Friday, August 31, 2007

Rise and Shout . ..


Not sure where this new smile came from . ..


Or this one . . .


The Normal Smile

I just had to do a post tonight since BYU Cougar football season starts tomorrow night. To help get us in the right spirit for the season - I put Ellie in her BYU shirt that Grandpa White bought for her. Although Rob is not such a BYU fan himself .. . I am hoping to brainwash our children all day long while he is at work. Sounds like a good plan, right?

I haven't felt much like posting this week because it's been a crazy one dealing with a lot of stuff with our pool building business. In short summary - Rob's partner has proven he is not who we thought he was. I can't really say much more about it because the whole thing infuriates me. It's just hard to see Rob go through what has happened this week when he is the kind of person who would give the shirt off his back to a stranger and someone he has trusted has taken complete advantage of that! Anyway - keep us in your thoughts. This next month is going to be an interesting one for us in many many ways!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

One of those days

Saturday was one of "those" days for me! It was the day of our quarterly Primary Activity and we had a bunch of fun outdoor water games to play in the 100+ Arizona temperatures. Well, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. to the sound of thundering but it wasn't raining yet so I hoped it was a fast moving storm. I awoke again at 7 a.m. to my phone ringing and heard the pouring rain and my counselor calling me wondering what we should do for the activity. We quickly decided that we were just going to have to move the activity indoors and play games in the gym! So we divided up calling the kids/teachers and went to work. It turned out to be fun for everyone anyway! A member of our Bisopric brought his homemade 'potato gun' and used it to shoot out a ton of balls for the kids to gather up and at the end we shot fruit snacks out of it. The classic games of Red Rover, Red Light/Green Light, Freeze Tag, Line Tag, etc filled out the hour with only a few minor scrapes and bumps on the kids.





Due to the rain, Rob wasn't able to work on finishing up our garage addition . .. so plan B was to install the crown moulding in our front room, dining, and kitchen areas. We spent a little while trying to decide which side was the top and which side was the bottom and then proceeded to get to work. We took a break after a few hours of work and I ran to Home Depot to get some paint. I came back to find our friend that had hooked us up with a good deal on the crown moulding had stopped by and informed us that we had hung all of it upside down! Oops. He tried to make us feel better by telling us that he too had hung it upside down the first time he installed it also. I thought it was pretty funny but Rob wasn't too happy that he was going to have to start completely over! But the great husband that he is - he took it down and fixed it all. We ran out of trim before we completely finished the kitchen but it should be done next weekend when we get the materials ordered. I will paint the trim tomorrow and then take some pictures. It makes a huge difference! Our little house is slowly but surely coming together.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

6 Month Check Up


Eliza had her 6 month check up and shots today. She was a real champ with the shots and screamed for 30 seconds and then was fine. I have a little chunkster though! Her stats:

Weight: 17 lbs (50-75%)
Height: 25 in. (25%)

I pulled out my baby book and realized that I wasn't even 17 lbs as a baby until I was almost a year old!! But the height is exactly the same as me. It's a good thing I think chubby babies are cute. And my doctor just reminds me that there are no such things as fat babies anyway (I think he could tell I was a little alarmed at how she has almost tripled in size since birth). I guess I just expected her to stay small since I was always a small baby and she started out at 6 lbs.

In other Eliza news . .. she has finally figured out how to roll from her back to her tummy! She has been doing the tummy to back thing for a while but I was beginning to think she would never go from back to tummy. Today I heard her playing in her crib and I went in and she had rolled herself to her tummy and was grabbing onto the sides of the crib and trying to pull herself up. I'm not ready for that stage yet!


Wednesday, August 15, 2007

6 Months!

I can't believe that my little baby is already 6 months old. Time really is flying by! I tried to do our monthly photo session with the sign of how old she is but she wanted to eat and play with the paper . .. so I'm going to have to figure out a different way to take these pictures each month. I was going through older pictures on the computer today and I really had forgotten how tiny Ellie was when she was born!

A few days old




6 months

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Who needs toys?

I guess everyone was right when they told me I wouldn't need lots of toys because Eliza would find more enjoyment out of everyday items around the house! She especially loved the Target ad this week. I started reading another part of the newspaper and before I knew she had torn into the ad! I didn't have the heart to take it away from her since she loved it so much (we just had to clean off the hands from all the ink afterwards).




Her other new favorite toys are the dogs. Roxy is a little scared of her because she loves to grab at her tail. She usually runs away as soon as Eliza starts reaching towards her! I managed to catch this picture before she ran away (and yes my dog does seem to think she is a cat sometimes and loves sitting on top of the couch . . .) My other dog Max I think is just too lazy to run away - so he puts up with her pulling at him and trying to sit on him.



Saturday, August 11, 2007

Hiding

My little dog Roxy is known for getting in trouble at our house so whenever she disappears for a while - I try and figure out where she is hiding and what she has stolen to chew on. Today I couldn't help but laugh when I was looking all over for her and finally found her ... with her head peeking out of all the pillows on our bed! I'm still not sure how she managed to wiggle her way in there but it looked funny to just see her head sticking out so I quickly grabbed the camera.





