Elliette laugh...more proof

I though I would post another video of Elliette laughing since I've heard she sounds like she is crying in the last one.


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Santa Claus and giggles

Well Elliette had her first visit with Santa Clause today. We went to our ward Christmas party and had her sit on Santa's lap. She didn't really seem to care much but I really wanted to get a picture with her on his lap.


Santa was also handing out candy canes and we learned two things, 1) candy canes make the best toys for 4 month olds because they are thin enough they can actually grip around them.


and 2) I think our baby has a HUGE sweet tooth because she just went to town on that thing - the wrapper is actually still on but she is teething and it is small enough to fit into her mouth and bite hard on so she was really biting and slobbering all over it.


After we got home from the Christmas party Justin was playing with Elliette biting her belly and she just thought it was hillarious. So for family and others who may like that here is a short clip of the giggles.

4 months, Thanksgiving, and good friends

I can't believe that our little Elliette is four months old already. She has grown so much lately and shows her little personality more and more. One thing I have to tell you because it cracks me up and is so cute; we have learned that Elliette loves to smile and be happy. We really are incredibly lucky because she hardly ever cries and even though she hasn't really been feeling good (lately she has had a cold, is congested, growing, and teething) she still is such a happy baby. Anyways, one day a little while ago she was having a hard night and had been crying for like 15 minutes straight which is very out of the ordinary for her, it was one of those unconsolable cries. The thing that made us laugh though was every time she stopped crying to catch her breath between cries she would smile as much as she could with tears in her eyes and everything and she just looked like she wasn't feeling well but was trying so hard to be happy and then when she would catch her breath the frown would come back and she would cry. She did finally stop once the Tylenol kicked in (we are pretty sure her teeth were hurting) and as soon as she stopped crying she was back to smiling. It was so cute and funny that we had quite a good laugh. She is starting to move around a lot more which is fun to watch, she won't fully roll over yet but she will roll to her side, she loves lying on her side, or she will kick around enough that it will turn her in a circle while she is laying on the ground playing with her toy. Her favorite things to do are stand, bite on her fist, suck on her blankets and burp rags, and giggle. She is also quite the little chatterbox, especially while she is eating. I took her to JC Penny's for pictures over Thanksgiving and the photographer was trying to coo at her to get her to smile, instead of just smiling Ellie thought the girl was talking to her so she started making all the sounds back just chatting away. Man this little girl just makes me laugh! Well, thought I would fill you in on our little one. (We don't have a dog, we were just dog-sitting little Bella - her and Elliette had a good time staring and trying to figure each other out)


Thanksgiving was way fun this year. We drove out to Kansas stopping for the night in Denver which is about half way and went to Casa Bonitas (love that place). Elliette did really well in the car but our nights were a little craxy for a while since she did sleep a lot of the day. Once we got there we were able to chill with the family which was a blast since I hadn't been there when everyone else was since probably Thanksgiving two years ago. We went to the Wichita Zoo, Warren Old Town Theater (best theater ever, you get to order dinner while you are in the movie), have a fantastic thanksgiving meal, and just have a fun time with family. It was hard leaving and coming home.


Also, right before Thanksgiving Adam and Robin, our good friends, came up from Texas so we got to hang out with them for a day as well. It was so much fun to see them and their little boy and her parents and Matteo all again. (Sorry, I don't know why this picture came out so small but I am tired and don't really want to mess with it and fix it).


On a side note, I only have two more days of work left, HOORAY!

Pink Purse Cake

So here are a few pics of my latest cake I was able to make. I was talking to a lady in my ward one Sunday and she was telling me that her daughter wanted a pink cake and she didn't know what to do with that and since I was doodling cakes I came up with a pink purse so she let me make it. I looked online for the basic shape and saw the idea for the shoe and thought it was pretty cute so I made one of those out of fondant to go with the pink purse cake. There are definitely flaws so don't look to closely but I am pretty proud of it being my first time ever making a 3d sculpted type cake.

Happy Veterans Day

I just wanted to give a shout out to all the veterans out there (especially my hubby) and tell them Happy Veterans Day!

