Our Girls

You Fill Up My Senses

2012-01-30T18:00:00.001-07:00

Is what Claire was singing at the top of her lungs last night. I loved hearing her little voice as you can only really make out the last word of each sentence. Watching as she would get louder and throw her head back to really scream (like a mountain in spring time!) and then tuck in her chin and look at the ground for the soft effect. (a sleepy blue ocean) She knows when to be loud and when to be soft. It actually is one of the first songs she would sing the whole song through. Good old John Denver.

As I watched her I knew I had to capture this moment. I understand that raising kids is tough. A lot of times it is not a picnic and really far from it. Lately I have been trying to put my feelings down about how raising a child with a disability is just .... and that is where I get stuck. It is just what exactly, that isn't just like raising a "normal" child. Then last night as Claire was singing at the top of her lungs while hiding out in the pantry doing what she does best... whatever I tell her not to do... I thought of a way I might be able to explain a small thought of what it is like for me.

Claire you fill up MY sense of

Joy with your adorable eyes that turn into rainbows when you really smile.

Happiness with the way you say "ughs!" (hugs)

Frustration when I realize I have no way of knowing if you really understand.

Urgency and worry when I realize you are no where in sight and I have no clue where you have run off to.

Relief when the neighbor down the street has saved you from getting hit by a car.

Sadness for the things you won't get in this life

Amazement at all you have overcome and accomplished in your short 3 years

Compassion.

Love.

Life.

Little Claire

2012-01-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Claire and I were playing a game. As we played I had an a-ha moment where I realized she is so grown up. I found myself wishing I could just freeze this moment and keep it in my memory. I wanted to remember how excited she was when it was her turn again.

I wanted to remember how little her hands are and how much I love it when we hold hands. So soft and little.

I wanted to keep telling myself, LOOK! She has learned how to play a game, an actual game where you have to take turns and follow directions. She does something daily that is exceeding my expectations (good or bad) of what I thought she would be able to do.

I love that she is talking more and more everyday. I love her little sentences as she would turn over a card and say, "oh what is it?" and then 8 times out of 10 say what was on the card. I love that she will tell me knock knock jokes and laughs and says"that so funny" I love her "ughs" (hugs) and "isses" (kisses). The way she dances and screams "WELLA, WELLA ide, ide." (Cella, Cella slide) even if Cella is right next to her and continues until she slides with her. oh my little Claire, I sure love everything about you, thank you for letting me capture these moments with you.

How do you Nap?

2012-01-03T13:45:00.001-07:00

Claire has it down to steps. It goes as follows:

Take everything off your bed. Including but not limited to your blankets and sheets.

Move any large object in your room that will enable you to turn on all your lights and the ceiling fan to make your already freezing room completely frozen. oh ya and remove pants and diaper. (everyone knows it is better to sleep naked?!)

Take your favorite pillow and blanket and position your face up against the hinge side of the door, so you can 1. shove things under the said door while you are starting to fall asleep and 2. make it so no one can enter.

Love you Claire-dee-Bear-dee!

2012-01-01T17:26:00.004-07:00

I got it. I sat and waited the minutes it took for Marcella to give me the look I wanted. I captured her shy, oh you caught me and extremely happy face and I couldn't be more elated. And after I got it, I went downstairs to thank Jon again for buying me a new lens for my Birthday/Christmas.

Marcella has always been (fill in her age) going on 16. She loves to be right in the middle of whatever we are doing and doing it right along side us. She is a night owl who at 18 months proved to Grandma that she would be able to stay up until someone put her to bed. (we finally drew the line @ 2 am.)

She has so many teenage attributes now that I hope when she is actually a teenager she will have outgrown all the bad ones and be heavenly. She would sleep in until 10:00 every morning if we let her. On school days she always protests, saying "Can I please just stay home from school today? Please?"

She loves learning and always has a book or two she's reading. She tells me all sorts of amazing facts, like, "Did you know that some frogs not only eat insects, but eat other frogs?" or "Did you know that sharks are always growing new teeth? They use up more than 10,000 teeth in their lifetime." or "The Trap-Jaw ant can snap her jaw shut at the speed of 145 mph. That is fast." She loves to sew and is always asking when she'll get her own sewing machine.

But beyond all this, she has followed in her dad's footsteps and loves playing computer games. When it's my turn to host craft night, Jon and Marcella are usually both upstairs playing some game together. So you can imagine the pure joy she displayed when Jon surprised her with her very own steam account. She is now officially a PC gamer and our house is filled with lots of talk about Terraria, Minecraft, Farm Frenzy, and most recently some racing games. (I know super hard core right?)

All of this finally brings me to that perfect picture. Jon had set up a time to play Terraria with his brothers, and of course Marcella wasn't going to miss out. Jon set it up so Marcella could chat with them while playing using some old headphones and the speaker on his laptop (since at the moment we only have one headset. geez.) And here she is in all of her adorable excited six year old glory playing games with the people she loves.

Love you to pieces Cella Bella!

Christmas

2012-01-01T13:40:00.001-07:00

Christmas Eve Started with Marcella saying "Hey Mom do you remember that Santa Claus called me last year?"

(A little Blurry, but...) She was so excited when he called her again this year!

The girls opened their Christmas Eve presents from Jon. A pillow case.

Their fun presents from Santa. Can you tell that they love books?

Marcella wanted an American Girl doll so bad and she Lucked out and got one. She couldn't stop smiling. She was so excited and happy. She got Marie Grace.

Claire received a slide and continued to go down it for about 2.5 hours. Both girls were in bed and asleep by 6:45 that night. They had so much fun and were so worn out.

This was one of my favorite moments of Christmas. I helped Marcella finish a quiet book that she could give to Claire for Christmas. This was the card she made for her and then she read it to her while Claire opened her present. It is so amazing to see how much fun these girls have together.

Loved all the video chats with family. You guys are the best! Even though a lot of you had technical difficulties, and some may or may not have sounded like robots, we still loved chatting.

Good night!

I turned 30!

2012-01-01T13:24:00.001-07:00

I kept going back and forth on what I wanted to do to Celebrate the big 30, and when it came down to it I decided to keep it low key and I had a FABULOUS Birthday. One of my favorites so far--hands down. It started the Friday before (12/16) when we went down to Indianapolis to check out the Lego store. I picked up a sweet set:

Here's Marcella and I ready to dig in Sunday after church. We both decided it would be best to separate all the parts by shape and color, and make a few different groupings...which eventually made Jon quit. (Did I say eventually? He quit before I'd gotten past "sort" in "sorting". Girls and boys just have different ideas of how to put stuff together.)

Only an hour and a half later, they're all sorted and ready to begin putting together (sorting 1600 pieces takes a while!).

It took us two days working off and on to put them all together. It was a fun ongoing project, but I didn't take any pictures of the final product.

On Saturday we had some friends over for a no-kids dinner party. We ate good food and enjoyed chatting. It was so relaxing and wonderful. (Again no picture. ugh)

We spent Monday (my actual birthday) making candy. This has been a big tradition in my family and I have had fun continuing it. It was a perfect way to spend my Birthday.

Just for You Amie!

2012-01-01T13:12:00.001-07:00

I made the girls Christmas Dresses this year. These were the best pictures I could get. All the other ones were blurry and yeah, when I said, "picture time," the girls were less than enthusiastic. December brought another visitor! Amie, I can't believe we didn't take one picture! She was my crafting sidekick and helped me finish a ton of my Christmas projects. Thank you so much for all your help and for the fun. I loved all our laughing, chatting and cinnamon roll making at all hours of the night. Miss you bunches!

12 Days of Christmas (Work in progress)

2012-01-01T13:05:00.001-07:00

For the past few years my Mom has done the 12 days of Christmas for the girls. She sends us a big box with 12 presents, and we open one each day. Sometimes they're fun (yay games!) and sometimes they're inspirational (conference talk, anyone?). They have had a lot of fun each year she does it and this year was especially fun for us. Thanks so much mom! We know it takes you a lot of time to come up with 12 ideas, wrap a bunch of gifts, and get it all shipped to us before the 12th of December. I tried to take pictures of each day, but as you can tell I missed a few.

The 1st day we got a little craft--a Christmas countdown advent calendar.

We read a talk and received a board with the word Believe on it.

Hot potato. This has to be the loudest game ever. But Claire loved to play it. We had lots of fun playing, but Jon hid it somewhere to keep himself from breaking it.

Read a talk called, "Look up, Stand up and Cheer up!"

Mickey's Christmas Carol and some popcorn.

Super cute aprons and some ingredients to make coconut balls. We modified them and experimented this year and they were soo yummy.

There was also a puzzle, a book and some money given for going out to ice cream and doing service. Everything was so fun and we loved it. Thank you so much!

November

2012-01-01T12:52:00.002-07:00

At the moment I cannot find any pictures from November. I am hoping they didn't get deleted, because I had a bunch of cute ones. But as I am trying to get caught up so I can be a better post-er (ya, is that even a word?) this year, and so I can tell you why I am so excited to be a better blogger (that is propably a better term) I will just let you all know that November was awesome.

We had MORE visitors! Miriam and Jack came to see us. As my parents were driving to Chicago to make their flight I was heading down to Indy to pick up Mim and Jack! I had such a fun time with Miriam here. (If you find cheap flights again let me know and I can try to come see you!) I think they basically froze, even though we were loving the 60 degree weather. We had fun catching up on Downton Abbey and "experimenting" with some crafts. I loved having company and someone to chat with. Thanks for coming Mim.

Then came Thanksgiving. This year we had a small one again, but we weren't alone. The Hartwells joined us and we had a feast. Then I headed out for Shopping and put up all the decorations for Christmas. I sure love the Holiday Season.

All in all I LOVED November!

October

2012-01-01T12:40:00.002-07:00

A couple weeks after the McCanns left we had more visitors. My Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa Dougal came.

1. Marcella had a Birthday party with her friends a week before they came. She had a Bug party and had a lot of fun.
2. I started making bread and one morning I came down and saw this. Jon and I both new it was Marcella (she is the one who LOVES the crust on bread and will usually eat that and not the middle) We started teasing he and telling her that a little mouse must have been hungry and eaten some of our bread.
3. Getting ready to start carving pumpkins.
4. Grandpa helping Marcella
5. Our masterpieces. I will let you guess whose is who's.
6. Ward Trunk r treat. Go UTES!
7. Reading books with Deidra
8. Playing games with Grandma
9. Trick or Treating
10. Grandma and Grandpa Dougal
11. Mom and Dad
12. me. I got called to be in the Stake YW's. A little overwhelming, but exciting too.

All in all we had a nice relaxing time with my family here. Jon and Claire got sick, which was no fun. But I enjoyed having them here and I miss them all dearly. Come back anytime. We love you!

Marcella's 6th Birthday

2012-01-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

Marcella was one lucky Girl this year and she got to celebrate her Birthday in a HOTEL! She turned 6 and loves being 6. The McCann Clan was here over her Birthday and so we decided to take a trip up to Chicago and stay a couple nights. Thanks guys it was awesome! Greg was working in Ohio and had a layover in Chicago. He was able to stay for a day and help us celebrate as well. It was awesome.

The first night we were there we walked down to Navy Pier. We rode the Farris Wheel (well worth it, you could see the whole city). Then we headed out to dinner and actually sat down to eat at 11 pm. Both girls ate a little and then fell asleep. They were so tired.

Monday morning Marcella woke up to her head board decorated. She was pretty smiley the whole day. We went out to breakfast and then headed to the Lego store and the American Girl store. Both were a must. She had some money and in the end chose to get some legos. Then we went over to the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower) and went up to the top. Marcella thought it was amazing and talks about it all the time. I was surprised when she said that it was something she wanted to do, but I am glad she had fun.

Then we headed back to the hotel for naps/lunch/PRESENTS! The rest of the day is a little bit of a blur to me, but I know that she had doughnuts instead of b-day cake and rice for dinner again @ 10 pm or soo... these kids were troopers! We also headed to the Bean and got a few pictures there and they got to play in the water fountains and went swimming back at the hotel. Looking at that picture of them in their swim suits makes me shiver. All in all we had a fabulous time and thanks to the McCanns for planning such a fun trip. You guys are the best!

