The Chalk Chat

Claire turns 4!!

2010-04-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

Claire's birthday party once again, at Chuck E. Cheese's.

A LOT of cake!!!

2010-04-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

In the past 6 days it has been like a crazy bakery around here! A busy week for cakes, but I am grateful for the business! The balack and white one was for a birthday, and something I hadn't done before, and I think it turned out nice!Last night I had a baby shower for a friend, this is her "pea in a pod" baby shower cake.

My friend, Melissa, has the same birthday as Claire, and her cake turned out to be one of my all time favorites! And of course, Claire had to have a princess cake. :) Glad it is Friday, and my week is coming to an end!

Court Appearance

2010-04-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

So I had a first today. I got a speeding ticket a few weeks ago, and went to court today to fight it. I don't feel I was going as fast as the cop said I was, and I have NEVER been pulled over in the 13 years I had my license. So I went hoping for some leniency--I didn't want my insurance to go up! And it would have. My awesome friend, Jen, came as my lawyer. And it worked! They picked her out of the crowd apparently, and took her up to talk to the prosecutor. They worked out a plea and got me a non-moving violation!! And, we got to go to the front of the line! I could have been there for hours. It worked out awesome! No points on the record! Will just show up as a headlight violation. Looking serious, dressing the part and having my lawyer there helped. It is laughable how we are about the only people there that even dress decent! West Chester's finest were in that courtroom this morning. One guy even had his shirt on inside out! Really? Glad it is done and over with!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-06T05:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your weekends. I know I enjoyed my long weekend! We enjoyed a great easter with our "families" away from family. And it was such a beautiful day to celebrate what our Savior has done for us! The kids had fun decorating eggs. Kind of stressful for the mom though! I think Brevan still has blue dye on his tummy!Easter morning!Brevan taking his girlfriend, Halle out to Easter dinner.Claire and Sarah having their Easter picnic together. I think they're long lost sisters. They have so much fun together and play so nice! We didn't hear from them all day!

Easter Egg Hunt

2010-04-04T06:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went with some friends to the Mason City Easter Egg Hunt. Really, there is no hunting. They just toss thousands of eggs in the grass. And there were a TON of people. The hardest part for Brevan was staying put and waiting for the fire engine to blow his horn that would let us know we could start. The whole thing is over in about 60 seconds, and it started to rain. But all in all, the kids had a good time.

Brev's Birthday

2010-03-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

So, finally here are some pictures of Brevan's birthday! Can't believe he is this big and in a few weeks we will be celebrating Claire's!!!

Match Match

2010-03-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

As Claire would say, her and Brevan "match match" today. Since we don't get to go to church on Easter, we brought out the outfits today. And as you can see they didn't break tradition by not giving me a single good picture!!! Makes me so mad! It's like a secret brother/sister pact they have to not look at the camera. Dave rolled his eyes the whole time we were at church because he hates that Brevan is in purple.

what the heck?

2010-03-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

So, Brevan had an awesome birthday yesterday! I have tried posting pictures, and it will only post one at a time! Suggestions, anyone? If you're interested, all my pics are on facebook.

Pillow Pet

2010-03-01T06:46:00.000-08:00

So, Claire is guilty as I'm sure every kid is of seeing some commercial on t.v. everyday that has something she wants, that she doesn't have yet! But yesterday she started going CRAZY when this came on and she hasn't stopped talking about it. "Daddy, Daddy! You HAVE to come see this!! It's a pillow and it folds up, and it's an animal, and I want the lady bug one, and..............." on and on, talking furiously and jumping up and down and going nuts! I was hoping she would forget about it today, but no! So this is what she is asking for her birthday.

Snow, Snow, and more Snow!!

2010-02-15T14:06:00.000-08:00

With all the snow, Brevan thinks it's the middle of the summer and drags out the Nemo car. The snow is actually too deep and he gets stuck and frustrated. In the past week or so we've probably had 15-18 inches of snow!This is all our snow! Or our mountains, as Claire says. She likes to climb to the top.

