I'm a slacker...

So it has been a few days since I last wrote in this thing. Let's just chalk it up to the fact that Ellie and I have been keeping quite busy these days. So we are going to update the last several days in list form...

Friday

• Go-karts and miniature golf at Trafalga
• Took Grandma Debbi and Papa Jim to the airport
• Ate real Belgian waffles at Bruges
• Ate pizza with Michelle and Aeryn
• Fell asleep watching Cinderella

Saturday

• Waffles for breakfast
• My basketball game
• Lunch at Carls Junior
• Watching the BYU-TCU game (JIMMER!!!)
• Miniature golf at Trafalga

Sunday

• Church
• Curry for dinner
• Making chocolate chip cookies
• Toy Story 3
• Aeryn losing her tooth in the middle of the night, and then losing her tooth in the middle of the night again

Monday

• Krispy Kreme
• Shopping at the mall
• Grocery shopping
• Hanging at Michelle and Aeryn's
• Leftovers for dinner

Tuesday

• Burger King for breakfast
• Laidback morning watching cartoons
• Aeryn and Ellie playing for the afternoon while Michelle and I went to the temple
• Sausage, biscuits and gravy for dinner
• Ellie and I picking up Grandma Debbi and Papa Jim from the airport

I don't have any pics to upload at this time. I guess I could put a picture of Jimmer on the blog, but that would be more appropriate since Ellie and I are going to the BYU-Colorado State game tomorrow. Of course there could be a picture of Krispy Kreme, but we have one of those from the previous entry. Whatever goes in, I just know that I am currently up to date with regards to my blog. :)

Krispy Kreme, Pajama Party and Waffles

Today was a pretty simple day. We went to Krispy Kreme in the morning with Grandma Debbi. Ellie then went to Chuck E Cheese with her, while I stayed and napped... I mean worked on my thesis. Then we went to Saratoga Springs for the rest of the day.

Michelle is having one of those crazy days... where she won't get be home between the hours of 7:00 am and 8:30 pm. To help out Ellie, and I came over and hung out with Aeryn. Shortly after we got here, Aeryn and Ellie got to go to a pajama party at the church, where they helped put together school kits for an orphanage. After that was over, I picked the two of them up, helped Aeryn with her homework, while Ellie helped me with making dinner - our weekly dinner of waffles. Now the two girls are ending the day by watching an episode of Backyardigans.

All in all, a wonderful day, especially if you don't take into account Ellie choosing to play the Wii over tending to certain physiological functions that occur on a regular basis. :) Bedtime is looming, and we shall see what tomorrow brings.

Tuesdays with Ellie

Today was a most relaxing day. We woke-up, did flashcards, ate breakfast, went to the mall, took a nap and then went over to Michelle and Aeryn's for the rest of the day. Aeryn and Ellie had a blast playing Wii, while I totally destroyed Michelle's kitchen. Actually I destroyed it on Sunday, and today I was just putting it back together, and by destroy I mean totally cluttered the place up. I should have taken pictures, but I didn't. Anyway...


Our exciting Tuesday evening consisted of going to Costco to load up on the necessities, such as chicken, pork, chips, eggs, butter and flour, and 4 polish dogs for dinner. We dropped the stuff off at Michelle's, and then the four of us had Family Home Evening. For those people, who may actually read this blog, and aren't Mormon. Family Home Evening, or FHE as it is commonly referred to, is a night set aside to do family stuff. Generally speaking, Monday is the night this happens, but last night was Valentine's. Anyway, generally there will be some sort of spiritual lesson, some sort of activity and most importantly refreshments. Tonight we kind of combined the activity and lesson, we talked about why temples are important and then drove to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, where we wandered around the grounds for a few minutes, before stopping at In-N-Out for shakes. All in all it was a very windy, but very nice evening.

Valentine's Day 2011

Happy Valentine's Day. At least I hope everyone had a happy day yesterday. I think Ellie and I had a great day. Ellie was able to spend a few hours with her grandma, because she didn't have to go to work. Of course they called her in while she was playing with Ellie and I was running Valentine's Day related errands. So I got back to Orem asap, and spent the rest of the morning and afternoon with Ellie. She helped me finish my errands, then we had lunch before heading over to Trafalga to go miniature golfing with our Pass of All Passes (Sidenote - For those of you that live in Utah County, for $40 we got an annual pass that allows us to go to both Trafalgas, Seven Peaks, and Orem Owlz and Flash games for free). Anyway we played two rounds of miniature golf - one inside with the black lights and one outside where it was 60 degrees, before heading back home.

