Eisenhart Family

Oh poo - I mean Pooh!

2011-09-26T23:26:00.000-06:00

I can't believe my little sweetheart is 1!!!! He was so tiny just a year ago. I love you my sweet little William.

On William's Birthday he was outside playing on the playground with the kids. I went inside to get the camera and when I came back out William had a mouth full of dirt! When I grabbed his hand to get the dirt out of his hand he did the death grip (if you are a mom you know what I'm talking about). Then I tried to wipe the dirt out of his mouth and he did lock jaw. I know I should have taken a picture at this point, but I was a little freaked out when at that moment I realized he was eating rabbit POO!!!!! Yum what a tasty Birthday treat.

William turned 1 on the 21st and we had his Birthday party last night. I made a Winnie the Pooh cake for him. He wasn't excited about it until he was able to really dig in. It was fun having family over to celebrate William's Birthday. At his Dr. appointment last week William was in the 10th percentile for height and the 75th percentile for weight. He started walking at 11 months and gets going so fast that I think he is almost running.

Dancing Queen(s)

2011-06-10T22:10:00.003-06:00

Ella and Elysee had their dance performance and they were SO cute! They were so excited about it and even more excited to wear makeup. I definitely have some girly girls. They danced to the song "Sugar Sugar"

Here is the before...... and the after!
Striking a pose

Getting butterflies in the tummy

Practicing their favorite expression in the performance

Elysee

Ella

They wished the big lollipops were real

Ella had a rough time when I had to leave to find my seat

but did just fine when she got out there

Ella is the 2nd from the left and Elysee is the 3rd from the left

Quick Catch Up

2011-06-06T23:40:00.006-06:00

I have a bunch of pictures, and my sweet sisters and friends keep asking to see updated pictures, so here they are:

This is for sure my favorite picture! It's crazy having all 4 kids in the bath, but it's even crazier trying to get them out, get them to stop running around, put lotion on, get them to stop running around, get underwear/diapers on, get them to stop running around, and then get jammies on. They were cute and sweet enough to hold still so I could snap this priceless photo.

I had a great mothers day. All of the kids gave me bouquets of fun colorful daisy's. I am so grateful that I am a mom to 4 fun beautiful kids.

We love to have movie nights with homemade caramel popcorn. Even William likes to get in on the fun.

Our kids sure love their Grandma, Grandpa, Nonna, and Papa.

William sure likes to help around the house. He helps me empty the dishwasher just like the big kids!

My cute boys

Oh NO! Dean got into the lip gloss AGAIN!!!

Ella's 1st year of preschool is over! She is so big, I can't believe it :)

Ella painted her own fingernails and toenails - so pretty!

Happy Birthday to Ella

2011-05-18T09:19:00.007-06:00

Better late than never right? My sweet Ella turned 4 last month. I can't believe how big she is. She is a smart little thing and is always saying the funniest things. She has started to get her own little sense of humor and she tries to make up jokes (they don't always make the most sense but they're funny). Ella is such a great helper. She is always wanting to help with William. She loves to play house, play pretend, she likes to play outside, ride her bike and play with her barbies. Ella loves her dance class and has recently figured out how to do cartwheels (she has also tried to teach me - to no avail).

We had Ella's Birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese and had the whole family there (with the exception of my sisters in Alaska - we miss you!) We told Ella she could go to a movie for her birthday. We asked if she wanted a date with mom or dad. She said she wanted a date with the whole family! We took all of the kids and went to "Gnomeo and Juliet". Ella wanted a ladybug Birthday cake. I wanted to do a homemade birthday cake for her, like my mom always did. But my planning on time wasn't the greatest! When we got home from the movie, we had 1 hour before we had to leave. Luckily I made the fondant before hand, but boy was that a crazy hour! Ella had such a great birthday and we all had lots of fun at Chuck E. Cheese. Happy Birthday my Ella Bella! We love you.

Yes, I did a post!!!!!

2011-05-08T01:00:00.005-06:00

I know it has been WAY too long. I don't have any great excuses, except that I am a full time working mother of 4 and I don't know the meaning of "extra time" for blogging. Every time I think about posting pictures and doing something "quick" I just get overwhelmed because I don't know where to start. So here I go...

William is now 7 months old and he is about the cutest thing ever! He is now crawling - and has been army crawling since just before he turned 7 months. He get's around the house so fast! He always wants to be in the action with the other kids. He follows them all around the house. Dean calls him "buddy" all of the time (it's adorable). Ella is a great little helper and makes sure the ground is clean so William doesn't choke on anything. Sometimes I catch Elysee talking to him in the sweetest little voice and she likes to bring him mountains of toys.

Elysee is a fun little angel, but at the same time, she is just TROUBLE. When she doesn't get her way, boy does she have a scream! She is so shy in front of other people, but when she warms up to you her fun little personality comes out. Lately she likes to fill up bags/backpacks/sacks/purses etc. with whatever she can find (toys, food, paper) she carries it all around with her. In the evening when it's time to clean up the house I dread finding one of her bags, because I know it will take a while to put all of that crap away. (it's really funny) Elysee is taking dance with Ella and she loves it. She is always a couple of steps behind and it is so cute. A couple of months ago we were talking to her about dance and we said do you know what day dance is? And out of the blue she said, "Tuesdays". We weren't expecting her to actually know, so it threw uss off a little bit. She might be quiet, but she is observant.

Dean is so mischevious but he is really tender hearted too. He loves to dress himself (and he likes to pick out clothes for Ely). He changes his outfit a few times a day and then asks if he looks cool. He loves to chase the girls around the house and tease them. He loves pirates and has some Pirates of the Carribean crocks (that are too big) but they are his favorite shoes. I think I need to put him in gymnastics because he loves tumbling. He has no fear (scary!). He's always trying to breakdance too. Love it!!!! He is now totally potty trained, so now I only have William in diapers.

Ella is sure a spunky little thing. She turned 4 in March and we had her birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. She loves to sing and dance. She makes up her own songs all of the time and she can come up with some pretty funny lyrics! She loves to play house and likes to be the boss of everyone. Lately she hasn't been the most honest kid. She will be mean to Dean or Ely and they'll come tell me. Ella will get this look, and say she didn't do anything. The other day I asked her how preschool was, she said, "I didn't go to preschool". And went on eating lunch. I glared at John and said, "I thought you said you took her to preschool today." He started laughing and said, "I did take her to preschool!" So I asked Ella again, "Did you do anything fun at preschool?" She said, "Mom, I told you, I didn't go to preschool today!" She acted irritated that I would even question her again. So then I got after John and said, "hun, why didn't you just tell me she didn't go?" At this point John was chuckling, and he said, "Kelli I am not lying! Ella is! Watch this... Ella, who's birthday was it at preschool today?" She looked at him, rolled her eyes and said, "Garrison, dad!" I wish I could've gotten it all on video, because I'm sure the look on my face was priceless. I couldn't believe what a good liar she was!!!! What in the world?!? Where did that come from? After I asked her why she lied to me, she laughed and said so matter of factly, "mom, I was just being a sneaky fox".

Our little William is here!

2010-09-29T21:33:00.004-06:00

William Robert Eisenhart joined our family last week.

He was born on Tuesday, September 21st.

He weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and was 21 inches long.

I love the way they do pictures at the hospital now. Instead of having a "mug shot" they have someone come in and take professional pictures. In the pictures he is less than 1 day old! He is so incredibly handsome. We all just love him SO much. Ella is a little mommy and loves to hold him ALL of the time. Dean and Ely are really sweet with him and give him little gentle kisses.

4th of July Fun

2010-07-19T15:12:00.006-06:00

Fun outfits from Nona Eisenhart

Daytime fireworks

Dean's first time ever playing with a toy gun (brought by a cousin) and he didn't want to put it down!

Yummy Yummy

Trampoline Fun

Both big and little kids had fun on the playground

We had a great 4th /3rd of July. We had the whole Briggs family over for a fun BBQ. We did the same thing last year, so I guess it is now a tradition. The kids all loved the new backyard with the big playground and trampoline. We did a few "daytime" fireworks and the kids thought it was great! It was nice to have the family over and have all of the cousins playing together. Since two of my sisters live in Alaska it was a rare thing to have everyone together. I am so thankful that we live in a great Nation and have the freedoms that we have.

Boooo to my computer!

2010-05-13T14:06:00.004-06:00

I just want to say BOOOOO to my computer! I would really like to do a post of Disneyland with lots of cute pictures, but my pictures are all on my laptop (which is broken). As soon as it is fixed expect lots of cute pictures!

Only two more weeks until summer! I think I am more excited than my students. We have a lot of fun things that we are going to do this summer. Right now we are in the process of making our backyard a "kid paradise". Who am I kidding it is going to be a family paradise. We are having a fence put in this week, which will make me and the kids so happy. I can send them out to play without having to worry that they will wander into the street. We are tripling the size of our garden. Wahoo! A big playground and trampoline are coming soon. And in September we are getting a 2 story playhouse. I am just giddy about it!!!!

Both of my sisters and their kids that live in Alaska are coming to visit this summer. I can't wait to spend some good quality time with them. We have a lot of fun activities planned with the Briggs side of the family.

Ella is going to be taking swimming lessons, itty-bitty soccer, and start pre-school this summer. She is so excited for "big girl school". She keeps on saying I get to go to school, like mommy's school.

Dean and Elysee are just going to explore this summer. They are starting to talk more and more. It's really interesting if Dean is alone with me he talks quite a bit, but when the girls are around he lets them do the talking. He's learning young how to be a boy! Haha.

Easter Fun

2010-04-26T19:18:00.005-06:00

We had a great Easter at our house! The Easter Bunny made three stops for our family.
One stop was in Heber at Grandma and Grandpa Briggs' house. We sure had a lot of fun. Ella was really good at finding the hidden prizes. Dean's favorite part was picking up the candy, then throwing it so he could pick it up and then "find" it again. Elysee was Grandma's buddy and held her hand the whole time.

The next stop was at Nana and Papa Eisenhart's house. There were fun Easter baskets and lots of candy filled eggs.

Last but not least the Easter Bunny stopped at our house. What a crazy morning! John didn't get home from work until 9:00 AM. (We were going on vacation at 10:00 AM) The kids just couldn't wait to play with their fun things from the Easter Bunny. They all got gardening things, because they love to play outside in the dirt. Everyone got a few outfits, and lots of candy. Ella and Ely received Disney Princess Barbies, and Dean got a Buzz Light Year action figure (although Dean and Ely ended up swapping toys). They were making big fun messes while we loaded up the car to head to DISNEYLAND! That Easter Bunny sure is smart, he even knew to put Disney type presents in the Easter baskets. (I just went to upload pictures of this and I didn't even take any!!! - It really was a busy morning)

We need your help - and BIG NEWS

2010-04-19T17:46:00.003-06:00

Many of you will remember the photo contest we entered Ella in a couple of years ago where she won first prize (thanks to many of you who voted for her). We have entered the twins (Dean and Elysee) in a local photo contest on the radio. The prize is to win a dream nursery and free diapers for a year.

You may ask "Why would they want that when their babies are 20 months old?" Well, we can actually use it because WE ARE EXPECTING A BABY BOY IN SEPTEMBER!!!!! Yes, it's true we will have 4 kids ages 3 and under, needless to say, it really would help to have everyone vote so we can have the free diapers and nursery.