HALLOWEEN

Well Happy Halloween all and thank heavens it is over cause it was a very busy day. When I found out that they held a Trunk or Treat here in Soda and it was something that I did through Recreation I wasn't very excited about it for a few reasons. One is that I loved Trick or Treating door to door and when you live in an area that is like 20 years behind everywhere else and people still trust people and it is relatively safe why not go door to door. Secondly I don't think that it should be a city function. They are normally put on by different church groups or schools which is very nice because there are less kids and more people are able to afford to give out candy. As it was we had about 800 kids show up for the Trunk or Treat and only 20 trunks which are mainly done by businesses because families can't afford to buy candy for that many kids so less and less people do trunks and because Halloween was on a Friday lots of people that normally do trunks (yes it is always the same people year after year) were going out of town. Even though there were very few trunks and I wasn't super excited to do it, it turned out rather well and we were very lucky with the weather to have it be relatively warm which was nice. Halloween was a very long day for me because not only did I do the Trunk or Treat I just mentioned I also put on a little carnival for the young kids which was a lot of fun. Not as many kids as I had hoped showed up but it was still fun other than the working 12 hours that day part. But I wanted to keep myself as busy as possible all month so I didn't just sit and dwell on why I didn't want to do Trunk or Treat. I was also able to put on a pumpkin carving contest which was way sweet; we had 15 pumpkins turned in and the ones in this post were a few of my favorites. Also here is a cute little picture of Elliette in her Halloween outfit being held by Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

I had to post this. Read this article and make up your own minds about who caused the mortgage crisis that cause the situation we're in now.

2 Months

Well our little Elliette turned 2 months old on the 12th, I can't believe how fast that has gone. My sis-in-law Kim took a bunch of pictures of her for me that day. I picked a bunch of my favorites (I loved them all, thank you so much Kim - oh and a shout out to Ryan for the cake detail pictures he took for me and I forgot to mention-Thanks!) and put them in a slide show. Sorry there are so many but I loved them all and I tried to get different faces so there are a ton.
Also, we went to the doctor last Friday for her 2 month check up. Her stats are: she is now 24 1/2 inches long putting her in the 98 percentile for height and she is weighing in at 10 pounds 3 ounces putting her in the 16 percentile for her age in weight. She is definitely built like the Nelson's. Tall, skinny, and a small bum.

October and Work

Well this month started off fantastically with me being the cause of an accident. Here is what happened: I was hauling a trailer back to the shops that had to big cookers on it that the minor soccer league had used the night before for a party, after I had just gotten the propane tanks filled. I decided to take a slightly longer way back because there are less giant dips and I hate pulling heavy trailers in general let alone over all the dips. On my way back I check my rear view mirror and notice that my trailer looks like it is off to the left a touch so I continue to watch it a bit. I started to freak out as I notice my trailer way off to the left and realized that somehow it has come loose from my truck. The trailer must have been perfectly balanced because it stayed on its two wheels for the rest of this. Next thing I know my trailer has made its way into the turning lane, waits for a car to pass hangs a left into a bank parking lot one wheel running into the curb, takes out the entrance sign, almost hits a guy in his car who thankfully saw it coming and had just thrown the car in drive and peeled out of the way, throws the cookers (which are to big for me to lift) clear off to the side of the parking lot, finally the nose of the trailer goes down but it continues down the parking lot until it ends up under another yellow truck. All this happened while I was trying to hurry and flip around to somehow try and stop my heavy run-away trailer. I know what you are thinking, were there no safety chains? Well there were but they were too short to hook to any vehicle and for some reason that had not been fixed. Needless to say all city trailers are now getting fixed for optimal safety. There actually wasn't much damage to the truck either since the trailer just acted like a ramp and lifted it right up. We definitely got lucky that no one got hurt and that the damage wasn't that bad. Oh and just so you know I wasn't speeding and was actually going 5 under the limit cause I really don't like pulling trailers and understandably I hate it even more. Oh the kicker is that they hooked the trailer back up to my truck, what were they thinking! I absolutely refused to finish driving it and made my boss do it instead.
On a good note though I told them I was leaving in December for California, I am so excited!

