More San Fran pictures!

So, Chris posted some of his pictures from our getaway to San Francisco, which include a few from Alcatraz.  Thought I would share!

http://chrisbunkerphoto.blogspot.com/2011/12/san-francisco.html

Peek-a-boo Ellie

The other day while we were playing, Ellie pulled a blanket up over her face and started playing peek-a-boo all by herself. It is so fun to see her interacting more when we play....and even initiating play!

Christmas ad video

I am so excited for the Christmas season!  It is such a special time. I just wanted to share this little video/advertisement.  So cute.....and so true.  

Temple in El Salvador!

Chris served his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in San Salvador, El Salvador from 2001 to 2003.  We were able to visit for 10 days in August of 2008, which was an amazing experience for me.  It was so fun to see where Chris served, to meet some of the wonderful individuals and families he taught, and to see the country.  We were excited to hear the news that the temple there was finished and dedicated just this past August.  I can just imagine the excitement of the members there.  This morning I watched a short video about the dedication and the impact the new temple has had on a particular family there.  I couldn't hold back the tears!  It was a good start to my day and reminded me of the blessings of the temple and how grateful I am to have one (o.k., multiple ones) so close!

First snow!

I can not begin to tell you how excited Kylie has been to have it snow.  She has been trying on her snow pants for almost two months now.  There was a whole week where her outfit wasn't complete until she had her snow pants on too.  Everyone that came over would laugh at her, but Kylie refused to take them off.  Well, it finally snowed last week and Kylie was so excited!  I was putting Ellie down for a nap when she came in the bedroom, opened her closet doors in order to find her snowpants, boots and jacket.  A few minutes later I heard the door slam (I had locked it).  I put Ellie down, got my shoes on and ran outside to find Kylie already in the front yard running through the snow.  "It snowed Mommy!"  And then, "My hands are freezing!"  She did pretty good about getting her snow stuff on...just forgot her gloves and couldn't zipper her jacket.  Oh and she forgot to wait for mom to go outside.  :)

Ellie on the go

Ellie is 9 months old now.  I am always saying how fast she is growing up.  She has been incredibly fun lately (besides the up in the middle of the night teething episodes).  She can clap, wave hello, do "so big", and lots of funny sounds with her mouth.  My favorite thing is when she sees something she likes, reaches for it or holds it out for me to see and does this cute, "Oooooh" sound.  

After almost 3 months of army crawling, she is finally crawling on her hands and knees all the time now.  She loves pulling to a stand on anything she can and is starting to cruise along things.  Her latest thing she likes to do is to walk.  After a few days of seeing this, I got out the walker for her.  She likes it, whereas Kylie never used the thing.  I am sure Ellie will be walking by her first birthday, but only time (a very short amount of time) will tell!

San Francisco!

Chris and I stole away for a long weekend in San Francisco.  It was such a wonderful trip, mostly because we were together.  But we got to do some fun things as well.  We dropped the girls off at Grandma and Grandpa Bunker's and flew out of Las Vegas Thursday morning.  It was my first time in San Fran and it was fun to be in a big city (but reminded me why I don't want to live in one).  We stayed at Hotel Stratford, this older place right on Union Square.  Our room was smaller than our bedroom! but it was fun to be in the middle of everything.  The night we got there, we just walked around a bit, window shopped in China Town and had some dinner at this Chinese restaurant.  Friday we spent most of the day at/around Fisherman's Wharf.  We toured the Jeremiah O'Brien, a WWII liberty ship that was involved in Normandy and had lunch at Boudin's....clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.  For dinner, we had a brownie sundae at Ghirardelli's.  The hot fudge was amazing!  Mmmmmm.

 

Saturday we rented bikes and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge and to the cute town of Sausilito, where we window shopped and had lunch.  There were quite of few hills (or small mountains?) on our ride, but we only walked maybe twice in the 25 miles that we did that day!  So proud! (esp. since we haven't ridden bikes in almost two years).  On our way back, it started to rain (of course).  That night, our legs were a bit tired and our bums sore, but it was an amazing adventure to do with each other.

Crossing the bridge!

Sunday morning we still had the bikes, so we decided to bike to Golden Gate Park and ride around there for a little while.  It was a beautiful area, especially the Japanese Tea Gardens we visited.

 

  

After returning the bikes, we hung out for a little while at Pier 33 watching the sea lions and a little magic show before boarding our boat to Alcatraz.  The audio tour was really done well and the whole island and it's history was very interesting.  I can now say that I have visited the Rock! Pictures of Alcatraz are on Chris's camera, so I will post them later. 

