Christmas 2014

I love Christmas morning.

I have always woken up early and waited.

Waited for my dad to come home from delivering papers.

Waited for my siblings to wake up.

Waited for my mom and dad to get the camera.

Waited for Katie and Sarah to go a little faster down the stairs.

Now I have to wait for Scott to wake up.

Then for Dean to wake up.

Then for Mark to wake up which is absolute torture because Mark is really annoying to wake up in the morning.

Then we talk about what Christmas is really about then head down stairs.

Oh I totally understand the camera thing because these are my favorite pictures of the day.

Then the waiting continues.

Scott has never been one to rip open wrapping paper.

And he still opens up one and forgets about the others cause he just wants to play with the one in front of him.

Dean did it too.

I just want to see the face I've been imagining since I got the gifts for them.

It was a wonderful Christmas morning in our old home.

I always loved this home in December.

This home was built with Christmas decor in mind.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2015

We had such a great night.

It was filled with cookies, trains, family and lights.

A perfect recipe for a wonderful Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Bath Time= The Best Time

Did you know that these boys have only had a handful of baths together.

Sad but true.

Poor Dean has had his baby bath to sit in but pretty much only showers for us for the last two plus years.

But now we have our bath again and these boys are loving life.

They have been taking a bath everyday, sometimes even two.

Ask Scott what to do he says a bath.

Don't ask Scott what he wants to do, he'll still tell you he wants a bath.

I have a hard saying no.

They are just so happy in the water.

McEvoy Nativity

We got together tonight and had our Christmas Eve nativity act out early.

It was wonderful

Mom made this little stable scene and got all the kids costumes to help them feel the part.

I love that Jaren, Maia and Scott are all old enough to really get into their parts and act it out so sweetly.

Scott got to be the Shepard.

He was kinda having a freak out at first but somehow he pulled it together for his curtain call.

He said his line perfectly and took great care of his sheep.

I love my sweet Scotty and how far he's come.

Christmas is just magical.

Presents

I love presents.

Mark doesn't usually do great with presents.

He just has a hard time figuring things out.

I've gotten in the habbit of taking matters into my own hands.

But this year, he did good.

We went to Lowes and he pretty much let me go crazy.

I got tools, tools and more tools.

I felt like Tim the Tool Man Taylor wanting to grunt at the workers and say more power.

The kids got pretty board but I had a lot of shopping to do.

I can't wait to build and fix things.

I love projects and now I've got the means to make them happen.

Merry Christmas to ME!

Oh and Happy Anniversary too cause this totally counts.

7 years ago

Sparkly

Meet Sparkly.

He's our new elf.

Santa sent him this year to help keep an eye on Scott and Dean.

Scott was so excited to see him.

We've come to find out that he's quite the mischievous elf.

He's very excited for his first trip to our house and wants to play all sorts of games while Scott and Dean sleep.

Here are just a few of the places we have found him in after we wake up. 

We hope we get to see Sparkly again next year.

We'll see if he's learned some manners within a years time.

Happy Birthday Ryan

 See these cute boys?

Oh how I love this sight.

This is Scott's friend from school.

He's not in school anymore since we moved but Ryan here was having a birthday party and hunted us down to make sure Scott was invited to his party.

I was amazed that he would put so much effort into seeing Scott again.

I called to RSVP and Ryan's mom was so thrilled to hear that we were coming.

She said that Scott was his best friend and he's been so sad since he's moved.

This just warmed my heart.

I asked Scott about Ryan and Scott said he's his best friend and then told me everything about him.

Oh boy were we both excited.

We went to pick him out a present, a present suitable for only a best friend.

Then I went to drop him off.

At that point it finally hit me that I was taking Scott to someones house that has no clue of his issues.

I got nervous.

Real nervous.

But then I got there and thought, I'll stay if I need to.

But when we got there Scott went right over to Ryan and said hi.

Then Ryan got so excited to see Scott he hugged him.

And the other little boy from their school ran over and said hi too.

Ryan's mom was so pleased we came.

She treated us like Scott being there was the best gift for her son.

