Oregon, Baby Mary & Thanksgiving

November 21st - 30th

We drove to Oregon for Thanksgiving this year. We went to meet baby Mary and so we could be there for her baby blessing. It was timed nicely so that we could also spend Thanksgiving with most every one (even Becca, who survived her first trip to Oregon!) While we were there, we got to play at and around G.G.'s house, visit the coast, and go on a hike. Here are a whole lot of pictures of our trip. 

About 9 hours into our drive, Clara got sick of being in the car. We came up with fun ways to entertain her. I'm not sure how she felt about marshmallow face, but we were picking them off of clothes and the car seat for a few days after. When we got to G.G.'s, she had fun running around the house and collecting treasures with her basket.

Baby Mary

Baby Mary is such a sweet, quiet, easy going baby with so much dark hair! Her Butterfield cousins absolutely adored her! Clara thought she had her very own, real life baby doll, but she was fairly gentle considering she's 1. Henry just loves babies. He thinks they are the sweetest people and fun to snuggle and play with. He is such a good big brother/cousin.

Beach Day

There was a day that Mama had to work in Florence (on the coast), so we rode with her and stole the car while she worked. Frist we went to the light house at Heceta Head, but due to formatting problems that I have decided not to bother with anymore, those pictures are after the beach pictures. We have a picture of Henry at a similar age looking backwards over that same bench. This time he was much more interested in the light house and watching the seals in the ocean. Clara hung out with her Daddy then ran around after Henry. 

The kids LOVED the beach!!! I think our children are in need of a warm beach vacation! Clara loved the "bubbles" in the waves and playing in the sand. She enjoyed playing with the sand and was pretty proud of herself when she figured out how to slide down the dunes. Henry probably picked up every sea shell he could find. We had quite the pile before we headed to pick up G.G. 

Hike Day

The day after Thanksgiving, we hiked Skinner's Butte. It started out FREEZING, but we were all pretty warm by the time we were done. It was windy at the top and Clara was freezing in the wind, so we all bundled back up, then slowly made our way back down (ahead of the rest of the group). Super Nate carried both kids for a stretch of the hike up. Our large group ended up getting split into 3 smaller groups. Nate had Clara on his back and was running to keep up with Henry and totally left me in the dust. We were really taking our time on our way down, as to not have to wait forever for the rest of the crowd at the bottom. On our way down, we stopped at the "pull off" spot where you could see a beautiful lake at the bottom of the hill. Henry found a "number 4 tree" that we all thought was pretty cool. I wonder if it's one of those trees that was intentionally made to be like that or if it just grew that was naturally.

When we got to the bottom of the trail, we loaded in the van to warm up and hang out while we waited for the rest of the crowd. We weren't there long, but the kids got to "drive" and dance to a fun Christmas song or two. It was a pretty fun way to spend the day after Thanksgiving and burn off some of that yummy food.

Drive Home

The drive home was much less eventful than our last drive home from Thanksgiving in Oregon. (Thank Heaven!!!) We left right after the baby blessing, but still got on the road pretty late. Around 9 or 10 p.m. we were about to Twin Falls and Clara had been scream for most of the drive since Portland. That is over 500 miles of screaming! We did the math and calculated our Payson e.t.a, evaluated our nerves, the fog, the sketchy roads and decided we should stop in Burley. The kids were relieved to get out of the car, but one certain toddler decided she didn't need to sleep. Our plan was to get up early enough that we could get Nate to work on time in Salt Lake the next morning, so this staying up super late thing wasn't flying. I finally decided to give it up. I have Clara the iPad, set everything up in the safest way possible and went to sleep. I woke up at 5ish with her feet in my face. Who knows how long it took her to settle down that way. Monday morning we got Nate to work on time and made it home all safe and sound. There was a lot of napping the rest of the way home and no more screaming, so it was probably a good call.

Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2015

My growing up Jedi and baby kitty had so much fun with Halloween this year! We kicked off the festivities with the Halloween parade at school on Friday.

Actual Halloween morning, we went to the Fishy Museum (aka the Aquarium) and went trick-or-treating in the Haunted Rainforest. Ooo! There were creepy skeletons hanging out with the fish, spiders and ghosts hanging from the ceiling, and jack-o-lanterns hanging out with all of the fish. My favorite part was the decked out rope bridge! 

My adorable Jedi and kitty! It was almost impossible to get them both to sit still long enough to take a good picture. 

Clara figured out trick-or-treating REALLY FAST!!! The first house she bravely walked to the front door with the assistance of her big brother. He held her hand all of the way to the door and all of the way back. She figured out that there was candy in her bucket and she was off! She out paced most of us for the first 2 blocks. She learned a new word tonight. "Nanny" (candy) was the word of the night. Followed closely by "mo" (more). She refused to let go of her bucket that got fairly heavy. She held on tight, with both hands, the entire way.

