Happy 5th Anniversary

I can't believe Jeremy and I have been married for 5 years now! We celebrated by spending the weekend in Salt Lake City. We dropped Clara off at Jeremy's parent's house Thursday after work. We ate P.F. Chang's that night and then were very happy to just relax in our motel room.

On Friday, our actual anniversary, we decided to just enjoy the little shops that downtown Salt Lake had to offer. We found this great little cafe to eat breakfast. It's the longest running restaurant in Utah. It opened in 1919! They decor hasn't changed very much. They still have coat racks attached to every booth and almost all of their chairs have come from Venice. It was fun to read all about it in their menu.

After breakfast, we headed over to temple square and visited Jeremy's sister who works there. She always acts so excited to see us. She's pretty busy, so we don't get to visit for very long, but I love getting to say hi to Melissa when I'm at Temple Square.

We spent our entire afternoon looking at all the little shops. We found a Scottish shop that Jeremy loved. I'm so glad that he loves his Scottish heritage.

Friday night we had tickets to the Jazz game. Our seats were almost at the very top. I have a HUGE fear of heights, but usually stadiums don't bother me. For some reason, I had a hard time with this one! Even sitting in my chair made me feel unbalanced. When we had to stand for the National Anthem, I started crying. I was so scared. I felt like the biggest idiot, and of course, Jeremy just laughed at me. I seriously wondered how I was ever going to get back down those stairs to go home. Luckily, I slowly acclimated to the height and right around half time I realized I had relaxed enough to just sit and enjoy the game. I'm happy to report that the Jazz won 108 - 100!

The next morning, Jeremy and I headed to the Draper temple and did some sealings. Then it was time to pick Clara up and head home. As much as I enjoyed being child free all weekend, I was sure excited to see her again. Thanks John and Sharon for watching Clara for us!

Zoo

The last Wednesday of the winter months is free admission day at our local zoo. Some friends of mine and I took our kids to take advantage of this. We had so much fun together.

The first animal we saw was an elephant. Clara kept explaining to me that Elephants have looooong noses called a trunk.The giraffe's were Clara's favorite animals that we saw. For days she kept telling me how giraffes have long necks, long tails that are black and white, and they eat trees. She would laugh when she said that they eat trees and then say, "That is so silly." I'm not sure if you can see it or not, but in the picture is an upside down pine tree. Those giraffes kept eating all the needles.Clara got to ride on a carousel. She and her friend were very excited to ride it, until it started moving. Then they were both pretty freaked out. At one point both were crying, but as you can tell, they eventually just sat and stared. The funny thing is that when the ride was over, Clara cried and cried because she didn't want to get off.One of the friends who came with us has a name that starts with J and he stood in front of the juvenile gorilla. Clara then wanted to stand next to one. But when she got up there, she was very disappointed that there wasn't a gorilla with a C for Clara. So she picked to stand next to the baby one.We ended our trip to the zoo by playing by this big elephant. Clara was so thrilled to play with a "toy elephant." Sure glad I didn't have to bring that toy home!Funny Clara moments:

• Clara and I were riding in a car with her friend Taylor and his mom. Taylor roared like a lion and Clara responded by saying: "Taylor's crazy just like my Daddy."
• Clara was helping me clean the bathtub. I keep sponges on a high shelf above our toilet. I needed to grab one and couldn't quite reach, so I stood on the toilet and got it. Clara then said, "That's a good idea to use the toilet as a stool." Thanks for your approval kid!

ummmmm

I have a goal to post every week, but nothing too significant happened this week.

My brother-in-law is trying to become a Utah certified paramedic. He brought my sister to Salt Lake today to start applying for things. So I met up with them in Salt Lake for lunch. Jeremy even got to come! I even brought our camera so that I could take a picture and not have a pictureless post, but I forgot to actually take a picture..... Oh well.

Clara was sick on Saturday, so Jeremy and I didn't even gate a date night this week to post about.

So here is a post to let you know that we are alive and well and had a completely normal week.

The Hunger Games

I've been engrossed in reading The Hunger Games series. I started it last Monday and had all 3 books finished by Friday morning. I neglected way too much this week, but I'm grateful I started reading them when all 3 books were done so I didn't have to wait to see how it ended. I have to admit that I don't do well with violence. I heard these books were a little violent, but after reading the first one, I thought: "That wasn't so bad." The violence got worse with each book, but by then I was hooked. I'm grateful that I have a husband who is willing to let me cuddle up to him in the middle of the night when I would wake up from my nightmares. :) But over all, the series was good enough for me to be engrossed in every page of all 3 books!

