Curly Sue

I just had to take a picture of Claire's curly hair the other day. I have no idea where she gets it from and I swear it gets curlier everyday. Trevor and I have both have stick straight hair. I have no idea how to do it. It is just an afro but I love it. I hope it never straightens out!

FREEDOM!
I am finally no longer a student! HOOORRAAAAYYYY! After lots of finals and projects and studying I had my graduation. It was bitter sweet. I am going to miss seeing everyone in my class everyday but am SOOOOO EXCITED to be done! I also had to go to Vegas to take my boards which is my test to register me as a technologist. I was so nervous and studied my brains out and luckily passed. I took it right before Thanksgiving so that I could enjoy the holiday, which I did :)
It has been so nice just spending time with Claire. I wish that it was not so cold outside so we could go do more things outside but we got to the park before it got too cold. We went to Maverik and got our favorite cheesecake frozen yogurt (i know frozen yogurt in the winter....but it's so yummy). Then we went and played and read books at the park.

frozen yogurt mustache
bookworm
and a pinecone that she took home to daddy

Cruisin' the kitchen...

So due to Trevor's longing to have a power wheel as a child.....he just HAD to buy one for Claire for her birthday. We just got a small one that is for 18-36 months but it is so cute. We got it out on Claire's birthday and she loved it. She does not quite understand how to press the button and hold it down. She won't do it if we are watching her either. If we pretend to not pay attention then she will press the button and take off. Whenever we hold the button down and let her ride she has the hugest grin on her face. I can't wait until she will just ride around everywhere!

Claire helping Trevor put the power wheel together
Then she pulled this stunt....oh great...

It's my Birthday and I'll dance if I want to!

And that she did! We had Claire's birthday party at Pirate Island Pizza and had a whole Pirate themed birthday! It was so much fun! Even though I was a little stressed about it, it all came together and was a blast. All of the kids played in the arcade and we ate pizza and treats. Claire danced and played the whole time. It was so hard to keep track of her....she was constantly on the run. She got so many fun toys that she DID NOT need but that she loves. She absolutely loved her cake! It was so funny she refused to use her hands while she was eating it. She did not want to get her hands dirty! What a girl ha. I bought the cutest little pirate outfit for her and gave all of the kids little treasure boxes. It was the perfect little pirate party.

Here are lots of pictures of the festive night

BIG GIRL!

I CAN'T believe Claire is ONE! Her birthday was November 12th and I swear she is ONE going on SIXTEEN! She is so spoiled and such a drama queen and I love her! This past year went by sooooo and I swear she has grown up so much just in the last week. She tries to talk all the time and tries to sing along when we sing. Her favorite song is the ABC's and her favorite tv shows are Olivia and Yo Gabba Gabba. She still has NO teeth but eats whatever she wants! Her favorite food is easy mac and blueberry muffins. She LOVES to read books, especially the touch and feel ones. She is sooooo excited to be facing forward in her car seat now. Everytime I look back at her she has a huge grin on her face. She climbs up on the couch and wants to dance on it. She can get up and down the stairs faster than me. She refuses to wear any sort of clip or bow in her hair. and she thinks she can climb ANYTHING!! I can barely keep up with her but she always keeps us laughing.

It's my BIRTHDAY
thinking she is an acrobat

Baby Andrew....

He is FINALLY here!!! We have been waiting so long to meet Liesel and Paul's new baby and he finally arrived on November 4th, the day before Liesel's birthday. He is the cutest baby ever! I love holding him and trying to remember when Claire was that little but I swear she was never that tiny ha.

HALLOWEEEEEEN!!!!!
This year we had so much fun on Halloween! On Saturday morning we went out to Staheli Farms again because they were having a "Witches Breakfast." There were ladies all dressed up like witches and they had a little program where they made some witches brew it was so funny. We went with Trevor's parents and his brother and the kids had a blast. We watched the program and then ate breakfast and then we went back out to the petting zoo and all the toys. Claire LOVES Staheli Farm. She loves all the animals and to just run free!

one of the witches followed us around for awhile and Claire loved it
she even gave the witch a kiss! ha
Even the big kids (Trevor and his mom) got to play on the toys :)

Later that night we got Claire all dressed up in her costume. I was afraid that she would not want to wear it but it she thought it was hilarious. She just laughed at herself in the mirror and even left the little hood on. She looked so cute and she loves her best friend Nessy so I thought a little kitty was the perfect costume. We went over to Trevor's parents to eat dinner and see all the grandkids. Then we went to my parents to see the other grandkids and have more dinner! Everyone looked so cute in their costumes! We did not end up going trick-or-treating becuase Claire does not get it anyways and she started getting tired. But we still had a fun HALLOWEEN!!

Claire and Grandma McMullin
Kitty Claire and Kitty Gizmo

Staheli Farms

This year we really wanted to carve pumpkins but we wanted to get some pumpkins at a pumpkin patch. We heard that Staheli Farms had one so we headed on out there. We procrastinated and waited until the weekend before Halloween so it was pretty picked over but that did not stop us from having fun! They drive you out to the patch in a little trailer thing on the back of a tractor. A lot of the pumpkins were green so I thought it would be fun to get one of those to carve. Since we went on a Friday night they also had live music, food and toys for the kids and we got to pet the animals too!

