Canyon Take 2

About 5 days after we went up the Canyon with Andrew's sister my family wanted to take a trip up. My brother and his family were in town and my Grandma had a couple friends from North Carolina in town that had never been in the mountains. It was fun to show her friends how to roast a hot dog and a marshmallow! It was quite the experience for them I'm sure especially the 25+ people who were there! We had such a great time again and Andrew and I made it better by bringing the potty chair with us and Easton was able to go when he needed, seriously never thought I would carry a potty chair around in my car but hey whatever works!

Here is my cute Grandma she took all her little great grand kids over to the creek and had them throw sticks in so they could watch them float down the river! Those kids all just love her!

Easton is happiest at his dad's side, if dad isn't around mom will do!

Getting ready to roast our hot dogs!

Eye Exams

A couple weeks ago we went up and saw Andrew at work. We had never been to his office and had only met a couple of the people he works with. He had kind of a slow day with a couple hours for lunch so we went and got some yummy burgers and a shake at a local place up there. We were able to have him check the kids eyes for a few minutes. The kids thought it was the best thing ever! They loved it and it was fun to see where he spends some of his time! Everyone he works with was so nice and they all love Andrew!

Football Game

The middle of September we went to a High School Football game to watch my little Sister Sarah Cheer. She is what is called Songleader. They cheer but also have a little bit more dance intertwined with it as well! She moved High Schools this year in order to do it and be with her friends and she has really enjoyed it! It was a perfect night for a football game and it was fun to watch her dance at Halftime since it was the Homecoming Game!

She is in the middle of these three! She wouldn't look at us, she was ignoring us calling her name!

Andrew sadly wasn't able to join us because he does some fill in work on Friday afternoons/nights. Ella loves to take her picture with me!

Somehow I ended up with blankets and her baby with us and she really wanted her baby's picture taken!

I enjoyed watching Sarah do her 30 or so push ups after they scored!

I forgot these pictures from the Football game! These kids sure love Sarah and I think the love goes both ways!

Dance

Ella started dance the beginning of September. She goes once a week and does tap and ballet. To say she loves it is an understatement! She asks almost on a daily basis if it is dance day. She didn't even want me to walk her in the second week she just wants to do it all by herself! It has been really good for her to have something to do this fall. I went back and forth with her going to preschool and decided she just didn't need two years and I want to be able to enjoy her at home for one more year! It is good for her to have something and it is a nice break for Easton and I to hangout and get stuff done!

We went and picked out some dance clothes the day before she started and she was really excited for them. Luckily my aunt was cleaning out some old stuff and found these ballet shoes and last fall I got her some tap shoes at the consignment sale in Miss. for 5 bucks!

I stayed and watched the first week and it was so fun seeing her! She doesn't want me to stay anymore she tells me weekly, even though I could watch the first week of the month if I wanted!

Sleepy

Ella is slowly leaving the nap phase, so sad:(. She will however take a nap 2 to 3 times a week still, she is one girl who needs her beauty sleep and does a lot better with a little nap. She must have been really tired this day because she fell asleep in the 10 minute ride to my parents house which she hardly ever falls asleep in the car anymore!

We have had a busy few weeks and the kids have been exhausted! One day we went to Ikea and rushed to get Ella to dance on time, luckily Easton fell asleep so we just sat and waited while she danced and he got a good nap! He had Ice Cream all over him in these pics and that napkin was stuck to his hand!

Regional Conference

The middle of September we had Regional Conference. Our Stake was invited to be in the Conference Center. I was excited to be able to take our kids since kids usually aren't allowed until they are 8! The second we walked in Ella said "this is where Pres. Monson talks!" she was so excited! We enjoyed talks from some members of the 70 and Elder Nelson and Elder Packer. Ella was excited to see Elder Nelson again, he came to our Sacrament Meeting in April and she remembered shaking his hand! She remembers everything! It was such a good meeting and the Spirit was amazing! We enjoyed walking around temple square together after before heading home!

Potty training

The beginning of September we finally decided it was time to get Easton potty trained. He just hasn't been quite ready and his communication skills weren't there until recently. He walked in our room one Friday morning and said he needed to go stinky in the potty and that was that. It was a good time since Andrew didn't have to work until the next Tuesday so we could tackle the task together. He did pretty good the first couple days but had a few accidents. He got stinky down really well the first day which was nice. He certainly wasn't as easy as Ella who still has had less accidents than I can count on one hand, but now after a good month I think he has it. He has gone a few weeks now without an accident and is pretty good at taking himself but is still learning to get his clothes back on after. The only downfall is how early he gets up now because he has to go but at least he is recognizing it, he has just been super cranky because he is a little tired! I went straight to underwear at night and had accidents every other night the first two weeks but he has been a lot better since. Two weeks ago he got up at about midnight when I was checking on him and said he had to go and then proceeded to get up every 15 minutes after that for the next four hours! It was a long night and I felt like I had a newborn again! I wasn't happy about 2 hours into it because we had family pictures the next morning and knew it wasn't going to be good when all of us had no sleep! He has gotten up at 4 a few times but thankfully he usually goes back to sleep! It will be nice to have a diaper break for a few months after having them for the last 4 years!

He was lucky and got Lucky Charms since he was doing so well!

This was the first week after we started he thought it was a good idea to get up every 5 minutes after we put him to bed for the first hour and go potty. I was home alone this night and after 3 times I was done helping so he came out and looked like this, it was a nice try but made me laugh I had him stay up a few more minutes just so Andrew could see!

Crazy kid

I thought I had escaped to my room for a few minutes from this kid. He and I were having a rough day and I needed to separate myself from him so I went to lay on my bed. He followed about 5 minutes later and asked if he could sleep on my bed too. He is to cute to resist and amongst all the tears he had that day this moment made it all better as he jumped on my bed and made faces in my mirror at himself!

Nice night

These are horrible pictures but I wanted to capture the moment. We went up to my Grandma's house a few Friday's ago and ordered take out from Cafe Rio to enjoy on her deck. It was such a pleasant night! The kids enjoyed Popsicles after we ate and even got a little firework show while they ate them! I love nights like this to just relax and not have a care in the world!

New bike

We got Easton a new bike! He was so excited! Sadly Ella doesn't even have a bike, just a tricycle but it wasn't really in my plans to have it happen like that. I went to Target one day and these Hot Wheels bikes were on clearance for $10, they had been $70! I grabbed one and then called my sister to see if she wanted one and then grabbed another for my sister in law! I now wish I would have bought the other 3 or 4 they had because I know lots of people who would have given me 10 bucks for them or I could have had an awesome sub for Santa gift for someone! Easton loves it! I wish we had a better place for him to ride it, someday! He talks about it all the time when he sees it and loves to just sit on it!