Miles is Mobile

Miles has been crawling for about 2 months now.  He's super fast, pulls himself up to everything, and pretty much wreaks havoc wherever he goes.  Here's a little clip of the crawling and standing action:



Tonight we came into the playroom and found him walking like this for the first time:

Elly Quotes

We have a nice view of the valley from our front porch and family room, and almost every evening we get to enjoy an amazing sunset (this picture doesn't do it justice).  I was looking at the sunset the other evening, and had this quick exchange with Elly.

Brandon:  Elly, come see the beautiful sunset!  The sky is all orange.

Elly:  Dad, I've seen that like a thousand times.

Elly Quotes

Yesterday, Lacy was "testing" Elly based on her 4-year check-up questionnaire.  It had questions like, "Can your child catch a ball?" and "Does your child use articles like 'the' and 'a'?".  Lacy was going through the list out loud and Elly was helping her answer.

Lacy: Do others understand your child when he/she speaks?

Elly:  Yup.

Lacy:  Does your child understand others when they speak?

Elly:  Well, I don't understand Spanish.  But I understand English.

Follow the Prophet

For Elly's sake, we call General Conference "Follow the Prophet".  It makes more sense to her than "General Conference".  The other day we were re-watching one of Pres. Eyring's talks and taking some notes.  Elly wanted to take notes too, so I suggested she draw a picture.  This is what resulted:

I have to say: not too shabby for an almost-four-year-old.  I love his hair (or lack of) and the fact that his mouth is open because he's speaking.

Elly on Campus

Today Elly and I had a Daddy Date.  We went to lunch (she always chooses Panda Express) and then went to the BYU Bookstore on campus to get a couple of things.  Lacy was in Salt Lake, so I let Elly dress herself.  Because it was raining when we left, she grabbed this awesome leopard print coat, which she decided to wear on her head after the rain stopped.

BTW, Fall in Utah is pretty amazing.  The leaves are all changing right now, so we often go for a drive or walk just to look at all the colors.

Elly and Ava Playing "Haircut"

Our good friends The Greens live in Las Vegas, and we stopped and stayed a couple of nights with them on our way to California over the summer.  Their adorable little girl, Ava, and Elly are only a few months apart and are pretty much best friends - or would be if we saw each other more often.

Here's a little clip of them playing "Haircut".  Well, Elly's playing anyway.  I think about half way through this video Ava is ready to be done, but once Elly finds a playmate, she doesn't let her go easily.

Elly Quotes- Halloween Edition

Elly: Mom, why do you always feel like someone is watching you?

Me: What?

Elly: You said you always feel like someone is watching you.

I finally realized that she heard me singing this in the car after hearing it in a store.

Elly Quotes - Dead Edition

Elly (to her friend, Rory):  Let's play "Sleeping Like Dead"!

Rory:  Yeah!

Lacy:  Elly, what's "Sleeping Like Dead"?  That sounds like a scary game.

Elly:  It's where you pretend you're sleeping, but everybody thinks you're dead.

(I guess this comes from watching Snow White over and over again, and maybe Sleeping Beauty too.)

Elly Quotes

"Mommy, there's something beautiful in here...and it's my toes."