Playing Catch Up: The Last 3 1/2 Months

I can't believe it's already summer and that in just a few weeks the older kids will be back in school. Where has the time gone? We have been keeping busy! I'm not really prepared to sit and write all about the last 3 1/2 months, so I'm just going to catch up through pictures. That's funner anyway.:)

Speaking of sweet Clara baby, in May, at 7 months, she was blessed in church. Adrian gave her a beautiful blessing. It was a very special day. Doesn't she look like a little angel in her white dress?!

Would you believe that Ben and Nina had to wear jackets on the last day of school?? Crazy. This is the last day of 3rd and 1st grade for these two and Sophie had her last day in middle school. I can't believe in a few short weeks I'm going to have a high schooler (she'll be in 9th grade)! 

Nina had a dance recital. She took both ballet and tap this last year and the recital was very cute. I think her favorite thing, which she told everyone about, was getting a medal from her dance studio after the recital. She was tickled pink about it. I really think she likens it to an Olympic medal.:) This summer she's been doing swimming lessons and has been to 2 little mini poms clinics taught by a sweet teenager in our ward. She loves poms!! She'll be taking ballet and poms lessons this fall.

Here's a couple of Clara at 8 months! She is a sweet girl and this is the month that she got 2 little teeth on the bottom. She really loved sitting and playing with her toys. Every morning she would sit on a blanket and play with toys for quite a while. She still loves her morning play time though she's a lot more mobile now.

Ben had been playing lots of soccer since last time I posted as well as doing swimming lessons. He has decided soccer is his sport and he loves playing goalie. In the swimming lesson pic he is in the right bottom corner and Nina is in the middle with the pink suit. They have both been going to a private swim school with small class sizes and they've been doing great this summer.

Here's some pictures of Sophie this summer. She is much harder to get pictures of. She has been known to quickly leave whenever I get out the camera. This summer Sophie has been doing archery (how I wish I had a picture of her with a bow - she loves archery!) as well as lots of church youth activities like youth conference, hikes, and soon girls camp. I am so grateful for the Young Women program and all the fun things Sophie gets to do with the youth in our ward. It's a wonderful thing. Have I mentioned what an amazing big sister she is?? She is always willing to play with Clara, read Nina stories, and have chats with Ben about books (they both love graphic novels).

And here's some of Clara at 9 months. Oh my cute smoochy baby! Clara is crawling now, a mixture of real crawling and army crawling and it makes her incredibly happy to be more mobile. She has just long enough hair to do a tiny pony tail on top, otherwise her hair sticks straight up. She has pretty awesome hair! She also loves real food. I cut up little pieces of what every we are eating for her now and she loves it. The picture below is her eating macaroni and cheese which has got to be her favorite food so far (I try to give her healthier food most of the time, but we do have Kraft mac and cheese every once in a while for lunch). She doesn't really enjoy picking up slimy food like pieces of banana, she'd rather have me put pieces of banana directly into her mouth, but she makes an exception for slimy mac and cheese. The most wonderful thing this month is that Clara has started sleeping through the night. She will still wake up sometime around 6am for a bottle, but then she is back to sleep till 7 or 8. It's lovely. And she takes regular morning and afternoon naps. Lots of good sleep = happy baby. Yay!

As part of Clara's new mobility we made our den into a playroom. One long trip to Ikea, and some man hours later we had this:

Our happy new playroom. The kids love it. They all love to sit and play with Clara and the baby toys. It's awesome to have a dedicated space for all the toys too. Of course toys end up all over the house, but at the end of the day everything gets put away and I feel at peace in my toy free family room. The older kids have their dedicated game-playing/older-kid-toys zone in the basement - it's not finished but we've put some rugs down, set up couches, a TV, and it's all very cozy. Big shout out to Adrian for his hours of putting together the Ikea flat pack furniture! This is by far Clara's favorite part of the new play room, an improvised ball pit:

Up next: Playing Catch Up Holiday and Summer Outings Edition

Last week was a special time for our family. We traveled to Utah for Clara's adoption finalization and temple sealing. It was a fast trip full of memories and celebration. Many of our extended family in Utah was able to come to the finalization and it was so great to have their support. My brother in law David took some great pictures!

On Friday, Clara was sealed to us in the temple. It was a very special and very spiritual experience for our family.  I am so very grateful for Clara and each member of our eternal family. We are so glad that we were able to share the experience with family and friends. My friend Cami (she is an awesome photographer!) took the beautiful pictures outside the temple. It had been cold, windy, and rainy all morning, but right before we went outside to take pictures it got warmer and sunny. So lovely. After the sealing we had a get together with our family to celebrate. My sister-in-law Dore made a Hawaiian feast of kalua pork, shoyu chicken, and miso salmon. Oh my it was delicious. It was so great to spend time with our family. It was a wonderful day in every way.

Adrian's Birthday, Easter, and 6 Month Old Clara

Happy Easter!! We've had a pretty busy and fun filled weekend. Adrian had a birthday, we had fun Easter Saturday times with Easter baskets, egg hunts, and then a lovely Easter Sunday with new Easter outfits, church, and a yummy Easter feast. Whew. How do you cram all that in 1 weekend along with a soccer game, guys game night, and datenight for Adrian and I? I'm not sure, but it happened and it was fun. And Clara turned 6 months old too!

