Little baby bump

 Here we are at 18 weeks already, that is almost 5 months!! (In a few weeks... ) It has gone by fast. We had an ultrasound at 18 weeks and they said it all looked good. It always makes it more real to me after seeing that tiny little body moving all around. We found out we are having a little girl!! Amelia is so excited to have a sister and has talked about how she will be able to paint nails with us when she is born. We are excited and so glad things are going well. I have just started to feel some movement... I always seem to pick that up a little on the later side of things. But it is fun to know what that little girl is doing. Here are some cute pictures for your enjoyment :) A profile pic and a pic of one foot. Sorry I don't know how to rotate the pictures... I tried..

Halloween Costumes

So I realized I didn't have any pictures from Halloween. That is typical of me, I never take pictures when I am busy with the kids... like Halloween. But I borrowed these from a Peter, who was at our church Halloween party.  Thanks for taking the pictures! Daniel was an airplane, or in his words a hairplane. Amelia was a princess on a white unicorn. I was a jelly fish, and Michael was a lego man. The kids LOVED their costumes and played with them all month before halloween.

up-date

 Here is a quick fall update.... 

Early in the fall I tried pruning our pear tree again. Last year I pruned is severely and it didn't produce fruit, but we are hoping for some next year. I was a little more kind to the tree this time. :) Amelia had a bast helping by getting all the fallen branches that were stuck up in the tree.

For the first time ever, with the help of Jeanne, we hosted a book club. I choose the book "Swimming to Antarctica."  I loved the book and thought it was very inspiring. It is about an open water simmer who ultimately swam to antarctic. I really enjoyed how she described her experiences and how she kept herself on track when things were difficult. I recommend it, however I am not sure it was a favorite of the group, so read at your own risk :)

 Jeanne and I had fun decorating and doing food for the night. Jeanne made a cool watermelon boat. The boats were critical to the swimmers success. I made some fishy cracker sea things.

 I am not sure when this picture was taken but it is cute.

 We are getting rid of these trees in our yard, they were a nice idea, but I don't like their location, and we don't have any other location. Do you want them? One pear and one plum.

Another cute pic :)

We joined my sister this year at an Apple Farm to pick out pumpkins  and to tour their apple orchard. They let you come in and see how they pack the apples, make cider, and apple pies. They have a brand new facility with a little cafe that we enjoyed very much as it sprinkled some of the time. They had a place where you could taste test some 10+ apples. One was pink in the middle and another they side had a lemon taste, and another that was pear like.

 Pumpkin carving! John joined us and we all had fun this year! But Daniel can't wait to use the cutters all by himself next year :)

This is Amelia's pumpkin. It is, in her words, a princess dog with a party hat. I love it! :)

An Announcement!

We are so happy to announce that we are expecting a new little one to join our family in late May 2013!

First Day of Preschool 2012

 Amelia had her first day at preschool today. She LOVED it and can't wait to go back! She talked about it for the next hour and half after she got home.

 I was a little sad to be letting my little girl go. But I know her teacher is great, and that Amelia would be in heaven to be at school with her friends. (She knew at lest 3 of the other kids in her class.)

Amelia picked out her new backpack, and if you can't tell it has a lot of pink and sparkles! Amelia's favorite! 

 After dropping off Amelia I brought Daniel back to the car. He just sat there and said "Daniel sad..." It was so sweet I had to take a pic. He asked if we were going to pick up Amelia yet about 5 times during the two and half hours she was gone.

Hope everyone had a great first day at school!

Bees

This is a note Michael wrote to his family, and I like how he tells our incident with the bees and wanted to share it :)

Well we weren't planning on taking any trips, Amelia just got over being sick, one night of 103 temp and now Daniel got it too. Heidi's sinuses and nose and throat have been bugging her so she went into the walk in today for some meds....

