The Ellsworth Corner

She's so big

2009-08-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

Savannah is 15 months old now and so big. I love this recent picture of her. She started walking last month and now she's running! She loves to swing, climb, go down slides, be with mom, snuggle her satin edged blanket, lay in her bed, put on her shoes, rock out with gavin to really loud red hot chili peppers, get a billion kisses from noah every time he passes her, giggle with carina in their room if they go to bed at the same time (showing off all her cool crib moves like climbing on the railing and jumping), have her hair brushed, etc. She couldn't be a sweeter baby.

Sounding Off

2008-09-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to write a bit since its been a while. Gavin and Noah both had their first games of soccer today. It's such a fun sport to watch. Both really have a good time playing. I was laying down by Noah earlier in the week and he asked if I could come and watch him play on Saturday. I thought that was very cute of him to make sure I was going.

The addition on the house continues to consume ever free moment of my Saturdays but with each passing day, I move forward with one baby step at a time. Today I installed the plumbing for the water into the bathtub. Usually when I do the plumbing I have to shut off the water to the whole house; the pipes leading to the new bathroom are tied in to the existing pipes. Today, I decided to do things a bit different. I installed shutoff valves for the pipes on the bathtub. Now, I can have the water on for the whole house and the water off while I did the plumbing on the tub. I know, you're saying, "What a concept - shutoff valves - daaah". Don't know why I never thought of this before today but....

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late night adventure

2008-08-17T23:48:00.000-07:00

So what do the Ellsworths do at 8pm on a Sunday night???? We discover Gavin has head lice (after casually mentioning he had an itchy head off and on for a week which I attributed to a summer heat and hair too thick and long:)! So unfortunately Russ had to run to the drug store - we'll have to keep some lice shampoo in our medicine cabinets, just in case, so he won't have to break the sabbath for this emergency again. I think Carina had it too but we shampooed everyone because they all sleep together and then Russ and I shampooed our hair because aside from living in the same household Carina calls our bed hers from 4am on. We stripped the sheets, blankets, towels, clothes...off of 5 beds mind you, sprayed some spray in the car on the car seats on the beds, carpets, couches... Because I'm nursing I had to use a natural shampoo that had to sit in my hair under a shower cap for 60 minutes. So here I sit with 15 minutes too go and mountains of laundry that has to be washed on the hot cycle. My questions are; do we have enough hot water to wash so many loads consecutively and should I call everyone that we just associated with at church and before today to give them the heads up? This is so yucky. Gavin thought everything about head lice was really cool how you treat it, how you get it, how stinky the shampoo smells - he and Noah were in hysterics in the bathroom until Russ enlightened them on how it's really not so great. He thought it was almost as cool if not cooler than getting his first cavity this summer - go figure his perspectives . I was laughing the whole time I was shampooing Carina's hair contrasting this experience with my only other exposure to head lice when I was in elementary school. I cried when I learned I had head lice and was so embarrassed about being sent home by the school nurse, who checked everyones hair in my classroom after learning one child had it. While quarantined to the bathroom until Russ got home with the shampoo, Gavin summoned recruits for a go fish game and then all 3 of them enjoyed coloring in there until their shampoo set. The irony is that Russ could hardly see to check the kids hair because his eye is completely red and oozy - he's going to the doctor tomorrow. Sounds like our family is a mess:)

Ocean City

2008-07-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

Not that anyone checks the blog these days but I thought I would just jot a bit down since I have the time…

I’m finally united again with my family. It’s been something like two and a half weeks since they flew out to Marmie and Papa. I arrived out here on Friday to only hop into the car on Saturday and book it on down to the Jersey shore as they say out here. We’re staying in Ocean City one block from the boardwalk.

This morning Gavin, Noah, Carina, and I got up and had some breakfast and then walked down to the beach for a couple of hours. The moment we came back up it started to rain and has continued to do so for most of the day. Luckily the house we’re staying in is big enough that the kids can just play. It also helps that there are a bunch of Rebecca’s cousins with their kids staying here too – so everyone has someone to pal around with.

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G-Man's Birthday

2008-06-01T22:07:00.000-07:00

Gavin's Birthday is officially over after two weeks of celebration, Ellsworth style. Instead of a birthday party this year, Gavin wanted to go to Medieval Times, "it's a living link to the past where the glory, chivalry and valor of old burst to life in authentic pageantry and thrilling tournament action".

I took Gavin, his friend Nick, and Noah. If you've never been, its worth putting on the calendar and making an evening of it. The night consisted of eating a four course meal all of which is served medieval style - without silverware. You get to use nothing but your bare hands - the boys absolutely loved it. While everyone ate their dinner the knights showed off their skills in games of joist, javelin throw, and the like.

After the dinner the knights actually battle. The boys were completely spellbound. The knights battle one another with swords, axes, maces, and bolas and their not just fake-hitting each other. They're really swinging their weapons. At the end of the show, I bought each of the kids wooden swords. They then proceeded to fake-fight out in the parking lot for 45 minutes and would have continued on had I not had to leave. It was a great time.

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Gavin Turns 8

2008-06-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

Now that Gavin is eight he is a cub scout. He was so excited to go to his first meeting and wear his new uniform. They had an olympic theme and the whole family got to compete in different events. Everyone that played was awarded metals. Our kids loved the medals and thought they were real gold (even though they said revlon 5k walk/run). Gavin wasn't shy about bringing his new camera and taking pictures of all of his new friends. Noah's counting the days when he can be a cub scout and has his eye on this special pocket knife we saw at the scout store:)

Happy Mothers Day

2008-05-11T20:23:00.000-07:00

To all of you that are moms... Happy Mothers Day.