Mcann's came to vist!

2012-01-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

They experienced a Jon and Kanien Date to Vons and poor Finn got scared to death by the Boiler Maker Express.

We went to the Columbian park zoo, Claire was a little scared of the caterpillar...

They have an awesome spot where you san watch the river Otters.

We sure love you guys! And Miss you! Come back!

Memories

2012-01-01T12:03:00.000-07:00

Starting right to left
1. Jon's Birthday
2. Marcella and I headed out to Utah early and got to ride on the airplane. Claire and Jon drove out a week later.
3. We had a nice Sunday dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Wallin
4. Impromptu tea party
5. Practicing in the hot tub
6 & 7. Headed up the canyon
8. Fun visits with Friends
9. Naps in the sand (can you tell she is burried?)
10. Family fun at Pine View Thanks again guys!
11. Baby Finn, the whole reason I went out early with Marcella, and I didn't get a picture of this cute little guy until he was about 2 weeks old!
12, 13 & 14. Celebrating the girls B-days a little early with my family.
15. Headed to the Zoo with David and Rosalee and boys.
16. A favorite from the cabin trip. Every picture I have of Isaac chopping wood, he has his eyes closed! ahhh watch out!
17. For some reason it chopped M's head off, but she did get a new sweatshirt while we were there.
18. Little Claire chillin' by the fire
19. Grandma Katherine helping us make Apple struedle. yum. Thanks
20.All the kids at the Cabin
21. Cousins!
22. Great Friends
23. Relaxed in the McCanns new backyard.
24. New hat
25 & 26 Good-bye to Grandma
27. Found a little friend that made his home in our tomatoes
28 and 29. Our tomato harvest, well a part of it at least.
30. School starting
31. Painting... couldn't make up my mind.
32. Helping with dishes
33. Little Marcella fell off her scooter and got banged up...did I mention this was the day before school pictures?!
34. Claire got croupe again during conference weekend so we spent a nice weekend isolated at our house.
35. Playing in the rain!

The End of June

2011-10-19T09:25:00.001-06:00

1. Jon and I Celebrated our 9th anniversary at some podunk drive through burger joint, which wasn't very good, and then had great laughs about all of our anniversaries. Our life rocks!
2. Father's Day presents..any guess what Jon's favorite thing is?
3. Marcella making us enchiladas for dinner. yum.
4. This is little Claire, after we caught her in the downstairs bathroom, going to town with a blue sharpie. It was everywhere, the floor had about a million circles, her legs and arms were covered. We decided to try this stuff that I had gotten (9 years ago) to help clean my wedding dress. Everything just wiped right up, it was such a relief. I swear I had just put her in her pj's and she was only gone for a minute!
5. This was after we went upstairs to go to bed and say prayers, and Claire decided to show us another surprise. She totally lifted up her shirt and said "uh-oh, no, no Claire."
6. Claire praying for forgiveness. ;)
7. Something went wrong with our computer and someone in our house was a little excited to get this package in the mail.
8. Soaked in another day of fun at the beach.
9. Claire and I sporting our sweet hats.
10. Reading at the beach, couldn't think of anything better.
11. Happy 4th of July.
12. Not sure if either girl liked the big fireworks. Claire just buried her head into Jon's chest while he covered her ears and Marcella looked like this about the whole time. Still had loads of fun.

Kristin

2011-10-19T09:14:00.002-06:00

1. Summer Nights and sidewalk chalk. I wish you could have seen it, the whole driveway was a work of art, an hour later, if that, huge thunder and a down pour. So sad.
2. This is what Jon did most of the summer, cooked fabulous breakfasts, lunches and dinners, oh why did school have to start again?
3. Kristin, need I say more. The girls were so happy to have her come. Claire still when she sees someone with her hair will smile and yell Kristin!
4. Fair Oaks Farm, how high can you jump?
5. Impromptu trip to the beach. Best idea ever. The sand was amazing, and even though we had to go to a few stores for clothes, swimsuits and overnight stuff we had a blast.
6. Being buried in the sand. Claire kept saying, nite nite.
7. ohhh, family picture
8. Did I mention we went to the beach 2 days in a row? yep sure did.
9. I think Marcella had the most fun. She is now old enough to enjoy the water and the beach. Plus having Daddy and Kristin to tag along with makes for a great day.
10. Kristin, please come back. We miss you.
11. Because of Kristin I have photos like this one, that just screams SUMMER! Thank you for taking so many pictures. I love them all.
12. Bonus we got lots of fun candid family pic as well. Kristin, you are the BEST!

Triathlon in June

2011-10-14T21:54:00.000-06:00

1. I saw at the YMCA that they were having a triathlon for kids I knew Marcella would love it. We signed her up and when we came home she had to do a trial run around our park. It was pretty cute. This is right before she went down to the pool to do her 50 meter swim.
2.We were surprised to see some friends from the ward competing as well.
3. Marcella's Biggest cheer leader. I will try to upload a video, it was awesome.
4. On your Mark. Get Set.
5. Go.
6. This is what happens when you take a long time getting into the pool.... splashed in the face a ton.
7.Hoping out and getting ready for the 1/2 mile bike race. (I didn't get any pictures as I had to run and get Claire in the car and drive to the place where they were going to end the bike and start the run.
8. Catching air... during her 1/4 mile run.
9. Almost to the finish line and still smiling.
10. Finished.
11. The real reason for wanting to do it. "So I get a medal at the end? Yes I totally want to do it." :)
12. Way to go Marcella. We are so happy you are willing to try things that are hard. You are the best!

12x12 May and 1st part of June

2011-10-14T21:28:00.001-06:00

1.Summer has officially begun. Claire decided it would be more fun having your towels in the swimming pool with you, and really who needs a swim suit?
2. I can now say I have ran a half marathon. Go figure it had to be the HOTTEST and Humidiest (is that a word?) day on the planet. Good thing I had Heather (speedy) and Cyndi (amazing mentor) you gals are the best!
3.Our supporters.
4. Grandma Katherine, Grandpa Wallin and uncle Greg came to visit. (they actually came before I ran, but really who is keeping track of the order of events?)
5. We headed down to Kentucky for a couple days. had a great time exploring and just being with the fam. We had a lot of fun walking around and getting lots of exercise.;)
6.They beat Greg through the Cheese maze at Fair Oaks Farm, you think they were a little excited?!
7. Who would have guessed that on that trip the whole family would end up jumping on a giant bubble. Mom and Dad I am impressed!
8. Took a little hike through the Clegg gardens. It is a neat place and I often wonder why I don't go with the girls more often.
9. I don't think my fridge has ever been so full. :)
10.Somewhere in the midst of everything Claire got switched into a bed. As you can tell she still would fall off. I was scared to give up the crib, but she was so good with just staying on it when I put her there. Now... not so much. Now after we tuck her in she takes her pillow and blanket and falls asleep right in front of her door.
11. it was one of those nights where I thought oh ya I need to put Marcella to bed, it is 10! When i went to find her this is what I found. She told me she got us some snacks for when we do our reading. It is a little hard to see, but there is a piece of broccoli, a mushroom, a chocolate turtle, a peeled carrot and 2 pretzels. What a sweetheart.
12.I love walking into rooms and seeing things like this. It helps me wish I could slow down time.

Copy Cat

2011-10-14T20:47:00.000-06:00

Yes. I will admit I am copying you, but hey I was thinking about how to document the summer and I thought, man she is a genius (you know who you are) and it will be a perfect way to display our summer without all the boring dialouge. Let's face it you all just want to see the pictures. Am I right? So here goes. 12x12 of our garden this year. (Click on picture to see a bigger view.)

1. Our backyard is massive and bare. So we started to the right of the porch and worked our way around. Killing lots of not so luscious grass until we could do this...
2. Built 2, 12' x 4' boxes and 2, 4'x4' boxes then had fun filling and mixing the dirt
3. Ta da. Doesn't it look lovely?
4. We grew all of the tomatoes and peppers from seed . some Cinderella pumpkins and squash
5. Marcella had a box for all her flowers she started from seed this past winter.
6. the flower garden begins. If I only knew how crowded it would get. I think my petunias grew at least a foot or so and decided to take over the whole flower bed.
7. Our Cinderella pumpkins, yellow Zucchini and butternut squash.
8. We planted a Japanese long Cucumber (A-Maz-ing! only the yummiest cucumber I have ever eaten.)
9. Then we went to Utah for a month and left our poor garden to fend for itself. When we got back we had a friend... I mean rascal living with our tomatoes. (which by the way they do eat, even though we were told they don't like them.
10. I can't imagine how many tomatoes we would have gotten if we would have stayed home. I was amazed at how much we got and are still getting.
11. Yellow tomato. (Sorry can't remember the name) This are so super yummy, and the best is they escaped the few pickers that came to grab some tomatoes while we were gone, because they thought they weren't ripe yet. Didn't mind a bit, because they are delicious.
12. Costo Luto Genovese. This tomato has amazing flavor, that made our no-cook sauce and pasta un perfecto!
And in a nutshell, there is our garden this year. Ciao!

because it makes me smile

2011-09-02T08:37:00.000-06:00

First Day of School

2011-08-17T06:31:00.001-06:00

Marcella and Claire started school this week. Marcella's first day was yesterday. She walks to school , something her teacher said she's never had a student do before. We'll see how much walking she does when the snow starts to fall, but at least for now it will be nice.

Claire's first day was today. She's being bussed to a school around 8 miles from our house. Claire loves buses. She didn't really understand she'd be riding the bus until it pulled up.

She had absolutely no problems getting on. She practically ran up the steps.

It's fun to watch them go to school, but a little unnerving that this will be their life for the next bazillion years. Hopefully neither of them will be in school as long as I've been there, though.

Mother's day

2011-06-19T18:44:00.001-06:00

We had a couple weeks in between visitors and Mother's day came during that time.

This Mother's day I was spoiled. I had a wonderful Breakfast, had a wonderful time at church, received some fun gifts ( a couple shirts, some lotion and hair ties, lots of fun necklaces, and Marcella even gave me $5 which I secretly gave back to her sweet thing.)

We had gotten some coupons in the mail for an ice cream cake at Dairy queen so I requested a cake. I however was pleasantly surprised at the message on top. I have the best family in the world!

Here is Deidra and I before we devoured the cake. It just wouldn't be a Sunday without them so we made them come have cake with us.

Lizzy was here

2011-06-19T18:36:00.001-06:00

during another fun event, Easter!

On Saturday we had a little friend Easter egg hunt at the park by our house. It was fun watching the little ones trying to figure out what was going on.

We then headed home to color Easter eggs.

Here is the best Easter picture we got and yes, Claire was trying to kick Marcella in the head, we have proof! This Easter was super fun and we enjoyed having Lizzy with us. The girls each got a book and a bunny in their Easter basket along with some bubbles and a kite.

During Lizzy's stay

2011-06-19T18:29:00.001-06:00

We officially welcomed Amelia Grace Hartwell into the Wallin clan. She joined us for her first Friday night game night and we were pleased to have Lizzy and Millie's Grandparents with her as well to celebrate! As you can see she is Very loved around here. Just mention Deidra's name and Claire will be saying "BaBY! BaBY!" over and over until we tell her she gets to see her or we distract her with something else. We sure Love you little one!

A week Later

2011-06-19T18:22:00.001-06:00

Lizzy came and this just sums up how much fun we had. We had a very nice relaxing time hanging around the house as Jon was still finishing up school and was a little busy. The girls just adore her and had so much fun playing with her. Her famous contribute to our household was making humus. (Lizzy, Jon hasn't stopped making it since you came!) We sure love you and hope you come back soon!

Remember our visitors...

2011-06-19T18:15:00.002-06:00

In April my mom came out and stayed with me while Jon was at a conference. We had so much fun. My Uncle Rod came up from Louisville to see us and we had a nice time going to dinner and seeing Purdue.

We really got a lot accomplished in just a week. We decided the girls needed a sand box, so we got the stuff and made one. Filling it up took more sand than we expected, but the girls really love it. We also sprayed and dug up the grass for our garden, and shopped til we dropped.

Thanks so much for coming Mom, we miss you terribly and hope you come back soon.

Love you!

Nine years,

2011-06-18T08:43:00.003-06:00

a little older, chubbier, hairier, wrinklier, but a whole lot happier. Love you! Here's to another fabulous year!

Lake Michigan

2011-06-15T18:02:00.000-06:00

Indiana has Lake Michigan shoreline. We stopped by with Kristin, almost on a whim, and had buckets of fun.

I don't want to jump the gun, but....

2011-05-29T12:53:00.003-06:00

Miss Claire (her new nickname as of late) is now in a little bed. She has successfully fallen asleep twice and yes fallen off the bed twice, but at least it is super close to the ground. I thought I was going to regret taking down the crib, but so far so good. I will just keep crossing my fingers and we will see what the rest of the week brings us. Yesterday she didn't have a nap so I knew tiredness would eventually do her in. Today she is taking a nap... Wish us Luck!

and so it begins...

2011-05-11T05:35:00.005-06:00

at least half of yesterday was spent saying "shut the door." I am think I am going to rig it so whenever you walk out the door it will automatically say "Please shut the door."

This poor girl has had the luxury (and believe me I wish it was still the case) of just coming in and out of the backyard as she pleases. The weather has been AMAZINGLY wonderful, it cools down at night and is just nice enough during the day that you don't feel like you have to shower more than once, ahhh spring. Except yesterday it decided to remind us what is coming, and boy was it hot. I am afraid for the day when Claire can open the glass door, but until then I will at least know who the culprit is as far as who is leaving the door open and letting all the cold air out!
Yes sirie bob it would be Miss Marcella Anne. She sure hasn't gotten very much face time on the blog lately so here is a mini update. She is often found Playing with friends,

playing with her sister, (On Mother's day of all days I looked out the window to see these two just holding hands running around the yard. They sure are the sweetest things ever!!)

flying her Barbie kite, (I seriously forgot how fun it was to fly a kite. if you haven't done it in a while go get one. You will have so much fun!)
and last but not least she's been hanging out with this little one, Millie. Oh how I wish I could claim her as my own, but since I can't I will just enjoy the minutes I get to hold her. (Which, Deidra isn't about time you came back over.... I need to hold that sweet baby! ;))

It is only 9:30

2011-05-06T07:33:00.003-06:00

and I wish you could have been at my house this morning, but since you can't I will just fill you in on what you would have heard. "claire, CLaire, CLAIRE!!!!" repeating in many different voices and volumes as she:
1. decided to grab a towel off the towel rack while she was in the tub and plunge it into the tub then promptly throw it on the floor. Thus creating a pool, yes a pool of water all over the bathroom floor.
2. kept running away when it was time to get her hair done
3.decided it would be fun to dump out 10 puzzles all over the floor, right after Marcella was told she had to clean up the toy room. (what a mean sister! he he)
4. decided that she did not want 2 pots filled with dirt anywhere close to her proximity. ("Nothing can be on my table. It must be pushed to the floor!")

There is only 2 hr and 20 minutes until nap time... bring it on... I am ready for you....

Claire's natural habitat

2011-05-05T08:27:00.001-06:00

If all of us died mysteriously in the night, from like a crazy murderer or a bad pot of stew, and just Claire was left, this is where she'd spend most of her time. On top of the table, no diaper, eating popcorn.

First of many

2011-05-03T07:37:00.001-06:00

This little one was so excited when we were driving up to Chicago the end of March to see our first of many visitors, who have been coming and are going to be coming until we head back home to Utah in July. On the drive up she would randomly just say "GRANDMA! YEA!"

We picked up Grandma Katherine at her hotel in Chicago and had a fabulous day with her. We went to the aquarium and had serious realizations that we NEED to get a harness for Claire. Once you would put her down she would take off running! Afterwards we took Grandma to the airport. It was a short visit, but we sure loved it. Jon and I both realized how much we sure miss you guys. We are looking forward to there upcoming trip this month! Ciao.

Claire's Quirks

2011-04-30T10:56:00.000-06:00

Claire is better at pushing our buttons than Marcella. She knows how to get a reaction from her parents, and does it all the time. This morning, I was choosing some music to go with our breakfast. Marcella jumped down from her chair to come lend a hand. The minute her seat was empty, Claire started climbing up into it. This, of course, upset Marcella. I got up from the computer chair to lend a hand. Claire, once I'd removed her from Marcella's seat, immediately ran and climbed into the computer chair, laughing the whole time. She does this all the time--gets into something she shouldn't with the motive of stealing the computer chair. It's pretty funny.

She also has a meticulous habit of throwing candy wrappers and tissues in the trash. If I give her a piece of candy, she won't eat it until the wrapper is in the trash. Lizzy only just started throwing things away, and she's almost 20. When she'd come visit us as a teenager, weeks would pass and we'd still find hidden candy wrappers all through the house. Claire....quite the opposite. Our little one still gets confused between the meaning of "yes" and "no", but is better at trolling her parents than her 5 1/2 year old sister.

Something I NEVER thought I would be saying

2011-04-14T15:52:00.003-06:00

Seriously tonight at dinner these are the words that came out of my mouth,

"Claire, you DO NOT put your fork down your shirt. Take it out of your arm pit and eat!"

Our fam in a nut shell....a very big nut shell

2011-03-29T11:29:00.011-06:00

As I have been talking to more and more family and friends back home the conversation tends to go like this.

So how are you doing?
Me: Great!
What have you been up to?
Me: oh just the usual, nothing to exciting
How's Jon liking school?
Me: he is so busy this semester. I am excited for it to be over.

I realized today that I have had that same conversation WAY too many times. I have decided to give a real update on how we are doing and what we do everyday. I will start with the one that keeps me on my toes...

Claire Bear:
She is officially 2 1/2 years old. She is often seen carrying or trying to carry not one or two babies, but at least 3 babies and a couple stuffed animals, preferably a puppy and a kitty, oh and at least one blanket.

She will frequently be seen trying to escape our house if any door remains unlocked. The other day we got home from shopping and she sneaked out of the garage and walked around the house to the park. Talk about a heart attack--thinking she's inside and then realizing she isn't.

She enjoys dumping out anything she can get her hands on. If she can turn it over it will be dumped out. The nice thing is that, for the most part, she will try to put it back (until she gets the urge to dump it out again). Crayons are the worst. She will be coloring so cute, and then the next thing you know she has dumped the entire box everywhere, followed by cleaning up half of them and then dumping them out again. (Maybe someone could help me understand why that makes me go crazy. As I am typing this I feel like it shouldn't matter, but for some reason it does.)

She loves to climb, jump, run, and Dance. If we leave things on the table and leave her alone you can guarantee that she will be in the middle of the table eating whatever it is we left up there. My favorite thing she does is whenever she wants to get down she will say "dump, dump" (jump) and wants me to catch her after she counts to three.

She LOVES her big sister. Marcella can get her to say or do almost anything. She will follow Marcella around and even picks on her, from time to time. This picture (above) is of Marcella yelling for me to help her because Claire kept body slamming her. They are usually found giggling together and trying to get each other to laugh. (Amie, check out the blanket! Yes she still sleeps with it every night!)

This picture just about sums up Claire. She is mischievous and curious and knows how to push my buttons, but she is so sweet and kind. Whenever anyone is sad she is the first to come and give them a hug or give them lots of pats to help them feel better. She has a smile and laugh that just melts your heart, and her sweet little voice is so adorable. We are glad she is in our little family.

Marcella Bella:
Whenever I think about Marcella I think of this picture...
She is ALWAYS creating something. She loves to color, write, draw, glue, cut, wrap millions of random presents in entirely too much wrapping paper, and more. I love watching her when she is working. You can just see the little wheels in her head turning a million miles a minute. She has created art work for my bedroom (and once everything is finished I will post the completed project).

With all of the little projects Marcella makes everyday I started to get overwhelmed with the mess and the stuff that kept piling up. I really didn't want to stifle or hinder her in anyway, but seriously--you can only hang up so many pictures on the fridge. I thought my basket idea was working out nicely. She has a basket that holds all of her creations. Once the basket is full she has to get rid of somethings to make room for anything new that needs to be placed inside. But as I was trying to figure out how to decorate the girls' bedroom it hit me: I can use their entire wall as a place for her to hang up her art. It turned out so cute. I promise to post a picture soon. I just nailed some ribbon across the wall and then made stripes down the middle. We painted and decorated 30-40 clothes pins that hang on the ribbons to hold the papers and viola--a whole wall to display her art. We both LOVE it. After that project I thought about how I need to encourage her to do more. So I have been giving her guided projects to help decorate our very undecorated house. Here is one way we decorated for Spring...

The butterflies are actually flying all the way around the room. It looks awesome.

Marcella LOVES to be outside. (Even if it is only 6 degrees, which was the temperature in this picture.) She is such an active little girl. She loves to run, jump, ride her bike or scooter (even miles at a time), and play at the playground behind our house. She is getting very excited for the flower seedlings we planted. They'll eventually make their way to the back yard.

She enjoys really good food. The grilled chicken salad above is the first dinner she ever made on her own. I let her decide what we were having and then she made it. (I only grilled the meat.) She loves to cook and helps in the kitchen for almost every meal.

Marcella has a lot of fun playing with Claire, and also enjoys helping her learn words and signs. She has started to read and has been making some great progress. I find her sitting next to Claire reading her a book multiple times every day. She loves to learn and is super excited for kindergarten this fall.

What a sweet girl! She is very obedient and loving. Jon and I both agree that she literally runs whereever she goes, and that someday she will make an awesome long jumper. I am surprised that she hasn't broken her leg yet. She has a zeal for life that spreads to us all. We sure love you, little one.

Kanien (that's me!)
I have been enjoying daylight savings. We basically haven't changed anything except the girls and I actually sleep in in the morning. It has been nice. I have been keeping myself busy with teaching Marcella how to clean, and she is starting to appreciate the value of doing jobs every morning. I've also been spending quite a bit of time teaching Claire how to walk up and down the stairs. It's tough, since she's really quick to lose her balance (but always insists walking is the way to go).
I have started training for a half marathon that I will be running in June. I have 2 great friends that are running with me, and I am actually really excited about running it. My longest run so far has been four miles, and I felt pretty good when it was done.
I have been making some earrings, and also finally found a pattern that will work well for some material I have had for 3 years, and will be starting a quilt sometime soon.
I just planned out some flower beds for our backyard last week, and I am excited to start digging out grass and making it look more enjoyable out there. I'll also be making room for our vegetable garden, which will mainly have tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and squash.
I have really been enjoying Indiana, once I made it through an Indiana February. Everyone I have talked to says Feb is the worst month here, and I add my vote to that as well, it was awful! To top it off, we're coming off the coldest, longest winter here in eight years. I don't mind snow, but feel it goes best with mountains and skiing--two things we have to do without.
All in all I have some great friends and have been having a great time here.

Jon: aka: professor/student

This picture was taken sometime during Christmas break. We went to see Jon's office and stash some goodies in it for him. The building behind him is where is office and most of his classes are. He's been growing a beard in case anyone was wondering, I just haven't taken a picture of him with it. I guess that's next on my to-do list.

Jon has been doing an amazing job at keeping up with school, teaching and not making us feel neglected. He says there is always more he should be doing, and for the most part he is pretty busy, but he is good at just being at home when he is home, and it sure makes us feel loved.

He enjoys teaching and has a great group of students this semester. Next fall he will be teaching two sections and taking classes so I have a feeling we will need to enjoy every minute of this summer break, because life is only going to get busier.

Right now he is taking 3 classes and teaching one section of freshman writing. On top of that he still cooks us amazing meals (mostly on the weekends), keeps a watchful eye on our starts for the garden, and helps teaches the 7-8 year old primary class with me on Sunday.

Life couldn't get any better. Well, Jon could be done with school, but all in due time. We are enjoying Indiana and looking forward to spring (and summer, just not the humidity). We have a bunch of visits from family coming up soon and are really excited to see everyone!

