January 2016 ~ Ellie

This girl is amazing!  She makes me laugh every. single. day.  She also makes me crazy every. single. day.  She has so much personality and surprises me over and over and over.  I wouldn't have it any other way!

* Ellie has this Dora the Exlplorer DVD that Jordan gave her and she loves it.  In this one episode Dora is with her dance class...and I'm pretty sure it's Ellie's favorite thing.  Now she always talks about her dance class and tries to perform for us.  She even bows at the end and makes us clap!  She has become obsessed with dancing around and she actually has some good moves ;)  There's also a Barney episode she likes that's all about dancing and so now she tries to do it even more.  She is the cutest little dancer.  She kept wanting to go to her dance class and I had to explain that she won't be able to go to a dance class until she is 3.  So now she walks around saying, "I go dance class when I 3!"  Guess I'll have to seriously start planning for that one...
* When we read books she has started to want to read to us.  Of course it mumble jumble, but with some books she'll be babbling and then all of a sudden put in a phrase from that book.  We have this one about a boy flying his airplane and she likes to have me read a page and then she'll read one.  She'll be going on in her own language and then say things from the book, "blah blah blah...mountains, trees, lighthouse, whale...along in my airplane...hi rain, hi sun...blah blah blah."  I love that she loves to "read."
* I've been taking her to Storytime at the library since this summer and it has been so fun.  I think it's really good for her to be able to learn from someone besides me. Miss Karen is awesome and always has fun topics each week, which I am grateful for because I usually don't even think about teaching Ellie those things.  I've noticed that it has seemed to help Ellie finally start to count.  I couldn't get her to even say the numbers for a long time, but she has started to do it and can count to 10 now!  I think doing it at Storytime really helped her learn how to do that.
* Lately Ellie is super hot and cold with Daddy.  There are moments where she loves him and is all about Dad...but more often than not she kind of wants nothing to do with him!  It makes me sad.  I know it's just a phase, but I feel bad for him.  She has been refusing to give him hugs and kisses before he goes to bed.  And most of the time she wants me to do everything for her, not Daddy.  Oh kids.  They keep us on our toes.
* 1.19.16: The last week or so Ellie has wanted to say her own prayers, without any help! Usually this is the prayer, "Jesus Christ, AMEN!"  HA!  So we've been working on the other parts of the prayer.  She's started to say things she's thankful for/loves on her own: mommy and daddy, family, house, Anna doll, etc. Well today she added in her tissue and dance class (which doesn't exist...)!!!  I absolutely love watching her little mind work and come up with things.  It's so neat to see what she's thinking about and what is important to her.  She is just growing up too fast!
* 1.27.16: Ellie told me today that she was going shave her legs in the bathtub when she gets big like mommy. HA!  Obviously she watched me shave the other day, but I find it so funny when she brings things up days later.  Also, I was sad today and just having a hard day and she comes up to me and says, "You okay, honey?"  HONEY?!  It was the most adorable thing ever.  Now every once in awhile she randomly calls me honey.  I love it.
* 1.28.16: Ellie has started saying, "Oh man!" and it is hilarious! She'll do it if she drops something or something falls over, times like that. Sometimes she makes it all dramatic. It makes me laugh every time.
* 1.29.16: If I go to see what Ellie is doing sometimes she'll say to me, "No, me alone" and point for me to walk away as to say, "Leave me alone!"  Where does she come up with this stuff?!

Baby Update ~ January 2016

I have been keeping a pregnancy journal for this baby, but I figured I should document a few things on here.  First off, I feel huge.  Everything has just gotten bigger faster this time around, which I know is normal, but it's just crazy.  

