Elly Quotes

Today at 8:30am, Elly woke up and came downstairs.  15 minutes later she was crying because I suggested she eat breakfast before she begin painting (watercolors on paper).  I was stumped.  I asked her what was really wrong and she said:

"Mommy, I'm just still so tired!"

So, I said "Why don't you go back upstairs and go back to sleep, then?"

She didn't even say a word, turned and walked up the stairs. She's been asleep for the last 45 minutes.

Elly on Picture Day

I snapped a few pictures of Elly on her picture day before school. (Although, I still paid the $1,000 it costs to buy the cheapest package!)

My Preschool Girl:

Gateway Fountain

just LOVE that smile!

Brothee did NOT like the surprise of the water coming up at him.

sweet, sweet, girl...and look at that toe pointing!

Brandon was such a good sport.  It isn't every dad who willingly gets soaked to the bone for the sake of the fun of his daughter!

I LOVE my Bosch!

I recently made these...from scratch:



If you know me at all, you'll know that this was a pretty amazing break through in my attempts to be domestic and stuff.  Let's take a little trip down memory lane...

When we were first married, Brandon did all the cooking.  We had a consistent diet of hamburger helper and canned chili.  It was fine with me, of course.  I would've been happy eating dirt, as long as I was next to him.  Ah, the newlywed phase.  But, I have a feeling that Bran didn't feel the same way.  He dreamed of the day that his loving wife could whip up a Sunday Roast complete with mashed potatoes and delicious dinner rolls.

Brandon was so patient, people.  He stuck by my through all the failed dinners (of which we still have many, to be honest).  But, I am happy to say that day has finally come.  I can now make a kick butt Sunday Roast with "the best mashed potatoes [he's] ever tasted" and homemade dinner rolls from scratch.  And I even love doing it.  I love making meals that my family thinks are delicious.  I love being "homemakey".

A lot of this is due to 9 long years of practice, but I owe my recent success in the kitchen to my new love: The BOSCH.  It is the most awesome piece of kitchen machinery ever.  I now make all our family's whole wheat bread.  I make awesome rolls, cookies, and smoothies (with the blender attachment).  Thank goodness for my Bosch is all I can say and thank goodness my husband waited so patiently for me to be competent in the kitchen.  It's been a long road and it's still bumpy sometimes!

Scenes from Home

I've said this before and I'll say it again: I have the best job in the world.

"Dress ups"

Brothee, Elly's pet dog

Elly loves to paint

Elly Riding Her Bike

Elly recently learned how to ride a "big girl" bike, meaning with pedals and no training wheels:



The part about having pedals is key because we started her on a balance bike (aka running bike) a few months ago.  These little bikes are awesome.  They have no pedals and the child can easily touch their feet to the ground while sitting on the seat.  The idea is that it's harder to learn balance than to learn pedals.  So these bikes allow the child to comfortably and safely learn balance as they "run" the bike.  Soon, they're gliding with their feet up.  Then it's a relatively easy transition to a pedal bike with no training wheels.  That's another key.  Elly never rode a bike with training wheels, so she never learned to rely on them.

Here's a little video of some of our first sessions learning the balance on the balance bike.  Check out this site for the brand we got - Strider.  We highly recommend it.

New Haircut

Mother/Daughter Portraits

For my mom's Mother's Day gift this year, my sisters and I gave her a portrait session of the four of us.

Our photographer was Justin Hackworth and he is brilliant.  I originally applied to be part of his Mother/Daughter Project.  We had our session just a couple of weeks ago when Madelyn was in town from Texas.  It was so fun to be there just the four of us.  Justin was super nice to talk to and the whole thing was a really great experience. 

So...something very interesting happened during our photo shoot that you might like.  Check it out HERE.