Pumpkin Patch and Overalls

Every year since Elodie was 1 year old we have taken her to the local pumpkin patch for pictures....

October 2005:

October 2006:


This year was no exception...we had to squeeze it in on Monday night but it happened and I love the way they turned out! Here are a few of my favorite!

October 2007:

Happy Halloween!

I would say we are all set for tonight's Trunk-r-Treat....Happy Halloween Everyone!

One is good....Three is better!

Yesterday Elodie got 3 baths..yes 3!

Bath #1 was in the morning... her daily bath,dressed, and ready for the day. We use to bath her at night but since I shower in the morning I just throw her in after I'm done...it works out nicely and Chris loves it since he doesn't have bath duty at night anymore!

Bath #2 came after we got home from wal-mart and she didn't get to the toilet in time and peed all over the bathroom floor, pants down and everything! Poor girl! I was in the middle of unloading the groceries and she comes running through the living room, screaming her head off, trailing pee behind her...sigh....I threw her in the bathtub and started cleaning up. While I was on my hands and knees mopping my bathroom floor Elodie looks at me and asked if I would get her bathtoys for her! LOL! Thank heavens for some comic relief...I was definitely in need of some at that point!

Bath #3 came at about midnight last night when right before Chris and I went to bed I went into Elodie's room to check on her and tuck her in.....as soon as I opened her door I was hit by the strongest smell of throw-up! And as you all know, throw-up and a 5 month pregnant woman do not mix well! UGH! Apparently between the time that Chris laid her down (around 9pm) and midnight Elodie threw up all over her pillow, it was in her hair, on her pajamas...and some how she managed to FALL BACK TO SLEEP! She was just laying with her feet facing her pillow and her head facing the end of her bed! Poor girl! Who knows when she would have finally woken up from it so I'm so glad I went in to check on her! The first thing she said when I woke her up was "Sorry Mom!" Totally broke my heart! We then threw her in the bath AGAIN, cleaned her up, fresh jammies, a little water and she was perfectly fine again!?! Christopher got the job of stripping the bed, starting a load of laundry, and remaking Elodie's bed. He ended up just throwing Elodie's pillow away because of how much throw-up ended up on it! EWW! Thankfully, Elodie's bed is a trundle and we just took the top mattress off the bed and she slept on the underneath mattress! VOILA! She slept the whole night, ate a few bites of breakfast this morning and has been lopping around the house most of the morning. She is feeling a little warm but I took her temperature and she didn't have a fever so...We are going to take it easy today so that she is nice and rested for the big ward trunk-r-treat tonight! We had playgroup plans this morning but reluctantly decided to sit out...I don't want to over do it and then Elodie not be able to do the trunk-r-treat or worse, get someone else sick!


I don't know if maybe she had a 24 hour bug or what? Christopher wasn't feeling well over the weekend and a few of my friends complained of a similar stomach bug too..must be going around...I'm sure I'll get it next..or maybe I've already had it..perk of being pregnant I guess...you pretty much always feel sick!

3-D Ultrasound

Yesterday I was scheduled to have a 3-D ultrasound done. It was exciting to get to see the baby again but the reason my doctor wanted me to get one done was because when my 18 week ultrasound was done it looked like my placenta had implanted in the wrong spot and I was a possible candidate for Placenta Previa. So my doctor wanted me to see another doctor's office to get a 3-D ultrasound done. Thankfully, my placenta is right where it should be and it should only move up as the baby gets bigger. Everything is right on track and we are doing really well right now! After that was discovered, the rest of the ultrasound was enjoyable. Thought I'd share some pictures of our 20 week old, 11 ounce baby girl who loves to keep her hands in front of her face, lay on her belly, and keep her feet crossed kicking me in the blatter! Which would explain the 5 or 6 time a night bathroom trips I make!
P.S- We left the doctor's office with over 100 pictures on cd and a dvd of the ultrasound!

ENJOY!

Happy Birthday PawPaw!

