my lil sis

My little sister Amy is so talented. She's got the best voice and is usually so shy about performing in front of people. Anyway, she made a video with the help of my other little sister Laura (they are so good with cameras and computers!) to enter into a contest to meet Ingrid Michaelson. They had to do a music video for their version of "Everybody". She needs lots of hits on her video to win, so go ahead and help a sister out and watch her video. Then the top ten viewed videos will get voted on after March 29th!



In other news I get to go see Amy and Laura and my 2 little brothers next week when I go to Provo!

Can't wait to see you guys!!

And speaking of sisters, my older sister Emily had her first baby on Sunday, a sweet little girl named Pearce! She was 9 pounds 8 ounces -- we sure grow them big in our family :) They live in California so we probably won't get to see her in person for a while, but it so so fun to see her newborn baby pictures - keep them coming!

don't worry....

Eleanor didn't get pinched, I made sure that she wore green on St. Patrick's Day.
It's hard to get her to stay still for a picture, so here's a little video of her.



On St. Patrick's day I also celebrated being 19 weeks pregnant! Wooohoo, we're almost half-way there! In a little over a week I'll have my ultrasound to find out if it's a boy or girl! That is the best half-way mark present, I am so anxious to find out. I've had dreams it's a boy and I've had dreams it's a girl, so I really have no "intuition" about what it will be. With Eleanor I thought it was a boy, and obviously I was wrong, so I haven't really speculated much this time around. Going strictly off of symptoms, I might say it's a girl because this pregnancy has been almost identical to Eleanor's. But that could be completely irrelevant. I guess only time will tell! What do you think it will be??

American Idol

I think I'm done watching American Idol this season. I'm so sad that Alex, Lily, and Katelyn went home, they were some of my favorites! There are only a few others left that I like - Siobhan and Didi and I think Crystal and Michael are good, but not really my taste. I guess I should have voted, maybe my vote would have made a difference :)

3 years ago today...

we got engaged!

I know this is so cliche, but it honestly feels like it was just yesterday!

Andrew picked 3/9/2007 because he thought I would like the numbers...You know, 3 times 9 is 27. I'm kind of weird about number combinations. I blame it on my Math Game 24 days back in elementary school, but you probably have no idea what I'm talking about :)

Anyway, when I was digging for this picture I had a grand time taking a walk down memory lane. You can join me if you want...

Andrew and I were in the same ward at BYU and we became friends when his apartment asked my apartment if we wanted to do a dinner group on Sundays. I soon developed a "pretend crush" on him - it would have been a real crush if only he would have been a little taller :) I know, I'm a little superficial, but I figured it out eventually. Andrew decided he liked me when we went on a road trip to Colorado for a BYU football game. I mean, how could you resist this...

I guess he wanted someone who could appreciate a football fanatic...

My birthday was about 2 months later and I caught him checking me out...

About a week after my birthday he needed help with his Statistics homework, and since it was my major I offered to help. The following night he needed more "help". This time around he claimed there was an extra credit problem he had to do so we turned to it. Turns out he had made up his own stats problem, which was actually pretty elaborate, and typed it up and taped it in his textbook to ask me out. I think it was when I found out that he had been up all night trying to come up with that question that my pretend crush turned into a real one. After our first date we hung out practically every night. Then we both went home for Christmas break and we talked on the phone everyday. When we got back to Provo after the break we changed our statuses on facebook to "in a relationship" :) And the rest is history!
Here are some of my favorite pictures from our dating days...





Looking at these pictures makes me realize that now I'm a lot less tan and a lot less blonde than I used to be, but I'm ok with that because I've got a great husband and a sweet little girl who love me no matter what! Andrew is at school taking a Finance test, but when he gets home we'll celebrate with some Moose Tracks ice cream and watch Lost together. How romantic!

Some days

Some days we wake up with bed head and stay in our pajamas all day.
(most days, really)

Some days we get all dressed up and look really cute!
(yes that's a toothbrush in her hand, she's been slightly obsessed with them lately)

Some days we sit still for more than 30 seconds at a time.

(This is a rare occurrence around here- I'm pretty good at sitting still, but Eleanor is really busy!) Today we went to the Museum of Natural History in Cleveland and Eleanor really took to the puzzles in the "discovery zone". She loved running around and looking at all the random exhibits like dinosaurs, rocks, planets, gems, etc. She ran around so hard she really wore herself out. She and her buddy Hannah crashed on our way home.

