All in a row

Collin went through this phase where he wanted to make lines out of everything. I wish I would have taken a picture of it, but one day he had almost all of his small toys lined up across the living room. It was probably 10 feet long. Here is a sample of what he lined up.


The rocks out of our rose garden all lined up on the steps.


Canning rings. I was so tired of picking these up. He would line up the rings and stack the lids into "rockets"

I couldn't get this picture to turn but he lined up all of the magnets on the fireplace to make two rockets, a big one and a small one.


All of his rockets and airplanes lined up in the fireplace. Are you seeing a theme here? He really likes rockets and airplanes.




Various random toys.




We've also been doing a ton of canning this year and Collin's favorite job is to write the 10 on the lids for the year. It's on his level to write a line and a circle. Some turn out better than others.

After drawing the 10 on this one he thought that the zero looked like, you guessed it, a rocket. So he grabbed the orange marker and drew the fire in. So funny.

1st day of school

Look how much she's grown. 1st day of kindergarten 2007



It's been over a month since Clara started school. Just finally posting the 1st day of school pictures. Clara is in the 3rd (!) grade and has Mrs. Stone for her teacher. Mrs. Stone is the "hard" teacher according to all the kids. But Clara is enjoying herself and has made a lot of new friends already.

Clara's Birthday and Baptism

I know it has been more than two months since Clara's birthday but I just barely downloaded the million pictures I took this summer. We had such a busy summer and are glad to be back into a routine with school. But we are still busy with all of the productions and piano lessons and dancing. The year will go by fast again.

For Clara's birthday we decided to do a small party with just the cousins. Clara decided she wanted a water party so we swam in Grandpa's pool and Mike brought over his bouncy water thing. As you can see, Clara had a good time.





Clara also wanted to get her ears pierced for her 8th birthday. She was a little scared at first but quickly got over it when she realized it didn't really hurt much. She has been so good taking care of them and counted down the days until she got to take her studs out. She meticulously picks out earrings each day to match her outfit.





Shortly after her birthday, on July 3rd, Clara was baptized. It was a very special day with friends and family. It was a little surreal for me. Surely I'm not old enough to have a daughter being baptized. Clara was very excited and looked so pretty in her baptism dress.


Melissa and Sam. Not sure where Lucy is. I think her and Collin spent a lot of time running in the gym.

Grandma Maralee and Grandpa Richard


Grandpa Jon and Grandma Christine

Clara and Collin. The only picture we were able to get Collin in.


Clara and Mom pre baptism.
Clara and Mark pre baptism.

Collin is definitely 3

Mark is out of town for 2 weeks and I think the kids definitely go crazy when he's gone. Or maybe I'm just more crazy so they seem more crazy. Collin has been on one the last couple of days. It started a couple of nights ago when I was looking for his nose sucker. He is just learning to really blow his nose so I sometimes have to assist. He really doesn't like it. So I couldn't find his nose sucker and asked where it was. He told me that he had turned it. Not having a clue what that meant, he had to repeat it several times for me. He finally took me over to the diaper pail (which you put a diaper in and then turn the top over so the diaper will drop in). Apparently he disliked the nose sucker so much that he got rid of it. It was buried under a sackful of poopie diapers.
Then yesterday, my good friend Karen came to town and we were planning on meeting up with her for dinner. As soon as she called saying she was ready to go, I went in search of Collin. He was in his room with a handful of wetwipes. He informed me that he was cleaning the pen. And he needed his hands washed. Upon retrieving the pen, I noticed it was gummy. With further inspection, I realized it was Modge Podge. (Which I had mistakenly left out after finishing a project in the living room. In my defense it was tucked away on a table) I ran into the living room and discovered that Collin had dipped several nearby objects in the Modge Podge and also thought that he could paint my project. There were piles and piles of glue on the letter blocks I had just finished for his room. So I was able to quickly clean those up and went back to the bathroom to get Collin, only to discover that he was coloring the sink with a dry erase marker. Clara has those readily available in her room. So I cleaned that up and packed Collin out to the car where he told me that his toy was stuck. He pulled me over to the front of the car where I found a small toy he had stuffed into the grill of my car. I was able to fish that out and we finally made it to dinner. I was exhausted. And this all happened in the course of 5 minutes.
Then today as I was putting a diaper in the diaper pail, I noted that it wasn't turning over and dropping as it should. Looking closer, I found a piece of gum wedged in between the plunger and the side. Collin really likes turning things over in that thing.
Mark doesn't come home for a week and a half.