Today is my PawPaw Whitney's (my mom's dad) 94th birthday! Holy Cow!! It has been such a blessing to have him in my life growing up and now as an adult! And he is still going strong! I talked to him this morning and he sounds great! Just wish we could be there to celebrate with him...this is when it stinks being so far from home and family!

We love you PawPaw and hope to enjoy your company and example for many more years!



(Picture taken June 2002 at my brother's wedding in Louisiana)

Happy Birthday to my Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Bill (my mom's twin sister and brother) and my sister in law Esther..All October 30th birthday's!

Halloween Fun

We have had a couple of fun halloween activites going on and I thought I'd share them! Too bad it doesn't FEEL like Halloween! It's been so dang hot lately and that can really spoil the holiday spirit!

Wednesday night we put together a gingerbread haunted house. Note to self....black icing and a 3 year old are not a good combination! I think she STILL has black icing underneath her fingernails! We had a fun time and thanks to Wilton thinking the whole thing up...we just had to follow the picture!


Elodie eating candy and watching mom and dad work on the haunted house....


Decorating....this is where the black icing underneath the fingernails started to happen!

My future cake decorating partner in action!

Finished product!


This morning we took Elodie to this really fun Pumpkin Patch/Children's Farm in Gilbert....(thanks for the suggestion Audrey)....I was really hoping to go later in the day mostly because I wanted better lighting for my pictures and I wanted Elodie to wear her overalls (as is tradition with us and pumpkin patches) but Christopher had gotten invited to go to the ASU/Cal game with family and he was leaving at 5pm. It was lunchtime or not at all. So we suffered through the heat (which put everyone in a crummy mood) and had a great time! Elodie got to pick a pumpkin (she picked the smallest one she could find), she got to decorate her pumpkin (which we were then grateful she had picked the smallest pumpkin because it took like 3 stickers and a face to fill the whole thing up!), we went through a hay maze, saw some animals (the pig was disgusting..we couldn't tell if he was alive or not!), and we rode on a hayride! Again, it would have been a better time had it not been so hot but we still had a great time together! I'm planning to take Elodie Monday evening to a local pumpkin patch to get some good lighting and overall shots! Stay tune!

And finally, tonight while all the boys were out at the ball game, I got together with Chris' cousins and we took the kids to their ward trunk-r-treat. Elodie was thrilled to finally be able to wear her tinkerbell costume and after whipping up some bows, she was ready! The little girl in most of the pictures with Elodie is her cousin (not really, but it's a long story) Ellie who is EXACTLY one year older than Elodie. She came as Sharpay (is that even how you spell it?) from High School Musical! Elodie kept wanting to call her a princess because she doesn't have a clue what High School Musical is and Ellie spent the whole night correcting her! They were fun together! We had a great time and since the sun was down it was a great night outside! I do have to say the best part about Arizona Halloween's is it's nice enough outside but not too cold that you have to cover up your costume with a jacket! That would have been a bummer! Our ward's trunk-r-treat is this coming wednesday and Elodie is so excited to get to wear her costume AGAIN! Lucky girl!

We hope everyone else is enjoying the Halloween Season! Happy trick-r-treating!

Interesting...

I still want one for this next baby, will just make a mental note NOT to put it on top of a table! If you do have one read the article since they are being recalled!

Because it's been one of those weeks....A few things to be thankful for!

5. My Grandma Brumfield turned 90 on Tuesday. Down in Louisiana they had a huge birthday party for her and over 150 people came to celebrate! We enjoyed a short visit with her over the phone this morning and she sounds like she is doing well!

4. I looked at a calendar yesterday and Christopher has exactly 6 weeks left of school! The countdown is on! This is also cause for some of our stress right now but it's also reason to feel blessed and grateful! We are finally nearing the end...until Chris gets the urge to get his Masters!

3. I took Elodie yesterday to get her 3 year pictures taken. She is such a sport and we got some really great shots! She is at the age now where you can pose her and she will stay that way but if you ask her to smile pretty she gives you this huge fake smile! It took some effort on my part but I got the real smile to shine through and she took some great shots!

