New accessory

Ada's decided that this eye wear is in style. She calls it her "Class"... I think she just means school class but it's pretty funny in any other context too. She says that she's going to use it to go swimming too. Cute.

Since...

Well, since we didn't go see fish yesterday and I spent my morning working on Mightyauthors stuff... I decided that we'd have an outing this afternoon. I took my kids to the Farm at Thanksgiving Point... I know it's $2 Tuesday month... but since I'm only paying for me because my kids are both under three it only cost us $3.50 to go. Sammy loved picking up leftover corn kernels to feed to the animals and Ada loved the play in the Jail and the Soil to Food or whatever kids area that is. I think she really wanted to ride the ponies too, but we only had one ticket so we all rode the carriage ride instead. As we were leaving they had one of their cows in there to be milked and you could try milking it but I think Ada wasn't quite understanding what was going on. She thought the cow was cute but didn't really get excited about the whole milk process until we got to the display of how they put the milk into jugs. It was fun and we were able to get back in enough time to make and eat dinner before I abandoned my family to go host Julie's baby shower. I had fun today... don't know if Jer did!

I love...

I love that since I've started getting mad at Ada for excessive crying (ie: crying when Sammy touches her, not being able to go as high as her cousin in the swing all by her self, etc... ) she has started kissing her own bumps and bruises. It's actually really cute. If she bonks her head she says, "Give it a kiss." Then she kisses her hand and touches it to her own head. I don't want to alienate her when she's hurt or upset, but she's breaking down over little things a lot less than she usually does. I guess it's just trying to find a middle ground and not being too harsh and not being too coddling either.

Great-Grandma Wilcox

It's funny. I remember my Grandma as being nice but distant... yesterday we went to visit for just a minute and she surprised me to no end with my kids. I try to visit at least once a month, but with the summer it's been really hard to. Usually she reads books with my kids and makes random comments because she can't hear me very well over the noise my kids make. Yesterday was a little different. She told Ada she had something in her pocket for her... then she reached in and pulled out an invisible ball that she threw to Ada and which Ada caught quite deftly. As they played their game of catch Sammy decided to start throwing pretend balls of his own and Ada decided that Mommy did too... so there we were... the four of us in a game of catch in my grandma's very proper and breakable sitting room. Classic!

We almost had a aquarium trip

So, I admit... I'm a flighty mom... I invited the twins to go with us up to the aquarium and the three two year olds were so excited to see the fish. Ada talked about it all morning (with the exception of the exciting car wash). My mom brought them up and we were all going to go in the same car... we got all 4 kids in the car, buckled and with books to read... and what do you know... I'd forgotten my keys... in a locked house. Darn. So we piled out to play in our backyard and eat popsicles from our outside freezer while we waited for Jer to come home. We still had fun on our almost trip to the Aquarium.

Happy Birthday Judy!

We just celebrated Judy's 60th birthday! Happy Birthday! We really enjoyed your party and thanks to Amy, Emily, Becca, and Diane for doing everything they did!

newest firsts

So... like everything living and growing family life is continually full of firsts... here are a couple that have happened lately.

Ada learned how to pedal her bike by herself... she still gets caught on things, but she's making progress!

Sammy now says "Lunch" every time he wants food... at least at our house... he still doesn't like to talk when we're at other places.

Sammy has decided that our inside slide is fun...

Ada learned how to put on her own shoes... (I've been trying to get her to for a while but she gets easily frustrated.)

Pictures of the weekend...

Saying goodby to loved ones! Good luck to you both!

Family prayer before we left.

Now... Ada somehow climbed up into the top of this cabinet and was curled up in there crying... she's not a climber so I don't know how she did it, but it was so funny! I was tempted to take a picture of her before I got her out but I figured that was too mean.

Watching the muppets.

Sharing.

Eating his popcicle... yum.

Ada and Sammy eating dinner with Grandma at our going away party for Seth and Janelle.

Grandpa with Sharon and Great Grandson Devin.

Grandpa and Charolotte and his kids, the master minds behind the party... where there's an Ellis there is a party... Diane, Moana, Mark and Beth.

Nels and my momma.

Every kid was amazed at Jer's tree climbing skills. They asked him how he got up there and he said... "I fell."

Ada didn't want to get down from the tree!

Loving Uncle Seth and Aunt Nella while she can!

So happy to see daddy!

Grandpa with Heather, Paige and Brittany.

All of Grandpa's remaining siblings. Bob and Mary, Mel and Rosemary, Le and Challe.

Grandpa and Charolotte

Sharon and Devin

Great-Grandpa Ellis

So it's been a really busy week again for us... still a blast, but again... very busy.

First of all Ada, Sammy and I got to go to the "This is the Place" Park in SLC. It was another of Diane's brilliant brain outings... I'd never been there before and thought that someday I'd like to go but wasn't too excited to take kids... but we got there and it was a blast! It also happened to land on a $2 day... so for me and the two kids under the age of 3... I only paid $2. And guess what... I actually forgot my camera. All these really neat things to take pictures of and I don't have it. Grrr. Ada got a "shave" at the barber shop... she got in the barbers chair and then told the barber that she didn't want him to use his razor... that's a trick. It started raining part of the way through but not too bad. Ada's favorite was riding the mini-train... there wasn't a line so we got to do it a couple of times. It was quite a view of the valley up there too. Ada also liked the pony ride and when she woke up from her nap in the car on the way home her first incoherent comment was, "I want to ride the pony." Sammy's favorite was the petting zoo. He was following the goats around and trying to lay on them. It was pretty funny. Then we went directly to my cousin's finance's bridal shower in Payson. Yeah... that wasn't a fun drive... but there was really cool lightning on the way.