2010-02-15T14:01:00.001-08:00

This is Brevan's favorite thing to do lately and he thinks he is SO FUNNY!! He drags out the car mat, but instead of playing cars on it, he uses it for his blanket.

Valentine's Day

2010-02-15T13:59:00.000-08:00

The kids really got into making Valentine's for grandma and their friends. It entertained Claire for quite a while which is always nice!

Claire says..........

2010-02-08T05:36:00.000-08:00

So last night we had some friends over and their kids. Claire, of course, had to say the prayer. And towards the end she had everyone laughing. She prayed "bless that we can go potty when we need to." So funny!!! I guess she has remembered when she had a big crowd over and wouldn't stop playing to use the potty, and had an accident. I asked Dave later if he had a talk about it with her, and that's why she said it. He said no. What will she say tomorrow?

Claire says..........

2010-02-05T05:10:00.000-08:00

Lately Claire has been saying the funniest things and I figure I need to start writing them down. Even right now I can't remember all the things I've been laughing at. But funniest are her prayers lately. She asks for mom to share her cheetos and for mom to listen to her and that Santa can come to her house again and the rest of her friends. And last night she would not go to bed! She kept saying she had to go potty. So Dave put her on the potty and she told him "my pee is slow." 10 minutes later she said "my pee is scared." And when she wants to do something she says, "that's what kids do." What else will she come up with?

Fun in the Snow

2010-01-07T13:02:00.000-08:00

We got our first real snow of the season today. In fact, out here in the crazy midwest, they cancel school before the first snowflake even falls! So that means I didn't have to babysit, and Dave worked from home. So I went out to the store with the other crazies and found Brevan some snow pants for his first time playing in the snow. He had a lot of fun. I'm mad though, because my camera battery died before I could get the kids sledding!! Brevan especially had a blast on the hill!

Christmas at Disney World

2009-12-28T09:51:00.000-08:00

This year we decided to be non-traditional and instead of spending Christmas at home, we spent it at Disney World!! We went with our friends, the Jones', and had so much fun! The kids loved riding the rides, meeting the characters, seeing the lights, and playing in the fake snow. Here are some hi-lights. Me and the kids at Epcot. It turned out to be funner for the kids than I thought.

In "Japan"

In front of the Magic Kingdom.

Claire and her favorite princess, Cinderella. She had so much fun getting everyone to sign her autograph book!

Christmas morning in our matching jammies.

Claire's stuff from Santa. Princess things for her bike, jump rope, book, and DVD's.

Brevan's stuff. Trucks, trucks, and trucks.

Cinderella's castle at night. AMAZING.

Claire and her friend Sarah. They kept striking poses. Hilarious.

Brev and Dad at one of the many fabulous parades.

It's A Small World. Probably Brevan's favorite ride.

African Safari.

Cream Puffs

2009-12-18T13:20:00.000-08:00

I was asked to bring a dessert to our bishopbric Christmas party. I could always use an excuse to buy the yummy cream puffs from Costco, but wanted to dress it up. This is what I came up with.

Festival of Lights

2009-12-15T12:10:00.000-08:00

We went to the Festival of Lights at the zoo last night for FHE. It took FOREVER to get there, but the kids had a great time! Claire got to see gingerbread people, Frosty, and Santa's live reindeer! This is the only picture we got, and it's not even a good one. She is so not cooperative!

Claire and Brevan on the merry-go-round. Their favorite part of the zoo aside from the train! But mom has a one ride only rule on this one!

Waiting for the wierd and painful puppet show to start. The kids got a kick out of the wierd humor at least.

The latest

2009-12-12T18:00:00.000-08:00

A friend from church asked me to make an anesthesiology cake for her husband who just graduated. This is what I came up with. Had grander visions in my head, but that's usually how it goes! Hope they like it!

Decorating the tree

2009-12-10T06:30:00.000-08:00

My cute boy!! He loves the tree!