2. Christopher got his first job offer this week.....a great one..one we might not pass up! This is also cause for more stress in our life but it's also a blessing to be looked at and wanted! Christopher has a few more job interviews lined up and we should hopefully know our future by November!

1. Halloween is finally around the corner. Planning the ward's trunk-r-treat....Elodie is super excited to finally be able to wear her tinkerbell costume! Poor girl! She's been staring at that costume in her closet for 2 months now! She is ready!

I feel better already! It's always nice to sit down and count my blessings!

New Recipe

I made this recipe for book club a couple of weekends ago..we did brunch and it turned out really great! I got some great compliments on it and a request for the recipe so I figured I would post it here! I'd like to make it again but it's definitely too much for 2 people! ENJOY!

Breakfast Casserole:

6 eggs (I'd gotten a tip that 6 eggs turns out too dry so I used 9)
1 cup half and half
2 tablespoons green onions (I just eyeballed this)
Salt and Pepper
Butter to grease pan
1 pound of sausage (or any meat you have...ham or bacon would be good)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
6 slices texas toast (I used pepperidge farm garlic toast from the freezer section)

In a small bowl mix eggs until they loosen up. Add the half and half, and green onions. Mix well and add salt and pepper.

Butter a 9x13 inch pan. Line the pan with bread, cutting and rearranging if needed. Sprinkle the bread with the cooked sausage and cheese. Pour the egg mixture over the entire pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Next morning-

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook covered for 25 to 30 minutes or until egg mixture is set. (It sais 25 to 30 minutes but I ended up cooking mine for about an 1 hour so give yourself enough time if you need it!)

ENJOY!

Ugh..

So over the weekend we went on our ward's campout....some of you may know that I'm our ward's activity person (the official term is director but seriously, that's not me). I have to admit when the bishop approached me about putting together a campout I laughed to myself. I am not a camper, we do not own the proper equipment to camp, and my idea of camping is completely warped thanks to my father-in-law who brings a bathtub and sink with running warm water to our "Big Dirty". I really don't know what camping is. Let's not forget the small detail of my being 5 months pregnant and needing to go to the bathroom 5 times in the middle of the night! But I took the challenge and was definitely grateful for my activities committee who had more equipment than we did and was very "go get it" about this activity!

We had a great time..we headed up North and despite the 40 degree night we really enjoyed it! I have to give a huge shout out to our sweet friends Michael and Sarah who hooked us up with their tent and tent heater! You guys are life savers! Elodie's favorite part was sleeping in the tent!

So here comes the ugh part.....I took some really great pictures while we were out there. A walk aways from our campsite was a beautiful creek and all the kids loved throwing rocks in the water. I got some great pictures of Christopher and Elodie, our little family, and the mountains....

We got home, plugged the camera in, looked at all the pictures, made a folder for the pictures, and my plan was to tweek them today and post in my blog. Well, when I sat down to do that, the folder labeled camping was EMPTY!!! No pictures to be found! And that's not the worse part! Because I watched Christopher download the pictures I went ahead and ERASED them off of the camera!! Who does that?!?! I've never done that...until last night! UGH!!!! I called Christopher and he is pretty sure the pictures are gone....something about the camera not recognizing them....blasted sony cybershot! Even still, Christopher said he would come home and see what he could do....I'm hopeful but not really....just really bummed that those pictures are gone! And even more annoyed that I'm letting those pictures ruin my day! I can't stop thinking about them!

Anybody want to go camping this weekend?

I heart Costco...AGAIN!

This morning Elodie and I made a quick swing through Costco...as alot of you have heard me say before Costco is my favorite..it's up there with GAP, Express, and Target. If it weren't for a budget and a husband in school I could seriously do some damage in that store! But I restrain myself..with the exception of today. A couple of weeks ago we were in Costco and they had put out an assortment of Christmas dresses. I loved the ones I had seen but the one I liked the most A. Was very similar to Elodie's Christmas dress last year and B. they didn't have her size...probably for the best as I convinced myself "lets get through Halloween before you buy a Christmas dress."

Well, today they had a whole new shipment of Christmas dresses and my mouth hit the floor when I saw this dress! It's the one! And as fate would have it, it was the last one in her size! My lucky day! Elodie kept saying over and over again how beautiful the dress was and she told me as we were checking out that she couldn't wait to dress her baby sister in a Christmas dress! Oh yes Elodie, me and you both! It's going to be SO MUCH FUN dressing two little girls for the holidays! At this point Christopher is for sure rolling his eyes and shaking his head!

Happy day for me and my dear friend Costco!

Details...

So as promised...a recap of our ultrasound experience. As always, click the picture to enlarge. Everyone kept asking me if I was excited about the ultrasound...I can't say I was super excited only because with Elodie and 6 ultrasounds, we didn't know what we were having until she came out! So I wasn't really expecting to be able to find out with this baby either.


We got to our appointment no problem. The ultrasound tech spent about 10 minutes measuring and poking around and then came the big reveal. And as expected she had the hardest time finding the sex! Apparently, we have extremely modest babies....girls atleast which should be a positive outlook on the future! This baby was laying on her belly with her knees together and one hand between her legs! She was not revealing anything to anybody! It was so flashback to Elodie's ultrasounds because she was the same way..not the same position but extremely private about who she was! So the ultrasound tech had me go to the bathroom (THANK HEAVENS) and that didn't work..then she had me lay on my left side and that didn't work either. I was really ready to just give up and leave it at that but the tech was persistent (and abusive) and the little girl finally gave in! No doubt this is a little girl..as badly as she didn't want us to know that!


I will probably get hate mail for saying there was a little part of me that was disappointed we weren't having a boy but it was immediately overpowered by the blessing of having another healthy baby girl! I always thought if this was a girl that we would for sure be done but I actually feel just the opposite in wanting to have a 3rd! I know I should get through number 2 first but I definitely don't feel like our family is complete! We are truly being blessed! Elodie was not suprised when we told her it was a girl..she kinda looked bored and "I told you so" the whole time we were there. Later in the weekend Elodie told me and Chris that first she was going to have a sister and then she was going to get a brother! Looks like she has it all planned out for our family! I'm super excited to see the relationship between sisters since I didn't get to grow up with one (but was always super blessed to have great cousins and friends my whole life!). Christopher is excited too...I mean seriously, how could we not be? Babies are fun and it's fun to give Elodie a sibling! And deep down I know he loves the idea of 2 little girls running around our house! Not to mention matching bows and outfits! He has gotten use to being outnumbered!


We are still on schedule for March..the baby looks great and everything so far is going well! We are leaning towards the name Addison Whitney (Whitney is my mom's maiden name) but will keep everyone posted if that changes! Thanks so much for all the well wishes and congratulations!

It's a.....

GIRL!!!!

I'll tell the details later with pictures..we are headed out for a ward campout and I'm the ward activities person...woo hoo!

Hopefully we don't freeze up in the mountains!!!
We will be back tomorrow evening!

Happy Camping!

For my sweet husband....the engineer!

Women: a problem solved by an engineer!

(click to enlarge)

Pregnancy Update Week 17

I will be 18 weeks pregnant tomorrow and we had a visit with the doctor this morning. I was REALLY hoping we could squeeze in an ultrasound but these days you have to schedule your ultrasound seperate from a regular doctor's visit. And besides, the ultrasound tech. was out of town...I was still hoping my doctor would say something like "hey, the ultrasound room is open, let's go in and see if we can't tell you what your having!" No such luck. So my ultrasound appointment is scheduled for next friday, a week from today. As for now everything looks good. The doctor was able to find the heartbeat immediately and sounds really good....

We got the okay for Disneyland...I don't know if I could have given that one up even if I wasn't suppose to travel!!! Thankfully we don't have to worry about it and a trip is just what the doctor ordered!

