Dance Recital

Ellie finished her 2nd year of dance in May.

Here is video from her recital.

Cedar Hills, Easter and the Circus!!

April started out with our family heading to Cedar Hills to watch conference. Here is a pircture of the girls with Alan!

My niece Baylee spend a couple of days with us, then we all headed to Nevada. Here is Claire at the Easter egg hunt in Pioche. Many eggs had numbers on them. Claire ended up picking up only a couple of eggs, but the number on one of her eggs was drawng for the grand prize - a tricycle.

Here is Ellie coloring Easter Eggs!!

The girls in their Easter Dresses!

A circus came to town, and we were given free tickets to attend. We went with both our girls and Ellie's friend and next door neighbor, Mya.

The elephants were everyone's favorite part of the circus.

Birthday Pictures at Last!!!

Sorry these took so long!! We have a ton of pictures to post so check back for more updates!!

Fairytopia Cake Party Guests

Ellie was very excited for her cake. She had a fun birthday and was happy that her friends could come. They played games, ate cupcakes and watched Ellie's new movie!!

Happy Birthday Ellie!!!

Ellie had a birthday party. She is now 14 . . . I mean 4. Well, at least she thinks she's older. Ellie has really been looking forward to having a party.  Every day she would invite someone new to her party.  Recently in the middle of Sacrement Meeting, she saw a boy her age walking by us.  She tried to stopped him and invite him to her birthday party. More about her birthday will be posted later.

Family Members Have Important Responsibilities!

Today Ellie gave her first talk in Primary. We are so proud of her. She got a little nervous at first, but did great job. She helped write the talk and added the roles of parents and children in her own family.

Here's her talk:

Family Members have important responsibilities. A responsibility is a necessary job. If you don’t do your responsibilities, others may be sad.

Father’s responsibility is to preside in the home. He holds the priesthood and works hard to provide for his family. My dad is working hard on getting a job.

Mothers work very hard too. Their responsibility is to take care of their children.

My mother takes care of my sister and me. She makes good food to eat and teaches me to keep my room clean.

Brothers and Sisters should get along and obey their parents. My sister is too little to listen, but when she is bigger, I will help her learn to be obedient.

I am thankful for my family. I am glad we each have responsibilities so we can help each other. I love my family.

4 months

It is hard to believe that 4 months have already gone by since Claire was born. She is a lot of fun, and keeps us smiling. One of her favorite things is sitting up and watching everyone around her. She doesn't enjoy of laying down, especially on her tummy (probably because she is a very social baby). She loves to talk and growl.

A Change of Pace!

A couple of weeks ago Adam went to pick up his check from work only to find out, he had already had his last day on the job. With few prospects for projects, they were letting him and two others go. We found out this bit of news just days before we blessed Claire. Determined to have a great weekend we put all of that aside and had good time with family.
The last two weeks have been filled with looking for jobs, getting insurance, filing for unemployment etc. We have heard a lot of people say, "at least you have the store." The store would be great if only we had it paid off. We purchased the store with the long term goal of getting out of debt faster. In two more years we would start to see a real return from it. We have now put the store up for sale, since it is likely that we will have to move out of the area for work.
If you know of any jobs out there we would love to hear about them. We know that things will work out and that this situation is only temporary. We also realize that there are so many others out there in the same situation.

Sisters

I get asked all the time if Ellie likes being a big sister. A typical day goes like this.
Ellie: Mom is Claire awake
Mom: Yes( Ellie then runs out of her room)
Ellie: Claire , mom Claire smiled at me
Mom: That's great Ellie
Ellie: Yes that means that she loves me
Mom: Yes it does
Ellie: I love it when she smiles at me
I would have to say that on most days Ellie loves being a big sister. Claire loves that Ellie talks to her. She loves to watch her big sister.

Blessing

We blessed Claire a last Sunday. We had a great day and were excited to be able to share the day with so many family members. Claire's dress was sewn by Adam's mom, and is beautiful.

The blanket that Claire is on was made by her Great Grandma Ruth. This is one of the grandmas that she is named after.

Christmas, Snowman, & New Years

We had a great Christmas in Nevada.

The girls in their Christmas dresses by our tree.

Claire with Great Grandpa McCrosky.

Daddy and Ellie's snowman. They had to wait a couple of days to build it because the snow would not pack. They had a ton of fun. Ellie would sit on one snowball while dad made another one.

New Year's Eve tradition finally being able to break ant the gingerbread house. Ellie was so excited. She was very patient all month only trying 1 or 2 m&m's.

2 months

Claire is now 2 months old, and growing so fast. I would have to say that my favorite moment was her first real smile. We were at my grandmas house on Christmas morning and she smiled at me. It was probably the best present that she could give me.