About Time

So I finally pulled out the sewing machine to do a few projects that have been on my mind. I am definitely not a great sewer and find it fun for a few minutes until I mess something up and spend the majority of my time unpicking what I did. Things did not change for this project, I definitely spent a lot of time unpicking but I am very happy with the final results.
First, I have been working on these dang bean bags since August (they were technically for Elliette's birthday) but I finally got them filled enough and had the motivation to finally finish. I got the idea from the craftblog website but decided to hand stitch the letters on instead of painting them and I like them much better.Second, I want to have somewhat matching stockings so I decided to make them myself. I know there are only 3 done but that is because I couldn't find another style of fabric I really liked so I will do another one next year. Eventually I want to have our names embroidered across the top as well.
Well, we leave for Kansas tomorrow so hope everyone has a merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

When we were walking along Cannery Row the other day I made the girls sit on Santa's lap so I could get pics. Camryn didn't care and Elliette wasn't sure what to think but didn't cry so I was happy. We also decided to have our family Christmas today and just do stockings while we are in Kansas so we wouldn't have to try and get the big gifts out there and back. I think I was the most excited I have been in a while and that says a lot since I am always excited about Christmas. After Elliette woke up Justin and I ran down the stairs first so that we could get the cameras ready and get pics and videos of her reactions and she did not disappoint. It was a very very fun Christmas and now we can't wait until we head off to Kansas, I love this time of year!

These last couple weeks have been kinda busy so I thought that I would just post some slide shows and pics so you can see what we have been up to,sorry about the overload but I really love my new camera.
I have been busy making a cake for the young womens personal progress night. More pics and details can be found on my treaty treats blog.
Here is Camryn, 2 Month stats: 10 lbs 10 oz 23.5 inches long both fall right around the 50%ile. She is just a little sweetheart and smiles all the time. It is so fun to watch her grow and she is getting so big, she loves to play with her little toy that she lays under and hits the hanging items.

Elliette 15 month stats:21 lbs 15 oz 31 inches long both of those I believe were about the 50%ile also. She is just such a goofball and is constantly making me laugh. We took her to toys r us one day and she was in heaven running around all the toys. She is actually a good little shopper and loves to walk around and touch items as she looks around and if she picks something up she will walk around with it for a moment and then go back and put it away before picking up another item.

Justin was promoted a little while ago and we were able to be there to put on his new rank. Also there are pics of the beautiful area.

BEST HUSBAND EVER

Justin braved the early morning shoppers on Black Friday and ran to Radio Shack at 5 am to get me a new camera that is actually a nicer camera than the one that was lost and it came with a free portable mini printer so take that camera thief! I did promise him that I would guard this one with my life and so far I have not lost it and have been playing around with the different settings which is a whole lot of fun and taking a lot of cute pictures of the girls. But, I am having problems reading the card and getting the pictures off the camera tonight and I am to tired to figure it out so there will be some new pics here soon. YAY! He also went out and got us some delicious sushi for my birthday dinner, it was fantastic!

Pictures, finally!

So thanks to Lisa I was able to get some pictures of Elliette on Halloween and on the beach with her little friend Isa and a bonus of some one day she watched Ellie while I was at a Dr's appt. Thank you so much Lisa! I have a few more of Elliette in her zebra costume coming from another friend soon which are just Ellie so you can see her a bit more so hopefully I will have a few more to post in the next few days. Oh, and I threw a cute one of Camryn sleeping in at the end.

1 month

Camryn went in for her one month checkup the other day and was 8 lbs 9 oz (50 %ile) and 22 inches long (90 %ile). She really is a joy to have around and smiles quite often which is great. She does have gas pains every once in a while that make her cry out but that normally doesn't last more than maybe 10 minutes at the most and then she goes back to her happy self just looking around and trying to hold her head up. Like Elliette she does not like to be swaddled and likes having free movement of her arms and legs and seems to be starting to get the hang of having them and moving them around a bit. Sorry the picture isn't the best it was taken with my phone while I was holding her and trying not to jostle it to much but doesn't she just have a beautiful smile.

