Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

My baby girl is now a toddler........and duly called one! She has been standing up and walking all over the place! She loves it so much! Every time she comes by me she grins, laughs, and giggles! It is seriously the cutest thing she has done! I am so grateful to have the experience of being Elli's mommy. She is such an angel and has truly taught me to put others first. She is the first thing I think of when I wake up, and the last thing when I go to sleep. She is my life.

I hope you had a good day baby girl. Get ready to show off your new moves next week at your party!

Happy Anniversary!!!

I love my husband! He is seriously the most thoughtful guy I have ever met! He remembers important dates so much better than me and makes them so special!

So today was the anniversary of when Keith proposed! We went to Wheeler Farm with Elli this morning. She loved the animals and enjoyed being outside so much. It is always fun to see her experience new things. Later in the day we went and saw the movie Salt. It was pretty cool! It was the kind of movie that had a good story line and plenty of action-a perfect match for both of us. After the movie we went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse-can't go wrong there!

And I got some awesome shoulder massages! (I still hurt, and it makes me not feel good all together!)

All in all I got the best guy out there! Sorry ladies, no contest! (He even did the dishes last night, and got up with Elli twice!)

So thanks for an amazing anniversary babe! I love you!

Weaning - 1 Me - 0

So I have started weaning Elli. As of yesterday she is totally not nursing and is on whole milk. A couple weeks early, i know, but she was ready and willing so I took advantage. We were down to nursing twice a day, so I didn't figure it would be too bad. She is doing great, I'm not! This is nothing emotional, although I do love cuddling with her. I just never knew it could be this uncomfortable! I worked today with toddlers and infants, and I could hardly hold them! I am so tender and full that any bump kills!

I hope this doesn't last long........it really stinks..........

The Fabulous 4th of July weekend!

This weekend was THE BEST!!!!


It isn't often that we have so much fun packed into one weekend, and it was a change well needed.

On Saturday Keith had to work, but was able to go in early, which was awesome! We were able to go to his parents house for a 4th of July BBQ and family get together. I really do love my in-laws, they are fun, hilarious at times, and all-around good people. After food and games we lit fireworks just out front on the street. Man, those boys are crazy! I stuck to sparklers. Elli loved the lights and didn't get scared once at all the noise.




On Sunday, we went to church, of course. It was fast and testimony meeting, Keith got up there. He is always so good and going up and baring his testimony, I am very proud of him for that. After church, we took naps and then hung out with some of our favorite people, the Degraws. They live 2 floors beneath us and we do a lot of stuff together. When we were changing Elli's (fondly known as 'Lela' by their little boy, Ethan) diaper she escaped!




HAHA It was super cute. Our neighbor doesn't usually like naked pictures, but thought this was pretty cute with the leggings.

On Monday, we totally screwed up Elli's nap schedule. Seriously, she was so tired and would fall asleep almost every time we were in the car. We first went up to Brighton and hiked up to Mary's Lake. It was mostly up hill, so it wasn't the most easy, but it was beautiful landscape.



We went with Keith's friend Dale and Keith's sisters, Becky and Jessica. They are a lot of fun to hike with and we were glad to have them with us.




We got home around 3 (at which time Elli hadn't taken an afternoon nap yet) and decided to go swimming. I though for sure Elli would fall asleep in the car and stay asleep while the others swam. Just in case though, I got her all dressed in her swimming suit and ready to go. Well, she fell asleep in the car, but I guess she just couldn't stand the excitement and woke up to come swimming with us for a couple hours. Then Keith, Dale, and I went to see The A-Team. HAHA It was soooooooo funny! I loved it and totally recommend it.

Well we got home around around 10 and finally Elli was able to get some rest. She is still feeling it today, so I feel bad. But we had tons of fun and it was totally it!

Things I love about Elli........

