Happy Birthday Jared!

I am now married to a man who is one short year shy of 30 (30 is really old). I am so glad I found him though, and so glad he chose me. He is my sweetheart. He is always good for a laugh and always up for a good time. Jared has a adventuresome spirit and I love it!

He is such a good daddy... these two love him; I am pretty sure that they think that the world revolves around daddy and he is responsible for the sunshine and every good thing in their lives.
Claire is his little princess (and she knows it).
He is quite handsome (and he thinks he is quite cute).
Jacob is his miniature, and he loves it.
Sunday was Jared's birthday and we had some friends over to celebrate. All of the kids flock to Jared, they think that his games are the most fun. He is really popular with the children.
I asked Jared what he wanted for dinner and he said "cornbread" (thanks for the help). I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he said "baseball" (not exactly the question I was asking). Remember how I said he thinks he is cute?
So he had a baseball party. With a baseball cake.
and baseballs made out of ice cream.
I think he liked it!
Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Tulip Festival

Warning: This is a picture intensive post (compared to the number of pictures I took it is not really that bad).

My mom and my Grandma came to town and we took them to the local tulip festival. It was a great time. There were basically tulips as far as you could see.

Jacob had a very clear idea of where he wanted his picture taken... and this was not it.
There was every color of tulip you could imagine.
A rare picture of my Grandma.
Mom.
We wore our rubber boots... they were perfect.
She wore the sunglasses the whole time (and an attitude to accompany them).

Waiting
Waiting with the attitude.
This giant slid was made out of PVC pipes, Jacob got to the top and wanted to turn around but there was a huge line up the ladder behind him so I am made him go... turns out it is the slowest moving slide EVER so there was no reason to be nervous. He loved it.
It was the Wooden Shoe tulip farm, so we had to have hot dogs, or Bratwursts for lunch.
They had rubber duck races... Jacob and Claire really loved it!
Kiddos also got to ride a funny cow train that they pull behind a little tractor.
They loved it and now whenever they see a small tractor when we are driving somewhere they yell "Hey Mom... it is like the silly train!"
They had a lot of these.


This one was my favorite!
It was a beautiful and fun day... we will be back next year!

Easter 2010

Better late than never ( I have so many pictures and so many things to post about). We enjoyed a great Easter/Conference weekend. Our Young Women hosted an easter egg hunt for the kids in our ward at the Bishop's house. In true Oregon style it was drizzly and wet, good thing our kids have great rain coats and rain boots!

Claire was excited.
Jacob needed his Daddy (don't worry, he did have fun once he was allowed to start hunting).
We spent our Saturday and Sunday watching and listening to conference at home.... look how grown-up my kiddo is.
Chris joined us for some of conference... this is pretty much how he watched the entire session (our kids are quite fond of him).
Chris, and Jim and Mel's family joined us for Easter dinner... it was delicious! It was also Chris's birthday, so we got to celebrate with him.
Here are this year's Easter outfits (thanks Nana).
She is looking grown-up too.
Happy (late) Easter everyone, I hope you all were able to remember the resurrection and life of our dear Savior. The messages shared through conference were so powerful and inspiring to me, I am so grateful for a living prophet and apostles.

Birthday Celebrations

Jacob and Claire were forever celebrating their birthday. Here is a recap of the celebrations. My mom and Grandma were here a few days before their birthday, so they had a little celebration opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa. They got Leapsters and could not be happier about the whole thing.

On the Thursday before their birthday they celebrated by taking cookies with an M&M number 4 on them to share with their class (it was also a field trip to the library day so they got to ride the school bus for the first time... very exciting).

On Saturday we had a little birthday party. It was an "UP" themed party (this mixed gender shared birthday thing gets more complicated as they get older). This was pretty much the decorating I did.
Here is the cake and cupcakes.
They were very excited to have everyone sing to them and blow out the candles.
Nana and Papa sent them their own cute luggage for when we take trips to visit.

On Sunday they got to eat breakfast in their bedroom (we don't have lap trays and they are kind of messy eaters, so we just put a table in their room). Daddy made them special pancakes and eggs with toast and juice.

In primary they got a special birthday song and a necklace made out of candy bars. They were so happy.

4 Years Old!

Today is April 18th, and that means that we have two children that are 4 years old. Wow! I can't believe how quickly that time has gone and how much they have changed, we don't have babies, or even toddlers, we have full blown kids. I wanted to share a picture taken on this exact day for the last 4 years.

April 18, 2006

April 18, 2007
April 18, 2008
April 18, 2009
April 18, 2010
We really love these two kids. They are so full of personality and we find ourselves laughing with them more and more everyday. We are so grateful that our Heavenly Father has allowed them to be part of our sweet family and we look forward to more birthdays with them. (Birthday party pictures to follow)

Little acts of independence

Since the time she started showing her personality, one trait that has always come out is that Claire will be independent, and she will let us know it. For some reason (and much to our chagrin), bedtime is one of her favorite times to be independent.

Recently, she's decided that pajamas are too cumbersome, or uncomfortable, or not the right ones, or too in line with what her parents want. More times than not for the past month, when we go in and check on her, she's either missing an article of clothing (see below), or she's changed her clothes.

Tonight (close to midnight), I headed up the stairs, and, upon turning the corner, I was met with this. Notice that the diaper is on backwards, which means that Claire put it on herself. Unfortunately, the reason she put it on herself, is because her other diaper was wet (as were her pajama pants - a sure sign she'd had the diaper off earlier and put it on herself).

She apparently had planned to stage some sort of rebellion, as she brought her pillow and blanket with her.

Favorite Words and Phrases

I love certain words that kiddos say! Claire's newest one is especially funny, I think.

"Forenoggin" - Claire (a new one!)

"Snoke" - both kiddos (smoke)

"Lasterday" and "Next Day" - both kiddos

"Nopes" - Claire (when she was younger)

The Tulip "Vegetable" - instead of the Tulip Festival

Monsters Versus Medians (Aliens)

Need a smile?

Okay, I may be being cheesy, but doesn't this picture just make you happy? I love Dani's smile - it just lights up a room and makes me smile!

And the chicken pot pie was a success, too!