Family Pics

We did familypics afew weeksago since we haven'tdonethem with my dad andHolly since beforemymission. We have wanted to do them severaltimes butit seems like someonewasgoing to have a babyorget married and so then we wouldwait and thenbythetime we would thinkaboutdoing pics again, someoneelse would be pregnant. Sowithno babies on theirway (nonethat we know of anyway...although please keeppraying for us becauseweare really wanting another little one tojoin our family soon) we finally decided to takefamilypics. Theyall turnedoutgreat butthese two were myfavorites of the kids. My sister wanted to have all the girls (hey, my spacebar just started working again...Yipee) in the wagon with Ben pulling them. Of course, if you happen to know my little girl then you know that was not going to happen. Why would Claire want to be sitting still in a wagon with someone else pulling?? Claire has to be where the action is. So she ended up pulling the wagon with her cousins in it.

Just random Things

Thejoys ofhavinga twoyearold. Claire ate asuckeroverthekeyboardand drooledbigtime and now some of the keysstick....particularly the spacebar. MaybetomorrowIwill lookforour oldone. Untilthen,goodluckreading this.






TodaywetookClaire to the LivingAquarium in Sandy to see the penguins. She loveditandasusual we endedup caringherout ofthere screaming since shedidn'twant to leave...plusitwas justabouther bedtime.

Onemorerandom comment. Luke tookmeoutto lunch to the Cheesecake Factory today and I toldhim that nomatter how stuffedwe weregoingto be, we were goingto orderdessert. Sowe ordered the Dulce de Leche cheesecakeand it was sooo good. Wehighly recommend it!!! It is a goodthingwe live an hourawayfromthatplace.

The Birthday Girl!!

Where did the time go??
In the last two years we have gone from this...

and this

To this....

and this

Ya gotta love her "sad" face :)

and life just keeps getting better.


Our baby girl is officially two!! We love having a two year old so full of personality and just fun to be with....but we definatley miss holding a little baby in our arms. We love it when she comes up and asks us to hold her like a little baby, even if it only lasts for a few minutes.

We took Claire to Carl Jr's yesterday for her birthday. She has never been there before and she had a blast. Then last night we took her to do her favorite thing...swimming. It was a great day!! We have been so blessed to have her in our family.

Steph, Baby Caitlyn, Ben, Rilyn, Holly, Claire, Tina


Claire is a little too short to get where she wants to go.


Benny, The Birthday Girl, and Ri Ri

A New Favorite

I made this for dinner a few weeks ago and it has now become a new favorite. I saw a recipe on Rachel Ray that I wanted to make but after looking at the ingredients, I realized I couldn't make it without making a special trip to an asian market for several of the ingredients. And since the nearest asian market is at least an hour away, I decided to improvise.

Teriyaki Noodle Bowl
Here is what we used...

Cooked and cubed chicken. Shrimp would probably be good too...if I liked shrimp:)!!
(We had some left over chicken from a previous meal)
Box of whole grain thin spaghetti noodles
Lots of veggies...we used broccoli, zucchini, onions, red pepper, cabbage, celery, and bean sprouts.
Lawry's teriyaki sauce

It was super easy.. Just cook the noodles and then throw the veggies in with them for the last two minutes of cooking. Drain it all and then mix in the chicken and as much sauce as you want.

party pics

The party was great and Claire had a blast. Of course, she had most of her favorite things right there....slides, swings, lots of cousins, presents, and plenty of people to give her their full attention. Thanks so much for all of our family coming and supporting us. On the way home she started naming the different things she did at the party and each one was followed by a "SO FUN". And then she started naming all of the people that love her. It was really cute.

Do you ever get the feeling that you are forgetting something important but can't figure out what it is? That is how I felt as we were leaving to go to Claire's party the other day. And what did I forget....to charge the battery in my camera. It is one of those things that I just take for granted since the battery will seriously last for months before needed to be recharged. Thankfully Melody came prepared and then sent me the pics that she took.

Our Amazing Family




Melody and Claire. It seems like just yesterday that Melody placed the most beautiful baby girl in my arms for the first time. Where did the time go!!


The bike was a big hit with all of the two-year-olds. The second Claire got off the bike there was always a cousin axiously waiting to get on. It wasn't the orange bike that she has been asking for...but really, where do you find an orange bike for a little girl!! Trust me, we looked and looked. But grandma made up for it by giving her a orange helmet and a big orange flag to go on the back of the bike.







Thanks again everyone. If anyone has some great pics from the party, please email them to us.

Birthday Party

Tonight is Claire's birthday party and she is so excited. She has been telling everyone that she has seen yesterday and today that it is her birthday. This morning she was even more excited than usual and then she told me why....Santa Clause is coming to her party!! Don't ask me where she came up with this idea but I hope she forgets it soon or else she will be very disappointed tonight.

