Busy July

I haven't blogged in awhile (as is my habit) so thought I'd better remedy that. I'm limited on pics at the moment, but a couple are better than none (which is what this post started with).

We've had a fairly busy July. Jer's been working at ACS, and doing independent contracting on the side for a company called SEO.com. He interviewed with them a bit ago and only offered him the i.c. job, but it was a foot in the door. More on this later.

July 4th weekend we went to Oakley for the rodeo, as usual. We attempted sleeping at the

cabin, but by 1 a.m. it was clear Ella wasn't going to sleep away from home, so we packed up and drove home, arriving around 3 a.m. We were exhausted to say the least. Our mattress was also getting all lumpy and uncomfortable, so we went mattress shopping over this long weekend and found ourselves a lovely bed which I'm in love with. I knew it was *MY* bed from the moment I lay down on it, but of course we had to check around and make sure.

Our yard was finally finished, but they're still tweaking it a bit. Jer mowed our lawn for the first time today, pretty exciting if you ask me.

Jer's family took a trip down to Lake Powell. Because of the whole cabin situation and Ella not sleeping away from home, we opted to stay home and let Jer go (he'd been looking forward to it and we'd missed last year's trip because he was in training for his job). Well, a couple days into the trip he received a phone call and email offering him a FULL TIME position starting asap with SEO.com where he'd been doing independent contracting!!! Of course he accepted and came home early (yay for me, we'd never been apart that long) so he could go to ACS and quit!! WOOHOO! Major blessing! Jer's adjusting to the new job, but it's so much better for him.

We're all much happier since the change.

While he was in Lake Powell, I had the week off work (because I thought I'd be going too), Ella and I had the car and had some fun. She played at my parents while I went to get my shot, we went to Wheeler Farm, twice. We went to Hogle Zoo

for her first time w/an old H.S. friend and her cute son,

we ran errands and went to the bakery. We kept pretty busy, it was a fun and exhausting week!

The 24th weekend we had a family bbq at Jer's parents (as usual),

but it also brought a lot of anxiety as Jer and I were assigned to speak in sacrament meeting. It was my first time speaking in church since I was a youth speaker over 11 years ago, so I was a bit of a shaky, nervous wreck! But my topic was Roots and Branches (spiritual and ancestral) and Jer's was Our Legacy. Pretty good for the day we spoke on. I told some colonial, pioneer, parental and personal stories, and Jer told about how Ella got her name and making sure we're leaving a good example for the future. I think we did alright, though Jer told me to start with a joke, so I did. I think the only person who laughed was the Bishop, but I didn't get too mortified!

Oooh, and we welcomed a new niece, Jer's sister's family were able to adopt a new beautiful baby, we're so excited to have her in the family. Ella's not the baby of the family anymore, but that's ok!

As for Ella and her shenanigans, she's just getting more and more fun and exhausting! She jabbers like you wouldn't believe! She's got a big personality. Sometimes I look at her and wonder when this little person appeared out of the little baby she used to be. She has 11 teeth, 3 of which are molars. She says shop (shaw), shoes, go, mama, dada (which she usually whispers), lunch/sandwich (cheh), book (keh), and can shake her head 'no' with the best of them. She smiles and giggles all the time too.

Sadly, I'm getting more wisdom teeth in the same place as I had them removed 2 years ago. It's very uncomfortable and frustrating to be 'teething' again!

*Update, I went to the dentist and it's not wisdom teeth! I thought I might be crazy when I found that out! It's from stress and the constant change our mouth bones go through. I guess I need a massage or something!

Hopefully I'll be able to add some pics soon, until then I hope my writing kept you somewhat entertained, I know this was kind of a long post.

All About Ella!

