One more!

Callie got this beautiful dress from my parents. She was so excited to wear it to church today! Thank you Grandma and Papa Ellefsen!

Callie is 5!

 Well, my sweet girl is 5 years old! The day of her birthday we didn't do too much, she got to take treats to preschool and open her presents. :)

 Saturday was the big day, her first friend party. The theme was rainbow princess, mainly because I wanted to make this sweet cake! We played lots of games: pin the cloud on the rainbow, glow stick ring toss, freeze dance with rainbow streamers, crafted, and finished the party with a homemade pinata!

 Isn't it pretty?? The girls loved it! :)

 It was another momentous day, Callie got her first bloody nose during the party. The girls had some down time and were playing. The toy room door was slammed shut, right into Callie's face. Luckily it was pretty mild and stopped bleeding quickly.

 This little bugger was stubborn! I was worried it would break too easily since I made it from a brown grocery bag, but each girl took 3 turns and it was going nowhere! So I finally took a turn... with a hammer :) The girls were getting antsy to get the candy!

Here are some of Callie's favorites right now:
Movie: Wreck It Ralph
Color: pink and purple (somedays she says she can't decide and its the rainbow)
Dinner: Macaroni and Cheese (apparently I aim too high when I cook)
Toy: Ballerina barbie
Treat: Candy necklaces
Show: Electric Company
Dressup dress: Rapunzel
Book: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We started our year off with a yummy breakfast at Denny's (yay for kids eating free!) then went sledding for the first time!

Both of the kids loved it! However, we don't have the best snow clothes...

Once they realized how wet they were... that was the end. We had to drag two screaming kids back to the car who didn't stop screaming for the next 20 minutes. :)

But once they were dry and warm again... they couldn't stop talking about how fun it was to go down the "slide" and play in the snow. We will definitely be doing this again! Maybe next time we will invest in snow pants to avoid the meltdowns at the end...

Life is GOOD

Hello! I know, you can all be mad by my lack of blogging. As I was looking through my pictures... I realized I have been TERRIBLE at taking any this year. I guess that will be a New Year's Resolution for next year. :)

Life for us is good. I have been thinking about what a great year we have had. Have we had stress and struggles? yes. But we worked through them and came out on top. And our kids are pretty much adorable. We are a family that is loving life together... most days. :)

Callie started preschool in August and absolutely loves it. I love hearing her excitement as she tells me about the songs they sing, how she was at the playdough station, the stories they read, etc. She adores her teacher and has made some cute little friends in her class as well. Her new thing is wanting to help me with chores like unloading the dishwasher, making beds, etc. So I am trying to remember to not be in such a hurry and let her help me more often.

Tyson is becoming such a smart little stinker. Because we review the alphabet and counting with Callie, Tyson can now sing his ABC's, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, I am a Child of God and Once there was  snowman, all by himself. It pretty much melts my heart everytime he does. That boy can get away with murder when flashes his little grin. In September he turned 2. We have been enjoying all the new aspects of life that come with having a 2 year old. Tantrums, increased communication, tantrums, independent play, tantrums... :)

Nick was hired on as a supervisor at Extend Health. It has been a wonderful position that Nick really loves. The company has treated us well and Nick is quickly becoming recognized as one of the better supervisors.

I am taking a break from running. I ran quite a few races over the summer, continually giving myself new goals to work towards. My final race was the Woman of Steel relay (like a toned down Ragnar). I was in a car full of girls all day long. It was soooo much fun! And I ran the fastest I ever have which made me feel like a million bucks. But now it is winter. And freezing outside. So I am taking a break from running till it is warm again. 

And now for your viewing pleasure... pictures of my cute family.

Color Me Rad!

Some friends from my ward and I did the Color me Rad 5k. It was a blast! This is us before we got "color bombed"

And this is what it looked like at every kilometer! We would run through a line of volunteers who were doing their best to not see any white left on our clothes.

All of us at the finish! This was the first year they had this race in UT, and we hope it happens every year!

Our one spot of white from our bibs. :)

Easter!

Well, Easter was fairly uneventful at our house. It kind of snuck up on me so I didn't have a bunch of fun things planned. But I at least got Callie's skirt made and the Easter bunny made an appearance.


Since we missed all the fun activities with Easter, we did an Easter re-do on the 14th. Callie and I dyed Easter eggs and then we did an egg hunt in the house (it was windy and rainy outside). Tyson LOVEd it. I tried to get pictures but he was moving too fast and every single one was blurry. But whenever he found an egg, he did a happy dance. And it was adorable. And of course Callie was beside herself with giddiness finding all the eggs. And being the big girl to color the eggs all by herself (Tyson didn't color this year... we'll wait till next year). Hopefully Callie had happy memories and next year I'll be more on top of things!

Callie's Birthday!

My Callie turned 4 in March- I can't believe it! We kept the celebration pretty small this year. But Callie was pretty easy to please. She wanted a chocolate cake with purple frosting and pink "sparkles". Nick and I got her a bike and helmet. She LOVES it. We ended up getting a size bigger than we originally thought we'd need, which made me realize just how big she is getting. Some of her favorites right now:
TV show: Diego (we have learned SO many animals because of this silly show)
Color: I don't think she can decide because she lists almost all of them :)
Toy: anything with disney princess
When we took her in for her 4 year check up, we discovered she has had an intense growth spurt, she is in the 90% for height and 80% for weight. Apparently she got the tall genes that skipped over Nick and I. :)