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Savannah Ainsley Ellsworth

2008-05-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

Savannah Ainsley Ellsworth is the official name of our new little princess. She is now four days old and sleepy as a bear in the dead of winter; at least until 11:00 p.m. For the most part though she usually logs sleep in four-hour increments or has at least for the first couple of nights.

Bec took her to the Dr. today and she is back to her birth weight of 8 lbs 7 ozs so she's getting a lot of that yummy-for-the-tummy milk. At one point she was down as low as 7 lbs 15 ozs. She's not too hip on having to nurse for her food -she prefers the umbilical cord over nursing.

Bec is doing really well too. I can't believe she just had a baby. She is such a strong person and and an even more impressive wife and mom. I love that woman!

The kids continue to be completely intrigued and in love with her. When ever she lets out the slightest of a peep, Gavin is right there by her side saying, "It's ok, it's ok, it's ok, it's ok" at a rate of about 100 times a minute while stroking her forehead with the same rhythm.

Our New Little Girl

2008-05-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

Our new little girl was born this afternoon at exactly 1:08 p.m. She was 8 lbs 7oz and 21.5 inches long. Rebecca did an incredible job and is now recovering with the little one at the hospital. I'll write more tomorrow but I wanted to get some pics out for everyone to see.

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2008-04-06T23:18:00.000-07:00

"Let me think... is it pull or push the blade across the sharpening stone when sharpening a knife?" I decided to push. I kept at it until the blade was nice and sharp. After all, I didn't want to be hacking at the stake while trying to cut it into thin strips for Bagogi (Japanese BBQ). The meat was a perfect consistency for cutting; slightly frozen in the center making it firm enough to cut perfect strips.

The first six or seven pieces were as thin as sandwich meat and the lenght of the entire stake. The next piece was started at the wrong angle - I was digging too deep and it was going to be be too thick of a piece if I kept on at that angle. To correct the action, I tilted the blade up a bit and kept on moving until, POW - the knife broke threw the meat. Natural laws of motion came into play and the force, or pressure, I was applying didn't stop until it hit my index finger directly below the finger nail.

I knew on impact that I was in for a good one. After about 10 minutes of bleeding and grossing Gavin and Bec out with the 'talking finger' (gaping cut would open and close as I bend the finger), I decided to head down and get a professional to close it up.
Modern medicine saved me the discomforts of having to get stitched. Instead, they glued it back together. Awesome.

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Progress

2008-04-06T23:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend we poured the footings to our room addition. One step closer to a finished product. Special thanks to Papa for making the trip up to help out.

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April Fools

2008-04-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

Over dinner last night, the topic of discussion was April Fools jokes. Several were discussed, most of them off the charts somewhere in the stratosphere of way to messy and/or just plain obnoxious. An example of a "joke" considered was filling a balloon full of syrup and putting it under my pillow so when I went to bed, "pop" would go the balloon and we would be covered in stickiness. Another was putting whipped cream in mom's hand while she slept and then tickling her nose. Again, way to messy.

Carina will sometime get up early in the morning and will come into our bed. Usually when she does, she will squeeze between us and make herself at home. I usually sleep with earplugs so I can't hear her but can feel the bed moving all about as she nuzzles in. Today at about 6:30, I feel the bed wiggling about and can feel someone in the middle of bed and I just assumed it was Carina.

After a few minutes of wiggling, I finally opened my eyes and was about to tell her to sit still when who do I find standing over me? Noah. Not only is he standing over me but Gavin is at the foot of the bed prodding Noah on to "do it". So I do a double-take on Noah to see what "it" is. I can see something funky in Noah's hands but can't quite make out the odd shaped brown thing. I sit up a bit and squint in an attempt to figure out it out and ask, "What are you doing?" Laughing, Noah says, "I was going to pull out your ear plugs and replace them with bacon." Yep, he and Gavin got up and pulled some cooked bacon from the fridge and were going to pack that into my ears. What the???? Pack bacon in my ears? Like I wouldn't wake up? And bacon... why bacon? Funny boys!

She Will Be Here In...

2008-03-30T23:29:00.001-07:00

2008-03-30T23:02:00.000-07:00

Our children are pretty shy; especially when they know the camera is on. If they even think they're being filmed, rarely will they stay in the same room. Any filming opportunities are always done on the sly.
The other night I just so happen to sneak the camera out when they weren't looking and grad a bit of rare footage... they had no idea I was there.

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Give an Inch

2008-02-24T22:39:00.000-08:00

It all started with lots of rain Saturday night, mega huge puddles Sunday morning, bored kids on a Sunday afternoon, and a promise to just walk lightly - no splashing.

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Fun Times

2008-02-20T23:37:00.000-08:00

Here's another quick video of the Dec / Jan timeframe.

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House Project

2008-02-20T23:27:00.001-08:00

Here a quick video of the house progress. It is a bit old, but I've just got Blogger to work correctly with video uploads again so better late than never I guess.

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It Has Been A While

2008-02-19T16:58:00.001-08:00

Okay - so I had a complete meltdown of my prior blog. It all started with the site not letting my videos upload. For some reason the site itself just wouldn't work. To make a long story short, I now have a new look and feel.

Since I last wrote, we've demo'ed our back bedroom which has since consumed most of my free time. Here are some pics of the progress.

I took Friday off to work on the house hoping to have the footings dug out by end-of-day Monday. My plan was foiled when everyone went down in a blaze starting Sunday. The flu came to visit and left us with a 'left-right-left' punch out. Bec has now been glued to the bed for 72 hours and counting - stricken, Noah continues to burn at 103 degrees, Carina's nose is running more than Niagara Falls in the spring, and I'm coughing my brains out. Gavin, I think he brought the flu to the house but is now feeling like a million bucks enjoying the hours of TV burnout since mom and dad are too sick to do anything more. Not a place you want to be, especially if you're healthy.

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