Sunday, December 28, 2008

Private

I have avoiding going private with this blog, but for numerous reasons...I've decided with the New Year coming up, it's a good time to do so. If you want to keep reading this blog, leave a comment on this post or e-mail me at lachellebodine@gmail.com. I'll be fairly liberal with my invites - just tell me how you started reading my blog! And I'll be moderating the post so you're comments won't show up with your e-mail addresses in them either. Thanks.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Gymnastics and Gingerbread

We've had a really busy and fun week. On Thursday we met up with some friends at a great little gymnastics place for kids. Ellie had tons of fun jumping and walking along the balance beam and climbing through the tunnels. Everything was really toddler friendly and she loved it!




Later that same day I decided that we should make sugar cookies. And I remembered why I don't make these very often! But Ellie loved being able to use the cookie cutters and eat the dough and do the sprinkles. So it was worth it! But it'll be a while before I'm ready for that one again.


To top off our fun filled day - I received a wonderful flower delivery from Rob. Aren't these roses beautiful? (And of course my little model?)


Friday night we took her to see Santa again at Bass Pro Shop(only we just waved at him from a distance and she was much happier than the meetig the week before at the ward party). And then discovered that my favorite gelato place Angel Sweet has a new location in Mesa in the Riverview area! It made my day.

And Saturday, Rob and I finally got to see Twilight! I loved it. It's been so long since I've read that first book that I really didn't notice how closely it followed it. And I really wasn't too sure about the actors portraying the characters before the movie, but I really liked them all. It made me want to go and reread the books again!

Tonight we decorated gingerbread houses or rather just one house. I decided to just buy one of those kits and I think that was a smart choice. Ellie had fun putting on just as much candy on the house as went in her mouth! The house isn't very pretty but that's okay - it was fun to make.


And we let her open one of her presents early...The Little People Zoo set. It's so cute! It has 26 animals (one for every letter of the alphabet). She's in heaven already and it's not even Christmas day yet. I love how she knows exactly what to do with a present now too!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Behind!

I started out this month really on top of things! I was mostly done with Christmas shopping, cards were printed, goals were being checked off, etc. I thought I was going to have so much time for baking this year! Then we were down sick with colds and I'm still recovering. I am officially done with my Christmas shopping (although Costco photo center messed up on an order and I had to reorder) and my packages have all been sent off. I think that is still the earliest I have ever been done! It really helps to downsize on the holiday. :)

My Christmas cards still need to be addressed and sent out so if you haven't sent me your address - please do so! E-mail me at lachellebodine@gmail.com.

So while I have thought a lot about blogging, I keep getting distracted. I'll try and make up for it! I can totally tell my baby is entering the toddler stage. She is so much fun though! I am constantly cracking up at the silly things she does. For example, she found her swimsuit last week when I was trying to put away some of her clothes and insisted on wearing it. I finally gave in and let her play in the bath (since 70 degrees is too cold for me to pull out the kiddie pool). To think this child used to HATE the water.



Then the next day I had turned on the shower so it would warm up while I went to grab a towel from the dryer. Ellie had been happily watching tv but when I returned to the bathroom, this is what I found instead: Especially notice the "necklace" that she is wearing - everything these days seems to turn into a necklace.

Last week we had Rob's sister Erin's family in town from New York and we all went to the Mesa Temple to look at the lights. Ellie put on this headlamp flashlight around her neck and kept using it to take pictures (I have a camera I wear on my neck and she was copying me). So funny what goes through the mind of a child!

Saturday, December 06, 2008

1st Haircut

Yes Ellie is almost 22 months old and she just had her first haircut today! I was sick of the mullet look and decided it was time to even out her hair. The poor child just isn't getting her hair very fast. I think I jinxed her because my big fear in having a girl was how I was going to do her hair. Apparently that is not going to be an issue for a while since she is not growing hardly any! It seems to be coming in thicker before longer. And the sides are much shorter than the back! Well that is until I decided to take a hand at giving her a haircut....