How warm and fuzzy do you think my heart was?

This one kid alone made me rethink moving.

He gives me hope for the future.

And that is the greatest gift I could ask for.

Live Nativity

My parents got tickets to the Alpine Live Nativity.

I thought, cool I liked the one in Draper with the young women, it'll be fun.

Mark didn't feel like going so I took the boys.

Holy cow, it was so much better then the one in Draper.

There were more animals that Scott was able to touch.

That was the fun part.

Then you head up the hill and wonder through these ginormous barns where there is a market place of Bethlehem.

People buying and selling things, children playing games.

Then you walk out and find some shepherds.

Then some angels singing.

After listening for a while we were allowed into a smaller barn.

In there we found a few more animals and a mom and a dad and a sweet little baby.

It was magical.

Scotty and the other kids were shocked and started whispering.

"There's Jesus!"

They said.

I loved sharing this gift with Scott.

Having him see a reflection of the true meaning of Christmas.

Having him feel the sweet spirit of Christmas.

I love this time of year.

I hope we get to come back next year.

Just perfection! 

Packing

I really love packing.

I'm kinda a nazy about organizing the boxes and labeling.

Mark is not allowed to help me pack anything except for his own things.

Even then, he's really not very good at it.

He throws things in his bags, then puts a few other things in boxes, way too much empty space in my opinion.

But when we've started moving in, he always comes to me asking where somethings are.

How am I supposed to know, I didn't pack it.

But I can usually find it, cause I'm pretty awesome.

Anyway, this time around packing is hard.

Dean is hard.

Whatever goes in, he pulls out.

So frustrating.

So we are restricted to nap times or when Mark is home to occupy him.

Scott on the other hand is awesome.

He loves to help.

I love to get him to write my labels.

Well the easy ones.

I tend to get a bit detailed.

Not for the packers help but for mine when we get into the house.

I also love unpacking.

It's like a brand new puzzle with the same pieces.

Well sometimes I get some new pieces after I move in.

I'm so looking forward to our old house and making it feel new again.

It's weird, we're moving into the house while Dean is the same age as Scott when we moved out.

It's like picking up where we left off.

This adventure is going to be good for us.

Now for more boxes, I must go.

This is Not Good Bye

 Look at these sweet ladies.

While living here we've grown to be such great friends.

Mark, Chad and Jeff have also become good friends too.

I love having friends that we can all go out with and I hope that the move doesn't change that.

Soper, you are my crazy nut head sister.

You understand me on a plane that few people do.

Love you crazy lady.

Amber, you are one of the sweetest kindest people I know.

Thanks for all the long talks and the encouraging words.

Baby Burn

We have loved having a fireplace.

It makes me so relaxed seeing the flames and feeling the warmth.

It is the only way to heat our house too.

Sadly Dean is also attracted to the flames as well.

We have always turned the fire place off when he is awake.

But today we didn't get to it soon enough.

He touched the glass.

Here he is soon after it happened.

Here he is a few hours later.

See the blisters on his finger tips too.

It's so sad.

It was so hard to get him to go to bed.

Oh my poor baby bubba.

Moving On

Mark and I have been feeling like we need a change.

We are really getting to big for our misshapen basement.

We've been making it work but something just isn't sitting right.

Fate stepped in when we got notice from the people renting our house that they would be moving out at the end of the month.

So after a LOT of pondering we have decided to move back to our house in Salt Lake.

I have so many mixed emotions about this.

I have finally grown to love our ward.

Or rather love my calling in the ward.

I love my girls.

They are the biggest reason I don't want to go.

My calling and the leaders I work with have been one of the greatest blessings in my life right now.

They give me so much strength and support.

But in the end we have to do what is right for our family.

I'm worried about Scott and the people we will be living around and going to school with.

He is so influential.

I will now be on the hunt for a school for him to go to.

It's kinda strange moving back.

No it's really strange that we will be moving back.

I loved my house and I really like the ward we were in.

And I had such a hard time leaving.

But since I got used to the village I've trained myself to think negatively about it.

