Swinging in the Snow!

I decided to take advantage of the nice winter day today and take Elise to the park!!  We haven't been in such a long time and I knew that both of us would have so much fun :)  Looks like I was right!

Here is my adorable little snow bunny!

Climbing all over!!

Mom and Elise

Last, here is a video of Elise in the swing just loving life!  She is such a talker and loves to laugh!  I hope that is a trait that will always continue!



My Guilty Pleasure....a little Japanese drama

I have been sucked into watching a Japanese drama.  It is called Hana Yori Dango which means Boys over Flowers.  Sounds like a show you want to watch, right?!  This was a very popular show while Zack served his mission in Japan and was able to finally see it when he got home.  I was able to see the first two episodes of this show probably 10 times before I was able to see the entire show. 

So here's what it is about- The main girl is named Makino Tsukushi (or is it Tsukushi Makino?).  She comes from a poor family but goes to a very rich and ritzy high school.  The school is ruled by a group of four senior boys who call themselves the F4.  You don't want to mess with the F4.  Each boy in the F4 comes from a very wealthy and powerful family.  Through a series of events the leader of F4 begins to like Makino and the story begins to unfold with the following: love triangles, unapproving mothers, memory loss, and lots and lots of non-verbal communication which ruins everything. 

It has been a lot of fun to watch these with Zack and hear all the Japanese and see how they interact.  The Japanese people are always overly kind and seem to always skirt around the issues.  They also rarely have much physical contact at all.  Another thing they do is run the same songs over and over and over again.  Every episode- same four songs.  You can check out a few of them down below.  Some are pretty catchy I must say! 

Candles and Cake

Yesterday was my 26th birthday.  I can harldy believe it myself!  Is it just me or does everyone always feel like they are a good 5 years younger than they really are?  Granted the whole kid thing puts on a few years but generally I still feel like I'm only 21.

The day itself wasn't all that eventful.  It was your typical day!  That is the problem with getting older.  Your mom doesn't get to come to school with treats for everyone, your friends don't decorate your locker, you don't get checked out of school to go to lunch.  You don't skip all your college classes that day to sleep in until noon and do nothing.  It's just not the same.  That being said I wouldn't trade anything for where I am at in my life right now!  I have a wonderful, hard working and most important- good looking husband and a baby that I couldn't love any more if I tried.

Zack took me shopping for some new birthday clothes and I'll have to show you those in another post later.  We are also planning on going out to dinner tomorrow to celebrate again.  All of Zack's friends at school offer to watch Elise all the time!  They think she is the cutest baby- and who could argue?  So we might take them up on it and enjoy some time just the two of us! 

We finished off the night with this little beauty.  It is a Chocolate Mousse Crunch Cake- recipe found here.  I was quite proud of myself!  I made the mousse from scratch as well as the ganache- that's right I made a ganache!  It isn't very difficult either!

Paying Tribute

My Grandpa Galbraith (96) passed away today.  I have a thousand memories swirling around in my head of him.  He will be greatly missed.  I'm so grateful that I was able to see him one last time over Christmas.  He has left a wonderful legacy for our family and we will miss him dearly! It is times like these that I am so thankful that families are forever.  We love you Grandpa!

M1 Reception

This past weekend was really fun!  Friday night we got a babysitter for Miss Elise and we headed downtown to the University Club for a reception that was held in honor of all the M1 students.  We were able to car pool with the Lindsays. 

It was especially nice since it was free dinner and drinks!  Other people were glad that we gave away our free drink tickets for the bar.  We had a great time feeling like a 10-year-old's ordering things like a Shirley Temple (cherry sprite).  I was excited to know that soda was totally free!!  You better believe that put down several :)  It was fun to have a date night out with Zack and to meet a lot of his school friends that I hadn't seen before. 

Saturday Zack took me out shopping for my birthday!  He was so great- he already knew what he wanted to get for me but he took me along to try things on for size so that I wouldn't have to exchange them later.  I had a great time being spoiled- thanks babe! 

Now if only the Packers had won it would have been a perfect weekend!

Elise's 1 year Stats!

(Let's pretend that my arm is photoshopped out)

Elise had her 12 mos. check up!  Here are her stats!