Ella just had her 15 month check-up. She's 18.5 lbs (because she had a tummy bug a couple weeks ago and is still gaining her weight back) and 28.5 inches tall. Her head is slightly bigger for her body in the percentile charts, but the Dr. jokes that's just because she has a bigger brain. She's a petite little miss, but the Dr. isn't worried about it, he says she's just meant to be a smaller person. She's healthy and happy and thriving, that's what matters most.She has such a big, cute, silly personality. She loves jabbering (I've been told by a few people that she 'talks' more than most babies they've known), dancing, walking/running around, 'helping' with the laundry, getting into her dishes, cuddling her toys and blankies, hugging (and patting your back when she does it), blowing kisses, squealing, and I think singing. She hums along with songs sometimes, it's so cute. She keeps us pretty entertained and busy these days.
She has 2 molars coming in, so she's been a little whiney lately, but pretty good considering how uncomfortable they must be, and then 8 teeth in the front of her mouth.
She loves it when people come to visit, she loves being around people in general (as long as she's not being closed in on by a lot of them). In sharing time for Primary, she wanders the aisle in front of us and will go to random kids we don't really know. She loves the kids in there, and they all seem to really like her (even the boys)! She loves being with females (especially her older cousins), but is VERY wary of strange men, and men in hats (including her dad). If a man comes around wearing a hat, she flips out and buries her head in my shoulder or scrambles to be picked up - even if it's Jer in the hat. She loves getting into my shoes and makeup, which I like to say makes her a girly girl, but Jer just thinks she does it because she's a baby/toddler. I think it's both, I'm pretty sure if she were a he, he wouldn't be as excited by the opportunity to hold my lip-gloss!
I love her so much, I can't believe how big she's getting! It's an incredible thing to watch a baby grow up, I know I'm blessed to have her in my life.

(This is before they started working on the yard, I'll do a post on the progress once it's finished)

As for our yard.... well it was 'supposed' to be finished by the end of May, but because of the lame rain it got pushed back, but now I don't know what the hold up is and we're worried it won't be finished until sometime in July (and we have parties/BBQs planned already, eek). Here's to hoping it gets finished in time!

Issues

Ever have one of those days where you go over in your head the conversations that you had throughout the day and wonder if you were the dreaded 'me-monster'? Did I talk too much about myself, did I make everything about me? Did I sound so stupid? Am I over-reacting? (probably yes to that last one)
Well, I've had one of those weeks. Maybe it's my social anxiety that makes me stress over my interactions with other people, thinking that they must judge/hate me because I'm so weird or annoying or say all the wrong things or focus too much on myself (in reality I don't know if that's true or not). Sadly, past experiences of things people said about me to my face have made me more paranoid than I should be, on top of my anxiety disorder (I've been told that I'm annoying, not wanted around, weird, etc.).
So how do you tell the difference? How do you know if people genuinely care and want to talk to you? This seems to be an issue I've had my whole life, trying to figure out who's fake and who's genuine. What's the secret to knowing?
I guess I could try to not care, but I think we all know that's not gonna happen.


In other news, Ella walks! It's all she does anymore, it's so crazy to watch her. She falls (a lot) and I figure she'll crawl since she's already down, but she pushes herself back up and keeps walking around looking drunk! We had to put a gate up at the stairs too, I knew the day would come, but she's been so disinterested in them for so long I was sorta thinking we'd never need a gate. I was wrong.

Our yard was supposed to be started a couple of weeks ago and finished by the end of May, but because of the rain nothing's happened yet. Hopefully they'll get started on Monday. I'll be sure to post before and after pictures (our weeds are actually quite impressive from all the rain, but I don't see in any point of pulling them because there are SO MANY and the landscapers will be taking care of them anyway). We'll be getting sprinklers put in, then top-soil, then grass and plants and rocks. I'm REALLY wanting lilacs (they're my favorite flower)

and a dwarf weeping cherry tree (because they're so cute and pretty).
I'm excited for it to be finished so Ella and I can have picnics in the grass instead of on the driveway!

Crazy girl

Ella has been a pretty busy little girl lately. Getting into everything, trying to walk around and eat random things, 'helping' me w/the dishes and laundry. Sometimes I wonder what the point of all her toys is when she's more interested in the tupperware!?

The other day when I was feeding her yogurt, she laughed about something and it sprayed all over me. All I could do was laugh because of how worried she looked after she'd done it!
And just yesterday she was super busy while she was supposed to be napping. I went in since she wasn't sleeping to see her blankets on the ground, her pants on top of those, and her diaper nearby. She was just standing there, half naked, with a big, pleased grin on her face. When I went to get her out, she kept dancing around in the wet spot on the fitted sheet. She's so talented and silly! I was a bit frustrated because I was tired, but I laughed about it because what else can you do? Yesterday seemed to have a theme of peeing on things, for the first time in her life she peed between getting her diaper off and getting into the tub, that was pretty funny too.
She gives the best hugs and squeezes tight, it's wonderful. And sometimes she'll give me kisses, which always seem to make her giggle when she's done, it's adorable. I try to soak up every day with her because she's growing up WAY too fast.

This is by no means a complaining post, just an update of how silly Ella is these days.

