Temple Square Lights

We love to go and see the lights at Temple Square, but most every year we come home thinking "Why did we do that again."  This year was no exception.  We went last Saturday and the crowds were unbelievable.  It was also really cold.  It's always so beautiful, but we need to figure out a better time to go.

Annie is turning three

 These are pictures we got at Target today.  I love their work.  I wish I could get every single one.  Annie will turn three in two days (can't believe it) and I wanted to get pictures of the girls together.

Eleanor is seven months old

This last month has been the biggest for changes and milestones.  I looked at Ellie this month and realized she is definitely no longer an infant.  She is a baby! She has started to roll over both front to back and back to front.  She can move around in a circle when she is on her stomach to get to toys that are scattered around her.  She sits up really well, especially if she has a toy to play with in her lap.  Her favorite toy is a ball that has different buttons to play music.  She laughs and giggles all the time now.  She got her third tooth and a fourth is about to poke through.  These last two are the ones next to the top front teeth.  I have never seen those come in first.  hopefully there will be enough room for the top teeth when they decide to come.  Also this month she took her first long trip.  We drove to Arizona and she did so well.  She slept for a lot of it and played with toys when she was awake.  Since we broke up the drive on the way down (we stopped in Page for the night) we only had to stop twice to feed her and both times Annie got to get out and run around.  She did great on the drive also (we did take the laptop so she could watch a movie).  We are so happy to have these two wonderful girls in our family.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This Thanksgiving was the first time I have traveled somewhere to spend Thanksgiving with family.  We had a great vacation and loved seeing the Arizona Cluff's.  November is a great time to spend in Arizona, we had such great weather (except for the five minutes of rain right as we started our outside Thanksgiving dinner).

This was a beautiful view we saw right as we drove into Arizona

Dan and his brother Ben ran a 10k on Thanksgiving morning

Stephanie, Annie, and Ellie cheering on Dan in his race

Annie was jumping all over the place at the race

Dan after about 2.5 miles

Thanksgiving pies (I made the apple pie, in the blue pan)

Thanksgiving Dinner

So much food

So grateful to be with family

Annie and Ellie in a pink coupe.  We got a red coupe for Annie for her birthday,
so we were glad to see that she enjoyed it so much.  

Cluff family in front of the Fountain at Fountain Hills (the fountain shoots up 300-400 feet in the air

Annie and her cousin Betty (they are 11 days apart)

They loved spending the week together

Ellie wearing her cousin's hat

Trying to get the duck to eat the cracker (she was pulling on the ducks beak)

Cluff Family at the Mesa temple

Mesa Temple with christmas lights

Annie at Glen Canyon Dam at Lake Powell

Cornbelly's and Halloween

We went with my sister to cornbelly's earlier this month and Annie had a great time.  She loved the
bounce houses the best.

Annie and Ellie were Ladybugs.  We had to put Ellie in the chili pepper costume, just for the picture

This was Annie in the chili pepper costume when she was nine months old.  Love this picture.

Proud of My Body

I am training for a 10k that I want to run on Thanksgiving. I got some great advice from friends who are runners on how to train. I only have a month, so I have to speed things up. I am going to run M, W, F 3 miles and then the long run on Saturday. I started last Monday and it felt so good to get out and run. I have never considered myself a runner, and I probably won't keep up this same schedule forever, but it did feel great. The farthest I have ever run was 4 miles with my mom when she was training for a 10k. That was years ago, and I was in much better shape than I am now, only five months after having a baby. Today was my 4 mile run. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to make it, running the whole way. When I got to about 1.5 miles I had the thought, I could turn around now and no one would know. But then I thought, if I cheat on this run, I will never make it further than 3 miles. So I kept going, not even looking at the 1.5 marker. I made it to 2 miles and turned around. I felt so good, because I knew that now I need to get back home. Even if I had to walk, I had to go 4 miles. I ran and ran, and finally I could see the end. I knew I was going to make it. I was so proud of my body for making it that far, running the whole way. I ran about a 12 minute mile, so not really all the fast, but I kept moving. I am excited now about each week going farther to finally make it to a 10k.

Teething Bites

Ellie got her first two teeth right before she turned 5 months old. She was a little bit fussy, but overall we didnt' really know she was teething until the teeth came. Over the last week, Ellie has been completely opposite of how she usually is. It's been four days of crying, refusing to nurse sometimes, barely any solid food, and more crying. I can finally see a tooth on the top coming in, but it's coming really slowly. I just wonder what her teething disposition will really be. I want to know what other people do to help ease the pain beside Tylenol. Leave a comment if you want.

Five Months Already

Ellie is five months old today and we can't believe how fast it has gone since she was born. She has started to giggle when we show funny faces or talk baby talk with her. It used to take a lot to get even a small laugh out of her, but she is getting more free with her giggles. She just got her first two teeth, they came two days apart, so we finally understood why she was so fussy for a couple days. Annie is finally starting to be interested in playing with Ellie. She likes to shake toys and put them in her hand. She likes to try to get her to laugh and when Ellie laughs Annie says "Ellie's funny." It's so great to have two girls.