It's been a long time

So, this blog has always had a lot to do with the adventure of raising Ellie, and as she outgrew her toddler antics the purpose of the blog slowly faded into oblivion. However, a year ago, Ellie decided to give us a run for our money once again. She started having seizures last January, and we have been on a bit of a roller coaster ever since. In December we finally made some progress with her meds, and she has been much more stable emotionally and physically. However, some of her meds make her extremely loopy at night when she takes them. It is like she is coming out of anesthesia every day. SO FUNNY! So I decided it might be fun to record a few of the highlights of the last few months here.

One night I walked into Ellie's room to find her stuffing her face with Snickers candy bars. She probably had about four of the bite-sized candy bars in her mouth when I found her. I asked her what she was doing, and she told me with tears streaming down her face and her her mouth stuffed with chocolate, "I HATE THESE. But they are mine, so I have to eat them!" When I told her that she didn't have to eat them she insisted that she did, so I told her that she had actually given the candy to me, so she really didn't have to eat it.
When I told her the candy was mine, she looked at me with a panic-stricken face and began spitting all of the chocolate out into her hand to offer it to me. I gave her the garbage can, wiped her hands and took away the rest of the chocolate. Fortunately, when she is in her loopy state, Ellie is VERY easily distracted, so to distract her I asked her if she liked gummy bears.
She responded, "Gummy Bears?! I love Gummy Bears!" And she began to sing the "Gummy Bears" theme song while bouncing on her bed.

Another night, after visiting the planetarium, Ellie got a little bit confused. Greg used to work for Northrop Grumman, and when Ellie was little she enjoyed watching Cyberchase, a children's show that aired on PBS. Cyberchase was sponsored by Northrop Grumman, and the movie we watched at the planetarium also happened to be sponsored by Northrop Grumman. When we got home, she asked me, "Did you know that the movie we watched was by Cyberchase? And Dad used to work for Cyberchase?"
"He did?" I asked.
"Yes! He helped to defeat the Hacker!" (a cartoon villain on the show).

If Ellie happens to cough while she is loopy she always asks, "Am I dying?" and when I assure her she isn't she is always visibly relieved.

In the years since I have written on the blog, we acquired a dog named Izzy. Ellie loves the dog, and when she is on her meds she sometimes thinks that she is a dog. She will sometimes bark, but rather than 'barking' she will say the word "bark" two or three times before deciding that it takes too much energy. Then she will sniff like a dog and burrow in her blankets.

Ellie is also extremely loving while she is on her meds. She will regularly tell all of us (in a whiny, almost crying voice) "Did you know that I love you so much? You are the best (mom/dad/sister) I have ever had!"

We have a few audio and video recordings of Ellie as well, and I'll try to remember to post them here as well. They are very entertaining.

Harry Potter Cake

Here are a couple pictures of the birthday cake I made for Brynn's birthday. This was before I was quite finished, but I forgot to take pictures when it was done. I had jelly beans falling out of the bag of "Bertie Botts" and put an "18" below the diadem.

For anyone not overly familiar with Harry Potter, here is a little description. 

Each layer of cake represents one of the Hogwarts "houses" and has a scarf representing the house colors. On the very top is the sorting hat, next down is the diadem of Ravenclaw, Then we have the bag of Bertie Bott's every flavor beans, and on the very bottom is the cake that Hagrid made for Harry when he first learned that he was a wizard. On the right side you can see a Slytherin snake, and in the bottom picture you can see Harry's glasses. I also made a golden snitch, and a wand, but they aren't in the pictures. 

S'MORE Party!

I don't think I have mentioned my calling, but I am the Activity Days Leader for the 10-11 year old girls in my ward. It is so much fun! At our last planning meeting we decided to have a Mother-Daughter Activity, and when I asked the girls what they wanted to do, they thought that something "camping" themed--specifically with S'mores sounded fun.
Since the activity was taking place in October, I was a little worried about having it in the canyon (or anywhere outside) because we have been having a ton of rain lately, and I didn't want to risk it. So, I decided to just focus on the S'more theme, and hosted a mother/daughter minute-to-win-it activity.