To Infinity and Beyond

This post is a long time coming. I've been wanting to post about it since Collin's birthday in March but didn't have a photo. I finally downloaded this off of my parents computer so I can finally post it. Collin has been into Buzz Lightyear for a while now. For his birthday he received several Buzz related gifts including these wings and arm shield things from my parents. He first saw them unwrapped when we arrived at my parents house for a visit shortly after his birthday. My mom wouldn't let him have them until his party so he could unwrap them. He waited impatiently all weekend until finally his party arrived. He promptly put them on and insisted on going outside. My dad took him out there. We saw him through the window and couldn't help but laugh as he squatted and prepped for a take-off. After several attempts, he came inside with just the saddest, most crestfallen look on his face. In a sad little voice he proclaimed "I can't fly". He thought that the wings would really make him fly and was so disappointed that they didn't work. We wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. He was just so sad.

Vegas and California

Wow, this summer has gone by fast. We have done so much in the short two months. It started off with a trip to Vegas and California. My clogging team takes a trip to Disneyland every year and whoever wants to go can perform if they want to. So quite a few from my team went. I tried to download a video of us dancing but it wouldn't work. Sorry. Before we headed to Disneyland, we stopped in Vegas and spent a few days with my sister. Then we headed to John and Ema's for a couple of days. We had our nephew Connor with us as well so that he could spend some time with our other nephew Ezra. They are best friends.


Connor, Clara and Collin at the Hoover Dam. The new bridge is almost done.

Mark and Simon. Right before I took the picture Melissa told them to make a manly pose. Really this is what they came up with? Mark and his cheesy grin, and Simon with his umbrella.


Me and Melissa.

Most of the group. Collin, me, Clara, Connor, Sam, Melissa and Lucy.


We also went on a little hike at Red Rock. It was super hot so we didn't last long. Plus Simon was so worried about Lucy getting sunburned that he followed her around with the before seen umbrella. The kids had fun rock scrambling though.

After the heat in Vegas it was nice spending time in Thousand Oaks with John and Ema. The beach was a little cold the day we went but the kids had fun anyway.

Connor, Ezra and Clara. All the same age.




Then it was time for Disneyland. We spent 3 days there and had a great time. It's nice having kids that can ride most of the rides. Clara got to ride the bigger rides twice so both Mark and I could go on them. It was fun performing. My clogging team came to Disneyland when I was 14 and it was weird being a performer at 34. But it was an excuse to get a discount to Disneyland.

4 years ago, we took a lot of time seeing way too many princesses but Clara was in that age and phase where she was so excited to see them. This year Collin is in the Buzz Lightyear phase. So the Toy Story Characters were the ones we wanted to see. Luckily for both Buzz and Woody we were able to jump in line close to the front and didn't have to wait too long. Clara was a little sad that we didn't see any princesses but thankfully she's over that phase and got over it pretty quickly.


All of us from my team who performed. If we can, we're going to try and go next year.

Hiking the Y

I thought it would be fun to hike the Y with Clara this year. She's big enough to not complain about all the walking. I didn't want to take Collin since he would complain and he's way to big to take in the backpack on such a steep hike. I can barely heft myself up the hill let alone with 25 pounds on my back. So Clara and I decided to go on Memorial Day. I think that is the craziest day to hike it. There were so many people there. But we had a good time. Clara did so good and didn't complain at all. She did fall running down the hill at the end and scraped her leg up. She told everybody she didn't have a good time because she hurt herself. But I'm pretty sure she had a good time and I was so proud of her getting all the way to the top.



Clara wanted a picture with the Y really small in the background.

At the top.