The Best Life

Steve on Rush

2009-08-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

Wow! Time to shake a little dust off of this thing. I had (what I consider) the honor to speak on the phone briefly with Rush Limbaugh during his radio show in June. I am just now getting to put it up. It was during the second hour of the show and comes on at around 16 minutes.

Lest you think I am crazy chiming in on national radio about ordering tests and other diagnostics in a hospital, temporarily put the term "dentist" out of your mind because working as a resident in the hospital I have been caring for patients suffering heart attacks, life threatening traumas and the like while on internal medicine, anesthesia and trauma.

Steve

Bacuuming...silent movie

2008-10-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

Ella loves to do chores and help out. Although her only regular chore is putting the dishwasher tablet into the dishwasher. Steve took some video of her vacuuming the rug. There is no sound on this video & it was taken in "old time" video.

Ella's Art

2008-09-30T20:14:00.000-07:00

The other night I was cleaning up after putting Ella to bed and saw this picture on her Magna Doodle. I took it to Amber to ask her what it was since Ella will bring you the pad and ask you to draw her something. She had no idea what it was, she hadn't drawn it.

I took it to Ella and asked her what it was. She said it was her 'phyder' which, translated means it was her 'spider'. Not too bad eh?

Thanksgiving Point

2008-09-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pictures of the girls at Thanksgiving Point.

Ava Eating a Lemon

2008-09-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

We were at the Granto's and they had these pills made from Some kind of 'asian magic fruit' that makes sour things taste sweet. It was pretty crazy, it affects your taste buds for about 15 minutes. I ate a lime and a lemon and they tasted like they had been dipped in sugar. We also drank some vinegar and it tasted good.

We decided to let Ava eat a lemon without the benefit of the magic fruit, she kept eating it.

Layne and Shayla

2008-09-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

We've got a lot of catching up to do.

Layne and Shayla's wedding was super fabuloso. Steve-O couldn't be there but we still had a great time. The wedding was at the Salt Lake Temple with the reception at Thanksgiving Point.

Cheese! Maybe Alisha can photoshop Jason in?!?!

Grandma is just too cute

Ava and Papa
Let's get ready!
The Fam at the SLC Temple
Ella was sure excited to have "Shay-shay" join the family.

Thanksgiving Point Farm

2008-08-29T07:51:00.000-07:00

While we were in Utah we met up with Becky and Lauren to go to the farm at Thanksgiving Point. Ella and Lauren are so much alike. Lauren is the only little girl that gives as many hugs as Ella does. They had so much fun playing together, it's too bad we don't live closer.

I think they were excited because the calf ate from their hands

Lauren and Ella in jail!
Ella and Ava loving the pony ride. Ava didn't really ride the pony that was just for a picture and she wasn't having it!

Becky, Lauren, Ella, Me & Ava

The girls

Shayla's bridal shower

2008-08-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

We had a bridal shower for Shayla. This is when my camera battery died :( & I didn't take my charger....so I'm going to have to narrate the rest of the video. By the way this was Amber's idea...not me Amber but Kurt's Amber...so clever...I love it!

So you see in the video Shayla read a card that said something to the effect of "We wanted to give you this gift from Layne for you to wear on your wedding night. Love, Alisha, Amber, Amber, Amy, Annette and Grandma Roberts!!!!"

Well what you don't see is her opening the gift. She takes out the tissue paper and keeps looking in the bag until she says "there's nothing" at which point we all die laughing. Then she puts it together that we were teasing her! She was a good sport and we are so happy to have her in our family.

Alex and Alicia's Wedding 8.9.08

2008-08-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

As you can see this was a busy month of weddings. Steve's sister Alicia married Alex Leinbach on Saturday August 8th, 2008. They are both so happy! I have been waiting to get the rest of the pictures because I didn't have many on my camera...but...I haven't had a chance to get the pictures and it by the time I do...it might be their one year anniversary! :)

It rained at the reception but it was a beautiful and exciting day. Steve got to come home for 3 days to be there when his sister got married. I'll put some more pictures up when I can find Steve's camera.

The Happy couple

Luke and Cooper

(cousins)

Ella running around in the rain

My "sisser" Amy and "Abit"

(as Ella would say)

Peek-a-boo

Ella dancing at Nisha and Cameron's wedding

2008-08-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

Dancing Queen

2008-08-07T22:40:00.000-07:00

Ella and Ellie were the first ladies on the floor

Having so much fun

Kissing the Groom

She kept asking Cam to take her to the Forrest
Running away during pictures
The Beautiful bride and flower girls

Nisha looked like Belle in her dress

Getting into the dress

Before the ceremony

All the extra petals that they didn't throw during the walk down the isle they had no problem getting rid of at the bushes.

