Ward Christmas party

Our ward Christmas party held lots of fun for my family.

First the primary kids rode on the "Polar Express" to the "North Pole"


At the North Pole Santa and Mrs. Clause gave them a sleigh bell on a necklace.


Then I was in charge of the Sunbeam nativity.
Eli was a sheep.

Ella was the angel.

Here is a video I took while we prepared for the big performance:

sunbeam nativity

A princess party

My little girl recently turned four years old. To celebrate this event we threw her a princess party. It was tons of fun. Here are some of the pictures:

Ella was excited to wear a new Cinderella dress.

The party began with dancing to princess music.

Ella and her four princess friends. She is the youngest and the tallest.

The girls decorated paper crowns for pin the crown on the princess.

Ella wasn't fond of the eye mask, and said she wouldn't peek if I
let her cover her eyes with her hand.

This cake is supposed to look like a crown. It is pink and has confetti frosting.

Our son

It is fun to watch my children grow and change. They do and say the cutest things. Ella used to have her own words like "niece" for "more" and "malt" for "milk". Eli has his own cute sayings too. He says "me me me" which means "read to me."

It is sad that children must grow up. But the growing is made more bearable by our ability to record and keep the memories of our little ones. I remember my father sitting us down around a tape recorder and having us record our voices. We sang primary songs and said our first prayers, reported on our day at preschool and announced excitedly that we wanted to listen to the recording now. As I grew up I loved listening to the tapes of me as a toddler. I loved listening to my father's excited voice as he taught us how to record our voices. He knew then what I understand now: children grow up too fast. I am forever grateful for the blessing of technology that allowed my parents to save our voices. I am even more grateful for the technology we have today that allows me to record my children; not just their voices, but all of them.

And so, here is a video I made of my son. I will watch it over and over again just as I watch and re-watch my videos of Ella. Man, I can't believe what a sentimental mom I have become.

Eli at 20 months

A quilter turned seamstress!

I've been feeling extra sew-y lately.

This is what I was able to make during Eli's nap today. Yup it took three hours to make from start to finish. I absolutely love it.

The pattern and tutorial are found at: http://www.kukyideas.com/journal/2006/07/tiered-skirt-tutorial.html

A museum?

During Fall break the kids and I decided to join some friends at the local children's museum. Ella loves museums. She was expecting an art museum but I don't think she was disappointed.

Eli's Dessert

We begin our story with Chris getting Eli ready for bed. I was practicing the piano. Chris was working on the computer. Eli was...

Eli was getting into Chris' chocolate covered pretzels. His loving older sister has taught him how to reach things on the counter. But Eli doesn't know how to get down from the stool. So this is how we found him when he called for us.

I am glad that Chris hadn't put Eli's pajamas on him yet. I am also glad Eli couldn't get down. Could you imagine the mess he would have made?!?

So Eli got his dessert and a bath too! His dream come true.

A hiking we will go...

I love October in Tucson. The weather actually feels cool enough to go for hikes again. We jumped at the opportunity to enjoy the 90 degree weather that happily occurred on Chris' day off and went for a hike in Catalina State Park.

The view was amazing and I'm not just talking about my family...

The hike was 2.2 miles round trip and Ella hiked the whole way. She carried a water bottle and dry clothes in her back pack. Sadly, the "pool" we were hiking to was dry so the extra clothes were not needed. One might be led to believe we live in a desert.

After the hike we enjoyed a picnic in the shade. Ella loves picnics. She was also thrilled to find a tree that she could climb.

Is it cold where you live? Want to come visit us? We could go for a hike...

Princess bowling

While on vacation this past August we had a girls outing of Princess Bowling. This entails getting dressed up like a princess and going bowling. Ella was in heaven.

Here are the princesses: Doddy, Aurora, and Thumbalina.

Ella named us, and we will never know where she came up with the name Doddy for the princess in white. She was persistent though and her aunt worried that Ella thought that was her real name.



