Merry Christmas- A Year in Review

In short, Jason started his first fulltime job, we bought our first house, we moved, had our first little boy, Trevor, we enjoyed fun family reunion with Jason’s family at Yellowstone, Lauren learned through nursing that Trevor is intolerant of milk, soy, nuts and too much fructose, Claire became potty trained (!!!), and she learned how to finally stay in her big girl bed at night (without hours of putting her back to bed), Jason worked hard on his dissertation (which is close to completion), and have had a wonderful year with lots of memories to cherish. We are indeed grateful for our Savior and his empowering love and life that we get to reflect on at this wonderful time of year. We hope you find time to be still and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.

These two videos may help. :)

giggly Trevor

This was taken when Trevor got his 4 month shots.  He woke up from his nap and would giggle at anything we said. This went on for a few minutes before I thought to get the camera...so here he is at the end of his giggles.  I also love Claire's comments!  She is such a silly, sweet girl!



This is the video is the one that was taken right before Claire got a really high temperature and came down with the chicken pox.

baby man

As Claire calls him :) Here he is at 5 months

 

                         we call this look, the lower lip

And our cutie at 6 months.

         

halloween

Claire was Minnie Mouse and Trevor was Pluto

Matthew, Claire's cousin, was Mickey Mouse (right) I love the look on Trevor's face, "Really mom, next to these two crazies"

These two are best friends.  Claire is often talking about Matthew, even when he is not around. "Look mom, I made Matthew dinner", "Me and Matthew go...."  We often use Matthew as motivation so we can leave to go to church (or get dressed for church), or leave for dinner at her grandparents house.  She loves him, even though he loves to steal her toy babies at playdates. :)

My two sweet and handsome guys


The kids costumes were pretty easy to make. I used another dress that fits Claire as a model for the red one. (side note... don't buy satin strech when making a dress- no matter how pretty and soft you think it is). I would have done a simpler dress, but she needs a pretty Christmas dress.
I used this link to make the ears.  And the shoe covers were kinda finagled to come together and have elastic on the bottom.  Trevor's hat was made with this pattern. Even though her boy was 18 months, it fit my 6 month old boy pretty well (his head is 17 inches around).

Jason's costume for his work party contest (it was his dad's old costume, that his mom made).

sick Claire

Claire got really sick, she woke up at midnight one night with a temp of 105! It immediately came down to 103 when she had some water. Then after an hour it was 98. And she fell back asleep around 3:30am. Then two days later she had spots on her, but they didn't bother her. Then that night she complained of her feet really hurting her. And we thought, oh no chicken pox. Jason's mom reaffirmed that it looked like chicken pox. I later learned at Claire's 3 year checkup that it may have been hand, foot, and mouth (hfm) (cuz that is where the bumps were) we didn't notice any in mouth though (besides that she ate very little). And she did get a few on her cheek (which is unusual for hfm). So it was either a mild case of chicken pox, because she was immunized or hfm. Adults don't usually get hfm. And Jason and I both had chicken pox as kids, so we were good.

But we are very blessed because Trevor didn't get sick! (Babies don't immunized until 12 months old for chicken pox) I was watching a movie I took of Claire getting Trevor to laugh, it was taken the day before she had her really high temp (usually have virus 7-21 days before the bumps with chicken pox and 3-6 days before hfm bumps). Well in the movie she is all up in his face...which he adores. But before the bumbs show up, it is spread just like any regular cold. I know that God was looking out for us! Once the bumbs appear, any thing she touches is infected. So we worked hard to make sure she didn't touch his toys or his hands. It did take alot of work to keep her away from him, but it was worth it. Claire absolutely adores her baby brother and any time I set him down, she is usually up in his face/ smothering with kisses. So I held my big 17lb boy alot that week! And with my limited diet (for nursing Trevor), needless to say it was an exhausting week!

 

The doctor did say to go ahead and let Trevor have try rice cereal a week before he turned 6 months, which happened to be the same time day Claire got bumps. And now he is sleeping through the night!

 

How did we survive the week:  Lots of Little Einsteins, Jason would go into work late to put bandaids on her wrist and she would wear footed pajamas all day. (to prevent itching), and we put a couch in the way of the kitchen to kinda keep her out.  I did manage to finish sewing her Halloween costume- when Trevor was sleeping- in hopes of her getting better by then.  

And in week she was all better!  You can see some red dots, but they aren't raised anymore! (In a beautiful dress from grandma)... up next Hallowen!

 

fun weekend

Yep still playing catching up with some pics. We went to Jakers in Springiville.  We tried to go when the weather was nice, compared to last year... when it was cold and muddy..  This year it was really hot...lol

Claire loved all the animals



And the cornpit



Watch out Claire 'he's got that crazy look in his eye' - Picking out the best pumpkin






We thought we ought to make use of this great weather and go for a bike ride. It was Trevor's first time in the bike stroller!

