Our fam in a nut shell....a very big nut shell

As I have been talking to more and more family and friends back home the conversation tends to go like this.

So how are you doing?
Me: Great!
What have you been up to?
Me: oh just the usual, nothing to exciting
How's Jon liking school?
Me: he is so busy this semester. I am excited for it to be over.

I realized today that I have had that same conversation WAY too many times. I have decided to give a real update on how we are doing and what we do everyday. I will start with the one that keeps me on my toes...

Claire Bear:
She is officially 2 1/2 years old. She is often seen carrying or trying to carry not one or two babies, but at least 3 babies and a couple stuffed animals, preferably a puppy and a kitty, oh and at least one blanket.

She will frequently be seen trying to escape our house if any door remains unlocked. The other day we got home from shopping and she sneaked out of the garage and walked around the house to the park. Talk about a heart attack--thinking she's inside and then realizing she isn't.

She enjoys dumping out anything she can get her hands on. If she can turn it over it will be dumped out. The nice thing is that, for the most part, she will try to put it back (until she gets the urge to dump it out again). Crayons are the worst. She will be coloring so cute, and then the next thing you know she has dumped the entire box everywhere, followed by cleaning up half of them and then dumping them out again. (Maybe someone could help me understand why that makes me go crazy. As I am typing this I feel like it shouldn't matter, but for some reason it does.)

She loves to climb, jump, run, and Dance. If we leave things on the table and leave her alone you can guarantee that she will be in the middle of the table eating whatever it is we left up there. My favorite thing she does is whenever she wants to get down she will say "dump, dump" (jump) and wants me to catch her after she counts to three.

She LOVES her big sister. Marcella can get her to say or do almost anything. She will follow Marcella around and even picks on her, from time to time. This picture (above) is of Marcella yelling for me to help her because Claire kept body slamming her. They are usually found giggling together and trying to get each other to laugh. (Amie, check out the blanket! Yes she still sleeps with it every night!)


This picture just about sums up Claire. She is mischievous and curious and knows how to push my buttons, but she is so sweet and kind. Whenever anyone is sad she is the first to come and give them a hug or give them lots of pats to help them feel better. She has a smile and laugh that just melts your heart, and her sweet little voice is so adorable. We are glad she is in our little family.

Marcella Bella:
Whenever I think about Marcella I think of this picture...
She is ALWAYS creating something. She loves to color, write, draw, glue, cut, wrap millions of random presents in entirely too much wrapping paper, and more. I love watching her when she is working. You can just see the little wheels in her head turning a million miles a minute. She has created art work for my bedroom (and once everything is finished I will post the completed project).




With all of the little projects Marcella makes everyday I started to get overwhelmed with the mess and the stuff that kept piling up. I really didn't want to stifle or hinder her in anyway, but seriously--you can only hang up so many pictures on the fridge. I thought my basket idea was working out nicely. She has a basket that holds all of her creations. Once the basket is full she has to get rid of somethings to make room for anything new that needs to be placed inside. But as I was trying to figure out how to decorate the girls' bedroom it hit me: I can use their entire wall as a place for her to hang up her art. It turned out so cute. I promise to post a picture soon. I just nailed some ribbon across the wall and then made stripes down the middle. We painted and decorated 30-40 clothes pins that hang on the ribbons to hold the papers and viola--a whole wall to display her art. We both LOVE it. After that project I thought about how I need to encourage her to do more. So I have been giving her guided projects to help decorate our very undecorated house. Here is one way we decorated for Spring...

The butterflies are actually flying all the way around the room. It looks awesome.

Marcella LOVES to be outside. (Even if it is only 6 degrees, which was the temperature in this picture.) She is such an active little girl. She loves to run, jump, ride her bike or scooter (even miles at a time), and play at the playground behind our house. She is getting very excited for the flower seedlings we planted. They'll eventually make their way to the back yard.





She enjoys really good food. The grilled chicken salad above is the first dinner she ever made on her own. I let her decide what we were having and then she made it. (I only grilled the meat.) She loves to cook and helps in the kitchen for almost every meal.

Marcella has a lot of fun playing with Claire, and also enjoys helping her learn words and signs. She has started to read and has been making some great progress. I find her sitting next to Claire reading her a book multiple times every day. She loves to learn and is super excited for kindergarten this fall.




What a sweet girl! She is very obedient and loving. Jon and I both agree that she literally runs whereever she goes, and that someday she will make an awesome long jumper. I am surprised that she hasn't broken her leg yet. She has a zeal for life that spreads to us all. We sure love you, little one.



Kanien (that's me!)
I have been enjoying daylight savings. We basically haven't changed anything except the girls and I actually sleep in in the morning. It has been nice. I have been keeping myself busy with teaching Marcella how to clean, and she is starting to appreciate the value of doing jobs every morning. I've also been spending quite a bit of time teaching Claire how to walk up and down the stairs. It's tough, since she's really quick to lose her balance (but always insists walking is the way to go).
I have started training for a half marathon that I will be running in June. I have 2 great friends that are running with me, and I am actually really excited about running it. My longest run so far has been four miles, and I felt pretty good when it was done.
I have been making some earrings, and also finally found a pattern that will work well for some material I have had for 3 years, and will be starting a quilt sometime soon.
I just planned out some flower beds for our backyard last week, and I am excited to start digging out grass and making it look more enjoyable out there. I'll also be making room for our vegetable garden, which will mainly have tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and squash.
I have really been enjoying Indiana, once I made it through an Indiana February. Everyone I have talked to says Feb is the worst month here, and I add my vote to that as well, it was awful! To top it off, we're coming off the coldest, longest winter here in eight years. I don't mind snow, but feel it goes best with mountains and skiing--two things we have to do without.
All in all I have some great friends and have been having a great time here.

Jon: aka: professor/student

This picture was taken sometime during Christmas break. We went to see Jon's office and stash some goodies in it for him. The building behind him is where is office and most of his classes are. He's been growing a beard in case anyone was wondering, I just haven't taken a picture of him with it. I guess that's next on my to-do list.

Jon has been doing an amazing job at keeping up with school, teaching and not making us feel neglected. He says there is always more he should be doing, and for the most part he is pretty busy, but he is good at just being at home when he is home, and it sure makes us feel loved.

He enjoys teaching and has a great group of students this semester. Next fall he will be teaching two sections and taking classes so I have a feeling we will need to enjoy every minute of this summer break, because life is only going to get busier.

Right now he is taking 3 classes and teaching one section of freshman writing. On top of that he still cooks us amazing meals (mostly on the weekends), keeps a watchful eye on our starts for the garden, and helps teaches the 7-8 year old primary class with me on Sunday.

Life couldn't get any better. Well, Jon could be done with school, but all in due time. We are enjoying Indiana and looking forward to spring (and summer, just not the humidity). We have a bunch of visits from family coming up soon and are really excited to see everyone!


Well, if you actually made it this far you are now in for a treat. A sneak peak into the next video I am going to post. (I would have done it sooner, but I just can't find the camera!)

Love you all and have a fabulous day!