Star Struck

Yesterday Clara got to meet a couple of her heroes. Rocky Mountain PBS was doing a kids fair down town and we knew she would be delighted to meet Curious George and Clifford, so we braved the heat (it was only around 80, but it was on asphalt) and fought for parking and made her dreams come true. It was totally worth it!

She was a little hesitant at first

Then Daddy whisked in before George got rushed off to go on stage. We waited in line for about 15 minutes and were the last ones to get a picture before he went on stage.

Then we were off to find the line for Clifford. This line was longer--we waited about 20 minutes--but it was totally worth it.

She was a little shy at first, then she hugged him for probably a minute solid. She loves that dog! All yesterday evening and all day today at random times she would say "hug Clifford" to remind us that she got to hug Clifford.

We ended the afternoon with a trip to our favorite ice cream shop, Bonnie Brae. It is an old-fashioned ice cream shop that makes all their own ice cream. They have "itty-bitty" golf-ball sized cones just for little kids. Nate asked her if she wanted chocolate and she said "No! Pink!" So she got pink. What can I say? She's a girl. (Although I personally would have stuck with the chocolate.)

Blessing Day!

Last Sunday was blessing day for our sweet Gracie. We were lucky enough to have both Grandpas and Uncle Nick visit us for the weekend.

Grace wore the same dress that Clara and I both wore that my Aunt Betty made for me 26+ years ago! I got the bonnet when Clara was a baby. Nate wouldn't let Grace wear the bonnet for the actual blessing because he said it looked ridiculous, but I still had to get a picture of her wearing it.

Nate gave her a beautiful blessing. Grace is such a sweet spirit that we are so lucky to have in our family. We can't imagine our lives without her!

Birthday Girl!

Our little Clara is 2 years old! It's been a fast two years! She was so excited and had been saying "happy bir-day Cara" for days! She was lucky enough to have both her grandpas and Uncle Nick here for her birthday. Here is her big day in pictures for the Grandmas that didn't get to come to the big party.

As soon as Clara woke up we took her out to see her kitchen. Here are a few shots of her getting acquainted with it.

She had her favorite breakfast of Lucky Charms and kept eying all those presents!

Then she got all gussied up in her birthday outfit and played with the kitchen for a bit.

Once Grandpa Rozier and Nick arrived the party began! They all played play-doh together. It was quite an intense sculpting contest.

Nick made a temple/Zion's arch thing

Grandpa made a pair of snakes

Papa made a flower

Daddy made Mickey Mouse

Then it was outside to grill hotdogs and blow bubbles!

This was the first time she got into opening presents and it was so much fun!

She was spoiled with a movie, book, clothes, toys, and the IKEA cooking and baking sets and fruits and veggies to go with her kitchen!

I contemplated making her a cute butterfly or Elmo cake, but settled on these instead. They were a little bit of work, but well worth it. I could have eaten the filling by the spoonful! You need to make these. Really. Click on this link and make them now. You won't regret it.

She was so excited about the cake and blowing out the candles and everything. This is such a great age! It was a great day!

Clara's Kitchen

Several months ago Nate and I decided it would be fun to make Clara a play kitchen. Nate loves a good project and an excuse to buy and use power tools. So he found a pattern online that looked easy enough and got to work. This was around March and we jokingly said that this would be Clara's birthday present this year. Well, at about 10:30 pm on September 2 (her birthday is the 3rd) the kitchen was finally finished! (In our defense, we took a 3-4 month "break" in there.) It was a lot more of a headache than either one of us anticipated and was definitely a learning experience, but it turned out beautiful! Clara loves it, I love it, and it could not have been a better birthday gift!

Here it is! Don't you just love that paint color? The plans for this come from anawhite.com. If you are unfamiliar with Ana White, she has plans for making just about any kind of wood project. This one was fairly straight forward with great diagrams and directions.

Here is the fridge. It has magnets at the top to keep the doors shut.

And here's the sink. The faucet is a pipe, with wooden knobs from JoAnns, the sink is a bowl and the curtain is the only part of this I can say that I made!

And my favorite part is the stove! The burners are wooden circle/coaster things from Hobby Lobby and the hinge is spring loaded to keep it from falling open on little toes and I love the plexiglass in the door so you can watch your cookies bake. This project may have been a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun! We are already talking about what project we can do next!

One Month Old!

These pictures are of Gracie last week on her one month birthday.

Clara was so pleased to be able to hold the baby "by self" and Grace was nice to tolerate it!

At one month old Grace still sleeps most of the day, naps in her bouncer, eats like a champ, sleeps 4-5 hours in a stretch at night, prefers noise to quiet, only likes her carseat if she is in the car and it is moving, hardly ever cries, loves being swaddled, likes her binkie, gets more rolls all the time, went to her first movie, loves to be around her sister, loves her bouncer, is basically a dream baby! We love you Gracie!