Halloween 2010

Here are some pictures of the girls from Halloween. Claire was "Super Claire" and Jane was a cute pumpkin.

The littlest Interior Designer

You know you have been designing and talking about houses for too long when you take your three year old to a design center and as she browses through the samples she says, "I want this tile for the mudroom, this one for the kid's bathroom, this one for the master bathroom, and this one for the kitchen". She then proceeds to choose her coordinating countertops and cabinets.

(The designer taking a break in the snow two days ago)

Summer Birthdays!

It seems the moment we arrived here in Utah we have been running around crazy.  I haven’t had a chance to blog and have been feeling guilty about not posting lately, so here it is…

Somewhere Over the Rainbow…Claire turned 3!

 

the birthday girl

the spread

the candles being blown out

the cake (yes, this took quite a long time!)

enjoying every last bite

her favorite part, presents!

 

Jane turned one and we had a great carnival party to celebrate the occasion.

the spread

the cake & candle

this girl has a bottomless stomach and a sweet tooth, she ate almost the entire cake!

presents!

carnival games, we had to have them in the garage due to high winds and a threatening storm

Lots of fun, but I am secretly glad I have almost a year until the next birthday parties.

Here are some cute pics of Jane recently:

Farewell to the Husker State

Even though we have only been in Nebraska for a short time, I have been reminiscing about all things that have happened in our lives the last two years:

• Claire had her first birthday
• Claire took her first steps
• Claire lost her first three teeth in a chair climbing accident (one of which was never found, so will be forever somewhere here in Nebraska!)
• First time I have ever been in a small LDS branch
• First and hopefully last full kitchen remodel
• Jane was born at home, delivered by Jake (first and hopefully last!). 
• Jane’s whole life so far has been here- learning to roll, crawl, stand up, etc.

Things I will miss about Nebraska:

• Living in a small town where we can walk to the grocery store, post office, park, downtown, etc. and Jake can ride his bike to work and come home for lunch everyday.
• Never being caught in traffic.
• All the great people in the Columbus Branch.
• Sitting on our front porch swing at night in the summer and watching the fireflies.
• Claire and I watching the squirrels,  bunnies, and cardinals out our window.
• Not watering our grass once last year.
• Low cost of living.

Things we have learned about Nebraskans and/or people from Columbus:

• They have supper here, not dinner.
• They say “yet” a lot (such as, “We are helping other customers yet”).
• Jake’s work was known as “BDs” instead of just BD.
• We have never seen such loyalty to a football team, most houses have some kind of Husker symbol in the front yard, on game days everyone is wearing a husker shirt and the games are broadcast over the intercom at the store.

So long to the midwest and everyone we have gotten to know here, we will miss you!

Jane conquers the slide

Jane can now make it all the way to the top of the slide.  She is obsessed with going on it and if I take my eyes off her for one second she is up on it again!

Growing up too fast

I can’t believe Jane is almost 9 months old and Claire will be three the end of June, where does the time go?  Jane is very attached to me right now.  I have permanent wrinkles on the skin of my left forearm from holding her so much.  But I guess I should cherish the fact that she wants to be with me all the time, before I know it she will be a teenager and won’t want anything to do with me.

Yesterday I took this snapshot of Jane.  She hasn’t totally mastered crawling yet, but she has decided to start climbing up things (are we going to have to take another child to the ER with knocked out teeth??).

Jake started building a white picket fence the end of last summer.  The whole reason we decided to build it was to keep Claire contained in the backyard (that girl can run fast if she wants to!).  He started building it with his dad and mom when they came  the beginning of August after Jane was born.  Needless to say, with a newborn and other things going on, we didn’t complete it before winter hit.  The other night as Jake was literally attaching the last of the pickets to complete the fence, Claire reached her hand through the pickets on the gate, unlatched it, and escaped!  Aren’t we glad we spent all that money and time to finish this fence and now we are just moving back to Utah?  Our precious little Claire….

So innocent looking too!

My cute girls

We are all so excited that the weather has warmed up, it makes such a difference to get outside! Claire picked out a swimsuit online and it came in the mail the other day. She had to wear it the rest of the day, even though it was still cold.

That same day, I took a picture of Jane, who looks like Ralphy on the Christmas Story (swimsuits and snowsuits on the same day!).

Jane is growing up so fast. She is crawling around a little (a combo of army crawling and up on her knees), is getting her second tooth, and is sitting up better.

Is spring here yet?

We are all getting a little stir crazy here.  Luckily we had our first break in the weather last week and actually got out for a walk—50 degrees felt absolutely balmy. The snow drifts we have been staring at since Christmas are finally melted!

Here are some recent photos.  The first is of Jane rolling.  She is our rolling master and can get across the room in nothing flat.  She is now starting to figure out how to crawl and can inchworm herself to toys.

These next photos document Claire’s recent bloody nose from an accident on her slide.  She started freaking out when she saw the blood and all the kicking and screaming got the blood everywhere.  Our bathroom looked like a scene from a horror movie:

After she finally calmed down, I asked her to smile for the camera (notice the blood smeared all over her face!):

Terrible Twos?

Claire is now 2 1/2 and some days I am not sure if I will make it through the “terrible twos”.  I have been wondering if all 2 year olds throw a fit (yelling, screaming, kicking, running away, etc) for everything or if it is just her.  Claire throws a fit 85-90% of the time for the following:

• Getting into her chair for breakfast, lunch, & dinner (she never wants to eat a meal, she only wants “nummy treats”)
• Brushing teeth
• Washing hair
• Getting out of the bathtub (even when she has turned completely blue)
• Brushing hair (don’t even think about making it look cute)
• Getting dressed and undressed
• Getting her coat, hat, & gloves on
• Putting lotion on her face
• Wiping her nose
• Turning off the TV
• Going to bed
• Getting her diaper changed (especially bad)
• And other inexplicable reasons

Things she is always willing to do include:

• Eating candy or gum
• Watching Curious George

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?  I have heard that the “threes” are worse than the “terrible twos”, if so, please let me know and we will consider a family of four sufficient!

“The Road Series” by Claire Allen

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We have discovered that Claire’s artistic style is of the linear nature.  She calls them “roads”, several of which are built each day.  I am currently consulting with my brother Jordan, who is studying to be a psychologist, to make sure her art form is not an indication of OCD!

And here is a cute picture of Jane: