Sweet Ellie Girl

There's something extra sweet about a baby daughter.

Kids

The kids still look really similar, but we feel like Ellie is growing into her own look a little.

We love visiting Lynette!

Boys In the Kitchen

 Rhett doesn't cook much.  Both our families growing up didn't depend on our dad's cooking (although my dad does make his own chocolate cake).  

But there are a few things Rhett makes that are really great.

Mainly fresh pasta.

He served his mission in Italy and loves pasta.  We have it a lot.  A few years ago my mom got him a pasta roller for Christmas.  We've been perfecting his methods for some time now.

Rhett has had an easier rotation this month and we've been loving having him around more.  He's only working 40 hours a week and it feels like he's on vacation.

So he and RJ made dinner tonight.

RJ was actually a really great help and is on his way to being the family's next pasta expert. 

Rhett really let him do a lot of the pasta making.  He cranked the handle for everything, and helped a lot preparing the sheets.  Rhett would help him obviously, but I was really impressed how much RJ did on his own.  Six months ago when he was helping with pasta it was kind of more work to have him involved, but tonight he was a good little sous chef to his dad.

Rhett is a really patient guy, which helps RJ as he's learning and all the repetition gave him time to get pretty good at doing a lot on his own.  I was surprised when RJ would load his dough himself and run it through.

To make fresh pasta, you first make the dough from eggs, flour, and a titch of olive oil.  In this batch Rhett added spinach which is why it's slightly green. 

Then you roll it into thin sheets.

You can see how excited RJ was when a sheet was all done. 

Then you add a cutting attachment to slice the sheets into fettuccine!

It was so fun as a family to watch the boys cook, and I have to say I enjoy having a night off from making dinner...especially when it tastes better than anything I ever make.

Miss Elle

It's been a while since I've put anything on the blog, and Ellaria is obviously changing so much so fast these last few months.

She's 6.5 months old and can sit and play with toys on her own, toddle in the walker, and continues to be a happy, patient little girl.  She sleeps through the night for the most part.  We put her down at 8pm or so and she sleeps until 5 or 6am to eat.

Which brings us to our biggest frustration with this girl.

She hates eating food.

It's such a chore to feed her baby food with a spoon.  She won't open her mouth to anticipate it or swallow it really well.  We've been doing it enough she's learning, so I feel she knows how, she just has no interest in it and would rather just nurse.  So we basically have to jam the food in her mouth and she'll passively swallow because it's in there, she won't actively eat it off the spoon.

Definitely not like her mother in this area.  

She may have a hard time fitting in our family if food isn't important to her!

I'm hoping she'll snap out of it and start oinking down the food like RJ did.

One night I looked like bonch and was taking pictures with Ellie by holding the camera angled at the mirror.

I was looking at Ellie in the mirror, and with the angle of the camera it made for a really creepy shot of me.  Crazy-eyed looking...freak!  

I thought it was a good shot of her sweet little lips though.

I recently made a dress for Ellie and was taking photos of her in it for my craft blog and to document her 6 month mark.

She's been sick with a cold so she wasn't her usual happy self and kind of just sat there sad.

She always smiles for her dad but not even he could get her to cheese it like usual but he did come in handy helping her stand.

RJ is usually a really obedient kid for the most part, but for some reason he was being such a pill when we were trying to get these pictures.  He had a time out and snuck in on his stool with his hurt feelings, wanting to hold Ellie.

Eventually we let him hold her.

This photo tells a lot about their relationship sometimes.

The adoring older brother and the little sister who would like to be less loved quite often.

We think it's pretty cute he still thinks she's amazing.  I tend to call Ellie "my sweet girl" and RJ always corrects me to inform me Ellie is HIS.  "Mom, she's MY sweet SIS! Not yours."  I explain she's mine too, and remind him she grew in MY belly, that she's my daughter and his sister, but the logic doesn't fly and he usually gets frustrated and tells me to say sorry to him, and say she's his.  

So far it's easier to oblige than go on disagreeing on how we must share her.

Some pics from summer activities

Idaho State Fair

 The Eastern Idaho State Fair

 RJ got on and rode this train all by himself. He is getting so big!

 RJs favorite ride at the fair was the carousel.

 RJ, Jess, and Ellie in front of the big ferris wheel.

 By the end of the fair day the kids were exhausted! RJ just wanted to be pushed around although the two didn't fit that well!

One last ride before heading home.

St. George

 This was when we went to St. George during July.

 Just watching TV as a family.

 Shortly after RJ went upside down in Grandma's pool. Luckily it was only for a second, but still scary!

Las Vegas

 Las Vegas vacation

The Bellagio is Jessica's favorite place on the strip.

 Eating at Maggiano's. Yum!

Ellaria Phoebe

Our little Ellie girl has been getting so big we can hardly believe she is nearly 6 months old!

She needs a little assistance, but is pretty much sitting up all by herself.

She is learning how to eat solid food.

She likes to play outside with RJ. This is her in her new sun bonnet that her mom made.

One thing about Ellie is she is a very happy baby! She is always smiling or laughing and brightening up our day! We are so grateful to have this happy girl!

Rarely do we get a smile right into the camera.

Just hanging out laughing with the boys!

RJ is the best at getting her to laugh and smile for sure.

He loves his sister so much!

They are pretty good buddies. Don't they look like brother and sister?

Best of all, Ellie is a total daddy's girl and loves to give her Papa lots of smiles when he gets home from work.

Other Summer Fun

Rhett LOVES his SUV and it's easy to tell by the care he puts into it. Even RJ likes to keep the SUV looking nice!

Doing his best to scrub off the sprinkler spots!

It's September 11th and already the Halloween stuff is going up. RJ and Jessica love Halloween! Rhett tolerates it.

Working on the yard

We've been working on our yard since we moved in. We'll probably have it to our liking as soon as it's time to move! That's okay though because half the fun is just working on it.

More of the yard. That's our garden in the back of this picture. It's been producing pretty good this year.

Here's our patio we love! We still need to fill fine sand into the cracks, but it is basically done. Jessica made all this patio furniture all by herself! Isn't she amazing?! I can say that since this is her husband writing this post.

 Night time falls on our back yard. Jessica made these sails for shade and put up the lights plus made the chandelier. She is the mastermind. I guess I can say I helped move everything around and put together this picnic table. The only thing left to do is to get rid of that ugly green trim!