The 4 McD's

First trip to the ER

2011-08-17T10:11:00.002-06:00

How big is Lil? Sooooo big!

Our sweet Lily experienced her first trip to the ER. She was bouncing up and down on the couch in Midway, lost her balance and launched off into the corner of the coffee table. Yeouch! Coffee table:1, Lily:0

Poor baby. Her nose bled and was instantly swollen. Pictures just don't even do justice but here she is waiting patiently in the Park City ER for her first ever face x-rays.

She hated that experience but when they were done taking pictures she was back to her sing-songy, happy, curious self. And here she is on day 2 in all her swollen, bruised, but happy glory.

I would point to her in the mirror and say, "Who is that?" Lily would just stare at her reflection for a while and then say, "Nose". She knew something wasn't right. She had many sweet and concerned cousins who were so darling with their little baby Lil. Love them!

Day 3: Swelling has gone down a TON (she's starting to look a little more like Lily) and she's getting some sweet color around her eyes.

Seeing our baby scared and hurt and not being able to help her was awful. Trips to the ER are no fun (whodathunk?) but we realize it could have been so much worse. I'm so grateful that Brenton was with me when this all happened. He was so calm and sweet as always. I was on the verge of tears the entire time. We were also so lucky to have my sisters around to watch our Claireygirl so we could just focus on Lil. Thanks sisters! So proud of our brave little Lil who took it all like a champ! I'm not sure about this growing up stuff . . . Lily-are you sure you don't just want to stay my tiny little baby doll forever?

Ty guy's baptism

2011-08-07T09:27:00.001-06:00

This handsome little guy got baptized. Such a sharp, fun, sweet boy. Love him!

It's what fun is. . .

2011-08-04T07:10:00.000-06:00

We were able to go to Lagoon with Brenton’s work and boy didwe have fun! I have such fondmemories of that place with cousins and friends so it was fun to reminisce andcreate new memories with our little family. Obviously the experience now is completely different. The joys I have now don’t come from making myself sick running from coaster to coaster (although those were good times!). The joys I experience now come from moments like these:

Watching my little Claire overcome the fear that struck right after this picture was taken. :) She ended up giggling the entire ride.

Lily and Claire each got their own steering wheel-and they took turns with the bell on their little boat. Every time they came by Brenton and I would cheer and wave and make a scene. :) We've gotta live it up while our girls enjoy our doting and attention. I love cheering on the sidelines with my best friend. He is the sweetest man. So hilarious, caring, and kind. Best dad ever to these girlies. I won the lottery with that B.

More sisterly bonding in the blue car. Claire was hoping to get the blue and lucked out. Ahh. The simple joys.

Claire's squeals of delight on bulgy the whale. This girl can't get enough of that ride!

She somehow convinced Lily to join her on this one as well. Can you tell who's a bit nervous for the ride to start?

Bulgy the Whale does not hold the same honored place in Lily's heart as it does for Claire. She was not lovin' this. So Claire wrapped her arm around her sister and comforted her as best she could. I might've teared up a little (totally teared up). Brenton and I looked at each other with such gratitude and admiration for our sweet Clairebedoos who reached out to help her little buddy-unprompted by either of us.

The train and the ride that takes you from one end of the park to the other really are so stinkin' fun when you're with littles. Everything is magical and so great to see through their eyes.

We also rode the skyscraper a few times and thoroughly enjoyed the view from up there. It was so nice to be with my family "so way up high in the sky" as Claire put it.

Turns out that for us-Lagoon really is what fun is.

Quatro

2011-07-20T10:54:00.051-06:00

Not quite sure how we went from this . . .

To this . . .

Fastest four years of my life! Claire is such a special girl. We are so lucky to have her in our family! She slept in until 9:30 (happy birthday to everyone!) and was so excited to come and open her presents. She had stayed up late the night before as she could hear Brenton and I assembling one of her new and exciting presents. :) She kept coming by the front room (without looking in) and asking us how everything was coming along. Needless to say, she was pretty excited to come around the corner to see her brand new-

Kitchen! She loves this thing!

She requested some yummy pancakes (4 tinys and one shaped like a 4) with strawberry syrup.

Yep. I'm dyslectic. Totally didn't realize it was backwards until AFTER I took the pic.

And then she wanted a quiet day with me and Lil. We went to the aquarium to see the "yucky octopus", seahorses, and funny penguins.

She had her favorite "macanoni and cheese" for dinner and then presents and cupcakes with Grandma and Grandpa McD.

Again with the kitchen in her fancy new jammies from Grandma!

Here she is blowing out FOUR candles on her piece of Ranchy toast. Yep. That is toast with ranch dressing per her request. I love my funny little four-year-old-peanut.

Knoxville Tennessee

2011-02-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

Knoxville Tennessee has no idea how lucky it is about to get. :) My parents are going to serve there as Mission Presidents for the next three years. Yee-haw! I'm not gonna lie, I was crossing my fingers for Anaheim California, but the more we learn about Knoxville, the more excited we get.

