A fun January

Historically January is my least favorite month. The weather, let down after the holidays, lack of fun  things to look forward to, etc just adds up to not very much fun. This January was the best January I can remember!

 One of my New Year's Resolutions was to do something pre-school like/fun and unique at least 3 days a week with Clara. This is a fun and easy one that I found on Pinterest. We just took turns putting pipe cleaners in a colander, and she loved it!

 Clara loves to dress up, especially in Daddy's things!

 This is Clara's latest "smile for the camera" face. She has tea parties several times a day.

 One week for family night we baked cookies. They all just couldn't wait for the timer to ring!

 Nate has passed on his love of dipping cookies in milk to Clara...what a great tradition!

 Gracie wants to know why she doesn't get any cookies...

 We took a trip on Saturday afternoon down to the temple. Clara loved seeing the temple. We were lucky enough to be there as a wedding party was coming out. Clara's favorite part of the day was the pretty white dress!

 The highlight of January was going to see Brad Paisley as part of his Virtual Reality Tour! Nate had gotten me tickets for my birthday. I kept having nightmares that our kids would get sick right before or our babysitter would fall through, but it all worked out perfectly! Thank you to our good friend Melanie for babysitting. It was a much needed night out and easily the best concert I've been to.

 So, our tickets may have been in the second to last row from the top, but it was still an amazing experience!

 This is when Carrie Underwood came out to sing their duet "Remind Me." It was the highlight for me. I couldn't believe I was actually hearing Carrie Underwood live! Was it really her, or was it all part of the "virtual reality" tricks? hmmmmm The highlight for Nate was when Tim Tebow came out on stage to "sing" with Brad. No tricks there, it was really Tim.

Overall it was a great night and a great month!

Resolutions

Like many of you we set some resolutions around here. Some of our biggest ones are to exercise more and be more organized around the house. We started out by using some Christmas money to get a treadmill. 70 bucks (50 for the treadmill and 20 for the truck to transport it) well spent! The kids love playing in the exersaucer and watch movies on our new portable dvd player while I burn a few calories. Nate has also gotten back into running and plans to run a few races this summer. Last weekend we put up shelves in the kids' closet to organize the toys and it is a huge improvement in our quality of life! I also have a goal to do more pre-school type activities with Clara and to decorate our home more with some diy projects. I'm sure that this will take all year to decorate how I want, but I will be sure to post pictures as I make progress.

Clara found her dad's running shoes and wanted to show them off.

We spent "pre-school time" today making Cheerio necklaces. She was way more into it than I had anticipated.

So proud to model her necklace. I can't stand how grown up she looks in this picture!

We've been building houses with the blocks a lot lately. Here is one of her many creations.

This is a little project I've been working on thanks to inspiration from my cousin Laura. So easy, so cute!

Our organized toy closet!

I took pictures of what is in each bin so Clara can identify where things go.

If you can excuse the mismatched tie-dye and stripes, how could you resist that round face, those big eyes, and that roly poly body?

Five Months Old!

On January 1 our sweet Gracie turned 5 months old and we stayed up until midnight just to celebrate! She is the sweetest baby you can imagine. My favorite thing is to go check on her sleeping and find her cooing and playing and then to see her face light up when she sees me! She is as roly poly as ever. She has rolls on her rolls and creases in her creases! She loves to put EVERYTHING in her mouth. Her latest trick is to take her binky out of her mouth. She thinks she is quite clever until she realizes that she can't get it back in or she smacks herself in the face trying! She LOVES Clara. She will stare Clara down just waiting for her to do something funny. Usually she doesn't have to wait long because Clara loves to perform for Grace. Clara can always get Gracie to laugh. I, on the other hand, am lucky to get a mild chuckle out of the girl. She is a great sleeper and loves to be swaddled with her pacifier. She hates having her nose wiped and has had to endure a lot of that lately because she has her first cold. She likes baths, toys, and her bumbo, but mostly she just loves being held. She is almost rolling over and almost sitting up on her own, but I'm in no rush. I love the "happy sedentary" stage while it lasts! We love our sweet Gracie!

At her 4 month check up these were her stats:

weight: 16 lbs. 6.5 oz (95th percentile)

height: 26.5 in (99th percentile)

head: 17.25 in (98th percentile)

The doctor commented that she is a proportional over achiever!

By comparison, Clara was 15 lbs. 12.5 oz and 27 in long at the same age with the same exact head measurement! Clara started tapering off at around 9 months, so I'm guessing that Gracie will do the same.

On New Year's Day (well the 2nd, since Nate was off) we had a traditional southern fried chicken. We skipped the collard greens and black-eyed peas (sorry mom) but it was my first time frying chicken and the expert (Nate) declared it delicious!

