Sprinklers!

We have had quite the Pioneer Day so far!  We started the day with breakfast at Kneaders where we all feasted on their delicious (and unlimited!) French Toast. When we got back it was already so hot and such a pretty day we decided to put the sprinkler under the trampoline and let the girls have fun.  They loved it!  Elise was having so much fun with her cousins.

We decided since we were already out there we might as well get out the slip n' slide while we were at it!  None of the girls really undertand the concept of how to properly work it, but they had fun walking on it and letting the water spray them in the face.  Elise did in fact slip several times on it but not in the real sense of a slip n' slide :)

Elise loves the water!!  She is always fearless in it and is usually the first one to brave the water and hop in!  She was out there for at least an hour just giggling and running back and forth.  We all had so much fun!

In other Pioneer Day news, we were able to go to the Days of '47 Parade preview at the South Town Expo Center last week.  They have many of the floats that will bei n the parade out so you can look and see.  I was SO impressed with all of the floats- especially since most of them are done by various stakes in the state!  I can't believe that it is someone's calling.  The work they did was incredible. These are some of my favorite floats!

We thought it was much better to see the floats standing still and in an air conditioned room rather than camping over night and watching the parade out in the hot sun :)  We were glad we got to go!

And lastly and unrelated, the other evening we went to spend time with my sister Natalie.  The kids got into some of her dress ups and old Halloween costumes.  Elise dressed up as a dinosaur and a monkey and I thought she looked too cute to not document it!

She was so excited when we put this on her. It was like she knew she was absolutely adorable!

My little monkey.  How we love her!!!



Six on Sunday

I've taken a pretty long break from my Five on Friday posts and today I felt like doing one.  So I changed the title!  Here goes!

-My dear husband gets home from his month long medical mission in Peru on Wednesday and I'm so excited to see him :)

-I've found a new artist that I really like!  I had listened to Mindy Gledhill here and there on my EFY cd's and other things and always thought she was talented but that she only did LDS music/songs.  When my brother Ryan was here a few weeks ago he put her cd in and I loved it!  She has some great pop songs that are a lot of fun and exactly my genre of music that enjoy.  I put her as a new station on Pandora and have been happily listening since!

-Being around her cousins has really increased Elise's vocabulary!  Her new favorite word is binky!  She says it all the time and hearing her little speaking voice is so darling!  It makes me so happy. She even found one of her binkies underneath the couch for me by lying flat on the floor yelling "binky binky binky!"  Other words she has leared are her cousins names, Molly and Ali. 

-I was able to spend much of the afternoon with my old roomates. We had lunch up Emigration Canyon at Ruth's Diner. It was so much fun to get together and kick back just like old times!  Oh how I love those girls!

-Elise slept in until 9am this morning!!!  It was so delightful!!!

-While being her in Utah, Elise turned 18 months.  The great thing about that means that she is finally of legal nursery age!  When I go back to Wisconsin it won't matter since I'm in the nursery so I don't really get a break but I have been taking full advantage of it here and it has been so wonderful to sit peacefully through sunday school and Relief Society again :)

Old roomies!!  From L to R: Kristen, Kortney, Janae, Emily

I had a great time!!  Miss you girls!

Teddy Bear Picnic

A few weeks ago my family was able to go up to our cabin in Provo canyon.  It is a darling little cabin that was built by my Grandpa and Great Grandpa!  My grandma bought the property years ago while my Grandpa was serving in WWII for only $50!  What a steal :)

Isn't it cute?!  It has been so fun to go up there over the years!

We were lucky to have all of the cousin together for once!  From L to R they are: Major, Elise, Mitt, Emery, Shay, Molly, Lexie and Alison.  They had a blast playing together.

Next Grandma read them the story, A Teddy Bears Picnic. I love this picture of them all holding their bears and listening to Grandma, so cute!

After the story, we put on the song of the teddy bears picnic and we all marched all over the cabin and through the woods outside!

My mom made a perfect lunch for the "bears".  We ate peanut butter and honey sandwiches, we had gummy bears, and teddy grahams, and some rice krispie shaped bears.  It was delicious!!

It was a lot of fun to be up there for the day. We even took some walks with all the kids in the area's by the cabin.  Thanks so much Grandma for putting this together, we had so much fun!!

18 Months Old!

Elise was 18 months old on June 29th!  I can't believe how big she is getting :)  Since we are in Utah with family I decided to make a little party out of it!  Who doesn't like to celebrate and eat cake?

We started things off with decorating princess crowns.  Elise's cousins Molly and Alison were there to play with her!  The girls did a great job with their crowns even if it was hard to get Elise to keep hers on- at least the older girls seemed to like them!

Aren't they cute?  This is Molly, Elise, and Ali!  Elise was stripped down because I didn't want the glitter and cake to get all over her clothes.

