Slow September

It's been a relatively uneventful month so far but here's the update. 

Brett is in school and did Awesome! on his last cardiology test. 

Ellie climbs on all furniture, carries her baby doll everywhere, and grows out of shoes every couple weeks I swear.

I've started choir again; we're singing some Schubert and it's crazy high... like every 3 measures we're singing A's. (2 above middle C) I love seeing my 'older' friends Pat & Buzz each week though. :) 

Also, I've started this cool thing called planning the weeks meals ahead of time and trying new recipes each week. Here are the ones that I've really liked so far

1. Ranch Breaded Chicken : You just take some chicken rub some ranch salad dressing on it and the put it in a mixture of bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, and Parmesan cheese. Then bake it until done. I like to make this and then cut it up and put it in a regular toss salad and call it dinner.

2. Shrimp Tacos (with mango avocado salsa) - Here's a link if you're interested: http://withsaltandwit.com/coconut-lime-shrimp-tacos/ 

p.s. we have our coats, is it time for Christmas in Canada yet??

The Newest Addition to Our Family: Remus

Brett had been asking and pleading to get a cat for the past 6 months and for some strange reason I finally caved. Upon returning from our Canada vacation we began searching for the perfect cat. We knew that it needed to be very cute, child tolerant, and Brett's top priority - cuddly. We also wanted a cat with short hair to avoid shedding and a male preferably. I told Brett that if we were going to get a cat in had to be in the next week or so before school started up again so he could help me get things set up and such; low and behold we found our perfect cat on Day 2 haha. * I'll admit that I postponed blogging about Remus because I wanted to make sure he was a keeper... and he is ;)

Ellie playing with the kitty at Petsmart; you can see why we needed this cat.

We bought a litter box, the cat toy from the video, some cat food, and brought him home that day.

We've name our blue tabby addition, Remus and he's everything we'd hope for.

He's cute

Child Tolerant

And very cuddly...

The truth is, I've been replaced.

Just kidding I also enjoy my Remus cuddles during family nap time

Kitty is truly Ellie's favorite word. Each day Remus follows me into her room as I get her from the crib and Ellie's first words are always "Kitty? .. KITTY!!". Then she proceeds to chase him around the apartment. As much as she terrorizes him I love noticing that he can't stay away from her. Even after all the tail pulling and face poking, and accidental falling on top of, he still follows her to her room and curls up by her while she plays... it's pretty adorable. 

15 Month Update

The 15 month mark has come and gone and Elizabeth just keeps growing up

Weight: 24.5 lbs

Height: 2 ft. 7 in.

Today at the doctor's office she didn't even cry when they gave her the shots.

ELLIE'S FAVORITES

WORDS: mama, dada, kitty, thank you, & nana (banana)

FOODS: blueberries, blackberries, bananas, pizza, & ice cream 

THINGS TO DO: dance, play at the splash pad, listen to music, run, climb, & put small toys inside containers and then take them out again

SONGS: If your happy and you know it (she always starts clapping for this one), Jesus wants me for a sunbeam (she knows when to jump ;) , and popcorn popping

One of the things that I love about Ellie is that she is a great sleeper. She wasn't always this way, but almost every night we give her a pacifier and her favorite blanket and she willing lays down in her crib and goes to sleep for 12 hours without a fuss. I love it!

Canada Vacation

We flew to Canada on the night of the 4th of July. We had a window seat and it was so exciting to see all the fireworks go off from the sky. We looked down over Seattle around 10 PM and could see hundreds of fireworks going off constantly all over the city. A few days later we made it up to Waterton National Park where we went boating, played in the lake, ate at Wieners of Waterton, and played with family.

(so sleepy - guess I'll just lay on these warm rocks...)

Brett and I left Ellie with Grandma for the morning and went on a hike in Many Glacier. I saw some moose for the first time (3 of them)!

These 2 kiddos are only 2 weeks apart in age and it's so fun to see their many similarities. We had a great time in Columbia Falls, Montana with family. Brett and I went white water rafting with Rod in Glacier National Park and got thrown around a bit. We had our fill of huckleberry ice cream, bike riding, and Apgar Village; gotta love our Shaw Family Traditions :)

These 2 girls haha 

Also, we love kitties and giving them rocks...

Happy Canada Day & 4th of July!

We love the pool at our new place!

Visited the Houston Zoo and Ellie got up close with the animals

We had to go through the tunnel twice because she enjoyed it so much :)

 Riding the Cougar 

My hand is in the picture because I was trying to wave while using the camera

Get me outta this stroller!

After the zoo we made it to an Astros game; They Won!!

Later that week, it rained... a lot... so we went to Chuck E Cheese. We think Ellie kind of liked it maybe?

Ellie had a good time with all her cousins in Houston and now we're off to see our Canadian cousins!

Dr. Brett & Splash Pads

Brett is finishing up his internal medicine internship thingy where he practiced presenting and examining patients. Lets just say he encountered some interesting situations in that clinic. He is now volunteering at a camp involving diabetes as well as a free clinic. He is also doing some case reports for a couple of different doctors. Wouldn't want to be bored during his last summer break would he?

Ellie laughs and squeals with delight/fear when you chase her around the house. She is getting quite attached to her blanky and liked to pull it out of her crib and come snuggle up to mom and dad. She knows where to put the stethoscope when you hand it to her and can point to mom and dad's noses when asked to. She has also started pointing at people a lot lately. I guess we'll have to teach her one day that this is impolite but for now it's cute.

It feels like the primary has taken over my life haha! last week looked a little like this ...

Monday - Primary Presidency Meeting

Tuesday - Round Table Scouting Meeting

Wednesday - Scout Committee Meeting

Thursday - My Birthday :) Yay!

For my birthday, Brett got me a new board game (Dominion) and a book called "the life-changing magic of tidying up". We have already played dominion several times and I'm halfway through my book. If your looking to simplify your life I would definitely recommend it; it helped me finally get rid of a few things I've been dragging along all of our moves but that don't "spark joy" when I see/touch them.

Ellie having fun with my phone

  

Busy Bees

It's been a few weeks and we've been busy!

Brett and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary with a night on the town.

I had my final choir concert which featured music set to Emily Dickensen poems.

Brett finished all of his exams and is officially DONE with the 1st year of medical school!!!!

We got some new responsibilities at our church. I have been busy busy busy working in the primary presidency these past couple weeks just trying to get teaches called, sharing times prepared, kids names learned, and the organization of Cub Scouts understood. Brett has been asked to lead one of the cub scout dens (weobelos) on Tuesday nights, as well as teach a primary class with kids ages 7-9 on Sundays.

Ellie tried her first crawfish as we went to 2 delightful crawfish boils within one week. (She liked it)

We had a fun visit to Houston where we picked dewberries, swam, and watched Dracula.

We MOVED across town! It was a ton of work and we are too excited that we will probably be doing it all again in a year, but we are happy to be here. We decided to move across town because of a few differently things namely
1. We wanted to be closer to school, people, grocery store, and everthing else it seems
2. Save money - our new place has a pool, gym, lower utilities, and will save us some money on gas
3. We weren't crazy about our old neighborhood especially after someone tried to break in ...

And this coming Friday we will be watching our friends' 3 kids for the weekend

Needless to say, there's never a dull moment and life's just how I like it - busy.

Ellie keeps growing and developing. She loves to walk/run around the house aimlessly for long stretches of time, and she's trying to climb up everthing. She gets her point across quite well with pointing and grunting haha, and she is still a good napper which i'm extremely grateful for. She loves all the summer fruits and veggies that are on the market these days. We can't believe we get to have this fun-loving beautiful girl in our forever family. :)