Girl's day out

This mama needed a break from having babies attached to me at every moment of the day, so on David's day off last Friday (2/1/13) Ellie and I had a girl's day out!

David was sweet enough to make me some scrambled eggs & toast for breakfast and bring it to me in bed. :) What a happy start to a fun day!

First up, we went to OP Nails and Ellie got her fingers and toes painted, while I got a lovely pedicure. It had been about 11 months since I last had one, so it was LONG overdue!

Ellie didn't like holding still, and the poor guy kept saying, "Hold still, Ellie. No, Ellie, like this" ha ha!

Pink fingernails!

Ah, cute toes and feeling rejuvenated!

After that, we headed to Kingsport and ate at Panera. Ellie loved her Mac & Cheese, and we each got a Valentine's cookie to enjoy after lunch. MMM. Panera is one of my favorite places to eat! I especially LOVE their Broccoli Cheddar soup!

After we ate lunch, we headed to Hobby Lobby, where I was hoping to find some cute glass bins for the laundry room, but they didn't have quite what I was looking for, so we bought an adorable white frame, and some wall stickers for Ellie's room.

We headed home after shopping because we were both tired, and the babies were getting hungry and I didn't have another bottle for them. Ellie fell asleep on the way home, like I hoped, and we had a good rest of the day.

It was a much needed break, and I am so thankful that my sweet husband stayed home with our boys so I could get out and have some freedom!

I should have taken a picture of us while we were doing other things, but I only got pictures of our feet and Ellie during our pedicures.

I'm looking forward to the next girl's day I have with my little sweetheart! She loves the attention, and needs the one-on-one time, since she doesn't get it at home as much since the babies are so needy.

17 Months: Ellie

I've been pretty terrible at updating about Ellie as she gets older, but here's to hoping I will do better now that we're a bit more settled in!

Ellie turned 17 months old on the 1st! I can't believe she's that big, yet sometimes she acts like she's so much older!

This is the ONLY picture I have of her this month so far...

 She loves to wear headbands, and take them off...also she loves to run around in just a diaper :P

Here are some notable things about Ellie at 17 months old:

• She LOVES to draw with crayons, pens, pencils, ANYTHING...and she loves to draw on anything, too! We bought her a coloring book, but she prefers the coffee table, random papers she finds around or things she's not supposed to draw on!

• She's got 6 teeth! Woo hoo! 

• She weighs between 22 and 23 lbs

• She wears 18 month size clothes, the tallest setting of her cloth diapers :) but size 3 of disposables, and size 4 shoes. 

• She's a great sleeper, sleeping 12-13 hours at night and takes a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon.

• Outside is where she loves to be most, it's just unfortunate that we don't really have a place for her to play here, and the grass is just full of weeds. And it's also unfortunate that her pregnant mama has a hard time being outside in the heat for more that 5 minutes!

• She loves to run around our living room, especially with a blanket on top of her head (no idea where she got this idea...)

• She's become a picky eater lately and only wants to eat "papa" (pasta) "ish" (fish-goldfish) apples, bananas, "chsss" (cheese), peas, sometimes steamed broccoli and carrots and any kind of cereal. Occasionally, I can get her to eat chicken, if it's mixed in with other things. 

• She says quite the variety of words but her new ones are, Lemonade, birds and more. I can't think of any but those 3 right now but she also says lots of names, like "Hay Hay" (our neighbor Harrison back in Utah) "essca" (Jessica, also a neighbor in Utah) "NorNor" (Friend Norris) "Nena" (Friend Brenna), "Mama", "dada", "Papa" (Grandpa. Grandma is always Papa, too...)

• She loves to sing and dance and listen to my iPod when she gets her little hands on it!

• Whenever she makes messes or does something she knows she isn't supposed to, she says, "No No No No No!" It's funny, but not all at the same time!

• She goes to Nursery now, which is SO nice and she totally loves it! The only problem is that we have church at 1, and she usually doesn't take a nap before church, so by the time church is over at 4, she is SO ornery and worn out that the second we put her in the car to go home, she's out. She usually stays asleep when we bring her in though, and will sleep until we wake her up!

• She loves to play with anything and everything, especially bowls and cake pans from my kitchen cabinets! 

• She will watch ANYTHING on TV. Seriously, anything. It's no good. Though we only let her watch for up to 60 minutes a day. That may seem like a lot, but sometimes when I feel like dying or falling asleep, I can lie down on the couch, turn Netflix on, and she'll be a good little girl and sit with me while we watch Shaun the Sheep or Curious George.

