Feeding the Geese

August 20, 2011-We took Ellie up to feed the geese at 1st dam. I had heard that they were quite mean geese and had no problem coming up to you and 'attacking,' so we were a little apprehensive to take Ellie up, but decided it would be fun anyways. I think we must have been lucky, because they were not aggressive at all and although they came right up to us, they didn't get too close. Ellie thought it was a riot being so close to these huge birds. Then Patrick and Ellie skipped....threw....rocked into the water. She was not real happy when we decided it was time to leave:( I am glad she had a good time though and we will have to do it again soon.

New Shoes

Grandpa and Grandma Brown came up a while ago and took Ellie shopping for Winter clothes. She is a shoe girl! She will bring me her new tennis shoes and hand them to me saying Shoes....shoes....shoes....until I put them on. It is hilarious. Here she is sporting her new tennis shoes. August 20, 2011

Our Little Animal Lover

Ellie loves(huge understatement) animals! Especially dogs. Well, the other day, we turned on the movie Bolt for her to watch the dogs on the computer. Now every time we come near the computer, she points the chair and squeals. Here she is super excited about Bolt. She also loves to watch the first part of Rio where all the birds are singing and dancing.(I promise I don't just put her in front of the tv all day long, I just thought this was so cute that she gets so excited about it):) August 17, 2011

Basil Pesto

We went to the Cache Valley Gardner's Market last Saturday and there were samples of a basil pesto. I am growing a basil plant this year and have a ton of it and have been wondering what to make. This was so yummy, I had to make some.

Here's the recipe

Basil Pesto

Yield: About 3/4 cup

3 cups fresh basil leaves, loosely packed

1/3 cup walnuts (can use pine nuts or almonds)

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

3-4 cloves fresh garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender; pulse until uniform in consistency, but with some texture remaining.

Use on Past, pizza as a spread, as a filling in breads, etc. Pesto can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days or frozen for longer storage. Note: Pesto will brown in the refrigerator. To minimize browning place a piece of plastic wrap on the top of the pesto and store in an air tight container.

All Caught Up

I just posted 9 new posts and I'm all caught up...well, I have a few videos I want to put on, but those will have to wait. Check them all out!

I love this little face!

I had to post this picture because it is so stinkin' cute! This is how Ellie looks right before she gets mad and cries. I think it is hilarious. It then turns to a huge lip and the a wide open mouth. I will have to try to get pictures of those too. She also does this face right before she gets excited and it turns into a open mouth and oooaaa coming out! Love her!

Ear Infection and A Cold

I have to say I think Summer colds are the worst. Colds are never good, but in the Summer it is so hard to want to stay in. Last week Ellie started having a really runny nose. We kind of thought it might be allergies since she had been outside tons, but I wasn't really sure. Monday morning she woke up with really green snot(Too much info?:)) She was super clingy and really ornery. I felt so bad for her and could just tell something was wrong, but I hate taking her to the dr for a cold....She started really pulling on her left ear around 3pm and I decided that I would just call. They wanted me to come in and we set an appt for 5:45pm. Luckily it was our dr staying late, so we were able to see him! I am so glad I took her in now, because she does have an ear infection and a little cold:( She is just miserable and I feel so bad when she feels sick! She is now on Amoxocillin and will hopefully be feeling better really soon!

Star Valley

This last weekend(Aug 13, 2011) we took a little trip up to Star Valley, WY to spend some time with some cousins and family. Patrick dad is from Star Valley and we love it up there. We decided it would be fun to camp out in grandma's yard. Kati and Mike also camped out with us. We got to break in our new tent, and LOVE it! Ours is the blue one and it's big enough for us to have Ellie's pack n play set up.I am so glad we got it! It was really cold at night, so we had Ellie sleep inside with Patrick's parents. I really wanted to see how she would do camping so we could go again and not be worried about her waking everybody up, but, it really was way too cold for her. Sunday Ellie was so tired. She fell asleep on the way home from church and when I moved her to the tent, she didn't even wake up! She's so cute! I didn't get any pictures of all of us just hanging out, but here is our set up and we had a really great weekend! We did get some family pictures done spur of the moment and I will post some of them when I get them...if I remember:)

Playing in the Hose

Ellie has always loved water, and when we gave her the hose at my parents awhile back, she loved it. We were at Patrick's parents house and decided to wash our car. Ellie found the hose.....and once again, loved it and was soaked! July 30, 2011.

Finger Painting!

Grandma and Grandpa Brown came up on Aug 10, 2011. I didn't get any pictures of them here:( They took Ellie winter clothes shopping and we got some really cute outfits and tennis shoes. They also got her some finger paints. Here she is finger painting(August 11, 2011) and making a thank you card for them! A friend gave her an art smock. I think it is awesome! She wasn't quite sure what to think of it at first, but only tried to eat it once! She did great once she got the hang of it! Checking to see what else needs to be added! Admiring her work! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for having a great day with us!

