Hogle Zoo

In our attempt to be fun parents, Dan and I decided to take Ellie to the zoo. Our family is far from being early birds, but we actually got out of the house before noon (really it is quite the accomplishment!!).

Ellie had a pretty good time, the zoo was pretty crowded, I'm sure a lot of it had to do with school finally being out for the summer.

Ellie's favorite animal was the giraffe, she said it was massive (only with a "th"). Hogle Zoo had a brand new baby giraffe, I think Ellie was expecting to be a lot smaller!!

Dan and I fancied the gorillas, they were both napping, but one was curled up in a blanket. Also in the small animal and reptile exhibit there were some cotton tail or cotton haired monkey-type animal, they were really cute too. When we were holding Ellie up to see them, one came right down and stared at her.

While waiting for the train, Ellie and a bunch of other kids played with the big, black, water ball. Ellie loved the train ride, but while on the train ride, she spotted the playground.

If Dan and I are going to be honest, Ellie loved the playground the most!! Which actually makes going all the way to the zoo a waste of money!! While Ellie was on the playground, it was obvious she needed to go potty, as you can see pictured below. We got to her just in time!!

Dan decided that he needed to take a picture of Ellie and me, because I am usually the one behind the scenes. We are showing off our colorful tongues (we just finished our snow cones).

It has been over two years since we took Ellie to the zoo. The last time we went, baby Accara, the orangutan was about ten months old...the same as Ellie. She was the cutest thing ever, we were excited to compare them again.

As for my critique of the zoo...it makes me sad, some of those big animals look SO depressed!! Ellie would ask why all the animals were sleeping, and I would tell her it was because they had been running around in their small cages...:( Dan told me I need to quit being such a tree hugger...whatever that means!!

We dropped Dan off to see the Real game, and before we even left Salt Lake...Ellie was out!! I brought her upstairs to take a bath, she got upset, laid down on the floor, and was out again!!

Ellie and Lucy

Excuse the double post for today...I'm working on my blog book from blurb, and I have two or three more pages until I am at 100!!

My grandma and grandpa came to visit (at my parent's house) today as they were headed home to Mt. Pleasant (my cousin graduated yesterday in Logan). Aaron brought over Lucy too, it has been a while since I have taken pictures of them together so I took the opportunity to do it today. I didn't get many because Lucy is big enough now that she can push Ellie away if she is bugging her.

Ellie has also become very good at riding her tricycle (also a death trap for the potato bugs she finds). She can pedal and steer (somewhat!!).

Gymnastics

Ellie started gymnastics in September (I think), and she has absolutely loved it!! Ellie had gymnastics twice a week. On Mondays she had Coach Nicole, and on Wednesdays she had Coach Shane. She loved Monday's class because she usually got to play with the parachute ("carachute"). You have never seen a child more excited to play with the parachute than Ellie, she would scream and laugh...she thought it was the best thing ever!! She loved her Wednesday's class, but mainly because she had a huge crush on Coach Shane. She would do anything and everything to get his attention!!

I get so excited to see Ellie excel in gymnastics...I especially love to see her do something none of the other kids can do (I'm becoming a competitive parent!!).

Today was Ellie's last day of gymnastics, and at the end of the year she can walk and hop on the balance beam all by herself. She can hold herself up on the rings and do straddles, a tuck, and practically hang upside down. On the bars, Ellie can "rock the baby", "spin the cat", and walk like a bear all by herself. She can also jump in circles and do straddle jumps. Ellie is also a pro at forward rolls.

I can't wait to see what she is capable of doing at the end of gymnastics next year!!

Bless You

As Dan was getting ready for his softball game, he sneezed. Dan told Ellie, "Hey, I just sneezed, you are supposed to bless me..."

Ellie replied, "Our dear Heavenly Father, please bless daddy..."

Needless to say, we were both cracking up!!

High School Pictures

I know you all have been waiting to see what high school photos I could come up with for the high school tag...I had a ton, and you can consider yourselves lucky if you didn't make it to post!! :)

This picture was Homecoming '99. I went with Scott...

