Such a nice weekend!

 One weekend a few weeks ago, we got a babysitter and went for a date! We decided to go on a night hike to the Y. We couldn't have asked for better hiking weather! It was so beautiful! Of course the hike is always steeper than I remember, but we made it okay. M slept most of the time in the front pack and stayed nice and cozy next to Daddy.

 Here's the view from the top. The Provo temple is towards the bottom right of the picture. You can also see a few campus buildings. The brightest things are State street and the fields where there were intramural games going on.

 The next morning we headed up to Heber City to see the Heber Valley Railroad. We didn't actually take a ride on the train (can we say expensive?!) but we got to see it leave and play on the train cars they had right there. It was actually really fun!

 Ellie was pretty nervous about the big engines at first, but she was loving it by the end.

 M was a trooper and didn't mind getting jostled around, climbing on and off the cars.

 John just makes me chuckle sometimes. :)

 John may or may not be trying to enter the car. :)

 Train robbers! I loved Ellie trying to make guns with her fingers! :)

 Now it is my turn to hold up the train! Yeah, we're dorks. :)

 We stopped by Deer Creek on the way back and threw rocks in the water. Best game ever! Never gets old!

 We headed up South Fork and decided to picnic in the third park we came to. It was so beautiful and we nearly had the place to ourselves!  It was seriously perfect weather and the leaves were gorgeous. We just couldn't stop raving about how much we loved our picnic spot.
As you might imagine Ellie really loved playing in the leaves.

 And the stream!

 The baby had a good time too being carried around!

 Loved seeing my little girl run around!

 Love my little family!

Blessing Pics

 My sweet baby girl was blessed last month. She wore the same dress that Ellie and I did. Thank you to my wonderful sister for taking the gorgeous pictures!

 When my sister was testing the lighting, she got this shot of Ellie. I absolutely love it. It is so Ellie. Finding whatever toys are available to be her baby and binkie. That's my little girl!

r4r

We took some funny pictures and decided that when you are an only child, you never get to be in pictures quite like these.  Ellie was so proud of herself.

This one reminds us of the scene in ET where he was hiding with the dolls.  Baby M is much cuter though.

 M is adorable!  She has the cutest smiles and has just started to laugh a little.  A week or so ago we were commenting to each other about how easy M was being lately and how great everything was going.  She must have heard us, because since then she has been something of a terror.  I love the times when she is screaming because she is hungry but won't stop screaming to eat.  It's great.  We also had a four hour night sleep that took us back to the good ol' newborn days.  But last night she slept 10 straight hours! ...starting at 3am.

We took her up the canyon for a fire and hot dogs.  She got to stay in her car seat.  It reminds us of taking Ellie camping and bundling her up.

Ellie has been keeping us on our toes too.  We are amazed at all the things she is learning, but she is also getting more creative at being naughty.  We are just hoping that eventually it sinks in that throwing a fit won't get her what she wants.  We are pretty amused by her sometimes though. She says some really funny things.  Such as:
Mommy: "Ellie, do you want to lay down?" Ellie: "No, I want to lay up!"
"B-I-N-G-O spells Ellie."
Ellie: "Daddy is a big girl."  Daddy: "No, Daddy is a big boy."  Ellie: "Oh.  Mommy is a big, BIG girl." (Ouch!)
"I want to go to the doctor, please!"

Mommy: “Isn’t M adorable?” Ellie: “No, she’s not a door bell.”

"Is it pretty gnarly?"

"Gonna google it?"

"Here’s my email."

"I want to get shots!" (Imagine a really whiny voice saying that.)

"Daddy are you going to go to church like hun right here?" (Referring to Mommy.)

She asked to get in the box to have her picture taken.  

Notice the double pursed lips. :)

Ellie likes to be like the baby sometimes and is constantly mothering the baby doll. Notice there are burp cloths for all three "babies."

PS.  Thanks Ellie for naming this post while mommy and daddy weren't looking!