Ellie-Licious

It's about time for an all-about-Ellie post.

Here is what she's up to at 18 months.

She's old enough to go to the nursery at church, and she loves it, but only when I am with her. 

 She loves to dance and do arabesques. She graced me with one this morning when I got her from her crib.

Now that's some binky love. She knows she's supposed to put them away when she wakes up in the morning, but she holds on to them for as long as she can.

She loves her stuffed animals and sometimes asks for them to sit by her for breakfast so she can feed them.

She loves when we give her soft scratches. As you can see, it kind of paralyzes her.

This girl loves her some dirt. We are hoping to upgrade from the random pile of road dirt in our gutter to an actual sandbox.

She loves books. She would rather read a pile of books with me than play with her toys any day. She follows me around with books, pats her legs and says, "lap!" so she can sit on my lap and I can read to her.

Other Ellie Quirks:

-She gets very posessive when I hug or kiss Clay. She will start yelling or saying "No!" and will be all smiles once I back off.  

-She is quite the talker. She just started stringing words together like, "It's a helicopter!" or "More dance."

-She loves to sing. She will pick out words to just about any song she hears to sing along. Her favorites are "Bad Romance" by Glee Cast, Taylor Swift's "Mine" and "Speak Now," "Animal" by Neon Trees and "Firework" by Katy Perry and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam."

-She loves shopping. I first discovered it when we went to H & M and she wanted me to put her down as soon as we walked in so she could go from rack to rack, picking out clothes and exclaiming, "cute!" You are probably thinking she gets it from me, but I'm not a big fan of shopping myself and if I do go, I rarely take her shopping with me because she is terrified of dressing rooms. (Elevators too.) So, the shopping obsession must come from her Grandma Ann. :)

-When I work on the computer, she comes over to me and says, "Play?" and signs it at the same time. She asks me in the cutest pleading voice and I can rarely resist.

-She loves to watch people kick a ball around. She gets so excited about it. Soccer star, anyone? She also loves to sit on the ground and play "pass" by rolling the ball back and forth with someone. I take her to the BYU soccer practices with Clay sometimes and she can't get enough.

-She asks us to play "boo" all the time. She will hide around a corner and wait for one of us to peek over and yell "boo!"

-She says "mas" for "more" all the time. Don't know where she picked up that little Spanish flair. Dora?

 
Ellie is such a spirited, curious little girl. She loves being with people and learning new things. She is very expressive of her thoughts and emotions. She's so sweet and affectionate. Even though she is so tiny (a whopping 18.6 pounds), she has quite the appetite. She has a special bond with her grandmas and grandpas and our other family members and we love that. You are so fun, Ellie bean!

Heavenly Homemade Pizza

Homemade pizza is my favorite dinner to make right now. I put together this pizza last night and it was to die for. Ellie devoured it too, which is always a plus. My favorite thing about it is the creamy garlic sauce instead of the usual marinara.

{There was only one piece left by the time I decided it was good enough to share the recipe.}

BST & Herb Pizza

Crust: (I adapted this from Annie's Eats)

1 cup warm water (105-115˚ F)

1 T instant yeast

1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. olive oil, plus extra for brushing

1¼ tsp. honey

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur's)

¾ tsp. coarse salt

Cornmeal for pizza stone

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:
Preheat your oven (and pizza stone, if you have one) to 450 degrees.
To make the crust, combine the water, yeast, olive oil, honey, salt and 2 2/3 cups of the flour in a bowl and let it sit and get bubbly for a few minutes. Mix with wooden spoon until dough is tacky, but not sticky. Add more flour a little at a time if needed. Knead for about five minutes.Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise at room temperature for 30-45 minutes. Now, make the sauce!

Sauce:

6 tablespoons butter

2 T flour

Pinch of salt and pepper

3 garlic cloves, peeled and diced (or garlic powder, if you don't have fresh garlic)

2 cups whole milk (I'm sure lower fat would be OK but not as creamy :) )

Parmesan cheese

Melt the butter in a saucepan over med. heat. Remove from heat and blend in the flour, salt & pepper and garlic. Add the milk. Return to heat and cook on medium, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened and bubbly, about 3 to 5 minutes. Cook for an additional minute. Grate plenty of parmesan cheese on top (1/3 cup or so) and stir until it melts.

Now, roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface into your desire pizza shape and size. I LOVE how easy to work with this crust is! Spread some cornmeal on your preheated pizza stone, place the dough on it, cinching any sides that hang over.

Poke several holes in the crust with a fork, sprinkle on some parmesan cheese then spread all of your sauce on it. Add your cheese, spinach & tomato. I added the bacon and herbs after it came out so they didn't get burned. Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes. Add bacon and herbs. Salivate, eat a slice. Repeat. Then repeat a couple more times like I did.

