Wordless Wednesday: Little Mommy

Ellie has been fascinated with her baby doll for a few weeks now.

But just yesterday, she decided that she is this baby's mommy.

She feeds her, changes her diaper (with some help from me.....she gets quite frustrated with the whole process), and pushes her around in the stroller.

In fact, Elliott even rushes this baby to the bathroom at random and puts her on the potty.

I hear them shuffling around, and then a "ppsssss" sound comes from Ellie's mouth, and they finish off with some "good job" and "sticker?!"

Now, if only Ellie would pay as much attention to the potty for herself as she does for her baby.

She's a good little mommy.

Wordless Wednesday: Apple Picking

Apple Picking seems like it should be a very popular fall activity, but around the PNW.......it's not. Everyone that I've mentioned it to seems to think it sounds like fun, but they've never gone, nor would they know where to go to pick apples.

Well, last Friday my friend Christie and I geared up for an adventure.

We met up at Starbucks for a warm treat, then loaded Jonas (4) and Elliott (1.5) into the car for a drive up to Sedro Woolley. I had heard of this town before, but I actually had to check a map to know where we were headed. After about an hour of driving (and thinking that we were lost but finding out that we really weren't), we arrived at Jones Creek Farm.

The rain subsided just as we pulled into the parking lot, and Christie stepped out to talk to the owner since neither of us had any idea as to what we should expect.

Well, apple picking turns out to be just as simple as it's name implies.

We picked out a wagon to tote around our apples (and the kiddos), and headed into the orchards.

It was just a little too wet out for me to bring my camera along, but I did snap quite a few pictures on my iPhone.

As miserable as my kid looks, I swear that she had fun. Lots of fun!

Seriously, apple picking was SO much fun! We were wet and exhausted by the time we loaded back up into the car (Ellie rode home pants-less and I aired out my drenched shoes and socks under the dashboard), but we were already talking about how this should be a new fall tradition.

60 pounds of apples later, I think Christie and I are both still looking forward to taking our kids apple picking next year, and the year after that.

It was just really cool to see our kids learn and explore, and just be that close to nature.

I was in awe everytime Elliott would just grab an apple out of the box and take a bite out of it, tasting new tastes and checking out the skin of the apple as she spit it back out.

I was like a kid myself, giddy at the thought of plucking an apple right off of the tree and taking a big old bite out of it.......I guess I've never gotten to experience that kind of "fresh" and it was exciting!

While we are dealing with an apple hang-over here (2 apples pies, 2 batches of applesauce, Caramel apples, and about 10 pounds of apples still waiting in the freezer), I really cannot wait to make this a yearly thing. Thank you Christie and Jonas for making fun memories with us! Muah!

Linking up with Baby Baby Lemon, Live and Love Out Loud, and Jenni From the Blog today.

From the iPhone Lately

As some of you may know, I recently got a new phone, and it's a Blackberry.

I thought that I would really like a Blackberry.

I mean, how much different could other technology be after having an iphone, right?

Ummmm, yeah it can be a LOT different.

 Let's just say that I didn't quite know that I was an iphone maniac until I switched to something else. You never know what you've got until it's gone, huh?

(Not to fear, I will be switching back to the iphone very shortly.

Sorry Blackberry, it's not you, it's me......)

Anyways, while I've been using the Blackberry to receive phone calls and write emails, I've still been toting around my iphone to take pictures with and use all of the cool apps. So, I thought I would share with you some gems that are stored away on my precious iphone.

This was the first time that we experienced Ellie "talking". We now cannot get her to stop. Ever. And it's still just as cute!

A little peek into Elliott's dance class. The kids and the activity just crack me up! So busy!

Being a cheeseball at class.

I so wish I could pull off knee high boots the way E does! (oh, and don't mind the mondo stains on our carpet. Lovely, right?)

Riding on a pink tractor in the rain!

Please take a quick second to vote for us today! Thanks!

Long Weekends......

