Sunday Afternoon

This is what happens on a Sunday afternoon, when Chad is taking a nap, and I was feeding the baby. Yes, it did take days to wash off completely!

2 Milestones

I have just two things I have to share, so I never forget them. First of all, Grant has started sleeping through the night. He had been doing really well, and only waking up around 4:30 then going back to bed. The last 3 nights he has slept until 6:30 or 7:00. It is so nice!! The other thing is that Owen finally sat on the potty and went. I have been trying for forever, but the kid has no desire! He finally sat on it and went, which is a miracle. Maybe I will try harder to potty train him now that he know he can do it!

Grant's Hair

Grant has the greatest hair! It is so funny - I love playing with it. He has a long tuft on the top that hasn't fallen out yet. It is always sticking up. His hair is also coming in curly, so we will see what happens.

Happy Birthday Chad!

Yesterday Chad turned 34! We are all so grateful to have him in our life. He is a wonderful husband and father. He is always so willing to help us out, and has worked really hard on making our old home look updated. We are only halfway there, so he still has a whole basement to go that will keep him busy! :-) Claire, Owen and Grant absolutely love him, and look forward to him coming home every day (me too, but for different reasons, mostly because I can pawn the baby off on him while I finish dinner!). Thank you for everything you do for us! We love you!!
We visited Chad at work for lunch and brought him pizza. The kids love the hard hats at work, they think they are the greatest things! We have contemplated the idea of giving them one each for Christmas, but they wouldn't be that special if we did!
I couldn't possibly put 34 candles on a cake, so I but 7 because 3+4=7. It was the most logical thing I could come up with!

Roller Skating

On Monday night Chad's family came down and we went roller skating for Claire and Chad's birthday. We had a lot of fun, and Claire and Owen were so happy that everyone would come. Thanks for coming - we hope everyone had as much fun as we did!
Owen loved to help me push Grant around.
Jessica, Annie, Kate, and Kerry
Claire with our good friends Anjie and MaKinlee
Owen with Grandma Clayson
Claire with Aunt Shanna. She was so happy when she saw them come!

most of the grand kids close to grandma and grandpa having cupcakes.

Birthday Day

Claire seriously had 5 days of birthday. It started with cupcakes in preschool, then her birthday party. Then an outing to grandma and grandpa's all day along with dinner at McDonalds and a trip to the store to pick out her own present. Then we had her birthday dinner with our friends. Finally on Monday night Chad's family all came down and we went roller skating. We finally had to tell her on Monday night that her birthday was over, and she wasn't going to be the center of attention anymore.
On her actual birthday we let her pick what she wanted for dinner. We ended up having spaghetti with bread. I finally talked her into a vegetable, and she let me make corn. She was very happy with her choice, and very happy with her new princess barbies from Owen and Grant.

The Cake

I jokingly told everyone that I was going to blog just about Claire's cake, so here it is. There is a story behind this cake, so here goes: We were walking in Fred Meyer seriously a year ago, when Claire spotted the cake book. It was opened to the princess castle cake. She was so thrilled to see it that I told her maybe she could have it for her next birthday. The girl doesn't forget! She told everyone what kind of cake she was going to have. Well, I went to look at it again a couple weeks ago, and the dang thing was $40.00. Now I'm not cheap when it comes to some things, but a cake for $40.00! Seriously! Chad and I discussed it, and we just decided to get it for her because she had told everyone all about it, and we didn't want to break her heart. So, yes I got her a $40.00 cake, and no, she won't ever get one again (I mean Costco is down the road and they have great cakes for $15.00). So, here are the pictures of the special cake - I sure hope Claire enjoyed it (I'm pretty sure she did!).
The box that it came in - it just made me laugh!
The good news is that I now have all the stuff for anyone else to ever make their own castle cake. If you want to borrow it, there is only a small fee. :-)

Princess Party

Claire literally had 5 days of birthday celebrations. It started with preschool. On Friday she had her first official birthday party. It was so much fun. My friend Kristine took a ton of great pictures - I wish I could share them all. We asked all the girls to come dressed as princesses. They made crowns, played a Cinderella game, musical chairs, had a pinata, and then of course cake and ice cream. Everyone had a lot of fun. I have to say that I am so grateful that I have the preschool now because it makes a great party room as well. Good thing because my house was so messy!
My mom sent Claire a new princess dress that I let her open right before the party. She was so excited to have a new Cinderella dress. It fits great mom!
Owen wore his prince outfit for like 10 seconds. I gave these to all the boys - they were so easy I made them out of pillowcases I found on clearance.
The girls all got goodie bags filled with necklaces, rings and bracelets, so I gave the boys swords. Not the smartest idea giving 3-5 year olds swords, but I think they had fun with them.
Making their Prince/Princess crowns.
I didn't tell Claire that her friends might be bringing her presents. She was thrilled that she got some. She got lots of princess things, a Barbie, and her favorite was a tea set in a picnic basket from Heather and Lilly.
All the Prince and Princesses at the party.