Oh!  Yes, I can document this now, even though we haven't had the baby yet.  I was really weird with Ellie and didn't really share the name we had chosen until after she was born...just in case we changed it. And choosing her name was so hard for us to do.  But we've picked out the name for this one...and it was the easiest decision we've ever made!  We didn't even talk about names until we found out it was a girl.  My theory is that it cuts is down by 50% from the start, so why bother with it earlier.  Well, after we found out it is a girl Arien and Amy were texting me and asking if we had any names picked out.  I told them no and that we hadn't even talked about it.  Then Arien was like, "Wasn't there a name you really liked?" (That we had talked about when she was pregnant with Huntyr.) I told her I couldn't remember (my memory has been beyond horrible this pregnancy) and then she goes, "Didn't you like Winnie?"  OH MY GOSH!!! Yes!!!  That was it.  Thank you so much for reminding me!!!  What would I do without good friends?!  I am seriously so glad she remembered, because I love that name so much.  So I told Landen about it and he said he had been thinking about that earlier that day.  The conversation then went basically like this afterward, "Do you still like that name?"  "Yes, I do" "Me too."  "Okay, then let's name the baby Winnie!"  "Done."  Hahahahaha!  I'm so glad we are on the same page about this.  Since then I have tried to think of other names I like, but there are zero that I even like a little bit. So we are naming the baby Winnie. We told Ellie and she seems to like it...she's always talking about "Baby Winnie."  I'm glad she can say it well too.  I will also come clean now about where we heard the name...Jimmy Fallon!  (Whom I love!)  He named his daughter Winnie, that's where we heard it, and I love it.  But I'm not naming my child after his child...because that would be weird...  Anyway, I'm so grateful this was easy this time around :)  We've also picked out a middle name, Rae.  This one was a little bit harder to choose, but this was my first choice from the beginning.  It's the first one I thought of but I tried to think of some options.  As I kept pondering it, trying different names and saying them out loud I kept coming back to Rae.  Landen and I talked about it when we were in Indiana and we decided to go with Rae. We both really like it and I love the way it flows, Winnie Rae.  So yeah, we've named the baby!  That's a load off my shoulders.

I have been in crazy nesting mode this month!!!  I think I am pretty much ready for her to come.  I've gotten her clothes out and washed and organized in the closet.  I had to pick up a few new clothes for her...it's been hard to resist getting a ton, but she deserves a few new things!  And this outfit was way too perfect to pass up!!! To be honest, I also wanted some more color variety in her wardrobe this time around.  Don't get me wrong, I love pink...but girls can wear more than pink ;)  I've also washed all the blankets and car seat liner and anything else that needed washed.  

I finally picked out a new diaper bag!  I am so excited about this one and I think it will be perfect.  After going through like 3 with Ellie and still never loving any of them, I shopped around for a long time until I found this one.  My friends who have 2 kids now said they loved having one that they could wear as a backpack so you can have your hands free, so that was #1 on the list. But I'm glad it also had a shoulder strap if I want to use it that way and handles on top for a quick grab.  And I love the pockets and system in this one.  I think it will be great for us.  And it's darling :)  Ellie already thinks it's hers though and stuffed it full of her toys...

We made an IKEA run and got a new cube shelf to use as the changing table, like we had with Ellie.  (The old one is now out in the living room and being used for toys.)  One day I was totally in nesting mode and just had to get it put together and set up in the bedroom.  Ellie loved helping.  I also got the car seat liner all reassembled, the straps adjusted for a newborn and the car seat ready to go.  I think those were the last big things I needed to get done.  Now all we need it is a baby...

31 Weeks ~ 1/6/16

Ellie's 2nd Haircut!

The past little while I was just starting to get "done" with Ellie's hair.  I'm the mom and have to do her hair, so I got to make the executive decision to get her hair cut again!  It was probably a little overdue.  It's been almost a year since we cut it the first time, last March.  She was so excited, "Go Liz and cut my hair!!!" I'm glad she likes getting it done :)  She did so well.  She sat perfectly still and stared at herself in the mirror.  She was great at doing what Liz asked her to do when she needed to move her head.  It was awesome.  I am sooooooo happy with how the cut turned out! And I think she is too, just look at happy face! She is so stinking adorable.  But I'm pretty sure she gets this extra dose of sass when she gets her hair cut...