Hobbies

Just a quick fyi, Jer and I each have our own 'hobby' blogs if you'd like to check them out.
The names are self-explanatory:
Jer's ADHD Thoughts
The Bakery Hopper's Blog
Happy Reading (and commenting)!

Stats and such

Here are Ella's stats from her 1 year check-up.

Height: 27.8" (might as well just say 28)
Weight: 16 lbs 8 oz.
Head: 17.3"

She's small, but the Dr. says she's growing fine. She has, and I quote, "the little toddler belly" and she's proportionate, just petite. I have friends and family with babies younger than her who weigh more than our little miss, but as long as she's healthy, I'm not concerned. She's just right for her own self.

She now has 4 teeth on the bottom (2 of which just popped up today) and 4 coming in on the top. Poor girl has been super fussy lately, but I can't blame her!
She's gotten more cuddly lately, probably due to teething and vaccinations, but I love it.
She grabs her stuffed kitty, holds it to her mouth (like she's kissing it) then sets it back down, it's so cute.
She likes to take her socks and pants off during her afternoon naptime. She'll undo the teething cover I have on her crib too. Once she even took her diaper off and tossed it out of the crib (and didn't have an 'accident' w/o it on).
Her hugs are THE BEST! I love feeling those squishy little arms on my neck.
She loves free-standing, though she loses her nerve when she starts leaning forward so she plops down and crawls instead of walking.
She's still shy around stairs, I try working with her on it every day, but she has no interest in them.
She loves when daddy gets home from work. As soon as she hears the garage door she looks toward the back door waiting for him to walk in. They're so cute to watch.

1st Birthday Bash!

First of all, I can't believe I have a one year old. After all the waiting and struggle to have a baby, it's surreal that she's been with us for a year already! And we've been able to keep her alive and thriving at that!
A lot of this post will be for 'journaling' purposes, so it may not be too entertaining, but the cute pictures can keep you entertained!
For Ella's birthday we had a family party at Jer's parents house. We decorated with some cute balloons outside and inside (clear and purple w/white polka dots and pearl pink) and some pink and white streamers.

Luckily we had more people come than we thought. Both of our parents were there, all but one of the families of Jer's siblings was there (Justin's family), my oldest brother, Chris, and his oldest 2 kids came (Lorie just had Jefferson 9 days ago so they didn't come! Rich's family was sick and Andy's family lives in AZ). We had water, fruit, little deli sandwiches, cupcakes, and ice cream. I made 2 kinds of cupcakes: chocolate w/vanilla almond cream cheese frosting (dyed pink and used neufchatel instead of cream cheese) and white cake w/chocolate frosting (I was going to dye the cake pink, but forgot to, oops).

For Ella's 'smash cake' I marbled the chocolate and white cake and put chocolate frosting on it.
She was a little overwhelmed by all the attention, but she got over it I think.

She didn't know what to think of it at first, but really got into it after a couple minutes. Her little cousin who's 3 weeks older than her came up and was eating her crumbs that had fallen to the seat of the high chair, it was so cute and funny.

She got lots of fun presents from everyone, she really is super spoiled. I feel so lucky to have the family that we do, they're so loving and supportive to Ella (and us).

The presents she got:
From RaKell: Winnie the Pooh toy chest full of assorted books, activity books and paintbrushes, Goldfish shaped snack box, a cute knit hat, 2 outfits, a swimsuit, a pair of super cute sandals, and a couple of little stuffed animals and finger puppets
From us: 2 pairs of gripper feet pajamas, block sorting box, 4 pack of princess books, and Jer made her a DVD slide-show to music of her 1st year
From my parents: pillow bag w/4 Suzie's Zoo books and a handmade kitty
From Jer's parents: life jacket, swim suit, sun hat, Little People house
From Chris's family: VTech my first laptop
From Rich's family (they sent a gift w/my parents): B. You linking rings
From Jenny's family: a bunch of different books, touch and feel, peek-a-boo, etc
From Josh's family: Princess Activity Hut
From Jake's family: little shopping cart full of little boxes w/different foods on the front

I was serious when I said she was spoiled, that's a pretty big list. It took a couple of days to find homes in our house for all her fun stuff.

On another exciting note, she took her first half-step that night. She hasn't done anymore by-herself walking since, but that's still pretty big news to me!

I love her so much. It's crazy to look at the pictures through the last year and how much she's changed. She's starting to look like a little girl now and it makes me so sad and excited at the same time.


Here's to the next amazing year of your life, little miss, can't wait to see what's in store!