Feeling a little bit guilty

Lately Claire has been telling everyone that she is going to be a ghost for Halloween. Is she??? Nope!!! Why not? Well, Claire has a mean mom that thinks that a ghost is kinda boring and I want her to wear something a little more cute. Plus I know that this year is the last year that I will have much say in what she wears for Halloween. And before you think I am too terrible, she didn't decide she wanted to be a ghost until AFTER I had bought the stuff for her witch costume.

Well the guilt of not letting her be what she wants to be is now gone. Yesterday I saw a cute little ghost dress tutorial on the internet so I headed to Walmart the first chance I got. One trip to Tooele, one hour sewing, and $2.70 later, the guilt is gone. She can wear her ghost dress as much as she wants for the next 12 days and still be a cute little witch for Halloween. Its a win-win situation...right?



Oh,and the other thing she wants to be for halloween...."halloween itself"

Whatever that is!!!

How to ruin a good weekend

There are many ways a good weekend can be ruined. Being asked to talk in church at the last minute is one way. Finding out the weather will not cooperate with you plans is another way. And it my case, it was being asked to have a new church calling. I knew my calling in YW wouldn't last forever. But I thought I had at least another year left. I was already anticipating girls camp next summer. I have heard of women crying when they got released from their callings in the Young Woman program But I never thought it would be me. Things don't affect ME that way. Well I was WRONG....DEAD WRONG. Friday night I cried and cried after the bishop left our house. Saturday was a little better but not much. And Sunday I escaped as quickly as I could so I wouldn't cry there. What can I say...I loved my calling. I love the girls. They are so strong. So Good. The best examples. I would love it if my daughter grows up to be like each and every one of them.

The good news is that I have only had my new calling one week and I am already starting to love the primary too.

Girls, (You know who you are)
Thanks for the best two years. Thanks for all the laughs. For all the spiritual times. For all you taught me. I love you all!!

More October Fun

Claire is totally getting into Halloween. And the creepier the decorations, the better. She loves the monsters that are hanging from the ceiling at the grocery store and the houses that are covered in cobwebs and spiders. The one thing that does freak her out is putting her hand into a pumpkin to clean it out. Luke had to work today so Claire and I spent the day at the church helping carve pumpkins for Activity Days, making a ghost costume for Claire out of an old sheet (she loves walking around the house making ghost noises), sitting on the porch eating apples with caramel dip that we made last night, and making pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting. The only way it could have been a better day is if Luke had been able to spend it with us.

Just getting ready

My mom came out to visit for the day and brought a little craft for us to do. It was the perfect craft too...cheap, easy, finished in less than an hour, and Claire was able to help.


Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and it is so much more fun now that Claire is getting into it. She is constantly singing Halloween songs, pretending she is a ghost, and wanting to make Halloween decorations.

Sunday Afternoons

Sundays are the best. I love going to church with my family. I love teaching the girls in my class. I love taking a long nap or reading a good book while everyone else is sleeping. I love going to visit family. And since last week was General Conference, I love that we can download the talks onto our ipods since Claire wasn't cooperating with us watching it. This is what we did instead while we took turns watching conference while the other person kept Claire busy.

Luke and Claire decided to make some chocolate chip cookies.

Poor Claire actually thought her daddy was going to put this in her mouth...she was disappointed when he put it back in the bowl.

We made ghosts out of garbage bags and colored them.

For once she put down the severed leg and instead dragged the ghost around all day long. She was pretty proud of her little ghost.

September Happenings....Seriously, where did September go?

So I have beenputtingoff updating myblog for awhile and I guess I just need to doit. And in case you are wondering,my beautifullittle munchkin spilled a glassof apple juice on thekeyboard and now the spacebar onlysporadically works or is delayed andwill put spaces in the middleof my words. Thinkofallthe great funyou willhave readingthis!!
Anyway, twoweeks ago we went to the Wendover Air show. It was reallyfun gettingout of townfor the day and seeingallthe planes, jets, the carshow,and everything else. Ofcourse the most memorablepart of the whole trip happened before we even got into t he show. Therew as a couple behind us in line pushinga stroller with a babyinside that was about seven months old. Claire put her hand on the stroller and looked at the baby and the dad went crazy. He started yelling at Claire "Just mind your own business, kid!! Just mind your own business!!" Andthe entire time he was yellingthis at Claire, he was jerking the strollerback and forth (with his baby init) really hard to get Claire'shand off. All I haveto say is PSYCHO!! Wewere shocked!! The other people inline were shocked. It is agood thing the guy went intoanother line and got away from us right then because Luke was startingt o get mad. Nobody messes with his little girl!! But seriously, who does that to a two year old?

