Ellie 13-14 Months

Ellie is talking so much! Most of it is still jibberish, but she does say: boo! bah bah (Boston) Mama, Dada, thank you, whoa, wow, bum bum, woof woof, 'I did it!' and 'Boom baby.' That last one probably deserves an explanation. I'm not exactly sure where Boston picked it up, whether it was an aunt an uncle, or Jeff, or what, but whenever Boston does something cool, like make a basket in his basketball hoop, he'll yell: Boom Baby! So Ellie started saying it and it is SO cute. It sounds more like Mmmm may may! It makes us laugh.
She LOVES Boston. I think she loves him a little too much, which is why it causes problems when she gets up in his business. She calls him Bah Bah. It sounds like she is asking for her bottle. If Boston leaves the room, she will call his name till she finds him. Its adorable. He'll always answer in 3rd person. 'Bah Bah is going poop!' 'Bah Bah is doing preschool!' 'Bah Bah is eating lunch, Ellie!'
The other day, Boston had some easter candy, and I had been asking him all morning to share some with Ellie. Later that night after washing all the couch cushions, and just about to eat dinner, I look over to see Ellie with a sticky piece of licorice in and all over her hands, with her hand right on the couch. Ahhh! I washed her hands and threw the licorice away to take her up to dinner. I put her down to finish what I was doing, and next thing I know, she walks out of the bathroom with the licorice in her hand again. She must have just walked over and pulled it right back out. Oh man. She does what she wants!
On Easter morning, as I was getting ready for church, I had my curling wand setting on the counter. It has a really long cord, which is convenient, but not so much with kids. Ellie walked over to it and pulled the cord so the wand landed right on her chest. That thing is HOT. I seriously reached over to get something out of the bathroom, looked down, and it was on her. Its one of the most terrifying awful feelings I've ever had. Before I could even get to her, she reached with her left hand to pull it off. The burn on her chest was WHITE, and concave, with no blister. It was about the size of a silver dollar. We grabbed ice, which Ellie hated of course, but I held her against me with the ice on her chest so she wouldn't pull it off. Meanwhile Jeff was looking up descriptions of 3rd degree burns. To us, it so sounded like 3rd degree. I was also freaking out a little because I didn't think the Insta Care would be open on Easter. Luckily, we were able to take her in. Nothing really set in until we were driving there. I started sobbing. Pretty much uncontrollably. Now, i wasn't like violently crying or wailing or anything, I just could not stop the tears. They all thought i was nuts i'm sure. Even though there were multiple people waiting to get in, they brought us right back. Turns out it was only 2nd degree, the top layer of the blister was rubbed off sometime soon after it happened. They placed a numbing gel on her burn so they could remove the dead skin. They brought in extra nurses to hold Ellie so I wouldn't have to. I'm sure because I was still sobbing pretty good. It just made me mad. I'm not crying because I don't wan't to, or can't bear to hold my child on the table, i'm crying because I feel TERRIBLE. They placed burn cream, gauze, and a gel pad on her chest, and then wrapped her whole chest all up in bright pink tape.
Lets see, maybe a month later, Ellie is down for a nap, we hear a bang, and Ellie has a big ole welt and black eye. I have no idea what she was doing, but this is one accident prone little girl. Everyone thinks we beat and torture her.
Things Ellie loves: Boston, Daddy, food (she eats more than Boston) stuffed animals and baby dolls (she'll hug and kiss them and carry them everywhere) her blankies, shoes (a girl after my own heart) and getting into trouble. If she is doing something bad and I tell her no, she'll just keep her gaze on me and continue to do what i'm telling her 'no' to. Until I pick her up and put her in time out. Little brat!

After about a week :(

Pink chest wrap

The hand wrap only lasted a night

Silly girl!

Youch

Beginning of the black eye

The next day...

And I wonder why she is always hurt? 

She does what she wants!

Blisters :(

First time eating cold cereal by herself

1 year check up

She loves to sit in the little chair

at the zoo

taking a nap on the dirty floor

Mmmmmmm

Loves to play outside

Mommy and Ellie

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Boston - April 2016

Boston: now 3 years and a handful of months is SO independent. He's all about doing things 'by mine-self.' He came up to my room at 5:15 the other morning saying, mom, I need hugs and kisses. Not in a 'I'm scared' kind of way, but just as a matter of fact kinda way, like: 'Hey mom, I just really want hugs and kisses right now.' Then he got down, said, 'Night, mom!' And left my room. I was completely shocked first of all because usually he won't leave his room if it's dark in the hall. He has a nightlight and Christmas lights in his room to help him sleep. Second of all, because I didn't need to ask him to go back to bed. After he left my room, I could hear random noise coming from down the hall. I waited, thinking he had run into the fridge or the wall, but eventually I got up to see an empty kitchen, with a kitchen chair pushed up to the sink. I continued on down the stairs to see Boston kicked back on his bed drinking water out of his cars cup. Oh boy. He did all of that in the dark, with only a small light coming from the fridge. 2 hours later I woke up to dishes banging around in the kitchen. Good grief! After another few minutes he called out to me saying: 'Moooooom, breakfast is ready!' I walked in the kitchen, and he had completely set the table, bowls, spoons, and had cups out.  He had gotten all the cereal off the top shelf in the pantry, and even gotten Ellie a sippy cup. What a lucky mom I am! Everyone also had a sugar cookie by their bowl, and mine somehow had two big bites taken out of it. Boston had no idea how that happened... Haha

