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.