Cincinnappy and other happenings

First was Mother's Day. Here I am with my little cutie after church. What a special day to celebrate how blessed I feel to be a mother!
I love this little girl!

Reading my mother's day card from Andrew.

Next came some aerobic activity for Eleanor. Andrew snapped her onesie over her little pants and I couldn't help but find a headband and snap some shots.




Then there was Cincinnapy. Last week Andrew, Eleanor and I went down to Cincinnati for me to go to Time Out for Women. We stayed at my sister Jessica's house, which is always a treat. Her kids love to play with Eleanor. I think they are generally more excited to see Eleanor than me and Andrew. Well, I think Ethan likes having me there because I play Super Nintendo with him. On Thursday we were looking for something free and fun to do so Andrew found a butterfly exhibit to go to. It was at the Krohn Conservatory. The butterfly exhibit was 6 bucks a person, so we passed on that and just wandered around the free conservatory. It was really pretty. In an effort to try and be like my sister Emily, I took some pictures of all the pretty plants and flowers.





Doesn't this lady's hair look like the spanish moss?? hahaha

Back at my sister's house, Grace was having a ball with Eleanor.

On Friday and Saturday I went to Time Out for Women, which was really good. If it is coming to a city near you, you should totally go. It was nice to have a "time out" and be spiritually uplifted. I went with 4 other girls from my ward, so it was also fun to hang out with them and have a girls trip. We also went to the Gap Clearance Center, not just your typical Gap outlet. I don't think there was anything there over $9.99. I got this cute shirt for Eleanor for $1.99. Cute, huh?


The only downside of the trip was that Eleanor was getting her first tooth, so she was a little out of it. This next picture pretty much sums up the last couple of days as her tooth has been popping up.

She's just kind of been out of it. I finally went and got some teething tablets today so she can sleep better. They seem to be working pretty well!

Here she is having a freezie pop to ease some of the pain :)

I'm in trouble

Ok, so I discovered a very delicious caramel popcorn recipe. You may or may not know, but I LOVE caramel popcorn. I don't think I ever visited University Mall while I was in Provo without stopping by Popcorn Popping and getting some caramel popcorn. I tried some caramel popcorn at the mall here, but it was stale and really didn't have much flavor. So tonight I found a recipe at allrecipes that had 5 stars so I tried it. I too give it 5 stars. It is delicious!!

Andrew loves regular popcorn so last year I got him a popcorn maker for his birthday so we always have popcorn seeds in the house. The only other thing the recipe calls for that you might not always have is corn syrup and brown sugar. So the reason this could be dangerous is because I always have the ingredients so anytime I have a sweet tooth, caramel popcorn will be calling my name! Also it calls for a lot of butter. I'll have to give myself a limit on how many times a week I make this. :)

Here's the recipe...
-1/2 cup butter
-1 cup brown sugar
-1/4 cup corn syrup
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-10 cups popped popcorn (about 1/2 cup popcorn kernels if you're popping them)

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn in a 9x13 dish, stirring to coat. Don't forget to grease the pan. The caramel WILL stick to the pan.
2. Bake in preheated oven at 250 degrees, stirring every 15 minutes, for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

And ENJOY!!

Families can be together forever

Ok, so I just stole this picture off of my little sister Laura's blog. I just can't stop looking at it! It is so hard to believe that these are my four younger siblings! It's weird to think of them all as being grown up. I can't believe my "baby brother" Jacob is 12 years old now! Laura and Freddie are in New Orleans visiting so they were able to go with him to his first visit to the temple in Baton Rouge. What a special experience! I wish I could have been there.
(AMY, JACOB, LAURA, FREDDIE)

I am so thankful for temples and the opportunity I have to be sealed to my family! I love my family and I know that we can be together forever!

I LOVE MY FAMILY!

Especially since tomorrow is mother's day and I have to give a talk at church about it, I've been thinking about how much my mom means to me. She is such an amazing example and I am so glad she had the faith and courage to join the church when she was 19 years old! Look at what's come from that one decision!

(LAURA AMY JACOB MOM
EMILY FREDDIE JESSICA ME)

Thanks for everything you've taught me by not only your words, but also your actions! I love you mom!

We have a scootie bug

So this week Eleanor has turned into a little scootie bug. She's really making her way around. I got this video of her yesterday. She is getting better and better everyday. It makes me kind of nervous, because she is a busy little girl. She is already reaching up for the wall outlets! Yikes, I better get some of those outlet cover things.


Here's another video of Eleanor "eating" a biter biscuit. She still doesn't have any teeth, but she certainly likes to chew on things. I got a really funny video of her reaction to me taking the little biscuit away, but it accidentally got erased. So I tried to duplicate it. It's not quite as good but still pretty funny.

In other Eleanor news...
-She has discovered her tongue and likes to stick it out.
-She LOVES green apples. I think she could suck on one all day.
-The other night she fell asleep like this with her foot in the slats.

You may have noticed, but our blog posts our primarily about Eleanor. I've decided I should probably post more about me and Andrew, so here goes.

