Clara is such a cutie. She had a great birthday. She loves helping cook – so, of course, she wanted to help mae her own birthday cake. She wanted a horse cake (She loves the animated horse show, Spirit). Now she calls the toy horses that we used to decorate her cake her ‘candle horses.’ She chose to go to Ikea to celebrate her birthday. The kids played in the play place while Nic, Molly, ad I shopped. We had meatballs in the restaurant upstairs for dinner and then drove by the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake. Clara thanks everyone for birthday well-wishes, gifts, and your thoughts/love. (Brooklyn is so sweet – She asked if she could have her class make a birthday book for Clara like they make for the kids in her class celebrating a birthday.) Videos taken on her birthday shoule be posted soon!
I think Clara is hillarious peeking out from behind Talmage. Brookie is sweet. Poor Molls is not so happy.
We got a bigger tree last year at an after-Christmas sale. We were so excited to put it up this year. Nic said it was a sinch – even pre-lit. I was excited that we didn’t have to prop it up on an upside down rubbermaid tote again this year to make it reach the window to be seen from outside! The kids loved hanging the ornaments. Fun times.
This is Nic hiding out in our storage room and opening his Christmas present (PS3) early. He said, “There’s really no logical reason to wait.” Ah well. After that, he offered to go get my present for me early too – a deep freezer. Thanks Hun – Love You!
Our friends the Thackers invited us to go to a BYU Men’s Basketball Game this weekend. Since face paint was on sale that day at Wal-Mart for 20 cents (hooray for 90%-off-all- Halloween-stuff sale), we painted faces to show our team spirit. Popcorn, basketball, pep-band, friends, half-time entertainment – yes, fun was had by all. Molly chilled on Nic’s lap most of the time. Brooklyn was scared of being up so high. She stayed glued to her seat and even freaked out whenever Clara stood up, “Sit down, you’re going to fall down a mile!” It is funny that Clara was so comfortable playing in the bleachers so high up, because she tenses up when ever Nic and I try to pick her up to play airplane or anything like that. Even thought the game didn’t start until 7:30pm, everyone lasted until the end. Fun family venue.
Brooklyn didn't want her face painted at first, but decided to join in after seeing the other kids get painted.
Nic was in Boston this Halloween for a business conference. (We did get to celebrate with him the night before at a family party with our friends the Hansens.)
On Halloween, the kids and I celebrated by going grocery shopping in costume, making our own trick or treat bags, drawing faces on pumpkins (and watermellons that didn’t grow very well in our garden), trick or treating around the block, watching Ice Age 3 – Dawn of the Dinorsaurs, and eating popcorn.
We missed Daddy, but had a great time. One of Brooklyn’s favorite parts was helping hand out candy to trick or treaters that came to our door. Clara has been carrying her little pumpkin named Flower around for three days now. She even has it ‘watch’ her sleep at night on the floor by her bed. Talmage probably picked the namd Boston for his pumpkin because that’s where Nic is at. Funny kids.
Princess Jasmine, Pink Glow-In-The-Dark Skeleton, and Superman
Two Sunday’s ago, we took a lovely drive along the alpine loop that traces the back of Mt. Timpanogas. The kids loved going under a tunnel on the way there. The colors of the changing leaves were beautiful! Driving on skinny mountain roads with endless ravines right outside my window always makes me a bit tense, but Nic assured me that he’d keep us safe, and he did. We got out to take a few pictures, but it was chilly and windy. Nic taught us a song: ‘I love the mountains. I love the rolling hills. I love the fountains. I love the daffodills…’ The kids liked the ‘boom-de-ada’s the best!
Yes, we put our house up for sale. If we can sell it for what we need, we’d like to rent a place between Riverton and Salt Lake to cut down on Nic’s comute. While we don’t know if this is possible in today’s housing market, we do know that the Lord will put us where he needs us - and we are more than willing to conform to that. Here are some pictures of our house. If you know of anyone looking for a 5 bedroom 3 bath home in Utah Valley, let us know .
I just told the kids, “Sorry for loosing my temper. I shouldn’t have yelled.” Clara then said, “Ya, cause you should be better than dinosaurs – hehe!” Too true.
Nic told Talmage that we were eating Yorkshire pudding. “You’re Short Pudding?!” he exlaimed.
In church today, Brooklyn learned that the ‘books’ when Jesus was alive were called scrolls and looked like rolled up pieces of paper. Brooklyn raised her hand and asked, “Did they have chapter scrolls?” (Like the chapter books she is reading in school – hehe)
Talmage: Good thing it’s almost summer so we can go to the summer-tary.
Clara told Heather (who had on an undershirt) that it’s bad manners for her to wear 2 shirts at the same time.
Talmage was telling me a story that included more than 1 giraffe. He called them (logically) giraves.
