The Bearded Man

So a few weeks ago, Clara took home 4 balloons from a birthday party.  Clara then drew one face on each balloon recreating our family in balloons.  A few days ago, Clara decided to give Joseph his balloon face (without my knowledge.)  She was laughing and asked me to come look.  Clara had used washable markers to draw the face on, so as soon as Joseph's slobber mixed with the face, the result was a blue beard.

(And yes, I did have a discussion with Clara about the dangers of babies playing with balloons.)

So remember how last week I was able to take my kids to the park twice?  Clara and I even ended up getting sunburns last week!  We definitely didn't get any sunburns this week.  This is what we woke up to on Saturday:

My sister gets married a month from today.  All the little girls get to wear matching hair bows, and all the boys (including the adults) get to wear matching ties.  I have spent this last week making those
 hair bows and ties.  I still have a few more ties to sew, but the hair bows are done!  There are three of us making ties, but I got to make all the hair bows!  There are 18 total and they look like this:

You'll have to wait for the wedding to see pics of the ties though because the groom gets to be surprised...

Just another week

Every Monday, we gather as a family and have a little lesson.  Clara overhead Jeremy and I discussing whose turn it was to teach the lesson.  She then asked why she couldn't take a turn.  We decided to let her.  She ran right up stairs into the toy room.  I figured I would help her get a lesson ready when it was closer to the actual time.  But Clara soon emerged from the toy room with the lesson done.  She had put it together all by herself.  Here is her lesson:

The first picture is of Jesus, the Earth, Adam and Eve, and our family.  It's pretty obvious who Jesus is, but there is a backwards number 1 by Adam and Eve since they were the first people on the earth.

Then came the page which told us that Jesus made us.

And last, but not least, a picture story.  It says Adam and Eve were the 1st people who lived on the Earth.

Jeremy and I were both so impressed by her thoughtfulness and willingness to give us a lesson!

It was finally nice enough weather this last week to get out of the house.  I took Clara and Joseph to a nearby park.  I decided to let Joseph swing in the baby swing rather than just have him sit in the stroller.  He neither hated nor loved his first time swinging....

Clara was cutting some paper, when I heard her say, "Oh no!  Oh no!  Mom, come quick, it's an emergency!"  I found her with her thumb cut. 

It was barely bleeding, so it wasn't cut very badly.  So I started to notice her surroundings.  In addition to cutting paper and her thumb, she also cut her hair!  Clara has never done that before and I didn't think she ever would.  Guess I was wrong....

I love how Joseph sleeps with his arms wide open. 

And last but not least, I finally got a good picture of his two teeth.  I also love the huge smile on his face!

Random Things

First of all, here are a few of those family pictures that we took last week.  I think they turned out pretty good!

I walked into my room one day last week to find Clara had sat Joe up, put his toys in front of him, then sat in front of the toys.  Glad they were both happy!

Since Joseph now has teeth, Clara insisted that we buy him a toothbrush and tooth paste.  So glad to discover the actually make 3+ month old of both!  So this is a picture of Joseph's first tooth brushing experience.  Too bad I haven't taken any pictures of his actual teeth yet!

I also get to watch my niece and nephews periodically for the next 3 weeks.  One of my nephews is 6 weeks older than Joe, so it was interesting. At some point, both were crying at once, and even though I was holding both, neither would stop crying.  So I put them down, took pictures, and laughed.

Little Spencer got so tired that he fell asleep on the floor.  (Yes I had tried putting him in a bed, but he would have none of that.  Funny that less than 30 min later, he was like this.)

My kids also go pretty sick this week.  Just bad colds, nothing too terrible.  (I did take Joe in to the dr this morning and she confirmed it's just a cold.)  But Clara decided that Joseph needed to lay with her on my bed while they watched TV.  Joseph tolerated it for about 5 min. 

And last, but not least, the most random thing yet.  Clara has decided that she needs both her hand and her foot to write and draw! :)

Hoover Dam and Ballerina Performance

We got together to take some family pictures this week.  I'll post more when I get the official ones, but I love this one I took with my camera.  It's all of Jeremy's siblings posing by doing a wall sit.  I was impressed!

We were able to make a very quick family trip to Arizona this week.  Clara was so excited to get to sleep in such a big bed at a motel.  In the morning, as we were leaving, Clara said, "Mom, I'm a little sad right now because we have to leave the motel and I love it here." 
On the way home, we decided to stop by the Hoover Dam since we were driving right past it anyway.  Boy were there a lot of tourists for a dam.  But I guess it is a famous one.

I guess if you rub the feet of this statue, it's supposed to bring you good luck.

And this pedestrian bridge was way too high for any of us to have a desire to walk on it.  It made me nervous just looking at it!

On Sunday, Clara decided to put on a ballerina performance for us.  She spent hours making the preparations.  Here are our tickets, flowers to throw at her, and a basket to put the flowers in.  Not pictured was the money she made to give us so that we could buy the ticket.

She even greeted us at the door and then showed us to our seats, which were labeled.

Next came the amazing performance, complete with several bows at the end.

Last was a tea party enjoyed by all.

Thanks for such a fun night Clara!