Random Claire

Claire is my little shadow. Seriously, I can't go to the bathroom without her following me. I know someday I will miss her following me around and will miss her randomness. She still loves to dress up in funny outfits, and old Halloween costumes. 

My parents took the grandkids out for dinner and to a Halloween store to pick something out. Claire came back with this most random costume from Wild Kratts. It is her favorite show so when she saw it, apparently she didn't put it down and carried it with her the whole time. My parents didn't fight her on it, and they also didn't check the size. Hence the size 2 costume!!! So funny!! She wears this everywhere....the gas station, to bed, to neighbors houses. I love it. And I love her!

Claire is a little bit of a clumsy girl. This is her second black eye. I am actually surprised she hasn't had more injuries. When she gets tired, she gets more clumsy. We were at the zoo, and she fell down about 5 times. While we were leaving, she fell into a pole and it smacked her right on the face. She woke up the next morning, and had a pretty little shiner!

California Part 3

I mentioned earlier that before we went to California, we decided we wouldn't do Disneyland this year. But, when my dad asked if he could take us, of course we didn't turn him down! Anton had to fly to Phoenix on Wednesday morning, so we dropped him off at the airport and went straight to Disneyland. As soon as we dropped him off, both girls burst into tears. They had so much fun with their dad on the trip, that they were so sad to see him leave. Sometimes I think that Anton's travel schedule doesn't bother the girls, but when he gets ready to leave they take it harder than I always think they will. Especially Lilly. She adores her Daddy. Its cute. 

Anyway, back to Disneyland. We just did one day and one park. It was perfect! It was pretty busy, but not awful. The longest we had to wait in line was about 20 minutes. My dad took Claire and Luke on the train, two times in a row, while the older kids went on some bigger rides. It was a really really really fun day. The kids were such little troopers, and my parents were the best. My parents are always so generous and are the cutest Nana & Papa.  

I love that we had this trip, and got to spend so much quality time with both sides of our families. These are the times I will never ever forget!!

California Part 2

I don't know what it was about this trip, but it was truly one of the best trips we have had in so long. I loved every single minute of it. I didn't want to come home, and we even looked at real estate when we got home. The good news is, we would need to raise 8 million dollars in order to live there...so I think we will stay put :) Now that we are home and back to reality, I realize how much I love it here. Salt Lake is my home. But, I can dream about living there right?! The Leonard family left on Monday, and my parents and sister arrived on Sunday evening. We spent more time at the beach on Sunday and Monday, and my dad treated us to dinner at Fashion Island. Tuesday we took my parents with us to Knotts Berry farm. Before we left on the trip, we decided to do something other than Disneyland this year, so we decided on Knotts. My parents wanted to come with us, so because of them giving us a free place to stay, we decided to treat them to Knotts. It was SO much fun! We laughed so hard, and had a ball going on all the rides and eating at their famous restaurant. My dad bought this awesome sweatshirt, not knowing it was a womens xxl. We laughed so hard we had tears! We had such a fun day with them. I love getting to spend one on one time with my parents and my little family. It doesn't happen very often, so when it does we always have a great time. 

Halloween & California Part one

We had such a fun Halloween week. It is funny though, at the end of every halloween, I am so sick of putting on the costumes! Friday was the girls halloween party and parade at their school. Claire kept asking "how many more sleeps until my party"...she was so jazzed. It was her first real halloween parade and party. I was in charge of Lilly's class party, and it turned out really fun. Her class is so low key, and there aren't a lot of kids in her class. We did a bingo game, a bean bag toss and a little craft. Claire had a combined party with the morning and afternoon classes, and her class got out a little earlier than normal so she was able to come into Lilly's class party for a while too. It was such a fun morning. After school, we went to go visit my granny and show her the girls costumes. She had a little treat for them. I love my little granny so much. We couldn't stay too long because we had to get to the airport to catch our plane to California! Such a crazy and fun day!

We arrived to California on Friday night, and met up with the Leonards the next morning to hit the beach! We couldn't get over the fact that we were in the water and playing on the beach on Halloween. The weather was perfect!! We spent most of the day at the beach, which was so much fun, then we went back to our condo to get ready for trick or treating. We grabbed pizza from one of our favorite pizza places in newport and had the Leonards over for dinner. We got the kids in their costumes - again! - and went to a little haunted house they had at the hotel and then took the kids trick-or-treating in Corona Del Mar. That was SO much fun. The homes there are absolutely to die for. I couldn't get over it! It was a halloween I will never forget...it was probably one of my favorite ones ever! We had so much fun with the Leonard family. We always love being with them, and our kids have so much fun together. There is always an abundance of laughs when we are with them!

