Happy Birthday Claire

You are four years old today and you have been looking forward to this day for months.


Four years ago I held you for the first time....

 

And since then we have had this....

Life with you is never dull and we love it that way.  Daddy and I are so proud of you and love you more than you could ever imagine.  You are bright, happy, silly, energetic, mischievous, full of love, and the best big sister ever.  The last four years have been so much fun and we are excited to see what the future brings.  Happy Birthday!!

Now what are we doing???

mud pie making, comparing hair-do's, shoes flying through the air, doing summersaults and other tricks, kicking the ball, landing flat on your bum, showing each other our jersey number, running up the hill, comparing scary faces, planning a birthday party, scoring goals, comparing shoes, running the wrong way.... Kids have the funniest conversations and do the funniest things while on the soccer field.



We had our first game today and the Bumblebees did a great job. I am so proud of them.

Egg Hunt

As tradition calls for we all headed out to Stansbury Island for our Easter family party on Saturday. The weather was perfect. The food was yummy. And great family to hang out with.

My little munchkin was so excited and going to the island was all she talked about for days. Friday night we put her to bed and told her in the morning when Crue woke up we would be ready to go to the island. So what happens, every half hour for the next two hours she would come out of her room saying "Mom, I think it is light outside. Is it time to go now?" or my fav was "Mom, I can hear Crue. He's awake. Let's go."

 This boy LOVES playing in sand.  And he ate his share of it as well. 

Caitlynn, Rilynn, Ben, Claire, Crue, Brianna

We are hiking up the mountain to do our traditional "rolling the tire down the mountain"  and part way up I decide to go wait with my mom instead.  My dear hubby says "Honey, give me the camera so I can take a picture of you."  I hand it to him, he snaps a picture, and then laughs and says "Now I have a picture of you at the exact moment you decided to wimp out and turn around".  Gotta love him!

My handsome boys.

Claire, Syndey, and Jensen

The kids waiting for the Easter egg hunt to begin. 

Mom and Aunt Marilyn...They are both awesome.

That night we had no problem getting these two kiddos asleep. 

As we were tucking Claire in bed that night I asked her what her favorite thing was that day.  I am expecting her to say playing with cousins, sand castles, 4-wheeler ride, or egg hunt.  What does she say..."Ahh, just to breath all that fresh air!!"     

Spring Break

Spring break came and went and we enjoyed every minute of it. I guess the only reason I can say it was our spring break is just because Claire didn't have preschool for a week. I love that I get to spend my days with her and Crue. I sure will miss it in a few years when I have to send her off to school.

Claire was in charge of treats for Family Home Evening, her favorite thing to be in charge of. She likes doing lessons too and she has done some pretty good ones but she gets so excited when she is in charge of treats. So I was looking for something easy to do. Last year we tried making the rice crispy eggs. They look so easy to make in the commercial, right?? Wrong!! It ended up being a sticky gooey mess and ended up just eating rice crispy treats off our hands. Well this year this mama smartened up and had Claire make birds nests out of the rice crispy treats. So much easier than trying to stick them in an egg. And the best part was seeing how proud she was of her treats. Crue didn't dare eat his but sure thought it was fun to play with.

The one thing we missed doing since it was spring break was going to story time at the library.  Claire loves it.  Crue hates it ....all those books just at his level that he desperately wants to throw on the ground and I won't let him out of my arms.  Poor kid, I know.  Claire's favorite part is making the little craft at the end.  So we decided to have story time at our house with a craft at the end. 

And of course we had to color Easter eggs.     

My little munchkin came up with a great idea one day. "Mom, there are lots of people that don't have any Easter eggs and that makes them so sad.  I will put them in my bag and take them to the neighbors and they will be so surprised."  And surprised they were when Claire knocked on nearly every door on our street to deliver a candy-filled egg. 

I Heart Spring!!

This weekend we decided to forget all about cleaning the house and doing laundry and instead enjoy the wonderful weather outside and get some yard work done.  Okay, I can't honestly say that we decided this since it was kind of decided for us when the power went out for nearly 12 hours.  But I would honestly rather be outside working in the yard than cleaning the house any day. 

Have I mentioned that this guy can seriously fix anything. Just another reason why I think I will keep him around :) Oh, and maybe because I LOVE HIM!! He spent the weekend fixing the tiller, tilling up my garden and flowerbed, doing the maintenance on the lawn mower, and painting around the back porch.

(notice Crue trying to get away from Luke? Yep, he is still on his "I am mommy's boy and I don't want anyone else to look at me, get too close to me, or touch me, especially dad" kick. But I think it is fair since Claire is definitely a daddy's girl.)

