Ella's Blessing Day

What an amazing, beautiful day for Ella's blessing day.  

The weather was almost as beautiful as my little Ella.  

I loved how she looked in her long white dress. 

 A perfect angel.

She received a sweet blessing given by her Daddy and surrounded by her Uncles Christian, Ethan, Von, Eric and Robert and her Grandpa (Shiflett) and Papa (Hind).

Will you just look at this picture?? The day was November 4th. 

 No jackets.Ella doesn't even have a blanket.

 I love my flaming red flowering pear in the background. 

(Did you happen to notice that we have FOUR kids? whew.)

The grandparents

Never thought I would be able to have an outdoor party in November. It was lovely.

Food! 

{and the anxious people waiting to eat it.}

{TWO} months

My little lady is growing up....fast!

She is so sweet and a really good baby. She does prefer to be held and talked to but she makes up for it by being an awesome sleeper.  She is still sleeping through the night (since 4 weeks). She is probably my "sleepiest" baby so far. She smiles a lot. (She got really good at it at about 5 weeks.)  And along with the smiling comes the cooing. LOVE her cooing.

We love her fat cheeks. We laugh every time we put her in her car seat because we have pull her cheeks out from under her shoulder belts! 

Ella's Stats

Height: 23.25 in  80%

Weight: 13.3 lbs  85%

Head: 16.5 in.  97%

The picture on the right is Ell's cooing face. :) I probably don't have to tell you what the one on the left is...:) 

Uppidy Date

Adam: Has a new calling as of this past August as Elder's Quorum Secretary. He was a Sunday School teacher for 16/17 years olds.  Ever since he got released from his 6 year stint in the YM's they have really been moving him around.
He has been working from for the past couple of months.  t is nice to have him home and catch glimpses of him throughout the day.  I even get to leave the kids at home when I do school pickups.  Its been nice.

Erin: Just recovering from pushing a watermelon out...well, you know.  Getting used to having 4 kiddies but really loving it and enjoying it.

Kyle: Has become a book worm.  He is reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid and reads it in bed, walking around the house, in the car...everywhere!  He is also loving Calvin and Hobbs.  Adam has a bunch from when he was a kid and gave them to Kyle, much to his delight.
We went to SEP's last week where we got a glowing report from his teacher.  He is doing very well and his teacher wants to test him for the gifted program for next year. That's my boy!

Noah: He also got a glowing report from his teacher at SEP's.  He is a good boy that likes to take his time... When his teacher told us that we just nodded and Mmmmhmmmm'ed. That's our Noah.
We are discovering that Noah is our musical boy.  He loves music in the car and is constantly asking us to "turn it UP!" We love hearing his voice from the very back seat.  Some of his favorites right now are "Dynomite" by Taio Cruz, "Some Nights" by Fun, "Kung Fu Fighting" from Kung Fu Panda, "Animal" by Neon Trees, just to name a few.

Megan: Has become quite the girly girl.  She wants to wear a dress EVERY day and the more sparkly and poofy the better.  She loves dolls but she is also happy playing Legos with the boys.

Ella: What a sweet baby.  She is smiling more and more every day.  She is also sleeping fairly well. I think she's my best so far.  She has been sleeping from about 10:30 or 11 to 4ish for the past three nights. And last night she slept from 11:00pm-7:00am. Wooooooo! I won't hold my breath but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.  She is also happy to sleep with out her car-seat unlike my other kids.

Tommy: Has enjoyed going on runs with Master Adam but during the run likes to put on the breaks to keep things exciting.

After seeing so many pictures posted on Facebook, Instagram and the like with trips up the canyon and the beautiful leaves, I had to get in on the action.  So we took our family up Millcreek canyon to see the beauty that is Fall.

I love everything about this leafy season. I love that flowering pear tree in my front yard that turns into a flaming pear. I love the soft, golden lighting of the sun.  I love the reprieve of the perfectly warm temps.  I just love the cozy feeling of Fall. Hot chocolate. Halloween. My birthday. Thanksgiving. What is not too love?

  Wait. There is one thing...

Winter. Winter looms near. Blah.

Anyhoo, enjoy the pics from our trip up the canyon.

Oh that crooked smile.

Adam and I had our engagement pics taken in this area and specifically on the bridge over 10 years ago. Kyle was the camera man this time...

Looks Like We Made It...

...look how far we've come, my baby.

That's right! 

TEN YEARS, BABY!

It has been a wonderful ten years. I can honestly say that too.  Not perfect. No. But perfect for us. 

On the day we married I couldn't imagine loving my husband more than I already did but here I am, 10 years later, loving him more. (sigh)

We went on a cruise this last April to celebrate our anniversary so on the actual day I really wanted to spend at least some of it with the people I love the most, my kids.

