Eli is 3!

Somehow I blinked and my baby turned 3.  Not such a baby anymore, sadly.  It is so fun to watch him grow, though.  

Eli's main request for his birthday was a "dark-blue Cookie Monster cake".

This was the result:

He loved it!

We were all hoping for a snow day on Eli's birthday.  It was a Monday and the conditions were favorable.  Sadly, it didn't happen.  So, it was off to school and work for all of us.  I dropped Eli off at the babysitter's house and just had to take some pictures.  Every day he is very excited to ring the "doing-bell" (doorbell) and then he kind of hides to the side of the door and makes this adorable face:

I love it--it's one of my favorite moments of the day, along with when I pick him up.  He had fun at Gracie's and had a good nap.  Then, it was dinner time (he picked chicken and stuffing).  Then he got to open his presents:

He's the perfect age for opening presents.  He was so excited and grateful for all of them and so sweet about giving hugs.  He especially loved the Darth Vader cape Nate got him from the dollar store and his new Star Wars backpack.  He was so excited to show it to Gracie the next day.

After presents, we had cake and ice cream.  He was so excited that "Becember 14th" finally came!  

He's so funny, though, because he doesn't want to be too big.  If someone says that he's getting so big he'll say, "I don't want to be so big, just a yittle big like Nate."  I've just started potty training him and he repeats this every time we cheer about what a big boy he is.  I love it.  He wants to be just like his big brother Nate.  (Update: As of two days in, potty training is going really well!  He's marked 13 boxes on his potty chart.  He stayed dry during his nap yesterday and when he went to the library today.  Still no #2's though so we'll see how that goes.)

Eli is very much the baby of the family.  He's very sweet and makes us all laugh with the things he says and his little antics.  He can also be a bit of terror and Joe and I are working hard to try not to spoil him.  It's hard.  He still manages to sneak away from the dinner table without finishing his food a lot of the time, and we're not as consistent as we should be about making sure he does his dinner job (putting silverware away) and other clean-up jobs, like we are with the other kids.  

Some of Eli's favorite things to eat are yogurt, chicken nuggets, quesadillas, and soda.  He is getting better and isn't quite as picky as he used to be.  He'll now eat salad pretty well, and potatoes, too.  He used to refuse those.  Eli loves to color, play with play dough, play on the computer, and watch other people play Wii.  That is probably his favorite thing.  Often my one-on-one time with Eli after school is spent playing Wii with him on my lap.  I've gotten to be almost as good as I was when I was a kid!  He loves Mario and frequently tells my stories about Bowser and how he's going to beat him.  One of these days maybe he'll start playing himself, but for now, he's content with watching.  He loves to read books, too, and still loves Elephant and Piggie books.  We got an awesome video of him "reading" one of the books to me.  He got pretty much every page right!  We read them a lot. :)

He can also write his name:

He often doesn't want to listen to me when I tell him the order of the letters in his name but he knows it has an "e", "l" and an "i".  

His cuddles and tight hugs are the best.

We sure love our Eli!

Natalie is 9!

Right after we got home from Thanksgiving, it was birthday time!  Natalie turned 9.  We couldn't fit in the typical getting of the Christmas tree and decorating on her birthday this year but we did it the day after.  Also, I had to sing at a RS dinner the night of her birthday so we celebrated early and then I snuck out for a bit while everyone watched a movie.  I think she had a fun day.

It started with her birthday breakfast of pancakes.  Then it was off to school.  She brought in those coconut chocolate-covered almonds from Costco for her class.

She requested a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate shavings.

This is what I came up with:

Luckily, you couldn't tell that I completely broke the cake trying to get it out of the pan.  

She had requested beef tacos for dinner (nice and easy this year) so we ate that and then she opened her presents:

She had pretty high expectations for her birthday this year but I was happy to see that she seemed pleased with her presents, even if she didn't get some of the big-ticket items she was hoping for.

She loved a big blue blanket she got, a big new pack of crayons, some books, a new dress, a candy gram from her brothers, and spending money to pick out some things she wanted.
I got to take Natalie on her birthday lunch date this year and we had a blast at a local ice cream shop:

It was so fun spending that time with her.

Natalie adds so much to our family.  It's impossible to imagine life without her.  Right now, Natalie loves animals, playing in the snow, the Warrior cat books, singing, playing with her neighbor friends, food of all kinds, running around barefoot (in freezing weather), and Studio C.  She has become quite obsessed with Studio C in particular and watches it any time she is allowed to play on the computer.  She still doesn't like video/computer games much so that's how she spends her time.  She has watched every single video they've made and she can quote them pretty well.  She often says she'd like to be a chef, a professional taste-tester, or a comedian when she grows up.  She definitely keeps our family laughing.  

She is still doing well in school.  She is in a gifted and talented class this year and seems to be thriving there.  We're excited for her to have another shot at the spelling bee coming soon since she is still a great speller.  She is a great writer and loves science.  She does very well in math, too.  She has a quick mind and because of that she talks very quickly and sometimes has to be asked to slow down when she's talking.  She's very good at reading aloud and public speaking.  She is kind, confident and fun to be around and we sure love her!

Thanksgiving in CA

We decided to drive out to CA for Thanksgiving this year since we hadn't been in awhile.  It was a great trip.  We ended up leaving around 5:45 pm Tuesday night when we found out we wouldn't have to work on Wednesday like we thought.  That ended up perfect because we beat the storm that was rolling in to Idaho and we really didn't have it bad at all over Donner.  It was a gorgeous drive with the snow falling at night.  I lasted until we got over the mountains and then I slept a little bit.  Joe was a champ and made it the whole way.  We had fun listening to some Dr. Seuss and Winnie the Pooh on CD.  We made it around 2:15am.

