remembering

the other night while i was feeding clara, i noticed how large her head is getting. i know a lot of people say they don't remember when their babies were newborns but i think i will always remember how clara's tiny little head used to fit perfectly into my cupped hand. her itty bitty legs were so skinny and had very little fat on them. i remember when she would scrunch into a little ball when i had her on my shoulder and would just sleep. i remember when she looked so tiny in her crib and now she's almost as long as the crib is wide! she is getting so big, but still a baby. it makes me sad to see her grow up, but i guess that is life, right? plus, her personality becomes more entertaining as she gets older and it is very gratifying to see her make 'advances'. she has got rolling to a science and now moves in circles on her belly. a few weeks ago, she discovered that she has hair and that she likes the way it feels in her fingers so she will place her hand by her head and open and shut it.and yesterday i gave her "big people food" for the first time: a celery stick to suck on. woah! i'm living on the edge!

my potato bug

last night before going to bed i went into check on clara (habits of a paranoid mom). i didn't want to turn on the light so i went to just listen to her breath and she looked really short. i got closer and noticed she had rolled onto her tummy and pulled her legs up underneath her like a little potato bug. she has never rolled over in the night; she normally waits until the morning when she wakes up. anyway, it was just so cute so i took a picture. don't worry, it didn't wake her up. i did want to just scoop her out of the crib and hold her... that is a temptation i often resist. eeeesh! she is so sweet! :)

san diego II

on friday clara and i went to san diego so here is the play-by-play of our vacation. of course it will include plenty of pictures.

day 1: friday, june 1st
we left a little before lunch time and clara wasn't super happy on the trip over. i think since she's started to roll all over the place she doesn't appreciate being confined to her carseat. i try to explain to her that if i could, i would take her out, but i don't think she quite understands. we made pretty good time getting there. this is her 2nd san diego trip and i'm sure there are plenty more ahead. this time we stayed with nikki, one of my best friends from when i lived there. we've been friends since the summer before 3rd grade, so we were 8 years old. i love her and love the fact that we both have little girls. when i first got there, we set clara and brooklynn, nikki's little girl, on the floor. we laughed because all they did was stare at each other and then clara tried to poke her eyes out so we had to monitor their play time. after we visited a bit, had dinner and cleaned up clara's best ever blow out, we went to my friend saleah's parent's house. saleah is my other best friend from san diego and now that she lives in idaho, i have seen her once since she got married. so when i heard she'd be in town, that was my main motive in coming to san diego by myself for the weekend. we had a nice little visit with her, but had to get our kids in bed so back to nikki's we went. i decided i'd stay until tuesday instead of monday.

day 2: saturday, june 2nd
today while i was trying to get ready clara decided she'd start screaming. braun had brooklynn and said, i can handle them both, you just get ready. before i got ready, i had to get a picture. i'd say clara looks a wee bit concerned about what is happening, but hey, i was able to get ready!
today we had lunch and then went shopping. we ate at panera, only my second time there. the first was in kansas city and i'm pretty sure they need one here in arizona. it is excellent food. i learned that nordstrom has a wonderful mother's lounge to feed the babies in. now i need to find out if our nordstroms here have one. we found the cutest little sunglasses for our girls. when i first put them on clara, she tried to take them off but after that, she just let me leave them on and i took picture after picture. brooklynn was not into the glasses, but still looked cute in them.while i was in gap, clara decided to kick her pacifier out of her stroller without me knowing it. she was super fussy, so when i went to give it to her and couldn't find it, i got pretty nervous. her pacifiers are really bouncy so on the floor i got looking under the fixtures. luckily i found it pretty quick. just as we were leaving the mall, both of the babies fell asleep. it is exhausting being a baby, i'm sure of it. after that we went to visit with saleah again. when we got to her house, i went to put some chocolate i bought at see's in my diaper bag and nikki said, "you can tell you are from az b/c you think you can't leave chocolate in the car." i asked, "it won't melt in the car?" nikki told me no so i put it in her console next to her's. when we came out, hmmm, it had melted. but that's not the funny part... after saleah's house, we went to swing by nikki's parent's. we passed them on the road so we both stopped to visit across the road. i told nikki's parents that nikki learned that even though we don't live in arizona, chocolate will still melt if left in a car. as nikki went to laugh, she hit her forehead on her steering wheel. HA! it was really funny and i'm pretty sure it was sore the next day. okay, at saleh's we got some cute pictures of our three little girls together. all three of our girls were born within 6 months. brooklynn was born in september, clara in december and lindynn in march. during our little photo shoot we realized clara is a bit of a bully (an awfully cute one though). first she started out laying on poor little lindynn. then she leaned over and was grabbing brooklynn's clothes, her mouth, you name it. of course she was smiling all the while.
day 3: sunday, june 3rd today was a most typical sunday: church and relaxing. clara's new thing is screeching like a raptor. it is very ear-piercing and sudden and can be pretty entertaining, unless of course it is during sacrament meeting. so today, she was sure to let a few of her screeches out at less-than-the-best times. it is funny because nikki's bishop is my good friend karen's brother. we worked together at cbiz. what a small world (we knew this, but it was fun to finally meet him).

