Baby's Christmas Pics

Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat!

We were glad to get out and go to our ward's trunk or treat party. It's hard to justify trick or treating door to door on Halloween when your child can't walk or eat candy yet so we were glad to have an excuse to dress up.

Our family from the wild West

Our little horsey :)

There is this super cute pumpkin patch about 5 minutes from where we live; they had a corn maze, hayrides, games, a little train for kids, food, and lots of pumpkins of course. We were there at the hottest time of the day and started to melt but we still had a good time.

Pumpkin Carving!

     We bought this dresser a while ago on craigslist and it has taken a long time but I finally finished the project and am happy with how it turned out!

AFTER

BEFORE

This masterpiece was composed by Elizabeth Shaw

She likes to ride trains just like her daddy did

rockin' the exersaucer

more please!

6 Months

Ellie is 6 months old and the stats are in-

HEIGHT: 26 in : 51 percentile

WEIGHT: 16 lb 7 oz : 55 percentile

HEAD CIRCUMFERENCE: 17 in : 71 percentile

She isn't our chubby 90th percentile baby anymore but she's still got those cheeks ;) 

No fevers and no ear infections thank goodness; just a little bit of eczema. 

She can sit up by herself but only as long as there is something interesting in front of her. 

She has also started to get into the army crawl. 

On her best nights (which are very very gradually becoming more frequent) she sleeps for about 12 hours waking up once in the night to eat. 

I think that her favorite foods right now are apples and sweet potatoes; not a fan of broccoli

Elizabeth is quite the talker and loves to babble and giggle.

Canadian Thanksgiving

Ellie wants to meet her new friend Henry

playing with the alphabet train

Taking Care of Business

Lately Brett has been staying busy with school so I've been trying to be helpful by learning to be a little more handy. (trying being the key word) My dad is pretty much the definition of handy man and I've always admired that. Plus, if medical residency makes me a widow like most people say it will, I'd like to be able to take care of a few things.

One night Brett took a break from studying in the office and came to find me with my head about an inch from our shower drain.  I was trying to figure out how to take it apart to clean it out. With Brett's help I was successful! small victories right?

The next day, I tried this weird idea on Pinterest of cleaning the headlights of our car with toothpaste... there's a small difference if you look closely though I don't think I'll try that one again. After that I changed out our license plate. It feels kind of boring to have a Texas license plate like everyone else now, but we're keeping the old one as a keepsake :)

We went to visit my family in Houston last weekend for a bunch of birthdays and my nephew Isaac's baptism. While I was there I commandeered my mom's sewing machine since I don't have one here in Temple. I was able to fix one of Ellie's toys and I made this baby door thing. Seems kind of trivial, but I LOVE being able to just close her door and not have to take great care to slowly and quietly turn the doorknob.

Now I'm just trying to fix up this dresser we bought on craigslist into a TV stand. While we were in Houston, my dad cut us some wood to use for turning the top three drawers into one continuous shelf. (have I mentioned that it's nice to live close to family...)

I'm still loving the Temple Symphony Chorale each week. For some reason I think I connect a lot more with the 60-70 year olds in the choir rather than the 18-25 year old college students... not sure what that says about me. If you're going to be in Temple on Saturday December 6th it should be a good show ;) We're singing Robert Shaw's Many Moods of Christmas which basically just means a really long meadly of all the Christmas songs you know and maybe a few you don't. Plus it's performed with the Temple Symphony so that's cool.

This is the project taking up most of my time though -

This is Sarah Jane Featherer, my great great great grandmother. I've been working to gather information on her mother's, Elizabeth Aborn's, family. Ellie's full name is Elizabeth and we named her after 4 Elizabeths. One from each of our parents' lines; this is the one from my dad's line. Brett can attest to how addicted I've become haha. The familysearch.org website just makes it so simple! It's like, the information is right there... how can I not attach it and fix it and keep going. This weekend was probably one of the first times that I listened to a general conference talk about doing genealogy and didn't feel guilty, and I love it!

let's face it, this is a blog about our daughter...

