Get ready to laugh...

I was scanning some of our wedding pictures recently and came across these goodies! Both of these pictures were taken when we were 4 years old. I was such a serious gymnast! Don't you love my bangs? Looks like a self haircut to me!

Only 3 days!!!

I know some single parents and I admire the heck out of them. Where do you guys find the patience, drive and just plain sanity to do it? I am completely amazed by these particular people I know, and I am guessing they have much more courage and determination than I do. Brandon has been in Phoenix since Monday for work. He'll be home tonight, but only after Elly is already down for the night. Ok, you may be laughing at me at this point because he'll only be gone a total of 3 days. But, I'm not doing so well parenting on my own. I am not by any means suggesting that now I know what it's like to be a single parent, mind you. I don't at all. But, I might have caught a glimpse of some of the things that are involved. It may be partly do to the fact that Elly has had a pretty nasty cold and has been whining slash screaming the whole time or it may just be that I am a total wimp. The truth is that, yeah- I can handle 3 days of her and me together alone, but I honestly think I'm handling it because I know it will end tonight. He'll be back and I'll be able to count on him to draw the bath or change a diaper or just play with her while I do something- anything else. I love being with Elly. I do it all day, everyday. These past few days as we've been alone, I haven't done too much more actual work than I do when Brandon's here. But, I guess there's just something huge about the little things that he does before he leaves and when he comes home at night. There's something huge to me about having the promise of help. I think that's what it is. I do take care of her, and it's usually a joy for me...but when those times come where I'm just going to scream myself if she screams one more time, I know there's a back up. Brandon's there to provide relief. And he does it beautifully might I add. And he's always 100% willing to jump in and help. He always wants to, too. These past few days, I've missed him terribly and not just because he's so great helping with Elly. Of course I've missed my husband and partner. But, I think what I'm talking about here is missing the promise of relief. I just have to say that I truly do admire and respect single parents, especially those I know and love. I know that mostly you do it because you love your children and you simply do what they need to keep them healthy and happy. I would be able to do it too, I think. But it would be require a lot more strength, more patience than I now have and to be honest- a lot more growing up on my part. So, to those single parents I know who do it many more days than 3, if I can give you relief in any way- please, please let me.

ps I added these pictures of Elly having her first ever mini ice cream cone the week before her first birthday, so that this post wouldn't be a total bummer.

Introducing: Shy Girl Designs!

My two sisters and I have been working up a storm bringing this new business into the world. It's called Shy Girl Designs; clever accessories for girls. It's been so much fun working with them and we're excited to keep going. Keri is the mastermind, creating all the patterns, fabrics and hand-making each item. Madelyn is the brainiac numbers expert, who conveniently also has a superb visual eye. I have been taking so many pictures for Shy Girl that I had to get an additional external hard drive! Anyway, it's been crazy fun and we are so proud of our hard work. We want you to check it out. That's right: shameless marketing. Deal with it. Tell everyone you know who may be interested about our adorable accessories for little girls. You can find these delightful products at:

www.shygirldesigns.com

We're offering a 15% friends and family discount right now, so if you didn't get my email invite- comment on this post with your email address and I'll send you the promotional code (even if you're not my friend or my family).

Happy Holiday Shopping!

How crazy is this?

It seems I don't know my husband as well as I thought I did. He's secretly been working on and is now launching his own video game...and he's the star, of course! All in all, I guess it's not a bad thing, especially if it brings in extra cash- but I am going to have to talk with him about the blood, language and use of tobacco.

disclaimer: brandon not actually starring in his own video game. video game called "drake's fortune" or something like that. don't start asking us for money or anything.

Rewind: Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving at the Anderson's. It was just the family, with yummy food and good company. Kari and Hoon came up from San Diego; it's always fun to see the newlyweds.

This is: (L-R)Pilar, Elly, Me, Isabel, Hoon and Kari

What else do you do after a good Thanksgiving meal?


Elly spent her day, of course, trying to find the doggies.

One Year Bubbush Pictures

While my sister, Keri, was visiting this weekend, I took Elly's One Year Pictures. It was a beautiful fall day. She is so adorable and getting cuter by the day.

She has 5 teeth now (3 on top and 2 on bottom) and working on more. She loves Pizza! She gets so excited when she sees it all cooked and ready on the counter; she kicks her little legs and chants: "pizza, pizza, pizza" reaching for it. She blows on her food now just like we do before we give it to her. Sometimes she won't even take a bite before we blow on it, even if it's not hot anymore. She eats plain oatmeal for breakfast, but of course, only with a little brown sugar in it. She likes peas a lot.