day 4: monday, june 4th
today we went to the beach and had a great time. nikki had this little baby hut thing that we decided to put the girls in so they wouldn't get in the sand and they wouldn't get burned. it worked for about 2 seconds. clara rolled over smashing her face into the side and brooklynn just couldn't figure out what was going on. later nikki decided it would be funny if we got in the tent. i went first, she took some pictures, then she decided that was funny enough and she didn't need to make a fool of herself like i had. it was a little chilly so we didn't stay long, but clara loved it nonetheless. i put her feet in the freezing water and she loved it. then i put her feet on the wet sand and she dug them straight down and then was kicking and loving every second. when i laid her on the towel, she pulled the towel up to her and reached out and when she touched the hand with her sand, she loved feeling it. it was funny.
after the beach and getting showered, i went and met emily and her kids, alexis and justin, at outback. it was fun seeing them, especially since i was able to see them just a few months ago. it's a shame that all my family can't live on the same street. i love my family and don't see my sisters that live out of state enough. all three of them wanted to hold clara so i'm glad clara's cousins and aunts love her!
when i was done with dinner i headed back to nikki's parents where we indulged in a chocolate fountain evening. braun, nikki's husband, is working for sephra. they make chocolate fountains and loan them to employees. i love chocolate fountains and just sat around it and ate for hours. later saleah came over and we got a really cute picture of the three of us but saleah has threatened me if i post it on here. she didn't have make up on, but she still looks beautiful so i'm not sure what she's worried about. maybe i should just put it on here because who knows if she will ever even see this! :) it was really fun because the three of us had a nice little chat and it felt like the good ole' days. we also decided we are going to go to new york next summer without our kids. hopefully it will actually happen and i will get over the guilt i am already feeling of leaving my kid.
we didn't get home until late and then nikki and i stayed up even later chatting until around 230am. let me tell you, that is about the smartest thing you can do when your baby wakes up at 630am. it was fun to talk and we both reminisced about the labor and births of our daughters. i wish i could package those feelings up somehow so i never forget because i have not been able to find words adequate to describe any of it. i also thought a lot about how much i love clara. having a kid to me brought a whole new dimension of the meaning of love in my life. i just can't imagine life without her and feel like i can't waste a minute of enjoying her sweet spirit. it made me want to go get her out of bed and just hold her. time just flies by and i never want to get to a point and feel like i should have held her more when she was small. nikki convinced me to stay another day too... if only we lived closer.


