moving

i am never moving again. amber's mom and dad may not be too excited about the news, but i think it's in my best interest. :)
long story short, i have not taken the traditional path to finish college. i began nearly 8 years ago with no idea what i was doing or what i wanted to be. in those 8 years there have been many, many detours, obstacles, and a couple breaks along the way. so, while i have been attending school for what seems like forever, i still find myself forever away from finishing. and with my weird work schedule, i can only manage to go to school part-time at the moment. this is a problem.

i'm no longer on my own. i now have a pair of beautiful women in my life who deserve the world. i can't give that to them right now. i need to get graduated and get a grown-up job. to do this, full-time work and part-time school need to switch places, but this would leave us in a financial bind. so we weighed our options. one option that presented itself was moving in with amber's parents who live just 10 minutes away. we definitely had our reservations.

but it definitely made the most sense. so we talked with amber's parents and they welcomed us with open arms, as we knew our loving parents would (but i fear they have no idea what they're getting into - claire is going to ruin their peaceful retirement years. :) ) so the fun began.

we gave our month notice to our landlords and tried to make it a nice and slow, stressless move, taking the occasional box over in our free time. but that month flew by much quicker than expected, and we found ourselves with far too much to do with not enough time to do it. but thanks to friends and family, we got it done with a few days to get some mad cleaning in. i like to think amber and i are pretty clean people in general, but it's scary to see how much you miss and don't notice over the years. i just hope we get SOME of our deposit back. :)

so our game plan was to get everything from our old apartment into the new place, throw it all in the corner, and organize it once we were done cleaning the old place. i don't know if that was the most logical method, but i find myself loving it. it's like Christmas to me. yeah, opening presents is fun and all, but one of my favorite parts is figuring out where everything goes. i'm kind of an ocd nerd that way. but as much fun as it is, it's a lot of work, and we still have a lot to do.

a part of me feels like a failure. 30 years old and living in my in-laws basement - every man's dream. but this seems like the wisest choice at the moment. and it'll only be for a few years - amber's parents are going on a mission, so we'll be house-sitting for them and i should be done with school by the time they get back. and it really is a nice set-up. a private entrance, two bedrooms, a nice big front room, a ping-pong/pool table, and a way nice whirlpool tub. :) plus amber's parents are right upstairs, which means we can play games with mom, we get family sunday dinners, and we get the occasional babysitter (which i worry we'll abuse too much - sorry mom. :) ) we will definitely miss our first place together as a family, but we are excited for this new phase of our life. wish us luck.

september 11, 2001

has it really been ten years?
ten years ago today i was serving a mission for my church in new york city. we and a hundred or so of my fellow missionaries were in queens for a meeting on this day. a friend had walked in and told us that a plane had just crashed into one of the twin towers. then news of the pentagon being hit had spread around amongst us all. i thought it was a joke. the way it spread, i was sure it was going to be some lesson on gossip from our mission president, so i actually started to tell people the eiffel tower had been hit too. i was wrong. it wasn't a joke.
we ran outside and beheld two of the tallest buildings in the world on fire. the smoke poured out across the sky. it didn't seem real. later we tried to drive down closer to the scene, but new york was shut down.

new york changed that day. what was once a wild and crazy city became serene and somber. i remember thinking in the weeks following how quiet it had become. while we continued to spread the message of our savior Jesus Christ, we found that the hearts of the people were softened. tragedies such as these are always horrible, but the Lord always finds a way to bring about good from them.
it's unfortunate how quickly we forget sometimes and just return to our normal lives. i suppose that is why the Savior constantly asks us to "remember" countless times throughout the scriptures. i know i'll never forget.
i unfortunately cannot nearly express how i truly feel, but today i heard the words of president thomas s. monson, and found them to put perfectly into words how i feel in my heart.

"The calamity of September 11th, 2001 has cast a long shadow. Ten years later, many of us are still haunted by its terrible tragedy of lost lives and broken hearts. It is an episode of anguish that has become a defining moment in the history of the American nation and the world.

There was, as many have noted, a remarkable surge of faith following the tragedy. People across the United States rediscovered the need for God and turned to Him for solace and understanding. Comfortable times were shattered. We felt the great unsteadiness of life and reached for the great steadiness of our Father in Heaven. And, as ever, we found it. Americans of all faiths came together in a remarkable way.

Sadly, it seems that much of that renewal of faith has waned in the years that have followed. Healing has come with time, but so has indifference. We forget how vulnerable and sorrowful we felt. Our sorrow moved us to remember the deep purposes of our lives. The darkness of our despair brought us a moment of enlightenment. But we are forgetful. When the depth of grief has passed, its lessons often pass from our minds and hearts as well.