What a trip we had.  We saw lots and did lots.  It was fun to have Chris all to myself!  The girls missed us of course, but they did real well.   Kylie continues to say, "I go there too" when we show her pictures of our trip.  Maybe someday we will make it back to San Fransisco for some more adventures.

The Halloween Pictures

We finally got a moment to download our Halloween pictures!  So here are our little bugs:

Kylie is saying, "Cheeeeeeeeeese".  I know, not the most natural smile.  But it took all of her strength to just stand here for a picture.

My cousin Jamie and her little girl, who is just two weeks older than Ellie, came over to go trick-or-treating with us.  It was so fun!

Second cousins!  Gracie, Kylie and Ellie

 

I should have made Chris wear antenna!  (Next year)

 

Can't you just feel Kylie's excitement to go trick-or-treating?  Pure bliss.  It was so fun to watch.

Trick-or-Treating

We had a fun Halloween this year!  Kylie wanted to be a bumble bee...because a bee is yellow!  Ellie was a little ladybug.  Kylie was so excited to go trick-or-treating.  It was only 10:00 in the morning when she began to ask when we were going.  It was fun to see her get so excited and to actually understand what was going on.  She was super hyper before we even got her costume on...and she hadn't even had any candy yet! 

We only went out for a little bit, just perfect for our little girls.  Kylie was in awe of all the candy I think.  And then when she would get some, she would excitedly hold it out for us to see.  Soon, Kylie was running to the next house.  Ellie enjoyed just being outside and being with the family.  Dad carried her most of the way, which she loved.  It was fun to have Casey with us and my cousin, Jamie and her daughter, Gracie, who is two weeks older than Ellie. 

Of course we got some pictures (at least tried as you will see by the following video), but Chris is actually at the studio right now (with the camera) shooting pictures for a school project.  So, I will upload some pictures at a later date.  But here is a little video to satisfy those of you who have already asked for pictures (Brooke).

Happy Halloween!

Yummy Toilet Paper

I have to keep the bathroom door closed since Ellie loves to creep in there...and it probably isn't the cleanest place to play.  I was doing dishes the other morning and heard Ellie enter the bathroom.  I walked in to find her sucking on the end of the toilet paper roll holder!  It was a funny site, especially how she was drooling all over.  Must have been yummy!

Pumpkins!

We actually carved/decorated pumpkins this year!  Kylie enjoyed watching our pumpkins grow in the garden and got super excited when we got to pick them off the plant.  I thought it would be fun for her to see how Jack-O-Lanterns were made too.  And she had fun painting her "Kylie" pumpkin.  After we were all done, we turned out all the lights and lit a candle inside Dad's pumpkin.  Kylie would have had us light, blow out, and re-light the thing all night if she had her way.  :)

Cutting the top.

Looking inside!  "Ewww.  Seeds."

She can paint with both hands!

The final products.  (o.k. mine is pathetic!  Kylie told me to paint a ghost, which apparently I am no good at.)

We also collected some leaves this weekend so that we could make some fall artwork (aka: glue some leaves on some construction paper).  Kylie liked picking the leaves off the tree instead of the ground.  

 

Happy fall everyone!

Ellie Update

8 months old.  Wow.  I can’t believe how much Ellie has grown in the last month.  Her physical developments are the most obvious of course.  She has been army crawling for over two months now and is all over the place and up and over pretty much anything.  Sometimes she gets up on her hands and knees and crawls a few steps, but them drops back to her belly (I think because she is much faster that way).  She is now pulling up to stand on anything that will support her weight.  She loves to be standing and has a better view (and reach) of treasures on the couch!  She has gotten a couple of bumps/bruises and will probably get a few more since she is always on the move and is pretty adventurous.  One of her favorite places to play is under my computer desk…it has a little ledge she likes to climb up on and lots of cords to pull.  Needless to say, I feel like I am constantly pulling her out from under the desk.  

Ellie is a squirmy little girl, especially when it comes to changing her diaper or feeding her.  She doesn’t sit for very long, unless I am right there next to her playing.  She would rather be crawling, exploring and following us around.  When we are in another room, she will come and find us.  It is fun.  Ellie has also learned to clap and shake her head “no”.  She likes to blow raspberries, click her tongue and even snorts sometimes when she laughs.

Ellie loves to be social.  She wants to be a part of whatever is going on.  Sometimes she has a hard time going down for a nap because she knows that something is going on without her.  We still have her sleeping in the storage room, which is nice and dark and usually more quiet.  I want the girls to start sharing the room, but Kylie likes to listen to music when she goes to sleep and Ellie needs it quiet.

