An Epic Comeback

 can i just say how much i can't stand the word "epic"? i just can't. i don't know what it is, but that word. it gets me. anywho. 

i really am really really trying to do this blogging thing right. the hiatus was nice, but i know we have 3 family members and 2 friends in utah that read this thing, and i know they are DYYYYYYYING to know what we are up to out here in iowa, so this is me making a huge effort to be a decent blogger once again. 

lately we've been up to a couple things. 

       1. ellis- this kid is getting funny, man, he makes some funny noises and basically spends his whole day walking around the apartment shaking his head going 'hoo ha hoo ha hoo ha hoo ha'. yeah, hoo ha. i don't know where we got that from, but it's what he chose.

        2. church. damon is in nursery (where the 18 month to 3 year olds go for the last 2 hours of church) and he's super good at that, also bonus, he takes ellis with him. i am in young women's still and we are planning girl's camp at the moment. remember girl's camp? so fun! also i'm glad i'll be super huge pregnant and don't have to go out there. haha. 

      3. the bachelorette. is emily kinda boring? or is it too early in the season? 

      and 4. boards. damon's taking them the 29th of june, so until then, he's eatinglivingbreathingsleeping studying for the stupid test. i go back and forth twice a day about whether i should be leaving and spending the 6 weeks somewhere else, but i just can't be away from him that long, so here we still are. ellis and i are planning a little road trip down to texas in 2 weeks though, to eat good food and swim and see all our family there, and i'm excited!

also, i'm kinda tired of the layout of the blog, but if i'm too lazy to actually write posts, then i'm probably too lazy to change it. maybe later tonight over a pibb. 

the baby in me is still growing great, he was right on target during the ultrasound we had 3 weeks ao, though his mother is packing on the pounds at an alarming rate and hoping she doesn't have to switch to diet soda because of gestational diabetes. keep your finger's crossed, i think that glucose test is coming up. 

in other smaller news, i'm still trying to understand this iphone thing, but i did figure out what was eating up my mac's hard drive (duh, it was pictures, but i had to figure out where they were, and got back 90+ gigs of space), we started cloth diapering (easy! cute! i don't touch any poop!) and also damon ran the Tough Mudder, an obstacle type 12 mile race that looked super hardcore, i'll have to post pics/video when i can get them from him.

here are the pictures!

i'm trying to get ellis to wear hats. it's such a pain to try to put sunblock on his scalp what with all the mop of hair going on up there. he doesn't really like hats though so... maybe spray block?

this is ellis at the mall play place. he spends the entire time climbing around the bench seats. at this particular moment, he was flirting with a mexican lady sitting over there. he loves to flirt. he doesn't quite distinguish between men and women yet. when we go grocery shopping, he sits in the cart and smiles like this to anybody who walks by and calls out to them all high pitched. it's pretty funny.

michelle and i at drake diner, the 4 of us (oh yeah, and the kids) went for our last hurrah here in iowa (at least till brandon's graduation next may) before they left the next day for utah. what a sad day, i'm still in denial that she isn't here. but tonight when we take the shuttle to the farmer's market, past their house, i might have to look the other way. michelle, i miss you! also, she doesn't even look pregnant, isn't that so rude?

ellis helped me make gender reveal cupcakes for brandon and michelle. since brandon couldn't make it to the ultrasound she brought me a HIGHLY TOP SECRET SEALED envelope with the incriminating photo and i got to work on some crazy cupcakes with a little swirl of color in the middle, it was so fun! also i ate all the leftover cupcakes within 2 days.

as you can see, ellis really likes to help cooking (note, 2 nights ago he was up on the counter playing with those spices while damon made sandwiches and he touched the bag of cayenne pepper. not a good thing), here he's helping dad make a cake on Mother's Day.

he also loves more than anything else, being outside. i really wish we had a yard for the poor kid, but our apartment parking lot is ok by him. these pinecones are EVERYWHERE and every single time we walk out to the car, he collects them along the way, i probably have 2 dozen in my backseat.

 dad and ellis at the pond. we went to feed geese, but they weren't there. so we played with rocks instead.