Little Miss

Elizabeth shut herself in her room this morning. When I went to check on her a few minutes later, this is what I saw:

Apparently her pajamas didn't get put away this morning . . .

I love that she got the shirt on fairly correctly!

She thought it was so funny!

Other things I want to remember about her right now:
Elizabeth has grown up so much in the last few months. She is now starting to string 2 and 3 words together.

She loves her baby dolls and insists on having them in bed with her. Whenever we go get her up, the doll with removable clothes is always undressed. But Elizabeth will say "diaper" and insist on me dressing the doll again before laying down to sleep the next time -- so funny!

She is a smart girl. Ryan was especially impressed the other night when Elizabeth helped us get ready for dinner. The dishwasher was open and the boys' plates (Star Wars for Nathan, Spiderman for Benjamin, and Cat in the Hat for Joshua) were clean in there. She saw that other family members were setting the table so she got out everyone's plates, one at a time, and said the right name of the brother and took them their plate! She does similar things with shoes and coats, too.

Elizabeth likes to clean and organize. Not to say that she isn't messy -- the area around the highchair will prove that she is a normal messy baby! But when she sees sponges, rags, brooms, and anything that resembles cleaning supplies she loves to "clean" with them. Anytime she eats fruit snacks (or other foods in packages), she insists on handing me the trash right away. If we are in the car, I will tell her to put it next to her leg in the car seat while I'm driving, but she is not satisfied until I take it from her! When she sees trash on the floor at home, she will pick it up and walk it right to the trash can!

This girl has so much personality and makes us smile everyday!

The fun has begun!

After almost 4 years of waiting, we are finally getting our basement finished! Hooray!

Here are the before shots. Don't let them fool you . . . we had about 5 times this many boxes and stuff in the basement originally. I just forgot to take a picture until we had most of it cleaned out!



Here is what it looks like with the framing done.

view from the stairs . . . the wall separates the family room from the back bedroom
up-close view of the same wall

3 doors: storage room, bedroom, and closet under stairs

It should be complete in about 2 months :)

Newbery Nathan

The elementary school has several fun programs to reward readers. Nathan, our voracious reader, has recently decided to work on the Newbery medal contest. For every 5 Newbery books (award winners or honor books) the student reads, they get a medal. The contest is for 4th grade and up, but 3rd graders can participate after January if the teacher approves it.

I think Nathan started the Newbery books in February, and he has already passed off 10 books! (Not a Newbery, but he just read The Hobbit in about 1 week. He LOVES to read!)


Today was the school assembly where Nathan got both his bronze and silver medals. Way to go, Nathan!

Our Best Bites

For about the last year or so, I've been following a food blog, Our Best Bites. It has totally improved my cooking skills! I love that the two authors, Sara and Kate, explain things in lots of detail for those of us who are not experts in the kitchen! And their recipes are easy to follow and taste amazing!

Our Best Bites recently came out with a cookbook. When Kate and Sara announced that they would be coming to Utah, and more specifically to the mall near my house, to do a book signing, I knew I needed to rush out and get the book! So last week I got my copy! (Sorry Ryan, I know you probably wanted that idea for an upcoming gift-giving occasion, but I just couldn't wait!) A lot of the recipes are from the blog, but there are new ones in the book, too. I've spent the week looking through the book, and deciding what to try next.

Last Sunday I made the Spicy Honey Chicken and the Sweet & Savory Coconut Rice -- delicious! And then on Tuesday afternoon I whipped up the Sour Cream Pound Cake and made the Strawberry-Lime Shortcakes with Coconut Cream. Yes, it tasted as amazing as it sounds! And now I can say I've toasted coconut -- I learn a new skill all the time from these ladies! Unfortunately, I got wiped out by some bug the rest of the week and was not able to try more -- yet.


The book signing was Thursday night, and of course I was feeling my worst all day Thursday. I couldn't miss meeting Kate and Sara, though, so I took lots of cold medicine and said many prayers. Amazingly, the only time I didn't need to be near a tissue (or the entire box of them) was during the time I was gone to the book signing -- what a blessing!

Me trying not to look sick~ Kate on left, Sara on right

And fair warning to my neighbors . . . I will most likely be bringing this to ALL of our neighborhood barbecues this summer!

Dear Ones & Donuts

Every year our elementary school has Dads (or Dear Ones) & Donuts to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday and get everyone excited about reading. Ryan has been able to go every other year, but he couldn't this year since he doesn't work close by anymore. So Joshua and Elizabeth and I got to go read with the boys :)

We found a nice spot in the library and read some of our books from home.



They didn't hand out the donuts immediately, and Elizabeth was getting antsy so I gave her some fruit snacks. Then the donuts arrived soon after, so it appears that she combined her two snacks -- yum!

Enjoying the Playset

The weather has been nice lately, and so we've made sure to get outside and enjoy it. I loved watching Joshua and Elizabeth entertain themselves and each other on our playset in the backyard!

Getting in position

Smiling at Joshua

Wheeee!

Elizabeth can climb up the ladder herself

Joshua on the rock wall

let's do it AGAIN!

Ashies

One of Elizabeth's favorite things she's picked up from Nursery is playing "Ring Around the Rosies". My favorite is that she'll repeat over and over, "ashies, ashies" -- it is SOOO cute! Of course, when I got out the video camera, she wouldn't repeat it!

The boys think it's fun to play with her -- they fight over who gets to hold her hand. (Looks like the biggest brothers won that fight!)