Clara also got a daddy pedicure to ring in the new year. Yes, Nate painted her toenails and they looked quite fantastic! It was so cute I had to document it. I hope she realizes what an amazing daddy she has!

Christmas in Idaho!

We were lucky enough to go to Boise for Christmas this year. Some of the highlights were, dinner at Andi and Spencer's and watching Tanner's Seussical performance, Clara getting spoiled with constant playmates, Christmas eve at Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's, Clara's pure joy on Christmas morning, lots of yummy food, escaping to an afternoon thanks to Nana and Papa for babysitting, a late night trip to Merritt's for scones, playing with cousins at the bounce house place, bowling, an evening family devotional with the grown ups, Nana and Papa convincing Gracie to take awesome naps on their bed, Clara and Olive wearing matching tutus and holding hands everywhere they went, church on Christmas day, etc, etc, etc. Unfortunately I am not the greatest at taking pictures and did not get a single shot of most of the family...sorry guys. It was great to get to spend the holiday with family, to say the least.

Gracie just hangin with Nana before dinner on Christmas eve.
Clara on the treasure hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's...the most talked about family tradition, I believe.

Clara modeling her new things...and this is just after the stocking.

Belle and Clara in their matching dresses.

The Cinderella dress that she "almost" wore to church.

Nate and his prized Nerf gun.

Gracie and all her loot. As long as she had something to put in her mouth she was happy!

To say that Clara loved the bounce houses would be an understatement!

These 2 are second cousins and are just one month apart. Molly belongs to Nate's cousin Brett and his wife Jody.

Checking each other out.

Four generations!

Pre-Christmas Festivities

This was a regular occurance at our house in December.
Clara loved playing with the nativities all month long.

And I had a birthday! Sometimes it's hard to cram a birthday in among all the holiday hullabaloo, but I love Christmas so I don't mind! I had the best brithday ever this year, thanks to my amazing friends and family. The highlights were a wonderful at home date (took the kids to a friend's house then went home to cook a quiet dinner together...I highly recommend it!), an immersion blender for all the soups and milkshakes I like to make, and tickets to see Brad Paisley!!! The concert is next weekend and we are so excited!!! A babysitter is still to be arranged...any volunteers?

Don't you love how excited Clara and Gracie were for my birthday?

This was the. best. cake. ever. no. argument.

I had been saving this recipe off of www.ourbestbites.com for months and it was worth the wait. It is a carrot cake with buttermilk, nuts, pineapple (keeps it moist), and coconut. Then it is glazed with a buttermilk syrup glaze, while still warm. THEN it is topped with the cream cheese frosting. Worth every ounce of effort and weight gain. I just may have eaten half the cake myself.

Clara and I got to host our second annual "Mommy and Me Christmas Party" this year and it was so much fun! I think there were 9 moms and 14 kids if I remember correctly. It was a houseful, but I think a good time was had by all.

I hot glued the graham crackers together for the houses (thanks to my cousin for that genius idea!) The kids all loved decorating using popsicle sticks to spread the frosting (that comes from my days in pre-school). We followed up the houses with a yummy lunch and lots of playing. I can't wait until next year's party!

Most of our free time in December (if there is such thing as free time in December) was spent making this and 2 others just like it for Nate's parents and grandparents. We finished just in the nick of time...the night before we caught a plane to Idaho! My mom had a nativity puzzle that I always played with as a child. I borrowed it from her to use as a pattern so we could have one of our own. Nate is quite a fantastic wood worker. He used his jigsaw to cut out the pieces. He also sanded them all and used his plane to even it all out in the end. I did most of the painting with some base coats and acrylic coats done by Nate. I think we made quite the team. I LOVE how they turned out and hope our kids will play with this for years to come!

Thanksgiving!

It has been way too long since I blogged, so today I am going to attempt to catch up...starting with Thanksgiving! My parents and brothers joined us for Thanksgiving this year. The trip was way too short, but lots of fun! Some of the highlights were lots of eating, Clara jumping on the bed with whoever would put her on the bed, Gracie cuddling with whoever would hold her, our traditional trip to Parisi...yumm!, a little black Friday shopping, cutting down a Christmas tree, an early Christmas, and of course lots of yummy food! True to form, most of my pictures are of food...enjoy.

Our beautiful table. Each person had a custom painted pumpkin with their name on it.
I made Emirel Lagasse's herb roasted brined turkey and it was beautiful, moist, and delicious!

My mom and I tag-teamed on the pies this year. We had a classic apple and pumpkin and chocolate pecan (my new favorite!)

Here's the whole spread.

Ready to eat!

Our early Christmas. We were all spoiled. It was a great way to kick off the Christmas season!

We were sad to see them go, but are counting down to spring break!