Brilliant...

So my brilliant mother-in-law gave me the best idea while we were staying with them over Christmas break. I was helping her make tuna sandwiches for a family party for the kids. She gave me a can of Dill Relish to use for the pickles. I'm sure some of you may have already thought of this fantastic idea, but personally it had never crossed my mind to use relish in my tuna. This is such a fabulous idea because it requires absolutely NO pickle chopping! It is so fast and very yummy. (I have to have lots of pickles in my tuna.) I dare you all to try it. I know you will think it is brilliant too!

Catching Up

I haven't posted in a LONG time and a lot has happened since then, so this is going to be a long one. Well in December Ellie turned 6 months! I have to say that I love this age. She is so much fun to play with and is such a happy little girl. She also has gotten a hang of sleeping which makes me a happy mom. :) When I took her in for her 6 month check-up she was in the 50th percentile for weight (her cheeks make her look a lot chubbier), 90th percentile for height, and 25th for head circumference. Apparently she has a small head. This month she has definitely become Daddy's little girl. We went to AZ for the holidays and she got so attached to Greg. I hate to admit it, but I was a little sad because I took a back seat to Greg. That has never happened. I'm very glad though that she knows now that I'm not the only one who can take care of her. :)

We spent 2 1/2 weeks in Arizona for Christmas and New Years. I had so much fun and loved being able to spend time with friends and family. It was pretty depressing when I left AZ on Monday when it was sunny, clear, and 60 degrees and came back to freezing cold, windy, and snowy Utah! Anyway, Christmas Eve we spent with the Andersens. There of course was a nativity that the little kids reenacted. Ellie was an angel, but she never really got to go on stage. Maybe next year.

Then there was a visit from Old St. Nick himself. I was totally shocked because Ellie LOVES Santa!! If you know her then you know that she is picky when it comes to who is holding her. She's a drama queen already! Every time she was put on Santa's lap she was totally fine with it. She would play with his coat and beard and was totally a happy baby. We will see how she is next year though. :)

This picture was from the Merrill party a few nights before. She loved Santa so much she sat on his lap while other kids came up to talk to him.

Here are most of the Andersen grandkids with Santa. There are 21 (soon to be 22) grandkids 8 and under!

After the party we went to my dad's to spend the night so we could have an early Christmas morning with my family. Ellie needed to go to bed and couldn't wait for everyone to get back, so we opened her jammies before everyone else was there.

Notice how she is sitting up! This is her new trick.

I can't believe how old my little sisters and brother are.

We opened presents with my family and then headed back over to the Andersens for a delicious Christmas breakfast and more fun. Unfortunately, Ellie slept through the Andersen fun, so I didn't get any pictures of that.

I have to throw this picture in because I think it is hilarious. My little niece, Sarah, was so tired from all of the fun activities that she fell asleep while Lindsay was painting her nails. Oh the life of being a girl.

We are back now in Utah trying to get back to normal life. Thank you everyone for letting us spend time with you!

Oh, Ellie had her first "big girl" bath tonight since she can sit up now. She will be 7 months old on Sunday. Stop growing Ellie!!!

Stockings

The stocking I have grown up using is a long time Dyer tradition. My grandma made mine for me and I have used it since my first Christmas. I think the tradition started with my great-grandma (at least that is what my dad told me) and is still going on today. My grandma made the stockings until she got really sick and passed away, then my mom took over for our family. When she passed away my sister, Marie, and my sister-in-law, Amber, made the stockings. I decided that I would make Ellie's and had no idea what I was getting myself into. I definitely do not know how to sew. Luckily, Marie taught me how to do it and helped me a ton. Thanks so much Marie!! Anyway, I finally finished Ellie's stocking tonight! We also made one for my niece, Kaitlyn, since she did not have one yet. Amber, I'm shipping Kaitlyn's stocking to you tomorrow. :)

Here is the picture of our little family's stockings all hanging up. (I'm sad we don't have a fireplace to hang them up.) You can tell that my stocking is way older than Greg and Ellie's.

I'm excited to get to use them in a couple of weeks!! Feliz Navidad everyone!

