18 months!

Wow! I realize the last time I posted about Ellie's age and what she can do was at least eight months ago; therefore, this post will probably be pretty long. I have to get my bragging in from that long ago to now. We go to the doctor Thursday, so I'll post her stats later. Here is what Ellie can do:

Sign language she knows- milk, please, thank you, cookie, drink, baby, fish, more, and down.
Words she can say- mamma, dadda, dog dog, juice, thank you, hi, bye bye, grandma (sounds like maa mah), grandpa (also similar to grandma), shoe, toe, eyes, ears, NO (definitely hear it a lot), uh oh, tickle tickle, boo, baby, and today she said "sheesh" after I said it.
Things that melt our hearts- kisses and hugs, blowing kisses, and snuggling.
Things that make us laugh- when she sneaks up on someone she tip toes and crouches at the same time, when she smells her baby's bum then crinkles up her nose and wants a diaper and wipes to change her, she takes off her socks to check her toes for toe jam (she actually sweeps her finger in between each of her toes), she also takes off other peoples' socks to check them for toe jam, she pretends like she is leaving by getting her purse and keys then giving us hugs and kisses before saying "bye-bye" and walking to the back door, when she lifts up her arms so we will tickle her, she organizes things in our "shoe cubbies" by the front door.
Things that frustrate us- she loves to climb on everything, she takes her shoes and sometimes socks off in the car every time we go somewhere, she says "no" like it's the only thing she can say, she wants to do everything herself, she makes huge messes wherever she goes,
Things that amaze us- One day, Ellie saw a can of olives. She brought it to us and we told her it wasn't opened and she couldn't have any yet. She then brought us a can opener from the drawer and the can. We don't even use that can opener. We use a different colored one that is up on the counter.
She understands everything we say. When we ask her to she can put her bottles in the sink, throw things away, turn off the TV, put toys away in her toy box, get an article of clothing from her dresser, get matching shoes, close doors, put her clothes in the dirty clothes hamper, turn off/on lights that she can climb to, and much more. When we are talking to each other in the car, she will repeat words we have said. Just a reminder to us that she is always listening. A couple of days ago, she slid off the bed to get down and it sounded like she hit her leg. I said, "I bet she hit her shin," and she said "No." Then she touched her chin.
She can cover her mouth when she coughs and sneezes. My third grade class doesn't even do that! She also practices when you ask her to by fake coughing or sneezing into her arm.
Body parts she knows-head, hair, ears, eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, nose, teeth, tongue, lips, mouth, cheeks, chin, neck, elbow, armpit, arm, hands, fingernails, fingers, tummy, legs, knees, toes, bum, and feet.
Things she loves to do- wrestle with daddy, listen to stories (sometimes she has fits when it's time for bed and we can't read any more books), watch Mickey Mouse clubhouse, do the "hot dog" dance, play hide and seek, go on walks, pretend to talk on the phone, twirl around, play with other kids (mostly because they have better/different toys than us), carry the dog's dish full of food out to feed him, zip her zippers and dress herself (on top of her existing clothes sometimes).
Potty training- At the end of September, Ellie kept grabbing her diaper and wanting to use the "big girl potty." She was afraid of the toilet because it was so big and she thought she might fall in. We decided to get a little potty and she used it successfully. I couldn't believe she was only 16 months old and wanted to potty train. Well, since then Ellie still asks to go on her potty, but it's pretty rare. Most of the time she grabs her diaper after she's already gone. I guess it's the first step that she recognizes she needs to go and she needs a diaper change. We're still working on it, but I'm not going to push her.

There are so many other things Ellie does that we can't think of right now. She continues to amaze us every day. I can't believe how much their vocabulary explodes and their minds grow from 12 to 18 months. Today will be the first official day she can go to nursery. I brought her a couple of weeks ago for half of the time and sat with her. If she does well today, I may leave her. Sort of nervous, but excited at the same time.

Helicopter Parents Beware! Change is Coming

My brother and sister-in-law posted this article on their blog and I think that it is spot on. Check it out.

The Case Against Over-Parenting

Back to Blogging-Finally!

This will be my first post since the unfortunate events in April. Which means that my "blogging tool" has finally been replaced. It only took 7 months!

In August, my baby sister moved away to Iowa, we were able to attend the temple dedication at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, and Ellie started going to a new day care at the high school near my school.

