Merry Christmas!

My baby is so sweet. When we (Nick and I) went to New Jersey for Nick's work, we left Claire with Grammy Krista (Nick's Mom). She had these photos taken and then gave them to us for Christmas to give out as Christmas cards. Guess what happened to them? We have NO IDEA! AGH! So, you have to get this version until we either find those that were lost or we make our own copies of these cute things. Sure love you all. Merry Christmas!


Historical significance of these photos: the reindeer was Nick's when he was a boy and the dress was Mandee's for her first Christmas. Cute, eh?

house part II

Some one asked for additional pics of our house. There isn't much more than you've seen, but here are the last rooms with the exception of Claire's room. I don't have a pic of that yet. And she's sleeping or I'd go grab one...he he

downstairs---library/playroomhref="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvyCbVbTaqLc73QG40AX-CD5TTKtNSZAapM47G-II_CmvP5QqYsFinUcA79vqjy5_YhACCEOUz8XrD0Gthj8KmOWosw-I_vGVQZScoYvrJNf5VnOsdTAEs6TeMdx9Mqbs427HTD_zS-0o/s1600/100_1405.JPG">
3rd bedroom

family room, great carpet, eh? (trying not to puke!)

All of these were taken by my lovely assistant Savvy, but in the "we just moved in TODAY" look, so this isn't the offical set up.

first bandaid...

Claire was in the garage 'helping' Daddy when she pushed on some very heavy driving ramps. Down she toppled and so did the ramps! She started to scream, and Dad picked her up. He held her close and kissed her "owie". Then checked to make sure everything was still 'working'. I hear all of this happen and come in to find Claire crying/whimpering and Nick saying:

"Your elbow is still working, your leg is still working, your toes are still working," etc. He says all this while bending each appendage to ensure mobility and attention to detail. te he. isn't he great?

All it really ended up happening was that C got really scared and a big scrape on her finger. But her Daddy kissed it better and put a bandaid on it.

Now she'll walk up to us and say: "owie" and put her hand to our mouths to kiss it better. Yesterday she even said "owie" and then kissed it herself. I love my baby!

young musician...

Whenever I am teaching, Claire stands by my legs and says, "Uhp, Uhp, Uhp,". If I actually pick her up (because the babysitter hasn't arrived yet or some other reason), she tries to play the piano, carefully selecting a group of notes and then pounding the daylights out of them. I guess she wants to be like Momma.

homes...

c helping with packing...This was our home for almost four years. It was hard to move out.

so, here's the house...it's pretty deceiving from the front of it...so don't worry at first glance...


front room/ music room




upstairs...

there's a kitchen,

a bathroom,

our bedroom,













More to come...

It's been fun setting up our new home. Hard to believe we made this change. I still start to drive to our other home on a regular basis. I miss the friends and ward members from that area. I've already been approached to join the ward choir in our new ward by like six people. Which is good and I will be doing it, but it's weird not to be the choir director. Nick hasn't made it to our new ward yet. We've been in the ward for three weeks (today October 25, 2009---which is a different date from when the post was started so, it still looks like we've been here shorter than we have.) and the first week was General Conference, the second week Nick was gone for work and I had to face the ward by myself! aargh! and then this week is stake conference. Weird, eh? Hopefully we'll become more involved soon.

new home...

Well, it's true! We bought a home and now we live in it. I can't find my sd card reader to upload pics, but they'll come. Claire loves the stairs and we see her slide down on her tushy regularly. Downstairs is YUCKY, but that's good because then we can work toward newer carpet and an extra bathroom! te he.

parks...

We went to the park. It's the first time I brought a camera. Good thing! I wouldn't want to miss seeing this stage later. She's SO funny! She loved the bark that the playground is covered in so much that even though she knows how to walk, she crawled everywhere! I'd even put her on her feet and eventually she'd just start to crawl again!
This is Jane and Claire playing Spider.



This is Jane. I think this is the cOOlest photo around!


I love this face!


This is Miles (in swing) and William is on the slide.

check out my spoils...

So, I'm no gardener...Never have been, am trying to be. I planted a few things this spring in this teeny tiny garden plot. I called my FIL-Matt and probably described the dimenions wrong because let me tell you this:














might be slightly overgrown for such a small space!
However, it is growing like a WEED! I have a huge profit from it on a regular basis!

vanna...

