Conference Weekend

We had that chance to have my parents and Allie and Sean come for conference weekend and the BYU game. I never take enough pictures with my family and the kids. I need to work on the that. These are a few I did get. We had a lot of fun at the game.

Eva, while we watched conference.

For Christmas, my mom stocked us up with the necessities of making delicious whole wheat bread. Here are my first 4 loaves. Great taste but for some reason I cant get my bread to be as tall and fluffy. We still love it anyway. Thanks mom!

Fun at Great-Grandparents House

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8 Months

I am posting Eva's 8 month pics on the eve of her 9 month birthday. Sad I know but at least they're documented.

Eva, on this day decided it was time to walk. She took her first step by herself.

Since this day she has walked at least 15 steps by herself, learned to pull herself up on EVERYTHING, cut a bottom tooth and a top tooth in the middle and about to cut the other top middle tooth, learned to wave, points at everything while squealing in crazy loud way. Slow down baby.

We are loving watching her grow and I now know what everyone means when the second one grows so much faster than the first.

Oktoberfest

We took a Saturday and went up to Snowbird resort to their Oktoberfest. Maren took this picture for us. She is getting quite good with the camera. Us in 30 years.

La Caille

I know what you are thinking: This place could not possibly be in Utah, they must have blown every last penny of loan money and took a trip to France or something. Nope. I wish. This is a hidden little treasure in Utah at a French restaurant called La Caille.

Spencer always raved about this place and wanted to take a little detour from our trip up to the canyon to see it. I thought: "I dont care to see some fancy restaurant without going in to eat. Whats the big deal." Well I was shocked that we were in Utah when I saw this place. There were rabbits, peacocks, chickens and roosters all running around the beautiful grounds.

It was a fun little detour.

Pen-pals

After living in Salt Lake for a couple of months, Maren started to miss Oregon and her friends. I feel bad for her. We live on the the 3rd floor of a practically kid-less apartment complex, in the middle of a fairly big city, with only one friend in the ward. So, when this little treasure came, needless to say Maren was excited. Her good friend Jaxon learned about mail in school and sent her a letter. Maren was really excited to write him back. I hope they will always be pen-pals. We hope to see them at Thanksgiving in California!

The Infamous Swing

I call this the infamous swing because we have so many pictures of Maren in it and now we are catching some shots of Eva. They love to be at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

The City Library

I just had to add this series of pictures because Maren just started posing so I kept snapping! It was pretty funny. Anyway, our downtown library is quite amazing. Not only do they have a great Children's floor, (yes, an entire floor!) the structure of the building is beautiful and interesting. On the children's floor they have these play areas that look like different environments. Maren loved the one that looks like ice and glaciers. She said: "I am a panda bear!" Meaning she was a polar bear. She pulled me in and started posing for the camera. Not sure if these are "panda bear" poses or her just doing her thing.

This one makes me laugh. Looks like she has been looking at too many billboards on the freeway! We have been doing a lot of driving these days!

BYU game fun

This year for the BYU-Utah game BYU had a tailgate party in Salt Lake since the game was away.

Spencer won this $60 jersey for singing the entire fight song in front of the the entire audience!

Maren loved it all. She just about knows the fight song herself!

Though the game ended up being a sad one, we enjoyed the night's festivities.

7 Months!

We are loving watching this little girl grow. She is a different girl than her sister but no less dramatic, social and active! She is so ready to hand out smiles but just as ready to tell you off when she feels like it. There is never a dull moment with this girl. She is crawling, pushing herself to sitting position, trying her darnedest to pull herself up on furniture, and getting quite vocal exploring different sounds. She loves to roll her tongue, give kisses, play with her shadow and reflection and clap her hands. She is a great addition to our family, adding that much more personality. 

Yes...We are alive and well in Salt Lake.

So we have arrived in Salt Lake and are taking every opportunity to explore what the city has to offer. It has been an adjustment but we have had a great time so far. Prepare yourself for a random but fun-filled compilation of our day-to-day. Maren was loving the fountains at City Creek. Pay attention to the water behind her not my inability to take a non-fuzzy picture of Maren.

Spencer doesn't take many pictures-I am usually the one taking, but he couldn't resist taking a picture of me and Eva sleeping in the exact same position. Genes are pretty crazy! (See Eva below).

We are grateful that Maren has a friend in the ward! We have started the Joy school program with them and have enjoyed the time together. I love living down the road from Liberty Park. It is a classic city park-a mini central park of sorts. They have this fun wading pool with little streams that flow into the pool representing the rivers that lead to the lake in the Salt Lake area. They also have duck ponds, paddle boats, a "castle park" meaning a large play structure that looks like a castle-sort of...to her anyway. They also have the Tracy Aviary, tennis courts and a pool. We love to go on runs around it as well.

I just loved this sculpture behind Maren and she did too. It is located just outside Temple Square.

We took a trip to the Church History Museum and Maren quickly found the kids play area. I love this shot.

We stopped and had a little picnic by the temple. It was a beautiful day.

One of the first days in Salt Lake we took a drive up to "This is the Place" monument.

We then hiked Ensign peak. Maren felt like a real hiker. It was fun to see the view of the whole valley.

The whole fam.

I love this picture of Maren. I feel like I know what she is going to look like as a teenager. She is getting so big! We had a great time with the Smiths at a Bees game. Maren was so excited to meet the giant Bee.

Time at home. I feel like we have a little more of that going on in the day because I find it hard to get out a lot with two little kids in a big city. Cities have their conveniences and their inconveniences. Its been good for these girls to have time together and for me to bond with them more and to get creative. Maren loved being the big sister and Eva loves to play with Maren.

Maren is blocking the door because she didn't want me to come take the toys that she hadn't cleaned up (after I had asked her several times). I think she was convinced that this barrier would keep me out!

Love this shot. It is the epitome of Eva right now. She has been our little rascal and our little sweetheart at the same time. She is all over the place with her army crawl and she can't wait to walk. She doesn't want to be left out of anything. She has quite the sense of humor and loves her family.

One great thing about moving back to Utah is seeing a wide variety of old friends from college. It is amazing how you can pick up where you left off, always staying great friends.

We also went to the State Fair. Maren loved it. She is still talking about it. The balloon clown made her a BYU cougar in honor of the BYU game that night.

Mom making a fool of herself and Maren loving it.