Happy Easter!

About a month ago we had some pictures done at JC Penneys. I wasn't expecting much, but they turned out so good. Here is one of them. I will post the others later. We had a great Easter this year. The Easter bunny came on Saturday morning to our house and brought lots of fun treats for Ellie. She was really excited about her basket(even though she really has no idea what is going on, but if it means fun toys for her....she's excited)Friday during lunch we colored Easter Eggs. I have always loved coloring Easter Eggs and was excited to see what Ellie thought of it. Lets just say it wasn't as happy of an experience for her. She loved the egg, and tried to eat it. Then I could hear her little teeth munching away on the shell....I tried to get her to put it in the color and she wouldn't have it! Once we took the egg to show her what to do, she threw a fit and screamed. It was kind of hilarious, but she was so sad about it too. Oh well, next year it will be more fun for her:)She was fine as soon as we gave her food:) This is her little cheese grin. I was so excited about breakfast on Sunday morning. I found these fun pancakes on Gourmet Mom on the Go. Aren't they so cute!?! And of course here is Ellie's cute Easter dress. She was still a little sick, so we only took her to Sacrament Meeting, but she was super cute in her dress. I love the look on her face! Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

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!