Boston has started online preschool through the Waterford Upstart program. Its all online, which is cool, and he is learning all sorts of things. Letters, numbers, left and right, even writing and reading. Its kind of crazy. He does 20-30 minutes 5 times a week. The first time he did it he had a hard time figuring out how to use the computer mouse. By the end of the first week he had a pretty good handle on it. There was one activity where he was learning the words: above and below. They had different colored mice on the side of the screen, and they would ask him, for example, to take the brown mouse to the cheese 'above' the door. And he would click and drag the mouse to the right place to eat the cheese. He didn't understand how to click and drag, so I was trying to show him how, and at one point he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, Mom, its just too hard, I can't do it. My heart broke a little. I had to sit and cry with him for a second. He eventually got the hang of it, and now he gets mad when they don't give him the mouse activity every day.

A few weeks ago we all caught colds. Just small little annoying ones, no big deal. Boston was the first to catch the cold, so he was starting to get better just as the rest of us were coming down with it. Just as I thought he was completely over it, he just started coughing really hard. Sometimes I feel like my coughs get worse towards the end of a cold, just that kind of dry yucky cough and for that reason I didn't think anything of it. Next thing I know, he was vomiting all over the place. He would cough was so violently, it would trigger his gag reflex and he would just throw up. It escalated so fast, I had no idea what the heck happened. I thought maybe he had just been a little too active for trying to get over the cold, and maybe he just needed a little more rest. That night we were at Dustin's Eagle Court of Honor, and he literally sounded like he was hacking up his lungs. He had been running around the gym with cousins, so I again hesitated to take him in, because there is nothing I hate more, than taking a sick child in to the doctor, only for them to tell me that its just a cold, or there is nothing wrong with them. His cough would also get better, and then get really bad again, really fast.
Finally deciding to just take him in, his oxygen levels were at a 93. What does that mean? How the heck do I know....they just said it wasn't good. Boston's lungs were making a 'crackling' sound, so they ordered him a chest x-ray. He was so good for it! Even when the nurse strapped a little lead loin cloth around his waist to protect his goods. There were bunches of cloudiness shown in his two lungs. The radiologist diagnosed it negative for pneumonia, so we were sent home with nothing we could do. At 9:30 that night, I got a call from Boston's pediatrician calling to check on him. She told me she was 'unsettled' about the diagnosis, and hadn't been able to stop thinking or worrying about him. She said she was going to go against the radiologists diagnosis, and get him on antibiotics for pneumonia. She advised me to wait, and give it to him if he had another rough night sleeping. I walked in the door to hear Boston coughing and choking down in his room. Prescription it is.  It took a few days for the cough to really die down, but his cough is completely gone now. He likes to look at his chest x-ray a lot. He thinks its pretty cool! We have gotten ridiculously lucky with doctors that are mindful of us and have our best interest at heart.

Boston is very particular about just about everything. If I turn a light on, he will go turn it off, and then turn it on himself. If I put his blankets on him in the wrong order, I am in big trouble. This order changes sometimes, but usually, he needs his 'baby blanklet' first, then his puppy dog blanket, and lastly, his BYU BIG blanklet. His puppy dog pillow needs to be in the same position every night, with his head right on top of the puppy dogs head. It looks ridiculously uncomfortable.
Boston can do most everything himself now. He can even put his shoes on by himself, although he sometimes still needs help figuring out which shoe goes on which foot. Most of the time, he comes upstairs completely dressed and with breakfast ready. He spoils me.
One night a few days ago Ellie had a rough time sleeping. She and I were both exhausted, after being up so much in the night, that I remember waking up at 9:30 in the morning on my OWN (Hallelujah, am I right???) and he was in the living room playing dinosaurs quietly. He earned major brownie points that day.

Finally, the other day, doing the kids hair, he cried when I spiked his hair and did his faux-hawk. He told me he doesn't like his hair 'spicy,' anymore. I could have cried. I'm sure he'll have it again, but how sad!!!

Things Boston is into right now: BATMAN. He loves everything batman, or superhero. He loves books, dinosaurs, trains, Daniel Tiger, lego's, letters, playing outside, sword fighting, and doing everything himself. He loves to play with cousins! He also loves playing with his friends :Benson Turner, James Monson, and Ethan Johnson.

