Things we've been up to

I have a bunch of things I want to remember and pictures to have on here, but don't really want to do a separate post for each one, so here goes with our what we've been up to.

Eating yummy Aggie Ice Cream.  Ellie has had a cone before, but not a really yummy strawberry hard serve ice cream.  She loved it!  April 16, 2012

We went to 1st Dam to have a picnic and feed the ducks.  April 21, 2012  Ellie and Patrick kicked the ball around.

Ellie loves watermelon

 We hiked up to Stokes Nature Center for nature night and Patrick's brother, Derrick came.  May 2, 2012

Ellie loved throwing rocks in the river.

She also loves her Uncle Derrick.  She is always so excited when she gets to see him.

Ellie's friends all got together for a little picnic.  May 10, 2012  Here she is with Dutton Booth.

They all decided they should play in the rocks.  Peter Ahlstrom, Dutton Booth, Ellie and Shaylee Bassett

Dutton, Peter, Ellie and Shaylee

Grandma Judy brought these punch balloons up for Ellie.  Patrick and her have had lots of fun having balloon wars.  May 6, 2012

We spent the weekend and Grandma and Grandpa Browns.  May 12, 2012  They got a fun sprinkler.  It took a bit to get used to it.

Then she dove right in.

And decided she needed a drink.  I love how she is squatting down in this picture.

Ellie has always been a fan of Patrick's blanket her got for Christmas.  She insisted on taking her nap with it the other day.  I was shocked when she slept for 4 hours!  Then when she woke up, she really didn't want to get up at all.  She just cuddled back into the blankie.  May 23, 2012

We did snake bubbles one night.  They were lots of fun for Patrick and I.  Ellie had fun chasing them and popping them all over.  She was covered in soap:)  May 21, 2012

We've been having lots of fun around her and have been enjoying the sunny weather!

St George

We were able to spend the weekend in St George with my family for my nieces' ballet recital.  May 19-20, 2012 It was a quick trip but we had a lot of fun.  We left for my parents house, in Orem, on Friday after work.  Then Saturday morning we headed to St George.  Ellie hasn't really had a lot of longer car driving experience so I was a bit worried...she did great!  I don't know why I ever really worry about things because she always does so good with everything.  She read some books and then napped for most of the drive.  We borrowed a portable dvd player from some friends and that helped with the end of the drive and the drive home.  We met up with my brother, Eric, nephews, Nate and Taylor and niece, Katie for lunch at the Brick Oven.  Then we decided to go swimming.  Ellie is a huge fan of swimming.  She loved it last year, and it hasn't changed a bit.  She did want to be very independent though, which is scary, and wanted to walk out by herself.  We had to keep a good hold of her.  She really loved swinging on the bars at the stairs.

Katie got Ellie some fun birthday bows and a cute dolly.  She also brought Ellie a bunch of her old dolls and Ellie was in heaven.

We walked around the outlets for a while before heading to the recital.  Here is Ellie with my Eric.

 

We left the recital a little early because Ellie was getting really tired.  Katie did wonderful!  When we got back to the motel, Ellie pretty much fell asleep while getting her jammies on.  Here she is after a long day zonked out on the bed:)

On our way out on Sunday, we stopped to say bye to Katie and she had made an early birthday cake for Ellie since she won't be able to see her.  She made a really cute bird cake-she even designed it and had chocolate licorice for the nest.  How creative and delicious.

 It was lots of fun to be able to spend the weekend with family.

23 Months

Can't believe Ellie is already 23 months.  I seriously don't know where the time has gone.  Here are some things that Ellie is up to these days!

• Patrick and I went on a date to the Fun Park in Logan.  We both always love air hockey and really haven't had a chance to play much since we had Ellie.  We played a few of the arcade games....and since we are amazing got a lot of tickets....we decided to grab a couple little toys for Ellie.  Patrick picked out a little purple ninja and I kind of laughed at his choice...Ellie ADORES this little ninja.  Patrick has even taught her to say Highya and move her hand like a ninja.

