Project 365

Since we got home late on Halloween and didn't have time to carve our pumpkins before trick-or-treating we decided to carve them for FHE Monday night. The boys actually used Mr. Potato Head pieces for their pumpkins and then Cory and I used actual knives. I was SO impressed with Cory's. He doesn't normally join us in our carving - and he attempted a pattern and everything. I was impressed! Gabe asked several times what Cory was carving and he told him "The Grim Reaper". The last time Gabe asked he said, "Oh yeah - you already told me - it's 'The Grim-Shaw". (To those who are local this is funny with so many "Grimshaws" that live in our ward/neighborhood.)

I haven't had roasted pumpkin seeds in YEARS - since I was probably 4 or 5 years old. Gabe asked about pmpkin seeds after seeing them in a magazine article and so we gave them a shot. YUM! I have been snacking on them now and LOVE them. So far they haven't made me sick either, which is awesome.

The boys and I had to run to Walmart and saw all of the Halloween stuff on clearance. They were THRILLED that there were some Star Wars costumes on clearance for just $3.00. Sadly they are HUGE on the boys, but they'll have some fun in them I'm sure.

We weren't home when the pest control guys came and sprayed our house/yard. I asked the technician to just leave the bill on the counter. Well he did - but he left a little "friend" with it. It startled me and completly freaked poor Gabe out. We sure laughed about it later and hid the plastic bug toy around the house for others to see.

This was a BIG day at our house. Hunter's first day at preschool! Brings a bit of a tear to my eye....but it's just a 1 day a week and he is going to LOVE it!

Our good friends the Smiths blessed their little baby Cade in their home. It was great to share that time with them and some other friends. And the food they served after - YUMMO! So glad to have great friends close by.

Another BIG day for our family. Uncle Coby's mission farewell. We headed up to Logan to hear Coby speak and spend time with extended family while we celebrated Coby's big decision. We're SO proud of him and all he will be doing these next 2 years to share the gospel with the people of California!

Project 365

I didn't get these posted Sunday night - but I'm still sticking to my goal of posting my Project 365 pictures each week. So here you go:

Monday: The boys were so excited to try a recipe called "Be Bim Bop". We had read a book from the library about a Korean meal and it included a recipe for the food in the story. We made that for dinner and then headed into town for "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs for FHE."

Tuesday: I don't have an official picture for this day. This was the crazy day when my mom and I decided to hop in the car and run to Disneyland. I wish I had taken a picture of me running around like a lunatic.

Wednesday: We drove to Anaheim and ended the day @ Mimi's Cafe for dinner. The boys enjoyed their "Mimi" Mouse pancakes. The boys still didn't realize where we were or what we would be doing the next day.

Thursday: DISNEYLAND! It was so fun to see the boys faces and their excitement. After we had told the boys what we were doing I told Gabe - "All I want today is for you to make sure that everytime you realize how much fun we're having I want you to tell me that you love me and give me a hug." All day Gabe would wrap his arms around me and my mom filled with hugs and love. It was all decorated with Halloween decorations - it was AMAZING! What a completly magical day & trip!

Friday: California Adventures and another day at Disneyland. We ended the day with 2 fireworks shows @ Disneyland. Another great day full of awesome memories. Friday was also Cory & my 11th anniversary. It was so odd to have an anniversary and be several states away from each other (did I mention he didn't come with us?) We'll celebrate later together, but we love each other. He gave me some beautiful flowers when I got home. Thanks sweetie!

Saturday: We drove home from California today just in time for Trick or Treating. There weren't many trick-or-treaters that came by our house, and the boys didn't go to too may houses either - but it was a good holiday. I dressed up for the first time in years (as requested by the boys). Gabe was a Red Power Ranger & Hunter was in typical "hand-me-down" mode and wore Gabe's old Buzz Lightyear costume. It was fun that my mom - "Nana" got to see the kids during the holiday. Truthfully though, we were exhausted at the end of the day.

Sunday: EXHAUSTION - nothing but pure exhaustion. That meant my favorite Sunday dinner - scrambled cheesy eggs. We added orange cinnamon rolls (that were for Halloween) and oranges. A totally orange meal.

Project 365

Monday - I took Senior pictures for Madison Wray, our neighbor. We also had spider-hot dogs, bones & eyeballs (mac and cheese w/ peas) for lunch.

Tuesday - Pictures for Mindy's dental office. This stressed me out more than almost anything ever has. I was already worried about it but a few seconds before we took the pictures I asked what the picture's size needed to be. I knew it was going to be in a phone book. She said, "It's the back cover". THE BACK COVER OF THE PHONEBOOK!!?!?! Anyway, they didn't turn out great (because I am NOT a professional photographer, and we were going to originally take them outside, but it was pouring rain and we had to do them indoors @ their office). Anyway - after taking some mediocre pictures I came home and fell apart because I felt bad they hadn't turned out. Sorry Mindy...I tried...

