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.