• She has gotten to be quite a little daredevil.  She likes to climb on things and will now pull a chair over to reach what she needs to.  I've noticed this mostly at the park.  Bridger Park by our apt is a pretty big park.  The slides they have a really high up.  Ellie has never really gone down them by herself and is content to walk around.  She decided that she wanted to swing from the largest/steepest slide there and I about had a heart attack.  She didn't let go, but did decide to try to go down it.  She put her feet down a couple feet into the slide and flipped over the edge.  Luckily I felt like I should be as close as possible to catch her at the bottom and had moved up to reach as high as I could and caught her.  I still had a really big heart attack and she hasn't tried to go down again....April 30, 2012

• Ellie still loves stickers.  She thinks they are great and has done really good at only sticking them on herself or on paper-that is designated for stickers.  She also loves to stick them on her nose.  Her favorite is still to stick them on Patrick:)  April 21, 2012

• She has such a good memory.  I am amazed at the things that she says to me and what she will remember from weeks before.  I know she is getting older, but for some reason I never think she will remember things so well.  She talks about when we went to baby animal days and will tell me about all the animals she held and what they did.  There is an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that we watched a couple months ago and it has a silly gilly gumbo in it.  The other day at dinner she brought up this silly gilly gumbo and how it is outside.  I didn't even really remember so we re-watched the episode and it is outside-it ends up being Willy the Giant making noises.  She now thinks that saying silly gilly gumbo is hilarious!

• Ellie really likes drawing.  I think she prefers to draw over coloring a picture.  She will still color pictures, but if I give her a blank piece of paper and a pen(not crayons) she will draw for a long time.  She really likes to draw/color while laying on the floor on her tummy.  I loved coloring this way also:) April 17, 2012

• For some reason she thinks that the wind will blow her away.  If I roll the windows down in the car, she will say/scream, "Blow me away!!!"  Until I roll the window up.  We were on a walk the other night and it was a little windy.  She was pushing her baby stroller and the wind started blowing pretty hard.  It pushed her baby stroller backwards and she started saying blow me away, blow baby away.  We had to run the rest of the way home to make sure we wouldn't blow away.

• We got a little baby stroller a little bit ago and she loves to push her baby around in it.  We go for walks just around the block and she will push the stroller:)  She always asks to bring it wherever we go, and we have taken it to the library a couple of times:) May 3, 2012

• Ellie has always enjoyed being comfy and will make sure to find the most comfy position.  This is a new favorite way to sit while on the couch. April 18, 2012 

 April 22, 2012

• Now has a pillow in her crib. May 6, 2012

• Hiding in her stroller.  She thinks its fun to get in the back basket of her stroller.  May 3, 2012

• She is talking like crazy and often we have random people ask how old she is and then tell me that she is speaking so clearly and they are amazed.  Some of the words/phrases she says that I just think are so cute are.  

Cow(when we drive to Patrick's work we pass a bunch of cows.  She gets so excited and will say cow over and over until we pass the cows.  Then while we are passing, she mooos and then says bye cow until we get to his work.  When she says it is starts out low and then gets pretty high.  It's really cute)

Sure do

What the(This one is completely my fault.  I say this all the time.  It is really funny coming out of her mouth, but perhaps no the best thing for her to say.)

Silly(she calls everything silly, and she chuckles when she says it)

Animal say...(She says this especially when we are in the car.  She will say the animal, such as cat, and then say what it says.  So, cat say....meow)

I love you-pronounced I yawwvvvv you(Ellie will be looking for something and call out for whatever it is, then she will yell I yawwvvv you, cracks me up every time) 

Sleep-pronounced seep(Whenever she sees somebody sleeping she will come up to you and say seep....shhhhhh)

Baby cry-pronounced baby kyyyy

Hold you Momma

Ellie turn(She loves to say the prayer at night or dinner and will say Ellie's turn)

Pee yew-pronounced pee whoo(This is one of my favorites.  She will say this after a messy diaper or the other day when we passed the cows, I said they were cute cows and she said, "No, stinky...peewhoo")

Don't want to-pronounced no mont to

Diaper-pronounced Biper

Ellie is growing up so fast and I look at her and can't believe she is a little girl now and not my little baby!  So glad she is part of our family!

Masters Graduation!!!

On Friday, May 4, 2012, Patrick graduated with his Masters Degree in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences!  I am so proud of him and all of the hard work that he has put in the last few years!  Patrick started his Master's program right after we had Ellie, I quit working to stay at home with her, and he started working full time while going to school.  Shortly after, he got a calling in our ward that takes up 2-3 nights per week. He has been doing all of this while going to school full time and being the best husband and dad in the world.  I know he has felt like he can't do it all and somehow has been able to.  He always made sure to take time for Ellie everyday and I know that she loves this time spent with him.  I am sure he doesn't realize how much he has done and I know that many times he has been discouraged or wanted to quit, but he pushed through and made it to the end of school!  I know if it such a relief for him to not have to worry about that.  