My sister Marlies has a dog named Savannah. As in, Savannah, GA (is that spelled with an h or without?). She lived there for a while a few years ago and adopted her first baby: Savannah the wiener dog. she's a dang cute little animal.

Anyway, Marlies found this purse (among multiple other clothing stuffs) with this little wiener dog as the theme of the clothes and sent them to us. THEY ARE TOO CUTE! They are all big right now, but we'll have to show you the adorable-ness of them later. Meanwhile... Claire has come to carry this little dog purse that we loving call "vanna" (because Marlies calls her dog "Hannah" for short. We don't have Hannah, but we do have a Vanna.) around with her. Claire sucks on that poor dog's nose all the time. I suppose I'll have to let her be a girly-girl if she wants to ...sigh

















One of Claire's favorite things to do makes her wait until Daddy comes home. When he gets there, she tries to do everything he does (this probably where 'bad dog' came from). One of the things she mimics is playing the Nintendo Wii. She gets so angry when we take the remotes from her, no matter what distraction we offer her in return. She wants to be doing what Daddy is doing and why would anyone dream of taking that away from her is beyond me.
(secretly I adore that she WANTS to be a daddy's girl)





























Claire is the biggest climber! This is a minor version of what she is into lately, but one of them that I could catch on camera without being afraid to let her fall while I grabbed the shot. YIKES! She's in to everything she can reach and even the things she shouldn't be able to reach! ( she loves to climb in the bathtub! AGH! major konk as there is nothing to brace her fall!).

words...

Claire is talkin' up a storm! She says the basics, "ma ma", "da da", "hi", etc. My favorites are, "yeah". She says that all day long and it's so sweet to hear it. Her inflextion is priceless.

My other favorite comes with a story. I never really thought how she started to say it until I read it in a letter my MIL sent to my BIL on a mission: Claire gets into things she shouldn't and whenever she gets into electrical stuff (ie, the entertainment center or electrical outlets), Nick will point at her and say "Bad Dog!" One day she was in the entertainment center and Nick came around the corner to find her there. I was in the kitchen (which is super close by, so I heard it, but didn't see it). Claire pointed up to Dad and said: "Ba Dah!" You know how you try not to laugh at things that you don't want to encourage? Well, that idea went out the window. We laughed for a good 5 minutes. And then apparently Nick told his mother but I hadn't heard about the pointing part (which I think adds 10X to the story). I laughed for an additional 5 minutes for that.

My baby is so dang cute!

trampolines and ice cream cones...

We went to Nick's first big boy work party. It was called: Mosquito Fest 2009. BYOR (Bring Your Own Repellent). There were a few kids there other than Claire. This one jumping on the tramp is a little fireball named Samantha. She's a riot. She's so TINY! She's like seven months older than Claire and she is a little shorter and weighs the same.

They had fun playing on the trampoline. Claire just really loves to be outside. You know, she's a sitting in the dirt, eating bugs kind of kid (you know a girl who is NOT prissy NOR into pink...te he). Soon after we had cleaned her up from dinner, a woman that Nick works with wanted to play with Claire. They were soon sharing ice cream and then Jeanie (the adult in the photo), was teaching Claire how to jump really high. It was hilarious.















Nick's job is just what we expected. A GREAT opportunity with a lot of work that is hard, yet rewarding when finished. We're so grateful. We sat with the 'peons' (their words, not mine) for most of the evening and were reminded of how blessed we really are that Nick hasn't even officially graduated and he has a full time job with benefits. I have insurance! I can hardly BELIEVE it! We are so grateful for this job and the many ways that we are blessed. Claire being number 1 on that LONG list of blessings. Thanks for thinking and praying for us. Know we think of you often and pray for you to be blessed in the ways you need as well.

newspapers...

I receive six newspapers every sunday for the coupons in them. Nick really likes to read some one or two of them (five of them are the same newspaper...te he), but it has been interesting to me to know how to distribute the wasted newspapers. I came home from choir practice a few Sunday's ago to find this:





Dads really are the best. Claire used to never give loves and now she will walk up to you with her hands in the air waiting to be picked up for a love. Then she wants immediately to be put down and off onto exploring something new. I think she wanted to be with Dada a little longer this day because she stayed there for a whole two minutes!

