Hollywood Starlet

Belated Christmas Post

This was a Christmas to remember! But in a positive way. Last Christmas we spent in the hospital with sick little Ellie, and that was a Christmas to remember too, only NOT in a positive way. We had a much better experience this year!

The week before Christmas was a non-stop celebration filled with 3 birthday parties for Ellie, "pretend" Christmas Eve, real Christmas Eve, and then Christmas.

"Pretend" Christmas Eve consisted of Mike, Ellie, and me eating Christmas goodies and hanging up stockings on the 22nd, making the 23rd "Pretend" Christmas. We decided that lugging our own personal presents to various family gatherings would be less fun than having an extra Christmas with just our own little family. And Santa was kind enough to come to our house a few nights early!

Here's Ellie hanging up her stocking on the couch, which consequently, I realized not everyone does. Mike looked at me real funny when I told him to take down the stockings from our chimney/bookshelf where they were hanging so we could put them on the couch. I thought everyone did that! I realize all the Christmas songs and poems describe stockings as "hung by the chimney with care" but my family always hung them on the couch. How is a small stocking hanging from a chimney supposed to fight gravity and support the immense weight of so many presents earned by me, a girl who's been on the Nice List for 26 years running?

This picture is of Ellie, who loves cheese. And has apparently learned to cheese-it in pictures. I love this smile!

On Christmas Eve, we went swimming with Stacy, Bryan, and Ada at the South Jordan Rec Center which has: THE LONGEST LAZY RIVER IN THE STATE! Very cool! We all had a really good time, but I'm sad to say Ellie didn't retain much of what she learned in swimming lessons over the summer. That night we had dinner at my parent's house and ate the most fantastic Christmas Ham I've ever had in my entire life. I'm not exaggerating! It was phenomenal! Here's a picture of Ellie and Ada with Grandma Mona & Grandpa Ken.

After dinner, we drove up to spend the rest of Christmas Eve with Mike's family. Their family tradition is to read Christmas stories and eat homemade cinnamon rolls and drink wassail, which was all very delicious!

We woke up Christmas morning and enjoyed opening presents with Mike's family. His parents gave Ellie a gigantic Play House with 300 of those colorful balls you find in McDonald's ball pits. I think Ellie may have died and gone to heaven. She loves balls! (This gift now occupies our entire front room!)

This is a fun picture of Tiffany taking care of all 3 of her babies: Kingsley, Spartan, and Rusty. Such a good Mom!

Then it was back to my parent's house for Christmas Part II. Again, here is another fantastic Ellie Smile!

Ellie & Ada in their Christmas get-ups!

And here is Ellie in her Play House.

It was such a great Christmas and we're very thankful for our wonderful families! It's always nice to have family so close during the holidays!

I hope everyone else had an enjoyable Christmas season as well!

One Year Older, and Wiser Too!

Ellie celebrated her first birthday on Dec. 20th! I tried making grandiose plans including fun outings and delicious food, but Ellie decided that what she wanted most was sleep. A daughter after my own heart! She took 2 very lengthy naps during the day, but we did manage to squeeze in some celebrating!

I cannot believe she kept the hat on as long as she did!

This is her new "excited" face, which Mike and I absolutely love!

We set the cake in front of her and she had no idea what to do with it. But as soon as I gave her a little taste, she realized, "Hmm... this is delicious." Forget the hands... she went face first into her cake with mouth wide open! Hilarious! We eventually stuck her hands in the frosting to get the classic "Messy Birthday Cake Picture."

The success of her birthday was directly proportional to how much of her little 1 year old body was covered in chocolate cake crumbs and pink frosting.

Here are a few of my favorite things about Ellie:

1. Basically she's the best, most relaxed, and cutest baby we could've ever asked for!
2. She likes to lean over and stick her face in front of yours when you're holding her, just in case you've forgotten who you should be paying attention to.
3. She points to herself when she says "Mama"
4. Her new love is balloons! My parents got her a balloon for her birthday and she'll hold on to the string while doing EVERYTHING! Eating in her high chair, playing with her other toys, drinking her bottle, crawling around the apartment. And she'll cry when she accidentally lets go and it floats to the ceiling.
5. She knows a few signs and can say "more" and "please." She does "more" very emphatically when we feed her oranges.
6. She can walk, but she chooses not to. She's no dummy! Crawling is WAY more efficient.
7. She mimics facial expressions.
8. She loves to brush her teeth!
9. Ellie can't help but dance when there's music on. Everything from classical to pop has her bouncing up and down.
10. My favorite is the way she scrunches up her nose when she smiles!

We love you Ellie! Happy Birthday!

Twins?

Well, they might not look like each other, but thanks to Stacy they always have adorable matching knit hats. Thanks Stacy!

They are going to be the best of friends when they grow up! You can just tell by looking at this picture!

Happy Holidays!

Here are a few holiday photos, with many more to come!

FESTIVAL OF TREES

Ellie would make a super cute Elf.

Neglected

I have to start off with an apology to Mike. Poor guy is so neglected on this blog. So here is an entire post dedicated solely to him (even though he never reads this). He's had some big accomplishments in the past month that deserve to be acknowledged.



In November, Mike became a 32nd degree Mason! He went through the Scottish Rite, which is "one of the appendant bodies of Freemasonry that a Master Mason may join for further exposure to the principles of Freemasonry." (courtesy of Wikipedia) I might have to correct myself on this later, but he went from the 3rd degree to the 32nd degree in a 3 day long process. He really enjoyed himself, and Ellie and I are very proud of him.

One of the things he received was a hat. Funny though, cause the only picture we took was of Ellie wearing it.

Mike's 2nd big feat was defeating the Sensuous Sandwich Challenge. When we lived down in Provo, we really enjoyed eating at Sensuous Sandwich. They blow Subway out of the water with their sandwiches! And you know how Mike is about food challenges. We can't watch "Man vs. Food" because he always says, "I could do that... easy!"

This challenge consists of eating a 24" sub in under 30 minutes. The prize? A free gigantic t-shirt and your picture up on the wall.

Mike finished in 16 min 34 sec. His cousin Dan finished in 21 min.

The lady timing them said if they could beat the record, their sandwich would be free.

What's the record? 1 min. 54 sec.

Seriously? Less than 2 minutes to eat a 24" sub?!? She told us the guy ordered a french dip sandwich and poured the au jus sauce all over it and basically swallowed everything. She said it was the most disgusting thing she'd ever seen.

Adventures in Knitting

I've been trying to teach myself to knit, and boy what a long and slow process it has been! Crocheting is just so much faster. I can pump out a hat in an hour! But I've been working on knitting a darn dish cloth for months and I'm not even half way done.

Someday, I aspire to be able to make something like this:

BUNNY SLIPPERS!

My co-worker at Timpanogos Hospital made these for Ellie before she was born, and they finally fit her! I absolutely love them! They are adorable!

I've got a long ways to go before I can knit like that, but practice makes perfect!

Not a very good picture, but this was me getting sick of knitting and falling back on my crochet hooks to make Ellie a wonderfully warm winter hat.