Well, if you actually made it this far you are now in for a treat. A sneak peak into the next video I am going to post. (I would have done it sooner, but I just can't find the camera!)

Love you all and have a fabulous day!

Spring Break

2011-03-24T13:29:00.012-06:00

Spring break is over... yes O.V.E.R. and us three girls are dying to try to get back to our "normal routine" without this ....

happy, handsome, intelligent, clever, and most of all amazing mediator between

Me and

them.

After 9 1/2 days I seriously wasn't ready to give him up and be left to myself to fend off these pack of wolves... but more on that in a minute. Let's reflect on our fabulous week. It started with a super fun trip to The National Maple Syrup Festival. It was held down south in Medora,IN. Our friend Chris served his mission in the area so we went to check out the festival and go to church in Salem with him and his sweet wife Deidra. They were kind enough to let us share a hotel room, it was awesome. So onto the festival....

This cute girl woke up and said, "I have a cowgirl hat, a cowgirl shirt, cowgirl boots, cowgirl pants, now only if I had a rope and a horse, then I could be a REAL COWGIRL!!!!!

Well, when we got there, we had to wait at a school to get loaded onto a bus to take us up to the festival.... We waited for 1.5 hours in line.....

hence the "this better be cool and worth it" faces.
(Marcella was just happy she was so close to being a cowgirl she just kept smiling!)

We made it outside! It was so beautiful outside we didn't mind the wait so much.

happy bus riders.
When we got there they had a petting zoo. The girls pet some animals...

and goats.

Waiting in line again to get to make her very own rope. People kept cutting in front of us so it took us a while to actually get up to it, then when she was making hers the guy said they would have to wait to finish making ropes until after a ventriloquist show. (I am glad we made it!)

One step closer... now about the horse...

They had some fun reenactments of what it was like to harvest the sap. They ended up making this batch into maple sugar and gave us some to try.

Yummy right?
actually it wasn't too bad.

Marcella ended up tying up some bad guys...

and then we were off to dinner and the hotel. All in all we had a great time and seriously are talking about going back next year. Thanks Deidra and Chris!

On Sunday we went to church in Salem. It was the smallest sacrament meeting and chapel I have ever seen. I really enjoyed the meeting and everyone was really nice afterwards. We decided since we were pretty close to Louisville we would take a quick trip down to see the Temple.

It was a small Temple, but still just as amazing. The girls had fun getting their pictures taken and just walking around. Afterwards we headed up to Indy to see John and Lindy. Some friends from my brickyard days. We had such a great time and had a fabulous dinner. Thank you again! (p.s. Lindy, last week Jon asked me if we could go to Target after dinner.....ok, but he hates shopping, I should have known. We ended up getting 2 nerf guns!)

Well back to the present, It has now officially been a full week after spring break and I think we will survive. Hope you have a fabulous day.

Cowgirl

2011-03-19T14:45:00.003-06:00

EDIT: Marcella loves the idea of being a cowgirl. This isn't something she's obsessed with, but she definitely likes playing cowgirl from time to time. She has cowgirl boots, a cowgirl hat, cowgirl pants, and cowgirl shirts. The Saturday before last (March 12), we went to a maple syrup festival in southern Indiana. Marcella got all dressed up for it--boots, hat, shirt, and pants. As we left the house, she said, "I wish I had a rope. Then I could be a real cowgirl."

At the festival, an old cowboy (the real-deal, spent his life raising horses, only four teeth in his mouth) was showing kids how to make rope from twine. He used a machine similar to the one seen on this page, only his was two or three orders of magnitude shoddier. But it did its job, and Marcella came away one happy cowgirl.

Summer 2010

2011-03-10T12:31:00.001-07:00

Wow time flies. I am sorry it has taken me so long to post. I wanted to start out with this video mainly because I am so excited for spring and summer this year. I can't wait for the sun to come out and to see all the pretty flowers. Plus I love looking at old videos and seeing how my kids have changed. Marcella's hair is about 5 or 6 inches longer than in this video and she claims we are growing it out until we go to Utah and then Chantelle will cut it for her.
This is also a pre-quel to what we did the other night and I wanted to show you how the girls got their start. ;) No more hints, you will just have to anticipate the coming of the next video.

p.s. don't forget to check out all the other fun videos. Just a little snippet of our lives lately. Love you All, Ciao!

Another Christmas Morning Video

2011-03-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

Christmas 04

2011-03-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

Christmas Morning

2011-03-10T12:20:00.001-07:00

Christmas morning

2011-03-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

Marcella playing Jolly old st. nicholas

2011-03-10T12:17:00.001-07:00

Once there was a snowman

2011-03-10T12:17:00.000-07:00

The meaning of Christmas by Marcella

2011-03-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

Little Claire eating lunch

2011-03-10T12:12:00.001-07:00

New Year resolution = warning, alittle long and personal

2011-01-01T10:18:00.004-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about how the new year brings a sense of starting over. Re-commitment. Hope. Maybe even a desire to finally accomplish what we have been putting as our new years goal for years now. This year will be it. As I thought more and more about what I was going to set as my goal I have been able to think about what this past year has brought me.

Last Jan I decided this year was going to be it. I was going to lose weight and I would be healthy and basically look like super women. ;) I decided it would have to start with me working out with someone else. That is where I got super super lucky. I became friends with Carlee. Carlee is super woman and so amazing. She became my personal trainer and was nice enough to let me trade her training for babysitting a few hours a week. So we started.

In April I ran my first 5k. I will preface this with I don't like running. I have never been one to enjoy it or have a desire to do it. But Carlee said I had to so I did it. ;) I finished the 5k and was hooked. I ran 2 more races, then life started getting in the way again. At this point I had lost 11 pounds and about 10 inches. I went from size 12/14 to 9/10. Then we moved, twice. Started school and getting settled into our new area.
In Aug and Sept I decided I need to get back in my exercise routine and keep working on my goal. I kept track, I ran daily with my new friend. I gave up most treats. Then the end of the month came and I weighed EXACTLY the same as the first day I started. Talk about depressing. I just gave up. In October I was talking to my friend and told her I was giving myself until next summer to lose the weight I wanted to and if I didn't lose it I was just going to be happy with the weight I was and just try to maintain that. We then decided to start counting calories and keeping tabs on each other.
This is where I hope this helps any of you whose New years goal is losing weight. We started tracking our calories on Livestrong.com It is a free website where you can keep track of your calories. The best part is it will tell you how many calories you can eat if you want to lose 1 or 2 pounds a week. It has been amazing. We have been going since the end of October and as of today I have lost 10 more pounds and just bought a pair of size 6 jeans. I love that I no longer start feeling bad when I slip in my diet, then eat the whole bag of candy because I messed up. so I will "start over" tomorrow. I now just have to count it in my calories and then I just can't eat other things. I feel like I have a new found freedom.

Overall I feel like I have actually accomplished what I set out to accomplish this year. What a fabulous year! I hope 2011 brings just as much sense of accomplishment. On my to do this coming year: Half Marathon. I will let you know how it goes. Happy goal setting. Ciao.

Merry Christmas Dad

2010-12-24T21:43:00.008-07:00

This year my Dad took a job and is away for Christmas, so I thought I would do a little Christmas post for him.

A BIG thank you to my Mom and Dad for another fun filled 12 days of Christmas. I tried to get a picture for everyday and some days I failed, but I hope you enjoy the ones I did get. We had so much fun opening gifts and feeling your love and kindness. Thank you so much. It has really been great.

Gingerbread House. We have been making them every year for a few years now and we had a lot of fun putting this one together. Claire helped for a minute, but then got upset because she kept getting frosting on her fingers and she hates getting her hands sticky. So Marcella finished it and it turned out pretty well.

This was a big hit. We got a recorded book from Hallmark, Twas the night before Christmas, with my Dad reading it. Super fun.

This year I had a fabulous Birthday. I got to hang out with my friend Cyndi, then Jon and I got to go out Friday night and he surprised me by getting Cyndi and Heather to watch the girls for us over night. It was so fun and relaxing to just hang out together. Especially after a hard semester. On Sunday my actual B-day we had some friends over for cake and ice cream. I sure love Birthdays and this one was super fun.

This was a big hit, if you couldn't tell. It is the Elephant game. Claire LOVED it. The girls would just laugh and laugh. We had lots of fun playing it.

Christmas Eve was a little different this year, being our first one away from family. But we got to spend it with some new friends and we had a fabulous time. These guys have become our family away from family. Love y'all.

When we got home from our party the girls got to open there pj's and a book.

Santa Came. We are so excited. I can't wait to get up in the morning and start all this fun-ness!

Here are a few random pictures form the past couple months that I took off my phone.

Marcella has been having so much fun sliding down the stairs in a sleeping bag lately. Well she was doing this one day and then it got quiet and so I went to check on her and she had fallen asleep in the middles on the floor in the sleeping bag. I guess she wore herself out going up and down the stairs.

We went and saw Tangled to celebrate Jon being done with the semester. When we got to the theater we realized it was only playing in 3d. Claire did pretty well. I was impressed. She was being bribed with popcorn and chocolate, so she stayed seated the whole time.

Yes that is the top of a screw and yes it got burned into my thumb. don't ask, just know that a couple days and a few cuss words later, I finished this bad boy:

I also made a stove and oven. I hope Claire enjoys it.

We went to eat at a Mexican place called Taco Rico. Super good, but my food was so spicy that my lips were burning for a while afterwards.

Well, Dad we hope you have a Merry Christmas and We will try to get some videos up tomorrow. Love you lots and lots.

Today

2010-11-21T17:30:00.003-07:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about what I do. This past week I have felt like I have been cast on Groundhogs day and I am Bill Murray. Does it really matter if I make my bed, I have to do it again tomorrow. If I clean the kitchen after each meal that means I have cleaned the kitchen 3 maybe 4 times that day, is it worth it? We tidy bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms, every day and then have to start over the next day. As I felt myself getting lost in a downward spiral of days in and out filled with the "little things" (yes you have to put your shoes on if you want to go outside) and the "big things" (laundry, does it ever go away?) I slowed down just a minute one morning and I was grateful for my circles.

It was just like every other morning that week. Claire had woken up a minute before I was getting up the gumption to get out of bed. (thank goodness that girl is still in her crib.)

Girls up, check. Girls dressed, check. Girls hair done, check. Beds made, room picked up,check. check.

Breakfast.... That was when it hit me. I was making pancakes and across the counter from me I saw these 2.

I was reminded of a talk given by Elder Ballard a few conferences ago:

“The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. … I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”

Anna Quindlen

I am grateful for the times when I am reminded that I can decide how fast I run in "circles" and slow them down a bit to live in the moment. Love you all.

Our Weekend

2010-11-08T07:05:00.001-07:00

Consisted of:

Cereal for dinner,

rootbeer floats and pumpkin pie. I hope your weekend was as good as ours!

Happy Halloween

2010-11-01T21:46:00.000-06:00

I really need to start taking more pictures. This is about as good as it gets. You know you are not in Utah any more when Halloween is on a Sunday and people don't go trick or treating on Saturday instead. Either way we had a lot of fun handing out candy. I bet there were a lot of parents that thought we were mean because our kids weren't even in a costume, but oh well. I think they had more fun passing out candy then going trick or treating.

This is Rebekah and Eden.
Marcella is almost always with one or the other or both.
She has had a lot of fun with her new friends.

I will have to dress Claire up again to take some more pictures. She was super cute. I sure love Halloween. I hope you all had a spooky one!

October

2010-10-23T22:48:00.005-06:00

I love everything about October. I love the sweater weather, the leaves changing colors, the Harvest moon, the way Fall smells so divine, Halloween, pumpkins. I could go on and on. I also love that Marcella was born in my favorite month. This year for her birthday party we had a Fancy Nancy, Mother/Daughter tea party. We had so much fun decorating a purse, making a necklace and of course eating.

