Summer Fun: Chug Adventure

The Chugs (Chihuahua/Pug) puppies were born on June 17 and were a big part of our summer until they left for their new homes in August.  Grace LOVED taking care of the puppies.  All of the kids enjoyed them, Sam was a little too rough, but Summer (now London), Tucker (now Stich) and June (now Peanut) are off to a new adventure.  They weren't as bad as I thought they would be, but I was happy when they found new homes.  It is things like this that tell me Grace is getting so big. Grace took the puppies out every morning when she woke up and periodically throughout the day.  She let me know when they needed food and water and gave them lots of love.  I loved the way the puppies go from wobbly walking to jumping in the grass.  I don't love the clean up or the invasion of my laundry room (their home).  Grace and Jake want to do it again.  I think we should enjoy the memory!

Super Fun Park = Visit Us

This is all Sam. 

A rare moment of the lion and the lamb.

I am so proud of Alex giving this a try.  I know it isn't his thing.  It is so fun to see cousins.

We have a different and fun park by our house.  Come over and we will play.  Even cousin Alex, too old to really enjoy it, had fun when I made him go with us.  I used to drive, drive, drive to the discovery park in PG, but this one, while not the same, is still really fun and alot closer for us.  I am serious for anyone who wants, I will make lunch and take you to the park.  All you have to do is drive over.  Although after the swimming post, you might be afraid to expose your kids to my naughty children :)

When the wife is away...

Last week the kids and I went to Jackson Hole.  Of course, Jake texts me the next day and says he bought something.  I am not surprised.  AND I actually know what it is before he tells me. It is some sort of little boat.  Something for the river.  Something that must be bought while I am away so he doesn't get the immediate eye roll.
It is a canoe.
Disclaimer: Some thought has been put into this.  KSL has been checked for weeks.  All sorts of boats have been looked at. 

It has already been used many times.  Jake and the kids love it.  I am sure I will like it too, when I go in it.  What is the best part is that we can walk it out the back gate, and into the water.  It can be paddled to the park just about a quarter mile away.  It reminds me a little of Alabama.  Would I liked to have known before hand about this purchase... maybe, but there have been much, much worse.

In our backyard

In our backyard we have birds, kids, snails, and snakes! 

And we love them ALL!

Grace's Dance Festival

Grace's last week of school started out with a class party complete with cotton candy provided by Jake and I.  (Side Note: In two weeks, we made over 75 bags of cotton candy.  If we have to have a cotton candy machine, we are gonna dang use it!)  Then she had field day and a dance festival. Thursday was just long enough to say goodbye and the school year was over.  Grace has learned alot this year and we have had some good times and some not so good times.  I think we are getting into a groove and 2nd grade will be even more awesome!  She was sooooo cute at the dance festival.  She was concentrating so hard and she did a great job.  She preformed the dance again after she came home.  I will definitely have to get the video done on this one.  Grace is so fun, and I love her so much.   (She is on the back row looking serious.)

First trip of the season... in the canyon

 Ants? No, Uncle (and cousins) on a log.

 Grace in her element.  The outdoors and the water.  Thanks for a warm April!

 Big Jake and little Jakey throwing rocks.

 Isaac loves smores, hold the chocolate.

 Josh and Heather took the kiddos on a little walk.  Thanks!

 Thomas would like to push this log in the river.  Keep trying buddy!

We had a lovely family barbecue up AF canyon at the end of April. It was such a busy month I almost forgot to post it.  We missed Kelby and the new baby and Tom and Ruth, but everyone else in the area was there!  I am looking forward to some more smores.

Saturday with the Girls

Saturday started out rough with a really big mealtdown by Grace at her school 5K.  Jake took the boys to a model airplane runway near our house while Grace decompressed.  I needed a little recovery. Luckily, I had a coupon that needed to be used at the park city outlets.  Even luckier, Allison was avaiable to come with us.  She treated Grace to a new outfit and I bought the Isaac a few shirts.  (He has eaten holes in a few. I'm glad that phase was short, and it is over.)  It was lovely weather, and it was nice to have a little girl time.  Grace is getting so big.  She hardly ever melts down these days, and when she does, it reminds me how far we have come.

