Should I be worried? Absolutely!

Ellie's little personality seems to be coming out more and more each day. In the last week or so her vocabulary has completely exploded thus, she can communicate MORE of her personality! Her word of the month is "No!". And yes she knows what it means. Last week I found her sitting against the door (her 'hiding' place') eating a bag of Skittles. Where she got them from, I have no idea. She had Skittle slobber all down her chin, as well as her clothes. When I walked over to her she looked up at me, furrowed her brow, pointed her finger at my face and said, "No, No!". Looks like I need to change my parenting. Instead of proving her right and taking the skittles away, I sat down next to her and said, "Can I please have one?" She smiled and gave me a handful of wet Skittles. Awesome kid. Awesome.

She also lets us know how ridiculous we are by copying everything we do. The other day I caught her doing one of my best kitchen dance moves. It consisted of a swing of the arms with a bounce at the knees. Really, do I look like that to you? I thought. Probably El, Probably.

Just for recording purposes these are all the words she can say right now: "No", More, please, Thank you, here you go, mommy, daddy, Ellie, Indy, Grandma. Pretty good El. Your already getting a little to mouthy and your only 16 months (speaking of which, I've thought for the past month that Ellie was going to be 18 m. in may. I've been counting down the days to nursery (literally), until on Sunday Mitch informed me that I was bad at math and that she was really 16.5 months. It was a bad Sunday for me.)

P.S. A quick note. One of my neighbors that I grew up is going through a rough spell right now. Her name is Stacey Love, Her little girl was just diagnosed with Leukemia. If you can, keep her family in her prayers. They have a tough road ahead. Here is a link to her blog. Fayesfight.blogspot.com.

Family Pictures!

The Dorius' family took pictures again. :) (I have taken more family pictures in the past 4 years i've been married then I have EVER taken of the Lifferth group!). We had the amazing Ryan Thompson take the pictures for us and they turned out great! Have a look! I'm taking a poll for which family picture to print. So Vote!

How he made 14 Grandkids under the age of 11 look at the same time is beyond me!

Vote #1 (above)

Vote #2

Vote #3

Vote #4

Worst Mom Ever!

Ellie got the flu for the first time last Sunday and let's just say that I don't do well with throw up. It all began with a perfect day at church. For the first time in Months, Mitch, Ellie and I made it through all 3 of our classes without having to take Ellie out. Little did I know that Ellie was being so docile because she was not feeling well. After church, Ellie went down for a nap and Mitch packed his bags to head out on a business trip. When Ellie woke up I headed over to my Mom's house for Sunday dinner. Mitch flew out at 5 and Ellie started throwing up at 5:15 (of coarse).

We were standing in my Mom's kitchen and I knew she was not feeling well because she would not let me put her down. Then all the sudden she gagged, I looked at her face and thought, 'phew, I thought she was going to throw up!' Then all the sudden, my little bug lost it. It was a continuous flow for a good 5 seconds. All the time she was in my left arm and throwing up all over herself, down my front, and all over my right arm. Now, what did this Awesome Mom do in such a situation you ask....? I froze. My body was stiff. My right arm was locked straight down as throw up dripped down it. Then I came to my wits and did what any young Mom would do. I yelled for my Mom!! "MOM WHAT DO I DO! THIS IS ALL OVER ME! OH MAN THIS IS SO GROSS, I'M THE WORST MOM EVER, I CAN'T HANDLE THIS, OH MY GOODNESS ELLIE THIS IS NAST, REAL NAST!" Then I started gagging.

Note: Yes, I know I didn't handle that moment well. Somethings are just not my forte. It was terrible. It was an 'Inadequate Mom Moment' that we are all occasionally entitled to.

While laughing, my mom herded us into the bathroom, where I was forced to strip EVERY layer off of me and Ellie. We then drove home. I was wearing my dads t-shirt, and Ellie was only in a diaper. She was the saddest little sight. The next two days (all the time Mitch was gone) she continued with the flu. One of those days she had 8 major blowouts. The one positive thing about this whole thing is that my little monkey became a cuddle bug. She just layed on my chest all day Monday and we just bonded. Luckily by Thursday she started eating again, and is doing much better today! I just pray that my kids will never get the flu again! Yeah right!