Patrick did the procession walk, which was really cool to be able to have everyone cheering them on as the walked to the stadium.  We were watching on the screen and were even able to find him in all the people.  Also, as they were about to walk in, we saw him right away.  I am glad we were able to find him in all of the graduates.  There were over 1000!  They had bagpipes playing-I thought this was awesome because Patrick has always loved them!  It seemed appropriate!

 Here he is being hooded.  

And I'm so sad because the only pictures I got of him receiving his diploma are blurry:(

We are so excited to have school done with and have more time with him and have him have less stress.  We were able to have both of our families up on Friday for graduation.

Then we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  

Patrick got a new computer for graduation and is so excited to finally have an up to date computer....especially since that is what a lot of his major deals with.  We had so much fun with all of our family and had a great day celebrated Patrick.  His sister even stayed the night with us to watch Ellie and got us tickets to see the Avengers on opening night!  It was an awesome gift and great to be able to spend the time together.  Ellie loved every minute of her here as well.

Tulip Festival

Every year Thanksgiving Point does a Tulip festival in there Gardens.  Each year, my mom and I say we should go.  We finally decided to make a day of it and head over on April 25, 2012.  I haven't been to Thanksgiving Point since high school....probably close to 12 years ago....and it has gotten so much bigger.  I couldn't believe it.  The gardens were beautiful and there were so many tulips and other flowers.  We had a really good time walking around.  I will say that it was huge...we walked a lot!!!  Here are a few pictures of the day.

Ellie and I by a waterfall at the very beginning.

She loved being able to push her stroller all over.

Here she is with Grandma Brown at a flower carousel.

After walking through this really cool vine tunnel,

We made it to the secret garden. 

With Grandpa Brown-I love this view with all the flowers going up the stairs.

Grandma had on her sunglasses, so Ellie needed to put hers on too.  

I love the cheesy grin here.

A very nice guy took our picture for us.  I thought it was hilarious because Ellie was so mad that he had our camera and just glared at him....no smiles.

Then we found the pond and got to see the ducks and fish.

Luckily Grandpa had a quarter and we were able to feed the fish.  I still can't believe how big they were.

 Ellie finally got tired of walking and rode the rest of the way.

We had a really good day at the gardens.  Glad my parents could meet us there!

It's a BOY!!!

We had our 20 week ultrasound on Friday, April 13, 2012. I was a little nervous because Ellie was extremely shy and I wanted to know what this little baby was going to be:) Our little guy was not shy at all...we knew within the first 5 minutes and she was trying to look at his heart:) The ultrasound tech said that he was moving around all over the place and had a hard time getting him to stay still enough to get a good look at his heart. But, all is well and things look great. A couple things I want to remember are that my placenta is anterior this time. I haven't felt a lot of movement, which always worries me, and that is the reason why. He attached on the side with my back, so your don't feel movement near as much early on. It made me feel a ton better especially since I couldn't figure out why because at each checkup he always seems to be moving all over the place-last month my Dr had a hard time getting a heartbeat because he wouldn't hold still. This also affected getting a really good look at his face. My placenta was showing too much to see through. But we still got a cute little picture of his face with a hand next to it. He also decided to urinate on camera(just like Ellie did) I still think it's funny that you can actually tell when that happens on an ultrasound. I know 3D ultrasound's don't really tell a ton of what your baby is going to look like, but I feel like this picture is nothing like what Ellie's picture was. I'm excited to see what he looks like and meet him. I'm so very glad that everything is great and we are over half way! We met both families in Layton to have dinner and tell everyone. This is how we did it! My mom and I actually made the cake balls and did half pink and half blue. Then I did the cookies the next day by myself. It was a fun way to reveal. I got the idea from SugarDerby. I even tried to make something for Patrick's dad to bite into...He can't have sugar, so I made a roll and put the center blue...but when it baked the blue showed through....oh well. It was a fun night and we are so excited to have this little guy join our family.