Happy 5th Birthday Claire!

It's hard to believe that Claire is 5 years old! Time sure does fly by! I thought I would share a few things about Claire as she hits this milestone.

She loves, loves, loves, princesses. Her very favorite is Cinderella, but she is happy with any of them.

She loves pink - it is her favorite color!

She has a very ornery side, but can also be so funny in one breath - we never know what we are going to get with her.

She loves to dance, and knows the words to the funniest songs, like YMCA. She is very serious about singing the words, although most of the time they are completely wrong.

She has a weak stomach. She can't stand to see Grant's baby food, or smell things like shaving cream. She gets this look of fear on her face, and dry heaves. At least she doesn't throw up as much as she used to!

She loves to play tea parties, and Chad and I have joined in on quite a few.

She is very opinionated about what she wears. She thinks all of her pants are to small (which they aren't), and insists on wearing a dress or skirt every day. The only problem is she usually freezes. She also refuses to wear socks (that drives me crazy!).

6 Months Old

It's hard to believe that Grant is already 6 months old. Here are a few facts about it.

He weighs 15 pounds 12 ounces and is 25 inches long.

He absolutely loves his brother and sister. When we were gone last week to Utah, he stayed with Chad, and when Claire and Owen walked in the door, he was so happy - he was ready for bed and almost asleep, but he stayed up for 3 more hours because he was so excited!

He loves to be outside, and giggles when anything movies (a tree, bush - whatever), but he hates the wind.

He is a picky eater, but loves apple-blueberry baby food.

He has no desire to sit, or hold things that much. He really just likes to lay around or be in his saucer.

He has a new found love of screaming (like a girl as Claire would say), and spitting. The kids think it is hilarious!

A Beautiful Day!

It was so beautiful last week. The kids played outside forever which always equals a happy mom! I love this time of year because the kids think all of their old toys are new, and they have so much fun. Sadly today it is snowing, and of course it is Spring Break. Oh well, we will take what we can get.
Claire loves to swing. She had to wear her dance outfit all day, and it wasn't quite warm enough for that, but she didn't seem to mind.
Grant loved the swing, and just being outside in general. He hasn't been outside much since he was born, and he would just laugh at everything! I can't wait for summer - he will have so much fun.
Owen still thinks that he needs to sit in the baby swing. I can't convince him otherwise. He is getting so hard to get in and out of it.

Disney On Ice

On Friday Heather, Lilly, Claire, Owen and I headed to Utah to see Disney on Ice. Chad and Aaron were nice enough to volunteer to watch the babies for us. We were met there by some of Chad's family, and had a great time. The kids were enthralled with the whole thing. If you haven't ever seen one of these productions, you should go because they do a great job! We stayed in Utah with Chad's sister and then went shopping on Saturday before heading home. It was a great weekend, and we can't wait to go again!
Waiting outside for everyone to join us.
All the grand kids outside with grandma and grandpa before the show.
Owen held onto his ticket the whole time from the moment I gave it to him. He would set it down to clap, then check to make sure it was still there, then clap some more. I guess he took it very seriously when I told him not to lose it!
Claire loved having her grandma there - she snuggled with her the whole time.
Owen's face was so fun to watch the whole time! Once it started he just smiled and laughed and sang along to the songs.
Stacey and Morgan enjoying the show.
All the Clayson family that went. The kids were so happy that their grandparents were there!

Our Little Stickerbook

The other night I was leaving for Young Women's and Chad was getting Owen out of the bath, and this is what happened as I was leaving.
Claire was entertaining herself and Grant by putting stickers all over him. Chad told me by the time she was done, he had at least 10 stickers on his face. He thought it was so much fun.
Grant was so happy to be getting so much attention from his sister.

Dancing Queens

Well, I have to say that when your son grows up with an older sister that loves Princesses, this is what happens.
I spent all week watching my friends daughter from across the street, and the kids loved to get on princess dresses and dance. I have to admit that we even had a nail painting party, and Owen now has purple toe nails. It was really funny, but Chad was not happy about the whole thing. I wouldn't have done it if it was warm outside and people would be seeing his toes!

