Sammi's crawling

This is how Sammi crawls. She is getting pretty good at it too. Quite fast if she wants to be. 

 

Tangled

Ever wanted to know what Rapunzel felt like in the movie Tangled when the girls braid her hair? Ellie and her cousins must have because one night this happened. 

 

 

This is every hair thing we own. 

Ellie-isims

Ellie has been on one lately with some of the things she says. One of my favorite things she says is "lasterday."  This word means any day previous to today. Ellie says it all the time, until recently when she started using last year or last month. Although she isn't great about time lines and usually says it when she means the other day or last week.

While riding in the car and listening to Christmas music, the "Little Drummer Boy" came on. This particular version was not my favorite so I changed the song. From the back seat I hear, "Hey changed it back. I like 'da-bum, bum, da-bum' song."

As I was putting her down for bed, she was being a typical toddler and doing everything to delay it and stay awake. Finally I gave her a stern "Good night Ellie" to which she responds, "Why are you so ornery?" Really? We must have been saying that to her a lot recently.

She told Stefanie to not worry about being alone because Grandpa would be home soon.

Everyday it is something new with her and I love it.

Fall in Utah (part 2)

I love my girls. They love each other and love playing together. Ellie is such a great big sister.  

 

Fall in Utah

It's been nice living in a place with a yard. Ellie has really enjoyed everything that comes with it. Although you have got to love Utah weather. These pictures were taken only a few days apart.

 

Ellie asked to rake leaves about once a week while the weather was good. 

 

Of course she had to jump in them.

Sammi just wanted to eat the leaves.

Sophie didn't like being in the leaves

Ellie even went next door with me to help a neighbor rack leaves. She was such a big help.

Of course, later that week I was out building snowmen at least 2 times because of the amount of snow we got.

Yes that's a real carrot nose.

Yes, we love having a yard, although Ellie wants more snow.

Season of Giving

Lately I have felt a great desire to give and donate towards a good cause. I'm not sure what the trigger was but I have really just wanted to buy stuff to give away for those in true need. So I did a little research and found some websites with good information about donations they accept or ways to volunteers. Most of these even go on year round.

Candy Cane Corner and their wish list this season. I hear this place is great because you tour the facility when you drop off your donation.
Primary Children's Hospital is always looking for items to help children and their families who have extended stays.
The Road Home takes care of homeless families.
United Way has tons of resources for volunteering throughout the community.
Utah Food Bank
Also, many hospitals and first responders accept new or gently used stuffed animals to give to children involved in a trauma.

I like these because they are simple for an individual or great for larger groups.

Please let me know of any other places or ideas you know of or like to donate to.

"A Utah Fan am I"

If you can't tell, we are University of Utah fans. Jake and I have each been able to attend a football game with my dad. Each time, Ellie has asked if she could go. Finally came the game my dad could attend, Utah vs. Washington State. When we told Ellie we were going to a game, she was so excited. Although the game was a blow out, the girls really enjoyed being at the game.

 

The family that sits around us really loved the girls. We had such a good time.

 

I had Jake and the girls pose for this picture and apparently the TV camera guy behind us thought the picture was cute because he snapped one too and used it at the end of the game. They were on TV. Luckily fellow Utah fans from Denver were watching the game and told us.  



 

Proud daddy, happy Sammi, and cheeser Ellie.

 The family behind us took this shot.

The next week, we went to a Utah basketball game with Poppy DeVon. Again, the girls had a blast. Ellie ran every where and danced to ever song. Poppy DeVon, along with help from my Uncle Russ, was able to catch a ball thrown into the stands. Ellie loved it.

Maybe soon Ellie will be able to sing the Utah man song. Go Utes!

Little Crazy People

We have some little crazy people. Ellie even took a class through Sandy City called Little Crazy People. It was a fun class where she could play and meet new people. If you are looking for something fun for a little crazy person, look into this class.

We took a trip to the new Scheels store here. Of course, with athletic gear and outdoor gear, it is a good combination for our family.