Again...really???!!!

Life is just not fair sometimes.  I woke up on Monday so horribly sick!  Yes, I got the stomach flu AGAIN! I guess once this season just wasn't enough.  I can count on one hand the times I've had the stomach flu before this year...and to get it twice while pregnant was the worst thing ever.  I was so sick that poor Ellie had to pretty much fend for herself all morning.  Luckily she was really good and did that.  But eventually she needed to eat more and get her diaper changed and I just couldn't do any of it I was so sick.  I had to tell Landen to come home from work and take care of her.  Thankfully he did.  And he took care of me too.  He went to Maverik and got me nugget ice so I could chew ice and try to get some fluids back in my system since I couldn't keep water down. (Now whenever I stop at that Maverik Ellie says, "I come with Daddy to get ice when you sick!" Her memory amazes me.)  He also got me Gatorade once I could start keeping things down.  I'm so grateful he was there to help out.

But eventually he had to go to bed because he had to work, so I broke down and asked Nita to come take Ellie and help get her in bed.  I was so grateful she did that for me.  I just couldn't take care of Ellie.  She took her to McDonald's to play and get some dinner, then brought her home and got her all ready for bed.  Lifesaver.  Then right as she is getting ready to walk out of Ellie's room Ellie stands up and starts calling for me and totally gets sick in her bed...NOOOOOO!!!!! I just had the thought, "Please tell me this isn't happening!" But unfortunately it was happening.  I think Heavenly Father bore me up at that moment because I was able to get in there and take care of Ellie.  I sent Nita home.  She did not need to be around us anymore or clean up that mess.  Thankfully a lot of the mess was contained in Ellie's blanket, but I did have to clean some of the crib and carpet.  I got her stripped down and in the bathtub and then I started cleaning.  The smell was soooooo bad, I had to find a way to stop it.  Then I remembered these pieces of cut up leggings I got in my last order that were bundling things together and Ellie thought they were fun to play with, so I went to her toys and grabbed one and tied it around my nose...worked like a charm!!!  Between covering my nose and wearing my rubber gloves I was able to clean up the mess and not get sick again.

After I got Ellie bathed and in clean jammies she said she was feeling fine and she wanted to eat.  So I let her watch a show and have some graham crackers and water...we kept it very mild ;)  Then I got her back to bed.  I was really hoping her track record of typically only getting sick once would hold up and that she would be done with this, but I lined her bed with towels just to be safe.  Then I fell asleep too.  We were good for a few hours, but just as Landen was getting ready to leave for work he heard Ellie getting sick again.  NO!  Sure enough, she was sick again, but it was contained well and the clean up wasn't too bad.  After another shower we made a nice bed for her in the living room right by me.  She again wanted to eat, so she got some more graham crackers and water...my thought was that it's better to have something to throw up than nothing, so if she wants to eat more power to her!

At this point though I was so beyond exhausted and she wouldn't go to sleep!  She watched an entire movie and by the time it was over it was around 2:00 am.  Finally I got her to lay down and we turned off most of the lights and tried to sleep.  After a little bit she crashed hard and slept through the rest of the night.  I did too!  Phew.  The worst was over.  I'm so glad she got the flu so mildly.

Tuesday we just spent recovering.  I was exhausted and my body ached, but I wasn't getting sick, so I'll take it.  We had a calm day at home and Ellie got spoiled with shows and the iPad.  We thought Landen survived without getting it and I was really glad, until he got up to get ready for work Tuesday night.  He was just laying on the floor in the bathroom because if he was standing up he felt super sick...but he hadn't gotten sick yet.  He called in to work and headed back to bed.  Well, he must have slept it off because the next morning he got up and was feeling much better and never got sick!  He even went to work during the day. Phew.  That was such a relief!  I'm so glad we survived round two.  I sure hope we are done for the season. I don't think I could take around round of this yuckiness...  These pictures crack me up by the way.  Ellie thought it was so fun to have a sleepover in the living room!  And I had to document the leggings nose cover.  It was seriously the perfect, and softest, thing ever!  After it got washed it went into the bathroom drawer for future use ;)

Visiting the Swinfords...Finally!

