October is a big month for our family, especially this year. My little brother, Jack, got home from his mission!! To celebrate, everyone in my family came to Utah where we rented a house for all of us. We also couldn't pass up the chance to do a big family picture so the picture above is the picture I took of Eleanor and Vince while we were waiting for the picture tree. I'll do another post when we get all those pictures.
After pictures we got 5 Guys. Here's everyone sitting around. My oldest sister, Virginia (who we all call Annie still), did a great job entertaining the kids with straws and crazy faces.
Eleanor had a great time getting to know everyone in the family again. It's fun to watch her warm up to people. By the end of our trip Grandma was her favorite person in the world!
Jack! This is my brother who just got home from his mission to Knoxville, Tennessee. It was awesome to hear his stories and see how he's grown up so much. I love returned missionaries!
The new camera Vince got me for his birthday has a cool panorama feature and I thought I'd capture some of the chaos going on Sunday morning. Some people in the family were going to conference and the others were just trying to take care babies. Vince was eating.
Eleanor reading to her cousin, Clark (Annie's baby).
They just kept following each other around. It was really cute!
Getting ready for the babies' birthday celebrations. The chairs and the presents!
Ready for presents? What's the hold up?
Ok, my new camera isn't exactly fast so it takes some pictures at random times and we accidentally got the funniest picture of Eleanor ever!! I still don't know how this happened, but it makes me laugh out loud every time I see it!
All 3 birthday kids from left to right: Cole turning 2 Oct 12, Eleanor turning 1 Oct 28, Clark turning 1 Sept 23.
Cole LOVED the stuffed super heroes I made him. He made them fly around all day and had to sleep with them that night. Success!! It made me so happy that he loved them so much.
Eleanor had fun opening her presents too. She got a new Baby Stella doll who she LOVES and snuggles frequently now, new clothes, a Disney princess book, and lots of other fun little things. Clark (below) showing off his guns in his new Superman hooded towel. No phone booth needed :)
Then there was cake! Annie had this great idea to do The Very Hungry caterpillar cakes. Each baby had their own cake to destroy with a fruit from the book on it. It turned out so cute!
Eleanor didn't quite know what to think about this whole thing. I think she was nervous about the singing and everyone watching her. It was so fun to watch all 3 naked babies figuring cake out though. They're all so cute!
Mmmm frosting!!
Vince said "Put your hand in it!" And she actually did! She left it in there for like a minute and was looking around at us like "Now what do I do?" Then she pulled out a chunk and kept trying to give it to someone else. She didn't end up eating that much cake, but I think she ate more than the others did.
Cole was concerned that Eleanor wasn't eating enough of her frosting. "Eat it, Elnon" (He calls her Elnon, and now so does everyone else in our family, haha.) You might notice that on his cake all of his frosting has been scraped off :)
After cake it was bath time! The rental house we were in had this really amazing jacuzzi tub that we put all the kids in. Clark got out almost right away. Eleanor wasn't too happy either but she needed the bath so I kept putting her back in. Cole LOVED the bath! We kept the water going and he was swimming in it! Then we tried to turn on the jets for him and the shot him right in the face, Jess and I were laughing so hard but he was terrified! Hahaha, I'm still laughing, he got over it :)
On my birthday we all went to the Hogle Zoo! It was so fun with all the kids. Eleanor kept pointing and waving at everything.
Elephants are always a favorite!
She really like the rhinos too. Cole thought the were so cool! One of them was licking a rock and now Cole knows for a fact that Rhinos eat rocks and he'll tell you so if you ask. Haha.
Turns out Eleanor loves riding statues. She sits on it and bounces like she's pretending it's running. How do they learn this stuff?
She LOVED it!
More statue pictures. She kept snuggling with the polar bear. Isn't she the sweetest?
Had to get a picture of this mom and baby with the giraffe mom and baby. They were so cute. The baby was only 2 weeks old and already huge! Crazy!
"I got this"
Had to get a picture of Eleanor drinking from the lion fountain. Classic!
Bye bye, Daddy. He left to go back to California that night.
The babies with Great Grandpa Dangerfield. I had to put in the crazy picture. Trying to get all 3 kids (already tired from the zoo) with Grandpa for a picture was hilarious and insane. None of them would hold still!
Then Eleanor and I drove to Washington with my parents. I was really nervous about it but we hooked up their iPad with Disney movies and had plenty of yogurt bites and pacifier time and we made it! She kept sleeping in really funny positions too.
Sometimes in the car Eleanor just wants to hold hands. This time she wanted to snuggle with my hand too. It was so cute! What a sleeping cutie :)
Cole and Eleanor playing at Grandma and Grandpas. They're so cute, even if all Cole will say is "No mine!" whenever Eleanor touches his toys.
I was there on Cole's birthday so we had even more cake! He LOVES cars! We bought him a bakery cake for his party with friends but for his real birthday Jess and I decorated these cupcakes (it's supposed to look like a road with cars on it).
He wanted that cake so bad! Haha.
Blowing out those candles take a lot of concentration! Especially when you're blowing out by going "Ffffff!"
He was so proud of himself when he finally blew them out!
We were trying to get him to smile to get some good pictures so we had him start doing "doughnuts". It's this thing Jess does that will make anyone laugh and Cole has gotten pretty good at it.
"Can I have more doughnuts, Daddy? Mmm-mmm-mmm!" And you lick your lips and roll your eyes in a circle. So funny to see Cole do it!
Cole also does Thomas Train eyes. He just gets really serious and looks one way, then the other, and then we all laugh.
We got Cole Buzz Lightyear pajamas. He was so mad that he had to get in PJs and go to bed but he kept trying to see himself in the mirror because he looked so awesome. It was so funny!
Eleanor at Cole's birthday party with friends. I just gave her a couple globs of frosting to keep her busy. She LOVED it! The next day her poop was a weird blueish-green color...inexplicable!
Cole laughed so hard he was crying when his friend was smashing up cake with a fork. I've never seen a kid that young laugh so hard!
Back home again! The plane trip was a little rough but we made it! Eleanor helped me unpack the suitcases. I turned around and she was inside of this one :) I'm so glad we went on this trip. It was a lot of fun!
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