What the Ellis boys won't think of next!

Winter Hide Racing!

What do you get when you combine 3 inventive boys, one pony, one sled, decent weather and a field full of snow?

The Ellis boys practicing hide racing in the winter! They thought it would be such a wonderful day to go out and check out their new surroundings with a little twist. Logan saddled the pony Misty and wanted to take his brothers for a ride in the sled. It turned out quite successful-NO INJURIES! If you can tell from the video, they are on a slight hill doing this activity which could pose quite a dangerous situation, but good sure-footed Misty didn't miss a step. They were just getting pulled around in the sled, but decided that was much too mundane. They decided it would be much funner to pretend they were hide racing like they do in the ranch rodeo in the summer. Poor Misty! I guess she got a good dose of exercise today. The temperature is 43 degrees and even though the sun is shining, the air is still very cold. The one piece that makes the weather bearable is that there is NO WIND! There are only a couple of rocks in the pasture and during the time I was watching, they only hit one big one once! They are enjoying being outside and doing what they do best - being boys. Logan noted that if they are close to the interstate when they are doing anything that anybody that is driving by just watches and stares as they go by. He said the other day when they were riding horses to go and doctor a cow, they were close to the interstate and whenever a car would drive by on the interstate, they would honk and wave. I think that we are all acclimating well to the new area. I think it will be even better when it is summer and we can see beyond the snow and ice.

New schools and friends

This is the new library that we get to go to story hour. It has great fun things. Lots of books that we love to check out and TONS of movies. The ladies that work there are super nice and very friendly. It also has computer games that you can play while you are there and you can also check out a room to play Wii games. We have met lots of friends at story hour. There are about 30 children who come there for story hour.

Mrs. Richins is Carson's teacher. She has ties to the Bridger Valley. She is a sister-in-law to Karen Willie! What a neat experience to get to have a teacher who is related to someone where we used to live. He gets to do AR for reading already! He says his favorite part is that during lunch you get to sit wherever you want. He has made lots of friends and one in particular is in our ward. She rides the same bus and she has been very friendly to Carson. Her name is Claire. In school, they got to take a challenge called "Rachel's Challenge". This is an opportunity to pledge that they will not be a bully after they hear about a girl named Rachel and they get to sign a banner that shows that they have accepted the challenge. The school mascot is Malad Elementary Mustangs. Carson was dying to make some chocolate chip cookies and we finally found the baking soda! so we made his night by making cookies!

Logan is making lots of friends with the kids at his new middle school. He has a lot of the same things that he did at Mountain View. He has a locker, he takes band where he plays the baritone still and he is making new friends all the time. There is something new that he will get to experience. For P.E., all the kids get to take a four week skiing class. They will go to Pebble Creek Ski Area in Pocatello for ski lessons. Also something new is that he goes over to the high school for lunch and for band. The schools are just a short sidewalk distance apart. The other new thing is that the school mascot is the Malad Middle School Knights. It is a very different concept that all the schools have different mascots because the High School mascot is a Dragon.

Monte got to go to a playgroup that they hold every Thursday at 12:30 at the Stake Center. He met some new friends and as you can see, they are mostly all girls. He is hoping that more boys show up next week. His new friends are (l-r)Christine, Sara, (Monte), Russell and Bryton. Clayson, who is a boy, was also there, but he was still playing hiding. They just get together and everyone brings a toy that they can play with and share if they want to. This will be a great opportunity for social networking. The moms visit while the kids play. Sara is actually the sister of the new friend, Claire, that Carson made at school. Monte is missing his preschool group, the activities and the friends. Now that we finally found the cord to the printer, we can start doing some preschool activities at home! Yeah! There is also a really neat thing that we discovered at the Stake Center. There is a Deseret Industries trailer parked there ALL THE TIME!! so that we can take our unwanted items! And, boy, are we finding lots of treasures that we no longer need. We are still in the purging mode!

Every night that Monte goes to bed, he says "This sure is a nice bed that Aunt Cari made for me under Logan's desk!"

We are all doing very well and even mended from our ailments from last week! We do have a telephone now. We are trying that box called Magic Jack that uses your wireless connection from your computer and you plug in a regular phone to the box. When we set up our number, the closest prefix for an Idaho number was Boise, so we chose one that was a little closer, but a Utah number. Our new home number is 435-363-7217.

These are some of the views that we can see from our new house. Carson is quite a photographer! He went out and got all the pictures for us to post so everyone can see where we are!

The hay shed is to the south of our house and the mountains are to the east. We can see the mountains and the interstate through our big front window. There has been lots of rain! It has made our driveway VERY slick. We have to walk very carefully or we will slip and Carson doesn't want to break his tailbone.


Logan has enjoyed riding his pony and he helped some of the other guys move some cows last Saturday.

Monte has had lots of time playing with the sticks that Carson carved into arrows. He likes to load them on his semi and drive them all over the house.

It has been quite warm even though it was snowy, but today was very cold. It only got up to 18 degrees. It was even a little bit windy, too! Carson says it is not as windy as Wyoming though.

We are here!

After a long couple of weeks dejunking, organizing and packing we arrived in Malad, Idaho! It is a pretty big decision for our family and we know it is the right place for us at this time in our lives. We had TONS of help getting things ready to go and then we had a lot of assistance for the actual move. We got to Malad on Saturday, January 17. When we got there we were greeted by some dear friends and family of ours - Shane, Suzzy, Colton, Shayley, and Faith Rowley! and Dave, Laila, Ethan, Cydel, Tia and Brayden Kammerman! What at great help everyone was! There is no way we could have gotten done as quickly as we did without all the help! It was a beautiful day - sunny, warm and good weather all the way around. The week following was filled with all the stuff that comes with moving to a new community - getting enrolled in the new school, getting internet set up, getting a new bank, finding the important places in town like the library, grocery store and the doctor (UGH!). We found out that moving takes a toll on everyone's body! Carson and Logan got strep, Kristi got a sinus infection and Justin got a bacterial infection. What a way to establish care with a doctor so that we are ready for when the baby comes! Thankfully, we are all on the mend and looking forward to when we feel 100% again! We still need to get a home phone, so we will keep everyone posted.
We attended our new ward last Sunday and found some very friendly people and a very unique old church! The chapel has a big pipe organ that the organist has to have mirrors to see the chorister because she sits at the organ with her back to the congregation!
We love the library! It is a great comparison to the library we are used to. They have a great selection of everything we love! Monte was having some horrible withdrawals from his books that are still packed, so we went to the library and it happened to be the day of Story Hour, so he got to meet some new friends. We also saw Lesley Wray-wife of last seminary teacher Brother Wray. Everyone is very nice and welcoming! We are grateful for that and we are taking every opportunity we have to meet new people and find our way around the community!