Our Father’s commitment to us, His children, is unwavering. Indeed He softens the winters of our lives, but He also brightens our summers. Whether it is the best of times or the worst, He is with us. He has promised us that this will never change.

But we are less faithful than He is. By nature we are vain, frail, and foolish. We sometimes neglect God. Sometimes we fail to keep the commandments that He gives us to make us happy. Sometimes we fail to commune with Him in prayer. Sometimes we forget to succor the poor and the downtrodden who are also His children. And our forgetfulness is very much to our detriment.

If there is a spiritual lesson to be learned from our experience of that fateful day, it may be that we owe to God the same faithfulness that He gives to us. We should strive for steadiness, and for a commitment to God that does not ebb and flow with the years or the crises of our lives. It should not require tragedy for us to remember Him, and we should not be compelled to humility before giving Him our faith and trust. We too should be with Him in every season.

The way to be with God in every season is to strive to be near Him every week and each day. We truly “need Him every hour,” not just in hours of devastation. We must speak to Him, listen to Him, and serve Him. If we wish to serve Him, we should serve our fellow men. We will mourn the lives we lose, but we should also fix the lives that can be mended and heal the hearts that may yet be healed.

It is constancy that God would have from us. Tragedies are not merely opportunities to give Him a fleeting thought, or for momentary insight to His plan for our happiness. Destruction allows us to rebuild our lives in the way He teaches us, and to become something different than we were. We can make Him the center of our thoughts and His Son, Jesus Christ, the pattern for our behavior. We may not only find faith in God in our sorrow. We may also become faithful to Him in times of calm."

Mornings and FHE

I love Claire in the mornings. :)

She's usually in our bed by morning. Even if she did have a good night sleeping in her crib, we'll bring her into our bed around 6am when she wakes up and (hopefully) get another hour of sleep at least. She'll cuddle up next to us and sleep a little longer. Then, when she's really awake, she's so cute. She'll look up at me to see if I'm awake or she'll pat daddy's back(or his face) if he's there. She'll sit up and start crawling on top of us. When Scott does work and gets home in the morning, she'll try to slip off the bed and go find him. She's so happy in the mornings and is such a joy! I love her all the time, but mornings with her are so fun! :)

For FHE we sometimes have a hard time of coming up with fun things we can do with a toddler. In our process of packing stuff up though we found some sidewalk chalk that was put away in the back of the closet, so we decided to try them out for our FHE activity.

Claire hasn't quite learned how to use them the right way. She mostly enjoyed taking them out and putting them back into the container, but she did have some fun. :)

August C's

This has been a busy month with Claire's birthday, the family reunion, plus we've started packing up for a move in the near future, but I still found some time to work on my projects. :)

Create: I found some fabric a little while ago that coordinated so perfectly together, I was excited to use it. I used this flirty apron pattern. It was super easy to make and I love how it turned out! Scott does such a good job modeling it, don't you think? :) And with the extra fabric I made a cute little skirt for Claire. I used this tutorial for the skirt. The skirt was also so easy that I'm sure I'll be making more of these for her. :)


Cook: I sorta slacked on this C for the month. I attempted to make sugar cookies one day. I wanted to make those kind that you cut out shapes and frost them for holidays... anyone have a good recipe for those? I did make some boring sugar cookies though, and they were good and gone within a day or two of making them, but they weren't as much fun to make. Next time... :)

Capture: My family put me in charge of taking our family photos at our family reunion and I also took Claire's one year photos. You can check those out on my photoblog. It was my first attempt at positioning a large group of people and I learned a lot from the experience. And I also learned that Claire is getting harder and harder to photograph because she's all over the place now. :)

One Year Facts

Claire just had her one year check up and so I thought I'd do one last stats-and-facts blog. :)

1. Claire is one year old. Crazy how time flies.

2. She weighs 18 lbs 9 ounces and is in the 10th percentile for weight. According to her doctor, we need to feed her more fatty foods. I just need to figure out how to do that while still teaching her healthy eating habits...hmm. :)

3. She is 28 1/2 inches long and in the 45th percentile. A whole inch in 3 months, Go Claire! :)

4. Claire walks everywhere now. She's still a little clumsy and falls a lot which causes a lot of bruises, but she prefers walking to crawling.

5. She has gotten more shy and clingy than she used to be. We try and encourage her to smile and interact with others but it also feels so good when she turns her head into our chest or hugs us a little tighter when strangers are around. :)


6. If in a good mood she will clap, give high fives, give kisses or dance if there is music.

7. She loves the Backyardigans. It's a little kid show with lots of songs and music. It's the only show she'll actually watch and not get bored of quickly and it came in handy on our trip to Colorado. We put it on for her in the car and she was content to sit and just watch it for a good majority of the drive. :)

8. She loves being outside and going on walks. If you put her down to walk herself though she easily gets distracted by rocks and sticks and ants and will try to pick up as much of them as she can.

