My Honey

Isn't it funny how pet names have a way of evolving. Sweetheart turns to Sugar turns to Shug which turns to who knows what. We're no different in our family. Only for us there has always been the dependable 'honey' that gets us through all of the other weird nicknames we come up with for each other.

A few weeks ago my honey turned 27 years old. Sheesh he's getting old. ;) John picked out a game that he wanted to own, and I surprised him with chocolate candies. This has been the surprise for so long that I am sure he would be surprised if I didn't get him it.

However this year more chocolate was added to the fray with a humongous chocolate cake. We didn't eat a ton of it in one go, but it was still enjoyed with raspberry yogurt and bananas on top. Yes, fruit/chocolate combination are the best--I don't care what you say. ;)

I wish we had some of that chocolate cake now because we have a reason to celebrate. For the last two months John has been studying for the qualifying exams for his PhD program. These are four very difficult exams that were three hours each. He was told to expect to fail at least one of them. However, if he failed any of them twice he would be kicked out of the program. Well, he showed them. We just received the news that he passed all of them. In fact in Math and Heat Transfer he got a 'high pass.' I am so proud of him! I am grateful that he is willing to work so hard to achieve his goals. What a great guy my honey is!

Ellie's Friends

One of the things that Ellie gets the most excited about is seeing her little friends. She has her own way of saying each of their names, but almost always it is accompanied with a little squeal or a pull towards the door to go see them. Ellie does the same thing when she sees this picture. It is one of her favorites. The funny thing about this is that whenever we do have a little playgroup for the most part she doesn't really play with them. She likes to watch them play, do her own thing, or try to take the toys they are playing with. It is only really recently that I have seen her actually collaboratively play. It sure is cute to see them together though. I love seeing all of their little personalities. What cute kiddos!

Around the house with Ellie

This morning as we were dressing for church, Ellie absolutely insisted that she put on her jacket. She wanted the hood up and everything. Check out this awesome outfit.One day I walked in to see that she had put my pajama shorts on her head. I have a lot of pictures of her trying to grab the camera.
One of her favorite activities during the day is to listen to the Wee Sing baby songs. She loves to spin in circles and wave her arms. Of course the video won't load
This is attempt number three for her to feed herself with a spoon. I don't know if she is learning how to use the spoon or not, but we learned that she can now reach the counters. A few minutes after getting cleaned up from this we saw that she had taken the left overs off the counter and and taken it all over the house. Yogurt was everywhere! It was mostly on the carpet and on the doors. She really likes to knock on all the doors in the house. Turns out we need to investigate what's going on when Ellie isn't being noisy or demanding. It is hard to get Ellie to stop moving when I get the camera out. She gets so excited.
She is hopefully learning that balloons get popped this way.
Ellie likes to walk around in my shoes. I love it!
I love her blue eyes. She looks so innocent. You wouldn't believe that right before I took this picture she grabbed a whole stack of books and dumped them on herself.
Some of her other favorites are: going eye-y-eye (outside), reading stories, and doing her shape ball. She also loves climbing on a dow (chair), turning on and off the light, and identifying people from the screen saver on our computer. Ellie loves the songs: wheels on the bus, popcorn popping, and this little piggy. She has her own versions of all of the actions, which are pretty cute. I think it is funny that her action for the wheels going round and round has become what she does when she wants to sing. Lastly, but definitely not least she LOVES starfall.com. She calls it 'B,' and every time we get on the computer she asks for it. Although since we have let her look at it about once a day, she has started to recognize when she sees letters and points them out on our shirts.

Animals: dead and alive

Our little family has recently spent our leisure time going to see a variety of animals. We started out at the zoo. Ellie was pretty nervous about the elephants at first, but she was completely fascinated.
She warmed up to the elephants, and has showed a marked interest in them in her books. We also saw a bird show and a few other animals. Unfortunately our trip got cut short because of the random thunderstorm that hit. We did try to wait it out, but that pavilion was just not enough shelter after an hour or so. It was a lot of fun to spend time with friends and family though. What cute girlies!
We also visited Thanksgiving Point a couple of times on their two dollar Tuesday deal. I was excited to take Ellie's picture with the animals she knows from her books. It didn't really go according to plan.
The baby chicks weren't too bad though.

