Merry Christmas

We traveled to Rexburg for Christmas this year. As expected, there was a lot of snow. We stayed in the house the whole time because of how cold it is there. Clara loved playing with most of her cousins. This is a picture of Clara and Hyrum (3 months younger than Clara) playing at the top of the stairs. They were so cute to watch play together.Clara enjoyed Christmas morning. Santa gave her some pretend food to play with, and she knew just what to do: She enjoyed playing with what came out of the wrapping paper, but I don't think she quite understands what a present is yet. She was so tuckered out from a long vacation that she slept most of the way home. I am so grateful for our little girl. She brings us so much joy. She shows me everyday how to be more Christlike.

Sledding

We took Clara sledding for the first time on Saturday. She had so much fun. She was on this baby sled for a while, but then Jeremy took her down the big hill with her on the sled with him. She loved that too and even giggled when she got to the bottom of the hill. It was a ward activity, so we were borrowing sleds from other people. She enjoyed the first 15 minutes of it. She is too much like her mom. As soon as she got cold, she was done and ready to go.We had more blessings come our way this week. I so appreciate all of Santas who left gifts for Clara and our little family. We feel so blessed. We are having the best Christmas we have ever had. We truly have great friends.

Huge Blessings

We had a very long day yesterday, but upon arriving home, we found a small gift from our landlord on our door. In it contained a card that had the biggest blessing we could have received this Christmas. She told us that some of our friends (who want to remain anonymous) paid for our January rent! I was amazed at the friendships we have that someone would be willing to pay our rent for us. I wanted to write this post in hopes that we could thank our amazing anonymous friends. Jeremy and I both feel so blessed. We are so appreciative that we can save that money for a later use. I wish I was more eloquent with words because I don't feel like I'm expressing how great our gratitude is at this moment. Thank you so much!

The reason we had such a long day was because we drove up to see our newest nephew Timothy. The bad weather hit shortly after we had left home. So a trip that normally takes 30 minutes turned out to take an hour since we could only drive 15 miles an hour on the freeway. It was a crazy drive, but we are so glad we made it. The roads were better when we left the hospital, but people were still only driving 10 - 15 miles an hour.
We also stopped in Lehi to watch another set of nieces and nephews while their parents had a date night. Even though our day was a long one, it was filled with great blessings.

Ward Christmas Party

This has been a fun week. Last Friday, we were able to attend the sealing of Jeremy's cousin. It was wonderful to be around family and friends for a whole day. I was so excited to be able to witness the sealing of Brian and Melanie. Thanks for inviting us!
Saturday was our ward Christmas party. Jeremy got to be Santa and have all the little kids sit on his lap. The littlest kids cried, but guess who cried the most: Clara. It was so funny. All the adults were laughing pretty hard, myself included. It was fun to see all the kids get so excited that Santa was there. One family had both their girls sit on Santa's lap at the same time. Their youngest girl is 1 month younger than Clara, so she was crying. Their oldest girl is 3, the perfect age to be excited that Santa is here. It was cute to watch the 3 year old trying her best to calm her little sister down by saying, "Don't worry, it's SANTA!" This picture was taken after Clara got off Santa's lap. She clung to me like that for the next half an hour. Jeremy's grandmother made a doll house for his oldest sister. That sister decided to give Clara the doll house. Clara loves it. She plays with it frequently. It's so fun to see her act like such a girl, even at a young age. Anything that can be worn as a bracelet or jewelry is. Clara has now found a purse that she likes to carry around with her. I think I have my job cut out for me!

Another Week Gone By

I was able to attend the baptism of an 8 year old friend on Saturday. It was so fun to see "family" I hadn't seen in quite a while. Before I was married, I had no family in Utah. This family took me in and made me feel like I did have family here in Utah. It is always fun to see this family grow and change. The mother of the 8 year old is just a few days older than I am. This is also her second child. I can't believe how time flies. I know that even though Clara is 1, she will be 8 before I know it. I just want to enjoy the moments I have with her now before she changes. I guess that is why I take so many pictures of her.
This week didn't have anything else too exciting going on. I keep myself busy with tutoring for 1 - 2 hours a day, along with babysitting 4 days a week. It seems like everytime I tutor someone, Clara then needs my undivided attention. After I'm done it takes me just as long playing with her before she's not fussy anymore. Sometimes I love that she loves me so much and other times I wish she didn't have to be doing everything I'm doing.
Clara has really started to talk a lot on her own. It's all in her own language, but she jabbers all day long. She really does make me giggle. She tries to copy everything we are doing, and it makes playing with her so much fun.
We get together with the parents of the girl I babysit almost every Thursday. This Thursday they were nice enough to take pictures of our family for our Christmas letter that I will be writing soon. While we had the camera out, we took pictures of our little girls playing together. Clara is so good with Addi. She wanted to "dance" with Addi after a little prompting from Addi's dad. A little while later, she decided it would be fun to pat Addi's head. Silly, sweet little Clara. We love you!

Blessings

This week has brought so many wonderful blessings into our lives. I am so amazed at how many dinner invitations have been made to us. We've also gotten several offers from people who "have too much food to eat before it goes bad" and gives us a lot of their food storage. I haven't had to go grocery shopping in 3 weeks! Even though this is a difficult time for our little family, it is also the best time we've had in a while. We are able to see the Lord's hand in the very details of our lives. I feel so incredibly blessed lately. Especially because of this little one. Who couldn't love this face: She also likes to distract daddy when he tries to ignore her and do his homework. When she doesn't succeed in getting him to play with her, she'll turn his pages for him as he reads. Too bad he can't read as fast as she can turn the pages! :) Our little Clara is also getting so strong. She loves to push anything that moves, including her high chair. At least she's entertained with small and simple things! The last thing we've been blessed with this week is that my mother sent a lot of figurines to complete our Nativity. She spent quite a bit of money, using the excuse that it's because I helped her so much with her math. I'm just grateful we have a beautiful non-breakable Nativity that Clara can play with.