Wrigley and the park

I am not a major animal lover, but Aaron and Elsie both are. We got Wrigley a couple of years ago because Aaron wanted a dog so badly. I was very nervous about getting a dog, especially a big one. But Wrigley has been such a great dog. He is so sweet and gentle and loving. Elsie, of course, absolutely adores him. She is not afraid of him at all. He loves to play with her and lick her like crazy. She will sit and pat him and love him in return.

She'll even lean in to kiss him and let him lick her face. Way too gross for me, but whatever!



Angie has been hanging out with us a whole bunch while she's waiting for baby to come. We took Elsie to the park again, and all she wanted to do was chase the birds. She was not understanding why they wouldn't come to her.

Just a cute picture of one of Elsie's many silly faces. She has a million of them.
GiGi was filling up the lid to her water bottle with water and letting Elsie take little sips. She could've done it for hours. She also loves the little sacrament cups at church...but doesn't every little kid?! I know I did.

There was a little girl at the park that Elsie was fascinated with. She was laughing so hard at everything she did. Of course, it was one of her silly laughs (unfortunately, I caught the tail end of it...she was going pretty hard).
It was fun to watch Elsie chase the birds. This particular time a bird came flying right down next to her and it scared her. I wish I had been recording just a couple seconds sooner because Elsie's face was priceless. She was freaked out. But she recovered quickly and got to chasing again.

copycat

I have noticed so much more lately how Elsie copies everything we do...good and bad. She'll sit like I'm sitting or dance like I'm dancing. It's been really fun to watch. I do have a problem of hitting Aaron (joking around, of course) and I've noticed that Elsie will copy me. That's not so good!

She has full on conversations on the cell phone with who knows who. I would love to get inside her brain and figure out what she's thinking and saying.

haircuts

Elsie and I both needed to get a haircut so badly!! I don't know why I'm not better about keeping up on getting my hair cut or trimmed. I sometimes go months between cuts. That's kind of embarrassing to admit. I let it get long with no style and then pull it back every single day. Whenever I get it cut and styled again, I feel so happy and so much better. Plus, when it's shorter, my hair isn't so flat. Anyway, I finally got it cut last week and it makes me smile. I don't know why I haven't taken a picture of it...I guess because I don't really want to take a picture of the rest of me right now. It's cute, trust me.

Elsie was starting to get quite a mullet. The back and top of her hair have been growing like crazy, but the sides just won't catch up. She has curly hair which kind of hides some of the difference, but it was starting to get a little out of control. I was too nervous to cut it, and I definitely didn't want Aaron touching it after his bang "trim" earlier this year. Angie was brave enough to do it, and it looks so much better. Elsie was actually pretty good while she cutting. We gave her the water spray bottle to play with and she was sucking water like crazy. Then she played with the camera to keep herself occupied. Angie just trimmed all around to try to round it out a bit more. Now that it's shorter and has a few layers, it's a lot curlier too. Thanks, Ang!

Here's the mullet before the cut. Plus, it was getting so long that it wouldn't hold on to any curl.

Curly, curly. You can't really tell the cut too much from the front, but the sides look a lot better.

wigglin' to the wiggles

A few weeks ago I was singing itsy-bitsy spider (or eensy-weensy, if that's what you prefer) to Elsie and she totally started doing some of the actions. She had never done them before. I had only sung the song a few random times to her, but it's one of the songs on her Wiggles movie that she watches on the iPod. For some reason, it seemed so amazing to me that she had actually been picking up on the words and actions as she had been watching the movie. Again, I was in awe of my cute little girl. Well, since then she wants to the actions to all sorts of Wiggles songs, and it makes me so happy every time she does it. Of course, she's not always right on her timing and what not, but she totally knows what to do.

I got this little video of her doing the actions. She can do them even better than this usually, but she was standing on the couch and having a hard time keeping her balance and dancing. Plus, she loves to look out the window every time she's on the couch. So she's doing a little multi-tasking. Thatta girl!

For those of you who don't get to watch Wiggles on a regular basis like I do...here's a video clip so you can the actions. My favorite part is when Elsie does the "everybody sing...la la la la la". She does it a little early, but it makes me laugh.

september already?

I can't believe it's September already!! I feel like the summer came and went so fast. We'll be moving just next month, Angie's baby is due in just a couple of weeks, and I've been having a great time shopping for Elsie's fall wardrobe. Boy oh boy, I wish I could get a brand new wardrobe for each season. Maybe if I can get skinny, I'll treat myself!

