It's been WAY too long!

Sorry it took us so long to post again. We both have been very busy.

Thanksgiving was at the Sorenson house this year. We all ate way too much. Ellie got to have some pieces of roll and I think my dad fed her some cool whip or something. Her Thanksgiving dinner was sweet potatoes, rice cereal, and milk. My mom bought Ellie the cute outfit featured in these pictures. The feet were the cutest part. One foot said "Little" and the other said "Turkey." Jimmy brought his girlfriend Riley and I wished I had taken more pictures of everyone.





Ellie turned 6 months old on the 29th of November. I can't believe it has been that long. Some of the milestones Ellie hit between five and six months are:

sitting unassisted if you place her that way first

jumping- in her jumping chair, on your lap, pretty much anywhere

army crawling since mid-November

eating fruits and vegetables (so far no allergies)

drinking from a cup (with a huge mess)

Her favorite things to play with are plastic bags (with supervision of course), any kind of cord, cell phones, computers, remote controls, tupperware lids and big serving spoons, Weston's playstation controllers, anything paper-this makes it especially hard to grade papers for school, markers, Windu's crate, tags, and the list goes on and on.  

Ellie's first attempt to feed herself banana.  

What a mess!  Yes, that is banana above her eyebrow as well as up her nose.  

Even though you can't see it, it is even in her armpit.  I don't think she actually ate any of it.

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One week ago, I laid Ellie down for the night and expected her to be asleep shortly.  The first noises I heard, I walked in her bedroom and her hand was on her crib rail.  I put her back down, put her binky back in, comforted her and then left.  The next time I checked on her this is what I saw:

She had managed to pull herself up and was standing there with a huge grin on her face.  A few weeks prior to this, we had lowered the crib because she was grabbing her mobile and pulling it down to suck on.  I think the crib is as low as it goes, but we're not sure.  There's another hole way down at the bottom.  She insists on climbing up every time she is in her crib.  This is making nap time difficult and I have had to let her cry in the middle of the night.  She thinks it's really fun to let go and fall in her crib.  She laughs every time.  

Since that day (in one week), Ellie has mastered pulling herself up on just about everything.  She has even realized she doesn't have to fall backward to get down.  She pulls herself up and walks along the edges of Grandma Reynolds' couch.  She has also explored Grandma Sorenson's coffee table, the entertainment center, our bed, Windu's crate, the diaper bag, the vacuum, etc.  Pretty much anything she can get to, she will climb up.  During the same last week, Ellie has been using her knees a lot more to crawl.  She no longer looks like a little an inch worm.  I just can't believe how fast she is learning this stuff.  No doubt she'll be walking before we know it!

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As I was trying to finally post about what has happened in the last month, Ellie insisted on helping. She's going to be just like her daddy!

Another Good Burger

Some of you may have heard about an American Fork company that was sued by Inn N Out a while back. I don't know the results of the case, but that is not why I'm writing about them. A Chadder's opened up near our house and Missy and I decided to give them a try. Chadder's has a small menu hamburgers, fries, and shakes. I have their double cheeseburger and Missy had the single. Their french fries are fresh and their hamburger are also. I can see why Inn N Out was so mad when they found out about them. They even served their burgers in one side of a brown cardboard box. But there is one improvement on the Inn N Out experience. Fry Sauce! The new burger joint has not swayed me from the best burger in town but I thought that they we still good.

Tagged-Eights

Lisel tagged me a long time ago. Sorry it's late, but I did do it.

EIGHT THINGS THAT MAKE ME FEEL GOOD: listening to Ellie laugh, watching the little light bulb turn on when I teach something, receiving compliments, finishing my "projects", spending time with Weston, when the house is clean- it's rare, when I have a good idea, spending time with my family.

EIGHT THINGS I DID YESTERDAY: woke up at 1:30 a.m. to comfort my gassy baby for an hour until she fell asleep again, took a shower, fed Ellie applesauce for the first time, taught school, made baked potatoes, soaked Ellie's clothes in OxyClean, had rootbeer floats with Weston, cleaned up the kitchen.