Fun in October

This fall...I can't believe how gorgeous it was!! The whole month of October was perfect, so we took advantage of the good weather and the girls having several Friday's off of school. One of the days we went to the zoo with my mom, Anna and her kids. It was fun - as always! We also spent a couple of outings at the pumpkin patch. We went one day with our cute friends, and another trip with my sister and mom (again! we love outings with them!). Needless to say, we ended up with lots of pumpkins. I still have 7 sitting on my porch....and that's after the ones we carved for Halloween!

The girls wanted to have a late over with some friends, and it turned into a whole neighborhood affair. It was such a fun night - but holy cow - it was crazy having that many kids running rampant around our house and yard and trying to keep track of them. Thankfully it was great weather, so the kids played night games outside almost the whole night. Anton and I took the 3 pizzas outside and laid them on the driveway - and let them feed themselves! The girls kept saying thank you to me and Anton for letting them have a "party"....they had so much fun, so it made it worth it! And, I love all the kids in the neighborhood - and I am so grateful for the friendships my little family have made here. It is so similar to my childhood and neighborhood growing up, which makes me so happy! After pizza and games, they came in and frosted cupcakes. Love these cute kids.

We were leaving for California the day before Halloween, so we decided not to go crazy this year with pumpkins. The girls got to carve a pumpkin this year, but Anton and I decided not to do one this year. Here are the results! Lilly's was a zombie hand, and Claire's was a bat. 

The week of Halloween was a fun week at school for the girls. They had pajama day, crazy hair day, college color day (go Utes!), sunglasses day, and the day of the halloween parade. The girls thought the crazy hair day was so funny...especially Lilly!

It was a crazy and fun month! Next up - pictures from Halloween!

Camping

Every summer we say we want to go camping and this summer went by so fast that we didn't get a chance. With the weather being so beautiful and warm, we decided to go up to Midway and camp and use the 4x4. It was a doozy, but so fun. We found a great little camp spot and got camp all set up and a fire going so we could cook our tin foil dinners. Well, the dinners burned. Anton got a terrible blistering awful burn on his leg, thanks to the Jiffy Pop. And a bear came into camp at about 4 in the morning. I honestly don't know of a time where I was more scared. He started growling and was really upset about something. We found out in the morning that the boy scouts that were right next to us left food out, and the bear was eating skittles about 20 feet away from our tent. Anton wanted to open the tent and see him, and I flipped out. So, he waited a few minutes, and when he finally opened the tent to see him, he saw it wandering back into the trees. Scared me to death. But, I still love camping. I like it more than Anton. Funny, but true. 

On Saturday we took the girls on a ride in the 4x4. We found a great little trail up Guardsman and I was blown away at how beautiful it was. We picked the best time of year to go up there! It was a really fun weekend. One we will never forget!

Girls trip to NYC!

New York City...we had an absolute BALL!! I don't think it would have been possible to have more fun than we did. I loved every minute of it, and we vowed we would go back really soon. I am so grateful to have such a cute mom and darling sister. I love them dearly. Ok, so onto the trip. My cute Dad...as he was dropping us off at the airport, he handed each of us an envelope and told us to open it up on the plane. He gave us some shopping money and the sweetest little note. Such a cute guy. 

We were there over the anniversary of 9/11. This building right by our hotel was lit up red white and blue. The day of the anniversary just seemed like an ordinary day. I was kind of surprised. I did notice, not just that day, when the police would sound their siren (the quick two beep one), it always reminded me of the sounds of the city after the attack. It is an eery sound to me. There was a banquet at our hotel for firemen who helped during 9/11. It was really cool to see. 

It rained quite a bit while we were there. But, that didn't stop us from going all over town!

Our hotel. So fun to stay in such a fancy and famous hotel! We loved it!

Ok, this is one of our very places in New York. The tenement museum on 97 Orchard Street. Amazing. So much history and so well done. Last time we did a tour and swore we would go back. This time we did two tours. One tour in 97 Orchard, and then a walking food tour. It was so fun! In a year or two they will have a new tour about the holocaust - we promised we would go back and go on that one. 

The night we had our play, we decided to eat room service. We had to do a Waldorf Salad of course. $40 dollars later for just a salad...I about died. We also calculated that the tiny Diet Coke you see there, was $1 an ounce....which totaled to $8. Crazy. Anyway, it was so fun. After dinner we went to go see A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. So so so funny and so darling. It won best musical last year...and I can see why. Loved it. 

We had to go to the American Girl Doll store. I was in heaven. It is 3 stories, and is filled with every teeny tiny thing you could want for your American Girl Doll. I got Lilly a little hat for her and her doll. We were in there for probably over an hour...there was so much to see!

Some random parade. I had to take a picture...there was something so "new york" about it. One thing I adore about New York is all the American flags. They are everywhere, and I love it.

