Spring is Here!

Spring is finally here! Yay! Ellie, Adam and I have been eagerly waiting the warmer weather. We have been outside almost every day playing, walking, hiking, jogging- whatever we can think of! We love it here in North Carolina, it is so gorgeous!

Ellie loves being outside too :) She loves to pick Mommy flowers and brings them to me with such a big happy smile- I love it! She has also recently learned ring around the rosy- and likes to play it over, and over, and over, and over, well, you get the point! Between that and her new games like tickle the parents or hide and go seek, we have quite an active little toddler these days! We have been having a lot of fun lately, and here are some of my favorite shots of Ellie.

We had some fun at Marbles Children's Museum and dressed Ellie up as a princess ballerina butterfly- gotta love a girl with ambition!

This is shortly before church one Sunday. This is Ellie's "silly Mommy!" face :)

Also at the Children's museum, we dressed Ellie up as a firewoman. We thought we should support at least one occupation that did not require a pink tutu :)

And, last but not least, a devil pic. Because she was being such a stinker one day, I thought her hair should reflect the demon inside...

Videos

I know that there are several people who wish they could be around Ellie and Aiden a liitle more often, so I am posting a few little videos to share a little bit of daily life with these rugrats. Enjoy!

I know I'm just a proud papa, but I have proof that my daughter is smarter than a captive adult gorilla. Check out the proof!

Every parent alive has gloated about their child's intelligence and I swore I would never be the one to blog about it, but here I am, doing exactly that.
Last night as I was giving Eliana a bath, I was reminded of a time I was at the Salt Lake City Zoo. While I was there I witnessed what I thought to be a remarkable display of animal intelligence. I looked on as a gorilla picked up a water bottle, carried it to a stream, filled it up, and drank from it.
I went home that day thinking that I had witnessed an evolutionary miracle.
I have since learned that the real miracles are part of every day as a parent. Thankfully Ellie is always into some kind of miraculous monkey business that keeps me laughing in amazement. I enjoy every second of my life with her.

Circus :)

Ellie and I went to the Circus! It was so much fun :) Although, I must say, the circus is not quite what I remember... It is a lot more like a show on the strip in Vegas than I thought it would be! With lights, a diva singer with a full back up, and a constant overwhelming assault on all of our senses, it was a lot for my little one year old! But all in a ll, she loved the animals and seeing all of her little friends, so it was great :)

We went with Stacy and Aiden, and Liz and the two kids she nannies for, Dane and Cali. All of the kids were really great, and the only really uh-oh moment was when Aiden dropped his sippy cup from the balcony onto the ground floor! Luckily it was intermission, or he may have taken out some poor little child...

And Ellie in the laundry... just thought I would throw this one in for kicks and giggles. Adam and Ellie are always getting into mischief and and then calling me in to see what they have come up with now! I know I am in trouble when I hear "Mommy, bring the camera!"

Ellie is One!!!

So we celebrated Ellie's first birthday this month. We had a wonderful time! On the fifteenth, her actual birthday, we had her pics taken. Follow this link to see them- too cute! http://smilestore.picturepeople.com/my/images?tk=b37b72f1-5ef4-4b9d-a134-7b981c1bd1f4

After that we went to Olive Garden for lunch. She loved them singing to her! The Saturday following we had a party at home for her and invited our friends and family. I made Ellie a giant birthday cupcake, but she showed much more enthusiasm for the blueberries :) To see more pics of the big day, visit our family photo album link or click here:

www.picasaweb.google.com/adamwestfamily

Ellie's First Christmas

I am so excited about Ellie's first Christmas! I love Christmas so much, and I can't wait to share it with my sweet little daughter. She loves so much about the holidays already, and in this picture you see her holding a jingle bell, her new favorite toy :) She also loves torturing our tree and the train, but at least she's excited! One of her favorite things is decorations, especially window clings, so I got some for her room. Then one day we were letting her have some diaper free time, and well, here are the results...

