Family Pictures

So we went and did some family pictures today and let me tell you, it was a nightmare! The girls were SO CRAZY, and Ella is seriously the most stubborn 1 year old I've ever met. Once she has something in her head, where she wants to go something she wants, you get the picture, she DOES NOT STOP until she gets it. And if she doesn't get it, she throws a fit! Luckily my sister was taking our pictures, and she didn't mind the tantrums and the bribing with candy and the running after the girls. We did get some REALLY good shots I think! Here's just a sneak peak!

Didn't my sister do a GREAT job!! I was so impressed!!! More to come later!

Halloween Festivities!

Christian got home on Wednesday night for Ella's birthday and Halloween so we tried to get all the festivities jam packed into one weekend! We had so much fun at Ella's first birthday party (pics to come later) , I still can't believe she's ONE! Anyways so Friday started off with a trip to Ikea to get Eden her very own big girl bed! She's been in a big girl bed since before the summer but we haven't officially got her her own bed. So she got to pick out whatever bed she wanted! Well she couldn't really decided so Mommy kind of made the decision for her. Haha! Anyways we picked out a really fun one that is a bunk bed for when Ella is older and they get to share a room! I'll put some pics up once I'm finished changing her room around from a nursery into a big girl room! It's going to be so cute!
After Ikea, we headed over to Cornbelly's. It was SO much fun! Even though it was REALLY cold, the girls, and Christian and I had so much fun together! They had a princess area where you could dress up as a princess and take pictures in the carriage. Wow was that a hit!! Eden picked out a Snow White dress, we had just finished watching the movie! She LOVED IT!!Look at her! She's was seriously so happy. She kept saying, "Mommy I totally love this dress!"
Here she is trying to do her best princess smile! We need to work on it a bit!
Snow White and her handsome Prince!
Much better Princess pose!
We got a wagon to carry to girls around from place to place and Ella was having a BLAST in it!! As you can see!
They had slides and train rides and monsters to walk through and hay rides and pumpkin cannons...it was awesome!
They also had these awesome Trampolines that the girls, and Christian, loved!!
Daddy showing off his mad skills! All the little boys that were around kept asking him, how do you do that? It was so cute!
Cute little monkey!!
Here we are on the hay ride! We were all so cold that it was definitely time to go after!
After we left cornbelly's we went home and took naps and got all ready for Brittney and Josh's Annual Rodee/Leavitt Halloween Party! It's so fun! They've had it for 4 years now I think...I can't remember but it is seriously so much fun! We had some great costumes this year! Here's mom and dad...Can you believe them? They go all out every year!
Brittney made these!
"Crikey"
Incase you couldn't get it (I couldn't) A blade of grass and a Lady bug! Cute huh?
The Leavitt's did so awesome this year!!!
Look at Ava! Cutest Minnie ever!
Rodriquez family!
And...2 little monkey's jumping on the bed, one fell off and bumped her head. Momma called the Dr. and the Dr said, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" What do you think? Britt gave us the idea!! We even won 'Funniest costume'!!
How cute are these monkeys!!!!!
Britt and Josh do such a great job every year at having the best parties! We just love them! We had dinner and played bingo and had dessert! It was so fun!
Halloween day was pretty uneventful, Christian painted Eden's bed and I played with the girls. Then we went to take the girls and go Trick or Treat for the first time! I can't believe that I have girls old enough to Trick or Treat! It was a blast! We went up to American Fork to Gramsy's house and to their neighborhood. The girls didn't get too much candy but that's ok with me! Less temptation for me!! Bit it was so fun to see Eden especially, Ella didn't really know what was going on, but it was fun to see her so happy! She said "Trick or Treat" to every house! And she even said "Happy Halloween to some houses! I have to say that I am just so lucky to have such a wonderful family. Christian's family has seriously made living so far from my parents so easy. I love them so much and I'm SO SO HAPPY that they love me and my girls so much. It really is just a blessing to have such wonderful inlaws. And having Christian here has been so awesome. The girls are SO much happier, I'm so much happier! I just love him so much. I can't wait for him to be back for good! He is such an amazing daddy! Well I hope you all had a fun Holiday! Can't wait to see everyone else's costumes!!!

My baby is one!

Well today is Ella Margaret's first birthday. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by. Ella you are the sweetest, cutest, most determined, curious, funny and most impatient little monkey we know!! We love you more than words could ever express. Thank you so much for joining our family. You have brought so much joy to your sister Eden's life. She loves you so much! Even if she doesn't like to share all that often!
Especially since your daddy has been away so much, you really make your mommy feel so special when you come up and give me loves and kisses. Thank you for being so sweet to us and bringing a smile to our faces everyday. We love you so much and are so excited for you to be one! Happy birthday my little monkey. I love you so much.

Hogle Zoo

Well yesterday me, the girls and Aunt Brittney went to Hogle Zoo up in Salt Lake. It was so much fun! It's a tiny zoo but we were there for just enough time to enjoy it! So they had quite a few new additions to the zoo this summer. They had a new baby Elephant named Zuri, who was by far the most amazing part of the zoo! She was so darn cute! Me and Brittney couldn't believe how cute a little elephant could be but she was just darling!!! She was so tiny compared to her mommy!! We got to get so close up to them too. A lot of the exhibits were like that. Which I love about a zoo.Look at her! She's so cute!!

These penguins were so close! We could have touched them!

Here's another new addition, a baby giraffe. We couldn't find it's name but it was so cute too! While we were watching it, it's mother came up and and was licking it and loving it! So cute! They were standing right against a wall that had measurements so you could see how tall they were! The baby was standing 7ft when it's neck was up all the way! Can you believe that?? The mommy was like 12ft! Unreal!

My cute babies!

