That's not very nice

So, Elaina loves the story of the Gingerbread man - what child wouldn't? It's about a cookie that comes to life - cool, huh? Anyway, I thought I would be a super neat mom and bake a gingerbread man/woman with her. We had tons of fun and she loved dumping pink and purple sugar all over it. After it came out of the oven, I asked if she wanted to eat it and she said "yes", but she didn't watch me cutting it up. So she ate a little of it and went down for a nap. Meanwhile I cut it up and put it on a plate because it was so big. When she woke up she wanted to see the gingerbread woman and I showed it to her all cut up on the plate. She was not very happy with me. "Mommy, you smashed it! That's not very nice." She proceeded to tell everyone we ran into the crime that I had committed. She made me feel like a villain - not really. It was really cute.

Okay, so I know what ya'll are thinking - Heather doesn't take pictures of her son - is he ugly, does he have a hideous birth defect she doesn't want us to know about? Seriously - I feel like a bad mom with the lack of pictures of Camden - and he is just about the most handsome little man that I have ever laid eyes on (no bias there). I think with all the moving and upheaval of our lives, I have just lost track of time, so if you don't mind, I'd like to take a little trip down memory lane and go back a couple of months and catch myself up.This seems to be the only time she ever wants me to take her picture - when she has the moon boots on. She thinks it's sooo cool.

Camden's first time with gel in his hair - he's already competing for the girls attention at church.

Torry climbed Mt. Timp this summer - he couldn't convince me to go. I enjoy not having sore muscles. Plus he got some good male bonding time with his best bud from highschool.


Torry's sister, Stephanie, is getting married this Chirstmas to a very sweet guy - Kyle. Kyle scored big points by helping Torry unload our stuff into a storage unit after we moved to Utah from Chicago. He also survived a camping trip to southern Utah with extended family, a rite that all potential spouses in this family must pass through (except for Todd, but he made up for it by actually picking up a rattlesnake Steve Erwin style during last year's trip). Welcome to the family!
Elaina got her first haircut this summer - just a trim. I was worried that she wouldn't like it very much, but she did and she is always asking me if she can get another one. I'm afraid I'm raising a salon junkie.
Elaina had so much fun hanging out with her grandparents this summer. Marie was always doing fun things with Elaina. Here they are making play dough.


We camped down in Capital Reef this summer with Torry's mom's side of the family. We went on some pretty sweet hikes. The first day we hiked down a river bed with lots of waterfalls. It was so much fun.










We also went home to visit my family in Montana this summer. My parents sold their house on the lake, which is kind of sad - but my grandma's house is on the same lake and she's willed it so that it can't be sold for 40 years after the death of the last surviving child. I feel pretty confident that we will always have a place to go boating.
Camden hated the life jacket, but after awhile he just gave up and fell asleep. I think my mom has a similar picture of me at that age.

Guten TAAAAAAGGGG!

Saw this watching House on hulu.com tonight. It cracked us up. Look at Bobby's face when he yells "It's good!"

Real post w/ updates coming.

Seattle, here we come!

Oh yeah, we got a job, oh yeah! After a whole summer of grueling (and there isn't a better word to describe it) job hunting, it has finally paid off and we are heading for Seattle! Torry got a Product Management position with Zillow (an online real estate company) and he starts at the beginning of October. The job is everything he was looking for(except that it's not near family) - so I am grateful we held out. I'm happy it's in the northwest, near mountains and that it snows there in the winter. I'm also stoked because we have friends there! Whoo-hoo! Anyway, we fly there next week to look for some new digs. Anyone have a favorite Seattle area suburb?

Still in limbo

Well, I keep on wanting to update our blog - but I have to say that I just don't feel like there is much to say. We have been living with Torry's parents since June and Torry works on finding a job everyday while I hang out with the kids and Torry's mom. It's been a really laid back summer with playing in the backyard and the occasional trip to the city pool. We've gone up to Montana to visit my parents twice - the first time we spent the majority of it remodeling the basement of my Grandma's house so that my parents could live in it. My parents sold their house earlier this summer (bummer). This last visit to Montana was a ton of fun - a lot of the extended family was there and we spent everyday playing on the lake and every night around a campfire (my idea of paradise). The job hunt is going slow - Torry finds a lot of good possibilities and everyone seems to like him, but no one seems to be ready to hire just yet - we haven't gotten rejected and no one else is being hired for the positions he is interviewing for - we just are told something to the effect, "yeah, in a couple of weeks/months we will be very interested in you" Ahhh! But I am trying to be patient and supportive and I know that something will work out soon. Meanwhile, if anyone is passing through Utah and doesn't have enough family to visit, I would love to see you. I am feeling kind of lonely for my friends. I miss you all!

Giant Cupcake pan

My mother-in-law gets Family Circle every month and on the cover of July's issue was a picture of a cupcake - I just thought that it was taken up-close, but no - it was a giant cupcake pan (from Wilton)! I knew that I wanted one right away - how much fun is that? It takes almost 2 cake mixes and you cook the top and the bottom separately and then "glue" them together with frosting. It worked like a charm and Elaina loved it. I was surprised on how easy it was to do.

Happy 3rd Birthday Elaina!

Elaina had a pretty good birthday. We did a lot of her favorite things - she got to eat Lucky Charms for breakfast, we went and picked out some balloons, we went out to eat at McDonalds, went to Kungfoo Panda and opened presents and ate birthday cake. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said she wanted candles. It's fun when their requests are so simple!