We are alive!

I can't believe it has been over two months since I did a post. Well I can a little since I finally unloaded my camera and I had nearly 200 pictures and videos on it. I don't have any excuses for taking such a long break. However, most of my free time on the computer has been spent couponing. I started really getting into it in September. I could probably spend a whole post just talking about that but I won't bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that those of you who know me well know how I like to bargain shop, so couponing for groceries was right up my alley. Dustin has become creative trying to find places for all the food and toiletries. We have food stashed all over our pantry, cupboards, and above our cupboards. I would take a picture but unfortunately we left our camera up in Park City this weekend and don't have it.

We don't have too much exciting news to report in the McQuay house. Dustin is crazy busy with work as usual and I am busy chasing after Ella. She has turned into a little girl all of a sudden and she is such a joy. Her personality is really coming out now since she can communicate so much better and she is constantly amazing me and making me laugh. As I posted some of these pictures from just 2 months ago I am amazed at how much she has grown and changed. I apologize that this post is really picture heavy, but the grandparents appreciate it. Anway, here is the a little of the last two months in pictures.


Ella loves when I vacuum and she always gets her vacuum out to help me. She actually just got a toy vacuum for a gift so I am sure she will really enjoy using it.
We debated carving a pumpkin for Halloween because we weren't sure if Ella would even care about it, but we decided to do it and she LOVED it!

Here she is in her butterfly costume before trick or treating.

Ella and Iris trick or treating at the first house. At first Ella was pretty confused, but once she got the hang of it she loved it and she lasted for well over an hour going all over our neighborhood.

We were thinking she wouldn't last very long and didn't bring a stroller. Needless to say Daddy took over to keep us moving.

Obviously Ella did not want to get her picture taken, but I had to capture her adorable outfit. I bought this with my mom and I wanted her to see it.

So Ella is kind of a picky eater, but every once in a while we come across something random that she loves. She can not get enough chili or black beans. This night she ate a ton of beans and got a black bean mustache. She made quite the mess since she decided to forego using a fork and just dig in with her hands.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving up in Park City with my family. Of course I didn't take any pictures of the amazing food my mom spent hours making, but it was delicious. Dustin was having fun running laps with all the grandkids in the house and they loved it. Riley is in front and Josh is in back and Sam and Alex are somewhere too. Dustin is a very loved Uncle.

Ella helped us decorate our tree. She was so excited about it so we just let her do what she wanted. We had a lot of clusters of upside down ornaments. Here is the finished product.

Mommy and Ella in her cute Christmas dress.

Unfortunately this is the best picture we got of just her. She loves to walk toward the camera when you are taking a picture. So cute!

Because we were so excited we let Ella have her Christmas present early. Plus we will be in St. George for the actual day, plus Ella doesn't really get it yet anyway. Just nod and smile with me because we just wanted to rationalize giving it to her like 3 weeks early. She loves her kitchen and this was her playing with it right after she woke up. Don't mind the bed head.

Putting something in the micorwave. It is amazing to see how much she know from just watching me in the kitchen all the time.

Are you kidding me??! Opening the oven with a hot pad? This girl is hilarious!

Relaxing with Daddy and Charlie on a Sunday afternoon. I think Dustin actually fell asleep.

Last week my sister Amy came to our house with Riley to hang out. We made sugar cookies and let the kids decorate some. They loved it, but hardly any sprinkles actually made it onto the cookies. I found them all over the place. Here is Ella thoroughly enjoying herself.

Riley and Ella deeply in focus.

Riley and Ella had so much fun playing together all day. Here they are playing the piano together.

And finally, here is Ella reading in her cute little chair.

Well we have already had 2 Christmases and have one more to go. I will have to do a post to show them all. Maybe my New Year's resolution should be to blog more :) Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

Funny videos

I am really behind on blogging (as usual) and I have a bunch of photos to put up, but for now I have some funny videos. The first one is from a month or so ago. Ella loves to play our digital piano and push a bunch of the programming buttons. As you can see she also loves to dance.

