Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas. We hope everyone else did too. Santa was very good to us. Claire loves the "big" present he brought her. I say big because it is bigger than she is. Here is her big present.
You do ask her what she has learned. She will tell you that She learned that you don't climb on the doll house because it will give you an ouchy. She climbed on the doll house and it tipped over on her. She now has a step stool to help her reach to top of her doll house so she doesn't need to climb anymore.
Another gift she got was a trunk full of dress ups from grandma Lois. In the trunk she got a Belle dress, Cinderella dress, Sleeping Beauty dress and this one (my favorite):
She is my little ballerina. I think I might need to sign her up for dance lessons. She loved to be in the ballerina outfit. She asks to wear it every time we go up to grandma and grandpa's house. She has to wear everything...even the little ballerina slippers. She even will turn around, jump and kick her leg out. It is adorable!!!

Ugly Sweatshirts

For those of you who don't know it is sort of a family tradition that we exchange ugly holiday sweatshirts. It is also a bit of a competition. Here the family picture so you can vote. We need to know who is wearing the ugliest sweatshirt and who is wearing the most creative. Although voting will be closed in one week (New Years Day)...get your votes in quickly. Share the picture with those in your house and have them vote....the more the merrier.
Here are the names of everyone so you can vote. On the ground is Don. In the swing you have Terin, Claire and Stacie. In the back you have Lois, Janelle, Tucker and Bryan. I'll post voting results later.

Christmas Dress

Here is Claire in her Christmas Dress. She loved how sparkly it was. Thanks Aunt Janelle for helping us find such a cute dress.
The only issue with this dress is that it leaves glitter where ever she goes. It is cute, but oh my on Sunday the church bench was covered in glitter as was any kid who got close to Claire in Nursery.

Rowdey

We have a new nephew as of yesterday at 5:17pm (MST). He was 5 lbs 7 oz. 18.5 inches long. Here is Rowdey.
Here is another picture I just got of Rowdey. He is holding onto my brother's finger. It is just so obvious how little he is.

Rudolph??

As you may have guessed Claire loves to sing. We finally got her singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. She has her own way of singing it; here it is.

Then if you help her sing she can actually sing the song. So please forgive my singing with her, but just enjoy Claire's singing.

My Reindeers

On Black Friday my sister-in-law bought our dog Buddy a costume. It is so cute. He's a little reindeer.
My mother-in-law bought Claire a blinking Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer nose. She loves it. I think she has worn it so many times. I mean she has broken it a lot and Bryan has been "mister fix it" for Claire. He's fixed it a lot. Claire loves to put it on with her Santa hat then she'll sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. She doesn't quite sing the whole song unless you help her. I'll try and record her singing it in the next few days and post it. Anyway, here is a picture of Buddy the Reindeer and Claire the Santa Rudolph.
Now here is another picture that I love. Claire has such a cute cheesy smile and Buddy looks absolutely annoyed he is still in the costume.

Our Homes

For Bryan's family's Annual December Family Home Evening we made our gingerbread houses. I didn't want to buy a kit and I felt too lazy to try and make real gingerbread. We did the opted for graham cracker houses. Although when we got to Family Home Evening we were pretty much the only ones (until Bryan's cousin and his family showed) that actually made a house out of something editable. Most of his extended family made their homes out of boxes and wood. One nice thing about having a man in the construction field is our house is very strong and durable. We made a little house for Claire to decorate and also one for Bryan and I. Claire had a little help (thanks Grandma Lois and Grandpa Don). Claire loved eating more candy then she put on the house. She put a lot on the house so that should tell you something. Here is a picture of our graham cracker homes. We had such a great time. It was fun to see how much Claire loved to do it.

Of course Claire's house is the littler one. She put Pez all over the roof and she loved putting the fruit loops on it. I think she ate the more fruit loops than anything. We used pieces of gum for our roof. We thought it was rather creative of us. Its the first time we used gum. We had fun making these houses. What do you think?