Just Call Me a Pie Maker...NOT!!

Disclaimer: This is a super long story. Sorry!

This year I decided that it was time for me to learn how to make a pie.  I mean I'm a mom now and moms should know those things, right?  So, I called my sister Marie and asked her if she would let me come to her house to make pies with her on Wednesday.  (f.y.i. she is an awesome pie maker/mom!)  Who better to help me make my first pie?  Just a little side note, my mom would spend all day on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving baking up a storm.  She seriously was the best cook/baker.  I always had good intentions to help her, but somehow I would end up just hanging out with my friends.  I totally regret this now.  I mean I still love my friends, but all of those years I could have learned how to make a delicious pie from an expert, not to mention I could have had many great memories baking with my mom. 

My mom, the Thanksgiving dinner queen.

Anyway, back to my pie day prep from hell.  After Ellie woke up from her nap on Wednesday I packed her up and headed to the grocery store to buy my supplies.  You all know that the grocery store is not my favorite place to go, but when you have to bring your baby in the heavy car seat it makes things even more difficult.  So, I wandered up and down the baking aisle that was completely packed with last minute shoppers like myself until I found everything I needed.  I was actually quite proud of the fact that I was in and out of the grocery store in a pretty decent time. 

I pulled up to Marie's house and luckily she was outside, so she could help me bring in all of my bags.  That is always a pain when you have the car seat, diaper bag, and bags and bags of groceries.  When I'm carrying that many things sometimes I want to just stop and faint because it takes way too much energy to get from the car to wherever I'm going.  So thanks Marie!  When I got inside and started unpacking my bags I realized I forgot 3 very important items!  Seriously, I even had a list!!  Back to the grocery store for me.  Thank goodness I hadn't gotten Ellie out of her car seat yet.

When I got to Marie's house for the second time I put Ellie down for a nap so that I could make some pies in peace.  I couldn't hear her outside of the door so I assumed she was asleep.  The first pie on my list was a banana cream pie.  I'm sure a lot of you know that I'm definitely not a banana lover (I'm dreading the day when Ellie starts eating bananas), but Greg loves that pie and had it growing up so I thought I would attempt to make him one.  My other sister Lindsay, who is in culinary school, gave me a recipe and warned me to make sure to stir continuously so the mixture doesn't burn.  Well, I did that, but somehow I still seemed to burn it.  Typical me.  The mixture was supposed to be a beautiful creamy color, but instead it had tons of brown chunks in it from the bottom of the pan.  So the first attempt went down the drain.

Being the good wife I am (ha ha), I wanted to try it again so Greg could have his pie.  This time I didn't turn up the heat very high because I was so afraid of burning it again.  (I did not have enough ingredients to do the pie 3 times!!)  So I stirred the mixture like a champ.  I mean I had a bad arm cramp from stirring so long, but I was not going to let that stop me from making a delicious pie.  I finished and thought it still looked a little runny, but I decided once I let it sit in the fridge it would set a little better.  So in the fridge it went.

My next pie was an apple pie that my mom would make every year.  I had to keep the tradition alive!  I started to peel the apples when I heard Ellie crying.  She had been "asleep" for over an hour so I figured she would be nice and rested.  When I went in to get her she was crying with tears and all.  This is weird because when Ellie wakes up she is a very happy baby and is very excited to see me.  I knew she needed more sleep, but she had other ideas.  I put her in her car seat on the table and went back to peeling apples.  I only peeled one apple before Ellie began her crying fit.  This is when I realized that Ellie probably never actually slept.  (She does every now and then.  Sometimes she will play in her crib for an hour or more).  I knew I wasn't going to get anything done with her crying, so I packed everything up and headed home.  Not quite what I had pictured my pie day like.