She likes to play with all the toys she's been given. She uses her little cart to push around, so she can walk by herself. She has a little giraffe she can stand in front of that plays music when you push the button on its head. She'll stand there for 10 minutes, just pushing the button and dancing to the music. She has different dance moves, too. One is like the hula where her little hips go around in a circle. One is a knee bounce, and one is a hip pop. Sometimes the hip pop gets a little head tilt along with it. She'll push the button and do one move until the music stops, then push it again and do a different one until it stops again and repeat with all her moves. She's an equal opportunity dancer. She dances in time with the rhythm, too. It's awesome.

She has several stuffed animals that have different places in her life and our house. 'Pink Bear' is just what it says, a little pink bear 4" tall that she sleeps with every night. She loves him. He never comes out of her crib. 'Doggie' and 'Pooh Bear' mostly stay in the car. And 'Hippo' is a large, hot pink, hippo who's always making a laughing face. He is her latest obsession. She carries all of these animals the same way: by the arm, and only by the arm. And it has to be the arm she would grab if the two of them were walking hand in hand down the street (no matter which hand she grabs it with). She also has the practice of kissing each of them on the face several times when she first sees them. Some of them get more kisses than others, even. Some of them (like Hippo right now) get lots of tight hugs as well.

Her favorite things however, are not toys. They are the vacuum and the dust buster. I'm serious. She loves it when we use them. She wants to stand right by them and even touch them if possible while they are being used. She'd really like to use them herself, but she's too tiny. She will be playing with toys, or sitting in her high chair when all of the sudden, she'll start calling and pointing toward the laundry room where they are kept. When we let her get down and have some practice walking holding our fingers, she always walks us directly to the vacuums. As a result, our floors have never been so clean.

She is talking up a storm and learns new words every day. Seriously. Her favorites at the moment are pizza (of course), hippo, book, and mommy (who doesn't love that?) She is a wonderful sleeper and eater and she's just all around a really great baby. She is super sweet and so smart; it's unreal. I know everyone says that, but I'm kind of worried that she's going to be smarter than me in a matter of a few short years, really. She's amazing and we love her love her love her.

This is Elly's new favorite food...

Isn't it good to be one year old and get to eat real food?

First Birthday, First Zoo, too!!!!

Brandon and I took Elly to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo for her birthday; she liked it. I mean, she wasn't jumping up and down screaming for excitement, but it was a good time. We thought she could've been just as happy at Mima's with the doggies, but whatever- we had fun.

Looking at the Monkeys!


Elly and Brandon are looking at something VERY interesting in this one...


Check it out!!! Later on two tigers had a fight where they were standing on their back legs clawing at each other with their front paws, it was wild- but I didn't get a picture because there were people standing in front of me.


Elly liked the petting zoo, but the goats didn't especially like her. They kept running away- too many kids abusing them, I'm sure.


She watched the flamingos with Mommy. (I know, I'm finally in a picture- what? I like being behind the camera.)


The Zoo Map was seriously Elly's favorite part of the whole zoo. She played with it forever...until "Elly, time to go see more live animals...ok you can hold the map...just get in the stroller."


Elly was pretty tired when we got to the last animal "lobos rojos", but they looked like doggies so she was pretty into them.


Good thing we didn't buy this elephant hat for her, because she hated it. But, it was still pretty cute.

The First Birthday!

Here are the pictures you've been waiting for...Elly's First Birthday Party. It was a lot of fun with cousins, Tommy and Isabel, Uncle Erik, Mima, and friends Brooke, Mike and their baby, Eden. We ate pizza (including Elly), had cake, and opened presents. I made this little doggie cake for her to destroy:

Once she got a taste...

it was all over! She probably consumed about an eighth of that whole cake! She was double fisting it for most of the time. It was hilarious. But, she stayed surprisingly clean.


Then, it was time for the presents! She didn't know what was happening at first, but after only one present...

she was hooked and she was so excited to see what was in each one.


Here's Elly with her loot! Of course, we let her play with only one of the presents now, and hid the rest for later. She already has too many toys! We'll do a little rotation.

New Back Yard!!!

We agree, we should've done this months ago (so we could enjoy it all summer long), but we finally did something with our backyard. We just did it really simply; sadly, no pool. This is what it looked like when we moved in.
This is what it looks like now:

back fence:

sideyard:

the tons and tons of sod it took to cover our yard:

Scooting around

Here are some pictures of Elly scooting around the kitchen on her little "car". I don't know what to call it, really. It's not a bike because it has four wheels. I guess I could say it's a four wheeler, but it has a trunk and a gear shift. Anyway, she can go backwards on it only. She likes it until she hits a wall or slips off one of the sides and falls onto the floor. I know, sad. She likes to put stuff in the trunk, usually the ducks she takes in the bath with her.

Meal Time

Elly has started a new phase of her life: the phase where she only wants to eat what we are eating and in the exact way from the exact source. She's been hinting at this for some time, pointing to what we have and grunting. But, it wasn't until a few weeks ago that she became really passionate about it. She now screams and makes a teeth gritting face when we don't let her have our food. I've started giving her baby food as a snack because there's no way she's eating baby food at the table, when we're having chicken and rice, or tacos, or pizza.

