Road Trip!

We are going to California to spend Thanksgiving with my family tomorrow! My sisters Karlee and Whitney are taking the kids tomorrow and Matt and I are meeting them a few days later. Matt and I are taking a mini vacation and spending a day in Vegas and then driving up to Lake Tahoe. I've never been to Lake Tahoe so I am pretty excited. We really don't have a plan, we are just going to make it up as we go. I know it is supposed to be really beautiful there so I'm sure it will be fun. It will be nice to have a few days just the two of us and then we can meet up with all of my family later. Hopefully it will work out seeing that we don't have one thing booked or planned! Wish us luck! Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving.

Hiding

I was at the gym and the Kids Care called me in to change Ella's diaper. I took her into the locker room and got a diaper and then I couldn't find her! I kept calling her name and looking everywhere and then I heard this little, "peek a boo!"

Wake Up!

Kash always knows when Ella is in her room, and of course he always wants to be in there with her. Sometimes he can push her bedroom door open, and this time he did it while she was taking a nap. I love both of their faces in this picture because you can see it all: Ella is completely ticked off to be awakened by her annoying younger brother, and Kash is the triumphant bully!

My little helper

Ella always says, "mom, ella make cookies." She loves to help me in the kitchen and "mits." (mix). So she was helping me make pumpkin bread and Matt got a picture of her in action. This was the first time we got out her apron and she was pretty proud of it!

Don't mind my Diet Coke on the counter! It is very necessary....:)

Kim and Kyle

Last weekend my niece Kim got married to Kyle Neva. She looked so beautiful and her dress was gorgeous. We were able to see them get married in the temple and then we went to the reception that night. Ella was SO excited to see Kim in her dress, she kept saying, "I wanna see Kimmie!" over and over.

Fireworks?

Matt bought this 3 foot sparkler and let Ella try it out. While she was having fun with that, he decided to play a prank on us. He also bought some firecrackers.....and wanted to scare Nate, Audrey, and I. So all of a sudden the firecrackers went off right next to us and Ella was TERRIFIED. Matt obviously wasn't thinking about Ella's reaction to this. Here she was holding this huge stick that was on fire and gunshots went off right by her! She ran at me (yes almost impaling me with the sparkler) and burst into tears. I think sometimes Dad's are too busy having fun to, um I don't know...THINK! haha she fully recovered from this traumatic experience don't worry.

The 3rd and Final Day....

Don't judge me. I really tried. Really. I mentally prepared myself for the potty training process. I knew it would be hard, I knew it would be messy, I knew it would be frustrating, but I was ready. And I really thought Ella was too. For three days we went at this hard core. Every twenty minutes the timer went off and it was potty time. We would sit in the bathroom together for hours. We would read books on the potty and sing songs on the potty. She watched her friend go potty, she watched me go potty. We had potty charts, special stickers, rewards. All the incentives including candy and tattoos (her favorites!). In short, she did not go potty in the toilet once. Not one time. She would be on the toilet at times from 20-30 minutes straight, insist she didn't need to go, we would put the panties back on her, and in less than a minute or two she would pee on the floor. So I gave up, I'm a failure, okay! If I saw ANY progress at all, I would still be potty training her. But honestly from the very first time she sat on the potty until the end of the 3rd day, there was no progress. None. So I finally decided no matter how much I want her to be ready now, she just isnt. And thats okay. I think after the holidays we will try again. Hopefully she will be showing some interest in a couple months. Eventually, she will get it. Right? .........................don't judge me. :)

Oh my kids...

This is what happens when Ella and Kash are playing in Ella's room with the door shut. I went in there to check on them and found this mess. They broke the table, pulled down the drapes, and took everything off of her dresser. The heater and the fan were hanging from the sockets. They knocked down her lamp, smashed it and colored on it. There was juice all over the floor and the toys from a sippy cup. I also found bits of chewed up crayons all over the room (that would be Kash). These pictures don't show the closet which of course had every piece of clothing pulled off of the hangers, and everything off of the shelves.

DAY 1 OF POTTY TRAINING

I started potty training Ella today. It's not even 11 in the morning and I am already going crazy! I'm not sure if I can handle this. It is especially hard having Kash follow us around everywhere. Ella went pee on the floor so I hurried and took her to the potty and by the time I got back Kash was splashing away in the mess! AHHH If you have ANY advice about this process PLEASE let me know. I would be so grateful, really.

More updates to come...

TrIcK oR tReAt

On Halloween we went trick or treating to different family members houses so they could see the kids. Ella loved it so much that she never told me that her new shoes were cutting into her feet and her socks were covered in blood! I felt so bad, but she only cared about getting all of that candy. We pushed Kash around in the stroller and he was loving life too.

Here is our Pirate Princess and Turtle.

Kash looked so funny crawling around in his costume.

Ella really would have trick or treated all night if she could. When people would ask what she was she would just say, "ARRR!"

Our first house was Bob and Dobo's, so we rang the doorbell and sat Kash on the ground. Ella assumed she was supposed to sit down too.

Bob giving Ella her first piece of candy.

They loved their Halloween presents from the great grandparents.

We went to Matt's Aund Jeri's house to see some cousins. We took a picture with Grace...I don't know why Kash looks so scary...

It was a really fun night and I kept thinking how grateful I was to be trick or treating in the nice St. George weather! It was perfect, we didn't even need jackets. Gotta love SG:)

Halloween Cookies

We carried on the tradition of making Halloween Cookies at Bob and Dobo's house (my grandparents). My grandma is so cute with the kids, they both adore her. We had a lot of fun decorating, Ella especially loved all of the sprinkles! Afterward we had a yummy dinner. It is so nice to have grandparents that live close.

They have one cute great-grandma.

Thriller at Tuacahn

It was fun.