I'm so used to thinking of everything that is wrong with it and now I have to start thinking of the good stuff.

I'm excited to have the well divided space.

technically it's similar square footage as this basement but it's laid out so much better there.

The boys will have their own rooms and so will Mark and I.

I'm excited to have more then one bathroom and a bath tub again.

I'm excited to have a place for my sewing stuff to go and a place for the storage that isn't in the front room.

I've been telling Mark that I want to bring the green couches with us since we will have a nice place for a living room.

He thinks we should put the tread mill in there and I'm not ok with that idea.

So I told him if we can't have the green couches (which he hates) then we have to buy new couches for in there.

I think I've just about got him convinced.

See the more I think about it the more it grows on me.

It will be a good change.

There's a lot to do but it's fine cause I enjoy packing and even more then that I love unpacking.

I'm weird I know.

Halloween 2014

This year for Halloween I let Scott decide what he wanted to be.

So I looked up boy halloween costumes on pinterest and we both looked through the pictures.

Scotted enjoyed seeing all the different costumes but only one caught his eye.

He wanted to be a scuba diver.

A big breath of relief on my part came out.

I was worried he would want to be an animal or dinosaur and I kinda feel like he's too big for that.

But a scuba diver, that would be super easy to make and totally fits Scott's personality right now, not to mention my love for all things ocean.

So we went and bought a black sweats outfit, some green duck tape and a couple bottles of root beer.

My mom had goggles and a snorkel.

I also got some cheep tube and connector pieces at Lowes.

I don't really count the sweats into the prices since he'll be able to wear them long after Halloween so the price for this costume was very inexpensive and the time spent was maybe an hour.

As for Dean I knew right after Scott told me what he wanted to be what I wanted him to be.

Why a shark of course.

Last year for Christmas I got a Shark beany for Scott.

It was a bit big for Dean but it would be fine.

I went and got him a grey sweat suit (again something that can be worn all winter long not just that day) and he was done.

This whole not making things complicated thing is starting to grow on me.

And here is the finished product. 

Insanely cute right?!

I couldn't be more please with how cute they looked together.

We went over to a friends house for dinner and trick or treating.

Mark and Dean stayed behind with the guys and babies while Scott and I went out.

We wish we would have all gone out together as a family, Mark missed seeing Scott running from house to house and I missed Dean.

Next year I think we'll try to make it more family time instead of all about friends.

Every year Scott gets more and more excited over holidays and it makes me want to keep that magic alive and going.

I'm so excited to see that happen with Dean too.

Children make everything better.

9 Months Old

Weight: 20lbs  56%

Height: 28"  32%

Head: 18.25"  85%

Fun Fall Weekend

So we are trying to do more fun things with the kids to enjoy the season with them. 

Last year we went to Corn Belly's at Thanksgiving Point with friends and had so much fun that we decided to do it again.

I love doing kid stuff with my kids, maybe even more then I loved doing kid stuff while a kid.

Dean is still so tiny that he pretty much just stays in the stroller the whole time but Scott is so fun to experience things with.

Below is just a sweet pic of my boys.

I hated when my mom would dress me like my sisters but now I get it.

They are just so adorable together.

Gosh I love this forever family of mine.

Lunch Break

We still miss having daddy around during the day from back when he was going to school.

So we decided to go on a field trip up to downtown and have lunch with him.

We still had some money on our gift card to Cheese Cake Factory so that's where we went.

Scotty has been having a hard time lately in the mornings when Mark leaves to go to work and begs him to stay home with him all the time.

So Scott got so excited to ride trax even though you can't really tell by this picture, and have lunch with daddy.

Dean had no idea what was going on but loved hanging with his papa during the day.

I will do anything to go out for food.

And Mark was having a not so great day at work and was so happy we came.

So many happy and silly faces at this table.

We just love our daddy and all the hard work he does for his family.

Murder Mystery

I have always wanted to do a Murder Mystery Dinner.

It just sounds so fun.

So during one of our Beehive planning meetings I mentioned it and the girls loved the idea.