We love her SO much and she's such a joy in our lives. I don't know what we would do without her...life would probably be much more quiet and not nearly as much fun!

Pictures and updates

So I finally got around to plugging my camera in to my computer so I could get pictures off of it! It's about time! Some of them are from before my birthday in March! hah!

This is my best friend, Hillary. She and I ran a 5k that our stake put on. I suck at running, and didn't actually "run" the whole thing. Maybe next time?

David and I celebrated my birthday at Tucanos! Tasty!

We took our last trip to Roosevelt before leaving to TN for Easter weekend. It was a lot of fun and we had an Easter Egg Hunt for all the grand kids! They loved it!

Grandma & Grandpa wanted a picture with Ellie before we left!

Ellie decided to learn some calculus...

David graduated from BYU! WOOHOO! We celebrated California Pizza Kitchen style!

 This is Ellie and Lexi. Lexi is Ellie's best little friend ever! She's only 3 months younger, and they love to do everything together!

 

Playing around our apartment for the last time while the movers pack us up!

Ellie stole the neighbor kid's tricycle and she wouldn't get off of it! Luckily, the other kids were all at school!

Just before leaving to TN, we stayed with my brother, Boyd and his family. This is Ellie playing in the little playroom with her cousin Scarlett.

Checking out the airport and the airplanes!

Ellie's first flight!

Only one of the fun adventures we've had in TN so far. We went and visited David's sister Alayna and her family and David's parents for a day. We all went to these fun fountains and Ellie had a blast...until she got knocked over and hit her little head on the concrete. OUCH! She was OK though and still had a pretty good day after that!

First Birthday Party

We had Ellie's first birthday party on December 31 since it was a Saturday instead of on her actual birthday, the 1st.

Long long ago, I decided to have this party be ALL pink, because who knows if I'm ever going to have another girl, right? I might as well pink it up all I can while she's little and doesn't have much of an opinion! :D

Ellie had been having a hard day all morning, and just wasn't up for much of anything. After having a good lunch and playing a bit, we finally got her to take a really good nap. She woke up just before her party started, at 2:00.

We got her dressed in this adorable outfit and guests started arriving. She got a cute little bus from her Grandma and Grandpa Grigsby, and she was obsessed with it, and wouldn't stop playing with it.

Ellie wasn't sure what to think when everyone was here, and she was being SO shy, which is really unlike her. We started opening gifts, and she still didn't know what to think, or even seem to care about what was going on.

She finally started getting into the presents a little more, but really didn't want to do much with them.

After presents were over, we grabbed her adorable little cake, made by Tabitha (her aunt) and lit the candle. We sang to her, but she didn't even know what to think!

Big cake for the guests.

We put her in the highchair, thinking she'd devour the cake, when instead she just daintily picked at the frosting, putting some in her mouth. She wasn't really interested in the cake part of the cake at all! She had already had ice cream before, and she just grabbed it and started eating that when we put it on her tray. After a while, though, she got really sad about how cold it was making her hands and was done with all the attention, cake, ice cream and everything else.

Inside of the big cake.

Luckily, she calmed down quickly and played with her cousins and all her new toys!

She had a great first birthday party, and we had a lot of fun having so many friends and family join us to celebrate her special day!

Lights at Temple Square and Fun with Friends

Last night, we got together with some of our friends in Salt Lake and we had a blast! We all met up at our friends Cam & Lindsay's house and had tasty soup & bread bowls for dinner & a GREAT cheesecake dessert. Then we left their house and headed up to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights!

It was pretty cold outside, so we had Ellie bundled up as much as we could.

We stopped at the Visitor's center first to see the Christus Statue, and Ellie loved the mural on the walls and ceiling. She just kept pointing to all the stars, clouds and to the statue of Jesus. It was super cute.

Then we bundled her back up in the stroller and headed outside. She loved looking at all the lights and was pretty well behaved the whole time.

All bundled up with a cold nose!!

Our little family!

This was just 3-4 weeks before Ellie joined our little family! Crazy to see how much has changed in just one year!

Picture of the whole group!

Comparing December 2010's picture to this year's is crazy (though we did have an extra 2 couples which made this year's picture seem even bigger!)