Apparently tomorrow is a holiday. Yeah, Columbus Day.
I didn't know it was anything other than a reason for kids to learn about Christopher Columbus in October. According to Government officials, though, it's a full-fledged holiday!
That means Scott has a nice long weekend. I'm not complaining ;)

We've enjoyed some awesome weather this weekend, and lots of time together as a family. I also had a little girl's night out with my friend Melissa, some apple picking with my good friend Christie and her son Jonas, and we event went to church this morning and had lunch with my family.
So I can't really say that I didn't accomplish anything this weekend, because lots of memories were made and fun was had. But, I do wish that I had gotten more done around the house.
My goal for Saturday was to stay home all day and scrub, scrub, scrub this house from top to bottom. Well, that didn't happen at all!
I got some laundry washed and some clutter cleaned up, but that's about it! It's so hard to spend my time "off" cleaning and scrubbing instead of playing with Elliott and Scott.  

I think what needs to happen is this:

1. A List. I accomplish so much more when I have a list.
(see? I'm moving this boring ol' blog post right along, with the help of a list)

2. A Kid-Free Day. As much as I hate to spend any more time away from Ellie than I already have to,
I think this is necessary. It's next to impossible to try and clean toilets and mop the floor with a little toy-chucking, crumb-dropping tornado following me around everywhere.
Maybe Scott and Ellie can have a daddy-daughter date soon, and leave me home alone to
clean up all of their our messes.
That might just be heavenly.

(It's sad when being left all alone to clean my trashed house is heavenly, huh? Oh well.
I wouldn't trade this life for anything, that's for sure!) 

Anyways, the fact that it's a long weekend means one thing: I still have one more day to make this weekend count! Tomorrow includes a playdate in the morning and a playdate/mommy date in the evening.......that leaves me one good afternoon (and nap time) to get some things done! I'm off to make my list and maybe even get a jump start on item #4: folding laundry.

Night!

(These pictures were taken last weekend when we were trying to take family photos. We got rained out. But, isn't Ellie's outfit just too cute?! I love it.)

 

Flashback Friday!

 While at the pumpkin patch last weekend, Scott led me out to the corn field and asked me to pose for some pictures. He remembered us taking pictures in front of that very same field last year, and he wanted to recreate some of those photos.

Seriously?! Melt my heart, why don't ya?!

I was in love with the idea, and I can't believe that Scott thought of it and not me!

While our pictures are a little more, um, creative this time around.....I love comparing them with last year's!

So, a couple of things stand out to me when I'm looking through these photos:

1. The Farm seems to have a lot smaller pumpkins this year than last.

2. I think we have a "style" for Elliott......I see similarities in the way that we dressed her last year and now this year! I can't wait to see what kinds of things she wears as she gets more of an opinion about things.

3. I need a professional haircut and color ASAP! I really can't stand the mess that is my hair right now. I would take last year's hair in a heartbeat!

4. These pictures make me very HAPPY!!! I cannot even begin to describe the joy I have right now. I love my family, and I love the traditions we are starting and the memories we are making. I can't wait to have ten years of pumpkin patch photos to compare. (oh wait, yes I can! Elliott, stop growing right now!! You've already gotten much too big! Can't you just stay little forever?!)

One Hundred

Today I hit 100 followers (thanks to Marilyn, my 100th follower! Hi!!!!)

I just wanted to take a few minutes to say hi to many of my new followers, and to say a big huge thank you to my faithful followers who have been with me from the beginning!

I've been at this blogging thing for just over a year now, but I still feel like a newbie!

I swear I learn something new each time I write a post.

But I do feel like I'm finding my own voice, my own style, and really getting into a groove.

I love my blog for many reasons:

~It's a great place to document memories and stats from Elliott's childhood. Seriously, I'm the worst at scrapbooking and baby books, but at least it's all right here for me to look back on.

~I've met so many wonderful people through blogging. I love making new connections, and getting to peek at people's lives through their blog.

~I've been inspired by so many things in the blogging world, and I've been encouraged to really go for the things that I love. I've always been the type to be "okay" at a lot of different things, but through blogging I'm finding that it's good to pick one or two things that interest me and run with them.

I'm excited for whatever is next for this little blog of mine. It really is a great creative outlet for me, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. However, I do think there will be some changes around here in the near future. I'm dieing for some change, so I'm sure that my layout and colors will all be switched up again soon.

