Walking

Well its finally happened - Ellie is walking! Literally just yesterday at the doctor's office, she wasn't, well not more than 5 steps and then today halfway across the room! Oh ya and I am not sure I ever posted about it, but she also learned to FINALLY crawl. Still prefers a butt scoot, but you can see in the video below she's crawling a bit.

15 Months

It's been an eventful week at our house. I was in Seattle Sunday through Wednesday for work meetings, we got one foot of snow (plus 3 foot drifts), bone chilling negative degree temperatures, and Ellie!

Ellie and Jared called me on Monday night to say good night, but also Ellie shared with me that she learned to say her own name. Yup! That's right, she says "Ellie" when prompted, "What's your name?" Of course, now she won't do it on command, but when she's feeling like it, you might get a show. The next night she said "orange" not surprising since its one of her favorite foods. And for about a week she's said "baby" she got a doll from Nana and Grandpa that sucks a pacifier and bottle and she loves it!

Also on Thursday she had her 15 month checkup with the doctor. Everything is normal, doctor is happy with her development. She is 19.5 lbs (still in the 2%ile, but up a 1/2 lb from 12 months), she's 31.5 inches tall (wait for it - that's 81%ile)! Talk about long and lean.

Cookie Monster

So I rarely buy cookies at the store, but Saturday I bought a box of chewy Chips Ahoy cookies on sale. Ellie was immediately interested in the bag/box and quickly learned how to open it from the top. All week Jared and I have been scrambling to take it away from her as she opened it (we've had it in the family room for quick access for our after dinner treats). Well this morning I made a 30 second trip upstairs to grab a pile of laundry and came down to find this....


WHAT?!?! No more cookies!?


That's because she had already done this!

Cookies!

So Jared needed cookies for a potluck tomorrow at work - he was prepared to buy cookies from the grocery store, but I just couldn't have that! I found this website awhile back and just rediscovered it my favorites. The cookies below are Brownie Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies - and yes they are abnormally huge. The recipe says to use a large cookie scoop - so I used my huge one, which is actually an ice cream scoop and it resulted in a cookie that is probably 5,000 calories and serves 4+. After a couple tries, I ended up using a smaller cookie scoop and halved the size of the brownie that I was smashing the two cookie balls around. We'll have to see what the guys at work say tomorrow!

Adventures at Silver Mountain

We have some family and friends who have made several trips to Silver Mountain with their kids as a way to enjoy the pool during the cooler weather. You might be thinking Mountain and pool, how does that work? Well Silver Mountain is a resort including skiing, indoor waterpark, golf, tennis courts, etc. We knew that Ellie and the boys would love it [the pool] too, so we made a Haight Family vacation out of it. All 4 Andersons, the 3 of us, Pat, Cindy, Ashley and her boyfriend Kyle, and Nick enjoyed a stay at the lodge and waterpark!













Sunday morning, we headed up the mountain on the gondola! It's about a 25 min. ride to the top - but the views are stunning.

More Bath Time Fun!

This week when I gave Ellie a bath it was hard not to resist playing with all her hair! We had cupie hair and a mohawk!





Then this weekend at Silver Mountain, Ellie, Case and Carter (although Carter wasn't too excited to take a bath) had cousin bath time! Almost instaneously Case gave Ellie a bubble beard! Too cute!

Yummy Treats

Recently I saw some yummy and easy treats that I wanted to make for the kids (Carter, Case and Ellie) since they all LOVE marshmellows! The marshmellows are just on a stick, dipped in tinted white chocolate and topped with sprinkles!




Also, our friend Joel's birthday was Friday, so I made some cupcakes - all to take to Silver Mountain this weekend. The cupcakes are chocolate with a raspberry in each one, topped with raspberry buttercream and drizzled raspberry sauce!