Clara at 15 months

This adorable baby is quickly becoming a toddler. Clara just hit her 15 month mark and is changing so much too quickly. 

She says "Mama" oh, about 1000 times a day. It's her get what she wants word. She just started saying/singing "Abby". 

She is such a copy cat! Dancing, singing, or crying.

She loves to go outside. She will stand at the sliding door and bang on it.

She has started to come to us, take our hand, and guide us to play with her or let her outside.

She is starting to transition from 2 naps down to one.

She is petite.  She only weighs 20lbs. She isn't a big eater but loves her milk.

Dan works from home sometimes and gets to play ring-around-the-rosie with Clara while on a conference call.

The next picture is at the pediatrician's office at her 1 year well visit (only she was 14months). She is in the fun stage of tantrums, arched back or limp body. I just let her do her thing.

She is a climber. Big time. She climbs up the ladder on our playset. She climbs on the oven.
Here's what happens when I don't let her climb:

She is finally getting lots of teeth, all at once. She is going from a 2 toothed baby (on the bottom) to 5 plus. She is getting the top two and one more on the bottom. The pediatrician also noticed some back teeth getting ready to come. Poor girl.

Aches and Pains

Today, I was reminded of how much our Heavenly Father loves us.

Abby and Clara are sick. After a week on antibiotics Clara's double ear infection wasn't getting better and she has a croup cough. We headed back into the pediatrician's office where I had to hold her head down on the table for the doctor to look in her ears again. She screamed in pain and I comforted her as best I could. Then it was Abby's turn. She has been wheezing and I was concerned about her oxygen levels. The doctor immediately started a nebulizer treatment for her. With Clara's head on my shoulder I held onto Abby's right hand for five minutes while she wore her purple medicine filled mask. I am grateful for modern day medicine! Abby is now on Albuterol.

Later that same day I held onto Tess's hand as she cried at her orthodontist appointment. She had spacers put in on her top back teeth to prepare for the expander in a couple weeks. All my experience of being in her shoes made it hard not to cry with her. I held her hand talked her through it.

As I was driving home I felt emotionally drained. I had the thought, Heavenly Father, I hate watching my babies in pain, it is really hard! And immediately I though about the Atonement. It was like Heavenly Father was saying, Yeah Becky, Tell me about it!

I felt closer to Heavenly Father and my Savior. And so much gratitude.

Abby's First Day of Pre-K

 Abby has been counting down the days to starting school for 3 weeks. Literally. We made her a paper chain to count down to today. After picking up her new school bag at the open house last Friday we had to decorate it the moment we got home. I love that she picked out a rock'n guitar, "i love sparkles", and "Mrs. Sunshine" amidst all the hearts and flowers. Totally fits her personality. She has Mrs. Herbert and Mrs. Dolly this year, same teachers Tess had when she was 4. This year the hours will be longer allowing her to eat lunch at school, which is so exciting to her. She'll be gone M/W/F from 9-1pm.

Last night Dan and I enjoyed laying in bed with Abby talking about what was going to happen today. She told us about her friends, being line leader, snack time, lunch time, and on and on. It was so cute.

She was super excited. Can you tell?

 And off to play.

Dan's Birthday

Abby enjoyed calling Dan "birthday-boy" all day.

For the birthday boy:  breakfast in bed, a family walk in the woods, a yummy grilled dinner, ice cream pie, and a day of hiking with me in a couple of weeks. (I tried to plan a party for Dan but he preferred my second option, a day hiking with me.)

 Being the awesome Dad that he is, Dan set up the tent in the yard and camped out with the kids on his birthday. They had a great time and I slept like a baby. Inside. In my bed.

As Abby and I were talking last night about her first day of preschool she said something that cracked me up. Out of the blue she told me, "I'm sad Daddy is 93 now, cause he can't jump on the trampoline with me anymore." He's too old. Baw-ha-ha!

Love you more than chocolate Rice Krispy Treats Dan. Happy 39!

Grandma's and the Beach

It has been about a year since we've seen Grandma Great so with a holiday weekend and the kids having an extra day off of school we made a trip down South.

We left Saturday around 9am. The kids did surprisingly great. We put the 8th seat in so Clara had someone to entertain her most of the time. On our drive down I texted Hollie and told her to pack her bags and meet us in SC. Great minds think a like, she was already there. So we got to enjoy the company of Hollie, Cris, and baby Xan all weekend too.

We spent Sunday at Grandma and Grandpa Larry. Larry introduced us to his honey butter biscuits,  a special secret recipe. He also took me for a ride on his motorcycle. So fun. I totally get it now.
We enjoyed the morning swiming in their pool before heading to Sheley's BBQ where we met up with Grandma Riley. We ate ourselves sick!

Playing at Grandma Riley's (we enjoyed her traditional Root-beer Floats)

We drove to Blythewood and spent the night with Grandma Great. The next morning the kids fished in Uncle Harold's pond and drove the golf cart for hours! This was the first time Jake got to drive all by himself. He loved it. Couldn't get enough of it. Actually he told me he wants a golf cart for Christmas.

Cook'n in the kitchen. Love these ladies.

It was a really quick trip. Too quick. Everyone was complaining as we drove out of Grandma Great's driveway. Thanksgiving we want to spend 4-5 days with our Grandma's.

At 2pm we left to drive to the Outer Banks.  Some friends from our new ward, the Rohns, invited us to stay at the beach house they rented for the week. We could only stay for one full day but we made the most of every minute.  The home they rented had 8 rooms, an elevator going through the 3 floors, a game room, big kitchen/eating area, a pool with a kiddie area, and a hot tub. AWESOME! Dan and I had a king size bed and our own bathroom. Then the kids had a king size bed and a bathroom right next to us. 

Here's the not so fun part of our beach stay. We drove in at 11pm and were in bed as quickly as possible. We had the pack'n play set up at the end of our bed and decided to put Abby on the floor beside us. As I cuddled up to Dan on our comfy king size bed I had the thought, oh this is so nice! a comfy bed and a really nice place right on the beach....Dan and I slept all of about 20 minutes when Abby started to cry. Dan took her to the bathroom to get a drink and realized she was covered with red bites. We put her in between us in bed but she was so uncomfortable itching she couldn't sleep. So, at 1am Dan drove around until he found a drug store to buy Benadryl and itching cream. We think there were fleas on the floor. Poor girl. So the next two nights Dan and I got to sleep on a big king size bed with a 4 year old kicking us, hitting us and hogging all the bed all night long. To top it all off, the second night Clara woke with a fever. Poor girl. Poor Dan headed back out to get infant motrin. (I had packed it but we used it up when Jake had a head ache.) Vacation with kids. Not really a vacation, ever. But still fun.

Now on to our fantastic day on the beach...

Lots of playing in the sand.

Jake was on the boogie board the entire time. 

 That's me, riding the waves with Jake. So fun!

We spent hours in the ocean and then headed to the pool.

Then back out to the beach. Collecting shells and eating donuts.

We spent all day Wednesday on the beach. Than after hours of beach fun on Thursday we had to head back home. We ate lunch at a fun sea food place on our drive out.