I SUCK

Well I was hoping the title of this post was going to be "what did you do on your early November day ..." and then follow it up with pictures of Elliette in her cute bathing suit playing in the sand at the beach. Well I took those photos put the camera back in its case picked up the kids took them back to the car and noticed that the camera was no longer with me, somehow it fell out of its case and was taken before I could get back to look for it or it was just taken out of its case. I was so upset about loosing the camera because I was to tired the other night that I was posting that I hadn't finished and I hadn't copied the pictures onto my computer so I lost everything, pictures, videos, EVERYTHING! When I came home Justin was happy it was the camera and not something that happened to the girls since I was so upset. He double checked the bag and the car and then went back and double checked the beach for me finding nothing. We posted the camera under lost and found on craigslist and a guy offered to check the beach with a metal detector for me in case the sand ate it and ... nothing. I called the police station to see if someone turned it in and ... nothing. I had that camera for a week and a half and had nearly 100 photos and videos on it and I lost it. The old camera we had I don't think I could have lost if I tried, I get a brand new one that was a lot of fun and I lost it. So much for my early birthday, christmas, and anniversary present. I SUCK! and I am incredibly mad that someone would take a camera from a lady with one baby strapped to her chest and another in her arms. It wasn't a big beach and anyone who was there would have known who just walked in that area and where I would have been.
So, sorry for the lack of pictures to the previous posts but now you know why.
On a positive note, I did find 20 cents on the beach when the guy with the metal detector was there so only a whole lot of money minus 20 cents to go for another new camera.

Halloween Fun

I was so excited for Elliette's first trick or treating adventure. On the 30th the Aquarium had a Halloween party for members so we dressed Elliette up in her cute costume (she was a zebra, cutest one ever) and went down for the party and the fish. While we were there we saw stilt walkers, got a little candy, got our hands painted (she was to young for her face), saw a magician, danced a little, and looked at the exhibits. Elliette also had a really great time walking through the gift shop and looking at all the toys and books. She is pretty funny when she is shopping; she was looking around at everything and eventually picked one toy that she carried around with her for a little and then would put it away and find a new one until she was done. Camryn wore her cute little pumpkin hat and slept the whole time.
On the 31st we dressed the girls up again and went to the mall where we ate dinner and saw a guy carve a HUGE pumpkin to look like an old mans face, it was amazing. The kids could also trick or treat but we left to go to the ward trunk or treat and didn't think Elliette needed that much candy.
Elliette was so cute at the trunk or treat, I took her around to each of the cars while Justin and Camryn sat in the trunk handing out candy to all the cute little kids. The first trunk we came to where she was haned candy she looked at what got tossed in her bucket and then took off towards the grass so she could go eat it, I had to chase after her and bring her to the next car to show her that it was ok and I wasn't going to take things from her. She was probably the cutest Zebra there could ever be and very polite and would wait her turn at each trunk, people would even let her choose her own candy and she would look the bowl over reach in and pick out the one piece that she wanted. I had to keep reminding her to put the candy in her bucket so she would have free hands and not loose her candy. After each trunk she would turn around and run to the trunk we had just come from because she knew they were giving out candy so I spent a lot of time chasing after her and showing her which direction to go. She sure did have a giant smile on her face the whole time and at the end I had told her to say thanks to everyone so she signed thank you the whole walk back to the car. And in case you were wondering, no we did not eat all of her candy - we may not be the best parents in the world but we did learn that we can bribe a 14 month old to pick up her toys with smarties.
Again, we had the CUTEST pictures and videos of her and I lost them so I will try and see if I can get a few of her in her costume from some people in the ward and post them later.