Say Cheese!
Did I mention that I don't really sew but I made her dress!

So tonight was Nisha and Cameron's wedding. Ella had the honor of being a flower girl. She and Ellie (the other flower girl) made a great pair. Ella through the flowers and Ellie followed and picked up all the flowers. It was very cute. Ella was the first one on the dance floor and the last one to leave. My little social butterfly loves to dance. She fell off her chair and might end up with a black eye, I'm not sure yet. Tried to take off her skirt twice...once was successful. Danced with everyone in sight, ate wedding cake all evening and kept hydrated with plenty of juice...hence the slightly red mustach. We had such a great time and are so happy for Cam and Nisha! The wedding was at Milcreek Inn, in the "forest" as Ella would say, it was up Millcreek Canyon and so beautiful. Oh did I mention Nisha looked AMAZING, Cam looked sharp too!

ROCKBAND our new hobby

2008-07-29T05:56:00.000-07:00

As most of you know Steve and I don't really enjoy video games all that much. We want to retract that now, we love rockband. Ella really gets into it as well. We don't have rockband but our 2nd home The Granto's (Joe and Cheryl) have it. Cheryl got a little guitar and microphone for Ella so that she could be part of the action as well. Most of the time Ella likes watching her new favorite movie "Toy Stories" (the 1st and the 2nd) as she calls it.
The other day I was driving and I had Jack Johnson on (my fav) and there was a drum solo part in the song and Ella started clapping her hands like a metronome and then said "I don't have my drums, where's Joe?" The reason why I found this so funny was Joe being the quiet humble being that he is was trying to help me on my first set on the drums and started clapping like a metronome but it only made it worse for me but it was so funny to me that when Ella heard the drums she thought of RockBand!

This is when we first got to Florida. Joe is on drums, Luana is singing with Ava, Steve is on guitar and Alicia is playing bass.
Ella rocking out on her guitar...she actually plays like Jimmy Hendricks when she plays it!

Kurt and Amber...this one is for you!

2008-07-27T11:42:00.000-07:00

Okay so I we moved last moved last month and I have been slacking. So much has happened but I haven't put anything in the blog. I going to work backwards on what's been happening this past month.

So we bought season passes to Disney World yesterday and spent the day with Alisha, Tyler and his mom & sister, Deetta and Bethany. Ella had a blast, she did the pirates ride, magic carpet, the laugh floor (Monsters Inc.), Buzz lightyear (Toy Story is her new favorite movie that she watches every time we go to the Granto's), and a few others with a lot of eating, seeing the princess' and shows that they have in the park.

Rehoboth Beach

2008-05-27T04:21:00.000-07:00

We went to Rehoboth Beach on Saturday. It was sooooo much fun. Had I realized that we had this great beach 90 minutes away, we would have been coming out here all the time. The water was cool but the day was beautiful! Oh, the shops along there are cute too.

HELLO BEACH...it's been too long, we've missed you.

Family photo...or closest thing we have to it

If we would have turned the stroller you would see that the whole back seat and underneath was PACKED with our junk...we had to stop at a bike shop to pump up the tires because with all the weight the tires went flat.

Ella eating her favorite ice cream Dippin' Dots

Ava just hanging out in the back...wishing she was old enough to eat ice cream.

Okay, Ava has wore her hair off on the sides...but she still has it on the top and back middle...so she officially has a mullet. It reminds me of Mr T. for some reason. I think I'm going to spike it, she'd make a cute punk rocker...don't you think?

Happy little Ava loves the beach too

Kurt, Amber, Amber, Ava, Ella & Steve. We are going to really miss living so close to Kurt and Amber. We've had a fun time seeing the sights with them.

Ella hard at work building her sand castle
Ella's Castle
Getting more water for the castle

This is her Turtle

"Ariel" her mermaid. Steve didn't like it if Ella walked away because he looked like a PERV making the mermaid!

Ava want to see all the action but I didn't want her to crisp in the sun.

Oh ya, Steve may have helped a bit.

I thought this was so cute with her sitting on her bucket hard at work.

Now she has moved on to frozen custard. Who could blame her? It's dulce de leche! Licious (as Ella would say for Delicious)

A weekend without the kiddos

2008-05-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

We went to a wedding in Kentucky for Tim and Korie Acord. Tim is the chief (4th year) this year at Christiana and his wife Korie is a Dentist here in Delaware and she just got into a Pediatric dentistry residency in Kentucky (where she's from). The wedding was in Covington, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Cincinatti. It was an adventure in cancelled and re-routed flights but we made it there. The girls stayed with Kurt and Amber for the weekend. The weather was great and it was nice to have time to just the two of us.

