St. Paddy's Day

Although I made the girls some green attire, I completely slacked off in celebrating the day. I was to lazy to make green milk the night before and remembered I was going to make green pancakes after I poured the cereal. The kids still asked for green milk, which I quickly made. 

For dinner PaPa Jerry made corned beef rubens. They were Yummy. 

Luckily they did lots of leprechaun chasing at school. 

Clarissa is 2

I can't believe my baby is 2. We had a great little party with family. She loved being the center of attention. 

I made her a birthday outfit and hat. I was surprised at how excited she was about it all and kept her hat on all night

She loved her cake.

She started pulling the trees off and eating them while waiting for us to start singing. 

Dad had to help blow out the candle, but she gave it a good try. 

She was so excited to get her Backpack. After opening it, her eyes got huge and she just whispered, "backpack, backpack."

She also got a bike. We gave Kate the same one when she turned two. Jared ran it over with the truck a couple months later. I hope this one lasts a little longer.  

(Look at Kate in the background. This was a hard night for her. It's a good thing her birthday is in a couple of weeks.)

Clair is a joy to have in our home. She is always quick to smile or laugh. She has a pretty good sense of humor already. She thinks she is the same as her older siblings and tries to keep up with them. She doesn't let here little body stop her from doing anything. She still takes 3 to 4 hour naps so I love that. She is talking more and more everyday.  I love hearing what she is thinking. 

Bubble Ball and Swimming in Milk

We spent President's Day weekend in St. George. It was a fabulous trip. We especially enjoyed spending time as a family without phones, computers and day to day distractions. 

The day before we left I found this giant bubble ball thing at Costco and knew my kids would get hours of entertainment out of it. I was envisioning lots of fun moments on the lawn at Bear Lake. We tried it and loved it, except for two things. It took about and hour to blow up by hand and an hour to deflate. 

It was hollow inside, so the kids took turns having a crazy ride. 

Jared an I exceeded the weight limit but couldn't resist a turn ourselves. 

We never visit St. George without going to the Pool. This trip, we went twice. 

Clarissa has been calling any form of liquid "milk" for months. We keep correcting her but she won't give it up. It gave us a good laugh when she said, "swimming, milk" 

Grayson is growing braver and braver in the water. He was off the whole time by himself doing anything he could. 

We also enjoyed napping, reading, I finished "The Help", playing with Cox cousins, watching movies, and eating at the Pizza Factory.

Valentines

We had so much fun celebrating Valentines this year.

I made the girls some dresses. 

We passed on love notes and surprises for the whole month leading up to the big day. 

Lydia and Grayson gave their classmates Love Juice for their valentines. Lydia made all of hers and loved every minute of it. Grayson helped but wasn't as into it as Lydia. 

The Love Juice was a huge hit. 

Valentines night was on Monday so we celebrated as a family with a fancy dinner. 

The grill started on fire while I was cooking the steaks. I was scared to death of the giant flames. Luckily I had just enough baking soda to put it out. The best part of the dinner was the yummy red velvet cupcakes we had for dessert. 

I also loved this last minute heart garland I hung to make things extra special. 

New Years

 A New Years Kiss

More Christmas

We were surprised to hear the Kamerath's would be coming Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Night. They got in late and we had to fill the time waiting for them to arrive. 

We baked Santa some cookies for the first time ever.  We usually just put out a box of chocolates. 

Aunt Shelly took the kids to some lights.

We opened our PJ's.

And, finally after the Kamerath's arrived we did the Nativity. 

Kate, Audrey and Clair loved playing sheep.

Our not so wise, wise men. 

My sweet Jared got me a much needed new sewing machine. He likes to spoil me with things I would never get myself. 

 

With eight kids we made a big mess.  

This was our best attempt to keep it under control.