Ellie and Isa

Ellie has a cute little friend here named Isa that we hang out with. It is so fun to watch them together talking and playing and then becoming selfish and not wanting to share and then feeding each other their treats. They seem to act a lot alike and even have some of the same tendencies which makes them even more fun to watch.
The other day Lisa and I walked the kids down to the beach to watch the boys run (Justin and Shaun are in the same unit here) because some of the unit was dressing up and we thought it would be fun. While we were down there we snapped a few pics of the girls on the beach but because I SUCK I lost them all when I lost my camera. I will try and get some pics from Lisa and post them later.

Pumpkin Patch

So about a week ago we took Elliette to a Pumpkin patch and let her pick out her own little pumpkin. She was so cute walking around and picking through the little pumpkins to find the one she wanted. Camryn was also very cute wearing her little pumpkin hat that is to big for her little head. They had some really cute wagons that I wanted to load up with pumpkins and get pictures of the two of them in with the pumpkins but Camryn was sleeping and my camera was having MAJOR issues and eventually died so I am lucky I got the pictures that I did. Elliette and I also turned her pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern with the use of a crayon (I was being a party pooper and didn't want the mess or have to buy an itsy bitsy knife). I did the face and she did a great job coloring and adding the little marks around the face.

This is what happens when ...

Your 14 month old finds a box of packing peanuts.

Happy early birthday, christmas, and anniversary to us

So for our Christmas, Birthday, and Anniversary we decided to get something big and combine them all. Well this was actually Justins plan but it was great. My laptop has been dying for quite some time and so Justin got me a new little netbook and I LOVE IT! I have also been wanting a new camera for a while since ours is about 5 yrs old and HUGE compared to what they have now and takes poor quality pictures and I had to keep the batteries out of the camera until I wanted to use it or the batteries would always be dead when I wanted it. That made it very hard to capture the quick cute moments when I had to hurry and find the batteries, put them in the camera and hope Elliette didn't notice or I would miss the moment. But since it still worked we just dealt with it. Well the other day it decided to poop out on me and I had to push the power button at least 10 times to get it to stay on long enough to take one picture and then it just completely died so we got me a new camera to go with my netbook, isn't Justin great.
Justin has wanted a new TV since his was a bit older and it had a lot of burn in causing it to have shadows everywhere so we found a good deal and got him a nice new tv. Now we are both set and content on presents until next year.

Pictures

Ok so it has been over a week since I said I would post pictures but it has been a busy week so sorry (I don't have one of all of us yet but hopefully I can get a little family pic soon). My parents were able to come out for this past week and help out with the kids and with meals and cleaning and I will have to say that is something I could get used to. It was so great to be able to split my time between my two girls and still have a little time for myself and not have to worry about dinner and dishes, thanks mom and dad. Chelsea and Chris are coming out for part of this week and then Justin's mom is coming out for a week and I am very excited.
Elliette is adapting well to having a little sister around, maybe even to well. She LOVES to help out and takes the binkie out of Camryn's mouth so that she can put it back in there. The problem is that she doesn't seem to be able to find her mouth and tries to shove it in her eye instead. She also loves to bounce her in the bouncer when she cries but she either pushes on Cami's tummy or starts bouncing it really hard. It is really cute to watch her try to be such a great big sister. She will bring me the changing pad and a diaper and then want to help pull the wipes out when we are changing Cami's diaper and she is GREAT at giving her kisses. My parents brought her a baby and a bottle and she is so cute with it and carries it around patting its back and feeding it. The first few days Ellie was a bit whiny but turns out she has had some bad allergies and hasn't been feeling great. One of her eyes actually swelled up so much one night it looked like she had been in a fight (I forgot to get a pic and it wasn't as bad the next day) but now we have some allergy meds and she is feeling better and has become less whiny. We have found that Elliette loves watching her Babies can read video and going through the flashcards which is great to know she will sit still for about 20 minutes if I put that on (Thank you so much Great Grandma and Grandpa N.)Camryn has been a great little baby. The first few days she had absolutely NO patience and as soon as she decided it was time to eat she acted like she was going to starve to death; she has slowed down on the freak outs now which is nice. It also seems as if we have figured out our nights already, she gets up around 3 or 4 to eat and then sleeps until at least 6 if not 8 in the morning and as long as Elliette sleeps well that night it isn't to bad for me. Like Ellie was she doesn't like to be swaddled and loves having her hands up by her face especially while sleeping. Other than that she sleeps, poops A LOT, eats, stares, and smiles (sometimes there are even little giggles). I think we are pretty lucky with these two.

