Utah Part II

Our flight to UT last month was...an adventure. We ended up having to spend the night in AZ in a janky motel because our flight was cancelled due to weather problems, and all other flights were full because of the holidays. That would have been somewhat okay, but we didn't get to the hotel until after midnight and had to leave by 6am. And not only that, but they were all out of cribs, so Ellery had to sleep in the bed with us! Maybe this would be most babies' dream come true, but not for miss Ellery. She was NOT happy about it (she's never slept with us before and she's pretty picky about her sleeping arrangements). Basically, she barely got maybe an hour of sleep on the flight before the motel, then slept terribly the whole 5 hours we were in bed (kept waking up and screaming and sitting up), then she didn't fall asleep again until RIGHT before we landed on the plane the next day, so basically no sleep. And then she had a crazy sleep schedule for an entire month. She's FINALLY back to her normal 7pm-6:30am schedule now that we're done traveling. Oh, and nap times have changed. She's now an afternoon napper. Anyway, enough of that! For the pictures:

 E crashed in the motel bed we all shared.

 The airport sent our luggage to UT without us, so no pjs, no clean clothes, no toiletries...luckily we got them the next day.

 Hence Ellery wearing Clay's shirt to keep warm. Somehow got her arm out haha.

 Yay! Finally arrived at my parents and Ellery was thrilled to explore their new home!

My parents had to buy a gate for the top of the stairs.

 E had fun exploring all their pretty bathrooms. She loved the showers!

She had a blast in their new theatre room.

 The kitchen

 So fun.

She did a little exploring with Christmas decorations, but overall was surprisingly good about leaving them alone.

It SNOWED and snowed and snowed while we were there. But it's so windy where my parents live that it wasn't the kind of weather we wanted to take Ellery out in to play. Clay had fun sliding down the hill in my parents backyard though. P.S. My dad took this picture above. I'm kicking myself now for not going out and taking pictures of the snow/scenery in the snow.

 Ellery got a new winter coat for Christmas.

 We had fun playing on my parents' bed.

While we were in UT, all four of Ellery's big molars completed their way through the skin. Poor baby. The very last night we were there I got 2.5 hours of sleep because I went to bed kind of late, she was up all night crying in pain with her gums, and then we had to leave super early for the airport. Miserable.

She now has 12 teeth and more coming soon.

Ellery had fun playing with all new toys!

 She learned how to stack blocks! She did 7 high all by herself! She's actually very coordinated. She can easily put a pen in its cap and things like that.

 We also played some Dominion. Of course.

 And Paci never left her mouth...or hands (note: she likes to suck on one and hold two at all times).

So once we got back from all our holiday travels I attempted to take away the pacifier except for nap and bed time. After three horrible days, I gave up! It's so bad. She whined for it all day long. Poor baby. I figure she's still young enough that if she wants it that badly I should probably wait to take it away. So 15 months, not going to happen. I DO want to break it by 18 months (I mean the, have-to-have-it-in-ALL-day-long thing) because I don't want her to have it in nursery, plus, I want her to start talking and I don't think she'll ever really talk if she has that thing in constantly.

But while we're keeping it for now, I'll just continue to think it's cute.