This is Ellie driving home from my mom's house. :(

Sidenote: I also showed my weakness when Mitch was once throwing up. As he was praying to the Porcelyn, I cracked open the bathroom door and slid a glass of water across the floor, quickly closing the door behind it. Then I yelled through the door, "get better Sweet Heart!" Yep i'm an awesome wife. :)

Temple Square in the Spring

(Seriously can the top picture be any bigger?! I need to figure out how to use this thing) :) Today we went and met Kirk (Mitch's brother) and Leann's family for lunch at The Garden at temple square. Afterward, Ellie and I decided to go have a mini photo shoot and try out our new camera! We had a great time even if it was raining!

Snowshoeing Mount Everest

Last weekend the Lifferth clan left all their kids with a babysitter and headed up to Park City for the annual snow shoeing extravaganza. Tyler (my brother in law) was our guide. One thing I know about Tyler from running is that no matter where we go, it will no doubt be HARD and we will find ourselves at the top of a mountain by the end. Naturally, he was true to his form and we headed straight up the face of the mountain. With the wind blowing snow into our ears I couldn't help but think, "yep, I never want to climb Everest".

There are a few other phenomenons that occur when the Lifferth children get together. First, things get really competitive as we all try to "out do" each other (all in fun, may I add), and our ability to make logical decisions takes a drastic turn for the worst! My sister in laws always say on these types of outings in reference to their husbands, "Every time they all get together they lose half of their brain cells. " They are SPOT ON!

(Sorry you'll have to look at the pictures from the bottom up. I couldn't get them in the right order.)

Robb and Spence trying to block the wind. By this picture you would think they were 3 years old. CLASSIC.

Scaling the top of the mountain. The wind was blowing so hard it was nearly blowing us over!

Mitch took a sled off the top. He also regretted this as he slid about 200 meters down the face of the mountain. He really was able to appreciate the snow on his long hike back up.

Spencer doing a Swan Dive off the cornice. Remember what I said about logical decisions.

I'm not as daring as the boys. I went with the basic 'form-less' front flip!

Randy, for some reason, thought it would be a good idea to try a belly flop. I think he regretted that.

This is us taking a break during our hike. All of our legs were burning!

Our silly caravan

Larry's Great Example

Last month Grandpa Larry (Mitch's Dad) received his Silver Beaver Award. It is considered to be the highest rank you can get in scouting! I can honestly say I will never get this award (yes, women can get them too). I'm just not willing to sleep out in the cold, build and sleep in snow caves, not shower, and deal with a bunch of teen aged boys. But that does not mean we are not VERY proud of Him! Way to go Grandpa Larry!

Done and Done!

We are finished! I said I would do it and I did! I completely re-did our cabinets. From start to finish it was a 5 day project with 2 of those days working from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. (Those were the two days the cabinets were spread out and being painted in our front room because it was too cold outside). I've always wanted to re-finish our cabinets. It's been that one thing that has really drove me nuts about our house. The family that lived here prior to ours used A LOT of grease in their cooking and our cabinets have had a film across them that no cleaning solution could touch. They were horrible. I even tried to used sand paper to just take the paint off with it but it would tear because the grease was so thick. Totally nasty.

This is what it looked like before. This picture was actually taken before we moved into the house.

This was me stripping the cabinets. The grease was so thick that I actually had to use a lacquer to get all the grease off. I was so glad I had that mask because I was totally starting to get high from all the fumes. Luckily, the lacquer took off most of the paint too. Naturally, I had to try a few test spots to find the perfect color. We ended up going with 'quail egg'.

Mitch and I putting in the hours

Ta-Da! We did it! I absolutely love my kitchen now! I made the silly mistake of making the comment of "it just makes me want to be in the kitchen because it looks so nice!" He replied with, "great, that's where you belong!" You better believe he got pinched for that one. :)