The Camryn Eliza Story

So the little girl has finally made it and here is what happened: At my last Dr appointment I was 4-5cm already and we were just waiting for Camryn to decide she wanted to come. Anyways, my Dr found out her dad needed surgery so she was going to be leaving town so she called me and offered to start me the next day if I wanted or let me know that she had someone to cover her if I just wanted to wait it out. Well since I was already dilated so far and was told that when I do go into labor not to wait long because it could go really fast I decided to get started so that I would already be in the hospital and be able to get an epidural since it was my fear that I would barely make it and have to deliver naturally; plus it was nice to have something set up for sure with Elliette.
So the next morning we went into the hospital and they set me up on pitocin around 9-ish that morning. I had small contractions but nothing really bad so I was waiting to get my epidural because I have to have a reason to get a needle stuck into my spine. Well nothing really kicked in and I wasn't making any progress so around 1:00 - 1:30 my Dr came in and broke my water. Literally 2 seconds later the contractions actually kicked in and they were horrible so right away I asked for the anesthesiologist. Well I guess right after the nurse called for the epidural someone else needed an emergency C-section so the guy had to go do that instead and he called around to get someone else to come and do my epidural. Well as luck would have it, all other anesthesiologists were stuck in surgery and he wouldn't be able to get back for at least an hour. Yeah, I went from 4-5cm to fully dilated in less than an hour and ended up having her naturally. Poor Justin had to deal with the fact that I wanted to cry, throw-up, pass out, and felt like I had to poop all at the same time (none of which I did, I don't think :) ) He was great at rubbing my back and then not rubbing my back and fanning me and holding me up and opening and shutting windows and anything else that I couldn't decide if I wanted or not. I was having a lot of back labor so I was kneeling up against the bed which helped a little but all of a sudden I told the nurse that I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom so she hurried and checked me and said I was ready to go so they called my Dr and the Dr on call to be ready just in case. Luckily I didn't really feel like I had to push at the moment so I was able to hold off for a few minutes but then I almost threw-up which pushed her down a little and that was the end of holding off. My Dr walked in right at that moment threw on a gown and delivered the baby about 3-4 pushes later.
So in my efforts to avoid my big fear of having a super fast natural birth by starting in the hospital it happened anyways. Thank heavens it was fast I guess. Anyways, the baby is great and weighed in at 7 lbs 3 oz and 20.5 inches long (pictures to come). It was nice to have use of my legs right away and since I only tore just a tiny bit and not enough to even need stitches my recovery is coming along nicely and I feel great and am way less swollen than I was the last time. Well that is the beginning of the Camryn Eliza story.