Gotta love chubby legs! Now, although my little girl seems to love all things Christmas, Santa scares her to pieces! We tried three mall santas, and on the third attempt, after much coaxing and bribing with nilla wafers, we at least got her on the chair. She even offered to share her cookie with Santa! Even though it was half eaten and covered in slobber, I think the sentiment was definitely appreciated.

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving!

Adam and I were able to visit our friends in Virginia and explore Washington D.C.! I was so excited because Adam has been talking about D.C. for the last three years that he has taken his fifth graders there, and everytime we watch a movie he says "been there, been there." Lol. So now I can too! It was so nice to see Shaun and Rebecca and their little girl who is only a few weeks younger than Ellie. We haven't seen Shaun in such a long time, so it was so good to see him again and finally get to know his beautiful wife Rebecca better.
We spent Thanksgiving with the Calderwoods and more of their friends and family. Here are some pictures from the big day.


Ellie's first Thanksgiving! She loved all of the food :)

I made her a turkey dress and bow- so fun!

Ella and Shaun at Ella's first Thanksgiving :)

The next day we spent at D.C. touring the beautiful city. I saw the Hope Diamond and other jewels at the Natural History Museum, so awesome! We also saw the Capitol, the Smithsonian Castle, the National Archives, the White House, and the Lincoln Memorial (my favorite part!). We saw many other things, andwe still need to go back! It was so much fun, and Ellie was quite the little trouper :) Then Saturday we went to Mount Vernon with Shaun, Rebecca and Ella. It really was a fun trip, and we really enjoyed spending time with friends :)

I made the girls matching reversible Chirstmas dresses with bows. Aren't the girls adorable? I just love that they are so close in age!

My family with the Washington Monument

Ellie and me at the National Mall

Where MLK gave his famous speech...

The dads with the bjorns (as Adam says, bjorn'n it) at Mount Vernon

All of us Having a Dream :)

At the Lincoln Memorial

Ella attacking Ellie at Mount Vernon (hehehe) :) Ella was always so excited to see Ellie, that it often ended in tears for Ellie :( But I just know they are going to be great friends!

We had so much fun, and we are so grateful for our friends for having us. I am grateful for so many things in my life. Even though things are stressful and sometimes difficult, I am so grateful for my many blessings. I am grateful for wonderful friends who I miss terribly, I am grateful for my family and my home, my beliefs and the gospel, my sweet little girl and my hubby. I am also grateful for silly things, like peppermint hot chocolate and sewing all night, diet coke, long conversations about nothing, finding old friends and making them new again, Ellie's naps, cheaper gas prices, craft day, baking, a clean house, Adam talking in his sleep, and The Soup. I love it!

See our picasa site for lots of pictures and narrated captions by my adorable husband: www.picasaweb.google.com/adamwestfamily

Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! For Halloween, I made Ellie a flower costume. I modeled it after an Anne Geddes pic, and the pot was last minute inspiration from Adam. I am just so thrilled that my daughter is so cooperative! Everyone was so amazed she kept that thing on, and smiled and giggled too! She is such a happy little girl :) She won first place in a costume contest at the mall here. It was so fun! While we walked around the mall the judges hunted us down to enter her becuase several people had told them about her! A lot of people took her picture, and later I wondered if I should have maybe stopped them? I don't know, I don't see a problem, but it seems sort of weird that about 50 people I don't know have pictures of my baby. Oh well! I also realized Halloween with a baby is very different from one without, in that I was exhausted by the time it was over! And she can't even walk yet :) I'm in trouble next year...

The Zoo!

So we decided it would be fun to go to the zoo before the weather chilled down too much. It was a blast. I mean, it was exhausting, but it was definitely worth it :) Ellie and I, Stacy and my nephew Aiden, and Liz with the two children she nannies for, Dane and Cali, all headed to the very large zoo about 70 miles away and spent the entire day there. We were probably quite a site with all four children, three strollers, two baby bjorns, and the various baby accessories. The kids loved the animals! Ellie especially adored the flamingos, meer cats, and cougars. The kids did really well, we were so thrilled. We saw so many animals and rode a carousel and the tram, so the boys loved it :) Yay for adventurous field trips in fall!!!