This time there are 2 rounds - the top 10 will move onto the "finals" and there will be another round of voting. It's really easy and quick to do. Here are the directions...

Just click on this link http://971zht.clearcontests.com/front/OpenContest.asp?Action=Login&SurveyID=63809&zx=361 and vote for #84

If you have never been on that radios website you will need to "register". When you put in your e-mail address it will say that an error occurred, click where it says to try again, then click where it says to register for the first time. I know it's annoying to do, but we would REALLY appreciate it!

Here is their picture (this way you don't have to go through all of them)

The first round of voting ends at noon on April 22nd - yes that is in 1 and 1/2 days!!!

Please forward (or repost this on your own blog) so we can get into the finals. There are 777 entries, our chances are slim, but it's worth a shot.

Thanks everyone for your support!

Disney Princesses On Ice

2009-12-06T10:40:00.004-07:00

Nana Eisenhart asked if I was taking Ella to the Disney Princesses on Ice. I told her I wasn't planning on it. She said if we wanted to go, she would watch Dean and Ely and pay for Ella and I to go. We had such a fun time! Thanks Donnalee!!!

Halloween 2009 and swine flu

2009-12-06T08:03:00.010-07:00

We told Ella to draw a face on this pumpkin and she did this all by herself!I'm still trying to play catch up with my posts. Here are a few pictures of Halloween. Ella was a princess, Dean was Winnie the Pooh and Elysee was Piglet. Ella came to school with me Friday morning and watched the Halloween parade (she loved it!). Then on Halloween (Saturday) we went to McDonald's for breakfast with Nana and TJ.

Later that day my parent's came over and brought dinner, a yummy pizza in the shape of a pumpkin. Then we went to John's parents, where the kids got awesome prizes. Then we came home and went trick-or-treating around our block. We were gone for less than an hour and got a TON of candy! We got the kids to bed at a decent time, then John went to work.

That night I wasn't feeling very good. My whole body was really achy, but I thought it was my arthritis acting up and maybe the weather was changing. When I watched the news and the weather wasn't changing I knew I was getting sick. The entire next day John felt the same way and we were both wearing surgical masks so the kids wouldn't get sick. We suspected H1N1 and we were able to get into the Dr.'s on Monday. The did a test and confirmed that it was the dreaded swine flu! We got on Tamiflu and John immediately started feeling better, but I was getting worse. By Monday night I couldn't even function! I laid in bed with a fever of 103. I called my classroom aid, Cherise, to tell her that I wouldn't be in for a few days and tried to give her lesson plans, but honestly I was delirious and wasn't making sense. Luckily she was awesome and figured it out! By Thursday John and I were back to work, but the kids seemed like they were getting sick. We took them to insta care and yes they all had swine flu! Luckily I was able to take Friday off and then we had the weekend to re coupe. Now hopefully we won't have to worry about swine flu any more. Although it has been a month and Ella still has a cough from it! Who knows what that's about?

Lehi Mascot Bowl

2009-12-03T13:14:00.008-07:00

At the end of September we went to the mascot bowl. Mascots from all over the nation show up to this. There are mascots from the NFL, NBA, Pro Baseball and local Universities. Our family is very lucky because we have a little "in" with Jazz Bear. Papa Eisenhart is friends with Jazz Bear, so Jazz Bear loves our kids. -Jazz Bear even came to our house and turned the sirens on in his car and brought little basketballs to our kids and game some to our neighbors who came out to see what was going on.- All of the kids were really excited to see all of the mascots. Dean's face is priceless when he see's a mascot for the first time. Elysee was also having a great time. Thurl Bailey kept hanging out with our kids and "Big T" stood right over Ely (from super tiny to super tall)

September 2009

2009-12-03T12:29:00.005-07:00

I know it's been a REALLY long time since I have done an update. Since I went back to teaching in August it's been really hectic and I haven't had much time to blog. Here is an update up what's been going on...

This was at Timpanogos High School (where my mother in law teaches). There was a fun fair that we were all able to go to. Ella wanted her hair to be sprayed different colors, so she used some of her tickets to make her hair blue, green, and super sparkly. Ella bought 3 goldfish with some of her other tickets. The next 3 day were rough because each day 1 goldfish died! We had to have a little discussion of what happens when something dies. The first day she was really sad, but the next day (when the 2nd one died) she was ok and said the fish was swimming with Jesus! By the death of the 3rd she didn't think much of it. (We aren't getting any pets anytime soon!)

We went to the Utah State Fair on a perfect day. It was overcast and looked like it was going to rain, but it didn't. It wasn't crowed at all and the temperature was just right! They have a cute area that is completely hands on for kids. They get to see what it would be like to be a farmer, from planting seeds to driving a tractor. At the end we let Ella choose 1 toy. She chose a little umbrella. She loved it so much and kept posing for the camera!

We also love playing at the park! We have a fun bouncer that we take to the park and hook it up to a mini zip line thing. The kids LOVE it. They get laughing so hard every time they get a ride. There are a lot of times that John will take the kids to McDonalds for breakfast then to the park while I'm at work. This was one of the times I was lucky enough to join them.

My babies are 1 !!!

2009-08-29T22:15:00.004-06:00

We have had such an amazing past year with Dean and Elysee. I can't believe that my little sweeties are already a year old (August 21). They are almost walking. Ely will take a few steps then sit down. Dean knows he can get somewhere faster if he crawls. Dean has really become quite the dare-devil. He is climbing on EVERYTHING. Ely is a mama's girl and always wants to be held. Dean has his 2 bottom teeth and Ely got her 1st tooth on the bottom - on her birthday! Elysee is in the 10th%tile and Dean is finally on the chart in the 2nd%tile for weight. They are both average in height. They are definitely two separate kids. They really aren't alike in many ways. One of my favorite things that they do is give each other kisses!!! They both love their big sister Ella. They follow her around and try to do what ever she does. We had a fun little Birthday party with our families. My friend Cherise made some amazing Birthday cakes and the twins received some very nice presents. Happy Birthday my sweethearts!!!!!

Fun at our house

2009-08-05T22:58:00.005-06:00

I love our new house! We have room to play!!!!! The other day John came home from a bike ride and said he was really hot, he asked Ella if she wanted to run through the sprinklers. It was so cute to see them running in the sprinklers together. We also got a fun bouncy blow up thing. Instead of putting it outside, we put in in the basement and it fits perfectly! The whole family has fun on it. We have to really be careful with Ely and Dean, because they have no fear and like to go down the slide (by themselves)! I just love it here.

Fun at the cabin

2009-08-05T22:30:00.004-06:00

My family was going up to our cabin and I wanted to go, but John worked the night before, so he would be asleep during the day. I decided to take on the challenge of all 3 kids by myself. Ella was really excited to go up and see her grandma, grandpa, and cousins. She got all dolled up for the ride up there. When we were little my mom would always do a treasure hunt for us and hide candy all over the place. When we got up there my mom had done the same thing for the kids. It was so cute!!! The kids had a blast. We had a lot of fun until Ella fell off the lower deck onto her face! I was so freaked out because she landed on her face and the rest of her body flipped over while her face stayed in the same place. It looked like she broke her neck! After I stopped shaking I checked her out and made sure she was o.k. Her face got a little banged up, but she is going to have a couple of little scars. She's an accident prone tough little cookie.

I love Lehi

2009-08-05T22:02:00.003-06:00

I absolutely love living here in Lehi! There are fun "small town" types of things to do. During the Lehi Round-up week there were activities going on every day. Movies at the ball park, concerts in the park, a children's parade, and a "big" parade. We ended up going to both parades. Ella LOVED it! The Lehi Fire Dept. held their first annual foam day. They sprayed tons of foam/bubbles all over this big field. Then they would run their sirens and that was your warning that they were going to start spraying. Ella was o.k. with getting her feet in it, but she was not o.k. when we got sprayed. I thought it was fun!

Messy . . . Clean

2009-08-05T21:00:00.006-06:00

Here are a few random pictures of Ella, Dean and Elysee making a mess, looking messy and trying to get clean

Ella tried to hide (behind her hand) when she knew she'd be in trouble
John fed the kids Oreo cookies for breakfast while I was at work, I'm amazed that he captured the evidence in pictures.

Elysee was in the process of getting clean (bath time is quite the process)

He likes to feed himself and he likes to get it everywhere BUT his mouth

Ella loves to play in this mixure of rice and flour - she plays in it at least once a week, while I'm cooking. It usually takes me a 1/2 hour to clean it all up. But you should see how happy she is when she is making "castles"

Dean and Ely make this mess whenever the kids bathroom door is left open

Ely was an emotional mess. She lost her balance and fell and hit her lip. Her poor little lip was SO swollen!

Ella and I testing out the jets in the master bath

Ely loved her first experience with thin mint girl scout cookies

Dean just wanted more and more girl scout cookies

Best Buddies

2009-08-05T20:31:00.004-06:00

Ella has her first real friend! The very first week we moved into our new house the cute kids from across the street came over to check out the new people (us). This cute little boy is Ethan. He comes over all the time to play with Ella. One of the times they were playing and Ethan asked if Ella had any costumes. Of course we only have girly costumes and Ethan was not OK with that. He ran home and had a hulk costume on and put his batman cape over it. I think Ella was in love (just look at the way she is looking at him)! I love that he is 4 and Ella is 2 and that doesn't bother him at all. FYI - there are little boys Ella's age all over our neighborhood, not many girls (we're going to be in trouble if we live here when she's a teenager).

4th of July

2009-08-05T15:51:00.004-06:00

Better late than never - right? We had a great 4th of July. We had my family and John's family over for a BBQ. Then the kids played on the slip 'n slide. Ella kept on going up to the water, getting a tiny bit wet, then running away. We had a great time. Later that night John had to go to work. I put the twins to bed and was about to put Ella down when we heard some fireworks going off down the street. I decided that Ella needed to have the WHOLE experience of the 4th of July. So we went down the street and stayed for just a little while. Ella covered her ears and kept on closing her eyes. When I asked if she wanted to go home, she said "yes, it's too loud." Hopefully next year the twins will be able to see the fireworks.

Happy 5 years

2009-07-22T21:28:00.003-06:00

John and I had our 5th wedding anniversary on June 18th. My in-laws came over and watched the kids while John and I went to a movie. Then on our way home we stopped at the Thai House and got some take out. We got home, hurry and ate, then John had to go to work. I am the luckiest woman to have such an amazing husband. John treats me like a princess everyday. I love you John, thanks for the greatest 5 years of my life! Oh and he bought me the greatest anniversary gift; a new LG steam washer and dryer for our new house - LOVE IT!

Father's Day and John's Birthday

2009-07-22T21:17:00.006-06:00

I didn't do a Father's Day post, but I have to say my kiddo's have the most amazing dad. John is seriously the best Father to our kids. He works the graveyard shift, just so he can spend more time with the kids. He's not afraid to change diapers and be "Mr. Mom". I love you babe! John also turned 31 on June 27th. Happy Birthday John!

It's about time!!!

2009-07-22T21:16:00.002-06:00

I know, I know... it's been a long time since I have done a post so I'll do some short summaries of what we've been up to.