EIGHT FAVORITE EATS/DRINKS: chicken parmesan, orange chicken, homemade macaroni and cheese, Dr. Pepper, chicken salad sandwiches, cheesecake, spaghetti, Cafe Rio chicken salad.

EIGHT THINGS ON MY WISH LIST: time to scrapbook and make cards, I would also like a finished basement, new clothes and shoes, Ellie to sleep through the night every night, being able to travel more to places like Hawaii or go on a cruise, a Six Flags in Utah, students were more serious about learning and were more respectful, a maid that would come clean once a week.

EIGHT THINGS I LOVE ABOUT FALL: cooler temperatures, Halloween, bright colored leaves, decorating for holidays, wearing warm pajamas, things sort of slow down from the summer bustle- at least for a little while, eating cold weather comfort foods, new episodes of my favorite TV shows.

EIGHT FAVORITE TV SHOWS: Chuck, Gilmore Girls, Cyberchase, Word World, House, So You Think You Can Dance, CSI, and Law & Order.

EIGHT THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO: Thanksgiving, Christmas Break, Weston done with school, Ellie crawling, pedicure party on Friday, gas prices going down even more, seeing my sister, making cards with Mom on Friday.

EIGHT FRIENDS TO TAG: Kristan, Shelly, Melanie, Andrea, Carrie, Kathie, Melissa, Hayley (so I had to put 8, but I won't feel bad if you don't do it)

Happy Halloween!

Ellie had a fun-filled Halloween.  We started our day at my school.  The parade started at 9:00.  Ellie was such a cute little chick.  The parents and students all ooh-ed and aah-ed over her.  My teaching partner even said I should put her in modeling.  She was trying to take everything in so she didn't smile much.  She had a blank stare.  I don't really blame her.  There are close to 1,100 students that go to my school.  Some were off track, but that is still a lot of kids.  

Then we went to see Weston at his work.  Again, more admiration.  She smiled a lot at the people he works with.  She really enjoyed Roger.  As soon as he brought out the candy her eyes lit up and she grinned from ear to ear.  She then dug her hand in the Smarties and pulled out a few.  She sucked on the wrappers and thought she had a pretty neat toy for awhile.   

We ended our day at my parents' neighborhood "Trunk or Treat".  Ellie was pretty much done by then.  She didn't keep her hat on for long.  All-in-all I thought she did well for such a crazy day.  We hope everyone had a great Halloween and that you loaded up on candy.  As Garfield says it's all about the "Candy, candy, candy, candy, candy."  

5 Months Old

Ellie is still growing like a weed.  We can't seem to find a good weed spray to slow her down.  Actually, she's getting more fun the older she gets.  Sometimes I miss having a little bundle to cuddle with, but it's so fun to watch her do new things.  

This month we've had a lot of fun with cereal.  She has had rice cereal for the last few weeks and yesterday she tried oatmeal.  I think she liked the oatmeal better, but she could've just been ravenous that day.  

Ellie can get around by rolling now.  She looks for something across the room and twists and rolls until she gets it.  She especially loves to go after newspapers.

She is learning that she has body parts.  This month she found her knees, toes, and last week she found her ear.

Since Ellie can almost sit unassisted, we decided to try out her door-frame jumper.  She doesn't really jump in it yet.  She mostly attacks the toys and throws them.  She also spins around on her toes.  

She's been paying a lot of attention to the dog and reaches out to grab him.  She pets him and has even pulled on his ears. 

If you put your hands out for Ellie to come to you, she will lean toward you and reach out her hands.  I was really excited when she started doing this because it makes me feel like she might actually want to be held by me.      