Grace- a Star of the Theater

Grace has been attending an acting class since October in preparation to be a play the class puts on at the end of the school year.  Her big day was last Saturday and she did an excellent job as a fairy and a chameleon in Rapunzel.  She had speaking lines as a fairy.  Next year she'll move up to the 2nd to 5th grade group.  This year she towered over almost all the other little fairies.  We had a little melt down after the make up went on because she thought she looked too old.... So she covered up her face the whole time she was a chameleon.  By the time she came on as a fairy she was okay with it or she had wiped all the makeup off.  It was fun to have Grandma and Grandpa there.  Grace was super excited to have one of her most favorite cousins, Alex, there.  We were all glad that Allison could make it too.  We all celebrated Grace and her great performance at Cafe Rio afterwards.  We were happy to see Uncle Jesse there too. 

Isaac's favorite day!

Jake heard on the radio that the army base down the road was doing an artillery demonstration Saturday morning.  He drives Grace and Isaac down there at 8 am because you are suppose to be there at 8:30 and Jake is sure the line is going to be very long.  They were some of the first there and found out that the radio station had misbroadcast the information.  It was suppose to be for media and VIPs.  Since Jake was there early they got to sit with the vips and the other 300 people who showed up had to sit further away.  Jake was very proud of himself.  Jake and Isaac could have stayed there all day.  Grace on the other hand was ready to leave after the first earth shaking BOOM.

Say What?

I was doing Grace's bedtime routine: prayer, song, and kiss goodnight when Ruby came in the room (the dog).  Grace asked if she could sleep with her, which is a no, but I let her put Ruby in the bed while I sang to her.  After I finished singing, Grace was snugging Ruby and said, "I bet with someone sleeping beside you, you never have any bad dreams."   I thought my heart would melt and Ruby almost found a place in Grace's bed that night....

The Bird Blind

What Grace loves... everyone knows about.  Grace's new obsession is birds.  She borrowed a bird book from the library which contained the idea of a bird blind.  One warmish Saturday, the kids decided to try it out.  Never mind the part where you are supose to wait three days before you go inside so the birds are used it you.  They took some chairs and an old sheet and set it up, by themselves.  Then they ripped up some dead grass and threw it on top of the sheet.  Grace had her notebook and pens to document each type of bird.  The boys were her helpers and were working on staying quiet.  (This was a wonderful Saturday activity.  Sit quietly under a sheet...outside?  sure you can have some snacks...)

I want for... February

On the way to Marmee and Papa's house for Christmas, Grace realized her front tooth was loose.  I told her how Papa would wrap floss around it and pull out my loose teeth.  So Grace asked Papa to pull out her loose front tooth and wished for one toothfor Christmas.  I was hoping she would lose the other one while we were there, but it wasn't until the end of  January that she came home from school with a tooth around her neck and not in her mouth.  Side note: Grace will not leave her teeth out for the tooth fairy.  She thinks they are more valuable than anything the tooth fairy would bring.  (Is this a hoarding tendence?)  Anyway, she smiles like me so it was alittle difficult to get a smile with teeth, but it is so cute when I get a glimpse of those missing teeth.  Grace is such a sweet girl who tries so hard and is getting bigger, and smarter, and lovelier everyday.

Grace's First Day of Kindergarten

Grace has been so excited to start school. I have been excited, nervous, worried, happy. Grace loves to learn. During her assessment the day before school started, I had to fill out paperwork. One slip of paper asked for a sentence describing Grace that would be put below her picture posted in the classroom. "Grace loves the world around her and is excited to learn about it." I think this describes Grace well. A hit: I made monkey bread as a treat "to keep the monkeys out" so Grace could behave at school. She ate about half the pan.

After a few serious photos, without any prompting, Grace said, "Okay, now a silly school picture" and immediately struck this pose. It is fun to see her so excited and so confident.She can't really be seen, but she is the blur riding her scooter to school in this next pic. We decided to go with the school closer, but not the one we are assigned to attend. I just couldn't let her ride the bus. I don't know why. Maybe because she is my first, maybe I'm over protective... Jake left for school the same time she did and as he left she told him that they would have to do their homework together that night.