And my brother Seth was here for the weekend! YAY SETH! It was fun to see you! It was hard to pack in everything and let it be a vaction too...

We also held my Grandpa Ellis' 80th birthday party. It was really neat to see all the people that came to support them. They drove up from Arizona and at least 100 people plus came to it. I haven't seen him in about a year so it was really good to see him and get to physically hug him. Heather also brought Paige and Brittany too! I haven't seen them in person since Paige was about 3... now they're in high school. Weird. Jer played soccer with all the older great grandkids and I ran around taking pictures of everything. I wish I had thought to get my camcorder out though... Mom and her siblings had done a program and it would have been a good one to get a recording of. First they sang "Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang" for him... and he got all teary eyed. (They used that song to compete when they were younger.) Then all of the grandkids joined in for "Come thou Fount of Every Blessing". Then Grandpa led us in a round of "Sipping Cider". It was very touching to see how much he loves everyone! We sang that song every Bear Lake trip while I was growing up... it's about how a man and woman meet, get married and have their family. When he got to the part that says, "Got 49 kids, all call me pa." He started to cry and couldn't make it any more. Mark took up the song for him and finished. I think it was a very special experience. Here he is sitting with the bulk of his family that he loves so much and who he is sure he won't see many of again on this physical earth because he says that he just can't make the trip up from Arizona anymore... I came close to crying and only didn't because I had to stop to get mad at Ada for trying to shove red punch in my face and all over my yellow shirt. We'll be able to see Grandpa at least once more though. He's going to be sealing Tiff and Tim in the temple on Saturday. What a neat thing to have! We were lucky enough that he was able to marry Jer and I. And I think he's also married Renee and Steve, Joe and Jen, and a couple more that I can't think of right now. I love you Grandpa!

And it was so fun to had Landon and Katie stay with us. It was fun to visit and chat while the kids played! I hope that we see each other again soon!

Then tonight was a going away party for both Seth and Janelle... It's so weird to know that only Sharon and I are now living in Utah out of the 5 kids... McKay's halfway here... his family is even if he's in Afghanistan. (or "Ghanistan" as the twins call it.) It was fun to play and to see you mug our kids. We love you guys and hope all is well in your various endevors!

I'll post pictures on my next entry. Right now I need to get to bed.

Bear Lake

Well... I've just spent every second not with kids this morning trying to post about our fun Glen Ellis Reunion... I've deleted my post once... had my computer freeze on me once and lost my internet connection at least twice. I had a nice post too about all the fun stuff that we had done... but oh well... I guess it just wasn't meant to be and I really can't afford to lose any more time on it... I still have to clean the bathrooms, shower and do the dishes before kids wake up. I will say that despite the fact that our car died, we set up three different tents, and all sorts of fun things like that.... I loved it! Sammy got to get as dirty as he wanted... loved all the attention from Aunts, cousins and distant realtives... Ada loved being with Aubrey and Devin, asked where Grandpa was as soon as she woke up in the morning, and got to go swimming in the deep part of the lake with Aunt Nella. Jer got to do a 16 mile run on the lake side in the pretty morning light, and I loved not having to sit next to a computer just in case a customer called. My parents, sister and uncle all finished the inside bathroom and did an amazing job. And I got to find sea shells with The Three Musketeers and Sammy. Ada and Devin ran around shooting bad guys with the paper guns that uncle Son made them. And we roasted marshmallows with Liz, Rachels, and Miriams kids on sticks that were way too long for them... so they couldn't reach to blow out the small fires that they started. I got to meet Tifff's Tim and I'm really excited for her! I think that they fit together really well and I'm so glad that I get to see them married in the temple and hope that they find the house that they want soon.

Sophie was trying to finish her book, but it's hard to when your twins decide that they both want to take a 2 1/2 hour nap in your arms!

Ada and Aubrey kept putting their feet up together and pushing each other over... about the third time that we ended up with crying kids I asked them not to push on each others feet.

Sammy found and raided Grandma's Oreo Stash... he had about five before we decided that he was done.

Some of the kids digging and building sand castles.

I buried all the kids up to their waists... as soon as I was done with one of them another one had gotten out. Sophie helped me get them all buried for the 30 seconds that it took to take this picture.

Sammy's happy oreo face.

Look at the beautiful sky! The weather was just perfect... a little stormy at night... just enough to keep it from getting to hot... and the clouds were amazing!

Jer digging a hole for a "kiddy pool" for the little kids to play in the mud.

My cheeser!

Sammy

Well... I actually would like to post about our camping trip but I want to remember a couple of things that Sammy's done lately first.

Climbing off the bed where he'd been napping... I walked in to the room to check on Sam and he was hanging halfway off the bed... clinging to the blankets and looks at me desperately and says, "Mama!"

Today while I was loading things in and out of the car, Sammy and Ada were playing on the lawn and Sammy decided that the cement was too hot for his feet. So, he went in the house... brought his shoes to be put on and then went to get his handfulls of spoons... then he was so excited that he just ran around screeching... What more could you want from life than shoes and spoons?