day 5: tuesday, june 5th
we went to a place called shinoda's today. it is like a wholesale warehouse for florists. it was neat. i got lots of ribbon and flowers to make large obnoxious headbands for clara. i've also thought about selling them because they are so freaking cute. anyone that wants to buy one, let me know. they are great gifts and hard to find. after that we went to costco, michael's, wal mart, and joann's. sheesh! that's a lot of shopping with two babies. i started feeling bad that clara had been in her seat for so long and she's be in there all day coming home, so i carried her around in the last three stores, that was fun. something happened in wal mart that had nikki and me laughing our heads off and i realized, that's when you know you have a good friend: when you can have such a fun time simply by going into a wal mart. anyway, it was a fun day. we came home and did dinner, put our kiddos to sleep, i packed a bit and then we made some headbands.

day 6: wednesday, june 6th
parting is such sweet sorrow. i had such a great time seeing my friends and family but it was time to go home. i very much appreciated her and braun's hospitality. nikki said i could stay as long as i wanted but the truth is, we were running out of clothes. nikki said she had a washing machine, but i don't know if i can believe that. :) no, it was time to go home like it or not. there will be plenty more trips and i need to find a way to convince nikki to come out here. it is not that bad of a drive. we'll see if it happens. we stopped in yuma for gas and i decided i had to use the restroom. well, what do you do with a 5 month old when you are traveling alone and you need to use the restroom? you hold her in one hand and do everything else with the other, of course! it's not easy and it takes about twice as long, but at least i didn't have to set her or anything she owned anywhere in a public restroom. up until yuma, clara was being a pretty big turkey and screaming a lot. but i think i realized she likes a blanket. i gave her a blanket and she slept almost the entire three hours after yuma. so we made it home safe and i already miss san diego. i just love the weather.

so there you have, my weekend review. :)

i have SO much to do today... but...

A - Age: 25
B - Bed size: queen
C - Chore you hate: sweeping & mopping: you can't get it perfect
D - Dessert you love: cookies
E - Essential start your day item: getting out of bed
F - Favorite actor(s): mathew mcconaughy (i like him so much i can't spell his name), sandra bullock, julia roberts
G - Gold or Silver: platinum
H - What happened to H?
I - Instruments you play: flute, piccolo, oboe & piano
J - Job title: full-time mom/part-time accountant
K - Kid (s): clara jane, 5 months
L - Living arrangements: house in mesa w/ NO storage
M- Favorite month: hmmm, all months have good things going on
N - Nicknames: anna banana (of course only my dad calls me that still)
O - Overnight hospital stay other than giving birth: nope
P - Phobias: germy people, public restrooms, gas nozels, water at night (even swimming pools)... i have lots of issues ;)
Q - Quote(s): too many to name
R - Right or left handed: right
S - Siblings: 4 sisters + 4 brothers + 1 me = ONE LARGE HAPPY FAMILY
T - Tattoo(s): no
U - Unique talent: wow, this one always stumps me... i can stick my stomach out real far... it was neater before i gave birth and had a smaller waist
V - Vegetable you hate: i think i like all the ones i have tried
W - Worst habit: eating junk food whenever i want
X- If you were told to Xerox a part of your body what would you agree to: anything that wouldn't compromise my standards or my health
Y - Yummy food you make: pasta milano (when i don't use sweetened cream), any cookie & pretty much anything with a good recipe
Z - Zodiac Sign: scorpio

almost a hero...

before i tell my story, i need to make sure it is known that I AM NOT A DOG PERSON. i didn't grow up with dogs and while cute, they stink and are too dirty for me. i am afraid of them and have a few of them biting me. i don't like to touch them and try to stay away from them. i have nothing against people who are dog lovers, but i don't see myself having a dog ever. i will just have a few extra kids instead. :) anyway, tonight as angela and i were driving home from the gym (10ish), a black dog on the side of the road caught our eye. now, this was significant because the woman i used to visit teach moved a few days ago and just days before she was to leave, her two dogs ran away. she was very upset and hoping to find them prior to her move. one of the dogs was black, which explains why when we saw the dog both angela and i asked outloud, "is that her dog?". i flipped a 'u' as quickly as i could and pulled off on a side street. as i'm waiting to turn onto the side street, i had the window rolled down and we yelled "TJ!" (the dog's name). so we got out and i was trying so hard to be brave and get the dog to come to me. i am pretty sure i did a good job of not thinking it was going to bite me. i called my vt all while i called the dog, whistlee, got it to run to me and grabbed it's collar. surely, i am going to be a hero. my vt answered and within seconds i learned that she found her dogs and had them with her in utah. i asked, so this means i can let go of the dog i am holding? i was glad she found her dogs but felt pretty funny that we yelled at a dog and i touched and petted some mangy dirty stinky dog. so this will be the day that i was almost a hero. oh, and i decided swiss cheese is cute and it tastes really good.