So, my "wild parties" in high school consisted of dressing up in my Grandma's old clothes and posing for pictures (Swens, I know you want this picture for your post, but I have a really good one for you, it involves a lamp shade!!).

Now this picture just cracked me up. This was for Preference (I think)...my date was Jake, and Tasha and Sam rode with us (Tasha and I are total twinners). I can remember Jake chipped his tooth right before the dance. I laugh because I look disgusted, and he has a "deer in the headlights" look about him!! Oh, and I'm wearing Katie's dress...she was so nice to loan it to me!! :)

This was the Senior dinner dance...I have a ton of photos from this night too. Don't worry Jaxon was not my boyfriend, but all of my pictures involve hugging some boy!! I went to two dances my Senior year with Jaxon. He claims to have had "busy hands", I claim "not to have noticed".

This photo was taken at Cheer camp, it is of all the Senior cheerleaders.

Bowling and Bad Pictures...

but let's pretend they are artsy!!

Dan and I had a list of things we wanted to do with Ellie today (ride Trax, The Children's Museum, Hogle Zoo, etc.), but when you finally get ready at 2:30...options are limited!! So, we decided to go to Sizzler (Ellie's favorite restaurant, she still eats free so it is ours too!!), and then we went to Fat Cats for some family bowling.

I've mentioned before that the Jessens (well my immediate family of Jessens) are notorious for either having a full memory card or low batteries when taking pictures. My folly was low batteries (the batteries were new, and I didn't charge them...my badness!!). Anyway, Ellie loved bowling, and she was so funny. She got so excited when any of us knocked down any of the pins (she would jump up and down, and say, "Cool dude!!"). She is SO independent too, she insisted on carrying her ball by herself to the ramp, and when she knocked some pins over she would give us a round of high fives. Anyway, Dan won, Ellie was second, and I was last...SHOCKER!!

Ellie liked her bowling shoes so much that she tried to steal them...

So cute...

Dan loves it when Ellie comes to bed with us. Dan once told me that Heaven would be having a dozen babies crawling all over us while we were lying in bed (personally, I think it sounds like Hell). Anyway...we got home especially late from our friend's house last night, and the only way Dan could convince Ellie to leave their house was to tell her she could sleep in our bed.

As soon as we got home, I bathed Ellie (yes, I am one of those anal mothers who bathes their child every night...). As soon as Dan and Ellie's heads hit the pillows, they were out. When I was getting ready for bed, I couldn't help but take a picture.

Ellie is such a cuddler. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, and Dan brings her to bed, she snuggles right up to me, and I love it!! Dan usually complains about it, because he wants her to cuddle with him, so since Ellie was cuddling with him...I thought I should preserve the moment with a picture.

Ellie's Blog Entry

Today, Ellie and Dan got the mail (I'm sure our mail lady hates us because our box was pretty full!!). Dan was sorting the mail after he brought it in the house. He opened the letter from Great Grandma and Grandpa Jessen, inside was a little letter and a picture of Ellie and the tower she made at Kianna and Bryce's party after their sealing. I told Ellie to hang it on her magnetic board in her room. She was upstairs for quite a while, and when I came upstairs to find her, she was in the office. She had the picture on the printer, so I asked her what she was doing, and she replied, "I'm putting this picture on the blog." If you look closely in the picture you will see that the photo is on the printer...



So there you have it, Ellie is officially a blogger!!

Here is the picture she wanted to post, thanks Grandma for sending it to us!!

High School Tag...

Elise tagged me, so I'll give this my best shot....
I decided to add Dan to the high school tag, since this is OUR family blog...I'm in green and Dan is in red.

1. If you could tell your teenage self something what would it be?
I would tell my teenage self something like this, "teenage self, don't worry about what people think of you in high school, because in all reality some of the 'it' kids will be total losers once high school is over." :P

Actually I still struggle with people not liking me...hence the stress of shopping with coupons.

