Easter

I can't believe this was Ellie's second Easter. While she is still too young to get excited about Easter, she did enjoy hanging out in the backpack while Brian hid eggs for the cousins up at the ranch. She looked so cute on Easter Sunday in her dress that Grandma Deanna made for her. We drove down to temple square on Sunday and enjoyed the gorgeous flowers. Ellie did not want to cooperate for any pictures, but she looked so cute in her flowery little dress with all the blooms around her that I had to try and snap a few. We dropped by and said a quick hello to Grandma Melissa and Grandpa Tim and even stopped by to say hi to Grandma Joycie before heading out to the Porter's for Easter dinner. Ellie's favorite part of the night was eating an ice cream cone. Not the ice cream, just the cone.

California

    
      We had a blast in California last month. Brian and I had decided not to go to Disneyland, even though the rest of the family was going. We figured that Ellie wouldn't really care or ever remember, and we didn't want to pay for ourselves to go, but after some convincing we decided to go for one day so that we could spend time with family. It actually turned out to be great fun. Ellie just loved being outside in her stroller all day. She was happier at Disneyland than she ever is at home. With the help of Deanna, Brian and I got to ride almost every single ride and we even took Ellie on a few rides too. Her favorite part was feeding the duck though.  We stayed with Brian's family at a house within walking distance of Disneyland. It had a pool in the backyard and lots of little toys that were perfect for entertaining Ellie. It was much better than staying at a hotel.

       I was nervous about the drive to California and back. Now that Ellie is mobile, she doesn't enjoy her car seat like she used to. She actually did awesome and slept a lot of the way. We also visited the beach for a total of 20 minutes, and found ourselves an amazing gelato place. It was a quick trip, but nice to get away for a couple of days.

March 2014

          March flew by in a blur and was a pretty busy month for us. Besides Ellie's birthday, we celebrated St. Patrick's day, (ok, not really, but I did dress Ellie in the cute outfit that Brian's aunt got for her last year...I've been waiting a whole year for Ellie to wear it, and she looked cute as a button) took our longest road trip with Ellie and went to Disneyland, (pics and more information coming later) finally settled on a new dog, and dealt with the day to day messes that Ellie likes to make.
         Last November we decided to find Rowdy a new home. He was such a good dog, but he was nervous around young children and snapped at and nearly bit more than one little kid. We just didn't feel comfortable with that, so we found him a family that had older kids and that we thought would give him a good home. Since then we have been looking for another dog. I loved having animals growing up as a kid, and even though now I understand what a HUGE responsibility it is for the mom (thanks Mom for basically taking care of a million animals while we were growing up) and 90% of the time I wonder why the heck I even agreed to get another dog, I still think it is something I want to do for my kids. Bristol is a 5 year old boxer that we found on KSL. Her family was moving to take care of an elderly grandmother, so they could not bring the dog along. She grew up with a little girl and is AMAZING with Ellie. Ellie's favorite (and pretty much only) word to say is "doggie" although it sounds more like "da da dug dug dug" she definitely knows what she is saying. Bristol lets her climb all over her, poke her in the eye, and pretty much do anything to her. While she still has some things that truly annoy me (like barking at the door, growling and being antisocial with new people that come over) seeing how interested Ellie is in the dog and how good the dog is with Ellie makes me feel like it might be worth it. A bonus for me is that I am a little bit more motivated to go out and get some exercise. Bristol is pretty good on a leash and I have been going on a jog each morning with Ellie and the dog. We do a mile and a half and it takes us about 25 minutes. I only jog for about 10 of those minutes, but for me that is pretty big news. Ellie LOVES being outside and cries when I bring her inside, so it is a good way to spend the time between breakfast and her morning nap.