Weight: 19 lbs. 15.5 oz. (60%)

Length: 30 1/4 inches (80%)

We were also told that the poor girl has thrush and a yeast infection.  I didn't know babies could get a yeast infection- but they can!  We were given a special cream for the yeast infection.  When the Doctor saw the thrush in her mouth he went to grab his 4 in. thick pediatritian book to show me that he wasn't lying about the treatment!  Apparently to treat thrush in the mouth you are to take 1/2 tsp. of baking soda and mix that with 1-2 drops of liquid detergent (yes, soap!!)  mix together and then put it on a cotton swab to rub around the inside of the child's mouth!  Super weird! Anyone else have experience with thrush??

She also had to have 2 shots and then be tested for lead poisoning.  Poor girl- she had to be poked at all day long!

Bath Time!

While we were home in Utah I was able to break Elise free of her fear of the "big tub".  Our bathtub here in Wisconsin doesn't have a plug and when I bought one of the rubber plugs from the hardware store she would figure out how to un-plug it!  So until we were in Ut she kept having baths in her pink infant tub!

 The first time I put her in the big tub she was very scared of all the space and freedom and just cried while I quickly washed her off.  She normally loves bath time so I knew that it had to be the tub.  After some cool toys and convincing from mom she came around and now loves to "swim" around and spash.  We even had a pool party with her other cousins!  What cute girls!

Elise turns 1!

I can't believe that a year has passed since Elise was born! I know that everyone says it- but it is true!  Our sweet daughter turned one on December 29th.  It was so special for us to be in Utah with all of our family to celebrate with.  Here are a few things that our one-year-old is up to lately:

-She climbs on everything!  Loves to pull herself up to tables and slap her hands on them.
-Laughs when you cough or sneeze.  She thinks it is hilarious!
-She LOVES other kids.  Anytime she sees them she starts giggling and kicking her legs.
-Hasn't always been the best sleeper but has started to sleep through the night once again-hooray!
-Has 4 teeth with more working their way through.
-Still has lots of beautiful brown locks.
-Is quite the chatterbox.  No real words yet except Mama and Dada but loves to just talk all day long.
-Likes music and enjoys bouncing up and down to it when she hears it playing.
-If I had to guess her favorite color, I would say yellow because she is always more drawn to those toys.  Maybe because it is so bright?
-Loves to play peek-a-boo and clap her hands.
-She is a very social and happy girl.  If we are in a big group and everyone else laughs, she will start to crack up with you too!  It is so fun!

I don't have any of her yearly check-up stats since we haven't gone to the doctor because we are still in UT.  When I get back to Wisconsin we will take her in to get all checked out!

We celebrated her birthday with my side of the family while we were away at a snowmobile trip up in Bear River, Utah. I had been planning the theme of her birthday-circus theme- for months and I couldn't wait to finally put the show on!  We had a great time and I was surprised at how much I loved celebrating Elise!  I was so excited to see her react to her gifts, how she would do with us singing to her, and how she would "attack" her cake!  We had a great time and I think it's safe to say all the cousins did too!

Here is a view of the all the circus decor!  I was quite proud of myself!
I got all of the decorations from Dimple Prints

Close up of the cake and cupcakes as well as some other party food.  I made the cake and it is supposed to be a carousel.  I used straws and then frosted some circus animal crackers to it with a colored plate as the top.  That was a cake my mom made for me years ago, and I decided to replicate it.

 We also had some jumbo gumballs on the table and it took Elise .03 seconds to find them and lodge them in her mouth.  Is she not the cutest thing you have ever seen??

Our family with the birthday girl! She was given that outfit for Christmas.  When I saw it I knew she HAD to have it.  Or at least I did...

She opened some of her gifts too!  Here she is with her new blocks!

When she opened her doll out of the box she grabbed it and put it up to her face all on her own!  This is not a posed photo.  It just melts my heart- I love it!

She got a darling book from Ryan and Becky- thanks guys!

 And what birthday would be complete without cake?!  We gave her a healthy helping of chocolate cake and she knew just what to do with it!  

I can't believe how much our lives have changed in the past year and I wouldn't have traded it for anything!  We love you so much Elise and look forward to the many more birthdays we will get to celebrate with you!  Happy Birthday darling girl!