memorial day

we had a great memorial day yesterday. it was nice to spend time with jason pretty much ALL day long. that hasn't happened for a while. we drove around and looked at houses, we went swimming (this time clara had her own attire)hung out with angela and clint (clint explaining to clara why it's not okay to cry for no reason),ate ice cream and laughed when it smelled like my computer was on fire. don't worry, it was just the plastic on the power cord melting. apparently i will be needing to purchase a computer sooner rather than later. all in all, it was a great day and we found some pretty neat houses that are possibly in our price range. we'll see if they are still for sale when our home in utah sells which is when we'd be able to afford to move.


i have decided that the two hardest things of being a mother to a 5 month old are 1. washing out the spit up under the top fat roll in her neck (the bottom fat roll doesn't pose as big of a problem) and 2. cutting her fingernails. you see, clara is somewhat high strung (surprise surprise) so she is constantly clenching her fists, making it extremely difficult to cut her nails since she is moving all of the time. but hey, if those are the two most difficult things, i suppose i have to admit having just one kid is pretty easy.

it being memorial day, i would like to say thank you for all those who have fought and continue to fight for our freedom here in america. i love the freedoms we enjoy!!

a little of everything

so, i have lots to say and i am going to say it. primarily because i discovered through browsing blogs the other day that YES! you can print your blogs and have them bound in a book. now let me tell you why this is cool: it is like a journal with pictures. plus, it doesn't seem that expensive. hence, i have decided to make this like a journal, which means there will be a lot more writing and pictures. once i have maxed out my space, i will print the beauty and continue. here is the website: http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook.

next item of business: sunday at my mom's was grand. my little brother steven is moving back to utah (bye bye steven!!) tomorrow. we will miss him. he would hold clara all the time so i will miss having my cute little brother saying, "let me hold her". i guess that just means that now i have to go visit him and rachel in utah!

after dinner, clint decided we should have a "jowling" session.

for those of you that don't know what this is, well, it is HILARIOUS. clint also refers to it as "shake face". these are not pretty pictures and you

have to be very secure to let someone take a picture like this of you but it makes for a fun photo session. in fact, this could possibly be the ugliest picture i

have EVER seen of myself. i look much like a horse, which i find very funny. here are jowels of me, jason, clint,

angela and james. i'm pretty sure clint's was the best, although jason made the best noise.

you shake your head side to side as fast as you can with your face completely relaxed and have someone snap a
picture for a jowle... or is it jowel? who knows... maybe that is why clint started calling it shake face.

i also am thinking about buying a new lap top. i don't want to spend the money until we sell our home in utah, but i really need one. my current lap top has been around since my college days... i believe just a bit after i met jason, so summer of '02. it has been through a lot and the connection between the power cord and the computer is bad so every two seconds the battery starts flashing on and off and the screen goes light, then dark, light then dark, and i'm pretty sure i might throw it down and break it one of these days. my question for all of you is mac or pc. years ago, i believe it was pc hands down, but i think macs are improving. clint is also buying a computer and i think he has been swayed toward a mac. i just laugh because this is such an emotional topic for people and as i told jason on the way home from my mom's, if you were choosing between a honda and toyota, no one would care! but a mac or a pc and a good number of people i know get all worked up. so, please, share your advice because i have always been a pc fan, but i'm not a mac-hater like my sweet husband. so the vote is on: pc or mac & why.