Andrew has had finals all week. His last one is tomorrow morning. Woohoo! He is feeling pretty good about them so far, so we'll see how he feels when grades come out. He'll start his internship on Monday so he's excited not to have to think about school for a good 3 1/2 months.

Well I got bangs a couple of weeks ago. I'm pretty sure bangs are not for me. It kind of reminded me of how Kate Hudson looked with bangs if you saw Bride Wars...not so great. So I've just been wearing them to the side.

So on Monday I went to pick up some prints from Eleanor's 6 month portrait session and I really wasn't very happy with them. I mean, I should probably realize I get what I paid for, 7.99 at J.C. Penney's, but I really think I could do a better job if I had a nicer camera. So when I got home I started contemplating what it would take to get a nice DSLR camera. I decided I would save 20 bucks a month and in about 2 years I would have enough to buy something like a Canon Rebel or Nikon d60. Sounds good, right? Well fast forward to my eye doctor's appointment on Thursday when I went to pay for my exam and 2 boxes of contacts. After paying I soon realized that I would put that 20 bucks a month towards LASIK instead of a camera. Forking out half the amount of a new DSLR camera was pretty sickening! And to think that I will need 2 more boxes of contacts in 6 months, and then 2 more boxes 6 months after that and so on and so on. My camera I have now is fine, so instead my new goal is LASIK. At 20 bucks a month that should take me about 10-15 years. Maybe once Andrew is done with school we can up the investment to 50 bucks a month.

Happy half birthday!

Today Eleanor is 6 months old! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. She's not a little newborn anymore. We moved up to size 3 diapers last week and they are no longer "swaddlers"- that made me kind of sad to think she is now a "cruiser". (Sorry, that probably makes no sense if you don't speak Pampers)

She sleeps through the night regularly now which also means newborn days are long gone. She is such a great sleeper. I owe all my sleep training credit to Dr. Weissbluth. I refer to him like I know him or something, but really I only read his book, Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child. Her routine goes something like this: she wakes up around 7:30-8:00, 1-2 hour nap around 9:30, 2-3 hour nap around 1:00 or 2:00, then bedtime between 6:30-7:00. It is so nice to have her on a schedule.

We started using a sippy cup this week. She is getting the hang of it and goes crazy for watered down pear juice!



Today we celebrated her half birthday by going to Chick-fil-A. We were also celebrating Andrew's last day of class. Next week he has reading days and then it is time for finals. One year down, three to go! Gooooo Andrew!

Eleanor just loves Andrew. I think they have really bonded because of the two hours they spend together every Sunday at church while I'm in nursery. I think she knows about the time he gets home everyday because she starts looking at the door. She also gets really excited when she hears his keys unlocking the door. It is so fun to watch the two of them together.

Today we also went to the park for Eleanor to swing. She really likes swinging. but today she was especially observant of the swing. She would not look up for me to take a picture. All she wanted to do was investigate.



We finally got her laughing on video. It is pretty cute if I do say so myself. Too bad Andrew was holding the camera the wrong way. Oh well, you can still hear cute little laugh!

She is such a sweet little happy baby. We really love her and feel so blessed that she is ours!

I gave my baby a dum-dum

I know, I know, that probably isn't the best thing for my baby, but it was so cute to watch her enjoy it. She LOVED it. So did I :)

APRIL STUFF

Sorry for the uncreative title, but that's exactly what this post will be...April stuff!

1. Eleanor is learning to sit up.


2. Eleanor jumps so hard in her Jumperoo that her socks come off.



3. Eleanor has discovered her feet.




She even likes to chew on them :)


4. Eleanor likes to play XBox.


5. Andrew's parents came in town for Easter.


We took them to the John Johnson Farm in Hiram, Ohio. Andrew and I went right before Eleanor was born. And there was something even more special this time around actually having her there with us. It is just a neat place and the spirit is so strong.


It was nice to have someone around to take some family pictures of the three of us. We also were able to take some on Easter Sunday. Andrew had to give a talk, which he was a little nervous about because it was just going to be him, a youth speaker and a couple of musical numbers. He did a great job and we had a lovely Easter Sunday.

6. Eleanor and I went down to Cincinnati to visit my sister Jessica. My mom, little sister and little brother also drove up from Louisiana for their spring break. So Eleanor got to see lots of family. Sadly, the only picture I took was this one of my nephew Ethan. random, right?

I think Jessica got some pictures while we were all out huddling in my mom's van when we got locked out. I'll have to get those from her. **she just updated her blog, click here and scroll down for a picture and story. **

7. Spring has sprung! Both yesterday and today the weather has been awesome!! I was able to dig out some summery clothes for Eleanor.

"no pictures please"

"ok, maybe one or two"


We went to the park and had a BBQ with some friends from the ward. Here is Eleanor swinging on the swings, she was loving it!





And that's about all we've been up to. Next week is Eleanor's half birthday so stay tuned for her 6 month stats and pictures.