Matchy-Matchy

Having three girls in the house leads to all kinds of silliness. Sorry honey. The first time we painted matching toenails we had to get a photo. 

When the kids saw how great that was, we had to get a photo of matching hands.

And eyes. (But they don't really match)

I still think it is so fun to have two little girls with such similar hair color, but such contrasting eyes. I love it!

And knees of course!

Elbows are a bit thing at our house. One night at dinner we were giving high-fives and knuckles, and Ellie wanted to do elbows too. So we touched elbows. Since then it has become a fixture. My poor child when she goes to school...

Elbows!

And last, kissy faces. :) I love my girls!

From my journal: I have to mention a couple of phrases from Ellie that were pretty funny. One time when I told her that she couldn't read something she said, "I can read it in my heart." Another time when I said I couldn't play with her right then (Sheesh I sound like a horrible mother!) she said, "It's okay. We will just think about you." I heard Ellie say to Miriam, "Miri, can you say 'expalante?' It means 'hello' in Spanish." What a funny, wonderful girl! That being said I have to say that never have I seen Ellie be so good and so bad. She has been so loving, helpful, and sweet. She has made really great strides in her reading too. But, she has also been saying 'no' a lot; colored on things that she is not supposed to; destroyed important things for no reason. It has really been both ends of the spectrum for our Ellie girl.

Wisconsin 2013

At the end of August we visited Wisconsin. Sorry for the picture overload, but we kept pretty busy and I just can't help posting about it.

The first day we walked down the path in the woods and floated paper boats down the river. I was pretty impressed with how well they held up.

All five kids!

That afternoon we took a trip to Little America, where the kids went on ride after ride. My favorite was a surprisingly long train ride that included a ghost town, tunnel, farm, and forest. I think the kids liked the cars and the boats the best. The least favorite by far was the little roller coaster, which Miriam melted down on, Jeff injured himself trying to get into, and the other kids were pretty nervous.

The next day we went to Sassy Cow Creamery's ice cream social. We were able to climb on and pretend to drive lots of different tractors. They had these toy tractors that the kids could ride around on a track. Ellie tried really hard to convince me that we needed to purchase her one as soon as possible. A pink one preferably. :)

Miriam looked so tiny in the biggest tractor.

It was so funny to see my little Miriam so convinced that Molly (who is almost exactly one year younger than her) was a baby that she should hold. Miriam is slightly bigger than Molly.

The kids loved their delicious ice cream! So did the adults. :)

The next day we headed to the Wisconsin Dells to play at the Mt. Olympus amusement park. I was pretty surprised that my timid little Ellie really, really loved the rides. She wasn't nervous at all and wanted to ride them all. Miriam didn't love the scarier ones, like the swings.

Miriam thought the little train was fun though.

Ellie's favorite was the kid roller coaster. She rode it five times in a row! I really expected her to be scared, but she loved it.

This was that great moment as a mom when I let my little girl eat ketchup and ketchup alone for lunch. She didn't want the french fries, just the ketchup.

Then we headed to the indoor water park, where Miriam really found her happy place going down the small water slides. She was on a circuit up and down the water slides for a couple of hours. All the kids really had a lot of fun in the water.

When we were walking back to the entrance, we stopped to have a snack. Ellie started dancing in the middle of the sidewalk. It was so funny and cute. She was completely oblivious to the people around her.

Ellie's Dance

Thank you Jeff and Debbie for a wonderful vacation! It was GREAT to see you guys!

From my journal: We visited Jeff and Debbie Jacobson in Wisconsin at the end of August. It was such a great trip!!! We had direct flights to and from and we were all able to ride around in their huge van. Her parents let us stay at their really nice house while they were at their other home in Florida. Jeff and Debbie bought a new house since the last time we were there and I really liked, both theirs and her parents' house. I really loved, LOVED their neighborhood. All of the lots were big and green and all of the houses were beautiful. It looks like it was cut out of a forest. They are actually renting out their other house and turning a profit, so awesome! The first day we got there and had dinner. Then we got settled in to her parents' house and played games that night after the kids went to bed. Love playing games with them! There was a little bit of a time zone change, but it wasn't too bad.

The first day we walked to a park right next to their house and went down a path to a bridge where we floated boats and threw rocks in the water. The landscape around them is just stunning. It was a really fun activity. After lunch, we went to a nearby amusement park. We loved taking the kids on all the little rides. We went on car rides, boat rides, merry-go-round, and a really cool, long train ride. I think the favorites were the car rides and the boat ride. That night we got pizza and watched a kid movie with dinner. Of course we played games again that night and ate a ton of junk food. :) We played Dominion, 7 Wonders, Settlers, Pride and Prejudice Trivia, Pictionary, Hand and Foot, and others. It was so fun!