9. She goes through stages of sleeping well and then not so well... We're trying to break the habit of her sleeping in our bed. :) She's also in the process of going from two naps a day to just one, and the time inbetween her first nap and bedtime is still pretty big so it makes for some fussy evenings sometimes.

10. She's eating almost everything now and we've had no major allergic reactions. She doesn't like eggs or peaches but she loves most everything else. Especially ice cream and anything else with sugar. She already has a sweet tooth like her parents. :)

McClellan Reunion 2011

Last Wednesday we left for Colorado Springs to attend the McClellan family reunion. Being a little worried about how Claire would handle the road trip, we decided to put her in her first forward-facing car seat. It took a little while for her to get used to it, but by the end of our trip I think she loved it. She was being silly at one point and having fun putting everything on her head. :)

We were also worried about how long of a trip it would be, so we stopped half way to break up the trip. We stayed at a hotel and went swimming that evening. Claire loved swimming and she loved the hotel bed... too bad she didn't love actually sleeping in it. :)

Thursday was mostly spent driving and waiting for all the family to arrive. We stayed at my sister April's house. Most of the family camped out in the backyard, but we were lucky and got a room inside. Thanks April! Claire was a little shy at times, but enjoyed playing with all the new toys around her. :)

Friday morning we played a family game of ultimate frisbee. My mom was kind enough to watch Claire for us so both Scott and I could play. I used to be so much better at the game, so it's sad to see how slow I've gotten in just a short while. It was still fun though, and Scott enjoyed using his height advantage over my sister Heidi (who is super good at ultimate). :)

That afternoon we all went to the splash pad. The kids all loved it, and most everyone got at least a little wet. My mom even got drenched, but I think that was because some kids pulled her into it. :)

That evening we all gathered around the fire, enjoyed some delicious s'mores, sung some songs, and listened as my dad told us stories about our ancestors. Claire was pretty comfy in her chair. :)

The next day we went on a hike at the Garden of the Gods. We had brought a hiking backpack to carry Claire, but she would not have it. She was only slightly happier with being put in her stroller... (most of the hike was spent carrying her). Silly girl. Scott helped push other baby strollers. :)


That evening April put together a game involving marshmallows. It was kind of a mix of capture the flag, freeze tag and paint-balling, only with marshmallows. It was a lot of fun. :)

After the game we talked to my brother in Taiwan on Skype. :)

Sunday we took family photos before church. Here is everyone who made it. We're missing 2 sisters and my brother and their families, but it was still a pretty big group.

We ended the week with an awesome talent show, and the next morning we were headed home. Claire was absolutely wonderful on the return trip! She took good naps and was pretty chill just sitting back there in her seat. We loved it. All in all, it was a great reunion. We all can be a little crazy when we're together but we had so much fun. We can't wait for next year's reunion! :)

We Have a 1-Year Old!

Last Thursday was Claire's 1st Birthday! The day was a little busy with errands and work so we didn't get to celebrate too much on that day. We did have a mommy/daughter date to Dairy Queen though. She loved that! That night we let her open her presents. She insisted on sitting on the biggest one while doing so. :)

The rest of the weekend she spent playing with her two "big" presents from mom and dad... a Little People playhouse and an elephant riding toy.

Sunday evening we had a little party for her. We were lucky enough to have family and friends celebrate with us. Uncle Kyle and Aunt Courtney hung out with us for the whole day, and then we were joined by Aunt Lia, Uncle Ryan and the Betts cousins, and shortly later by Aunt Becca, Uncle Ken, Aunt Sherry, and all the Bryson cousins. Later, our friends Jake, Katie and their daughter Leah stopped by for a visit.

When everyone had arrived we first decided to open presents. She was a little timid, so mommy had to help. (We wanted to see if she fit inside the gift bag... she did).

Claire got a little upset that we kept taking her toys away from her right after she got them. She got over it pretty quick though once she realized she was getting more. :)

After presents we sang to her and let her blow out her candle. Both mommy and daddy helped her blow out the candle, because she didn't want to get too close to it. :)

We then took the festivities outside to devour the cupcakes.

First mommy had to give Claire a little off her finger so she'd realize how yummy it was.

And then... well the pictures tell the tale. :)

The rest of the party was lots of fun. Everyone ran around and played outside. Daddy got in a cupcake war with cousin Kaylee (luckily he had goggles to protect his eyes). :) And Claire was content to let cousin Tasha carry her around and show her the sights.

Happy Birthday Claire Bear!