Full Circle

I had to laugh to myself tonight. Tomorrow is moving day which means for the last few days we've been living out of boxes and suitcases and eating toast and cereal and fast food. Well tonight we sat down at our tiny card table to a lovely dinner of Ramen noodles prepared in a borrowed pan and eaten from borrowed bowls (thanks, Sarah!) and I laughed because just seven short years ago and 15 or more moves ago, Rob and I had our first dinner in our first apartment after we returned from our honeymoon and we ate Ramen noodles at our tiny kitchen table, cooked in the one pan we got for our wedding which we found after tearing into several presents hoping we would find a set of pans. Tonight I felt like we were right back where we started except now we have (almost) two kids, three college degrees, and lots of fun stories behind us.

Piggy Tails and Other Quotes

Ellie saw a dog the other day that had a white face and
black floppy ears.
Do you know what she said?

"Look! That doggie has black piggy tails!"

~~~~~~~~~

Ellie: Are we having a baby brother or a baby sister?
Me: A baby sister.
Ellie: What should be her name?
Me: I don't know. I need you to think of one!
Ellie: How 'bout...Super Hero?

~~~~~~~~

Ellie: Mom, I'm not in charge, you're in charge.
Me: In charge of what?
Ellie: Snuggling me.

~~~~~~~~

Disclaimer: Ellie had been on a Snow White kick a few days previous to this
Ellie: (to Rob) Come on, Dopey!

~~~~~~~~

On Father's Day
Ellie: (to Rob) Happy Father's Day!
Ellie: (to me) Happy Mother's Day!
Ellie: (to me) Mom, could you say 'Happy Ellie's Day" about me?

~~~~~~~~

Ellie: What do trains eat?

~~~~~~~

At lunch with Grandma Marti at Dairy Queen
Grandma Marti: Ellie, what do you want to eat for lunch? A hamburger, hot dog, or chicken?
Ellie: I want...chicken and a hot dog and french fries and a hamburger with my sandwich.

Packing Up

Packing on a Saturday morning isn't exactly fun for a three year old. Everyone is busy. Everything is a mess. There is nothing to do except entertain yourself with
whatever you can find.
So that's exactly what Ellie did.

She made herself a bed in this box and stayed in there for about an hour.


Man, I wish I could lay around in a box all morning while everyone else
packed up the house for me.

Lucky kid.

Three Years Old!

Happy Birthday Elliett!!

I can't believe our little girl turned three years old yesterday! I know I say this all the time but honestly - how did she grow up so fast? Where did the time go? When did my fat little baby girl turn in to a running, jumping, giggling toddler?

Despite having no furniture in our front room, she had a great little birthday party. She was so excited about every single present she got. She especially loves her scooter which she insists on riding from her bedroom to the bathroom whenever she needs to go potty.



Ellie wanted chocolate cake AND white 'cuppie cakes' with pink frosting for her birthday and she was a big help with making them!
And for any of you looking for a killer chocolate cake recipe try this one out. It is so yummy! It's a little time consuming but totally worth it. It is so rich that I'm more than satisfied with just a tiny sliver. It's also yummy with fresh strawberries on the side.

Like a Kid Again

There are some things in life that make me feel all excited and giddy inside. Kind of like a kid again. Things like homemade ice cream, fireworks, flying kites, and getting a
real letter in the mail.
I must confess, one of the things on my list makes me sound like a real country hick
but I don't care.

I love spray planes.

I'm not kidding. Every time I see one I get that excited feeling in my tummy. I smile like a silly person and I feel compelled to stop whatever I am doing and watch.

Ellie and I were at my Mom and Dad's house last week while Rob was gone for a week on business. We were getting ready to eat lunch when we heard a plane fly super close to the house. So of course we all stop what we are doing and go outside to check things out.
We saw this:
(you may want to click on the photo to embiggen it)



I wish you had been there to see it with us. I was so close to the ground and when it pulled up it would barely clear the power lines and trees. Turns out it was spraying two fields at once, the one north of the house and the one south of the house so it buzzed our house several times and
it. was. awesome.

I am such a nerd.

It's Official!

(I had a picture posted of the sign with Rob's name but I got paranoid for some reason and took it down. But it does look cool. Trust me)

Rob has arrived.
His name is on the sign.
How cool is that?
I'm so proud of him!
He has been working extremely hard at his new job as deputy prosecutor. Compared to his previous job as a clerk for a district judge, the stress level for this job is at least ten times higher. It is amazing to me how much he accomplishes and what he deals with every day. I've gained a new respect for those who work in public positions like his.
The coolest part about his new job?
He gets a badge and can carry a gun.
Sweet.