catch-up and updates

Well it has been a little while since we have posted so I thought I would do a quick catch-up. Justin had his class break a few weeks ago which was fantastic because we got a whole week with him home. Elliette and I both loved being able to go out and spend time with him and doing a little sight seeing. We went to the aquarium, of course, walked around Carmel, drove 17 mile drive and saw Pebble Beach and Spy Glass, got Ellie a new car seat, walked the bay, and just hung out at home relaxing. It was tons of FUN!Elliette is just growing and growing and growing, she surprises us all the time with what she knows and with her funny personality. A few of the things I can get her to do (when she wants to) is tell me what a snake says, make a pig nose (she can't say oink so she just holds her nose instead), makes her hand quack like the beak of a duck (yeah we don't quite have the quacking part down yet either), point to her ears, nose, mouth, and eyes, and show me where her baby sister is by patting my tummy. Those are just a few of her new little things. She also likes to wear her towel as a cape to run around in.We did find out on Saturday that she FINALLY knows how to climb down the stairs, WOOHOO! She also loves being tickled and laughing. I actually caught her tickling her own toes the other morning when I went to get her out of bed.
funny story: We had her in a dress for church a few weeks ago and she decided that she wanted to try and take it off so she pulled one of her arms through and couldn't get the other one so she played one armed for probably an hour and a half because she wouldn't let us help he either take the dress off or pull her arm back out, she just kept smiling at us as we would laugh at her. She also likes to pull out the mop and bucket and broom and pretend to clean, cute, but doesn't exactly get anything clean.Killer Buy: So I went to right aid the other day and they had their summer stuff on sale for 90% off so I picked up 2 bathing suits with the built in floaties, 2 sets of arm floaties, a baby tube with a sun screen, and 2 sun covers for less than $10 - OH YEAH! Had to brag about that for a second.Ok, as for me and pregnancy - I am 38.5 weeks and can go any day (hopping for sooner than later). Justin had to fight with his superior officers to stay in town this past Sat incase I went into labor (yes, he finally won that battle) since he wouldn't leave me alone and him with no way of getting back where I am so close. We were hoping to have the baby that day just to prove a point to the guy that was causing a stinker but no luck. I was doing laundry yesterday though and stepped over the baby gate and my foot slipped as I was trying to get my other leg over the gate and I fell down the stairs somehow managing to not hit my tummy but ended up face first down at the bottom of the stairs and my legs going up them (I am sure it was quite the site to see - sorry no pic). I was fine but it sure scared Justin pretty good and Elliette cried for me wanting to make sure I was ok. I told Justin though that if falling down the stairs doesn't put me into labor I just don't know that there is much else I can do but wait. I do have another Dr. appointment today and I am excited to see if I have progressed.
Sorry about the long post, I have been busy trying to clean my house and waiting for the little one. Hopefully she is the next post that comes.

Aunt Mandy

So the week after Elliette's birthday and having grandparents and Beanie out here Mandy was able to fly out and stay for a bit. It was a lot of fun and we showed her a lot of the same places but we did add the shopping areas of Carmel to her list of tourist activities. Aunt Mandy also brought Ellie some new Red Sox clothes and PJ's and a baseball bow for her birthday, she looked so cute in them, Thanks! A few things we did learn was that Ellie LOVES to chase the pigeons, we let her chase a few at the wharf and she was having a grand ol' time and had quite a crowd of people stopping to watch her, she is just so funny. She also LOVES cotton candy and dippin' dots - Thanks Mandy.

Sorry there are so many pics again, I get them off of everyone elses cameras because they are nicer and they just take so many cute fun ones.

1st Birthday and visitors

This past week has been a lot of fun. First thing is first, my little baby is no longer my baby - she has turned 1. I don't know what happened but she sure did decide that as soon as she was one she was a big girl and can do things all by herself. But on the plus side she has also become a little more cuddly so we'll take it. My parents and Beanie were able to come out for her birthday which was a lot of fun and with the amount of gifts they brought it looked like Christmas for her. We didn't do a whole lot on her birthday other than open presents and eat cake which Ellie just kind of picked at instead of really digging in (there are more pics of the cake on my treaty treats blog). She really loved her new toys, books, and clothes - Thank you so much everyone. Side note, the blocks were hand made by my brother and his wife and have her name on them and everything, how cute!

The next few days consisted of showing grandma, grandpa, and Beanie around Monterey. HBere is a quick recap of what we did... The first day we went down to Fisherman's wharf and walked around the souvenir shops. Don't judge, the double stroller is all that would fit in the trunk that day so we look kinda odd in the pics. While down there we took the time to walk along the harbor and look at the boats and the ocean and got a close up look at some jellyfish, crabs, and seals. The next day we went to the aquarium and hung out there all day long so Ellie could show them around and show them her play spots. She was so funny and caught the attention of everyone around when she was playing, dancing, and posing for the camera. When we were out on the observation deck Beanie and I looked out and saw a group of dolphins swimming by, that was really sweet. It was also the county fair and carshow this past week so we saw a LOT of really really really nice expensive cars driving around. That night my parents treated Justin and I to dinner at a place on the Wharf while Beanie babysat, it was so yummy and nice to get out and we were lucky enough to get one of the window seats so we also had a really great view. On Sat. we drove through Carmel so my mom could see it and then went to the mall where the boys saw GI Joe and the girls (including Elliette) just broused. After the mall we made our way to the beach and just relaxed on the sand watching the waves and Elliette play in the sand and water. It was a really fun week and since there was a lot of walking involved we were all pretty tired and worn out but it was worth it. On a side note, I am 33 weeks pregnant now which you can see in some of the pics - I feel huge but it is a baby not just me being super chunky.

