Collin

Collin is sick right now. He has a cold and an ear infection. But he is the sweetest guy even when he's sick. The other morning I asked if I could suck his boogers out with the sucker thing, you know. He immediately started crying but in a sad little voice said "No thank you mommy". Can he stay this age forever?

Our cat makes us laugh

We have had Tinkerbell for 3.5 years now and she is constantly making us laugh. We find her in the weirdest places. She likes to crawl into little spaces or perch somewhere unusual. If there is an empty floor with a small piece of paper on it, she'll circle around the paper and then plop down on it. Who knows why? She's so funny with her food. She refuses to eat out of her food bowl if it's less than half full. If it's getting low, she'll constantly meow and circle around our feet. We usually refuse to fill it because it's not gone. She'll continue to bug us but then resign herself and finish eating. She doesn't like her water bowl and only drinks out of the toilet, or she'll jump into the bathtub after we've showered. Or she'll drink out of the fishbowl. Our fish is going to be eaten one of these days. Here are a few funny pictures. They make us laugh.


Sitting in the window sill when we first got her. We'd always find her there basking in the sun.



She's always climbing into things. One time we caught her trying to squeeze herself into a shoe box. This is Collin's laundry basket.

Lounging in Clara's house she built for her Polly pockets. I'm sure there's one underneath there. That can't be comfortable.

Just hanging out in Collin's high chair. Collin looks so little sitting there in the background.


We often catch her in unusual sleeping positions. So comfy.


She won't go near Clara's bed until Clara is asleep. Usually because Clara mauls her. But as soon as she's out, kitty loves to snuggle.

This one was one of the funnier ones. Mark's mom gave Clara a little tutu skirt for Christmas. Clara had been dancing in it earlier and had left it on the floor. We're not sure how Tinkerbell got so nestled in there. But she stayed there for a while.

Ohran Family photos

We had family pictures with Mark's family done over the holidays. My sister in law's brother is a photographer and he made it surprisingly painless for as many kids as we had. Our individual family picture turned out cute but I didn't get a blog copy so sorry you don't get to see that one. They turned out really cute and will be nice to have since we really haven't had the family pictures done for quite a while.



Mark and all of his brothers. How his mother ever raised six boys, I'll never know.

Brothers and parents.
All of the grandkids. Collin would not smile. He's not smiling in any of the pictures. I think he was just confused as to why the photographer was hitting himself over the head with a plastic hammer. They're all looking at the camera so I guess that says something.
The whole family.

Sometimes

Clara is very creative. If you remember, she likes to write songs. Remember the one about the volcano? Well she's written a new one. It's called Sometimes. She won't sing it for me on camera. I'll keep working on that. But here are the lyrics (complete with Clara spelling):

Sometimes

Some times I wish for just one wish
And I wish apone a star
I don't care what you say
I just want to stay away.

Some times I wish for just one wish
And I wish apone a star
And it never comes to far.
And I see a shooting star
I don't care what you say
Just cause I wished on the smallest star.

Some times I wish for just one wish
And I wish apone a star
And it never comes to far
And it never comes to far
Again

We're still here.

With the whirlwind of the holidays and the start of a new semester at BYU, I have neglected to blog. I keep wanting to post some video of Clara's piano recital but Mark has attempted to download it but it hasn't worked. Plus it's on our other computer which is out of commission right now.
We had a great holiday season. We went to Idaho for Christmas which I don't have pictures of because I thought I forgot my camera which I later found buried in my suitcase. We enjoyed the annual, traditional Moss/Shindurling family Christmas Eve soup night. And also celebrated the recent addition of the Boxing Day Celebration thanks to my two English brother in laws. Really we just eat a lot of food. We also had a good time with Mark's family as everybody was in town the week after Christmas. We had family pictures taken which we will hopefully get back soon so I can post some. We had all 27 (?) of us and it was the first family picture in 8 years.

Things are back to normal at BYU and Mark and I are both busy with various shows. I'm also taking a clogging class. It's actually a performing team made up of women age 20-40. We will be competing in competitions this spring. It's flashback to my high school days except I'm older and fatter. But it's a lot of fun.

Clara is enjoying being back to school although she complains that she has no time to play with friends. She is taking dance and piano. It's amazing how quickly she is progressing at the piano. She loves her teacher who is a girl in our ward. She told her a while ago that if they were the same age they would be best friends. I think she spends more time chitty chatting with her at her lesson than actually playing. Clara, she's a talker.

Collin is getting more and more independent. And thinks he wants to give up his naps. I put him to bed at 7 tonight because he has refused to take a nap all week and is just a beast come 6 o'clock. He wants to make every decision for himself. Which is fine usually but then once he makes his decision, he changes his mind. Today he picked a cereal and the minute I poured it and put milk on it, he changed his mind. Sometimes I give in and replace the cereal with his new choice but usually when I do this, he changes his mind back. So I've just stopped doing that, which ends in him throwing a tantrum most of the time. It's a never ending battle. He thinks Buzz Lightyear is the coolest and loves rockets. He runs around the house saying "to ne and beyond" He can't say infinity. He also likes dinosaurs and trains so all boy basically.

Anywho. As soon as I have pictures to post or Mark transfers the pictures from the dilapidated computer, I will post those.

Another one with Clara and her prop

Family Pics

My good friend Emily took our family pictures again this year. Between Collin not wanting to look at the camera and Clara wanting to use props and pose, it's a wonder she got any normal looking pictures. But she did because she's amazing. Here are a few of my favorite. Or 10.


Emily cut Mark and Collin out of this picture because they were not attractive. Cute of me and Clara though.




I think Clara was singing here and Collin joined in.


Clara got it into her head that she wanted to pose for the camera. She also found these berries and wanted to hold them. We have quite a few pictures of her holding props. I don't know where she came up with this pose but Emily and I could not stop laughing. She was trying to be so serious. And who knows what she's gazing at.



This really wasn't posed although it looks like it could be a Gap ad. Collin didn't want to sit on the bench so was attempting to stand and Emily caught it just at the right time.