Clara gave her first talk in Primary yesterday. She did such a good job and I was so proud of her for not being scared at all. Clara was so excited to get to talk into the microphone in primary that at 10 am, she wanted to go to church right then. We don't have church until 1, so it was a very long morning trying to keep her patient while we waited for church to start. I put more information on my picture blog, so click here for her talk and a picture.

More funny sayings. (I might make this a weekly thing because Clara is constantly making us laugh.)

• Clara loves to "read" things. A few days ago, the shampoo bottle fell off the side of our tub as she was running to wash her hands after she went to the bathroom. After it fell, she said, "Oh no. I'm sorry." I told her that it was ok, just pick it up and put it away. As she picked it up, she said, "This says, 'This makes your hair smell good, with liberty and justice, amen.'"
• I was wearing a shirt that just has words on it. She came up and read: "This shirt needs to go to Chuck E Cheese." She then instructed me that I needed to either take the shirt off or go to Chuck E Cheese.
• Clara saw me curling my hair for church yesterday and wanted me to curl her hair. After her hair was done, she proudly announced that she was curly Shirley. (I have no idea where she has heard that - definitely not from me.) The entire rest of the day, anything she played with was curly Shirley just like her - including a belt!
  

Potty Training Reward

We were finally able to take Clara to Chuck E Cheese this week as a potty training reward. We tried to take her last week, but our car was iced in. There was seriously no moving it. I felt so bad for Clara. She was so excited to go and was even buckled in her car seat waiting patiently for Jeremy and I to get the car unstuck. When all our efforts failed, we had to have her go back inside. Luckily, she was understanding.

So we finally went last Monday. Jeremy had that day off for New Years. Most everyone else was back to work and school that day, so we had the entire place to ourselves until the end. It was great!Here are some funny things that Clara has said this week too:

• I walked out of the bathroom to find Clara eating her new Book of Mormon that I bought that day! When asked what she was doing, she said, "Eating my scriptures."
  "Why are you eating your new scriptures?"
  "Because I'm hungry."
  (trying so hard not to laugh) "Are you supposed to eat books when you are hungry?"
  "No."
  "So why are you eating it?"
  (said as Clara rubs her tummy) "Because it feels good."
• One night at dinner, Clara announced (out of the blue) that she had a family. I asked her who was in her family. She replied that she didn't know. I then told her that Mommy and Daddy are in her family. I asked if she had any brothers and sisters. She said yes and I corrected her by saying something about how brothers and sisters were kids like Clara, and Clara was the only kid in our family. She then said, "I have brothers and sisters in my heart.
• Just before I put Clara down for her nap yesterday, I read her Polar Express (she chose that book.) After about 1/2 an hour, Clara was still not asleep and I heard suspicious noises. When I went in to check on her, I found her like this. When asked what she was doing she said, "I heard Santa's bells and wanted to see them."
• Clara announced, "My teddy bear is sick. He needs to take a nap in the living room.""I need to make my teddy feel better. He needs to eat something." So what does she feed him? A pencil! (I also love that this bear is as pink as it gets and Clara insists it's a boy.)
  

Happy New Year!

Jeremy and I brought in the new year by attending Provo City's New Years Eve Celebration. Jeremy designed all the signs and banners that were used, so it was fun to look around at all his hard work. (We also got to get in free!) Here are some of the signs he designed:There were lots of things for little kids to do, but there were also long lines to be able to do them. Clara loved dancing to the live bands while we waited in all the lines. She also got all the kids around her to join in.I loved how everything was free once you got inside. Clara got a flower balloon.She got to ride a train twice (and would have gone again and again if we had let her.)They had a photo booth there with things you could use to dress up for your pictures. Clara loved the crown! Jeremy loved that the pictures had his design at the bottom of each set.Since we were in the mall, Clara went and sat on all the kiddie rides that are normally there. She refused to leave those. But at least there were always benches nearby so Jeremy and I could sit down!We ended our time at the mall by watching fireworks. This was the first time Clara hasn't been scared to death of fireworks. It was so fun watching her clap and cheer for each one.The new year has brought on a new class for Clara in our church. We explained to Clara that she would no longer be in nursery at church. We explained that because she was a big girl, she got to be in Primary. She was so excited to go. She kept asking me all morning when she got to go to Primary. Our ward meets at 1, so it was a very long wait for her. She was so excited when she came home with her crown.Also with the new year, I've decided to try something new. A friend of mine encouraged her blog readers to do something called project 365. It's where you take a picture every day and do a journal of pictures for each day of the year. It seems like a daunting task to me, so I'm not sure how well I'll do. But I also think it would be so much fun to do and be a great journal (as long as I can keep up on it.) For those who are interested in looking at that blog, the web-address is: http://sarahspictureblog2011.blogspot.com/ Wish me luck!