Here is her Elmo cake and cupcakes that I spent yesterday evening making. I figured I better take a picture now since last year I forgot to take a picture of Claire's cake until is was mostly devoured.


A special thanks to Kaysie over at Kaysiescakes.blogspot.com for helping me get the frosting color just right.

Grocery Smarts Class

Hey Everyone.

I am having a Grocery Smarts Class the first week in May. I have sent out a bunch of invites but I know I am forgetting people. Plus there are probably some blog-stalkers that might be interested in attending:)
So if you are interested in coming and haven't yet recieved an invitation please leave me a comment with your email and I will send you the info.
I attended one of these classes last year and actually did what we were taught to do and it was amazing how much food storage we were able to build up without spending any extra...in fact we soon started spending even less.



Come Learn How
To Feed a Family for A LOT less!

• Shop at only 1 store – no running around town!
• Buy all of your family’s groceries, household, and personal care items (including diapers) all for about $180 a month for a family of four – while building massive food storage at the same time!
• NO clipping and filing individual coupons! Very quick and easy! A HUGE way to save money!
• Eat a healthy, well-balanced diet and have ease in meal planning!
• FREE WEBSITE and FREE CLASS – there is no cost to attend and no cost to use the website!
What could your family do with hundreds extra every month? Bring friends! For more information please call Ku’uipo Vea at Grocery Smarts at 801-680-2513 and visit www.asweetsale.blogspot.com



One more thing. Please RSVP to your evite if you are planning on coming so we know how many people to expect.

Family Home Evening

I have to admit that having FHE with an almost two year old has been very difficult and so for awhile we quit doing it....or we waited until she went to bed. Well, we are trying to be better. So if anybody has any good FHE ideas that include a 30 second lesson and a long activity, please send them my way.
This is what we did this last week. We talked about how Heavenly Father gave us a beautiful world to enjoy and created the animals for us. Then we spent the next 30 minutes making animals out of play-doh.
Luke and Claire hard at work


Mommy's Cat

Daddy's Bear

Claire's ??? Use your imagination. I don't have a clue but she sure was proud of it. By the way, I really do her hair at least once a day. But for some reason it is always hanging in her face when I break out the camera.

Is she trying to tell us something???

We took Claire swimming several weeks ago and she has been talking about it nonstop.
This is what has happened since that day...
-One morning Claire found my swimming suit and brought it to me.
-Another day she went through the dirty laundry and brought out our beach towels.
-One sunday morning I found her trying to take off her sunday dress as she was in the process of putting on her swimsuit instead.
-When she wakes up from her nap, the first word out of mouth is either 'swimming' or 'floaties'. No Joke!!!
-She has worn her swimsuit over her clothes on more than one occasion.

-She had a meltdown the other day because she wanted to wear her floaties...so I had to run out to the car in the middle of a snowstorm to get them for her.


So we decided to take her swimming again. We had actually meant to take her the week before but I didn't feel comfortable taking her until her head healed up. We picked up Rilynn and stayed at the pool three times longer than we normally do. She had a blast!!

How different can two little girls be. Ri had to be coaxed into the pool and then she had to be held the entire time. Claire tried to run and jump into the pool all by herself and then she was only content as long as mom or dad didn't get close enough to touch her.


When it was time to leave, I ended up carrying a screaming Claire out to the car and she was let everyone know she was not happy about leaving. All the way home she kept informing Luke and I that she was "so sad".



And once again, going swimming is all she has been talking about.

Easter was great this year...even if it did snow and was cold. We met at my cousins house instead of going to Stansbury Island and just hung out with all my cousins. Easter is one of the few holidays that we all get together still. We had a really good time.


Look at that face!!! She wasn't very happy that we took her away from her playing to take a picture.


Claire and Jensen.


Claire and I turned our lips blue with the robin egg whoppers. She thought it was hilarious, especially when I tried to kiss her with my blue lips.


Claire is the biggest helper ever and she thinks we can't do anything without her help. I walked into the kitchen and this is what I saw. She is helping her daddy set up our new dishwasher. One of her favorite things to say is "I'll fix it".


AND THE HUNT IS ON...




Claire and Rilynn. It is a love/hate relationship that they have. Thank goodness they were getting along this day.



When we are shopping, if Claire graps more than one sucker I will take the extras away from her. So when she found three suckers all together on the ground during the hunt, she looked up at me and headed off running thinking that I would take the away. She is a funny kid.




Then on Sunday we had another family party but being the slackers that we are, we got there late and missed the Easter Egg Hunt. But it was still great to hang out with family.

..Things we do over Spring Break..

So much for playing outside and working in the garden.
I think we got more snow over spring break than we did during the winter.


...and to think I almost put Claire's snow stuff away just the day before.
Despite the mean face she is making, she really had a ball!!

Claire helped me make some Easter brownies and I taught her the most important part....tasting the frosting. Apparently she really liked it because a minute later she tried to stick her whole hand in.