Apparently reading the news with Dada is way more fun than reading a story with Mama.

I love this kid.

beards...

How is it that every thing new a baby does is just so darn cute!

think, think, think...

Claire Bear can think like Pooh Bear!

The pictures are for G Gramma Carol. She gave her this ADORABLE dress, but it's too big right now. She trips over it when she walks. When she tries to crawl, she stays pretty stationary because she gets tangled up in the skirt!

official stats...

Height: 29 inches - 45%
Weight: 18.5 lbs - 25%
Head: 17 cm

5 shots today...sigh

QUESTION for MOMs:

It usually takes 2 hours for the whole trip to the doctors. We wait in the waiting room for 20-30 mins. then the nurse takes us back and does a few things and then we wait for another 20-30 minutes for the doctor to come in. (We really like the doctor---he's young, he's fresh, researched and always asks for second opinions, so its like we get more than one doctor.) Then we are with him for 20-30 minutes. Then we wait for a good 20-30 minutes, sometimes longer, for the nurse to come back and give the immunizations.Then she makes my baby scream (who is already fussy because we've made her not do so many things---ie, crawling on the gross floor with throw-up stains, that are icky in a place where people are regularly sick) with shots---not that she can help it, but it's been such a long wait! Nick is ready to look for another doctor, not because we don't like this one, but it takes up the majority of the morning/afternoon going to this one.

IS THIS NORMAL!? What IS normal?

1 year mark stats...almost

Today is Claire's one year checkup! I'm scared to death because I know she will not like the shots much. :( She also conked her head on the hard floor about 10 minutes before she went down for her nap. I can only imagine that exacerbating the coming shots. my poor girl. I'm typing this now because I'm not sure I'll get another chance to! she is a little coo-coo after shots and I doubt I'll have a moment of rest for the next few days if she is anything like at her six month check up. I'll just have to do a brief one when we get to it for the REAL stats.

Claire has seven teeth (we are still waiting for that bottom right one to come through, Krista. Don't know what happened to it). I think that's a bit of an odd number to have (well, odd in the number sense and odd in the strange sense, too...ha ha...I made a pun).

She has been cRaZy the last two days. I'll be doing sit ups and she will come up right between my legs and plop on my tummy for a giant hug (with her classic pat, pat). She has started to wrestle without me instigating it. Where did she learn that one! LOL it is hilarious! I'm trying to get all of these things on video, but she really has become so fasinated with the camera, it makes it impossible.

Gramma Mimi (rosi0---my momma) gave her a play kitchen for her birthday. She won't leave the thing alone! Lots of things in the kitchen sing, so she'll start the thing singing and then dance to it. Her arms a-waving. She has also found that climbing is fun! AGH! she climbs up on this kitchen. I have to watch her more carefully now and I keep the bathroom door closed because I'll find her in the tub while I'm trying to do a bunch of things that keep me more occupied than it should. She's a riot. I can't get enough of her. Well, that's not entirely true. I do love it when nap time comes. It's a little break from her busy-ness. I'm sure it will only get worse when she's a full time walker! AGH!

watching baseball...sort of

Claire is back to taking very measured steps every where she goes. Whenever i try to hurry her along, she sits down and crawls. We went to a local A1 baseball game last night and Claire had an awfully hard time walking on the uneven grass.

There were some kids that were 3-4 years old playing near by and she did everything she could to get over there to play with them. At one point (I just stood by to make sure things were okay, I tried not to interfere), the oldest little boy was pulling another along without watching where he was going. He was headed...right over the top of Claire. I yelled a warning (okay, you have to interfere if a child is almost injured, right? Especially yours...or even by yours...), but he was too late in noticing her. They both sat right up, Claire with a whimper and a frown and the little four year old sat up and turned to her and said, "are you okay?" to Claire. Talking about melting a mother's heart. What a sweet little boy to care about someone else at that age! What a mother to teach her kid that!

Claire was back at it again, trying to follow those kids around. She was a riot! I love my baby! The kids never included her, which was fine...not their job, but I remember so well the cousins that she does have that are much older that include her. I'm so glad she has some to play with and has been ABLE to play with them, too!

running...

