Emma's Birthday

Emma turned 24!! She opened the present from Eli the night before.

He gave her Lindt truffles, but he was more interested in playing with the tissue paper.

Here's Emma opening her presents the morning of her birthday.

My parents sent her lots of fun stuff, but the biggest gift was this...

Whit and I got her this necklace, which we considered buying for all the ladies in the family for Christmas, but it would have cost too much... The beads are rubies. Aren't they pretty?

All in all, I think she had a fun time. We love you Emma! Happy Birthday!!

Ward Halloween party

Every year our ward does a Hoedown Halloween party. This year we weren't very organized with the costumes, but we all had on something just a bit country. Eli had his hat and shirts...Whit had a western-esque shirt, and Dora had a pony on her pants. I wore a bandana skirt and boots. Unfortunately we couldn't stay long because Dora goes to bed so early that she timed out by 7.

Here's Eli--he pulled down the bear and its chair and hugged it. Cute, right?


Here he is in the car--so excited to go to church. He asks to go to church almost every day!

Dora was teething but she was a trooper. See the pony?

My little cowboy!

Whit's a super-dad. Here he is posing for me, with Dora too.

Oh no! A family of jailbirds. At least Eli's just visiting.

Darn, now he's in too.

Finally we get Eli into a cactus.

My little sweetie.

Here are Whit and I, all dressed up. Note the skirt and boots. The photo below will have more significance if you are paying attention.

Whit and I met November 12, 2005. This is a photo Emma took that night before the activity. See the skirt and boots?

Yep, I can wear the skirt again (it's a size 4!) Just 7 pounds to go. Maybe 8 now, since I went off the diet yesterday. We went to the temple and had to stop at Baja Fresh... AND THEN had people over for dinner and I ate potroast, fresh bread with honey butter and Emma's angel food cake. Whoops.

Eli wasn't very happy we were leaving and Dora was tired, but we got a shot before we left.

Happy Halloween!

New Chompers

I could not figure out why Dora was being so grumpy over the past 24 hours. She had a runny nose, but no other symptoms. She wasn't running a fever, or coughing or anything else; she was just acting whiny.

Today I figured it out. I was rubbing off her teeth (which she hates) and I discovered she has 6! That's right--two more popped in on top overnight. She now has 4 on top and 2 on bottom. Wow, angel, nice work! She has been dying laughing all day today, so I guess we are beyond the pain (I hope!)

YAY Dora! 6 little chompers, now.

Eli meets some Critters

The Briarcrest (where Emma works) had a Critter meet and greet a few days ago. Eli and Nana and I all went. Whit stayed home with the baby since it was pretty late.

Eli was an eager beaver to touch and see the Critters.

Here is is holding a screaming cockroach, shudder...

This is him raising his hands to get chosen to hold the scorpion. Mommy vetoed that one. He saw other kids raising one hand and he raised two each time!

Here's Emma holding the scorpion! YIKES!

Emma and Nana waiting on the first snake.

Ick! It's an albino cornsnake I think (with snakes that means no brown or black, apparently.) Did you know that with one exception (a coral snake), any snake in North America with a big head is venomous and with a little head is not?

Inspecting the snake...

This is a lizard, but I can't recall which kind. I think it might be the blue Skink, which is a funny name.

Here's his talking bird... Eli liked touching the bird. Plus, see? I was there.

My Mimic

Lately, anything anyone does at our house, Eli imitates. Some of my favorite examples are when I say, "Um" while thinking about something, I hear a tiny little "UM" come from wherever Eli is. When I gush over the baby crawling so well, Eli starts crawling. When the baby walks to me (holding onto my hands), Eli wants to "walk" to me, too, holding onto my hands. When the baby eats puffs, he wants to eat puffs. Just this morning, I was feeding the baby some mashed pears and he insisted on having some, too. He ate two containers of baby food!

Yesterday, I got a new coat I have been wanting. I wore it around and Emma and Whit ooed and aahhed, so Eli had to wear it too. Here are the photos. He's pretty proud of himself.

It's a little big!

Eli's Haircut

Eli hates to have his haircut, but we almost had a Samson in the making. His hair was getting really bushy. Finally Whitney restrained him and I cut his hair--kicking and screaming bloody murder the whole time. If you think I am kidding, rethink. It's an awful experience.

We cut it pretty short to minimize the haircut frequency as much as possible. I think it came out alright. Of course, grandma asked if it was a mohawk!

Also, please note the porcupine on his shirt that says, "Wanna hug?" If you ask him what a porcupine says he responds, "Poke, ow" for what sounds HE would make if he came into contact with one. It's pretty funny but I figured the video market was saturated right now.

Isadora is 8 Months Old!!

WOW, I cannot believe my little Angel is already 8 months old!!! I am so lucky to be her mom. She is the HAPPIEST, the EASIEST, the SMARTEST and the SWEETEST baby ever. Seriously. I am not just being biased. Ask any of her babysitters or her dad.

She actually turned 8 months two days back but I was too busy to get photos done. Eh, better two days late than never, eh? I love this ladybug dress. You can't tell in most of the photos I am including but Eli was PEA GREEN with envy that Dora was getting so much attention. She really gets neglected sometimes because she is SO good and so easy and plays on her own, whereas Eli demands constant attention.

This is her, "I'm so happy I am scrunching my nose" smile. In case you can't tell, she's holding a lady bug toy.

Her eyes are still big and blue.

When we moved to the stairs, Eli insisted on going too. He was doing everything he could to impede the photos. Here, I had to physically move him off her blanket. Then he started being a stinker at the top of the stairs to try and get attention.

I like these side shots. And I love those chubby cheeks!

It's WAY harder to get decent photos now that she's crawling and pulling up on everything.

Even though Eli's pretty mean to her, she LOVES him. She was SO interested in what he was doing up at the top of the stairs. (He was dumping out his boxes of play food and pushing them down the stairs to try and get my attention. Little stink! He plays with his food all the time now that he "helps me cook".)

Little Miss Dora LOVES to be standing and loves to walk towards you when she does.

It's hard to get a cute photo of upper teeth, but in this one you can see her two new little chompers.

And here's a little video of Dora sitting up on her own and talking (sort of).