So anyways we were taking it nice and easy. So I mowed the wheat field growing in our front yard (it was getting tall), and then started weed whacking the sides. So I got stung ( I was even looking out for bee's cause we had a nest in the ground there last year) well so I ran inside... I thought they were just following me, but apparently they were all hitching a ride on my jeans. I got a new pair that are really dark blue, so dark blue that you can't see they are crawling with bees.... so Daniel started crying and I think that's when he got stung on the cheek :( so we ran into the bathroom to get away from the bees... and that's when Heidi saw that they were crawling all over my pants so she started whacking them with a towel and I started stomping them when they hit the ground and hitting them with a magazine. I jumped into the shower and sprayed a couple more off me, Heidi took the kids into our room and then came back cause a bee was in her hair. She went under the water and then it stung her head. So, Amelia was the only one that avoided being stung! We got that bee out of Heidi’s hair and then smacked a couple more that were around the house. I'm sad to say that the corn that was boiling on the stove was a little overdone but other than that dinner turned out fine :) I found a bunch more bees (6) in our light over the kitchen table, they were attracted to the lights and since they are the swirly whirly compact fluorescent bulbs 

the bees fly in but they don't make it out! Perfect little bee killing traps!

stupid bees ~ 25 dead

Members of Ellerbeck household stung, 5 times

I should add I was cooking dinner when he ran in with all those bees. Corn was a little less crisp, and the ham a little more tough by the time we killed all the bees, but it all tasted good anyways :)

6 years!!

Michael and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary this last weekend and it was fabulous! We didn't really make any big plans other then making reservations at a hotel and securing someone to watch our kids, so I was a little worried that I didn't plan anything much and that it was so last minute. But it turned out great and fun, and memorable!

 My mom came and watched the kids Friday afternoon until Saturday afternoon. A big thank you to her for giving us the treat of getting away for a bit. Michael reserved a place for the night in Seattle, but the traffic was heavy going to Seattle when we left the house so we decided to head to Bellevue for the afternoon and dinner. On the drive down a searched for a park we could walk around before dinner. After a few wrong turns...(I am not the best navigator) we finally got to the Mercer Sough Park. It was great, it had a historic blueberry farm, board walks, and the slough with lots of lily pads and birds etc. We saw someone kayaking and asked where they got their kayak from and Michael search on his phone and found the place and we went and rented kayaks for an hour. That was a lot of fun, as we are both mildly experienced in this area. On our honeymoon we kayaked together  in a 2 person sea kayak and I think that was the last time. It is always humorous to have two people who know just enough the get out in the boat, but not quite enough to go straight in the boat. :) We didn't hit anything though. We even successfully passed a group of 3 boats in the narrow slough twice on the trip! We did however drench our pants with all the water that comes off the paddle. The rental place did not provide those nice little skirts to keep you dry. Because this was our spontaneous adventure I didn't plan clothing right and we needed to change before we went to a fancy restaurant. But I didn't pack Michael enough extra clothes. He said that I was plotting to get him to go clothes shopping, (I think the last time he went with me was hum.... 5 years ago.) So we got him some new clothes and then headed to dinner at Maggianos. It was sooo good! The bread was really good, the main dish was sooo good, and the dessert we split but it was the best! It was an apple crostada with caramel sauce. I need to learn how to make one of these!! Anyone know a good recipe? Needless to say I was stuffed by the time we left. We got to sleep in really late and have a great breakfast before heading back home.

So when the topic of dating and marriage comes up I have been asked a few times by people "what was it about Michael that you liked?" and I have never given a good response. I feel like I have no simple answer. But I want to give one now :) Sorry if it is too sappy for you, you don't have to read on! lol!

I have to say Michael is the most perfect person for me, and I feel so blessed to have him as my husband!! So here are some things I loved in the beginning and love even more about him now!!