Chelsea and Chris

Last weekend we were able to go down to American Fork for my little sisters wedding. We were able to go to the temple with them as she went through which is always a great experience. These past few weeks have been great with that because I have also had 2 cousins go through for their missions and we were able to make it down for those temple trips as well. Anyways, Chelsea was nice enough to let me make her cake and I have been so excited to make it for like a month since she decided on the cake she wanted and it was a non traditional cake, it was a challenge for me to get the colors correct so I did a few small practice runs during that month. It pretty much took me all day Friday to get the thing made but it was fun and I think it turned out great. I also had to try and find a dress that day since I live in Soda and there is no place to shop for clothes up here. We finally made it to the mall at 8 pm, yeah it closes at 9 so I didn't have much time and I am never lucky enough to find the outfit I want in a day let alone an hour but low and behold Urban wear (or trends - whatever one is in the Orem mall, I can't remember) had a skirt and 2 shirts. It was a great day. Sat was the day of her wedding and let me just say that my family should start a wedding business cause with the amount of weddings we have had recently we have become pros at decorating. The service and the reception was nice and Chelsea looked great. All in all it was a great weekend. We also got to stay down till Monday morning cause I thought I had a Dr's appointment that day, turns out it was on the 20th but the person that was supposed to be there was a no show so I got to go in. Also, Elliette turned 2 months old on Sunday I have some really good pics of her where she is smiling but I will post those later, it is getting late.

Here is the detail that was on the 2nd layer of the cake

Hats

It is getting colder up here in Soda and I had to take Elliette to work with me so Justin could do apartment manager and military things so I put her in some hats and warm clothes for the office. I thought she was such a cutie in her hats I had to take a picture. Sorry Ryan the Boston baseball cap is still to big (I tried). If you look at her hands in the blue hoodie picture she is showing you one of the many talents she has. The day she was born the nurses brought her into our room laughing and said she had been flipping them all off in the nursery. I didn't even notice she was flipping me off till after I took the pic but I thought it was hilarious and the face she has just goes so perfectly with it. Enjoy!

Labor Day Weekend

OK, I finally got the pics off of the camera so there will be a lot more pictures of Elliette in this post. Now I know Labor Day weekend was a little while ago but lay off I am really slow at this blogging thing. Anyways, it was a great weekend, we decided to bless Ellie then because I had the time off work and the holiday made it so that Justin's family only had to take one day off of work. We blessed her on Sat. the 30th at my parents house. Justin's parents, sis Jill and son Eli whom we hardly ever see all drove in for the occasion. Chris and Blaire came down from Logan, Grandma and Grandpa Bennett, and all my siblings and parents were there as well. I looked into buying a cute little dress for her but I was in major cheapskate mode and refused to pay $45 for a dress that gets worn once even if it is stinking cute. So instead we used the dress that I was blessed in which was kind of cool - thanks mom. After the blessing we had sandwiches and cookies (I couldn't decide what kind of cookies I wanted to make so I ended up with 5 different kinds and about 8 doz large cookies for 18 people.
Since the Nelson's were in town we spent the rest of the weekend in Salt Lake hanging out with everyone. It was a blast. Saturday we went out to Joes Crab Shack and had a fantastic meal and then just hung out till bed time. Sunday we met up in Salt Lake and went to the Tabernacle Choir thing. The part that I could hear was good but because I had a baby with me they sent me into the cry room and that is pretty much what all the other kids were doing (but not mine, she didn't even wake up) so I couldn't hear much. Jill was in there with Eli as well and since it was loud and cold in the room we decided to walk around the grounds till everyone else got out. It was really pretty and it was fun to watch Eli cheese it in front of the fountains every time he got his pic taken. That night we went to a BBQ at Aunt Jana's house. Ryan and Christy brought their baby, Kate (one week younger than Elliette), over so we were finally able to meet her and get some pictures of both girls together. It was such a fun weekend! I had to put this picture in seperate from the slide show because it is my favorite. It looks like Elliette is freaking out and trying to kick Kate off of her blanket; really she was just hungry and annoyed that I was making her lay and get her picture taken before she ate.

