Pumpkin Patch

We had to experience Halloween at a pumpkin patch. Ellie loved the petting zoo. Well, I think she was entertained by the animals but not really into touching them. Mark Hypnotized a chicken with Paul, his brother, as a witness.



Pumpkin Patch fun!




She is a pumpkin hugger not a tree hugger.



Teaching our daughter the country ways.

Family pictures

Our friend Lani took these pictures of us. Ellie was not the most cooperative but Lani still managed to catch a bunch of great pictures. I haven't included all of them because some are going to be Christmas present surprises. So just enjoy these few! Thanks Lani.




Ellie's arms held out for a long time. She might be a gymnast or a circus performer.



If I need Ellie to survive for a little bit longer, I know she loves to ride shotgun on my shoulders. She steers me using my hair like a Jockey uses reins.







One of my favorites. Ellie is such a daddy's girl. She knows when he is around that she gets to play and laugh.

Matching

We have had way to much fun trying to coordinate our outfits for church. It usually revolves around Ellie's dress and then Mark goes on the hunt for a tie that matches. He is normally successful because he has a hundred million ties that are crazy yet wonderful. They are his prize collection.



This is for my parents because they brought this dress back from a trip. Grandma was inspired to get the bigger size and good thing she did because it fits great. She will be our surfer girl!

Carving pumpkins

To start off our Halloween day we went to carve some pumpkins with some friends. It was a first time for Ellie and many of our friends from Asia who were incredibly excited to cut into a pumpkin. In the end, the main event was the kids who painted all the pumpkin lids and themselves. They even kept the pavement clean although I can't say the same thing about their clothes.



This is our darling friend Brooklyn. She wishes she could be Ellie's big sister. Ellie smiles and claps when she sees her!



Rachael just kept telling Brooklyn,"More paint". These two had a great time.





These are our friends who moved here from Japan. Saiko, Sota and Wataru carved their first pumpkin and it was a success.



This is our pumpkin that ellie is posing so nicely in front of. If you look closely you can see the effects of the San Diego weather around the moldy eyes. It was a great Halloween.



Once again, Ellie is happy with her keys.

The Wild Things

This Halloween we decide on a family theme. In honor of the movie and book Where the Wild Things Are, Ellie was Maxine (normally MAx), and Mark and I were here guardian Wild Things. She was in shock at the ward trunk or treat because she just stared at everything. Her favorite part was sucking on the keys. This is always her favorite past time. We didn't eat a lot of candy but we did eat a huge pumpkin pie that was delicious.

Down and dirty while camping

October was filled with fires, hikes, marshmallows and dirt. We went on two overnight campouts. The first was with the ward and the second was with Mark's lab. Ellie enjoyed the dirt, fire, trees and hikes. She didn't like sleeping in mom's sleeping bag and it was mutual. We didn't sleep very well. But who really expects to get a great night of sleep camping. We are planning to camp during the Thanksgiving weekend so we must have enjoyed it.



We also went on a hike along a creek surrounded by the trees full of beautiful fall leaves. I have included a pictures of the wall/cliff that we scaled to get down to the water. Mark climbed this with Ellie on his back. I was amazed and really grateful that he was far enough in front of me that I didn't know what he was doing until he was down. I would have turned around and climbed straight back up the hill if she was on my back. He is much more sturdy and confident in his rock climbing/baby carrying abilities.



This was our final destination

No rhyme or reason to our update order

Um...
First off I am sorry that the last update was in July. This was before Ellie could crawl, Jenn was still 25 and Mark could surf for hours with out his feet going numb. Hopefully you will take the time to read a few posts, because there have been a few picture requests and a lot of fun activities between then and now. Here we go...

This is going to be out of order because the other pictures are on mark's laptop on Ellie's room and she is sleeping. I am on a roll and don' want to wait until she wakes up. So we will start in Oct/Nov and post the other months later.

This is Ellie's new find. She loves to help us brush our teeth and then use it herself. There are 2 benefits: Since she loves to brush hopefully she won't have cavities galore like her mom and for exactly 2 minutes she is completely enthralled.

Splish Splash!