The invitation

Check out these Fancy girls. They are Gorgeous. (That's a Fancy word for Beautiful)

A small peak of the spread. Before everyone came Jon said, you have enough food to feed 40 people. How many are coming? um....4 girls and 4 adults.

The Ordyna's told us about Boo at the Zoo, so we joined them the other night and had a ton of fun. Thanks for the fantastic idea.

I love little kids trying to carry pumpkins. I am so excited for Halloween. What are you going to be?

Utah, we sure had a blast!

2010-10-13T19:54:00.019-06:00

After these girls finished letting me take some pictures of them Sunday the 19th we hoped in the car and started our 24 hour drive to Utah. My friend Deidra came with us and seriously made it possible for me to go. Thanks so much! I will admit that I was so surprised at how good the girls were. You two are Amazing! (side note: Marcella told me I say Awesome way to much and I needed to think of a different word. She told me Amazing was much better.... so enjoy my new word. ;))

On our trip we played with and saw a lot of cousins.
(I know that when you get to the end of this post you will think seriously, she took a ton of pictures, but as I was posting this I realized I didn't take as many as I should have. I didn't get any of Rosalee and the boys, which were so nice to make the trek from Provo to come and hang out with us. Thanks guys, it was sure fun to see you. I also didn't get pictures of half of Jon's family. I think next time I come I will just bring someone to take pictures for me.)

I was able to hang out with these wonderful girls. Thank you so much for the good times ladies. I sure love you!

Marcella and Hallie were able to play and I don't think there were two happier girls.

My friend Megan took some pictures of me and the girls. I love them Megan! Thank you so much.

(How many Marshmallows did it take Laurissa before she actually got to eat one?)
Caroline arranged an AMAZING party. It was so fun and yummy! Just thinking about it makes me hungry.

Grandpa came home from working in Wyoming and Marcella spent the day helping in the garden. They had to get on the roof to check to see if the grapes had turned to Raisins.

We had so much fun with the Grandparents. Which is the whole reason we came out. Marcella missed them so bad.

We went to Thanksgiving Point to celebrate Gavin's birthday. Marcella got put in jail.

When we got home I asked Marcella what one of her favorite things we did was and she said swimming at Uncle Nathan's pool. Her and Nathan hung out a lot. They had so much fun together. It reminded me a lot of when my uncle would come in town and just hang out with me and my brothers. Good times.

We made it to our favorite place on earth, the cabin. Thanks to Caroline and Jeff for taking us up there. On Friday we decided to head on up to Yellowstone. We had a lot of fun at Yellowstone Lake. It is my favorite spot in Yellowstone and the upside was it was actually warm enough for the kids to play in it.

Watch out Miriam we might have another rock lover on our hands.

These two look so grown up I just can't believe it.

Our last day in Utah we went to Gardner Village to see the witches. It was so much fun. Thanks to everyone for coming.

Well, I have been home for a week now, and I still have things to unpack. We were very glad to get back, the drive was killing us, but we would do it again to see you wonderful folks. Thanks again everyone we had an AMAZING time!

5 years ago today,

2010-10-10T12:52:00.011-06:00

I held you for the first time.

I never imagined what we would go through your first year of life.

Then before I knew it, you were 2,

busy Kissing bugs,

and being so stinkin' cute I could just eat you up!

At 3 you were All grown up.

Daddy Daughter Dates now consisted of Chinese food and movies instead of chicken nuggets and fries.

At 4 I just cried.

Now that you are 5 I want to tell you,

I'll be your Best Friend Forever and I LOVE YOU!!
Happy Birthday Marcella Bella Mia.

Dear Claire,

2010-09-15T19:53:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow I will beat you at your own game.

Love, Mom

Date Night

2010-09-13T12:03:00.005-06:00

and no I am not talking about this movie...

(wasn't the best movie I have ever seen, but not too bad)

Jon and I actually went on a date on Friday and had a fantastic time. I thought that when we moved out here it would be a long time before I would feel comfortable leaving my kids with people I hardly even knew. Just as everyone told me, I made friends in the ward fast and I have been reaping the rewards. So we hopped on the Vespa and headed to the movie theater.

We saw Inception. Which we would highly recommend seeing, although I am still a little nervous to fall asleep at night who knows what is going on in my dreams....

Other weekend news..

Claire had her first ice cream cone. The verdict....

She loved it.

Just a couple of "peeks" at the projects I have been working on. Hope your weekend was as great as mine.

Help! I can't keep up with a TWO year old!

2010-09-08T05:14:00.003-06:00

She is planning her next move.... Watch out Mom, it is going to be good!

Seriously...this morning I was woken out of my peaceful slumber to Claire screaming her guts out. Don't be confused by her normal "screams," which usually just allows me to keep her in her crib until a reasonable hour, when I will calmly get her out and start my day. No. Today, as I was tripping over my feet and bumping into walls in my rush to get to her I thought, oh no, she has learned how to climb out of her crib and has gotten hurt. When I flipped on the light to survey the damage... What to my wondering eye should appear (or should I say hear)? "Haaaaiiii! giggle giggle giggle." Whenever you get Claire up in the morning she will say to Hi to just about anything and it isn't just her normal hi hi. It is a high pitched drawn out HHHHHHHIIIIIIII! that makes you want to say it back. Most of the time it is my favorite thing to hear in the morning, it just makes you smile. But when it is still dark outside.... come on Claire, you are suppose to be sleeping!!!

This would be Claire right now. I was able to get her to hold still long enough so I can remember this moment. I will then proceed to let you know everything she has done in the past 40 minutes. She sat in her high chair for 15 minutes eating her breakfast, which only resulted in her plate being chucked across the room when she was done. So far today is going to be a great one. (if you want, we can chat about the applesauce incident the other day... not such a great day.) When she was eating I kept saying, Kanien you can do this today. You can be one step ahead of this child. You can control your reactions, etc., etc. Gotta love pep talks. After getting her down from her high chair I could see that in her eyes she was saying... watch out Mom you are in for it today. Well here goes nothing: in no particular order this is how Claire has spent her last 25 minutes

* Got into the dishwasher, almost dropped a plate
* Started the dishwasher... TWICE!
*dumped out the bag of junk I just brought in from the car
*pulled all of her toys off the bookshelf
*somehow managed to mess up my tape player/recording, don't ask, but seriously child.
*opened a bunch of DVD's and almost got them out (chalk up one point for me being able to stop her before she scored.)
*Got into the closet, let's just say I am glad I can shut the door
*learned how to open the door to get into the garage.. WHAT???
*Played in the bathroom and under the bathroom sink

and when I sat down to do this post she had just started dumping out every game in the game closet that is within her little reach and is ringing a bell... "ding ding ding, i am the winner!"
You may ask so what were you doing this whole time? Where was the parent? You can admit it if you were feeling a little judgmental, but honestly I am still waking up as I am typing this and I was one step right..... Behind her.

As we speak I can hear her little footprints upstairs, yes she is in my bathroom, do I even want to know what she is doing in there??? What I would like to know is what were you doing @ 6:30 this morning?

Something old into something new

2010-09-05T13:29:00.006-06:00

Do you remember this picture? After you get over how young we look and how crazy it is to think it was only 4 years ago, I want you to check out Jon's shirt. I was so excited when we found it. I had everything planned out and I wanted him to wear a shirt just like that, and I actually found one. Only problem, the sleeves shrunk so unless he rolled it up he looked like an 11 year old church boy. (Yes you can picture them right now... the pants are just a little too short and you can see a little more wrist than should really be allowed.) Jump a few years and this little one has been busy lately.

We decided to learn how to make some french bread and although it doesn't have that beautiful crunchy, singing sound, we still enjoy it. This is the one she made. It looked amazing. It was better than mine so we took that one over to the neighbors (baker in the making).

Marcella found this fuzzy guy a few weeks ago. We put him in a jar and decided he was lonely so we found another one. They have been living with us now for 3 weeks. They both have spun a cocoon and we were anxiously waiting for them to come out so we could see what type of Butterfly it was.. Well...

Out he came and it turns out our little pet was a moth. At least it was a pretty one.

After my last post I decided I really needed to buckle down and get on the ball. For about a year now I have been putting things in my bookmark folder. The other day I decided it was time. I needed to start sewing again and instead of saying, "oh I would love to make that," I needed to take some action. FIRST things FIRST.... how can anyone sew in a room like this? Oh wait, before I can even begin cleaning I need this to be taking place....

Don't be fooled. She was the sole reason the above room looked the way it did. Let's just say I had my hands full that day, and I was a bit relieved to put her down for a nap.

After cleaning and then making a few adjustments to a pattern I just went for it. In the end I am so glad I did and I have been stuck in my sewing room ever since. I will show you a few other projects soon, I promise. Hope you enjoy the fashion show....

Recognize this? Do you think it looks better on Jon or Marcella? Hope you all have a fabulous Labor Day.

Lovely

2010-08-19T13:08:00.003-06:00

My Mind is going a Mile a Minute and yet when I make it stop so I can organize my thoughts and write things down it becomes BLANK. What in the world! I have a million ideas for each room in my house, Christmas presents, yes Chistmas presents, Birthday gifts, clothes to make for my fam, I can't even count the knitting projects, a million accessories to try my hand at, even down to yummy treats I can bake and eat while I am doing all these things. I just wonder... when am I going to get these out of my head and actually Get going?

Do you ever feel like you are back in English class (nice analogy) and you have been sitting down to write your paper that is due tomorrow for about the hundredth time, and still you have no idea how to start your amazing paper. If you could only get what is out of your head on paper it would be Brilliant. Well, that is how I feel today. Hopefully tomorrow I will obtain brilliancy. Ciao!

Appleton, Wisconsin

2010-08-13T20:46:00.007-06:00

This is Jon (even though it says Kanien made this post). I've got an aunt who lives in Wisconsin. We went up to visit her this past week (10 Aug). They live in Appleton, a nice community built around Lawrence University. It's about five and a half hours from Lafayette, depending on traffic. That seems like a pretty long drive, but after multiple 24+ hour drives this summer, it felt pretty short. We spent our time up there playing games, watching SpongeBob, swimming, and playing with their large dog. It was a great little vacation, and we'll probably go back up there for Thanksgiving.

We went to the Special Memories Zoo, a small, one-family operation that was pretty impressive. You can read about the zoo on that web page. Here are some pictures:

They provided strollers for kids. Clarie didn't really like it. In her perfect world, she'd be able to wander around aimlessly for the entire day, dumping out buckets of stuff at random along her path. The stroller also kept her from eating the dirt--another reason to hate it.

Zack pushed her around a lot of the zoo. Wisconsin has had a lot of rain this summer. The zoo was feeling the hurt as much as the farmers. We braved this wet section. I told Zack that his boots would keep the water out, and I was partially right. His feet got wet after a few minutes of this. He loved having Claire and Marcella around. The first day we were there, I couldn't figure out why Claire wasn't falling asleep. A bit later I was informed that Zack couldn't help but go check on her every 10 minutes or so. It was fun to watch him interact and entertain Claire.

Marcella and Claire love petting zoos. Claire is getting braver than she used to be, and Marcella just likes touching dirty animals. This picture has one of Jacqui's only appearances--you can see her crutch off to the left.

For some reason, Marcella, Kanien and I have decided that pigs are Claire's favorite animal. It's probably because she thinks all animals make a pig noise, but she's now got a fair stash of pig books, pig pajamas, and other piggy toys. Perhaps our insistence that she adore pigs is rubbing off, as she chased these guys around for ages.

Marcella with Greg

Zack wanted to pick up all the animals. I saw him holding a rabbit and trying to lift a pig, and he carried this goat around for 10 minutes. This is also our second shot of Jacqui.

Marcella posing

This is the big pig. It reminded me of Porco Rosso, everyone's favorite fighter pig.

I went to scout camp at Lefeber Northwoods Camp with David Ogden when I was 12. There was a toad, snake, or frog under every single leaf in the forest. I caught this toad on the Wright's driveway on our second night. Marcella held him. Then she dropped him. She said, "he got me wet with his liquid," which is pretty much what it did. Toads secrete a predator deterrent from glands on their shoulders.