Red, white and blue swap

2009-07-01T23:27:00.006-06:00

Once again Mamrazzi has hosted another amazing swap! I had such an awesome swap partner, Rachel. She sent me so many fun things. Everything was red, white, or blue and sometimes all 3 colors. She was so creative when putting my package together! When Ella saw the package she was SO excited! There were cute little star confetti that Ella loved. It seemed like the presents kept coming and coming. It was the never ending box and I LOVED it. Thanks again Rachel! Here are all of the great things that I received...

Face + Floor = Broken Nose

2009-06-07T22:32:00.003-06:00

It has been a really busy weekend and my in-laws were nice enough to watch Ella Thursday and Friday night so we could pack up some of the condo. Yesterday, while I was at the new house unpacking things I got a phone call from John's sister, Megan. She said, "Ella kind of got hurt, do you want to come get her?" I asked her what happened. She said that Ella was sitting on the counter top while TJ was making a sandwich. Megan walked in and when Ella turned around to see her, she lost her balance and fell off the counter and hit her face on the floor. I asked if it was bad and if we needed to take her in to get checked. Megan said, "well, she has a BIG gash on her nose" in the background I could hear TJ say, "It's not that bad! Megan is making it sound REALLY bad!" I asked if I needed to take her to an instacare. Then Donnalee (my mother in-law) got on the phone and said she would just bring Ella over to the house. (Things were kind of crazy at that moment. My mom and dad came over to help me unpack and clean the house, because John worked the graveyard shift and needed to sleep before he went to work again, and both babies had finally fallen asleep) When I saw Ella I felt so bad for her. She said, "mom... my nose hurts! Hold Ella." So I picked her up and studied her face. It looked like she was in a lot of pain, but it didn't look TOO bad. Just for peace of mind I thought we should take her in to make sure she didn't have a concussion or anything. The Dr. said that she didn't have a concussion, but she did have a broken nose, but hopefully it should just heal correctly on it's own. The Dr. also said if it still looks crooked after the swelling has gone down (in about a week) then to take her in and see if she needs surgery (probably not) or to have it broken again and set into place (hopefully not). When we finally got home this was all a surprise to John. Ella immediately wanted to put a band aid on her nose to make it feel better. Ella started to tell John what happened and got all emotional about it and just wanted her daddy to hold her. This is when I took the pictures. She wouldn't let me take the band aid off to show what her nose looked like.

Our New House

2009-06-04T23:24:00.003-06:00

John wanted me to wait until we actually owned the house to post this (I guess he didn't want me to jinx anything) Yes it's true!!!! We bought a new house in Lehi! I am so giddy about it I can't even stand it. We just got the keys today and we will slowly be moving over the weekend and on Tuesday we will move our big stuff. So if any of you feel so inclined to come on by and help with cleaning, unpacking or watching our crazy kids BE MY GUEST! The house is 3670 sq. ft., walk-out basement (not finished yet), and it's on .35 of an acre. It really is our dream home. I can't wait to say "go outside and play". For the past 7 months we've had to pack up the kids and go the park if we've wanted to play outside -It doesn't really work very well when we live downtown, 9 stories up, and don't have a yard. We have been so blessed to have my in-laws let us live in their condo and save up a big down payment for our house. A huge THANK YOU to my amazing husband who works so hard and thank you for being so smart with stocks and making it possible to get our dream home. Love you babe!

9 Months Old

2009-06-04T22:48:00.004-06:00

I can't even imagine the trouble that they're going to get into when they're older! Elysee looking nice and full

Dean is the new cookie monster

Elysee is quick to find new things to explore

Dean isn't potty trained, but that isn't stopping him from getting into the "potty prizes"

After going to the Doctor's reality hit that my little babies are already 9 months old!!! I can't believe how quickly time has flown by. Dean and Elysee seem to really be on just about the same level as far as growth and mobility. They are crawling all over the place and getting into EVERYTHING! They both stand up as soon as they have something to hold on to. Ely is now starting to cruise furniture and is getting pretty quick at it. They both have an excellent pincer grasp. They both say Mama and Dada. They like to play peek-a-boo and roll the ball with Ella. Dean is all boy! The other day I caught Dean putting his hand in Ely's mouth. Ely would start to cry and get mad and Dean would get a funny little mischievous look and just laugh. He kept doing it over and over. The next day Ely got her revenge and poked him in the eye and just as quick as I could pull her hand away, she would poke him again. I also keep on catching the babies getting into the dirt where our plant is and when I tell them "no" they get a huge grin, like it's some kind of game. Dean is always shaking his head "no", and Ely always nods her head "yes". I wonder if this is telling me a little bit of how the future is going to be. Ella loves that they are able to "play" now. As soon as Ella gets up she asks if Dean and Ely can play. Dean and Ely LOVE to eat! They will eat any and everything. Their most recent favorite thing is french toast. I can't believe how much they can eat, yet they are super tiny for their age. Here are their stats.

Dean - Height 27 inches = 10%tile - Weight 14.31 lbs = 0%tile

Elysee - Height 26.2 inches = 10%tile - Weight 14.69 lbs = 1%tile

Mamarazzi's at it again!

2009-06-04T22:17:00.004-06:00

I can't even tell you how excited I am to be in another swap hosted by Mamarazzi! The last one was so much fun and this time it is a "Red, White, and Blue" swap. Her last swap filled up within 24 hours, so if you'd like to join in... you'd better hurry!!!

Mamarazzi's Favorite Thing Swap

2009-05-30T21:40:00.004-06:00

Earlier this week after coming home from running errands (all by myself - it was nice). I walked in the door and saw a huge package waiting for me! I was SO excited. Isn't it the best when you get an awesome package instead of bills? Well the twins were starving and as soon as they saw me they started to do their hungry cry and came crawling over. So of course I've got them hooked up to mama cow (yes, me) and I'm dying because I want to open my package so bad. I just couldn't wait! I had John and Ella open the package and read each note aloud. Ella was just as excited as I was, because she thought that the package was for her.

Jen was my swap partner and it is so weird because she sent me HER favorite things which just happened to be MY favorite things as well!!! With each item that John pulled out of the box I kept saying, "that's my favorite thing too" or "oh, I love that too"! Once in a while Ella would chirp in "me too!" Jen doesn't live to far so I'm hoping that we will be good friends. Now for all of the fun things...

-Disposable camera

-shower gel, lotion and puff gift set (yummy vanilla sugar scent)

-really cute black picture frame with 3 pictures of her favorite things - Yellowstone National Park, the Salt Lake Temple, and New Zealand

-package of coffee cakes (super tasty)

-package of fiber plus bars

-sour gummy worms and sour patch kids (which are MY FAVORITE)

-wild animal zoo toys (Ella wanted to open them right away, I almost didn't get a picture)

-Leatherby's gift card (ice cream is my favorite dessert)

-Readers Digest

-Parents Magazine (Jen read my mind because I subscribe to this magazine)

-Extra Gum

-jar of Carmel with a yummy recipe

-Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

There was a note attached to each item which told why it is one of her favorite things. This was such a fun thing to do I hope to get on board with the next swap as well. Thanks Jen for all of the fun things!!!

Hair today... Gone tomorrow

2009-05-17T21:37:00.004-06:00

No, my kids don't really have hair that miraculously grew overnight!!! But we sure did have fun with a wig for Ella's build-a-bear. Even John joined in on the fun. I was laughing so hard that my stomach hurt.

Look Who's Crawling

2009-05-14T09:56:00.003-06:00

At the end of April both of the twins started to really crawl. They have both been army crawling for a while. But in April they both started crawling up on their hands and knees within a couple of days of each other. Elysee loves to kneel. She crawls to an object then kneels and plays. She is always finding things that she can use to pull herself to a stand. Dean is a little speed racer. He is a fast crawler! He likes to shut the door behind him and prop himself against it, making it hard for me to get through the door. They are just so funny! When ever I am cooking they find me in the kitchen and they both grab my legs and won't let go until I pick them up.

Ella loves her brother and sister so much. She is always asking them if they'd like to play. In fact, today I was in the kitchen making breakfast and I heard giggling in the front room. It was Ella and Ely playing together. Ella was being goofy trying to make Ely laugh. This is such a fun age!!!

No need for words

2009-04-22T22:55:00.003-06:00

There really isn't a need for words.Ella is just too funny!

Easter

2009-04-22T22:05:00.005-06:00

We had a great Easter this year (in fact we had 3 Easters!) On Easter Sunday we went to my parents house in Heber and had a really fun Easter Egg Hunt. Every year my parents hide 3 special eggs for the "grown ups". This year there were 2 golden eggs one had $100 in it and the other had $50, and there is a silver egg with $20. Traci and Skylar got the $100, Ryan and Marci got $50, and John and I got $20. John will still argue that it wasn't fair, but I say "Hey, that's $20 we didn't have before!" The kids all got fun stuff from Grandma and Grandpa. Aunt Sheri and Tom also gave all of the kids nice little Easter gifts (she is always so thoughtful!). Then we did Easter baskets at home on Tuesday (the kids are still little so they don't know when Easter really is). The Easter bunny spoiled the kids! I think we just might be the only family out there that LOVES Peeps! Ella already loves them as well! Then the next Sunday we went to Nana and Papa's in Lehi. Ella had her very own Easter egg hunt! John and TJ battled it out (like they always do!) and both ended up with over $100 and coupons to redeem, such as; breakfast at Jim's, no work for a week (I'd like to see John try to redeem that at work-lol), movie on mom and dad, do something nice for mom, and other good stuff. Here are some of the pictures.

Favorite Things Swap

2009-04-20T22:23:00.004-06:00

I am really excited because last time I tried to get into the Mamarazzi's favorite thing swap I was too late. This time, by pure luck I got in! I am so excited for this :)

Rub-a-dub-dub

2009-04-04T21:25:00.002-06:00

Rub-a-dub-dub 3 kids in the tub! This is the first time that all of the kids were in the bath at the same time. They loved it, and had so much fun.

Choo Choo Soul

2009-04-03T22:36:00.007-06:00

Just like any kid, Ella LOVES trains! Ella refers to trains as CHOO CHOO SOUL, for those of you who have seen Choo Choo Soul on Disney Channel you'll know what I'm talking about. She never says "Train!" It's always, "Choo Choo Soul!!!" We live downtown so we see UTA TRAX all of the time. She gets so excited every time she sees the train pass by. John and I thought that we really should take her on a ride. So last week John dropped Ella and I off in the free fare zone (best thing ever!) and we rode trax down to the Gateway Shopping Center where we met back up with John and the twins and went to Gateway Discovery. It was such a fun day! Today we decided to go on another ride, this time we went to the Fashion Place Mall. Ella and I had a great time while we were on the train. Before we got on the train we had quite a few men going gaga over us. It was pretty creepy! There was one guy in particular who was drawn to us. Ella and I were purchasing our tickets and he followed us. I thought that he was going to ask for money, because he was obviously homeless. But to my surprise he just wanted to "talk". He was extremely intoxicated and I thought that I might get drunk just from the alcohol vapors coming off of him. Luckily John saw the guy and drove around the block so he could park right across the street and be within yelling distance (I felt a lot better). I could tell that this guy had a pretty rough life. He kept telling me that I was beautiful and that Ella was beautiful. The he started saying that OUR (referring to myself and him)- that our daughter (talking about Ella) was so beautiful. Poor guy had no idea that I wasn't his wife and Ella wasn't his kid! He kept saying the same things over and over. It felt like it was a lot longer than 10 minutes. Luckily he was taking a train going the opposite direction, so when it arrived he told us goodbye and was saying very loudly "I'm so happy! I'm so happy! Look at how beautiful they are. It doesn't get better than this." Well at least I made him happy, right?

