Thursday, February 28, 2008

Lessons Learned

Ellie took full advantage of our week of being stuck inside while recovering from the flu by getting into as much trouble as possible! She started off the week by somehow managing to climb up a chair and snatch a leftover red velvet cupcake off of the kitchen table. Apparently her first taste of cake was not enough for her! She sure enjoyed this little cupcake.





The next day, I had a bowl of Cap'n Crunch for breakfast and left the box on the kitchen table. I had given Ellie a few bites of the cereal that morning and I think she has really grown attached to sugar! Again - she managed to somehow get this box down from the table and dive right in. The nice girl that she is - she also shared it with her two puppy friends as well.


I think to get back at me for constantly wiping her nose . . .Ellie removed the tissue box from the side table and emptied them all out on the floor. Too bad for her that I purchased the tissue boxes at Costco and there are many more boxes of them to be found in my house!


My lesson learned is that nothing is safe from her anymore! Especially when you THINK she won't be able to reach it. :)

Monday, February 25, 2008

Sickness, Shower, and Accidents

We're still SICK in this house - although it is on the mend. Rob is back at work even though he isn't 100% yet. Ellie finally doesn't have a fever - just the annoying runny nose that I have to wipe what seems like hundreds of times per day! And I've managed to avoid most of the sickness by only having a sore throat and stuffy nose (which I seem to get at least once each winter anyway). Nothing that lots of sleep and hot chocolate can't cure! :)

Friday night we had a baby shower for Lauren (which I completely forgot to take pictures of - sorry Lauren!). It was really fun to celebrate the upcoming arrival of her baby and I love that she doesn't know whether the baby is a boy or girl yet! I couldn't do it since I'm way too curious but I'm excited for her. And it was fun to get together and talk with friends in the ward (until I got called home to deal with my sick crying baby and sick husband).

Saturday I tried to keep the house under control and ran a few errands. THEN (just when I thought things were calm) we got a call that Rob's grandma had been in a serious accident. She had been walking across University Ave in Mesa (which she has done numerous times) and had been hit by a truck!! They rushed her to the hospital and she is dealing with multiple bone breaks all over her body from her arm, to pelvis and ribs. She has some bleeding in the head also but the neurologists don't seem too concerned. Rob's uncles and aunt flew in from Utah on Saturday night and will stay for a couple of days until they figure out what is going on. So scary and sad and we know it's going to be a long road ahead of healing. We just pray that she will be ok!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

1 Year Checkup

Ellie had her one year check up today and also was diagnosed with the flu! Fun days at our house. She woke up in the middle of the night with a temperature of the 102.8! Luckily I remembered my doctor telling me not to even worry until it is above 103 in a baby. So I just gave her some fever reducer medicine and dealt with her crazy night of sleep (mumbling, tossing/turning, etc.). Real fun. Especially since Rob has pneumonia and bronchitis right now too! Thankfully I had previously scheduled her 1 year check up for this morning so it worked out great and they didn't even have to give her shots today - they will wait until 15 months. She tested positive for the flu (the kind that isn't covered by the flu shot she got in December). There isn't really anything to give her besides tons of liquids and tylenol or motrin. So this is going to be a fun week at our house! Hopefully I can stay healthy and don't catch what Ellie has or Rob has! They both got priesthood blessings this morning so I know that will help also. And I finally purchased an Ear Thermometer so I can take her temps much more quickly and easily!

For Ellie's stats - she is 20.5 pounds (25% percentile) and 29 1/2 inches (50% percentile) with a head cicumfrence of 45 (25%) and above where she should be developmentally at this age (not that I am taking any credit for that one!). Other than the flu - a healthy and normal 1 year old!

Monday, February 18, 2008

My New Hobby




I received Photoshop Elements for Christmas and have been playing with it and trying to get somewhat caught up on my scrapbooking. I still have a LONG ways to go and many tricks to learn but it's a start!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Ellie's 1st Birthday Party!

We had Ellie's 1st birthday on Saturday at our house. We invited our family members that live near by to come over, our neighbors and some friends that have babies near the age of Ellie to come over. I wanted to keep it simple with just cupcakes and ice cream but couldn't resist making a giant cupcake cake and a smaller version for Ellie's "smash" cake . . .along with regular cupcakes! Special thanks to my wonderful husband, who even though he is super sick, still managed to help me get everything ready for the party. Love him!







I expected Ellie to dive into her cake but she just picked at the frosting for a while and then finally made it to some of the cake. She hardly made a dent in the cake but I think she enjoyed it by the looks of some of the pictures we captured! My neice Avery kept trying to help her eat it also.






And of course presents aren't too interesting to unwrap for Ellie - she wanted to stop and play with each item inbetween but thanks to everyone who gave her things! She scored quite a few cute dresses, books, toys and even a mini shopping cart. We will be having lots of fun playing with all of the new toys at our house.



Friday, February 15, 2008

Tagged

Tagged!

Erin tagged me and since Rob is playing video games and I'm not tired enough to go to sleep - I figured I would play along. :)

10 years ago I was... on a plane to Hawaii. Our school gave us mid-winter break which was the remainder of the week following President's Day. Since I was planning on going to BYU that summer - my parents took our family to Hawaii for 10 days. I loved it so much - I've been back 3 times! In normal life - I was a Senior in High School and trying to decide if I should run Track one last year (I decided after my bad shin splits from Cross Country in the fall that it wasn't a good idea) and working at an Assisted Living center. Mainly excited to get out of high school in a few months.

