Bounce U & Fall

I am so glad it's October! September just seemed to fly by so quickly. Our ward did it's Primary Program in Sacrament Meeting last Sunday and I'm so glad it's over. It stresses me out every year even though it always turns out well. It's hard to not feel the spirit that the children bring! And we really didn't have anything crazy going on this year and only one child who wouldn't say his part. We had a lot of kids that didn't show up but luckily there were plenty of others willing to fill in on speaking parts. I'm happy we decided to move it up 2 months since it now means that I can relax a little bit now!

Last week Ellie and I met up with our friends Amy, Brooklyn, Christina and Elaya at the Bounce U in Mesa. You have to try this place out! It was so much fun. I think the grown ups had even more fun than the kids. Tons of inflatable toys and slides and everything. They even have a special preschool hour where you get in for 2 hours and they do a snack during that time also. Thanks to Amy for sending me the pictures since I completely forgot my camera that day. I'm so glad Ellie is showing us where her nose is in this picture!





With the marathon I'm training for still quite a few months away I decided that I needed some extra motivation. So I've signed up for a race a month for the next little while! This month I'm doing a small 5k with my dad in Utah. Next month is the Turkey Trot (a 10k) and in December is a 10 mile race. I'm trying to decide what half-marathon I should run in January/February. This week I even had a few days of 80 degree weather on my morning runs but I'm hoping it cools down just a bit more soon. Ellie is such a good sport to go along with me on the runs! A few days a week we start and end our run at a park so that she can play on the slides and swings after we're done running. And a couple days a week we run with Karlie and Sam and Ellie gets to play with Sam and his toys for a little bit afterwards while we are stretching. Hopefully she continues being a good sport since I'm going to have to put in a bit more training time to get ready for these races!

I've also been on a cleaning/organizing streak this week. I found a deal I couldn't pass up on storage cubes which I put together in Ellie's room and moved all of her toys in there and some toys out to the garage that weren't being used. We were beginning to feel like the front room was being overtaken by toys. I'm not sure if this system is going to help since Ellie is really good at clearing everything off and dragging everything to the front room anyway.... but I'm hoping! Then we've been going through everything in the house to see what we can get rid of or give away. The big project will be the garage but it needs to get cooler before that project is attempted!

Ellie is continuing to amaze me with her rapidly growing vocabulary. She is starting to say small sentences and more and more words. This age is so much fun! Saying prayers is still a favorite thing in our house and I was watching the Rachael Ray show the other day while folding laundry and I hear and see Ellie folding her arms and saying a prayer. She saw the food on TV and figured that we have to pray over it! I had to laugh. Nursery is going a little better now too. On Sunday I left her in there crying and my friend Amy was in there with her daughter and told Ellie that she didn't need to cry anymore and so she stopped and was fine the rest of the time. Who knew that all she needed was to be told that she didn't need to cry?

On the flip side, Ellie has also gotten into trouble a lot more now too with her adventurous side. I caught her in my room the other day with a bunch of earrings in her mouth. She managed to pull out the drawers of my dresser and use them to climb up to get to the jewelry! I'm still a little upset because I am missing a pearl earring now that belonged to a pair that Rob gave me the first Christmas before we got married. I am still hoping it will turn up. Nothing is safe anymore in this house!