Country girl, city life giveaway

2009-04-03T22:19:00.003-06:00

My friend over at Country Girl, City Life is turning 21. Instead of getting presents she is giving presents! Check her out and enter to win.

Officially Potty Trained!

2009-04-01T21:06:00.004-06:00

Yes, it's true. Ella just turned 2 just 2 weeks ago and she is officially potty trained!!! On Monday, March 23rd we let her wear big girl under ware. She wet her pants about 50 % of the time. Then Tuesday she wet her pants about 20% of the time. On Wednesday she didn't wet her pants AT ALL!!! It has been 1 week and she has not wet her pants once. She stays dry during nap time and she even stays dry at night!!! We've tried to get her to go poop in her potty, but she would still run and hide to go. We bought some Barbie dolls to try and give her a little bribe, oh, I mean incentive. Today she went poop in the potty and we had a celebration! I'm so proud of her and had to say my little 2 year old seems so big.

Here they are!!!

2009-03-29T00:26:00.012-06:00

We got our pictures back and I am so excited!!! I have attached a TON of pictures, believe it or not, there are even more!!! We hope you enjoy them.

Picture Preview

2009-03-26T12:00:00.003-06:00

We had the kids pictures taken a couple of weeks ago by an amazing photographer Skye Johansen. Here are just a couple of the pictures that we have to look forward too!!! The pictures should be done in the next couple of days then we will post some more pictures.

Grab my butt-ons

2009-03-24T23:00:00.003-06:00

Buttons!!! My AMAZING sister Erika made these awesome buttons for us. Erika is just the most talented wonderful girl! She has a craft blog, cooking blog, vinyl lettering business and a digi-scrap booking blog. I would love to have you grab my new buttons and put them on your page! Remember that you can request a Scentsy catalogue anytime and I will get it right out to you!

Awesome giveaways

2009-03-24T10:44:00.003-06:00

There are some GREAT giveaways going on right now! Check them out

Mormon Mommy Blogs

Police!

2009-03-22T01:37:00.002-06:00

Have you ever called the police? Yes, it's true. I just called the police on my noisy neighbors across the street. It is just after 1:30 AM and they are using a leaf blower (and have been for the last 1/2 hour). I just couldn't take the noise anymore! Was I wrong to do this?

Springtime = Fun

2009-03-21T22:00:00.007-06:00

It seems like we've been able to do a lot of fun activities lately. Thanks to my amazing and wonderful husband we've had a lot of family time together. John works the graveyard shift so he can be home more. We have all day Monday and Tuesday to do errands and activities. I love you John! Thanks for working so hard so I can be a stay at home mom, I appreciate everything you do.

I must say that I love it when the weather starts to get warm and we can do more activities outside. Going from a house with a yard, to a condo with no room to play has been hard. But my wonderful husband has done everything possible to make it more enjoyable. We have a Hogle Zoo family pass and we have LOVED it! The nice thing about having a pass is that you don't feel like you have to be there all day long. You can go for just an hour or two and leave when it's nap time.

We have a park that is pretty close to our house (Liberty Park) and we couldn't resist the warm weather and spent some time there this week. Ella had so much fun playing on the huge playground and the babies loved being outside in the beautiful weather. There was a huge tree there that Ella thought was so neat (I think that's the biggest tree that she's ever seen).

This is what makes me gush about how wonderful my husband is. I got a little idea that I wanted to have a family pass to Discovery Gateway. I had been there once (only once because it was so expensive) and I thought it was so fun. Now that Ella is a little bit older and can enjoy it I just couldn't get it out of my head to get a family pass. I asked John if we could get it. I thought he would say no, but he said, "sure if that's what you want". So on Friday we went at about 6:30 and stayed for a little over an hour. We had so much fun. It was so fun to see Ella light up with excitement at all of the play areas just her size. We look forward to having many more fun times there. We'll have to hit it up next week, because the weather is supposed to be bad, so we can play at the indoor exhibits.

The power of candy

2009-03-20T23:39:00.005-06:00

This last week while Ella was playing in her room she managed to lock the door and locked herself in. We tried and tried to get the door unlocked, but we just couldn't get in open. Ella was starting to get desperate and kept saying "Mom/Dad help me!" I had to capture this cute, funny, scary moment. When we couldn't get it open we told her to put her hands on the nob and pull down. This lock is one where you just push the button in, so just a little movement would have opened the door. She tried so hard, but just couldn't get it. At one point she had given up and started playing with her toys instead. Then I had a brilliant idea - CANDY! Ella is definitely my little girl, because she loves candy. I put a piece on the floor and told her to look at it (under the door). She kept saying that she wanted it, but I told her she had to twist the handle in order to get it. Low and behold she opened the door! All it took was a little piece of candy.

I don't know if you can tell what these pictures are but the first one is Ella sitting against the door, totally frustrated by us. The second is Ella looking under the door at us, waiting for help. The last is my favorite! She is standing by the door trying to figure out how to twist this tough handle.

Party Time

2009-03-20T22:22:00.006-06:00

Ella's Birthday was a week ago, but here are some of the fun things that we did

Make a wish

Ella received a lot of presents and really liked to rip them open

Princess cake for Princess Ella

I'm 2 mom!

John and I took Ella to Lehi's Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point on her Birthday. It was really nice to have some one on one time with her. We left the babies with Nana Eisenhart. Before this experience Ella didn't know what a dinosaur was - now she thinks they are awesome and even wants to read her dinosaur book every day. She really liked the hands on exhibits. She played in water and played in the sand.

Ella playing at the erosion table

Ella was so excited to have mommy and daddy all to herself!

The scary dinosaurs were trying to get us.

We went bowling at Fat Cat's and had pizza at the Pizza Factory, the Tuesday before her Birthday. Ella absolutely LOVES bowling. She gets so excited when she knocks over pins. Look at her face, you can tell that she had such a great time.

Spare!!!

The Birthday Princess

It was so nice to have most of the family there to celebrate Ella's 2nd Birthday.

Ella got lots of nice presents

Nana and Papa Eisenhart - Table and chairs, art easel, plates, cups, bowls and silverware

Grandma and Grandpa Briggs - bag of yummy treats, wallet, and money

Aunt Megan and Uncle Bryce - singing magic unicorn and magic wand

Uncle TJ - homemade bracelet, and money

Aunt Lisa, Uncle Jeff, Alyvia, and Ainsley - Ballerina book

Andy - baby doll (for the water)

Corinne - bug puzzle, squeaking puppet bird

Mom and Dad - bat and ball, clothes, Curious George Book and nightgown, Ella book, apron, Tinkerbell wall art, and barbie doll

Bubbles Bubbles Everywhere

2009-03-15T22:23:00.005-06:00

My friend over at Running Away? I'll help you pack is having a Palmolive giveaway and it made me remember this funny story that happened to us.

Great story for you! My sister was catering my mom's company Christmas party and needed some extra help. Of course I went to help and so did my sweet husband, John. Well John was in charge of dishes while my sister cooked and I served the dinner. When I went into the kitchen I noticed that it was REALLY clean! John had cleaned everything so far and had already started a load of dishes. I was 7 months pregnant and was so excited to sit for about 10 minutes while they ate. All of a sudden I look across the room and I see bubbles EVERYWHERE! My sister, John and I all grab bowls and we are trying to keep the bubbles off the floor. It turns out that sweet John couldn't find dishwasher soap, so he used regular dish soap. I had seen this happen in the movies, but I didn't know that this could really happen. I'm telling you bubble were all over the floor. Just writing this is bringing it all back and I'm laughing so hard(tears and all)! Has this ever happened to you?

And the winner is...

2009-03-15T11:03:00.002-06:00

Thanks to all of you who entered my Scentsy giveaway! All of you who would like to try Scentsy, you can still order on my site. Your house will smell amazing!

You can still get free product from me if you would like to host a Scentsy party. Even if you live across the country, you can have a Scentsy party and earn lots of free product.

If you would like the opportunity to sell a great product and earn extra money click here!

The winner of my giveaway (random number generator - 59) is Jessica G. from DuckDuckCow

Happy Birthday Ella Bella

2009-03-14T22:36:00.007-06:00

It's hard to believe that my little Ella is already 2 years old! It seems like she has grown up so fast. She has such a fun little personality and is extremely independent! Here is a list of Ella's favorite things and funny things about her. (Remember this is my journal so I am listing a lot)

-Favorite Book - "Disney Princess Storybook Collection"

-Favorite song to sing - "I love to see the Temple"

-Favorite song to dance to - Beyonce's "Single Ladies"

-Favorite show - just about any cartoon on Disney or PBS

-Favorite toy - any baby doll (she has one with her at all times)

-Favorite color - Pink

-Favorite foods - pistachio nuts, pizza from Sam's club, chicken nuggets and fries

-Favorite drink - pink milk

-Favorite dessert - snow cones (from our snowie machine) and Oreo cookies

-Ella can count from 1-10

-She kicks and throws balls

-She hops, jumps, can stand on one foot, walks on her tippy toes and runs REALLY fast

-She can do somersaults and balances on one foot

-Ella knows all of her colors and some shapes

-Ella can tell you her birthday

-She knows her first and last name, and if you ask her what her name is she will tell you, "Princess Ella"

-Ella sings the theme song to "Good Things Utah" every time it comes on

-Ella loves to dance and she is a good little dancer! She tries to do Beyonce's "Single Ladies" dance with all of the moves which Ella calls "hips"

-She likes to be a little mommy to her baby dolls (she even tries to breastfeed them)

-Ella loves her little brother and sister, but sometimes is a little bit rough (she tries to wrestle with them)

-She likes to brush her teeth

-Ella loves to take baths

-She loves to wear lip gloss, put on nail polish and brush her hair, even though she hardly has any

-Ella has figured out how to answer the phone, most of the time it's when I'm breastfeeding the babies and can't get to the phone fast enough

-She is scared of the vacuum and blender, yet she loves scary Halloween things

-Ella loves to play dress up, she is usually a fairy or princess

-She loves to make up songs, I often find her singing and talking to her baby dolls when she is alone in her room

-Ella loves to color and can draw a face complete with head, eyes, nose, mouth and ears

-She has very good manners saying, "please, thank you, your welcome, and excuse me"

- Ella likes to play hide and go seek and she especially likes to hide at Costco and Sam's Club (she now only wears her squeaker shoes to the store)

-If Ella sees another child her age she tells me, "that's my friend"

-She loves trains and gets really excited when she sees TRAX go by

-She's a little daredevil and likes to go down big slides

-She loves going to the pool and likes to "swim"

-Ella loves anything Elmo

-Ella likes to sit on the couch and watch home videos and look at pictures

-She loves to have books read to her

-She likes to watch cycling because she always thinks that it's her uncle TJ racing

-She LOVES to help me cook

-Ella is very independent and will get mad at you if you try to put on her shoes. She'll say, "NO! I do it!"

-She also likes to pick out her outfit for the day and has recently started to take off her clothes by herself.

-She gets giddy when I wiggle my fingers at her, she'll squeal "tickle bug" and start laughing before I even start tickling her.