Toppings:

Shredded mozzerella (I used a Sargento blend of mozz and provolone.)

Spinach (1-2 coarsely chopped handfuls)

Bacon (about 6 strips, cooked until crispy and diced into tiny pieces)

1 ripe from-the-vine tomato

Fresh herbs (I used oregano, lemon thyme, basil and cilantro from my garden)

Freshly grated parmesan cheese

Utah Valley Marathon

Clay and I decided to run the Utah Valley Half Marathon yesterday. It was Clay's first half marathon, and he was incredible. He was patient with my two bathroom stops and stayed positive throughout our training, even when I wasn't feeling motivated.

It was pretty cool to be able to make a physical goal like this together and to train for it and accomplish it as a couple.

We sprinted for the last 200 yards because once you see that finish line, you just want to get there! Kind of like when you give birth. :) We ran just over 9-minute miles, which we were happy with since we only trained for three weeks and didn't work on speed.

This was a fun race, especially because I ran it with Clay. But in all honesty, I liked the Hobble Creek Half a lot better because there were so many people cheering us on almost the whole way and there was just a stronger feeling of hype and unity. Maybe the fact that it is only a half and not a marathon like Utah Valley Marathon has something to do with it? Also, I have run in Provo so much that the course wasn't super exciting for me, although it was gorgeous running down the canyon. 

Now that I have run three halfs within a year, I am kind of getting sick of running and I crave variety during training, so I think Clay and I are going to shoot for a sprint triathalon this summer. Now I just have to learn how to swim and we have to find us some bikes.

After the race, we went to breakfast at Magleby's with my mom and stepdad, who watched Ellie while we ran. Then we hit the farmer's market—one of my favorite summer pastimes—then took Ellie to the pool. She was in heaven. We are so happy summer is finally here!

Date Night—A Rare Luxury

Clay and I escaped on a date the other night to the Rooftop Concert Series. Mindy Gledhill and Meaghan Smith performed and were amazing.

{P.S. I semi-chopped my hair. You likey?}

The most entertaining part of the night was the engaged couple who stood smack dab in front of us throughout the night and openly displayed their affection. 

We also got to sit by this cute little guy, who wasn't nearly as slobbery.

It was so nice to get out even for a couple of hours. Do you keep a weekly date night? If so, I wanna know how you make it happen—especially if you have kids!



Uphill Battle

 So, I decided to get into cycling.

Just kidding! I think that would be fun, but in these pictures I am only pretending to be a cyclist. I was part of the cast of "Uphill Battle," a film by Illumin8ed Productions about a woman who gets into cycling to help her get through a hard divorce.

 My little sister, who is a real cyclist, lent me all her gear and her awesome bike. The location was just down the road from my mom's house, so we spent the night there and I got up really early the next morning for the shoot.

The director (middle) has 9 young kids and sells real estate with her husband in addition to producing films! The girl on the right, Shelby (the lead in the film) is an amazing woman from Idaho who has five kids.

It is so fascinating to me to be on a film set. I love all the different personalities and talents that come together to make a cool end product. I wrote a little more about this experience here.

News

Looks like I took a month off blogging. Well, I'm back with the announcement of . . .

The summer issue of Latter Day Woman Magazine.  

A few reasons I'm excited about it:

• We are giving away two swimsuits and a getaway (I've mentioned this before, but not a ton of people enter, so your chances are amazing!). 

• We have a swimsuit guide to help you find a really cute swimsuit this season.

• There are some really fun articles in this issue including new ways to exercise, fun summer activities for couples and families and how to be supermom and superwife at the same time.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Puerto Rico

Last week, Clay and I tucked Ellie into bed at her grandma and grandpa's and left early the next morning to Puerto Rico with the BYU men's soccer team. I rocked Ellie extra long and maybe got a little teary-eyed, knowing I wouldn't see her for six days. But once we were on our trip, I was surprised at how easy it was for me to put both feet in the moment and fully enjoy my child-free vacation with my husband.
 





Day 1: Beach









Day 2: We went to the mall to see the local missionaries do a mob flash—they randomly broke into song in the middle of a busy food court:

Day 3: We went to a picturesque little town called Mayaguez—our hotel? Not as picturesque. The "Hotel Oasis" was a little too generous of a title. But it was a fun experience to stay there, even though I was really itchy all over the next day.

Random shots of Bayamon, Mayaguez & Old San Juan

At the game that night, some of the soccer guys did a little rally and took down a fence at the end:

Day 4: Our day in Old San Juan ws my favorite part of the trip. It was such a cool city and had some great photo opps. I loved how colorful the buildings were.  

This trip awakened in me a love for scenic & arcitectural photography.

 

Puerto Rico was such a memorable trip for us. It is always a blast to travel with the BYU soccer team.