This picture is what happened when I tried to cut an apple into bite-sized pieces for her (that was unacceptable):


This is what happened the first time I let her feed herself some mixed cereal (I finally gave in to the teeth gritting). She abandoned the spoon after a few minutes:


She's a lot better at it now:

Header Games

So, you may have seen a lot of changes in the header of this blog. Be patient, I'm playing with it. The one you might see now is a picture of Brandon and me at a super old torn down castle in Romania over looking a little town (we don't remember what it was called). It was excellently taken by our friends Tyler and Kristin Ray (we don't remember which one) "Thanks, guys!" We went back to Romania with them soon after our first year anniversary. So...NO, THIS WAS NOT TAKEN ON THE MISSION!!!

The Bunny

Even though it's the day after Halloween, I took some pictures of Elly in her first costume, the Bunny. See how hard it was for me to decide what she was going to be this year?
For the parties we went to last weekend, Elly was really good, she sat super still while I put eyeliner on her nose and cheeks. But, today was a different story; maybe she knew what was coming this time. This was the best I could do:


Elly was so tired this morning, you can tell she's ready for a nap:

Every time we go to the park, she wants to swing. She absolutely loves it. (Even when you are a bunny the day after Halloween and all the people at the park think your mom mixed up her days, you want to swing.) She was still so tired, she couldn't hold up her head.

HALLOWEEN!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!Today Elly dressed as a cheerleader. My mom and sister sent her this adorable costume and she looked so cute! I had to put her hair in little pig tails, but since they're on the top of her head, they look more like antennae. She wouldn't sit still enough for me to tie the bows, though. I tried to teach her to say "rah rah" too, but that was a little too much. She had a good day. She met her dad at lunchtime, so he could see her outfit pre-nap, because after the nap all bets are off. You never know what she could be wearing or what state her hair could be in. Then, she went to Mima and Papa's office where she was adored by all. She let Mima feed her and play with her a lot. She did all her tricks and even did some dancing! These are just a few of the pictures, see more on our web albums!

Also, last weekend we attended two parties where Brandon and I dressed up as well. Elly went as a bunny and see if you can guess what Brandon and I dressed as...

If you need a hint, click the link.

When we're helping we're happy...

Elly wants to be wherever Mommy is. (I know, I know, she's just like me.) When I'm making dinner, being on the floor or in her walker just isn't close enough to the action. So, sometimes when I've had enough whining from her down on the floor, I bring her up to help me on the counter for a minute. This particular time, as you can see, she got her hands on the paper towels. That was helpful.

Mima's Doggies

They're fun, they're country, and they're Mima's doggies...
In case you need more info: "Mima" is what her grandchildren call Brandon's mom. Mima's house is where Elly first learned the word doggie. They have two labs who've been raised in the country huntin' little scurrying animals, etc. They look pretty tough, but they're sweet and cuddly, mostly. Look at the way Elly just grabs the dog's face with no fear. She's not afraid of Mima's dogs at all. But, sometimes we'll see a couple of chihuahuas in the park and she doesn't want to get too close. They do usually look like they're hiding something...

Friends

Elly has many friends all over the country. This is a post illustrating her great social skills...

This is her friend, Lincoln Hale II.

She's always so smiley when she meets new friends!
Lincoln lives in Utah with his mom and dad, our friends Anna and Lincoln Hale I. We met Linc I in Romania while serving full-time missions for the LDS church. We are such great friends and we miss them terribly. Hopefully, whenever we get together, Elly and Linc II will get along and play beautifully. Lincoln II is two months younger than Elly. This picture was taken when Elly was 7 months and Linc was 5.

This is her friend Ava Green.

Notice how Elly is giving Ava some space.
Ava lives in Las Vegas with her mom and dad, our friends Chailyn and Brian Green. We met Brian also while in Romania. We went to visit them and took this picture when Elly was 3 months and Ava was 1 month old. We also miss them and wish we could see them more. Somehow, we always move away from each other! Look at how little Elly is. Seems like a million years ago.

This is Elly's first cousin once removed, Rose Fletcher.


Notice where the little white bow is in each of these chronological pictures. Elly is so good at sharing! We saw Rose at Grammie's house in July at "Family Gathering". It's a tradition in our family to meet each Sunday evening at my Grandparents' home in Utah. If you're in town you'll always find cousins and new friends when you go to Family Gathering. She is adorable and very used to being poked and prodded since she has 9 older siblings! That's right, 9!

These are Elly's friends from Stroller Strides, Sage and Timothy.

She knows them better than all her other friends, because she sees them every day! She gets so excited to see them and has a great time playing with them after the moms are done working out! Elly is two weeks younger than Timothy and two months older than Sage. This picture was taken today!