The Black Family

Hired!

2011-12-03T19:57:00.000-08:00

It's been four long years. but we've finally made it! Two weeks ago Chris got the call we've been waiting for from the City of Mesa Fire Department. This was the department Chris wanted to get on with, so we pretty much thought it was a pipe dream. As long as everything goes well with his physical next week, the academy starts in March!

We went to Houston's with my parents to celebrate. Unfortunately Chris was at work when he got the call so it was a little anti-climactic. Chris was speechless on the phone when the chief called him, which was funny because the chief had to double-check that Chris was still interested when Chris didn't reply. And when Chris called me, all I could do was sit down where I was standing on the stairs and bawl. I needed to celebrate somehow even though Chris wasn't home, so I took the girls to Costco and bought them each a firefighter Lalaloopsy doll.

Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum

2011-12-03T19:53:00.000-08:00

Over the summer I got a culture pass at the library for the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum. I thought it might be worth it to take the kids since it was free, but I was wrong. The first room was off-limits since there was "adult content." The second room was large piles of dirt and rocks that were piled and shaped in different arrangements. It was lovely, but very difficult to keep the kids away from. It's every kid's dream to kick over a big pile of dirt. The employees were all over us in that room making sure we didn't touch anything. The third and final room had some interesting art, but the kids weren't terribly interested. Overall not a total bust, but I'm just glad we didn't have to pay for it!

Amazing Turtle

2011-12-03T19:44:00.000-08:00

We went with some friends to the Fountain Hills library where they were doing a wildlife exhibit. The highlight was this turtle who was rescued missing a foot. They cemented this wheel onto him so now he gets around without any problems. I thought it was amazing!

Ballet Under the Stars

2011-12-03T19:41:00.000-08:00

We did Ballet Under the Stars again this year at the Fountain Park. It was amazing as usual, and so were the girls dressed up like ballerinas!

Lost Tooth

2011-12-03T19:35:00.000-08:00

In October Molly lost her first tooth. I didn't get a picture until a couple of weeks later, which is why the tooth is already half grown in. She lost it one Sunday night when we were at Chris's parent's house. She was rough-housing on the bed with Claire and Chris's dad when she banged her mouth on Claire's head and it popped out. The tragedy was that it was nowhere to be found after that. After about ten minutes Chris suggested she say a prayer, and sure enough, about two minutes later I found it in a crack in the bed. The funny thing is, this same sort of thing happened when she lost her second tooth a couple of weeks ago. It was really loose, then we were sitting on the couch watching a movie when she discovered it was gone, and she had no idea when it had fallen out. We scoured the couch with no luck. She wanted to say a prayer, but I actually kind of discouraged her because I knew it could be anywhere in the house, and she may have even eaten it. She persisted, so we stopped and said a prayer. Right after she said she wanted to look under the table, so she and Chris went to the table and Chris found it sitting under her chair. Definitely miraculous if you ask me!

The tooth fairy brought her $1 and wrote her a congratulatory note for her first tooth.

Dates

2011-12-03T19:24:00.000-08:00

Before school started Chris and I got took the kids on dates. I took Claire to Big Surf, where we spent most of our time on these blue slides. She's actually quite a daredevil and liked to hang out on the dark tunnel slides where you're in a tube. We had such a great day!

Chris took Molly to Big Surf the next day. She mostly wanted to be in the wave pool, although she wasn't too excited about the life jacket. When I took Claire she wouldn't go in the wave pool at all because she was so irked about the life jacket.

For the next date Molly and I went to Five guys (her choice) then to Skateland. Luckily they had a rolling walker-thing so she could maneuver a little better, but skating is a lot harder than I remember! Since then she's been saving her money to buy a pair of roller skates, and I bought a pair of roller blades off Craigs List. I forgot how fun skating is!

For the last date Chris took Claire to the Sea Life Aquarium in Arizona Mills then to the Rainforest Cafe. Unfortunately Claire wasn't interested at all in the aquarium and just kept asking Chris when it was time to go to Rainforest Cafe. It may be a couple of years before we go back to the aquarium!

Halloween

2011-12-03T18:50:00.000-08:00

This year for Halloween the kids were detectives, Sherlock Holmes-style. The best part of the costume was the dollar store glasses-nose, even though they hardly got worn. It's way more fun to hang around the house incognito.

In kindergarten they get to do a Storybook Parade instead of dressing up for Halloween. Molly's story was Miss Hildy.

Storybook Parade spectators.

At Claire's preschool they decorated sugar cookies then trick-or-treated around the yard.

Our ward Halloween party is always really fun. This year there was a miniature pony giving horse rides and a train ride in old water barrels pulled by a quad.

This is actually one of Claire's really good friends Ellie, I just happened to look at them and they were making faces at each other.

Pumpkin carving!

Craft time at the library. I think this was a ghost?

We did Vertuccio Farms this year. The highlight for us was this enormous bouncy pillow thing. I later found out my friend's daughter broke her leg on it so I'm glad we didn't know that beforehand!

The three of us teetered on one side with Chris on the other.

On Halloween we went to our friends the Petersen's house to trick-or-treat and hang out

Camping

2011-12-03T18:29:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago we went camping with Chris's family around the Forest Lakes area. We had a great time. We went right around the time Penny was learning to walk, so she was mostly rolling in the dirt for three days. And out of all the kids there, I think Claire won the award for the most constantly dirty face.

We drove down to a little spot that was a dry riverbed that had a couple of rope swings. Molly got really good at crossing the river bed, but Claire was the champion on the rope swing. I wish I had gotten a picture, but it was really high and she was swinging just as high as the bigger kids.

We played in this stream for a while, which is where I got giardia. Lucky for me it went undiagnosed for two months, so things were pretty miserable at our house for a while after the camping trip!

Chris's sister Cadie rented a trailer so the girls got to have a slumber party. I think they were pretty happy to be out of the tent for a night.

I realized we had a picture of Claire in the same outfit from a camping trip two years ago, so I couldn't help myself but recreate it with Penny. It's almost impossible to tell the difference, but Claire is the top picture. Crazy!

Penny definitely gave Claire a run for her money for the most dirty award.

Chik-Fil-A Superhero Night

2011-12-03T18:26:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago Chik-Fil-A did a Superhero night where everyone dressed as a superhero gets a free meal. Luckily Molly and Claire were super heroes for Halloween a couple of years ago, and found enough leftover scraps to throw one together for Penny. We went with our friends the Griffiths and had a great time!

Pierced Ears!

2011-12-03T18:14:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago Claire started talking a lot about getting her ears pierced. I finally told her that if she wanted to do it, and she was ready to take care of them, that we could do it. Sure enough, she was really excited about it so we made a plan to go the next week. Over the course of the week we had conversations like this:
Molly: You know getting your ears pierced hurts really bad, it's like getting shots in your ears.
Claire: I'm good at shots. I like shots!
Needless to say, Molly doesn't have her ears pierced yet, and doesn't plan on it until she's "brave at shots." We'll see when that happens. Anyway, we went to Claire's Boutique and Claire was a real champ. No tears, and she was really excited to get to hold the stuffed bear. The only issue we've had so far is when we were at my parent's cabin one earring fell out, never to be found. We drove around Heber for the afternoon trying to find a small earring until we could get home (we even tried the local tattoo parlor with no luck) and finally we found a little pair of hoops. Unfortunately, by the time we got it her ear had already closed. So back we went to Claire's and they had to re-pierce it. The bummer was that she got them pierced with some pretty pricey little flowers and I didn't want to pay for those earrings again. But Claire really wanted to keep the one flower, so I bought a single gold ball and now she has the flower in one ear and a gold ball in the other. They're both so small so it's not too obvious, plus I think it really fits her personality!

First Day of Kindergarten

2011-09-08T20:15:00.001-07:00

Molly started kindergarten last month and is loving it! She goes half-day and her teacher is Mrs. Taylor. And unfortunately I can't claim the genius of using the old desk as a photo shoot prop, that was all my sister Jessie's brainchild!

I didn't really care for Claire's pose of gagging herself with a stick but her little face looked so beautiful I couldn't help but leave her alone about it. Plus it's really her personality!

This is Molly's first time riding the bus. The bus comes at 6:40, which makes for a pretty rough morning!

Farewell, Old Friend

2011-08-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

It was a very sad day in the Black household last week; we sold the Tacoma. My dad bought it in 1999 and I bought it from him was I was about 18. It's been a beloved member of our family ever since and will be greatly missed!

Happy Birthday Chris!