Christiana Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Resdients past and present. Back left Tom Ochletree (graduated 2 yrs ago), Sam Nwogu (PGY-1), Greg Burns, (PGY-2), Ray Petrunich (Graduated from CCHS and current Attending Surgeon), Steve-0 the Magnificent. Front left Mike Tuttle (graduated last year), Tim Acord (Groom and current chief resident).

Tim and Korie on the dancefloor. Korie will start her pediatric residency in Louisville in July and Tim is joining a private practice in Louisville.

Keep and eye on your camera....the Honorable Dr. Raymond Petrunich is on the loose.

Resident's day

2008-05-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

So I'm catching up on all my photos. This was almost two weeks ago. They had a day where all the residents were off and they had a BBQ and pony rides, bounce house, slide...all that fun stuff. Ella had such a good time, she ate her weight in watermelon, rode a pony named Prince and had fun playing in the bounce house and playground...Ava was here with us too. All the residents were holding her the whole time so she didn't make it into these photos.

Ella riding Prince...she is right at home on ponies

She wasn't so crazy about the slide, I had to ride down it with her.

Summer Classic. I think everyone has one of these childhood watermelon pictures

Step aside Evil Knievel. She didn't think twice about climbing up this latter, the bars get spaced out further and further towards the top. I didn't get this picture at the right time but what she would do was bring both of her feet and right hand to where her left hand is and then would stand up and take the last step. She's a dare devil alright.

Swingin' on the bars...again

A day with the Amish

2008-05-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

On Monday we went to Pennsylvania to the Amish country. It was a very rainy day but we still were able to go on a carriage ride and visit a few shops there. I think I would be safe saying that the Bakery was the highlight of the shops there. I got about one of each donut they make (which were all delicious) and I'd have to say my favorite was the cream puff donut and the shoe-fly-pie...yum, yum. I didn't get any pictures of them though.

Notice: Mary Kate has been purging again.
These were taken during our buggy ride. The name of our horse is Molly. Our "guide" was Caleb. He taught us quite a few things about the way the Amish live.

This was at lunch, Amber's Mom and Sister Elise were in town.

Zoo & DC

2008-05-10T20:12:00.000-07:00

It's taken me a while to get these picture up. Last week Steve had to go to Boston for a conference and before he left we went to the Wilmington Zoo, Ella has so much fun & Ava seemed to enjoy herself as well. Kurt met up with us there too...Amber had to work.

Great...now I've lost my SD card that has the pictures on it...don't worry I'll find it soon and put the pictures up.

We also went to DC to meet up with some friends. The Burt's just moved there from Florida and The Granto's were up there visiting. We had a lot of fun. Ella loved playing with the girls, she loves friends.

Today we were in the car and Ella wanted to get out of her car seat. Now when I want her to listen to me I will say to her "Ella, do you understand me?" It's kind of like a warning, if you do that again you'll have time out type thing...back to the story...Ella turned to me and pointed her finger and said "Mommy, do you understand me?" We just about died laughing. She couldn't keep that straight face very long.

So I'll work on finding that card and get the pictures up.

Sissers

2008-04-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, so cute. I had Ava in her crib and I decided to start packing a few things. After a minute I couldn't hear Ella so I did the usual "Marco" and I hear "I'm right here" and it sounded like she was in Ava's room so I walked in there and this is what I found.

Notice, Ava is asleep she has her thumb or fingers in her mouth and is covering her face with her hands. Ella just loves her sisser to death. She just can't let her have a moment of peace. Other days I've found her in there turning her mobile back on for her and checking up on her. The little monkey scales up the front of the crib, she doesn't need any assistance from the things around her.

Stats

2008-04-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

Ava's 4 month check up

11 lbs 2 oz

22 3/4"

Head circumference 39 cm

Ella's 2 yr Check up

26 lbs 8 oz

33"

Both are healthy and doing well. This is at a park near our house. Ella's favorite things to are go for a walk in the neighborhood and go to the park. She says "higher" when you push her on the swing...what a little dare devil!

Jason Ordained an Elder & MTC

2008-04-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

Jason was set apart as a missionary Tuesday April 8th, 2008

Jason got all the height in the family

Layne, Jason and Steve
In front on the infamous MTC wall

Sissers

Jason just dropped off his suitcases and we are walking inside for the final goodbyes

Last family photo before we had to turn off the cameras

Bye, Bye Jason. I'll be 4 years old next time you see me and it will be Ava in her terrible two's when you get back. Good Luck on your Mishy!