On Saturday we went to the same crazy cool park that we went to last time. It was the coolest park I have ever been too with a castle and tons of things to climb on, ride and play with. They even had a big sand box and huge toddler section. Really cool. We went next to the Sassy Cow ice cream social. We saw and climbed on tons of tractors. We learned about cows, fed goats, and even rode on a toy tractors. Then we stood in the huge line to get the very yummy ice cream. Miriam particularly really like all of the different kinds of ice cream.

The next day was Sunday where we drove what seemed like forever to go to church. Church was nice and we drove Debbie's parents' car which was really nice to have that freedom, but kind of scary because we couldn't take the key out of the ignition (it was broken) so we were scared it was going to get stolen.

The next day we went to Mt. Olympus in the Wisconsin Dells. It is this huge amusement park with tons, and tons to do. Ellie LOVED the rides! Miriam wanted to go on the rides but actually was really scared when we took her on a few. The ride Ellie liked the best was the kid roller coaster. We were so surprised. Our timid little girl enjoyed the scariest ride that she could go on the very most. Knightley didn't like it, but Ellie road it five times in a row. We went to the inside amusement park and really enjoyed the ball pit, spinning teacups, trolley, and roller coaster in there. Then we got some crazy expensive food and hit the water parks (both inside and outside--this place really was HUGE!) 

We liked playing in the indoor water park because we didn't worry about getting sunburned. Excellent! Miriam really arrived at her happy place in that indoor water park. She got on a circuit climbing up the stairs to the little slide and going down it. Ellie like swimming too, but not as much as Miriam. When we were walking back to the entrance, we stopped to have a snack. Ellie started dancing in the middle of the sidewalk. It was so funny and cute. She was completely oblivious to the people around her. I loved it!

The next day we hung out at Jeff and Debbie's house and went to the airport and went home. We loved the direct flight to Madison and had a really fun vacation!

Fun Times in August!

I am so behind on the goings on in our lives. But I don't want to skip anything so here goes. 

At the beginning of August my mom stayed a week with us while she attended an organ workshop at BYU. She brought down these fun car tracks for the kids to play with. Mainly Eliza played with them and Miriam destroyed Ellie's track set up. Sisterly love was overflowing. :)

Miriam had a little too much fun with finger paints.

I love my girls!

We visited Thanksgiving Point as part of a preschool activity. We sure miss these little friends since we moved.

Ellie really likes to do my hair and take pictures of it and really anything else.

Here is one of her better 'selfies.'

She spent hours working on this painting. It is mainly of butterflies.

Miriam really likes whipped cream and was pretty disappointed when the can was empty. No, I didn't let her actually drink it from the can.

Ellie recently drew a family picture of her cousins' family. The squares are their shirts.

They like to pretend to go 'Night-night.'

Quiet time is the best. I love when she unintentionally takes naps.

From my journal on September 4, 2013: Yikes our move is coming closer and closer! Last Sunday was fast Sunday and I fasted to feel better about our move and that we will be happy down there. It was a powerful experience where I was reminded that envy is a sin that I am guilty of and that I need to repent of. Also, I need to have faith that the Lord knows what is best for me and my family. Last, that optimism has a way of making things turn out better. It was a really good experience. I feel like every time I have fasted recently it has been a powerful experience and I know that this move to Phoenix is the right move for us. The gospel is amazing!

From my journal on September 9, 2013: Well, not terribly surprising we had a hard time adjusting to real life again after our trip to Lake Tahoe. I am pretty sure we got sick too. Later in July, we went on a double date with Glenn and Andrea to Kohinoor. Love Indian food!!! We also invited McKenzie Armstrong over for dinner and games. We are going to miss all of our friends and family.

The next week (after July 24th) my mom stayed with us. It was fun to have her here. We got to go dancing and to the temple. She and John even carpooled to campus every day. She was here for an organ workshop. We have gone on a few fun dates recently. We went to the dollar theater and saw Star Trek. It was so cool. We looked up instructional massage videos online and practiced giving each other massages.

Eliza said a couple of other funny things recently. One time I was making her clean up a small amount of toys after I had cleaned up the whole apartment. She said, "Mom, this is just like Cinderella where the mean step-sisters are making Cinderella do all of the work." I said, "Oh so you mean that I am like Cinderella because I had to do so much work?" "No, it is just like Cinderella."  She also asked John one time, "How many blessing will Heavenly Father give me if I drink this whole glass of water?" We have been trying to stress the importance of drinking water to her. :)

Miriam has been talking a bunch more too. Instead of saying "Ah-poe" for 'open,' she says "ah-pin." My baby is growing up way too fast. She really loves to count and sing the abcs. It is so cute!