Kiddie Pool Fun

One fine morning, Claire and I went over to Grandma Taylor's house for breakfast. Claire did not care about breakfast...especially when she discovered the kiddie pool :)

And grandma, the way-nicer-than-mommy-and-most-people type, filled it up with WARM water--not just hose water. SPOILED! I must say! She was also taking care of Sam, Claire's little cousin, and they had a BLAST.

Of course, neither of them had swimsuits, and Claire only had jammies on...which didn't stop them at all. Soon their diapers looked like the New Year Blimp. I called Jordan over to take pictures, of course! So fun!

So happy in the pool :)

The saggy diaper--not to mention these particular jammies are super loose on her! So her pants were falling down too.

After a while, we just stripped them of their clothes, put Claire in one of Sam's outfits, and they both played with NO diapers on. This is the BEST shot--LOVE LOVE LOVE Claire's wedgie!!! So funny!!!

Soaked and so happy :) Um, this picture on the right--doesn't she look like a boy?? Crazy.

Claire's 18 Months (and some Claireisms)

Claire is getting shorter and fatter! Hahha :)

Height: 31.5 inches: 35th percentile
Weight: 25 lbs.: 55th percentile
Head Circ.: 18.5 inches: 72nd percentile

She's got a good sized head too :) Yep, Claire's dimensions are really evening out! Dr. Harrison also took out Claire's staples and asked how many words she was saying (we said "um, like a million?" :) and how she was eating, playing, etc. PS. I'm sooooo glad this was her last round of shots til Kindergarten! YAY!

So, how about some Claireisms? What is she up to now?

*Claire has decided that "no" and "mine" are some fun words to DRAAAAAAAW out. If she doesn't like something or want something, (like a radio station in the car!) she'll say "nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnno!" and she won't just say "mine!" to a playmate, she'll say "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmine!" It's so funny. But we try not to laugh, and tell her to be nice!

*For a little while, when Jordan or I would sing songs to her before bed, if she didn't want that song, she'd say "no" when we'd start singing... it was frustrating for a while, but then I decided to just try 3 songs and "tough" if she didn't want any of them. But then Jordan learned a little trick :) He started infusing the songs with words like "elephant," "monkey," "teddybear," etc. and she was happy. Ha!! But now, she doesn't do it anymore! I can sing whatever I want :) And after each song, she says "again" very sweetly :)

*Claire has now become a ham. When we tell her to "smile" this is what she does:



Silly monkey :)

*Whenever prayers are said, Claire always, without being asked, will fold her arms for the entirety of the prayer! She totally keeps her eyes open but at least we have one thing down! She also says a big "AMEN!" at the end--even during sacrament meeting, haha. And she says "ah-men" not "a-men." Very proper, I must say.

*Um...last night, I said prayers with Claire and after I said "amen," she didn't say anything, so I said, "Can you say 'amen,' Claire?" And she said "No way!" I was shocked!!! She would not say "amen," only "no way!" I couldn't help but laugh my guts out.

*Claire is parrot-ing EVERYTHING these days. She also enjoys saying "silly," "no way!" "medicine" (yeah, that's her favorite thing..she's teething...), and is really understanding a TON.

*Unfortunately, Claire has learned to say "shoot" from Mommy, and "Oh crap!" from Daddy. She has never used any of these "in context..." until yesterday. Daddy got her out of the car yesterday afternoon and her sippy cup dropped. Without a moment's hesitation, Claire said, "Oh crap!" I guess you're not supposed to laugh, but we are bad. We did.

*She loves butterfly kisses, Eskimo kisses, and giving hugs to mommy and daddy (as well as the koala in a book she has :)



*Um, Mommy is "chopped liver" when Daddy is around. Just saying. She is a definite DADDY'S GIRL.

*Claire's current favorite songs are "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home" (of course), "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," and of course, "Do do do do do Dora!" and the "We Did It!" song from Dora as well :)



*Um...obsessed with Dora. She also likes "Zoomi" (Team Umizoomi)

*We've been trying to teach Claire the colors. So far, she knows how to say green, blue, brown, and yellow. BUT, when I ask her what color something is, she generally says "geem" for everything haha. She'll get it!

*Claire likes to "bounce" and "dance..." They're the same thing. Except when we say "dance," she just bounces a little higher haha.

Ah...I can't remember anything else. She's just a cutie. I love this age. If only she'd stop eating Crayons!

