pictures when people come up. I am going to have to do better. Thanks so much for coming and spending the day with us Madre! We love it when you come!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Okay, I know it's not today, but what can you say, I haven't been much of a blogger lately:) I am catching up now, so make sure you check out the last few posts, they are new:) We love St Patrick's Day around our house. Patrick even thinks it's his second birthday:) So, every year we have a few traditions. Of course we all have to be wearing green! And we have a green breakfast every year too. Patrick grew up with green milk, but we decided we just couldn't go quite that far! We did enjoy green eggs and pancakes though. Ellie even tried green pancakes for the first time and really liked them. This year I decided that it would be fun to go all out for dinner as well and try to make an Irish Stew. I found this recipe at allrecipes.com and decided it was as good as any for me to try. I even bought a parsnip and leeks....although we substituted beef for the lamb:) It turned out really good, but just wasn't something I would probably make again. I will have to find another recipe to experiment on next year. We also had green koolaid, rolls(with green butter on the top) and kiwi. It was a wonderful day and fun to celebrate with traditions!

Jack's Wood Fired Oven

The other day, March 12, we decided it would be fun to try out a new restaurant. I have always loved the adventure of trying a new place and thought it would be fun. I'd heard that this was a yummy place. We went to Jack's Wood Fired Oven-pizza. I love it! I seriously think I could eat there at least once a week. It is a really thin pizza that is just so yummy! We tried the bread and the margarita pizza and they didn't disappoint. It is a little pricey for the amount of food you get, so, unfortunately we won't be going there once a week:) but it was really very good! We even got a sucker for Ellie to try....I must say, she thoroughly enjoyed it!

911!

I have always had a fear of what I would do if a child called 911! I imagined them learning about 911 at school or at home and then when in an "emergency" situation, deciding to call it. I have heard terrible stories of this. For instance...I heard a story about a girl that decided to call and say that she was being abused because she was not allowed to go out that night because of being grounded....the police showed up at the house and had to get it all straightened out! For real!!!! Well, I didn't think this call would be made at such a young age, but Ellie has figured it out. I don't let her play with my phone anymore, do to this instance, but as I went to put her in her carseat the other day, she grabbed my phone so quick and I immediately took it away and set it on the floor while I put her in her seat. I looked down and it said "emergency call." I figured it just meant my phone wasn't working right again. Well, not even 10 seconds later 911 called me back and asked if I was okay. I am sure that I sounded like I was in distress by my shocked voice, but I assured them I was okay and was extremely embarrassed. My mom heard that if you hold down 9 on your phone, it will automatically call 911??? Not sure if that is true, and I'm definitely not going to try it! But, if you have kids....watch out! As much as I hope, I am sure this will probably not be the last time in my life that something like this happens. Anybody have any 911 stories to share, I'd love to hear them!?!

9 Months!

Wow, time is seriously flying by. I can't believe it, but Ellie is already 9 months....well...she was 9 months on March 7! Love the picture above....it is rare that we get a non moving picture these days! We had her 9 month check up on March 15 and she is once again doing awesome! She is now 18lbs 4.8oz and 28 inches long. I knew she had gotten quite a bit taller because her pants are all starting to fit in length much, much better. Here are some things she is doing:

