Creative Fun

Well, when most of your house is packed up and in storage, you tend to get creative in order to entertain three kids. Here are some pictures of Ethan and Eli coming up with some cute ideas to keep themselves busy since they have none of their normal toys.

Making drums out of paper plates. Notice the paper plates have holes cut out of the middle and are colored with orange and yellow highlighters (yes, the crayons and markers got packed). These colored 'hole' plates used to be flowers that we made the day before as a craft.

Eli spinning the paper plates with his drum stick.

Making a fort out of blankets and the chair. That kept them busy for about 2 hours!

Here they are playing outside just walking around the flower beds. They also love to chase birds. They will see birds from their window and run outside "very quietly" and try to catch them. The birds always seem to fly away before they can catch them. The boys just can't seem to figure out why! :)

Playtime with Ellyse

Here are some fun pictures of our happy little girl. Ellyse was really colicky for the first few months, but now she seems to be over it and is happy most of the time.

Eli loves playing with Ellyse under her butterfly toy.

Here are the happy brother and sister playing together.

Ellyse was especially happy in her crib the other day,

so I caught these fun shots of her sweet smile!
After Ellyse plays, she needs her rest! I took this picture myself, so it is not the best. I wanted to capture the way Ellyse looks while she is sound asleep in my arms. This is typically what I do a lot of the day. I carry her around like this until she falls asleep and then I lay her down and hope she stays alseep. Needless to say my back hurts alot having to carry her around like this, but it is worth it to help her go to sleep and not cry! Lately she has been better at falling asleep and staying asleep. Recently, she has even slept 8 hours at a time at night!! Yeah, our little girl is becoming a better sleeper. Good sleep makes EVERYONE happy!

House Update

Well, we have not moved yet because the sale of our house fell through. The man who wanted to buy the house was pre-qualified with a lender that didn't exsist :(. So, it turns out he lost some money and then couldn't get qualified with a reputable lender. So, our home is back on the market, but unfortunately we had already packed up most of the house before we knew we would not be selling. Most of our things are in storage now and we are sort of camping out. We are working with only the dishes that happen to be dirty in the sink the day that I packed the kitchen up. Good thing we had ramen noodles that day so we have one little pot to cook with :). We are back to the joys of showing our home and keeping it clean and staged and then getting out of the house with 3 kids and a dog. Needless to say, we have lots of adventures figuring out where we can all go at various times of the day. We end up at "Jumpin' Jacks" (a local bounce house) quite a bit - the kids love that place. Here's hoping we can sell our home soon and move on to another adventure.

Kennecott Copper Mine

On May 8, 2010 we went to the Kennecott Copper Mine for the first time. Tim's Dad was in town so it was a good excuse for all of us to go. I have lived in Utah my whole life and sadly have never been before. It was pretty amazing!
Katie and me and Ellyse in front of the mine.


Ethan and the rest of the cousins enjoying the incredible view. Ethan really did love it. He still talks about a month later.

Those are some HUGE tires. I can't believe how big the trucks are that work in the mine.

Ethan and Eli with Grandpa Hall in front of an areal picture of the mine.

Grandpa Hall feeding Ellyse - she is 3 months old

Happy Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day thanks to my sweet husband and amazing kids. I truly love being a mom. It is the most tough and yet rewarding thing I have ever done. The other day I was talking with my mom and I said something that has really stuck with me. I told her that "my kids truly teach me everything!" I didn't realize how profound that really is. My kids really do teach me so much about everything in life. I feel blessed to be their mother and to share this earth life with them.

My day started off great because Tim got up in the night to feed Ellyse and he let me sleep in too! Then I woke up to stuffed french toast and bacon - yum! Ethan and Eli gave me lots of hugs and "happy mother's day" wishes! Ethan even made my bed - well he tried to, our bed is really tall!

I truly love being a mom to my sweet kids. All of the poopy diapers, spit up shirts, temper tantrums and messy meals are worth it when Ethan and Eli spread their arms open wide and say "I love you THIS much. You are the best Mommy I ever had."

My own amazing mother with Ellyse, Ethan and Eli.

A New Hair Cut

BEFORE:

AFTER:

So, I was ready for a change so I decided to chop my hair off. It was so long that I cut off over 12 inches and donated it to Locks of Love where they make wigs. I even had the stylist straighten my hair for an extra little change. It is not straightened permanently - I gave the kids baths the next morning and the humidity from the tub started to make my hair curly again :). Anyway, I sure love my new do.

Our Smiley Girl

Here are some recent pictures of our happy little girl. She is smiling so much now and even starting to giggle. Her big brothers love making her smile. It is so nice for everyone that she is smiling more than crying now - yeah!!! Of course Ellyse is swaddled. Her daddy is the king of the super wrap. Ellyse loves being swaddled. She is starting to wiggle her way out of it now as she is getting older, but she still likes to be swaddled for bed time.