It's safe to say that Elise has mastered how to shove cake into her mouth!!

And what would a party be without presents?!  We gave her a Princess Elise magnet doll by Melissa & Doug.  I think she will have fun putting the clothes on and off as we fly home on the airplane!
She also got a board book about Heavenly Father that she can take to church. As you can imagine, LDS board books are a little hard to find in Milwaukee :)

It was fun to have a little party and we are glad that our cousins were there to play with us!  Happy half birthday Elise, we sure do love you!!

The old, the new, the crazy

Yes...we're still here!! Since Zack has finished school for the summer we've just been pretty boring in a great way. We have had lots of days where we stay in our pajama's all day and eat popsicles and watch episodes of our favorite TV shows.  With all of that going on I didn't feel like I had a whole lot to blog about.  I certainly wasn't going to take a picture of me still in my pajamas with no makeup at 4pm and put that up on the blog!  So that is the old.

The new is that we've moved into our new apartment!  Ever since we decided to move Zack and I have been dreading this day. Moving is such a pain!! We had lots of help and were able to get it done pretty fast!  We love our new apartment and things are slowly coming along. We have the kitchen, front room and Elise's room all unpacked.  While that sounds like most of it is done we still have our "crap room" filled with all of the random things that don't really have an assigned place. It will take a while before everything is settled the way that I like it.  But we love living by our ward members and friends and living across the street from the park :)

Here's the crazy part: for weeks now I've been telling everyone that Zack leaves for Peru on June 13th.  Well, last night Zack finally looked at his flight itinerary and apparently he gets into Peru on the 13th.....meaning that he leaves TOMORROW morning!!  So we have today to get him all packed and ready for his month long adventure and then get up bring and early to take him to the Chicago airport tomorrow.  

That's all for now!  When our place looks a little more put together, I'll make sure to take some pictures and share them with everyone. I'm absolutely loving having a dishwasher, air conditioning, a 3rd bedroom and a huge kichen!

Five on Friday

1) Zack is FINISHED with his first year of medical school!! He told me yesterday that this is the most difficult thing he has ever done.  He has worked so hard and we are so proud of him!

2) After finishing Burn Notice, Zack and I have moved on to the show White Collar.  We have finished the first season and tonight will move onto #2.  Apparently we love the USA network. 

3) The sister missionaries asked if I would go with them today to a meeting with one of their investigators.  The Lord must know that I need more spiritual experiences in my life!!  I'm excited to be able to go with them and help them out with a ride!  I just hope that if I'm asked to say anything that I will be able to find the right words.

4) I picked up the small book, Thank You Notes from the library this week.  I read some of them to Zack as we took Elise on a walk last night and we laughed the whole way.  If you ever watch Jimmy Fallon you've seen that on his show he ends it with writing little thank you notes that are mainly thanking people/things for the annoyance they give.  Definitely good for a laugh!

5) To celebrate the end of the first year, all the M1's (well, now M2's!) had a BBQ and pool party.  Fred, our friend and future landlord, was gracious enough to be our host!  We had a great time!!We can't wait to have more time to do fun things together this summer.

Elise and I in the pool!  We thought for sure she would love it! We had no doubts, but she didn't love it.  She quietly whined for a little bit but we kept her in there for a while and are hoping that with time she will love it!



Five on Friday, Elise Edition

Five things about our Elise:

1) Her favorite food right now is apples.  She loves it when I slice them and give one to her to gnaw at for hours on end.  She likes holding it in her hand and chomping at it as she continues to play.

2) She loves and fears the vacuum.  I get it out a lot to pick up all the little crumbs we get in the family room and she get so excited when I get it out of the closet.  She looks up at it and giggles and then moves far away from it when I start it up but still has a smile on her face.  It is so funny!

3) She loves her daddy and cries when he leaves each morning.  While I'm so happy she loves him and is sad when he leaves, I wish it wouldn't result in such a meltdown. Makes it hard on me!

4) I think she has been cured from her bad sleeping habits (that I'm sure I inevitably taught her).  She now will sleep from 8pm to about 8am and it is amazing the difference it has made in her and in me!  I love it!

5) She discovered sprinklers!!  We went on an evening walk a week ago to pick up daddy from school and walk home with him.  As we walked in the grass by the medical school, the sprinklers were on and she curiously walked up to it in wonder.  Zack showed her that you could touch the water coming out and she got so excited!!  She then went running through all of them!!  She laughed and loved it and so did we!  She was absolutely drenched from head to toe so we stripped her down and brought her home in only her diaper!  Thank goodness it was a really warm night! 

See?  Just like Dad!  She held up his shirt to me and I put it on her and she was so excited!  The shirt is long sleeved and down to her ankles when she wears it!  Darling!