Once we got home, we went for a nice 5 mile run. It was the first time I have run with Ellie in quite some time, but it was a lot of fun. I am so glad I invested some money in a nice baby jogger. It makes all the difference.

After our 5-miler, Ellie watched Finding Nemo while I made dinner. Aeryn and Michelle came over and Grandma and Grandpa watched the girls while Michelle and I had a lovely Valentine's Dinner. They came back, and we all had chocolate torte, and Michelle and I gave the girls their gifts for the day - stuffed animals and accessories from Build-A-Bear. Life is complete. :)

Suffice it to say, today was a great day!

Sunday Dinner

Today was just a typical Sunday. Okay, not really, but a guy can hope, can't he? After Ellie and Aeryn's sleepover, we headed back to Orem, where I had a quick meeting for church. Unfortunately Grandma was working and Grandpa had meetings of his own, which meant Ellie had to join me for my meeting. She did pretty good considering she is 4, and the meeting only lasted 10 minutes, so she wasn't too disruptive. After the meeting we headed back home, ate lunch, and then went to church.

Once church was over, we made brownies for our dinner we were having that night with Aeryn's grandparents, and then we went and had dinner. Dinner felt like the first night Aeryn and Ellie had been together... a lot of squealing, but they had fun, and I am starting to get used to this squealing thing. Maybe I will just invest in some good earplugs.

After dinner, we went back to Grandma Debbi's where Ellie played with her for a few minutes, before bedtime. She tried to negotiate a later bedtime, but I am trying really hard to keep her on a similar schedule to the one she has in California. So far I feel like I have been fairly successful.

Saturday is a special day...

Saturday started off with me being a wimp. I went outside to get something from my car, and I decided that instead of running outside I would rather suffer on BYU's indoor track. I told Mom of my plan and she said she would bring my jogging stroller and walk with Ellie. I had been planning on running 13 miles until I had gone outside, so I was hoping to get in 7-8 on the track which meant 35-40 laps. Ugh... However I felt even worse when I realized they had closed off part of the track and so I had to run 58 laps to get to my 8 miles. It actually wasn't that bad, but my knees and hips did not like me. Anyway, once our time was over, I ran home, which meant I hit my 13 miles, and Grandma and Ellie went shopping.

Shortly after everyone got home, Michelle and Aeryn showed up. The two girls played, and Micha helped my mom make my birthday cake. Yes, my birthday was on the 4th, but I wanted to wait to have my birthday party, until Ellie-girl was around. For some reason I was wanting a German chocolate cake, so that is what Mom made, and Michelle came up with the idea of putting some chocolate ganache in between the layers. Everything is better with ganache... right?

Once that thing was taken care of, Michelle and I played outside with the girls for awhile, before Michelle and I went and did some shopping- part of which included getting Ellie a teddy bear from Build-A-Bear for Valentine's Day. Then we met up with Zach, Logan, Mom, Dad and the girls at Carrabbas, where we had a lovely dinner. Once dinner was over, we went back to the house and had cake and ice cream. However, Michelle and I both agree that the ganache was a little bit of overload, and next time we may only put it on one or two of the layers instead of all 3.

After the festivities were complete, Aeryn, Ellie, Michelle and I went to Michelle's house, where Aeryn and Ellie had a squeal-fest, I mean sleepover. They were so excited and surprisingly went to sleep pretty quick. Although I wouldn't be surprised if they were still up when I fell asleep on the couch around 10:00ish. All in all it was a great day!

The battery is dead...

Today I picked up Ellie girl. Kim was wonderful enough to drive up to St. George last night, so I could pick up Ellie this afternoon. I got there around 9:00 in the morning, and picked up Ellie around 11:45. We drove back up to Orem, stopped in Saratoga Springs where she met Michelle (my girlfriend) and Aeryn (Michelle's 8 year old daughter) for the first time.

We stayed for a little while, and then it was off to Orem Community Hospital where we could see Grandma Debbi, and get my car back. We also managed to see Zach and Papa Jim. Grandma had to go back to work and so the Ellie and I were off to Saratoga Springs to make curry for dinner. However, Grandma forgot to turn the lights off in the car, and so we had a dead battery. Thankfully we had jumper cables and were able to get the car to work.

So we went back to Michelle and Aeryn's, ate curry, hung out for a little while, before heading to Orem to spend the evening with my family. For some reason it was a lot quieter when Ellie was at Grandma's house than when she was with Aeryn. I haven't heard so much squealing in a long time. I have a feeling that I am going to hear a lot more.