We signed Claire up for another round of swimming lessons. She was so excited and she got even more excited when she found out her friend Teancum would be in her swim lessons too. They are currently the only two kids in the class. It is so cute to see how happy they are swimming and spending time together.
This post is about Mia, but I had to include at least one picture of Claire....Here she is at one...
...now you can compare Mia at one on the same rockin' dinosaur.
Here she is on her official birthday. Thanks for the cute birthday outfit Aunt LeeAnn!!
On Saturday September 3rd, we had a pool party to celebrate Mia's first birthday. Thank you to all those that could attend to help us have a good day. We had so much fun. This is Mia with her first cake of the weekend. She wasn't so sure of it...Bryan had to help her figure out what to do.
She did love the ice cream though. Thanks Grandma for sharing your ice cream with me!! (We were so happy to have my mom and dad come up to celebrate this special weekend with us. We were all so sad to see them go back home.)
After Mia's birthday party we came home and put the girls down for some much needed rest time. Then we watched the BYU vs Ole Miss football game. After that it was another birthday party...this time at Chuck E. Cheese. Claire had so much fun playing all the games. What a great day we had!!
On Labor Day we were able to go out on the river (thanks to my father-in-law) and enjoy the tubes, wake-board, water and sun. It was a fun day... Mia knocked my mom's prescription sun glasses in the river by the boat launch...Bryan and my father-in-law went back with masks to where we thought they fell in and in one dive the glasses were found...
We had such a great weekend. I didn't want it to end. I am selfish, but I wanted my parents to be here longer. Although I am grateful they could come up for the few days they did. We ended the visit with some more cake, pie and ice cream. This time Mia didn't need any help knowing what to do with her cake. She loved every minute of it!!
Mia even got to go on her first tube ride. She wasn't so sure about it, but it was a great time for us all. We took a friend's little girl with us on the tube....she was more nervous about it than any of the rest of us.
For family home evening one night we introduced Claire to water balloons. She loved tossing them back and forth and throwing them at the back fence. She keeps asking when we are going to do them again.
We visited a few sprinkler parks with a few of our friends. Claire wasn't so sure about them at first, but she loved them once she got used to them. She just doesn't like them hitting her in the face.
Mia's latest "trick" is her kissy face. It is so much fun to ask for a kiss and get these kissy/fishy lips coming at you.
We took the girls to the fair/rodeo. There was a mechanical bull there, that happened to be run by the brother of a good friend of ours, Claire decided she wanted to go for a ride. Here she is with John learning the correct bull riding form.
This is the video we took of Claire riding the bull. Don't have your volume up too loud because our cheering her on could sound a bit annoying (I think I need to learn to keep my mouth shut when anyone is video taping). She does get a bit scared towards the end because we never warned her that the bull can turn in a circle and not just go back and forth.
I have really decided that I need to get back in shape. Mia is almost a year and I haven't reach pre-pregnancy weight yet. I really want to be there. I am trying to do some form of exercise at least 3 days a week (running, water aerobics, workout videos...etc.)...the other day when I was working out with Bob Harper, Mia decided to join me. I just couldn't pass up this Kodak moment.
Have you ever heard of " bedhead"? Well I thought I knew exactly what "bedhead" was, but the other morning Mia's hair truly fit the definition of "bedhead". What do you think?
When I was pregnant with Claire, our neighbor and her daughters, brought over this wagon. They were getting rid of it and thought we would really like it. We haven't really used it up until this point, but we want to walk to church. The other night we decided it would be a good idea to go on a little walk to see if Mia would actually stay sitting down. Here are the two prettiest girls on their walk.
As we have posted before we put Claire in swim lessons. She has always loved the water, but hasn't enjoyed having her face in it. That has changed a bit...she has turned into a bit of a fish. We plan on posting a video of her swimming soon, but until then I hope these pictures will make you smile. Here she is going down the slide.
Claire loves jumping off the diving board. At first she wouldn't do it unless you were holding on her hand, but now she loves it!!
