Step Prep

For the month of May, Brett is spending 90% of his time studying for his big Step exam. It's been a sad realization that I will be seeing much less of him during this time than when he was just getting through classwork but we know it's the most important thing right now. I can tell the Brett is really stressed out and nervous and frustrated all at the same time so we're doing our best to make it through and looking forward to our upcoming vacation.

It's hard to know why it happened, but about a month ago Brett and I just decided to book tickets to visit my parents on their mission in Trinidad after STEP. I guess we just figured there probably wouldn't be another opportunity to visit the Caribbean with free room & board and food, we miss my parents, and even though we're a poor medical school family right now, life is meant to be enjoyed in the journey of it. We don't want to wait until we have a salary to do anything fun. We're excited!

On another note, as I've hinted, Ellie and I have had a plethora of time to ourselves lately so I've been getting my crafty on. It's yard sale season with everyone moving in and out for residency so I bought Ellie a craft table and chair. (the chair had SO many layers of paint to take off haha)

BEFORE

AFTER

She's enjoying them for sure ;)

Yard sales are the best!!! It so fun to come home with all your treasures knowing that you only spent a few bucks. I do have to be careful to buy things because they *spark joy and not just because they are cheap. I'm also working on some baby blankets because it seems like everyone is pregnant and some home decor stuff.

*just finished reading Spark Joy by Marie Kondo and it was fabulous just like her first book. I also just read 12 Years A Slave and would recommend it to anyone who likes historical type books like that. 

Oh and I think we could all use a little extra SUPER ELLIE in our lives :)

 

Ellie's 2nd Birthday!

I think Ellie had a great birthday. In the morning we had a couple of her friends come over to play and have cupcakes, and later that evening we had some adult friends swing by to sing and watch her blow out candles. She loves playing with her new dress-ups and especially her Daniel Tiger trolley/ figurines. 

Height: 2 ft 11 in (89%)

Weight: 29 lb 5 oz (81%)

Ellie can count to 8 and can pick out a handful of letters if you show them to her. She loves to color, but she can't really tell you want color something is. Her hair is wild, and everyone comments that she looks like a big kid now. She's done with the pacifier, but she's gotten into a bad habit of taking her clothes & diaper off... and then peeing on the floor or her bed. She is always saying, "I do it" & "ellie's turn" & "mommy help" because she wants to help me. She's good at unloading the dishwasher and pushing clothes into the dryer; she also puts her toys away... sometimes.

Blue Bonnets

We are lucky that the blue bonnets come out right before Ellie's birthday every year. It's hard for me to believe that she's turning 2; she has changed a lot since last year's blue bonnet pictures.

I will admit that I unintentionally laid down on a cactus for these pictures and have been trying to find and pull out the needles all day haha

February

 Well, February has come and gone; it always seems to go so fast.

For Valentine's, Brett and I got away from Ellie for lunch and got ourselves some free Chipotle burritos; then we went over to Sips & Sweets for a Dr. Razz float. It's funny how easily you forget about simple pleasures in life like eating a meal without having to feed a child or make sure the child is quiet or that the child isn't making a mess. You simply order food, and then you eat it as fast or slowly as you wish and you get to focus on talking to your spouse. It was nice.

Brett's birthday was last weekend and he told me he would rather have muffins instead of cake and he wanted to open his gift in the morning; so on Friday morning we put a candle in a muffin and Ellie and I (really just I) sang happy birthday to him. While we aren't normally big spenders, we did get some steaks at Texas Roadhouse, custard at the new Freddy's in Temple, & Brett set up his new orange colored Fit Bit.

Ellie is starting to make church difficult to say the least. I don't get it, our almost 2 year old just doesn't like to sit still on a bench for over an hour... :P . We're trying the new thing called parenting where we make sitting on the bench with books, and activities more fun than being in a dark empty classroom with no toys or people. We'll see how it goes... there will probably be tears.

My New Best Friend

 This is my sewing machine and he is my new best friend :)

So far I've made some throw pillows, a couple baby quilts, a scarf, a new camera strap, & fixed some of Ellie's toys. I'm excited to see what else we can do together!

Building Traditions

 We had an awesome weekend in Dallas with our friends the Larsons & the Falcos :) This tradition started last year because our husbands were college roommates when we all met, but now we live in different cities. Once a year we all meet to let the kids play, stay up all night & just plain be crazy.

                                                      We took the kids to the Dallas Zoo

Brett and I went to the Dallas Stars hockey game against the Avalanche. 

And of course we screamed our way through a lot of Wacky Six, Taboo, & Scattegories :)
It was so nice to stay in a house where there was plenty of space for the kiddos to chase each other and nap while we still catch up with each other. Ellie was so sad to say goodbye, she had to give H and hug and kiss ;)

White Christmas

 We are taking advantage of the time Brett gets off of school and spending Christmas with his family up in Canada. It's been snowing a bit the past few days so we've had the most gorgeous white Christmas. Ellie started off slowly pulling things out of her stocking but by the end she wanted to rip through all the gifts under the tree. I think her favorite thing was the fruit snacks Santa put in her stocking. He knows her

Brett surprised me with a sewing machine which is great because I'm not very good at all but I want to learn more. I surprised Brett with tickets to a professional hockey game in Dallas a few weeks from now. *the way to any Canadian man's heart ;)

Ellie was a sheep in our Christmas story reading

While we've been here we've been eating way too much food, visiting tons of family and friends, and sleeping in. Ellie loves going on tractor rides with 'papa' and is mildly obsessed with his kitties. Brett had the opportunity to go to a hockey game in Calgary with his brother Justin. And I got my first ride on a snowmobile.

This is the famous train from Brett childhood.