Ava's Blessing

2008-04-11T09:25:00.000-07:00

Ava was blessed in the same dress that Alisha, Ella and I were blessed in. Her nails are razor sharp, she scratched her face just in time for pictures.

Grandma Roberts and Ava

All the men, it was like pulling teeth to get a picture of them.

Helaine and Steve

4 generations (Grandma & Grandpa Adamson had left or we would have had them in the picture.)

Grandpa, Grandma Adamson & me

The Binky Strap. It would be Papa Adamson (my Father) that did it, of course.

The Cabin Adventure

2008-04-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

We took the Prowler aka "Barbie Jeep" up to the cabin while the guys were at the Priesthood session of conference. As you can see down at the bottom there really isn't snow...we didn't put the tracks on...less than a mile up we were wishing the tracks were on. 5 people...2 seat belts...Tokyo drifts all over the road. Amy didn't care for the ride so much, some of the areas she got out with Ava and walked because she was afraid we would roll it...or roll it off the cliff. (Jason rolled it the day before and broke the windshield he had just put in only hours earlier.) Mom had to do quite a bit of pushing when we would be stuck in the lighter snow. We did make it with no injuries to report!

Layne in the background showing Ella his Sled tricks. She didn't want to go for a ride with him after...go figure

All bundled up

Ava is either asleep or happy

Family photo...I've still yet to get a good photo of all 4 of us...actually I'm still working on a good photo of just the girls.

View out the side of the Cabin. We love it up there!

Ava laying on the opossum pillow. My dad kept saying that Ava's hair felt and looked like the opossum pillow they brought back from New Zealand. I didn't believe it until I saw it for myself.

Steve's ready to take the girls snowmobiling

I love this picture. This was taken from the driver's seat in the car looking into the side view mirror of Ella looking at the sheep. (Fairview). After we were done looking at the sheep she asked to go see an elephant!

Ella saw Jason out tiling the garden & couldn't miss out on a tracker ride...or "drive" as she says. She loves animals and anything that she can drive.

UnFoRtUnAtE nIcKnAmEs, Ella-isms & the Thumb

2008-04-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

OH NO! She found her thumb. I know better than to let her suck her thumb but it soothes her so what is a mom to do? Headgear and braces or Jaw surgery? Hopefully, neither but I know right where to take her if she does. Dad (Steve) can you cut her a deal?

Mamy (Amy) and Ava

With such cute and 'easy' name to say Ella still can't seem to get it.

Ava Kate Best aka:

Avis

Avit

Abit

Abut

sister (pronounced sisser)

My Favorite things Ella says

1-"an Alligator pooped in my diaper" this is what she told me when I was talking to her about wearing big girl panties and not pooping in her diaper.

2-"Feed IT" referring to Ava when she is crying and hungry.

3-"You be nice to ME Grandma" this is what she said to Grandma when she tried to close the fridge...she'd sit there all day with the door open tearing apart the fridge. When she does decide to close it she SLAMS the door so hard it pops the freezer door open.

4-"I want Roberts" or sometimes "I want Grandma Roberts" which is always followed by saying "cookie". She knows that (Great) Grandma Roberts always has cookies and she will ask for her when she's in trouble...which seem to be a lot lately.

5-We had to start playing Marco Polo this fall because it's hard for me to know where she is in the house and for some reason she wont respond to me when I call her name and she is playing. So I will say "MARCO" and now when she responds, instead of saying POLO she will say "I'M RIGHT HERE". Well at least I know where she is, right?

6-"I'm Ricky Bobby", "I like to go fast", "if you're not first your last" "Shake n Bake"All from the movie Talladega Nights (which she hasn't seen, but she loves (to pretend) to drive the car). The other day I found her out in the garage trying to open the car and I asked her what she was doing and she told me she wanted to drive...we are in trouble she has another 14 years before she will be driving.
7-"The sea monkey stole my money" from Nemo of coarse. I only let her watch it while we're in the car, I guess we must drive a lot because she knows the whole movie.

8-"The platypus stole my hammer" Kurt taught her this one & yes, Kurt and Amber, she does miss you. Only a few more days until you see her! This month has flown by.

9-"JUUUUICE" she loves her juice, it's actually 93% water with a splash of juice but she doesn't need to know that. Lately it's been "pincess juice", "juicey" or "abble juice" the way she says it cracks me up. The part that I love is when you ask her oh you want juice or horsey or what ever it is that she's asking for, she'll say "ya, sure" or "okay" or "YEAH" like you are the one that brought it up.