Here is evidence of how adorable she really is:

Weston's business trip and the stowaways

Ellie and I couldn't stand the thought of having the house all to ourselves last weekend so we hopped the plane with Daddy and headed off to Portland, Oregon. Beehive sent Weston to Corvallis, Oregon (we had to drive two hours from Portland) from the 12th-15th to work with Summit on computer backups. Ellie and I pretty much hung out in the hotel, but it was a nice break from reality. We didn't get any pictures (kicking myself), but Sunday Ellie took her first swimming lessons. She seemed pretty solemn the whole time and the pool was rather chilly for it being heated. We swam another time too and she looked like she had a little more fun.

Monday I strapped Ellie in the Baby Bjorn and we walked the Oregon State University Campus for an hour and a half. My knees were really sore the next day. Weston got done a little early that day so we took a drive to Newport on the coast. We found the Historic Yaquina Bayfront and took a bunch of pictures. We also HAD to get salt water taffy while we were there. Right before we left we fed Ellie while sitting on a bench along the boardwalk watching the boats at the docks. It was pretty neat even if we were only there about two hours.

Ellie was super on both flights and I was definitely amazed. One of the flight attendants on the way to Portland gave Ellie a certificate for her first flight. She also gave her a little treat bag with some luggage tags, a deck of cards, and snacks for Ellie to share.
My favorite part of the trip was that I finally got to read for pleasure! When I'm at home there is always something that needs to be cleaned, papers to be corrected, or something else I have to do. In a hotel, there's only so much you can do so I finally got to finish reading Harry Potter #6. I know, I know. I'm really behind, but now I'm closer. I'll probably have to read #7 during Christmas Break. Who knows.

Ellie finally found out how to get her foot in her mouth

On the beach in Newport

On the bayfront

Seriously?

St. George Marathon Weekend

We had a great time in St. George the weekend before last. It's a yearly tradition for my family to head south General Conference weekend for the St. George Marathon. My crazy mom has run it for 13 years now. My semi-crazy sister has run 5 times now. I have run 6, but I didn't get to run this year. The last time I ran was the first year I was married (2005) when I ruined both of my knees because I didn't train very well. We still go down there every year to cheer on my family and enjoy a vacation. My mom and sister both did great!

    Ellie with Grandpa

Ellie with Grandma

Kristan at mile 24

Mom and her friend Monica at mile 24

Shopping the outlet malls

At the 10 year banquet

One of Ellie's new favorite toys

Ellie's First Rice Bath

So we went to the grocery store and almost forgot to get rice cereal. We were checking out when Weston remembered. Whew! We had a ton of fun watching Ellie bathe herself with her food today. It didn't start out so well. She turned her lips up quite a few times and couldn't figure out how to eat it. She got the hang of it though and one soaking bib, drenched shirt, and messy face later she finished her first "solids". It looked like milk with a few floaties to me. She liked it so much that Weston couldn't shovel it in her face fast enough!




There was two ounces in the little cup (about to the line) and this is how much was left!

Four Months Old!

Some of the really fun things Ellie has been up to this last month:

playing with her toes
grunting
rolling from her stomach to her back (occasionally)
still rolling from her back to her stomach-she's getting so fast.
being extremely ticklish everywhere
catching and throwing her ball- it's more like slow grabbing and dropping
lifting her head in an attempt to get out of her car seat
sitting in her Bumbo seat
army crawling
grabbing our faces- she really likes my nose and of course hair- ouch!
blowing out diapers left and right
falling asleep on her own in her crib
watching the dog roam around
grabbing things and putting everything in her mouth
splashing in the bathtub

She went in for her four month appointment today and got more shots. On the way to the office, she had a major blow out and got it all over her car seat. The nurse said it makes it okay because she's so cute. Ellie now weighs 14 pounds and 1 ounce and she's 24 and 3/4 inches long. She is growing so quickly and she is so much fun! The doctor said she should start eating rice cereal, so we'll be starting that once we get to the grocery store. Right now I'm off track so today was my first official day of not having to bring Ellie to the babysitter. It's going to be a fun three weeks!

