Ellie in 2011

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Bah! What a year...seriously.  My baby has grown so much and so have we as a family.  From finishing my first year of PA school, to moving across the country to start Leons first year of law school. New house, new friends, yet same wonderful little family.  There are no words to express how much the Lord has blessed our family this year.  Our beautiful baby girl was more than we deserved and the heavens just continues to pour blessing upon us. I am so in love with both my little princess and her handsome Daddy-o.  We were so lucky to be happy and healthy this past year. May health and happiness follow us and you all in the year to come. Happy New Year!

Love,

US

Family Fun

Yay I love love love our new family pictures. Don't you?  Yes, Holli this is Thatcher haha and I think we are in a cotton field.  Do you love it?  Because I was thinking about buying you and Jake a plot of land right next to ours, which is right next to the trailer park and the archery shop lol. I secretly love Thatcher, but mostly just because I love the people who live here.  Anyway, My sister-in-law decided to give my mother-in-law the fantastic Christmas present of a photo shoot of our entire family with this amazing photographer.  Her name is Amber halverson and you can see her amazing work here.  I figured since we were there and ready that we might as well snag a few of just our little family and I am oh so glad I did.  I can't wait to get these framed and up in our home. 

We left our San Diego paradise and came to Thatcher on Tuesday night. Ellie was such a good little flyer and the flight was practically empty so she basically just meandered around the plane and made friends with everyone. She is such a fun and outgoing little peanut.  

I sure do love Arizona. We only lived in Mesa for a little over a year and it still feels like home.  We drove past Banner Gateway and I smiled thinking about the wonderful little person in the back seat who took her first breath in that hospital.  And then came the superstition springs exit where our first apartment as a family is located. I hope the new residents love it as much as we did and feel the love that was built in that little space by a little three member family a year ago. My heart broke a little as we drove past Burger house in Miami because I knew it would be closed and we wouldn't be able to stuff our faces with green chili burros. Next time.

We arrived at two in the morning and were all three beat.  Ellie woke up on the transition from the car to the house and was so excited to see Itchy! She basically screamed "Doggy!" and chased her around the house. Well lets be honest she has been chasing her around the house nonstop since we've been here.  We woke up and got to see the family. It was so fun to spend time with all of Leon's brothers and sisters. Ellie absolutely loves little Taylor. The two kids kind of look alike and are so cute to watch playing together.

Now we are just hanging around this little town and showing Ellsie where Daddy grew up. We went to the High School today and Ellie played with the old tires and got to run, run, run with Dad. We also got to go over to Granny's house. It is always so much fun to spend time with her. Oh and best of all no more "bobby's"! Yay for us. Ok yay for Leon because he did most of the work. Ellie now can even say sippee. It is so so cute. I love her.

We love and miss you all already.  Hope you enjoy the gems of our little fam.

love us

Reunited

Have I told you we are in love?
There is nothing in this world better than an Ellie kiss...nothing.

Yea! Go Harvard Law School!

How cute is Ellsie here? Bah I want to jump right through the picture and kiss that beautiful smile.

Leon is back in my arms! Yea! I always tell myself that two weeks is nothing, but when it comes to being away from your one and only it seems like an eternity. Not to mention, little cinder-ellie had an awful GI bug and threw up on me every morning for about 3 days, at around 4 o clock on the nose, without fail.  I would literally be changing a diaper every hour until the bug passed. I did everything i could to prevent a mad diaper rash. Oh, how I could have used a little help from my partner in crime haha.  But he was very busy taking all those beautiful tests, so well known by us eternal students, as finals.  But at last we are now all together and the bed fills full again and my little body is warm in those big strong arms at night.

 I am so lucky to have this wonderful man in my life. And this little piece of perfection, that I call my daughter, is more than I deserve. Honestly she is more than anyone deserves. Delicious I tell you. Oh how grateful I am for my little family. We really are so blessed just to be together.  And now that we are here together in California I couldn't be happier. What a perfect Christmas.

We have spent the past couple days walking Hollywood blvd in LA, finishing Christmas shopping, and enjoying each other. I don't want this trip to end. 

Mesa with Mimi

A couple weeks ago Ellie and I got on an airplane and did our, what seems like millionth, flight from Boston to Phoenix.  We are getting quite good at maneuvering the airport and security just the two of us lol.  She was such a good girl, like always, and we made it to Arizona safe and sound. 

I had to take my end of rotation exams, so my mom came out to take care of Ellie for me.  Ellie hadn't seen her Mimi since September (besides seeing her pretty much everyday on skype) and she was very excited indeed.  Jaxy came too and boy was Ellie in heaven. She still is...so much attention, so little time.  She is so the princess :) 

Mimi took the kids to the children's museum in Phoenix, which is one of our all time favorite spots to play with the kiddos, I highly recommend it.  Apparently Ellie couldn't get enough of that place. It makes me sad that I missed the adventure but I love that she had a blast.

Have I mentioned recently that she is getting too big, too fast and that I am shocked at how smart the little one has gotten.  I just finished my pediatrics rotation and am well aware of the verbal milestones of a fifteen month old. And they only are supposed to be saying a handful of words. My child is saying everything from peek a boo to shoe.  In just the past week she has been picking up on so many new words and is surprising me everyday. Recently she has been saying "oww-yyy" to everything she doesn't want.  If she doesn't want a shirt on..."oww-yyy", if she doesn't want her socks on..."oww-yyy", if she doesn't want to be in her car seat..."oww-yy". It is getting quite manipulative.  Her dad is going to be shocked at how her vocabulary has grown in the week and a half we have been apart.

While Mommy and Ellie have been busy play play playing in the beautiful California sunshine, Leon has been finishing up his finals. He will be coming to join us for the Christmas festivities in California tomorrow. Woo-hoo! In fact he is now officially done with his first semester at Harvard Law and I am honestly so proud at how hard he has worked. He is such a smarty and is still able to balance church, family and BYU sports all on his plate lol.

We are so excited to get to spend time with our families and be on the west coast! I can't tell you how many things are different from coast to coast.  Leon and I used to think we could live in New York for a couple of years and then come back to the west coast, but now we are prepared to do whatever it takes to get back here as soon as possible. Maybe it's just missing our wonderful families, or the palm trees, or the organized roads, or the space (I finally feel like I can breathe again after four months of suffocation in Boston), or maybe even just the ability to have a superficial conversation with someone who isn't ridiculously brilliant lol (Trust me there is not much of this in Cambridge Massachusetts).

Anyways Happy Holidays we love and miss you all!! 

PS have I proclaimed my love for Mitt Romney lately? And my abhorrence for the Newt? What is happening to the republican party? I am disgusted and appalled at what is happening in the polls...you people are almost moving me to write another poem...