New Trick

Clara has a new trick. She can turn in circles. I realize that it might not be so exciting to those that aren't her parents, but I thought it was blog worthy any way. Clara started out facing the camera and the next thing we knew, she had turned 180 degrees. So I got the camera out and took pictures as she finished her circle. Sorry the pictures are blurry, but it's hard to get a girl turning circles to sit still. :)

Clara's First Easter

On Tuesday of this week, my great-grandmother passed away. She was 98 years old. This is a picture of us taken 3 years ago, the last time I saw her. She had Alzheimer's, so she had no clue who I was on this visit. She had gotten to where she didn't even recognize her son who came to visit her everyday, so it was a good thing she has gotten to leave this earth life. But she will be missed!Our Easter festivities this week were a lot of fun. Jeremy and I colored construction paper eggs instead of hard boiled eggs. I love how Jeremy puts his artistic abilities to use no matter what he's doing.On Saturday, the Easter Bunny had come to our house while Jeremy and I were at the temple. When we got home, Jeremy helped Clara find the hidden Easter Eggs. She loved the pretty basket and definitely loved the eggs a lot more than what was inside them!On Sunday, we tried to take a picture of Clara's Easter dress, but she wouldn't quit moving. This is the least blurry picture we got. I guess she was just too excited to be watching her cousins do an Easter egg scavenger hunt!

Jane Austin Heroine

I was reading Genevieve's blog (my sister-in-law) and she had a link to an on line quiz that looked fun. I tried it and here are the results:

Take the Quiz here!

If you decide to take the quiz, I think it would be fun to share the results. If you would like to indulge me, please post a comment on my blog informing me of your results.

Concert

This has been a really busy week for Jeremy and I. Jeremy applied for his major this week and since he always seems to be busy with work and homework, I got to run MANY errands so that his application could be turned in on time. With all the extra business, I was grateful we got free tickets to a Collective Soul concert. Jeremy took Wednesday night off work and we met up with some friends and family. We ate dinner and then headed to Energy Solutions Arena. My favorite part of the concert was the opening act. A guy named Frank Caliendo came. Frank is a stand up comedian who is known for his impersonations. Jeremy is a HUGE fan and so I had already heard a lot of his material, but he was much better live than I could have ever imagined. We had a blast, but it also made Thursday that much harder to get back in the swing of things.

(The first picture is of Collective Soul and the second is Frank impersonating George W Bush.)

Splendid Saturday

Saturday was a fantastic day for Jeremy and I. Jeremy had spring break this week, so he got caught up on all his homework Wednesday through Friday so that on Saturday we could have a mini family vacation. It was nice to be able to spend the whole day together and not have to worry about work or school.
The day started out great because we got a call from the owner of the apartments we've been on a waiting list for. We put our names on the waiting list in January of last year, and all that waiting has paid off. We get to move from our 1 bedroom into a 2 bedroom on April 19! We don't have to be out of this apartment until April 30, so we have some time to move slowly over. I can't wait to move away from our stressful downstairs neighbor, and for more apace. The apartment complex we're moving into is in our ward, so we aren't moving far and we will already know our neighbors. Our new down stairs neighbor is John Brumbaugh and his family. John and I grew up together, so that will be fun! We are so excited!

Jeremy and I headed up to Salt Lake at about noon. We started off at the Salt Lake Cemetery and visited the graves of all the prophets who were buried there, except Howard W. Hunters. (We couldn't ever find his.) I was amazed at how big the prophet's headstones are. For those of you who care, we visited the graves of John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Joseph F. Smith, Heber J. Grant, George Albert Smith, David O. McKay, Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, Spencer W. Kimball, and Gordon B. Hinckley.While we were there, we also visited the grave of Jeremy's great aunt who we named Clara after. (And yes, that is Jeremy with a beard. He had decided to see how he likes having facial hair.)After the cemetery, we went to Temple Square and visited Brigham Young's grave along with the Christus. (Yes, we did this the same day, even though Clara has different outfits on. It was a day of changing dirty diapers for us as well.)We ended our day by going to the Clark Planetarium. They did a laser show to some U2 songs. We decided to take Clara with us. She was screaming at first because the guy announcing the show was having the crowd scream and yell. She hated the noise, and I began to worry. We laid her on our lap so she would have optimum viewing of all the lights, and she loved it. She didn't make a peep for the whole show. It also started at 9, which is the time she normally goes to bed, so I figured she would fall asleep before it was over. However, she was so mesmerized that she stayed awake the whole time.

Even though, it was an extremely long day, we had so much fun! Too bad it's back to the old grind tomorrow.

Cilantro Sauce

I tried a recipe for fajitas yesterday. There was a marinade along with a cilantro sauce that was extremely yummy. The cilantro sauce is a low fat and lower calorie substitute for sour cream and both Jeremy and I were amazed at how good it was.

Here is the recipe:
Blend the following ingredients in a blender until smooth.
1 1/2 cup of plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 cup of fresh cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon of lime juice
and if you want it spicy: 1 seeded jalapeño pepper

Clara has also learned to "give loves." I don't think she quite knows what she's doing yet, but I have to tell myself she is just "giving me loves" when my face gets soaked in slobber.

Wonderful Week

It seems as though there are more things to report this week than normal.

On Friday and Saturday, Jeremy worked on a midterm project for his class entitled: Rendering of the Human Head. He had to do 2 drawings from life and spend 2-3 hours each on them. From life means having someone sit for those 2 - 3 hours and draw them. So he did me, twice! I was amazed how hard it was to sit still for that long, especially with a baby. We did get to take a few breaks, but that just meant I had to remember my exact position! The results were worth it because I was pretty impressed with both drawings, but decided to put just one on the blog. Even though it doesn't look exactly like me, I think the details he did are amazing. He has improved so much since the beginning of the semester. He even decided to draw a person for a different class, something he never would have done before! I'm so proud of Jeremy for taking this class. He was not looking forward to it, but has done so well already!Clara turned 5 months old on Tuesday! I can't believe how big she's getting and how much stuff she can do! Clara started rolling over from her tummy to her back this week. She would only last a minute or two for tummy time, and then roll right over. However, that lasted only a few days. She has now learned to sit by herself, and since she has done that, she quit rolling over. At least she gets more tummy time now. I guess it's good that she's not mobile yet, but when she went from rolling over a lot to none, I started to worry. And I don't want to under emphasize the fact that she sits up! She can't go from laying down to sitting up on her own, but if I sit her up, she's pretty sturdy and can sit for quite a long time. Go Clara!This picture of Clara is a favorite because lately she sticks out her tongue when she smiles. She sometimes gets it pretty far out there, but I couldn't capture any of those on camera. I had to settle for a short tongue picture. However, as you can see, she looks pretty cute, even if she's sticking her tongue out at mommy and daddy all day long.This last picture of Clara is a candid shot. Jeremy takes TONS of pictures of her and will hit the button several times in a row just to see what he gets. Since she looks like she's about ready to punch someone out, I had to include it in my blog this week.My older brother came to visit me this week too. He lives in Sacramento and works as an engineer. He had some inspecting to do in Wells, NV due to the earthquake. They flew him into Salt Lake, and since he was so close, he deiced to stay over night just so he could visit his little sister and meet his niece. Thanks for coming, Dan, it was great having you here.