Santa and His Reindeer

On Black Friday, I along with thousands of others went shopping. I have a supportive husband who is ok with my craziness and is willing to watch Claire. I went with a good friend of mine. After we got back. Bryan and I ran a few errands. We decided to stop and let Claire see some of Santa's Reindeer....(story will finish later) She loved it so much a couple of weeks later we took Claire and her friend Teancum to see them too. Here is a picture of Claire and Teancum with one of the reindeer.
(To finish the Black Friday story) While we were seeing the reindeer we noticed that Santa Clause is there. Claire was so excited. The only problem was, Claire didn't have her hair done. Since I'd been shopping it was Daddy's duty to get Claire ready. He isn't so fond of doing her hair. He can do her hair; he just says it takes him too long. So I went into the store and asked them if they had some ribbon I could use to do her hair. The lady I asked told me she didn't understand me because she had boys, but another worker heard us and said "I have girls. I'll help you." We got a ribbon and made it into a head band. Then we had to wet down her hair a little bit. She had her hair braided the day before so she had a bit of a fro going on. Since I was able to sort of fix her hair, we paid for a picture of Claire sitting on Santa's lap. I was able to take a picture of our own. Here is one of the pictures I took of Claire sitting on his lap. They are discussing presents.
She loved Santa, but wasn't sure she wanted to sit on his lap. She was ok once he asked her about what toys she wanted for Christmas. The pictures turned out cute despite her having hair from the late 80's (you remember when crimping was in style).

Guess the song 4

Here is another video of Claire singing. The only thing is she just starts to sing Cinderella then she changes to the new song. She is so fun and I love how much she walks around the house singing. It is so much fun. Hope that you guys enjoy this too.

Guess the song 3

This song is an easy one to guess, but we think it is so cute. When she sings it, she uses a different voice. It is hilarious. We're not sure why she uses a different singing voice with this song opposed to any other song, but she does. Enjoy it!!

What does she mean?

Claire has used her imagination to make something wonderful.

Now here is the part we need help on.

We know what she is calling it. She says it is a "cap-in-otter". We just have no idea how a basketball turns into a capinotter. Can anyone help us out?

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we started the day out by running a 5K as a family. It was fun. Here we are ready to run the race!
I was excited to run this race to see if I could do it in half the time of my 10K or even quicker. I was pushing the stroller. Claire decided that she didn't want to ride in the stroller. So for most of the run I walked pushing the stroller while Don held Claire's hand and walked fast while Claire ran. It was fun even if I didn't beat my score. Claire ran just over 2 of the 3.2 miles. Don and I also took turns giving her piggy backs. It was a great way to start our morning. Here is a picture of Claire running the Turkey Trot.
While we were running Claire would wave at everyone. The sad thing is no one really waved back. At one point she was starting to cry, she said "mommy no one wave at me." All of the sudden this lady stopped running, turned around and waved at Claire...Claire's response- "that lady wave at me. The pretty lady wave at me." Here is a picture of that "pretty lady" that waved at Claire. She made Claire's day!!

True Cowgirl!

I am one of those crazy people that like to shop the Black Friday specials. Well from our previous post you know Claire has a horse and she says she is a cowgirl and "Yee Haa". Well while shopping I found her this cowgirl hat. She says she is NOW a real cowgirl!!

Look Familiar

This video is of Claire with a classic toy, but for my family it might look familiar...does it?

Creative Jewelry

There are only 42 days until Christmas. I make jewelry and I had a party the other night...it was successful, but not many showed. I thought that I'd post some of my jewelry on the blog. If anyone is interested in making jewelry for Christmas gifts...just get a hold of me. I have many beads to make whatever you'd like. Big beads, chunky beads and even beads for baby bracelets. Gem stones, Fresh water pearls, glass beads and many others. If you're willing to host a party of your own before Christmas let me know. You receive $10 dollars of free jewelry and 10% off anything else you make. Also, I'm willing to make the jewelry and ship it...as long as you give me the information I would need to do so. The cost of shipping would just be added to the price of the jewelry. If you are interested email me, call me or leave me your email address. Here are a few of the things you can make.

You can make bracelets with matching earrings.

You can make just a bracelet for you and matching ones for your kids.

