Snowy Days and a Wonderful Thanksgiving!

The snow is here in Sisters and Bauer has had a blast out discovering what it's all about. I love to get him all bundled up and watch his little body truck around outside. He loves to eat snow and then his hands get too cold and he wonders why he thought that was a good idea...he's sooo busy and is ALWAYS on the move!



My family decided to come our way this Thanksgiving which was sooo great! It was a blast packing into my parents home in Black Butte and enjoying the holiday together. I even upgraded from the pickle and olive tray to the homemade rolls this year-- quite a jump if you ask me! (and yes, my rolls turned out, phewwww)
The fire was going all weekend, the snow fell, and the kids loved being together and outside. Mom put an amazing meal together (suprise suprise) we took a family walk/sledding adventure and then finished the night off with our traditional family bingo and pie. A perfect thanksgiving!


I have sooo much to be thankful for, I don't even know where I would even begin. I thought about blogging about something every day, but I decided to try to really express it more out loud, looking that someone into the eye and trying to express to them my complete gratitude for them, the qualities they hold and teach me, and the support they lend me. I found it started with expressing more detailed and specific gratitude in my prayers, then making it even more a part of my everyday conversation--it quickly became very powerful. I think it was contagious and it definitely brought me more joy and helped me smooth out feelings of frustration throughout my day. So I hope the people in my life don't have to read it, but really know how I feel about them. And of course, all things I have and all things I am have come from my Heavenly Father. I pray that I can show more gratitude in obeying the commandments, serving others, living up to my temple covenants, and magnifying my callings I hold here in the branch here. I'm so grateful for my faith, for my family and friends, and for my Savior, who loves and knows me and who makes it possible to become better every single day.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!

Yes We're Alive

I can't believe I haven't blogged since we've been in Sisters. Actually I can considering I haven't had a computer for a LARGE majority of the time. We finally got internet just in time for our desktop to crash. Andrew takes the laptop to and from work so that leaves me with nada. And no, I'm not cool enough to have internet on my phone.

Some recent happenings,

A trip to Portland (with a short one to Utah in the middle)to...

play with grammy

and papa

hang with the cousins

go to the blazer game (only one of my favorite things to do ever!~ thanks mom and dad!)

And we went to Utah to...

see Ashley and Dan

see "Unca Mike"

see Ben and Amber get married - no pics of their beautiful reception unfortunately
(well that's why my parents were going and since I love Ben and there were extra seats in the plane we tagged along!)

Tonight our branch had a Halloween party and truck-or-treat. It was way fun and Andrew proudly finished 2nd in the adult cake walk. Andrew and I were...scary?? We didn't want to be the new family in the branch that wasn't fun so we gave it our "tried but not too hard" efforts. (ps- i really don't enjoy dressing up so i deserve an A+) Bauer was the cutest monkey on the block. He's been SUPPPPPPER fussy the last couple days (please be the molars and please come in quickly) so he wasn't super into being cute for the camera, or wearing the pants to his monkey suit (thanks Aunt Mandy) but we'll still keep him! ;)


HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Family Pictures

My good friend Annie has done it again! We hadn't taken a decent family picture since...well, our wedding, so I thought it was about time...plus we love Annie and her superb talent so this was our chance before we moved and couldn't pay her in babysitting, treats, or hugs. We LOVE you Annie!!!








In other news, we are moved-- Hooray. And ALMOST all the boxes are put away---booo. It's a cozy little place and I think we both think it'll feel like home in no time! I'll put pictures up as soon as that Almost all the boxes is as ALL the boxes are put away. Or maybe I won't post any pictures as a way to get you all to come see us...hmmmmm

CHANGES....

We've had lots of changes going on in the Ellis Household! Andrew studied, took, and passed the Oregon Real Estate Exam all while loosing 20 lbs with p90x. I started coaching cheer, teaching preschool, and am keeping SuperSaturday planning going (notice I did not loose 20 lbs). Bauer is half running everyone he goes, dancing on demand, being as hilarious as ever, and of course getting cuter by the minute. And guess what else? (I'll give you a hint...)

...and we're moving!! As of next week, we'll call central oregon our home. Sisters, Oregon to be exact. Andrew has a great work opportunity in Bend for real estate and we feel like this is really where our family should be right now-- so we're very quickly packing up and moving to this lovely place! I've loved Sisters for a long time, and I can't believe it will be home in a matter of days! The top picture is a picture of our apartment above the barn/garage. The second picture is actually the main house and you can barely see the apartment to the left, then that is our view out of our family room windows! Can you say breathtaking?!? That's the 3 sisters and Broken top, yes count 4 mountain views from our front room! We'll post more pictures of the inside when we're in a settled but we're so very excited/nervous/anxious/amazed at it all and how everything has fallen into place. Our renters are even wanting us out asap--does it get any better than that?!

More will come I promise-- as for now, I need to go fill these boxing up before Thursday morning!