New Family Picture

We had pictures taken just after Easter in the girls' new dresses and Scott's stylish tie. Our friend Heather took them. She did a great job capturing our family style. Thanks, Heather!

Family Photos 2011

It was time to do family photos again. The last time we did this, Elli was barely older than Scott is now. Hard to believe it was that long ago! These ones were done by a fabulous friend here in Tennessee. We love how they turned out.






The best part, they are already hanging on my wall. It feels great to have all the empty frames filled. Our family picture was is Elli's favorite wall in our house. She loves naming everyone and gets SO excited when she sees all the people she loves.

Pre-Spring Break

We got to go to Colorado again this year for Brent's convocation for OMT. I look forward to this trip to see my dad, Kim, brothers and nephew and niece. Not to mention my fave friends from my high school days. We had so much fun! Here are some pictures to show just how great the trip was.

All the cousins.
It was such a fun dinner seeing them all interact together.

I love sleeping pictures! This is Elli when we arrived at Julie's house.

I went to bed with this beautiful sight.
I had to turn on the light just to get the picture. So glad they didn't wake up!

It's always so hard to get a good family picture. This one epitomizes the trial of parents to get everyone looking at the camera with a pretty smile.

Sammi's first kite-flying experience. She loved it! I love that I got to share it with her. Thanks Julie for having awesome kites and thanks to the Colorado plains for all the wind.

Isn't he the cutest? I needed a place to set him down while I took off my jacket and shoes. It struck me as so comical that I just had to take the picture. They were kind enough to stop the conveyor belt and let me get a good picture.

We had a fun but very exhausting trip. I didn't realize how adjusted we are to the humidity of Tennessee nor how much drier the climate in Colorado is. Poor Scott was stuffy the whole week. But from the moment we left the airport in Louisville, he has been clear and gunk-free. It's good to be "home!"

Two Months, Too Fast

Scott joined our family two months ago. It seems like he's been a part of our family forever and also that those two months have gone by way too fast. He no longer looks like a newborn. His little cheeks are filling out. His cry is changing to a "waaaa" or "maaaa" when he's hungry or his diaper is wet. He sleeps about eight hours at night waking only once sometime between 2 and 4 and then sleeping till 7. He's been a little colicky, but I still feel really blessed to have such an agreeable baby (again!)

We've had a lot of fun moments over the last two months.
The girls loved this dinosaur outfit. Elli commandeered the short-sleeved shirt that came with the set.
Brent and the girls built snowmen. Sammi took this photo.
Sammi holding baby Scott.
Elli holding baby Scott.
We took Uncle Will and Aunt Sara to the Pinnacle to show off the beautiful area where we live. There are remnants from the Civil War spread around Cumberland Gap National Park. The walk up to this canon is one of my favorites.
I love this boy's smile. He is always ready to brighten my day with this happy face.
I woke up to this beautiful sight this morning. We spent the night in Johnson City at my friend's parents' house. The three of us snuggled in bed after Scott woke up about 6:30 and were able to sleep until 8. I love that they are sleeping in exactly the same position.

Earth Day

So I've been lovingly and severely reprimanded by people who see me every week about not updating this blog. So, for them but most especially for those who don't see us every week, here are some pictures from our Earth Day today.


These {above} are from the park. We had lunch there and then played till nap time.




We cleared out the tomato garden from last year and prepped the soil for planting flowers. There's still a bit more to do before it's ready, but hopefully Brent will be able to dig up the rest of the grass to make the area bigger. I took the ones above and Sammi took the ones below.




There were at least a dozen of her feet. She was so pleased to be taking pictures of herself.

Christmas Wish List

Since you've been asking, here's all I want for Christmas from my Amazon wish list. We opened Christmas presents last night and Brent gave me a Black and Decker Food Processor (which was #1 on my list) and some simple but elegant glass serving bowls. Now I can serve vegetables and mashed potatoes in something other than the pots they were cooked in! I feel so grown-up.



The girls and I got headphones for our flight to Utah. They practiced wearing them this morning while watching Curious George. I've loaded the computer with Sesame Street podcasts so I'm hoping we're good to go! We also gave the girls Color Wonder by Crayola so they can color and I don't have to worry about them destroying anything. They also got several books that I'm excited to read with them.


Brent got his #1 from his wish list, too: Sketchbook Pro, which is a art studio program where you can free hand your drawings with his tablet computer. It has really cool effects for adding color, like airbrushing. I'm hoping he'll let me fiddle with it too! Other things Brent's interested in include a book light for reading at night, new sheepskin slippers like the kind from L.L. Bean.

Clean House

I didn't need Nicey Nash and her crew to get my house in shape. But I need need two days and a little (okay a lot of) help from my babysitter. Here are the results.

This is our house in Tennessee, from the inside. These images have never been captured before and I'd like to state for the record that they were ALL taken this morning. The only rooms you don't see are our bedroom, the office and the laundry room/downstairs bathroom. All of which still look like they've been hit by a tornado :)

Ah, but relish the clean. Isn't it beautiful?
This is the first room you wee when you enter our house. The toys are to the right and the seating area is to the left of the door.
At the top of the stairs, you enter the kitchen. Not as big as I originally remembered, but we enjoy the cozy feeling of working together in the kitchen.
The dining room is next to the kitchen. We are still working on the matching chairs we bought. The green ones only need to be primed, but the others needed to be stripped and sanded. Sheesh, that's been a lot of work!
This is the family room. We finally got the ottomans to match the couch. They also match the stairs in the corner and the window treatments Brent found.
This is the upstairs bathroom. I just mopped the floor! Go me :)
This is Elli's side of the girls' room.
This is Sammi's side of their room. You'll notice her pink cat from Uncle Kim. She still loves it. The fleece blanket folded up at the end of the bed is from my friend Anela and has flags on it. I love that blanket.
While running around taking pictures, Sammi ran around behind me smearing more and more blue yogurt on her face. What a character :)

Elli finally deciding to look AT me and smile. Thanks, darling!

Little Nephite Girls

Updates and Pictures

So this is our last weekend before Brent goes to COT (officer training). I'm looking forward to spending the whole weekend together. We even get to go to the temple this afternoon! I'm rather nervous about his month-long absence and being a "single-parent." Fortunately we're here still in Utah where I have lots of family and friends to help me out, entertain me and generally make the time pass more quickly.

We went to CO last week to visit family and friends and to see Jonson graduate from college. We didn't know until we got there, but his graduation didn't start until 7:30 PM! So, we hung out with him in the afternoon, but we didn't go to the actual ceremony. Sorry! But we are very proud of him for reaching that goal and wish him the best at graduate school if he decides to stay in the country long enough to attend all his classes! Silly silly us, we forgot the camera. Very unfortunate since we had some really fun times.

While we were in CO we heard from a gal in TN that made a final decision about selling her house. She's not going to, which means that she wants to rent it to US! Yeah. It's big with a front room AND a play room. The backyard is HUGE and we're going to put a fence up so the girls can play and play and play outside while I do dishes and laundry and clean. (Or maybe I'll just sew and read and blog!) For those familiar with the area (all one of you, Jenny, who read the blog!) it's in Cumberland Gap but I think it's pretty close to the church.

You all know how much I LOVE sleeping baby pictures and I think this one takes the cake:

Here are some of our nature day at the International Peace Gardens in SLC.

And this is Sammi having lunch with the "boys" who worked on the water pipes on our street. We got home one day when they were having lunch. Sammi ran inside for a cheese stick and then ran out and sat right down with them. She was in heaven!

Easter, Earth Day and Fun

Spring Dresses for EasterEarth Day Craft

FUN!