I haven't been updating this week because it's been a slow one! I've hit the point of the summer where I'm just sick and tired of this heat. Ellie and I have been camping out at home and cleaning out a ton of stuff in our house (since it's just too hot to even leave the house most of the time!). I have been listing a bunch of things on Craigslist, ebay, and have taken things to DI. Another pile is being made for a garage sale that I think we will have next month after our garage is done and we realize how many more things we can get rid of!

Ellie really is getting more and more fun each day (I know everyone says that but it's true!). She can sit up all by herself for quite a long time now without falling over. We are working really hard on tummy time but since she figured out how to get on her back - she usually rolls herself to her back pretty quickly! I'm not sure how she is going to learn to crawl when she is so much more content to be on her back . .. but I keep on putting her on her tummy and spend lots of time on the floor with her playing (I think I have the best job in the world). And I remind myself that I'm not really read for her to start crawling anytime soon so it's all good.

Friday, August 03, 2007

8 Things

Since Natalie "tagged" me - I figured I better get this 8 things about myself done! It's hard to think of things after my 100 things list though . . . but I will attempt:

1) I like my clothes to be hung according to colors in my closet. And only on white hangers. My whole room can be messy but my clothes will still be organized in my closet.

2) I love to read in fact I won an award for reading the most books out of all the kids in 1st grade.

3) In 3rd grade - my friends and I had a book club. We would sit at each others houses and read books and not talk to each other while we were reading.

4) I used to want to be a children's book writer when I was younger - in fact in 6th grade I won a writing contest and got to miss school for a week to attend "writing camp".

5) I have a lot of pet peeves. Just one of them is crumbs on countertops. Drives me crazy!

6) I really love "boy bands". My friends and I made up dances when we were younger to the New Kids on the Block songs. And then in college a few friends (I won't embarrass them by listing their names but you know who you are) - we rented Backstreet Boys video and learned a dance for our talent show. They are a lot more talented than you may realize!!

7) In high school I was obsessed with A-Rod. My friends and I did many crazy things because of our obsession - to standing outside a stadium for hours to get his autograph to waiting for his car to leave the stadium and following him. Yes - we were pretty much stalkers. And my bedroom at my parents house is still covered in A-rod memorabilia.

8) When I was younger I hated Barbie dolls but loved My Little Pony and playing Transformers and GI Joe with the boys that lived on my street.

Ok - I now tag: Christine, Christianne, Christina, Nikki, Nicole, Kristen, Shalee, and Lynsey!

The Rules
-Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

-People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.

-At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Rice Cereal

I feel like Eliza has been ready for some real "food" for a little while but just didn't want to mess with it until we were done with our traveling. So last night we waited for Rob to get home so we could give Ellie her first taste of rice cereal. She wasn't quite sure what to think about it! I think more of it ended up on her shirt, mouth, the bumbo, etc!

She doesn't know what is coming!

This is kind of weird!

Thanks Dad!

Yummy!



So tonight we pulled out the high chair that our neighbors gave us and a bib and tried the rice cereal again:

I think I like the spoon better .. .

No wait-I'd rather eat the tray!

Are you done with the pictures yet?

Nicole's Wedding and Utah Trip

We just got back from 5 days in Utah. We went up for Nicole and Jason's wedding at the Mt Timp temple on Thursday. Rob likes to take credit for those two being together! We all met 3 years ago so it's fun since we're all friends. It was a hectic morning for us and we missed the sealing but made it in time for pictures and the luncheon. Nicole looked absolutely gorgeous but of course I didn't remember to charge my battery on my camera so I have no pictures! :( And then I kept forgetting about my camera during the weekend so I don't have nearly as many pictures as I should.

We stayed at my grandparents house in Layton while we were up there and enjoyed spending time with them. Unforunately - once again I have no pictures of Ellie with my grandparents since I forgot until the last day and my grandma was sick and didn't want to pass it along to Ellie! For sure next time. They gave her a really soft teddy bear that Ellie just loved.





It was a busy weekend filled with lots of visits to old friends. We were able to see our friends Cami and Joseph and their daughter Lily and Cami and Dallin and their son Carter. Both families were in our ward when we first got married in Arizona and have moved to Utah. We miss them!




We hung out with my Aunt Misti and Uncle Bob and their 6 kids on Saturday and were able to see my new cousin Tempe. She is as long as Ellie but half the size (and 3 months younger). They liked smiling at each other! And the other kids had fun holding Ellie.







Saturday night we met up with my brother Tysen for dinner at Gateway Center. Ellie just loved grabbing onto his beard and smiling and laughing at him.



Sunday we spent most of the day visitng Rob's grandma and his aunts and uncles on his mom's side of the family that all live in Ogden area of Utah.

Rob went home Sunday night and I stayed an extra day and was able to have lunch with my friend Kendy from Jerusalem and see her two girls Hope and Faith and then I was able to go and see my friend Christianne from BYU and meet her two boys Wesley and Dylan. It was so great!

Ellie and Dylan. I love that he is so long and skinny and Ellie is so short and chubby! Ellie is one month older than Dylan.





Unfortunately I had still had quite a few people on my list that I wanted to visit but I guess I'm learning my lessons that I need to plan longer trips in order to get everything in! :)