Avoidance Activities

Ever heard of avoidance activities? I learned about them from one of my mission presidents. He said it's what we do instead of doing what we should be doing. Make sense?

Allow me to explain.
I'm the queen of avoidance activities.
For example:
When I was in college, my house was always the cleanest when I had a paper to write or finals to study for because I would spend my time cleaning, organizing, and doing projects rather than sit down and work on my paper.

When I have a lesson to prepare for Sunday where can I be found? Most likely I'm in the kitchen trying a new dessert recipe or outside weeding my flower beds.

Going somewhere for the weekend? Forget about packing - I have knitting and sewing to do!

This week you may be asking yourself why the heck I am posting so much.
Well - I'm avoiding something big.
And blogging is my avoidance activity of choice.
The closing date on our house is June 29th and we all know what that means:
packing and moving
So instead of getting a jump on things by packing a box or five a day, I blog.


What is your favorite avoidance activity?

Winter, Anyone?

I do this every year. In the dead of winter, I sit inside wishing it was summertime and thinking of flip flops and lemonade. In the summer, I daydream of snow days and hot chocolate. Well, now that summer has come in all its fury and I'm quite pregnant and seem to have an extra heater in my body going full blast, I'm sitting here wishing for winter again.
Oh what I wouldn't give to make a snow angel...

Since I can't have winter in the summer, at least I can reminisce.

Our family get-together over the holidays at my Mom and Dad's house. We had so much fun playing in the snow and sledding behind the four-wheelers!


My parents, my brothers and me


The whole family


Ellie sledding behind the 4 wheeler with Uncle Preston driving and Uncle Taylor on standby in case she falls off

Ellie and her cousin, Deann ready to ride


Supervising the little hoodlums


Grandpa giving Elliett and Deann a sled ride


Getting warm in the sunroom with Grandma Maxwell


The two fluffy snow bunnies calling it quits

Adventure on the High Seas

My Mom and Dad invited Ellie and I out for a boat ride at the dam this morning. The weather was perfect and the company was even better! Ellie loved it and kept asking grandpa to go faster.

Hot stuff in her new sunglasses

As a side note: it's a little tricky getting into a little boat when you're 8 months pregnant. Just saying. Totally worth it though.

Have You Slurped Yet?

Check out Blurb!

If you are one who blogs as a way of journaling you definitely need to CLICK HERE.

It's a website where you can create your own books with their free software. You can do it with your blog too! You 'slurp' your blog to Blurb and you're all set! I have a friend who told me about this site and she prints her blog book once a year. I think it is the best idea ever. I love blogging but I miss having real pages to flip through. This is the best of both worlds!

Let's Go See What's Next!

That was Ellie's favorite line this weekend when we went to the Boise zoo. I cannot begin to tell you how much she loved it. Although I was a little worried when the she wanted to go back and see the hissing cockroaches at least 4 times. All I have to say is, "Eeeeew." We had a so much fun despite having to see the cockroaches. Rob's friend from law school met us at the zoo with is awesome wife and two sweet little girls so Ellie got to make new friends AND see animals. She was in heaven.

Ellie checking out the lions

The giraffe slide

A thousand hissing cockroaches. Just looking at them gives me the creepy crawlies. I'm so glad we don't have cockroaches here in Idaho.

Ellie's new friends Paige and Kenna

We stayed at the Hampton Inn (if I have a choice I will never stay at any other hotel as long as I live - Hampton Inns are the best!) and we went swimming and Ellie got to sleep in a magic bed a.k.a hide-a-bed.



A big thanks to my brother Shane and his family for letting Ellie come over and play with her cousins while Rob and I went out to dinner.

It wasn't just any dinner. It was our anniversary dinner. Seven years on May 31st!! Can you believe it? It has really flown by! It's crazy to think that we've been together (off and on) for 13 years. And it's even crazier that I knew the day I met him so many years ago that we would end up together. It was just something I always knew. I think that's why we survived all the high school/college/post-mission drama. Well, that and the fact that Rob is so amazingly understanding and sweet. I love that we have a history. I love that we have mission letters from each other. I love that he knows me better than I know me. It's been a wonderful seven years and I can't wait to see what's next!