The first thing I did when I got home was put Ellie in her crib.  Ha ha!  She screamed and screamed.  I wasn't in the mood to deal with her, so I let her scream it out in her crib.  Luckily she only screamed for a couple of minutes until she finally fell asleep.  I went downstairs and continued peeling my apples.  I sat all by myself in complete silence peeling apples.  I started to get extremely sad because this was my first time away from my family for Thanksgiving and I was really missing my mom.  I wanted to be able to talk to her and have a fun day baking with her, but instead I was sitting all alone.  Of course I started to cry.  So I'm peeling apples and crying.  I wanted to give up, but I bought all of these apples that I knew I would never eat, so I kept on going.  Needless to say after 3 hours (that is not an exaggeration) I finally finished my apple pie.  Oh, I bought the ready made pie crust so I have no idea why it took me 3 hours to make that pie.  The pie actually turned out so I was happy about that.

After having a good cry and feeling totally depressed that I was the worst pie maker in the world, I decided to check on my banana cream pie in the fridge.  Don't worry it was still completely soupy!  Apparently, I didn't get it hot enough so it wasn't able to set.  More tears.  I told Greg to eat it because there was no way I was going to bring that out in public.  It was so soupy that Greg would cut out some of the crust and then literally pour the mixture part into his bowl.  He couldn't even spoon it out!  It did taste really good thought, so maybe next year. 

Wednesday was one emotionally crazy day, but now that I look back at it, it is absolutely hilarious.  Needless to say, Thanksgiving turned out to be really fun.  We went with some of Marie's in-laws that live up here.  I'm so thankful for my family and especially for my mom.  I have realized since she has passed away how much she did for me.  I never realized exactly how much she did for me until I had my own baby.  What an AMAZING person she was.  I could not have asked for a better mom.  I just wish that I could tell her how grateful I am for her and spend one more fun day baking with her.  I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

5 Months!!

Today Ellie is 5 months old! I have loved every stage, well most of the time :), but as she gets older and more interactive, I love it more and more. She is now to the point where she loves to play. She tries to put anything and everything into her mouth, and is really good at picking up things. She loves to talk and loves having the attention on her. Also, a couple of months ago she rolled for the first time. I was all excited and kept trying to make her do it again. Well, I think she forgot she could do it because she never did it again until last night. Now every time I put her on her tummy she instantly rolls over! (She has always hated tummy time.)

I finally started her on solids yesterday. I bought the spoons, bowls, and rice cereal a few weeks ago, but I hadn't gotten around to giving it to her. Finally yesterday I set up the little high chair and did it. It wasn't too bad. I think she liked it, but she still isn't quite sure how to eat it. Hopefully more will make it into her mouth soon.

I had to throw this picture in because you can see how thick her hair is getting. I love it! It is really thick, but not really long, so usually in pictures it looks like she has a little wig on.

Finally Some Halloween Pics!

I had so much fun on Halloween this year!  It was fun to dress up a baby and take her around trick-or-treating.  This year was the first year I didn't dress up for Halloween.  I'm such a bum!  I promised myself that I would never do that again because it is so much fun to dress up.  In my defense I did dress up as Greg by putting his APX shirt, hat, and badge on, and his jeans.  I thought I looked great, but Greg and my neighbor kindly told me I just looked like a lesbian!  So, I went as myself instead.

Ellie was a banana this year.  Isn't she the cutest little thing?  It was so funny because the minute I put her in her costume she turned into a zombie.  Seriously she would not smile, cry, coo, or anything.  She just laid in her stroller and stared into space.  I think she was a little confused. 

We started our night out by going to our ward trunk-or-treat.  I couldn't just trunk-or-treat on Halloween so we went to my sister's neighborhood to trick-or-treat.  Marie and I ended up taking Sarah, Kalie, and Ellie around the block.  I had so much fun with them.

When we got back we tried to take pictures of the girls.  At this point it was almost 8:00 (past Ellie's bedtime), and she missed her last nap because of the trunk-or-treat.  Let's just say she was definitely done and ready for bed. :)

  Sarah the princess, Kalie the monkey, and Ellie the very tired banana.

  It was a very fun photo shoot!

This One's For You Narissa Kikolaus...

No, I'm not an egotistical person.  One of my best friends asked for a picture of my face and so I'm honoring her request.  I dedicate this picture to Karissa (a.k.a. Narissa Kikolaus, Special K).  I love you!