5 things on my 'to do' list today: Well this is for tomorrow now since it is almost 10 p.m.
1. Do a load of laundry.
2. Vacuum my house.
3. Mop my floors.
4. Frost the cake and cupcakes for Ellie's birthday party.
5. Go to Stake Conference

Things I would do if I became a billionaire:

1. Move into a new house that didn't need to be fixed up.
2. Pay off all debts - student loan and business!
3. Go on a really long vacation!
4. Save/invest
5. Donate lots of money to the Susan G Komen Cancer Research and American Cancer Society (2 organizations I feel strongly about!)

3 of my bad habits:

1. Feeling the need to control everything and getting frustrated when things don't go my way. I really am working on being more easy going!
2. Procrastinating!!
3. Staying up too late - even though I'm not really a night person and I'm not really a morning person either!

5 Places I've lived:

1.Kirkland, WA
2. University Place, WA
3. Federal Way, WA
4. Provo, UT (And Murray, Kearns, West Valley, etc when I was younger)
5. Mesa/Gilbert, AZ

5 jobs I've had:

1. Waitress at an Assisted Living Center
2. 4 months as a Telemarketer during my freshman year at BYU (hated that one)
3. BYU Testing Center Proctor (fun and easy job during college)
4. Marketing Associate/Tax Associate for ePropertyTax for 3 years
5. Receptionist

Things most people don't know about me:

1. Like Erin - I was EXTREMELY shy growing up. Painfully shy. I didn't like any attention on me or to stand out in anyway. I don't think most people would have any idea about this other than the fact that I don't open up to people right away.
2. I snore. Had no idea I did this until college since I was the only girl in my family and always had my own room. Rob talks in his sleep all the time so it's a wonder either of us get any sleep!
3. I HATE yardwork. I have a giant fear of bugs (or scorpions here) and so the thought of yardwork and having to deal with something like that terrifies me. I hate pulling weeds (truthfully I don't know how to tell the difference anyway). I think my parents helped in this fear though. My brothers always had to do the "outside" chores like the lawn and weeding while I helped my mom indoors. Rob doesn't love to take care of the outdoor stuff either (maybe this is why our backyard isn't done) and he pays a boy in our ward to come and do the weeding for us once a month. I can see us having a lawn service for this very reason one day.

Now I tag: (sorry)

1. Shanna
2. Christina E
3. Christianne
4. Claire

Eliza Colleen is ONE!

Hard to believe that it has already been a year since my little girl was born! It seems like just yesterday that I was taking my little 6 pound baby girl home from the hospital. It is hard to remember what life was like without her around since she has brought so much joy and happiness into our lives and makes me laugh on a daily basis! We love you Ellie.

Just a couple of days old - I forget she was soo tiny

Love the sleeping baby

This morning

Showing off her walking skills

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's been a while since I've been able to post and not for lack of things to write about! Ellie doesn't let me type on the computer anymore when she is awake (she likes to help a little too much). We think we need to get an old keyboard to give to her since she loves pounding on the keys and I catch her speeding into the office any chance she gets to do just that!

Last week we had fun with some playdates with Rachael and Amy and their sons Jace and Wyatt. I forgot to take pictures of the day we all met together - but then again Wyatt decided he was too tired to play and fell asleep in his high chair anyway! It's fun to have all three of them walking and playing together. And Rachael took some 1 year pictures of Ellie for me that turned out great - even though Ellie wasn't cooperating in the slightest bit.

We also were able to celebrate Christine's birthday with her on Thursday and Christina, Elaya, Ellie and I drove out to Queen Creek to see their new place and have a fun lunch.

Ellie has been busy entertaining and keeping me busy. She walks everywhere and has gotten so good at it that she literally tries to run up and down the halls and into different rooms in the house. Of course this has resulted in even more bumps, bruises and scratches but I suppose I need to get used to that! She will not walk if she has shoes on though - so I'm not quite sure how to handle that one. I'm ok with her walking barefoot around the house but no so much outside. Any ideas?! Everything I read says they don't really need shoes when they first start to walk but I know eventually she is going to have to get used to them and wear them!

We have a little "dancing queen" also. I seem to have the Ellen Show on quite often (it's a good background for me while I fold laundry, etc) and everytime she comes on and does her dancing bit or has artists on singing - Ellie loves to dance along! We managed to capture a short taste of what we get. How on earth do babies figure out how to dance?! I think she was doing this for about 5 minutes and I only got a little bit of it but I thought it was pretty funny.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Fat Lip and Clean Sweep

Our neighborhood was picked for a "clean sweep" weekend by the city of Mesa. Basically they are trying to get the area more cleaned up and looking nicer and all of that fun stuff. They brough in huge dumpsters and placed them all around the neighborhood. Rob had Friday off of work so we took advantage and got rid of a ton of our stuff (mainly old stuff from the business and landscaping remains from tearing out trees last year). By Saturday morning all of these dumpsters were packed full. But then I noticed that all day long you would see these trucks come by and stop near the dumpsters and someone would get out and climb into the dumpster and go through it and throw things out. Trucks after trucks were LEAVING the neighborhood loaded with what looked to me like junk! I guess it's true that one man's trash is another treasures. I just kept laughing to myself all day though as I watched this go on!

Ellie had her first accident today. She is getting really good at walking around the house but of course that comes with quite a few falls. Today she fell really hard into a bookshelf and had blood gushing out all over her mouth. I immediately panicked with the tears and blood but it seems like she just earned herself a huge fat lip! She only has her bottom two teeth but I think she bit the top of her mouth as she fell and cut the outside of her mouth. I wanted her to ice it but like there is much chance of getting an 11 1/2 month old to let you put ice on their face?! So, like the good mother that I am - I let her have her first Otter Pop. I was hoping the cold popsicle would help her mouth. :) Either way she loved it. And it got rid of the tears! She seems to be fine now but I am hoping her face looks normal again by Friday when I have her first year pictures scheduled. Crossing my fingers!

First Otter Pop

Fat Lip