1st Birthday Party

Clara attended her first birthday party Saturday morning. Our neighbor girl turned 4 and invited Clara to her party. There were lots of neighbor kids there. Clara doesn't like crowds, so she played by herself for most of the party. However, when the pink balloons got brought out she had to try them. She got to go fishing for sweedish fish. Her favorite part of the party was the ice cream. Clara doesn't like cake, but she'll devour ice cream.

Relief Society Broadcast

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Relief Society Broadcast in the Conference Center. Jeremy's sister is Sister Julie Beck's secretary. She usually can get good seats because of her connections. But this time she lucked out and got GREAT seats. She didn't know this ahead of time, but they had saved her seats in the "family" section. This is where the families of the general authorities sit. The general authorities come out and visit with their families before the broadcasts start. I was sitting right next to Sister Beck's granddaughter. So even though I didn't get to actually meet Sis. Beck, she was close enough that I could have touched her. Elder Nelson also was visiting with his family who was sitting on the row in front of us. He was about 5 ft away. As I started looking around, I also saw Sister Sheri Dew on the row ahead of me as well. I just took it all in and couldn't believe I was there. As I watched Elder Nelson put his arm around his wife and hug granddaughters, I was overcome with the spirit. It bore witness to me that he truly is an apostle of the Lord. He glowed. I also thought about the sacrifices that the families make. I was so grateful for their sacrifice so that I can be inspired and uplifted by our leaders. That set the tone for the rest of the night. I was so close to the spirit all meeting. It was hard to hold back my tears as I listened to the talks given. For those who missed it, it was a great meeting. It was well worth the drive by myself, finding a parking spot, walking in so early, etc. I almost didn't go due to Jeremy having so much homework. If I just went to our stake center, I could watch Clara for a few more hours for him. But he encouraged me to go, and I am so grateful that he did. It truly was an experience to remember.

New Schedule

Sorry this post is a day late, but yesterday was a jam packed day. I had errands to run, kids to watch and students to tutor. I didn't get home until 8 pm last night. Which was fine because that is when Jeremy got home too. Jeremy started his internship yesterday. He now leaves the house between 7 and 7:30 depending on the morning and doesn't return until close to 8 pm. I miss him! I keep telling myself this is for the greater good and that it is only 13 weeks. It will be over before we know it.

Clara is getting so big. I know I say that on almost every post. But she has recently learned to count. I'm amazed at what she picks up. I didn't really sit down and teach her to count, but one day we were playing a game. I count to 5 on my fingers (and out loud) and she then gives me a high 5 when all my fingers are up. A while ago, after I finished my 5, she said, "six, seven, nine, ten." I was shocked. After she shows interest, I sit down and teach her things. So now she can mostly count to ten. She hasn't gotten it right yet, but she skips different numbers each time, so I know she knows all of them. It's just hard remembering them all. She also knows all her letters, although she can't name them in order. She also has almost all of her colors down: white, black, brown, pink, orange, red, blue, purple, green, and yellow are the ones she does know. She can recognize emotions now. When she sees someone crying she'll say, "sad." She also points out that people are "happy" when they are laughing.

Clara talks all the time too. Every where she goes, she says the objects she sees and names their color. If I'm walking too fast, she'll yell out, "wait, I coming." She loves to learn new words too and will practice saying words all the time. I'm trying desperately to teach her to "use her words" when she throws a tantrum or cries. She expects me to know what is wrong when she starts screaming. Most of the time I do know what is wrong, but since she hasn't told me, I won't do anything about it until she does tell me. It's exhausting work, especially in the middle of the grocery store, but I'm hoping it will help in the long run.

Clara throws MANY tantrums these days. But with all the outburts and tears, there are also many times of happiness. I love how happy Clara can be too. Just as frequently as she throws tantrums, there are also looks of sheer joy on her face. Her eyes just sparkle when she is happy. I love it.

Happy Birthday Jeremy

Today is Jeremy's 30th birthday! I couldn't let such a big year go by without making a public announcement. I just want him to know how much I love him. He does so much for our little family.
We found out yesterday that Jeremy got accepted to work as an intern for Richter 7. One of Jeremy's teachers told him that Richter 7 is the 2nd best advertising agency in Utah. Which means it will look fabulous on his resume when he's trying to find a graphic design job. Since Jeremy's dream job is to work at an ad agency, this is a perfect opportunity for him. I am so excited for him and have included some of the portfolio pieces that got him the internship. There was more than one person applying for the internship, and with Jeremy's crazy schedule, they really had to like what he did to "hire" him. I say "hire" because it is an unpaid internship. On top of his 30 -35 hours a week he'll still have to work at his paid job, he'll be working an additional 10 - 15 hours a week at this unpaid internship. Keep in mind that he also has 3 classes at UVU. So this semester will be a VERY busy one. But luckily it is his last and will graduate in December! Let's just hope he does a good enough job at this internship that Richter 7 will want to hire him when he graduates. (Providing there is an opening at that time.)

So here are his portfolio pieces. They are much better quality than what I have them here, but since I wasn't really sure the best way to convert them for the blog, they lost quality when I turned them into jpegs. But at least you get to see them! (You can click on the pictures to make them larger. That way you can read some of the words that are too small on the blog.)P.S. Richter 7's website is: richter7.com if you want to check out the company.

Sick

We had a busy week this week, but the most significant was the fact that our little Clara was pretty sick. I took this picture of Clara on Friday at 6:30 pm. She had woken up at 11 that day, went back down for a nap at 1:30 and was still sleeping when I took this picture. She woke up around 7 and went to sleep for the night at 9:30. Saturday she was awake more, but still slept a lot. I think she had a sore throat because she said she was hungry, but anytime she would try to eat something, she said "ow" and wouldn't finish it. So she drank a lot Friday and Saturday. I felt so bad for her. She was extremely congested both days and it was hard for her to breathe.
By Sunday she was feeling much better, but we kept her home from church so she wouldn't get the other nursery kids sick. We did decide to take her to a get together though. We had friends in from Texas that we really wanted to see. We all met at Jeremy's brother's house and had a great time. We ate some very yummy spaghetti and visited for quite a while. Thanks Mike and Genevieve for being brave enough to have two 1 year olds eat spaghetti on your carpet! And thanks Mark and Sarah for making the time to visit with all of us!
When we got home from that, Clara was back to her old self. She thinks it's funny to put my long dresses on her head. She was doing that for a while and then started playing her favorite game of "go." She stands with her back against our back door, says "go," then runs through the house to our hall mirror. She stands with her back against the mirror, says "go," then runs to our back door. She repeats this over and over again. You can tell from this picture how much she loves that game.

Libby, MT

For Labor day, we decided to head back to my roots. My grandma and grandpa still live in the house that I grew up in, so we drove 13 hours to Libby, MT to visit them. While we were there, I decided to go through all my stuff that I had in storage. Boy was that walk down memory lane fun! I brought back a ton of "new" toys for Clara to play with. Whenever Addi (the girl I babysit) wanted to play with one of these "new" toys, Clara would try to rip it out of her hands while screaming, "MINE." I'm glad that Clara has such a fond attachment to toys that we didn't have to buy her!

We also went to visit my father's grave. I tried to tell Clara that her Grandpa was there, but she was pretty clueless. She loved the pretty flowers though!And we can't go to Libby without visiting my favorite falls. Clara walked by herself all the way down to the falls. She LOVED getting to walk over all those rocks. She fell quite a bit, but that didn't stop her from wanting to do it her"self." Oh my little independent girl, I love you!