14 Months

I never posted about Ellie at 14 Months, so here goes! Ellie was 14 months on August 7th. I seriously can't believe where the time is going! Ellie is such a happy smiley little girl and very social. She loves people and likes to be the center of attention(she gets this from her dad!) Here are some things she is doing right now.

• Getting into everything! She is so curious, and can now open cupboards and drawers...and the toilet seat. Let's just say we always have the bathroom door shut! She loves to get into the pots and pans drawer or the towel/hot pad drawer while I am cooking dinner.
• She is a climbing maniac! She loves playing on stairs and is super fast at going up. She still won't go down backwards, but has a great technique of going down forward by squatting and scooting. She has only fallen 2 times and it was only 3 stairs. She also likes to climb over people. She will choose to climb over the top of your face, rather than take the extra 2 steps to go around your head. It is hilarious!
• She is walking all over the place and starting to run. She is really fast and loves to have us try to catch her.
• Ellie is still a great night sleeper. She has been really fighting her naps lately. I think she is wanting to go down to one nap, but I have been fighting it. I guess I will probably have to give in very soon.
• She has 2 bottom teeth and 3 top teeth. She got the front right top tooth and the one to the right of it. Then she got the other front top tooth and is getting the one to the left of it right now.
• She doesn't like many vegi's. She will eat peas, corn, green beans and tomatoes. Other than that it is hit and miss with vegi's. She LOVES fruit and will eat most everything. Her favorites are still blueberries and bananas.
• She is saying a lot more words now. She says mama, dada, Eric(comes out eeeec), doggie, more, up, she tries to say her own name, milk(comes out mil mi)
• She loves animals and does a lot of animal noise. She will do a cow, chicken, kitty( a really high squeal), doggie, elephant, duck(she ties to do donald duck with this one and then will start coughing and coughing), pig(she snorts)
• She still sleeps in crazy positions, usually I find her with feet or hands out of the crib bars. She is so funny because she always tries to sleep sideways in the crib and it makes her so squished up.

We sure love being parents and having this cute little girl that is learning so much every day!

Our first tomato

We live in an apartment, and have no place to do a garden, but Patrick and I love having a garden, so every year we try to grow plants in pots! Let's just say we don't do very well....but...this year, we finally have some tomatoes! Patrick loves garden tomatoes, and even though we are only getting a handful, it is worth it!

Aunt Krista's Visit and the 24th of July

Aunt Krista came to visit July 23-27, 2011. It was so much fun to have her here. We started off Monday afternoon going to the 24th of July parade. They have it at noon....way tooooooo hot!!! It was still fun though. Ellie would get excited with things that were coming by and point and say oooooaaaahhhh! We went over to watch the parade with Jason and Randi. Here's the whole crew We had a bbq with a bunch of friends in our ward at the new park by our apartment. It was tons of fun. Ellie loves the park. She loves to play in the tunnels. And really likes to go down the HUGE slide! We had watermelon, and Ellie loves it! One of her favorite things to do with Aunt Krista was to ring the doorbell, over and over. We still have to ring the doorbell when we come inside! We had a great time having Aunt Krista come and visit!

Swimming Lessons

Ellie and I did a water babies swim class July 5-15. She learned how to blow bubbles, kick, hold onto the side and do 'monkey arms' around the side, jump off(fall into my arms from sitting) the side of the pool, bounce in the shallow part of the pool and go under water. It was lots of fun to be able to go and have her get used to the water and not be scared to go under. I thought it was really good that they try to teach things that will help them be able to save themselves if they were to fall into the water, bouncing when you touch the bottom of the pool, blowing out under water and monkey arms to a ladder. Uncle Eric came up during the second week and Grandma Judy got some pictures for us. It was a fun class!

Weekend at Home

My sister and her family came to visit for the weekend, so, I had to make sure I was down in Orem too, I didn't want to miss out on any of the fun:) This is seriously a huge post, well just of pictures really, but I couldn't choose, so I had to put them all on:) We had a really great weekend and did lots of fun things.

July 15-19, 2011

Ellie has decided she loves the hose. She has always loved playing in water, but the hose it just amazing. Here she is playing in the backyard at Grandma Browns. Lets just say she was dripping wet when we came in. I can't believe she doesn't mind how cold it is, but we made sure we snuggled all up in a blankie afterwards....the best part for me:)

I have been wanting to do Glitter Toes for awhile, but just haven't had the time or money. I saw some glitter toes that you can do yourself at home on a blog and decided this would be perfect to do with my mom, sister and niece. They turned out so cute and it was a lot of fun. I only got a picture of my toes though:( We really should have had all of us!

Cody decided he needed to do some too....He had it off by the end of the day.

All of the kids were so cute with Ellie. She loves to have kids to play with and was in heaven. Here she is with Kelsey.