2011-08-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

Chris turned 31 August 3rd. We took a trip up to the cabin to celebrate.

We had a picnic at a beautiful lake. The only real swimming anyone did was when Claire accidentally fell in.

Penny Turns One!

2011-08-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

Penny's first birthday was July 16th. We didn't do a real party for her, so she got lots of mini-celebrations.

The first was the morning of her birthday at Cracker Barrel. She got a new sippy cup from the Disney Store, and her lucky sisters did too.

That night was Happy Meals. As usual, Penny liked the box more more than its contents, and the box was probably healthier!

On Sunday we had a birthday dinner at my parent's house. Penny got some new squeaky shoes, which she loves!

She also loved her birthday cake!

We usually do a traditional Krispy Kreme run for the birthday breakfast. Since we decided to do Cracker Barrel instead, they got a bonus Krispy Kreme trip.

Dance Classes

2011-08-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

Over the summer Molly and Claire took dance classes through the city - Molly in ballet and Claire in tap. Molly loved every minute of it, but Claire struggled (putting it lightly). Claire is a little clingy right now so the thought of being closed off in a separate room with me out in the hallway was too much for her.

For the last day of each of their classes parents were invited in to watch. That was good news for Claire and she would actually do some dancing since we were in the room with her. Molly was a pretty serious ham and loved the audience!

Penny

2011-07-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

Penny turns one next month and time has flown! She is crawling around like crazy right now and getting into everything. She is pulling herself up on everything too, so hopefully she'll be walking soon. I'm tired of the tiny human vacuum and dirty knees! She's also been refusing baby food for a couple of months now, so mealtime has been interesting. At least she's got almost six teeth, so she doesn't have any trouble with most foods. She also does a lot of communication by growling, and I managed to get a little on video.

Recently...

2011-07-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

Up at the cabin. They love to play hide-and-seek and they found a new spot inside a giant cabinet. That actually ended the game of hide-and-seek when they decided to stay inside to read and play with toys.

Bathing in Grandma's tub.

Trip to Rain Forest Cafe. Terrible food but it was really fun!

Slumber party and Grandma and Papa's.

We found this beauty crossing the road on my parent's street.

Claire is hilarious. The egg-nose was her brainchild.

Dress Up

2011-07-02T21:22:00.000-07:00

Molly found my wedding dress bag in the back of the closet so we had no choice...

Payson Trip

2011-07-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

Some friends of ours have a cabin up in Payson so a few weeks ago we went up with them for the day. We did some hiking and tree climbing in the morning then went swimming in a creek in the afternoon. Molly was the only one brave enough to do a full swim in the creek, but she regretted it as soon as she did. She was pretty upset about the weight of the shoes on her feet, and that she couldn't see anything when she opened her eyes. Besides that, we had a great time!

Mother's Day Tea

2011-06-29T20:52:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights at preschool every year is the Mother's Day tea. We get to wear these awesome hats and have excellent snacks together.

We also had the annual "Guess Whose Mom This is." There was no question with Molly. The initial giveaway was the purple eyes and...accessories? But her answers were also a dead giveaway. It's hard to read, but it says:
My mom is 20 years old.
My mom is the prettiest when she goes to church with me
My mom likes to make cookies.
My mom always says I love you.
My mom is funny when she plays with me.

The Cactus

2011-06-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

We have now had our first official run-in with a cactus. I guess that's inevitable when you live in Arizona. Molly had been playing in my parent's backyard for about 3 minutes when a heard horrible screaming. I went outside to rescue her from the hill and she was yelling "Mom!! Is it a hedgehog??!!" At first glance, she thought a hedgehog was stuck in her hand. After we cleared up that misunderstanding, we tried to get her calmed down so we could get to work getting it out. She had kicked it then tried to pull it out of her foot, so she had cactus in her foot and both hands. The whole ordeal took about an hour and a half, and culminated with Chris physically holding her down so I could pull the needles down. I had been holding her at first but she got too strong for me so Chris had to do it. If she knew any obscenities, there would have been streams of them coming out her mouth directed at Chris and I. As it was, she would mostly yell "Don't touch me! Don't come anywhere near me with that!!" etc., etc. Poor Claire was terrified at first so ran in the house. But after about 30 minutes, she pressed her nose up against the glass door and watched. After a minute she said through the door, "Good thing I didn't get any cactus stuck in me." What a nightmare!

Swimming Lessons

2011-06-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

This year we decided to try a new teacher for the girl's swimming lessons. We loved her! This is Claire's third year of swimming lessons, but she still struggled for the first couple of weeks. One day when Chris took her to lessons he sent me this picture, and it was the first time she had voluntarily gone under water. After that, she was a new woman and she hasn't looked back. I don't know what made it click, but I'm really glad because we have a lot more fun swimming now! Molly has been in a strokes class this year and loves it. I think she can do the butterfly better than I can! We took a shot at swim team with Molly this year but only lasted two days. She was feeling pretty nervous going into it, then when we got there it was chaotic and the water was ice cold. We had been swimming in cold pools before, but I think the combination of the stress and the cold water was enough to freak her out. She swam for about 15 minutes, but as soon as she caight my eye she ran over to me crying. We just watched for the rest of the lesson, then Chris tried to take her the next day and she threw a fit and said she wasn't getting anywhere near the water. That's when we called it quits!

Claire's Preschool Graduation

2011-06-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

Some friends and I did a rotating preschool this year, and we decided to put on a little graduation for them. One of the moms made gowns out of black plastic tablecloths, and one of our last preschool days the kids made their caps out of an upside down plastic bowl, cardstock, and yarn for the tassle. They are such a great group of kids and I had so much fun teaching them!

Molly's Preschool Graduation

2011-06-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

Molly is an official Little Light Preschool Alumni! They had quite a ceremony to commemorate the occasion.

The day of graduation they had a big water party.

Penny waiting patiently for the graduation to start.

All the graduates filing in. I thought they should have been playing Pomp and Circumstance; I guess I'll have to make that happen for Claire's graduation in two years!

They had a special Father's Day presentation since they miss it during the school year. All the dads had come in during one of the last weeks of school to build a birdhouse with their kids and they made a photo book of the occasion.

They gave out candy awards to each kid. Molly got the Lifesaver award for being such a big to help to anyone who needed it.

Their "graduation caps" were balloon hats. I think these pictures are funny because in the first one Molly looks worried that she's not going to get the hat she wants. When she ends up with the pink-and-purple unicorn she couldn't be any happier!

Lucky for Claire I did just barely enough helping out at the preschool to earn myself a special hat as well.

At the end of the graduation the kids did their Goodbye Song that they do at the end of every preschool day. That was the most emotional part of the graduation for me!

Molly with Grace and Ide, her two best preschool friends.

Molly's teacher, Ms. Nancy.

Ah, Gunner. I have to say I'm not sad to see these two part ways. I'm not ready for boys to be chasing after her yet!

Butterfly Release

2011-06-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

In the spring we did a butterfly unit with Claire's preschool. After a week or so it was time to release them, so we had a couple of preschool kids come over for the party.

One of the butterflies flying away in the upper middle part of the picture.

There was one that got a slow start and let all the kids hold him before taking off.

Easter

2011-06-17T20:39:00.001-07:00

This year for Easter I decided I was tired of filling baskets with little cheap toys that made their way in to the trash can by the next week, so each kid got one good toy in their basket. Probably not as fun for them, but it makes my life easier. And since the Easter bunny still makes everyone nervous, we still left the baskets outside on the front porch to be filled.

Easter morning is starting to look a little too close to Christmas morning for my taste. The kids were up at the crack of dawn to find their baskets. And the night before Molly asked if we should leave the Easter Bunny a plate of snacks like we do Santa, but I had to draw the line.

Chris was working so we went to my parent's ward for church and our annual Easter photo shoot. Claire was unfortunately pretty cranky so there's not too many shots of her.

The Sailboat Ride

2011-06-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

My dad bought a sailboat a few months ago and we thought it would be really fun to take the girls sailing. It was actually a nightmare! It was a particularly windy day, so the boat was pretty wild, but I think even if there hadn't been any wind they still would have flipped out. Almost from the moment they stepped foot on the boat they were both screaming to get out. I made them take a lap around the lake then they couldn't get back to the dock fast enough. The complaints were that the boat was "too tippy" and they wanted a boat that had "taller sides." I keep hoping that this experience will encourage my dad to get another ski boat, but so far it hasn't worked.

It's hard to tell but in this picture they just barely stepped on the boat and are screaming at me to get back out.