Jake said he catches these guys all over. I love amphibians.

Claire loved playing with Kenai. Kenai took up permanent residence under her high chair, and Claire secretly ruined the diet Jacqui has him on. (Her foot is broken and she can't walk him, so he only gets 4 dog biscuits a day.<--This is a joke. He really gets 4 cups of food a day.)

Marcella wore her boots everywhere. She and Zack were boot twins. She even wore them swimming.

Another shot of Claire and Kenai. This is a huge dog. He's a Bernese Mountain Dog. He's a small specimen--110 pounds. He scared the crap out of me the first morning we were there. I imagined I'd have to spend the three days there sitting on the couch, but later learned he just doesn't trust men very much. Once he got used to me, though, he stopped biting and started sitting on my feet. He knew that I was a wuss, which effectively placed me on the bottom rung of the dog command hierarchy. Even Marcella could get him to sit, but not me.

Fun family picture (with the monster)

Marcella in boots

McKenzie with Claire

This is where we stopped on the way home (Marcella in boots): The Albanese Candy Factory. On their web page they claim to be the best gummi makers in the world. Haribo might have something to say about that, but I agree with them. You can get some of their bears at the Sunflower Farmer's Market in Orem (They're called "12-Flavor Gummi Bears"). Like their web page states, they figured out how to place "the sour inside the gelatin piece," which should earn them the Nobel Prize in chemistry. They're 90 minutes from our house, but we'll probably go back and get more candy soon.

Birthday Girl

2010-08-10T06:46:00.007-06:00

"Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday Dear Claire Bear, Happy Birthday to you!" Is how Claire got up yesterday morning. She was the happiest little thing on the planet. We started our morning with the Wallin Family tradition of decorating the door. It was even equipped with suckers, which she wouldn't touch on our drive to Indiana, but now LOVES them. Silly goose! My little two year old:

We stuck up balloons in the doorway and she had a ton of fun running through them. She couldn't go through without making some kind of woo who noise.

Her are some favorites from our trip to the zoo to celebrate.

(Yes she did kiss a couple goats...)

When we got home we opened presents and had lunch. Claire loved this little baby Marcella got her.

After dinner we had Ice cream. For some reason Claire doesn't like cake. So she had a heaping bowl of ice cream, whip cream and chocolate syrup. Happy Birthday little Claire. We sure Love you!

What have we been up to?

2010-08-06T09:42:00.014-06:00

Today I received a dreaded task. I really hate it when someone in our household (um.....Jon) does something incredibly well, but asks me to do it for him. It makes me so nervous that I am going to screw up even though in my little head I KNOW I can do it. It seriously shouldn't be so hard. So while Jon got to take Marcella to see a movie, I received the task of making bread. I figure that while I am awaiting the next step in the recipe, I will indulge you with some things that have been going on lately. And hopefully, when it's been cooked, I will be able to show you a picture of bread that looks just like this one:

(I really shouldn't set myself up for failure like this. I don't think I will ever be able to make it look like that. I guess we'll find out in 25 more minutes.)

It has been fun to watch the storms here. You can look to one side of our house and see this:

Then you look to the other side and see this:

I am loving all the thunder and lightning.

Silly Girls

Did I mention it rains a lot? Since we have been here it has rained at least 5 days a week. This little down pour happened right after we all got back from exercising.

In about 3 minutes the gutters were full of water. Marcella was so happy.

Then the afternoon looked something like this:

I love Watermelon. We had a great time eating watermelon and trying to teach Marcella how to spit the seeds without getting slobber all over us. It was fantastic. I still don't think she has mastered the technique, but we will keep trying.

Not sure who started it (JON!), but we ended up having a water fight and sticking the girls in the swimsuits. I can't even remember the last time I had a water fight. We had so much fun.

Gotta love summer wedgies.

This is what Jon found when he came around the corner on Monday:

I guess she was a little hungry...

She would take a scoop in her hand and try to put it back in the box. With every handful she would say, "Thank You."

YUMMY!

"I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world, life in plastic it's fantastic."
(I bet you just said "c'mon Barbie let's go party. ah ah ah ah." just admit it. ha ha)

We went to the Children's Museum in Indiana-apolis as Marcella calls it. it was super fun. They had a huge Barbie play place. They were celebrating Barbie through the years. The girls had fun dressing up and going down the runway, doing hair and make-up, and looking at all the dolls.

Look familar Mom? That Barbie in the black looks exactly like your Barbie, We should make it some clothes like that.

The girls had the most fun in the section for kids 5 and under. They would have stayed and played in the sand part the whole time we were there. It makes me want to get a sand box, but I am afraid with the rain it will always be wet... any suggestions? Do you think they would still like it if it is wet sand?

When we pulled them away form the sand box Claire had fun feeding the birds. it is the perfect thing ever. You just stick the bug in its mouth and then it falls out and you just keep doing it over and over. She LOVED it.

Little gardener in the making:

Look out Caroline, you might have some competition.

This might not look like much to most people, but this seriously made me extremely excited:

I definitely wasn't this excited when Marcella started walking up the stairs. In my memory, she just did it one day and I thought cool. For Claire, this is huge. I must have looked like an idiot because I kept clapping and shouting, "Yay Claire Bear!"

Another milestone for little Claire was painting fingernails. She finally held still long enough for me to paint her fingers and toes. She looks so adorable. I LOVE it.

Our little Monster

Moment of truth. Definitely not as pretty, but I am willing to work on that. I am just glad I didn't burn myself or the bread, so I will chalk that up to a success. I hope you all have a fabulous day and I am going to go and enjoy this delicious bread. Ciao!

The Girls

2010-08-02T10:24:00.003-06:00

One of my favorite prizes Marcella gets to pick off her chart is a date night. She earned her Mommy Daughter Date night last week and so we went shopping for Claire's Birthday and went and saw Toy Story 3. We had so much fun. As we were driving around I couldn't help but think about how much I like being with this little girl. She is so cute and fun to talk to. I am so glad we decided not to put her in preschool this year. We are going to have so much fun at home. I love you Marcella Bella Mia.

Next up, Claire. Last night She started crying so hard so we went to see what happened, and well you can see for yourself...

According to Marcella she had a book in her hand and started running away from Marcella when she ran into the wall. This leaving much to my imagination makes me think she ran into the wall but the book hit first and then she hit the book. Or something like that probably happened. It looks pretty good today and she seems to be doing fine. We will just chalk it up to black eye number 2. Hope you all have a fabulous day.

The Tour

2010-07-26T12:52:00.002-06:00

Here is a tour of the inside of our place. I am kind of excited because now when I actually decorate things I will have a little before and after. I hope you all enjoy.

Bob

2010-07-25T21:07:00.005-06:00

Yes that is what Claire calls me. Not because she can't say M's but because I think she thinks it is funny. This grumpy goose was suppose to go to bed early tonight. With a combination of a short nap and her grumpiness we thought for sure she would be out after dinner. Needless to say her grumpiness was so bad at dinner that she wouldn't eat. So we figured she must not be hungry. She seriously never passes up food. So after being in bed for over an hour we got her out and we got some fun videos of her. I hope you enjoy.

Bikes, Yikes!

2010-07-25T20:06:00.008-06:00

This has been a long time coming. For over a year now Marcella has been earning money and saving up so she could buy a bike. She would do chores around the house, save her sweet from Easter egg hunt money, birthday and Christmas cash, and occasionally get some money from her Grandpas when she would give them a cute smile. Some people thought we were a little crazy, and there were days that I wanted to just go and buy her a bike (like almost everyday last summer), but I held on. She knew the type of bike she wanted, and we made a chart with how much it was going to cost and she saved for it.

In April it all paid off. She got the bike of her dreams. We stopped by the bank to get her money out of her account and the smile on her face when she got to put the money in her pocket was priceless. All the waiting and keeping track was all worth it. Especially when she paid for it. We headed down to Taylor's Bike Shop in Provo and she started looking around. I was completely surprised she didn't take the purple bike she first tested. I thought for sure she would choose it or want to get a pink one, but she spotted a yellow one and, at that moment, decided yellow was her favorite color.

She loves riding to the park, to the church, and to her friends' houses. A month ago I decided it would be fun to go on a long bike ride with her. Once we were down the street, I realized it was a terrible idea. I think I pedaled 3 or 4 times the whole ride, but she got a good workout. She was so excited to tell Jon that she went on a 3 mile bike ride. It was super cute. Afterward, she was completely worn out.

Fast forward to now and we have been having fun at the park by our house. She will ride her bike and I will run next to her. She likes to have races, so this is perfect, I have my own personal trainer who makes me run faster when I feel like I am going to die and she gets to laugh the whole time we are out there.

And now we're at the next big step: taking off the training wheels. We took them off Saturday and she did great. She is having a hard time starting and stopping, but once she gets going she does fine. It was so fun to watch her and Jon practice. The sad thing is we decided to do it on the hottest day in history and it was about 98% humidity to make things a little worse. So we cut the practice short. Hopefully the next few days are a little nicer.

I love that she jumps off her bike when she feels a little scared. Don't be fooled by the wind noise, it was hot air promise.

Our First Week in Indiana

2010-07-23T20:17:00.003-06:00

Sunday I had a couple of helpers and we made chocolate chip cookies. It was so exciting because we have been without a mixer for close to three months and we were so excited to be able to bake something. It was YUMMY!

Jon found a sweet garden that you can walk through. It is the closest thing I think we will get to being in the mountains, but we sure had fun hiking through the forest.

We made the girls climb up to this cave to get this picture, poor things they were surrounded by spider webs. At least we got Marcella to smile.

This really was fun. The only thing was it was HOT. It is hard when you are used to hiking and then after a while having to put on a light jacket because it starts getting a little chilly, but here I wanted to start taking things off. Jon was such a great sport carrying our little dead weight; Claire Bear.

Have I mentioned the bugs here? It has been interesting to see different kinds of bugs. One thing I am in love with are these. I have seen so many Butterflies it is amazing. They are all so big too. There are also some pretty interesting bugs that I don't want to even look at.

Let me tell you a little story. I remember when Marcella was really little and I don't remember if Jon told me or if I just decided this, but I wasn't going to let my little girl be afraid of bugs. Side note: I HATE bugs. They give me to willies. Anyways, I feel like I have been pretty good at stepping up to the plate when Jon isn't around and having her check out a bug here or there.

Well while we were on our little hike we found this fella. You tell me.....

Have I succeeded in creating a bug lover?

I think I have to give all the credit to Jon, mainly because I would not have picked that thing up ever.

Do you think she is enjoying the park in our back yard?

I think we all are. It has been so fun to run around the park while the girls play etc. I love it.

Oh little Claire. She has seriously made us laugh a lot lately. She loves to make you laugh as well and will try hard to get you to laugh. Jon asked Claire if she wanted a bite of his sandwich and this is what he got when he asked for it back.

We have been having such a good time. We miss all our family and friends, but we are trying to enjoy each day. We made it down to Indianapolis yesterday to go to Costco before we left Marcella said are we heading to Indiana-apolis? Hope you all have a wonderful day.

We are off and we made it...

2010-07-18T19:18:00.005-06:00

We fit everything in this huge truck and all I kept thinking was wow, I can't believe we had most of that in our tiny 700 sq ft apartment.

Here are the girls after our first day of driving. We stopped in Omaha to sleep and boy was it nice. Both girls had a lot of fun running around in our HUGE hotel room and jumping on the beds after we ate Claire decided she would find a better place to play...

It took some pulling to get this little on out of here. She is so funny. We made it around 6 pm on Tuesday and was pleasantly surprised that Jon and Spencer had already unloaded the truck. I am really sad to say that I don't have any pictures of our visitors... mom you need to send me some of yours. We were sure lucky to have Spencer, my mom and dad and Nathan. Thank you so much for helping us unpack, and kept the girls entertained etc. You guys are the best!!

On Thursday we took a break from unpacking and went to the first cool place we could find. (I am hoping I continue to find cool places to go here... but I am keeping my expectations low as to not disappoint myself and keep wishing we were back in Utah.) We went to the Zoo. The best part about it is that it is FREE. It isn't very big, but it was really fun to walk around and see some of the animals. Here is Claire chilling with the goats.

