Christmas Recap

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We were busy trying to make sure that both our families were able to spend some time with the three of us. We spent Christmas eve with Dan's parents and Grandma Jane. This was the first year that his sister, Lauren, wasn't with them for Christmas and also Dan's Grandpa, Dale, wasn't with the family. I think we still managed to have a good time though they were all missed. We opened presents with them that night. Elliott wasn't too sure about ripping off the wrapping paper. Tissue paper, on the other hand, was VERY exciting! He also enjoyed sitting in the empty boxes:



Here we are - I am sporting some horrible posture, I'll have to work on that...


E was super excited that he snagged a sugar cookie and no one took it away from him:


On Christmas day we spent the morning at home. It was nice to take some time to ourselves and not feel that we needed to rush out the door. We had Christmas dinner in the afternoon with Dan's family again. Elliott napped right through the meal - some might call that a bit of a Christmas present as we actually had some adult conversation instead of focusing on feeding him. After dinner we played some Wii and then left to go to my sisters house (sister Sarah) for dessert and to open presents with my family. We had a great time at Sarah's and were able to play with new toys and read books, and eat a ton of dessert (maybe it was just me eating a ton?).

Elliott is a drool machine right now. Must be working on a new tooth.


Grace got several new babies for Christmas. She was using Elliott practicing feeding them:


Now he's changed into Christmas jammies and a bib to control the drooling:


E also likes to be helpful and clean up after his messes:


Today, Tuesday, we got maybe 4 inches of snow in Portland. We were suppose to go to my parents house to celebrate my Grandmas birthday today. After loading the car and getting about 4 blocks from home we realized the city came to a grinding halt! Google maps was telling us that all major roads were red or red/black. Meaning they were either completely stopped or traveling under 25mph. We turned back and spend the night at home. Hopefully we can celebrate with my Grandma another day soon. I took E out into the snow for a minute. He didn't mind getting all cozy and warm. Being in the snow, however, was an entirely different story:





So, we came inside and ate homemade sweet potato fries. Much better:


Just to let everyone know how bad traffic was....my mother in law, Chris, left work at 4:05 and didn't arrive home until 9pm! That was driving from downtown Portland to Wilsonville, 15 miles south! We Oregonians really aren't prepared for snow!

I'm a lazy blogger

I admit it, I'm a lazy blogger. Recently I've had a hard time with sitting down to blog about Elliott or our lives around here. We've been busy with birthdays and holiday celebrations the few weeks with more to come this weekend. Last Saturday we spent the day in Wilsonville decorating sugar cookies with Dan's family and then going to my sister, Amy's, house for Christmas with their family. Amy and her family are in Sacrament until the 28th (I think) so we celebrated and exchanged gifts early with their family.

The bigger kids decorated a Gingerbread House - it collapsed:


Finally a cousin picture that almost worked out well (Josh is hiding):


We had a great time celebrating early and playing with all the exciting new toys!

Elliott is walking all the time now, sometimes even trying to run. If he does run he'll usually fall down pretty quickly, he isn't 100% stable. His new favorite book is Dr. Seuss ABC, specifically the letter L. There is a picture of a lion on that page and he'll growl at it. I'm not sure where he got that from, maybe I did it once? It's hysterical though. I do have a video of it but I'm not sure how to upload it on our new computer. I'll have Dan do it tomorrow.

E is also starting to sign a little more. We got him to do "please" this past weekend. He was being bribed with reeces pieces and doritos at first, but will now do it most of the time when we ask him to. A few times he will sign "dog" and at least 3 times he's done that sign as well as said something that sounds like "dag". He also knows what a door is now and will sort of say "door". There is a difference between how he says door and dog, surprisingly. Right above his changing table is a picture of a turtle. When we are very lucky he will sort of say turtle. That one takes a lot of coaching and most of the time he'll just point to it. Of course, we think he's a genius, I'm pretty sure every parent thinks that their child is one :) It's fun that he'll communicate in his little way. I'm really looking forward to knowing what he's thinking all the time.

I think maybe part of the reason I'm a bad blogger is because I feel like Elliott and I don't do too much. It's been rainy which means we are spending most days inside. If we go out it seems to be to go to the pharmacy or the hospital for me. I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis about 5 years ago and this past year - basically since Elliott was born - had been a tough one. I had a mild "flare up" in February, a really bad "flare up" in June and another now in December. (A flare up is basically the reaction my colon has when it attacks itself. Many different lovely symptoms are included that I don't really need to go into, though I will say that on some lucky days I was in then bathroom at least 15+ times a day) I'm on 4 different medications at the moment and take a record number of pills a day to deal - 19 a day! The most recent medication is called Imuran and I have to do weekly blood test to monitor liver function, etc. Last week I had to go in for a Bone Density scan to see if I've lost any bone mass since I have been on and off Prednisone for close to 6 months. Good news - no loss since 2007 (when I first went on Pred.). Thankfully the Imuran seems to be working and things are finally calming down. I'm hoping to get off both Imuran and Prednisone quickly as both have horrible side effects. I guess the only upside to this all is that I've lost all my baby weight plus about 10 lbs! :) I'm back in my skinny jeans! I feel like we don't do too much because I do have to be aware of where a bathroom is pretty much all the time. So, that's why there isn't too much to write about. Sorry. :(

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays. We are looking forward to lots of good food and time with both of our families this weekend.

