What Does A Princess Do On Her Birthday?

First she has to make her own cupcakes!




then she has to get rid of her binkies......





Then she got to have lunch and go to, Build A Bear, with her "Prince Charming"......




then she had to get rid of a few more binks....







she wrote a letter to Santa Clause at the mall.....



she had a very fun Princess and Pirate Birthday Party.....



Michelle was the best thing that ever happened to Ellie's party! She entertained the kids for a whole hour and a half. She had them do a fashion show, act out stories, and had a picture treasure hunt that ended with a treasure. I could not have loved her more!!! I actually enjoyed Ellie's party and would totally do it again.

Fashion Show Pictures.....





kids watching Michelle.....









A princess has to have presents...


and lots of hugs...


This princess got a "big girl" bed and loved sharing it with Emily and Carter..




This is a classic picture of Ellie playing with one of her gifts the day after her birthday and first night without any binkies!! If you think that she looks bad you should see what Mitch and I looked like.....let's just say it was not the best night of sleep we have ever received.

What Do You Do In Arkansas???

I got asked this question a lot before I left for Ellie and my adventure to Arkansas. My brother, Spencer and his family live there. He works for corporate Walmart and that is where the corporate offices are located. Ellie and I had a great time. It was fun to have Ellie be able to spend so much time with her cousins. Spencer and Amanda were great hosts. Grandma Pat, Ellie and I ate more food in the one week that we were out there than we usually do in a month. Spencer and Amanda are both great cooks. Some of the highlights of are trip were going to a very fun pumpkin patch, have a "tea party" at a special restaurant, going to a movie with Amanda with NO KIDS, the library, story and singing time at the Childrens' Garden, having a special birthday party for Ellie which included cookies with candles on them, singing and disco bowling, and getting on my over sold flight which I was on standby for!!!

Cookie Heads

Mitch's parents, Mike and Nancy, came home from their 1 year mission to St. George. They arrived home on October 14th. We love having them home. It actually feels like they never left! With their arrival home we had many family activities. Mitch's brother Michael and his family drove to Utah from Denver to spend the week with everyone. We had a great time seeing them. Ellie is so lucky to have so many wonderful cousins who love her and are so kind to her. One of the activites that we did was, head over to Gardner Village to see the "Witches"! Grandma Nancy, being the thoughtful person that she is printed out a scavenger hunt for the kids that they could do while they were there. If you completed the scavenger hunt you could turn it into the bakery for a homemade cookie. All of the kids completed their paper including the four, three or soon to be three year olds. Let's just say that they had a little bit of help. I actually think that some of the adults were more into the scavenger hunt than the kids. While they were eating there cookies I happened to say that the cookies where as BIG AS THEIR HEADS! They all thought that was really funny and started to put the cookies up to their heads to measure, I just could not resisted taking a few pictures.


Brooklyn


Ellie


Ella


McClain


Drew


Bradley





Ellie and Grandma


Lauren and Grandma

Can You Believe It ???

Can you believe that it was this warm just last week? Well...it is true, it was! These pictures are taken in my neighbors backyard just last Friday. The kids had so much fun playing outside in the warm weather. I am starting to brace myself for the cold weather. I really hate it. Every Winter I wonder why I live in Utah!!

A Few Of My Favorites

These are a few pictures of Mitch's sister Kristy's Family.

These Two??

The other day Mitch was talking with Ellie. Ellie looked at Mitch and said, " I just love Ethan and Ethan just loves me and we don't even know why!" Mitch said that it was all he could not to start laughing. These two have been friends ever since we moved into our new neighborhood about two and a half years ago. Ethan is one month older than Ellie. They love going to nursery together, playing in our backyard in the sand for hours, and watching movies. Laurie, Ethan's mom, and I have learned that it is a lot easier to have both of them together especially when it is meal time. They both eat so much better when the other one is eating. Peer pressure is a great thing when you are two!! The other night I was tutoring and Mitch was watching Ellie and Ethan. I came downstairs when I was done tutoring and asked Mitch where Ethan and Ellie were. He told me that they were in the basement playing. It was a little quite and I was worried about a few things that they could get into. Mitch went down to check on them within two seconds I hear Mitch yelling, "TORI COME HERE!!" I ran down the stairs then quickly ran back up the stairs to get my camera. They had found the face paint that I had used at my 10 year reunion to paint the kids faces. Ellie had known exactly what to do with the paint and was teaching Ethan. We moved them upstairs and outside. They played outside like this for about an hour. Laurie had to run to the store so I put Ethan and Ellie both in our bath tub and their clothes directly into the washing machine. The face paint must have an oil base because it was not coming off their bodies with regular soap. I had to use my Clinic makeup remover all over their bodies and their hair to get the paint out! Luckily most of it came off their clothes.

I almost forgot to mention that when I asked Ellie what she was when she was all painted she replied, " A PRINCESS! When I asked Ethan the same question he replied that he was....., "A BOY!" These two are HILARIOUS.

Boondocks

Last Friday Mitch had a "work team building activity" at a fun place by our house called, Boondocks. His day of work consisted of playing all day, followed by dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Dinner was suppose to include the wives but Shanti, a girl that I work with, was getting married. All of the teachers and especially my mom said that they would help her with the food. Mitch took Ellie as his date instead of me! He said that she was really good and LOVED the cookie dough cheesecake that they got for dessert. After I got done with the wedding Mitch and Ellie picked me up. Mitch had taken some wristbands from the people that he works with when they finished at Boondocks. Since the wristbands were good for the whole day we went back and used them!! Mitchell and Spencer met us there and used the wristbands as well. Mitchell had to sport some of his new found trend, "shoelace necklaces", I guess that they are suppose to be really cool in high school? There is even a special knot that you have to tie at the bottom. He says that he can tie it for you if you want one! I am holding out for now. Mitchell also looked under all of the machines and on the floor to find extra tokens. I bet that he found over 20!! I have them in my car and we are saving them for the next time that we go. It was too late by the time he found them, they were closing. I think that it will be a perfect place to take Ellie in the winter. They have a cool kids area that cost three dollars to get into. It has a ton of really fun slides (I went on them!) and other fun stuff to keep her occupied. We ended up getting home at about 12:30AM. Ellie was as happy as could be. I swear that she is a teenager not a 2 year old.