We had to do a lot of planning and preparing, especially us leaders.

We couldn't have done it without Soper,

She pretty much did everything but then again, she has everything.

We can't do much with out her.

She even found this awesome script for us to use that was based on a murder in the Book of Mormon.  The girls had no idea.

We had a 3 course dinner along with dessert and with each course the girls were given another clue as to who may have done it.

In the end they had to cast in their votes as to who they thought did it and then we read from the scriptures and told them the story.

The other classes were so impressed that us Beehives had such an awesome activity.

Yeah, we're pretty much the coolest Beehives around.

The BIG 5!

Holy Cow, when did this happen?!

This kid wont stop growing up.

It's driving me crazy watching him grow so fast when all I want to do is press pause.

Today was one of those days that I wish could go on and on.

We went to the Aquarium with Grandma and Grandpa Ellis and Grandma Lucy and Jaeley and Bradyn.

He had so much fun and everyone had so much fun watching him be so excited seeing everything.

He really is so fun to explore the world with.

Afterwards we went back to our place and met up with Grandma and Grandpa McEvoy and his McEvoy cousins and had cake.

All he wanted was a Shark cake and I enjoyed giving him that.

Super easy using his toys for decor too.

On his actual birthday we got to go to Airborn with his Ellis cousins.

He really loves his family and they really love him.

Scotty is so full of life and it makes ours so much sweeter since he came around.

A little about Scott at 5:

His favorite color is green

His favorite foods are ice cream and hot dogs. 

(He eats so many things now but these are still his favorites)

His favorite dinosaur is a T Rex.

His favorite sea creature is the Great White Shark.

His favorite animal is a panther.

His favorite thing to do is play with toys and getting new toys.

He loves playing with friends and being tickled by his dad.

He is such a great big brother and loves to make Deano laugh.

He is still so quick to laugh and smile but can still through so huge fits when the time is right.

He loves school and learning and is starting to put sounds together and reading a few words.

He will still cuddle with his mom every morning and loves hugs and kisses.

Happy Birthday Scott Jay Ellis!

We love you to bits and pieces.

Height: 44.6"  80%
Weight: 46lbs  80%
BMI:  16.3 kg/m^2  74%

School Pics 2014

OH!

MY!

PERFECT!

PICTURE!

Holy cow my kid is cute!

And seriously, He's So BIG!

When did he get so old?

Now I have to tell you, I had to fight for a smile with this kid.

He was having a serious melt down a semi second before the click.

I had to do so much bargaining to get this smile.

A happy meal and an ice cream.

Gosh he's a tough cookie but totally worth it for this AMAZING pic.

This boy makes me sad for other moms who's sons aren't as cute as mine, which is like everyone cause Scotty is just the cutest around.

I know, I'm a bit obsessed with my kid.

I just love him so much. 

Jilly Bean

Today my Jilly Bean got married.

Oh how I love this girl.

She is one of my heroes.

I went to the bountiful temple to witness it and oh how my heart sings for this girl.

And Holy Cow, she was absolutely GLOWING!

I don't think I've ever seen her look more beautiful.

I made a complete fool of myself though.

I gave her a hug after wards and walked right past her new husband and didn't say a thing.

I just didn't think about it, no, I don't know how one doesn't think about it.

I must have blinked or wiped a tear from my eye and walked right past.

I'm such a ditzy, rude idiot.

Anyway, after wards we went to her grandma's house in Lehi to celebrate and I apologized profusely to her husband, Aaron.

He was teasing me about it which is a good thing, cause even though we just met we are already past the awkward polite hump and now on the friendly banter and joking life long friendship path like Jilly is with Mark.

Like all weddings I couldn't help but think of mine and Mark's.

Oh how I love being married and Mark is my very best friend.

He and I just have the best time together and being silly together.

We had so much fun remembering our special day during her big day.

Heaven

It sucks when babies are sick.

And when Mark is sick I can never tell who's the bigger baby.

But there is one wonderful thing that happens when babies are sick.

Cuddles!

Lots and lots of cuddles.

Oh cuddling is one of my very favorite things.