A Few of the Many Faces of Elliette

These pictures aren't the best quality since they were taken with our cell phones but I wanted to post a few more pics since Elliette is a month old now (I can't believe it). They change so much so quickly. She is so funny and pulls such funny faces but as soon as a camera is pulled out she puts on her duh face and won't do much more so it has taken a while to get a few different faces, especially the smile. She is so stinking cute, or at least we thing so, and cracks us up daily as we just sit and watch her discover new things. Since she doesn't like to be bound up she has pretty good control of her arms and hands and is getting pretty good at holding her head up as well - especially when she wants something. So far this month has been great and she has stayed a good baby only crying when she wants something or if she has gas pains so it is pretty easy to console her. We have more pictures on the actual camera that I will get around to posting soon (I hope) including ones of her blessing day.

Well I am back to work tomorrow and it makes me sad already to have to leave her for a good portion of the day, even though she mostly sleeps throughout that time. But good news is that I only have to work until Christmas and then we get to move! Woohoo! we can hardly wait. Justin has successfully switched to Military Intelligence so American Fork and California here we come!

Elliette is Born

Little Elliette was born on August 12th at 12:37 am and weighed 8lbs 1oz and is 20 inches long. Speaking of long, you'll see on the slide show that we tried to highlight Elliette's most outstanding feature...her very long fingers. I think she is going to be a basketball player because with those mitts she is probably going to be tall and easily palm a basketball.
Until Melissa got her epidural she was having some pretty intense contractions, but after the happy juice kicked in she was taking naps and watching tv with me. At the end she did get a little sick, but nothing out of the ordinary from what were told. Elliette was actually born when the US was receiving their bronze metal in men's gymnastics, which we were all watching including the doctor and Melissa.
We are starting to notice features that she has from us which worries us a little, but I am sure she will grow up to be a beautiful girl and if for sure a cute baby.
On a side note, we will be posting some videos as well as soon as I edit them...we haven't exactly mastered the use of the video camera yet.

Justin wrote this one.

Wedding Cake, Stretch Marks, and Disc Golf

So here is my recap of the last month. On July 4th and the 24th (I know I am in Idaho but for some reason SE Idaho celebrates the Utah holiday) I was so lucky to have to work. Yup, they are actually two of the holidays I am supposed to get off and be paid for but lucky me got to work. It does work in my favor for the fact that all those hours become comp time and so now I will have almost an entire month of paid leave once my baby arrives. So as far as fun holiday festivities, I didn't really do anything but run tournaments and finish working on the Disc Golf course. Sorry that is boring but it is my life.
On July 12th my friend Sheila got married and I was able to do her wedding cake. It was so much fun and I haven't done a cake since last year when Mandy got married so I was a little nervous. It turned out really cute, especially after they put the flowers on (nope, I forgot to get that pic) and was so much fun.

After we dropped the cake off we ran up to Bear Lake since my mom's family was having a reunion. We stayed there Saturday night and through Sunday just chillin which was great. It was nice to be able to see family I am lucky if I see once a year. I also got to see my cousin Heidi and her new baby Gavin whom I haven't seen since her wedding a few years ago. Sunday before Mandy and Ryan left we ran to a snow shack in BL and got the biggest snow cones ever, they were soooo tasty. For some reason I can't get the picture any bigger but I swear they were huge snow cones, volcano size even.

So in other news I was not able to escape the horrid stretch marks for the entire pregnancy but I did make it pretty darn close. I just hope they fade away real good afterwards.
The 18 hole Disc Golf Course is FINALLY up and running. We had our official open house tournament just yesterday on the 26th. I don't know that I have been so happy to be over with something. It really is a cool course but by the end I was ready to beat the designer and others to death with their own discs. But, on the bright side, no more hauling crap, cement work, moving sand, etc. There is still a lot to do but I think that will all turn in to Eagle scout projects cause for the most part I am done, woohoo!
Well I think that covers this past month for the most part. Oh, I forgot the best news. I may be getting out of this wretched place, finally. Justin is switching to the Military Intelligence Unit and as long as his clearance form gets approved we will move to AF for 10 weeks in January and then are off to sunny California for 1.5 years. Just thinking that day is coming somewhat soon makes me so happy.