You can crawl through a tunnel to see the sea lion swimming around.

Pretend you are a gopher

See if you are as big as an Eagle,

Walk with the Kangaroos,

and even see a baby one. It is in it's mother's pouch.

They even had water you could play in which was amazing considering you felt like you were in an indoor pool, but there was no place to swim. We are slowly getting used to the humidity and I am enjoying the rain storms we have been having.

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday. Love you all and miss you like crazy!!

Post 6: Our House

2010-06-27T13:13:00.008-06:00

I know I am jumping the gun and we didn't really get our house until June 18th, on our 8th anniversary, I have just been thinking about it a lot and how excited I am about it so I thought I would post some pictures. I hate it when I thought I took a ton of pictures and then I realize I hardly took any. So here is my new house. I can't wait to start decorating it etc. I hope you all enjoy!

The best part is there is a gate that opens up in the back to go out to the park. This part was one of the biggest factors when we were looking for a house. It had to have a fence and a yard and now we got the bonus park in back.

When you walk in you come right into the Living room or you can head upstairs. I am excited to see what everything looks like without someone else's stuff in it, but oh well just imagine the possibilities.

When you walk through the living room you come into the dining/kitchen/
another family room.

Kitchen (in case you were wondering. he he)

Downstairs bathroom. It is off the kitchen.

Then the garage. This is one thing I am so so excited for.

Then we head upstairs. To your right there is a

Bathroom and
Three Bedrooms imagine, a craft/sewing room, the girls room and a play/guest room. I am seriously loving it.

If you head to the left you will have your laundry room and then the Master Bedroom.

I think this place is going to look a little empty considering we really won't have that much stuff to fill up all the rooms, but I am excited for the change. I can't wait until I can look around and think wow everything I own has a place and I don't have to have some of my stuff at Three different houses. it is going to be heaven!

Post 5: One Day Vacation

2010-06-24T14:11:00.008-06:00

Jon and I LOVE Salt Lake City. I know it is an almost unreachable dream, but I would love to move back and live here someday. We took a day off and went to explore Temple Square.

Claire couldn't have been Happier. She could go almost wherever she wanted and she enjoyed every minute of it.

Well until something like this would happen. She would get so mad when Marcella tried to make her go where she wanted, but .....

Claire would have none of that. When she saw her chance she would take it...

And run her little heart out.

We decided to take a tour of the Conference Center first. It is beautiful and amazing.

Both girls liked the top the best. I think they liked it mainly because they could just run around and climb up on things. I loved the view. All the wildflowers were in bloom. It smelt like heaven up there.

Then we headed over to have lunch at the Lion House. It was the perfect place to eat. We sat outside and when the girls were done eating they just played on the steps and the grass while Jon and I got to enjoy our meal. It was fabulous.

Next stop: Temple Square. Marcella loved this fountain.

and this one...

mainly because she was splashing her Daddy.

She loved this one too.

Claire was still in her "running around mode" so I couldn't get her to hold still by Marcella next to the Christus. I love being able to go and see this statue. It is so calming to just sit and look at it.

Next stop was Gateway to let the girls play in the water. I will let you decide who had more fun.

This will go down as one of my favorite days. It was so nice to spend time together and for the most part it was all free. I can't wait until we can do it again.

Post 4: Summer days Driftin' away....

2010-06-24T12:00:00.005-06:00

Marcella Bella has been having a lot of fun this summer. We have spent days outside running through the sprinklers or playing in our kiddie pool, although this week has been the first time it's been warm enough that you can actually sit in the kiddie pool and not feel like you stepped in the water at the north pool. Marcella and I are loving it. (Claire not so much. We usually go out while she is taking a nap, maybe next year she will enjoy it more.)

Post 3: The Cabin

2010-06-23T17:55:00.008-06:00

We headed up to Yellowstone this trip and had a lot of fun checking out all the animals. Here are the girls trying to stay warm while we were looking at the Bison.

These three waited I think their whole LIVES for this. Or in other words it took FOREVER for Old Faithful to finally go off.

While this little one was pretty content just hanging out with her new best friend Uncle Spencer.

This would be the one who decided that going to to cabin without Jon and taking the two girls would be a fabulous idea. For the most part it was, but there were other times I was wondering what I was thinking.... for instance...

Take this sweet innocent little Claire... Almost 2 (and I am wondering what wonderful things I am going to learn in her terrible 2's stage that I am not learning right now.) She looks so sweet, but don't let that fool you. I had just spent the last 20 minutes trying to get her to keep her shoes on. After pure exhaustion on my part I gave up and ....

I gave her a stick and I ran for the marshmallows. I was in desperate need of a perfect s'more.... well you know what happens when you become a mother. The things you want are no longer first priority and when I looked over at this little one signing PLEASE like crazy I just gave in and gave it to her.

Yummy--that was good. Just as I finished roasting one for myself, I looked over and I saw this...

How could you not give it to her. Look at those eyes. It is like she is saying, "Momma are you really going to eat that?" So on to number 2.

And Three....

Four..
Right after number five I noticed Claire was just chilling. She looked like if she had one more she would have popped! So instead I asked for a smile and got this...

and I got to finally eat my s'more. YUMMY!!

Here is Claire in her Marshmallow coma. (Side note - this cabin trip was pretty cold. It ended up being pretty raining and it even snowed on us. Mom had to do some finishing work on the windows of the room we were staying in so we kept the heater blowing on the windows almost the whole time to help them dry out. boy did it make our little room nice and toasty warm. it was great!)

Thanks so much to everyone who helped me out on this trip. you guys are the best! I am going to be really sad that we won't be able to take trips up here as often as we would like.

Post 2: A little more

2010-06-21T19:23:00.005-06:00

Marcella had her Sweet Pea (that's the name of her class) graduation for preschool. They sang some cute songs. She has had a blast this year and LOVES learning and going to school.

She was super suprised to see Grandma, Grandpa and Nathan there. Thanks for coming, guys.

We now have another nephew to add to the clan. David and Rosalee had a little boy and named him Henry. He is so sweet and tiny. We sure love him.

We did it. The first of many pictures of Claire smiling that are actually in focus. Love it!

Now for a little teaser. What do you think we did for Memorial Weekend.... Let's just say there were a lot of little cow girls running around.

What have we been up to lately (Post 1)

2010-06-21T09:59:00.010-06:00

Well I sure haven't posted in a while. So here is the first of hopefully many updates in the next couple of days. The end of April we moved down the street to basically house sit for some friends. After we got that all settled and most of our stuff in storage we started doing some fun things.

I ran in the Race for the Cure with my friend from high school Sandy Jo! It was so good to see her even though I wouldn't say it was a "race" I am still loving the fact that I like to run now. Hopefully this will last long enough that I might even get better at it.

Then this little one....

and all her cross-eyed cuteness went in for surgery on May 12. After being told by one eye doctor that "we should only do surgery to fix her strabismus around 1st grade or so...we should really wait to see if she is even 'high-functioning' before we do surgery," I decided that I needed another opinion. After talking with the second doctorwe decided that it would be better to fix her eyes now. He reasoned that good vision would give her a chance to develop to the best of her ability. We heartily agree.

This is the only picture I got right after the surgery, and I am a little sad I didn't get a better one. The poor girl had a huge black eye and looked completely miserable. The worst part about her recovery was when I found out I have the Dougal fainting genes. I could barely even hold her because I felt so sick seeing her like that. It was awful. By the next day though she was up and running around.

By Sunday (May 15)....

She decided it would be fun to take a walk by herself. We were all in Caroline's backyard just playing and I looked around and looked at Jon and said, "Where's Claire?" We went into panic mode, running around to the front of the house hoping that she wasn't in the road. Jon looked around and saw her six houses down, holding Jeff's neighbor's hand, walking back towards us. Relieved that she wasn't hurt or playing in the road, it was pretty funny she was 6 houses away just cruisin' on the sidewalk.
What a little stinker!

Even though she still looks a little miserable in this picture, she was having the time of her life. She would be happy if we just let her go wherever she desires. Take sacrament meeting, for example. She's miserable on the bench, but completely happy just running around the gym. She doesn't have to have toys, books, or food - she just wants to walk and run and be free.

This was our entertainment that night. It was fantastic. They sang us a couple of songs as we roasted marshmallows on Caroline's fire pit. It was amazing.

I love that these two love playing together. It is so fun to hear there conversations and watch them play. They are so cute.

Jon and I took a little trip to Indiana to find a place to live this fall when Jon starts at Purdue (Nauvoo Temple above). We had so much fun. Thank you so much to the Grandmothers who took the girls for us. You are the best.

We had some awesome luck looking for houses and we were able to close on this one just last week.

Jon and I both agree that, while it's not our dream house (I want an old small brick house that has lots of character and he wants to be surrounded by land and a forest), it will be more than fabulous for us now. Going from a 725 sq. foot apartment to something with a garage and more than one tiny bathroom will be amazing. We can't wait to come and move in!! To BE Continued....

I'm Dreaming...

2010-04-26T21:42:00.000-06:00

Yes, I know I shouldn't be saying this, but I really am dreaming of "a white Christmas". I was looking through some pictures and I stumbled upon this one. I would love to snuggle up in a blanket right now with that delicious looking cup of hot chocolate and watch the snow come down. (I know I will be regretting this post the middle of this week when it is really snowing...) Happy Dreaming!

one down...

2010-04-16T20:35:00.003-06:00

I must admit I have been pleasantly surprised at how much I have enjoyed Anne of Green Gables. I love the whole series, but for some reason the first one has always been my least favorite. I have never been able to get past the first 30 pages and so I listened to it once and moved on to my favorites.

While reading, I kept going back to many forgotten day dreams. I used to think about how nice it would be to live in the 1900's. To live in a simpler time. Granted I would miss being able to flip a switch and have light, flushing a toilet, or flying in an airplane, but when I think about that time period I can't help but imagine it was more unique and magnificent in so many ways.

I love that Anne is so descriptive. For the few days of reading I have been transported and "lived" the life I would have loved to. I love that Anne has red hair. It makes my connection with her feel that much stronger.

I love that you can read a book and gain insight into what you can do to make your life better. When I came across this passage, for example, it just hit me.

"It's really wonderful, Marilla, what you can do when you're truly anxious to please a certain person."

What a simple thought that has power in it's meaning. Hopefully you along with me can take this small morsel and change the way we think or feel about someone in our life. How great the world would be if we put all efforts in trying to please one person we know.

I urge all to read or reread this book. It is delightful. If you are anything like me and would love to live back when, you will see yourself in Avonlea walking right alongside Anne. Enjoy.

"UP"

2010-04-06T09:17:00.002-06:00

"UP" is what you will hear Claire say after you get her off Marcella's table. She has started to climb and thinks it's sooooo funny. I will usually hear a conversation that goes something like this:

"Claire.. oh, no. Claire! Mom! Mom! it's a emergency, emergency. Claire, that's so dangerous. You need to be safe Claire."

I will go into their room and find something similar to this. Except yesterday she thought it would be funny to stand up on the table. What a silly goose! Hope you all have a fabulous day!

Books

2010-03-30T22:10:00.004-06:00

The other day I heard myself telling someone how I feel as though I need to step it up, in giving my kids the opportunity to gain a LOVE for reading, not just because I love to read but because I am married to an English Professor. I have been pondering a lot about how I can set a better example for my kids. I have decided to set a goal that I have been wanting to set for a while. So here goes nothing...

(Sidenote: I love having pictures to go along with my posts and to tell you the truth the picture that would go perfect with this post is going to have to be left to your imagination. My camera battery needs to be charged, with a lost charger, hoping to find soon. I have seemed to misplace my little camera, so I am left to shooting slide film... yes I know the last person you knew that shot slide film was your Dad and it was all on his mission, but that is a post for another time...)

