Happy Birthday Jelly Bean!

I know, I know, its so cliche...but I can't believe its already been a year. It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital meeting Ellie for the first time. I had no idea at that time what a sweet, sweet, tender hearted baby I had. Sure, I make jokes. She's annoying....she's dramatic...which is sometimes true...but she adds so much to our family! She is fun and cute and sassy and quirky and so lovable. All three of my family members are currently taking naps (for the past 3 hours) so I have had some time to write a little about Ellie at her year mark!

Ellie has 9 teeth. 8 front teeth, and one random one in the back. Tooth letter I to be exact ;) She is SO close to walking, but not quite there yet. She'll take a few steps, then get down and crawl. She loves pasta, yogurt, fruit, boiled eggs, pizza and anything sweet. Also, anything Boston is eating or drinking...he loves her so much! haha. She is dying to be big like Boston. She wants to be included in everything he is doing especially when his friends are here. If Boston goes somewhere, Ellie follows.

Ellie loves to make silly faces. Especially at her daddy during dinner time. She'll squint her eyes and grin really wide to show her teeth. She also does this weird face where she raises her eye brows while nodding her head (like she's saying yes). She has a routine of rubbing food in her hair when she's finished eating. She will ONLY drink a bottle if she is in her crib. She is currently, and has been for the past month and a half only been taking one nap a day. 12:30-3/4pm. She is back to sleeping great at night, glad that phase is over! Of course, only to be replaced by something else i'm sure hehe.

We had a FUN party with family this morning. Her grandparents and all of her aunts and uncles (minus Tyler and Jessica) came to celebrate her birthday. We had a princess party of course, with pink and gold balloons and Princess Sofia party stuff (Thanks Papa Roberts!). Ellie mostly just ate the frosting on her cake. She got lots of fun things. I even remembered and watched for her exact birth minute 11:34 am to give her a kiss. We are so grateful for our wonderful family!

Ellie had a fun opportunity to get some smash cake pictures done. My sweet neighbor always offers to take pictures of Ellie. She is very sweet, and did such a good job! She got a few done so we could have them for the party today. I'll be posting more in the next few weeks as she sends them to me.

One of my favorites!

LOVE! This is the face she makes at her Dad

Another favorite!

AHHH! Totally captures her personality

New Beginnings 2016

New Beginnings has officially been checked off my to-do list! Maybe one day I'll handle the stress of this calling a little bit better. Phew. I had the exact opposite problem as my last event, I had SO many girls show up, I didn't have enough gifts for all of them. I had a whopping 18 girls there! Plus, a few brought some in-active friends that aren't in the ward. And we were even missing 2 active girls. It was amazing, and we had to keep adding seats in the back of the room. Amazing, but talk about nerve racking! I've definitely had to get more comfortable speaking in front of people. I thought I was getting used to it...until people didn't stop walking in. Yikes!

The night went pretty smooth except for one little hiccup...I spent hours and hours making a video of the girls talking about their favorite things in YW, and then it didn't even play...I think it might have been the wifi connection, or too many people attending had their phones connected to the wifi. Bummer! At least our YW has a Facebook page that I was able to post it on for everyone to watch later. It was embarrassing! Now I know not to rely on the internet!

We decided to do a Dr. Seuss theme to go around this years mutual theme 'Press Forward with a steadfastness in Christ.' We thought it went pretty well with the book 'Oh the Places You'll Go.' Luckily enough, there are so many clever ideas on Pinterest, and I was able to find a blog that had completely re-written the book to go along with Young Women's including the values. I had to tweak it a little to make it flow with the theme this year, but it was simple! I introduced the theme, and had the other leaders talk on camp, personal progress, and introduce the new beehives. Each girl took home a cute pair of socks to remember to 'press forward.'The girls all made the giant trufflula trees, and a few of the leaders and I made the arrow signs. We had a cookie/candy bar for refreshments, and then bright colors and dr. Suess books made it easy to decorate beyond that. One of my counselors is amazing at doing the invitations and programs, she does such a cute job! Here are a few pictures:

AHHH! Still shocked I had this good of a turn out!

And next up.....CAMP!

Ellie 11 Months

Ellie has been crawling up and down the stairs for almost a month now! She loves to play on the stairs. She says hi, thank you, bum-bum (thank you Boston) mama and dada. She loves to put her food in her hair. She is goofy, and has developed major attitude. MAJOR! She has the loudest most annoying scream in the entire world. And if she doesn't get her way, she will scream. It's incredibly annoying! She also has felt the need to scream like that in the middle of the night until she gets a bottle. CONSISTENTLY for about a month now. I guess she's making up for all the time she slept through the night. The little devil inside her was just waiting to come out!

All that being said, she is still sweet, and very fun to be around...most of the time. She just wants to be a big kid like Boston. She freaks if she feels like she's being excluded from doing things. She and Boston will play for hours together. I LOVE that they play together. They grow closer more and more each day. Boston has started sharing his food, and his toys without being asked, and will hug and kiss her on his own. It's very sweet. When he says his prayers he is always thankful for Ellie-jelly-belly-bean-sweetheart. Can't believe we'll be celebrating her 1st birthday in a month!

Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal!

I admit....I love Home Alone. Favorite Christmas movies hands down. (Strictly the first two of course) I can quote those movies backwards and sideways. In fact, my voicemail out of high school was me imitating the hotel booking phone call from the second movie...yes I was weird. Really weird. Ok, I'm still weird. I do a pretty good job of hiding it....sometimes. Even then, I never thought that I was overboard until I overheard a conversation between Jeffrey and Boston playing with a new race track he got for Christmas. Boston turns to Jeff and says: 'keep it open, you little jerk!' Haha! Should I be proud, or ashamed? Maybe a bit of both. Jeff gave me a look that could have been read as: 'look what you did, you little jerk!' Uncle Frank would be proud...and I can assure you my quoting will be kept to a minimal next year.

I will say that the magic of Christmas has been ignited once again for me through Boston's eyes. I loved watching his little face light up at so many different things this Christmas. Watching him try and fill the manger for baby Jesus by doing nice things for Ellie. He threw her diapers away, picked up bottles, washed bottles, hung up and put away her clothes, picked up her toys, and shared some of his own, each resulting in a piece of straw in the manger. He squealed when he got a letter from Santa in response to his. The first thing he ran to Christmas morning was not to the presents, but to see if Santa drank the milk and ate the cookies he made. The look on his face when he realized that Santa gave him exactly what he asked for. 'Mom, I asked Santa for a buzz and woody, and he got it for me, mom! He did!' It's amazing watching him start to believe in something so special. Buzz and woody are at this moment tucked in, fast asleep with a snoring little Boston. I just love that boy.

As for Ellie, well....Santa brought her clothes and a few books. I was feeling pretty bad about it, until Christmas morning when she didn't even want to open one present. She just roamed through the mess of wrapping paper tearing it up. Merry Christmas sweet little Jelly Bean! 

 Here are some pictures of our Christmas!

Family Christmas Pictures 2015

Isn't this picture the best? I love Boston in this one.

My favorite picture. Best buds!