Ellie took her first dip in the ocean and she still doesn’t know what to think about it. She smiled when the first white wash approached and then pulled a crazy face when she felt the cold water. Either way she loves to walk in the sand, and stand on Dad's surf board. Dad knows he has a pro-surfer in the making. Mom still doesn’t know how she feels about the sand in the diaper, on the hands, mixed in with the hair, and stuck in the chin folds. Ellie doesn’t seem to mind.

What a Zoo!

As you can tell we spent Last Saturday at the Zoo. Ellie thought it was amazing. Especially the life size metal turtle that she tried to lick, the crowds and the fact that she was in a backpack above the crowds with the best view. We thought the bugs, albino snake, and jaguar were the most interesting. Ellie couldn't decide since everything (including the concrete, bushes and bus) was interesting.

Father's Week

I thought that I had covered everything for Father's day from cards, to phone calls, to presents, to food. But, then I came across this cute picture of Mark and Ellie at Balboa park. Ellie is a very lucky girl to have Mark as a dad. I am blessed to have such a fabulous husband. And both of us are extremely grateful to our fathers (Bob and Wayne) for all of the time, food, advice, love, vacations, family nights, games and laughs that they shared with us. We pray that we will be able to be great parents like they were. Also, we can't forget the wonderful Grandpas who took an interest in our wonderful and crazy lives - Thanks Grandpa Boyd, Moyle, Martell, Packham, Stanley, and Vanderford! We love you all!

Beach bum

This is Ellie. Happy. Content and even sitting up - a miracle. But, this was right before she toppled over and landed in a pile of sand. Getting sand out of a babies face isn't easy or fun. Recently, she has become a beach bum while her mom and the other church girls surf. The waves have been pitiful, so Mark decided to do his homework. We love the beach and are so grateful we live by it!

Eating disorders by six months?

Ellie is approaching her six month mark. During her 180 days on this earth she has learned how to make a full range of noises, spit up on everything and reach for the spoon while attempting to eat it and its contents. Lately she has consumed mangos, bananas, sweet potatoes, peas (her least favorite) and watermelon. I think she enjoys this new activity. She definitely has a hyperventilating scream when she knows food is coming and we are being a little to slow according to her stomach. She is such an OBESSIVE eater that it shocks us, and everyone who watches her. They are amazed by how much this little girl can drink...

The happy threesome

This is the newest and most up to date picture of the Moyle family. Ellie is now five months, 24 inches and over 13 lbs.

Mark abandon me to go hangout with the other groupies in his BMS (Biomedical Sciences) program. It is a three-day yearly event up at Lake Arrowhead. They played volleyball, and inner tube water polo, sang karaoke and I think they did some scientific-ish things as well. Since there was lots of sun and no water (aka no surfing and wetsuit) Mark came home nice and red. Mark was excited when he heard his whole class may get an A+ in the class because of the stats professor’s challenge. If any of the students drank a beer faster than him, then the whole class got A’s. Unfortunately, the professor may not remember that he lost but I am sure the students will remind him.

I had a chance to stay here and bond a lot with Ellie. She is growing up really fast. She loves to stand up and can stay there for quite a while just grasping onto our two fingers. Her laugh is contagious and makes me smile and forgive her for continuously spitting up on everything. She is still toothless although there is a lot of drooling going on. We had dinner group with the Sabeys, and Badgers on Saturday and Ellie sucked on watermelon for the first time. She loved it and sucked it white. We are going to attempt veggies next… She doesn’t mind the oatmeal but it more than messy.

Needless to say, I was very grateful when Mark returned home. Life if a lot more fun in our three-some!

Food Fight...

Mark's birthday party pictures...

This is just a little taste. Well, I did actually get a mouth full of pudding and it wasn't to bad. Then the nasty mixture started to dry on my skin. Great times!

Mother's Day Special

How is life on the World Wide Web treating you this fine day? On this Mother’s Day I think it is appropriate to leave a special note for Ellie’s mother and mine, and then a moment of laughter from Ellie so we can remember what makes motherhood truly wonderful. Enjoy the thoughts and then the laughter.

Motherhood
A Taste of the Divine

A mother hugs when the world’s got you down
She lifts and pulls at your persistent frown.