Wednesday - We went to dinner with the boys @ Rusty's. Gabe wanted shrimp and boy oh boy - he got shrimp. We joked that they were as big as his head. He so kindly held them up to my head (or in my hair....) to show me how big they were. Silly kid. Yummy food.

Thursday - While I was on the phone with my childhood best friend (Jana) Hunter couldn't keep himself entertained without making a mess of cereal all over the kitchen floor. I guess catching up with a great friend was worth a few minutes with the dust-buster. (We found out earlier that a mutual friend of ours from high school - Ben Hill - had died in a plane crash on Wednesday.)

Friday - We had Gabe's friend Jase come play for a good part of the day. Gabe & Jase were friends from preschool last year and Gabe asks about him all the time. I aws glad they could catch up and play together. We made "donut hole eyeballs" as a treat while they played.

Saturday - Gotta love the annual "Livestock Festival" parade. The highlight - after the parade of farm equipment and tractors is the massive flock of sheep being herded down main street. It was kind of a boring parade this year, but we still had fun together. (note to self - sit on the other side of the street for the next parade - the blaring sunlight was a bit much for my head).

Sunday - while we were reading bedtime stories Gabe insisted that he was "SO HUNGRY". I would have felt sorry for him if he'd eaten better for dinner (we're struggling with meal times - any suggestions?), but since he was already ready for bed I told him if he was really hungry he could have a cup of carrots. He tried proving his point that he was really hungry and took me up on my offer. But not until he had already used the carrot sticks for "vampire teeth".

So there you have it - another fairly uneventful week @ the Ellis home.

Project 365

Look at this - 3 weeks in a row :) Being accountable and posting my Project 365 pictures on here helps keep me working on it. Now if I can just ge them scrapped....

Monday - Gabe and his best buddy Noah playing Noah. They played for hours with the Legos and Noah even ended up staying and playing by himself when Gabe headed to gymnastics for the evening. Love how creative the kids can be with Legos!

Tuesday - My first check from Exfuze. Cory's gotten them, but it was my first check.

Wednesday - We had our friend Ben playing at hour house most of the morning and headed to Artic Circle for lunch after storytime @ the library. Ben ordered mini corn dogs and then asked me very confused why they didn't look like dogs. Later he told his mom he had ordered "dog corn" for lunch. Turns out he'd never had one before :)

Thursday - Hunter and I played bubbles after taking Gabe to school. There aren't many sounds as fun as a 2 year old squealing with excitement over bubbles.

Friday - UGH - Cory started feeling sick this week and has been in bed most of the weekend. Most of the time he'll keep working, keep running around like normal and just complain about it. He's been feeling so crummy this time though that he's pretty much laid around since Friday afternoon. He's doing a bit better today, hoping the rest of the week gets better (and that the rest of the crew doesn't catch it.

Saturday - With Cory being sick I thought he deserved some homemade chicken noodle soup. I haven't made this before, and I went all out with fresh, homemade noodles. Not a big deal to most - but I was pretty proud that they turned out on my first try.

Getting the kids off to bed, a piggy back ride was just what they needed to get into bed.

Photos of the Week

Hunter had a visit with the Early Intervention speech therapist. After that the nurse that was doing a hearing screening suggested that he might have an ear infection so it was off to our pediatrician's office to have them checked out. And even though he hadn't been acting sick he apperently had an ear infection. A few days of antibiotics and he seems to be on the mend!

Sushi @ home - frozen and from Schwans......We didn't love it, but glad we gave it a try.

Ugh, paperwork and filing.

After preschool we picked up our friend Haley and headed to the pumpkin patch. Fun little outing with fun little kids.

Gabe loved the dominos we had a lot of fun building designs with them.

Recently a "new" restaurant opened in St. George - Brick Oven - one of our favorites from Utah County. It was so fun to take the boys somewhere that brought back some wonderful memories from my childhood.

Hunter has been carrying around the one and only baby-doll we have. The boys started fighting over it and I remembered that I had some of my old dolls in a chest in our basement. So I got them out and then the boys started fighting over those ones.

Project 365 Photos

I have really been lousy with keeping up with my Project 365 pictures. I've been pretty good with taking at least 1 picture each day, but I haven't been keeping up with my layouts, or even organizing my pictures to make sure I have ones for every day. To fix that I am going to try to have a post on my blog each Sunday evening with pictures from the past week. Hopefully that will help me to be a bit more accountable with the project. So here is our past week:

Monday: (gave the boys a haircut - my first time)

Tuesday: (our acorns with the grub)

Wednesday:
(oops - no picture for this day....)
Thursday: (donated blood)

Friday: (we made the boys Halloween door hangers with scrapping supplies)

Saturday: (Gabe and I had a date to see Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3-D)

Sunday: (General Conference - lots of fun treats like our Halloween sugar cookies)