First Ponytail Ever-- It stands straight up 

(new couches we bought in the background)

Ellie really likes music; as soon as I put it on she is happier. We play music while we clean, she likes when I sing to her, she will just lay on the ground and watch, mesmerized while Brett plays the guitar, and this video shows her talkin' and moving her feet to the beat. She's almost too big for the swing nowadays.

some Fridays we like to Match :)

Pineapple is my favorite fruit of all time. Brett and I were snacking on some during the BYU game this weekend and this was Ellie's reaction. Brett was convinced that it would be way too sour and that she wouldn't like it but I convinced him to give her a taste. She sucked on a piece for awhile and loved it but then she actually bit off a bit and that's a choking hazard so... no more pineapple for a little while. 

Cuddles. For a long time Brett and I have felt like Ellie just wasn't a very cuddly baby because she just didn't ever seem to want to snuggle up to you, or lay on your shoulder etc. but lately she's been changing. Especially when she's tired she will just lay right on you, put her face on your shoulder, and fall asleep. Happy Parents :)

P.S. One small note not Ellie related; I really like the recipes of the Six Sisters. Their honey lime chicken enchiladas and balsamic glazed pork loin have become some of our regular meals. Tonight I tried their Monterey chicken and it was super tasty. I'd recommend them to anybody looking for easy yummy recipes that don't have a ton of crazy ingredients.

Getting Involved

     This is a video taken of Ellie back when she was around 1 month old. Time flies. One night this week I made Brett watch this over and over again with me because I just think it's just so cute. It's a strange thing to think that she'll never be that little again and that she's just going to keep growing and changing forever.

    Alright enough of the past and on to the future. Brett and I are continuing to get settled and involved here in Temple and here are a few things we've been up to-

Temple Symphony Chorale

     I've been a bit of a choir guru since high school but when I graduated from BYU I found it hard to get involved outside of the school environment. I still participated in ward choirs but I have missed being really pushed and driven to be a better singer. I did some research on the local choral opportunities here in Temple and finally came across the Temple Symphony Chorale. It was the only auditioned choir within a 15 minute radius that doesn't meet on Monday nights (Family Night), doesn't have a fee associated with it, and has a traditional choral repertoire. I found out about it just in time, auditioned a few days before the first rehearsal of the semester, and made it in!!
     Now, every Tuesday night from 6:30-8:30 PM Brett watches Ellie while I get a mom's night out doing something I really LOVE. I love the work, I love being pushed, I love the corny older members of the choir who laugh at everything, and I love being a part of something like this again. I look forward to it every week and am so grateful to Brett for sacrificing precious study time for me to do it.

Primary & Nursery

    It took about a month, but Brett and I were recently extended callings in our new ward. I am now teaching the CTR 6 class in our ward and Brett will be helping in the nursery. I am excited to learn these new primary songs they have now like Scripture Power but I'm a little terrified of teaching these kids on my own. I've got 5 boys and 1 girl and they are definitely keeping my hands full. Also, our primary program is it 2 weeks and I barely know the names of my kids, AHH! We aren't totally sure what to do with Ellie yet - do I try to teach while taking care of her.... or does our 5 month old go with Brett to nursery where the colds, flu, and runny noses spread freely... Oh well, we'll figure something out I guess :)

Insert Elizabeth Photo Montage Here...

Selfie! (just kidding - her arm was just moving really fast)

    Elizabeth has been able to roll over from tummy to back and from back to tummy for a while now, but in this last week she has become obsessed. She just rolls and rolls and rolls. Ellie also REALLY likes to grab her feet; she can't get them to her mouth yet though. She likes carrots more than peas or prunes and she is down to 2 naps a day instead of 3. We have also reached the blessed day where she doesn't need to be rocked to sleep anymore. Just set her down in the crib and she knows what to do. Still trying with all my might to get her to say "mama", but no success so far. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks though ;)