Claire and Dad decorated the whole tree. So there's big clusters at the bottom. Gotta love it. But Claire was so excited, and she's even more excited that it's Christmas time! And every time it snows she thinks it's Christmas and that we should be going to Cinderella's Castle. She's having a hard time waiting, and so are the rest of us! I just can't wait to get out of the frigid weather and trade it for sun and fun in Florida!

The kids' favorite place to go and hide!

Cousins!

2009-12-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

The kids had so much fun spending two weeks with their cousins! And for the most part, they played together nicely! Brevan and Blake are so close in age it was like having twin boys run around! Here's Blake and Brevan racing cars at Chuck E. Cheese All 3 in the bathtub. Claire and Brevan loved it. Blake looked at them like invaders! I think that was the only time he wanted to get out of the bath! But he put up with them :)

Claire doing what she loves to do best: give hugs! Sometimes she ends up too rough, but Blake would usually return the favor.

Happy Birthday, Kallie!

2009-12-10T06:21:00.000-08:00

We also got to celebrate Kallie's birthday while we were in Utah. Claire helped to put the candles on my yummiest cake so far. Chocolate cake, raw cookie dough, and cookie dough ice cream! We went to Tucano's (thanks grandma for watching the kids!) and to the Michael Jackson movie. Good times.

Mom's surprise 50th!

2009-12-10T06:12:00.000-08:00

My mom and Claire. We posted old pictures of my mom, and surprise! She still had all those glasses she was wearing years ago! Here's our favorite pair. So fun! My grandpa, and the cake we made in keeping with the 70's Disco theme.

My cute mom and dad.

Surprise!!

Me and my sister, Kallie sporting our AWESEOME 70's outfits!!

2009-10-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

the latest cake. not my best work. i had never used a stencil before and my visions were better in my head.

PARADE

2009-10-20T06:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the neighborhood annual Halloween parade. The kids always have a blast marching around the neighborhood and getting treats at the end. In fact, Claire found a friend that would give her any treat she wanted--so Claire had A LOT!!! The parade is lead by a police car, ambulance, and a fire truck, which Brevan thought was so cool! Claire, Liam, and Penelope on the fire truck

Brevan the Lion!

Claire told me her costume was Tinkerbell.

2009-10-13T05:41:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to Natorp's ( a nursery). Every year they have some free Halloween activities for the kids, and they always love going. Dave was in charge of the camera. Can you tell who his favorite child is? ha ha.

2009-10-13T05:38:00.000-07:00

KING'S ISLAND

2009-09-20T09:50:00.001-07:00

Claire's very first amusement ride. We went to King's Island yesterday and Claire had so much fun!!!!

Claire was so excited to find Dora, but wasn't quite sure about it in the end.

She thought she was such hot stuff doing everything BY HERSELF!!

2009-09-20T09:44:00.001-07:00

This coaster went a lot faster than I thought!! Claire had her hands up THE WHOLE TIME!!! She had so much fun!

Labor Day

2009-09-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

For Labor Day we took the kids to the park/petting zoo with Grandma and Grandpa. We loved having them here with us and hated to see them go! Brevan had his first pony ride and loved it!!

2009-09-08T17:22:00.001-07:00

I guess Brevan thought that stick was a microphone. He certainly gave us a show. Hilarious!

Brevan chasing the chickens that joined us at our picnic.

Brevan loves to go down the slides now all by himself!! He thinks he's so big.

BYU cake

2009-09-08T17:20:00.001-07:00

We had a BYU party over at the house for their first game against Oklahoma. So of course I had to make a cake!! And because of it, we won the game!

First Day of School!!!

2009-09-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

Claire started her first day of pre-school today at the Goddard School!!! Her and I were both so excited!! As excited as she was to start school, she was just as excited to wear this dress that I let her pick out at the store for her first day. She has been saving it the last few days so it doesn't get dirty. This morning she threw it on and marched around the house singing "I get to wear this dress........." over and over and over. Anyone who knows Claire knows she is a princess 100% and has to have a dress on EVERY DAY!!!

Claire in front of her new school. She refused to look at me.