Claire's form of walking is to run as fast as she can before she falls down (this is all done on her own, without help of me or any furniture). It is hilarious to see. Last night though, I put up some goggles on my eyeballs and she wanted them, so she stood up and walked right to me (on unsteady legs, but still). It was like eight steps with a break in between when I started clapping because I finally realized (nick had to point it out) that she was walking! Go claire!

IYDV

Yes, I just got back from Diva camp...I acted like a teenager myself almost the whole trip! It was three weeks of incredibly intense vocal technique, food prep, programs to design, pleasing people, cleaning up after 24 students and 25 even more dependant faculty (except my mom, of course, he he). there were Coffee cups in mass quantities...Sadly, they even reduced in numbers when the students found out where the coffee was coming from and Daniel (one of the students) started making the coffee for the teachers (he was much better at cleaning up the messes).

I was able to take voice lessons and sit in on acting, Italian Diction, staging, light design, JT 101, etc, from some of the most famous teachers of today. it was MARVELOUS! But I have learned that they are the most high strung people around!

Claire met all of the students and became the Institute's mascot. When she wasn't with me, she was with my dear friend Melissa and also my AMAZING!!!!!!! SIL Amy. I don't know how either of them handle more than ONE child for a day, let alone Melissa's four and Amy's three + Claire! WOW! You two are amazing and i really appreciate your help, so very very much! It was a great opportunity for me to expand my knowledge and understand a bit more why I'm a mom not a diva (well, maybe I am in my own way). Then there was my daddy, who was always willing to pick her up or drop her off at the babysitters! thanks AGAIN, you guys... I sure appreciated it.

I have three knew best friends: Kelli (they say she's shy, but really she's a MONSTER! She has a great "ode to a roast beef sandwich" and she taught me the words: "Swoob, Croob and Hoob!),
JT (loudest man alive with the computer hacking skills that Napoleon can only dream of), and
Chandler (AKA Miss Chanandaler Bong)

All of these people kept me sane enough for the three weeks! the students were great, too (for the most part---they are Diva's after all, I guess that can be their excuse).

I'm SO glad I'm home, I'm SO glad to have Claire full time, I'm so glad to have my hubby back (who has been such a trooper to survive on his own for 2 1/2 weeks), I'm so grateful for my Mother In Law who came to take care of my baby for the last three days. She came from Colorado to watch Claire. Not only did she watch Claire, but she CLEANED MY ENTIRE HOME FROM FLOOR TO FLOOR!

thanks for everyone letting me be a little bit selfish! It was wonderful and I miss it already...

back to life...well, at least MY life...te he...

Oh, Chandler and JT: that's what she said....

painting and waxing...

My SIL Amy secured her and myself a free waxing of lip or eyebrow. We went to this little production and decided that we really thought it was pretty cool. Lots of things there to make you feel okay about yourself. Except for the WAY too small clothes! sigh

She has also been watching Claire a few times a week while I've been doing this institute for young dramatic voices. This morning, I'm getting Claire out of bed (after a very long night for amy---I'm SO sorry!) and notice that Claire has her toenails painted! I never even thought of that, but I'm so SO not a girl, but I need to be better at being a girl! That was so cute!!! Thanks Amy!

birth day...

Claire is now one years old! I can hardly believe the time has gone so fast, looking back. I wanted to share the birth story because I wasn't blogging yet when I had her and because it is mostly for Claire that I write, I wanted her to know her story before I forgot it.

Pregnancy was not an easy thing for me. I was barffy almost every day. So much so that I never WANT to be prego again (we'll see if that actually happens...ha ha). My sister Becky decided to get married on June 28 in Yellowstone National Park. My OBGYN was totally great about my going up there to share her special day. He always said that he was as good a doctor as any. So, I went! Nick and I researched the hospitals along the way in case Claire decided to come early.

Becky had a BEAUTIFUL! wedding. My whole family came and even my dear Aunt Dixie and her clan. It was great to meet Adam's family and get to know them a bit better (they live in Florida, so I'll assume we'll get to meet seldom). I did receive a lot of flack from all my extended family for deciding to go. "You really decided to come?!" was a common phrase. It became a joke and we decided that if Claire DID decide to come that we would name her "Tatonka" (you know, from Dances with Wolves...It means buffalo) Yellowstone Sorensen. Nick didn't love the idea, but I think I TOTALLY would have done it if she were to have been born there! What a great story! And I would have called her Toni (Well, I would have said it TAW-NEE).

