Ellie's Baptism

 My adorable niece Ellie was baptized on her birthday, September 22nd.  She was able to be baptized just in time to attend the dedication of the Brigham City Temple the next day.  It was a special day and I'm glad we could be there.

Ellie

Ellie with her parents

Pacifiers make good teething chew-toys

When did she have to go and look so grown-up?

Cousins being silly in the foyer

And....this is why you clean the church AFTER the baptisms :)

5 months old

This little lady is now 5 months old!  It makes me kind of sad that she is growing up so fast.  I am so glad to have her in our family.  She is such a happy, cuddly baby.  I know the Lord knew I needed a happy baby at this time in my life, to cheer me up when I am feeling down, and to keep me company when I am feeling lonely.  She has been such a blessing to me and to our whole family.

Playin' at the Park

Jorgen, Violet and I went to the park recently and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Isn't she beautiful?

Work Party at the Zoo

Dan's employer L-3 has a work party every year.  This year, on September 15th,  they rented out the entire Hogle Zoo for all 4,000 employees (I don't know the exact number, but it is a lot).  It was insanely crowded, and I don't do too well in crowds, especially with my kids.  I get really nervous about losing them.  We almost did lose Jorgen, in fact.  Luckily all turned out okay.  We had a good time but decided the zoo is a lot more pleasant when less crowded.

For some reason my pictures are all reversed order, and I am too tired to re-do it.  So, in reverse order of what we did:

Our very last thing before we went home was to ride the train.  Did you know they are shutting down the train for reconstruction?  We rode on the second to last run of the train before it was shut down until 2014.

Giant water ball

Lady with a bird

Giraffes - also under construction

Failed attempt at photo on the tiger sculpture - with someone else's kid in the back

Tigers - they were quite active while we were there

Can you see the tiger?  Jorgen was afraid it would growl at him, so he was covering his ears.

Polar Bear - doing a back float

Polar Bear skull

Otters

Bald Eagle

Cutie pies

Elephants

Monkeys

Shuttle ride to the zoo

New Toy!

Dan teases me for buying new toys for Violet, since we still have lots of toys left over from the other kids.  But it is fun to buy her new things.  I recently got her this bouncer toy and she loves it!  You can't really tell by these pictures, but she smiles and jumps and laughs.  Until she gets tired, then she gets fussy and wants out.  

She is too short to reach the floor so we put a pillow under her feet.

First Day of Preschool

 Jorgen started his second year of preschool at Syracuse Montessori on September 4th.  He thinks he is pretty cool, can't you tell?

Labor Day at Grandma's

Austin and Violet had the hard job of napping

On Labor Day we helped my mom with some yard work and other jobs she needed done.  My brother's family and sister's family also came.  I didn't get any picture of us working.  After working and lunch, we headed across the street with our cousins to the brand-new splash pad!  When I was growing up, this block was Clover Club, the potato chip factory.  It always smelled like frying potatoes, and occasionally burnt potatoes.  And there were always seagulls when they dumped out potato peels in the back.  Now it is a park with a splash pad.  I wish they had put this in 30 years ago!  I would have had a lot more fun (if I was allowed to go...)  But it was fun to take the kids and have some fun.  Now we will have another reason to visit Grandma more often in the summer.  Too bad summer is over already.