Clara

I don’t think I’ve written about just Clara for a while.  She has such a different personality from Samantha, it’s crazy. 

Clara gets into things.  She gets into a LOT of things.  I never had to put child locks on doors for Samantha because she just didn’t get into anything.  Clara can empty a cupboard in no time at all.  There’s been more than one occasion that the DVDs have been strung across the floor, or the entire roll of toilet paper goes into the toilet.  Her favorite thing right now is flushing the toilet.  I am not sure if she puts something in it each time… I’m hoping not because I have no idea what I’m missing!  (other than toilet paper… it seems to disappear 3x faster than before Clara was walking around and could open doors)  In attempting to discipline Clara for these (and other) mischievous acts we’ve started doing time-out with her.  Something we didn’t start with Samantha until she was probably 2 1/2.  The first few time went great.  They were immediate repercussions and I think she could get that what she had done was correlated to having to sit on a chair.  However, she’s just too cute now.  The past few times I’ve gone to take her out of time out (the last one for throwing lego’s around the basement) she looks at me and points her fingers at her eyes and says “eye!” and then proceeds to point out all the features on her face.  At least she’s still sitting in time-out when she does it.

Another funny thing Clara has been doing is that she’ll grab my face and put hers really close to mine and start whispering (nonsense words mostly).  I think she’s seen Samantha do it or something, but it’s absolutely hilarious.

Her talking is actually coming along really well.  She has her one word “puppy”, “bunny”, “baby”, “boo-“,  “mommy”, “da-ee”, “Doe-ee” (Chloe, her new cousin)  but she’s also started phrases.  “Hel-p me!”, “What’re you doing?” and “I hung-ee” I’m so glad we’re beyond just the “NO!!!!” phase. (I’m sure it’ll return)

And since no post is complete without a picture, here are the girls in their Christmas jammies from their Grandma Cox.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We try to make it to a few of the Christmas displays in December. 

We went to the neighboring Stake’s Creche Display where we listened to Stephen’s sister Shauna play the piano, our niece Eliza sing, and Samantha got to dress up like an angel.

A friend invited us to join her at the Macy’s Christmas display “A Day in the life of an Elf”.

        

I couldn’t get a single “happy” shot of Sammi as she was completely mesmerized by the display.  I know she enjoyed it though because once we got home she was drinking from her water bottle moving it up and down, up and down while rocking back and forth, back and forth.  When I asked her what she was doing she said “I’m an elf”. 

 

It was also our first time seeing a department store Santa.  Clara wouldn’t go near him, but Samantha told him that she wanted “princess dress-ups”

We saw Santa again at the Ward Christmas party.  Clara wasn’t having any of it. 

Meet Buddy

My brother works for a graphic design firm that recently finished designing a toy store for The Grand American Hotel in Salt Lake City called JouJou.  My parents got to go see it when they were out for my sister’s baby’s blessing.  They sent us these shirts of the monster “Buddy”.  He was designed by none other than my big brother, Destin.  It’s a bit of a throw back for me as I watched my brother draw and create many creatures as we were growing up.   The girls love their new shirts and Samantha proudly told her preschool teacher that her mom’s OTHER brother made it.  (She sees Dalton more frequently and thus he  is my “brother”  and Destin is my “other brother”)

 

Christmas Tree hunting

No snow this year in our hunt for a Christmas Tree. 

   

The big kids still play tag, but our girls aren’t quite big enough to join in without getting injured

Stephen will play though, while I meander the trees looking for one that may fit into our tiny spot

 

We went with a Balsam Fir this year.  I liked the smell of it.  It was a tiny bit cheaper and we weren’t going to be in our house for Christmas Day anyway.  Our nephew and his new wife were though.  And you need a Christmas tree to feel like Christmas.

  

I had been up since 4:30am as I had gone out for Black Friday shopping deals.  I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I figured I’d see if I could get a decent deal on anything.

It’s nice to feel like Christmas

We’re grateful for…

Good weather to play football in…

 

The ability to learn and put puzzles together, and patient cousins to do it with…

 

Pretty plates and yummy food…

Silly faces and time with daddy…

 

Yummy dessert…

And friends and family whom we can lean on.

 

First snow

It was bound to happen.  The beginning of winter.  The temperatures plummeted and we got our first snowfall.  Stephen was outside on Saturday trying to get the last of the leaves off the ground when it was suddenly sleeting and then snowing.  Samantha immediately put on her snowpants, coat and mittens and ran outside.

By Monday there was a bit more snow on the ground and Clara wanted to play with Sammi.  And yes, I finally did move her hat when I figured out she couldn’t see!

I’m definitely raising some Minnesotans!