Grandma Susu's Violin

2011-06-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

Birthdays

2011-04-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

Since we did a joint birthday party for the girls, we did some low-key celebrating on their actual birthdays. For both girls we started out with present opening then a trip to Krispy Kreme for the free birthday dozen (though I've finally smartened up and we eat oatmeal before we go so we don't make ourselves completely sick). Then on Claire's birthday we headed to Jump and Shout.

For dinner we had some friends over and they got to have a special picnic in the tent. Claire had requested a cherry cake, so I made her a hideous-looking Black Forest cake.

Molly's birthday started out the same as Claire's, then after preschool we went to the train park. My parents told her to choose anywhere she wanted and they would take her to lunch. Surprise surprise, she chose a Happy Meal from McDonald's. We tried to talk her into Ruth's Chris since it's right across the street from the train park, but she wasn't interested.

I usually take the kids to the dollar store to pick out presents for each other, but Molly really wanted a stomp rocket, so Claire and I went to Toys R Us and "Claire" bought Molly a stomp rocket. Molly was really excited!

It was a great day for kite-flying!

Dress Up Party

2011-04-04T10:20:00.001-07:00

This year the girls got to have their first friend party. I thought having a dress-up party (the girls are both really in to dressing up right now) would be really cheap and easy, and I ended up being wrong on both counts!

Our house is pretty small so I had to get creative with the space (and send a lot of furniture out to the garage). In the entry I set up the dress-ups. I borrowed a rolling dress rack from my grandma to hang the dresses (all from my stash and my mom's), then I have an old suitcase I put accessories in and a trunk where their shawls went (that was their party favor).

I set up a beauty salon in the bathroom with hair fixing, glitter, and lip gloss. Unfortunately none of the girls seemed too interested; I think a small handful came in to get glitter and that was about it. And I got that chair at garage sale last year and I had no idea what I would ever do with it, but it was perfect for the beauty salon!

Princess hats for the girls to decorate.

I didn't know how modest 3 and 5 year-olds would be so I turned the landing on the stairs into a dressing room.

The living room had all the pretend-play toys: dollhouse, table for a tea party, kitchen, baby crib and high chair, and a jewelry/makeup table.

At the dining room table I set up half for decorating cookies and half for hat decorating. I know it was silly to get out all my hobnail dishes for a party with small children, but I couldn't help myself! I got the dishes from my grandma and great aunt and they never get enough use. Plus, they looked beautiful with the sprinkles in them!

No one hardly touched the snacks, but I felt like I should at least offer something to offset the sugar cookies and cupcakes.

Jessie made these awesome labels for the drinks (she also made signs for the different stations) and donated her fancy straws. And I found toppers for the cupcakes that were big diamond rings.

Grandma got to watch Penny since she's not too big into dressing up.

Out of all the costumes we own, the girls chose to wear these dance costumes that we got at a garage sale for $1. But no one kept their original dresses on for long anyway.

Party time! There was always a long line, and sometimes a fight, for the dressing room.

Claire went completely overboard with cookie decorating.

All the crazy girls!

Cupcakes and presents!

Transportation Day

2011-04-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

Once a year Molly's preschool puts on Transportation Day, a big event where the kids check out different transportation vehicles.

They asked Chris to help this year by bringing in an ambulance.

Sports Class

2011-04-04T10:13:00.000-07:00

Last month our friend put on a sports class for kids in the neighborhood. She teaches PE so the kids got introductions into several different sports. For some reason I never brought my camera, but one of the moms in Claire's class sent some pictures she had taken (Molly was in a class with older kids). The loved it, and a couple of days ago Molly sat me down to help her write a thank-you letter to Kim because she loved sports class so much.

Random

2011-04-04T10:04:00.000-07:00

Our first harvest from the garden! Teeny, tiny strawberries. This year we also planted tomatoes, basil, and green beans.

Blankets provide us with lots of entertainment on Sundays at my parent's house.

The kids always love to help wash the car, but Molly decided their Power Wheels needed a wash too.

Every year the week of Dr. Suess's birthday Molly's preschool does Wacky Day. I was teaching Claire's preschool that day so we had our own little Wacky Day too.

Penny gets to bathe with the big girls now!

Molly loves to steal my camera and take pictures, so for her birthday she got her very own Tinkerbell camera. Now she can take self portraits to her heart's content!

Pennsylvania

2011-04-04T09:33:00.000-07:00

Mike's 30the birthday was in March so my sister Jessie threw a surprise party for him. Everyone in my family (parents and siblings, Chris was the only one who couldn't make it, unfortunately for me) headed to Philly for the party, then the kids and I stayed for a week after. We had such a great time!

A dance party broke out within minutes of us getting to Jessie's house. All the cousins hadn't been together in over a year!

We made a trip to Longwood Gardens while we were there and it was amazing. The kids still haven't stopped talking about it, and we've been home for weeks!

They had a section of carnivorous plants, and Molly is pointing to a Venus Fly Trap.

We got to go to the Philadelphia Zoo which was also amazing. Jessie made Molly and Claire these unbelievable beanies for their birthdays, and she also took this beautiful picture of Claire.

Jessie has a hot water problem at her house (you only get about 3 minutes of it) so everyone takes showers. Penny was exempt so she got to bathe in the kitchen sink.

A picture of me, Sarah, Ryan, and one of Jessie's friends from Pennsylvania at Mike's party.

he kids sand the song "One in a Million" in Jessie's ward on Sunday. We had all bought matching Eatser clothes on clearance last year so they even had matching outfits!

Disneyland

2011-02-27T20:03:00.000-08:00

For our Christmas present this year my parents took us to Disneyland. We had such a great time! We went February 14-17 and we were at the park on a Tuesday and Wednesday so we didn't have to fight crowds or wait in line. The downside was that they had plenty of rides closed for refurbishment and they didn't do parades or fireworks, but I still think it was worth it. We stayed at the Grand Californian for two of the nights and it was amazing! This year Molly was tall enough to ride almost all of the bigger rides but after the Matterhorn she had no interest. Molly and Chris rode it first and Molly came walking back to us with a horrible look on her face and told me it was too fast. Then Claire and I went and she started bawling about 1/3 of the way in to the ride. I don't remember the Matterhorn being that long, but it really seemed like it would never end, especially since Claire was screaming that she wanted me to stop the ride. We decided to do Small World directly after the Matterhorn to get everyone feeling better again. But they loved everything else, especially a lot of the California Adventure rides like the ferris wheel and the swings.

The kids got took pick out one souvenir each and they both picked these Mickey ears. The hats were pretty dingy by the end of the trip.

Molly was obsessed with this poncho. It rained on Wednesday, and we knew it was going to rain, so I bought us all ponchos to bring with us. She wore it almost all day on Wednesday, even though it only sprinkled on and off. Claire on the other hand hated hers (I can't blame her, it's the equivalent of a giant plastic bag) and only wore it once for about five minutes all day.

Penny was amazingly good the whole trip. We never went back for naps, she just slept in the stroller, and she was such a trooper.

Tiana was the only princess we saw the whole trip, and only Penny, my mom and I saw her in New Orleans Square, the big girls didn't even see her. They had zero interest in meeting any characters or princesses. In general I was grateful that we didn't have to wait in line to meet anyone, but I actually kind of wanted to meet Rapunzel. She has a spot in Fantasyland but at first we thought it was a Rapunzel ride. We asked the worker and he told us it was to meet Rapunzel so the kids said no way, they only wanted to wait in line if it was a ride.

The Californian has the most beautiful pools, and they were all heated! We spent some time lounging on the pool chairs, wishing we were swimming.

We went to breakfast one morning at the Storytellers buffet, which was awesome. Lucky for us Molly took care of the bill.

Sleeping Beauty's castle!

The rockets were one of the kid's absolute favorites.

Tom Sawyer's Island.

We got to have lunch on Tuesday at the Blue Bayou, which was incredible. I don't think the kids had any idea how lucky they were to get to eat there! But in their defense, most super special restaurants don't have their menus printed on paper pirate hats.

I was afraid we'd have to spend tons of time on the carousels but luckily we only had to ride one and they got their fill.

Toy Story was also one of the favorites; I think we rode it four times. I think this must have been the only time Molly wore those 3D glasses because she refused to wear them during the ride. I think she thought it messed up her aim.

I wish I had gotten more pictures of the Californian because it really was a beautiful hotel. The lobby was incredible!

This and That...

2011-02-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

Chris's new "glasses."