They have these fun photo op spots around the top level.

Bears don't scare me.

Caught my fish.

We love Elk rides.

Here was the scariest part of the evening, letting Ellie hold Sammi for the following picture.

Loving sisters.

Ellie loves yelling and screaming with family.

Ellie, wearing Kelsey's dress, and doing lifts with Uncle Devin.

She is mischievous and loves getting into things. It doesn't always turn out the way she likes.

Daddy, help me out. I'm stuck.

One day she tried jumping from the couch to the chair and missed. Later that day, she pulled the piano bench over on her. I guess one day, she'll learn.

Sammi is just as funny. She loves holding things in her mouth. She rolls everywhere and does the funniest crawl. It starts with her lifting onto her elbows and knees and rocking. She then tips forward onto her chest. At which point she has to roll onto her back because her arms are pinned under her.

Yummy lion. GGRRR!

I love my little crazy people.

Sammi is 6 months

Sammi is 6 months old. Sometimes I can't believe it. She weighs 16.5 lbs (58th percentile) and around 28 inches (above 95th percentile). She has mastered rolling. She can roll to any location she wants. So far, any other movement is just backwards.

GGRRR!!!

 Sammi has started eating cereals, fruits and veggies. It took us a little while to figure out how she wanted to the cereal. Since day one, she has liked mashed potato consistency cereal. If you try to feed her something she doesn't like, she gags on it. Not to the point of throwing up but exactly the way a pouting child would. As annoying as it is, it still made me laugh.

 

Sammi loves her sister. Whenever Ellie is around, she giggles and smiles. If she is crying, Ellie can sing (ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, or any primary song she knows) and Sammi stops. She is still a little finicky about taking naps.

She is a very loving child. She still likes to cuddle and give kisses. I believe baby kisses keep you looking young.

Love you lots baby girl.

Happy Halloween

I love Halloween. I don't know why, but I kinda have this thing for Holidays and decorating. The minute Ellie opened her Merida dress and after we went to see the movie (Brave), she decided she was going to be Princess Merida for Halloween. Sadly I don't think, other than being able to wear the dress around, she understood what Halloween meant. Luckily we were going to make up for Ellie never having been Trick or Treating before. (Her 1st year, she was only a few weeks old. The 2nd, we decided to go watch Utah v Air Force down in Colorado Springs. 3rd year was spent in the ER.)

 

Our neighborhood "Trunk or Treat" was the Friday before. Ellie let me put her hair up in sponge curlers. Apparently she has a little of my hair somewhere in there. 

 

Pretty Princess Merida.

Look at those curls!

I did try to find a good costume for the rest of us, but sadly no one made any Queen Elinor (Merida's mom) or adult bear costumes. Had I found one of those, I would have made Sammi a bear and Jake would have been King Fergus (Merida's dad, complete with kilt). So I just wore cat ears and a tail and Sammi wore mouse ears. It took Ellie a few cars to figure out what was going on but once she understood, she moved fast. Although still a little shy, she usually just whispered trick or treat.

One night, as tradition holds, Ellie and I carved pumpkins and watched Garfield's Halloween. Ok, so I carved pumpkins while she watched the movie. This year she wouldn't even help me clean out the innards. Don't get too excited, I'm not that talented at carving.

I guess as a way of compensating for the terrible Halloween last year, I over did the trick or treat thing this year. On Halloween, we went to a neighborhood senior living/memory care facility where Ellie gathered another bucket of candy. After we went to visit my grandma.  After some naps, we traveled up to Wanship for "Trunk or Treat" up there with Jake's family and then came home and made a few strategic stops at houses around our neighborhood. All in all, Ellie collected 2 full buckets of candy. She was so excited.

Cell phone pic: Complete costume with bow and arrows.

What about Sammi? Well, being only 6 months, she didn't trick or treat. As Ellie would say, "She can't eat candy. She don't have teeth." I still dressed her up. On Halloween, I tried to throw together a fairy costume but she kept breaking the wings. She still looked way cute.

