Great Christmas gifts

Hand Stamped Jewelry Giveaway @CraftaholicAnon check it out! 

Etsy

Can I tell you how much I love Etsy.  I discovered two lilies boutique and love it!  Cute headbands and other stuff.  How do people come up with this stuff?

Oh Lovely

To all my fellow "wanna be crafters". 

I just discovered a super inexpensive and oober fun website.  Check it out!

http://ribbonandbowsohmy.com/

Give me a Diet Coke, I gotta six month old!

My Claire Bear turned six month on November 5th!  What a great baby.

I love your sass.

I love your sweet toothless grin.  

I love that you think I am THE FUNNIEST person in the world. 

 I love to make you giggle and blow raspberries.  I love that you try to escape from the tub and play with the faucet.

I love that you cry when I leave the room and smile when you see me again.

I love that you kick your legs whenever you get excited.
I love that you are teaching me "don't sweat the small stuff".  Especially when you splash all your bathwater out of your tub.

I love that you like to cook with me and watch Dancing with the Stars. 

 I love that you are still here and that God knew I needed you, when I didn't understand why you were coming so soon.

Claire's Daily Activites

Screaming to hear her own voice (Don't ask her to use her "indoor" voice.  She'll only scream louder!)

Squash and Pears

Playing with her friends Emma and Rachel while mommy goes to school MWF

Diet Coke (I may or may not have given her some after her 6 month shots.  I spoke her language that day)

Rolling EVERYWHERE

Humming herself to sleep
Playing with Grandma Sandy

Going to school with mommy
Singing ( Say LaLaLa and she'll sing it back to you!)
Wearing skinny jeans and jeggings.
Pulling daddy's ears while he pulls hers.

We love you Claire Bear.  You are the sweetest short person we could have ever asked for!

Wow pathetic!

So I entered Claire in a Gap cast calling contest.  Gap chooses a winner and "the people" choose a winner. So here is Claire Bear, would you vote for her once a day.. for the next two months...hehehhe?  She told me she really wants to have a Gap shopping spree

http://www.gapcastingcall.com/GapCastingCall/EntryDetail.html?id=400549

HELP

I want to send out a Halloween card to my family.  Any suggestions?  I want the picture to be the main focus and then I want it to say something like "Witching you a Happy Halloween" or  "Best Witches  and Happy Haunting"  Or just plain old Happy Halloween.  What do you think?  

And these ones just make me giggle.  Oh the woe for being short!

Oh that's how I felt the last couple of weeks.  The Strickland Witch is in...  BEWARE!!!!

School, Work, Figuring out this mom thing (but hey, she isn't dead or starving!), papers to be written, books to be read, the laundry is never ending, the dishes are always there, messes to pick up, skinniness to be obtained, church callings, bathrooms to be cleaned, meetings, a Claire Bear to entertain.  And this nagging thought in my brain that I just want to take a nap.

My girls at work tell me "Life only gets busier!"  

HOLY CRAP I AM SCREWED!!!!  

Oh Blessed Day

After many months of people asking when we were going to bless Claire, and the usual response, "The same weekend we get sealed", Brandon and I finally decided to go ahead a bless Claire.  The sealing process/paperwork is coming along much slower than anticipated.

So we invited the family to come on over to the Happy Valley of Utah for a Labor Day weekend extravaganza.  Saturday, we ate lunch and went swimming.  

Daddy and Claire!  She love the pool.  Huge bathtub

Playing with Uncle Chris

I love this picture.  I wonder what is on Brandon's mind.

Claire was done being in the pool but she loved watching everyone swim

I love the Saratoga Springs pool.  It is wonderful in the summer and winter!

Brandon and Uncle Chris are a HUGE hit with mu nieces and nephews.  They love playing and climbing all over Chris and Brandon  (Exhibit A. Kylie is sitting on Chris's shoulders) 

Sunday!  Blessing Day 

Claire is all clean and ready in her sweet dress made by Grandma Susan

Trying to get Claire to look at the camera.  

Nope! still not looking....  

More pictures to come!  My camera died, so great grandma Gwyn is sending them our way!

(BY THE WAY!  I put on my big girl panties and fed 18 people!  I made Sunday dinner, NO WAY!)

Love Marks

For months I rubbed, no, no, slathered my belly with cocoa butter lotion.  The day stretch marks appeared, I cry a little.  But as the days to Claire's birth day became fewer, the stretch marks became more numerous.  I was pretty sure that God was punishing me for being vain about my skin.  My secret vanity, my smooth creamy skin, void of any stretch marks ANYWHERE!  

Claire is here, the porclein cream skin is gone and all that remains is the ridged and purple evidence of carrying a child.   My whole belly, some of my upper thigh, and some of my back are FOREVER changed.  

Being a woman, and watching too many episodes of "Keeping up with the Kardashians" has made me very critical of my mediocre appearance, and those stretch marks have made me very self conscious.  

The only people who see them are Brandon, Claire and me, but I still feel very ugly.  A few days ago I jokingly explained to Claire that she was in my belly four months ago and showed her the stretch marks.  I said, "See how much mommy loves you?  These are my love marks."  Of course the epiphany I just had made me bawl, because really, why wouldn't I bawl.  I always do!  My stretch marks are a part of me now.  They are not ugly signs of fatness, but my own personal mark of love.  

P.S.  No pictures taken of the stretch marks.  Just because I have come to terms with them doesn't mean you want to see them and then have to go to therapy. I can't afford to send you all to a therapist.  

Mr Bear SQUASH you all flat

Where the Wild Things Are!

I have a oober cute 31 year old and a super obber cute four month old who have NEVER been to the zoo.  Lucky for them, the zoo is my favorite place (besides Disneyland and anything California), so I showed them the ropes...

Brandon, our favorite public works man, had to set up a CERT booth for Cottonwood Heights at 9, so we got to the zoo at 10. NO ONE THERE!!!  LOVE IT!!!!

Miss Bear loved the monkeys, (Inside joke in my head).  

She especially loved the orange ones... Maybe a new favorite color.  

On to the elephants, my favorite attraction.  This is the oldest elephant in North America.  I shall call her Betty, I can't remember her name.  

Then we met one year old Zuri and her mom Kristie

Then we went to the bird show.  Claire got bored..  Great time to nap

THEN THE GORILLAS!  

See how we measure up

Seriously mom!  No more.  

Great morning at the zoo, nap time on the way home with a new friend, stuffed elephant Zuri

Great First time at the zoo.