Molly and Claire putting my preschool things to good use (A few friends and I are doing a rotating preschool with Claire and their kids).

I came in the room and Claire was watching TV like this - plus it's a cute picture of Penny!

I couldn't tell you how this started, but I mentioned something about bungee jumping and the girls wanted to know what it was. We got on YouTube and watched a few videos, then with the help of stretch lace their bears went bungee jumping over the side of the staircase.

This is how we roll in Target these days. Believe it or not Claire chooses to climb under the cart and hang out there. At first I wouldn't let her but then I realized it's way easier than having her walk.

We got some awesome costumes at a garage sale for $1 each. Molly was cranky at me for something so she wouldn't smile.

One of the many dance contests at Grandma and Papa's house.

Chris broke his wrist playing in a flag football league in the middle of December. He couldn't work for a little over two months, and it was awesome to have him home.

My sister Jessie came to visit a few weekends ago and we had a great time. We did a lot of fun things, but making masks out of tortillas was the only thing I managed to get a picture of.

Toilet Paper Flowers

2011-02-20T19:32:00.000-08:00

Probably a year ago Molly started making flowers out of toilet paper while she was using the potty. She gets a piece of toilet paper and ties a knot in one end to make a rose. They're actually pretty cute, unless she's doing it to put off going to bed. A couple of weeks ago Claire handed me a piece of toilet paper and told me it was for me, in a voice that told me it was supposed to be very special. It took me a few minutes to get it, but she was also attempting toilet paper flowers while sitting on the potty, but she couldn't quite master it so hers was just a piece of toilet paper.

Disney on Ice

2011-02-20T19:23:00.000-08:00

For Christmas Chris got the girls and I tickets to see Disney on Ice. It was awesome! The girls loved every minute of it and I have to say I did too.

I let them buy one souvenir each, and luckily they opted for the snow cones. Those little beauties were $12 each and they were the cheapest things in the whole place! Unfortunately a quarter of the way into the show Molly spilled hers on the ground. I wasn't sure if she'd be able to recover (she was pretty upset) but luckily it just took a minute or two and she was okay. It helped that we had loaded up on snacks and Push Pops at the gas station beforehand.

Toally tapped after the show. Bedtime around our house is 7 and the show didn't start until then, but they were wired until we got in the car.

Haircuts!

2011-02-20T19:19:00.000-08:00

Both girls got their hair cut short about a month ago. I was planning on taking them in to get trims, but in the car on the way there Molly told me she wanted it cut short. I was a little nervous about it at first, and I'll admit that my eyes watered during the haircut, but they both turned out darling. Claire's is a little shorter than Molly's, and it remains to be seen if they want to keep it short, but for now we're loving it. And these are terrible pictures, they don't do the haircuts justice at all!

Penny Updates

2011-02-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

Penny started sitting about a couple of weeks ago, right about 6 1/2 months. She's a lot happier now that she can see what's happening. And she's also showing off her two razor-sharp teeth, which broke through a month or two ago. This has been bad news for me because she is a terrible biter while nursing. She's drawn blood several times, so it's been a bit of a nightmare!

Penny also started eating solids at six months, about a month ago. The other girls started closer to four since they were smaller, but we certainly don't have that issue with Penny. It's taken her a while to get used to, and she still spits it out a lot, but it's getting better.

I wish I had better pictures, but her hair is crazy. There's a completely bald spot in the back, then thick hair that resembles rattail at the nape of her neck, then balding everywhere else except on the top, which is thick and long. I'm thinking about shaving it all off and starting from scratch!

Christmas

2011-02-20T18:27:00.000-08:00

This year for Christmas Molly and Claire both asked Santa for Rapunzel bikes. I know that's pretty specific, but I found two awesome Rapunzel bikes for a great price, and I love that they are at the age where they are so open to suggestion. Once I said "Wouldn't it be awesome if Santa could make Rapunzel bikes?" they were totally in. These are their letters to Santa this year. Molly's says "Dear Santa, I want a Rapunzel bike. Thank you, Molly." Not sure what Claire's says.

Last year after Christmas I bought a train on clearance. It's awesome! We always grew up with a Christmas train so it's very nostalgic for me. Unfortunately the spot for our tree is tiny so we had to improvise and include the TV stand in our train track. It didn't work great, and eventually we moved the train to circle around Penny's Jumperoo. Not nearly as festive, but at least it fit.

This year Molly got to be Mary in her preschool nativity. She was so excited about it. And who was Joseph? The one and only Gunnar, the little boy that gave Molly a bear last year and is completely in love with her. I can't imagine that the preschool teacher is pushing the romance, but it does seem fishy.

This year's Christmas dresses.

The 23rd and 24th we spent at my parent's cabin. We had a great time, as usual. Luckily my sister Sarah had this awesome bear suit to lend us otherwise Penny would have been miserable.

Now that my dad has a sled the sliding-down-the-stairs game has become a little more (and slightly more dangerous).

My dad is building a train track in the backyard for this awesome push car. Even only a third of the way done the kids love it! And they can both push it by themselves now, which is so much better than when I had to bend over and push them around.

We watched Polar Express and had treats and hot chocolate.

There wasn't any snow at the cabin so we found some on the drive home. Fifteen minutes in the snow was about all I could handle!

My sister Jessie made this awesome hat for Penny.

Christmas morning!

Claire was unwrapping one of her presents and we found this scorpion hiding in the wrapping. Luckily I got it away from her before he stung, but he was alive and well and mad that he had been harassed.

My mom got Molly and Claire these awesome dress-ups for Christmas. Molly had been coveting this "Winter Belle" costume at the Disney store for quite some time, and Claire makes a darling Rapunzel.

I took the kids to the dollar store to buy presents for their siblings, dad, and grandparents. They picked out these killer teeth for my dad.

Penny got a Belle teacart, which Molly and Claire are getting plenty of use out of.

They picked out sparkly glasses for my mom and mother-in-law Kathy. They picked out sparkly silly puddy for my father-in-law Larry, and as soon as he opened it Claire asked "You're going to share that with us, right Papa?"

My in-laws got the girls this amazing dollhouse, and more impressive was that it was wrapped!

Deep Thoughts 2010

2011-02-09T19:59:00.001-08:00

August 2010:
Molly: Jesus has pretty amazing ears to hear our prayers all the way from earth!

Claire, while screaming and crying at me about who knows what: Your skirt and shirt don't match! (and she was right)

Me, when Claire asked for a tomato: I thought you didn't like tomatoes.
Claire: I like tomatoes! He's my best friend!

Claire, while clearly pretending to breastfeed her bunny rabbit: I'm feeding my baby!
Chris: What are you feeding her?
Claire: A turkey sandwich!

Molly, while walking up a steep, rocky hill: Come on feet, you're doing it! Great job feet, go, go! (etc., etc...)

July 2010:
Claire, after having an accident on the floor in front of the potty: The ground was a potty!

June 2010
Molly, grabbing my pregnancy love handles: What's this? Is this part of your belly?
Claire, not 20 minutes later: You got a big, big bum!

Claire, crying that's she's hungry: I want jelly bellies. They will make me healthy and strong.

April 2010
Molly: We don't know what we're going to name our new baby yet, but I want her name to be Fable.
Me: You can call her Fable if you want to.
Molly: I can, but you can too, and so can everyone!!

Claire, after an especially large poop on the potty: That surprised me!!

Claire: Dad, you coming to the splashpark?
Chris: Yes
Claire: You going to bring your eyes?

Claire, while wearing her play firefighter helmet and punching me: I'm a fire fighter! Fight you! Fight you!

February 2010
Claire (after being reprimanded for chewing on her toes in the car): Can I just lick them?

January 2010
Molly (to Claire, after Claire took her shoes off in the car which is not allowed): Claire! If you take your shoes off you won't get to the live with Heavenly Father and Jesus!

Molly's Preschool Pictures

2010-11-09T16:09:00.001-08:00

So much better than the usual mugshot! Michelle Moser did the pictures and I think they are amazing!

Halloween

2010-11-09T15:48:00.000-08:00

For Halloween this year the girls were bugs. Molly was a butterfly, Claire a bee, and Penny a ladybug. I liked the way they turned out for the most part, but I was probably the most disappointed with Molly's. Hers was by far the trickiest to make, and I had these visions of her running with her arms all the way up with wings blowing behind her. The unfortunate reality is she mostly walked with her arms at her sides, like most people do I guess, so you couldn't hardly see her wings, or even tell what she was. Oh well, she loved her costume so I guess that's the most important thing. This year we went to Molly's preschool Halloween party on Friday, the ward carnival on Saturday, then we took the kids around the block for trick-or-treating on Sunday. On Monday we went to a local dentist's office who does candy buy backs, and the kids got a dollar and a new toothbrush for each pound of candy they sold. They were really excited to go to the dollar store to buy a toy, and I was really glad to get the candy out of the house! We also did Mother Nature's Farm with Claire's joy school class.