We enjoyed a lovely day at the zoo and took in the new polar bear exhibit. (see crazy bear below.)

This guy kills me. He just swam back and forth. back and forth. when he reached the widow he'd kind of jump up in your face.  Close encounters!

This was our evening at Teppanyaki's...alone...with Ella.

I love you Adam!  I am excited to see what the next 10 years is going to bring!

It's Noah's turn to lose it...

Noah lost his first tooth already with another one on its way out. 

We were surprised since Kyle didn't lose one until at least half way through Kindergarten.

Noah even let Daddy pull it out. 

Brave boy.

Noah's First Day of Kindergarten

Oh my. I have had so much anxiety about my littlest man starting school.  I took him out of pre-school in Feb. because I didn't think it was doing him much good AND I didn't want to fork over $65/month for something I wasn't happy with. He just wasn't that into it socially or academically and I felt like his teacher wasn't into it. So leading up to Kindergarten I was a bit of nervous that he still wouldn't like it.  Noah could barely write his name and was still working on learning to identify letters. On top of this, he didn't really seem very keen to go to school.  It didn't help my anxiety being so pregnant during the start of it all.  

Well, I'm happy to report that as school approached, I actually started looking forward to his starting school and all the great opportunities it would afford him. It helped that Noah was starting to look forward to it as well.  

Since he began there have been no complaints from him at all and he really seems to be enjoying it.  He is in morning Kindergarten and has Mrs. Hedin.  I worried about putting him in A.M. because the kid is a sleeper but again he does done really well. (I know. I'm a worry wart...)

Noah is doing well in school and seems to have stepped up to the challenge.  In the two weeks since he started I've already seen improvements in his handwriting and other abilities.  His teacher says he is a very good boy. No surprise here.  I love my Noah and hate that he is growing up but I love watching him grow...I know. It makes no sense. Anyone that has ever sent a Kindergartner to school knows exactly what I'm saying.

Introducing! Tommy the Dog!

{Old draft}

Early 2008

So I've never formally introduced my dog and since he has had a pretty traumatizing experience recently (neutered, poor baby.) and is a big part of our family, I thought he deserved some attention on the family blog.
Tommy is a full bred Golden Retriever *Ooooo! Ahhhh!* and will be 3 years old on June 10th. We got him when he was a couple of months old and was about as sweet a puppy as you could ever want but I, uh, didn't like him. (Am I just so evil?) He required SO much attention and training that it took away from my other human 2 month baby boy. However, after lots of training ("No, Kyle's stuffed bear canNOT be your bed buddy!") and getting used to one another Tommy and I are now good friends. We have come a looooooong way in the last three years. He has become a wonderful, excited, loving, potty-trained, semi-obedient, lap dog wanna-be, walk lover (calm down, Tom), vacuum/mop, 90 lb., foot warmer of a man or woman's best friend.

Kyle's First Day of School

My big little 2nd grader.

He wan't super excited to start school until the night before.  After getting a father's blessing and talking about it he got SUPER excited and then couldn't sleep that night.  He jumped out of bed the next morning, put on his new clothes and told me we can't be late!

We got to go in and meet his new teacher Mrs. Barber.  She seems nice but I already miss Miss Farley. I'm not good with change so I'm glad Kyle is. :)

I had to include this picture because he was obsessed with getting his top center tooth out. By the time he got home it was dangling by a thread. After some work we got it out.  He is now missing both top teeth and bottom side teeth. 

Kyle is in an advanced reading class this year and we are looking forward to him being challenged a little more. And by "we" I include Kyle as well.  He always tells me he likes to be challenged at school.

At the beginning of this school year Kyle was ....

The kid is growing so fast we wanted to see how much he grew in a year. From April to August of this year he grew almost an inch!

Two week old Ella

Weight: 10.1lbs

Height: 21.6

 (I think she's taller. The nurse didn't do a good job measuring her.)

Head: 15.5

I love how Ella loves the "warning" on her carseat. Soooo pretty...

She's a big girl and definitely growing strong.  Dr. Johnson said she looks great. Duh. ;) She does have a yeast infection but other than that she healthy. Yay!

She has been a very calm and observant baby.  She nurses like a champ and it shows.  Her rolls are filling out nicely.  She is sleeping in my room right now since her nursery isn't finished yet. :(  But she is doing a pretty good job sleeping at least 2 + hours in her bassinet.

The kids have not lost interest in her and love her to pieces. Megan loves to rub her head and suck her thumb.  I think Ella even likes it.

NOTHING better than sleeping baby on your shoulder.