Ellie loves being outside, playing the guitar and chewing on everything (including my cell phone, hands and face).  She adores her big sister and wants to play with her.  She especially loves to grab at Kylie’s hair.    Ellie has had some separation anxiety lately.  She often cries when I put her down and walk away to go do something.  She loves Chris, but sometimes when he is holding her, she leans towards and whines for me.  She loves me holding her while I am doing things.  (You would think that my arms would be stronger by now!)

Ellie can say Mama and Dada and I am pretty sure she knows what they mean.  I like to ask her, “Where is Daddy?” and watch her look for Chris and then ask her, “Where is Mommy?” and she turns back to me.  She is becoming more aware of things around her and is starting to enjoy reading books with us (and not just chewing on them).

Ellie is such a delight to have in our home!  You sure are loved El Belle!

Kylie Update

Wow, it has been a month!  I am terrible at this blogging thing.  I also haven’t been super good about writing in my journal lately.  I just got finished with a journal update, so I thought I would post some of it.  I feel like time has just been slipping by too fast.  The girls are continually doing new things and advancing faster than I have time to even notice.  I thought I would just give an update on both of them as of late, starting with Kylie today.

Picnicking at the park- September 2011.

Warning:    This is a lengthy post.  I guess I got a little carried away.  (But I probably could have written more!)  And my ramblings about Kylie don't have any order.  I guess this is mostly for the grandparents who love to hear about their grand babies! 

Kylie is my 2 year old, going on five!  She is still Miss Independent, which is usually fine since she now can do most things on her own.  She even came out of her bedroom the other day with her sweater buttoned!  A few of them where in the wrong holes, but still, she buttoned them.  She closes her bedroom door, even locks it sometimes, because she doesn’t want me coming in and helping her pick her clothes out, or heaven forbid, help her get dressed!  And since we have gotten out all her “new” winter clothes, she has been enjoying going through all of them and changing her outfit at least 3-4 times daily.

Kylie has been such a chatterbox lately.  She loves just talking about everything.  She tells me what she is doing, what she observes, what her favorites are.  She is even starting to tell stories…usually Beauty and the Beast or excerpts from Little Einsteins.  And when she isn’t talking to Chris or I, she is talking to Mommy Bear or her other stuffed animals.  Mommy Bear (the sleeptime Care Bear) is her best friend and she likes to take her everywhere and do everything with her.  Kylie is sure going to be a good mother someday because she always makes sure that Mommy Bear is fed and warm and is safely buckled when she rides in her little stroller.  It is fun to watch her and I have noticed that she tends to Mommy Bear like I do Ellie.  

Kylie and Mommy Bear dressed up as Belle and Cinderella.

Lately, Kylie has really started to develop her sense of imagination.  She likes to pretend to be a lion or a dinosaur and sometimes comes up with pretty silly things too, like a scary penguin (yep, she started waddling like a penguin and was roaring, saying, “I am a scary penguin!”)  Sometimes her imagination gets in the way though.  For instance:  “Kylie, can you go get me a diaper?”  “I can’t.  There are scary dinosaurs over there!”  But then, it works out in the end because ten minutes later Kylie will say, “They are happy dinosaurs.  I can go over there now.”

Kylie never sits still (unless she’s watching Little Einsteins).  She likes to tire me out by wanting to do horsey rides and flips on me.  She is always climbing, jumping, hopping, galloping, etc.  She is starting to become a little daredevil, always trying to balance on or hang off of different things around the house.  She sometimes falls, which occasionally ends with some crying (especially if it involves my big exercise ball), but a minute later, she is up and trying something very similar to what got her hurt.  The other day I could tell she needed some physical exercise (it was cold outside), so I asked her if she wanted to do a gymnastics class.  She was so excited and went running into her room to put on a leotard and some leggings.  It was a fun half an hour.  We put some music on, did warm-ups and stretches, did some log rolls and a few scales, taught her egg rolls and straddle rolls, and did lots of hops, jumps, and somersaults.  After all that, I was tired.  But two minutes after we stopped, Kylie begged to do it all again!  (Oh, I am not looking forward to the cold, long winter!)

Kylie enjoys playing with friends and especially loves the play group that we have with two other girls from our ward.  And Kylie loves Nursery!  It is so hard to have 1:00 church for many reasons, but for Kylie it is so hard to wait that long to go to Nursery!  She is usually ready to go right after breakfast.  It amazes me how quickly she learns and what she retains.  She loves to sing and knows over a dozen primary songs, along with other little nursery rhyme songs.  It is so fun to hear her singing by herself.  Lately, she listens to Scripture Scouts when she is going to bed.  And I often hear her singing along to those.  While Chris was at the Priesthood session of General Conference, we were Skyping his family.  Becky asked Kylie where her dad was and I said that he was at Priesthood.  Kylie replied, “…is the power of God!”  We were all amazed.  Later I realized that is one of the scripture scout songs.  We have been reading the Book of Mormon (a child’s one with pictures of course) with her usually every night.  She really likes it and always loves having our short lesson for family night.  I am amazed at how in-tune she is with spiritual things.  It humbles me and reminds me of more important things.  