December Already!?

We've had a busy week around here. Dan took last Wednesday through Friday off from work to hang out with us and generally get things done. It was great, though we were busy every night. We had a great thanksgiving splitting it between the two families in Portland by celebrating on Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately, our Mac crashed today so I have very few pictures from the past couple of weeks that I can access right now. Here are a few from Thanksgiving at my parents house:



Cousin pictures never work out well :( Maybe in a few years....


Cameron had his 3rd Birthday party this past weekend. He seemed to have a great time, even though he didn't quite understand how to play any of the games. This was the best of him from the party:


Here is some cousin love:


We also just splurged and purchased Elliott a new highchair. Basically I'm lazy and also crazy about keeping his highchair clean. I took the old one apart every day (3 times a day) to clean it. So, we've upgraded to something that will be much easier to clean as well as will last a lot longer. Here's Elliott having his first meal in the new chair. Umm...maybe spaghetti wasn't the best plan (see floor below his feet):


Off to the bath we went! Also, just in case you were thinking that poor Elliott has no hair, check this out:


In other news....Elliott is walking almost exclusively now. He loves to climb stairs. He also has become VERY demanding. I like to blame Sarah and her girls saying he got it from our Maui trip - from them, of course! But, in reality I think it has more to do with turning 1 than anything. All day I constantly hear yelling in his incoherent babble. Usually meaning, "hey, read me that pop up book for the 15th time today!" or "let me play with your iphone, it's way more fun than my toys". At least that's my interpretation. Dan's grandma put it best the other night when she said, "Elliott has his bossy pants on tonight!" Yes, he does...all the time! I still like him though :).

Pictures of Maui

It is Sunday night, Elliott and I have been home since Wednesday night. We've been pretty busy every evening since I've been home and I haven't had much time to sit down and finally post all the pictures I took while there. I took something around 260+ pictures, mainly because Sarah and Ryan's camera was broken so I was doing both families. Here are just a few photos from our trip.

Oh yeah, on the flight home Elliott finally fell asleep for the last 45 minutes. We, thankfully, had a row to ourselves again. Around 8:30 Hawaii time (10:30 at home) he curled up on the seat with his blanket. I think I'd like to take Dan on the plane next time!

Here is E on the plane over. We were getting close to landing and I had him strapped in. Who knew my water bottle would be so exciting!


Elliott hated the waves (because they were too unpredictable), but loved playing in the sand.


Thanks Ryan, Sarah, Brooke & Grace for letting us tag along.


Sisters :)


Elliott loved the pools. He had a little ring here that he used quite a bit...not that I let go of him!


Aunt Sarah & Elliott


E snugged up after swimming.


Sunset from our balcony. We were able to see both Moloka'i and Lana'i - you can see the latter here.


Brooke & Elliott wrestling. (I think this is my favorite because they both are totally happy here - pure joy!)


E was making this funny determined face the entire trip.


Getting ready to swim, again. No, we didn't get tan. I did have many people ask me if I had on sunscreen and if I had put enough on Elliott.


Grace loves to give hugs this way. She is so sweet


Ryan & Brooke - this might be my second favorite picture.

Paradise Found!

On Friday night last week my sister, Sarah, called me to tell me how amazing their time in Maui has been. They had a huge set of rooms at their timeshare and wanted to confirm that Dan and I didn't want to come out to visit. I think they were 1/2 way joking, but Elliott and I took them up on the offer. On Saturday morning E and I flew out to Maui. I definitely had my reservations about taking Elliott on the plane for his first time....alone! He slept for a total of 30 minutes of the 5 hour flight. But, he was pretty good the entire time. We lucked out with having an empty seat next to us, thankfully!

It is beautiful here! The timeshare resort is amazing and we have an oceanfront room. Not too much is on the agenda every day other than going the pools or the beach. Elliott isn't too sure about the ocean - I think it freaks him out. Yesterday we swam for a long time and he loved it! We took him down a very short water slide and he was thrilled.

I don't have any connector to upload all the pictures I've been taking. When we get home I'll do another entry with pictures.

Elliott and I are leaving tomorrow afternoon. We've had a great time here and are feeling very lucky to have been able to take such a fabulous vacation at the very last minute. The only think theat would have made it better was if Dan had been able to come :( Ever the practical one he stayed home to work and save some money. Dan, next time you are coming!