Ellie helped plant the bushes in the garden

In September, we went to the Utah State Fair. Weston had his first funnel cake and Ellie had a lot of fun looking at the animals. We went on the night Peter Breinholt was there and it had been raining all day so it was more like a private concert for about 50 people. We also broke down and got DirecTV. I never thought I would agree to it, but I love our new DVR. Ellie and I also enjoy watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse each morning.



October was pretty crazy! I finished (which means please don't ask about my time) my seventh marathon in St. George. My big brother and his wife moved down to St. George where they are renting a house for a few years. Cameron, Weston's brother, took our family pictures in memory grove. They turned out really cute. After Windu's only litter of puppies with Jellybean, he was "snipped". Ellie participated in her first Halloween parade outside of my school. She also Trunk-or-Treat-ed for the first time and helped carve her Elmo pumpkin.

November has been the month for showers. There has been a shower every Saturday so far. We also had Weston's family over to watch the Utah vs. TCU game two saturdays ago. I had Parent Teacher Conferences the first week of November and Weston's dad broke his foot that week too. Since the school year started in the end of July, Weston and I have been watching what we eat. I haven't weighed so little since the first year we were married! I still have about 15 pounds to go before I get to my wedding day weight, but it feels good. Pictures will come later after it is all gone.

Ellie loves to climb in her rocking chair to "read" stories.

We are looking forward to a busy week. Kristan is home for the week and Thanksgiving Dinner is at Grandma Reynolds' house this year. We'll have to post again later this week. Aren't you glad we're back?

Family Reunion 09

August means another Sorenson Family Reunion. Except this year Missy's parents were in charge. We spend 4 days and 3 nights in Swan Valley, ID. We stayed at the Sleepy J Cabins, complete with Dish Network for each of the 10 cabins, wifi and a big screen TV in the lodge. That is my kind of camping! Missy's parents kept the planned activities to bare minimum so that people could go and do whatever they wanted. We arrived Thursday and unpacked the Trailblazer and made our way up to Jackson Hole, WY for dinner. We ate at the Mountain High Pizza Pie and were very satisfied with their pizza. Friday the only thing besides meals and the sing-a-long that was scheduled was the adult craft. Missy and Kristan were in charge of the craft and I think they picked a good one. Saturday 12 of us went golfing at Pinecrest Golf Course in Idaho Falls while the kids did their craft. For dessert that night we made s'mores and followed that up with another sing-a-long. Sunday morning we had breakfast, packed our bags, cleaned up, and headed home. It was a great family reunion, but I was golfing during the kids craft.

Missy and I at Jackson Hole

Mountain High Pizza Pie in Jackson Hole

A small water fall in Swan Valley

Meal time at the family Reunion

Ellie really likes corn on the cob

Ellie driving Uncle Jimmy's Razor

July 2009 Can You Say BBQ?

July was also a busy month, but I don't think that it was quite as busy as June. We started off July with a bang. How does 4 BBQ's in 4 days sound? My brother Todd and his wife Brooke were in town for a WGU conference from July 2nd until the 11th. On the 2nd we had BBQ #1 with the Jones side of my family because some cousins that live out of state were visiting for various reasons. Todd and Brooke live in Kansas City and I must say that they have picked up some mad BBQ skills. We went over to my parents house for a real KC BBQ on the 3rd (BBQ #2). Todd and Brooke made everything including a peanut butter chocolate cake (they said that it didn't turn out right, but it was still good.) On the 4th Missy and I had both of our families over for a BBQ(#3) and to watch Magna's fireworks from our front yard. I finished one set of Wa-shoe boards and found the 3 1/2 inch OD washers. We made way too much food, but we had a great time and the fireworks that Magna put on were actually quite a bit better than I had expected. On the 5th we went my Grandma Reynolds house for BBQ #4. I think that everyone must have been tired of hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, etc. so the menu was kind of a fajita bar followed by drumstick ice cream cones and creamies.

Tuesday the 7th I took Missy, Ellie, Todd, Brooke, Marc, and Marc's date to the Bees Game. They lost, but the at least made it a game in the bottom of the ninth inning. We watched my little brother Marc in a few of his baseball games that week and had to say goodbye to Todd and Brooke at breakfast on Saturday morning at the Original Pancake House.

