a fabulous day for a fabulous girl

It's great to be 8! Happy Birthday Isabel!

We've begun the day with some fun. We opened the gift from Grandma & Grandpa Mac that they sent. What a beautiful outfit!

For quite a while now, Isabel has been looking forward to getting her ears pierced. We had to wait until she was 8. I think it is an appropriate age--she's a little young lady now and it is very cute and pretty. She was so excited! She could hardly wait until Claire's opened up at 10:00am this morning. I found that I too was excited and had to make sure I didn't speed to get there. Isabel was really brave. It hurt a bit but she was all fine in just a minute or two, and now she's so happy and can't stop looking at her ears in the mirror. I'm so happy for her! We bought her a few pairs of dainty and elegant earring for future use. I'm all about "age appropriate" activities, clothing and now earrings. What we got are definitely appropriate.

(anticipation)

(earlobe before)

(here we go!)

(earlobe after)

(I LOVE it!)

Then, as a surprise to Isabel, I took her and got her a manicure. She is a little lady today. She feels pretty and it shows. That's a nice feeling...isn't it!

Tonight, she's going with the family and a couple of close friends to Chuck E Cheese's (it wouldn't be an Ellertson-kid-birthday without a trip there)! We look forward to that too. What a day. And she even still has her baptism to look forward to.

It really is great to be 8!!

(Remember, you can click on any of the pictures to get a closer look)

the gates are down, the underwear ON and the eggs are found

Gate Status=DOWN. What does this mean? It means that Kyle is going up and down the stairs and is fabulous at it....so much so that we have taken the gates and all barricades DOWN! It's rather nice...I still take double-takes sometimes, as my psyche isn't used to it quite yet. Kyle LOVES IT! He loves going to the down-down play room with "the big kids" and just roaming. He really is pretty good on his own, and YES, I do check on him still rather often. But it nice to let him have some freedom and not have to have him under foot and in sight at all times. Hooray for Ky!

Underwear Status=ON. What does this mean? It means that Mom took Rory's diapers and said "no more." Okay, he still wears them at night...but not during they day. We aren't going back either. No pull-ups, no diapers for nap...underwear! He was just getting lazy with his training and it wasn't going anywhere. I seriously prayed for help with this, and I got the impression to just go for it. Jim was home a few days last week being sick, so he was here to help with the few accidents we had, but it really hasn't been too bad. He's excited and proud, and I, Rory's Mother, am very excited and proud of Rory!

Easter Eggs Status=DYED, HIDDEN & FOUND. We had a fun fun time this Easter. We all enjoyed the Founders Village Easter Egg Hunt--though it was rather brisk out, the sun made its appearance at just the right time. There were a ton of kids...and not quite a ton of eggs, but each of my kids got a few eggs, so they were happy enough. We saw friends there and it was a great way to kick off the Easter weekend.

We also shared some nice spiritual moments this week. Beginning with our Family Home Evening on Monday we talked to our kids about Easter and its meaning. We spoke of Jesus's Atonement, His Crucifixion and the Resurrection. It a bit complicated for our yougin's but we simplified it and they got the idea. Mostly we talked about how much Heavenly Father and Jesus loves each of us and how all of this is a gift to us. We got a beautiful book from Deseret Book called In The Garden, at the recommendation of my sister-in-law, and while the wording in the book was a bit rudimentary, it was basic and understandable for children....and the art was FABULOUS.

All in all, our Easter was rather nice. We shared a lovely Easter dinner with some close friends and enjoyed our day at church too. Now to get the kids to not eat ALL their candy in one sitting!

a painted house

We decided to have our interior painted! It looks so nice. I miss the brightness of the white walls, but now that it's painted, it feels like a "grown up" home. It's kind of hard to explain, but if you've ever done it, you understand!

We aren't painters. So many people are--I think most of my friends--LOVE to paint and do fun projects like that. Not I. It is a pain. I guess if I didn't have kids under foot and I could take my time, maybe I'd like it more, but right now it sounds like torture to have such a daunting task. Plus we have HUGE vaulted ceilings, and that would be even more challenging. So, last May (2007), we got a quote, and it was actually a rather reasonable price, but decided to afford it finally when we heard about the tax$$ rebate. It really was worth having someone paint it--I feel like I have a new home! AND--Thanks kids for being alive so we can have $$ to paint the walls that you've made nice and dirty!

(the main color is a goldy-tan & a few accent walls/areas were the green you see)

A 3 Year Old

Wow, Rory is 3! We had such a fun day with him. It started out with us letting him open Grandma & Grandpa Mac's birthday gift for him...a cool view-master projector. The kids loved it and spent a long time in the bathroom (as it is dark-dark in there). Fun stuff.

We went to Olive Garden (Rory's request) for his birthday dinner. It was YUMMY! They sang to him and he felt super-special (he was a little shy when they came to sing to him and it was darling).

THEN--the BIG fun...we went BOWLING. Again, Rory's Request. He could have gone to Chuck E Cheese's or anything, but he LOVES to bowl. We had a fabulous time. He is so cute. He cheers and jumps up and down and has a great time. Of the kids--he got 1st place! We opened gifts there and even lit candles on his birthday rice-crispy-treats (no cake for the egg allergy). What a good night.

I can't believe he is 3! Some days he seems more like 5 or 6 due to his size and brilliance, but then again, the 3 years are amazing, and has gone quick. When we moved to Colorado, he was only 6 weeks old. You've come far my sweet boy.