We had a relaxing Wednesday taking turns napping and doing some shopping for some nice clothes for the girls and new tennis shoes for Nate since we had forgotten them (they needed them anyway, luckily).  I also made my first berry pie that night while my Dad made his delicious apple pies.

Thursday was the big day.  We went to the country club again and it was delicious, as always.  We are always quite the spectacle there with our big crew:

The kids do pretty well, though, and don't usually embarrass us too bad. :)

I don't know that this guy ate anything:

We finally caved and gave him the phone for a bit (hence the selfie).

These two cuties loved the pink lemonade so much they even got their own pitcher:

I love this shot Chris got of Mom and Dad:

We had a pretty relaxing day on Friday.  The kids played in the hot tub one day and the girls even jumped in the pool!  It was freezing.  Saturday was a big day with the BYU game, Dante's for dinner and then a visit from Santa.  Kari came over, too, and it was so fun catching up with her.  

Here are the Santa pictures:

Santa would copy him and suck his thumb but Eli would push it out of his mouth.

He asked for a green lightsaber.

Apparently Nate asked for a puppy, an accordion, and a Yoda (this super-expensive new toy he's seen at Target).  Hmmmm....

Natalie asked for a puppy (the kids were conspiring) and a motor-scooter.

Gone are the years of inexpensive wishes, I guess.

Elizabeth asked for violin lessons and a puppy.

I also got this shot from the night:

Eli's the youngest and doesn't mind being the baby sometimes. :)

It was great to be a part of the Santa fun again.

Sunday morning we were up fairly early and back on the road.  The drive home wasn't quite as pleasant (two different diaper blowouts by Eli) but we made it in one piece.  We finished listening to The Hiding Place and I loved it.  That book is so inspiring.

It was a great trip!

Fall

Here are some highlights from the last couple of months.  

Joe and I took a Friday off to go down to Utah for an appointment for Joe and the BYU/Cincinnati game.  We got to Provo in time to pick up a delicious lunch from Burger Supreme and then we had a picnic at Rock Canyon Park.  The kids loved rolling down the hills and playing at the park there.  Eli loved posing for us on this rock:

The cougs are #1!

Nate managed to wiggle out his very first lost tooth at the park!

He wouldn't open his mouth for the picture but luckily I found this selfie on my phone later:

He's getting so big.

The game was fun.  We met Chris, Emily & Isaac, along with Brad & Kelli and their kids at the game.  Eli was tired after missing his nap and he managed to fall asleep during the game.  He didn't appreciate the noise but he took a decent nap:

Here's the crew:

(Eli covered his ears like that the entire time :)

We took a fun trip to the pumpkin patch here.  The kids love the straw maze and the big slides:

Again with the posing :)

I finally took Nate out for his birthday lunch.  He was so excited to hear at school that he could read 20 books a month and get a free little pizza at Pizza Hut.  Plus, if he does it every month he gets a ticket to a water park.  He is so funny about it and reminds me to read him books and write them down over and over again.  

Anyway, here we are getting his free pizza one day:

One day I couldn't resist taking a picture of Nate doing his homework in his Halloween costume:

He wanted to be Harry Potter again.  That made it easy!

Sadly, sickness struck us again around Halloween--this time it was Elizabeth--so she missed the trunk-or-treat. Here are the rest of the kids with their neighbor friend Anna.

Two Harry Potters:

For the very first time, I volunteered to do a trunk.  We're just not Halloween people so I usually shy away from that but I guess I felt guilty for never signing up all these years.  I don't have Halloween decorations but we do have a ton of Star wars stuff so I did that instead and played some Star Wars music:

That night was also the famed Halloween party of friend of mine puts on.  It was amazing again.  I didn't get any pictures except our photo booth shot:

(I love how Natalie is evilly petting the skull.)

We were thrilled to have Chris and Regina and their kids come for Halloween this year.  It was so fun having them.  Here the kids are eating mummy dogs:

We had Shari and the kids over one night, too (Tom was sick),  We were all amazed to see Shari go jump on the tramp with the kids.  I think it tired her out pretty well but it's fun to see her doing so well:

(It's hard to see her but she's sitting)

I love this serious fighting look Eli gets:

It cracks me up.

We got all of our pumpkins from our garden this year!  The one pumpkin plant produced 6 good pumpkins (and two green ones).

Here they are:

(From left to right: mine, Elizabeth's, Natalie's, Nate's and Eli's painted one)

Lizzy and I did the Frankensteins and I started that last one-eyed one.  Joe said he wanted to carve it but then never got the chance so it remained one-eyed. :)

All the kids:

My kids were Annabeth Chase, Lucy Pevensie, Harry Potter and a dragon (Grandma marsha worked hard to add those yellow wings to our dinosaur costume).

Regina and I told the older kids they could go around the neighborhood while we took Eli and Maddie around to a few houses.  Unfortunately, we weren't too clear about what "around the neighborhood" meant and it was getting dark.  We went out driving around looking for them and luckily spotted Lilly's Rapunzel wig.  After that, we went out to Jerome where Christine and Hallie were nice enough to take the kids around some more (except Eli--he was done).  

Poor Tom was recovering from jaw surgery but still a good sport:

It was a fun Halloween.

A few days later we had our first snow storm!

The kids were stoked.  It was really wet snow that was perfect for making a snowman, which Natalie did before school.  It melted pretty fast but the snowman stayed for a little while.

Eli had his very first dentist appointment:

He wasn't too thrilled about it but he sat well and opened his mouth for the prize after.  He was so excited to get his toothbrush and toothpaste.  

I love watching these boys play in the morning:

Snuggled up in their nests.