Busy Week

Other than buying a house (as if that wasn't busy enough,) we also had some fun things happen this week. Thanksgiving Point always does $2 Tuesdays for the month of August. So my sister and I took our kids to see the dinosaur museum this week. It was crazy busy (just look at the line to get in,) but the kids had so much fun.Also this week, Jeremy and I were able to go on a double date to see Pirates 4.Clara is becoming quite an artist. She LOVES to paint and draw. She gets frustrated when what she draws doesn't look like she wants it to. She also experiments with mixing colors together and tells me things like, "Did you know that pink and blue make light purple?" all the time.Clara wanted to go outside to play. So I sent her out and a few minutes later she comes back in and wants her rain coat. I told her it wasn't raining so she didn't need it and she then told me that it was going to rain soon. I looked outside and there were quite a few dark clouds, so she was right! She picked our her rain coat and hat and headed back outside. It did end up sprinkling a little while she was out there.

New House

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, which is my usual day to write our weekly post. I was busy getting pre-approved and signing a purchasing contract for a new house! It took hours and hours, but we are now officially under contract! This has all happened pretty fast. We've been "looking" for a couple of months thinking we wouldn't do anything until May(ish.) But on Thursday, when I went to go look at a friend's new house, she showed me the house next door. I thought it looked great and went home to see the other plans for the building company. I fell in love with 2 (my favorite being the floor plan of the house that was already built.) I figured I would book mark them and look at them again in May. Well, Jeremy saw the house as we helped our friends move in and we ended up putting an offer in that night (Saturday.) We were pre-approved and our offer was accepted all yesterday morning. So yesterday afternoon I signed the contract. We are having a few things done to our brand new home before we move in (like getting the basement finished,) so it will be about a month before we move. I'm actually really grateful for that so that I have time to let that all sink in. I'm desperately going to miss our ward. But I'm surprised that I yet to have buyers remorse. I think it helps that Jeremy is so excited when he normally could care less about things like that.

Jeremy got some pictures of the main floor, so for those of you who are curious, enjoy the pics!Coat Closet in Entry WayKitchenPantry (which is Clara's current favorite part of the house. Every time we go see the house, she runs for the pantry and pretends it's her castle.)Oh yeah, and the best part about this house is that it is RIGHT next door to our friends! So we know we already love our neighbors! (Who also happen to have a girl who is 2 months older than Clara!)

Mini McCleve Reunion

Several of Jeremy's cousins who live in Utah got together this week and had a BBQ. It was so much fun to visit with all of them, especially since we didn't get to go to the big reunion in AZ this year.Clara has been doing this to her chair and then saying it's her castle or palace. She gets so mad at me every night when I have her put it away. She's made it everyday this week so far!Clara has been into telling stories lately. She wants me to make up stories and then she makes up one to tell. Usually mine are about princesses and things, so I was a little surprised when she told this one.

In case you can't understand her, this is what she said:
"Once upon a time, Clara went into the woods. And one time a scary witch went to her. Then.... then the ghost came. But it had a lamp and it flied around me and it scared me so much. Somebody turned it off. The end."

Clara wanted to be just like me on Sunday. She wanted to wear her hair like me. She even wanted to wear a necklace and a bracelet like I was too. When she was done looking like me, I thought she looked way too grown up!

• Clara and I were reading a magazine together and there was a picture of a bear. Clara said, "Look at the big dog!" After I explained to her that it was actually a bear, she said, "Did you know that bears are kinda like dogs?"

• Clara wanted me to try on her church shoes. After showing her they wouldn't fit, she said, "You are the big mean lady and I'm Cinderella. See, they fit me perfectly!" A little while later, she wanted me to put her shoes on my hands. After doing so, she said, "You are a beautiful donkey!"

Family Reunion

We had the John Beck Family reunion this week. We had such a fun time getting to visit with family. Clara and her cousins spent a lot of time playing in our tent. I have no idea what was so exciting about it, but every time I turned around they were playing in it again. It made me laugh. These kids also loved taking turns sitting in an inner tube. We had a lot planned while we were out camping. We had treasure hunts, word searches, family history moments, fishing, swimming,a talent show, and games (can you tell it was cold at night.)We even had a campfire and roasted smores. Clara's favorite was putting the entire marshmallow in her mouth to eat it.We had several prairie dog holes through out our campsite that we had to be very careful not to trip on. With that came several sightings of the little critters.And this I just thought was funny. Clara wanted to sit by grandpa and enjoy the view!On Sunday, we had a family dinner with the other side of the family. Clara has the best cousins anyone could ask for. She loves playing with all of them!I was also able to see The Help this last week with some friends. I loved the book and was very worried that the movie would disappoint. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and thought it did a great job of capturing the feeling of the book! So much so that I can't wait to read the book again!

• Clara abruptly woke up from sleeping in the car and said, "I want the giraffe." Since I was slightly confused, I asked her to repeat what she said. Her reply, "I want to buy a giraffe for a pet."

• Clara drew a picture this week with 3 people in a big blue circle. When I asked her what she drew she pointed to the corresponding person in the drawing and said, "This is Clara, she is falling into the sea. This is Daddy, he will catch Clara and save her. This is Mommy, she is scared because Clara is falling into the sea."

• Sunday morning, Clara and I were looking into the mirror together. Clara announced that she had yellow hair, so I asked her what color my hair was. She said, "Brown." So then I asked what color Daddy's hair was. "It's just pokey up hair."