Our Book Obsession

We haven't been up to much over the past few weeks.  We are just relaxing and enjoying our last few weeks in Omaha.  Ellie and I have gone to the zoo and children's museum weekly with friends. We are playing outside as much as this cold spring weather will permit.  We are just trying to live it up, spending time with the good friends we will soon be leaving (sob, sob).  

Anyhoo, Ellie and I recenlty got a library card (I know...pathetic...it took us almost 3 years) we both love to go and pick out new books and dvd's.  We've been going at least once a week.  I'd say we are a little obsessed (:  In the last few months she has really started to love books and I love our reading time together!  I thought I'd share some of Ellie's favorite books (this is for you Collin!)  As a disclosure I love beautiful pictures and books that are fun to read out loud (rhyming).

I Like Myself, by Karen Beaumont

Seriously the cutest book with a great message and fun bright pictures.  She LOVES it!

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear, by Audrey and Don Wood

This was my favorite as a kid! Cute fun story and beautiful funny pictures.

The Napping House, by Audrey and Don Wood

Ellie loves to point to the different animals.  I like that it's repetative too!

King Bidgoods  in the Bathtub, by Audrey and Don Wood 

Pretty much anything by them has amazing pictures and a clever story.

Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon, Patty Lovell

Sweet story, fun pictures, and lovable character!

Edward the Emu, by Sheena Knowles (sequel Edwina the Emu is very cute too) 

I can read this over and over.  So cute!

The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson

Very fun story!

What the Lady Bug Heard, by Julia Donaldson (she has alot of good books)

Fun story and I like all the animal sounds.

Where is Babies Belly Botton, Karen Katz

This is good for babies too.  Ellie loves to find the different body parts.

This Little Chick, by John Lawrence

Simple story with gorgeous pictures and fun animal sounds.

I tried to limit it to 10 for you.  I hope you like them!

Happy Easter!

This past Easter weekend we headed down Kansas City to spend time with family.  The weather was perfect!  When we got in town we went directly to the Farmstead but it was closed until April 1st. Bummer! I was so excited to see the baby animals.  We spent the afternoon at the botanical gardens instead.

This is the first time Ellie has walked in grass barefoot...sad I know! Since she started walking in October it's just been way too cold to do this.  I loved her reaction.

Climbing a tree with dad.

Coloring Easter eggs, Matt reading one of Ellie's Easter gifts to her, finding her basket.

The gang.

Ellie's first Easter egg hunt.  She knew just what to do!

I don't have any pictures of my favorite memory from this trip.  On Saturday we went to the town where Zach and Lauren live.  We went to the cute optical shop where Lauren works, then to an old books exhibit at the university that Zach attends.  Afterwards we ate amazing Greek food and walked around the little shops.  My favorite shops include the British store, a chocolate shop (the lavender caramels were amazing), taste testing at the olive oil and vinegar shop (my favorite was the mushroom or lime olive oil, and the pomegranate ginger balsamic), a fun toy store, and ice cream at Syla's and Maddy's.

The chocolates were so beautiful I couldn't get over it! And they taste even better!

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Lego's, Bath Fun, and St. Patty's

We are getting spring fever here! I want it to be spring so bad but then I realize come May we are out of here. Kansas City here we come!  I am so excited to be moving to KC but I'm also heartbroken to leave such good friends here in Omaha.  This week Ellie and I have been taking a few more walks.  She loves to get outside and it's amazing how entertained she is out there.  I took her to the playground on Thursday and it was just one soggy mud puddle.  I thought...."Okay, I'll be a fun mom and let her stomp in the mud and get a little dirty, no biggie"...two minutes later she is soaking wet and covered in mud, she decided it would be nice to sit down in the dirty cold water.  I had to completely strip her down diaper and all.