Once we finished looking at all the lights, Ellie started to get a little ornery, and I think it's because she wouldn't keep her hands inside her blanket, so her fingers were FREEZING. So, David quickly went back to the car with her and I walked back with all of our friends. We got to the car and it was super toasty, which was nice. Then we changed Ellie and put her in pj's so if she fell asleep on the way home, we'd just have to put her in bed. I fed her before we left, and she fell asleep about 5 minutes into the trip. When we got home, she woke up but went right back to sleep once we got inside and put her in her bed.

Thanks for a great time, friends! It's always good to hang out and visit! Seeing the lights on Temple Square is one of my favorite Christmas Traditions, and I'm happy that we were able to see them this year and take Ellie with us!

Random pics

A few random pictures from my camera that make me giggle.

Ellie loves this box.

It provides hours of entertainment...which is why I haven't unpacked it yet.

I let Ellie listen to a movie on the way to Roosevelt. She watched it for a little bit before she wanted to just eat my iPod.

Labor Day Fun!

As I mentioned earlier, we headed out to Roosevelt for Labor Day weekend!

In my family, we have this tradition of going "up the mountain" (as we call it) to Pole Creek (pronounced "crick") Cave on the Monday of LDay weekend. It has been a lot of fun every time I've gone & this year was NO exception.

Two of my brothers, Jason & Jared, my sister Tyra & their families were all there, in addition to my little family & parents. We were also joined by my Grandma Holman, Uncle Logan and his two kids Laurel & Drake. It was a nice big crowd, which makes things like this even MORE fun :D

We packed our vehicles & headed to Pole Creek with the hopeful idea that we'd be able to get inside the cave & that it WOULDN'T be full of water. We knew that since it was such a wet year, our chances were very slim.

Once we hiked down to the cave entrance, we quickly discovered that our plans were indeed thwarted by mother nature and the cave was full of water! Random fact about this cave, nobody has found an end to it, because you can only hike into it until you reach water...it would be interesting to send some kind of under water night vision camera to see if you could ever find the end...

Ready to hike down to the cave

Aunt Tyra playing with Ellie

Because we were in the most beautiful mountains in the world, we were able to still have a lot of fun! We hopped back into the vehicles & drove up to the Sinks. The Sinks are awesome. BEAUTIFUL waterfall & a pool of water that swirls around and disappears. Nobody knows where the water goes...it's been a mystery for who knows how long. Super cool!

Perhaps the BEST part of the Sinks are the wild Raspberry plants. They were loaded this year and SOOOO tasty!

Ellie really enjoyed the sinks because David took her by the waterfall & let her splash her hands in the water. It was super cute, & I believe my sister in-law has some pictures.

After we had our fill of picking Raspberries, we hiked back up to where all the cars were parked & had a picnic. We made a fire, roasted hot dogs & ate LOTS and LOTS of tasty food. The children played & the adults visited & told stories. It was a lot of fun and I love spending time in the beautiful outdoors! I especially loved this outing because it could be my last labor day spent with my family at Pole Creek & the Sinks, since we're not sure where we'll be moving in May!

Tyra & Ellie playing

The only bad part was that my mom was stuck on crutches & couldn't get up and walk around. But, that's another story...

More pictures to come when I get them from other people!

731 days of wedded bliss...

On Sunday, we had officially been married for 2 years! I asked David & he said it was a better 2 years than his mission (thank goodness :D :D)

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary first, by attending the Temple. What a great way to celebrate being married! We hadn't had the opportunity to go to the Temple since February, so it was GREAT to go.

The Friday before our actual anniversary, we went out to dinner without Ellie (Thanks again, Hillary!!!) to P.F. Chang's. I'm not HUGE into Chinese, but this was spectacular. Lettuce wraps. MMM I think I could eat those every day. After dinner, we ran home to grab a blanket & to leave our car at our apartment so we could walk to the Roof Top Concert Series. It was a blast & a nice low-key evening out with my sweet husband.

The only picture from that night. ha ha

I made David a gift basket full of fun things & he got me a couple cami's that I've been dying to buy for the last few months!

We headed to Roosevelt the next day for Labor Day weekend, & we had a fun time there. Post about that to come soon!

Some days it feels like we've been married for years and years, but at the same time it feels like we were just married yesterday! Marriage is my favorite thing ever & marrying David was the best decision I've ever made. The 2nd best decision was having Ellie :)

8 months

Ellie turned 8 months old a week ago, and she is getting to be such a big girl! Since we were in NY when she turned 6 months old, we had her 6 month appointment when we got back, & she's super healthy & growing well! Her head has finally decided to grow & catch up to the rest of her body. ha ha!

