Happy Birthday...

to Charles. You may all remember that we already celebrated the birth of this wonderful man last weekend, so today when my parents called to wish him a happy birthday I froze in shock. I had forgotten! So I guess I win the lousy wife award. I could spell out excuse after excuse, there has been a lot going on, life is crazy, yada, yada, yada.


It doesn't matter.


I still forgot.



Soooooooo, to make it all better, I went and bought him some work gloves for his new landscaping job (which he starts bright and early tomorrow). While at the store I also bought this....



I think I am forgiven :)

Ella on the move

I put her down on a blanket for two seconds...


I guess we need a baby gate, around that corner are stairs going down. Yikes.

Here is your cute and funny for the day.

Interesting

Check this out

And so many people think the world is overpopulated...

Family

It was a party here in Rexburg last weekend. The Riggs came up to take Cleo to school, while they were hear we celebrated Charles and Hughes birthday.

I thought this was sweet. Does it remind you of anything?

Ella and one of her namesakes, Elizabeth.

It was wonderful to have them here!

Lovely

Yesterday Ella decided that it was time to sit up for reals. I think it was because her friend Carter came over and she wanted to show off her mad skill.


She has been sleeping through the night. I mean really sleeping through the night. I used to think that getting up once or twice was sleeping through the night. hahahahaha.... no. She now goes down around 6:30 and I don't go to her until 7:00 the next morning! So wonderful! I feel like a new person, not just a crazy mother who hasn't slept in the last six months. I had to take the bumper of the crib because one day I went to get her after her nap and she had figured out how to put her head under it and couldn't get it out. That fixed that problem but now she gets her self tangled in the bars... I guess I cant win. :)

Delicious

I was just craving some chocolate, I kept telling myself to resit and eat some fruit instead...
























I now have a big bowl of tasty chex muddy buddies sitting on the kitchen counter, you should come and eat some.

I wonder what Charles will say. :)

On another note, look who moved in to our front porch


The parents fly around, sounding the alarm and trying to dive bomb us every time we walk out the front door. Ella thinks its hilarious.

Ella update.
She is sitting pretty well, though sometimes she gets bored and just falls over, she still need some support I think her diaper makes it hard for her to balance. She also likes to sit in the high chair and throw her toys on the floor. Then she waits not so patiently for me to retrieve them for her.


I just love this little girl!

Of mud and messes and mayhem

I hate cleaning kitchen floors. Well, all floors actually. It started when I was a kid and we always had to do it on our hands and knees, I swore when I "grew up" that I would only use a mop. Either I still haven't grown up (ain't that the truth) or I can't break the habit. I still clean on my hands and knees. I did buy a mop once, but they are everything my Mom always said they were. Dirty, smelly and they just spread the filth around. While on you hands and knees you can really get in there and get the grime. (Not that you would find anything like that on my floor...) So, on Monday I got out the bucket and sponge and got to work. Tuesday I must have spilled something on the floor because it was a bit sticky so I got down on my knees and cleaned a portion of it again. About an hour later I decided that I needed to clean the highchair. (It belongs to the people from whom we are renting, most of their stuff is dirty but the high chair was beyond disgusting. I wasn't about to let Ella within 10 feet of the thing.) By the time I finished scrubbing off food that was harder than cement there were crumbs and dirty marks covering the floor again. So for the second time that day I scrubbed. Now, I love my husband, he is wonderful, but he likes to wear shoes in the house. This is all fine and dandy till he wears black soled shoes on the white linoleum. The short of it is that I cleaned the floor again, before bed. On Wednesday I gave the floor a break, I could almost hear the complaints of to much scrubbing. But today, ahhh, today. I felt like I was reliving something that happened to my mom when I was just a baby. She had just made a container of red punch and put it in the fridge. I cant remember all the details but I am pretty sure what happened is that I pulled the whole thing out of the fridge and it covered the kitchen floor in a sticky mess. My poor mother. I am sure that today is not anywhere near as bad but I was under some pressure to get things done. The house was a disaster. (how does it get that was so quickly?) I did not have a plan for dinner, Charles was coming home in and hour and a half plus I was trying to fill out a head resident application before 5:00. Ella woke up from her nap hungry. She was yelling and crying about it. So I went to the fridge to get out a 3/4 full jar of carrots. I guess the lid wasn't on and so when, in a rush, I quickly grabbed it out of the fridge it splattered all over the kitchen floor. I stood in shock. I felt like crying. Good grief, have a baby and you will cry over everything. I decided to try and find some humor in the situation. That failed. so instead I just weighed my options, I needed to clean it up now otherwise it would probably stain the linoleum, but Ella was pretty upset and needed to eat. I quickly wiped it up and feed her. Then I rushed around the house cleaning up before Charles came home. Then as I lean over to get Ella out of the high chair, (she had been playing with toys in it)and see that she is covered in poop. I mean covered. Again, I stood there on my not so clean kitchen floor thinking if I closed my eyes the mess would disappear. No luck. So I took my beautiful, smelly baby girl to the tub and put her backside under the faucet. (Did I mention I had just finished cleaning the bathroom, now I had poop on the floor allover the tub etc.) Luckily when she was clean my wonderful, amazing husband came home and cleaned the kitchen up for me. So, I think that I have learned my lesson.

Whats the point of cleaning, it will just get dirty anyways.

To bad I will never be able to follow that. sigh.

The trip

Here I am back in good ol Rexburg. California was AWESOME! The only bad part was that Charles couldn't be there to enjoy it with us. Ella loved all the swimming and hiking we did. I have to thank Ginger for the Baby Bjorn carrier, I used it almost everyday. We started the trip in beautiful San Diego. I think that I could live there someday. There are so many things to do, we went to a free concert at Balboa Park, there are all sorts of interesting places to visit like Sea World, and Old Town, not to mention the beaches and pools. (Have I ever told you how much I love to swim?) Anyways, it was pretty much a big family reunion. On Monday July 6th we all traveled up to Mammoth Lakes CA. This is another place I could live, at least in the summertime. Growing up my family went to Mammoth almost every summer. Our family owns a cabin there. I love this place about as much as I love chocolate. Can't live without it. I haven't been there for about 8 years. That is the longest stretch yet, when we arrived I rolled down my window and inhaled the strong scent of pine and quaking aspens. The trees danced for me in the wind while I listened to the sound of the stream rushing past. It was like coming home.

It's a good thing we are back, I think that Ella missed her Dad.


Besides, Charles ran out of Chef Boyardee.

Let Freedom Ring

Happy fourth of July everyone!

I am so grateful that I live and can raise my kids in this wonderful country.