Valentine's Day

Lots of fun things going on here at the Ellsworth home this month. Curren and Emily had parties at school, so we decorated a box for Curren to take, wrote 28 and 26 valentines for classmates, stuck candy on them, and the kids came home on a sugar buzz that ended today, Tuesday! Nana Jearldene is in Utah this week and spent a few days with us. She always loads us up with Cheetohs, cookies, candy, etc. We spent President's Day at the Gateway where we met James for lunch and played at the children's museum. Today we met up with Terri and Falene for lunch at Hagermann's Bake House. Yummy! My favorite is the turkey pomodoro sandwich and they have the best sugar cookies in Salt Lake.

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I have been so overwhelmed with unpacking and updating our house that I've neglected taking photos of my kids and blogging! Curren has been skiing, Emily is into gymnastics, Hunter loves playing Cars, and Porter is walking!! We got new callings. James will be teaching the 16 year old Sunday School class and I'll be the Laurel advisor. We are looking forward to working with the youth in our ward. We are missing the warm Texas sun and our friends there, too!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I think I forgot to write about all the fun we had with cousins when James' parents, Russ, Rebecca, and their kids came to visit. On Thanksgiving day there had to have been at least 30 people for dinner at the Lisonbees! So much yummy food, games, and visiting. James had gotten enough pvc piping to make marshmallow guns, which were a huge hit with all the kids. The next day we put together a picnic lunch and headed for the mountains so that the California cousins could play in some snow. What a ball! We ate our lunch in our vans and then we were off to the University of Utah to show the kids a little bit of where James, Russ, and Rebecca graduated from. We picked up U hats and candy canes and let the kids run around a bit.

Then we stopped at East High to see where High School Musical was filmed. Our kids thought we were pretty cool to know that it was actually done here in Utah. Since we were in SLC for the day we had to pick up some artichoke pizza at Freewheeler's, along with some tasty garlic bread. It's just a little take-out place so we just ate in the cars again before we headed downtown to Temple Square.

We got there in time to see the movie about Joseph Smith which was really good. It was sad, but so good. Curren sat on my lap and asked some really good questions, like, "Why did Heavenly Father heal the baby but not Joseph?" The movie was well done and made me appreciate the prophet even more. Then the Breinholt's met us to walk around and see the lights at Temple Square, which never disappoints! The lights are gorgeous. Deseret Book had free hot chocolate, so we lined up along with every other Utahn who is always up for anything free. They were serving Stephen's hot chocolate and it wasn't watered down, so it was worth the wait, right James and Russ?

Before we headed home we got dinner at Bajio's. We had the whole place to ourselves! It was a super fun day with family!

Why we LOVE Utah

One of the reasons we love Utah is because we live so close to the mountains. Our house in Sandy is only 20 min from Alta and Snowbird ski resorts. James and Curren went skiing on new years eve and had a blast. Since it was Curren's first time, he was enrolled into an all day ski school to learn some basics (James doesn't have the patience to teach so...) and James got to go ski the big boy slopes. Here is a photo of Curren just before entering his ski school.

Porter, 1 year

Happy first birthday, Porter! You are a native Texan who now calls Utah home. We love you tons little Porty. You aren't walking yet. (I'm so glad). But you love it when song #1 from High School Musical comes on in the van. (16, 16 more minutes...) You let your brothers and sister drag you all over the place to experience new things. You only wave to Grandpa Jearl. Still sleep with your white silky/chenille blankie. Still have a smile that melts my heart.

Plane ride

This is dedicated to the kind Texan who bought us a bag of Teddy Grahams at Love Field before we took off. (Seriously, this man said he had been watching us in the airport as we grabbed McDonald's, ate dinner, and played before boarding). I guess he felt sorry for me, since I was traveling on my own with four kids under 7.
These kids were sooo good! Along the way several people helped me with carseats, blankies, dropped sippy cups.
Don't let these faces fool you. These children were so sad to leave Texas. They still are, in fact. They shed many tears on the plane. And that always makes me cry, too.

Friends

Before we left for Utah, we spent a week with our good friends, the Rousseau's. It was a blast! We needed a place to stay after the movers took our things, and before we were scheduled to fly out. So, it was a big slumber party with about 7 suitcases, 4 kids, 1 mom, all crashing upstairs at their house. Picture clothes all over the place, towels hanging up on various knobs/doors, and toys everywhere! Once the kids were in bed we watched tv and just hung out.

But, there is never a dull moment over there. 2 hours before we needed to go to the airport, Curren and Grant got into an fire ant hill. Curren was itchy and wouldn't eat his lunch. I told him to quit scratching, applied Benadryl, and told him to hurry and eat. He kept fussing and was getting rashy, so I told him to go get in the shower and I'd get him a change of clothes. (Yep, we're all packed up, too). He calms down and I go back to visiting with Christine and Lauren who had stopped by with a photo album for us. We were all sitting around the table crying and remembering all the fun we had there over the past 2 years. Then Curren starts coughing and says it hurts to breathe. Oh no! We call Leslie, who is a doctor and he says to take him over to Dr. Deitchman (our awesome pediatrician!), and call them on the way over. It turns out he was having a systemic allergic reaction and now must have an epi-pen with him just in case it happens again! Then we were off to Salt Lake.