He is patient, and calm, with me, children, and most things about life. I remember watching him with his niece and nephew and thinking he was really good with kids, and they loved him. He is smart, and has dreams and ambitions to do fun and exciting things. Before we started dating I had been given a project of making a quilt, this was big to me, I am not a person who like to measure and be precise.  I have sewed before but I have never made anything like a quilt. Michael offered to help me, he helped me scan in a million pictures and print them out on fabric. I don't think I could have made it nearly as great as it turned out because of his help. But that was to me a great example of how he loved to help people, and do fun and new things. He is silly. I love silly. This last weekend I was reminded of how much fun it is to just hang out together and laugh. He makes life fun and adventurous. He loves the gospel and to serve. I remember hearing him teach, and thinking "Wow!" and seeing him serve in his callings you could always see his love for the Savior and for others.

I guess my simple answer to the question is how could you not love him. Now I know we are not perfect, but honestly who is. I love him and I am so happy to be married to him! Hooray for 6 years, I can't wait to celebrate all the years to come!!

Utah trip

 

 Earlier this year we planned a trip Utah to see Michael's grandparents but sadly a few weeks before we left Michael's grandma became ill and pass away. We are really sad she is not here, but we know that she will not be suffering. We left a little early to attend the funeral and I heard many stories from her life and appreciated them. The Relief Society put everything together for a luncheon and it was wonderful. I am sad I didn't get any picture at the funeral, but I think Michael did and he has pictures of the kids with Grandpa also, but I have yet to find them.... I will post them when I do find them. Sorry they are lost.

Here is Daniel first Airplane ride, and Amelia's first one she will remember. We took her the CA when she was just one year old, but I am sure she doesn't remember that. :)

It was so hot when we arrived! These cute ice cream cones were only 25 cents! I thought they were soo cute!

Amelia did so good keeping herself busy in the back of the car as we traveled around that week.

Amelia eating breakfast and watching some tv shows she has never seen before! We don't have TV at home, just Netflix so it was interesting looking to see what is on now. We found the kids loved watching golf, who would have known! We were trying to keep the kids calm as Michael and I got ready for bed, and golf sounded like it would be a nice calm "show" for them to watch, well they were glued to it!

This is how Daniel slept. Michael shared a bed with him and I with Amelia as Daniel would not sleep in the crib the hotel provided. Michael said he takes up more of the bed then I do :) He said he likes to burrow his head into Michael's back.

We went to a few zoos, while we were there. It was hot, but they had sprayers set up and the kids really like it. Michael had Amelia in a backpack carrier and took her up to see some elephants. He made an elephant noise and said "Hi Elephant" and the elephant picked up rocks and dirt and threw it at them! And hit them. The people around them chuckled, I don't think the elephant wanted to be bothered. Amelia had fun telling the story for the rest of the trip.

We found a great buffet that had everything, even cotton candy! Amelia and Michael loved it!

One day on the trip we visited Bear lake, but this silly mommy forgot toys and towels for the kids. Lucky for us the family next to us shared their sand toys and we all made a big castle together. It was hot enough that they dried fast while we had a snack on the grass, so it all worked out.

Look at Daniel's smiley eyes and his Dad's. Aren't they so cute. I am glad he got his Dad's eyes!

We took a day and visited Temple Square in Salt Lake City before we left for home. It was beautiful and hot!

Daniel loved seeing the train tracks in the visitor center and they loved seeing the mini model temple in the visitor center. I have never been in the Salt Lake Temple, so it was neat to see what was inside with the model. Here is a link to see it on-line http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/scaled-model-provides-salt-lake-temple-open-house-experience

I will keep looking for those other pictures and post them when I find them... we had a good  visit with Grandpa. He had a humming bird nest on his porch that the kids loved watching, his coo coo clock was a hit with the kids too, and he also had a horse that would come into his yard the kids just loved that too. Grandpa also gave Amelia and Daniel special teddy bears from a collection they have. It was a good visit and  I am glad we were able to be there with the family for the funeral. It was touching to hear storied from her life and I am glad we were able to do that.