Get good grades. Ask the hottest girl in school on a date. Try out for the football team instead of the golf team. Stay in baseball.

2. Did you do any extracurricular activities in high school?
I did cheer for two years, I played the violin until my Senior year of high school (and during the ten years I played...I never figured out how to tune it, so I have a beautiful violin that most likely will never be played again *tear*), and I dabbled in Spanish my Sophomore year.

Golf, kissing girls, and some other unmentionable extracurricular activities that I don't want to mention on the blog.

3. What did you do in your free time?
I had two jobs in high school, the Chillon and Wingers (my Senior year). I did have a lot of free time though...we would cruise Main Street as a joke. Andy, Jordan and Joe have a story about this, they didn't get any numbers...but they had fun with each other and a tube of red lipstick...I won't get into details, but it did involve kissing!! :)

I also cruised the 8 once with Jordan and Joe, we were in Jordan's truck (that he got for getting a 36 on his stupid ACT). Anyway, I made Joe sit in the middle, so that I could duck while we were driving around. I thought it would look funny to have them sitting right next to each other (you know, sitting "honky" or whatever). Apparently they thought I was trying to make it look like I was doing something else...I didn't realize that until a couple of weeks ago!! ICK!!

What is the difference between question #2 and #3?

4. Coolest thing you did in high school...
Okay, so this probably isn't considered one of the coolest moments, but I tend to think of the funny moments as my time in the spotlight!! :)

I was known as the cheerleader with the "rubber boobs". I had problems filling dresses, my cheer top, etc. (don't worry what I lack in the chest, I make up in the bum!!). My mom bought me some inserts for my bra one year (they looked like chicken cutlets). Anyway, there were plenty of mishaps with those inserts. I had one come loose at a basket ball game (Senior year). I also think I lost one on a date (do you remember that Swens?). Good times, I actually threw them away last year (they started to fall apart). So there you have it, a tribute to my rubber boobs. :)

I jumped over the cement benches in front of the school with my skateboard...actually I "half-cabbed" it, and my friends thought it was the coolest thing ever.

5. Did you have a boyfriend/girlfriend in high school?
I had loose lips in high school, but I didn't actually "date" someone until I was a Senior, and he went to Timpview.

Many.

6. Songs that come to mind...
Cake was huge during high school. There is a song that reminds me of Marie (I can't remember what it is called), P. Diddy, Mase, and Biggie sing it... Also the one song I HATED was that, "once there was this kid who..." song...I thought it was awful (it is in my head right now...hate it!!). I still liked the old music back then...

Sublime, Rage against the Machine (I went to the Rage concert at the fairgrounds and I got fired from my job), 311, Tupac, and the Beastie Boys.

7. If you could change one thing what would it be?
Nothing. Although I am not necessarily proud of all the things I have done in my life, they've made me who I am, and I DID take concurrent enrollment classes, but I am STILL on the nine year plan (one more year and I am DONE!!).

I would have been myself more. Betty Wyman told me what classes I need to take to graduate, and I didn't take it seriously...I wish I would have.

8. What did you think you would be when you grew up?
It changed daily. I've wanted to be a doctor, a lawyer, etc. The one thing I didn't want to be is the one thing I love now, and that is being a stay at home mom.

I never really thought about it.

9. Picture of self...
I'm not scared, I'll post one (I'll grab one from my Mom's house)...and some of you may make a surprise appearance on my blog!! :)

I'll see if I can find one somewhere.

10. Craziest thing you did in high school...
I got run over in the school parking lot!! Does anyone else remember this? So funny!! My Sophomore year, I was walking out to the Blazer (I was waiting for Aaron to drive me home). Scott C. had that fabulous, yellow jeep, and he would always follow me in it, and pretend he was going to run me over. Anyway, this time I jumped on the front of it (it had a little space where I could stand or squat). After he drove around the parking lot for a bit, I thought he stopped, so I went to jump off...yeah he didn't stop, and he ran over my leg. He was so stressed out when he got out of the car. I told him to back up, because my shoe was under his tire. Aaron finally came outside, just as I was getting some spectators. As soon as I got in the car he started yelling at me, so I cried!! Scott brought me flowers the next week...he was really sweet.

