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 

Pumpkins and Witches

Halloween was a blast this year!  Holidays only get better with kids!  The only bummer was that Matt was in Houston for an interview so Ellie and I just went to a few friends houses trick or treating and then crashed at Chad and Mandi's for the evening (I had no candy to pass out so I didn't want to be home...ha, ha).  The week before Halloween we carved pumpkin's with Chad, Mandi, Brady, and Kale.  I never realized how dangerous pumpkin carving is!  I swear we had to take knives away from each kid a few times...yikes!

 Yes, he is wearing underwear ( :  If you know Brady he is ALWAYS in his underwear LOL!  He is the sweetest thing, he always tells me "I love you Lisa."

 Kale is the same age as Ellie but he's HUGE!

 HALLOWEEN PARTY AT BOTANICAL GARDEN

 Can't you just hear her evil witchy cackle.

The end of the night, all sugared out.

Trip to Minneapolis

This past week Matt had an interview in Minneapolis and we decided to make it a fun family trip.  As soon as we checked into our hotel we headed right for the Mall of America.  It was only 15 minutes from our hotel but little did we know that a football game had just ended and we were right by the stadium so it took a bit longer (an hour) but it was worth it.  I especially loved the American Girl store.  I always wanted one! I remember going through the magazines and dreaming (:  The Lego store was also awesome!  They had huge sculptures made entirely of Lego, which was pretty incredible.  On Sunday we went to the university institute for church which was a little awkward because it was a singles ward.  Then we headed to the Minneapolis Institute of Art.  It was a very cool museum!  Then we went to Potbelly sandwiches for lunch.  On Monday Matt had his interview so Ellie and I went back to the mall for the afternoon and we went to Annie's Parlor for dinner.  Before we drove home on Tuesday we stopped off at Minnehaha park.  It was beautiful, even if it was the wrong time of year.

MALL OF AMERICA

Matt thought they were creepy.

 
Amazing Lego sculptures.

Ellie looking up at the giant robot.

The robot in the background is made up of 2.8 million Legos, weighs around 6 tons, and is 2 1/2 stories tall!

Ellie got a piglet from the Disney store.  I'm not sure if it was more for Ellie or for Matt (: He loves Winnie the Pooh everything!

MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS

This is an amazing and huge museum, I highly recommend it.  Just don't do the following things:

1- Put your kid on your shoulders

2 - Have a water bottle

3 - Take pictures

We were spoken to so many times I thought we were going to get kicked out!

Matt liked this painting the best, I wonder why : D I would be insulted by the artist if I was her.  She even has a 5 o'clock shadow!

Ellie passed out after the museum.

Going to Potbelly's for lunch.

After Dinner at Annie's Parlor.

MINNEHAHA PARK

I couldn't stop singing "Minna, minna, ha, ha, minna, minna, ha, ha, we love you." to the tune of Chitty chitty bang bang.  I was driving Matt crazy.....ha, ha.

It was gorgeous!  I can only imagine how pretty it would be in the summer.