Peeping Eyes

So, when I shower there is a little peeping Tom watching me. He's 30 inces tall (85%), 23lbs (55%) & has a huge head that appears bald in some lights (90% head circ.). Whenever I shower and E is around he has to watch me the whole time. He'll wedge himself in between the shower and the wall and talk to me. But, the second I'm done and open the shower curtain he crawls away.

Maybe I should be glad he likes me and wants to know what I'm up to. However, I do think I'd like to take a shower without an audience. Do other kids do this? His other fun trick is to now wedge himself in between me and the cupboards in our kitchen when I'm in there cooking - or whatever I'm doing.

I suppose I should be thankful that he still likes me enough to want to be around me so much.

Yoda & Cupcakes

I'm feeling much better today. Not sure what happened last night. Woke up feeling like I could eat again. On Saturday we made the rounds of families houses and parties for Halloween. Dan dressed up as Spock, Elliott was Yoda and I was a black cat. Of course, no pictures of me (at least on my camera) but here are Dan and Elliott.


Finally able to crawl up all the stairs at Sarah's house:


All the cousins. So, not everyone is smiling, but I think you can see all the faces.


On Sunday we had Elliott's first birthday party. We decided to just have family over, which is a total of 20 people -including 6 kids! Needless to say once everyone was there it was crazy, but fun. Elliott had a great time, hopefully everyone else did as well.



Excited over new toys!




Yum...Birthday Cupcake!


In other news...Elliott is still trying to be more brave with walking. On Halloween we were at a party with him where there was a little dog. E was walking all over the place to get this dog. I think he finally realized he can do it. Since then he's been much more brave. He wasn't too sure about that cupcake. He was pretty clean with eating it :)

Hope everyone else had a fun Halloween!

Halloween & BIrthdays coming soon...

I have tons of cute pictures of Elliott, cousins and family from Halloween and his Birthday party today. But....I am not doing well at the moment. Not sure if I got my niece, Brooke's, cold or I ate something that isn't agreeing with me. Who knows with my horrible immune system (due to taking steroids and other fun drugs all the time).

So, be patient for another day and I'll get all the cute pictures posted for all to see.

Stepping Man

Pumpkin Patches

A little bird told me I needed to blog - so here I am :) Dan is a computer hog, that's the bottom line. He is on our main computer all the time. I have to sneak in just to use it. Okay - maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but not far off.

On Monday I went to a Farm with my sister Sarah and her family. We wanted to take pictures of the girls with Elliott and also they wanted some family pictures. There was a little tractor ride out to the field with the pumpkins. Elliott had a great time with the girls - as always. No one can get him to smile like Brooke and Grace can.






On Thursday my mom and both my sisters (plus kids) went to another farm west of Portland on Sauvie Island. I love it out there because it feels totally rural but you are only 15 minutes from the city. We tried really hard to get all 6 of the cousins to cooperate for a picture. You'll see the results below.





Sarah said that Elliott and Caleb were like little gerbils. All they wanted to do was crawl through the hay to the tunnel at the bottom of the pyramid. I wasn't going to go in and get them so they were stopped, many times.



Caleb is always happier when his mom is holding him:


Still no walking for Elliott. He will stand forever but won't move those feet an inch. Sometimes he will no say "Hi Da" at look at Dan. "Dada" is still his favorite word by far. We are gearing up for Halloween and Elliott's first birthday. I can't believe it's been nearly a year since he was born. I remember last Halloween when I was massively pregnant. I was up until 3am at a party. The next day I started to get contractions. What a difference a year makes!

Dan will love this one being posted for all to see.... he he!

(there were girls at that party asking me if I was really pregnant...umm....do you see that belly!)

Happy 11 Months!

Elliott is now 11 months old. Where has the time gone? It feels like yesterday that he was a tiny baby. Now he is huge, crawling around, pulling up on everything and even trying his first few hesitant steps. That's right, he's taken probably 5-6 steps though not in a row. He's very hesitant about it all and will just barely take one step before falling to the ground. Hopefully by the time his 1 year birthday rolls around he'll be walking all over the place.

Two weekends ago we went to my Brother-in-laws parents' house to do the annual Cider Press. Ryan went crazy and purchased a TON of apples this year. From the looks of things, Dan is going to be making a ton of hard cider. Elliott was too little last year to play (2 weeks old) but was very excited to be with the big kids this year.


We purchased a helmet for E this past weekend - he's not a fan! At least now I feel like he's safe when we go on bike rides.


Elliott has also been missing Dan a lot during the day. He knows that Dan is in his office and will crawl over to the door and scratch at it to get in. Dan says it's very sad to hear but he has to keep working.


Standing on his own - and smiling like a mad man at Dan: