Ashley's Bridal Shower

I thought I took lots of great pictures of my cousin's beautiful wedding shower, but it looks like Ella had changed the settings on my camera beforehand. (I should probably check that more often.) These were the only 3 photos I took that weren't completely blurred, but I'm sure you can check Courtney's blog in the coming week or two for some fabulous photos of this event.

Ashley, the beautiful bride to be.

Table Decor.

My Grandma.

Flash of lightening

Ella: Mom, can we look at pictures on your blog?
Me: Sure
Ella: Stop! Look at that picture! (Points to the picture of herself shown above). Do you think that looks like a total rock star?
Me: Yes
Ella: But mom, It's just me.
------------
Ella: Mom, what does that man's sign say?
Me: It says "Looking for work"
Ella: Why is he looking for work?
Me: It's hard for lots of people to find jobs right now.
Ella: Why does he even want to do work?
Me: So that he can earn some money to buy food, and a place to live.
Ella: I have some jobs he could do, and I would give him some of my pom pom's so that he could buy himself a house, then he could just clean his own house.
------------
Ella: Did you wonder what that flash of lightening was that zoomed down the hall so fast?
Me: Yep.
Ella: Were you like, "What the heck is that flash of lightening?"
Me: I was.
Ella: It was just me!

Ready... Steady... Go!

Ella: Mom, I have a perfect idea... What if I get my jammies on?
Mom: That's a great idea
Ella: Just count to 80, 80 times, then I will be done. Ready? Steady! Go!
Mom? Are you counting?

Ella’s Aspiration

Ella: Mom, is that old man a very old man?
Me: I think so.
Ella: How come he doesn't have a stick?
Me: Do you mean a cane? Not all old people carry canes, just people who need a little help walking.
Ella: When I'm very old, I want to hold a stick.

Our week

Although this week was especially crazy, somehow we managed to find some time for a little fun.
My good friend gave us tickets to the “Bee’s Game”. We headed straight downtown after dance class on Wednesday night to watch the baseball game. We didn’t stay very long since the girls were getting tired, and Ty & I had a lot of work to do... but the girls LOVED going to the game, and it was fun to do something we’ve never done before.

We also spent a lot of time this week cleaning up after Lily’s newly developed mess making & destroying skills. Somehow after all of that cleaning... my house is still messy.

I also got to see 3 friends who I haven’t seen for quite a while. Thursday after our “parenting class” we visited with my friend Eleanor. (We’ve been friends since elementary school.) Today I saw my friends Heidi (pictured above) and Emily (both friends from college.) Heidi is getting married this summer. Her sister threw her a bridal shower downtown. It was great to catch up with her.
We were also hoping to go to Las Vegas for Tyler’s brothers Graduation... but unfortunately I had too many church meetings and responsibilities this weekend.
Now I’m sitting here blogging and watching YouTube videos on messy houses. I’m trying to motivate... or rather, scare myself into cleaning my house tonight. I know, I’m weird, but it’s the most effective way to motivate myself to clean when I’m tired.

Bath Time

Me: Come get in the bath tub.
Ella: Or, I could just lick myself clean?
Me: No, Come get in the tub.
Ella: But dogs lick themselves, and it's just like taking a bath. I learned that, and I know it.

Women's Conference

My sister-in-law, Jami, invited me to Women’s Conference with her last year. I wasn’t able to go. This year she invited me again. I had never been before, so Tyler was very nice to work EXTRA late on Thursday night so that I could go to BYU on Friday. Okay, well he really works extra late every night, but it was still nice of him to work so hard (with the kids around) so that I would be able to have such a neat & fun opportunity. It was a nice & relaxing day with Jami and Tyler’s mom. I hope I can go again next year too! Thanks for inviting me Jami!

Above Picture stolen from Jami’s blog.

Cookies

Ella: Mom, I love you.
short pause... Even though you always eat all the cookies by yourself. Sometimes humans like other humans to share.

Lesson learned! (At least until we have another box of cookies.)

Pom Pom Parenting

Tyler and I are taking a class for parents of children with Aspergers & High functioning Austism, despite the fact that Ella's doctor thinks we are just over-reactive parents, and that she's just a typical kid who happens to be very naughty. In the class last week they mentioned that many Aspergers kids actually enjoy Time-out. I'm sure I've mentioned before that Ella definitely LOVES time out. She puts herself in it all the time, and refuses to come out for hours. The teachers informed us that when we put these kids in time-out, we are actually rewarding them for their naughty behavior. We have learned so many helpful tips in these classes, wether or not Ella has been mis-diagnosed. They have been giving us so many alternative behavior modification tips, that actually work probably 75% of the time, as opposed to 10% of the time.

Ella's cousin Katie was over last week with some pom-poms that she got as a reward for not sucking her fingers. Ella was very envious of Katie's pom poms, so we decided to combine pom-poms with one of the behavior modification methods we are learning in our class... and viola... Pom Pom Parenting. It is working so well! Ella informed me tonight that she is going to earn so many Pom Pom's that we may have to buy a second house just to store them all.
Hooray for lots of Pom Poms!
Now if we could just figure out how to help her eat... maybe next week.

Just for Jami

It's been a while, but I've finally completed my last “Just for you” project. Jami is my sister-in-law. She’s married to Tyler's brother Greg. She has two cute little girls. Her oldest daughter, Katie, is Ella’s age. Ella is so lucky to have such a fun cousin who lives so close to us. Jami used to watch Ella one day a week while I was working at Stampin’ Up! so I'm lucky too, to have such a nice and caring sister-in-law. Jami mentioned she wanted some wall art for her newly painted bedroom. Her whole house is decorated so cute, so I'm flattered that she'd want my wall art as part of her decor. I'm making her some flowers & doodles as shown below, but in our beige vinyl.



I also made Jami a Japanese wooden Kokeshi ribbon holder. (For no other reason other than I really felt like making this one day.)

I'm also giving her some all-occasion gift bags & a chandelier gift card that I made. I also plan on making her a necklace. I ordered some custom charms that I designed over a month ago, and was hoping they would be done by now so that I could make her necklace, but... I'll have to post a picture of it at a later date.

I had so much fun doing this. I'm definitely going to do something like this again, but probably on a little smaller scale.

Enjoying the sun

I'm so behind on work because I was very sick the past two weeks... but this week the sun was out... and I really needed a break... so I took one.

On Monday Ella, Lily, and I enjoyed a full morning at the “beach” (new park in Daybreak). We played in the sand & water all morning! After lunch our neighbors invited us to go back to the same park with them for an afternoon of more fun in the sun.

Tuesday we were scheduled to go to another park with our neighbors, but I ended up working. There was just way too much to do, and I felt guilty for leaving Tyler to work alone the day before. But the work didn't last long. Today we headed over to Wheeler Farm to see all the animals and take a fun ride in a tractor pulled wagon.


The girls were so happy this week! My life was so much easier. We are going to do these things more often. I’m so excited for this summer.

P.S. If you are waiting for something from me... I haven't forgotten about you... I'm feeling better, and will be back to work full force this weekend.

Backhoes & Street Equipment

Ella: Dad, wouldn't it be cool if we were in another country, and we were dogs, and we met running in a field, and we played in the field? And mom was a cat?

..........

Ella: Mom, do you wish we could learn about backhoes & street equipment at church?