Trains, Planes and Automobiles

Owen absolutely loves trains!! I am constantly finding tracks all over the place. He keeps each set quite contained, but is constantly moving them to whatever room I am in (mostly the kitchen!). Grant absolutely loves to watch Owen play trains and will lay and watch forever. I'm not sure what is going to happen once Grant is mobile and grabs things for Owen, but right now, it is a wonderful play time for both of them.

Spiderman

A couple of weeks ago, my father-in-law helped us out and watched Claire and Owen while Chad and I went to the temple. My mother-in-law was out of town so Chad's brother and his wife took Grant. As we were leaving my father-in-law tells me that their tape player is broken, and they don't have very many kid DVD's, so I run out to the car, and grab our DVD's and hand them to him. I guess I didn't communicate very well that they couldn't watch every movie in there, but it's not like we had bad movies. So, he proceeds to name them all of to them, and they pick Spiderman. Yes the one with Kristen Dunst. They thought it was great, and they now think Grandpa is the greatest person on earth! Anyways, we pick them up and Claire is telling me all about the green guy, and how Spiderman gets bit by a spider, and I'm thinking - great! For the next 2 weeks I hear, "can we watch Spiderman?" Claire even went so far to climb on a chair and find the original copy on the very top of the bookcase. So, now I'm the mean mom who tells them no, and Grandpa is cool. But Owen did tell his Grandpa that they couldn't watch it again because mom said it was to scary. At least someone listens to me!

Boys vs Girls

I've always said that I would have a million boys if I didn't have to have any more girls. It's not that I don't love Claire to death, she is just so dramatic!! Seriously. But, as she has gotten older she is still dramatic, but becoming a better helper, and we have so much fun going shopping together. When it is just the two of us we hold hands and skip into the store. She is so fun to be with.

On the other hand, Owen has always been so easy! Seriously, until lately. If the kid doesn't get his way, he screams and won't stop until I give in. The other day Claire, Grant and I just went downstairs and cleaned up and watched a movie. When I came upstairs he had cried himself to sleep at the computer. He was mad that I wouldn't let him play - yes it was dramatic for him. As I was moving him to his bed he was asleep but started crying that he wanted to play the computer - crazy!! Then when he woke up from his nap it started all over again, until Chad came home and I finally had a little bit of help.

So, I might be changing my mind. I don't think that girls or boys are easier anymore. If you would have asked me last week, the answer would have been easy. Even though I complain, I wouldn't trade any of my kids for another. They are perfect (yes sometimes annoying), the way they are!

Last Week in Review

I haven't posted in awhile, because I don't have any pictures to share, but I thought I would share with you a typical week in the Clayson household. (OK, maybe not totally typical, but you get the point). I also realized as I was writing this that I can't live without my calendar - I can hardly remember what I did last week.

Sunday: Church (way toooooo early 8:30). Drive to Chad's parents house for dinner.
Monday: Clean the house, do laundry, workout, and take the kids to the mall to play on the toys. When Chad get homes from work I run to Office Depot to make copies for preschool, come home have FHE and get kids ready for bed. Of course I had to watch the Bachelor because I'm addicted!! Shocked about the way it turned out though!
Tuesday: Preschool and tutoring. After dinner head to YW's for a fun filled evening of sewing satchels for our Trek.
Wednesday: Take the kids to the library for story time. Head to our friends house for some lunch, and playing the wii. Workout, make dinner, and hope the kids will got to bed so I can watch Lost.
Thursday: I had to change preschool to the afternoon so I could go to a meeting. Rush home from meeting, make lunch for 2 extra kids, then run down to the preschool just in time to start! Chad leaves right after dinner for visits and a meeting. I finally finished the book I've been reading "The Ladies Auxiliary," it was great, and even fit in a Yoga DVD.
Friday: Try to run some errands with the kids, but they refuse to get out of the car. Spend a few hours at my sisters house (thanks again for lunch!). Pay bills, clean again, and fold more laundry. I talk Chad into taking us to dinner (yeah!).
Saturday: Started getting sick (I guess it was finally my turn). Went to Lowes, and then looked for a new cell phone for me. Relaxed, and then headed into work at the Holt to sell tickets for the last basketball game (I'm sad because it is so much fun working there and getting away from being a mom for a few hours). After work go to Shop-Ko to check out their sale. Head home, discuss new sprinklers were putting in with Chad, and go to bed!