On the Fourth of July, my family got together at my sister's house and had our own mini firework show. Claire wasn't so sure of doing the sparklers, but by the end she loved every minute of it.
My mom and I took the girls to Temple Square. Claire had asked about a hundred times where Bryan and I had gotten married. I made sure to show her. Here we are at the Christus Statue. Claire loved this room. She was amazed at the painting of the planets and constellations on the wall (yes she called the stars constellations).
Of course we had to take a picture at the famous "wedding spot". Claire was being her goofy self while we were at temple square.
One day we visited Antelope Island. I grew up in Utah and had never visited it before. When paying to enter the park the park attendant asked to see my dad's license for the senior discount. My dad said something to the effect he gets in cheaper since he is an old man...Claire then asked me "mommy, is grandpa an old man?" I just said, "that is what grandpa called himself huh?" Here are my girls with their grandparents and the Great Salt Lake behind them.
Clarie and I walked out and put our feet in the Great Salt Lake. Claire kept complaining about the smell. This was right before we found the buffalo. Claire and Mia both loved seeing all the buffalo. They were so close to us. Claire informed us all that another name for buffalo is the American Bison.
One night Aunt Peggy brought over her wii game called Just Dance 2. We had so much fun and got a great work out. Thanks Aunt Peggy. This one is of my mom and I having a great time.
Even Bryan and Claire got into the video game. Claire had a blast dancing. I think this video game is a hit!!
Each year my family attends the Ute Stampede in Nephi. This year was no exception (we love it). There is a carnival and Claire enjoyed the rides. Thanks Cort and Ty for going on the Ferris Wheel with Claire. She loved every minute of it.
Mia went on her first carnival ride. As a family we went on the Merry-Go-Round. This pictures was taken before the ride started. Mia wasn't so sure of it during the ride. I had to go up and down with her just so she wouldn't cry. Oh well, Claire cried the first time she went on it too.
While walking into the Ute Stampede, we ran into Cotton Rosser (he owns Flying U Rodeo...all the livestock used at the Ute Stampede) he let the girls pet his horse...the only problem was Mia absolutely was terrified of the horse.
Mia did enjoy the Stampede. This was her first one and she was a night owl for it. What a great girl. She enjoyed eating cotton candy, snow cones and seeing all the activities. It was a great night.
We had a fabulous trip. We got to run in the rain, paint with water on the back porch, help eat the peas from the garden, see lots of baseball games, have lots of fun with cousins, watch movies, laugh, jump on the trampoline, find rainbows and just make a lot of fun memories. Thanks for a great trip to Utah and thanks Bryan for letting us go for so long!
Each team needs volunteers to help with the race. My best friend Peggy and I were volunteers. They encourage you to dress up and have fun so here we are ready to cheer the runners on. Our shift was from 6:30pm-12am. It was a lot of fun!
We got as many of the grandkids together that we could and had an updated grandkid picture taken.
After Bryan went back to Washington I got to spend a lot of time with my mom and dad. One of the things we did was go to the International Peace Gardens. Here are the girls and I at the gardens representing France.
This is something I have always wanted to see...the little mermaid statue. It is a replica of the on in Denmark. This may be the closest I get to the real statue.
There were a few rainstorms while we were visiting; on one of those storms my mom and Claire were at the grocery store. It started raining before they left to come home, Claire didn't want to get her hair wet so this is what my mom improvised with to stop her hair from getting wet. Way to be so creative mom/grandma!!
With rainstorms comes some beautiful rainbows. I just loved this one!
The girls, my mom and I went to the Hogle Zoo one day. Here is Claire with a Falcon at the bird show.
It was Zoorasic Park at Hogle Zoo this summer. They had the awesome life size dinosaurs all over the zoo. This one was down where you could take a picture on it. Claire loved trying to find them all.
This is just a classic photo opportunity. How do you measure up to the apes?
Here we are making friends with the ape statue.
Mia got two new teeth while we were in Utah and she learned how to climb up stairs. Here is a video of her.
