9 months

My baby is almost 10 months old now... but I am slow and never posted his 9 month old pictures. He is such a big boy!! He did drop from being in the 83% to being in the 60% for his weight and height. But he is SOOOO smart and happy and just moving right along. He has been crawling since he was 6 months old, and now he can stand on his own and take up to 3 steps on his own. I am blown away by how fast he learns.

I do not deserve this perfect baby. I am so glad that he is mine!!

He is ALWAYS playing with my glasses and trying to take them off of my face and put them on his. So he was pretty excited to play with Aunt Bri's fake glasses that look a lot like mommys.

I am starting to plan his big 1st birthday party. I am thinking of having a sock monkey theme. He LOVES Sock Monkey. It is between that or Superhero. Hm.... Any suggestions?

Luck O' the Irish

We normally don't do anything for St. Patrick's Day... I think the most we have ever done is go out to dinner at MacCool's (an Irish Pub in Salt Lake). However, since we have William- I want to make all holidays extra special. So for St. Patrick's Day we all wore something GREEN...

He is DEFINITELY my Lucky Charm

I also made us a traditional Irish dinner: Corned Beef and Cabbage! I purchased the all ready seasoned Corned Beef from an amazing butcher shop, Snyder's. All I did was put the corned beef in a crock pot, added cut-up parsnips and carrots, frozen pearl onions and 3 cups of water. I cooked it on high for 4 hours. After the 4 hours, I added 6 wedges of cabbage and let it cook for 1 hour and 20 minutes more...

It was seriously the BEST corned beef and cabbage I have ever had. William even liked it!!! His favorite was the cabbage and carrots.

I also made some traditional Irish Soda Bread. Our friend Eric gave us his recipe. All it contains is flour, baking soda, salt and buttermilk. You knead it for one minute and form it into a flat circle, cut a deep 'X' in the middle and bake it on 375 for 45 minutes. SOOOOO yummy!

I am NO photographer... but here is our meal!! It was SO good. We are definitely doing this EVERY St. Patrick's Day.. and maybe even more often than that :)

For dessert I made Green Velvet Cupcakes (found the recipe on Pinterest). I topped them off with an Irish Cream Frosting (also found on Pinterest AND not pictured). They were awesome as well!!!

Our little family!! I had a fun and festive day with my favorite boys. I am glad they enjoyed the food and we all had a great day. Hope everyone had a fun St. Patrick's Day!

Chinese New Year

Every year Scott's family goes to a Chinese New Year celebration at Joy Luck in Sandy. It is sooo much fun. There is always good food, good entertainment and of course great company. They even have a lion dance around the restaurant with some awesome drums! Some of the kids are scared...but the others will "feed" the lion money in red envelopes. Here comes the lion to our table...

Scott and Dubs are testing the waters.... he wasn't scared at all!!

I couldn't get a good shot of him feeding the Lion... but he did. Look at my cute boys!

I just love those rosy cheeks!!! They are ALWAYS rosy. We had such a great time celebrating the Chinese New Year!!

Our Days of Birth

We have just about finished celebrating our birthdays. We tend to celebrate all month long... First up is Scott's birthday: Scott with the cake I made him.

I can't take credit for this cake... I found it off of Pinterest (of course!!) and here is the blog that I copied: http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2011/09/mint-chocolate-chip-cake.html

This frosting is PERFECT for Scott. Mint Chocolate Chip is his all time favorite ice cream. I only made her frosting recipe and of course followed her decorating pattern :) Scott's cake is marble though. I thought it turned out pretty well. I am not so much a baker as I am just a cook. I would much rather cook a dinner meal than cakes and cookies. BUT here is the end result:

Scott wanted car parts for his birthday, which seems to be the growing trend for birthdays... I also surprised him with a coin that he collects and some earmuffs for the trax stop! Lots of family came over to celebrate and gave such generous gifts as well. Here is the birthday boy opening gifts.

And Dubs with his Aunt Boots... he is always pretty excited to hang out with his favorite girls.

My birthday was next! (Just a few days after Scott's). This sounds so lame but all I wanted for my birthday was to watch the Bachelor in peace. Ha ha. So Scott made us a spaghetti casserole for dinner and a tres leches birthday cake! They were SUPER delicious. My family came over and watched the bachelor with me. It was lots of fun.

Scott spoiled me (as per usual!). He gave me every season of Parks and Recreation on DVD, as well as The Office Season 7. He let me get my hair done- and I LOVE it. My family also spoiled me with their generous gifts. Scott found these super cute slippers... they are basically the definition of Elise: Gray, Purple, Green and BIRDS:

They are from Fossil and I love them.

Thanks to everyone who made our birthdays so special!! Our families are the best and really do spoil us!! Happy Birthday to my man. I hope you had a great day.

100 Posts- Merry Christmas!

I find it fitting that my 100th post is all about Christmas!! We had a lot of fun this year with all our decorating, parties, presents, food and of course- family and friends.