Molly's preschool class

Indiana

2010-11-09T15:23:00.000-08:00

The kids and I took a trip to Indiana with my mom a couple of weeks ago to visit my sister Sarah and her kids. We had such a great time! I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would have liked, but here are pictures a few highlights:

The weather was beautiful for almost the whole week we were there. We were probably a little overzealous in getting the kids dressed to go outside, but they thought it was really fun to get bundled up, so it was actually part of the fun. I'm sure Max and Eve won't think bundling up is very fun after they've lived through a winter in Indiana!

The kids were obsessed with Leo!

Leo is 6 months and Penny is 3.

The kids had a surprising amount of similar outfits, and Sarah and I loved to have them all match.

We went to Shipshewana, an Amish town, twice during our visit. It was a pretty interesting place, but the highlight was probably the ride in the Amish buggy. I wanted to get a picture of some real Amish people, but I didn't know how to do it without being offensive, so I opted not to.

Max and Molly took turns driving the buggy.

Our buggy driver was hysterical, although I'm not sure if he was for real or just putting on an act for tourists (since we assume all Amish people are hicks).

This was definitely not a baby-friendly week. Poor Penny and Leo had to catch naps wherever they could, and they spent most of their time in carseats. But I do think Penny liked checking out all of Leo's sweet baby toys.

Sarah and Ryan live with Ryan's parents right now, and their backyard is incredible. It's enormous and has a really pretty creek at the bottom. The kids loved being out there, jumping in leaf piles and hunting for sticks.

We were all exhausted flying home from Indiana. I was too tired to parent for a large chunk of the trip, which Molly took advantage of by eating almost every treat my mom had brought. They also decided to put on a puppet show with their barf bags sitting underneath the tray tables. Screaming and fighting ensued moments after I took this picture, so it didn't last too long.

Around the House

2010-10-17T21:29:00.000-07:00

Molly got a hold of my camera and took this picture of Claire. Not too bad!

The girls are pretending to be "old ladies." The major components of the outfit are the kitchen towel headdress and dirty sock on the arm.

Eating caramel apples. Total disaster but really fun.

Claire tried several different methods of attack, but finally gave up and just gnawed on my leftover core and stick.

New bone jammies! Every year I want these but have never gotten them. This was finally our year!

Penny's still in our room, but she's getting kicked out any day now. And she absolutely loves the bath!

Penny's Blessing

2010-10-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

We blessed Penny last Sunday, October 10th. As usual, we didn't get hardly any pictures of the day, but we got a few getting ready and Penny got portraits in her dress. Her headband actually started out as a bonnet. It was enormous, so I butchered it to make the headband. It was very difficult for me to chop up the bonnet because it was so beautiful, but it really was totally unusable.

These first portraits I didn't order but they gave to me for free because they had overcharged me. After seeing this first picture the photographer actually told me it was time for a manicure! She was right, but still...

I actually ordered these ones, although I didn't love how any of them turned out. But you get what you pay for at the Target Portrait Studio!

The night before the blessing I put the girls' hair in sponge curlers. Molly has used them before and done fine, but I was a little nervous about Claire. She can be pretty feisty and I thought for sure she would have them all pulled out as soon as she got in her bed. But I was happy to be wrong when she woke up in the morning, all curlers in tact.

Trying to keep busy waiting for our 2:30 Sacrament meeting.

Fresh out of the tub!

Chris's parents were generous enough to let us have dinner at their house after the blessing. Our little house couldn't accommodate all the family we were lucky enough to have attend.

I took Penny back to the bedroom to feed her, and she was so happy to have a break from the chaos!

Soccer Update

2010-10-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

It took four games, but we finally have success! The second soccer game Molly wouldn't play the first half, then she agreed to play the second half as long as I was holding her hand playing with her. I also promised her a pair of soccer cleats if she played; I noticed her interest in another girl's "spiky" shoes and I took advantage. The third game she held Chris's hand for the first half, then agreed to try playing without holding his hand, but still having him on the field, with the promise of a McDonald's ice cream cone if she tried. Then by game four she was finally ready to strike out on her own. She did great! She had a few really good kicks, and came very close to scoring a goal. The coach also told me that she is very fast for her age, which I believe because I have to work pretty hard to beat her at a foot race these days (not sure if that speaks highly of Molly or poorly of me. Probably both.).

Molly's First Soccer Game

2010-09-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

Molly started in an AYSO soccer league, and this is her first time being involved in a sports team (or really any extracurricular activity). It was rough. Since they're so young they just have one practice, then the rest of the season practices are just 30 minutes before the game starts. Molly has been so excited to start, and was always talking about how many goals she was going to score. I always tried to bring her back to reality a little bit because she's so competitive that I knew she would get upset if she didn't score lots of goals per game. But I didn't anticipate her being so intimidated by the crowd of girls on the field. She started the game, and for the first couple of minutes she held it together, but I could tell she was really nervous. She was biting her nails and twirling her hair like crazy. And when she went to run after the ball she did a strange little prance, like she wanted to run after the ball but was really too scared to. Chris was yelling "Go Molly!" and "Kick the ball!" and once she made eye contact with him it was over. She broke down and came crying to the sidelines. She stayed balled up in my lap until it was time for the halftime snack. After the orange smiles she perked up and thought she was ready to go back in. She got onto the field but before the first kick she came running off the field again crying. But this time she was crying that she wanted to go home. We sat for a few more minutes, then the coach came over and said Chris could come out on the field with her if that helped. After a little convincing she decided to do it. It was looking good until the ball came her direction, then she got scared and came running off again. She still wanted to leave, but I reminded her of the post-game treat and drink and that was enough enticement to stick it out. I hope things get better or this could be a very long season!

Molly's favorite color is purple, so you can imagine the excitement when they got purple jerseys! Plus she is number 4, which is also exciting because that's how old she is. These pictures are during the pre-game practice.

Go Purple Rainbows!

Claire wanted to play so bad she could hardly stand it. She actually made it on to the field a couple of times when I was too slow to catch her.

This is a little video of Molly trying to play again with Chris holding her hand.

New Penny Pictures

2010-09-13T13:37:00.000-07:00

Penny will be two months old this Thursday. Time really flies! A couple of weeks ago she started smiling (real smiles, not gas), and it's the best! The picture I got isn't that great, but it's better than nothing. The second picture is Penny sleeping on a lazy Sunday.

Chris Turns 30

2010-08-27T14:49:00.000-07:00

Chris turned 30 on August 3rd. Unfortunately Penny was only about two weeks old so he had a pretty lame birthday. But we did go get his free birthday meal at Joe's Farm Grill and I made him a triple chocolate mousse cake, which was pretty awesome. There was also noisemakers and party hats, so it couldn't have been too bad right?

First Day of School

2010-08-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

Molly is going to the same preschhol she went to last year, but now she's going three times a week instead of two. She was really excited to go back, and she and Claire were doing some impromptu first-day-of-school dancing.

This is Molly's teacher, Ms. Nancy.

Some of Penny's Firsts

2010-08-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

First day at church. The first two weeks we went back Chris was working. It wasn't fun, but we survived.

First "swim." We went to a ward swim party and it was the perfect excuse to get Penny in her new suit. She didn't get in the water but she looked adorable!

First bath. She was at a doctor's appointment at 2 1/2 weeks and her umbilical cord still hadn't fallen off, so the doctor ripped it off. I wasn't too happy - it seemed a little aggressive to me - but at least she could start taking real baths. She hated the sponge baths but is pretty happy about her new fishy tub.

Claire and Penny

2010-08-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

The transition to being a family of five has out a strain on us all, but I would say no one more than Claire. These are a few of her interactions with the baby:

-Smothering lip gloss all over her face while she was in the swing
-Tripping and falling on top of her during tummy time (at least that wasn't one purpose - so I think)
-Lifting her out of the swing and dumping her on the floor (I had to go upstairs for just a second and didn't realize the baby would be so unsafe without me there)
-Sneaking into her room while she was asleep and covering her face with her thumbie (think animal head with a blanket attached)

I know there are so many more but I can't think of them right now. I really hope this is just Claire behaving like a two year-old and not her trying to actually injure Penny! Things can only go up from here...