Boston and Ethan

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Swinging with the Startups

Boston likes to play Mario Kart

Boston does NOT like his taco rolled up

Getting his chest x-ray done

Good job buddy!

Boston and Ethan

Cinderella cleaning the floor

Cuddling with a sick Boston

At the doctor

Jazz game! We had great seats!

Boston cleaning the bathroom with my toothbrush

Breakfast is ready!

Easter 2016

Happy Easter from the Tree's! I wrote about most of our Easter in Ellie's post this month and our visit to the Insta Care. The day before Easter, I took Boston to an Easter egg hunt at Oquirrh park, where he loaded up on candy, and then we talked about Jesus and made resurrection rolls. Boston thought it was so cool that his marshmallow disappeared! I love this time of year!

Oquirrh park Easter Egg Hunt

Jackpot!

Coloring eggs

Easter outfits

Working Mom

A little Rigby throwback: TapeFace

Earlier this month, for about a week and a half or so I had the opportunity to fill in for an old co-worker and take over my old pre-Boston job. It was HEAVENLY to say the least. Anyone who says being a stay-at-home mom is easy, or thinks of us as lazy, can suck it. I'm serious. I was so excited and so eager to go back to work, several times I was told to 'simmer down.' Haha. Let me break it down: I was able to drop the kids off and drive to work in SILENCE. (for 3 days my in-laws took the kids so I didn't even need to drop them off! Thanks Randy and Julie!) I didn't even mind the drive with the usual morning traffic, because I could actually hear myself think. No screaming, yelling, asking 5,000 questions.  Upon arriving, I clocked in to actually be PAID for my work. And boy did I enjoy the work. I forgot how much I actually liked what I did. When I did something good, I was PRAISED. A good job here, a high five there, and several jokes of my boss telling the other assistants they better hope I want to stay with my kids after i'm done. It felt GOOD!

I sat in Brad's office for over an hour after my last day Monday discussing my old job. I knew it was coming, and I knew he was going to offer me my old job back. He told me I could take my time and think about it. He sat for what seemed like forever praising me, calling me, *wait for it* and I quote: a "godsend" and a "rockstar." Lets just have a moment of silence to allow my head to swell
.........................................................................................................................
Haha. But seriously, I don't want to sound conceded. I'm not saying any of this to make myself look awesome. The ONLY reason I'm saying this because in the 7 years I worked there I was maybe complimented a handful of times. Compliments were never just thrown around. If you were praised, you were doing a stand up job. He has always expected a lot from his employees. I owe a lot of my work ethic to Rigby Dental. I was constantly trying to better myself. To be better than I was the day before. This probably all sounds super cheesy, but its true. It felt good to know I was valued, to know I was still good at what I used to do after 3+years of being home, to be good enough for him to want to fire current staff to have me back. This is a HUGE deal.

Now, I'm not saying that I don't feel valued at home. I know my kids love me, and I know my husband loves me. They tell me all the time, and it doesn't go unnoticed.  Jeff values the work I do at home, something that is rare, especially now-a-days. At the same time, no one sees all of what goes on at home. Its just me, Boston and Ellie. Someone can walk in the house, and have no idea that the house was just completely trashed an hour ago. I can work my butt off cleaning the house, and then turn around after 10 seconds and see everything I just did be undone.  The work is never ending, and there's no one there that notices how hard you try to be patient, how hard you try and keep the house clean, how many times you want to lock yourself in your closet just to have a few seconds of alone/quiet time because your kids just WON'T stop whining, or how many times you ALMOST smashed the dishes over the counter before you actually did. I swear I would get a big raise if someone saw all the times I ALMOST busted all the dishes in the house.

I can practically see my mom rolling her eyes right now, in her grandchildren's defense. So lets go back to the Megan sitting in the office who had just been offered a job. Once I picked my jaw up off the floor, I told him I didn't need to think about it. I WANT to be with my kids. I want to be that insane mom that smashes dishes. I want to be the mom who's lost it, who can't keep track of her phone/keys because she's so worried she didn't pack goldfish and juice to take to the store. I want to be the mom that kisses all the ouchies, the mom who gets to wake up to the 3 year old snuggling up to her in bed. I want to be the mom that can take them to the park, and the zoo, and on playdates, and see all the little things they accomplish each day. I want to be the mom that cheers on her kids when they put their shoes on the right feet, or when they button up all the buttons of that stubborn shirt for the first time. I want to be the mom who cuddles them when they are sick, who reads to them every day. I want to be the mom that has no regrets. That says when her kids are grown that I wouldn't change a thing. I want to be THAT mom. Not working Megan mom. Yes, that mom could probably afford to do more. Buy more shoes, buy nice clothes, go to more restaurants, take her kids to do fun things, or do any of those listed things WITHOUT a coupon. But I think that mom would always regret not spending more time with her kids.

Now that I've completely bored the two people that read this blog, I will leave now and go be that crazy mom I talked about.

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!