My First Blog Party!

I have officially been sucked in to DYI blogs....I actually refer to them as MY DIY blogs.

I made these little guys at my Mom's house one night when I was bored off my gourd and felt the craft feva' burning. I meant to make some for myself also, but the closer it got to Halloween the more I couldn't stop thinking about Christmas. So I made these dudes instead!

This is the Daddy...

and these are the Mommy and Baby!
(this is what happens when you have a girl)

Do you see how the Baby doesn't have a mouth? I like this for MANY reasons.
(insert evil laugh here) I couldn't get a good shot when the candle was burning and I was too excited to wait til night, so use your imagination!

Like the title says I am joining my first Blog Party at just one of the many sites that I stalk, The DIY Showoff! Check out all the other fun ideas that are on there!

Channeling the Heffernans

* Editors Note: This happened a few nights ago and I am still getting a good laugh from it every time I think of it.
For those of you who don't know Spencer and I are completely OBSESSED with King of Queens and I personally get ecstatic when something from the show happens in real life.

We decided to go by Arctic Circle on the way home to grab an ice cream cone, ( You know those teensie ones that are like 25 cents? Perfect size... I pink puffy heart them) but because we were in Spencers new ride he wouldn't let Claire have her cone til we got home. That left me holding both hers and mine. I started to get a little worried thinking that they would start dripping and I wouldn't have anyway to wipe them because my hands were already full, so I decided to just hurry and eat mine. Real quick back to King of Queens, remember in the opening credits at the very end Doug licks an ice cream cone and it falls off? This is important. Remember this. Okay, back to the story. So I was trying to quickly eat mine when, no joking, the ice cream fell off!! I started to panic thinking it had landed on the floor, and that I would soon die by the hand of Spencer, but I didn't see it down there. Where was it you ask? In my purse. IN MY PURSE!! What the.....?? So not really thinking I grabbed it with my hand and plopped it back on the cone all before anyone saw what happened. And then I got the laughing shakes. You know the ones. Where you are laughing, but the only way you can tell is because your shoulders are going up and down. ( or is that only in my family?) I wasn't going to tell Spencer till we got home, but then I flashed over to the King of Queens part I just described and burst out laughing!! By the time I got the whole story out I had tears running down my face, and ice cream down my hands, and I couldn't do a thing about it!

Ahhh....good family bonding right there!

Night(s) of Fright

Happy Belated Halloween! I'm actually pretty impressed with myself that I didn't wait to put Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas together on the same post. Yeah, I'm on the ball like that.

Claire decided that this year she wanted to go against my wishes (it's starting already) and be a fairy. I know, how creative is that?! I mean there was seriously no other fairies that we saw. Anywhere. I can't remember what the girls in her class where, but they were definitely not fairies. (Seriously though, they ALL were. It was like some weird fairy convention) Her costume turned out a little more "homemade" than I would have liked, but it was the only way to keep her warm enough!! I did make the adorable skirt though I don't mind mentioning :)

We were kind of crazy Halloweeners this year. (Spell check did not like that word) Claire dressed up 4 different times! (It would have been 5, but we had a terrible cold go through our house) And here's the proof.

We went to Boo at the Zoo at, you guessed it, the zoo. We went with some friends and had a really fun time. There were booths set up by businesses all through the park with (lame) candy to hand out along with stupid fliers and such for the parents. Although we did score a coupon for Claire to eat for free at (Up) Chuck-A-Rama...somehow I don't see that getting used.... The zoo also decorated some of the cages. For the gorillas they toilet papered their area. Not sure what that had to do with Halloween, but we were all entertained when they started eating it!

This was the only shot I got at the zoo before my camera died :(

A few days later she dressed up for school, but I just deleted it by accident and don't feel like getting it back in here in the right spot. Sounds like more work than this blog is worth. Take what you can get people.

These next few are at the family party. We did soups and breadsticks, decorated cookies, played games, and just tried to be as loud as we possibly could. (have you met my family?)

Claire making out with her cookie piled high with all sorts of crap. I mean, fun holiday decorations.

The kids all played the donut game. It was so funny! Claire was belly laughing so hard!

Her foot was going crazy while she was trying to catch the donut! So funny!

Ummmm.....yeah....that's my brother Trevor. Being a bachelor and all he eats out A LOT and it's starting to show. Who wants to break the news to him?

An entire donut in you mouth at once? Really Trev?

This is at our ward Trunk or Treat.



I thought this picture was cute of her Uncle Ryan giving her a treat. Awww...look at the nerd home passing out treats on Halloween!

These are a little random.

This is what I came downstairs and saw. Helloooo? Who does that?

At Claires preschool we take turns taking a snack that goes with the theme for that day. This day was the letter "S". What food starts with S? I came up with Star Soup and S shaped rolls. They actually turned out better than I thought they would! Little inconsistent, but cute. Way to much effort though :)

And here's an annoying update: I made rolls for 18 kids...only 9 showed up.
(Again with the underlining. Why does that happen every time?)

Too lame to think of a title....

Trying to catch up and be a good little blogger again. Here is a glimpse of our summer/beginning of fall. We had so much fun this past summer, hope you all did too!

I mentioned we went to Disneyland, and here is the proof! Claire adored it! I loved seeing her face and loved that all the workers called her "Princess". I even teared up at one point....don't tell. Claire was so brave! She was able to go on every ride except the Indiana Jones Ride..weird I know.

I think everyone who has gone to Disneyland has this very picture. Now Claire does too.

Chocolate covered rice crispy treat? Yes please!