Penny

2010-08-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

Penny Elizabeth finally decided to arrive July 16th, 8:57 pm. Eight days late! She was 7 lbs. 6 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long.

We had Penny at home in a birthing tub. When we blew it up the kids thought it was a playground until they got kicked out to stay with Papa for the night.

Some pictures from the labor. I like the first one because I don't remember doing much smiling but this proves that I did, the second one is a little more accurate of things getting more serious (luckily Jessie didn't get any pictures near the end, those would have been frightening), and the third one captures my feelings at that moment exactly: I was so glad it was over!

The beautiful newborn!

Taking her first bath in the bathroom sink.

I know this seems a little strange, but to weigh her my midwife tucked her inside this blankie and hook it up to a fish scale. A little funky but accurate!

Molly and Claire came home for a few hours the next morning to visit. They absolutely adore her, sometimes a little too much!

These pictures are all a little more recent. She's two weeks old now and starting to look more like herself and less like a newborn every day.

Sarah and I tried to take pictures for an announcement but she was awake and not too cooperative. She didn't cry, she just wiggled non-stop.

I don't know if this picture does them justice, but her feet are like little planks! They're long and narrow with super long toes.

Crazy Claire

2010-08-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

I was at a doctor's appointment yesterday while Chris was home with the girls. He lost track of Claire for a few minutes, and when he found her she had colored all over her body. This is fairly normal behavior for a two year-old left to markers and their own devices, but what was not normal was that she had given herself armpit hair as well. It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but both armpits are covered in green marker (as well as her belly, legs, and arms).

Crafts

2010-08-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

For the past year I've been taking classes online to finish up prerequisites for the nursing program. I did all my schoolwork in the evening when the kids went to bed, which left no time for me to do anything fun. I finished my classes about two months before the baby was born and spent my new-found evening personal time on a serious crafting kick. Here are some of the major projects:

New skirts for the girls

A carseat canopy for Penny

A quilt and matching throw pillows. I started this quilt about two years ago when Chris's aunt Sally was in town to help and just now got around to finishing it. There are lots of things I would do differently with it in hindsight, but mostly I'm just glad it's done!

Fourth of July shirts and bows for the kids

Goodbye Clarks!

2010-08-01T14:39:00.000-07:00

My sister Sarah and her family moved to Indiana yesterday. This is a real tragedy for us because they've lived three miles away from us for two years now and Molly and Max are best friends. I know they're on to bigger and better things, but it sure will be sad around our house without them!

One of the favorite pastimes, dressing up at Grandma's house.

All the kids in line waiting for their turn to help make cookies.

Prayer Over the Food

2010-06-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

The preschool Molly attends is run by a Presbyterian Church, so occasionally there are some religious oddities. This video is the prayer they say over their snack each day, for those of you that haven't already heard Molly sing it (it's pretty funny so I like to have her perform it when I can).

California

2010-06-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

Last week we took our annual family vacation to San Diego. Three out of the four days we spent on the beach, although it was pretty chilly and overcast. I finally broke down and we took the kids to Sea World one of the days. I am actually not a Sea World fan, but what kind of mother would I be if I didn't set my ethical beliefs aside for my children's entertainment?

The hotel was less-than-spectacular, but I suppose that's the chance you take with Priceline. The kids really wanted to sleep in this small space next to their bed, but unfortunately they have a mean mom who wouldn't let them.

This was the first time the kids have shared a bed, and Claire's first time not in a Pack-N-Play, and they did awesome! Each night took about 15 minutes for Claire to unwind (harassing Molly, trying to steal her Froggy, laying on her, playing with anything she could find on the nightstand) but once she did she did fine.

We spent one beach day at Coronado, which we love. Chris put his pride aside and consented to renting the Family Bike. Molly was so excited about it, then about 20 minutes into our hour rental both kids were whining that they were done. We made them keep riding for about 40 minutes until we felt like we got our money's worth (mostly).

Claire was freezing, so she spent most of her beach time wrapped in a towel on someone's lap, with some occasional time playing in the sand.

36 weeks and counting!

Molly adored the beach, no matter how cold it was.

The Sea World highlight was the Sesame Street Bay of Play. They had some pretty cute rides and an Elmo 3-d movie.

The Art Gallery

2010-05-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

Since preschool started, I have gotten in trouble almost weekly for throwing away precious works of art. Molly comes home with many projects, sometimes 3 or 4 in one day, and it's impossible to keep everything, mean as that sounds. Sometimes I could trash things discreetly, but other times I inadvertently left artwork on the top of trash instead of squishing it down where she couldn't see, which led to trouble. The straw that broke the camel's back was when I ripped a corner off of one of her drawings (it was a copied picture of a house that she had traced - it didn't look that special to me) to use for something and put the rest of the picture in the recycle trash, right on top. The next morning she saw it in there, ripped, and shouted "WHAT ON EARTH!!" and burst into tears. Definitely not one of my prouder parenting moments. I never fully admitted to it being me, but I'm pretty sure she knew. Anyway, we now have this lovely art gallery to hang all works of art on. When it gets too full, Molly is responsible for choosing what goes in the trash and what stays, so hopefully I'll stay out of trouble. We'll see.

Mother's Day Tea

2010-05-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

All the moms were invited to the preschool for a celebration the Thursday before Mother's Day. They made these rockin' hats for us (Claire has already claimed ownership of mine) and the highlight was the pictures they drew of their moms and the questions they answered. The pictures didn't have the kids names on them so we could guess which one was of us. Molly can't keep a secret so she told me which was was hers, although I would have known anyway because her answers were pretty accurate, except my age. The highlight was one kid who wrote that "My mom looks prettiest when... she goes out to the bar."

Baby Leo

2010-05-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

My sister Sarah just had a darling baby boy about a month ago. This is Molly the Transformer holding him for the first time, and Spiderman Max trying to assist.

Preschool Science Night

2010-05-13T19:25:00.000-07:00

Molly's preschool had a Science Night last week that was pretty awesome. They had six or seven different rooms set up with tons of different experiments in each. The kids loved it (so did Chris and I) and I think we are so lucky to have found this preschool!

This is Molly with her teacher, Ms. Nancy, in the dry ice room. We spent longer in this room than in any other, the kids were very impressed!

Claire's favorite thing to do was to stick her face in this giant blower.

Molly loved the classic Diet Coke/Mentos explosion.

Chris's Live Burn

2010-05-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

Chris is finishing up his classes for his Firefighter 1 and 2 certification, and part of it is that they get to work a live fire. The kids and I got to come watch, and they were pretty impressed. We determined the only way to tell Chris apart from the others when he had his mask on is that he was the tallest of the group. Molly really latched on to that, and I think it made her more comfortable when Chris would go inside to be able to watch for him to come back out.

Big-Girl Bed

2010-04-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

Claire and Molly had some major transitions last week. They moved into the same room together, and Claire moved out of her crib and into a bed. Claire's actually doing so much better than I expected! I thought it was going to be an all-night party in there, and constant fighting about staying in bed, but we've had hardly any problems. Molly actually has very little interest in playing once they go to bed, so Claire will try to harass her then give up after a little while. Molly also loves to tell on Claire, which is nice if Claire's getting out of bed, but not if she's telling on her for things like standing up in the bed. We finally had to have a talk that calling for mom was for emergencies only, nothing else. The most effective deterrent for Claire has been the threat of going back to the crib. She gets a chance or two to get out of bed, then it's back to her crib if she keeps doing it. I think she's only had to go back to the crib twice to realize it's not nearly as fun as the bed, so she's been staying in bed.

I snuck in the kid's room and got a picture of them sleeping. There is absolutely zero space in that room. The door doesn't fully open, and the nightstand (which is Claire's dresser) has to overlap the closet to get the door closed. Definitely not an attractive room, and it's horribly mismatched, but that's a worry for another day.

Easter

2010-04-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

This year, with Chris working and General Conference, Easter was a little strange for us. The Easter dresses were a little bit of a waste this year since they had to wear them the week before Easter. Oh well, I can't ever complain about fancy new dresses!