• She has been quite the little entertainer lately singing and jabbering constantly, especially when she is eating, or really tired. Patrick always jokes that she is like me because she can't stop talking right before bed and then she will just conk out. It is pretty funny
• She is into EVERYTHING! She crawls awesome and pulls up onto everything, she especially loves the stove, refrigerator and dishwasher. When I am doing dishes, she will pull herself up and loves to play in any water that is on it. I know....gross! She has just started to move a little around the couch or whatever she is holding onto, but not a lot.
• She loves to climb on everything. If I am sitting on the floor with her, she will climb up me and get on to the couch, chair or bed. She is always so proud of herself also. The first time she climbed onto/into something was into her carseat. Can't you just see how proud of herself she was?
• She enjoys having screaming wars...not because she is upset, but just because. If I scream or lately anybody else....even on the tv screams, she will scream back. It is hilarious! Although, it wasn't quite as funny during church...perhaps this will need to be stopped shortly:)
• She loves peek a boo and thinks its so funny when we put a blanket...or anything...over her and she will pull it down and just giggle.
• I say Uh Oh a lot when she drops something or falls....etc and she will say part of it, either Uh or Oh. The other night in the tub, she dropped a toy, and said "Uh Oh!" Patrick and I both cheered and she was so happy with herself!
• She loves to blow raspberries, I mean all day long, even when she has a mouth full of food.
• She eats so well and is currently eating 4-5 6oz bottles a day and baby food twice a day with snacks in between. She will eat pretty much anything, especially fruit. Yesterday we tried real pears which she loves. She also will eat strawberries, apples, bananas and peaches. She eats bread and really likes banana bread. We gave her Mac n Cheese yesterday and I am pretty sure that will become a staple around here:) She has also really gotten the hang of a sippy cup. The first couple of weeks, I didn't think she would ever get the concept. Now she does great, but she doesn't like to tip it up, I usually have to help with that.
• She has also started climbing the stairs. She does really good at this and climbed up the whole set by herself. However, when she gets distracted or tired, she will just sit down....and since it is a stair, there is nothing to sit on. Good thing we never let her go up by herself:)
• She is still a great sleeper. She had a cold a few weeks ago and was waking up a lot during the night, but is back to normal:10-12 hours a night! It is awesome. She doesn't do a lot of napping during the day, but I usually get 2 30-45 min naps. Here is a great nap picture. She will often be so tired but not want to sleep and this is how I find her:)
• Patrick does horsey rides a lot of nights. She thinks this is awesome! Here is a picture we got of it. She seriously just giggles and giggles. I ever taught her to kick his sides with her heals to make him go faster:) Luckily, she doesn't quite understand that...yet!
• Ellie absolutely loves shoes. This has become a favorite place to play. The other day I had closed my bedroom door(evidently it didn't close completely) I had the gate up so she could get even close to the stares and went into the bathroom for a minute. I came out and found her in my closet....with all the shoes! Please....PLEASE don't look too closely at how extremely messy my closet is....and how much laundry had piled up.
• Ellie has always liked faces. She likes to grab your cheeks, nose and eyes. Lately she has become really fascinated with eyelashes. She really likes to play with them, especially when she is going to bed or down for a nap. It is funny because she becomes so focused and sill just run her thumb over them so gently.

I am sure that I could go on and on, but that is all I can remember for now. On March 18 we went to Charlie's for some ice cream! She couldn't get enough of it(We didn't give her very much, but she loved it!) I have been loving the weather lately and we have been going on walks, which Ellie really enjoys. She loves to be going, anywhere and does a great job. She is usually pretty happy as long as we are out. We got an umbrella stroller and when we go to the library or mall we get that out instead of lugging the big stroller and she has a ball. I think she enjoys being able to see more and kick her feet all around. She really likes the play place at the Mall, but it's hard if there are lots of older kids, because she doesn't really understand the concept of moving out the a large kid jumping right above her:) She has so much personality and is a little social butterfly. She is so much fun and I love having her in our family!

Life Is Great!

I know I haven't posted anything for a while, and I have so many things to post, but for now....I just have to post about how grateful I am for my life. I love it! I am so happy with everything right now and just can't help but see the best in things.

Patrick is such an amazing husband and is doing so much for our family right now. He is so busy and stressed to the max, and yet he is always happy and loves to play around with Ellie when he's home. She just loves him so much and lights up every time she hears his voice on the phone, or when he walks in the door. He is currently working full time and doing 3 credits in grad school which is very time consuming. I have to say though, he does a great job at work, and he is actually enjoying school this semester. The Lord must be blessing us for that:)

Ellie is such a joy. She is always happy and smiley and is learning so many things. I will post lots and lots more about the things she has recently been doing(ie calling 911-for real I still can't believe this and was so embarrassed, and starting to talk) She is 9 months old!