Henry was sick of walking in about half a block. He started sitting down at every door step after knocking on the door. He would jump up quickly when people came to the door and then either RUN to the next house or practically crawl. He really enjoyed joining up with groups of kids. One group was more than twice his age, but he thought they were awesome (not sure if they even noticed he was joining in on their group for a few houses)! 

We ended up back at Grandmas house so that Henry could help hand out treats. He has always loved this part! Probably more than the trick-or-treating. When there is a lull of kids, he tries to find a near by group of kids and makes sure they know which house is open for business. Now my two worn out children are exhausted and in bed. The grown ups are assessing our parent tax and thanking our lucky stars tomorrow is not a work day. Happy Halloween!

Family Night

October 22, 2015

We do not get very many hours to spend as a family. One Friday night, Daddy was home soon early enough that we could have a family night out and get home not too late after bed time. We have been struggling knowing what to get Henry for Christmas, so we decided to make a little trip to Toys-R-Us. We played with about everything we could play with and had a lot of fun! The kids were so good and walked out of a toy store toy-less without one single complaint, whine, or pout. It was a proud parenting moment. On our way home, we drove right by a "Hot Now" Krispy Kreme sign and couldn't deny our amazingly sweet children some hot, sugar coated goodness. They were more excited about watching the doughnuts cook than eating them. KK got us all home happily and awake, so the kids fell right asleep when they got in bed. That is a great night!

Clara was not interested in the hat. :)

6 Year Old Henry

September 29, 2015

Henry is 6!!! How did that happen?!

Our little boy is getting bigger. He is a happy kid and a great big brother. He loves his little sister so much! He picks on her like any big brother, but also takes care of her and plays so well with her. He is getting to be a real helper. He likes being given responsibilities and being helpful by doing a good job.

He absolutely loves going to school! He had the choice between full and half day Kindergarten and he picked full day because he wanted to eat lunch at school. Math is is favorite subject, only preceded by lunch and recess. He loves his teacher and all of the friends he has made in his class. He has become more curious and wants to be an inventor when he grows up.

His favorite things are family days, cheese sandwiches, chocolate (especially M&Ms) Star Wars, the colors blue and green, Mario, Candy Land, playing on playgrounds, and swimming.

Go Cardinals!

September 22, 2015

Henry had a fun first season of soccer. He loved making new friends and learning to play. He was ready for the next season the second this season was over.

(An adoring fan that wanted to play with the camera.)

September Goodies

September 2015

These two love each other so much!

Henry finally made it up the waiting list for the school bus. It was such an exciting day!!!

And this one wants to be just like him and go to school on the bus too.

18 Month Clara

September 6, 2015

Weight: 22.82 lbs (51.77%)

Height: 32.5 in (70.2%)

Head: 19.5 in (99%)

This little girl started nursery!  FINALLY! I love holding my baby and spending time with her, but one comes to a point where you would actually like to sit through a lesson every now and then.

At 18 months, Clara is as sweet as ever! She loves her big brother and he loves her back! They like to play together most of the time. They do occasionally need some space, but in general, they are best friends. Henry is not sure why we don't have 50 babies yet. Clara has him convinced that babies siblings are the best thing ever!

Clara loves to talk! She has some words that we understand and a whole bunch that we do not. She just talks and talks and talks. My favorite is when she whispers conversations in my ear. Some of her words are:
"nak" (snack aka any food/meal)
"Dedda" (Teddy, any other dog or 4 legged creature)
"Mama" (Sometimes this means Mama. The rest of the time it means "I need help." "Someone is bugging me." "I'm tired.", etc.)
"Dada" (Simply Daddy)
"mow" (more)
"no" (no)
"nigh nigh" (blanket)
"uh oh" (uh oh)
"pop pa" (popsicle)
"bubba" (bubble)

Clara is a brave little girl. She obviously has an older brother and we obviously have a fair amount of little boys in our back yard on a regular basis. She climbs rocks, walks on walls, plays on our little trampoline, and digs in the dirt, just like the rest of them, and she is not terribly far behind them either.

She is also girly. She loves her animals, of the stuffed and rubber variety. She pushes them in the buggy, gives them big hugs and tucks them in makeshift beds. She walks the rubber animals around their farm and she is learning their sounds. When she is not sure what an animal says, it assumes either monkey or dog sounds.

On a girly note, she loves picking out her clothes! She regularly comes to me with a dress or shirt that she is trying to pull over her head. She LOVES shoes. Some days she absolutely refuses to wear any shoes except for the pair that she wants to wear that day. Sadly for her, she has giant feet and I am afraid she is going to spend her life struggling to find shoes that fit. Poor baby!

She is a big helper these days! When I am doing laundry she gladly helps by loading things in the dryer (wet or dry) then pulling them out of the dryer and neatly piling them on the floor. When folding clothes, she stirs around the piles and comments on each item (she especially enjoys this when it is her clothes). When I am doing dishes, she very kindly removes all of the silverware from the dishwasher and stacks them on the floor or the island shelf. She also enjoys playing in the pile of dirt that comes from sweeping. She is the cutest little helper that you can't get mad at for trying.