This second video is just from the other day. Last week my mom had foot surgery so she is on crutches. Ella has seen her a couple times on her crutches and not quite known what to think. I was at my mom's house and was busy doing something so Ella occupied herself by getting into the kitchen drawers. She grabbed a potato masher and wisk and started doing what you see in the video. It took us a minute to figure out what she doing, but when we did we could not stop laughing. It is amazing to me how much Ella picks up from watching people. Enjoy!!

18 months!

I can't believe that Ella is 18 months old today! The time really does fly by, but I am enjoying every minute of it. Ella had her check up with the doctor today and she is doing great.

Her stats:
Height: 32.75" 82% (her doctor thought the nurse's measurement might not be super accurate so she might be a little shorter, but whatever)
Weight: 21 lbs. 12 oz. 15%
Head: 18.3" 53%

At 18 months Ella has quite the personality. She has really started saying a lot of words. Some she says a lot are ma ma, da da, wa wa (water), uh oh, hello, hi, bye, Dust, Jill, baby, Charlie, ball, nigh nigh(good night), one two three, Riley, Josh, thank you, where are you, fishies, meow,and much more but that is all that is coming to mind right now. It seems like everyday she is learning new words, and she can understand a lot more than she can say at this point.

Ella is extremely busy and never sits still except for her one nap a day. She is very curious and likes to get into everything, especially tupperware and shoes. She is obsessed with talking on the phone whether it is real or fake. And she will pretend all kinds of things are phones, or she will just use her hand. She likes to watch Curious George, Sesame Street, and Super Why, although she is getting starting to lose some interest in the tv. This would explain why I have hardly cooked in the last month. She loves to dance and spin around in circles and make herself dizzy. I am pretty sure she gets that from her father. She spends a lot of time tormenting our dog Charlie. She absolutely loves him but I am pretty sure the feeling is not mutual.

Ella's favorite time of day is probably when Dustin gets home from work. She just loves playing with her Daddy. Ella takes a while to warm up to people, but there are a few besides Dustin and me that she absolutely loves: My mom is a definite favorite, my friend Jen, and Dustin's mom is up there too since Ella has seen more of her lately. And depending on the day she gets excited about other people too. Ella is extremely independent and she hates holding my hand. If I try to help her with something she will usually try to do it again all by herself. She is really good natured and is usually in a good mood. I don't think she has thrown a real tantrum yet, but I know it is coming. I am writing this to help myself remember Ella at this stage so way to go if you actually read it. Oh, and one last thing, Ella loves shoes and wears them all day everyday. She has definite opinions about her ensembles already. This is what Ella chose to wear the other day, and I just had to capture it. I love this girl so much, she has brought so much happiness into our lives and I couldn't imagine my days without her.

Birthday Party

A couple weeks ago my family celebrated my brother's and nephew's birthday. We were at my mom's house in Park City and we also rode the people mover (this is what my mom calls it and we still aren't sure if that is the real name) or gondola at the canyons and went to a free concert there. The music was suprisingly good, and even though the weather was really cold, everyone had a blast.

Here are cute cousins Ella and Riley. They are really funny together and it is cool that they are only eight days apart.
Here is Dustin having fun with the boys.

This is Ella in the middle of one of her dance moves. She had so much fun exploring, dancing, petting everyone's dogs, jumping in puddles, running around, and wearing out her parents who were trying to keep up. Fortunately her cousins helped to keep her out of too much trouble.

Here is Sam with one his presents.

Josh built Ella's name out of legos.

My brother, a serious BYU fan with his present from us. He doesn't get too excited about presents in general, and as you can see nothing has changed.

My cute mom with the newest member of our family, David. I enjoyed feeding him a whole bottle and burping him, until on the last burp he spit up all down my shirt. I kind of forgot about the whole getting spit up on thing that comes along with newborns. Good thing he is so cute.