I'm feeling good and can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going by! I'm already almost half way done!


Until next week!
Anxiously awaiting to find out who's inside!

Disneyland here we come!

Forgot to mention that we officially put down our deposit and made our reservation for Disneyland. Before now we have been a little apprehensive to put any deposit down..we definitely didn't want to jinx our trip! I got a little pressure from my friend Melissa not to wait too much longer in fear that our hotel would book up and then we might be in trouble! I called at the beginning of the week and fortunately for us the only kink was that all the standard size rooms were completely booked so we had to upgrade rooms. Not a big deal..would much rather spend that money in the parks but I still feel that sense of relief that we have our reservation made!

We will be spending 4 days and 3 nights at the Paradise Pier Resort with park hopper passes for both Disneyland and California Adventures. We are also booked for a Princess Lunch (per Chris' request! Ha! Ha!) and I know Elodie is going to be THRILLED about that. I'm thinking I might buy her a Cinderella dress and surprise her with it once we get to our hotel! She is going to die!

This is a really huge trip for us as we have never gone anywhere on vacation since Elodie was born that didn't involve seeing other family memebers....Louisiana, Snowflake, etc. I don't really consider Snowflake a vacation....but you get the idea!

And it's much deserved!! We have alot to celebrate...our 6 year anniversary, a new baby, GRADUATION!!! Definitely graduation!


WOO HOO for Disneyland!

Puzzles..

In the last couple of weeks Elodie has taken a love for puzzles. In the past she has sat down with me to put a puzzle together but it didn't click with her...she would try and put odd pieces together and would get frustrated really easily. Within the last couple of weeks it's definitely clicked! Nearly everyday she is asking for a puzzle and we sit down at the table and put together all the puzzles that she has. Thankfully there are only 4 but I really love the quiet bonding time we get. I love to watch her problem solve and not get frustrated when a piece doesn't fit. She looks for pieces that should go together and if it doesn't work she will put it aside and come back to it. It's really neat to see her focus her attention on something and have the attention span to finish what she has started.

The other morning when I woke up our house was super quiet. Usually when Elodie wakes up she comes in to my room or I can hear her moving around in the living room. I just assumed she wasn't awake because I woke up before her. When I passed her room she wasn't in her bed....kinda scary at first but since our house isn't huge by the time I turned the corner I could see her sitting at our dinner table putting a puzzle together all by herself. It was super cute!

Here are a few pictures I caught of her in the last couple of days. She will put a puzzle together anywhere and when she is done she likes to leave them out and look at them for a while!

What goes around comes around...

I can remember vividly as a child bugging my mom while she was going to the bathroom. I can even hear her sigh or beg me to give her a few minutes to herself. At 5,6, and sadly 16 I would just laugh her off and keep telling her whatever I felt had to be said that moment and couldn't wait until she was done! Not once did I think to myself...."Mom needs a minute to herself...a moment of silence...some peace and quiet" To think I thought she was just joking! Luckily for my mom there was only 1 of me among 3 boys so I was the only one she had to deal with when it came to going in the bathroom! The boys wouldn't think to bug mom while she was going to the bathroom!

Fast forward 10 and 20 years and here I am saying the exact things my mom was saying to me! "Elodie! PLEASE! Give me just a minute!" Once I even said "Elodie....just let me potty in PEACE!" LOL! That's funny to me now but I can't help but think of my mom everytime I'm pinning the door shut with my foot, listening to Elodie cry outside the door because heaven forbid I won't let her in while I'm trying to go to the bathroom! I know some of you are shaking your heads thinking how mean I am as a mother! I have to smile because I can remember so vividly being the one pinned outside the door..on the other hand, I'm shaking my head thinking to myself "What goes around comes around!"

Weekend Top 10

10. Nothing too exciting on Friday..we did resist the urge to eat out. Excluding my playdate with friends at the mall on Wednesday, we haven't eaten out for 12 days! May not seem like a long time but it's a big deal since we usually eat out atleast one day over the weekend! We are really proud of ourselves and it is motivating us to keep it up!