Flower Power Sammi

2 cute girls.

P.S. After napping in sponge curlers and having her hair pulled a little while taking them out, Ellie wouldn't let me use them again. I just had to curl it with a curling iron.

I have a 3 year old

I know I am way behind on this but Happy Birthday Ellie. We had a fun celebration with family and  only celebrated one time. We had family over for dinner. Jake smoked a LOT of meat and it was delicious. In between looking at pictures and videos of the Tough Mudder (which had taken place the day before), we song, ate cake and ice cream, and opened presents. 

 

Blowing out her candles.

Daddy picked out such an awesome cake.

Ellie received some awesome presents and has used all of them already and most almost daily.

The princess Merida dress that she wore for Halloween.

She wore the dress daily for several hours for about 3 weeks straight.

Her princess tent that all the presents stay in.

 Apparently bags were the head wear of choice for the night.

Here's Braden in a bag.

Why are the kids in my family so funny?



Ellie, you are such a wonderful girl. I love that you are such a great helper; with Sammi, putting away the dishes, doing the laundry, cleaning the yard, etc. Your little sister loves you so much. She laughs so much when you play and talk with her. You bring such joy to our life. I love how you love to learn and try new things. I love that you eat vegetables and like them. Although you drive me bonkers with how adventureous and dare devil like you are, I love that you enjoy doing things and are so active.  Whenever you ask to sing songs, especially when Sammi is crying, it makes my heart melt. You are such a great daughter.  I love you so much.

We like animals.

Apparently, we like animals and doing things with cousins. One nice day, we hung out at Wheeler Farm.

Although I don't have any pictures, there were animals at the farm and we did find out that workers are given eggs and milk, etc from the animals and all farm animals are caged. Any animal not in a cage (wandering around free) was most likely just dropped off or decided to hang out while passing by.

Playing in the tree house.

We rode a wagon around the farm. I didn't know it was really that larger. Apparently you can camp in the area east of the farm. Crazy, right?

Wagon ride

A few days later we went to the Zoo.  

Baby birds in the Eagles nest.

The new Rocky Shores is pretty neat. I really liked the seal/sea lion enclosure. Sammi didn't pay much attention to the animals but loves being outdoors and around the kids.

Of course there was a Carousel ride.

We got to see the new baby giraffe. The giraffes are receiving a new enclosure at the zoo. It looks to be pretty fun, almost like the one at Cheyenne Mtn Zoo where you can feed the giraffes. We are excited. Although until its done, the entire area over by the Discovery playground is closed because that's where the enclosures will be located as part of the African Savanna.

That poor, cute thing dropped almost 4 feet to the ground at birth.

We sure love animals. 



 

Jake's Tough Mudder

So after running the Dirty Dash, Jake felt pretty good about running the Tough Mudder. Go thing too because he had already registered and paid for everything. I am proud of him and excited that he was able to do something with his brothers.

Sadly, the Tough Mudder is a rotten organization in my book. They make the appearance that they make large donations to the Wounded Warrior Project. Unfortunately the only donations made are ones of friends and family of the participants. Then on top of the outrageous registration fee ($100+), spectators have to pay $20 bucks to watch, unless you buy at the gate at which point it is $40. Because of the spectator cost, I didn't attend.

Luckily for me, most of Jake's family attended and they have awesome pictures. Not so lucky, I don't have copies yet. Luckily, I don't have to pick which pictures to post. Sadly, I don't have pictures to post. Maybe one day I will proudly display muddy pictures of my husband working together with his brothers and a few friends to complete the course.

Healing Field and Armed Forces

Ever since Sandy City started the Healing Field the first year after 9/11, I have loved going. There is an amount of awe seeing the large amounts of flags and remembering those from the attacks. This year, the size of the field shrank. Instead of completely covering the fields to the south of Sandy City Hall, only the grass area of Sandy City Hall had flags. They no longer represented all those from the attacks, just those who have died serving since the attacks. Sadly, there were still too many flags.