The Monday before Easter we had an Easter-themed Family Home Evening. As I was getting ready to explain the Easter story to the kids, I happened to ask if either of them could tell me anything about it. Molly proceeded to regurgitate the entire Easter story, complete with death on the cross and resurrection. Not only was I impressed that she knew it, I was impressed that her attention span in primary was long enough to pick up all the details! Our activity that night was dyeing eggs. Luckily the kit came with stickers and crayons in addition to the dye because Claire had to have many dye "time-outs." She had to have her hands constantly in the dye, and I think at one point I caught her drinking it. We also went to the Easter Pageant at the temple that week, and Molly was totally mesmerized. Claire mostly entertained the people in the row behind us. The kids really were troopers though, considering the pageant didn't even start until an hour past bedtime. After the pageant we were able to get over to the Visitor's Center to catch up with Chris's old mission president, President White. He has just been called to be the Visitor's Center president.

Molly's preschool had an Easter party, and I had to take this picture because Gunner, the boy who is madly in love with Molly, is sitting just to the right of her. Last week he told Molly he was going to marry her. I told Molly to tell him to back off and wait a few years, and she stomped her foot and said "Yeah! I'm just a KID! I'm telling him that TOMORROW!"

Claire got to be involved in the Easter Egg hunt, too. My mother-in-law Kathy made the awesome skirts the girls are wearing. Molly decided to pair the skirt with the Puma's, not me.

Once again, Gunner sitting next to Molly. He and Claire actually had a little altercation over who would get to sit there, and Gunner obviously won.

Molly is definitely the tallest in her class. She just had a well check a couple of weeks ago and she is in the 90th percentile for height!

The Easter Bunny brought our baskets Saturday morning since Chris would be gone Sunday morning. Molly expressed quite a bit of concern about the Easter Bunny coming into the house, so we decided to leave the baskets outside the front door for him to fill so he wouldn't have to come in.

Molly took her eyes off her basket for a minute and Claire shoveled in as many jelly beans as she could before she got caught.

We spent Easter at my parent's. It was such a lazy day that the kids never got out of their jammies (neither did I, but that's pretty typical for me these days). But we definitely had some incredible food; my mom made cinnamon rolls and orange rolls for breakfast and my dad smoked ribs for dinner.

My poor dad trying to keep the kids occupied during conference.

The annual Easter Egg Hunt!

A Month of Birthday Celebrations

2010-04-01T19:30:00.001-07:00

This year we didn't do a big birthday party for the girls so we had many mini-parties. The celebration kicked off with Claire's actual birthday. She got this door from Chris and I, which I know might be a little immature for her, but the kids adore it. Next up was Krispy Kreme, which has unfortunately become a birthday tradition, especially since we found out about the free dozen on your birthday. Then we made our way to the train park, where Claire ended up shoeless since somehow only one of her shoes made it into the car. We rounded out the day with cream-filled chocolate cupcakes.

Next up was a Sunday dinner celebration combined with Chris's mom. My sister-in-law Carlie made the kids cakes, which they loved. They got some great presents, especially the awesome tutus from my mother-in-law. For the record, I really dislike Sponge Bob but the only hats they had left at Walmart were Sponge Bob or Transformers so it was the best we could do.

The third party was combined with the kid's cousin Max, who also has a birthday in March. We started off at Chuck-E-Cheese then when back to Sarah's house for some cake and higher-quality pizza from Barro's instead of having to eat the cardboard served at Chuck-E-Cheese.

The last party of the month was Molly's birthday day. She got an easel for her birthday from us, and since it was a preschool day Chris picked up Krispy Kreme and brought it home instead of eating it there. I made some scrambled eggs to go with it so I could feel a little better about myself, but out of the four of us I was the only one who even touched mine. Oh well, I tried. After preschool we went to the Mesquite Groves pool in Chandler. I gave her a few different options of things we could do to celebrate her birthday, but as soon as I mentioned the pool she said "I've been DREAMING of going to that pool!" She didn't miss a beat from where her swimming left off last year; she was swimming like crazy and doing tricks off the diving board. For her birthday treat I made mini raspberry cheesecakes, which she told me she wanted when I showed her a picture of them. Unfortunately when it came time to eat them she scraped off the cheesecake part and just ate the crust.

What? Already?

2010-03-13T20:00:00.000-08:00

Apparently there is a little boy at school that is in love with Molly. When Chris dropped the kids off on Thursday he overheard one of the moms tell Ms. Nancy that her son Gunnar talked about Molly constantly at home. I didn't think much of it until Sarah called me on the way home from picking the kids up and broke the news that he had given Molly a token of his affection: a stuffed bear covered in hearts that he had apparently won for her the night before out of a claw machine. From what I understand, Sarah had loaded the kids up in her car when Gunnar came running up and practically threw the bear at Molly. She seemed thoroughly confused, and after a few more seconds Gunnar got up some guts to come back and talk to Molly. He actually jumped into the van, mumbled something to her about a stick he had found, then ran away again. What a nightmare! Luckily Molly doesn't seem to care at all one way or the other about Gunnar, except he is her friend. She has been dragging the bear around with her everywhere this weekend, but I'm pretty sure it has more to do with its sweet hood that comes on and off than it does her feelings for Gunnar. Can't this wait another 20 years?

Back to the Museum

2010-03-13T19:52:00.000-08:00

The kids and I have been spending a lot of time at the Children's Museum lately. It never seems to get old, especially since they change things around a lot. They just added a new room for building forts, tunnels, or whatever else you can think of. We probably spent an hour in there, and Molly took part in building some extravagant structures. One employee compared our fort to Fort Knox, which I thought was quite a compliment. Unfortunately no picture, I only got a picture of the tunnel we spent a lot of time working on. I think Molly only went through once or twice after all her hard work.

Public Safety Day

2010-03-13T19:43:00.000-08:00

My dad helped put together a Public Safety Day for Fountain Hills, so we all came to support. It was really fun, and as long as there are free fire hats, the kids have a great time!

Princess and the Frog

2010-03-13T19:29:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, the girls and I went out for our first movie. Molly has been to the movies before with Chris's mom, but the was the first time I had taken her. We went to the dollar theater by our house, got some popcorn and lemonade, and I thought things would be beautiful. Claire lasted in her seat until the popcorn was gone, or she was tired of it, I'm not sure which came first. Then she played musical chairs in our row (luckily the theater only had about 10 other people there) which doesn't sound so bad except she kept getting folded up in the seats since she's not heavy enough to weigh them down. Then she dragged her booster off the seat to try to use it as a stepstool to climb over to the next row. The intermission to use the potty only made it worse because she didn't want to go back in. We finally survived through the whole thing, and oddly enough Claire can't stop talking about The Princess and the Frog, which I doubt she saw more than 10 minutes of. Needless to say, she won't be going back to the movies for quite a while.

Afterward we played out by the amphitheater, which was definitely more fun than the movie.

Dressed Up

2010-03-13T19:25:00.000-08:00

The kids were looking especially darling for church last week, although the pictures don't do them any justice.

Wacky Day

2010-03-13T19:06:00.000-08:00

Molly's Preschool had Wacky Day in honor of the Dr. Suess book "Wacky Wednesday." The kids loved it! According to Uncle Ryan who picked them up from school that day, Molly was "by far" the best-dressed Wacky Kid. If you look close her clothes are on backwards too, which I have a feeling was pretty uncomfortable, at least the shorts. She asked to switch back as soon as she got home and said, "There, now my bum will fit!"

Deep Thoughts

2010-02-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

This is a direct copy from my sister's blog, but the sidebar is now going to be filled with random sayings and conversations with the Black kids instead of new posts for them. The first few are definitely winners!

Potty Time!

2010-02-11T18:12:00.000-08:00

We've been potty training with Claire for three or four weeks now and she's doing a great job! She has been quite a bit easier than Molly was. I think it's pretty helpful having Molly around because Claire wants to do everything she does, potty included. We still have accidents here and there, but for some reason they almost always happen at home, so I guess I'm grateful for that.

This is Molly when she was potty training almost two years ago. The sad thing is that Claire is wearing panties from the same Curious George pack that Molly is wearing. Practically everything Claire gets is a hand-me-down, right down to the underwear!

Fancy Nancy Party

2010-02-11T18:05:00.000-08:00

For Molly's preschool Valentine's Day party they did a Fancy Nancy theme (very fun for the girls, not too exciting for the boys). Molly started out the morning with tons of accessories on (many bracelets, necklaces, etc) but by the time preschool rolled around she was left with a bow in her hair and the bows tied on her shoes. Claire got to come to the party too, so she get to dress just as fancy.

It's a Girl!!