Grace's teacher is Mrs. Baumgarten. She has taught at Orem Elementary for 13 years. She has a bunny rabbit and guppies in her room. When we arrived Isaac was distracted by the playground and Sam was crying because I wouldn't let him go play with Isaac. Grace ran into her classroom, put her backpack away, sat down and said, "bye Mom." Some of the other parents were chatting and I thought I might stand there a moment and watch Grace and perhaps join in on the chatting, but Grace said, "Bye Mom" about five more times so I got the hint and let her be.

At school she learned about being an everyday hero. They read a book about filling up your bucket which has provided many a discussion. They also said that if you do some really good things you can earn a yellow slip and take it to the office for a prize. Grace told me she hugged a girl to fill up her bucket and maybe get a yellow slip. I asked Grace if the girl wanted a hug. She said no (but in a way that meant it was of little consequence if she wanted the hug or not). Grace had a great first day, day two was a little rough, but day three was great again. I think like anything else we will have good days and bad days, but Grace will still love learning.

Welcome Summer?

Grace's last day of preschool was last Thursday so I considered Monday to be our first day of summer. I was looking forward to running through the sprinklers and catching bugs, but woke up looking at snow. Today has been much better, but I hope our garden (which we planted on Saturday) survives. Due to the poor memory recording on my part, I just can't be satisfied skipping the last few months, but if I want to get to the gym in the morning I need to go to bed soon so I can't cover it all now. I want to share a video I made of Grace's preschool program. It is long. In the middle is Grace's talent that we came up with (all of the kids did a talent). I am mostly sharing this video so Grace can access it easily and my mom has been kindly asking for a few pictures or something for the last few days... weeks... months..... As for everyone else, the Ellis family is alive and kicking!

A Singing Telegram

I know to make up for my lack of blogging I needed to produce something amazing. I am satisfied with this. I still need to go back and document Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, but until I edit the pictures... Have a great Valentine's Day!

Happy Birthday Grace!

Today Grace turned four years old! At times, it seems like a feat that we have actually made it another year, but mostly it just reminds me to enjoy every moment of the rollercoaster ride because before I know it the chaos will be a little more orderly. Grace LOVES a party so Jake and I decorated the living room and kitchen with streamers and balloons. She woke to the happy birthday song and Jake would spontaneously break out into song all day. Grace loved it and was just beaming. Being four, Grace took off her pajamas and got dressed in her new birthday shoes and birthday sweater curtesy of Marmee and then Grandma took her to breakfast for doughnuts. Grace came home with not only doughnuts but a Barbie tea set and a Beta fish. She was so happy! I told her I was sorry that I had to go to school on her birthday and she told me not to worry, she wouldn't have her birthday without me. It was very sweet. We did have a sad event today. Isaac stepped on something and Jake had to take him to the health center where he recieved ten stitches. Poor Isaac! I got home from school and I just felt so bad for him. He was numbed up untill this evening and now he is starting to limp. It didn't even break Grace's birthday stride. When I came home from school I wanted to make sure that Grace still wanted to go bowling for dinner, but she had changed her mind. I could almost quote it; she wanted to go to Ikea and get a hotdog, but first go to Walmart and get a cake. Not Chuckie Cheese, McDonald's playland, or bowling. So we went to Ikea and Grace played in the play place and had hotdogs. She told me all of her birthday dreams came true! It was a good day aside from the trip to the hospital. School is going well. One of my classmates actually stopped me in the hall to help explain something from class, and it felt really good. It has been busy and hard to leave my kids, but school is really fun (for the most part). Tis the birthday season, one kid's dreams came true, now it is time to plan Isaac's birthday!

Poor Grace!

Perhaps not the most flattering picture for our blogging debut, sorry Grace.

Welcome!

This is my first attempt at blogging so here goes nothing! This is my attempt at staying in touch with family and friends scattered everywhere. I expect my words to be few and the pictures plentiful. Life is crazy. Everyone and everything change so quickly. Just today, for example, Grace woke up with her eye swollen shut. (Apparently, she was bit or stung by something on Saturday night.) I have no idea what tomorrow will bring but at least it will be documented. Oh, and on to more exciting news, we just found out we should be expecting a little boy this November! Reasonable name suggestions are welcomed.