These past couple of days have been kind of crazy. Friday night we took Eva to the ER because we thought she was having an asthma attack but a 50 dollar copay, four stickers and a little stuffed dog later, she had croup again. She seems to get that a lot. She seemed to be getting better but then Monday she had a fever all day that wouldn't stop. So, four hours later in the urgent care room with a 105 degree temperature little girl on my hands, they told me she had the onset of an earache and treated her for that. She is getting better, thank goodness, but man, we realize how much more fun she is when she is feeling healthy.

Meanwhile, Elijah, while still chunky, is managing to get all around the house and getting into trouble. Monday when we were trying to get Eva to urgent care, he decided he was going to get into his bag, pull out the formula, open the container, and begin to eat the powder and smear it all over the place. He makes us laugh! I was worried about him not moving sooner, but I'm thinking I'm in for it now with his mischievous little personality.

(I love that second picture where you can see him trying to lick that formula off his face. You would think we starve the kid, or something.)

Got the latest stats on our chunky monkey this past Thursday. Elijah will be 10 months on Tuesday and he is off the charts.

Height 2 feet 7 in. (98%)

Weight 29 lbs. 11 oz. (100%)

Noggin' 19.76 in. (100%)

How do I carry him you ask? Ergo Carrier!

Enjoy his yummy rolls :)

At the Guadalajara Temple in Mexico. I didn't edit that sky...

My beautiful Eva in her dancing attire.

Our chunky monkey. It's what we call this kid. Not sure where he learned that goofy smile.

Eva's cute hair. We always get some tears when I do her hair because it's still curly.

Eva showing me her dance moves.

Seems like January was a crazy month seeing as to the fact that tomorrow February starts. I can't even believe that I am saying that. Our kids are cuter than ever, of course! Elijah continues to grow like a gigantic weed. In fact, people comment that the poor kid should be carrying me around. Not true of course, because he can't even crawl let alone walk even though he will be 9 months on the 2nd. He makes the funniest faces, has the funniest laugh and loves his big sister to death. He is starting to get that stranger anxiety thing, which in a way make me feel good to know that he know his little family enough to be comforted by use whenever someone he's not sure of wants to hold him. I think we have an appointment for him soon and then I will really know if I am right when I say he's gotta weigh 26 or 27 pounds. He's definately solid.

Eva started dance classes this month, thanks to her little girlfriend's mom who takes her for me. She loves it! It is fun to see her little moves. She also started primary. She is so sweet singing the songs that she knows. Today she was supposed to give the opening prayer during primary but chickened out. Regardless, I am impressed with her and her ability to learn all that she does. She currently loves watching the nutcracker, that her aunt Sandy(well, really Matthew's aunt) gave her and playing "you wanna go on a bear hunt, yes we do!" Thanks to her daycare, Pam, she know that one. Elijah, Eva and I have fun doing that one around the house.

In January, Matthew and I (Nana came and watched the kids, THANKS again for that one Carla) went to Guadalajara and spent four days there checking out the city where soon we will spend the next 4 years of our lives. It was fun to be there and see the school. Matthew got into the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara. He's finally going to get to live his dream of becoming a doctor! We are proud of him and grateful that Mexico is giving him the chance to fulfill this desire of his to help people. I'm scared but know that this will be the best thing for our family. Besides, I keep getting the impression that everything is going to be okay, and that brings me great comfort.

For now, we keep going about our lives, enjoying our kids and taking everything one step at a time.

It's about time I post something...

We had a great Christmas this year spending it with each other and with family. Eva had a lot of fun opening all of her presents this year and realizing that there was a Santa Claus. She made cookies with Matthew to get ready for "sahnka tose." That night though, we didn't have any milk. But my little problem solver said, (in Spanish of course) "that's okay mom. We can use water." So we did. We left Santa cookies and water. Frankly, I think he enjoyed it better. Also, thanks to a little kiddo from my class giving me a Minnie Mouse plush doll that played jingle bells, she has played that thing the last two weeks singing "so much fun it is to ride" over and over. Her big present this year was a doll house and it is neat to see her go behind the couch and play with that thing for a good chunk of time on her own.

We have been trying to find our christmas traditions for our little family and I think a new one for us this year was decorating a beautiful house that a friend, Laura, from Matthew's work, made. Matthew and Eva were so cute doing it. It took them forever because she would get "tired" after working on that thing for minutes. But in the end, they finally finished it and I think it turned out pretty nice. Don't judge the picture though because for Christmas my parents bought us a new lens for my camera and it doesn't auto-focus. And rather than return it, I am trying to get better at my skills and actually learn to manually focus the thing. This was Matthew's idea though, because I would rather cheat and get the auto-focus. Oh well.

So, this year has already begun and I can't believe it. I am hoping to be more consistent this year in all the things that I should be doing and want to do. My good friend Melanie and my sister in law, Kat, have inspired me to bust out my sewing machine and make things for my kids. I have already started by making a colored pencil holder for Eva and a crocodile taggie animal that according to Matthew looks more like a submarine, but I am not giving up. It is actually kind of addicting honestly. I am hoping that practice makes perfect, because right now, I'm fail (as Scott, my brother and law would say) :)

And, lastly, thanks to my bro, Ricky, for taking our family Christmas picture and theone of our kids. You did a good job little brother!

At Elijah's six month appointment, these were his stats:

Height: 2 feet 5 inches (98%)

Weight: 22lbs. 3 oz. (96%)

Head Circumference: 18.82 in. (100%)

Matthew was calling him a monkey but I really didn't like that so we call him our chunky monkey. He is that to say the least. The doctor called him a tank. But we still love him, even if he is killing my arms. I wish lugging him around would eliminate the gut but instead the booty is disappearing. How come I can never get what I want? :)

October Fun

I love fall! I think the colors are beautiful and I think all the October festivities are fun. Eva and I had fun this year taking Matthew to the pumpkin patch with us for the first time. It has been nice having him around on the weekends. We also carved pumpkins and of course took our kiddos trick or treating. Eva has been looking forward to Halloween for a month now and I am glad she finally got it out of her system. She got it out so much so that she is a little scared now. The reason is that for our Ward activity we took her through the haunted spook alley and scared the poo out of her. I am still ashamed that we made her go through it. It was pretty scary. In fact, this morning when we got to the church parking lot she said that she didn't want to go inside the church because there were monsters inside. Poor thing. We told her there weren't and I can only hope she forgets about the episode real soon.

For your listening pleasure...

This is a little video that I took a couple of weeks ago. Now that our computer is out of Eli's room I feel like maybe I can blog again. This video makes me laugh because you will see Eva singing "Once upon a dream" from sleeping beauty and getting real intense with the song. Then she is singing the abab spider (itsey bitsey spider) while picking her nose! I am not sure if I am more grossed out or just think she is too funny!