As part of the deal, there is a pony ride. Needless to say that if riding the plastic animals was met with hysterics, sitting on a live one didn't thrill her.
One week later, we tried the pony ride again. This is how it ended up.
She was more confident around the other animals the second time around.
We also went to the dinosaur museum. I had never been before, and it was a lot bigger than I expected. It was really cool, and Ellie actually enjoyed it a lot. She loved running around in there with throngs of people.
There were so many fun activities for kids. It was geared for a little older than Ellie, but still fun. So over all, Ellie's favorite way of looking at animals is in books, but fossils aren't too bad either.

Spoons, Stories, Crying, and Degrees

Sometimes I can't believe how fast my little girl is growing up. Ellie is mimicking so much of what we say now. A few of her favorite things are: reading stories 'wee doe-wee,' carrying around her spoons 'boo,' playing with Mommy's glasses 'dasses,' identifying the people/things on the screen saver 'Baby, Mommy, Daddy,' and seeing the fish 'isss.' I really do think that the spoon is her comfort toy. She will carry one of her spoons around with her the entire day. By far though, her favorite is reading stories. I am not exaggerating when I say I read them to her for hours during the day. Needless to say I am getting real tired of the stories that we have. Thankfully, the library isn't too far away and my mom has lent me some from her collection. Although, I think it is funny reading Ellie some of the books that were my favorites as a child, because in all honesty they are not that funny or exciting as I once thought.
She is also learning the art of the temper tantrum. Oh my goodness. She had a real time out yesterday because of a particularly bad tantrum. It didn't really make her calm down. To anyone that is reading this, does a time out make your child calm down or is it just a consequence for the bad choice that he/she made?
Ellie is also graduated from being swaddled with no apparent problems. Last but definitely not least, John is officially a MS grad!!! Wahoo!!! It has taken a little less than two years. We went out to Macaroni Grill to celebrate. He is not walking so this is as close as we are coming to a picture with a cap and gown.

Family Reunion

Two weekends ago we had our big extended family reunion. We traveled down there with my parents and grandparents. Unfortunately on the way down there, they were in an accident. The only damage was to their car, a couple of work zone cones, and a sign It was pretty scary though and could have been a ton worse.
We finally made it down to the ranch resort outside of Zion National Park. My parents and their descendants (except one brother and his family) stayed in one humongous cabin. It was our birthday/Christmas present this year to stay there on their dime. It was super nice and somehow John and I finagled our way into the suite for two of the nights. :) The best part of that was the king sized bed, luxury bathroom, and room sized closet to have Ellie sleep in. However, that didn't mean Ellie slept in. Here we are on the first morning watching the sunrise.
Ellie LOVED the new place to explore! There were a lot of big window that she could look out. It was really delightful.
There was a hot tub that we took advantage of a couple of times just to the left of this picture.
Gorgeous sunrise!!!
The first full day there we just played, swam, and ate way too much. They had a big '80s party that night. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures. (hint, hint, Patti :) ).
The next day we journeyed into Zion National Park. It was really hot: 107-111. We had a good time with our fun family though. Here is beautiful Jane.
Because it was so hot, we went to the place where you could play in the water. Needless to say it was a popular destination.
Here is the then newest member of the family. Sweet Lizzy was only a month old at this point.
Here is Jane chilling in the back pack.
Lucas and James. They had a great and very wet time. I was sure that kid was going to lose his hat down the river.
Ellie loved playing in the water.

Here's us.
Jane was eventually let down. She was way more adventurous than Ellie was and actually wanted to walk in the river.
Here is us on the walk back from the river. Those sandstone cliffs are stunning.
Ellie was pretty tired.
She had a fascination with my sunglasses.
Guess which picture was taken in January and which one in July. :)


Here are some sunset pictures back at the cabin.
My dad.
We stopped at Bryce Canyon on the way home. Ellie was not too happy about it. Still beautiful though.

All in all, it was an eventful but fantastic trip. We only wished it could have been longer.