Here is the planefrom themovie ConAir.







Here are some other September/summer photos thatI just foundand I love.

We went to the Hogle Zoo and loved it. September really is the time to gotothe zoo. All ofthe animals were out...even the ones that are normallyhiding in the shade all summer long. It was great. Since wehave azoo membership I think we will be going backthis year.




EverytimeI see this pictureI want to brush the hairout of her face. Iseriously do her hair constantly but within hours it is inher face. No amount of hairsprayhelps either. But she was so excited when her cousins came out and brought some chickenswith them. Ilove the face sheis making!!


We went to Pine View andhad ablast.





ClaireandI decided to takea breakfrom Fall cleaning. We took aloaf of bread,wentand got akids meal,and headed to Stansbury park to feedthe ducks.

The Latest...

Every once in awhile Claire will find an item that becomes her new favorite thing. I wish I could say it is a toy that she gets attached to but it isn't....her toys remain in her room barely touched. For example, a few months ago it was an ugly pink flamingo lawn decoration that we took from a former co-workers yard as part of a joke. I was going to give it back right away but then Claire became attached to the ugly thing and for the next two weeks Claire spent her time running through the sprinklers, taking it to the store, taking it on walks and showing it how fun it is to go through mud puddles. It even went to the fair with us.

Well the fascination wore off and we returned the ugly pink flamingo.

Her latest item is even more bizarre than the ugly flamingo.

Over a month ago we were at the dollar store looking around and Claire saw this severed foot over with the Halloween decorations. She asked what it was. I told her. She gave me a wierd look. I told her that severed means "cut off". That was that...or so I thought.

For the next two weeks every time we went anywhere near the dollar store she would ask to stop and see the severed foot. I finally got so sick of her asking that we finally just stopped and bought the severed foot, thinking that she would soon lose interest and then I could get rid of it. That was several weeks ago and we are still waiting for her to lose interest. The severed foot goes with us to the grocery store, it helps us work in the yard, and frequently is taken on walks in Claire's little stroller. She even wanted to take it to church but I refused. She LOVES this thing.


My favorite is when we were in Home Depot and I look over at Claire sitting in the cart and holding the foot saying, "This little piggy went to market. This little piggy stayed home....". I was cracking up!!! Then this guy walks passed us, does a double take at Claire, and then informs me that my daughter is holding a severed foot. Claire just looks up at him and says, "yep. It means cut off."

Take me out to the ballgame

Check that off the list

Soon after Luke and I started dating we made a list of all the things we wanted to do that winter. The following spring we made a new list of all the things we wanted to try and do that spring, summer, and fall. I guess it just became a habit because we are still making a new lists. We have never come close to marking everything off the list. But yesterday we went somewhere that has been on almost every list for the past five years....we went to Antelope Island. I am not quite sure why I wanted to go there but we did and lucky for us the annual Antelope Island Stampede Festival was going on while we were there. They had some really cool kites being flown but the wind wasn't strong enough to keep them up for long.


We had wanted to see the buffalo herds while we were there but this is the only one we saw :(

But they did have plenty of bounce house things and that always puts a smile on Claire's face.

Who Needs Disney Princesses?

Last week Claire and I went to pick up the sister missionaries and take them to my Dad and Holly's place for dinner. One of the missionaries tried to start a conversation with Claire by asking her which princess is her favorite. Claire just gave her a blank look. Why??....Because Claire really had no clue what she was talking about. Claire has no interest whatsoever in watching tv or movies. However, she absolutely loves reading books and a major part of our day is spent doing just that. (Hmmm, maybe I should look for some princess books.) The other part of our day is spent outside playing, going on walks, enjoying nature and taking in everything around us, and answering her fifty million "What is that?" questions. So it is true that she may not know the difference between Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, Cinderella, and all the rest. But she can tell the difference between a garbage truck and a dump truck, a backhoe and an excavator and a front end loader, a semi and a delivery truck, a school bus and a UTA bus, and a fork lift and a boom fork lift. Its not that she is into trucks or things like that, she is just curious about the things she sees. I guess if the princesses were outside in real life she might know them by name too.

Maybe the day will come when she does get all excited about the Disney princesses and would prefer watching Cinderella over watching the garbage truck dump EVERY single garbage can on our street.