Baby Shower Photos

Here are pictures of the baby shower. Thanks so much to everyone it was so much fun. Our baby girl got lots of really cute clothes and blankets, a place to sleep, swing, and a car seat so I think she is already super spoiled. I believe I was at 32 weeks in the photo that shows my belly. I am at 34 weeks now (I know I am really slow at posting) and I still feel huge so not much has changed there. Justin is home now, his job was going good and it would have done real well if we just had a little more time to try it out but with the pregnancy so close and my job and taking care of the apartments wearing me out daily we decided that it was just not the right time, hopefully soon though. My job still kicks my butt and I am exhausted a lot. Justin comes and watches out for me when he knows we are doing something physical and makes sure that I don't do anything but stand there and supervise. I don't mind cause I typically feel better at the end of the days that he does that but I feel bad making everyone else do things like picking up the brush and pouring and finishing the cement forms for the disc golf course. I sneak a little in here and there but I pay for it later. It also wouldn't be that bad if I could come home to an apartment that had A/C (note to anyone pregnant in the summer - have close access to an a/c unit). That same weekend that we had the baby shower Justin bought us a washer and dryer off craigslist and that has been wonderful already, we are very excited about actually being able to wash her clothes (and ours) when we need to.

It's a Baby Shower

Ok so it isn't a baby shower quite yet but I had to show off the cute shower invites that Mandy made (I am sure she is for hire if anyone needs anything cute and crafty like that - she makes way cute jewelry too, man she is talented). I don't know where everyone lives and so some of you got these in the mail but if you didn't and happen to be in AF on the 21st you should stop in to my parents house and say hi cause it has been a while since I have seen many people and would love to see you all - plus I am sure there will be something to snack on. Back to the original point though, I just thought these were the cutest so I thought I would brag about my talented sis.

28 weeks and an update

So I have hit the 28 week mark and like normal I just keep getting bigger and bigger or at least that is how I feel. Since the snow has melted my job has become more and more demanding and there are some days that I probably do more physical work than I should - by the way, digging holes, setting up fields, preparing the disc golf course, etc are so much more difficult when you are pregnant and can't bend over very well - after a hard day I won't feel her move for a while so I have come to love feeling her move and kick me so I know that I haven't done to much and that she is ok. Although I do love to feel her move she has found the "jungle gym" aka my ribs and loves to shove something up there making it hard for me to breathe or sit or anything. She does make me giggle though when I can see my tummy move when she does, that is weird. Only 12 more weeks to go.
In other news I am up here in Soda Springs all by my lonesome at the moment because Justin got a job in Salt Lake (there is nothing up here for him to do) and is down training for the time being. He started this past Monday, it is a sales job so I am keeping my job until we know that it is going to work out and pay enough to support us. When that happens I will be able to move down and be with him again, woohoo! The good thing about this is not only does it have potential but it is in the field Justin wants to be in after school and it is close to a school so that it is actually possible that he could finish, another big woohoo!

Hogle Zoo

So I haven't played around with learning how to do the slide shows yet, someday I will, so you just get to see a few choice pictures. A few weeks ago I was kinda bummed because I didn't get a job that I had wanted so I decided that I wanted to go to the zoo to cheer myself up, plus I love the zoo and I just keep getting bigger and it just keeps getting hotter so I figured this would be my most comfortable time. I called my mom and brother (sorry Mandy - they weren't down that weekend) and we made a whole day out of it. It was so much fun and so warm but very crowded. I don't know if you can see my tummy super well but that is me at about 25 weeks. I would highly recommend going to the zoo this spring, there are a few new baby animals which are always fun to see and they do still have the albino alligator there as well. While we were there the zebras were fighting and were up on their back legs and everything, or so I was told, I missed it cause I was to busy watching the penguins pretend they might jump into the water but it was still a fun time.