But, she didn't...She waited for me to come home and have a few more days of sleepless days and nights, barfing...bleh.

July 4 came and went. The next day was a car show and you know that Nick has to go see the cars! So we went down and looked around for a few hours. In the heat. Worked like a charm. Later that night (at about 2am). I started feeling the contractions. It was a Sunday, so Nick was up early to get to Church meetings. I told him we were close and I would call him when I was ready.

We went in around 10am. I was dilated to a 6' and the doctor (who was not MY doctor, because he was not on call for this particular Sunday) broke my water and found it to be miconiumed. I waited and waited and waited. Finally when I was at an 8, I couldn't stand it anymore---especially because the nurse (and dang doctor) kept saying things like, pushing could take up to 2 hours, are you SURE you don't want an epidural. Grrr...So, I took one, and in the nick of time, too!

I pushed for about two hours (and I'm no dainty girl! I was pushing!) But she wasn't really coming. So, finally they noticed that her heart rate was going up around 200 (supposed to be about 90-120) every time I pushed, and she wasn't really progressing. They sent for the doctor. He cam in and noticed that she was posterior. He tried to turn her, but she wouldn't budget. They kept threatening to do a c section, but she would always start moving just enough to convince them to wait until the next contraction. I was so bugged too because they sent in eight nurses due to the miconium, the increased heart rate and the fact that she was posterior. i'm a "shy" (about my body, I know I'm not shy about much else!) girl so I kept telling them, "Could ya just leave!?" or "Stop looking at me!". Drugs and pain...what a wonderful way to make friends...

She was delivered at 7:15pm, after 3 1/2 hours of pushing! The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck a few times, which is why the doctor couldn't turn her and why she was posterior and couldn't be turned. She popped out at 7 lbs 5.9 oz, 21 1/2 inches long. Her ratings (that I never remember the name of) were an 8 and a 9. She she was great that way...

Nick and I got a few pictures with our beautiful, naked, sticky girl and then she was whisked away. They were worried about her lungs.

They stuck her in the NICU for a week, monitoring her pneumonia from the inhalation of miconium. This really wasn't too scary. Nick kept everything in perspective. The hardest part for me was the feedings in a foreign place with so many dang people trying to help me learn how to nurse. It was another 'shy' moment for me and I had to share it with like 15 nurses! I also didn't love the fact that nurses were telling me what to do! GR! Already being an emotional wreck from all the hormones only added to the flame and I was easily offended by all of the nurses. Sigh...what do you do? I've decided I could never be a NICU nurse because I hated all the ones Claire had (but one...) and i would hate to stick a baby so many times with those dang IV's! I remember one night it took about 8 sticks with a needle to finally get one to take! AGH! I hated to hear her scream for those sticks. I had to leave and let Nick deal with it.

Our baby is now a year old and WOW! She is the most independent thing I know! Mimi (Grandma Rosi) calls her Dora the Explorer because she is ALWAYS on the move, finding things to get into! The other day I found her sitting on top of the open door of the dishwasher! I and turned my back to put a pan away and she climbed right up! Beware of sharp objects!!!!

I love you, baby! You are sweet with the biggest belly laugh I've ever heard from a little thing! You do love to explore and you love it even more when you get to hold something I don't normally let you hold (keys, forks, etc) and whine and whine if I take it away. You are the fastest crawling machine there ever was! I love to hear the sound of your little hands and feet as you go from one room to the other in the biggest hurry you'd think there was a fire or a spider. Your daddy loves to chase you around and play hide 'n seek with you. If I could get you to hold still for more than a second, you might actually like books or even to learn your body parts, but you won't hold still if you can help it! Then it's just a battle of wills. You do love to give me a hug, but then want immediately for me to let go so you can do whatever it is that you want to do. You love games that involve hiding something for you to find (this includes hiding Daddy). You converse with yourself and others on a regular basis. Just jabbering away like it was the best conversation you've ever had with your stuffed dog.

We love you so much, Claire-bear, Cmonster.

pat, pat...