Picking raspberries

2009-09-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

Brevan's favorite thing to do outside right now is to raid the raspberry bush! Anything that resembles a hint of red, he picks and shoves in his face!

My latest cake

2009-09-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

This was for a friend's birthday. Not my favorite, everything went wrong while making it! But here ya go.

Galveston Trip

2009-09-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we took a trip to Houston to see Dave's sister get married. For the first time in years, all 11 siblings were there with their families. Claire had so much fun with all her cousins!! After the wedding, a few of us got a house down in Galveston for a few days. We went to the aquarium one day. This is them in the shark tank. And we went to the beach every day! The kids loved their first trip to the beach!

2009-09-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

2009-09-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

team nickerdoodles!

2009-08-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

My cousin, Nick is the strongest and bravest 10 year old I know. He has gone through 2 open heart surgeries!!! A few months ago he ran the 5K. He is amazing! He will be participating in the North Valley Heart Walk on Sept 26 to raise money for heart disease and research. His mom made an awesome video if you would like to cry while you watch--there is a link to it off to the right. Go to http://www.northvalleyheartwalk.org/ for information and to support. Go Nick! We will be rooting for Team Nickerdoodles!

happy birthday, ginger!

2009-08-09T09:41:00.000-07:00

I made this cake yesterday for a friend at church. It was my first time stacking 3 cakes, so i learned some lessons along the way. I need a bigger base, I know. But all in all, I was happy with it. One of my favorites, I think.

i believe.....

2009-07-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

I thoiught these turned out so cute and was so proud of myself, that i had to blog about it. Last week in Beehives, we talked about testimonies. I gave the girls some music and time to reflect on what they believe. I asked them to turn them into me without them knowing, and I made these for them to be able to look back upon and know they have a firm foundation when things get tough.

bon voyage, "little fish"

2009-07-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

So, Claire went to a primary carnival that the young men/women put on for them. It was a lot of fun, but we came home with a gold fish! gggrrrrrrr!!!!! Claire named him "little fish." After 2 weeks of being a nice mother, i decided it was time for little fish to join his family and friends in the big pond. It was about to die anyway, and Claire would have freaked when we explained it and flushed it. She was emotional as it was leaving the pond with out him. Bon voyage!!

2 for 3

2009-06-09T07:59:00.001-07:00

a friend and i went garage sale shopping on saturday morning. i found this puppet show theater and some dress up dresses for claire. she has so much fun putting on shows. she goes behind and sings us songs. so funny! i also got her a barbie motorized jeep to drive outside, but she refuses! she just wants to sit in it and listen to the radio. brevan drives it though--watchout!

weekend projects

2009-06-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

so, this last weekend i took on a few projects. i made the pillows for my bed, and my couch. i was pretty excited with how they turned out. and dave did most of the backsplash--i just helped with the grout. but i feel like i have a whole new kitchen, and i love it! now i just can't wait to get the house painted next week.

our photo session

2009-05-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

so as soon as i found out we would be going to utah, i called and scheduled a photo session. needless to say, after an HOUR AND A HALF there were no good ones of the 2 kids together, which i what i wanted. claire just will not look at the camera! drives me crazy! this picture was my only option! oh well. at least brevan humored me.

2009-05-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

my limo birthday party

2009-04-30T08:57:00.001-07:00

So we had a big birthday party on Wed. There were 4 of us friends all with birthdays within 3 days of eachother. Dave and I thought it would be fun to get a limo and celebrate! It was so much fun!!! We went to dinner, and drove downtown and witnessed some amazing karaoke in the limo! HILARIOUS!!!! We surprised Melissa. She thought it would be a quiet dinner with the 4 of us--not 15 people pullin up in a stretch H2!

Our birthday toast.

What's a limo ride if you don't stick your head out the window?

The crew.

The birthday queens. Me, Laurie, Trisha, and Melissa.

2009-04-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

claire was VERY specific about wanting a dora cake. and i think this is my favorite one that i have done.

claire turns 3!!!

