yuletide greetings!

memory made

amber and i felt brave the other day so we thought we'd do something we've never done before - we took claire to her first movie. :) one of our new favorite songs around here is 'let it go' from the new disney princess movie 'frozen'. we've been hearing that song a lot lately, so much that even claire has it stuck in her head and is singing it quite loudly to herself during her quiet time. over and over again. :) so we decided that this would be the perfect movie to take claire to. we got heidi to babysit everett so that amber and i could take claire for a little date. we got her a soda and some nacho chips and she was set. she was pretty excited the whole time, and was just wonderful throughout the movie. she'd make these little comments for the whole theater to hear like "that's her sister", "that camel is sad", and (our favorite) "she needs to find her boy". it made us laugh pretty good. we'll have to take her to more movies. :)

thanksgiving and things...

i've always been really opposed to doing anything Christmasy before thanksgiving has come and gone. thanksgiving is a pretty darn good holiday that deserves some respect. it's almost the perfect holiday because it features a trifecta of joy: family, food, and of course, football. but this year thanksgiving came so late in the month, and we had a cute little girl who was so excited to put up a Christmas tree, so we broke down and put up our tree for family home evening just before thanksgiving.

thanksgiving was a little rough for our family this year. i had to work the night before and the night of the holiday, so i was pretty tired and out of it for most of the day. after i got off work, i headed home to pick up amber and the kids, and then we headed down to spanish fork to spend most of the day with my brother's family. from there, me and my brothers ken and dan headed over to the fields to play some football with some of my friends. after a few hours of painfully being reminded how old i am, we headed back to the house to clean up before i tried to lay down for a nap. amber meanwhile was putting up with a cranky little boy who needed a nap but has never been able to nap anywhere other than his crib and the car. we ate a fabulous dinner, but then had to head home before dessert because everett and his daddy both needed naps.

in spite of the crankiness of daddy and son brought on by sleep deprivation, we did have a lot of fun. we definitely do love our family, eating good food, and i do love my football. we made sure to go buy an apple pie the next day so we could move on to the next holiday because i'm pretty sure it's written in the constitution somewhere that thanksgiving is not officially over until pie has been partaken of. article thirty-one or something. :) well unfortunately, the thanksgiving holiday must have taken it's toll on poor little claire because she spent the next week so sick. it really broke our hearts having to hold her hair back as she threw up every day for a week. it was the worse sickness she's ever had. and it just seemed to go on forever. luckily she is her happy little self again and hopefully we're done with the sick bugs around here for a long time. now we can just enjoy Christmas. :)

Everett's First Haircut

I kept putting it off. I'd always been told that after that first haircut they no longer look like a baby and I wasn't sure I was ready for him to no longer be my baby.

Scott wanted to wait a little longer before cutting it, so I did hold off for a while, but a little after my family all left we decided it was time. So we got our razor out, gave him a sucker, and sat him down on a little stool and got to work. :)

He handled it pretty well at first, but got a little wiggly while trimming the top. It turned out better than I thought it would. There are definitely some uneven places that I missed, but I think he looks so different with short hair. He looks like a little boy now. My little man. :)

McClellan Reunion

My sister Heidi came home from her mission to the Philippines a few weeks ago. That gave us an excuse to have a little family reunion. My parents were home for a week and a couple sisters and their families from out of state came to visit, so with them and all the family already in Utah we had a pretty big group. We took turns visiting at different homes and playing at the park. And one morning all of us girls went out to breakfast. I loved spending the time with my family and enjoyed being able to talk to Heidi about her experiences.

I didn't take very many pictures but here are a couple of cousins playing so nicely together. :)

Sunday morning we managed to get a picture of all of us before church. We are a pretty crazy bunch. Two of my older sisters and my older brother and their families are missing. I would love to someday get a picture of all of us together! I can't imagine how difficult it would be with that large of a group but it would be an awesome picture! :) 

Memory Made

The other day I was talking to Claire about how Everett was her brother and she was his sister. I don't think she fully understood but it made me laugh a little when she responded with,

"I need a girl brother."

I'm not announcing anything, but I do know when the time comes, Claire is hoping for a sister. :)

five years

five years ago i was blessed to marry my best friend. well, five years and three weeks now. i'm a little slacking in getting this blog out. :) unfortunately, we didn't do anything grand and spectacular to celebrate this wonderful day. i wish i could whisk her off to paris or take a caribbean cruise or something special like she deserves for putting up with me this long, but sadly we can't make it happen just yet. maybe at ten years. maybe at fifty. she'll definitely deserve it by then. :)

our anniversary started out with amber making us a wonderful breakfast. we then spent most of the day just hanging out and playing with the kids. that evening we got some babysitters to come over so we could go do something. we went out to eat, then went to the provo rec center to go swimming. i know swimming at a public pool isn't the most romantic thing in the world, but since having the kiddos, it's not something we get to enjoy doing. :) we sat in the hot tub for as long as we could handle, then went and shot some hoops. we headed home to have our traditional anniversary cheese cake, sent our babysitters on their way, and put the kids to bed.

i then busted out my one surprise for the evening. i popped some popcorn, grabbed some blankets and the baby monitor, then told amber to follow me outside. outside she found our car parked in the driveway with a cool little projector (thanks mom!) on the dashboard. we had made our own private drive-in theater displaying up on the garage door. it was fun and i hope a little romantic. well, until our car battery died that is. :) we were then forced to move everything inside and project the movie onto our bedroom wall, which was nice too because it was a lot more comfortable.

the next day we set up the projector again for the kids and they loved it. they loved it so much that we've had to do it over and over again. it has been a blast cuddling up in bed all together. i really do love my family, especially that woman i am privileged to call my wife. these have been the absolute happiest five years of my life, and i cannot wait for the next infinity years that i get to spend with amber. more.
and because we don't have pictures of our anniversary, and i believe every blog requires pictures, here's some pictures of our family through the past five years. :)