Restaurant.com

One day that I had off from work (I can't remember if I was sick or if it was a holiday) I saw one of the morning news shows talk about restaurant.com. It is alot like the Deal Pickle (yes it is Deal not Dill) before they got bought out or taken over by City Deals. The Deal Pickle had gift certificates to local businesses for 50% off and when City Deals took over the offer gift certificates for 10% off and up. The only thing that I ever used the Deal Pickle was for the food and when they went away I started looking for new websites to get my 50% off fix. Restaurant.com doesn't do the 50% off thing it's 60%. That is a $25 gift certificate for $10! And they have gift certificates for restaurants all over the country. The Deal Pickle would send your gift certificates in the mail, but with restaurant.com you print off your gift certificate from your computer and take it with you to the restaurant. The certificate has an authorization number and the restaurant calls to authorize it. So no you can't use the same gift certificate twice. I would also recomend signing up for their email list because they send you coupons for an additional 60% off. ($25 for $4) Each restaurant has different rules for using your gift certificates so make sure that you read them. For example, your bill must be $35 in order to use your $25 gift certificate, so you might still have to pay some money. Take a look at the restaurants that are in your area. http://www.restaurant.com/

Chrome

Google released their new web browser. I love it. The adopted the look of IE 7, but they use the address bar for more than just entering your website's address, you can search right from the address bar and they also added an auto-complete feature when you type in the address bar, you will see the address and the page title. Every time you open a new tab, Chrome shows you a thumbnail image of the websites that you visit most. Supposedly Chrome does not support as many plug-ins, but I haven't noticed anything missing in the sites that I visit. Check out more about Chrome go to www.google.com/chrome. Sorry Apple users, Chrome only works on Windows for now.

Ellie is 3 Months Old

We can't believe it's been three months already. Recently it seems like she learns something new every day. She has started to look more intently and sometimes play with her toys. She can roll to her stomach from her back. Spitting up while on her stomach is so much fun especially when she snorts it up her nose before I can clean it up. She babbles a lot and can carry on a long conversation. I think the most fun things to manifest themselves have been her giggle and her great big smile. She laughs when I tickle her armpits and also when you bring her feet up to her mouth. There have been other things to make her laugh, but not all the time. The Olympics made her turn into a regular old TV junkie. Every time it's on she stares at it. She especially liked watching Michael Phelps. She has been doing well at the babysitter's house and I'm getting stronger about going back to school. It seems it's the most difficult on Mondays after I've been with her all weekend. It is also hard when she is really happy and fun and I have to put her in her car seat to drive for 25 minutes. We are having so much fun with her and can't wait to see what else she'll do soon.

Rolling Over

On Sunday evening my mom was having fun helping Ellie roll from her back to her stomach. Ellie thought she was pretty cool and continued practicing all week long without help. She would almost get to her stomach, but her arm was in the way. Wednesday night after the ward barbecue, she finally got it. After a few more days of practice getting her arm out, she's really getting fast. Now she just needs to learn to get from her stomach to her back. I can't believe how fast she's growing!

Sorenson Family Reunion

We just got back from the Sorenson Family Reunion in Paradise, Utah.  Weston, Ellie, and I left Friday morning around 8:30.  We dropped off the dog at the Petsmart Pet Hotel (again).   We almost made it to Brigham City before Ellie started screaming that she was hungry.  I felt kinda white trash feeding her in the Wal-mart parking lot while Weston went to get some swim diapers inside.  I guess you do what you have to when you have a baby.  When we finally got to the large house that we all stayed at, my mom was the only one there.  The rest of the family was at the park for the rest of the night.  We watched our family compete in the Sorenson Olympics (S'lympics) and had lunch there.  Weston played some softball with my brother and a few cousins.  Ellie was passed around quite a bit.  We were all bothered by ants everywhere.  My cousin Lisel's poor little Landon got bit all over the backs of his legs by the ants.  Later on, we had some excellent dutch oven barbecue chicken and potatoes.  After cleaning up, we headed back to Paradise Springs where Weston set up the tent our little family would be sleeping in.  We all sat in the house and sang songs while our Uncle Robert and some cousins played the guitar.  That is a tradition our extended family has done since before I was born.  Ellie had a great night of sleep.  She was asleep all of the night except waking up at 4:30 to eat and then going right back to sleep.  I was very impressed that she did so well in the tent.