Cecret Lake

No, it's not a typo...it's called "Cecret" lake :) My aunt Shaunie is so hilarious. She LOVES flowers--more than ANYONE I know in the world! So she invited us to go to Cecret Lake during the best flower-blooming season, and it was totally gorgeous, of course! It was really funny though because every step of the way, she was dying over the flowers, and they were almost all the same, but every "lupine" and "forget me not" varieties were very important haha.

Claire was quite the hiker! But mostly she just played in the dirt, rocks, water, etc. She was almost oblivious to the flowers--we had to keep telling her that they were there! She just wanted to play with the rocks...tomboy on our hands? Probably not--hope not! She has to be super girly like mommy ;)

Anyway, here are some pics...


Here's the trail to the lake! SUCH pretty flowers, of course!


Eager to "get hiking!"


Claire's favorite part--the dirt.


More dirt... Let's be honest--we had to stop a lot on this "hike" :)


Another favorite--the water!


Getting dirty!


Shaunie and me. There I am in an "I give up" outfit looking like...what's the word...um...a whale...I really need to have this baby SOON!!! AH!

And Shaunie took a "family pic" of us in the flowers...check out Claire's SUPER cheesy smile!

Needless to say, I didn't exactly make it to Cecret Lake. The last part of the hike is all uphill and looked labor-inducing (at this point, walking to the very back of the movie theater is like hiking Mt. Everest, so...). But the "journey" was great!

Claire's First Trip to the ER

She's starting early I guess! Well, we of course hope that this is her first and last trip, but who knows? Last night, Claire woke up a couple of times crying and she seemed like she was a little sick (congested) and I was so tired of getting up, so I finally just put her in bed with me. She hasn't slept in our bed hardly at all, but when she has it has been fine. She's fallen off the bed before, but that has only been when she's playing on it...

Anyway, at 5am, all of the sudden, in her sleep, she just rolls right off the bed! I hear the thud and the cry and think it's just the usual head bonk. Not. As I cuddled her, I felt something wet on the right side of her head...I hoped it was just her tears, but it turned out to be blood :(

Fortunately, it wasn't gushing or anything but there was a significant amount of blood matted in her hair. So, I called Jordan (he was at work still) and he came home. In Jordan's VAST personal (like, on himself!) experience with head injuries, he determined that it was indeed something she needed to get stitched up. (I was trying to spare us the $100 ER visit, but I guess butterfly bandaids would be tricky in this case ;)

So, we went to the ER, and Claire freaked out when the triage nurse tried to weigh her--at that point, I was expecting quite an ordeal! But I guess she just didn't love that nurse or was just still pretty tired because when the doctor came in, she was just fine!

I had bubbles and they eventually gave her a popsicle, but even without that, I was amazed that she didn't even flinch when they cleaned her head off!


And there's the cut--ouch!! They decided on 2 staples, and once again, she didn't even cry UNTIL after it was done, dumb mommy said "WOW! I can't believe she didn't even cry!" Then she started crying, haha :)--but only a little bit and she was fine.

Picture I took while bathing her later that day. BTW, all of these pics I took on my phone-can you tell? Yeah, not the best quality but you get the point, right?

Claire, we are soooooooo relieved that you are OK and lived through this whole ordeal!! We love you!!

It's time for the 3rd trimester "I Give Up" muu'muu

Except it's not Hawaiian, so maybe I shouldn't call it a muu'muu. Maybe I should call it the "Thai Tent!" (it's my Mom's...from Thailand I think...and my Mom used to be a little...thicker so it fits me a little better these days!) Hmmm and now that I think about it, my mom has LOTS of actual muu'muus from her days in Hawaii...need to tap into that. I could wear a tent every day for the next 2.5 months! Yay!



Yes, Jordan loves this look, as you can imagine. He loves it so much he tells me to put it on every night........AFTER......he goes to work :) He somehow does not think it's flattering. I just think it's great because let's face it. It is the only thing I can wear that is NOT TIGHT on me!!! Liberating, I must say.

I wore this after work like every day when I was pregnant with Claire.

Sorry honey, it's not going anywhere for a while...

P.S. Shiny, isn't it??

Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving?

On July 11th, I turned the BIG 3-0! AH!!! I'm totally depressed about it, actually. It's a new DECADE! And the worst is that Jordan is still only 28...yeah, I'm old. Although I have realized that I can't technically say that in front of ANYONE until I'm like 105 and NOBODY is older than I am...otherwise I'm bound to offend someone who is older still....