-She is getting the hang of potty training and usually uses the potty at least twice a day

-She thinks that any church (or tall building) is a temple and insists on singing "I Love to See the Temple"

-Ella loves to go bowling (that is what we did for her birthday party)

-She really enjoys the zoo and knows all of the animals

Ella is such a joy in our lives. Every single day she surprises us with something new that she has learned. She makes us laugh and puts a smile on our faces every day. I can't imagine my life without her. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father has made her part of our family. Ella we love you!

Great Giveaways!

2009-03-13T22:26:00.003-06:00

I found the cutest giveaway for a little girls modest outfit on modestly chic. Here is the link.

There is also a contest on mommies with cents for a humidifier (super cute!) and another contest for piggy paint, a non toxic nail polish and remover for kids (or adults)

All better

2009-03-11T22:14:00.003-06:00

My little sweeties are finally ALL BETTER. About a month ago Ella got a cold. The usual runny and stuffy nose, sneezing and coughing. It was inevitable that the twins would get sick and they sure did! After about a week of their cough getting worse and worse we took them to the Doctor. He said, well I know what they have... RSV. Immediate panic - I have always heard horror stories about it. He gave the babies some medicine and now they are all better. Yea!!!

Scentsy Giveaway

2009-03-10T00:37:00.006-06:00

One of my favorite blogs SITS is having a huge spring fling where there are a ton of things that will be given away. I thought that I would join the fun and give away a Scentsy warmer and bar. This is the new thing in WICKLESS candles. Unique Scentsy warmers use a 25-watt bulb to melt the wax slowly, maximizing the fragrance time of the Scentsy Bar or Scentsy Brick. With no flame, soot or wick, the Scentsy system is a safe way to enjoy more than 80 Scentsy fragrances. I am an Independent Consultant and love selling this stuff! Your whole house will smell amazing!!!

Here's how you can enter to win.

1-Go to my web page here and look through the catalog and tell me your favorite thing!

2-Become a follower of my blog!

A winner will be chosen on Saturday, March 14th

Pay it forward!

2009-03-01T01:11:00.003-07:00

Making Memories had this over on her blog, I was her 2nd commenter over there...so now it is my turn! This will be fun!!
The rules are simple:
The first 3 people to post a comment on this entry will receive a gift from me sometime during the year.When and what are a surprise to the winners! Then, post about this on your blog & come back and leave your comment telling me you are Paying It Forward as well.Only the first 3 comments that leave a comment and post this one their blog gets the prize. So who wants to pay it forward?

Jesus lives where?

2009-02-26T21:52:00.003-07:00

While John and I were at Dollar Tree we saw some little plastic Bible figurines: David, Goliath, Moses, Jesus, etc. Each one came with a little story book. John and I chuckled at them at first, but then we thought that Ella might really love them. Sometimes Ella likes to have Jesus stand on the edge of her bed when she goes to sleep. The other night Ella told me something new that I didn't know about Jesus. This is how our conversation went...

Ella - "Mom, I have Jesus?"

I hand Ella the Jesus doll.

Ella - "Thanks mom! Jesus go home."

Me - "What? Jesus goes home?"

Ella - "No mom! Jesus sleep at his home."

Me - "Well where do you want me to put him? Where does Jesus live?"

Ella - "The temple!!!" She said this in such a matter of fact way.

I look around the room, and I don't know where to put the doll. By this time she was starting to get frustrated with me.

Me - "I don't know where you want me to put him."

Ella - "Right there mom, the temple!"

Ella was pointing at her Disney Princess clock. Apparently her clock is really a pink temple and Jesus lives in it!

6 months old!

2009-02-20T22:23:00.007-07:00

I can't believe it!!! Dean and Elysee are already 6 months old. It really seems like time has just flown by. They are such a handful and really keep us busy. One of my favorite things that they do is hold hands. Every time they eat, they hold hands. They will be looking right up at me with their big eyes and somehow find each other's hand to hold. Both of them have just started sleeping through the night (hallelujah). Hopefully it will stay that way. Here are just a few of the things that the babies can do:

-Roll both ways

-Babble

-Sit up

-Scoot around the floor

-Reach for objects

-Switch objects from one hand to the other

-Gets mad when mom leaves the room

-Loves the bouncer

-Likes to eat their feet (Elysee especially loves her toes)

-Smile at everything Ella does

-Still breastfeeding

-Just started baby food and loves it, but HATE "garden vegetable mix"

-Take 2 solid naps during the day

Cousins

2009-02-18T13:51:00.004-07:00

My sister Erika made the most adorable skirts and shirts for all of the girls for Christmas. All of the cousins had their pictures taken in these cute outfits. My sister Erika and Lisa both live in Alaska with their families so obviously they weren't able to have their picture taken with us. They are going to get their pictures taken separately. So here is the Picture (this is for you Erika and Lisa)

Back row: Harman Briggs, Annabelle Briggs holding Ashlyn Widdison, Ella Eisenhart Front Row: Elysee Eisenhart, Dean Eisenhart, Sophie Briggs

A mothers work is never done!

2009-02-17T22:10:00.004-07:00

Ella is just too quick for me. I was feeding the twins (so obviously I'm stuck where I'm at, until they're finished). The phone rang and Ella will usually get the phone and hand it to me. This time she was coloring at the kitchen table. It's a tall table, so she couldn't get down very fast. She picked up the phone, pressed the green button and answered it!!! "Hello!" Ella's cute little voice chirps. I can hear a voice on the other end. That means Ella has figured out how to really answer the phone. Luckily it was my Aunt Sheri and she figured I would just call her back.

So Ella got down from the table and handed me the phone. I called my Aunt Sheri back and talked to her for a while (I was still feeding the babies). Then I heard Ella yelling from the bathroom, "mooooooooom, mom, mom, mom, mom, etc." (she has a habit of yelling for me until I go see what she needs) I got off the phone and put the babies down. As I walked down the hall I could smell something refreshing! Sort of like minty bubble gum. I think to myself, "This can not be good, what did she get into this time?" I look in the bathroom and Ella is sitting on the bathroom counter...

She got into the toothpaste!!! A brand new tube of her blue toothpaste! I didn't know if I should get mad at her or just laugh. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "brushin teeth". I said, "why did you put it everywhere?" She said "dunno". I was talking to myself and said, "it's everywhere!" She smiled and proudly told, and showed me where it was, "yes mom! Head, mirror, sink, jammie's, face, toothbrush, and feet!" (She was really proud that she got it on the bottom of her footed pajamas)

Now fast forward to bedtime. Ella found a little travel purse of mine that she wanted to take to bed with her. She wanted it wrapped in a blanket with her so I wrapped them up and laid them in bed. After about an hour I hear, "mom, mooom, moooooooooom, mom, mom." So I go to her bed room. At first I thought that maybe my eyes were being strange. Then I looked closer in the dim light. Was Ella's face glistening? Yes it was! What in the world is in her hair? It's so shiny! She looked like she had suntan oil on. I finally found words and could talk out loud, "Ella, what is in your hair? What's all over your face?" I touch her face and it felt slimy and greasy. My eyes start scanning the bed, I don't see anything. What is this mysterious substance? "Ella, what is all over you?" Then I get an answer! Not the answer I'm looking for. "And my bed mom!" Ella says cheerfully. I touch the side of her crib, the goop is all over her crib too. All of a sudden my eyes spot it! I've found the culprit. It's a tube! What is in that tube you ask? Neosporin. Apparently the little travel purse was NOT empty. Unfortunately I was too tired and too upset to take a picture, but close your eyes and just imagine it.

Valentine's Day

2009-02-17T21:43:00.004-07:00

We had a very nice Valentine's Day. John made such a yummy dinner! Steak, lobster, and potatoes. Ella received nice things from Grandma Briggs, Nana Eisenhart, Mom and Aunt Sheri! We hope all of you had a wonderful day full of love.

This week

2009-02-05T22:18:00.004-07:00

Here are a few pictures from this last week. Dean and Elysee are so cute. Ella can always make them smile and laugh.

John was nice enough to give me a break and watch the twins while Ella and I met up with my friend Heather and her daughter Olivia to make Valentine's Day cards. (She just figured out how to roll her tongue, so that is what she's doing in these pictures)

Dean got a cute baseball hat for Christmas, but it fits Ella perfectly. She loves to pick out her outfits now and that hat has been a recent favorite (especially with her pink dresses). Last night when I put her PJ's on, she just HAD to have her hat. I went to check on her before I went to bed and I found her asleep with the hat on. TOO CUTE!

Hawaii

2009-01-25T22:05:00.009-07:00

John and my brother-in-law Mike waiting for the perfect wave

Having yummy sushi
John and Ella shopping on Front Street on Maui
John and I at the luau

Ella listening to some tunes

Ella and I relaxing

Whaler's village - Ella and John next to whale bones

The family at The Gazebo (a great restaurant)

Everyone who came to Hawaii - Matt's friend Jeff is taking the picture

Family picture on Maui

Ella loved the flowers

John, Ella and I made lei's

Playing in the sand

"Spouting Horn" on Kauai

Waterfall on Kauai

Hanging out at our condo

Ella loves Hawaii

Ella, my dad, and John loving life

John and Ella playing on the beach

In front of our place on Kauai

The kids with Grandpa and Grandma Briggs

Dean and Elysee's first plane ride

After we got to Hawaii (3 flights and 3 tired kids later)

Sunrise on Kauai

"The Lighthouse" on Kauai

We're back from Hawaii. We spent about a week in Kauai and another week in Maui. It was Ella's first time seeing the ocean and she loved it! Some of the highlights of the trip were staying at our timeshare on Kauai and having an ocean front condo, sight-seeing and exploring Kauai (it was our first time on that island), having chickens and roosters wake us up in the morning, seeing the sunrise every morning while on Kauai and seeing the sunset every evening while on Maui, having an ocean view at my parents timeshare on Maui, spending time with my family, yummy sushi, going to the Old Lahaina Luau, watching John and Ella play together in the water, and my #1 favorite thing was doing absolutely NOTHING! If we didn't feel like going out we just stayed at the condo.

Quick story - My parents didn't want any kids at the luau (just an adult evening) and John and I were stressing about trying to find a babysitter for the kids. I really didn't feel comfortable leaving the babies. The nanny service was going to be $26/hour! And we needed someone for 4 hours. At the ward on Maui we just happened to sit next to such a nice family and asked if they knew of any babysitters. They volunteered to watch the kids for us and I immediately felt comfortable with them. Anna is my age and has a little boy (Jay) Ella's age, her husband is deployed and she is staying with her parents until he gets home. So there were 3 adults to watch the kids. It was so nice to have a break from the kids and have some time with John. When we went to pick up the kids, you could tell they were happy to have us there. Anna and her parents said they didn't know how we handle that every day. When we tried to pay them, they said that they didn't want any money and just wanted to do it to give us a break!!! I just couldn't believe that this little family had so much love and compassion for us. I was honestly at a breaking point and ready to come home from the trip early, but this saved me. It's great to know that there are such sweet members who are willing to go above and beyond to help someone else.

We're leaving on a jetplane!

2009-01-08T14:02:00.004-07:00

We're going to HAWAII tomorrow and I am so excited! Needless to say, we won't do any posts until we get back (the 22nd). We're taking all 3 kids, so wish us luck.