I love when this boy falls asleep on me.

It really does feel like Heaven to me.

Wait, What?

While watching Saturday morning cartoons today with Scott we had the following conversation:
Mark- "I take it mermaids aren't very smart." 
Scott- "yeah, like mom."
Me- "wait, is mom smart or not smart?" 
Scott (matter of factly)- "NOT smart."
Mark (while laughing)- "That's not very nice Scott."
Scott (kinda in a yell)- "NO, she's adorable!"

Thanks I guess.

I think I need to teach Scott that people can be more then one thing.

First of the Last

Scott is starting his last year of preschool.

He will once again be going to two different schools.

He is going to Mrs. Lockwood's school with all new people and a new school with all new people and teachers.

Yeah, I'm a bit nervous.

I'm excited for some one on one time with Dean but having Scott home has been fun this summer.

But Scott is excited.

He loves school and always seem to be happier after school.

So we shall just have to wait and see how it goes.

And say a lot of prayers, for him and for me.

Aaaaagghhhhhhhh!

So it's true, I'm obsessed with my boys.

Everything they do is just so cute and so perfect.

Like this face right here.

You might not be able to tell but this is Dean's kiss face.

Don't be afraid that he's about to eat you.

If you see this coming at you, it means that he likes you and wants to slobber all over your cheek.

We pretty much only give kisses on the cheeks in this house.

Ogden Temple Walk Thru

Oh how I love living in Utah, the land of the Temples.

We as Young Women got to go on a tour of the newly remodeled Ogden Temple.

It looks so much better then it used to.

I loved experiencing it with my girls too.

I got to tell them a few things about the rooms, tell them about the Mt. Timpinogus Temple that was built when I was their age, share my testimony of the divinity of temples.

Yes it was a glorious day in deed.

1.    I love to see the temple.I'm going there somedayTo feel the Holy Spirit,To listen and to pray.For the temple is a house of God,A place of love and beauty.I'll prepare myself while I am young;This is my sacred duty.
2. I love to see the temple.I'll go inside someday.I'll cov'nant with my Father;I'll promise to obey.For the temple is a holy placeWhere we are sealed together.As a child of God, I've learned this truth:A fam'ly is forever.

Scott's New Wheels

Scott has finally started to show interest in riding a bike.

All he needed to say is, "Mom, I want a bike."

That's all he needs to say and I go strait to the store.

Ever since Mark and I got married I have dreamed of Mark teaching our children how to ride.

But Mark has never wanted to push his interest on Scott.

I haven't wanted to either but I do want to see my son take an interest in the things that interest us.

So I've waited.

But now we're on our way.

Of course he needed a helmet.

I let him pick it out so he would want to wear it.

Safety first.

So to help him get the hang of it we take him to the church parking lot during the week.

Great place to practice, very few obstacles.

I don't know how long we'll need the training wheels and to be honest I don't care at this point.

I'm just so happy he's on a bike.

Book of Mormon Read-a-Thon

I can't say it enough.

MY YOUNG WOMEN ROCK!

We Read the entire Book of Mormon in two days.

TWO DAYS!

Can you believe it?

Incredible, we are, we are.

we started at 8 am on Friday morning and read till 10 that night.

We started again at 7 am on Saturday and finished late that night, I don't even remember when it was but the important part is that we finished.

We had so much support from the ward too.

Soper arranged for people from the ward to come and read certain parts.

Ginell and I made costumes for them all so they could dress up like the prophets they were reading for.

1- Some of my reading buddies, Lexi and Paris.

2- Here's Nephi Reading to us atop the boat he built.

3-You really can't only have one place and one person reading for the whole two days so we moved around a lot, had lots of people reading including listening to the churches recording.

4- Omni came to read to us of his prayer of repentance.

5- We also sprawled out and read to ourselves.

6- Oh how the girls enjoyed having our ward missionaries come over and read the parts of Alma and Amulek.

7- The Bishop came over in his armor and read for Captain Moroni.