Kylie is an amazing little girl.  Yes, she has her toddler moments and listening to Mom and Dad doesn't seem to be high on her priority list right now.  But she is wonderful, sweet, fun, smart, and pretty silly.  We love our Kylie Mae! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris had a coke one day and Kylie really wanted some.  She got some root beer instead.  But she insisted that anything she drank that day had to be in the cool coke bottle!

Project Week

This past week has been project week for me.  Don't you feel so accomplished when you finish a project and have something to show for what you have been working on?  Well, here are my latest accomplishments...

 Canning peaches!  This is the first year I canned all by myself.  I felt pretty proud.  Of course I have had many years of practice helping my mom back when I lived at home, but being able to do it now makes me feel pretty domesticated.  And I think they turned out pretty good!

 I finally got Ellie's crib bumper done!  I have been working on this for a couple of weeks.  When my mom was in town, she helped me get started.  It matches the curtains in the girls' room.  Hopefully Ellie will soon start sharing the room with Kylie.  Right now she mostly sleeps in the port-a-crib in our storage room (it is cool, dark and usually quieter).  I love how the bumper turned out!  I think Ellie will like it, especially since she likes to sleep with her face smashed up against the side of the crib.

 

O.K. so the picture below really doesn't show a project, but it serves to document the time I spent outside weeding our little garden, picking the tomatoes and making some yummy zucchini bread.  Ellie kept me company...

And finally, today we were at JoAnn's and Kylie saw the yellow tulle.  She begged for a yellow tutu.  Tulle was on sale for 50 cents a yard and I didn't have anything planned for the afternoon, so I said yes.  When I put Kylie down for a nap, she told me excitedly, "Take nap, wake up, wear tutu!"  So that is what I did while the girls napped. :)

 

I guess I could add to the list of accomplishments the usually daily things too....laundry, washing the kitchen floor (which is a weekly must now that Ellie is army-crawling all over the place), changing diapers, making meals, cleaning up toys.....and keeping my little family happy!

Kylie wanted a snack.  At first, I thought she was going for the oatmeal, but then realized she was trying to reach the candy pumpkins I had so-called secretly stashed.

O.K. one more....I guess you could count feeding Ellie as an accomplishment too.  She always gets so distracted.  She is becoming a little social butterfly!  But really, I just wanted to showcase her new frog smile!

Summer Fun

I can't believe that summer is over.  As always, it went by very quickly.  Kylie and Ellie were lucky to be able to spend time with both grandparents over the last couple of weeks.  All of Chris's family spent a week up at Grandma Rowe's cabin in Island Park, ID and then my parents were in town for a little bit after bringing my two sisters out to BYU.  Channing is a freshman now, which also means that my parents are empty-nesters!  Weird.  But I am excited for all my siblings to be out here in Provo....it has been a while since we have all lived near each other.  And if you count Chris's sisters, Casey and Nicole (even though she just moved to Salt Lake), we have a babysitter for each week of the month!  Bring on the date nights!

Anyway, it was a fun summer.  Kylie's favorite thing to do was to go swimming.  Didn't matter where, as long as there was water and she could go in it.  This past week has been hard for her because Seven Peaks is closed.... no more swimming.  But being her creative self, she did go "swimming" butt-naked in about an inch of water on our back porch after it rained the other day.  Ellie's favorite thing this summer was just being outside.  She loves to look at the trees, feel the breeze and play with the grass.  Chris's favorite was probably the cabin.  And my favorite times were when Chris wasn't working or at his internship so that he could play with us!

Instead of posting a ton of pictures from the past month or so, I decided to put together a little video.  Kylie has already watched it like 5 times, which always leads to her new favorite phrase, "Go there!  I go there...right now!"

Ellie is 6 months

Wow, our little Ellie Belle is six months old today.  She has grown and developed so much in the past few weeks.  She is a happy baby and is very social right now.  She loves playing with us, especially with her big sis.  I absolutely love to hear her laugh.  Ellie's new favorite toys are these little musical drums and a four-note toy piano.  She loves sitting there, banging on them and making lots of noise.  And lately she has really been on the move!  She is doing a pretty good army crawl and is already finding things that aren't approved for baby (I guess we have got to start cleaning up better now).  It has been so fun to have Ellie in our home.  She is so sweet and such a delight.  (Now, if only she would stop spitting up, she would be perfect!)  We love you Ellie!