Birthday Bear! 3 years old today

It's my dear girl's birthday today!

Happy Birthday, Claire Bear!

You light up my days and nights. I still have to go in to see you before I go to bed because I can't help it. I kiss your soft cheek and you turn over in your sleep, usually away because you don't like to cuddle, which makes me laugh.

You're so opinionated! You want to be the boss of everyone. I love it when you sit and laugh with Matthew. You call him "My son" as if that were his name. You splash in the tub with him. You try and carry him (ahh!), you take things from him if you think he'll choke on it. You yell at him if he's playing with electric cords like Mom does.


You hate time outs, potty training, broccoli, and potatoes

You love your Daddy, Dora, Aurora (eek!), purple, you give your dad anything that's blue because "it's your favorite color, Daddy!", reading, apples, hot dogs
You would drink every meal if you could.
You ARE SO SMART! And maybe that is a very biased mother, but I still cannot believe that you ride your bike so well and how fast you learned to do it. You speak so well. A full year ago you were speaking how most of the 3 year olds I know speak and now that you ARE 3, you speak like a 5 years old.

I love you SO MUCH, little girl who wants to be big.

"I went on a bike ride last years!"

"I am a big girl so I can ride in the street!"

"Mom, can we go to the librahry to play on computers?"

adventures...part 1

Greg (Nick's brother) was married on June 18th in the San Diego Temple in San Diego. For that temperature I would move there in a second. The beauty is also extremely appealing. I wanna, I wanna, I wanna...

Expense---wow. Okay, probably not.

We went to all three (3)---yes I had to make sure that was clear. THREE) receptions. One in Oregon (in conjunction with Daniel and Sarah), one in San Diego and then one in Provo. It wasn't the amount of receptions. It was the fact that we went to all three. I have a 2 year old and a 11 month old. WHAT WERE WE THINKING!?! They were both so overly tired that we just about died. I remember specific times when Claire (who does not sleep in the car...at all) would finally fall asleep and wake up no less then 20 minutes later screaming no matter what we did. AH!

We also tried to be super cheap, so we drove to Oregon. A typical 12 hour trip was about an 18 hour one. We were crazy and flew to Vegas (normally an 8 hour car ride, with kids, prolly close to 10), then stayed with my sister a night and then drove to San Diego (normally a 6 hour drive, with kids 7...not too bad!). We then drove to Las Angeles and flew to SLC. It really was insane. Things took a lot longer than we hoped, but we saved over $200 bucks doing it that way. Phew!

So, the whiny part is over...

The trips were really very neat. We saw a lot of family, met some new friends, and figured we could and will do anything! The wedding was beautiful. Ashley and Greg were married by her grandfather. Neat! The reception was amazing. I loved her color choice (aqua, white, and silver). It was very posh.

more to come. I have to interact with children now.

Some adorable pics:

kissing princes...

Claire:
"MOM! Come kiss me!"

I look around...Is she in pain? she doesn't sound like it? I find her on the couch, with her eyes closed, clutching a beautiful and fragrant dandelion to her bosom. She waits patiently for me to figure out that I'm to kiss her to 'wake up'.

Through out the day, she continues to call my name and I find her in various places. The last time we played this senario, she had me scale a castle wall, fight and kill the dragon, kiss her, and then dance to "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream".

Matthew:
SO CLOSE to crawling. Yesterday he had his legs working but didn't know what to do with his arms. We'd see him with his butt in the air, pushing himself with his legs with his face on the floor, probably getting rug burn.

He had ear tubes put in last Thursday (he had 7 ear infections in 6 months---it was like he was never without one). The doc even reassured us (I was almost against it, silly me) and said he had an ear infection when he put the tubes in and it was...ahem...congealed enough that it wouldn't have drained without tubes. Gray stringy stuff....BLECH!

picture catch up

We bought a load of top soil so that I could plant a garden this year. Hooray! Claire and Nick had a blast (ahem) moving all the dirt around the yard. I did very little due to other engagements. Toward the end of the evening, Claire was stripped down to her diaper and running around like a mad woman. It was in her nose, eyeballs, teeth, diaper...everywhere.



Matthew starting to drink from a cup. I can't believe how big he's getting. I feel like Claire was so much faster at all of these developments, but I'll bet that is also from not remembering what age she did what. I know teeth were 8 months. Matthew still doesn't have teeth. PHEW! He's a biter...Also Claire was crawling by about the same time. Matthew is sure rolling like crazy, but no crawling. I don't mind! And Claire is so helpful to get everything Matthew is reaching for that he'll never have to learn.

gettysburg drunk...

So we went to Gettysburg, PA and this is what we found...among other things...

nine month

Matthew had his nine month check up:

weight: 20.5 lbs
height: 27.5 in
head: I never remember.

He started to kiss the other day...And only Claire to begin with. He would reach out for her and pull her in (usually by the hair) and put his open mouth on her face and then shake his head...leaving a load of slobber and two grinning kids.

work...

Claire: Daddy, where ya goin?

Nick: To work.

Claire: Why?

Nick: Because it's fun.

Claire: Ohh...Can I wif you?

daaa daa daa da daaa pause daa daa daa!

Apparently it's important to do the same things for all kids. My favorite moment is watching him bounce his little self up and down just after the 'unveiling' at about 11 seconds.

8 months!

A new toy that I can't stop eating!

Daxton came over to play and we sat and screamed at each other...We were both very tired and upset and not interested in each other at all.

Aunt Marlies tries to feed my hungry self. I have it more on my face and body than in my mouth.

A picture of tradition. Apparently my sister has this same picture when she was nine months from inside Grumpy's truck.

This one is an awful picture because it's so bleary, but you can see my 'war paint' pretty well. It's medicine for my eczema that we put on me every few hours.


I'm growing like a weed! I've only put on 2 1/2 lbs since my four month check up, but I'm still pretty chubby looking! I'm sweet and cuddly and can't keep my hands outta anything! I am not at all interested in rolling (though I do it when pressed) or crawling. But I do not like things to be out of reach and my sister is so helpful to get me anything I want, whenever I want it. I mostly don't even have to say anything, and there are four toys, a blanket, my sucker (pacifer), a bottle (pretend bottles that drive me crazy), and even my sister pulling on me or giving me suffocating hugs or tackles.

growth...

Matthew at 7 months...Nick is so kindly hiding behind him. But it's all about the skin condition. We are always in phases of managing it. You can see it on the left eye. It's not too bad here, but there are some days where it looks like he is one swollen piece of skin...and I do mean ONE piece of skin!

He rips my hair out of my head daily. He must like the texture or something, because it's not like he just grabs it, he wraps his little fingers through it and pulls. We always find hair between his fingers and all over his clothes.

He loves his Dada and says his name most of all (not that he knows what he's saying). We've started sign language, but nothing has clicked yet.




Claire at the USU vs UofU hockey game...we won. The opposing team had like 4 Canadians on it. I didn't know you could recruit out of the states...Claire is hugging an armadillo from Texas Roadhouse. Very shoddy photo, but you get the idea...


Matthew at 6 months. He is a steady sitter upper. He's been sitting up for a while, but this is where Claire can't knock him over just by touching him.