Elise on camera

I need to edit these videos, but you get the unedited versions for now.

playing the piano

 

 

laughing in the bath

 

army crawling

food

Brian and I have had trouble thinking of what to make for dinner lately. Tonight...

Amy: I'm sorry I'm a vegetarian. Why did you marry me?
Brian (sadly): I thought I could turn you into a meat lover.

overheard

*Note: Elise doesn't really have a "vocabulary" and most likely didn't know what she was saying. We thought it was hilariously cute though.

Brian: Should I go for a run?
Elise: Yeah.
Brian: Should I take Elise with me?
Elise (excitedly flapping her arms): Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

*****

While we lived at Cresta Bella (temporary housing), I went to the office at one point to ask how much it would cost to rent out the clubhouse for a football party. I don't remember how much it was, but it was some crazy amount - maybe $300, including a $200 deposit or something. We decided that option was out.

A week or so later, I went and used the business center in the clubhouse. I printed a few pages and looked for a place to pay for them but couldn't find one. I went back the next day to ask about how to pay, and I talked to the same guy who had told me about renting the place out. When I asked him, he looked like he was confused or I was crazy. He told me, "You don't have to pay for the printed pages. That's part of what we provide here at Cresta Bella."

*****

When we found the place we're currently renting, we had to apply and pay an application fee ($40 per adult). I was excited to find out that we'd been approved. Brian's response? "Of course we are! We gave them money in order to ask permission to give them more money."

any resemblance?

Elise was almost 9 months in the picture on the left. The right picture was taken when I was 7.5 months old.

a picture explosion

We're long overdue for posting pictures. Here's an old one I found and some from since we moved to San Diego. (I'm trying to be better about updating but have been mostly unsuccessful in my efforts for consistency thus far.)

5/18/13 - In all of our time in Columbus, we had never been to see the Santa Maria downtown. Some friends told us about the Pirates Weekend, so we went down to check out the ship and the gun battle. Elise slept the entire time, including during the gun battle (while we were on the ship). This was the best pirate-y outfit we could come up with for her.

 

9/4/13 - It seemed like all of our cute pictures of Elise were in her bathing suit for a while. What a problem. ;)

9/6/13 - Brian and Elise at the beach (Torrey Pines) the Friday before Brian started his job.

9/13 (my camera decided you have to set the date every time you turn it on now, so I don't know the date; I think it was sometime in September...) - Elise decided she loves eating paper. I have since learned I probably shouldn't let her. (Can you see the ink on her face?)

9/13/13 - We met Brian and Kate in LA and got to see the space shuttle Endeavor.

9/14/13 - I was trying to get a picture of Elise wearing the shoes Marsha (neighbor in Columbus) gave us. You can't see them that well, but they're pink and sparkly.:)

9/28/13 - We went to SeaWorld for Brian's annual work outing. This was just before she fell asleep (poor thing was exhausted).

10/4/13 - Watching BYU football with Daddy. :)

10/5/13 - Getting really close to rolling over onto her stomach. For a while, she had to have the right motivation (in this case, tags...on the changing pad...).

10/6/13 - Starting August or September, I decided to try something called baby-led weaning. Basically, you give them fry-shaped pieces of fruits and veggies to gnaw on. She apparently loved the cucumber. She generally likes whatever chunks we give her, although it went poorly one time when she actually got a piece of pear off but didn't chew it enough before swallowing. (She's starting to figure out chewing now.)

10/15/13 - We went apple picking in Julian, which inspired us to make caramel apples for FHE the next week. The apples we picked were tiny (but surprisingly delicious), so these were some I bought.

10/18/13 - I found her this way during a nap. This was one day after the pediatrician expressed some concern that she wasn't consistently rolling onto her stomach yet. (That visit is a whole different story.) It was as if Elise was saying, "Mom, don't worry, I'm perfectly normal."

10/19/13 - Our adorable little ladybug at the PQ1 Trunk or Treat. We were hoping she would have learned to crawl by then, but no such luck. The Halls (in Columbus) gave us her costume before we moved because they knew Brian had been coveting it the year before when he saw Lydia wearing it. ;)

10/19/13 - Family Halloween costumes - snail, ladybug, and lawn gnome.

10/29/13 - 7 months old! She was 18 lbs, 13 oz and 27" at her appointment about 2 weeks before.

11/1/13 - Eating an Asian pear in her walker (which we use as a high chair since I need to clean up and cover the one I bought). She loves Asian pears and sometimes screams at me if I take them away.

11/8/13 - We hiked Iron Mountain on one of Brian's Fridays off. Brian carried her the entire time in the Bjorn, and she slept most of the way up. I forgot to grab a hat for her, so we bought bandanas. It's surprisingly difficult to tie them on a baby - it kept popping up and looking like a KKK hat (I swear we're not racist!).

11/8/13 - Om nom nom. Brian's hair was pretty gross after this.

 11/8/13 - More Iron Mountain.

11/16/13 - Brian set up his hammock on our balcony and took a little nap with Elise.

so...I chopped off my hair again

I loved my last haircut for a while, but recently it was just looking nappy (how do you even spell that word?). There was something weird going on with the top layer so it waved and stuck out all the time. I've been missing my short hair for a while now and decided it was time again.

I always think it's funny when people do makeover before and after pictures and the first one looks terrible - they're not smiling, etc. I figured I could do a mug shot for the before picture so you would get that effect. ;) (No, I don't normally post terrible pictures of myself on the internet.)

tags

Elise loves tags. I can pretty much guarantee that if she grabs something to play with it and finds out it has a tag, she will end up chewing on it. (This includes the changing pad, although I try to keep her from chewing on it.)

With this in mind, I decided to make her a tag blanket. Sure, you can buy cute ones, but I figured I could make it for cheaper. I had some material left over from a blanket I made for a niece, and I got 2 yards of ribbon at Jo-Ann. This is what I came up with:

 

I thought it turned out pretty cute, even if I'm not all that great at sewing. Unfortunately, Elise has not been as excited about it as I hoped/expected. Oh well. I'll keep forcing it on her until she loves it. ;)