Grumpy Face

Ellie does Grumpy Faces on demand. It's usually followed by a huge cheesy grin, which I can never seem to capture on camera. But here's a picture of the grumpy face!

Mystery of the Messy Face

She looks so innocent, don't you think? Don't let her fool you though. She's a sly one!


I was sitting on our couch, when I see Ellie walk out of the kitchen, face covered in something. "Oh no... what did she find on the floor?" was my first thought.


She waddled back into the kitchen with me following close behind. My eyes swept the floor for the mysterious white substance. Cracker crumbs? Maybe flour? Then I saw this:

Yes. Those are cupcakes. On top of the table. The little stinker stood on her tippy toes, extended her little arm as far as she could, and stole all of the frosting off the nearest cupcake.

I was secretly proud of her. I think a valuable life lesson was learned here. For her and for me. Ellie learned that when you want something, and you work really hard to get it, you can achieve your dreams! I learned that if I don't want Ellie to steal my cupcakes, I'll have to put them in the middle of the table.

And here she is enjoying her spoils. How I love this little girl!

Happy Birthday Nick!

Last Saturday we spent the day with the Trowbridges, celebrating Nick's 16th birthday! There were pros and cons to the day.

PROS: We ate Dip-n-Dots, Tiffany made a delicious birthday cake, we spent a lot of fun quality time together with family, and Nick went to his first high school Sweethearts dance and wore shoes with purple sparkly shoe laces. Way to go Nick!

CONS: I bowled the worst game of my life.

Tiffany is a cake-guru! Her cakes never cease to amaze me!

Another First

This was the moment Ellie didn't even know she was waiting for...

HER FIRST KINDER EGG!!!

Mike's Dad went on a business trip to Germany and brought her back this:
She unwrapped it with minimal help from us.

Getting closer...

Ahh.... kinder egg chocolatey goodness!

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!