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.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Shoplifter

So I hope I don't have a budding shoplifter on my hands but we had our first experience with it today. We were at CVS today and Ellie was riding in the little car shopping cart. When you pay at CVS there is that huge area of candy that is all within reach of Ellie when she is in the car part of the car. I was so busy checking out that I didn't notice until we got to the car that she had swiped 3 packages of Mentos and had bitten into two of them to get the candy out. She had eaten a couple - wrappers and all. So we had to make the trek back into the store and pay for the two that she had opened and return the remaining one. At least the cashier and I had a good laugh over it. I'm going to have to be a little more careful at that store to keep her away from the candy.

P.S. Our mice problem hasn't gone away. I was really hoping our one little one that we caught was enough but I found one in our laundry room today and left the laundry in there and went screaming. Gross. There are a lot more traps out so hopefully we get them all soon because I'm getting really nervous anywhere I go in my house that I will see one again.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Late Halloween Visitor

This year we had a late Halloween visitor at our house. A little mouse decided to take up residence in my stove of all places and scare the living daylights out of me on Monday when I saw it scurry across the house. I am terrified of mice (along with most bugs). All day long it kept running along my countertops in the kitchen and climb back into the stove. I prefer mice to be in cages in a pet store. Otherwise - I'm not fond of them! Needless to say - I didn't spend much time at home on Monday and we had a good afternoon at the park. We did set up some traps (glue and traditional) and he is gone now. And proceeded to spend my whole afternoon today disinfecting my entire kitchen! Even though I don't have a dirty kitchen - it made me feel like I did with that visitor.

For Halloween we were able to attend two parties last week. One was Rob's parents and brother's ward Halloween party. And then our ward's party on Friday. Ellie was the cutest little cowgirl and I dressed up as well. Any guesses as to what I went as (it's a pun)? Most people did NOT get it at all and were too polite to ask. I think they just thought I was wearing lots of makeup in one eye. I guess I need to make it a little more obvious next year! And we had hardly any trick or treaters come to our house this year so if anyone wants some candy - I have plenty to share.




On Thursday we made it to the pumpkin patch with our friends. It's a good thing we went because our little family didn't make it this year - October just went by too fast. Ellie wasn't very happy this day so I didn't get too many shots of her smiling. And my camera keeps taking fuzzy pictures and I can't figure out why! Anyone with a Canon Elph SD1000 have any ideas for me?



Ellie has decided she is still not done with her boots or her hat from her costume. She found her cowgirl hat and insisted on wearing it all through Target yesterday and the boots when she got home. And then today she wouldn't let me put a shirt on but she would wear a hat. Classy. Especially with the sucker drool (I can't figure out where on earth she is finding the candy since I thought I had it all put up way high!).



After months of searching on Craigslist - I finally found a little cozy coupe car for Ellie. She loves it! It also came with a little gas tank thing as well. Since it's in the 80's and low 90's now - she has been out on our back porch constantly! Our neighbors also gave us a little ride along toy that she likes but the car is much better in Ellie's mind.