Claire's haircut

Grandma and Claire both got cute bob haircuts!
I'm glad Jason's mom talked me into it, Claire looks adorable with it. And its pretty easy to maintain. Since Claire doesn't like the loud blow drier, I don't even attempt that. But once its dried on its own, I curl it under (usually just the back curls funny). I wear a mitten when I use the curling iron. I put the mitten between Claire's neck or ear and the curling iron just in case she moves her head. And with my really hot curling iron it only takes a few curls to get it curling the right way!

grandmas funeral

My grandma passed away recently.  Here are some recent pics of her at her birthday party in August.

I was glad that she didn't pass away suddenly, so that we got time to say our goodbyes...even if she may not have really been cognizant when we did.  She did get to meet Trevor before her health spiraled downward, and I remember how excited she was to see our sweet little guy.  She even commented on his cute noises and how he was talking to us.  :)

Her service was good, where most of her kids spoke.  Then we went to the cemetery where my dad gave the grave-site dedication, where he basically blessed the land she would be buried in and things like that. In all honesty, I was surprised at how little the wonderful and glorious truths of our church were even mentioned, like how my aunts and uncles will one day get to see their mom again.  I think a few are inactive or don't always go to church, but I was still surprised.  I am so grateful to know that  families can be together forever and not just until we die.  That through the temple can be sealed to our families. As a mom to two little cuties, this truth and doctrine is most comforting.  I know its hard to believe now, but in the eternities to come after this life, the short time period without their mom will seem like nothing.

But I  thought about my mom, and how hard it would be to loose her or either of my parents for that matter.  And so yes, I can understand.  I guess the fact that they are even able to speaks at their mom's funeral shows that they know they will get to see her again one day.

Claire playing with my cousins daughter, Tessa, who is only a few weeks older than Claire



Trevor looking out the window :).  (right) A little snow the first week of October- Eric and Claire making a snowman

Trevor enjoying the snow from inside :)

My brother and dad helped with alot of house projects, including lots of pruning, staining the front entry, helping Jason's dad with dry-walling his basement, and fixing things inside our house too!

It was great having them here! My dad even remembered some funny stories from his childhood. He usually doesn't remember much/ talk about it.

Splash pads

This is from the summer months... and it makes me even colder, just thinking of these hot summer days.  But I wanted to share these fun places to go in the summer (and they are free).

Splash pad at the Riverwoods-  We picked Jason up during his lunch break and headed over to the splash pad.  Claire was pretty timid at the one last summer in Highland, which has a little river of water and a fountain(where the water shoots out of the ground). She enjoyed the river, but wouldn't even go near the water fountain last year.  And the splash pad at the Riverwoods  is just the fountiain, so my hopes, for her enjoyment, were pretty low. But Jason got her at least near the water! Go dad!



I'm such a lucky mom, to have these two cuties who make me smile daily!





(gotta love the kid in the background, who practically took a bath there)

The only prob with this splash pad, is there are too many shops for little ones to run into, without your knowing where they went.  Right after I had Trevor, Claire had a lot of problems with running away and not coming back when I called her.  (So I stuck mainly to places with shopping carts)  But she had made huge improvements since and did well the few times we went to the post office and was getting better for our trips to the doctor.  So I was surprised that she ran away, but I guess this place was too tempting.  Luckily, I found her pretty quickly- prayer works!

Spanish Fork Splash Pad- northeast of Maceys - This one opened the end of last summer- and its great!
There is an awesome playground (which was temporarily closed when we went), nice bathroom facilities, and a nice open splash pad.  She can "run away" but because its so nice and open, I can find her alot easier!

I was more hopeful that she would like it this time, she we came dressed for it.  She took one look at the fountain and ran away, I couldn't even get a pic of her near it.  So we went the swings, where we met a a brother and sister that were both soaking wet from the playing at the splash pad. Since this kids didn't seem to crazy,  I think Claire started warming up to the idea about playing near the splash pad.  So when the brother and sister wanted to go back to play in the water, Claire wanted to go with them.  It worked out great!  I chatted with the other mom, while our kids had fun.


Claire's fun started out with running around the perimeter of the splash pad, while the brother and sister proceeded to get soaking wet again.

Then I showed her that I could walk inbetween where the water shoots out and not get wet.  So she held my hand and tried it out.
Then she did it on her own, then she started running


Then she stuck a stick in the water, and then stuck her arm in the water.


And then it was hard to get her to go home.  Thank goodness for mother nature, who sent rain and  (in the distance) lightening, to help get Claire to the car.