More Family Pictures

So here's some more of our family pictures! I am so happy with them! Thank you so much Stef for doing this and for putting up with the girls! I think they turned out so good and I'm so thankful I have such a talented sister who does things like this for me!! I love you so much!!!!

Could it be true???

HELP!! Could it be that my sweet precious 2 and a half year old is ALREADY done napping? It is such a fight EVERY day for me to get her to nap. Most days I just don't have the time or energy to fight with her for an hour so she doesn't get a nap! Is this real? I need that 2 hours!!! When she doesn't take a nap she does go to bed super early so maybe I can get my sanity back when she's in bed by 7! Moms out there...is this real?

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!!