I realize now that it's a good thing I didn't go to cosmetology school. I don't think I would have been very good at it! Anyway - in order to get her hair somewhat even on the sides and back... it had to go pretty short. I admit that she definitely has more of a boy cut right now! I'm going to have Rob's sister Erin who is in town this week try and fix it up a little bit for me. But at least the mullet is gone now! And her two cowlicks are really noticeable...



Thursday, December 04, 2008

A YARD!!

It is a very exciting day in our house because we finally have a backyard!! When we first bought this house 4 years ago.... one of the selling points was the large backyard. We had lots of plans for this backyard but time and money kept getting in the way! So we scaled down to a very simple landscape plan and decided to hire a company to do it for us since time is still not in our favor.

When we first moved in the backyard had 8 citrus trees and a fig tree. Unfortunately they weren't well taken care of and the only one that produced fruit was a lemon tree and it still wasn't even good for juicing. I spent a year pouring fertilizer and trying to save the trees but it was a lost cause. I'm sure I have a picture of it somewhere but I can't find it right now - so just take my word for it. It looked like the previous owners were trying to have their own private forest!

So we tore them all out last year when we had the equipment from the pool business and ended up with a wide open space.

Then that space grew to a weed factory. We were scared to go out there because the weeds had taken over! This is what our backyard looked like on Monday. I'm a little embarrassed at the condition of our yard. It was a weed and junk yard haven and I didn't even like any windows on the back of the house open because it was so bad out there.

Fast forward to Tuesday with the weeds removed and the sprinkler system being worked on.


Wednesday with the curbing up and the rocks and trees and plants in place.


And here is today with the grass in! Ellie and the dogs went racing outside and just ran and ran and ran. It may not look like much but it makes me so happy to have grass! Hallelujah! Now we can enjoy the "winter" in Arizona outside. I love it! And I'm pretty sure Ellie is a fan since she hardly took a nap today and wanted to go play outside again.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Thankful for our health

We started out our Thanksgiving holiday by joining many others for the 10K Turkey Trot. It was perfect running weather! I started out the race fairly strong but got a really bad stomach cramp and lost my breakfast between miles 4 and 5. Needless to say I ended up walking a mile of the race. But even with walking a mile and throwing up in the middle of the race, I still managed to come in at 1:01. If I had known how close I was to beating an hour - I might have pushed a little more that last mile also. But there's always the next race! I think I didn't drink enough water on Wednesday which resulted in my sickness.... lesson learned. Don't be too scared of this picture either (this is what my hair looks like when I don't straighten it - scary!). We probably should have taken a picture before but we were booking it to the starting line since we had gotten there a little late.

After the race it was naptime for Ellie and Rob while I finished making up a pie and a couple other things. We headed over to my Uncle Vern's home for Thanksgiving dinner and had a good time. This was the first time in 10 years that I haven't been traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday! Besides the fact that it has been rainy and cool this holiday weekend and everyone always told me about their 80+ degree Thanksgiving dinners in Arizona....it's been nice to have a more relaxing weekend without the hassle of traveling. We did see a beautiful rainbow the other afternoon also. This picture only shows a small glimpse because it was still raining and I didn't want to get my camera wet!

Rob and I watched a movie and were getting ready for bed when Ellie woke up last night. I just put childproof doorknobs on her door to prevent her from getting out of her room at night but she managed to get it open. Not 2 minutes after I had put her on our bed to sit with Rob for a few minutes did she start throwing up. Rob changed the sheets and I gave her a quick bath. I checked her bed and sure enough she had already lost the rest of her dinner in there so I stripped those sheets off as well and started a load of laundry. Not sure what triggered it but neither one of us have thrown up today so that's a good start! I'm grateful she was able to get out of her room last night because I would have felt completely terrible if she had slept in her crib full of that last night.

I did a little Black Friday shopping this morning (some online and some in stores) and I'm about 75% completed with my shopping. This might be the first year ever that I will have my Christmas shopping done early!! Rob installed a screen door on our sliding glass door today which I'm loving already. And Ellie has been keeping herself entertained with the dog cages again and other crazy things.


