Dear Claire,

Tomorrow I will beat you at your own game.

Love, Mom

Date Night

and no I am not talking about this movie...

(wasn't the best movie I have ever seen, but not too bad)

Jon and I actually went on a date on Friday and had a fantastic time. I thought that when we moved out here it would be a long time before I would feel comfortable leaving my kids with people I hardly even knew. Just as everyone told me, I made friends in the ward fast and I have been reaping the rewards. So we hopped on the Vespa and headed to the movie theater.

We saw Inception. Which we would highly recommend seeing, although I am still a little nervous to fall asleep at night who knows what is going on in my dreams....

Other weekend news..

Claire had her first ice cream cone. The verdict....

She loved it.

Just a couple of "peeks" at the projects I have been working on. Hope your weekend was as great as mine.

Help! I can't keep up with a TWO year old!

She is planning her next move.... Watch out Mom, it is going to be good!

Seriously...this morning I was woken out of my peaceful slumber to Claire screaming her guts out. Don't be confused by her normal "screams," which usually just allows me to keep her in her crib until a reasonable hour, when I will calmly get her out and start my day. No. Today, as I was tripping over my feet and bumping into walls in my rush to get to her I thought, oh no, she has learned how to climb out of her crib and has gotten hurt. When I flipped on the light to survey the damage... What to my wondering eye should appear (or should I say hear)? "Haaaaiiii! giggle giggle giggle." Whenever you get Claire up in the morning she will say to Hi to just about anything and it isn't just her normal hi hi. It is a high pitched drawn out HHHHHHHIIIIIIII! that makes you want to say it back. Most of the time it is my favorite thing to hear in the morning, it just makes you smile. But when it is still dark outside.... come on Claire, you are suppose to be sleeping!!!

This would be Claire right now. I was able to get her to hold still long enough so I can remember this moment. I will then proceed to let you know everything she has done in the past 40 minutes. She sat in her high chair for 15 minutes eating her breakfast, which only resulted in her plate being chucked across the room when she was done. So far today is going to be a great one. (if you want, we can chat about the applesauce incident the other day... not such a great day.) When she was eating I kept saying, Kanien you can do this today. You can be one step ahead of this child. You can control your reactions, etc., etc. Gotta love pep talks. After getting her down from her high chair I could see that in her eyes she was saying... watch out Mom you are in for it today. Well here goes nothing: in no particular order this is how Claire has spent her last 25 minutes

* Got into the dishwasher, almost dropped a plate
* Started the dishwasher... TWICE!
*dumped out the bag of junk I just brought in from the car
*pulled all of her toys off the bookshelf
*somehow managed to mess up my tape player/recording, don't ask, but seriously child.
*opened a bunch of DVD's and almost got them out (chalk up one point for me being able to stop her before she scored.)
*Got into the closet, let's just say I am glad I can shut the door
*learned how to open the door to get into the garage.. WHAT???
*Played in the bathroom and under the bathroom sink

and when I sat down to do this post she had just started dumping out every game in the game closet that is within her little reach and is ringing a bell... "ding ding ding, i am the winner!"
You may ask so what were you doing this whole time? Where was the parent? You can admit it if you were feeling a little judgmental, but honestly I am still waking up as I am typing this and I was one step right..... Behind her.

As we speak I can hear her little footprints upstairs, yes she is in my bathroom, do I even want to know what she is doing in there??? What I would like to know is what were you doing @ 6:30 this morning?

Something old into something new

Do you remember this picture? After you get over how young we look and how crazy it is to think it was only 4 years ago, I want you to check out Jon's shirt. I was so excited when we found it. I had everything planned out and I wanted him to wear a shirt just like that, and I actually found one. Only problem, the sleeves shrunk so unless he rolled it up he looked like an 11 year old church boy. (Yes you can picture them right now... the pants are just a little too short and you can see a little more wrist than should really be allowed.) Jump a few years and this little one has been busy lately.

We decided to learn how to make some french bread and although it doesn't have that beautiful crunchy, singing sound, we still enjoy it. This is the one she made. It looked amazing. It was better than mine so we took that one over to the neighbors (baker in the making).

Marcella found this fuzzy guy a few weeks ago. We put him in a jar and decided he was lonely so we found another one. They have been living with us now for 3 weeks. They both have spun a cocoon and we were anxiously waiting for them to come out so we could see what type of Butterfly it was.. Well...


Out he came and it turns out our little pet was a moth. At least it was a pretty one.

After my last post I decided I really needed to buckle down and get on the ball. For about a year now I have been putting things in my bookmark folder. The other day I decided it was time. I needed to start sewing again and instead of saying, "oh I would love to make that," I needed to take some action. FIRST things FIRST.... how can anyone sew in a room like this? Oh wait, before I can even begin cleaning I need this to be taking place....

Don't be fooled. She was the sole reason the above room looked the way it did. Let's just say I had my hands full that day, and I was a bit relieved to put her down for a nap.

After cleaning and then making a few adjustments to a pattern I just went for it. In the end I am so glad I did and I have been stuck in my sewing room ever since. I will show you a few other projects soon, I promise. Hope you enjoy the fashion show....









Recognize this? Do you think it looks better on Jon or Marcella? Hope you all have a fabulous Labor Day.

