The most wonderful time of the year (almost)

I love Halloween so much that it is almost the most wonderful time of the year. What a great way to kick off the holiday season. From here to January it's all happiness! January, on the other hand, is another story.

This is her new favorite shirt. And it's totally true, she is batty for candy corn. I don't know who possibly let her try it...

We went to the annual Jack-o-launch a couple weekends ago. They had catapults that could launch pumpkins a mile! Our course was only 800 feet so they had to tame it down a bit, but it was still pretty cool!


We went with some friends to the pumpkin patch and they had a play area full of corn instead of sand. Despite the indifferent look on her face, I think she really liked it!

Just playing dress-ups getting ready for the big day.

Happy Halloween!
Stay tuned for our awesome costumes...well that is if they turn out. If they are awesome there will be pictures, if not then you'll have to use your imagination.

It's Fall Y'all!

We are loving the fall weather around here!

We enjoyed the last couple days of summer-like weather at the pool with

these two and their moms of course! Thanks for inviting us along guys. It was lots of fun!


Clara was invited to her first birthday party. She didn't really understand the "stand there for a picture" instructions.


But she had a blast and loved her crown!

We kicked off the fall season with a trip to Salida, (rhymes with saliva) Colorado which meant we got to stay in a hotel. Clara loved it!


Of course we stopped by the pool and the hot tub. Clara's first time in the hot tub and I think she liked it!

The whole reason for the trip was that Nate ran a half marathon in the Fall Leaves Classic in Buena Vista.

Look at him leave her in the dust!

He took second in his age group. Not too shabby! I'm still trying to convince him that this needs to be an annual tradition. We're excited for the rest of the fall festivities!

Food Blog

I have a fetish for trying new recipes and I have a habit of taking pictures of what I cook. So, naturally, I decided to start a food blog. Nothing fancy, but it makes me happy. :-) If you're interested, check it out at julielovestocook.blogspot.com

Notice anything?

She has the book bucket completely emptied and hasn't touched the toys. This is a regular sight at our house, and I have to say that I LOVE it! Even if it means that I have been forced to commit several more books to memory in the past several days. We have many favorites at our house, but lately it has been "The Big Red Barn" "Where the Wild Things Are" "Good Dog Carl" "Goodnight Baby" and "When I Was Little."


And she's a talker! At this rate I think she will be reading before she is walking!

Birthday Bash

Clara was sick the weekend of her birthday so we stretched the celebration out to over a week! Lucky girl! Here is her opening her presents on her actual birthday. She got a doll with all the accessories, clothes, blocks, and books.



She loves to give her baby hugs.

Later that weekend we took her to her first Rockies game and she loved it!

This is her practicing pulling up on the toy bin. (I'm not sure why the photo is so dark...)

We had a little party with some friends the next weekend, but I forgot to take pictures. Oh well, thanks for coming guys!


She wasn't too thrilled about the cake at first. In fact she screamed and insisted on getting out of the chair after one minute. Then after I got her cleaned up she saw the cake again and reached for it. That's kinda how things operate around here, everything has to be her idea! Then she liked the cake and made a royal mess!


The next day she got to go to her first BYU football game. Even though the Cougars lost, she had a blast! We got to go to dinner with Pat, Jeff, Marcus, Natalie, and Turner afterwards. (Again, no pictures.) Thanks for inviting us guys! I think this was a pretty good week-long birthday celebration! Luckily she's not old enough to remember and expect this much celebrating every year!

1 Year Old!

Today is Clara's birthday! This has seriously been the fastest year of my life! She is such a cute, fun, smart little girl and we love having her in our family. Here is a look back at the last year.

One day old

Six months old

Almost 1 year old

Clara loves to try new foods, especially big people foods.

We recently discovered that she loves playing in the dirt, but what kid doesn't?

Her dad is her favorite person ever and I am A-Ok with that!

She LOVES to swing and do pretty much anything outside.

Did I mention that she likes food? And she hates getting her hair done, that's why this hairdo had to be documented because it may never be repeated!

She has quite the personality and has learned how to make us laugh. Her dad taught her this little trick.

Ripping up magazines is her absolute favorite past time. And she spends a lot of time doing it. Whatever makes her happy, right?

She loves her stuffed animals and will give them hugs and say "awww". It's pretty darn cute! She also has become quite the champion sleeper at night. She says lots of words. The ones we hear most frequently are mama, daddy, hi (more like hy-ee with her whole face), je-joo (Jesus), and she can sign milk and more. She LOVES books and will sit and look at books on her own or sit while we read books to her for quite awhile. She has always been very socially aware, but now that she is more interactive she loves to make friends. She will smile and say hi to just about anyone we walk past in the store and at church. (Any tips on keeping a social butterfly from being a distraction during sacrament meeting?) She is really good at waving bye-bye (backwards), crawling (frog style), giving hugs, and giving kisses. She just started pulling up on stuff and I know walking isn't too far away. She is our munchkin and we love her to pieces! Happy birthday Clara!

Sicko

Nothing is sadder to me than a sick little baby. While she's had her share of runny noses and coughs, this is the first illness that has really knocked her out. She's had a pretty high fever since Monday afternoon. The doctor said it was probably Roseola which starts as a fever then turns into a rash. The fever is gone now (thank goodness) and still no sign of the rash. We are crossing our fingers on that one.

This is what I saw a lot of this week. When she was really grumpy and just not feeling well all I had to do was turn on Signing Time (a movie with baby sign language and songs), give her her blankie, water, and a stuffed animal, and lie her down on a pillow. She would instantly calm down and stay in that position for a good 20 minutes. It was the saddest, sweetest thing ever.

Today at lunch I was feeding her yogurt, but she didn't want it. I left it on her tray with the spoon just to see what would happen. Well, see for yourself! I think she's feeling better, what do you think?