Future X Games Star

I'm not sure if I'm upset about it, or super proud, but Sophie went skiing before she was potty trained. Maybe when she's a pro and making tons of cash we'll tell stories of her skiing in diapers. Anyway, we took Sophie skiing for her first time, and tho she didn't know what to think of it at first, by the end of the day she thought she was pretty cool. She even insisted on wearing her "goggs" on her head while we were in the lodge like the rest of the super cool people.

This year at the Callister family Christmas party Eli got the honor of playing Santa. And he was THRILLED about it. Especially when my sisters boyfriend got to take a turn on his lap! We all thought it was pretty funny, but got an even bigger laugh when we found out that Mark didn't know it was Eli.

2 Months Old

Apparently Eli and I create above average little girls. At Elin's 2 month check up she was 23 1/2 inches long and weighed 13 lbs 1 oz, 95th percentile across the board. Except for her head, that was only in the 90th.

Elin's Blessing

My mom made Elin's dress for her, which is why it was so beautiful : )

Four Generations

Grandma Melissa

Grandma Sylvia

Halloween

I was super excited for Halloween this year because I just knew Sophie would love it, and despite the look she has in every picture we took, she did love it. She wasn't too sure what to think of pumpkin carving, but thought it was way cool when we put the candles in. She loved her tiger costume (if you ask her, she was a kitty), and has already worn it to Walmart and out running errands twice. And more than anything she loved running around the neighborhood and getting candy from everyone. There were a few houses with "cary" (scary) decorations, so she made daddy carry her to the door so she could get more candy.

"Mmmm, rain."

As I was standing on the porch talking to a friend, Sophie decided to go out and play in the rain. It wasn't raining that hard, so I didn't mind. I got caught up in the conversation and didn't pay attention to what she was doing until I heard her saying "Mmmm, rain." over and over again. She had found a cup and was drinking the "rain" from the gutter. She thought it was delicious and starting bawling when I took her cup away and told her it was yucky rain.

Elin Danielle Thornton

Elin Danielle Thornton was born on 9/29, just under 2 weeks early, and I'm SUPER happy about it! She weighed 9 lbs 2 oz, so I can't even imagine how big she'd be if she cooked any longer : ) One of my friends from high school went into labor early that morning, and since she was due 3 weeks AFTER me, I wasn't very happy about it. I spent the whole morning doing laundry, washing the floors, taking walks, and chasing Sophie, and still nothing happened. Later that night when Eli got home I started not feeling well, so went for another walk, ate some Arby's, did some squats, and went to the hospital hoping they'd just start me. Turns out, I was in labor, and she was born 2 hours later. *to clear up any confusion, not that anyone reads this, but just in case, her name is pronounced EE - Lin, not Ellen. and yes, we are aware that it's Tiger Woods ex-wifes name

Sophie Turns 2

"Helping" make her birthday cake.

Her new kitty and stroller, she does laps around the kitchen every morning when she wakes up.

NERMAL

A few weeks ago Eli noticed that our lawn was being over taken by voles. A vole is a bigger, uglier version of a mouse, by the way. They were tunneling through our lawn, into the flower beds, and up near the foundation of the house. Eli immediately saw this as an opportunity to go to the hardware store. After countless hours spent trying to trap, poison, and get rid of these nasty little creatures, it seemed they were only multiplying. I suggested a cat, but Eli HATES cats. So we bought more poison. Which also didn't work. So after weeks of this dilemma, and seeing the home and garden center on our Wells Fargo statement way too many times, I decided to take matters into my own hands. While Eli was sleeping one day after a long nights work, I got on ksl.com and found a cat. An old woman was trying to get rid of the cat because she kept leaving dead mice and birds on the porch - just what I was looking for. So, I called her up and went and got the cat. I didn't know if an adult cat would change homes easily, so I also found a free kitten online and picked him up too. The adult cats name was Sophie, so that needed to be changed. The box I brought her home in said "Hot Tamales" on the side, so 'Tamale' is her new name. Nermal just seemed to fit the kitten, so that's what he got. When Eli woke up and went out to the garage for something, he saw Tamale and Nermal - NOT HAPPY. The next morning when there was a big fat vole on our front porch he started to come around. The morning after that when there were two on the front porch and one on the back, he suggested I go buy her some treats and a collar so no one could steal her. Vole problem solved.

Labor Day Camp

Every year for the past, well. . . at least 30 years, the Buttars family has gone on a Labor Day camp trip. And when I say the Buttars family, I mean EVERYONE - aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins kids, grandparents, and even some of the grandparents siblings and their kids, and also their kids. So, there's a lot of us. The location varies, but this year it was at Emigration campground, near Bear Lake. Since leaving for college I haven't been, so this year we decided to at least make an apperance. For the most part it was a lot of fun and the food was, as always, AMAZING. (our relatives are the dutch oven cook off champions of the midwest) But, being nearly 9 months pregnant and sleeping in a tent kind of put a damper on things, so we didn't stay long.

Trouble. There are no other words. . . . and she's not even quite 2.

My Nesting Project

I am finally nearing the end of pregnancy #2, and have gone into what Eli refers to as my "nesting" phase, where I feel the urge to buy, make, and create all sorts of things for the baby. My most recent nesting project was making a quilt. Not a hard task, but for someone about as far from Martha as you can get, it was trying enough for me. Along with my nesting phase comes my forgetfullness phase. Somewhere between the car and the entrance to Hobby Lobby, the amount of fabric I needed for said project doubled in my mind. But, you can't return fabric, so I just made the baby quilt. And then made one for my new neice. And then also made one for Sophie's baby doll.

Time is at a complete stand still. 71/2 weeks left, and it seems like an eternity. Why does growing a human take so freakin long?

LAKE POWELL

We were lucky enough to get to spend an entire week at Lake Powell with our friends Bryson and Danielle and their family . . . and it was AWESOME! We stayed on their family's house boat, did tons of wake boarding, jet skiing, cliff jumping, and relaxing. I mostly just did the relaxing and picture taking. Sophie did even better than we expected, and was a little too fearless for my comfort.

My mom and dad bought us a swing set as a house warming gift, and we were pretty psyched about it, especially Sophie. The manual said it would take 10 to 12 hours of building time, which we thought was a load of crap. It was not. Even with the help of my two brothers it took us nearly 7 1/2 painful hours. Most of the pain came from Sophie trying to help and losing the bolts and screws, or insisting on being right next to whatever we were working on. We were shocked by what a huge swing set came in such a small box, slide and all. We finally got it all put together, and now Sophie and I spend literally hours everyday going up and down the slide, over and over and over and over. . . .

We had a minor disagreement with our sprinkling system and ended up blowing a pipe in the front yard. To his credit, and my surprise, Eli dug the thing up and fixed all by himself. What a handy man!

The Girls' Room

We've been in our house for about 2 weeks now, and the only room that's done is the girls'. I had a lot of fun doing it, was really pleased with how it turned out, and Eli was really pleased when I finally finished and put all the paint, brushes, and plastic away. Sophie was actually pretty good about staying out of the way, she only stuck Oreo's to my canvas once, and smeared only half a flower.