Claire's Dance Recital

Last week Claire had her first dance recital. She was so excited all day and kept asking me if she could put on her costume and if Grandma and Grandpa were here yet. It was so cute. I was very proud of her. There were a lot of people there and she got onto the stage and danced and smiled the whole time. She kept telling me that she wasn't scared, which she wasn't. Her whole class did as well as you would expect from 3-4 year olds! It was a lot of fun to watch! We are proud of you Claire!
Claire was so excited that her Grandma and Grandpa Clayson could come to see her dance.
The whole group right before the big dance. They were so excited!
Notice how they are all looking in the same direction. Their teacher was standing off to the side doing the dance with them. It was so funny!!!

The Puppet Queen

One of Claire's favorite activities lately is making puppets. I found a great website where you can print off patterns, and then she colors, cuts and glues them onto bags. We started with just a princess, then of course we had to make a prince for her. After that she made a butterfly and the newest one is a lion. She has so much fun making them that we will just keep adding to her collection.
The princess and prince puppets.

4 Months Old

It is really hard to get a good picture of him because he is fascinated with the flash!

I can hardly believe how quick they grow up but Grant is already 4 months old. He is so much fun to have around, and he is starting to just giggle whenever Claire or Owen come into the room. He tries to be nice about Claire holding him, but I can't blame him when he freaks out. Here are a few fun facts.

- He is our only kid with blue eyes (so far!)
- It is almost impossible to get him to take a nap in his bed, but he will sleep in it at night.
- He is really starting to try to grab everything, but his favorite thing right now is my hair (you know the small ones at the back of your neck - ouch!)
- He loves rice cereal with applesauce (his favorite!!)
- He weighed in at 13 pounds 11 ounces and 24 inches long.

Wow, they sure grow up fast!!

Claire is growing up too fast!!! Chad and I decided on Sunday that Claire and Owen needed to take separate baths. They just sit in there and fight anyways, and Claire is almost 5. So, Monday night after dinner we told Claire she needed to take a bath without Owen. We gave her a choice to have a bath or shower, and she actually picked the shower. She was so excited, and very proud of herself. She did it all by herself (with a little coaching from mom). She even asked to take a shower on Tuesday morning. Now she is so excited for dinner to be over so she can take her shower!!

I got Tagged!

I was reading Christiana's blog, and she had to post the 4th picture in her 4th file. Here is our 1st picture in the 1st file. I wish they still got along like that!!!

When Bryson Came to Play

I have to begin by saying that my kids love Bryson. The live for him to come over, or to go to his house. Well, Bryson stayed today to play after preschool, and this is what happened:
Claire and Bryson played princesses forever (I think Bryson has a thing for Ariel Debra!).
Owen played with trains and was bummed that Bryson wouldn't play with him after all Bryson is where he got his love of trains from (but he got over it fast!).

A Good Way to Make Your Wife Happy

When we moved into our house, the washer and dryer were just in a closet in the kitchen. I loved it because it wasn't hard to change the laundry. Well, we decided we wanted a pantry, so Chad moved the washer and dryer downstairs. It was taking me days to get it done because I just didn't remember or didn't go downstairs as often as I should, and carrying on the laundry down took forever. Well, no more!! Chad has built me a laundry shoot. It is so great. The kids now loving putting their clothes "down the shape," as Claire says, and I can just run down and throw a load in a couple times a day instead of having to haul it all down. I'm just waiting for Owen to discover that it is a great place to race your cars!!

Mmm Good!

I know Grant isn't quite 4 months old, but I just couldn't wait any longer to feed the kid. He wanted to nurse constantly, and was so hard to get to bed. But, since he started on the cereal, he goes to bed so much easier, is taking naps, and is a much happier baby. I put him in his high chair at night, and he just laughs and grins because he loves to eat. It is so nice having a happier baby.

Yes, She Did it AGAIN!!!

Maybe I should have learned my lesson last time, but I figured since Claire got in so much trouble last time, and since she is almost 5, leaving scissors on the table wasn't such a bad idea. WRONG!! The girl actually cut her hair again, here is the sad thing, I didn't even notice until the next day. I really didn't look that close at her hair, and I didn't give her a bath that night because it was Sunday. The best part was that my sister-in-law asked if she had cut her hair, and I said, "No, I just gave her a haircut." All proud of myself. So, Monday morning I'm cleaning the house, and when I was talking to Chad on the phone, I found it - the HAIR. A TON OF HAIR! It was in the dining room on the dark floor, so I didn't see it the day before. She said she wanted to be a princess, so she cut her hair. SIGH. I wasn't even going to get it fixed because last time I absolutely hated the hair cut, but my mom is in town, so she took Claire in. The haircut is really cute (thankfully!) I just don't know what I'm going to do with her. The best part is that I knew she had cute her bangs (Yes off), but she left just a few to cover most of it up, but when the lady was cutting her hair they discovered that she had cut two huge chunks out of the back, underneath most of her hair. Here is the results of the hair scalping of 2009!!
Here is her hair - yes a ton of hair - how could I not notice before??

My Goals for the New Year

I'm not going to call them Resolutions, because they are just goals that I have and I don't want to break them within the first week:

1. Lose at least 30 pounds (I really enjoyed the holidays, but it is time to get serious).

2. Exercise at least 3 times a week.

3. Run in at least one 5K.

4. Be to church on time (thanks for that one Debra). Our church will now start at 8:30 and Chad has meetings every Sunday, so I will have to get all three kids ready by myself! I think I will be getting up very early on Sundays!!

5. Get at least 2 full classes for preschool next year (more would be even better!).