Aaron had a really light schedule last week for work, so we were able to get a lot done around the house. The shrubs and trees all around my mom's house were so out of control. Plus, there are way too many. So we (meaning mostly Aaron) did a ton of trimming and removing of some bushes. It looks so much better, but it was a pain. Now, when we leave the house, at least we know it's in tip-top shape.

On Saturday Aaron and Jared went over to Seattle for the BYU vs. UW football game. (Thank goodness BYU won!!) Angie, Elsie, and I hung out all day and had a great time. We went to the Farmer's Market in the morning, shopped at Wal-Mart for some more baby stuff for Angie, took naps, ate a nummy lunch at Dana's, and watched a movie (The Kite Runner...it follows the book very well...but it's very intense!) that night. It was a great day.

Random picture I took of Elsie and I while I was holding the camera. I just kind of like it. Not that either of us look that great...it just reminds me of us hanging out. Elsie wore her new BYU shirt on Saturday. I wanted to get a picture of Aaron and her before he left that morning, but Elsie and I were not ready in time. I was so glad she stood still while I was trying to take a picture. Lately, she's just been trying to take the camera from me and look at the screen. I had to laugh at her pose here because she's been doing this all the time. She puts her hands behind her back in a total drill team type stance. I love it...she's going to be a killer driller someday!!

our week (and a half) in review

We've had a fun and busy last week and a half. Here it goes:

- A couple Saturdays ago, we had a baby shower for my sister, Angie. It was so much fun and a lot of people came to show their love and support. It was all pop culture based...we had some pretty fun games and cute invitations. Well, I did make them, so, of course, I'm going to think they're cute. You should check out her blog for a better description and pictures.

- Elsie got pretty sick one night last week and was throwing up all night. We kept giving her baths because she would get so gross. I felt so bad for her. After each bath, she would just sit and snuggle with us, mainly Aaron, on the couch. It took a few days for her to get back to normal, but the throwing up only lasted that night. I guess the only good part about kids being sick is that they get very snuggly. I love that!- We spent a lot of time outside this past week since the weather had cooled down so much. One day we were out with cousins and they were taking Elsie for rides on their scooter. She was loving it and feeling like such a big girl. - One of the new things Elsie is doing is that she loves to "read" books. She'll sit there and look at the pictures and babble as she reads. We were at Hastings the other night and she was getting super grumpy. I was looking at the magazines, so I handed her a little magazine and she walked a little ways away from me and opened it up. She was standing there looking so cute and so serious. She'd look up every once in a while and smile and then keep reading. She would mouth words and look so excited for each picture. I was laughing so hard. That was one of my happiest, giddiest moments as a mom. She was so cute!

- I went over to Seattle last Friday with Angie for a Boyz 2 Men concert. We spent the day shopping for baby stuff and Elsie stuff, ate a wonderful lunch at Cheesecake Factory and went to the concert. It was so much fun!! It was at a smaller theatre in Seattle that we had never been to, and I think that made it so much better. Our seats were so close and it was like we were in our own little world. We were singing and dancing the whole time. I felt like I was a giddy little teenager again. I loved it! One of my favorite parts of the concert was the Motown medley they did. Of course, it reminded my of mom, but it give me such a happy feeling. We grew up listening to and dancing to those songs. I know all the words and love them. I just got this overwhelming sense of love and gratitude for my mom and all the happy memories I have with her. I'm so glad I had that experience.

- We've been taking Elsie to the park now that the weather is more pleasant and she can walk. She has such a great time exploring, going down the slide, swinging on the swings, and walking all around.

- Elsie has a new word. She says ba-ba or sometimes just ba for ball. She points out balls everywhere we go, or on TV, or in books or magazines. She's obsessed. We were at Wal-Mart the other night and she found a little ball while we were walking through the toy section. She kept playing with it while we finished all the rest of our shopping. It kept her very happy! When it was time to leave, I said to Aaron, "You do realize we have to buy that for her now or else she's going to be mad." I'm afraid we're starting a bad trend, but oh well! Aaron doesn't mind!

- I'm constantly amazed each day at how much Elsie really understands. When I tell her to do something, she does it. When I ask her something, she'll respond in her Elsie way. Kids are amazing!