The next week Jimmy had a weekend at the Wolf Creek Resort near Eden, Utah. Jimmy and Rylee had both sides of their family up for the weekend. Ellie got to show off her new swimming suit, Missy went horseback riding with the girls, and I went golfing with the boys.

We went over to my parents' house for the 24th for dinner and fireworks and Windu became the pround parent of 11.

So maybe July was more busy than June.

June 2009

June was so busy that I am just now getting around to blogging about it. Ellie had her one year appointment with the all inclusive five vaccines! She is still below average on her weight and above average on her height. We were happy that she weighed enough to get her a forward facing car seat. Ellie liked having her birthday party so she though she would decorate the bathroom.

We celebrated our 4th anniversary and three weddings during the month. One of those weddings was Jimmy and Rylee. And of course, we got pictures of Ellie.

For our anniversary Missy gave me tickets to the Revenge of the Fallen and Dinner at Iggy's. I thought they could have made that movie into two seperate movies and explained/expand on things a little more. If you like action, Transformers 2 is 2 1/2 hours of pure alien robot action.

I will try and get July posted in the next few days.

Ellie's B-day

For Ellie's first birthday we had our families over for pizza, cake and ice cream. Ellie had a great time opening presents and getting all of that attention. Here are some pictures from her party.

May so far

Kristan's Graduation
Missy grandma and grandpa Zaugg visited for Kristan's graduation and yes we finally captured a picture of Ellie with her only Great Grandpa. (She has 4 great grandmas and 1 great great grandma) We had a great time visiting with them while they were down here.



Mother's Day
We spent Mother's day at my parents house. Ellie loved the bubbles with grandpa Reynolds.


Ellie with Grandma Reynolds


Later we changed her into her M&M outfit so that we could get a picture with her and uncle Marc both wearing their M&M stuff.


Memorial Weekend
Saturday started pretty much just like any other Saturday with Ellie waking us up early. Missy went on her 7 mile run before it got too hot. When she got back from her run Ellie was napping, so we went outside to work in the yard. That lasted 15 minutes. So I pulled out the lawn mower and weed eater and got the lawn taken care of. We had to go shopping for Ellie's birthday (May 29th), Jimmy's birthday(May 23rd), and two brides-to-be. Later that day Rylee's parents invited us to a BBQ in Jimmy's honor. And we played Washoes
with Rylee's family and neighbors. (If you need an explanation about what it is click on the link.) Sunday we celebrated Jimmy's birthday at the Sorenson's house with Jimmy's favorite sour cream chicken enchiladas.


I think Ellie was a little confused with the iPod. She saw an apple and tried to eat it.


Monday was spent running errands, from grocery shopping, to more birthday shopping, to some shopping for us. We celebrated my Dad's birthday(May 25) with a BBQ at my parents house and enjoyed the time in the shade of their backyard. Ellie chased her uncle Marc around on the grass. She is starting to ignore the grass and enjoy being outside.


Ellie was also chased by the tickle monster(aka Mommy)


That is May so far. We still have two birthdays. Ellie's is friday and my mom's is Sunday and then we have a busy June ahead.

Las Vegas Photos

Here are the pictures taken in Las Vegas by Aspyn Grace Photography

Interruption

We interrupt the regularly scheduled blog and bring you this explanation/cause of the recent lack of posts. April 25th we were at my parents house celebrating my brother's birthday. We had dinner, dessert, and opened presents. Ellie was getting tired so we started packing up our things and loading up the trailblazer. On our way home everything was normal. We pulled into the garage and Missy grabbed the diaper bag and headed into the house as I took Ellie out of the car. Then Missy screamed something like, "We have been robbed!" No, she was not kidding. When I walked in, I saw the less valuable content of our entertainment center on the floor. They even pulled out the spoon we use to keep Ellie out of the cabinets below the TV. Apparently they didn't like anything there. They left the TV, DVD player, VCR (I know, I know, what is that?), PS2, Stereo, DVDs, PS2 games, dance mats, buzzers, and anything else that we usually keep there. From that room they did take Missy's laptop from school that has all of our pictures on it and her iPod. Next I looked in our bedroom. They must not have found what they were looking for, or they thought that we must hide the really valuable stuff. They emptied out our dresser drawers. Threw the bedding off of the bed. Lifted the mattress, stole a pillow case and also took both of our cameras and the case we kept them in, my PSP with 5 or 6 games, my power adapter for my laptop (which was in the front room feet from Missy's, but it was in it's case), Missy's $300 breast pump and her scriptures from when she was baptized. I think that is everything that they took. They got in through the back door, which they broke. Yes, the door was dead-bolted. You might be wondering where Windu was while this was happening. Locked in his kennel in the backyard. The tore our baby gate down, I guess they weren't smart enough to figure out how to just open the door on the thing. They tracked mud down our stairs. I guess that they thought they would go after the really valuable stuff downstairs. I bet they were surprised when they found an unfinished basement! They left out the front door, by simply unlocking it. The neighbors told the officer that Windu was barking a lot around 8 pm, but because he always barks they didn't think anything of it. In Windu's defense, he only barks when someone is out front. It just so happens that there is almost always some neighborhood kids in the street out in front of our house.