Lovely

My Mind is going a Mile a Minute and yet when I make it stop so I can organize my thoughts and write things down it becomes BLANK. What in the world! I have a million ideas for each room in my house, Christmas presents, yes Chistmas presents, Birthday gifts, clothes to make for my fam, I can't even count the knitting projects, a million accessories to try my hand at, even down to yummy treats I can bake and eat while I am doing all these things. I just wonder... when am I going to get these out of my head and actually Get going?

Do you ever feel like you are back in English class (nice analogy) and you have been sitting down to write your paper that is due tomorrow for about the hundredth time, and still you have no idea how to start your amazing paper. If you could only get what is out of your head on paper it would be Brilliant. Well, that is how I feel today. Hopefully tomorrow I will obtain brilliancy. Ciao!

Appleton, Wisconsin

This is Jon (even though it says Kanien made this post). I've got an aunt who lives in Wisconsin. We went up to visit her this past week (10 Aug). They live in Appleton, a nice community built around Lawrence University. It's about five and a half hours from Lafayette, depending on traffic. That seems like a pretty long drive, but after multiple 24+ hour drives this summer, it felt pretty short. We spent our time up there playing games, watching SpongeBob, swimming, and playing with their large dog. It was a great little vacation, and we'll probably go back up there for Thanksgiving.


We went to the Special Memories Zoo, a small, one-family operation that was pretty impressive. You can read about the zoo on that web page. Here are some pictures:

They provided strollers for kids. Clarie didn't really like it. In her perfect world, she'd be able to wander around aimlessly for the entire day, dumping out buckets of stuff at random along her path. The stroller also kept her from eating the dirt--another reason to hate it.

Zack pushed her around a lot of the zoo. Wisconsin has had a lot of rain this summer. The zoo was feeling the hurt as much as the farmers. We braved this wet section. I told Zack that his boots would keep the water out, and I was partially right. His feet got wet after a few minutes of this. He loved having Claire and Marcella around. The first day we were there, I couldn't figure out why Claire wasn't falling asleep. A bit later I was informed that Zack couldn't help but go check on her every 10 minutes or so. It was fun to watch him interact and entertain Claire.

Marcella and Claire love petting zoos. Claire is getting braver than she used to be, and Marcella just likes touching dirty animals. This picture has one of Jacqui's only appearances--you can see her crutch off to the left.

For some reason, Marcella, Kanien and I have decided that pigs are Claire's favorite animal. It's probably because she thinks all animals make a pig noise, but she's now got a fair stash of pig books, pig pajamas, and other piggy toys. Perhaps our insistence that she adore pigs is rubbing off, as she chased these guys around for ages.

Marcella with Greg

Zack wanted to pick up all the animals. I saw him holding a rabbit and trying to lift a pig, and he carried this goat around for 10 minutes. This is also our second shot of Jacqui.

Marcella posing

This is the big pig. It reminded me of Porco Rosso, everyone's favorite fighter pig.

I went to scout camp at Lefeber Northwoods Camp with David Ogden when I was 12. There was a toad, snake, or frog under every single leaf in the forest. I caught this toad on the Wright's driveway on our second night. Marcella held him. Then she dropped him. She said, "he got me wet with his liquid," which is pretty much what it did. Toads secrete a predator deterrent from glands on their shoulders.

Jake said he catches these guys all over. I love amphibians.

Claire loved playing with Kenai. Kenai took up permanent residence under her high chair, and Claire secretly ruined the diet Jacqui has him on. (Her foot is broken and she can't walk him, so he only gets 4 dog biscuits a day.<--This is a joke. He really gets 4 cups of food a day.)

Marcella wore her boots everywhere. She and Zack were boot twins. She even wore them swimming.

Another shot of Claire and Kenai. This is a huge dog. He's a Bernese Mountain Dog. He's a small specimen--110 pounds. He scared the crap out of me the first morning we were there. I imagined I'd have to spend the three days there sitting on the couch, but later learned he just doesn't trust men very much. Once he got used to me, though, he stopped biting and started sitting on my feet. He knew that I was a wuss, which effectively placed me on the bottom rung of the dog command hierarchy. Even Marcella could get him to sit, but not me.

Fun family picture (with the monster)

Marcella in boots

McKenzie with Claire

This is where we stopped on the way home (Marcella in boots): The Albanese Candy Factory. On their web page they claim to be the best gummi makers in the world. Haribo might have something to say about that, but I agree with them. You can get some of their bears at the Sunflower Farmer's Market in Orem (They're called "12-Flavor Gummi Bears"). Like their web page states, they figured out how to place "the sour inside the gelatin piece," which should earn them the Nobel Prize in chemistry. They're 90 minutes from our house, but we'll probably go back and get more candy soon.

Birthday Girl

"Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday Dear Claire Bear, Happy Birthday to you!" Is how Claire got up yesterday morning. She was the happiest little thing on the planet. We started our morning with the Wallin Family tradition of decorating the door. It was even equipped with suckers, which she wouldn't touch on our drive to Indiana, but now LOVES them. Silly goose! My little two year old:

We stuck up balloons in the doorway and she had a ton of fun running through them. She couldn't go through without making some kind of woo who noise.

Her are some favorites from our trip to the zoo to celebrate.

(Yes she did kiss a couple goats...)

When we got home we opened presents and had lunch. Claire loved this little baby Marcella got her.

After dinner we had Ice cream. For some reason Claire doesn't like cake. So she had a heaping bowl of ice cream, whip cream and chocolate syrup. Happy Birthday little Claire. We sure Love you!