Wisconsin

A few weeks ago we visited some good friends in Wisconsin. We had such a good time, and kept pretty busy having fun. They have the coolest house for a toddler ever! Here we are playing a few of the many toys.

We also visited the coolest park I have ever seen. Seriously a humongous playground!

One of my favorite moments was when John and Jeff were trying to get a stick out of the tree that John had thrown up. They were afraid it would skewer some unknowing kid. I guess we'll never know because although trying valiantly they were unsuccessful.

Check out how adorable these three kiddos are!

We also went to a super cool free zoo in Madison. Although I noticed that my selection of pictures doesn't include many animals.

The kids were so cute looking at all of the animals. The camel was the most noteworthy cause it went pee pees. :)

They also had a huge kids play area.

Another day we visited the capitol and the farmers market. (Baby M was there too, but we didn't get that many pictures of her.)

I thought the inside of the capitol was so beautiful. Apparently so did John because one time we looked around and saw that Ellie was taking the baby for a walk by herself. Of course I had to snap a picture before rescuing the baby.

 We were able to go up around the dome and look out a Madison. I loved seeing the two lakes on either side of the capitol.

 One big event that happened while we were there was that we gave Ellie her first haircut. I almost hyperventilated trying to do it, but Debbie got me through it. Thanks! :)

 We really enjoyed just hanging out at their house. They have such an awesome basement with monster bags, a kid trampoline, and tons of toys.

 We also ate super yummy food and played a TON of games! We played each of these games several times. We also played guesstures, but it wasn't in the stack at the time of the picture.

This was a pretty eventful trip for us. It was the first time John and I have been on a plane together--let alone with kids. Overall they did pretty good. Ellie got pretty tired on the way home as you can see.  
We can't thank these guys enough for such a great vacation! We had so much fun--it was actually pretty hard to get back to normal life. Ellie keeps asking to go to Jeff and Debbie's house and see Knightley and Mason. We miss them already and were so glad to have a chance to visit!

PS If you ever get the chance to have Culver's frozen custard, you need to get it! It's delicious!

Happy Halloween

 Halloween started for us this year at my parents house where we decorated/carved pumpkins. What a great activity! Ellie spent about 3 hours decorating her's.

 We also carved one for the baby. :)

 She didn't like it at first. :)

Here is my little clown ready to go trick or treating. Don't you like her finished pumpkin?

Here is the Halloween dinner we had: Candy corn yogurt, jack-o-lantern tortillas, and apple chips. Thank you Pinterest!

So Ellie was a clown and the baby was an angel. Appropriate, don't you think? :) Happy Halloween!

Such a nice weekend!

 One weekend a few weeks ago, we got a babysitter and went for a date! We decided to go on a night hike to the Y. We couldn't have asked for better hiking weather! It was so beautiful! Of course the hike is always steeper than I remember, but we made it okay. M slept most of the time in the front pack and stayed nice and cozy next to Daddy.

 Here's the view from the top. The Provo temple is towards the bottom right of the picture. You can also see a few campus buildings. The brightest things are State street and the fields where there were intramural games going on.

 The next morning we headed up to Heber City to see the Heber Valley Railroad. We didn't actually take a ride on the train (can we say expensive?!) but we got to see it leave and play on the train cars they had right there. It was actually really fun!

 Ellie was pretty nervous about the big engines at first, but she was loving it by the end.

 M was a trooper and didn't mind getting jostled around, climbing on and off the cars.

 John just makes me chuckle sometimes. :)

 John may or may not be trying to enter the car. :)

 Train robbers! I loved Ellie trying to make guns with her fingers! :)

 Now it is my turn to hold up the train! Yeah, we're dorks. :)

 We stopped by Deer Creek on the way back and threw rocks in the water. Best game ever! Never gets old!

 We headed up South Fork and decided to picnic in the third park we came to. It was so beautiful and we nearly had the place to ourselves!  It was seriously perfect weather and the leaves were gorgeous. We just couldn't stop raving about how much we loved our picnic spot.
As you might imagine Ellie really loved playing in the leaves.

 And the stream!

 The baby had a good time too being carried around!

 Loved seeing my little girl run around!

 Love my little family!

Blessing Pics

 My sweet baby girl was blessed last month. She wore the same dress that Ellie and I did. Thank you to my wonderful sister for taking the gorgeous pictures!

 When my sister was testing the lighting, she got this shot of Ellie. I absolutely love it. It is so Ellie. Finding whatever toys are available to be her baby and binkie. That's my little girl!

r4r

We took some funny pictures and decided that when you are an only child, you never get to be in pictures quite like these.  Ellie was so proud of herself.

This one reminds us of the scene in ET where he was hiding with the dolls.  Baby M is much cuter though.

 M is adorable!  She has the cutest smiles and has just started to laugh a little.  A week or so ago we were commenting to each other about how easy M was being lately and how great everything was going.  She must have heard us, because since then she has been something of a terror.  I love the times when she is screaming because she is hungry but won't stop screaming to eat.  It's great.  We also had a four hour night sleep that took us back to the good ol' newborn days.  But last night she slept 10 straight hours! ...starting at 3am.

We took her up the canyon for a fire and hot dogs.  She got to stay in her car seat.  It reminds us of taking Ellie camping and bundling her up.

Ellie has been keeping us on our toes too.  We are amazed at all the things she is learning, but she is also getting more creative at being naughty.  We are just hoping that eventually it sinks in that throwing a fit won't get her what she wants.  We are pretty amused by her sometimes though. She says some really funny things.  Such as:
Mommy: "Ellie, do you want to lay down?" Ellie: "No, I want to lay up!"
"B-I-N-G-O spells Ellie."
Ellie: "Daddy is a big girl."  Daddy: "No, Daddy is a big boy."  Ellie: "Oh.  Mommy is a big, BIG girl." (Ouch!)
"I want to go to the doctor, please!"

Mommy: “Isn’t M adorable?” Ellie: “No, she’s not a door bell.”

"Is it pretty gnarly?"

"Gonna google it?"

"Here’s my email."

"I want to get shots!" (Imagine a really whiny voice saying that.)

"Daddy are you going to go to church like hun right here?" (Referring to Mommy.)

She asked to get in the box to have her picture taken.  

Notice the double pursed lips. :)

Ellie likes to be like the baby sometimes and is constantly mothering the baby doll. Notice there are burp cloths for all three "babies."

PS.  Thanks Ellie for naming this post while mommy and daddy weren't looking!