On Saturday Matt, Ellie, and I walked down to the gardens to see the Lego Exhibit.  It was pretty cool, Ellie loved playing with the blocks.  I want to get her some and I'm trying to convince Matt to make her a little Lego table for Christmas (:

So as many of you know Ellie hates baths. Crazy I know!  I thought all young children loved playing in the tub but not this girl!  Most of the time she whines or cries to get "down" (meaning "OUT NOW!").  I saw the idea for shaving cream painting on Pinterest awhile back and decided to give it a try.  She LOVED it!  The muffin tin even floats, which made me happy(: 

Will definitely be doing this again! 

 *She did taste it but was repulsed by the nastiness and asked for "agua" and that was the end of that.

I think she may become an artist (:

Happy St. Patty's Day

We had shamrock eggs and waffles with green whip cream and sprinkles.  

*Ellie only ate the whip cream.

Ellie helping me make green play dough.  

*Notice how there are no pics of the actual dough, I altered the recipe and used green jello instead of green cool-aid.  Not a good idea! It was slimy and sticky and I only let her squeeze it in a Ziplock bag.

Rainbow Jello in the bath.  Since Ellie liked the shaving cream painting so much I thought she would like playing with left over St. Patrick's day jello.  Not so, I think she didn't like how cold and sticky it was.

A few things we've been up to

Sorry I've been slacking for so long!  Ellie pulled the laptop off the couch shortly after Thanksgiving and with Christmas and going out of town it took Matt until recently to fix it. I know you all love my excuses (:  It's hard to get back in the habit once you've stopped posting.  I looked at my blog today and I can't believe how little Ellie looks! That's how I know it's been way too long!!! She is so much fun!  I don't want her to grown up any more she is just way too cute at this age!

A few of her favorite things right now are: coloring (she colored our walls when I wasn't looking...I love Magic Eraser!), wandering around the house "talking" on my phone, walking around with her eyes closed (weird I know, I think she just realized she can't see with them closed) it's pretty fun since she crashes into everything, movies (this one makes me a little sad but all of a sudden she it mesmerize by the TV), saying "hi" and waving to everyone she see's (she is popular at Walmart), making animal sounds, and did I mention she's obsessed with bubbles.
Since Christmas she has been talking a ton she says: Hobbies, owie, mamma, mommy, dadda, baby, more, hi, cheese, agua (water), bean, nana (banana), bubble, apple, ball, shoe, eyes, nose, mole, teeff (teeth), book, no, moose (to anything with antlers), up, fish, bir (bird), woof (dog), and nigh nigh.  And a whole bunch of gibberish that I don't understand.

A few pics:

                                          Playing in the snow.  Ellie likes to smash it and eat it.

A few crafts: 

We made these butterflies today with another little girl I babysit.  I thought I might frame it for an (inexpensive) mother's day gift for grandma.

My only Easter decoration. Using old pages from a book and glued on egg cutouts. Super easy and cheap!

I glued different colored ribbons to popsicle sticks for Ellie to wave around and sing the rainbow song but they've become cat toys.

Felt finger puppets.  Made these while watching Bachelor with some girlfriends.

Denver

We went to Denver this past weekend to visit Michael and to celebrate Xander's first birthday.  Karen, Julie, and Zaidee flew in from Salt Lake and it was fun to be together.  We went to the Natural History Museum, out to eat several times, to the park, on walks, and hung out at their house.

Natural History Museum

My favorite exhibit was figurines made completely of stones and gems.  

Eating out

 We went out twice to Vietnamese Pho restaurants, it's my new favorite food! 

 Delicious basil, jalapeno, sprouts, and lime.

 Eating out is so crazy with kids!  We had three 1 year olds and a 6 year old.  I felt bad for the people sitting by us, we were so loud.

Xander's Party

Xander had a Winnie the Pooh themed party and Lisa made a cute three tier cake.  Uncle Kelly and Teresa came and gave Xander a walker that all the babies loved.  He also got a toy cat that moves around the house and Ellie loved chasing it.

 

Pictures in the park

Julie took some family pictures for Mike and Lisa on Sunday, they turned out cute!

  

On a walk

We took the kids for a walk around this awesome trail by their house.

Just hanging out