So, probably not my craziest moment, but one of the more stupid moments. :)

I went to Los Hermanos to eat with my friends. We planned on dining and ditching. We ordered the most expensive meals, and after we ate I really had to go to the bathroom, but my friends thought I was "going to the bathroom". When I walked back to my table, my friends were all gone, and the bus boys were cleaning up the table. I acted stupid like I didn't know that my friends were going to leave. So the bus boys told me just to leave, but the manager was coming down the stairs right as they told me that. She said I had to stay there until my meal was paid for. My friend Andy Poulsen pulled out all the money he had in his savings to put toward the meal, but my parents had to pay the rest of it. My friends came over and apologized to my parents that night.

Tag to:
Marie, Jen, Julie, and Amberly...

Shopping is officially NOT fun!!

I had my very first stressful shopping experience today...I used coupons!! I swore I would NEVER use coupons, but after seeing a load of good deals others were getting, I decided to jump right in. I got a load of stuff for only $52 today (I will post a picture soon).

I just envision the poor cashiers seeing a frequent couponer in their line....poor souls!! Today Meagan and I hit up Walgreen's (which I still do not get, but apparently they have some amazing deals), and then we went to Albertson's. Meagan slowed the line at Albertson's down with a rain check snafu, and then I made it worse with all of my 10 for $10 items. The cashier was not too pleased, and the bagger thought it was funny. I was sweating bullets when Meagan was checking out, and then when it was my turn my heart was beating so fast...YIKES!! Oh, and it wasn't adrenaline, I think it was fear!! I hope I get the hang of this couponing business, because as of now, shopping is officially NOT fun!!

Okay, picture is up, and my buys were 10 six packs of bottle water, 10 Granola bites, 10 Sweet Baby Ray BBQ sauces, 2 Bertolli Sauces, 5 Lipton dinners, 1 Lawry's Marinade, and 1 All Liquid Detergent (which now I am realizing was $9.99 and not $3...definitely not a coupon sleuth).

In total with tax, I spent $52.76, but I saved $44.73.

What shoe?

As it turns out, Ellie may be getting the shaft as far as bad qualities go...she gets Dan's crazy, hyperness, and my inability to pick out the right outfit and/or shoe by myself. Yesterday, we were getting ready to leave the house, and I told Ellie to get dressed and get her shoes on (while I checked blogs). She told me she was going to wear her boots because it had been raining outside. She walked into the office and said, "What one Mom?"

Let me tell you, it wasn't an easy decision, but we went with the snow boots, because they were "more comfortable". Now if only I could get her some stylish, comfy shoes and some fashion sense, we'd be set...

Cafe Rio and the Park

Friday, I got to hang out with my best guy friends, and their cool wives!! We grabbed some Cafe Rio to go, and stopped off at the park to play (it was FREEZING!!). The kids had fun, and it was nice to catch up. We reminisced about the good old days, and how twisted Jordan was!

Ellie climbed across the monkey bars several times...she's too brave for her own good, and Dan would try to scare Corbin on his way down the slide, don't worry...Corbin clocked him a couple of times. Shaylie was super good too, and she is so tiny!! I can't believe she is almost one!

Here are some pictures I stole from Andy and Jen's blog (they are the prepared parents!!).

Happy Mother's Day...Mom

Even though my mother despises Mother's Day, it gives me a chance to reflect on all the wonderful things she has done for my family and me...

1. While I am in school, she takes Ellie every day, she never gets a break (I'm sure she is enjoying her summer!!).

2. If I don't call her, she calls me. We talk on the phone every day.

3. She is a good listener, and most of the time she gives good advice.

4. She shares her People magazine with me.

5. When I lived at home, she would wait up for me to get home, and we would stay up another two hours or so just talking.

