Clara's 5 Months!!

Clara is 5 months!! 

Our sweet girl was 5 months on the 16th!  She is getting so big and it has gone so fast!  I love watching her grow and learn new things, but I also wish she could just stay little forever! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful little girl!  Poor thing has been sick the past week though so these pictures were the best we could do of our tired and stuffed up little girl.  

-Clara always wants to be a part of the action.  She loves to watch everyone around her and be entertained by what everyone else is doing. 

-She has been waking up around 3 and then again around 6.  She was doing so good and now just can't seem to break that habit.  Hopefully we can get her back to skipping that 3 am wake up again soon! Atleast she just wakes up to eat and then goes right back to sleep! 

-She takes 3-4 short naps throughout the day (30-45 minutes).  I'd like to cut out her evening one, but for now she seems to do better with that nap and she still goes to sleep by 10 at the latest but usually more like 8:30 sometimes 9:00.

-She is usually pretty good to go to sleep mostly on her own.  I can usually swaddle her, giver her a binky, put on some white noise, and lay her down and she is good.  When this doesn't work I can just lay down next to her and she will fall asleep very quickly.   She really likes to be swaddled and have white noise.  If all else fails she likes to sleep on her side.  

-She has been making lots of fun talking noises.  She does a hilarious little spitting noise that is pretty cute and Robby just loves it!

-She will not take a bottle.  This is mostly my fault.  After having to give Calin a bottle all the time plus nursing him, I have taken advantage of not having to worry about that with Clara.  However, because I forgot and didn't really think about giving her a bottle she now won't take one.  :(  We are working on it though and hopefully can get her to take it again.

-She nurses about every 3-4 hours.

-She is not a pro solid food eater.  We have been trying rice cereal and oatmeal for a little over a month and she just can't seem to figure out the mechanics of eating.  She will sometimes open her mouth to eat, but then just kind of sloshes the food around before most of it ends up drooling out of her mouth.  We have a little more success if we feed her in her bouncer cause then she is laying back and gravity kind of forces the food down. 

-She is a little social bug.  She loves to be out watching everything going on around her, and always has a smile for anyone that has a smile for her.  

-Makes a very specific noise when her bottom is sore.  It's kind of like a deep inhale with a noise while she breathes in.  It's very sad.

-She loves Calin.  She watches him all day long and loves to have him around singing, reading, dancing or just playing by her.  She is always happier with him around! 

-She loves to be outside and is happy just to be out hanging out or watching Calin play.  She also likes to ride in the stroller when we go on walks or to the park.  

-She likes to read books but only if she is well fed and rested.  If she is getting tired or hungry then she doesn't like to sit still to listen.  She does better if she is sitting up and can touch the book while she listens.  Occasionally she will lay down and listen too.  She is getting better and it's fun to see her get into a book.  Calin and I got "Little White Duck" at the library and she loves when we get to the animal noises and smiles and laughs.  I'm glad she's starting to like books more! 

-She likes to suck/chew on her fingers and sometimes gags herself while doing this.  

-She drools a lot and likes to chew on things, but still no sign of teeth.  

-She likes to have music playing, and listen to us singing (especially Calin) but doesn't seem to have any one particular favorite song.

-She can still only roll from her back to front towards her left.  I occasionally see her roll back over from front to back but it is usually a total accident and it startles her.

-She is in size 2 diapers and wearing 3-6 month clothes.

-She loves to play with her feet and sometimes even sticks her toes in her mouth!

-She loves to be naked.  If she is upset I can usually get her to calm down by laying her down and taking clothes and diaper off.  Funny girl.

-She does not like to get her diaper put back on.  She dislikes it so much that she will squeeze her legs together so you can't get the diaper in between her legs.  I usually just keep gently tugging and pushing on her legs until she finally relaxes and lets her diaper get put back on.

-She loves mom and dad and always has big smiles when she hears our voice or sees us.  I still think she saves her best smiles for dad but her best giggles for Calin.  Although Robby and I are having more success now in getting her to giggle every now and again.


We love our sweet Clara and are excited to watch her continue to grow and discover the world!

Singing in the Rain

It has been so hot and dry here all spring and summer.  We have been praying and waiting for a big huge downpour!  Finally on August 2nd it came!  Robby and Calin were next door about to eat dinner with Robby's family and I was at our house with Clara who was having her evening nap.  As soon as I heard it coming down I ran out to meet Robby and Calin who had also run out to play in the rain.  We had a blast running, jumping, splashing and getting soaked!  I was in and out checking on Clara and came out to get some pictures.  Robby also grabbed our other camera and took some great pictures of the cousins splashing! It was a great summer evening!!

Catching rain drops in their mouth! 

This was after the first downpour and as you can see they still have some dry spots.  It didn't last long. 

It really started coming down again and out they went to run again.  This is one of my favorite pictures that we got. 

Calin was thrilled that there were huge puddles to play in and no one was telling him he couldn't jump in them. 

As Becca said "it's the wrong trousers Gromit!" 

I loved watching him just run around thrilled as can be to be playing in the rain!
Nothing better than seeing your child full of pure joy! 

Robby got these pictures and they are fantastic too!  Nothing like some good fun in the rain with your cousins!!