Cute Annie. Annie has been our babysitter for years. She is so talented and so beautiful. She has had a dream of performing in New York since I have known her. She finally took the leap and the opportunity and left for New York. It was SO fun to meet up with her and talk with her. This particular day we stopped in at the mall in Columbus Circle to see my favorite shoe store and grab a snack. She texted me and asked me where we were. I told her, and she said "I am 5 minutes away from you!"...of course we had to meet up. Love this girl and am so proud of her!

The one thing I don't like about travelling is how frumpy I always look. New York gives me crazy hair, and I always look so ragged. So, not many pictures were taken with me in it! This day was an exception. I watch the Today show almost every morning when I am working out. So, I had to get a picture in front of Rockefeller center and NBC Studios. 

Anton was so great to stay home with the girls. He did great with them, and told me he could have gone another 3 days. The girls were perfect for him, and they had a lot of fun. Claire & Lilly (but mostly Claire) cried and cried and cried when I left. It was hard on me to leave them because they were so sad...but I guess as soon as I was gone they were great. They were ecstatic when I walked in the door! 

September

Well, it was that time of year for the girls to go to the dentist. Our usual dentist was selling his practice and so it was a perfect time for us to switch. My next door neighbor growing up is a pediatric dentist, and all of my family go to him...so we gave him a shot. He was awesome and the girls loved him and his office! Lilly's teeth were great. She still has never had a cavity - let's hope that doesn't change. Claire Bear had two. Darn. They were in between her two back molars. So, we had to schedule time to go back and have those taken care of. Cute little thing did perfect! I took her picture with her mouth numbed so I could send it to Anton. Right after I took it, she asked "Can I see?"...broke my heart because the next thing she said was "I look so bad". But, when it came time to her going to school and showing her friends, she was great. I hope she always has that great confidence. 

I have really enjoyed hiking this year. I used to hate hiking...and would dread it. I think the main reason was because my legs would hurt so bad afterward, that it wasn't worth it. After I had both my knees operated on, I have been able to run and hike without any pain. So, it has changed it entirely for me. I am also getting in much better shape - so that helps too. I was so proud of myself this day because I finally ventured off on my own to do a hike...sounds dumb, but I was a little nervous to go without Anton. Now, I go every week while the girls are in school. I absolutely love it. I am always so in awe of how beautiful the mountains are. 

Went to visit Gramps for his birthday. I still miss that guy and think about him daily!

St. George

We went down to St. George for a long weekend to spend some time with Anton's family. We had a great time with the Leonard's...but what's new!? We always love spending time with them. Just the other day I was asking Claire who her best friend is, and she said "Truman". It was also so great to have Anton spend some time with his grandparents. They mean so much to him, so it was great for him to see them. And, they girls always love seeing Grandma & Grandpa! We took a day trip to Grafton where there is a neat little cemetery and a little ghost town. It was really cool to see, and it is always fun to get out and explore. The Leonard's took us on a really neat hike to see some petroglyphs, but I thought Lilly's head was going to explode....it was pretty hot (for us, anyway!) I have never seen her face so red! It was kind of funny! We spent time swimming at both my parents pool and then at Grandmas pool. Swimming is always a favorite activity for my girls. And, it wouldn't be a weekend with the Leonard's if we didn't play games! We look forward to the next trip to St. George so we can spend time with some of our very favorite people!

Kindergarten

Oh my little Claire Bear. I couldn't love her more. I was wondering how I would do sending her off to Kindergarten. It was hard to be sad when she was so excited. For days and days before school started, she would ask over and over how many days were left until she started school. She was beyond excited. I told Anton I think part of it was, she and I went into Lilly's class every week last year, so I think she had an idea of what school was all about. That morning I told her she could have anything she wanted for lunch, and she chose McDonald's. After lunch we grabbed her backpack and off we went! She was so excited that they had the school mascot there, and was excited to see a few friends she knew. I kissed her goodbye, and in she went. It was like I had done it a dozen times before. She was ready, which really calmed my nerves and emotions. It was a strange week for me though. It was such an odd feeling being in my house all alone. I didn't know what to do! I was so happy when they got home from school that afternoon. I had dinner all ready in the crockpot, my house was all nice and clean and my parents came by to give them some Back to School treats and hear all about their day. It was a great day. This week has been totally normal, and I feel completely back to myself and we are in a good routine. Claire is loving everything about school. She is learning to read, and is catching on really quickly and she loves her teacher. I couldn't be happier for her!!

2nd Grade

How did this happen?!?! I can't believe Lilly started 2nd grade!! Time is going by too quickly. She was really nervous to start school because we weren't able to find out which teacher she got until the day before school. She was a nervous wreck about getting the "mean teacher who yells a lot". But, she lucked out and got the teacher she wanted. After she found that out, all her nerves were put to rest. She was so excited to be reunited with some of her favorite friends. So far, this year has been great for her and she still loves school!! I love my little 2nd grader sooo much, and I am beyond proud of the little person she has become. Love my little Lilly Bug!