what would we do w/out aunt kathryn?

i promise this is my last post for today, unless something super crazy happens in the next five hours (judging by the prior 25 years of life, don't count on it). today, clara went swimming for the first time and LOVED it. i had a feeling she would since she loves taking a bath, and as i told her, a swimming pool is like a giant bath tub. without kathryn, this picture would have been a naked clara in the desert (aka, our backyard). we used kathryn's 'little swimmers', borrowed the swimsuit and borrowed, of course, the pool. it was fun and i wish we had a pool. until then, we are glad other family does and hope to frequent them often this summer. i do have some questions though, where do i get a baby one-piece swimsuit? i found some online at old navy, but they don't have them in the stores... i think the little bikinis are so cute, but what a pain to hold a slimy skirmy baby in the pool in a two piece. also, any suggestions on where i can get a good swimsuit for myself? i ordered one from shade clothing and let's just say the medium top was not such a good idea. i plan on returning it, but had it been a smidgen smaller, i probably would have had to cut it off and wouldn't have been able to return it. anyway, like the swim suit, but not a great fit.

body worlds 3

last night we went to the body worlds 3 exhibit at the az science center. it is $16/person if you go after 5pm and it's going to be open 24 hours a day this last weekend (www.azscience.org). if you pay with a chase credit card, you get $3 off (learned that after my mom bought 5 tickets and jason went to buy just one more, bummer). anyway... you weren't allowed to take cameras in; i was hoping to get some pictures, but i understand. this exhibit was neat. i thought i'd get grossed out, but it almost doesn't seem real. they use real bodies, but the plastenation process makes them look more like plastic. so to me, it was much less "gross" than cadavers or anything of that nature. it was fascinating to see what we look like inside, to see how big our organs are relative to each other, to see what different cancers and tumors look like and most of all, how absolutely AMAZING our bodies are. WOW! it was great. my two favorite things were: 1. seeing a uterus (wow, to think it goes from the size of the one on display, about 2-3", to be able to hold an 8lb baby) & 2. the fetus exhibit. this one got me teary-eyed. they showed babies from about 5 weeks to 33 weeks. at about 21 weeks, they start looking like little babies, so it was fascinating, but the 8 week stage was unbelievable. the amount of detail on those tiny little unborn children. in fetal position, they are less than an inch long, but you can see fingers, toes, a nose, little eyes, everything. that is how big clara was the first time we saw her on an ultrasound and as the dr. pushed on my belly, she kicked her tiny little leg up. in all the wonder, i had to ask myself, how can people say they aren't alive? i will argue until i die that from conception, a little life, a little miracle has begun. after that exhibit, we played around a bit. here is my friend that came with us, nylene (also the one who painted clara's room while i was at work, sewed her bedding and was the head honcho of organizing my shower... let's just say she's rad). she lifted 1/4 her body weight and i did 1/6... but i still think it was harder for me. :)wow, 5 months old and clara can already stick her tongue out at the camera and say "plppppt"

clara has, up until this point, pretty much enjoyed the car... well, she screamed all the way home from phoenix. so when we got home, i hurried and fed her. when she is all fed and overly tired, she gets WAY hyper and giggly. so, i just had to take some pictures of her. the only problem with this is it makes it harder to put such a sweet baby to sleep. :)

shoes

yesterday i decided i feel bad because i hardly ever put shoes on clara. only trashy people take their babies everywhere without anything on their feet, right? well, i decided to change that and put these cute little shoes on her.

the second we put her in the car, i'm sure the thought entered her mind: wahoo! a new toy, and so easily accessible because it wasn't long before she grabbed her foot (with the shoe) to chew on it.

i laughed, took a picture, turned around... and less than a minute later looked back and hmmm, she had pulled both shoes off. so, we are done with shoes except for special occasions for a while, call me whatever you would like. :)