Pictures of Clara

If you want to see some very cute pictures of Clara, check out Sara's blog: www.sarabphotography.blogspot.com
She took some pictures of Clara in her blessing dress and some cute just-in-diaper shots. These are just a sampling of what she took and in a couple of days I get to preview the other ones and pick which ones I want. I'm excited!

12 Years Later

Here we are 12 years ago today. Well actually this picture is from a reception a week later, but the implication is that we were married 12 years ago today! When Phil feels like teasing me he usually says something to the effects of "It seems like forever." However, when he's feeling nice he'll say something like "It really has flown by" or "It seems like just yesterday."

Here we are 12 years later, after:

~2 Years at BYU-both graduated in 1998

~3 Years of graduate and medical school at Vanderbilt

~2 Years at the National Institute of Health

~4 more years of post graduate work and medical school at Vanderbilt

~1 Year as a resident at Vanderbilt Medical Center

~4 Wonderful kids: Jakob-1998, Ethan-2000, Sophia-2003 and Clara-2008

~Things lost and things found

~Trips made-with (an epic 6 week journey that took us through 17 states one summer is my favorite) and without kids (a week in Vienna for our 10th anniversary was my favorite in this category)

~Things learned, sometimes over and over

~And last of all fun had by all (almost) all of the time.

Here's to the next wonderful dozen years!

She's on a Roll

She's been trying to do this for a little while now and has done it on a fluke in her crib with something to get her toes gripped on, but now it's intentional...and I'm sad she's growing up so fast. She's not even 3 months old and she's rolling. I put her down in the middle of this quilt on her back and when I next looked at her she was off the quilt. I put her back in the middle and with in a couple of minutes she rolled from her back to her front twice to be off the quilt again. I think she wants to keep up with her big brothers and sister. However, with it falling in the week that I had one start middle school and one start kindergarten, I'm a little sad that my babies are growing up so fast.

First Day of School

It's back to school again. Can you tell who is going to school for the first time and who has been there before? It was a big year for us, with Sophia starting kindergarten and Jakob starting middle school. It's hard to believe that Sophia is old enough for school. She has the same teacher that the boys had and is very excited about that. Ms. White (Stone) almost had me in tears though tonight at the kindergarten orientation. She has a book that was given to her by Jakob's class when they were in K (I can't remember the exact title--somebody's garden--but it's about a teacher "growing" her garden) and she was going to read it, but before she did she showed everyone the 'signatures' of Jakob and another boy, Aidan that had been in that class. She then mentioned how this was one of the most touching things in her years of teaching and that was that when those two boys started K they both had little sisters that were just a couple of weeks old. Now those two girls are starting K and she has both of them in her class this year. It's nice to have good teachers.

On the way to middle school. They grow so fast!

Ethan gets to sit by Molly, who was in his K class

Sophia was so excited and so confident. She has come a long way from her very shy days of a 3 year old.
And I had to post some pictures of Clara. She and I just hung out today after she got her first taste of my daily ritual when school is in session-going to the 'Y' nursery. Here she is today, laying contently on the floor while I catch up on the Olympics on the computer. The beautiful quilt is made by the ever so talented Cynthia. I just love the green!!!

This Is What I did Sunday Morning

This is what I did when I should have probably been paying attention to my kids, writing in their journals, reading the lesson for church, etc...Instead what do I do? I stare at the stack of fabric I brought back from PA and think that I have 3 pieces of fabric, though not bought to go together, that match really well. They were just calling to be made into something together so why not outfits for my girls? It had to be something that I could get done during one nap time and I had to be able to get it out of 3 pieces of fabric in 1/2 yard pieces. Here is what I came up with:

Sophia's is a simple skirt with a casing and elastic. The top panel is the pink fabric with the white floral on the bottom and piping in the green between the two. The top is kind of like those pillow case dresses I've seen. A simple rectangle with a triangle cut out for the arms and a casing made across the front and back for the ribbon. Clara's dress is the same thing as Sophia's top just alternating the fabrics: green casing at the top, white floral and then the pink on the bottom. I think they turned out really cute and could easily be seen in some trendy shop, but that's my biased opinion. I really love these fabrics and when I get a minute am going to hunt them down on the internet for some future project.

Up to the North

The kids and I headed up North for a little swimming and lots of family fun. We got to see Tim and Ashley's little guy and hang out with Sue and Chally. If only there was more time.

Clara and Bennett--they are about a month apart.

With swimming lessons in the morning, Clara needed a good nap in the afternoon, so we stayed and played instead of heading out to do something. However, we got to see the Goates one day at their house and then met up with them for a picnic lunch another day at Caledonia State Park.

It is always good to see them. I even got to do some crafting with Valerie. How fun! She always has some great ideas and this time was no exception with a fun freezer paper stencil project on what else: onesies for our little ones.

Playing Pooh Sticks on the bridge.

Other things we did included a trip to the battle field, a climb up the tower and a stop at the covered bridge.

Looking down from about half way up the tower.

Three little heads looking over the bridge.

One new thing we did was to go crawdad catching in the creek. Ethan proved himself quite the crawdad catcher. The first time he caught one, he jumped around, screaming "I caught one! I caught one!" I had a good laugh over his exuberance. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good shot of the 5 inch crawdad, thanks to murky water and a fussy baby in my arms.

The kids did really well in swimming lessons this year.

Sophia even got really good at jumping off the diving board.

Jakob's cannon ball

We really had a lot of fun up in PA. Every time I go up there, I wish my kids could grow up on the farm. Of course if they lived on a farm, they probably wouldn't be excited to weed the garden or feed the chickens or gather eggs so maybe nostalgia on my part isn't that bad.