Christmas

Sorry that I'm posting on Tuesday this week, but we were traveling home from Christmas yesterday.....

First of all, we have been doing a lot of this lately:The first day brought lots of accidents, but unlike the other times I've tried to potty train her, she was so excited to wear underwear and had a great attitude. So I kept at it. There are still lots of accidents, but we have made vast improvements this week. So hopefully in a few more weeks we'll be diaper free!

As we were packing for our trip, I packed all our gifts up that had been placed under our Christmas tree. Clara was so sad. Even after explaining to her that we were taking them with us and would open them at Grandma's house, she insisted they stayed under our tree. She finally gave the OK on packing up the gifts when I told her we would put them under Grandma's tree when we got there!

Thursday morning, we left to Idaho to have Christmas with my Mom, littlest sister, another sister, her husband, and her 5 kids. Clara LOVED baby Kaycee. Every time Clara saw Kaycee, she would ask to hold her. Clara always said, "Baby Kaycee likes me," whenever Kaycee smiled. It was pretty cute.Christmas was so exciting for me this year. Clara is at an age where Christmas is so magical to her. She loves everything about the Christmas season - lights, presents, Santa, stockings, the whole bit. So I couldn't wait for Christmas morning this year. I was not disappointed. Clara loved all her gifts and wanted each one opened immediately. She would play with her latest gift until the next one came along. But her favorite gift was a backpack that we got her. As soon as she saw it she started screaming, "A backpack, a backpack." She kept jumping up and down so much that we couldn't get a decent picture of that excitement. If you look closely, she has the biggest smile behind that new backpack.As much fun as Christmas is, it's great to be back home too. Hopefully everyone had a great Holiday!

First Haircut

I decided to give Clara her first haircut this week. It's been a struggle to comb through it in the mornings due to lots of knots. I've been trying to cut Clara's hair for weeks, but she just cries and says, "Don't cut my hair!" So I got her excited by telling her she got to wear a "Batman" cape. She hopped right up into the chair then. I also put on a movie in our portable DVD player to distract her and help keep her still.

Half way through the hair cut, Clara realized what I was doing. She started crying and said, "Don't cut my hair Mommy." After explaining that since I've already started I would now have to finish, she said, "You are not supposed to cut hair, just paper!" I then had to explain that it was OK for Mommies to cut hair, but not little girls.

When the hair cut was over, I let her run around in her "Batman" cape.Here are the before and after pictures as well. I ended up cutting off about 6 inches.I teach 3-4 year olds at church on Sundays. They always say the funniest things. But last Sunday was one of the funniest things I've ever heard from them. I had one of them start pulling at his underwear as if he had a wedgie. He then kept saying (over and over again,) "I have a candy cane in my bottom." My teaching partner finally took him out of the room to find his mom. Whether or not he actually had one, I'm not sure, but his mom did mention that he likes to sneak candy canes. Thus he must have thought his underwear would be a great hiding place - until it wiggled into a wrong spot.

Lights at Temple Square

Jeremy and I decided to take Clara to see the lights at Temple Square this week. Clara's favorite thing to do this time of year is look at Christmas lights, so we wanted her to see so many all at once. She was in heaven. We didn't get very many pictures of her because she kept running from one thing to the next. That turned out to be quite scary since there were a ton of people at Temple Square doing the same thing we were. But here are our favorites:Some cute sayings of Clara:
1) Yesterday, we walked out side and Clara saw dark clouds. She said, "Where's the rain?" After explaining that it had already rained, she said, "Rain needs to come out of those clouds right now!"
2) While visiting Temple Square, Clara saw some lighted Christmas Trees inside a building that wasn't open. She said, "Let's go in that building." I told her we couldn't because it was locked. "Should we find the key?"
3) We drove past Chuck E. Cheeses on our way home from something else. When Clara saw it she said, "Let's go to Chuck E. Cheeses." I told her that we couldn't do it that day because we needed to get home. "Should we go to Chuck E. Cheeses first and then go home?"
4) One of the things Clara said in her prayer last night: "Thank-you that Daddy can be so silly."
5) Clara came up to me and said, "I want to go to the math store."

Ward Christmas Party

This last Saturday was our ward Christmas party. My expectations of Clara being excited to sit on Santa's lap were not accurate. She's been talking about Santa and gets so excited to see one that I thought for sure she'd be more than happy to sit on his lap. However, she didn't want to do it. There was so much wiggling that the pictures are blurry, but oh well.Clara does love the candy cane she got from Santa though. She doesn't want to eat it, but holds it everywhere she goes. When we ask her where she got it, she tell us the name of the person who last handed it to her. When we remind her that Santa gave it to her she says, "No he didn't!" It makes us laugh. Why do I get such pleasure out of torturing my child this way?

Random Thoughts Thursday

I figured this was pretty random, but funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80entLldZOg