9. I was officially 17 weeks pregnant on Saturday...we go to the doctor on Friday of this week and will get an ultrasound soon after to see what the sex of the baby is! Very exciting! Elodie can't imagine the baby being anything except girl and she sais we are going to name her Sofie (my friend Stephenie has a little girl named Sofie). If you ask her what we are going to name the baby if it's a boy she tells you "but it's not..it's a girl!" And when Chris tells her that mommy has a girl and now daddy needs a boy Elodie sais "NO! I need a girl too!" It's pretty funny..I just hope she isn't too disappointed if it's not a girl! We will see!

8. Saturday in between conferences we took Elodie to Wal-Mart to pick out some flower seeds. She got this really cute Strawberry Shortcake gardening set for Easter this year and has been DYING to use it ever since! It's just now cooling off enough that we thought the flowers would actually survive...so we spent some time outside yesterday planting our seeds. Elodie has been so excited everyday to go outside and water her flowers! I just hope she can be patient enough to wait for them to bloom!







7. Speaking of outside...did anyone else spend most of their weekend outside? It was fabulous weather! We kept our back door and windows open the whole day on Sunday! It was fabulous! We are starting to remember why it is that we like Arizona....just a little though..it could still be cooler!

6. While Christopher was at the Priesthood session Saturday evening, Elodie and I met up with my dear friend Randa for her birthday! Big 27! We met up at the Cheesecake Factory along with Randa's sister LeeAnn and their cousin Kristy! These 3 girls and I go way back! Not only have I known and been best friends with Randa since 2nd grade, all 4 of us were roommates for a year at Ricks College! I was introduced to Kristy at Ricks and we hit it off immediately! We could have been sister in laws but it didn't work on either side of the family! Good times! We all live here in Arizona and I wish we didn't have such crazy schedules and we could get together more often! Such great girls and I love them!






Happy Birthday Randa! We hope we made your day a little more special!

5. Speaking of The Cheesecake Factory..the last 2 times we have gone I have been super disappointed in the food. Maybe because the last 2 times I went I have been pregnant but I don't think that's all...this time I got a simple fettucine alfredo thinking it would be like 10 times better than the Olive Garden..it wasn't....the noodles were spinach noodles and the chicken was poached with salt and pepper for seasoning! Really not impressed! The only thing that perked things up was the strawberry lemonade and the strawberry cheesecake I brought home to share with Chris!And the fact that I brought the fettucine home and Christopher thought it was good!

4. When we were all home again Chris, Elodie, and I watched the LSU football game! Holy Heart Attack! LSU definitely about gave us one! They were losing to Florida the whole game! It wasn't until the final quarter with like 4 minutes to go did they finally get their butts in gear and win!! It was definitely stressful but we were happy! LSU is officially ranked #1 in the country! Not that we really needed a number to know that but the number is a nice touch! Go Tigers!


3. Sunday morning Christopher made pancakes for us! I was super impressed by this mickey mouse pancake he made for Elodie...Chris didn't think much of it but I thought it was cute!

2.Conference was fabulous! Very uplifting and motivating! I appreciate Tivo even more now because I dosed off a few times....but since we recorded it I was able to rewind the parts I missed! The crazy thing about it is 6 months will pass before we know it and it will be conference again!

1. Enjoyed a nice dinner with our friends The Hamblins Sunday evening. We enjoy their company and are so happy to have them as our friends!

For all my Twilight Friends

I don't really agree with the results but it was still fun and thought all my sweet Twilight friends would enjoy it! Can't wait to see all your results!

Which Twilight novel character are you?

You're Rosalie - Image is important to you, you want to show off your best assets, and you have a lot of them- you think! You are also intelligent, which many people might not expect since you seem to be all about looking pretty. But deep down you're caring person that wants what most people in life desire: to be loved.
Take this quiz!








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