She weighed 17 lbs 9 oz and was in the 46th percentile for weight, she's 26 1/2 inches tall (I think?? I misplaced the paper with her measurements on them!) & is 64th for height and her head is in the 42nd percentile!

She had to get 3 shots when we went in, and she was NOT happy about them! She cried a lot, but calmed down not too long after. Because she's such a healthy little girl and because she was almost 8 months when we went in, the doctor doesn't need to see us back until she's 1! That's some good news for us :)

Ellie's really funny lately & her little personality is shining through more and more each day. She's starting to stand on her own for small periods of time (AHH ALREADY!?!?!?) and I'm sure she'll be walking before we know it! She eats pretty well during the day, but sometimes is just too distracted for nursing & I've contemplated quitting, but then I just don't want to give up quite yet.

Here are more things about Ellie at 8 months old:

• She loves to eat finger foods & thinks it's lots of fun to drink from our Camelbak water bottles.
• She loves her oatmeal in the morning & pretty much all baby food we still give her. She's eating more table food now though & she likes it a lot.
  
• She's wearing size 3 diapers & some 3-6 month & 6-9 month clothes. There are only a few outfits in the 3-6 month range that still fit her so we're just about ready to put them away.
• She is starting to walk along the furniture & she can get around pretty fast.
• She knows how to say dada & is just learning how to say "uh oh" but it usually comes out as "uh uh".
• She gets super excited about her 3 little duck bath toys & takes them with her all over.
• She likes to dance to music & likes to watch Fantasia.
• Outside is her favorite place to be.
• She LOVES animals. She was obsessed with my sister in law's little dog, Annie & chased it all over while we were visiting my parents last weekend.
• She doesn't have any teeth yet, and it doesn't seem like she's going to have any in the near future.
• She takes 2-3 naps during the day & goes to bed around 8 & wakes up at 7 a.m.
• She's still waking up 1-2 times a night, but we're working on that one...
• She loves to crawl into the bathroom and stand next to the bathtub & hit her hands on the sides of it to make noise.
• When she gets tired, she gets super silly & likes to ram her head into your chest & cuddle.
• She loves to play with other little kids & thinks they're hilarious.
• She likes to pretend she's a big girl & would rather sit in a booster seat than a high chair to eat!
• She loves to sit and listen to us read books with her & sing to her.

She's growing up so fast & I can't believe that she'll be one in just 4 months! Ah! That's crazy! We love her to death & she makes life fun and interesting every day!

Seven Months Old

Where do I even begin? Our little Ellie is getting to be such a big girl & I can't believe it's been 7 months since we welcomed her into our lives! She's learning to do SO many new things and she thinks she's a big girl. This past month we've been able to do so many amazing things and have some fun experiences with Ellie. Even though she won't remember them, it will be fun to tell her all about our summer in New York when she grows up!

Here's some things about Ellie at Seven Months:

• She LOVES attention
• Loves to crawl, sit, crawl and sit in circles. So funny. I'll have to try to get it on video soon.
• She loves to pull herself up on the couch, chair legs, or anything she can get a hold of and just stand there.
• She's wearing some 3-6 month clothes and 6-9 month clothes and size 3 diapers
• She is getting really good at saying "Dada"
• She throws fits like nobody's business
• She can drink out of a sippy with help
• She likes to feed herself the little gerber puffs
  
• She's tried just about every veggie and fruit of baby food they make and loves pretty much all of them.
• She's sleeping through the night about 2-3 times a week, but she hasn't been going to bed until 9 or 10 at night, which is no fun
• She takes 2 naps a day
• She LOVES to hold/hug/eat her Teddy Bear we bought her from F.A.O Schwarz.
• She is learning how to play peek-a-boo and take my hands off my eyes for me
• She loves to pinch (OUCH!) and grab my hair & her hair
• She loves to watch TV (I know, so terrible...but she gets SUPER mad if you won't let her watch whatever show is on)
• She is learning the concept of walking with help & is going to be a lot of trouble in a couple months!
• Doesn't get sunburned. The lucky child got David's skin not mine!
  

Ellie is such a happy baby most of the time and she's lots of fun! We love her to death and we love watching her grow up. It's so fun to see her little personality shine through and see how she's like David and me so much.

Hilarious mid laugh picture