 

I love walking/running through the flags. It was hard to explain to Ellie that these flags represent people who have died while trying to protect us. I am grateful for people who have the desire to serve and do so.

 

I wish they received more support for their decision, how ever it may come. I was watching TV and the show on was talking about how the nation they were in celebrates their Armed Forces day with parades and parties, showing their thanks and appreciation. Maybe I'll try and start celebrating it bigger as well; 3rd Saturday in May.

 

This is the section for those who have died from Utah. They are labeled
with names, ages, and other bits of info.

Jake made a mess.

I know what you're thinking. Emily never blogs about Jake. But alas, I am and that's because he did something that didn't involve the kids (in which case it would be about them) or law school. He participated in the 10k Dirty Dash. This is because he has been training, along with his brothers and way awesome sister-in-law, to participate in the Tough Mudder.

 

Sammi and I tagged along to take pictures while Ellie stayed and played with her cousins. This is how they looked before the race.

 

Notice the white shirt. FYI, not a good choice for this activity.

 After running, walking, climbing obstacles, and sliding down a slide, this is what they finished looking like.

How they ended up with clean thighs while Jake's is caked in mud, I don't know?

 It sounds like it was a great challenge and a lot of fun to do. The day was warm-ish but the water quite chilly since this is run at Soldier's Hollow. So how do you clean off the mud? Pay $6 cash for warm showers or a power wash or use the traditional shower.

I love the guy in the towel. Any guesses if he has clothes on under?

 We did learn that it is best to wear something that will set you apart from the crowd. It was hard to locate them for pictures along the course. There are a few of Rob and Kristine on their blog. I think they had a good time and learned a little about themselves. Mostly I think they felt better about running the Tough Mudder.

Official picture from Dirty Dash

I know some of you are thinking, "How did you ever get that white shirt clean?" The answer is we didn't. It still has a slight brown twinge in it.

Where does the time go? A long update.

Man, it has been a while since I posted last and here's my explanation, time sped up and I can't manage to keep up with it. Here's a quick breakdown of what has gone on with a few pictures.

Jake was accepted to the University of Utah law school. YA! So when we flew back to Utah at the end of July, we started looking for places. But the main reason for our visit was because my little baby brother was leaving for the MTC and then off to Michigan for 2 years.

Saying good bye at the Temple.

 FYI, missionaries are kicked to the curb at the MTC. Families don't walk in with them anymore.

These kids are going to miss Uncle Jeff.

 Ellie prays for him every night. (She also prays for Grandpa to be a good missionary too which makes me giggle.)

Stef and Sammi looking pretty.

 By the time we flew back to Denver, I had 8 days (count them 8) to pack up everything and make arrangements for moving back. Somehow we made it and this move was better than moving out to Denver. We are glad to be back but sure miss our Denver friends.

We are living the new American Dream of moving back in with family. We are helping my parents clean out their basement to finish some of it. We had a yard sale. Remind me, I will never do anything like that again. People are rude and cheap. Oh, well its over and most of the basement is clean.

Then for the family tradition, Cherry Hills. I don't know why, but we love this place.

Ya for Cardiac Canyon.

Here we go.

Sammi played a little bit.

Ellie loves the water.

Sammi loved the lazy river. She even tried to skip naps to stay.

 I had a ton more pics but I am trying to keep this post as short as possible.

The last Tuesday in August we went to Thanksgiving Point for $2 tues and to see the Museum of Ancient History or something like that. Ellie and Braden had a blast. The best part had to be the ice cream at the end.

She is loving that ice cream.

Braden is a little better at eating ice cream. At least cleaner.

 Then in Sept, we had another family tradition, the Utah State Fair.

The chillin's learning to be farmers and how the whole system works.

Proud FFA members.

Geez, can't we have a normal pic.

Ellie loves her hood.

Sammi too.

 Of course one of the main reasons we go, all you can eat ice cream tent.

Braden struggled eating ice cream this time.

 Of course we had to ride the giant slide.

We had a good time. Things are going pretty good here in Utah. We are glad to be near family again.