Saturday most of the day was free time.  A lot of the cousins and their kids went to the outdoor pool (in Logan I think).  I wanted to take Ellie to the indoor pool, but we would've been the only ones going there.  Weston went golfing for the first time ever.  He went with my dad, brother, and my cousin Eric.  Ellie was so tired and napped for a couple of hours when I wanted to be swimming.  We decided to just have Ellie swim in the kiddie pool that was out on the grass.  We got her changed into her new swimming suit and a swim diaper that was a little big for her.  As soon as I put her feet in the pool, she started to cry.  I think it was too cold for her because she really likes her baths.  We didn't get pictures and it didn't last long at all.  She didn't even get her swim shirt wet.  Saturday night we watched a really neat slide show my cousin Ernie put together.  It had pictures from our family and included our ancestors a few generations back.  After the slide show everyone stayed up to sing again.  Ellie was tired, so we went to sleep.  At about midnight, the wind started blowing so hard I thought our tent would blow away with us in it.  I was more worried about our rain fly blowing off and having to chase it down the great big hill we were atop.  It started to rain pretty hard.  A few hours later, the wind had stopped and the storm was stuck over us.  It poured and I could see the lightning striking and lighting up outside our tent.  The thunder lasted for 10 seconds at a time and rumbled the ground underneath us.  Ellie slept through all of it.  I wish I could say the same.  I sat up being afraid of what was going to happen.  We could've run inside and slept on the floor of the house, but we would've gotten soaked on the way in.  That's how hard it was raining!  

We were alive in the morning and as soon as Ellie ate, we were on our way home.  I had to teach sharing time so we had to be back home before noon.  There were only four of my cousins that didn't make it.  That's pretty impressing considering we have 36 cousins in the family.  All of my uncles and aunts (11 of them) were there.  We had a really great time as usual and next year my family will be in charge.  That means we probably won't have as much fun because we'll be so busy.

Weston said that he heard about the storm we were in from a co-worker today at work.  She said they issued a severe weather warning for that area.  They also told everyone to stay inside and away from their windows and we were in a tent!     

The Saga of Ellie's Blessing

Buckle up-this is going to be a long one. The last week seems like it was all about Ellie's blessing, from cleaning, to cooking, to running errands, to multiple trips to the same store on the same day, to dropping the dog off at the PetHotel and so on.

Starting one week ago Sunday we began preparations for Ellie's Baby Blessing. Sunday we sat down and made a list of all the things that we needed and would like to get done before the coming Sunday. As the week went by we realized that the "would like to's" were probably not getting done. We finished hanging everything in Ellie's room and got it ready for people to see. Friday we had planned to get the food and Ellie had her two month visit with the doctor. At her visit, she received her first round of vaccinations. Right after her appointment, she met Missy's grandparents and great grandmother. We bought the ingredients for the food we were going to be serving and got to spend some time with Missy's Grandma and Grandpa Zaugg and Great Grandma Standley. (Yes, Ellie has a Great Great Grandma.) Saturday was spent assembling all of the ingredients to food, mowing the lawn and setting up the table, chairs and shade in the backyard. When Sunday came we still had some things to do. I was planning on making some chicken wings that take 5-6 hours to cook so I set my alarm for 5:30 am so I could cook them under the broiler before putting them in the crockpot. I got all eight pounds of chicken wings in by 7:00 am and got them started on cooking. Missy still had a list of things to get done, but I had to attend the Sunday morning meeting in place of the Young Men's president. ( That situation is a whole different story.) When we left our house we had everything done that we had planned on doing before church. Everything from then on went very well. She even slept through her blessing! Now, what you have all been waiting for pictures.

Here is Ellie's FIVE generation picture!

Another Sunglasses Picture

Ellie meeting her Great Great Grandma for the first time.