Nevada calls.

So we finally got some long-awaited information about our next move. It's coming soon, we will probably be living in NV by middle of February. Paul got his official job offer last week and everything seems to be happening so fast! As much as I've enjoyed living in CO, I am looking forward to putting down a few roots.


Since relatives dont get to see Ellie that often I thought a little update might be appropriate. We finally got her a new car seat that faces frontwards. It's so fun (and slightly distracting/dangerous?) for me to see her face through the rearview as she looks around at the world from a different angle.


It's amazing how masterful Ellie is at getting what she wants (considering she doesn't know how to speak yet). Through a process of elimination we have learned her favorite activites, foods, and jokes. For those of you who are interested, here they are.
Favorite activities:
- Walking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth (x20)across the house while holding onto an assistive hand.
- Playing with anything that has to do with animal noises.
- Attempting escapes from the grocery cart, simultaniously scaring her mother to death.
Favorite food:
- Hands down, Carnation Instant breakfast
- Ice, although this is questionable as a food item
- Rasberries
- Green beans
Favorite jokes:
- Attacking Paul's solitare games and throwing the cards everywhere (Paul will swear she knows when he is about to win).
- Picking up a handfull of food, putting it up to her mouth like she is going to eat it, then throwing it on the ground.
- Pretending like she's NOT going to bite my finger off as I wash her little teeth with a cloth... then at the last minute chomping down hard enough to draw blood. Very funny Ellie.


I took her to the park yesterday and put her in the swing for the first time. She loved it! Ellie is an awesome little buddy.



Have a good weekend everyone!

If you don't feel like reading, scroll down to the pictures...

I've fallen off the blog writing kick for a while, not really sure what happened, just kind of lost the desire but it should come back...I hope. I still like reading other people's blogs, so I guess it's kind of selfish on my part to not at least keep everyone posted on...us.

Ellie is over 14 months and still refuses to walk. At the rate she gets around from crawling I'm not jumping at the bit to get her to walk though. Ellie does do a standup/sitdown routine while clapping her hands. We know she can do it but she's determined to walk on her own schedule. Her hair is so long, Joni actually gave her a quick hair "trim" last week.

She babbles in sentences now instead of just a word or two. She used to always say, "ducking, ducking, duck-a-duck-duck-a-ducking", now she always repeats, "wah oh wah oh wah oh wah oh" like someone is in trouble. She loves to read, and actually knows how to use an Ipod and erase all of the contacts on my phone.

Joni is into her "bootcamps" at the gym. I'm pretty sure she will miss it when we move again soon, for some reason when she describes it all to me it doesn't sound like a lot of fun. She is already planning on another triathlon soon. Meanwhile, I like to sit on the couch and eat Nutty Bars.

We have stayed pretty busy over the last couple of months. We got a visit from our friends the Barnes last weekend, since we haven't made any friends in the last 2 states it was great to spend time with them, plus they are awesome. We will definately miss being near my Dad and fam, and near Joel and Erin. We haven't been able to see everyone as much as we would like but our time here has been amazing. We love and will miss Colorado.

Which brings me to our next move, I received an unofficial job offer on Friday. We are moving to Minden, NV in February. Despite the reputation the Reno area gets, we are totally excited. Joni and I have both been there over the last couple of weeks and I don't really understand the harsh words for the place. It is so beautiful, and like all of the other places we've lived, it feels right. We are excited to finally put down some roots for a while, and start off fresh in a new place. Plus, having a ski resort 15 minutes away, and Lake Tahoe over the hill will be pretty nice.
Not sure why we all decided to act like idiots at the same time, I guess it's contagiousEllie loves pop cans, we filled this one with water and she went nuts spilling it everywhere. She's been off the bottle for a while (that sounds weird) but she was sick while in Evanston and it was all that calmed her down, it was that or another episode of Yo Gabba Gabba
It was great spending some time with Joni's fam over Christmas, I'm pretty sure Ellie has a lot of people who love her. We got to see Glen and Kendi too for a quick visit.

Ellie loves babies, we even caught her trying to go home with the Barnes, she found her way into Jen's bag