So last night Elli threw up 4 times, and once this morning. It was the first time that she has thrown up instead of spit up, I can definitely tell you the difference. Want a visual? Probably not, but here it is......we had watermelon and pasta for dinner.....gross..... Surprisingly though, I really wasn't grossed out by it at all. I just feel so bad for my little girl. Because she doesn't feel good she has been super cuddly all morning, and I love it! It made me start thinking about all the things I love about my baby girl. So here they are:


-I love the looks she gives. She is such a riot! When she is walking toward you she will give you this serious look that is almost a glare! It is the funniest thing and so much fun to see her experiment with her face.

-Her squeals. When Elli gets excited or just see's me or Keith walk by, she squeals and races after us-of course she is devastated if she doesn't get to us. It is the funniest thing when she see's a dog because she doesn't know what to do and flips out with excitement!

-Her cuddles. Being sick right now is the cutest thing. She will lay with me on the couch and lay on my tummy. It is super cute to watch her cuddle with Keith as well.

-Her kisses. I'm laying of the floor and she comes toward my face and I know it's coming. SPLAT! Big wide open mouth kiss. Hahahahaha. Sooooooo slobbery and wet, but cute and adorable because she is my daughter.

-Her noises. I love listening to her chatter and learn new ways to use her tongue. She is always learning new things and trying out new sounds.


These are just a few things I love about my Elli. There are so many more, but I have a house to clean so they will wait for a future post. I love my baby girl!

Talk about a life or death situation!

So, crazy experience today! We have a pool in our complex, which we haven't used much in the past years because it wasn't heated, but this year they are heating it so my neighbor and I decided to take our babies swimming. It was a beautiful day, not too hot and not too windy. Well when we got out there, there were 3 kids already out there-unsupervised.

Well the kids didn't have very good manners first of all. They were nice enough kids, but had NOOOOO sense of personal space-very annoying. Well a while later two more kids and their mom came out and the kids jumped in while the mom when and laid down on a lounge chair. Well the youngest of the original kids didn't know how to swim (WHY WOULD YOU LET YOUR KID GO OUT TO A POOL NOT KNOWING HOW TO SWIM!!!). Well he went out a little further than he could reach and grabbed onto a little girl that had come in later--well what do you imagine happened? Both kids couldn't reach the bottom, and the boy was pulling the girl down! The mom wasn't watching and the girl was under for a couple seconds (which seemed like minutes to me) when my friend and swam over as fast as we could, while holding our babies! Thank goodness we got them both up and to the side of the pool. At that point the mom finally sat up and came over to see what happened. Her little girl was sobbing on the side of the pool and the mom didn't even hug her! She just told her to stay away from that boy. If it were my kid I would have found his mom and given her a piece of my mind!!!!

I am grateful that we were there. I hate to think what would have happened if the mom hadn't have seen this happening..............

KIDS SHOULDN'T BE SWIMMING ALONE-ESPECIALLY IF THEY CAN'T SWIM!!!!! Some parents..............

Maybe it's the way I grew up........

I have never really played video games, and I don't really mind. Keith and his siblings, on the the other hand, loved video games and still do. Since we got married Keith hasn't really played much, only a handful of times. I appreciated this because I didn't really want them in the house. I believe that there are more interesting and productive activities in life.

Well, I had heard a lot about the Wii. My in-laws had one and so did a lot of people I knew. After talking about it for a while we decided to give it a try. I thought it sounded different than other video games and would be more interactive.

Well...............so far, its OK. We have Wii fit, Mario party 8, and Wii play. I do enjoy the mario party 8 board game stuff, especially with other people playing with us. The other games are pretty fun too. I guess I just can't see myself using it that much. The way people talk about it, I thought we would play it a ton, but it just isn't that interesting to me still. I feel bad about it sometimes. I know Keith would like to play it more than I want.

My conclusion on the Wii? Eh, its fun, but its still a video game, and I don't want my kids playing them much. Maybe once a week....for an hour....on Saturdays or something. We will see, Keith is good at persuading me, but I want my kids to be healthy and use their minds creatively.