2009-04-27T16:02:00.000-07:00

claire and jake on the snow mobils. they would not get off!!!

claire opening her presents. she was so funny!

claire and sarah driving the car

claire and chuck

liam, claire, penelope, and sarah opening presents. what a fun party! everyone had a great time and i didn't have to entertain!

our day at the zoo......

2009-04-16T14:07:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun at the zoo today! We went with some friends that have a little girl Claire's age and they had such a blast running around together and riding the trains, and merry-go-rounds.

Brevan inside the turtle. I think this was his favorite part of the day.

spring is in bloom!

2009-04-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

Today was such a nice day and I couldn't resist the photo-op with the tulips! Neither one wanted to look at the camera though. But still so much fun! I love spring!

strike a pose

2009-04-12T18:39:00.001-07:00

Brevan must have been feelin his new easter digs, or something. He was lovin the camera. I thought he was hilarious!

Easter Day

2009-04-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

What a fun easter day we had! The sun was out, and the easter bunny came! We went over to our friend, Melissa's, for dinner and ate way too much! We all enjoyed ourselves.

This cake is me experimenting with fondant. Only my second time, and there is a learning curve, but it's fun.

Recent cute photos

2009-04-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

What a cute candid moment! Somewhere in there, Claire has a softer side.

Brevan managed to crawl in this box by himself. It was pretty funny to watch him try and get around.

FREE THE MOMS!!!

2009-03-29T17:54:00.000-07:00

So, I applied to be on "The Amazing Race" with my friend, Lish. I've been trying to post our application video, but can't figure it out. So stay tuned. Our video was pretty funny. We are playing the card of the mormon, blonde, moms that need to get out before we go crazy! ha! So everyone send your good omens my way! It's worth a shot at $1M.

CRUISE TO THE BAHAMAS!!

2009-03-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

so i just got back from a cruise to the bahamas with some of my friends out here. we had so much fun! really, how could you not? although karyn and i bonded after becoming "sick buddies. the motion of the ocean definately got to us a few times, but not enough to spoil our trip. here's lish and melissa as we're getting ready to take off! yea! let the party begin!

here's the 4 of us on a trolley taking a toiur of Ft. Lauderdale. we stayed there one night before taking off for miami where our cruise left. our tour guide, "rocky" was hilarious!!!

here we are as our boat is leaving!

after an afternoon of snorkeling! so fun, but the water was freezing!!!

Brevan's cake

2009-03-24T12:45:00.000-07:00

i've had some requests to see brevan's birthday cake. so here it is. nothing too exciting. sorry to disapoint y'all

Brevan's year old pictures

2009-03-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

we took brevan on his birthday to get his pictures taken. i thought they turned out pretty cute. i've tried to flip this one, but can't figure it out. sorry.

Brevan's 1st Birthday!

2009-03-15T11:43:00.001-07:00

Brevan had his big 1st birthday on Friday! He had a great time, and as you can see he thoroughly enjoyed his cake! He dived right in and went crazy. We had to stop him after a while before he threw up! It was fun to watch him. I can't believe he is a year old!

2009-03-05T13:29:00.000-08:00

So, I'm frosting what i thought were some pretty cute beehive cupcakes. i turn around and somehow Brevan has managed to get the dishwasher open, climb into it and is banging on the plates with a spoon! Thought it was a kodak moment. He's getting so big--turns 1 next week!

the latest cake

2009-02-12T12:57:00.001-08:00

Here's my latest cake. for new beginnings everyone had to make a cake to bring and be judged on taste/looks. i'm just going for the looks, since i cheated and used a box cake. sshhhh.....don't tell! the proportion/scale didn't work out awesome, but i was pretty pleased. out theme for the night was the county fair.

ICE STORM

2009-01-28T05:13:00.001-08:00

Here's the aftermath of our ice storm last night. The trees are touching the ground! Hopefully this is our one big storm of the year!

