Saturday, August 30, 2008

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.

Friday, August 22, 2008

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!



Monday, August 11, 2008

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!     

Monday, August 4, 2008

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.