GO UTES!

2009-01-02T22:09:00.003-07:00

John and I both graduated from the University of Utah (that's where we met). So naturally we love to watch/go to the football games. Tonight they were in the Sugar Bowl and we had a great time watching the game. What made it even better was that they won!!! Dean and Elysee both got into the game as well. Ella would have enjoyed it, but she is having a sleep over at Nana's house.

Christmas Fun

2008-12-31T23:10:00.009-07:00

We had such an awesome Christmas!!! Even though we don't have a chimney, we had a key to let Santa in. It's a good thing we left that key, because Santa sure did have a lot of presents for us. This year was so much fun, because Ella kind of understood Santa and presents. When she would see Santa there were mixed emotions. In person she was really hesitant, and if I was around, she was scared of Santa. We kept reassuring her that Santa was NICE. So then when she would see pictures of Santa she would get excited and say "Santa, nice".

Here are some pictures from the night before Christmas. When we read the Christmas story from the Bible, Ella got to be Mary (she loved it) and the twins were animals in the stable (reindeer to be exact). They received cute matching monkey Jammie's also.

This is what the kids gifts looked like right after Santa came.

Christmas was so special. Ella was so excited. She opened up all of her presents by herself. It took 2 whole hours. By the end of it, Ella was starting to get tired and grumpy. Dean and Elysee just wanted to sit in their seats and watch. Although they did try to open their own gifts.

Christmas started out with the kids joining us in our bed. Although they didn't really know what was going on, Ella knew it was something to be excited about.

Ella received 3 Barbies, Barbie horse, puzzle, princess; towel, bowl, plate, pillow (that plays music when you plug in your ipod), Elmo live, bike, clothes, PJ's, fairy dress ups, baby legs, shoes/socks, movies, coloring books, crayons, learning cards, toothbrushes, Anne Geddes doll, v-tech digital camera, hat, gloves and some other little toys.

Elysee received some books, clothes, tickle me cookie monster, v-tech alphabet train, baby legs, and LOTS of little toys.

Dean received a tickle me Ernie, books, baby legs, v-tech alphabet train, baseball hat, clothes, a truck, and a few other little toys.

John received some clothes, movies, jacket, hat, book and a garmin 780 navigation system.

I was SO spoiled this year. John always surprises me and this year I was in SHOCK!!! I received some really nice, high end, clothes, toaster, and a nice knife set to add to our others. Just when I thought we were done, John asked Ella if she had gotten her ornament off of the tree. I looked over at the tree and there were gift cards all over the tree. I picked one up and it was to one of my FAVORITE places Gygi Culinary Solutions. I opened it up and it was for $100! Then I opened up the next one $100, and the next one $100. There was a total of $1,000 to Gygi's!!!! I was so excited I didn't even know what to say. Thanks you John for making this Christmas so awesome!

We wanted a cute Christmas picture of just the kids and Ella was doing so good until all of a sudden the train behind her, the one going around the tree, derailed. Ella though that she had done it and it scared her to death. She "threw" the babies off of her and took off. It scared me to death, because Ely and Dean flew to the ground. After we made sure they were ok, we just laughed and laughed and wished we had gotten it on video. It literally happened just seconds after this picture was taken. I had to share that with everyone, because you can just picture it in your head.

Christmas night we went to my parents home in Heber and had so much fun. Ella got a baby doll from Grandma and Grandpa and the babies received a ton of little baby toys. Ella also got to play with her cousins (which is something she loves to do). My parents always have a fun game that we play to receive extra gifts. John had a great strategy and we ended up with the most gifts! Go John! We also received a card saying that my parents are going to pay for us to go to a luau while we are in Hawaii (in January).

My sister Erika also made the most adorable skirts for all of the girls (nieces). Erika is amazing! These skirts are just so cute, here they are!

4 months old!

2008-12-23T00:20:00.007-07:00

I can't believe how the time has flown with Dean and Elysee. They are already four months old (three days ago)! They are getting so big.

Dean is now 12 lbs. 2 oz and 24 inches long. Dean started rolling from back to front very early (at one month old). Now he will roll over as soon as you lay him down. He can also roll from front to back. He has great hand/eye coordination - will grab things, and reach for things. Dean loves his mommy and smiles when ever he sees her. Dean likes to be held and gets pretty upset if you put him down. He has a huge smile that lights up the entire room. He giggles and coo's. Dean likes to look at himself in the mirror. He thinks his hands taste yummy, but doesn't like Binky's. If he sees you walk into a room he follows you with his eyes and smiles once you make eye contact.

Elysee is now 12 lbs. 3 oz. and 23.5 inches long. Elysee rolls from back to front. She has very strong legs and is always wanting to stand and jump (little dancer!). She loves the bouncer and has fallen asleep a couple of times in it. She is content just playing by herself, she is very good natured. She has great hand/eye coordination and will grasp things that she wants to play with. She talks A LOT and will try to mimic you! She likes to watch other people. Elysee has beautiful eyes that are captivating. She likes to eat her hands, but won't take a Binky. Elysee has a funny little smirk and a cute little giggle. She likes to sit (and can sit by herself for a couple of seconds).

Ella is now 21 months old! She is a little jabber box. Any time that I am on the phone, she will go get another phone and talk to the person who called. Sometimes I have to get the phone away from her, because I can't hear the other person at all. She is very social and loves to play with other kids. When we were at the store last week she walked up to a little girl her same age and gave her a big hug! She said her first sentence 3 weeks ago, "Dad, I need help!" She has started to tell us when she needs to go potty. She know some of her colors (blue, pink, purple, and red). She is a very bright little girl. She loves books. Dancing is her favorite thing to do. She also really likes to sing. Her latest discovery is dress ups. She loves to wear her princess dress and hat. She plays pretend all of the time with her stuffed animals and dolls. I am starting to see how much she copies John and I. (I really need to be careful about what I say and do) Every single day she has something new and funny that she says.

I feel so blessed to have such a fun little family, and an amazing husband.

Buddies and So Sleepy

2008-12-18T22:26:00.004-07:00

I love to watch the kids interact with each other. Elysee and Dean both love to watch Ella. Any time she comes around they just grin at her. If they are crying, Ella gives them hugs and kisses and says in a very high pitched mommy voice, "Es OK" (It's OK). She is such a good big sister. I don't know what it is, but Dean and Ella have a special little bond. You can tell how much they love each other just by these couple of pictures.

Elysee LOVES to stand up. She is as happy as can be if she is in the bouncer. The other day I was putting on my makeup (maybe gone for 10 minutes) and when I came back into the room where Elysee was, she had fallen asleep in the bouncer!!! Usually she is standing up so tall, so when she had her head against the side with her eyes closed, I couldn't stop laughing. It was the cutest thing!

pictures, pictures and more pictures

2008-12-04T21:50:00.005-07:00

Nana and Papa Eisenhart couldn't resist giving Ella her Christmas present early. She already LOVES her new bike!

If I'm the mama cow, then these are my little calves.

Yummy thanksgiving dinner at mom and dad Briggs'
Yea, for Thanksgiving kids table! Ella adores her cousins, especially Annabelle.

Don't you just love Ella's mischievous smile?

Chillin' in Dean's bed

Ella is talking to "Jack" the troll. But she can't figure out why Grandpa Briggs' lips are moving and Jack's lips aren't.

John is the best dad! The kids sure do love him.

Ella just playing in the leaves at Wheeler farm.

Poor Dean, we needed something warm and all we had was a pink outfit from when Ella was little. It takes a real man to wear pink, right?

Doesn't Elysee just look like a little snow angel?

We went to Wheeler farm to see TJ cycle-cross race (he's awesome). It was freezing, but fun!

Ella wanted me to hold her the whole time. She is definitely a mommy's girl.

"I am the law!" Ha ha, doesn't he look tough?!? Dean is the youngest mob boss.

Dean and Elysee had so much fun on Thanksgiving just looking at the fan at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Place an order

2008-11-19T23:46:00.006-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be placing a Scentsy order this weekend. Remember, these make WONDERFUL Christmas gifts! You can call me and order or order online - click here . If you don't know what Scentsy is... it is one of the greatest things ever invented! It is a wickless candle. You have all of the benfits of a yummy smelling home without the risk of fire, soot, and smoke. Please check out my website www.scentsy.com/kelli Simply break off portions of your highly-scented, soft wax bar and add them to one of our warmers for hours of aroma. When the fragrance is gone, simply pour the warm liquid into a disposable container, wipe the warmer pot with a dry paper towel and put in a new scent. Enjoy our highly scented candle wax. Since we have no flame we can put in 3x more scent than the average candle. Save big! Our Scentsy bars have 50-80 hours of scent time the same amount of time as most large candles. What makes this even better is our wax bars only cost $5.00 compared to most high quality jar candles which can cost $20-$30. Enjoy great scent: worry and soot free.

Did I mention I gift wrap for FREE?

Funny little Ella

2008-11-08T14:51:00.012-07:00

I just had to do this post, because lately Ella has been doing the funniest things. I thought that I had better write this all down so I don't forget it (because this really is my journal). Underneath each picture I will do a little description. The first 4 pictures all happened in the same day! It was really quiet in the backroom, John thought Ella was in the kitchen with me, and I thought she was watching TV with John. Nope! She decided to take all of her diapers out of their storage spot and "refill" her drawer. There were about 35 diapers in the drawer. She wasn't in the room though, but we heard her in our bathroom... This is what we found! Ella emptied an entire (brand new) roll of toilet paper. When we asked her what she was doing, she put her head down and pretended to clean the floor with the toilet paper.

Later that day Ella was in her room playing, when I went to check on her I found her covered in baby powder. She had gotten into a drawer and figured out how to open the container. She dumped it all over the floor, then proceeded to put it all over her face like make-up.

We bought a cute little Disney Princess cot for Ella to use when she has sleepovers at grandma's house (and for Hawaii in January). When we opened it up Ella refused to get off of it. She just wants to lay in it all day. She even wants to eat in it!

Many of you know that Ella absolutely LOVES Halloween - "Ween" as she calls it. She always wants to wear her Halloween costume (as you will see in the next few pictures).

Ella wanted to "sleep" with the babies. Dean and Elysee were both crying, needless to say Ella only wanted to be with them for about 1 minute.

Ella loves anything to do with water. She loves swimming, bath time, washing her hands... She has figured out how to climb up on the toilet, then proceed to the counter. This time we found her IN the sink with the water on. The bathroom door in now kept closed!

Along with Ella's Halloween obsession she is in love with a creepy Halloween decoration which she has named "Guy". Now that Halloween is over we don't know what to do with him. Ella would have a melt down if he was packed away until next year. So we did what any desperate parent would do... she has creepy "Guy" in her room. We have decided to dress him up for the different seasons/holidays. Ella squealed with delight when we put her Halloween costume on him. He will be sporting a Santa hat pretty soon. She is also obsessed with this cartoon Halloween movie. There is a witch in it that looks kind of like Guy and that is why she loves the movie. You'll also notice the toothbrush. She loves to brush her teeth and spit in the sink.

I know Ella looks funny in this, but she is showing you what another creepy Halloween guy at Nana and Papa's house can do. He can blink his eyes, dance, and move his mouth. Ella will mimic all of these, but our favorite is when she blinks. For some reason when she blinks fast, she gets an Elvis lip. It makes us laugh every time.