Beat up

Ellie had her first run in with another baby today and she lost, in her defense she didn't actually fight back so technically she just turned the other cheek. On the first Tues of every month a bunch of us ladies who stay home during the day make treats or food or whatever and get together and have a little lunch and let the kiddos play. During this little get together poor Ellie had another little baby smack her in the head multiple times with a marker drawing all over her head - the pic doesn't really do the artwork justice. Then a little later the same little girl pushed her down and held Ellie there by her shorts and diaper and whacked her a few times. It was actually kind of funny because the marker thing didn't even phase Elliette she just kept playing and having a good time. I did take her and make her eat some lunch so she didn't end up completely covered in markers and then the second time she was fine with being pushed down but when I went in to grab her she had a sad look cause she kept trying to crawl away but couldn't cause she was being held there. I did have to ask the other little girl to try and be soft cause Elliette is just little still and she just looked at me with the cutest little innocent look, it was funny.

Our little Sweetheart

I had to take Ellie in to the Dr the 28th for our first ever sick child visit. She has had a rash on her arm for over a week that I was watching and it never got worse or better or grew or bugged her or anything but I figured after about 10 days I should get it looked at. Of course the day of the apt I looked at it and it had started to get a bit better like it always does when you go to the Dr. Anyways, they are thinking she just came in contact with something that irritated her skin and since it had started to heal finally we just needed to continue to wait it out. They did weigh and measure her though and at 11.5 months she weighs in at 20 lbs 12 oz and is 29.5 inches long - with her neck scrunched up cause she was nervous.
So Ellie is normally WAY to busy to have time for little things like giving hugs and kisses, the closest we normally get to these things is a pat on the back when we get her out of bed. There have been a few days that we get kinda lucky though, about a month ago I was having a stressed out day and when I got Ellie up from her nap I think she could just tell because for the next ten minutes she just sat on my lap and gave me big hugs and would turn and give me kisses both the real kind and nose kisses (butterfly kisses, she prefers to give that kind). Isn't she such a sweetie, it really made my day and was exactly what I needed.
We normally just throw Elliette in the shower with us because it is just easier and faster so the other day Ellie and I were taking a shower and I had just washed the towels and forgot to put the washcloth back in the shower so I was just using my fingers to rub the soap around and clean out her ears. She was kind of fighting me because she wanted to be playing instead of getting clean so I was holding her while I did it so she couldn't get away as easy. While I was cleaning her ears she used her little hands and pushed my head to the side a bit and before I knew it there were little fingers in my ear scratching around; it made me laugh quite a bit but was a little weird cause those little fingers can go deeper into your ears than you think. She also likes to help you scratch. If you have an itch and she sees you scratching it she will hurry over and start scratching you and then look at you and smile for approval.

Etsy band wagon

I have posted a few things (4 to be exact) today so keep looking.
So Mandy and I have jumped on the etsy band wagon lately. We just started our little shops so don't judge that they don't look all pretty like the others but Mandy is selling her jewelry and baby headbands and flowers that she makes, they are way cute. My shop is going to be a little bit of whatever but for right now I have started with the washcloth baby bibs that my mom taught me how to make, seriously the best bibs ever - I will have a few more bibs up by the end of the week! Anyways, if you want, check them out littlemotivations.etsy.com (mine) and soprettyz.etsy.com (Mandy's)