Also? I'd like to start offering ad space on this blog. It will be more of and "Ad Swap" deal, so be on the lookout for that! I think that will be starting in November......if it sounds like something that you'd be interested in, let me know!

One final order of business tonight: Top Baby Blogs

I'm going to not push this on you guys all the time. I want to just get it out now, and not really mention it much after this, okay?

Here's the deal: I will put this cute button at the bottom of most of my posts.

When you finish reading, please just click on the button.

On the landing page, click on the owl on the left. That's all!

You don't need to sign up for anything or give away your email address at all. You can vote once every twenty-four hours. I know, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I've met a lot of really neat ladies through this site, and I'd like to see this little blog jump up in the rankings so that I can meet even more awesome bloggers! So, like I said.....look for this at the bottom of my posts, click twice, and then you're done!

Anyways, it's been a crazy week around these parts. Scott started his very last year of school, and while we are so excited, we're also so exhausted!! I think we both forgot how taxing the school year is when we're juggling school, work (for both of us), a toddler, and a household. It means a lot of dinners served up at 8:00 pm, and tired goodbye kisses exchanged in the wee hours of the morning. We'll make it, and I'm sure this year will just fly by, but man, the adjustment period is just a little bit longer this time around.

I'll leave you with a couple photos of my tiny dancer (because I just can't have a post without pictures! Ha!) Elliott is in a mommy-and-me dance class every Friday (so, I guess that means that I am in a mommy-and-me dance class, too) and she just loves it!

 All dressed up and ready for dance class!

She caught on to the whole "following directions" thing after the first week, and she hasn't looked back since! And while she wants nothing to do with me during dance class, she follows her teacher, "Miss Mo", around everywhere and hangs on her every word. I love it, and I love watching Elliott dance and learn and grow. She's not around kids her own age very often, so I think this class is really good for her!

I just can't get enough of her leotard or those pig tails!

Well, that's enough rambling for one day ;)

Thanks again for being awesome followers! You've totally made my day, and I can't wait to see what another year of blogging will bring!

Wordless Wednesday: Pumpkin Patch

The Pumpkin Patch and the Christmas Tree farm are two of my absolute favorite places to visit.

I feel like each year, I plan our trips to these lovely places even earlier than the year before!

This last weekend we had one day of nice (non-rainy) weather, and the ten day forecast was not looking good! So we decided to go for it. Scott, Elliott and I packed up and drove about thirty minutes one hour (ahem, we may have gotten lost for about 20 minutes) to our destination: The Farm. Literally, this place is just called The Farm. And I love it! We've been going there for the past three years to pick out our pumpkins and I think it's the perfect place for it.

There's free admission and free parking, and the pumpkins and activities are all pretty reasonably priced. The place is clean (well, as clean as a farm gets, I'm sure), and has so much to offer: play area for the kiddos, corn maze, indoor hay maze (with a slide that Ellie literally FLEW down into a pile of hay!), fresh pastries and corn and kettle corn, a cow train, a room FULL of corn kernels, animals to pet, duck races, putt-putt golf, and of course, pumpkins!

 Awkward times when you're riding in the cow train and you see your boss in the distance waving at you.....yeah, that happened. At least my boss is really cool.

Oh, and then there was the time when I took 100 pictures of my two favorite people eating corn. True story.

The above photo is truly one of my favorites right now......Elliott LOVES corn on the cob! And Scott loves buying her fresh roasted corn on the cob :) I'm entering this photo in Faith's Simplicity photography challenge.

I always like to pick our pumpkins first, and then do the activities and get a little snack. Well, Scott vetoed my decision this year and I have to say, my way probably would have been best ;) Elliott had so much fun playing on the swings and riding the cow train and sliding into hay bales that she fareaked out when it was time to head into the field and pick out a plump orange vegetable. I thought it would be so fun for her this year to be walking around and picking out her own pumpkin.....but really, she was just a grouch by this point!

See? Crabby, crabby!

We picked out three pumpkins, and a handful of gourds/squashes and headed home. I thoroughly enjoyed our pumpkin patch experience, and we may go back sometime before Halloween just for the fun of it ;)

Linking up with The Paper Mama, Live and Love Out Loud, Jenni From the Blog, Baby Baby Lemon, and And Then She Snapped