Gracie and Preston are so good to Calin and are so awesome to play with him! 

July Happenings!

Dad getting some use out of his car shirt.  Calin doesn't ever last long though and only drives for about 30 seconds. 

Clara loves to grab her toes!  I love this milestone! So cute!  She can even get her toes in her mouth! 

Doing some airplane on a lazy morning at home. 

Calin is starting to really want to involve Clara in everything.  He will take his toys over by her and tell her about them, try to get her to hold them, show her what her's doing, he is going to be such a great big brother! 

Cash and Calin in matching pj's! 

A sprinkler afternoon with Dylan over at her house.  Love these two little buddies! 

Calin is loving to climb on everything.  At the playground he is really getting brave and trying to do lots of new things.  It makes me super nervous and I just have to make sure I'm there to watch and make sure he doesn't get too ambitious! 

One night we saw a snake slithering across our front yard.  Robby (by my request) caught it and then he and Calin walked it down to the field a few blocks south of our house.  Unfortunately, just last night we saw another snake...it was not caught. :( I'm just glad they aren't poisonous! 

Loves to climb!  He made it all the way up by himself, but then Dad had to help him down. 

A rare occurrence when Clara will snuggle up and sleep on me like this.  It didn't last long
though before she was squirming and I went and laid her down. 

We love to turn the sprinklers on to cool down! 

Some selfies! 

I sure do love this cute little face! 

One evening Robby was doing some work with some dirt...Calin sat down
to play and was in heaven playing in the dirt for a while. 

We bought a new couch and it came in 5 of these huge boxes.  We turned one of them into Calin's fort.
The cousins came over one afternoon and helped him color/decorate the inside! 

Tracee had a Harry Potter party one Friday night.  We all decided to dress up since I had been Luna for Halloween a couple years ago and had it all ready to go! Calin made a great Draco! 

Clara had her first experience with rice cereal.  She was not super interested and was not very helpful opening her mouth or swallowing.  It all ended up back in the bowl, on her, or on the bib.  

We have kept trying and she does a little better sometimes, but not much.  Hopefully she'll catch onto it soon! 

The Blue Angels came to St. George for some shows the last weekend in July.  We didn't go to the show but drove over by the airport to watch them fly around for the show.  We have a good spot we like to go and we are able to see lots of good views of them flying by really close!  It was windy, but a lot of fun and Calin talked about it for days! 

Britney came to visit the last week in July.  It was so fun to see her and catch up and
to have her around to help with the kids!  

Calin loved having a new friend around to play with! 

Pioneer Day

On the 24th of July we woke up and got ready quick to make it to the Washington 9:00 Pioneer Day parade.  It was quite possibly the worst parade I have ever been to.  We were at the end of the route, and didn't see anything until 9:30.  (The parade was only about 7-8 blocks long.) There were 10-15 minute breaks between some of the parts  of the parade.  It didn't end until almost 10:30.  For a little small town parade in the middle of July in St. George it was way too long!! 

Trying to keep our cute gold star shaded during the parade.  

Calin, Navie, and Dylan at the parade!  

After the parade we went up to the park mostly just to participate in the races.  They had lots of fun booths too, but we were way too hot to even try to do any of those.  We waited about 10 minutes for the races to start.  Dylan and Alisha were with us.  I took Calin and Dylan to the starting line with Clara and then Alisha and Robby went to the other side so the kids could run to them.  Dylan did great and got 2nd place!  Calin got all lined up and was so excited to go.  The guy said go! and Calin started out great.  After about 3 steps though he made a sharp turn and ran right back to me and then fell down.  He must have been a little nervous with all those people, but he had fun!

Ready to go! 

Started out great! 

Sharp turn...

And down!  Funny kid. 

 After the races we hurried home and packed up all our stuff to head up to Cedar Mountain for our traditional 24th of July celebration at Wood's Ranch.  We had a great picnic lunch in the cool mountain breeze.  It was still hot up there, but in the shade and with the breeze it actually felt a little chilly!  It was great!

After lunch the family all heads out to the baseball field (no shade, super hot!) to play a game of baseball.  Calin played for a little while with Dad at first, but then came to and watch where it was a little safer and cooler for him.  He enjoyed holding his ball and carrying his bat around with him all afternoon.  

The game didn't last too long since it was so hot in the sun.  Robby had brought some track up to see how the cars fared on a bumpy mountain ride.  He, Calin, Preston, and Jimmy enjoyed running some cars down the track.

Clara and I spent most of the afternoon in the shade while she ate, slept, and I visited with Robby's family.  At about 5 we headed back down to St. George and could not believe how hot it was when we got back.  When we pulled in the driveway and turned off the car (AC) it was like an immediate wave of hot air hit you.  It was even more noticeable after going inside and then coming back out.  It was like walking into a really hot sauna! So so hot!!

We had some dinner and then relaxed for a little while before heading up to watch the fireworks from our church parking lot at 10:00.  It was a great day with family celebrating and remembering the pioneers that sacrificed all they did so that we could live where we do today! With all that heat I sure was grateful to live now with air conditioning instead of when the pioneers did.  I'm grateful that they were as strong as they were so we can have the blessings we do today!