 

This little boy is so funny.  Every time we go outside he finds some dirt,  puts some in his mouth, decides he doesn't like it, spits it out, and then won't do it again until the next time I take him outside.  Luke had just finished tilling the garden and Crue walked into the soft dirt and just started to giggle.  It totally made my day.

And my little girl still loves getting dirty too.

We hooked up the baby swing and Crue LOVED it.  He had a huge smile on his face the entire time. 

And one last picture.  We walked into the backyard and the apricot tree was in full bloom.  Strawberry apricot jam, here we come!!

I'm sure tomorrow I may regret spending the entire day outside especially when I am trying to find clean church clothes for everyone in the morning.  But hey, I will deal with that later.  :)

A new adventure

Several years ago Luke and I went to movie called Yes Man.  I am not a big Jim Carrey fan and there were several parts of the movie that I just did not like at all.  And to tell you the truth I don't think I would even recommend the movie to anyone.  So it may sound funny that I am saying that watching that movie changed me.  In case you haven't seen the movie, Jim Carrey challenges himself to say "yes" to everything for an entire year.  Anyway, I left the movie thinking about all the times I have wanted to do something but talked myself out of it for one reason or another.   Since then there are many things that I have done simply because I challenged myself to say "yes"  a little bit more often.  I have taken cake decorating classes, had a booth at several craft boutiques with a friend,  cooking classes, signed up for several 5k's last year and now a half marathon this year, and many more.  Some things I had been wanting to do and others I really had no desire to do at first but did them anyway. And I have learned a lot and grown from each experience.  So a few weeks ago I got a phone call asking if I was interested in coaching Claire's soccer team.  Of course I said "no".  I have no experience at all.  I wouldn't even have a clue where to start.  Then last week an email went out saying that they still had not found a volunteer to coach one of the teams.  So crazy me said "yes".    Since then I have been reading up on the subject and watching many videos and even went to another soccer practice to see what I could learn.  I am nervous to do it but I am excited to give it a shot.  And I must say that seeing my little munchkin try on her soccer uniform yesterday and call me "Coach Mama"  all night long made me even more excited for the season to begin.  So wish us luck.  Our first practice is next week.        

Crue

During the last year you have changed from a cuddly little baby to a fast-walkin', ball-throwin', mud-playin', dirt-eatin', car and truck-playin', and climb on anything and everything little boy.


Today you had your one year check-up.
Height 30.5 inches tall (75th Percentile)
Weight 20 lbs 1 oz. (12th Percentile)

We can't believe you only weigh 20 pounds because you eat everything. Some days you eat much more than your sister. Your favorite foods include pasta, pears, apples, pancakes, sausage, chicken, carrots, peas, potatoes, oatmeal, and bananas.

During this last month you have turned into a little boy. You like to open all the cupboards and empty everything onto the floor. When we are outside you walk straight to the flower beds and start playing in the dirt. If you can get your hands on the baby wipes you will pull them out one by one as fast as you can. You think your sister is the funniest person in the world and she will do just about anything to make you laugh. You also like throwing the balls that you got for your birthday. But more than anything you like to try to get into the bathroom to play in the toilet. Gaggg!!!! And your sister thinks it is so funny so she will go around and open the bathroom doors for you. 

You can say several words now. When you are sad or tired you say "ma-ma-ma-ma" or "da-da-da-da" but when you are happy and just want to get our attention you say "mum" or "dat". You also will occasionally say ba-ba when you are hungry.

You are the sweetest little boy and we all adore you.

Let the torture begin...

I recently had a moment of insanity and signed up for a half marathon.  Am I a runner?  Nope.  Do I enjoy running?  Nope.  Like I said, a moment of insanity.  So wish my luck my friends.  I have 5 months to get ready for the Top of Utah half marathon and at the moment running a 5k nearly kills me.  But I must say I am excited for this challenge. 

Happy Birthday Buddy.

Our little guy is now one year old. 

This last year has just flown by.  It doesn't seem like it was a year ago that we got an unexpected call saying that our baby boy was on his way. We weren't planning on him coming for two more weeks.  Seeing him for the first time was incredible.  The ache in my heart was instantly gone.  I knew it was him that my heart had been aching for.  The one that I knew was meant to come to our family.  It was him that we had been praying for.    He has brought us so much joy this last year. 

Happy Birthday to our little Crue buddy. 

Your family loves you so much.

 We had a monster birthday party for him.  Well, two parties actually.  You can never party too much, right??

It took awhile before he really starting getting into his cake.  And even then, I think he enjoyed taking handfuls of it and throwing it on the floor more than he did eating it. 

 And then he got spoiled with lots of presents. 

 The next day we had another little party for him.  I think he liked the balloon more than anything else.