A couple months ago we switched over from the student ward we have been in for 5 years....and into the family ward. We were really worried, but I just know it was the right thing for us to do. I feel so comfortable and there are so many people in the same boat as us. The first Sunday I counted at least 10 kids the same age as Ellie. The first Sunday we were there, they asked Patrick to help with the Sacrament and then also asked him to say the closing prayer. He is always a target in wards:) I am so glad he is willing to do things! I am making friends and really enjoying the ward. I did get a calling already, Visiting Teaching Supervisor. Patrick and I just had to laugh because I have this calling in every ward. I have had it 6 times already, I must not be doing something right....anyways, I am actually really excited about it and really trying hard to help this time because visiting teaching doesn't seem to be a priority for anybody in this ward. We will see how that goes.

I feel so grateful for my family growing up and am really glad that they are members of the church and I grew up that way. I think about what I would be like had I not grown up a member of the church and I wonder how I would have turned out. The gospel is such a big part of my life and I can't imagine anything different. I am also so glad for the way Patrick was raised. He has such a great family that I love being part of. I feel so welcomed and just fit in with them.

Lastly, it's been raining a lot the last week or so and although a lot of people really don't like the rain, I LOVE it. For some reason I have always really like the rain, I feel happier just waking up to the rain. Maybe it's all the times my mom and I would sit on the front porch in the rain and watch the lighting and thunder. I especially loved the hail storms.

I hope everyone is having a great day and I will for sure post more when I get the chance. I have tons and tons of pictures...and maybe, just maybe I will finally get a video on here:) Until then her is a picture of a little over 9 months ago! I can't believe how the time is flying!

Ellie the Model

Patrick is taking a photoshop class right now and has done some really cool projects. These are two of them that I thought were really cool! And....what better model than this cute little girl:)

8 Months!

Ellie is 8 months old as of yesterday! I can't believe how the time is flying. I love being home with her and watching her grow. Here are some of the things Ellie is doing now.

• She started crawling on January 27th. She started out going onto her knees and then she would scoot backwards, but she finally got going forwards and is now into everything. She is getting pretty fast now too. Last night we were playing a game where Patrick would chase us and we would crawl away. She is just so funny.
• Talks and talks and talks....she loves to make noises. She will say dada and mama(not sure she really knows what she is saying, but it's cute) She talks a lot when she is tired also(Patrick says she gets that from me) She will wake up in the morning and just sing and talk for a while. It is really cute. The other day I would say pee-yew in a high pitched voice and she would try to mimic me. She also loves to squeal.
• Ellie giggles all the time. She is such a happy smiley baby and loves to play peek-a-boo. We will play and she just giggles. She loves to play like she is going to get me and I will chase her to get her. A lot of times when she is laughing she gets going so hard that she snorts!
• She is a really great eater. She will eat pretty much anything we give her. She is getting really good and putting food in her mouth by herself. On Saturday we had ice cream cones and we gave her a little and her eyes lit up and she just kept begging for me. She has also tried snickerdoodles(not sure about those), bread and turkey. She surprisingly really liked the turkey.

I am just having so much fun being a mom and seriously never realized just how much I would love this little girl. She is a blast and just makes me laugh. I am so glad that I have her. Here is a picture from 8 Months. It is getting really hard to get any pictures that either aren't blurry or have her not even looking at you. So much moving....constantly! Happy 8 Months Ellie! We love you!

Help in the Kitchen!

Patrick is always so willing to help me with almost everything:) One thing that he always helps me with is packaging chicken.

Each time I buy chicken, I like to buy a lot and then freeze it. I don't really do this to save money, although it probably does, but I do it because I absolutely HATE cleaning chicken. I have to have every little piece of grossness off of my chicken(I got this from my mom) and I find that if I do this the day I am going to eat it, I have hard time having the appetite to actually eat it. So, I buy a lot and then freeze it. Lately I have been trying to save time by chopping some of the chicken before I freeze it. I use a lot of chopped chicken in recipes and it really helps the process of cooking dinner. Patrick always holds the baggie open for me to put the chicken in so I don't get it all chickeny:) Then I wrap it in foil and write what it is and how much. He decided to go above and beyond and do the wrapping and writing this time. Wasn't that so nice of him? Here is one of the finished products.

Yep, it says CHOPPED ROOSTER! I found all of the chicken with funny names like this. Another one said, Hacked Bird Meat....I am serious! He just makes me laugh and I had to share.