We finally made it down to visit Jared and Megan!  We were trying to figure out how long it had been since we have seen them and it's been over a year!!!  WHAT?!  How did that happen???  Yeah, the last time we saw them was over New Year's 2014/2015.  We completely missed Megan's last pregnancy too.  It's crazy how you can be so close yet so far away.  Anyway.  It was so much fun to get down to Salem and visit them and see their new house and their new BABY, Claire.  We had such a great weekend just hanging out.

Ellie LOVED LOVED LOVED being around her cousins all weekend.  The day before we left she watched a show and they had a sleepover, so she kept saying she was going to have a sleepover with her cousins!  She would say, "Go to Juliet's house and have sleepover!!!" You bet! I was a little worried that Ellie and Juliet wouldn't get along because Ellie tends to struggle with kids her own age, but they were the best of friends!  I think it helped to have Rylie and Maya there too, but by Saturday afternoon Ellie and Juliet were playing together just the two of them.  I was so glad!  Ellie loved all their princess dress up clothes too.  She had to be wearing a dress pretty much the entire time.  I am so glad she had so much fun.  We really need to be better about getting together with them more often.  Luckily Megan took a couple of pictures of the girls :)

OH! On our way down we stopped in Provo to go see the new Provo City Center Temple.  I am so grateful we were able to make it to the open house and walk through it.  It was beautiful!  This building holds a special place in my heart.  When I was at BYU this was our Stake Center in one of my wards.  I remember going and sitting on the wooden benches for Stake Conference there.  It was really neat then, but now it is incredible!  I love that after it burned (almost) down the Church decided to rebuild it into a temple.  What a beautiful symbol of the Atonement of Christ.  I'm so grateful for this special opportunity.

Let it Snow!

Ellie was so excited to go out and play in the snow today.  We've already had so much more snow this year than last year.  We had to go out to snow blow and shovel ourselves out and Ellie loved helping.  We got her a small shovel and she thought it was great.  And let me just say how grateful I am we bought that snowblower last year (and Wayne got it working for us this year).  It has been a lifesaver.  There's no way I could be out shoveling the entire driveway over and over during this pregnancy.

Ellie was so excited to make a snow angel today.  She kept talking about it all morning.  At first I was wondering how she even knew what a snow angel was.  As I got thinking about it though, I remembered we have a book that we've read a few times and they make snow angels.  Anyway, she was so excited to finally get to do it herself!  She also wanted to build a snowman.  Let's just say, I'm horrible at making a snowman!!!  Horrible.  I can't even make it resemble a snowman.  Luckily Ellie isn't too hard of a critic yet :)  And yes, in that third picture Ellie is throwing a snowball at me!  Little stinker...

Wiggle Worms!

We went to Wiggle Worms today with our friends, Katie and Jaxson!  Katie told me that Jaxson kept asking to play with his friend Ellie at Wiggle Worms...so cute!  So we made it happen.  What's so funny is that they hardly played together.  They each were off doing their own things most of the time, but that's okay.  I love that there are so many different things to do so they are both happy.  Of course Ellie's favorite part is the painting room.  Right when we walked in she says, "Paint? Paint? Paint???"  I made her wait until the end, but she was so happy to get in there! And not so happy to leave...  She also loved playing on the computer.  She kept saying, "I work like Mommy!" as she pounded on the keyboard.  It was adorable.  Oh, and on the way there she kept saying we were going to "Wiggy Worms."  It was darling.  And she would kind of wiggle her body.  I love that girl.  It was nice for me to be able to spend time with Katie too :)