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures, but the invitations and decorations were all pink, brown & white.
We divided the girls into groups (we have 16 girls right now, whew!) and played a game for each part of a s'more.

For the Graham Cracker game, I bought Teddy-Grahams, and Graham Cracker Stick Cookies that the girls and then moms had to put on their foreheads and get into their mouths without using their hands.
 (Inspired by the Minute-To-Win-It "Cookie Face").
We let the girls try for 90 seconds while the moms put cookies on their foreheads, then switched and let the girls put the cookies on their moms' foreheads.

This sign was at the graham cracker station.

The second station was the marshmallow station. Here we did the same 90 second relay, but the moms & daughters had to stick their noses into Crisco, then try to get as many cotton ball "marshmallows" as possible across the gym floor to their partner who was holding a cardboard "graham cracker" waiting for the marshmallows. This one was inspired by the Minute-To-Win-It "Nose Dive."

The Third game involved chocolate! I picked up some mini Hershey bars and had the moms & daughters work as a team to unwrap them. I just used two knives, a pair of dice, and the chocolate. When someone rolled doubles, they got to pick up the knives and try to unwrap the chocolate. Once unwrapped they had to pick up the chocolate with the knives and put it in their partner's hands. As soon as someone else rolled doubles the person unwrapping the chocolate had to drop the knives and pass it all over.

Once everyone had played all three games, I had three long tables set up, and had all the girls sit on one side of the table and the moms sit on the other side. I gave each person a paper that looked like this:

and then asked the moms & daughters questions about each other.

Moms had to answer: 

What is your daughter's favorite color

What is your daughter's favorite subject in school?

How much did your daughter weigh?

Daughters had to answer:

What did your mom do on her first date?

What is your mom's favorite restaurant?

What is your mom's favorite hobby?

(we actually ran out of time for that one)

Once the questions were all answered, we had a buffet (or Smorgasbord) and let everyone visit and eat.

On the way out, I had clear bags with graham crackers, chocolate & a giant marshmallow tied up with this sign:

I do need to give a shout out to "The Dating Divas" whose cute s'more printable inspired the pink & brown handouts. You can check it out HERE.

Abbey's Wedding

Yesterday my cute cousin, Abbey got married. It is hard to believe since when I got married she was only 5 years old...I'm not that old yet am I?!
Everything was beautiful-my aunt did such a fantastic job! I had one small part in the festivities--I made the cake. It was pretty simple-she just wanted a rustic two-tiered cake with a textured frosting, burlap and lace ribbon and sunflowers. It was a coconut cake & it tasted pretty good for a wedding cake. :)

Fishing in Paradise

The family was able to enjoy a beautiful spring day in Paradise this last weekend. The name certainly did it justice this weekend. We all had a great time fishing and playing around in the beautiful wilderness.

Greg was particularly pleased to have caught a Tiger Trout:

Ellie was particularly pleased to catch a snake:

And everyone was particularly pleased to catch a dinosaur:

12 Days of Christmas

Today I took lunch to my Grandpa as part of his Christmas present, and thought it would be fun to include elements of the 12 days of Christmas in the meal. So I sent him....

Drumsticks for the drummers

Pipes for the Pipers

Gummy Frogs-a-Leaping

Lunch for the Dancers

Milk from the Milk Maids

Sculpted Ice Swans Swimming (oops, they broke)

I gave a picture of an ice sculpture & a bag of crushed ice

Eggs from Geese-a-Laying

FRIED ONION RIIIIINGS!

Gummy Calling Birds

Sandwich from French Hens

Chocolate Turtles, YUM!

And a Pear from the Partridge's Tree!

Jelly Fish Costumes

Happy Halloween!

This was Becca's last year trick-or-treating, so I decided to let her choose the costumes for the year. Her choice: JELLY FISH! Well, that one took a little creativity, but I think they turned out pretty well (especially at night!). Here are the night & day pictures of the costumes. Enjoy!