There is a big cementer pavilion where the music was and Claire loved going out and shaking her booty in the middle of the dance floor. She loved the swing set there too. We had a lot of fun will definiately make it a tradition!

The Llama tried to give me a kiss!

The next night we invited some friends over to carve the pumpkins and had a lot of fun! They turned out so good! We we were so proud. And we only had one injury the whole night! Our friend Seth cut his hand and had to get eight stitches!! Carving pumpkins and no easy task, they are dangerous! He was pretty tough though and acted like it was no big deal and kept on carving his pumpkin!

Trevs bat, Seth's lion, my green skull & Maigan's fun face!

Mr. Moneybags Nessy

So if you remember a post I made way back in March about Nessy costing us so much money....well we had to get the checkbook out again! This cat I swear is more expensive than Claire is. To give a little history, around the end of August I remember Nessy getting a hold of ANOTHER one of Claire's bottle. He chewed off the nipple and swallowed it. Now this is not the first time he has done this and he usually throws the nipple back up within a few days. This time he never threw up and I totally forgot about it. Then just a few weeks ago he started throwing up and completely stopped eating. We could not figure out what was wrong with him. He would just sit in one place and not move all day. This went on for a little over a week so we finally decided to take him to the vet....

I guess it is a good thing we took him when we did because he was so sick he started having seizures and they did not know if he would make it. They had to hook him up to IVs and put him under some heating pads. They kept him overnight and the next morning they took some x-rays. And sure enough you could see the little nipple stuck right in his large intestine! Since this one had passed through his stomach and got stuck they would have to do surgery to get it out or there was no way he would get better. So after he regained some strength and weight he went under the knife. And let me tell you cat surgery is not cheap! It was a nice chunk of change but since we are regular customers they gave a little discount, (key word there is little). He was fine after the surgery and was back to his normal self within a few days except for the ginormous stitches all down his stomach!!

He had to have these in for 14 days!

He didn't mind just relaxing and being pampered

The dreaded MARATHON...

I signed up for the marathon again this year....unfortunately. It came way too quick! I sign up for it every year and think that I am going to train and get so excited for it. Then all of the sudden October comes and I have not had time to train and I get so nervous. I was extra nervous this year because I knew it was going to be so hot, which IT WAS! It was so miserable with the heat but surprisingly I got my best time yet! I think it was due to my awesome cheerleaders!

YEE HAW!

We really wanted to take Claire to the rodeo this year because we thought she would love all the animals. She did like to watch the horses when she could see them but there were sooooo many people there we could barely see the arena! So we did not stay too long but we ended up going to the Lions Club Breakfast that Saturday and had a lot of fun! They had breakfast, petting zoo, pictures and little games for kids.

Claire loved all the animals
she thought the animals were hilarious!

The Big LAKE

This year for labor day we went to lake powell! Even though there were a billion people there we went out with some friends and had a blast! It is the first time we have been camping with Claire. We only went for one night but Claire had so much fun playing in the sand and the water. I don't think she has ever slept so good in her life! With the waves crashing and bright stars she sleep like a baby :) The next day we went out on the boat for a few hours and once again she slept the whole time. I think the sun and way the boat felt just put her in lull. We had so much fun and can't wait for next summer so we can go to the lake again.

Trevor & Claire sleeping on the boat

Trouble Trouble & More Trouble!

Claire is getting older and more curious! she gets into everything!! She is getting so smart. Some things she can do since our last blog is....

*took her first steps the day she turned 9 months
*now she can run!
*loves to climb on EVERYTHING!
*still has no teeth but can gum pretty much any foods
*loves easy mac & blueberry muffins
*can nod yes and no
*loves to play patty cake
*favorite song is ABCs
*loves to read books
*can say bite, mamma, dadda & baba
*can get up the stairs in about 10 sec & is starting to scoot down
*gives hugs, kisses & blows kisses to everyone! (even nessy)
*gives high fives
*is a dancing MACHINE!

She is getting so big and will be 1 in just a few weeks! I love seeing her get older and smarter everyday

she loves getting into the wipes!
Claire loves going to the park and has so much fun swinging

fun and fireworks

We were so excited for the 4th of July this year. It was Claire's first 4th. I was curious to see if she would be scared of the fireworks or not. She was definitely NOT! She LOVED them! She just laughed and laughed and laughed during the fireworks. On the 3rd we went to the Washington park with Trevor's family for breakfast and races. We ate yummy food and watched all the grandkids run their races. Claire HATES the feel of grass so there was no way she was crawling in the baby race. Maybe next year. She also got her face painted which was a difficult task but we did not give up and it turned out so cute!

After that we headed up to Pine Valley with my family to eat dinner. It was so nice to somewhat get out of the heat and spend time up there. When we got back we did some of our own fireworks. Claire thought they were so fun and wanted to stay up all night and do them. So since she had to go to bed we bought some more to do on the 24th. She loved them even more the second time :)

trying to get a group photo
our awesome fireworks

family pictures

Claire had yet another photoshoot :) and since she is a little older and could sit up I wanted to do a few pictures of the whole fam! They turned out so cute. Here are a few from our fun shoot!

I have to give credit to Alisha Shaw from one memory at a time. she is amazing!