Here we are in the tram. We asked some poor woman to photograph us while the tram was in motion so we could hurry and get the kids off when we stopped. It was quite the process to get on and off, so we mostly walked the five mile zoo. And most of us are looking at the camera, so I call this victory!

I just loved this picture of Aiden. He is such a little cutie pie!




Liz is so cute with Dane and Cali, and I loved this picture of her entertaining Cali while we stopped to look at some animals. She is so great with the kids, and they adore her!

September Pictures

So now that I have posted a million pictures, maybe I have caught up with last month! We went to the carousel at the mall, and Ellie loved it! She laughed and smiled the whole time. She loves the motion! We went with Liz and the two children she nannies for, Dane and Cali. Cali is only one day younger than Ellie. We have so much fun together on our little adventure play dates :)

We took family pictures in our back yard. It is so green here! I can't believe how much Ellie looks like her Daddy!

Ellie's 8 month pictures! Yay! I made this little dress for her, and it is reversible, so we had some fun with it. It is great camoflouge in the last shot! She loves to put everything in her mouth of course, but she seems to finally be interested in touching the books too :) The only interesting side effect has been that since I read her the touch and feel books, she has learned to scratch every book! Now even reading the scriptures or hymn book, Ellie sticks out her little pointer finger and scratches away. Oh well!

Random Pics Cont.

Here are a few more pics of Ellie's new room. It turned out so sweet! It took forever, but I am so glad it is done. It finally feels like we are completely moved in. Ellie not having a room for the past two months has been really rough, and now we can finally get back some semblance of a schedule!

7 months old!

I know it's a little late, but here is Ellie's 7 month picture. It was taken August 15th. I can't believe how fast time is flying! Ellie is now 8 1/2 months old, and she is crawling, says mama and dada, waves bye-bye, and pulls herself up. She is so sweet, I just can't get enough of her! She definitely has a feisty side to her as well. She likes things when she wants them, especially my cell phone. And she keeps us laughing :) The other day we were at the mall, and Adam looked down at her in the stroller, and she was chewing on a plant! Apparently she ripped it out of a pot in the mall without us noticing, and proceeded to suck on it- gross!

September 2008

Here are some random pictures from our first month as official home owners in North Carolina!

This is Liz and me after our first cake decorating class. It was so much fun, and yummy :) We had so much cake we brought it over to share with Josh and Stacy after.

These are some pictures of Ellie's new room. Adam and his dad remodeled it with beadboard and chair rail and painted it a lovely pink :) We were so thrilled to finally be able to paint after years of renting!

Our New House!!!

So we just purchased our first house...YAY!!!!! We found this cute little house in Holly Springs, NC. It is a small town of under 20,000 people, but it is only about 15 minutes to Raleigh. It is a brand new house and we got a pretty good deal on it. So far we are loving North Carolina. I start working in about a week... New School...New Year...

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th everyone!
We had such a wonderful holiday! We went to Boulder City and had a barbeque at Adam's Aunt's house, and then watched fireworks at the park there. They were so beautiful! I made that cool whip American Flag dessert, which is the one in the picture of our little family. My sister Allie joined us, and it was so fun! I just love spending time with her, I miss her so much now that we live so far apart. She really is such a beautiful, thoughtful, loving little sister, and I am so grateful for her in my life.
The fireworks were beautiful! And if any of you know Adam very well, it won't surprise you that he lugged our camera, video camera and tripod down to the fireworks and took about a million pictures... gotta love him! Ellie did so great! She loved the fireworks, and she just watched the sky, mezmerized. She didn't even flinch at the big booms, and we were really close. The child never ceases to surprise me. It was such a wonderful evening, beautiful, warm, with a gorgeous sunset to make it a perfect setting. It was so fun to be together with so much family, and to watch Ellie enjoy the fireworks. It was my favorite fourth of July of my entire life, by far. I love it!