Reading a book with SpencerHaving fun with Cody aka Toady:)I love this picture. They are both just laughing! Ellie loves Grandpa Brown so much. She has been giving kisses for a long time, but the last week or so refused to give them to me or Patrick. She walked right into my parents house, sat on Grandpa's lap and gave him a big kiss....so not far;)

I love this picture. Ellie doesn't fall asleep much with anybody holding her, and she never falls asleep on a big bed. She must have been super tired, because I laid down with her and she was out. I had to text my mom to come and take a picture of us:) She is so stinkin' cute and cuddly.

We went swimming at the Scera pool. I remember going to this pool all the time when I was little, and it is so much cooler now. They have a ton more to do, including a kiddie pool that goes right up to 1 inch of water. It was awesome. Here is Patrick throwing both Jordan and Spencer out of the water at the same time. I am so glad Patrick was able to come for part of the weekend. My nephews and niece think he is the coolest person ever! I agree:)

Denis and Cody in the kiddie pool with Ellie and I. We hung out here a lot.

You can see what her favorite part was. She would crawl back and forth in the shallow water. She even made a little friend and they played together for a while. She is such a little social girl.

Here we are showing off how we can go under water. Ellie learned how to do this at swimming lessons. She does really good, but today was not really a big fan. I love that Denise and Cody were dunking too.

Spencer brought his ball and it was a lot of fun for the boys. They spent a lot of the time playing keep away from the person in the middle. This is Jordan catching the ball.

Here are all of us except Jordan...I'm not sure where he is at the moment. I love this little floaty for Ellie. She doesn't like it much anymore:(

Kelsey going down the slide. Grandpa got a great picture!

Spencer going off the diving board. He is amazing! Grandma got a great picture here!

My parents have a deck with a table and chairs on it. We ate meals out here and it was great weather so we spent a lot of time outside. I wish we had a yard that didn't have prickly weeds in it so we could spend more time outside. Ellie loves sitting in our chairs by herself. She was so proud of herself.

At book club I was looking through Lindsey's cookbook, Our Best Bites-an amazing cookbook that I really want-This was on of the recipes in it. Thanks for emailing to me on such short notice. It was so yummy and I would recommend it to everybody!!! Here's the recipe!

Fresh Fruit Bruschetta with Orange-Honey Cream

*Taken from "Our Best Bites: Mormon Moms in the Kitchen" by Sara Wells and Kate Jones

1 baguette or similarly sized French bread loaf

4 TBSP butter, melted

2 TBSP sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 c sour cream

3 TBSP honey

1 tsp orange zest

1 1/2 cups diced strawberries (about 10 medium strawberries)

1 cup finely diced mango (about 1 medium mango)

1 cup finely diced kiwi

1. Preheat oven to 400 * F. Slice bread into 1/2 inch slices. Place in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet. Use a pastry brush to brush each piece with melted butter. Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over bread slices. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are toasted. Set aside to cool.

2. While bread is toasting, combine sour cream, honey, and orange zest. Stir to combine and place in the fridge.

3. Gently combine strawberries, mango, and kiwi. When the bread is cooled, place about 1 TBSP of fruit mixture on top of each toasted bread slice and drizzle with sweetened sour cream mixtures. If needed, thin the sour cream sauce with 1/2-1 tsp orange juice. Garnish with mint leaves if desired. Serve immediately.

My mom always has the best things planned to do. We made bird feeders to be used in the winter.

Just hanging out

My beautiful mom!This was a picture taken by Cody....so awesome!

We went mini golfing and had a blast. I haven't been for awhile and the course and Cascade in Orem is really cool. Here we are climbing on the arch. I am pretty sure we were supposed to do this, but what a great pic:)

Patrick being a goofball Cute Cody. He was about 4 holes ahead of us the entire time.:)

Ellie playing on the grass. We tried teaching her summer saults. She will just stick her head on the ground and then you have to help her. She is such a little smarty.

When we ask Ellie to point to her nose, this is what we get.....I've started saying nostril so she is getting it right;)

I told you it was a lot of pictures:) We also went and saw Cars 2. It was really good. It was funny because Patrick and I sat in a handicap seating....since it was further back and we didn't want to be in the very front:) Kelsey really wanted to sit with us, and there were only 2 seats, we all sat on the 2 seats....It was really fun! We had a great game of kickball. Part way through, Ellie was standing on the grass and Denise chucked the ball and one of the boys to get them out, it totally missed them and nailed Ellie. She fell over and just looked at us all as we all ran over to get her. Didn't cry or anything. She is tough! We had such a great weekend and I'm so glad we were able to see you all!

Here are a couple of videos from the weekend too. This is Ellie and I "running." I love doing this and she just giggles and giggles!

Playing in the hose

Here is Patrick and Cody doing Sumo wrestling! Can't you just see why they love him!?! He plays just as hard as they do:)