6. I like that she says I was a "pleasant surprise" and not a mistake.

7. She is SO talented. She can make anything, or find someone to do the part she can't do.

8. Now that she has grandbabies, when she browses TJ Maxx, she can't help but head over to the kid's clothes and toys.

9. She LOVES Barbie dolls, so if all else fails and you don't know what to get her...get her a Barbie (or a ring).

10. She is a good cook, and even though she says she is only going to have us over on the last Sunday of the month...it ends up being LOTS more.

11. Whenever she goes to Sam's, she calls to see if I need anything or asks if I want to go.

12. She is very protective of her kids. She only liked our friends growing up if they were nice to us.

13. She is the first person to laugh at herself. She fell (and rolled) one time when we were in Florida as we were walking through a fast food parking lot during a lunch hour rush. Once she got up, she was laughing hysterically.

14. She's laid back...some might not enjoy this quality, but I do!!

15. She is so funny.

Those of you that know my mom, know that she is fantastic. I like when people tell me that I am like my mom...I think it is the best compliment EVER!! I love my mom, she is one of the most selfless people I know (maybe I should get to know more people :)). I appreciate all the things she does for my family and me. Thanks Mom, I love you!!

Oh really...

So, we've had some toddler blunders today...

The first was when I asked Ellie at my Mom and Dad's house what her favorite show was (I was honest to goodness expecting her to say Dancing with the Stars), and she replied Dexter. I don't know if there are many of you that watch Dexter...it is a Showtime original series, but it has been playing on NBC (channel 5?). Anyway, it is about a serial killer who kills serial killers. It is SUCH a good show!! I don't think Ellie has ever watched it, but Dan and I always rush home on Sundays to catch it, and I know she has heard us talk about it. So, yes...Ellie's favorite show is apparently about a serial killer.

The second thing she did today (also at my parent's house), was that she got everyone's attention and let out a "toot". I was telling my mom that she can "toot" on demand (she's done it several times for Dan). Instead, she gives it a little effort, and replied, "I can't, I'm empty."

We went to watch Dan's game today...Ellie loved it. She would yell to him, and he'd wave to her, she thought it was fantastic. After the game, Ellie stole Dan's hat and sunglasses she was backing up and saying, "You can't get me!" She wasn't paying attention where she was going, and when she turned around to run, she ran right into the concrete garbage can.

Usually I try to avoid the ball park, not just because usually I am sweaty and gross by the end of the day (entertaining a toddler is HARD!!) and don't want to run into people I know, but because I have a MAJOR fear of a ball hitting me in the head! Seriously, does anyone else have nightmares about that?

It was fun though, I saw Ashley, Hillary, Jen and Tiffany, and we got to catch up a little!! :)

My Daughter, the TART!!

I had a ton of errands to run today, but I decided to not go after Ellie came out of the bathroom looking like this:










She did her makeup all by herself (she's two, you really think she'd let me help?). Anyway, we bagged the Mother's Day shopping, and we went for a walk. She wanted to find some lady bugs (potato bugs...I don't know how she confuses the two). I guess I can thank Grandma GiGi and Maggie for her interest in makeup. They even go as far as to let her apply the makeup on them!!

*THIS JUST IN* I just showed Dan the pictures of Ellie all dolled up, and he thought she did a pretty good job!!

Church is Exhausting!!

Today we subbed for Ellie's nursery teachers...WOW!! We had eight kids (not bad by any standard), but they were an active group!! Six of the eight kids had to go to the bathroom at the same time. Two of them missed the potty (Ellie being one of them). One was a boy, and I haven't had to deal with potty training a boy...I don't know what to have them do...stand up sit down (fight, fight, fight :) )...Two of them had BMs, that was fun.

Lucky for us, they really enjoyed a game called night and day. We would turn off the light, and they'd all lay down and close their eyes, then we'd turn the light on, and they'd jump up and scream, and act all crazy-like. Dan and I soon made night longer then day. So, kudos to all those nursery teachers!!