30 is looking good!

Ella did Daddy's hair for church on Sunday. I, as usual, did Ella's. I can't decide which one of them looks cuter!

THIRTY!

The day is here. . . Brad turns 30 today! I'm sure glad he hits it before I do. For all of you who have already hit that milestone, it's not that bad, right? I hope Brad thinks about all he has accomplished in his first 30 years. He has a beautiful wife (wink, wink) and 2 adorable girls. 2 college degrees, with 1 more (finally)on the way in May.
Ella and I (some of these are right from her mouth)thought for his 30th birthday we would come up with 30 things we love about Brad, so here goes:

1. He is a loving husband
2. He is a doting dad
3. He is fun-loving
4. He is a hard worker
5. He knows how to have fun
6. He is a perfectionist
7. He helps us all relax
8. He sings us good songs
9. He makes up fun songs for us to sing
10. He dances with his girls
11. We have to kiss him to wake him up
12. He always lets Ella "help" him with his projects
13. He is smart
14. He is funny
15. He is musically talented
16. He gives "silly kisses"
17. He does "tickle spiders"
18. He is a good friend to all
19. He is never in a hurry
20. He does different voices for every person in a story
21. He is always optimistic
22. He makes us laugh
23. He loves to cuddle us all
24. He always come home ready to play (no matter how long his day was)
25. He is a handyman--even if he doesn't know what to do, he'll figure it out and fix it well
26. Every kid always wants to play with him
27. He is a good listener
28. He has an infectious laugh and smile
29. He is very considerate of others
30. He is just an all around good person

These are some of our favorite thing about our 30-year-old Brad.
We love Brad and hope he has a great birthday! If you know and love Brad as we do, share with us a reason or favorite story here. . .

9 months

Maggie turned 9 months old this past week. Here is a little bit about her right now:

She weighs 17 lbs 8 oz (30%) and is 27 3/4 inches long (75%), which makes it sound like she is a bean pole, but she has a good amount of chub on her. She is growing so fast and starting to understand so much more each day. I am starting to teach her a few signs now and she has already figured one of them out so far, which has even surprised me! She is crawling and cruising and is much more curious than I remember Ella being at this age. She also as extremely good vision--she will spot the tiniest of crumbs from across the room and book it to try and get there and get it in her mouth before Momma can prevent her (and she usually wins!) She is very loud (especially in church) and will make this loud cackling sound when she is excited about something or wants to get someone's attention. I think it is really funny, so I often have a hard time encouraging her to be more reverent! She loves her big sister and wants to be wherever she is and do whatever she is doing. . .which is great, as long as Ella is agreeable to it. She has also recently started to get really excited about Daddy when he comes in the room and will often leap out of my arms to go to him (FINALLY!). She has 5 teeth already, with a six on the way in--which makes me really look forward to the day I can stop nursing, if you can imagine. She has also decided she doesn't really care for baby food, so I am doing my best to fix finger foods she can eat. All in all, she is just a fun part of our family and we are so glad to have her!

2 1/2

These pictures were taken a few months ago by Melanie. We love them, and since they were taken closer to Ella being 2 1/2 than 2 I'm going to count them for this post!






(I really wanted to get these thoughts down so through the years we can look back and have these memories of our girls as they go through different milestones. )

Ella hit the 2 1/2 mark this past week. She is growing up so fast. She always amazes us with how smart she is and how much she picks up on. I guess it is time we have to be more careful with everything we do and say. She is extremely shy in any new situation, but if she feels comfortable she is so fun and outgoing--really a totally different person. She will sing songs to herself, to Brad and I, or to Maggie all day long, but will never "perform" for us and hates being the center of attention. She knows all of the words to many songs (and all of their verses)--our favorites are I Am a Child of God and Families Can Be Together Forever. She also can recite many of her favorite books word for word, which has made our jaws drop often.

She has a sweet temperament and really wants to please everyone. She feels horrible if she thinks someone is upset with her. She is a great big sister and will always sing Maggie a song to make her feel better if she is crying--especially during car rides or when they are both going to bed. Of course, we appreciate this so much. She is learning to be an even better sister now as Maggie is extremely mobile and can get to any toy Ella may be playing with. We hope she will develop patience as she tries to share with her little sister who is constantly grabbing at everything she has her hands on. She still loves to be cuddled, especially when she wakes up in the morning, and we hope this doesn't change anytime soon.

She has a lot of determination to figure things out if they are hard for her at first (she shows this a lot when working on puzzles). Likewise, she has a lot of determination to let us know just how she wants things to be done or not done (I guess that's true of any 2-year-old though).

She loves to read scriptures with us and likes to say prayers when she has pretended to make her own dinner, but won't do it if she thinks anyone else is listening. Her favorite things to do are read books, do puzzles, and fix us meals in her kitchen. She has also just started showing an interest in princesses. She LOVES friends and gets so excited at the prospect of playing with other kids--even if she acts shy at the onset of each play date.

It is so fun to see these little quirks develop as she grows and know that they all make up our little Ella and encompass who she is. It is so fun to watch her grow! We love you Ella. Thanks for being such an extra special part of our family!