So on to your imagination:
Picture a nice 3' x 6' bookcase filled with one of the widest varieties of books you could think of. They range from Cookbooks to John D Fitzgerald to Cormac McCarthy mixed in the middle of our free church books from our Deseret Book days.
I have decided to pick one of the 6 shelves and read all the books on that shelf. (really let's be honest I have read maybe 1/3 of the books in the whole bookcase and I think that is a little pathetic!)
I have chosen the middle shelf on the left side. As I decided this was going to be the shelf that would soon take up a lot of my free time over the next year I was sitting on the couch. The closer I got to the shelf I had a few thoughts that went something like this:
The Silmarillion (seriously how many of the average person has ever even heard of this book?) well, Jon really liked it. I could give it a try, wait no I want to be able to say I have read ALL the books on that shelf. I am going to HAVE to read that book...
Sweet. I remember sitting on my floor leaning up against my bed laughing hysterically while reading Shel Silverstiens book A light in the Attic. Awesome, I can read that one in a day.
Bleakhouse.... That book sure looks like it has a ton of pages....
I would hate to bore you with all of my reactions to each book that I realized was on the shelf and I started wondering how I could fit SO many books on one shelf. After a few minutes I decided I would have to make this goal possible. After a few needed switcheroos I was ready to start and accept my goal. The end result: 31 books.
I will list the titles and their Authors. If their is anyone out there that would like to join me in my quest I would love to start a "Pick a book off Kanien's book shelf" book club. There is a pretty wide variety of books, except it just happened to be the shelf that has all my Jane Austin.... Here are the titles and you can choose if you are up to the let's read all the books I SHOULD have read in high school challenge.

A light in the Attic ~ Shel Silverstein
Anne of green Gables ~ L.M. Montgomery
Black Beauty~ Anna Sewell
Peter Pan ~ James M Barrie
Heidi ~ Jolianna Spyri
Little Women ~ Louisa May Alcott
A Child's book of Stories
A Room with a view ~ E.M. Forster
The Hobbit ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
Jane Austin:
Pride and Prejudice
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
Emma
Mansfield Park
Sense and Sensibility
Middlemarch ~ George Elliot
Where the Heart Leads ~ Stansfield
When Hearts Meet ~ Stansfield
Letters ~ Sister Hinckley
The Great Brain ~ John D. Fitzgerald
Dreams of Trespass ~ Fatima Mernissi
A Heart Like His ~ Virginia Pearce
The Giver ~ Lois Lowery
Silas Marner ~ George Elliot
Howls Moving Castle ~ Diana Wynne Jones
Castle in the Air ~ Diana Wynne Jones
The Secret Garden ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Jungle Books ~ Rudyard Kipling
Winnie the Pooh ~ A. A. Milne
Treasure Island ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
The Classic Fairy Tales

First Book: Anne of green Gables. (Side note: I have never finished this book. I don't even know if I have ever even gotten to the half way point. I LOVE all the other books in the series, I just have always skipped the first one to get on to the "better" ones. I hope I find I am completely wrong and I fall in love with this one as much as the rest.)
Wish me Luck!

Claire Walking

2010-03-16T19:23:00.004-06:00

This post is mainly for grandparents. Claire has been taking steps for a couple of months, but she's just started to stand up on her own and continue walking after she falls.

Mom's at Young Women's tonight....

2010-03-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

She said I had to give the girls a bath. She didn't say we couldn't watch a movie, though. He he he....Ponyo, here we come!

A few things I will miss

2010-03-07T14:32:00.007-07:00

As you all know from Jon's Post (almost ready to post, I just couldn't wait) we are heading to...

As I was looking at some of our pictures today I started to think about ALL the things I am going to miss when we leave. Here are a few of the things I will miss most.

THE CABIN....

in the summer &

The Winter.

The mountains! We really live in an amazing place. I love all the beauty that surrounds us and I am really going to miss seeing the mountains everyday.

Utah Football Games. We will always bleed RED. The only saving grace is we have this to look forward to this fall...

Of course our families. I would have to say that Jon and I would do just about anything our families asked us to do. We sure do LOVE you guys and it is going to be so hard to be without you. Thank you for being our Best Friends and please come and see us whenever you want.

We have made so many wonderful friends and I hate to admit how bad I am going to miss them as well. I feel like a little girl who is going to cry because my parents are making me move away from my friends. It sure is going to be really hard. I want to thank all of you who have been so nice to our family. We sure love you guys!

Last but not least... since we have a couple months before we head out I am starting to make a list of "must sees" before we leave. For example call me crazy, but I have never been to Arches or Zions (I know a little pathetic) but I would love your input on fun places we need to go before we head out to the mid-west. So keep your suggestions coming and I will try to not think about how we will be leaving so soon. Love you all and have a fabulous afternoon!

2 Reasons why having kids is soo worth it

2010-03-03T13:35:00.003-07:00

Reason 1.
When you are so sick you can't get out of bed, they tell your sweetheart that they have to go and get you these and make this:

Reason 2

How could that smile not make you happy?

At least it is Snowy

2010-02-24T11:30:00.001-07:00

Today. That makes being sick a little better. Little Claire is one lucky duck.

She has a snuggle buddy, and someone who loves to read to her to make her feel better.

Feel better soon!

Valentine's Day

2010-02-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

This year was a lot of fun although we didn't do our regular festivities... of a fun dinner with the girls.... but Jon made up for it this year. He got the best present for Marcella. It seriously made her day. If you were lucky to come over after he gave it to her you were able to see what I am talking about. I think she told everyone she knew that her daddy got her some perfume and flowers. It was so cute. I hope you all had a fun day, I know we sure did.

What were you doing at 2 am?

2010-02-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

I seriously have some issues. I love doing cute little things for holidays. I think it is so fun to celebrate. The only problem is, I always think about these things late. So when I saw this cute idea yesterday, right before I had a million things I had to do for YW's and our new beginnings last night, I knew I had to make it. So while I picked up the bread for our dinner I decided to grab a few extra things and then do this little project after YW's. I would have plenty of time.... Until I just couldn't miss the fun exercise while we watch American Idol party afterwards. Long Story short I did most of this right before I went to bed last night and then I rushed to finish them this morning before Marcella went to school. I think they turned out so cute and I thought I would share.

** Side note... while I was finishing these this morning, Claire was trapped. She could have gone and played in her room, but instead she sat here and let us know how mean we were. So Sad, but at least I had her contained for more than 2 seconds! Thanks Shana!!

My Little Claire

2010-02-07T21:54:00.001-07:00

This cutie pie also known as "little stinker bug" has been filling our house with lots of excitement lately.

She loves getting lots of attention. Playing games and singing songs is a must.

Laughing has been a huge thing lately. Marcella can get her to full on belly laugh for minutes on end. It is my all time favorite sound in the world!

She also loves anything you don't want her to get into. 9 times out of 10 she finds a way to get it. We love you Claire Bear!

A Picture says a thousand words....

2009-12-23T18:40:00.000-07:00

I thought our parents would get a good kick out of what happened during our dinner tonight. Merry Christmas everyone!

As Marcella would say.."we are Twinners!"

2009-12-14T15:19:00.002-07:00

I just wanted to let you all know I have lots to blog about since I have missed a whole week of posting all our fun things we have done. I was going to do it right this minute and I can not seem to find my camera, so you will have to wait another day. In the mean time, though, I hope you enjoy these pictures of the girls. They were just adorable on Sunday, and after church we had a little photo shoot. We finally got Claire to smile in a couple. They had a lot of fun. Merry Christmas!!

Just a little Something...

2009-12-04T21:30:00.003-07:00

we never said to our parents when we were 4...
The other day I told Marcella I didn't know what something was. She looked at me and said, "well Mommy if you don't know, we can look it up online. Then you WILL know. Just go look it up!"

23, 22, 21...

2009-12-04T21:12:00.001-07:00

We have been pretty busy the past couple of days, but they have been filled with lots of fun exciting things. Wednesday night we went to Marcella's Christmas Party at her school. It has been confirmed she is still afraid of Santa, and I am not sure if she will ever in her life sit on his lap, so when she calmed down enough to realize we weren't going to make her sit on Santa's lap, she had a fun time. They had lots and lots of yummy treats. We made a really cute ornament, and we got to listen to Marcella sing three songs with her classmates. I am really in love with her school. She has so much fun and is learning a lot.

This little one is usually asleep when we do our fun crafts. I am sorry to say that it is mostly planned that way, but if you ever want to come over and try to stay one step ahead of this girl I will have you over any day. It would give me a wonderful break. She has been keeping me on my toes and has been wearing me out. Her new word is up or "ou" for out. It is super cute to hear her say it and she has been picking up on her signs really well. The best is her snuggles lately. Just looking at her makes me want to go wake her up and squeeze her! Don't worry I know better than to do that!

This is Miss Farrah Marcella's main teacher. She is so nice and Marcella loves her.

This beautiful little lady has saved my sanity more than once the past couple weeks, and I was glad to be able to hang out with them the past couple days. This is Caroline before her commencement, and...

...after. She did it. She graduated and is now officially a Master Gardner. I know this is a little cheesy, but thanks for letting me come with you guys to see you get this achievement. I am super proud of you and am excited to have you help me figure out how to make my little piece of flower bed look nicer this coming spring. Way to Go!!

The past 2 days of our countdown I haven't taken any pictures and I am sad. While we were up with the McCann's we made these Christmas Wreaths out of tissue paper. With the scraps Owen and Marcella got creative and made some cute pictures. Thanks for doing a craft with us. We had so much fun!

I made Fridays on our countdown the days that we watch Christmas movies. Marcella can invite a friend over, too, if she wants. She also earned a Dessert Bar from her job chart, so we combined the two activities and had a fun time eating yummy banana splits and watching Mickey's Christmas Carol. Thanks for coming over Hallie, Marcella had a lot of fun. We aren't getting less busy so I will try to keep up. Merry Christmas, and I hope you all are having a fabulous one so far.

23 more days to go..

2009-12-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

Today we made card garland. It was perfect! It has just been one of those days and this project took about 5 minutes and it was the first 5 minutes of Joy today. (not really, but it felt like it)

We hung it up and put our first card of the year on it. As you can see we have plenty of space and we are eagerly awaiting your Christmas Cards.

What a silly goose! Thanks for the fun laughs today, you sure know how to make me smile!

24 days 'til Christmas

2009-12-01T14:19:00.001-07:00

It started out that we were suppose to be making cute rick rack cards today, but it turned out a little differently when all was said and done. We got everything out and then it just evolved into something completely different. This year for Christmas I asked Marcella to tell me 5 reasons why she loves her Daddy and then we thought of a gift for each reason. I am sad that I can't give away what she said, but it sure was cute and Jon is going to be getting some interesting yet fun presents. We ended up making a gift tag for each of the gifts and we wrote on the back the reasons why she thinks her Daddy is the best in the world. I will have to post a picture when we get the presents together, it sure is going to be cute.

It is a little hard to read, but it spells out Daddy. I think Marcella would be the happiest girl alive if I just let her play with glitter all day long. She loves the stuff. Have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Count Down

2009-11-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

I have been excited for this Christmas Season. I got almost All of my Christmas shopping done the day after Thanksgiving and I have been working on my plan for our count down for weeks! It has taken a lot of time and planning, but I am ready and the past couple days have been a blast. The first day of our countdown we made the chain. I am still amazed at how little you have to do with kids to make them have soo much fun. On the inside of each ring has the craft or thing we get to do for that day. On the fun polka dot ring days, she gets to invite a friend over to do that craft with her. Yesterday, 26 more days til Christmas, We learned about Jesus's birth for FHE and then watched the nativity movie. It was a great way to start out our Christmas season.

25 Days until Christmas...

Today we made a little gum drop santa, snowman, Christmas tree, snails, and mushrooms. This project took about 45 min from start to completely cleaned up and was so fun. We had lots of laughs when making the snowman, because his nose is HUGE!

Here is the beginning of the Santa. The best about this is she was able to make most of these herself , with little help from me.

Our end creation... it reminds me of a snowglobe, only you can't shake it. he he. I hope that you will all enjoy our countdown to Christmas activities and if you want my list of things we are going to make or do, just let me know. Merry Christmas!!