FUN IN THE SNOW

2009-01-27T12:01:00.000-08:00

Claire has been asking for days to sled down the hill, and we finally got enough snow! This was actually Claire's first time every really playing in the snow and she had a blast! Her and her friend Penelope, went down that little hill over, and over, and OVER again!

Christmas 2009

2008-12-28T15:26:00.000-08:00

This is our Christmas morning. It was pretty quiet, but good. Claire had a blast, but I think was a little overwhelmed. She found the presents she apparently liked, and left the rest sitting there, wrapped, for hours! Santa brought here a big doll house, which she has enjoyed. And Brevan loved having something to chew on wherever he turned!

A DAY IN THE MOUTH OF BREVAN

2008-12-17T05:44:00.000-08:00

That's right, I copied you Melissa. It was so fun following Brevan around with a camera for a few hours. You can see he puts ANYTHING he can find strait in his mouth. It's pretty funny! another favorite, the diaper if he can get to it before i do

my sweatshirt strings................all the time!

my pants

his socks

2008-12-17T05:39:00.000-08:00

his binky holder

train track

tylenol

possibly the favorite, the t.v. remote

2008-12-17T05:35:00.000-08:00

that's right, even the blinds

dad's shoe

the bink, of course!

claire's cereal bowl

SANTA BABY

2008-12-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

I couldn't resist having dave roll his eyes as I take more naked pictures! But how can you resist this? So cute!

2008-12-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

just some misc. pictures from yesterday i thought were cute. don't go getting the wrong idea though, this is not normal claire!

M&M's

2008-12-05T08:11:00.000-08:00

Just thought this was funny. Brevan's already after the good stuff.

my cake

2008-11-24T18:31:00.000-08:00

So here is my final cake of my second cake decorating class. It was fun and I think it turned out o.k.

it's all gone

2008-11-19T10:41:00.000-08:00

So I went a little crazy and gave myself a spur of the moment cut and color. It actually felt pretty good.

first tooth

2008-11-17T13:15:00.000-08:00

WE HAVE VISUAL!!! If you look close, you can see our first tooth has FINALLY broken through! Yea!

2008-11-17T07:04:00.000-08:00

My brother has just started a his own company selling men's tungsten wedding rings. I have put a link to his site (weddingringsforever.com) at the bottom of my blog. They're awesome rings at awesome prices! Pass along if you know anyone in the market.

Reading with Dad

2008-11-09T17:10:00.000-08:00

The kids' favorite activity is reading books with Dad. Claire will sit with you for an hour and have you read to her.

2008-11-09T17:03:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun on Halloween this year--especially Claire! She loved every minute of it. She pounded the pavement for over an hour with her friends, Liam and Penelope. And when she got home her pumpkin was too full and heavy to even carry! The next morning she asked if she could go trick-or-treating again. How fun! And I got my joys out of spooking a couple kids with our yard. I have to admit it was pretty cool. You can't tell from the pictures, but we had coffins, and mummys and pirates, and fog and other stuff. I love it!

the letter "s"

2008-10-30T19:08:00.000-07:00

So my friend tagged me with the letter "s" and here is what I came up with

SHEARS: I couldn't live without my hair shears! It is my way to be social and hopefully make people feel better when they leave my salon.

SASSY: Those who know me, this is probably the first "s" word that came to their mind!

SODA: Can't live without the amazing Dr. Pepper! It's my security blanket with 2 crazy kids!

SISTER: I love being the big sister. My family means everything to me. I miss them being so far away!

SUPER SAVER SHOPPER: I love to shop for the best deals and I'm always so proud of myself when I find the really good ones!