We saw several characters throughout the day, but were only able to get pics with Sully and Helen Parr a.k.a Elastigirl. (seriously the woman has some hip action going on)

We were actually in California for my cousins wedding. It was so fun seeing everyone! My cousin is Hawaiian so they had a Luau complete with a show! (the food was so yummy! My mouth is watering...)

They had all the boys get up for part of the show to teach them how to dance. Check out those booties!

This is my cutie cousin Taylor! I don't think Claire moved through the whole show!

Uncle Ryan dancing with Claire. Awwww....that's kinda fruity lookin!

T.K. (the groom) gave Claire the flower in her hair from his lei, and she thought she was HOT STUFF!! Check out her "I look so cute and adorable" face.

Daddy and Claire dancing....so cute!

Beach Time!! The currant was so strong we had to hold Claire so she didn't float away! I even fell a few times! Later, she figured out how to ride the wave in. It was pretty funny!

We also had a few Birthdays at our house! Claire and Spencer have the same birthday, so we always host a big spaghetti dinner. Spencer, being the awesome sign painter that he is, painted this for their birthday!

Look who got a bike!

Blowing out the candles on a yummy trifle, compliments of moi. Claire turned the big 4, while Spencer turned this big 31!! Ha!

Another big day was Claire starting Preschool! She loves it and is such a little smarty! She is the only one in her class that can write her name and even knows what the letters are!

Her new "pack-pack"!

For one last summer activity we went boating with some of my family in Mantua. This was what Spencer walked away with after a fight with the rope! Yikes!

Part way through, we let the kids jump off and swim awhile. This was Claires face every time she jumped in...kinda scared, kinda fun!

Spence riding a surfboard! (Jordan you are so jealous!)

Spencer and Claire on the tube!

All the kiddies waiting to get the boat in the water!

Lastly, we celebrated our 6th anniversary the other day! We are going to Vegas in November to see Kevin James (!!!!), so we just did a little date night. We had Spencers parents to watch Claire, but that morning they got the flu! With such short notice we had to take Claire with us. We were glad to though, we haven't had a family outing for awhile!

This was Claires first golf experience! We went to an indoor, glow in the dark, miniature golf course! So fun!!

We ate a Lone Star and loved it! This was my take home "box". The waitress totally made this in front of us! So cool! Claire thought she was hilarious putting it in front of her face!

Wheew! Done! Is your bum as numb as mine is?

Big Secret Reveal....

Okay ya'll. I've been keeping a secret. And it's a big one. Not pregnant big, but big none-the-less. So are ya ready? Are you sitting on the edge of your seats? Do you have butterflies like I do right now just thinking about telling this big huge secret that I've kept for so long? Promise not to tell? Let's keep it just between us and the rest of the World Wide Web. Deal? Sweet. Here's the long awaited secret.......

Spencer got an awesome new job!!!!

It's with a freelance computer company that the government uses. He will be working out in Dugway, at the Base out there, as a Computer Tech of some sort. (I'm still not sure of the exact title.) Which means that in a year, when our lease is up, we will be moving out there and buying a house!! (You'd think with me living with a self professed computer geek I could figure out why that last sentence, and apparently the rest of this post, all of a sudden went back to normal. I didn't touch a thing. Swear it.) This is such an exciting time for us! I'm so proud of you Spencer! Thank you for being a genius!

Claires Pictures

Okay ya'll, I know I said my next post would be of the home but it just hasn't happened yet! So I wanted to get Claires pictures done for her 4th Birthday, and my amazingly talented friend Brittany was able to do them yesterday for us at Union Station! See them on her blog here. Love them! Thanks so much Brittany!

We're still kickin'...

What the title says is true, we are alive and well....sorta. We have had quite a few changes and challenges come up the past month or so. I have been dying to blog lately, but there just aren't enough hours in the day to be able to do one with pictures, so this boring written one will have to do for now. ( I seriously hate posts like this, so I feel your pain) First off we were able to go on a vacation to sunny(hot) Southern California! We went to the beach a few times, saw lots of family that live there, hung out with my sister, brother-in-law (why does that title have to be so long?) niece and the rest of my family, and even took Claire for a day to Disneyland and California Adventure!! She was in HEAVEN! They kept calling her "Princess", it was adorable to see her reaction! (pictures to come) Another change, Claire turned 4, and Spencer turned the big 31 on August 18th!! I can't believe my baby is getting so big! On the challenging side, poor Claire got a urinary tract infection (who knew a 4 year old could get one of those? I've never had one.), and Spencer was diagnosed with Grade C esophigitis (sp) and is on medication that is thankfully working! ( Grade D links with cancer) He also found out the other day that he allergic to about 25 things, wheat and peanuts being the two main problems! Seriously the guy is one peanut away from living in a glass bubble. (King of Queens anyone? How ironic is it that the subject of that sentence goes by the name of Spence?) He was instructed to have a completely wheat free diet for the next month, and then possibly for life. So far he's not listening, but if any of you have wheat free recipes, sent them my way! Another challenge has been that our landlords are kicking us out. (hang on, it get's better) Their son sold his house and still has 6-8 weeks left before his new house is done, so we get the boot so he has somewhere to live for a few weeks. LAME!!! So for those of you keeping track that's 3 moves in 6 months! (no typo there) We are having some serious bad house karma! Oh well! We found a place in North Ogden, and are in the process of moving there right now! (I'm on a break, but don't tell Spencer) My next post will hopefully be of our new house and all my Fall decorations and DIY projects! (my new hobby!) Check down the right column of my blog, those ladies are AMAZING!!! Wish us luck!!