Family Outings

We have had a few events that have kept us pretty busy lately, so this is just the first blog post out of many soon to come...

A few weeks ago, the Betts decided to go miniature golfing during their spring break. They invited us to come with them. Claire enjoyed hitting the ball a little with the putter, but after a couple strokes would just end up picking up the golf ball and dropping it into the hole herself. After dropping the ball she would throw up both arms and yell something that sounded a whole lot like "I did it!. 

Claire loved spending the time with her cousins. :) 

 A week later we went to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. We had heard a lot about this place and it didn't disappoint. We saw otters, penguins, sharks, turtles, fish, and numerous other animals.

  I don't know if Claire realized the otter was right there, but she was excited to see me. :)

Claire seemed really interested at the beginning and was excited to see all the fish, but she let us know when she was done. :)

we can't give it away in the title...

i had some fun ideas for a cute and clever title for this blog but that would have ruined the build up. it's not going to be much of a build up since i'm going to keep this short, but it's still fun to dangle the string in front of your faces and make you all wait just a second longer. :) a couple weeks ago we headed to the ob/gyn for our 20 week ultrasound appointment. this meant, of course, we were finding out whether we would be having a boy or a girl for baby number two. we were pretty excited. well these are a couple pictures of the baby - i think i see the family resemblance. 

and now for the moment you've all been waiting for. claire would like to announce that she will be the proud big sister to a baby brother! it's a boy! we all can't wait to meet the manly stud of a boy that we are sure to have. nfl, here we come.

easter

i would love to write a beautiful and lovely, nice and long detailed description of our wonderful easter holiday, but i must admit that it's finals time and they have me a bit busy, so you get a photo blog today. don't weep too loudly. :)

claire woke up easter sunday to find the easter bunny had left something on her doorstep. this egg began her on a trail of easter eggs throughout the house that eventually led her to her hidden easter basket!

in her basket she got candy, some play-doh, and a monkey with bunny ears. monkeys are kind of her thing at the moment. you have to hear her monkey sound. it's so cute. :)

after church we headed to the park because we wanted to get some pictures of claire in her easter dress. she is so beautiful. when did she grow up and become such a little woman?

the next day, claire got the chance to play with her play-doh. i think we made the mistake of doing this at the table because she seemed to think it was something she could eat. she learned pretty quickly it didn't taste as good as it looked. :)

she got the hang of it though with some help from mommy and soon found herself having a great time.

that evening, for family home evening, we got to color some easter eggs.

claire was pretty unsure why we were coloring eggs, but she found it pretty interesting. i know i often forget why were coloring eggs too. i'm glad i have such a wonderful family that helps remind me of the symbolism behind it all. an egg represents new life, and thanks to our savior Jesus Christ, we will all be blessed with a new life of our own. i am so thankful that my family can be together forever. happy easter everyone!

Pigtails and a New Bed

Remember how I was just saying Claire never lets me do her hair? Well lately she's actually been doing quite well with me trying a couple new things. :) She'll definitely not stay still long enough for me to try any braids or anything, but I can now attempt pigtails! And her hair is getting so much longer, I think they are so cute! They make her look so much older. :)

Speaking of her getting older... we found a cute little twin sized bed on ksl. We bought it for Claire, got her a new mattress and sheets and a pillow, put it all together and Claire absolutely loved it! She immediately wanted up in it, laid down and just stayed there smiling to herself for twenty minutes. :)

She's not sleeping in the bed quite yet, but I wanted to get her used to it before we'd need the crib for the next one. We'll probably start putting her down for naps in it occasionally, but I don't think it will be too difficult to transfer her since she loves it so much. :)

Good Times in Good Weather

A couple weeks ago we had a family get together that included playing some minute-to-win-it games my sister had planned. My mom and niece were the only ones able to stack 3 golf balls on top of each other. :)

During a break between games and dinner, I took some pictures of my sister Lindy's family.

After dinner while cleaning up, Claire and her cousins played together outside and ate their cupcakes. It was a fun day.

Recently for FHE we decided to play a little game of Twister. I don't think Claire quite got the hang of it, but she had a lot of fun imitating us. :)

I just love the look on her face here...

We've been going to the park a lot this last week since it's been so warm! Claire has an interesting way of playing on the playground equipment... (believe it or not, the below picture is of her climbing into the tunnel, not out like you might think).

After playing we took a nice stroll along the trail.

We then got a blanket out and had a little picnic with the snacks we had in our diaper bag.

And then we threw the frisbee around. Claire's gonna be the next Miss Ultimate. :)

Yay for warmer weather! :)

18 Months (plus a little extra)

Well, it's been 6 months and even though I thought the last stats-and-facts blog would be the last, we decided to do another cuz she's changing and growing so much! So here's some more facts about our Claire Bear. :)

1. Claire is a year and a half old now (19 months technically).

2. She weighs 23 lbs 2 ounces and is in the 20th percentile for weight. She was pretty difficult to weigh at this last appointment. She wouldn't sit still on the baby scale and she had a fit when I tried to pick her up and weigh her on the adult scale. She cried much more about being on the scales than she did about getting stuck with needles!

3. She is 32 inches (wow, 4 inches taller than last time!) and is in the 50th percentile for height.

4. She has begun to go to nursery at church. We were really worried about her since she does seem to be a pretty shy girl sometimes and can be pretty clingy at times, but she is doing wonderful. She loves the little table and chairs and likes seeing the other little kids.

5. She is definitely developing her own unique style. She loves necklaces, hats, headbands, and any other accessory she can get her hands on. She also is becoming pretty picky when it comes to what we dress her in. When given the choice, she seems to always pick the pink or purple shirt, or anything with a design on it. Funny.

6. She is also developing her own likes and interests. She loves her teddy bears and baby dolls. She is always wanting to carry them around, push them in her stroller, give them big hugs, have them in bed with her, or even put diapers on them. She is also very fond of dogs, cats, fish, and any other animal she sees in person, on tv, or in her books.

7. She absolutely won't let me do her hair, which is getting so much longer! The only time I can ever really do anything with her hair is when she is strapped in her car seat. We attempted to give her a little trim the other day because her hair is so long up front and is always in her eyes, but she would not let us get anywhere near her with those scissors.

8. She is an outdoorsy little girl. She loves taking walks outside, which seem to take forever because she likes to stop and look at every little thing. She's a curious little girl.

9. Her vocabulary is ever expanding. Some of her new words are "pas" (pacifier), "stuck" (which she uses when she finds herself in a jam, which seems to be a lot of the time), "doggie", "cat", "ba" (bottle), "shh" (which she likes to use when putting her dolls to bed), and many other words. She also is learning to make animal sounds - her elephant sound (along with its ever so cute motion) is hilarious!

10. And because I love to take her picture all the time, Claire has perfected this silly grin while saying "cheeessse!"

The reason I've been such a bum

If you've noticed a lack of blogs written by me lately, I'm blaming this little one here...


I haven't been sick, just completely lacking in energy. I'm hoping that energy is starting to come back though. Baby Bryson #2 is due end of August. :)