This is a video I took at the concert. I was trying to just get Ella dancing, but then she sees Josh, a cousin she just loves, and you will see her reaction. I was so excited to actually capture something really cute on camera because usually once I get out the camera the moment has passed. Anyway, Enjoy!!

St. George Trip

At the beginning of August we headed down to St. George for a long weekend to visit Dustin's parents. We had such a good time and of course the time flew by. Here is a little bit of what we did.

As soon as we arrived we all headed to the pool. Ella doesn't love the water so we have been trying to expose her to it often. This isn't a great picture, but it was the only one I took. This was just Ella on the golf cart ride to the pool.

Ella had a great time with her Grandpa and Grandma that she doesn't get to see too much. Here she is reading with Grandpa.

Dustin's dad blew up a little pool for her, but she ended up just playing inside it indoors and as you can see she had a good time.

Ella with her Grandma Jana who she just loves.

Throughout the four days, Ella got to go on several golf cart rides and she loved each one.

Ella is a major dog lover and she was so excited about their dog Darla. She was constantly banging on the gate or trying to climb over and see her.

We went on some great walks in the canyon right by their house and I can't remember the name of it right now but it was so beautiful. This is a picture of Dustin being Dustin. If you look really carefully you can see Darla trying to jump up with him. You can't really tell in the picture, but Dustin was really high up.

And here is a family picture in the same canyon, such an awesome background.

This trip Rob taught us how to play Texas Hold 'Em and we played for hours and hours. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, but we had such a blast playing. Thanks Rob and Jana for such a fun trip!

Family Pictures

Our friend Alicia took some family photos for us last month and did such a good job. Ella was being a major pill running all over the place and refusing to stand still, but Alicia still managed to get some good shots. She put some previews up on her photography blog if you want to check them out. I can't get my link stuff to work, so just click on Isis Photography on the right side of my blog to see them. She also took some pictures of my sister's family and their's are right below ours. Thanks again Alicia!

Recent Happenings

I am really bad at keeping our blog updated as things happen, so here is another post with lots of pictures. We have acutally had a lot going on lately and time is flying by. I can't believe that we are in July already. Here are some pictures of what we have been up to...
This is just a cute picture of Ella with her Daddy. When he actually gets free time he loves playing with her and reading with her.

Two weeks ago we decided to go on a scenic drive north of where we live. We have never really ventured north of North Salt Lake and we were amazed how beautiful it was. We drove through some great towns that I can't remember the names of, but we really enjoyed it. Part way through we found a trail and decided to go on a little hike. I was car sick, Ella was cranky, and Charlie was just his crazy self so it was the perfect time to get some fresh air.
This is a cheesy family picture of us enjoying our hike.

Ella doing her best to maneuver the rocky terrain.

I think we wore Ella out, this was on the way home.


On July 1st, my brother and his wife welcomed their fourth son into their family and he is adorable. His name is David John Jensen and I forgot his stats, but he is doing great. We went to the hospital to meet him that morning. Here is Ella with her Grandma Diane.

Proud mommy, Lucy with David.

Me with David.

David with one of his older brothers, Sam.

While Lucy was recovering, my mom took the older three boys up to Park City to stay with her. We joined in some of their fun. This is Dustin and Ella swimming with the boys.

This was more Ella's style that day, and she just was happy to sit on the top step and splash around. We are working on getting her more comfortable in the water.


On the fourth everyone came to our house for food and fireworks. Unfortunately Greg, Lucy, and David couldn't come because David got bad jaundice and needed to be at home recovering. We missed them but still had a blast. Here is Ella and her cousins watching Bolt. She LOVES playing with these boys and they are so cute with her.

Ella and Riley watching fireworks for the first time.

Grandma Diane with her favorite granddaughter. I can say that since she is the only one so far :)

Sam, Josh, Riley, Dustin, and Alex.

Amy and Loran.

Dustin had some fun taking pictures of the sparklers.

Ella and mommy.