5 years

Brad and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary at the end of our 2 1/2 month trip to Utah. We took advantage of the my parents and left the girls with them and headed up to Midway for a couple of days. Man, how we wish we had grandparents around on a regular basis!

Brad and I headed up to Midway and stayed at a Bed and Breakfast up there. We enjoyed two long, uninterrupted dinners out! I'm glad we still can find something to talk about when it seems like these opportunities come so few and far between! We also enjoyed a beautiful day cross-country skiing and hit the outlets in Park City. But I have to say I think the best part was not having anyone wake us up bright and early in the morning!




I am so thankful to be married to such a wonderful husband, father, and friend. I truly do count my blessings each day and am so thankful that I have the great blessing of a temple marriage to Brad. I love you honey and can't imagine where I would be without you! Thanks for two beautiful children, 5 wonderful years and many more to come!

Bear Lake

We went on a 3-day trip to Bear Lake after Christmas with Brad's family. We had lots of fun catching up with all of them. Those 3 days were the only ones where all of his side of the family was able to get together. Brad's parents were nice enough to let all of us "adults" go snowmobiling while they stayed back and watched the grandkids--what a feat that was for them! We also spent our time sledding, swimming, and hanging out (mostly while playing the Wii we brought up). Unfortunately, I did not get many pictures of anyone but Ella and her cousin Emily--so this trip will be largely told based on their experiences together. I'll have to get more pictures of the group next time around. . .

Ella and Brad went sledding with Emily and Uncle Jeff

All giggles at bedtime

Swimming at the condo pool--it was the PERFECT temperature! (I think it was also Maggie's first time swimming in a pool). Is that sad that I'm not sure? Poor neglected 2nd child! Super Mario Kart fun! Brad and I before we head out snowmobiling The beautiful sunrise--our girls were the only ones nice enough to get their parents up in time to see this beauty!

Crawling

Maggie started crawling on Christmas Day--a day before she turned 8 months and a few weeks ahead of when Ella started. Maybe it was the added incentive of getting around to all the great toys Santa brought, who knows? Our little baby is now mobile and into everything--watch out! I'm sure this video will not be of interest to many of you, but I wanted to have it recorded on here anyway.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas spent with our families in Utah. Santa was very good to our girls this year, but their grandparents were even better--imagine that!

When we asked Ella what she wanted Santa to bring her for Christmas she always said she wanted books. I love how she is so simple to please--she never wants anything extravagant. (Hopefully that is a trait that will remain, however I'm sure that is wishful thinking). It was especially nice that she just wanted books this year, considering the fact that anything Santa brought has to travel with us on an airplane in a week of so. Ella still got a few toys, but mostly got a ton of new books that she is already memorizing and beginning to read to herself. Maggie also got a few new (little) toys to enjoy. I really feel we were able to keep Christmas very simple this year. This has always been a goal of Brad and mine's and I think this is the first year we were actually able to pull it off and not go overboard.
Hopefully we can keep it up in the future when our kids are old enough to know the difference!

Here are a few pics of the festivities with our families and a handful of the presents. . .

Christmas Lights

My mom went down with us to see the lights at Temple Square before Christmas. We had to take Trax down, given Ella's fascination with Trains, and then we spent the night walking around Temple Square in the freezing temperatures and snow. I'm glad we made it out to see the lights anyway as we missed our chance last year when we were in town. It always helps us with our Christmas spirit!

Why I need to figure out Photoshop. . .

The girlies in their festive Christmas dresses. . .
(courtesy of Grandma Draper)








I need to spend more time on Photoshop. I have 2 cute girls who never seem to be able to make a cute face in the same shot! There are about 10 more pics just like this--one looking, one looking away; one smiling, one staring. Any tips on transferring faces on pictures? Better yet, anyone just want to do it for me?
And while you are at it, can you move Maggie's headband to the side of her head so she looks like less of a cyclops? Gotta love it!

Sledding

We took advantage of a mid-week snowstorm last week and took Ella and her cousin Emily sledding at good old Sugarhouse park.


It was Ella's first time sledding, she was not a fan after going down the first run and having snow bury her face. It took some convincing to get her up there again, but once she did she enjoyed it and the girls had lots of fun together!

Denver Interviews

We are starting to get towards the end of interview season and are looking forward to having Brad home with us more rather than traveling all around interviewing for different residency programs. The first week of December he had 2 interviews in Denver. We decided to make a family trip out of it and visit our friends the Stutzneggers who live out that way. We had such a fun time hanging out with them. They were such gracious hosts to our family, and even gave us more of our own space than we have in our own home! We spent most of our time just visiting and letting the kids play together. In fact, we enjoyed it so much we are considering moving into their basement! You're okay with that, right Conrad and Courtney?


Brad and Conrad--I swear if we didn't interrupt them they could stay like this and talk all day and night!

Cute little Maggie

Ella loved playing with Weston, he was so sweet to her.


Maggie with Momma--this girl is right in the middle of some serious attachment issues--if I am in the room, she insists I hold her. . .no one else will do!


Courtney and I


Rub-a-dub-dub 4 kids in a tub. It was fun to give them all a bath at the same time. but I'll be honest, it was also pretty crazy!


Thanks again you guys, we can't wait to see you soon!