After going back through our blog for a project my mom assigned to me, I realized I have been shamefully neglectful of my picture-posting duties. So here's a two-months-of-pictures-in-review:

Here's Julia's Halloween costume. She's a carton of milk, in case my handiwork is unidentifiable. Eli was a box of Cheerios, but we don't have a picture to prove it.

A few weeks back we received a lovely housewarming package from our good friends, Jordan and Alison Johnsen. Julia LOVES both of the books they sent; here's a shot of her reading Princess Eli to Princess Eli.

Even more weeks back, we received an encouraging, hang-in-there-you-can-do-it package from our good friends Shawn and Kate Ballard which included a picture puzzle of our left but not forgotten home, Provo. Having more faith in our brain power than proof of its substance, I suggested at around 9:00 one Friday night that we take an hour to assemble it for our date. Four hours later (no joke) we collapsed glazed-eyed into bed, having finally completed it to a piece. (One piece was missing). Justin, as this picture shows, was deliriously happy to have conquered such a challenge.

Some of you may have ventured over to webcast land to follow the story of the Cat That Dwelt on Trevor's Head, oh, I mean, Life with Jace. Well, Justin had been living with a bear on his own head, and I finally decided to kill it. This shot doesn't capture that those mounds are about four inches high.

More recently than any of the previously mentioned activities, we had Mayah Sevy and her mom over to decorate gingerbread cookies. The girls had a grand old time and I am still discovering frosting aftermaths despite our floor's two moppings since this venture. Julia was really cute cutting out the cookies. She'd smack a cutter on the dough, lift it expectantly, then exult somewhat surprised, "I DID it!" Before smacking it down again, usually in a new location. The whole first pan of cookies she did completely by herself and they turned out wonderful.
Eli, too, is making leaps and bounds in her development. She is progressing through the gamut of solids (here's footage of her bout with carrots), now makes the "ba", "ma", and "da" consonant chains, and screams much of the time that she's awake. (Much to Julia's chagrin, since Julia gets sent to time-out when she screams, but Eli just gets smiled at.)

There are more pictures and more adventures to share, but child-free time is limited and precious.