10-"Ya, I'm trouble", she knows it and if you ask her she is not afraid to admit it! If you ask she if she's a maniac she'll say "Ya, I'm a Mamiac"

Jason's Farewell

2008-03-30T13:52:00.001-07:00

We sat down to watch a movie after everyone had left and Ella came in from the other room and threw her arms in the air and proudly announced "TA DA". She was so pleased with her make-up job. It was waterproof mascara all over her hair, face and clothes. I just can't take my eyes off of her for one second. Thank Heavens that Ava is not mobile yet.

Grandma & Grandpa Adamson

She talked Jake into taking her out to play in the snow

Papa warned her not to eat the yellow snow!

Ella loves playing in and eating the snow

(we woke up a to bunch today)

Daxton, Jason & Emerson

Snowboarding in Park City

2008-03-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

This was taken while I was going down the mountain. It was a beautiful day!

Nice hat. Does he look like he's ready for Wisconsin?

This picture was also taken while I was boarding. I love the mountains! That little small green speck is Jason waiting for me as I mosey on down the mountain. Last time I went with Jason my speed was mock 1, not so much this time. After my first time falling, I got up to make sure my knee caps weren't in my boots. It turned out I was okay & they were still connected. I was a little more cautious after that.

Still smiling even though we are sore!

eLLa'S 2nd bIrThDaY!!!

2008-03-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

I decide to make her a little barbie cake, she's from the 80's & had a mullet so we had to give her an up-do.

Can you say tRoUbLe. She was nibbling all of the flowers off of the dress.

I made our favorite bundt cake recipe for the cupcakes.

What a cHeEsE!

Grandma Adamson and Ava

This was her decorating a cupcake that she got her hands on. Luckily I had already finished the cupcakes because she licked the sprinkle jar trying to get more out.

Ella had so much fun opening all of her presents and playing with her cousins.

Ella with her papa Best

Hanging Out In Utah

2008-03-24T22:05:00.000-07:00

Ella loves her sugar and her Papa

Hanging out with Layne & Jason

Ava is like Maggie from the Simpson's, she loves her binky!

Ava hanging out with Grandma in the kitchen. She is getting so big but she's still a little peanut.

Ella on Easter morning. She doesn't quite get the concept of an Easter egg hunt. She would pick up an egg and eat the candy before moving on to the next egg. Wait until next year, Ava will have her on her toes.

Jack Of All Trades, Master Of Nothing

2008-03-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

This is the real Master, would you ever believe that she is 93 years old?
Grandma Roberts: Master of Pies, Rolls, Sewing and did I mention she holds the record for the worlds best back tickler!

Okay so I dabble in a bit of everything. For some reason I saw this material last month and got the crazy idea that I could sew, so I bought a pattern and enough fabric to make an army tent. (Apparently you don't need any prerequisites for getting a job in the sewing department as long as you can use a pair of scissors. Neither one of us knew how to read the pattern to find out how much material I would need.) So I got home and took the pattern out and started to read the instructions & forgot that I fell asleep on that day in 8th grade sewing when we learned about patterns, guess I'm out of luck. So I did what any person would do, I folded the pattern back up and packed the material and the pattern in my suitcase and brought it out to Utah for grandma Roberts to help me. Okay, so I wont lie grandma did most all of it...but I did cut them out. Does that count?

I found this pattern for the shoes on ETSY, my new favorite site and I made the shoes for the girls. I think I'm going to make a pair for myself too.

I did my best to get a picture of them together but no such luck. I guess I'll be taking them to Kiddie Kandids this week.

Ava and "Papa" before church
Jason and EllaLayne and the girls, before his 3lb weight loss...I cut his hair and it looked like I had shaved a cat by the time I finished.

Ella's Sleepover

2008-03-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this is my first official post.
We are having a blast in Utah although we do miss Steve like crazy. Ella has been on cloud 9 here. There is always someone for her to play with. She had a sleepover with her cousins at Grandma and Grandpa Best's house. Brave I tell you. They had Cooper (8), Lindsey (4), Ainsley (4), Katherine (3) & Ella (2 on Friday).
She had so much fun, they had an Easter egg hunt, then ate pizza and watched movies and ate candy and popcorn until they passed out.
I don't know who was more tired the next day, Reed & Luana or the kiddos.
Auntie Alicia colored eggs with them too. I made the mistake of letting Ella hold hers in the car on the way home and she was swinging hers like they were nunchucks and needless to say there was glitter all over the car and you would have thought we ran over the egg with the car.

Our Boston Adventure

2008-03-02T16:35:00.000-08:00

This is our cold trip to Boston. Steve had a conference there, and we hung out at the pool where Ella and Ava got to show off their cute swimsuits!