I asked Dave to come up with "S" words that described me and here is his list. How good of a husband do I have?
sounding board, smart, savvy, sober, super, strong willed, scrappy, stupendous, sensitive of others needs and feelings, superb, suprising, service oriented, sharer (that really a word?), selfless, slender (love is blind!), spontaneous, squatter (living in china), suave, sweet, swift, survivor.
It got a little out of control, but he's funny!

my cake

2008-10-28T05:25:00.000-07:00

So i've been taking a cake decorating class, and last night was our final class for this course. It turned out better than I thought, so I thought I'd share. I forgot to take a picture before I took a bite out of it! woops!

claire's eye surgery

2008-10-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

Claire was such a brave girl today for her eye surgery. She had a stye that needed to be removed. Nothin too big. But they did have to cut the inside of the eye and the outside and scrape a bunch a gunk out. Ick! But things went well and she is enjoying Dora on the couch right now.

my first ballet recital

2008-10-23T17:56:00.000-07:00

Who says 27 is too old for yoiur first ballet recital? One of the young women held a talent show for an activity and I thought I would be the comic relief! I did a water ballet piece to the "Nutcracker." If I must say, it was the hit of the show!

Halloween Parade

2008-10-18T16:50:00.000-07:00

Claire had so much fun "marching like ants" as Claire would say, in our neighborhood Halloween parade. We got to follow the fire truck and it even parked by Claire's house! Her and her little friends had fun dancing and singing on the back of the truck.

rock the hat

2008-10-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

this is my pal Jerri, me, and my cute beehive mckell rockin the hat

marshmallow throwing

2008-10-18T06:07:00.000-07:00

i think the funnest part of the night, was mackenzie trying

to throw the big roasting marshmallows in my mouth. needless to say, we weren't very good! but we got one! and i haven't laughed that hard in a while. i don't know how many marshmallows with dirt i ate! i'm going to be sick! (but not sick enough to polish off an entire hershey's bar right after. who says you need to make smores with it?)

ym/yw bonfire

2008-10-18T06:03:00.000-07:00

we had a really fun activity last night at our bonfire. now we just need to learn to use the flash!

very first bath together

2008-10-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

I've been putting this one off in fear of claire trying to drown brevan, but we made

it without casualty! They might have even had fun.

2008-10-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

OK, so i have to tell you about my neighbors. Alicia Kim, you can appreciate this. They're a cute youing couple that had their first baby a few months ago, but both of their parents are visiting from China. Yesterday one of them scared me half to death! I'm sitting on the couch sewing Claire's Halloween princess skirt and watching "Project Runway" while the kids are asleep. I look up out the window and there is this guy right there! I about screamed. He was looking at my garden, but the garden is right about against the house, so he is right in my window. Who does that? He has to know I'm there. Lately they all have been staring at me watching everything I do though. I'll be outside decorating the yard or doing something and they will just come out and assume the position to watch and stare. I guess it's a good thing I lived over there and know that's just what they do. But here in America it's a little wierd. Ok, I feel better.

30 going on 3

2008-10-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

This is how I found Dave this morning. Parked in front of ESPN like a kid in front of cartoons!

Graduation to high chair

2008-10-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

So my cute little baby became a big boy today and graduated to the high chair! sad! He's getting so big! This is his latest face--tucking under his bottom lip. He makes it all the time. I think it's hilarious!

2008-10-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took Claire to the nursery where they were doing a fundraiser. She had fun painting the WHOLE pumpkin pink. But her favorite part of the day was playing in the train with all the other kids. choo choo!

Fudgesicle

2008-10-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is still warm enough out here to eat chocolate fudgesicles naked! It ended up EVERYWHERE!!! But Claire loved it and we hosed her off when she was done. I'm thinkin this is a once-every-now-and-then event.

Dave's big 30

2008-10-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

While in Utah, Dave celebrated the big 30! I surprised him with a G.I. Joe party (his favorite cartoon as a kid). Everyone showed up in their camo and we had fun playing water "gernades" and other army type games.

Petting Zoo

2008-10-15T18:14:00.000-07:00

On our last trip to Utah, Claire had so much fun hangin' with her cousin, Bryson. Here we're at the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point. Even now, everytime we tell Claire we are going to see animals, she asks if Bryson is coming!

2008-10-15T17:56:00.000-07:00

While in Utah we had a photographer take our pictures. Claire wanted NOTHING to do with it. When we asked her to smile, she screamed. I'm surprised we got one good one.