You can make a full jewelry set...earrings, bracelet and a necklace

You can make watches. With these watches you can make multiple bands and switch the bands depending on what you are wearing.

Bike Rider

This picture is from Christmas of 2008. The Mower's gave Claire this bike...she hasn't been able to reach the pedals until recently and then it is only her tippy toes.

Today she was riding it around the house and I noticed her feet touch the pedals really good. So we took her outside to try it out...
Something wonderful happened...

Fall

Claire has watched a show on TV called Max and Ruby. She loves it. There was an episode where they played in the Fall leaves; Claire couldn't wait to play in the leaves. We don't have many trees that drop leaves in our yard, but we did get enough for her to play in. Here is one of the pictures we took...can you find her?

Here is a picture we took of Claire and Buddy. We think it turned out really cute!

Finally...we did a video of her running and jumping into the leaves and then playing in them!

Guess the Song 2

Ok this is an obvious one, but it amazed me how many details she knows from this song. Listen closely...it is crazy. She obviously has the same talent for memorization that her dad has. Maybe I'm biased, but I think it is amazing at such a young age she knows all these details.

Halloween

Wow so much as happened this Halloween. We had a family Halloween Party. It was so much fun. Here are our costumes from the Family Halloween Party! A blind referee, Billy Mays and Sleeping Beauty Princess

Then of course we had to carve pumpkins. As many of you know Bryan usually does something outrageous. So we have a cat, spider and spiderweb and Billy Mays...which one do you think Bryan did?
Then we had our ward party to go to. Bryan again went as Billy Mays, Claire was a BYU cheerleader and I went as the Twister Game.
And Finally...at our ward party there was a chili cook off. Who would've thought, but we won the cook off!! Here is our award!

Mummy Dogs

First off I want to thank my sisters for teaching me about "Mummy Dogs" and also how to make them. Tonight for dinner we made "Mummy Dogs". Here is a picture of our finished "Mummy Dogs"!

Here we all are ready to eat our "Mummy Dogs" for dinner!!

Disney on Ice

We had the opportunity to take Claire to see Disney on Ice. I wasn't sure what she would think...I hoped she'd love it. Here is her facial expression after she saw Mickey and Minnie come out on the ice...do you think she liked it?

We got to see a lot of fun things. Here are a few of the best pictures!

Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck
Ariel (the Little Mermaid), Sebastian and Flounder
Tinkerbell
Cars
Claire's favorite...Timon and Pumba (The Lion King)
Here we are...so excited for the show to start. Thanks Aunt LeeAnn...we had a blast!!!

Picasso

Claire earned a paint set with her potty training. She was so excited to try it out for the first time. Here she is painting her picture.
She has even learned how to dip her brush into the paints. Although she hasn't quite mastered the idea of not mixing the paint colors.
And last of all here is her picture. My little Picasso. What do you think this is a painting of?
Claire said she painted a kite? Can you see it?

Look what we did!!!

Back in July I learned how to make fondant. I was really excited to try it, but never really had any special time to try it. Well we are in Utah for my parent's farewell....I took this opportunity as my time to try out making a fondant covered cake. Thanks to my husbands artistic talent we created the Stockholm Sweden Temple. Here is a picture of our creation. I think it turned out great! What do you think?

Guess the song

Claire is really into singing every where and all the time. We've tried to get it on video a couple of times, but with no success. We have finally gotten one on video. We are posting it and wondering who knows what song she is singing... Take a Guess! (sorry about her hair. It wasn't done so it kept getting in her face)

Hair Cut

Claire's hair has gotten really long. She doesn't like you to curl it and it looks all scraggly. We decided to get her hair cut. This is only her second hair cut. The last one you really can't say was a hair cut...we just trimmed her baby mullet. Here is the before photo.
Here are two during the cut pictures. She was surprisingly really good. I wasn't sure how still she could sit, but she did great!!
Now here is the after photo. We ended up cutting off over four inches of hair. Thanks Janelle for doing such a great job. Claire loves her Aunt Janelle and she looks so adorable. You're amazing!!!