8- We got each of the girls a black Book of Mormon and a marking pencil so they could follow along.  We also made them drop their cell phones in a basket as they walked in.  They got to check them over lunch and dinner and that was it.

9- Moroni, son of Mormom, came and read us the end.

It was so incredible.

One thing that really hit me hard was how all the prophets, like non stop through the book, spoke of their testimony of the Christ.

I mean, I always new that they were waiting for Christ to come and after he did they tried so hard to keep the people living in remembrance of Him, but I concentrated on the story I guess.

The vast majority of the book takes place before Christ comes but they all preached of his come.

Their goal was to bring the people to Christ.

Do I live my life that way?

Do I live my life so that people know that I am a desiple of Him?

It has really made me think.

Well, I have finished the Book of Mormon again and that means I get to share my testimony again.

I don't know how many times I have read it now, I kinda wish I knew.

But in many ways it doesn't matter how many times you have read it, so ling as you discover for yourself that it is true.

And I know that this book is a true book.

I know that the prophets were commanded to right the things that they did.

I know that by living my testimony of the gospel I will find true happiness and live with him some day.

I know that the prophets today speak of Christ just as the prophets of old did because they want to bring true happiness to the children of man.

I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and that he translated the gold plates.

I know that he Saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and commanded him to restore their Gospel.

I know that Christ lived.

I know that He suffered for my sins and the sins of the world so that I and my family could repent and live with Him again.

I know that he rose after the third day and later went to the Americas to show himself to them and preach to them.

I know these things because I have asked my Heavenly Father if these things are true and He sent the Holy Ghost who told it was true.

I know that all who ask, wanting to know Gods will for them will also receive and answer to their prayers also. 

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Mark's Birthday

Oh I love this man of mine.

He is so perfect for me it bugs me sometimes.

He is my oposite in so many ways and I'm so glad cause I'm so annoying.

We didn't do a lot for his birthday but it works cause if you ask him what he wants to do he'll say stay home.

So we just hung out and gave him lots of loves.

Happy Birthday Babe!

You're the BEST!

Mash

 I love girls camp.

Always have and I hope I always will.

It makes me feel young.

I love my girls.

I love the other leaders I work with

I love the spirit that is there.

I love the mountains.

I love swimming in lakes

I love the hiking.

I love the messages shared.

I love the fires.

I love snacking.

I love the games.

I love the skits.

I love it all!

Well i don't love the singing but I can deal with that if it means I get to do all the other stuff.

We had an awesome place to camp.

We were super close to our own private lake with a zip line.

We had pretty great weather most of the time too.

We got to do an obsticle course that helped get the girls out of whatever shells they had built up, our girls get along super good anyway but stuff like this always helps.

We did a mock battle too.

Lamenites vs. Nephites

We got to climb the rock walls.

I gave the girls some tough love by yelling at them as they climbed.

They kept wanting to give up and I'm the only one who's allowed to quit things.

Never these girls, they can do hard things, and now they know it.

We went exploring in the woods looking for a moose.

Didn't find it but we played some fun pranks along the way.

We played so many fun card games.

I played a new one called "Spot It".

I'm buying it right after I write this because it was so much fun and I know that Scotty would love it as well as my family.

Us leaders stayed up late most night just chatting and gossiping and giggling like school girls.

I love these amazing women I get to work with.

I felt the spirit so strong.

Girls Camp has a spirit that can reach even the hardest heart.

It is probably one of the most sacred places for me.

I can't do it justice.

I want a daughter so bad just so I can go with her there.

But for now I'm just so happy that I have all these amazingly awesome young women on loan to me.

Oh That Face!

Can't have too many of a great thing!

And this thing is PERFECT!

Daddy Nose Best

One of Dean's favorite things to play with is Mark's nose.

He grabs is, "kisses" it, bonks his head on it.

It's just so out there and big, i guess he knows it'll fit perfect in his hands.

But really Mark's face is so cute that why wouldn't he want to admire it.

Maybe Dean will have the same nose someday and his kid will do the same.

I say let babies play with whatever toy they want so long as it's safe and puts a smile on their face.

And look at that face.