We thought this picture would be a great advertisement.

My happy birthday

I've been updating our family photo albums and I noticed that we have picture documentation of everyone's birthdays except for mine. So I told Chris he absolutely had to take pictures of my birthday celebration. I envisioned multiple pictures of me opening presents and eating birthday cake. What I got was a whopping two pictures. Two pictures to make up for eight years of no pictures on my birthday. Sigh. Thanks to Chris for these great pictures:



Ella and Eli both thought I needed help blowing out the candles.



Curious about the cake? This is the best cake ever. It's a yellow cake with a broiled nut topping. It is brown sugar, butter, milk, and pecans mixed together and broiled on the cake. Soooo yummy.

Free Summer bowling!

I recently discovered that there is a "kids bowl free" Summer program here in Tucson. So when Chris had a day off yesterday we decided to hide from the 105 degree weather by going to the bowling alley.

Eli was excited to see all of the balls.

Ella used the 6lb orange balls, though she would rather have bowled with a pink one.

It was fun helping Eli on his turn.



Eli wanted to chase his ball down the lane and as it got closer to his nap time, it became more and more upsetting that he couldn't go get the ball slowly rolling away from him.



Chris and I took turns helping Eli and Ella on their turns.



Ella quickly graduated to bowling without our help.



I love this picture.



Here Ella and I are doing a celebratory dance after she knocked down some pins. We danced after every ball she sent down the lane.

We bowled two games. I won the first game and Chris won the second. When we left the bowling alley Ella continued to praise the whole experience. "I love bowling."

Ella dancing

I love to watch Ella dance around the house. Enjoy.

videos of Ella and Eli

I love to watch my kids and assume you do to so here are some videos:


Ella and Grandpa Utah pretending

Ella playing the piano

Malinda and Eli playing

vacation

I went on vacation.

I took a vacation from vacation.

Then I went back to vacation before I came home.

I was gone a long time.

I am home now.

On Feb 21st Ella, Eli and I flew to Utah. We spent several days there getting them adjusted to life at Grandma and Grandpa Utah's house. Then, on Feb 26th I left my children in the care of my parents (this involves a lot of trust) and went on my own vacation. I met up with Chris in Dallas and we continued to fly to the Caribbean.

That's right. I went on vacation without my children and got to spend it on a boat island hopping in the Caribbean.

After a very short (and yet long as I missed my kids) two weeks I returned to Utah and spent another week there readjusting to motherhood.

I believe that every mom needs to take vacations from their vacations.

Here are some fun pictures:

This was taken in February. Ella is wearing my very first tu-tu that is now hers.



I loved to kayak with Chris. We are a good team-I do all the work and he steers...much like at home. =0)


These were my boat mates: Stacy, Chris, Peter, Kathy and Keith.


This waterfall is on Guadeloupe in Basse-Terre. I hiked through a rain forest!


This is at Basse-Terre on Guadeloupe.


Ella was very excited to see the temple in Salt Lake.


Once we were home again Ella wasted no time before dressing up as a princess. Here she is an island fairy princess. She actually told me "I'm prettier than you are, mom." while I put this dress on her.


Here Ella is feeding the ducks at Reid Park. We like to go to the zoo, have a picnic, and then feed the ducks.


Eli loves to wear these Easter bunny ears. He will bring them to me to put them on him. very cute.


-Malinda

Ella takes Ballet

Yesterday was Ella's first dance class at the YMCA. She was very excited to dance ballet. We showed up early because I had the time wrong. Ella nearly burst with excitement as we watched the class before hers. I think that we will switch to that earlier class because it works with Eli's naps better.

Ella was the only one not in Ballet clothes. She was happily oblivious.

I loved watching Ella dance and thought you would enjoy it to:

Ella in ballet #1

Ella in ballet #2

Ella in ballet #3

Ella in ballet #4

Ella in ballet #5