more traditions

Carving!!! Wahoo for Pumpkin Carving.

BEFORE:

AFTER: What do you think... does it look like her?

Family Home Evening is always a blast when you get to pull the guts out of a pumpkin!

(Ellee is making the same face in this first one that I make when I change her diapers)

*(Notice pumpkin seed in hair...)*

Pumpkin order (left to right): Abby, Donna, Ellee, Devn, Nikki, Tony SPOOKY!
Abby & Ellee & Devn's Pumpkins... what a cute little family!

I'd like to thank Donna for growing such beautiful pumpkins in her very own garden! Unfortunately we had to pick them before they all turned orange due to the frost. But I actually like the greens one... they are meaner looking!

Ohhhh... a Pumpkin-ing We'll Go

Wahoo for autumn activities... maybe its just me, but it seems like we have a lot more traditions that we do during the fall and winter months. But oh do I love it. I have a feeling that my upcoming posts will be a series of traditions since we still have pumpkin carving & trick or treating coming up!

But for Friday night date night we went to the pumpkin patch with Tony & Nikki, and although it was date night, we brought Ellee along, cause what fun is a pumpkin patch without a little kid to love it too!

What a splendid time we had! Wahoo for pumpkins!

Dove Onslaught

Sadness in my heart... my poor Ellee...

NYC

So Ellee & I made it back safely from a wonderful vacation to the Big Apple. Ben & Laura were great hosts and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves... to the point of exhaustion!
The picture above is just after we arrived in New York. Ellee and I had taken a little nap after our red-eye flight, yes, the same 5 hour flight in which my daughter only slept for 1/2 hour. Miserable. For both of us... and the rest of the passengers. Anyhow, Ellee wouldn't sleep any longer after our little nap and so I thought I'd get her dressed and go play with Laura and the girls. So I sat her down with me and she just wanted to snuggle. So I gladly accepted and then sat her next to me while I got her clothes out of the suitcase. Meanwhile, in the 20 seconds or so it took me to pick out her outfit, she was in this position above, sound asleep. So I too took advantage of this quiet moment to catch another snoozer for myself. Poor exhausted Ellee. However the rest of the day she was giving all of us the most delicious snuggles (and she is not a snuggler)... so maybe it was worth it.

Moving on.

Mary Poppins. The night started out with a train ride into the city. Then a taxi ride from Grand Central Station to the show. Not just any taxi though. The line was so long for the cabs that we went the non-convention route... the bike taxi. Yes, you heard (read) correctly. Who actually rides those things, you are thinking to yourself? Well, we did and it was wonderful... way faster than the standard taxi and we got a guided tour while en route. So great in fact that we did it on the way back to the train station too!

Next, we ate some good ol' New York pizza and off to the show we went.

I don't really have much to say except that it was absolutely wonderful! This was my first Broadway musical and I was not disappointed. I wasn't sure what to expect, but this exceeded all my expectations. I literally sat on the edge of my seat leaning over my knees the whole time. At one point they "blew" the stars into the audience and I got the chills... like dreams really do come true. Then when Mary Poppins herself flew over us at the end, I looked at Laura and we both had the happiest faces ever... you know the one that you had on the first time you walked into Disneyland... and I just felt the magic in the air! Wow. I highly recommend this musical to anyone and everyone! Thanks Ben for taking care of the girls for us!

The next day all of us girls hit the Bronx Zoo and had a blast there too.

The next day we trekked back into the city for some site-seeing with the girls.

First stop... Central Park.

Here is Emily doing a glamour shot for us!

We wandered the streets and headed up to the Giant Disney Store... they even had Aladdin there live in person!

Next stop... Rockefeller Center... Top of the Rock for the best view of the whole city that we could afford.

Here we are 67 stories up... you could see everything in the city! As you can see from the pictures below, Ellee was feeling extra loving and just wanted to kiss me instead of smile! Good enough for me!

The next day we drove over to see the Statue of Liberty... she was further away than I expected, but still, I saw her!

Then on to the Brooklyn Bridge. Today we were lucky enough to have Ben join us on our excursions. We parked on the Brooklyn side of the bridge and walked partway across far enough to get some good shots of the city and the bridge!

More Kisses!

So that is all for now. There are a few more shots that I want to post that Ben & Laura have on their camera, so you'll get to see those later! How lucky for you!

Magic.

More to come...

UT trip... more

Now almost a month ago, Ellee and I went down to Centerville, UT to visit my parents for my dad's birthday. We had a blast and did lots of fun things... including a trip to the zoo! Thanks to my dad's love for photography, we caught lots of Ellee on "film". This first set of pictures is just for fun, while Ellee was being super cute and smiley.

The next three are from the zoo.



Well, I had to post one last time before heading to the big apple! That's right, Ellee and I are off to NYC! My brother had a free ticket and couldn't wait any longer to see Ellee, so we are off! The flight leaves SLC at 11:50 pm and doesn't get to NY until 6:00 am or so! I'll let you know how that goes! Ooooh... we are also going to see Mary Poppins on Broadway and I am super excited for that! Not to mention hanging out with Laura and her girls all week, with the occasional glimpse of Ben! Well, more on this when I return. So for now... farewell!

I can hardly believe it!

She is walking! And she loves it! She walks to us and just before she gets there, she stops, looks around for everyone to watch and then claps profusely! She is so cute! And sometimes when we stand her up to start walking, she just looks at us and starts clapping and squealing with delight! It still isn't her first thought as far as modes of transportation go, unless she is already on her feet. But her knees still work pretty well, so that is still the go-to method of choice. We'll work on it!

What happened to a cool crisp fall?

Apparently here in Idaho we skip this season and jump right to this one... the cold one... the bitter one...
Snow in September! (yes is was just this last Saturday) You have got to be kidding me! I miss Iowa!
*apparently it was about 80 degrees or so this same day there*