Ta-da, sand box, mittons, and babysitters

I know I post a lot about Elliette but she is just growing so much so fast! I would have more pics of me but I am the one behind the camera and well Ellie loves the camera and looking at pictures but she just hasn't learned how to take photos yet so till then they will mostly be of her. Oh, and sorry this is a long one but I didn't want to post 10 times today and I already posted a few so I thought I would throw a few in together.
Elliette cracks me up on a daily basis, she really is just the happiest thing with such a good sense of humor. Lately she throws her arms out to the side to express a few things. She uses it for a ta-da moment (and every once in a whil we get a little "ah-da" that goes with it), she uses it to tell me she is all done with something, she uses it when it takes me a minute to go get her after nap time with a face that looks like she is wondering where I have been, and my favorite lately was the other day when we were trying to teach her how to go down the stairs and Justin was showing her she threw her arms out and had her mouth in a big O shape and wide eyes looking at him like "what?" it made me laugh so hard.
I took her to the playground the other night to give Justin some quiet time to study and give Ellie and I some fresh air. While we were there we used the swings (always a good time) and then just played in the sand. I started to cover her legs in sand and then tickle her little toes that were poking out which was fun for a while and then she decided that she wanted all of her legs covered and started pulling sand all over her legs and helping me cover her all the way up to her diaper. Thankfully not much of the sand went in the diaper and we had a good time.
So, I am not sure what was going on the other day but Elliette's hands were chilly so I grabbed these little play mittons and put them on her. After about 10 minutes I figured her fingers had warmed up so I tried to take the mittons off and she just started whining until I put the mittons back on. She crawled around with these mittons on (it was pretty funny to watch on the tile) all day long, thats my little wierdo.
There is a girl in Justin's class that wanted to come and play with Ellie and said she would babysit for us so we took her up on that a few weeks ago. I don't know if Ellie just knew that we were leaving her or what but she absolutely freaked out and was completely panicked, it was hilarious. I have never seen her so scared ever and she was just crying and shaking and slawing her way up into Justin's arms. We sat with her for about 15 minutes and slowly she would come around and playa little with Tiffany until she felt a little more comfortable and then we snuck out. The next Sat. Justin went and got Tiffany again and I had Ellie sitting in her little seat eating a sandwich; when Justin walked in she was so excited and jumped up and down smiling, as soon as Justin moved to the side and she saw Tiffany she sunk down in her chair and just glared at her. As soon as Justin got close she grabbed him and basically crawled up his arms until he held on and she started crying and shaking again. This time though it only took about 5 minutes for her to warm up enough for us to sneak out. She did start crying again when we got home but was good while we were gone. I don't know when this extreme shyness took over but wow.

Walking, already!

So Ellie has been trying to walk around for about 3-4 weeks now and has been doing really well. She wouldn't walk between Justin and I very well because she had to keep stopping and making sure that we were both clapping and that would throw off her balance. She did the best when she was just off doing her thing and not really paying attention to the fact she wasn't holding onto anything anymore. It was funny though cause she walked the farthest with a bottle in her mouth, Justin called it her liquid courage. Anyways, on the 24th we went from dabbling around with the walking to deciding that was her main means of getting around. I can't believe how quickly she picked it up and how much more quickly the house gets torn apart, and how fast she surprisingly is even though she just started. The video is of her about a week and a half before she decided to walk everywhere, she does still walk with her arms up and waddles like in the video, she is still working on making more smooth movements.

New to us Stroller

There is an awesome website here found at http://blog.cacoastpartentsgiveback.com where people and business donate new and used items to be given to others who need them and we won a new to us double stroller. Elliette wanted to try it out when we got it.

Anyone good with cars?

So we have been getting absolutely horrible gas mileage lately and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to improve it since gas prices are outrageously high. We have changed the oil, the air filter, the pcv valve and I am thinking about trying a fuel cleaner and replacing the fuel filter. We do live in an extremely hilly area so I know that is going to knock the mpg down but I would like to get over 10mpg if possible. So, any cheap ideas on how to fix that?