This was my favorite, another little one! I love tigers, they're my favorite animal ever!! They're so pretty! This little guy was walking up and down against the fence and I get SO close to him!!!

On the Carousel. Ella was a little unsure but I think she liked it!

They had a little playground that we played on.

We rode the train.

We had a couple meltdowns and a potty accident but overall it was a fun trip! Ella is so funny! She's such an explorer that it's so hard for her to be couped up in the stroller when she sees Eden walking all around. She's still not fully walking so when we get her out she just wants to crawl around everywhere and then she gets SO dirty!! But we did have so much fun. We always have fun going to "See Animals". That's what Eden says. She LOVES the zoo! She loves animals! It's so cute. Every time we were going to a new area we'd tell her what we were going to see and she would get so excited! It's so cute to watch their little minds work. I just love my girls. And I'm so glad that I have people like Brittney who can come with me to places like this and they don't care that my girls are sometimes crazy and scream and cry and pee their pants. Thanks for coming Brittney! We love you!!

Eden's first haircut!!

Well I finally broke down and did it! She's 2 and a half and I've never gotten her hair cut! So I decided we'd go and get it done right. We went to the cutest little place called Cookie Cutter's. It was so fun for her! They had a slide and books to play with while you wait. And then when it's your turn you get to choose a movie to watch. They have TV's in every little station! You get to choose what type of car you want to sit in too! It was so cute! Eden loved it! Before

The first cut!!

After!!

Isn't she pretty? She LOVED getting her hair cut. After she was all done they gave her a balloon and a sucker! How fun is that!!

If anyone is looking for a good place to take their kids to get their hair cut, this place is awesome! And it was NOT expensive either! Oh and I have to put a plug in for my FAVORITE SHOW EVER!! Glee is on tonight and I seriously love that show!!! I put all their music on my playlist!!! LOVE IT!!!

Oh fall...I love you!

So Fall is by far my favorite season! I love the changing of the leaves, the cool air (notice I said cool, not COLD), I love sweaters and shoes! Love this season! A few weeks ago I took the girls to drive up the Alpine Loop here in Utah. It was seriously so beautiful! I feel so lucky to live here! While we were driving I told Eden the Heavenly Father and Jesus made all these beautiful things for us. She thought about that for a while, she asked, "they made them for me?" I said, "yes honey, just for you to look at!". She thought about it for a little longer, and then she said, "Thank you so much Jesus. Thank you so much Heavenly Father!". I got tears in my eyes. What a sweetheart! It made me feel like I'm doing something right. She is just so cute! She loved seeing all the different colors and the mountains! She LOVES the mountains! Ella took a little nap for the drive up until the very end!

Aren't my girls just so pretty! I love them!!
So the Rodee family, not my family, Christian's brother Cameron, decided it was time to get a new puppy! Something we never thought would happen, but it's great! Rocky Rodee is SO cute! We love him already! He loves the girls, a little too much sometimes but he is a really good puppy!
Pops and Gramsy Rodee got another new addition to their house, a new little playground for the backyard! They call it the Rodee Clubhouse! I cannot tell you how much the girls love it! That's the first thing Eden wants to do when we get there. It's so fun!

Christian and Chad had their 27th birthday! You're getting up there babe! It was so fun to be with the whole Rodee family! Another reason I love fall, we finally get to do all the family things we missed out on during the summer!
While Christian was home for his birthday we took the girls up to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. It was actually really fun! Eden warmed up to the huge dinosaurs and by the end was loving everything! This is what Ella thought about it...
This is what I thought about it...

But seriously it was really fun! It was probably so much fun because we were together as a family. Anything we get to do with Christian these days is the best!

For Christian's birthday I surprised him with a little trip just the 2 of us! It was SO MUCH FUN!!!! It was the first time we'd left the girls for more than one night and I was pretty stressed out, but we had the best time! We're so lucky we have such great family that we trust to leave our girls with. Thanks guys!!! So we went to San Diego and stayed downtown in their historic Gaslamp district. It was really cool! We walked around and people watched, ate great food and just enjoyed each other's company.
Another surprise, I got us tickets to the Chargers/Dolphins game! That was a blast! Neither of us had ever been to a professional football game and so it was so exciting for both of us.
Then another surprise...we went SKYDIVING!!! For Christmas last year I bought Christian a gift certificate for a tandem skydive and we just hadn't had the time to redeem it until now. So When I was booking the jump for him, the instructor taking his reservation talked me into doing it too! I can't believe I did it but it was SO MUCH FUN!!! Craziest thing I'll ever do probably but it was so awesome. Christian LOVED it! It was so fun doing it with him!


Our last morning we did a little surfing. Also fun, but VERY hard! Then it was home again for me, and Christian stayed in San Diego. Sad.
Conference Weekend was so fun. My best friend and some of her family came down from Canada to go to conference and they let me tag along for a session! It was so cool. I'd been to the Relief Society broadcast in the Conference Center before but never a session of General Conference. it was so amazing! We were so close too! I snagged a picture of the Prophet before we started. Is that bad? It was just so cool how close we were to him!
This is Kayley and her daughter. I seriously love them so much. I've known Kayley my whole life, literally, and I have never and probably will never find a friend like her. It is just so natural and easy and SO MUCH FUN when I'm around her. And her daughter is just the sweetest thing ever. I can't believe she's 8!


SO there's a quick update of a few things we've been up to. I have some more updates, like ELLA IS WALKING!! It's not her full mode of transportation but she's definitely walking! It's so cute!! Hopefully I'll get some video up here soon of it! Christian came home this weekend and it was so much fun having him here. I miss him so much. It is so hard living without him. I can't handle being away from him so much. He is such an amazing dad and husband. I do think this has made us a lot stronger as a family though. There's a lesson to learn in everything! Well I'm off to bed!