Summertime Almost Over

Mike, Ellie and I have enjoyed a busy (but fun) summer. I am just going to post a few pics (see above) showing some of the activities we have been involved in with family and friends. It's still warm here in Cedar, but I know it won't be long before the air cools and the leaves start changing colors. Hope all of you have had a great summer too!

Ellie's First Birthday Etc...

It's official--Ellie is one year old (13 months at the time of this post)! She started walking a few days ago and I am wondering where my "little baby" went. We had a fun family birthday celebration in Coral Canyon at Ellie's grandparent's house. How nice of "Nana" and "Saba" Leavitt to allow us to have the party at their beautiful home. We enjoyed pizza, swimming, and homemade banana cake with chocolate frosting (Great Grandma Carter's recipe)!

As for Mike...He recently changed jobs within the same company and absolutely loves his new position! I am getting used to the fact that he has to travel more and Ellie and I have even accompanied him on a few of his "business trips". When we can't go with him we love to go to St. George and play with cousins and see Grammie and Papa Carter.

As for Me...I started working again as of May 4th (just one day a week). I returned to the surgical office I was working at before Ellie was born. It is the perfect situation. I am able to work enough hours (by only working one day a week) to keep my nursing license. Ellie thinks it's great too because she gets to play at her cousin's house for an entire day every week! I am so blessed to have a sister that is so good with my little girl!

Well, that's all the new stuff I can think of right now. We don't have any "big" plans for the summer...just lots of fun weekends at the cabin in the mountains and lots of days spent at the park and/or swimming pool (Ellie simply can't get enough)!

Oh, wait! I almost forgot...we have started landscaping our yard (front and back). I will post pics when it's complete.

Hawaii, Holidays and More...

It has been a while since we've posted. It's good to be blogging again! I am posting pics from our trip to Hawaii at the beginning of November. Ellie had a blast hanging on the beach with her cousins and loved going down the water slides in her daddy's arms. We had such a great time with my family and feel blessed to have spent time in such a beautiful and relaxing place.

We spent Christmas with Mike's parents and siblings in Southern Utah. It was fun for Ellie to spend time with her grandparents and cousins. She enjoyed scooting herself around the house on the tile floor and Nana (Mike's mom) thought it was hilarious! Now she can actually crawl, but I kind of miss the scooting--it was so cute!

In January we went to Washington D.C. with Mike's family. Ellie is such a good traveler. She does better on airplanes than I do! We enjoyed food, fun, and several museums. What a wonderful place our Nation's capitol is and how fortunate we are to live in the United States.

Ellie continues to surprise us with new achievements (she is going to be 9 months old this week). She just started waiving "hello" to people yesterday--we laugh every time she does it because it looks like a beauty queen waive, and of course, because we laugh, then she does it even more. She is so delightful! Well, that's a brief summary of what we've been up to the past few months. I will try to be better at blogging...I just can't figure out how people have enough time to do it as much as they do. I need to work on my time-management I guess!