That scraped knee which made you sad
When kissed by mom seems not so bad

Her smile for you when you did your best
Drowns out compliments from all the rest

At night she helped you pray by your bed
And opened your favorite book and read

From the day your were born she gave you it all
Even when you grew nice and tall

Her life, her strength, her time, and love
A heavenly angel sent from above

To all the mothers, especially Ellie’s and mine
We send out this thank you rhyme

We love you MOM!!!

Motel Moyle - Hopefully there is a vacancy!

Other highlights of the week include Mark’s aunt Nancy and her two children, McKenzie and Bridger, who came to visit. We hit up the tourist spots, spent time on the beach and explored tide pools. I claimed the baby excuse when they were headed swimming in the ocean. They had a great time boogie boarding in the cold water. Bridger is a huge Lego Fan so we explored Lego Land on Mark’s birthday. I am not sure if Mark had more fun than the on looking adults who were entertained by his enthusiasm on the rides. He riled up all sorts of people and I knew where they were in the park by all the fun screaming that would erupt. The park has over 40 million Lego bricks. They have created a life sized Darth Vader, President Obama inauguration and Taj Mahal. It was amazing.

We had one more set of wonderful visitors. Adam and Nadine, Jenn’s best friend from HS and college, came to celebrate Easter. We dyed eggs, left them out overnight, dyed more eggs and hid the potentially toxic eggs in a really hard Easter egg hunt. Ellie didn’t really get much out of it. After the eggs-ala-goldenrod I started wondering what traditions we have that really commemorate Christ, his death and resurrection. I am open to ides so let me know. We are very grateful for a wonderful week and extremely grateful for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His forgiveness and hope are real!

I am old and have no teeth!

In honor of Mark’s 26th birthday a few friends gathered to give him advice. They brought rice, pudding, Jell-O, cake, donuts and whipping cream. This unique assortment of foods created a banquet for an older and wiser person to gum his or her way through. This would have taken to long so we used a kid’s method and flung, smashed, threw, smothered, smeared and launched these foods at each other. It was a planned surprise food fight for Mark. His favorite movie is Hook, and in the movie they have a major food fight. The parents loved having pudding smashed across their face, pie smeared across the back and cupcakes massaged into the hair. On the other hand the kids cried their way through. They couldn’t figure out why the precious cake was being mutilated. It was a fun party. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARK!!!!! We love you!

Vacation - What a wonderful word. This last week we took a "vacation" about 20 minutes north in Carlsbad with my (Jenn) family. We had a vacation from school, our apartment, and a crying baby. The family entertained her, held her and almost fought to see who could get her to sleep or stop crying first. Mark surfed at different beaches and convinced my brothers to brave the freezing waves as well. They keep on trying to convince me that it isn't cold and that their numb hands is a normal side effect. Soon enough I will attempt surfing and it will be a great day for Mark.

Ellie has taken up a few new hobbies like: laughing, rolling over, and watching T.V. We tried to put her down for a nap on her stomach and she flipped over instead of relaxing and taking the binky. Thinking that it was a fluke, we moved her to the bed and tried it two more times. She succeeded and then we had to be more creative with her napping positions. She laughs and makes new noises. My favorite unexpected moment was when Mark was watching Kung Fu Panda on the lap top and ellie was curled up on his lap. She was staring at the screen as if she was a very mature three year old that understood what was happening... we may have a tv junkie on our hands.

It was a great week and we appreciated the help from the family and the change of pace.

Ellie's Big Laugh

Eliie's First Day

First Full-Length Jem Production

Pool Central

Hey World…

Life this week has been going a mile a minute, and that’s just Ellie’s digestive system. This week we had major amounts of guests over, and it was Mark’s finals week. He actually had to write two finals, and he about pealed over. At the same time he went surfing everyday with Paul and Jamison.

Paul and Jamison came over from Tuesday to Saturday. Basically, they lived, ate, and got burned on the beach. They surfed everyday, and some days multiple times. They lived off of pepper-jack cheeses, avocado, bacon sandwiches and alovera. Jamison had never been surfing, but he did quite well. By the end of the week all three of us could catch the same wave and ride together. To let Jenn know they appreciated her they got her some wonderful flowers as a thank you.