2010-02-11T17:58:00.000-08:00

We had our eighteen week ultrasound last week and it's ANOTHER girl! Chris and I really thought it was a boy (although I was basing my opinion on the always-reliable Chinese Lunar calendar and the heart rate wive's tale - she was always in the 140's which is supposed to mean boy) but Molly has known all along it was a girl. She would never even entertain the idea of it being a boy, although she says the next baby is going to be a boy. We'll see if her intuition is better than mine! We brought both kids to the ultrasound, and Molly's favorite part was when she got to say over and over to Chris "I was right and you were WRONG!" Claire's favorite part was tickling my toes while I was laying back in the chair. Unfortunately the ultrasound pictures were really terrible this time around (I can't tell what three quarters of them are pictures of) so this was the best one.

Family Photos

2010-02-11T17:48:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas our family had pictures taken at the temple with a photographer named Sarah Coral. She was amazing!

Shirtless Wonders

2010-02-11T17:46:00.000-08:00

In general, when Chris comes home from the gym he likes to take his shirt off to see what kind of improvements he's made that day. Molly catches him pretty frequently and wants to have her shirt off too. This is what a lot of our afternoons look like.

Christmas Eve

2010-01-07T19:28:00.000-08:00

Last year after Christmas we found a clearanced Santa suit for my dad so he brought all the kids their Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve this year. Since the oldest cousin is only 5 they were more in shock than excited, but after he left they really perked up and decided it was awesome. The first thing Molly told me was that she "wasn't even scared when Santa came!" She is notoriously anti-Santa so this was a big step for her.

We tried to get the kids to sinc Christmas songs all together so they could be in one place when Santa came. As expected, it was a little rough.

The best picture we could get of the self-named "snow fairies." This year's jammies were pretty awesome!

Christmas at the Cabin

2010-01-07T19:17:00.000-08:00

This year we spent the 23rd and part of Christmas Eve up at the cabin. There was a ton of snow and the kids loved it.

We don't own any snow clothes so this is the best we could come up with.

The Clark's Rockin' Christmas Party

2010-01-07T18:38:00.000-08:00

Every year my sister has an annual Christmas party, with the highlights being absolutely incredible food and a White Elephant exchange. This year the she added a Nativity for the kids and made some pretty amazing costumes for it.

Claire was a shepherd - and surprisingly a very good sport about it! I think she was the only kid not spending the majority of the time trying to figure out how to get the costume off.

Molly was Mary and Colin was Joseph, although she told me at one point that she wished Max was Joseph. Sorry Colin! And Chris was the only adult invited to participate - as the donkey Mary rode in to Bethlehem.

The best White Elephant gift (I suppose the opinion is biased - I'm the one that gave it) was a game called Mazu Kan. You put on special gloves and a thing on your chest so you can have a pretend fight. It tracks your movements so you can do special moves and block punches. My dad and Chris had the first fight with Chris winning, but Mike was the night's overall champion.

There's a chance this video will have to be removed when Chris or my dad see I posted it, but it is too funny not to post! I thought my aunts Holly and Karen may especially enjoy it...

Nutcracker

2010-01-07T18:29:00.000-08:00

This year my mom took my sisters and I plus the oldest granddaughters, Molly and Amelia, to the Nutcracker put on by Ballet Arizona. It was absolutely spectacular! We started our afternoon at Ms. Thomas Lovely's Teahouse for lunch then on to the ballet. Molly got a little bored when it got close to intermission, but luckily it was nothing a drink and a potty break couldn't fix.

Jessie told the girls to pose looking very polite and they both ended up doing this odd, prayer-like thing.

Preschool Christmas Pageant

2010-01-07T18:19:00.000-08:00

The preschool Molly goes to has separate classes for the three year-olds and the four year-olds, and normally only the four year-old class gets to put on the Christmas pageant. but this year they were a little short on class members so Molly's class got to participate too. I have to admit when Molly was cast as a wiseman I was a little disappointed at first (thinking she obviously should have been an angel) but after I saw the costume I realized how wrong I was! The hat was quite amazing. She and Max were darling and they did a great job. There was only one minor slip-up when Molly forgot when it was her time to go on stage, and was paying so little attention that her teacher was practically shouting at her before she realized it was time to go on.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T19:24:00.000-08:00

Tonight Molly told me, "I'm scared to sit on his lap, but I'm not scared of the presents Santa gives me!"

Round Three

2009-12-04T21:26:00.000-08:00

The next addition to our family, due July 8, 2010.

Time Out

2009-12-04T21:16:00.000-08:00

Claire has been fascinated with Molly being sent to timeout for many months now. I haven't started timeouts with Claire yet, but she finally got tired of being left out so she has started putting herself in timeout. If I ask her not to do something, she'll stop and say "timeout" with her head down and walk herself over to the front door (our timeout spot of choice when we're downstairs). She'll work up a little whimper, then sometimes if she's really feeling it she'll say "Nose...corner." This is a little embarrassing, but occasionally if Molly is being wild in timeout, I've been known to tell her she has to keep her nose in the corner for the rest of timeout, so it's no mystery where Claire came up with that one. After about 10 seconds Claire will come running back, give me a hug, and go back to business as usual. In this picture, Claire kept herself in timeout long enough for Molly to decide she needed to administer the "timeout talk." She then proceeded to ask Claire why she was in timeout, have a chat about why she shouldn't have done it, procure an apology, then they gave each other a hug and said I love you.

Utah Trip

2009-11-20T19:29:00.000-08:00

This past weekend the girls and I went to Utah with my parents for my cousin Lizzie's wedding. The kids went crazy for the snow! The cold didn't seem to phase them at all (especially Molly) as long as they were able to play in the snow. I think the highlight of the weekend was sledding in aunt Karen's backyard, but that's probably obvious from the video.

Claire fell asleep in this awkward position on the plane. Never in a million years did I think I would be lucky enough to have this happen, but the stars must have aligned.

The kids dressed in their finest for the wedding, but they unfortunately doubled as play clothes. Yes, Molly is rocking a fur stole, but I think she pulls it off nicely!

Sledding!

Molly's First School Picture

2009-11-20T19:17:00.000-08:00

More Molly Talk

2009-11-16T18:07:00.000-08:00

The other day we were in the car and Molly asked "Mom, is comforter Spanish for blankie?"

Last week while getting dressed to go to my parent's house I decided that it would be perfectly acceptable to wear a giant t-shirt and hot pink pajama pants with skull-and-crossbones on them. Unfortunately I hadn't realized that we'd be meeting my mom for an impromptu trip to Target, so I decided to just suck it up and go out, hot pink pants and all (not that I look much better when I know I'll be going to Target). We got there a few minutes before my mom did, then as soon as my mom got there Molly gave her a hug and said "Mom's not really supposed to come to the store with those pants on."

Super Molly and Super Claire

2009-11-02T18:34:00.000-08:00

Annual ASU Game

2009-11-02T14:05:00.000-08:00

On Halloween Chris and Molly went to their annual ASU game. I think they had a good time overall, though Molly started getting antsy after the first quarter. Chris tried to keep her entertained with different activities/food, but after the third quarter they decided to call it a day.

This is Molly refusing to give me any decent poses for our pre-game photo shoot.

Halloween Festivities

2009-11-02T13:32:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos of our many Halloween Festivities:

Every year we got to Mother Nature's Farm, but this may be the last year. The tractor ride involves driving around their large lot filled with rotting gourds, dirt piles, weeds, and buildings under construction. The few animals that are on the farm look pretty sickly, and the pig pen was laden with hundreds of old onions. Not sure why they thought that was a good idea, it reeked.

Our ward Halloween party was a lot of fun. Molly's favorite part was the cupcake walk. After the second walk through she wanted to do it again, and I told her she could, she just couldn't have another cupcake if she won. She asked me if I could let the adults working the booth that she wasn't allowed to have anymore, and I told her I didn't need to; she could just let them know she wasn't having anymore cupcakes. A few rounds later she won and she went running over to the cupcake table. There was a quick conversation with the cupcake gal, then Molly came sprinting over to me and said "I let her know that I already had PLENTY!!" I'm not sure who was prouder, me or her.

Molly helped draw on the face for the pumpkin, with a few modifications during carving. Claire liked to eat the pieces of pumpkin that got carved out.

Molly's preschool Halloween party. They got to frost cookies, play games, and trick-or-treat to the moms around the preschool yard. The siblings got to come too, but Eve and Claire were the only siblings dressed up. We couldn't waste an opportunity to wear the costumes!

The final Halloween party: trick-or-treating at the Avenue of the Fountains and a few houses in Fountain Hills.

Claire's New Tricks

2009-11-02T13:22:00.000-08:00