The Nutcracker

 Last weekend Clara's Ballet School performed The Nutcracker.  The first dance she was in she was a snowflake. She wore a pretty light blue dress and did a lovely dance.  I was so proud of her!!

                                     The second dance she was a flower.  She did a wonderful job!



The Unfortunate Haircut & Other Happenings....

 A couple months ago, John was working a late evening at the clinic. I gave the kids all baths and afterwards Clara wanted a haircut. So I figured why not just give everyone a quick trim? Sam was looking like he had some sort of comb over, so I thought I'd just trim the top of his hair.  We'll, I trimmed the top, but then I felt the sides and back by his neck needed to be trimmed up too. So I did that, but then they were too short, so I adjusted the top. You can probably see where this is going. Finally it was so bad I just had to shave the poor kids head.  John got home from work and was pretty shocked! It took us a while to get used to his new do'. It was quite jarring for a while. We came up with some new nicknames for him though: Caillou, McDougal, and Charlie Brown. 

 The kids had also gotten their much anticipated Halloween package from Mimi, which contained some Halloween tattoos. Naturally a bald head cries out for a skeleton tattoo.

 For Clara's 6th Birthday her "Black Grandma" sent her and Edie a pink Jeep.  This Jeep was quite the hit. We have a very large lot, so it was a lot of fun to ride all over the place.

 My friend Kelly brought her girls kiddie 4 wheeler over too- so they could all ride together.  It was a fun few months riding around the backyard.  When we do move I will really miss having such an awesome yard.

 John's switched his work schedule to 4 10's. So now he is home one week day and just works 4 days a week.  I can't decide really if were I'm in love with it or not.  It is awesome Friday evenings knowing we have a 3 day weekend- each weekend. However the days he works are rather brutal, as he leaves around 7:30 and doesn't get back till nearly 8 pm.  But I sure do like the weekends:)

 I really miss the beautiful leaves.  It was a really pretty Fall up here.  Now it is just barren cold and extremely Gray. Every single day is just gray. There is no snow. Just fog and ice. I really miss the snow.  Were all hoping for a white Christmas.... or a super early spring.

Autumn part II: Halloweeeeen!!!

Better late than never right?

 We are HUGE Halloween Fans at our house!  We did crafts leading up to Halloween, and the costumes that my girls pick are very thought out. Come July Clara starts talking about what she wants to be.

 This year she chose to be a Unicorn. I found her costume on Pottery barn kids, but then I snuck onto Ebay and found one that was new and far cheaper. yay!

 My little Witch.  Do you like the face I caught?

 Sammy the Skeleton! My cute little man had a fun Halloween. As it turns out he is a giant fan of M&M's..

We let the girlies stay up late and enjoy their haul of Halloween Candy.  They spread it out on the t.v. room floor and took stock of everything they had.  They have already decided what they want to be for Halloween next year. Although it usually changes 30 times before they commit, so we'll see:)

Autumn 2012 Part I: Pumpkin Patch

 I love Autumn. It is hands down my favorite time of year. It's beautiful, the weather is cooler, and you get to look forward to the Holidays right around the corner. Plus the food of this time of year can't be beat.

This year we decided to go to Bill's Berry Farm. They have a pumpkin patch.  I have been to a couple pumpking patches in Utah, but they were not like this, up here it is awesome! They are HUGE and they have hay rides, apple picking, live country music, food, games, rides, Apple Cider making, buy homemade Pumpkin spice donuts and the scenery is just stunning because you can see the vineyards for miles and miles and the colors are so beautiful. I am so glad we went! 

                    First we picked pumpkins. Then we went and enjoyed the rest of the festivities.

 Hay Ride fun. It went through the apple orchard where you can do some apple picking. I regret not picking any but we were a little short for time.

Wheelbarrow ride back to the car. They were a little tuckerd out......

Clara's Sixth Birthday!

 For Clara's Birthday this year it was a long drawn out 3-day affair.  On the Friday before her birthday I took cupcakes to her Kindergarten Class. We did Milk Chocolate cupcakes with caramel frosting on them. And she picked pretty pink stripey cupcake liners.  That night she had a tiny shin-dig with her BFF's, Emma, Jordan and Kate. Edie was allowed to join in too.  We went to the only video place in town and rented The Lorax and some Barbie movie. And the girls finished off the cupcakes....

 I also let her open all of her gifts from Black Grandma and Grandpa, and Mimi and Grumpy.

 John and I got Clara a Disney Princess bike for her birthday. She is quite the speedster now.

 I made her part from her friends that afternoon and she hung out at home with us and we let her open her gifts that we got her on the bed. I had a "The tale of Desperaux" for her, a couple books and a whole bunch of back to school clothes, boots, cords, flower pants, and 2-3 shirts. I felt she should have acted a lot more grateful for these gifts.

 The next day- Sunday September 9th- her actual birthday- I told her I would maker her whatever treat she wanted. She asked for Brownies with mint frosting. If you have the "Our Best Bites" cookbook you know that they have a TO DIE FOR recipe. We walked to the park that evening, and then sat out on the grass at our house at home and put candles in brownies and sang to clara after she made a wish.

 Sam liked them too. And I hope you enjoy the special face Edie kept making whenever I turned the camera on her.

Clara starts Kindergarten!!

 My first born started Kindergarten August 31.  I knew this day was coming- and I really thought I was looking forward to it, but I ended up feeling quite a bit more emotional about it than I had originally expected to. Clara's birthday is September 9th- so she is the oldest child in her kindergarten class. So I felt she was good and ready- I guess I just wasn't good and ready....

 We all walked her around the corner from our house to her Elementary School.  I had Sam and Edie in the stroller- and John had Maggie on a leash. I wanted her to hold my hand as we walked along, but she was just TOO excited. She said to me "Mommy, I'm sorry- but my legs just won't let me walk! They need to run fast!" So I let go of her hand and let her run. I cried a little bit.

 John stayed out front with the kids and Maggie and I walked Clara inside to her class and got her situated at her desk.

I couldn't stop crying! It began the night before when I made her lunch for school, and loaded it all up in her Disney Princess lunch box. I had a pretty long (and rather ugly) cry. I thought it was out of my system- but apparently it wasn't. I cried all the way down to the school, as I walked her in, and when I got back outside to John I burst into tears and just started sobbing on his shoulder. I would have been more embarrassed- but there were about a dozen crying mothers so I didn't care much.  John asked if he should have taken the day off of work. Probably would have been a good idea. I'll know that for when Edie starts Kindergarten.

Peach pickin'

We have 2 peach tree's in our backyard.  I love them. We spent a whole evening picking them. We probably had hundreds and hundreds- no exaggeration.  I made multiple peach treats, pie's, cobblers, etc. I really enjoy the whole idea of growing your own fruit and then freezing it/canning it in preparation for winter. So I spent a whole day preparing them for storage.   It was like I was a wife in the 50's. My kids ran around like animals and ripped my house apart- but it was worth it. Even with all we froze/canned we still ended up giving away a few grocery bags full. If someone stopped by- they left with a giant bag of peaches. And they were really delicious too:)

 Sam ran around in his diaper and ate massive quantities of peaches all evening long.

I was able to bake all of my peach treats in my new oven. Pretty exciting:)