Ella is pretending to be asleep. She does this quite often, then just giggles with her eyes closed.

She is trying to fit into our nice comfy camera case. When she realized that we caught her, she started laughing.

Ella has become a little diva lately. When she has her mind set on something that she wants to wear she will let you know. The last couple of times that we have gone out she insists on wearing her witch hat. This picture was taken when Ella and I were going to the grocery store. There were a few older women who told Ella they liked her hat. When we were in line she took the hat off and waved it around and said in a very loud voice "HAT". We had a few strange looks, probably because Halloween was a week ago.

Ella is doing her kissy/funny face.

Cheese!

I just had to post this! I took this picture about 2 seconds ago. John is getting ready for work and walked out of the bedroom with a sucker stuck to his shirt! He pretended he didn't know that it was on there. I couldn't stop laughing, I had tears in my eyes. She put it in with his clean clothes. I didn't give her the sucker and neither did John, so she had to have gotten into the cupboard and tried to hide the evidence.

Matchy Matchy

2008-11-06T09:50:00.005-07:00

I absolutely love to dress the kids the same! Here are some cute pictures of matching sisters and matching twins. I know it is cheesy but I think it is adorable!

Views

2008-11-06T09:43:00.003-07:00

I just wanted everyone to enjoy the beautiful view from our new place (downtown Salt Lake).

Blessing

2008-11-02T22:04:00.007-07:00

Today we had the wonderful opportunity to have the twins blessed. It was really nice. We went to our old ward and saw some wonderful friends and were able to say goodbye. Elysee looked so beautiful and Dean looked so handsome. After they were blessed we went to dinner at Chili's. We had a lot of family there and we were so grateful that everyone came. We were sorry that our family who lives pretty far (2 in Alaska and 1 in Rhode Island) weren't able to make it. We missed them. John gave both of the babies beautiful blessings and I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful husband who is a priesthood holder. Oh yea, I was going to post the babies stats from their 2 month checkup. Here they are,

Dean - 10lb. 14oz. (22nd %) - 23 inches (52nd %)

Elysee - 10 lb. 3 oz. (23rd %) - 22.2 inches (41st %)

Halloween

2008-11-02T21:26:00.007-07:00

We had a lot of fun on Halloween. Ella liked trick-or-treating (she really loved getting candy). We went down to Nana and Papa Eisenhart's. Every year they always do a spook ally. It's funny because adults are scared to go through, but not our little dare devil Ella. She loved it!

We tried to get a good picture of all of the kids, but it didn't seem like anyone wanted to cooperate.

No computer

2008-10-26T19:58:00.005-06:00

Hi everyone! We haven't fallen off the face of the earth, we've had a lot going on. We sold our house and have moved downtown. We still haven't unpacked everything and the computer is in a box somewhere. As soon as we get the computer out of the box I will post more.

We went to "Boo at the Zoo" yesterday with my in-laws and had such a fun time. Luckily they had their camera and I am posting this at their house so I can show you some pictures.

This year Ella and Elysee are both cute little ladybugs and Dean is a little monster! They looked so cute all dressed up.

Ella seems to be learning so much every day. She is talking more and more and even starting to put together 3 word sentences. (I don't know if other people understand her, but I do!) The babies are getting so big. Things are really starting to get easier. It is still crazy, but manageable. Elysee slept through the night last! Dean on the other hand... let's just say he is still really high maintinace. We go in for their 2 month checkup tomorrow and I'll post their stats.

Ella was pretend pouting in this picture! Too funny!

The zoo

2008-10-09T21:40:00.003-06:00

We went to the Hogle Zoo on Tuesday. It was an absolutely PERFECT day. The temperature was just right and it wasn't crowded at all. Ella had such a good time. I was able to feed the babies one at a time while we were walking around - thanks to the sleepy wrap. Ella just loves animals. We were only there for about 2 hours, which was a perfect amount of time. We have a family pass to the zoo and we are so happy that we got it, it has been really fun.

Time for cooking lessons

2008-10-07T12:20:00.006-06:00

A couple of days ago John started talking about pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. They are his absolute favorite treat. If you know John, he is not a big sweets guy. It seems like when ever I make cookies, brownies, etc. we never end up eating them. So when John asked if I would make cookies, it was a big deal. I decided to have a little cooking lesson with Ella. I remembered that I had purchased matching mom/daughter aprons when Ella was like a month old. We found the aprons and put them on. I sat Ella on the counter and she helped with EVERYTHING! She even cracked an egg all by herself (of course I had to fish out some shells). She was so excited to help. She was grinning the entire time. It was so nice to spend some one on one time with Ella. I don't know the last time I felt that happy. We brought some cookies to our neighbors and they said, "how did you have time for this?" I said, "I don't know, we made time." I was so happy that I didn't let this opportunity pass me by. Yes I could have finished the cookies much quicker without the help of little hands, but I would have missed out on; flour in her hair, egg shells in the batter, chocolate on her face, a big mess in the kitchen and the biggest smile on the sweetest little face. I realize that I need to take the opportunity to just have fun with my kids. So what if the house is messy and I haven't gotten dressed, I had fun with my kids!!!

Proud Mom

2008-10-06T20:23:00.002-06:00

I am one proud mom right now! We have been working with Ella (our 18 month old daughter), and her little potty. We haven't tried to push anything, especially since the twins have been born. Ella usually tells us after she needs her diaper changed. BUT today she started to pull her pants down and I asked her if she needed to go potty, she said "yes". So I put her on the potty and she went pee pee!!! I never new that I would be so excited to have a child go to the bathroom in a toilet. I made a HUGE deal out of it. We put stickers on a chart, (which was ripped to shreds in a matter of minutes - I don't think she understood the concept), I squealed and kept saying YEA Ella. Hopefully this isn't just a random thing. It would be nice to have one child that isn't in diapers.

Lot's of fun

2008-10-04T16:35:00.008-06:00

I think John believes that part of the "Dad" description is bugging Ella. He loves to tease her and most of the time she loves it. This time on the other hand she didn't love it. He put this do-rag on her and she was ticked! You can't help but laugh though.

The other day we went to Gardner Village. Luckily I was on the ball before we left home and I remembered to bring bread for the ducks. Ella loves ducks and was so excited when the ducks came right over and actually ate the bread right from her hand. She was able to pet one of the ducks and after that she wanted to touch them all! It was pretty funny and cute to see the ducks run away from her and she squealed with delight.

They also have the witches at Gardner Village. Ella thought they were so funny and wanted to sit on the bench with them. If you get the chance to go, I highly recommend it. Especially during the day when it isn't crowded.

I can't believe how big the babies are getting! They are so chubby and I love it. Here are a few pictures of them.

One of Ella's favorite treats is suckers. Of course her hands always end up super sticky. We were on our way home and she was getting really upset that her hands were so sticky. So I gave her a Kleenex (duh, I wasn't thinking). Then the Kleenex got stuck to her hands and she got absolutely hysterical. She was so upset and crying. By the time we got home she had calmed down and I took a picture.

John loves to find cute outfits for the kids and this was his latest pickup. A REAL Salt Lake soccer uniform. John and Ella play outside every day and kick the soccer ball around, so he just had to get her an outfit.

New Pictures

2008-09-26T21:20:00.006-06:00

I don't have time to write, but thought that I would post new pictures of the family!!!

Our crazy wonderful life - Longest Post EVER!

2008-09-17T14:48:00.007-06:00

It is amazing that I have a spare second to finally do an update. I wish I had more time to post pictures and stories about our fun, crazy life. Right now my mother-in-law is at the park with Ella and both babies are asleep!!! (That's funny - about 2 seconds after writing this Elysee woke up, so now she's on my lap)

I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be the mom to some amazing children. I have been having a difficult time keeping my sanity, but at the same time I wouldn't change it. The kids are all so different. I just keep telling myself that they are only this age once and as hard as it is, I will miss it. This is where my little family is right now.

Ella just turned 18 months and she is the smartest kid I know. She is so curious about everything and soaks up information like a sponge. At her check up she was in the 3rd percentile for weight and in the 85th percentile for height. She loves her baby brother and sister. She calls Dean "Dee" and Elysee "A". For the most part she is very gentle with them and wants to give them lots of hugs and kisses - with the exception of last week when she had it out for Dean and kept trying to smack him in the face! She is our little dare devil. She loves slides; the bigger the slide the better. It doesn't matter if it's at a play ground or in the water. She also loves books. We usually read at least 10 books a day. She has her favorites and especially loves her books that I made on shutterfly, because there are pictures of family. Ella is our dancing queen. As soon as she hears music she is ready to dance. She knows how to turn on the radio and knows where the volume button is. Ella likes to be outside and she's a little water bug. She likes to go to the pool in Lehi with Nona Eisenhart and likes to go on walks with Grandma Briggs. Coloring in her coloring book is a fun inside activity, although Ella would rather color on the furniture and on the cupboards (this happened a couple of weeks ago). She is really picky about what she eats, except when it comes to snow cones and Slurpee's - she'll take any flavor. Her favorite thing to eat is ramen noodles, which she calls "newnews". She is a ball of energy and a little actress. She makes us laugh everyday.

Dean is now 4 weeks old. His favorite thing to do is eat. If he could have it his way he would be eating all day. He looks like a mini version of John. He cries a lot because he has acid reflux! He is a total mama's boy and doesn't like to be alone. Dean loves to be held and he likes to be outside. He is a handsome little guy. He is getting bigger everyday. He loves to look right into your eyes and give a little grin to show off his dimple just like his daddy. He doesn't like to sleep at night and loves to keep mommy awake. I just love that little guy.

Elysee is also 4 weeks old. She loves to be held and cuddled. She is generally good natured, except from the hours of 6:00-9:00 when she has colic. Elysee has big beautiful eyes that are mesmerizing. She looks like a little angel and is starting to get little chubby cherub cheeks. Both Ely and Dean like car rides. Ely is sleeping pretty well at night. She is truly a special gift from God.

John is now 30 years old. He is currently working for Wells Fargo Investments. We have been married for 4 years. I couldn't have asked for a better guy. He is absolutely amazing. He is my saving grace. He is the most hands on dad I know. He works the graveyard shift at work so he can be home as much as possible. He is always playing with Ella. In fact today while I was feeding the babies and watching t.v. I had to push the mute button just so I could hear him read a story to Ella. The kids are so lucky to have such a wonderful father. John has been interviewing with the FBI for the past few months. He had his final interview in Arizona this week. We will find out next week if he got the job or not. John is always staying busy. Not only is he working at Wells Fargo, he is also working for Special Olympics (which he has done since we met) and he also has an EBay business which keeps him in the basement quite a bit when he is home. John is an amazing cook and is always cooking delicious meals. He is also really good at doing laundry. In fact I don't know the last time I cooked a nice meal or did laundry (I'm starting to sound like a dead beat mom!) I love John more than anything in this world and I don't know what I would ever do with out him.

