In comparison....

Ella 1st Week .............................Aspen 1st Week

Ella 2 1/2 months....................Asepn 2 1/2 months

Our Girls in January

Aspen has recently lost the ability to smile nautraly when asked too, this is what you get....what a funny girl!

Aspen and Ella are still getting along great. As Ella becomes more interactive Aspen has become more excited about playing with her. She likes to sing Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam and Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree with her and hold her hands and pretend to dance with her. I look forward to each new way they learn to play together!

Ella really likes to hang out in her bouncy seat and play with her toys, she can really get them going these days, the noiser the better.
Ella's first ouchy (self inflicted)

Ella's favorite way to take a nap is wrapped up tightly in her blankie from Great Grandma Smith.Any box quickly becomes a bath tub to Aspen. I guess it's a good sign that she likes to be clean.
Aspen got ahold of my camera one day and when I found it this plus a few other pictures is what I found. I had no idea she could even get the thing open to turn it on let alone take pictures!Recently I got a new computer and with it a keyboard, so I gave Aspen the old one that wasn't working well anyways. From day one she has called the keyboard her computer and she has to check her email. She will be playing and out of the blue she will jump up and "I gotta check my emails" I guess Brent and I must say that a little to often :) Yesterday Brent worked from home for a little while and Aspen got out her "computer" and checked her email and had her little phone and made work calls right along side Daddy it was too cute!

Can you believe how grown up my little girl is! She will be two and a half the end of this month and I can't believe how time has flown by. Sorry I've been so long in putting up new pictures I'll try and get back in the habit of at least twice a week putting up a post! Love you all!

What's happening...

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. Life has been crazy with getting ready to take over the primary, having family in town, and Ella and Aspen demanding more and more of my time and energy every day! Here is what has been going on for us recently

For me it's just more of the same, running people places and gearing myself up for Primary. This coming Sunday (Feb. 3) will be my first official Sunday in charge, I'm having my first presidency meeting tomorrow night and we have a lot of decisions to make by Sunday and I still have two teacher callings I need filled. Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for me to have the strength I'll need, I have felt your support and love!

Aspen continues to grow and learn amazing things each and every day. Just yesterday while watching her current favorite princess movie Cinderella she ran up to me and asked me to pull on her dress. Not understanding what she really wanted I tugged on the hem of her night gown a few times. Then she ran off pretending to cry. Next thing I know she is handing me a hammer and telling me to make her a beautiful dress and change her pumpkin. After a few seconds with a blank look on my face I got it....she wanted me to pretend to ruin her dress like the ugly stepsisters and she ran away like Cinderella, my next roll was fairy godmother. Aspen was playing out Cinderella all on her own, who needs the movie! She is fast becoming a beautiful little girl, she loves to put on dresses and dance around her favorite dancing partner is daddy and it is SO cute to see them twirling around together.

Ella is growing at an incredible rate I swear! At her 2 month check up the beginning of this month she was 9 lbs 12 oz and 22 1/4 in longs. That was a weight gain of almost 4 lbs and length of 3 3/4 in since birth! Sadly at her 2 month check up we did find that she had an ear infection in one of her ears. We decided to not treat it with antibiotics at that time becuase it didn't really seem to bother her and she had no fever or other signs of an infection. But we did have to go back three weeks later to have it looked at and make sure it cleared up. Well on Jan 23 exactly three weeks after her 2 week check up we went back. Her ears are just fine (YAHOO!) and guess what....she gained another 6 oz!!!! Ella continues to be a content happy baby and smiles laughs and talks through most of her day. I can't wait till I can make travel arraingments to head out to Utah so I can show her off to everyone there!

Brent is doing well at his job at Sears, but the pressure of holding down two jobs is a lot. We are still weighing our options and praying to help us make decisions for our future.

Dane is doing well also, being a typical teenager...not wanting to do his homework...missing curfew here and there...moping around the house when his friends are all busy. We have recently been given perminate guardianship of him, what this means for the future, we still really don't know, but it does mean we have all the leagl rights to make decisions for him.

We hope everyone is doing well is happy and healthy and we look forward to hearing from you!

Blankies

Thanks to Great Grandma Smith for our wonderful lovies! Aspen can not be far from her blankie and Ella is just getting to know her. We love to have floor time together and lay out both their blankies so Aspen and Ella can lay together on the floor.

HUH?

This morning Brent and I were awoken suddenly by Aspen. Now, you may not think this is strange, but we have a door knob safety lock on her door so she can't get out, but this morning she figured it out and joined us in our room. She came running in to announce that she was poopy and needed mommy! I've put the safety lock back on her door, I'm still not sure HOW she got it off, and we'll see if she does it again or if it was just luck on her part. She is getting to be way to smart for her own good or my sanity!

Ella's Blessing

During the blessing I started to hear some noises from Ella and worried she would start to cry and drowned out her father, but afterwards Brent said she never fussed she was smiling and cooing at all the men in the circle! I love how happy and content Ella is!
We were excited to have so much family here for Ella's blessing day! There was Brent's brother Brian and his wife and kids Karen, Kennedy and Presley, and Brent's parents. We also had my parents and grandparents down from Salt Lake City Utah!

This is the dress my mom made for me when Aspen was born, now both of my girls have worn it and I still love it more then anything I could have bought from a store!

Change....... it isn't all bad

Today was an interesting day at church. We were excited about getting the earlier block this year and even happier when they moved it from 10 to 9....today they announced that because the high priests meet Sunday morning we had to move it back to 10am--at least it's still an improvement from 12pm! Also, we had two families move during the year and didn't realize they were now in the other wards boundaries....the stake and wards have become aware of this and told them that next week they need to go to the proper meetings. This is especially sad for us not just because of the numbers, but one family are good friends of ours (they have two young girls like us) and the other family is our beloved nursery leader and her three precious grandsons who we love in primary! They will be missed by all.

Amazingly, this is not all that happened today!

I was released as 2nd counselor in the primary presidency today-very unexpectedly-my new calling is................................Primary PRESIDENT! I'm a little freaked out be the responsibility the Lord thinks I am ready for, but I am also excited. Pray for me please :) What a day, I hope every Sunday this year isn't quite so exciting.