Eliana's First Poem

The other day I was holding Ellie in my arms while I was typing on the computer. She showed great interest in what I was doing and decided that she would like to give it a whirl. I decided that I would open up a word document and let her type her very first document. I then decided that it I would help her put her document in to a poem. Together we created an acrostic poem. Below you will find her original as well as the Daddy / Daughter Version. It is a poem that signifies the time that passes us all by so quickly and the bonds between a mother and daughter. Let us know what you think.

Original:

T U J J J J J J J M M N S M N M N J , K , 8 H N 7 H M M J M T R C Y Q 6
^ M 5 H [ } “ { [ [ [ , M , I / / G N A B B B B B B B B B V “
I I I I I I I I I I I I M (The “I”s were actually straight slashes… but Blogger could handle that.)

(Remember the "I"s at the beginnings are supposed to be straight lines)


To my mommy,
U are my special fwend
Just you
Just me
Just Daddy
Just us
Just loving each other
Just for a moment
Just forever
My family means the world to me

MY HEART GWOWS EVWY DAY
NUZZLE ME AGAIN MOMMY
Hold to the wod wif one had and hold my hand wif the other


Show me how to do that mom

Make my peanut butter sandwich into a heart shape pwease
Nummy nummy for my tummy
Mommy, can I have a glass of milk?
Now sit and play wif me
, Wait just one more minute pwease
Key to Mommy’s hear is my bottom wip
, Wait for just one very lastest minute Mommy
8 all my vegables
Happiness
Nub you too Mom
7 kisses just for you
Hold me close

My mom’s the bestest

Mom it’s okay. I’ll be home from kinder garden soon
Just relax
My teacher is really nice
Take me to the mall please mom
Ready!
Can I get this dress mom? It’s Perfect!
Y are you crying mom?
Quit worrying so much
6 o’clock is when the dance starts

^ Why did you wait up? I told you I’d be fine

Married! We’re getting married!
5 more days until the big day
Happy as can be
Hold to the rod with one had and hold my had with the other
[ The bride’s family is on the left
} The groom’s family is on the right
“I do”
{The groom’s guests left
[ My guests left
[ Daddy left
[ Mommy left


,Take a deep breath
My family is still my family

, Take another deep breath


I Hold to the rod
/ Oops!

I Hold to the rod again

G, I didn’t know life could be this tough

No, I can’t come home for Christmas Mom.
A BABY!

Boy
Blue eyes
Brown Hair
Beautiful
Best thing I ever did
Benjamin Adam
Beautiful
Bawled like a baby
Beautiful
Very painful!
“I will”
I (1)
I (2)
I (3)
I (4)
I (5)
I (6)
I (7)
I (8)
I (9)
I (10)
I (11)
I (12)
I’ve heard that families can grow apart like the 12 tribes of Israel

My mom always told me that families can be together forever….and I’ve always believed her.


Written by Eliana Virginia West with the help of Adam West
Summer 2008

This is a video that came by I.C.G. (Inspired Creative Genius)

I was watching my beautiful baby play in her crib and naturally I thought...Let's make a movie. So together we created our first installment of the Daddy and Baby Independent Films. This one is called Babyzilla. The inspiration for this film was sudden and yet, it's a timeless tale. A story that transcends racial, ethnic, and gender lines. The recurring theme throughout it is as ancient as time itself. Behold...the uncontested truth... Babies will eat anything!!!

Happy Father's Day!

I just wanted to take a second and wish Adam a happy first Father's Day! I know he has looked forward his whole life to becoming a father, and I know he is the perfect father for our little daughter. He loves her so much, and she adores him. I am so grateful for them both! I adore the way he gives her a bath every night and the way the play and laugh most of the time. I love being able to hand her to him and not having to worry for even a second that she will be unhappy or unsafe. I am ecstatic that he wants to be a big part in her life, and I secretly laugh at the way he mourns the end of each day as she grows bigger and bigger.

Father's are such an important part of a child's life, and they do so much for their families just by sticking by them and doing their absolute best each day. I wish all the dads out there, including my wonderful father and Adam, a Happy Father's Day!