Then there's me, Kelli. I am now 27 years old. I quit my job as a school teacher to be a stay at home mom. I have a whole new respect for stay at home moms. Teaching was much easier than staying home. I'm not up to a whole lot lately. I am a human milk dispenser and that takes up most of my day. I love to read books and sing songs with Ella. I have a little home business that I have had to put on the back burner for a while, but I am wanting to get back into it to make some extra money. I sell Scentsy Wickless Candles. I am absolutely obsessed with them. So if any of you would like one, or want to host a party, you know who to call! (*WINK WINK*) Being a mom is the greatest job in the whole world. Some of my favorite things about being a mom are: having your child give you a big messy hug and kiss, seeing your child's eyes light up when they have just discovered something, being able to make up dumb songs and having your kids love it, the sound of babies eating while breastfeeding them, staring into your babies eyes and you know they know you, watching your kids sleep.

There are so many more things that I could write, but I have got to get some other things done. I started writing this at 2:30, and with all of the events of the day, it is now 11:00. I just wanted to quickly say thank you to all of you who have come to help out with the babies, Ella or even a meal. Thank you! Mom (Sue and Donnalee) - thank you for seeing how truly crazy it is and helping as much as possible. I love you!

Fair Fun

2008-09-09T22:10:00.003-06:00

Last night we were able to go to the Utah State Fair with my mom and dad. We had a lot of fun and even ran into a few people that we knew. I must say my favorite thing about the fair is "people watching". All you have to do is pick a bench and look at all of the strange people who attend the fair. Then it hits you... who is sitting on a bench right now looking at me?

Ella had so much fun! She absolutely LOVES animals. She wanted to pet all of the animals. We saw cows, pigeons, rabbits, goats, sheep, and lots of other fun things.

It makes me laugh when we all go out, because we look like a train going by. Dean and Elysee slept for most of the adventure.

Of course we couldn't resist getting a "bucket of fries". Ella decided that the bucket made a beautiful hat. We sure had a lot of fun and can't wait until next years fair!

Sleepless Nights

2008-08-26T23:13:00.006-06:00

I thought I would post a few more pictures of the babies. I can't believe that they are already a week old!

Today Ella wanted to be the baby. I could tell she was extremely jealous of the babies. John spent all day playing with her. They read books, painted outside, played in the pool, then played inside.

She was just really emotional today. She wanted to be held like a baby and she also wanted a bottle (not a normal size bottle) she wanted the size of the babies formula bottle (the free kind from the hospital). It is so strange how big Ella seems now! She just looks huge compared to the babies. We keep telling her what a good big sister she is and she loves it! She is always very concerned when the babies cry, she makes an "ohhh" face and then says "babies!" She has been very good and gentle with them.

At one point today I was feeding the babies and Ella also wanted to "feed" her babies. There have been quite a few sleepless nights this last week and I am exhausted. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband who has helped me and had the sleepless nights as well.

We tell each other a few times a day that we can't believe how blessed we have been.

Here they are!

2008-08-23T18:49:00.007-06:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that the delivery went really well. We didn't have to do a c-section or anything! I would have done this sooner, but last night I only got maybe 2 hours of sleep. This is going to be a challenge, but feel so blessed. their personalities are completely different. Elysee is mellow and a really easy baby, Dean on the other hand is high maintenance! They look completely different. In fact I don't think that I have ever seen twins look so NOT alike. Dean definitely has Johns nose! I think he looks like a cute little old man. John said that he looks like one of Santa's elves. Elysee looks just like a little princess. Everything is in perfect proportion and so tiny. Right now they have their days and nights mixed up, so hopefully that will change soon. I don't think Ella has decided how she feels about the babies yet. She is so excited that there are babies. She likes to hold the babies and move a little bit, so the babies will also move. But when she is decided that she is done, she tries to push them away. She is attention starved right now. My mom took Ella for a couple of nights and Ella loved it. Then my mother-in-law took her for a couple of nights. I'm sure she is having a blast right now.

It is amazing to me to see such perfect little beings come into this world. When you see miracles like that it makes you wonder how some people don't believe there is a God. Heavenly Father has blessed our family with so much and now two more wonderful blessings. I am excited for this next crazy chapter in our lives.

Dean Rex Eisenhart - 5 lbs. 13 oz. - 19.5 inches long - born 8/20/08 @ 2:57 PM

Elysee (pronounced Ailey say) Lydia Eisenhart - 5 lbs. 1 oz. - 18.5 inches long - born 8/20/08 @ 3:03 PM

Last Day - family of 3

2008-08-19T22:18:00.004-06:00

I just can't believe that this is the last day that we will be a little family of 3. I go in tomorrow morning to be induced (I'll be 38 weeks)! When we come home we will be a family of 5!!! That is so crazy. I am so excited and nervous. I just had to post this picture of our little family. We will post pictures and give updates as soon as we are home from the hospital. Thanks everyone for all of your prayers and support!

Of course we couldn't pass up posting a messy picture of Ella. John was working in the yard with Ella and I was inside with my friend. He called me outside and what do I see? Ella eating dirt! I asked her if it was good and she nodded yes, while crunching on what were hopefully just hard dirt pieces.

New Discovery

2008-08-13T19:47:00.004-06:00

Ella is so funny to watch, because it seems like every day she discovers something new. At the end of last week she discovered that she can stand at the end of her crib and turn her light on and off. Last night I put her to bed at her usual 8:30 bedtime. John made yummy banana splits and we sat on the couch and watched the olympics. At 9:30 he took the dishes into the kitchen and I hear John in an upset tone (which he never uses) say, "What the hell are you doing?" At first I thought, "I'm not doing anything!" Then I realized he wasn't talking to me. I walked into the kitchen and looked at Ella's slightly cracked door. I didn't see anything unusual. John said, "just wait." Within a matter of seconds the light was turned on and Ella was giving us an innocent wave and saying "Hi". She was rapidly talking and singing to her baby doll while turning the light off and on for an entire hour! Of course we had to hurry and get the video camera. So for your viewing pleasure here it is...

We're still here!

2008-08-12T22:10:00.003-06:00

I am really sorry for not updating this sooner. It's been two weeks! I've been getting a few calls asking if the twins are here yet... Nope! I can't believe it. I am 37 weeks that's almost unheard of for twins. We found out last week that the boy is 6 lb. 13 oz. and the girl is 5 lb. 12 oz.! Considering that they grow about 1/2 a pound a week I am wondering how much more I can take. Every night I go to bed thinking "Hopefully I will wake up in the middle of the night and have to go to the hospital." And every morning I say, "Are you serious?" We did think that we were going to have the babies last Wednesday (August 6th). John went to work and I called him around 4 and said you had better get home I think we need to go to the hospital. Luckily my sweet "adopted" little sister McCall was at my house helping me out. John came home and we headed the hospital. My contractions were every 3-4 minutes and they were so painful! I was at a 3+ and 90%. My nurse was really nice and kept checking me every hour. Every hour there was no change. My Dr. was out of town so the Dr. on call told her to give me some morphine and something else. Well it made the contractions not as painful and they ended up sending me home. I was so mad! Today I had my last Dr. appointment because I will be induced next week (Thursday, August 21). Of all days I will be having them on my birthday! It's funny because every time I go in for my appointment my nurse will say, "well, we probably won't see you next time because you'll have the babies by then." And every week I see them. I don't mean to complain, but there really isn't any more room for the babies and having contractions for 2 weeks straight isn't my idea of fun. I really do feel blessed though that the babies are as big as they are! That was my biggest worry. Ella was only 5 lb. 13 oz. and she was full term! I am thrilled that the babies are big and healthy.

Here is a picture of me today (37 weeks).

Ella is giving loves to her baby brother and sister

Too Funny!

2008-07-29T19:55:00.006-06:00

This past week John bought a baby bungee bouncer. I know my sister had one for her kids when they were little and they LOVED it. So John got it to keep at least one of the twins busy when they get older. Ella being the tiny little thing that she is fit into it perfectly, even at 16 months. One of Ella's favorite things to do is dance. If any of you have seen her dance, you know she has awesome moves like her dad! Well we decided to let her jump and dance in the bouncer. John and I could not stop laughing!!! We watched her do this for about 45 minutes then I said we had better call it quits for the day. In the 1st video she is dancing freestyle, then I got a little too nervous about her possibly hitting her head and John got her bike helmet. I felt better and it's a good thing we put on her helmet, you'll see why.

Pictures

2008-07-18T21:49:00.004-06:00

Duh, I didn't add any pictures of Ella on my last post!!! (Sorry Megan)

Ella at the cabin in June - She is going up the stairs when we told her not to.

This is at Papa Eisenhart's after he scared her on the playset. She is looking at him and her eyes say it all, "Why did you do that?"

Here we are at the Lehi Rodeo Parade waving to the horses and the "princesses" on them.

Update - kindof crazy!

2008-07-18T21:49:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update. I been having lots of contractions, but they have been 8 minutes apart. I started to get concerned because they were pretty painful. My Dr. was out of town and the on call Dr. said to go to labor and delivery. John was really funny because he didn't seem happy to have to go to labor and delivery when they could just check me in the Dr.'s office. It turns out that my timing isn't very good, because my contractions were actually 6 minutes apart! I am 1+ cm. dilated and 70% effaced. They gave me a shot to slow down the contractions and and IV to make sure I had plenty of fluids. Because the shot worked they gave me a prescription for the same stuff and sent me home. I really think the twins will be here before expected (the week of Aug. 17th).
Pinata Pinafore GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!

Early Evening Gown GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!

2008-07-11T23:17:00.000-06:00

I just found the best blog! This woman makes amazing things and gives them away!!! Just click the link below.
Early Evening Gown GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!

Memories

2008-07-11T22:18:00.001-06:00

I stole this idea from my friend Heather. I thought it was great! Those who take a peek at my blog, just follow these instructions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, if you feel so inclined, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll be sure to write one about you...!

3. If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. And please do this on your page, too, so we can all share in the fun times together. :)

I love posting video's!

2008-07-01T19:30:00.003-06:00

Since I figured out how to post videos - I think it might be my new obsession! Plus then you can all see how crazy my fun little Ella is. She thinks it is so fun to be chased around the house (obviously!). After my back and the babies couldn't take it anymore I had to sit down to rest. She came in and signed more, over and over. We played the chase game for about an hour. Between John and I we were exhausted! I think that means we are getting old.

Ella LOVES the pool

2008-06-30T14:01:00.005-06:00

Ella recently got a pool and she LOVES it. Even if we are just walking out to the car and she sees the pool she gets really excited. Then when she realizes that we aren't going to the pool she cries! The day of this video she was in the pool for 1 1/2 hours. She kept putting her face in the water spray and thought it was so funny. When I was sitting next to her with my feet in the pool (which felt so good!) she kept splashing my toes and laughing. She is such a handful, but so much fun. I can't imagine our lives without her. (There is a short and long version)

Updated Ella pictures

2008-06-27T23:52:00.002-06:00

Updates

2008-06-27T23:13:00.008-06:00

Here are some updated ultrasound pictures and here is a picture of my GROWING belly.

This is a profile of the boy (I swear he already has John's nose!)

Here is a profile of the girl and I think she already has Ella's same look!

Here I am in Vegas (last week) at 29 weeks

Happy Birthday Handsome!

2008-06-27T22:27:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to wish my handsome husband a Happy Birthday! I have been so blessed to have such an amazing husband. He is such a wonderful father to Ella. Ella told me that her favorite person is her daddy! He is always playing with her and making us both laugh. I found someone as crazy and goofy as myself and I couldn't be happier. John is such a hard worker and I know he would do anything for us. I love you John!!!