Some days (actually all days) we get really messy.

Eleanor loves to squish her food (especially fruits) and rub them all over her face and hair and high chair.

Buyer's remorse

I probably shouldn't have bought this bag of treats! I've already gone through half the bag in less than a week. Woospies :)

While I was sick with my sinus infection this was the only thing I felt like eating. Now that I'm feeling better maybe I should hide them. Or maybe I should just hurry and eat them to get rid of them?

P.S. Who wants to come over for a season finale party of The Bachelor??

Mardi Gras Mambo

So for Mardi Gras we had a last minute get together with some friends that live a couple of blocks away. My friend Rachel texted me to say happy Mardi Gras and I had totally forgotten about it. I had seen a king cake at a local bakery over the weekend so I thought I'd go grab one and have them over for a little celebration. I had red beans in the crockpot, so it worked out perfectly. They brought some french bread and salad and we were good to go! It's so nice to have friends close by especially during holidays when you miss your family. I feel so lucky to have so many good friends here! Maybe next year I'll be a little more on top of things (and not have a sinus infection) and have ALL our friends over for a Mardi Gras Mambo!
Here are our "decorations" (and notice my lovely tulips I got for Valentine's Day)...

Too bad I forgot to get my camera out again until they were leaving. I did get one shot of Eleanor with her little buddy Hannah. They are only 5 days apart. Eleanor still isn't sure how to smile for the camera, but Hannah's got it down pretty good!

Oh and this post wouldn't be complete without a picture of our half eaten king cake!

Eleanor was pretty excited about all the beads. She was so excited to discover they were still there the next morning!

And to close, here's a flashback to a year ago when we went down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Oh how I miss my chubby little baby.

Laissez les bon temps rouler! Let the good times roll!

Geaux Saints!!

Here's Eleanor blowing Drew Brees a kiss...

Do I really live here?

Last night we got over a foot of snow! Take a look at the fire hydrant for some perspective. It's funny that when applying to law schools we kind of had a "no snow" policy and here we are at the only law school we applied to that gets snow (and a lot of it)! But we really do love it here, and I wouldn't trade our experiences here for any other place.


Eleanor didn't mind the snow at all! She was excited to help out.

And by help out, I mean eat the snow. Yumm.

Margherita English Muffins

(This one's for you, Emily) So I made a delicious discovery that I thought I'd share. The other day as I was walking through Sam's Club, the English Muffins looked really good to me so I got them. Fast forward to tonight. Andrew has a night class on Tuesdays so he's gone from 7 in the morning until 8 at night, so it's just me and Eleanor all day. Well I decided I'd get creative for dinner and wanted to use my new english muffins. I'm also really loving tomatoes right now so I decided to try out a little tomato basil pizza. Here's what I did... Mix a little E.V.O.O., balsamic vinegar, and minced garlic. Lightly toast the english muffins and spread this mixture on them. Cut up tomatoes (my favorite is campari tomatoes-yummy) and sprinkle salt and pepper on them. Put tomatoes and mozarella cheese on english muffins. Sprinkle basil on top. I'm sure fresh basil would be delicious but I only had the dried kind. Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes. Check out these bad boys. (Don't mind the gingerbread man baking sheet)

Yummy!

I will never eat another Bagel Bite again! These little things were SO good! I actually ate all 4 of them :) Well maybe just 3 1/2 because Eleanor had a couple of bites of one.

And speaking of Eleanor, here's what she looks like these days. She is so cute and so much fun! She is learning so many new things, and it's fun to watch her actually understand things and try and communicate. She "talks" so much but really only knows about 4 or 5 words (Da-da, bye, hi, woah, oh, and I think she says yum and what's this). I can't wait until I can actually understand what she's trying to tell me, because it sounds pretty interesting. Here she is playing with her Princess laptop - She's a better blogger than I am.

And if you haven't already guessed by now with the weird cravings, I'm pregnant! I'm due the beginning of August, so that makes me about 13 weeks. I haven't been sick at all, which I feel really grateful for! I get a little nauseated if I haven't eaten anything in a while, but let's be honest, I've never really been the type to go for long without eating :) I've been super tired, but all things considered it's been pretty easy (knock on wood). We had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago and everything looks good. We are really grateful and excited to have another sweet baby in our family!