Clara at 5 Months

Our little sweetie is 5 months old! Clara is a joy. At 5 months she is just starting solid foods though at the moment she only likes bananas. We've tried rice cereal and applesauce, but she is not a fan of either of those yet. She is so close to rolling over. She flings her legs to the side and arches her back - I think rolling will happen any day now. She loves to chew on everything, but most of all her hands and her favorite cloth nubby toy. She just got over a bout of pneumonia which was seriously not fun - lots of nebulizer treatments and a mixture of a steroid and anti-biotic got her over it. After 2 1/2 weeks of fussy sickness we were SO glad to see her happy gummy smile again. She is such a happy baby, quick to smile and laugh. She absolutely loves "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes", though really any song with actions that you can help her do are favorites. She thinks me doing "Popcorn Popping" is hilarious.:) She loves it when I read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to her. She loves to stare at the bright and colorful pictures in that book. She is still waking up at least once a night and sometimes twice. We are really hoping that she will sleep through the night sometime soon. Fingers crossed! Her nicknames are Clara-Beara, Baby Cakes, Cheeks, and Cheeky-Poos (sometimes Adrian calls her Drools - she does a lot of that!). Oh how we love our Clara. She is a bright little light that makes us so happy. We look forward to Clara being sealed to our family in the temple very soon (when she's 6 months old). It will be a such a special day.

Here's Clara not especially enjoying her first bites of rice cereal.

I think she is the most loved baby ever. We save her from being smothered by love frequently.:)

Her favorite cloth nubby toy. Many happy moments are spent chewing on this toy everyday.

Oh my sweet girl, we are so blessed to have you in our family.

Valentine's Day Fun & 4 Month Old Clara

We started off our Valentine's day with our traditional breakfast and treats, though this year we had Krispy Kremes for breakfast instead of monkey bread, but the kids didn't complain. Everyone got a Valentine, books, and chocolates. I love the book tradition so much that this year I got everyone 2 books. I really should never be let loose in Barnes & Noble. Here's the books the kiddos and Adrian got:

How fun it is to buy board books again. And while I'm at it look at these adorable books I bought a little while ago for Clara. Seriously the cutest board books EVER! On the cover of the Pride and Prejudice one Lizzy is wearing a shirt that says "I heart Darcy"! My goodness, they are adorable.

Clara woke up a little bit after breakfast and she got to open her presents too (she didn't get to eat her chocolates, but Adrian enjoyed them:)). As you can see she was still tired. I don't think she's a morning person. Neither am I, that's why I also look half asleep (maybe I should reconsider posting this picture of no-make-up pajamas me, but Clara's grumpy cat face is just too fun not to include).

She got happier with some tickles and swing time. Nina loves entertaining Clara in her swing or at any other time for that matter.

Ben and Nina took these very fun Valentine's boxes to school for their parties. Nina's was kind of like a purse and Ben's was a headless Valentines box - I thought it was very creative.

We had a great Valentine's day and after the kiddos went to bed Adrian and I were able to sneak out (not really sneak, Sophie was babysitting :)) for a late night Japanese steakhouse dinner. It was delicious and it was so nice to have a real date with Adrian.

Just for fun I'm going to throw in a couple of 4 month old pictures of Clara taken earlier in the month. I can't believe she is almost 5 months old now!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 2013

The Death of Romeo and Juliet by John Everett Millais, 1848

I'm going back to the Pre-Raphaelites for my Valentines art piece this year. It's just not Valentine's day for me without the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. I think the Pre-Raphaelites are definitely the art worlds equivalent of Valentine's day - sappy, sweet, romantic, and yes even cliche, but is that wrong?? I say not at all. There is nothing wrong with a little cheesy every now and then... And actually this piece by Millais feels a lot more moody and full of pathos than your typical sweepingly romantic Pre-Raphaelite piece.

How often do you see this particular part of Romeo and Juliet focused on in painting, illustration, or literature? Seriously, this is pretty depressing, after the double suicide, but from an art point of view it's so interesting. Way to go John Everett Millais for taking us to this scene. I feel like I'm looking at a Baroque work of art, and that is a compliment. The colors are dark, the mood is not just melancholy, but painfully sad. The reality is that Romeo and Juliet is a horrible tragedy. So many young lives are cut short in this much beloved play and this painting takes a look at the aftermath. A young man (maybe Balthazar) holds back a crowd of awe-struck onlookers on the right. The group in the middle is focused on the man in yellow holding up Romeo's empty vial of poison as they huddle around the bodies of the young lovers. Juliet's mother and nurse cradle her body as she lays over Romeo. To the left the 2 men comforting each other are Capulet and Montague, the fathers. The Prince stands on the far left ready to give the final verdict/speech of the play. It is such a sobering scene. It puts all the talk of endless love - "eyes look your last, arms take your last embrace"- in perspective as you look at the consequences and those left behind to feel the pain and sorrow of Romeo's and Juliet's final act. I really love that Millais is taking this story and giving us the real feelings and pain behind the words. Much like actually seeing the play acted out. It doesn't seem 1 dimensional at all to me, but fully fleshed out and vibrant in its sadness. I really like this painting - remembering that "sad is happy for deep people".

And on the subject of Romeo and Juliet and Valentine's day - have you seen Warm Bodies?? Oh my, it is such a good movie. I know it's not surprising that I'm going to bat for a zombie movie, but really it's a wonderful take on Romeo and Juliet. There is even a balcony scene. It is awesome and surprisingly sweet. I love R (that's the zombie's name and the girl's name is Julie - see!). Go see it for Valentine's day! Or if you aren't a zombie fan at least get it from Red Box when it comes out - it's worth the dollar.:) Happy V day!