Tomorrow we will start decorating the house for Christmas and get our tree! I can't wait.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Sprinkles

For playgroup today we headed to the Scottsdale Mall. Unfortunately they have closed their playarea until January so we had to go to plan B. Okay well it was always in the plan but we walked over to Sprinkles! I've been wanting to try these cupcakes that I've heard so much about but I don't venture that direction often. They are quite pricey but in my opinion worth every penny! Especially since it's not a place I will go to very often. We camped ourselves outside the bakery along the wall (since they don't have any tables or chairs to sit down on inside - which I can't blame them since I wouldn't want to clean up cupcake crumbs all day either!) and quickly ate our cupcakes. Ellie preferred to frosting and I liked the cake part! I'm sure we looked quite ridiculous sitting along the wall with all of our strollers in the middle of Scottsdale but oh well. We split the black and white cupcake and the red velvet cupcake and both were fantastic. I know I will have to go back and try other flavors someday!

This afternoon Ellie decided she wanted to have a photo shoot. She insisted on wearing this shirt that my Dad and Debbie gave her and she was posing and everything. She came up to me and kept repeating "picture" until I pulled out the camera and she started posing for me. Of course during the smiling part of our little photo session - I didn't have my camera on the right setting. Go figure! I'm still wondering why she wasn't this cooperative in the family photo shoot but I guess that is to be expected.... she has a mind of her own!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Fun on the Farm

Last week for playgroup we went to Superstition Farm. If you live in the area - you need to check it out! I was able to arrange a small tour for our playgroup and it was lots of fun. Ellie is still talking about cows 5 days later - she even wakes up talking about them. Made me grateful that I don't live on a farm though - that's for sure. I like visiting!

They let the girls touch some of the food that they feed the animals, go on a hayride around the farm and see a 6 hour old calf that weighed more than me, and even feed the donkeys and horses.



Oh and it was followed up by yummy homemade ice cream. I think Ellie is a fan!


This has nothing to do with the farm but today Ellie came into my room and handed me my glasses from the nightstand (I was still trying to get in a few more minutes of sleep) and said in a sing-song voice "Hi baby"! I had to laugh. We still call her baby sometimes (even though she isn't even close to a baby anymore) and I forget how much these little ones learn from us!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Fun Adventures

Ellie was nice enough to share her cold with her parents and so we've been hiding out at home the last couple of days. I'm hoping we'll be able to resume running soon since it's only been a few days but I am realizing how fast the 10k is coming up next week and I don't feel ready.

Anyway - Ellie is continuing to amuse us. After a week of her consistently climbing out of her bed, we finally took down the railing on her crib and converted it into a toddler bed. She surprisingly hasn't really had too much of a problem with going to sleep in it. The strange thing is - she has now decided she likes sleeping in the glider in her room. It has padded cushions but the arms are hardwood. I can't tell you how many of her naps lately have happened in that chair verses her bed. It just doesn't look comfortable to me! We also need to invest in the door handle covers so she can't get out of her room in the middle of the night and join us. It's only the middle of the night that she decides she wants to get out of her bed.... lucky us!

She is also having fun picking out her own outfits lately. Some days this goes better than others!

And I have I said how grateful I am for Crayola Washable Markers?!


Since I've had to wipe Ellie's nose constantly lately - she has decided that every time I wipe her nose, I need to also wipe one of her toy animal's noses. And instead of Ellie telling me she has a stinky diaper she tells me that that the "cow went poo poo". Quite funny. She has the Little People Animal Farm and this week it has been the popular toy in the house - especially with telling me all the things that they have done.

Last week we had our playgroup at the Apache Junction library. It's a drive out there but it is the best library that I've ever seen! There is an outdoor enclosed playarea and inside they have a huge castle for the kids to climb in with reading areas built in. It is so fun! Not to mention a huge younger kids area complete with a full play kitchen, puzzles, books, and other toys. And best of all it's free! Can't beat that.