Our Seven Year Old

1. Claire is seven years old!

2. She weighs 48 pounds and is in the 43rd percentile.

3. She is 46 inches tall and is in the 19th percentile for height.

4. Claire is in the second grade and is reading more and more. She is reading the Harry Potter books with her dad. She likes getting the Never Girls books from the library and reads them herself. She most recently has been getting into the Magic Tree House books. She gets them from her school library and likes to read before going to sleep.

5. Claire is in the process of learning how to ride a bike. She's almost got it, but still struggles a little with the balancing part. Scott has been trying a new method by wrapping a large beach towel around her waist and while she rides, he holds onto the ends of the towel so he can correct her balance slightly without actually touching her. I think it's helping.

6. Her most recent accomplishment is being able to swing on the swings herself and not have to be pushed. She was so happy and excited to show us how high she could swing herself. :)

7. Claire is a very caring sister. She has an obvious affection for her brothers. Everett and her get along really well and play together most of the time. And she's always acting like a second mommy to Seth. She's super patient with him and helps him whenever she can. She's excited for another baby brother to come soon and keeps talking about getting to hold him. I love seeing her excitement.

8. I think she's a little OCD like her daddy. She loves to make charts and lists to keep herself organized and to organize their pretend playing. She also went through a phase when she was writing in a journal just like her mommy almost every night. She chose to write on her own, and I'm sure would still be doing it if school and other interests didn't get in the way. :)

9. Claire loves art. It's her favorite subject at school. She's always loved coloring and drawing pictures, but she also loves making things and being crafty. We've gotten her beads that she's enjoyed making necklaces and bracelets out of and she loves decorating things with glitter and stickers. And we very often find piles of scrap pieces of paper around the house because she loves cutting up little snowflakes and hearts and the such. :)

10. Some of Claire's favorites this year include- song: Gethsemane, show/movie: Moana, food: spaghetti, dessert: cake, activity: coloring, color: aqua, holiday: Christmas, day of the week: Saturday, animal: draco lizard, book: Harry Potter, drink: root beer, game: Harry Potter trivia board game, toy: Rainbow (stuffed elephant)

Claire's 7th Birthday

Claire turned 7! She chose cinnamon rolls for breakfast and her favorite - spaghetti, bread sticks, and watermelon for dinner. For her birthday "activity" we had gone swimming at the Provo Rec Center the day before. Some of her cousins were able to come and swim with her and we all had a blast. She's been reading the Harry Potter books with daddy and wanted to watch the first movie that evening. She opened presents which included a flip sequin shirt she asked for (that we went through great lengths to find) and a little pet hedgehog that she really wanted. Since we were having family come over the next day, we were waiting to have her birthday cake til then. But we still sang to her and celebrated with small birthday milkshakes the day of. I think she was pretty happy with her special day.

The next day we made Claire's birthday cake. She wanted a "sky" cake. And since we were making two for all the family coming to celebrate with her, one was the sky and one was the sun. She had fun decorating them though with clouds, birds, and a rainbow. Claire was invited to multiple birthday parties over the school year and asked to have her own birthday party this year. I'm not great at planning parties, but we did invite both our families over and she had a lot of fun playing with cousins, eating cake and opening presents. Scott even set up the projector so the kids could watch a movie while the adults talked. It was a fun evening.

Pioneer Day

We didn't really celebrate Pioneer Day like we normally do every year. It was a pretty normal day until the Dawes showed up. Kids played upstairs with them most of the day. Then that evening we heard they were shooting fireworks at the mall just a few blocks away from us, so we invited cousins and left early to get a spot. We hung out outside and ate cookies for FHE dessert, we played with cousins, music played, and then we watched the fireworks. It didn't start as late as our usual firework show in Spanish Fork and traffic wasn't nearly as bad, it was a pretty good experience that we'd love to repeat in the future. :)

Claire's Teeth

Claire started losing teeth during her Kindergarten year. She had lost her two front teeth for quite a while, but the adult teeth weren't growing in, so she had an adorable gap for quite awhile. At her latest dentist appointment they told us we needed to make that gap larger so that the adult teeth could come in. They ended up extracting two on top and also two on bottom to make room for adult teeth. They told us they'll probably need to extract more next visit. She did very well with the procedure and we had to feed her a lot of yogurt and applesauce and ice cream for a little while which she did not mind at all. :)

Movie in the Park

We got free tickets from our ward to go see a movie in the park at the Scera theatre. So we gathered blankets and treats, got pajamas on kids and settled down on the hill to wait for sunset. The movie was "Moana", which kids have already seen but loved it enough that watching it again, experiencing it outside, past their bedtime was so exciting and so cool. I think they all loved it, even though the boys both fell asleep during. :)

fourth fun

our family fun continued the next day as we all caught the train and made the trip up to salt lake. i love trains. we had lunch up there and then made the tour of temple square with the mandatory Christus photo.

we headed home then were back to the fun early the next day, which was independence day! we headed down to my brother ken's house for the day. the highlight of the day (even more so than the fireworks) was me winning our epic ladder-ball tournament. it was the greatest win in the history of sports. :) the kids spent the day playing with their cousins and eating lots of yummy food. we made some s'mores then headed to the park to light off some fireworks. it was magical. we sadly had to say our goodbyes to my family before heading home. it was a wonderful week and it was so good to spend time with family. can't wait til next time!

weekend with the brysons

it's getting harder and harder to get the family together, but thankfully big events keep happening so we are forced to make it happen. this event was a combination of a nephew's endowment, a sister's sealing, and a niece's baby blessing. friday we made the hour trip up north to bountiful to meet with family coming from all over, including the parents from texas. we dropped the kids off to be babysat by cousins and headed to the bountiful temple. my nephew sam, along with my brother-in-law mat were both taking their endowments out. i couldn't help but think about my first time and how strange it all seemed. but as the years have passed, i have been struck time and time again by the powerful symbolism of the temple and the love our Heavenly Father and Savior have for us. it was a beautiful moment to be surrounded by family in the temple of the Lord.

we headed to the hotel to get some sleep. the next morning, the bryson boys headed off to play some football for a few hours before getting back for the sealing that afternoon. in all the rush, i ended up forgetting my recommend in the hotel. unfortunately we didn't realize this til we were standing at the front desk. thankfully the temple workers went in the back and were able to contact someone (or i just have a very trusting face) and they came back out and said we were good to go in. we rushed in and barely made it. my sister mandie was then sealed to her husband mat for all time and eternity. they then were able to be sealed to their newest baby. afterwards amber did her thing and took some beautiful family pictures outside the temple for my sis and new bro. from there we picked up the kids and all headed out to eat and enjoyed some yummy food together. 

the next day we had to pack our things and make it up north to ogden for 9:00 church. it was a rush, but we made it just in time. my brother kyle then blessed the newest addition to our family, his beautiful baby girl. from there we headed to kyle and courtney's house for some good food and some more picture taking. after playing for a while, we headed over to my aunt's house for dinner before having to say goodbye for the night and head home. we love these moments so much and are so grateful to be making such sweet memories. family really is everything. well the fun times continued, but in another blog.