The Brand New Elise- All Grown Up!

In the last two weeks our sweet baby has transformed before our eyes. Where did my little baby go????
Elise pulled herself up onto the couch one day and has not stopped climbing since! This pic was taken the first day she learned how to pull herself up; it captures how proud she was of herself. Oh dear!

She also learned to sit on her own, and yes my Christmas Tree sheds like crazy.

With Anna’s diligent instruction, she also learned to crawl.

She started eating solids for the first time too. But she is a funny girl. She won’t eat baby food, or anything resembling it like apple sauce, mashed bananas… we’ve tried them all! She only likes food such as chili, mashed potatoes and gravy, or anything with a lot of flavor or spice.

Last but not least she also learned to text. :) 
Ya, and unfortunately she inherited her mother’s habit of sticking out the tongue while concentrating.
I am kind of sad my baby grew up before my eyes in a matter of a week!!!

A Sedona Getaway

We headed to Sedona, AZ yesterday.  It was a short trip but we had lots of fun. We got to stay at nice resort for a night and go on a snow hike in the morning.

We woke up to some snow outside! It was the girls first experience with snow so we bundled them up the best we could with our limited supply of warm clothes for little girls; socks for mittens etc. Except Elise tried to eat her mitten/socks.

We hiked down Oak Creek Canyon a little ways until we reached the creek crossing and could go no further without the possibility of taking a very cold swim. We even went on a bear hunt went we encountered a cave and ran away fast so the “bear” would not eat us.

Elise seemed to love it. I don’t know what Anna thought of it all.  She seemed a little hesitant to touch the snow but that might have been because she had socks on her hands. She liked stomping around in it. But by the time we got back into the car she was crying. I think her toes got a little frozen.

We even built a snowman and sang “once there was a snowman” which she loved until we tried to get a picture with the snowman.

Rainy Day

We decided to go on a walk. So….after feeding the kids, cleaning their messy hands and faces, changing their diapers, dressing them, making sure one of them was not killing themselves or destroying something while working with the other one, chasing Anna around the house to get her sweater on, wrestling with Elise to get her jacket on, putting socks and shoes on them, changing the little one again, then getting out of my pj’s and getting dressed myself while trying to keep Elise from climbing up the bookshelf, after all this I was not staying inside, when I surprisingly opened my door to rain! No, we were going to go on a walk whether we liked it or not.

And we liked it! I am sure the mothers who saw me walking around with two babies in the rain were giving me dirty looks, but when did a little bit of rain ever hurt anyone?

And if you notice, Anna was wearing her umbrella sweater. :)

Jolly Old Saint Nick

The girls first encounter with Santa Clause went like this....

Anna was terrified and Elise found the bells on his strap absolutely fascinating and just wanted to play with them.

Packing up- Goodbye Rancho Cucamonga

A few weeks ago, we headed out to California to help my parents pack up, and move out of my childhood home in Rancho Cucamonga. :( A sad thing because I love that home and will miss it and the people there; happy because my parents will be close to us here in Arizona.

We went from room to room putting things in boxes, I packed up the whole kitchen, part of the living room and another room or two while taking care of my two little girls at the same time! That is quite a miracle. Kent was loading and stacking boxes, packing computer stuff helping load the truck with some friends of my parents came to help with the loading too. My dad had helped load the dressers, beds, piano and big stuff the day he was able to be here.  We all slept on blow up mattresses in this boxed up empty house.

It was quite the task for my mother, since my dad had to get back to work in Arizona. She got it done though. My dad came back out on Thanksgiving to help my mom finish the last details, poor things had Thanksgiving dinner at McDonalds, then turned the keys over to the new owners. By the time they were done with it the house was lovely; just perfect and they did extra to make it so nice for the new people. What a nice gorgeous home that we all hope to be loved by a new family. We will miss it.

Some pics of the garage and living room during the packing chaos.

My sister Shayla came out for a few days too so she could “come home” one last time.

We went around with one morning to the places of our childhood. Like Central Elementary School, the Dairy where we would go on summer afternoons to buy candy.

The Junior High Field where many softball games and adventures were had, and Cucamonga Middle School.

The baseline building where we went to church every Sunday and spent many weekdays at seminary and mutual, Redhill Park and it’s great fields, ponds, and walking trials, where we would go often to play, walk, skate, have movies in the park, ward parties, etc.

Our street where we would ride bikes, take dogs on walks, and play football with my dad.

Our backyard where we gardened, grew fruit trees, played basketball, played with our dogs, became “wasp Killers”, had adventures, dug holes, chopped down and trimmed trees, jumped on the trampoline, had backyard campouts, made dirt balls, etc. And our oh so wonderful sweet and delicious amazing orange trees that I will dearly miss.

My first memory of this house was Shayla and I sitting on the planter wall in the front yard looking out on the street. I was 6 and she was 7 years old then. I remember looking out and wondering what other neighbor kids lived in the other houses and what it was going to be like living here.  Now I know.

O Christmas Tree

This year, for the first time Kent and I bought our very own Christmas tree. We went to the Christmas tree lot with the girls and looked around for a beautiful tree of our very own. Anna was very excited and kept pointing at all the trees. It was so fun to be there buying a tree for myself with my own kids!!!! 

All my life I have gone with my parents and siblings to get a tree, a much looked forward to event for us while growing up. My siblings and I would be so excited running and jumping around the lot searching for the perfect tree for our home. The smell of pine would permeate our noses and the cold air turn our cheeks pink. We would try to persuade the others to vote for this tree or that, and my dad would always try to persuade us to get a smaller tree and use the extra money to help someone our for Christmas. My dad would set the tree in our stand and we would decorate it with all our ornaments collected over the years. I loved the smell of Christmas that the tree bought into the home and starring into the lights at night that illuminated the tree and the room.

And now going to the tree lot with my own children was so neat. I said to Kent, “I feel like we are a real family now, us with our 2 kids looking for a Christmas tree!”  We found a beauty, tied it to the top of the car with our newly purchased stand and brought it home. The girls were fascinated and Anna thought it was the greatest thing that we were bringing a tree into the house. Our home now smells like the Christmas’ I’ve always known.

 

Family Reunion

I love the Powell family; they are so great and I am glad I am a part of it. Grandma and Grandad now have 105 members of the Powell family and we all still love getting together and staying close knit. This Thanksgiving we had a mini reunion here in Mesa and spent several days playing games and doing things together.