It's a wonderful feeling when you go to give your baby a great big hug to give her comfort for pulling a box on her toe and she ends up patting YOUR back as part of her comfort...

could you be any sweeter, little one?!

video of wasatch back

So my teammate Tiffany for the Wasatch Back, put this video (this word is a different color to indicate that clicking on it should take you to the link...if you need this information...;) together...So grateful, Tiff! It's fab!

I knew some of you were looking for these pics or anything about it, so here ya go!

Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay...

Wow, I'll tell you what! Wow! There is something in someone who decides that it's a good idea to do this sort of thing: craziness. I mean, I'm all for being fit and eating right (ha, I'm terrible at both, but I'm working on it), but these sorts of things are INSANE!

I decided that I needed to get back in shape after my thyroid told me that it no longer wanted to work and took a nose dive of the deep end a few years ago. I finally found out what was wrong a few months ago. It took its toll on me by ruining relationships with people (I could never figure out why I was always so ANGRY! Why everything upset me and why people irritated the heck out of me), gaining weight, not sleeping---almost at all!, and being hungry all of the time. Grrr...so, I needed to fix it through the hormone replacements and getting my lifestyle choices back into their proper places.

My friend Shayla started me out with a 5k in May and I haven't looked back. This last weekend I ran the: Wasatch Back. It is a 188 mile relay with a team of 12 (or if your INSANE, a team of six...I just recently heard that there were even a few men who did it without teams at all...188 miles all on their own...this must be where you don't know you're insane).

Through a lot of things, I turned out to run a moderate part of the race. I had one really hard run of 3.8 miles up a freakin' mountain. Plus a few others of easy slope and not to difficult of mileage, either. I was relieved. The woman who took my original legs is looking at some knee issues and while I do relish the fact that i don't have those issues, I do feel terribly that she does. sigh...oh well.

I will hopefully have pictures to share with you soon. This was an incredible journey with hardly any lousy sleep and some very cheesy sayings.

We saw people running in full costume:

3rd place: Crazy Xena Warrior Princesses: These women actually had the real thing on! I'll bet they spent an INSANE amount of money putting those costumes together!

2nd place: Super hero team: I saw Flash with a FULL MASK! IN THE BLAZING HEAT! RUNNING! Who is that stupid!?! I would have died of heat stroke. I believe that Wonder Woman was also on his team. She looked more comfortable, at least.

1st place: Man in coconut bra, grass skirt and wig
I give this first place because I can not IMAGINE the CHAFFING this guy received for this get up! What an insane idea!

Insanity seems to run deep (didn't I already mention that people doing this are INSANE! Don't worry, I'll continue to remind you...)

Honorable mentions: Some family took Disney's Incredible Logo and they all wore those suits with a slight modification here or there.

CARS! they dressed up cars!

My fav was a Suburban with 10 foot tusks off the front. It was a full on Woolly Mammoth! So cool!

Road kills take on an entirely different meaning: Every time you pass someone, that is called a 'kill' or 'road kill'. My first leg I only had 3 (which was a goal before I even knew what a 'kill' was!). My second leg I had 9! (this was the mountain one...so many people stopped to walk. Made it really easy...however, there were about 30 who paced my snail like pace). and 4 on the last one. I'll bet there would have been more but this girl barfed right in front of me and I almost did it in response. Had to stop to walk a bit of that one! YUCK!

I hope I'm improving because I have a triathlon next month!

It was truly amazing and I plan on doing it again next year. However, the INSANITY is not permenent. Your body does adjust. And it would be INSANE not to take care of what you were fixing to change when you started.

ALL THE INSANITY!!!

games...

Nick and Claire have a little game going...wanna see? It's past her bedtime when we took this vid, so she's a little grumpy, but it's still sweet...

sleeping style/capes...

Put Claire down after a feeding in her high chair...two seconds later, she's wearing her bib as a cape!

Claire no longer will keep a blanket on her when she sleeps and we have stopped running our heater (sad that this is June and we are saying this LOL...Logan is SO cold!). So, I have tried to come up with options for how I should put her to bed without getting cold...this is my solution:

Put her in a pillow case! It totally works!

stairs...

Not that we have many stairs at our place (okay, we have ONE), but Nick was able to catch her crawling down one in a sequenced order. Made us laugh. I love the one that she seems to be more interested in the bugs than the stair.