So we spent our Sabbath ripping out our old door and putting in a new one. Now Windu has free reign of our backyard, so watch out. That is the reason for not posting in a while and hopefully we will be returning to our regularly scheduled blogs even if Easter was a month ago.

Viva Las Vegas!

As Weston previously mentioned, we went with Marc's high school baseball team to Las Vegas. This was Ellie's second round trip journey on an airplane. We were a lot less nervous to fly again because we knew what to expect and also because Weston's parents were there to help with her. When we arrived at the airport, we took a shuttle to the new rental car center and Weston waited in Dollar Rent-a-Car's line for an HOUR to get our car. Our pickins were slim so we drove a black PT Cruiser for the week. What a weird car! Tuesday (our day of arrival) was pretty much wasted after that, but we toured the casino, went grocery shopping and ran some other errands. It was our only day without baseball games so we had to try to keep busy.

Wednesday Marc played at 8:00 a.m. and it was a good game. Marc was playing first base for the varsity team. He's only a sophomore so we weren't sure where he'd be playing, but he played varsity the whole tournament. Ellie was a little antsy and I was horrified she would get sunburned so what I saw of the game was great. After the game, we went swimming at the most windy pool I've ever experienced. The hotel we stayed at was a giant tower and the pool was right to the side. The lifeguard explained that all of the wind that hits the hotel tower blows right down to the swimming pool. It was freezing! The pool temperature was fine, but as soon as you got out the wind froze your skin. We didn't swim for very long, but it was fun to see Ellie crawl around.

Thursday Marc played at 3:00 so we decided to tour the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory and cactus gardens. They weren't doing anything that exciting, but we got to sample chocolates. Mmmmm. We then headed to the strip to walk through M&M world and the Coca-Cola Store. Grandma and Grandpa bought Ellie an M&M outfit so she can look like Yellow. We bought her a pink baseball hat in the Coke store. We got back to the hotel with just enough time to get ready. Marc had his game and we had family pictures scheduled with a friend that lives in Vegas. We thought we'd be done in time to catch the end of Marc's game. We missed it all, but they did win again.

Friday Marc played at noon at the College of Southern Nevada. They had the coolest stands to sit in. They were made of great big red rocks and there were no seats. You could either sit in a camp chair or sit on the rocks. It was great for Ellie because she actually got to crawl around a play a little. Marc's team stayed "in the game" until the fourth inning. They lost to a tough California team. We were upset, but seemed to forget about a lot of the disappointment with orange cream slushes from Sonic on the way home. We continued our therapy session by going to the Adventure Dome at Circus Circus. Ellie rode the carousel for the first time and some nice man gave her a stuffed tiger. She pretty much stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while Mommy, Daddy, and Uncle Marc went on the rides. We finished our long night at Fazoli's to celebrate my birthday. 

Saturday's game was to determine third place in the tournament. Marc pitched for four innings in the middle of the game. They lost to a local high school team and took fourth in the tournament out of 16 teams. Ellie enjoyed her first tastes of lime snow cone from Grandpa. She wasn't quite sure what to think of it. After the game we shopped at the outlet stores nearest the airport. I found my dress for Jimmy's wedding and bought Ellie a dress also. It was then time to return the car and head to the airport. At the airport, Weston found a shirt that said "Potty like a Rockstar- Las Vegas." Of course we had to get it for Ellie. The flight home was later and Ellie was a little fussy, but we made it home alive and tired.