Ella's 9 month well check

Look who is 9 months old and happier then ever!  Here are some things she can do: crawl up stairs, walk along furniture, say da and mom, wave bye-bye, clap her hands, dances when you say "get down girl".  She is growing up too fast but is still, as Jack affectionately calls her, our "little peanut".  Here are her stats:
weight: 15lbs 5oz (5th percentile); length: 27 1/2 in (45-50th percentile); head: 17 in (20th percentile)

Zoo Day/B-day party

Yesterday the weather was beautiful and my sister Heather and her little boy Brody were coming down for a visit, so we decided to take advantage of the weather and head to the Zoo.  We hadn't be there since the new Polar Bear/Seal/Grizzly Bear exhibit opened, and it did not disappoint.  We got to watch the Polar Bear dive into the water, pull fish out, and then eat them literally 2 feet in front of us through the glass.  It was almost too discovery channel for me, but Jack didn't seem to be bothered by it.  But then again, he and his Dad love watching those kinds of shows.  Steve usually appeases me and fast forwards through the animal violence.  Have you seen the movie African Cats?  My three year old sure has :) 

This was Ella's second visit to the zoo, and she found it every bit as boring as the first time.  She was a trooper and actually loved watching the elephants before she nodded off.  Sure love this little girl!

Jack held the map the entire time and helped us navigate through the zoo.  At the end I asked him if we missed anything, and he said yeah the zebras.  He was correct. 

We also got to go to our neighbors 2 year old birthday party and Jack loved it.  The pinata was a hit (literally haha) and he is still enjoying the candy from it.  One of the little girls at the party gave him a candy bar that she found in the pinata and he asked me, "mom is this chocolate."  I said yes and he took it out of his bag and threw it on the ground.  He has a thing with putting stickers on his face.  Whenever he gets hold of some, that's what he chooses to do.  I guess it's better then on my walls.

Ella found her present of choice, which was no surprise given her stuffed animal obsession.  I'm getting excited to shop for her birthday already.  And since it's nine days before Christmas, I feel completely justified in going overboard.  The left overs can always go under the tree.

She is such a little crumb snatcher.  She makes her way around the house and literally anything she finds on the floor, she eats.  This  incident was fairly benign, seeing as it was Jack's muffin crumbs, but that is not always the case.  No matter how much I vacuum and pick up she always seems to find something.  This morning while I was blow drying my hair she stood up and starting pulling toilet paper off the roll and eating it.  Sometimes I wonder if she's part goat. 

Hooray for Preschool

I love this time of year!  We have been having some of the best weather lately.  I love how it feels to have cool nights and warm days.  Also, the leaves have begun to change and they are beautiful.  And to top that all off, Jack started preschool!!!  5 ladies in my neighborhood and I started a little preschool co-op for the year.  It's perfect since Jack is barely 3 and I don't feel the need to teach him to read or write cursive or anything, but he loves getting out and feeling big.  We are now 3 weeks in he is loving it!  One of the moms hosts every week and we take the 6 kids for 2 hours in the morning.  We are pretty informal, but we have a topic to cover and also a letter of the alphabet.  I see a big change in him.  He is a very active/social kid, so getting away from mom for a little while does both of us a world of good. 

And. . . since I'm saving so much money by not paying for preschool, I signed him up for tumbling (pictures to come).  He absolutely loves it and is really good at it.  He has no fear and is really good and following his teacher's instructions.  I don't think we'll keep him in it forever, but it's good for now.  Steve is worried he's going to end up being a male cheerleader or something.  Too funny!!

In other happenings, this little sweetheart now has 4 teeth!  She got all 4 of them about the same time and out of nowhere.  She is a little non-complainer, so if they were bothering her, she never really let me know it.  We also have done a couple of things lately where I  have forgotten to take my camera.  One of those was the Brigham City Temple open house.  It was so beautiful and I loved that I could take my entire family.  When we walked into a couple of the rooms with murals on the walls Jack couldn't contain his wows.  Such a neat experience.  Also we braved the ward camp out in Park City last weekend.  Well, I guess technically Steve did.  I brought Ella home at night since I was worried about her in 30 degree weather overnight.  Jack loved sleeping in the tent and slept surprisingly well, Steve said.  Steve, on the other hand, slept in a summer sleeping bag and froze all night.  He's a good dad to take his little buddy camping.

 We recently had an open house at LDS hospital to celebrate the year long renovation.  We opened up the operating room to the general public to let them see what takes place in surgery.  I worked that day for one of my projects I need to complete at work, and Steve was  nice enough to bring the kids up to see the hospital.  We couldn't pass up the opportunity to get our picture with Elmo.  Jack did not like him one bit.  I don't blame him, he had a pretty creepy Elmo voice going on.  But I think this picture is funny :)

This girl loves stuffed animals more than anyone I have ever witnessed.  Steve threw her in the stuffed animal bin at Ikea one day, and she was in heaven.  She was sound asleep hugging Mr. Fox as we call him and I tried to get a picture but failed miserably.  So instead, here is a picture of Ella when she has been rudely interrupted  from a great snuggle with the fox.

Wicked/Fair Weekend

Last Saturday I had the chance to spend Saturday afternoon with my mom, sister, and 3 of 4 sisters-in-law.  My mom gave the girls tickets to see Wicked for our birthdays this year.  It was so fun to grab some lunch with them and head down town to the Capitol Theater for the production.  I hadn't seen it before and it was awesome.  I loved the storyline and the moral that things aren't always what they seem.  It was light and entertaining, and very well done.  Thanks girls for a fun day!

And if that wasn't enough to make it a long day, after I got home we decided to take a drive up to the Box Elder County Fair.  We like to go if we can every year and let the kids see the animals, and ride a couple of rides.  And of course, we had to get some cotton candy!

Jack called this the feather-duster chicken

She's not so sure about the pigs, and for good reason.  They were making some crazy snoring sounds.

As soon as we got to the fair Jack saw the ferris wheel and told us that he wanted to ride it.  He must have watched a show with a ferris wheel on it at some point because he knew what it was, and I have no idea how.  I thought that he would be scared, like start hysterically crying scared, but he did awesome!  Steve said he was a little nervous at the top, but he seemed to like it overall.  I'm glad that Steve was brave and took him on it.  There's something about those carnival rides that make me nervous.  Maybe it's the fact that you see them on the back of trucks cruising down the freeway, and then 24 hours later you're riding them.  I just worry that maybe a screw or something could have fallen off.  I guess I trusted it enough to pay a whopping $8 for my boys to ride, so I must not have been too concerned. 

This was the ride he really loved, though.  He legitimately thought he was driving!

This photo-op happened for exactly 0.2 seconds, so props to me, the photographer for getting a picture of him somewhat looking at the camera.  He is such a little picture avoider these days!

And lastly, here is my tiny 8 1/2 month old who is very hard to keep up with these days.  She's pulling herself up to everything, walking along furniture, climbing up entire flights of stairs, etc.  Good thing she is so cute, because right now she is wearing her mama out.  I think we hit a point and she switched places with her brother and is now my busy child.  The other day I had a moment that made me think she may need a little more supervision.  It was when I noticed something bright green in her diaper and realized that it was the plastic cover off of Steve's ear buds.  Yep, she ate it and pooped it out.  She is worse than our lab!  Well scratch that, I forgot that he recently ate a pair of gardening gloves.