Thanksgiving 2011

We were fortunate enough to have been invited to spend Thanksgiving with the Spencer family.  Zack and Brian Spencer were roommates for two years at BYU.  Brian lives in Iowa and we were able to meet in the middle at his parents home in Illinois. 

We had a wonderful time eating a beautiful meal with all the usual trimmings.  I even ate some Thanksgiving side dishes that I always thought I hated and surprise- I actually liked them!  Who knew?!  Guess I am growing up!  We also had great company to visit with and wonderful toys for Elise to put in her mouth. 

Elise spent most of the evening practiciting climbing the up the stairs.  She is a pro!  Ask her to go down the stairs and you'll probably end up at the ER.  We don't have any stairs in our apartment so we will have to work on that when we are home for Christmas!

Above all, Thanksgiving is a great time to be reminded of how blessed we truly are.  We are so thankful, above all, for family;  For our small family of 3 and for all our family members spread out across the country.  We are grateful for Zack and all the hard work he does in medical school.  We are grateful for our health.  We are grateful to have the knowledge of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Even when times our tough it is always good to have an entire day to remind you of how lucky you are and all the many blessings we have been given.  From the Pugh family to yours, we hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Holiday Crafting

I have been getting things ready for the upcoming holidays!  Here is some of the work I've been doing lately! 

I found these stockings and the tutorial on Pinterest.  I think they turned out very cute and I loved how easy and simple the tutorial was.  I didn't even make a mistake...which for me is a miracle!  If you need stockings this is a great way to go! 

I also made this adorable little turkey onesie for Elise to wear!  I was able to use all scraps from my quilt!  I love that the colors are perfect for fall :)  Can't wait for the holidays to be here!

Zack's Birthday

Zack turned 26 yesterday!  We had a great time celebrating it with a few of his good friends from school.

  Amy (holding Elise), Zack and Hemel

Zack was able to break away from his busy busy school schedule to come home a bit earlier and enjoy praises, food, and of course cake!  I'm not sure what his wish was but he did get all the candles out in one shot- so it's bound to come true right?

He is much wiser in the past year that has transpired!  He has learned the following in his 25th year:

 

-how to get into medical school

-how to fill up gas in a u-haul truck

-that Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa are not places he ever wants to live

-how to change poopy diapers

-how to make a girl laugh on cue

-how to be a wonderful father

-he became the Dominion master

-Washing off the cadaver smell is not always easy

-how to ace biochemistry and anatomy

-that cramming 8lbs. of food in your mouth at one time is possible

-Moving 2 times in one year is no fun

-being the head microscopist is tough work

-how to graduate in Physiology and Developmental Biology

-and best of all how to keep these two crazy girls just as in love with him as the day we met him :)

Airplane Tray Cover

In my current thoughts of airplane travel I saw a tray table play mat on a blog. I decided it was a wonderful idea!  I took it and ran with it!  I had all sorts of extra fabric and scraps lying around so I didn't even need to take a trip to the fabric store.  I may be a bit biased, but I think I improved a bit on the original design I found.  I am really happy with how things turned out!

I put little "taggies" along the sides for Elise to tug and play at.  The white ribbon you see tied in a bow is so it will stay attached to the tray table. The side seam is left open so you can slide the cover on and then secure it with the ties.  The pumpkin face and counting beads are the side you will see when the tray is in the "upright position".  I realize that not every activity is something that Elise can really do right now, but give her two years and she'll be there!

I had a lot of fun with this project because other than the dimensions I got from the other blog, I had total creative liberty!  I could pick the activities and the size and placement of everything. It took me most of yesterday but I did finish it in one day :)  The above photo shows you the opening so it can fit around the tray.  I put a small cookie sheet in it to test it out!  I can't wait to try it out for real!

And while I'm sharing craft projects, I also started working on the party favors for Elise's birthday.  It will be a circus theme.  I found a candy mold with circus animals and then bought a big box of crayola crayons and melted them away until they turned into these awesome animal crayons!  They aren't the colors I was hoping for, but I love them all the same!  Can't wait to give them to the kids!

And finally this is my marble maze I am making in part of a busy bag swap.  It was a simple project and I'm almost done with all of them to send away!  I don't know if you can tell but in this picture the marble is in the bottom right corner and you move it along the sewed lines to get to the other side. Simple and easy!  The best kind of craft!

Tots & Travel

In a desperate attempt to not re-create this cartoon above, I'm here to ask for tips for traveling with an infant. We fly out to Utah (hooray!) in mid-December and I'm looking for any advice my fellow bloggers might have.  Things I'm wondering now include: Elise doesn't actually have her own seat...how does that work?  Do I bring her to the gate in her car seat?  Does that count as luggage?  What about a car seat base?  Her stroller...do I have to pay to check that? It is just me and Elise on the flight, Zack will join us later.  I will be bringing a busy bag full of activities to hopefully keep her occupied and entertained as well as food.  I could bring a laptop with some Baby Einstein DVD's- is that a good idea?  Let me know :)  Thanks in advance for the help.  Here's to a happy and safe holiday travel season!

Everyday Elise

Here are a few random pictures of Elise in some funny and cute day to day experiences.

Her hair is getting so long!  We have to put a bow in it everyday or it would get in her eyes!  I had some fun during bath time and gave her a cute little mow hawk.  She enjoyed it as well :)

I caught her smiling at herself in the mirror the other day.  This made me happy.  I hope she will always have good self esteem about her herself- because she is beautiful inside and out!

Big smile behind the binky as we played at the park.

We had stake conference yesterday and were (of course) late.  We didn't even bother looking for seats since it was so packed and just hung out in the foyer listening.  Elise loved having all the space to crawl and playing with the other kids out there!

Daddy was helping her steady her bottle.  Had to snap a picture of how cute this was!  And I promise we were listening to most of the conference!

In other news I realized I never posted Elise's stats on here and thought I would for memory's sake-

Height: 29 1/4 inches 95% Who knew she was so tall?!
Weight: 18 lbs 10.5 oz.  60%
Head: 43 1/4 cm 25%

She is getting so big!  I can't believe she'll be one before we know it!

Happy Halloween

We were able to take Elise trick-or-treating at the medical college this year.  All of the offices decorate to make it look great.  It was fun to take her to a place that is warm and inside- I don't know if future years here will give us snow on Halloween but I'm happy to know that we can always have the school to go to :)  Elise was a skeleton this year!  I'm sorry to say we didn't dress up :( I normally like to but just didn't get around to it.

Zack would hold Elise and she'd reach into the candy bowl and grab some.   She would always grab out 2 pieces of candy in one hand. We didn't even teach her to do that! We are so proud, ha ha.

Taking in her spoils!  It was a lot of fun to take her out and show her off.  I know that holidays and traditions will only get more fun as she gets bigger.  Happy Halloween everyone!