We have a group of friends that we get together with and have game nights and an annual White-Elephant Christmas party. These were the best two gifts there:

This is the second year that we have WON the picture of Todd. We have started a Todd wall in our basement. And yes- it stays up year 'round. And Dano drew that picture on the shirt himself. Very artistic!! We always eat lots of good food at this party as well. We brought some artichoke dip with toasted baguette slices and some chai cookies.

Christmas Eve is our traditional family party at my Nana's house. (Dubs' Great Grandma). We sit around laughing at Uncle Steve's stories, read some scriptures, watch a movie on the birth of Christ, open gifts and of course... eat good food. We brought spaghetti casserole, veggie squares and tres leches! It was a busy day of cooking- but we have a ton of family and I wanted to help out. I need to do a post on these and give the recipes cause they are all delicious.

Here is the baby opening his very first Christmas gift- pajamas and a blanket from Nana, Papa and Aunt Jennie. And his favorite toys... a Sock Monkey from Uncle Eric and Aunt Colleen as well as a remote control from Grandma Halladay!

Here he is on "Santa's" lap. AKA Papa.

And the entire group! (Minus Alec and Courtney...) The group is getting HUGE. So many family members got married this year and we of course had a baby!

On Christmas Day we went to church where Scott and I sang in the ward choir. Scott's family came to watch and take care of William. Afterwards we all went back to our home and had a yummy Christmas Breakfast that included homemade Cinnamon Rolls (Cinnabon copies), Creamy Crockpot Hot Chocolate and fruit. (Again, I need to do a post with the recipes. The hot chocolate is SOOOO good!)

Before we went to the Halladay's we opened our gifts at home with William. Here he is with Mama opening a book. He loves books.

And here he is with his daddy... checking out daddy's comic books. Seriously- how cute are my boys?? I just love them.
We spent the rest of the day over at the Halladay's where we ate tons of good food and opened waaaay too many presents. We are so blessed to have such great family around us! William's first Christmas was a hit! Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.

Festiveness

We have really been on top of our decorations for Christmas this year. Last year we didn't put up anything because I was sick and pregnant... This year we put everything up the day after Thanksgiving. Dubs loved watching us decorate and he really likes the tree.

Here is the "famous" bookshelf and the top of the piano (most of it, anyway). Sad to say, this is my LEAST favorite bookshelf decoration. I don't know what to do with it during Christmas and Winter.... I have been searching Pinterest for ideas...so if anyone finds anything great...let me know!!

We decided to start something different with our tree...normally we decorate it with all my late-Grandma's crystal decorations, which are awesome. But we wanted to add our own touch to the tree. So I found a ton of cute decorations at Hobby Lobby. Our tree is now all red berries, red birds, white birds and white owls. LOVE it. Here are just a couple varieties of the birds and owls:

Here is the tree! Finished with a Mickey Mouse Santa Hat on top.

And the BEST picture of a baby with Santa you will EVER see.... I guarantee 100% satisfaction:

I can't believe how cute, handsome, adorable, perfect, funny and happy my baby is. Honestly!! I don't know why I am so blessed...but I am thankful that I am. Here he is at 6 months.

We are excited for the Holiday Season! We have been festive so far and will continue to do so. It makes it so much more fun when you have a child. They just get excited about everything.

So Thankful!

I can't believe my little brother got married in November!!! It is so crazy that everyone is growing up, getting married and having kids. Don't get me wrong- its fun and exciting. I just can't believe it. Here is the happy couple:

Sam & Hannah

They had a really cool wedding. Hannah made a brooch bouquet and her family made everyone their outfits:

It was such a beautiful day and I am so happy for them! We love you guys. Welcome to the family Hannah :)

Here are my favorite girls ever. My sisters! (Boots, Me and Kylee aka "sister" but really our cousin)

Thanksgiving was great this year. We spent it with my side of the family, which is always fun. Scott and I decided to pitch in this year and we made garlic mashed potatoes, regular mashed potatoes, asparagus gratin and Scott made Pumpkin Pies. We are no chefs...but we love to cook. And YAY for Pinterest and finding all sorts of yummy recipes. (Thats where I found the Asparagus dish. My family ate the whole thing. I easily could have tripled the recipe!)

Here is my little one with his turkey bib. He was sleepy.
I have SOOOO much to be Thankful for:

My amazing husband

The BEST baby boy in the ENTIRE world. Literally.

My sweet family (including great in-laws)

A part-time job that really helps out

A cozy home and nice car

This blessed country and all those who protect it

My life!! I can't believe how lucky I am and how much my Father in Heaven has blessed me. I do not deserve this great life that I have. I am blown away every day when I spend time with my angel William and the love of my life Scott. I have the best friend and sister that anyone could ask for- Bree. I have such great parents and parents-in-law and such great friends... I seriously can't say it enough. Thanks to everyone in my life for making it what it is :)