Also, Jenn’s mom came on Tuesday, and her sister came on Thursday. The three of them did a lot of girl stuff together as well as decorated out apartment. We now have a window in the kitchen that looks out into Italy, and our bookshelf is organized according to color. All in all they did a fabulous job.

Now we are up in Carlsbad with her family and have plans to just surf our spring break away.

Finally, for those of you who read through to the end…ELLIE HAS LEARNED HOW TO LAUGH! Mark was chewing a cookie and making noise in front of her, and suddenly she laughed. It was pretty awesome. Since, she has done it a few other times.

Well till next time enjoy the new photos...

JEM

Mark is fulfilling his husbandly role and has taken me on two very romantic dates. The first one was to the Sweetheart’s dinner put on by the ward. It was a candle light dinner and between the never ending cheesecake and Ellie’s obsession with the Christmas lights strung across the gym it was wonderful. Another night we ventured out to Applebee’s. Ellie got hungry half way through and the waiter kept coming by and couldn’t figure out where the baby had gone. He would discreetly glance into the car seat and see the diaper bag and no baby. Ellie has already played hide-and-seek.

In honor of the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day Jenn was a little adventurous and made corned beef and cabbage. Our guinea pigs are usually the elders. We also expanded our testing pool to include our home teachers and their two-year-old daughter. First off, she kept saying, “this is yummy” and “I think this is so good.” It made you want to have her over at every meal. Then Ellie was sitting on my lap and she came over and started to play with her. She touched her head and then she tickled her feet. Ellie actually reacted by curling her legs up and then smiled. Brooklyn tickled her numerous times and she kept on smiling. It was really cute. Other than that, Ellie is just eating, sleeping and investigating the world.

Other week activities included the beach (duh!). On March 14, 2009 or 3.14 we celebrated by eating pies with some friends who are math fanatics. Last, after institute class, Mark played a game of pool against himself. I held Ellie and told him which ball I wanted him to hit in for me since she was a little crabby and it was to crazy to switch back and forth. Needless to say that he beat me which in reality is just one more win for the Moyle team!

Where did the week go?

Well, well, well, another week has come and gone and life just gets better and better. Ellie is doing just grand. She has been getting some really bad stomach pains every once and awhile, but they seem to pass after a little bit. We just wish it didn't her hurt so bad.

Jenn is doing amazing as the ward exercise instructor. She now teaches a Yoga class and a Stroller Running class. Each one has its surprises and crazy minutes, but all in all it is awesome. It bigger news she just recently got a hair cut from a girl in the ward, and get this...this girl use to cut hair for famous Utah people like Marie Osmond. So need less to say it looks good.

Mark had a very interesting experience on Saturday. The three of us were watching Monk, the TV show, and he could hear a cat meowing at the door. He could resists so we went to check on it. In order to keep the cat out of the house he stuck his hand out at it, and the second he touched it jumped and bolted inside. While running inside it rammed into couch and a few other things. The cat was BLIND! It hid in the back room and was to scared to move. Mark blocked all of the exits and used a broom to guide it back outside. It was the neighbors cat, but who knew it was blind.

Life seems to never stay the same for one second. One of life's great challenges is to simply enjoy the ride. Even when we are driving through Kansas we still have to find the beauty in those never ending corn fields. Also, when we are stuck in life's traffic jams maybe its just a reminder to stop and smell the roses more ofter. What ever comes we just have to find the joy and beauty.

JEM (Jenn Ellie Mark)

P.S. Enjoy the pictures of Ellie

The beginning of the end

Well, it is finally time for the Moyles to enter the exciting world of blogging, and this weekend has plenty of things to fill up our first entry. To start it all of Mark went surfing on Friday, and had a head on collision with a dolphin. He was trying to paddle through a cresting wave and could see two dolphins in the wave. One of them jumped out of the wave and rammed into the front of his board. He flew off, the board took a beating, and who knows how Flipper is doing. He did leave some skin on the board as a souvenir.


In other news, Ellie continues to eat, sleep, and cry but....she can now smile quite nicely. Here is a few photos of her. These are taken on a Sunday stroll we went on today.