Anyway, wanted to have kind of a big bday this year, but was so busy you know, July stuff, that we quickly just decided to go to dinner the Monday after my birthday. We had Jordan's parents, my parents, and Jordan's two sisters with us, at the Cheesecake Factory. It was YUMMMMM-O. I got the Caramel Pecan Turtle Cheesecake. It was delish! I was eyeing the Keylime one though--next time :)

Spelled my name wrong, but...story of my life, right? :)

The fam! Claire was NOT posing for this one, I guess!

Me, my honey, and Claire. She LOVED this little outing, that's for sure!

Went back to the cabin the next day (just Claire and me) and when I got home, Jordan (who I thought didn't really get me anything) had on our kitchen table, a gift basket with chocolate covered cherries (my FAVORITE!), chocolate covered blueberries, yogurt cherries and blueberries, and 3 kinds of jams. Yum! Jordan knows the way to my heart :) haha. But actually, the bets part was that he deep cleaned the downstairs of the house. It looked amazing!! Thank you honey!!!!

Cabin 2010: More Fun!

More fun started with the fact that this year, the cabin has a nice backyard! Earlier in the year, Grandpa, Grandma, Jordan, and Jay, laid sod, and Jay put up a new swingset/playground!



The kids of course, love it :) Especially Lauren (who calls the cabin "Lauren's cabin") who is, surprise surprise, on the swings. She's obsessed!

And who wouldn't have fun with these little cuties, Dahlin and Jared!



And the hammocks got some good use! Kaylin, Gavin, and Sydney.



And here's Lolo and Claire-Bear



Gavin and Dahlin spent some time...being cute, as usual!



And the other grandkids...spent time looking cute too :)



We also rode ATV's (or as little Zachary likes to call them "VIDEOS"...something about them being called A-T.V.'s made him think they had something to do with TV?



And the kids made their annual ride down to see the horsies in the meadow!



And the girls spent a lot of time playing their favorite new Wii game, "Just Dance!" It was hilarious!!! Their favorites were "Womanizer" (Britney Spears?) and Katy Perry's "Hot n Cold." They were the cutest!



Also the cutest in the new skirts Grandma made them :) (Sydney and I picked out the fabric, so of COURSE, she couldn't go wrong, right? haha)



And the cabin experience wouldn't be complete without snowcones every day!! Gavin was so cute to help Claire with her's :) Claire loves "Gabin!"

And after the parade, we went to this barbecue buffet place we've been to once before. It was really good food, and so fun! Here's Andrew with his kids, Sydney and Dahlin :)



There is also a new horseshoes pit in the backyard. Yeah, looks like they had fun :) (Becca and Phil)



Um, Michelle and Andrew must have scored here? Ouch! :)



And no reunion would be complete without craft time!! I was in charge this year...so the crafts were AWESOME, of course! :) We made red, white, and blue korker bows for the girls as well as some other small clippies, and of course, HUGE flower clippies with jeweled centers :)



Our little busy bees! The boys did wooden keepsake boxes with their favorite themes--animals (Zach-Zach), Batman (Gavin), and camping/four-wheeling (Samuel)

And Michellie brought her watch-making supplies!



Stephen also spent some time fishing...good for us! The fish was really good!

Claire's whole "reason for living" at the cabin seems to revolve around the Hawaiian necklaces my parents have in a bowl in the living room. She is obsessed. No need for toys whatsoever when the necklaces are around!

I don't know why my camera was set to black and white when we took this picture--oh well. Claire and I did a puzzle. Meaning, I did it, and she "helped" dismantle it every step of the way!

Unfortunately, Claire turned into Mr. Hyde pretty much the whole week at the cabin!! Ah! I was about to tear my hair out!! She was cutting her canines, and it definitely showed. She had fevers off and on, and was soooooo needy! She would cry at the drop of a hat, and freak out if Jordan or I (esp. Jordan, let's be honest...she was a TOTAL daddy's girl there...and still is actually!) left her for 2 seconds. Gratefully, she's back to normal now. I kept telling everyone, "I'm sorry, she's usually NOT like this!" They were very understanding, thank you :)

Aunt Michellie also did Claire's hair one day. So cute!! (we of course, MADE those clippies!)

Anyway, Cabin 2010 was awesome. Only bummer is that we missed Nathan and Ann-Marie and their little cuties! Next time!!!