A Couple of Sick Weeks

With Patrick super busy at the end of school, Ellie and I decided to head down to my parents for a week to give him some time(without feeling guilty about not spending most of the night with us:)) to get all his work done for the end of the semester.  We left on Easter Sunday...night.  My sister, Krista, flew into town that night as well.  I was really excited to be able to spend time with my family and be able to go shopping, and get some crafts done....I hadn't been feeling great for a week and a half and figured it was just allergies-when I was pregnant with Ellie, I had allergies pretty bad and figured it would be the same with this one.  Ellie had also been a little grumpy and not eating so well the last couple of days.  I really just thought she was getting to the age of being grumpy and was a little worried that I wouldn't handle this stage real great.  Well, on Sunday night, she woke up and was really stuffy and had  a bad cough.  I don't ever let her sleep with me, but with Patrick gone, I brought her in bed with me to keep an eye(ear) on her.  It really had me worried a bit.  We didn't get a lot of sleep, but she was doing fine.  Her cough was still there in the morning and I debated all day about going to the Dr.  I hate going if there is nothing wrong, especially when we aren't going to her regular pediatrician.  I called her Dr and asked about it being croup and what to watch for.  Her cough had gotten a lot better by lunch so I didn't think much about it.  Then she woke up from her nap and it was terrible.  Really barky sounding and I decided to take her in right away.  The Dr got her right in and I was so glad I took her, because she had Croup.  It was so sad:(  They said her oxygen levels were only down a bit and were not too worried, but decided to give her a steroid shot and a breathing treatment.  Ellie did so good and let them do everything without even crying....until the shot.  But I have to say that the nurse came in and was really rough with the shot.  I probably would have cried too if she had stuck me with a needle that hard!  During the breathing treatment Ellie fell asleep.  She was exhausted.  Side note: I didn't really know what to expect with the breathing treatment, but we just had to hold it in front of her face.  I thought it would have to be strapped on her and didn't think she would like that at all. This was much easier.  They kept us there for over an hour to monitor her breathing and make sure everything was getting better.  She hasn't ever had croup before and I really didn't know what to expect.  We were supposed to go to the zoo the next day and I asked if she would be contagious...etc.  They made it sound like she would be almost back to normal, which I was extremely grateful for....well, that was not even close to how it was.  Ellie seemed really good all night, until bedtime.  Then, she screamed pretty much all night.  She has always been a really good sleeper, and really likes her crib.  She will even ask for it.  She hardly ever falls asleep anywhere else, even in bed with us, or with us holding her.  Tonight was not good at all.  We went from my bed, to my mom's lap, to the couch to a chair....then she just cried on the floor and didn't want anyone to touch her at all.  I felt so helpless and hated to see her hurting and not feeling good.  She did fall asleep on the floor(seriously never happens) for a couple of hours.

   We didn't go to the zoo....
 
   The rest of the week was better, but still not good.  She cried/whined a lot and didn't want anybody but me and a few times my mom.  I was so tired and it was hard to be away from Patrick because at least she probably would have gone to him and given me a little break.  I called the Dr office again on Wednesday when she was still stuffy and coughing.  They said not to worry unless her breathing was really bad.  I wish I had called her normal Dr, because I really think they would have made me feel better and helped me know what to expect.  I actually took her back in to her regular Dr on Thursday when we got home because I was so worried, since I thought she would be better in a couple of days.  They confirmed that she was getting better, but with Croup you can have cold symptoms for up to 2 weeks!!!  What!?!  I thought from what the other Dr office had said that she would be better really fast...It was a relief to know that she was fine and to know that it is expected to have some symptoms for awhile.  She started doing much better and was back to her normal happy good sleeping self by the next week!  I felt so bad, because when we got home from the Dr, Ellie didn't want to come inside.  It was pretty cold out and I told her we needed to come inside, so she ran the opposite direction.  She ended up falling, on the road, and as I reached to catch her I was a second too late.  She fell right on her face and head.  It sounded terrible and when I picked her up she was bleeding on her forehead and nose:(  I didn't take any pictures until a few days later and this is how it looked.  Rough week for Ellie!

   By Monday, I was feeling worse and worse and thought maybe my allergies were something more.  I figured a sinus infection since my eyes and ears were hurting.  I hadn't gone in to my Dr since I was so worried about Ellie.  I made an appt on Monday and went in to find that I did indeed have a sinus infection, but also had gotten bronchitis from waiting so long to get it taken care of:(  So not fun, but also kind of a relief to know that it was more that allergies and would go away!  After a couple day s of antibiotics, I felt so much better.  We don't get sick around our house often, and all being sick at the same time is just terrible!  Patrick got a little cold that week also:(  We are all doing much, much better!
   While at my parents house(April 11, 2012)  We decided to do something fun and help distract Ellie.  We made clean clouds!  It is just Ivory soap that you put in the microwave and it is awesome!  Then you add water and toilet paper.  Ellie really enjoyed squishing it all up.  We had a great time doing that!