Our ok 4th of July

So the 4th of July out here is normally pretty sweet, or so we hear. The city decided to cancel the fireworks over the bay due to lack of funds, I totally understand that reason but my question is why didn't they get private donors or businesses - that would have been great marketing even to do a little show. Not only did they cancel the show they banned you from being able to do your own fireworks and claimed it was for public safety concerns and if you were caught you would be fined $1,000. How lame is that, a 4th of July with absolutely NO fireworks. Anyways, I could vent on that for a while so I will just let it go - we did go downtown for the parade that morning and I was SO excited because I really love parades (almost as much as fireworks) so I made sure we left about 1 hr before the parade started so we could get a good viewing spot. Turns out we didn't have to leave that early, but who knew. The parade started out well with some military men and women and police officers -the usual - and then it seemed like we had to wait about 3-5 minutes between each group/float/band or whatever that came through and so by the end even I had lost interest and I am one easy person to please when it comes to things like that so we left early and looked at a seal out in the water instead. - by the way the bow and bracelet are complements of Mandy, thanks!
Since we didn't have fireworks that night, aarrggghhh, we went to the park and just looked out into the bay for a little and then ran to the store for some milk. While there we noticed that they were having a really good sale on their soda so we thought we would stock up so Justin wouldn't have to keep buying them out of the machines (so expensive). We were picking out his sodas and this slightly overweight guy came up and told us that everything we could buy in that isle was totally bad for you and that we really should not be teaching our child to drink sodas because it is really bad for them as well and then he sighed really heavy and ran off. I had to giggle though because we were like the only people in the store who didn't have alcohol in their cart and I don't even drink soda. It was pretty funny and there were no witty comebacks because it was really unexpected and he ran off really quick. So that was our ok 4th of July.

More of our little Elliette

So I know all of our pictures basically are of our little one, but with a face like hers can you blame me - plus the g-parents really like it?
Anyways, Ellie has a few favorite places in our apartment lately that I will randomly catch her in. One of her places is by the stairs where if she crawls up the bottom 2 stairs there is a little landing area that she sits on and looks out the window, I call it her thinking spot. She will either sit there or go up one more stair and sit there with one leg hanging down just kicking it back and forth staring out the window - it is super cute. The other place I find her is underneath the end tables, I don't know what it is but she loves it under there so we call it her fort. The funny thing is when she first started crawling she went under there and pulled herself up to standing and couldn't figure out how to get out. The top of the tables are a glass top so she was smooshing her face and hands against it and whimpering trying to get out from under the table, I wasn't able to get her out because she wouldn't bend her body so Justin came and bent her over and in the process she bumped her head and hated going under there; now she loves it under there and knows that she has to crawl back out. I have a few pictures of her in her thinking spot and fort.
Ellie LOVES to play with my purse and tries to pull the gum or chapstick or anything she can from it. The other day I caught her crawling around with it stuck over her shoulder so I had to take a pic since it made me laugh, she is already such a girl.
Today we took a family day and went for a walk along the bay stopping at Fishermans Wharf, the Aquarium, and ending with a small picnic on the sand. It was a great day and Ellie even snuck a rock in her mouth while we werent looking during our picnic, the little stink. While we were at Fishermans Wharf there was a guy with a bunch of birds that he puts on peoples arms and stuff for pictures. There was a little green parrot walking around when we first got there and he spotted Ellie looking at it and smiling so he told me to grab my camera, which I happily did, and he took the bird and put it on Ellies arm. He did it kind of sneakily not knowing how she would react but she did VERY well and just looked at the bird but stayed there long enough for me to get a few pictures with our camera (which is old so it doesn't snap pics real quick so she sat there a while). She did jump a little when the bird would squawk but then she would just give it a confused look.
Also, real quick if you want to look, I decided to put all the pics of my cakes and cookies and whatever else I decide to make on a new blog so I have them all together. There is a link on the side bar and you can check it out at treatytreats.blogspot.com if you would like.