Beautiful Girl!!!

This is our beautiful girl in a beautiful spring dress from Aunt Tifiny!!! Even though there was lots of snow outside on Sunday, we're ready for Spring!! Elise is now 13 months old, and is growing up so fast! She is getting really good at blowing kisses, waving bye-bye, and knows the signs for food and milk. She's getting very brave about walking, and still likes to look outside the window a lot to see what's going on. We are excited to have a bit warmer weather (hopefully) so we can take some walks outside soon. Elise has also learned about tickling. She makes this great little sound and wiggles her fingers, and that means she's tickling. She loves to tickle Daddy, but will also tickle chairs, toys, and even herself! What a fun grown up girl!

Sleep Deprivation Experiment?

Some days I feel as though in becoming a mom I had signed up for a sleep deprivation experiment. Have you seen the movie IQ? There is a scene where the scientist fiance is doing time deprivation experiments on a man, and he is screaming in a room with a window, while Albert Einstein visits the lab. Some days I feel as though with the little amount of sleep I've gotten since I've become a mother, I must appear as though I were participating in a similar experiment. Elise has gotten a lot better lately about sleeping at night, and even being able to go back to sleep with just a pacifier and some hand holding. I'm still looking forward to the day when she will be able to sleep all night through all by herself. Until then, I love my girl, and my sweet husband who makes sure I get a nap when I really need it!
On top of the ongoing sleep deprivation, we're all sick this week, with sore throats and runny noses. Elise fell asleep in her high chair during dinner, which has never happened before, and she was so cute! Hopefully we're on the upswing, and can all be healthy again soon. In the mean time, Logan found a new song he loves with the line "Life gave me lemonade", which reminds me of the saying "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade". I don't know if this artist is trying to say life is great because he got lemonade instead of lemons, but that's what I think every time I hear Logan playing the song. It kind of makes me count my blessings, and realize that we're very blessed!!!

Valentine Surprise

My Little Valentine made a special project for her Daddy. She got to color for the first time with crayons, and she colored a Veggie Tales page to give to Daddy for Valentine's Day. Because the crayons are such a new concept, her version of coloring consisted of pounding the crayons against the paper and then looking closely at the crayons. She had a great time making a beautiful picture, and we're hoping she can continue with this new skill, and we'll be trying to include some samples of her artwork as they become available. For now, here's a couple pictures of her coloring. Most of them are her looking at the crayons and the picture, as it was very hard to get her to look up at the camera!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

We hope all of you can feel the special hugs we're sending out today!!! We tried to send an e-card, but it didn't work the way we thought, so if you got it and it worked, fabulous!!! If it didn't work, or you didn't get it, sorry about that, but we're still thinking of all our family and friends who are near or far, and sending hugs to all! Happy Valentine's Day!

Tags

I was tagged by my sister -in- law Desi, so here goes....

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves
C. At the end of the post, the player tags 4 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they are tagged

10 years ago I was: Its 2008? In 1998 I was finishing the only year of college I did at the University of Utah, then transferring to BYU.

5 things on my 'to do' list today:
1. change Elise
2. feed Elise
3. give Elise a nap
4. read books and play with Elise
5. make sure we get something done as far as cleaning goes

Things I would do if I became a billionaire:
1. pay off the loans
2. visit family
3. get a house
4. save for having/raising kids

I changed this next question, it helps boost my self esteem to think of it this way...
3 of my recently aquired good habits (in the last year):
1. singing with Elise
2. doing one project a day (like vacuum the floor)
3. reading scriptures EVERYDAY

5 places I've lived:
1. Utah
2. California
3. New York
4. Alaska
5. and I'll put Utah again, since I've lived a couple different places there

5 jobs I've had
1. nanny
2. cleaning the dorms at BYU
3. working in the financial aid offices of the University of Utah and Cal State San Bernardino
4. substitute school teacher
5. research assistant at University of Alaska, Fairbanks

Things most people don't know about me:
I love to dance! Elise is a great dancer too. Any time there is music on, we boogey!

OKay...now-who's it?
You've been tagged:
I don't know anyone to tag, so if you read this, and feel like you want to answer all the questions, feel free to consider yourself tagged!

Little Helper

There is one drawer in the kitchen Elise can play with.

She likes to empty the dish towels out, and put them back...sometimes.

I love wathcing Elise move around. She's getting so good at standing and maneuvering to get what she wants.

She also loves to pose for the camera!!!

Watching Daddy shovel snow

We had about 10 inches of snow on Sunday, and Logan went outside to shovel the parking spot, and dig out the car. Elise went over to the window, lifted the curtain over her head and stood up. She stood there and watched him the whole time he was shoveling. She usually doesn't have a very long attention span, but she could look out the window almost all day long. She loves to wave at Daddy, and kept waving, every time he turned towards her, and sometimes when he wasn't looking.

The view from inside.....


The view from outside!!



Then we took Elise outside in the snow. She was ok while Daddy was holding her.....


But didn't really like being in the snow herself!

Happy Birthday Elise!!!

Elise loves balloons!!!

We've taken pictures with this bear every month since Elise was 2 months old. She's certainly grown a lot since then!!

I made Elise this cake from a book we got from Logan's sister Tifiny at Christmas. It was a lot of fun, and Elise really liked all the colors! She found frosting too sweet, but the cake part, and the animal crackers were tastey! Happy first birthday! (Well, on January 24th)

Winter Snow

We've had a lot of snow lately, and Elise has enjoyed looking out the window, watching the plowing.


She also loves to watch for Daddy to come home at the end of the day.


Elise is getting so grown up!!! I love to watch her standing and walking tentatively on her own. She's up to 10 steps all by herself, although crawling is still the fastest way of getting where she wants to go. What a cutie!!!

Check out my Guestbook!

Happy Girls!

What a lovely snowy day outside!!! Elise and I are just like two cozy little bugs in a rug here, and we wanted to say good morning to everyone!! I just love having a happy girl, smiling and giggling. She's getting so big, and won't be so content to play in her playpen much longer, but its so cute when she stands up and can now get her arms out over the edges. We had her first birthday celebration last week, and boy was that fun! Its so amazing that she's learned so much in the last year, and that Logan and I have learned so much too!
What an adventure!