For those big Jazz fans out there

So, I like to watch sports but I wouldn't say that I am an avid fan or a fanatic or anything but a good game is always worth going to. Basically I just wanted to brag about the perks of my job that come around here and there. Last Monday I was invited to a Jr. Jazz recognotion dinner at the Energy Solutions Arena. Justin and I went down, got our tickets in the will-call line so we didn't have to fight the crowds and then were sent through the building to the upper suites area where we were treated to a buffet of roast, potaotes, salad, drinks, desserts, etc. Once the game started (oh yeah did I mention it was the last home game of the season and we played against Houston and won) we went out to our seats in the nosebleed section - if you had a large program you were treated to a sky box, sadly I was not but it was still cool - and were able to watch the game. At half time we were treated to popcorn, drinks, and nachos back up in the suite. It was a really fun time and the best part about it all was that I spent a total of $5.oo (parking of course) because all the food and tickets were free and as an added bonus since it was "representing the city" I was able to take the work truck down so the gas was free also. It was a fun night other than the long late night drive home.

It's A Girl!

So here are the ultrasound pictures that we got on the fourth (sorry there is a lot but my mom likes to look and see the baby so I thought I would post them all). It was a really fun experience but lying on my back that long doesn't sit with me well and I held it in as long as possible but at the very end I had to sit up real quick or I was going to loose it. Thankfully he had just checked the last thing so I made it till the end.



Every time the doctor tried to show us a picture of her face she had her hand up there kind of covering it. He printed off the clearest ones for us, Josh calls this one The Thinker.

22 weeks down, only 18 more to go!

I've been Tagged and gave in

I was tagged by Robin a month ago and finally decided to give in and do it since I promised her that I would. The rules are that each player has to list 6 facts/habits about themselves. At the end of the post, the player has to tag 6 people and then go to their blog and post a comment telling them they've been tagged and to look at your blog for instructions.

1. I am horrible at keeping blogs or writing in journals. As you can all see by the fact that it has been over a month since our last entry we are not very good at this keeping updated stuff. I try and think about it all the time but it is always when I am not at a computer I can use and forget by the time I get to one. I do want to get better at it though so we will see.

2. I love to travel. I wish I didn't have to work and could just go anywhere at anytime that I wanted to. This past year of living in places like Raleigh, Wilmington, DC, and Wichita was amazing because it was like a giant vacation. I would go anywhere and be happy as long as I am on vacation.

3. I get super excited about little things. Justin always tells me I am like a little kid around the holidays because I get so happy and excited to do the little things like decorate eggs and gingerbread houses. I also get so excited for Christmas morning that I can hardly sleep all night. On our honeymoon we went to the Disney World parks and I think that was the first time Justin got to see my childish excitement in full. It was so fun and exciting the entire week we were there.

4. I am a very stubborn person. I do not like being told what to do. I like to do things my way when I want to do them. I am trying to work on it but it is a hard habit to break. I remember once as a kid that I was going to take the garbage out just to help out. I had the bag in hand and was walking out the door when my mom yelled and told me to take out the garbage so I turned around put it back and sat on the couch and watched tv just because she told me to take out the garbage.

5. I am to ambitious (or undecisive-you decide). If school didn't cost so stinking much I would be happy just continuing on and on. There are so many things that I want to do and in so many areas. To give you an example I want to be an orthopaedic surgeon, a teacher/coach, a chemist so I can make fireworks, an auto mechanic, a physical therapist, and a biomedical engineer to name a few. It seems like every day I think of something new that I want to learn and do.

6. I love to decorate cakes and cookies and would someday like to do it out of my home as a business. I am sort of a perfectionist with this stuff so it takes me a while to do it but for some reason it is fun and relaxing for me and I like to think that I am pretty decent at it.

There, I did it. I don't know who to tag so if you feel like doing it so I can read some facts/habits about you feel free.

Congratulations, It's an.....ALIEN!

Melissa was worried that she wasn't really pregnant and that when we went to the doctor He would just say "Ummm...your not actually pregnant, you just have gas". It's not just gas, it's just an alien.