My dad documented the occasion of opening the call for our family newsletter:

"Since we were in Hawaii, we had our kids pick it up and then we arranged for a group Skype session between Hawaii, Murray, Provo and Milwaukee as the letter was opened. Emily certainly has a future as an MC of an awards show as she did all she could to finally get out the words Tennessee Knoxville. She talked slower than someone with a southern drawl. We are way excited to serve there and are so blessed that some of our friends in our ward, Ernie and Sylvia Smith, served in that same spot from 1999-2002. The current President, James Griffin, is an ENT from Little Rock, Arkansas. He told us his first interview was with Elder Russell M. Nelson back in 2007. He also told us that the home we will live in was purchased in 1993 and was dedicated by Elder Nelson at that time. Small world isn’t it? We have purchased the Rosetta Stone language tapes for the Southern dialect and hope to have them completed by July."

Wish there was a way to get Lindsay there from the Provo MTC. She was there in spirit for sure!

I'm not sure why I got to be the one to read it, but it was sure fun!

Dressin' up

2011-02-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

So yeah. Claire is still really into dressing up. From the moment she wakes up she is in a constant state of costume changing.

She likes to help Lily get in on the action too. Such a good big sister to teach her little Lil the ways.

Claire-bedoos

2010-12-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

My little girl is growing up way too fast. I have the pictures to prove it.

Occasionally I get the chance to go and sub up at the school where I used to teach. One day Claire came along with me as a prospective student and had such a great time. She looked so grown up in that uniform! She was super excited (and a little nervous as you can tell from the pose-hee hee!) to go to mommy's school. I sort of worried that she would be so shy and scared that it might not be a positive experience for her. She was brave, made friends and just jumped right in. When did my tiny baby grow up to be such a fun, independent, sweet, spunky little girl?

One of her many dress-up outfits. This girl seriously changes wardrobe at least 5 times a day. No exaggeration.

(please note the hat and skirt)

Playin' games with her buddy Ethan.

AKA: pulling every piece out of every game we own while I was changing Lily's diaper in the other room. Wowsas!

Again, this outfit was brought to you by Claire-be-doos. At least three shirts, a skirt (in the middle of winter), and 12 pairs of underpants. This is a typical getup. Oh, and she even does the headbands and hair clippies. All girl.

This girl is a night owl. She stays up chatting, reading, singing, dancing, and dressing up in her room until she will finally hold still long enough to fall asleep.

Apparently she's old enough to cut her own hair.

Claire has been loving preschool. She gets so excited to tell me about what letters they talked about that day and what things she got to cut out. :) I wanted to do some fun activities at home and my cousin let me know about this fun website. Claire was so proud of each of her letters and couldn't wait to tell Brenton about them when he got home from work each day.

Slow down baby girl! It's happening way too fast!

Google Reader

2010-10-30T21:19:00.001-06:00

Do you have Google Reader? If so, go ahead and add our new blog to it!

http://bandemcdupdates.blogspot.com/

I will post on that public blog when we update our private blog and then you won't have to check in here day after day ~~to see the same old post~~. Bless you Google Reader, for doing the work for us!

Carvin'

2010-10-29T23:20:00.000-06:00

I LOVE Halloween!

It is totally one of my favorite holidays. It takes place during my favorite season and you can load up on the treats and nobody seems to mind. Sweet!

My mom always made it so fun for us. She would pull out all the stops on decorations (hello flying bats hanging from the chandelier!), come up with the best costume ideas (headless guy, cereal killer), and her witches brew is legendary! :) It is so crazy to think that now I'm the mom helping to make things fun and carrying on traditions with my own little family.

We started with a little pumpkin carving with my favorite little punkins.


				The Blank Canvas Before Shot

Claire mostly just colored her pumpkin with markers

Lily mostly distracted everyone with her cuteness

And was grossed out by the insides

Brenton was hot as usual :)

Seriously

The final four

Happy Halloween!

Have you heard?

2010-10-22T23:32:00.000-06:00

There's a rumor in St. Petersburg!

Remember how my baby sister is going on a mission to St. Petersburg? Mother Russia! We're so stinkin' proud of her and know that she'll be an amazing missionary. Love you SISTER Lindsay Ariel Jasmine Princess Thomas Doodlebugs Irion.

Helicopter and Pirate Tale

2010-10-19T22:27:00.017-06:00

We bought a 6 month membership to the Discovery Gateway Museum and the helicopter was a definite highlight. Claire loved to push the buttons and pretend she was the pilot. We're excited to go back and explore some more for sure.

Claire's class went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch-Engh gardens. We were lucky enough to have Suzie-Q (Natalie's niece) ride over with us. Suzie was so darling and chatty. I asked the girls what they thought we would see on our trip. Suzie mentioned that we'd probably see a witch. Claire went silent so I tried to lighten the mood by mentioning that if we did see a witch, she'd probably be a very nice one. We all talked about what a nice witch might be like and Claire seemed okay with the idea. Well, we got out of the car and were greeted by a pirate. The look on Claire's face told me that she was not down with the whole pirate idea (and maybe would have preferred a scary witch!).

He was a nice pirate who told the class a fun story.

Claire kept her eye on him. Just in case.

Lily kept her eye on him too. You never can tell with pirates.

Once the pirate sent us on our way Claire had a great time. :)

Maze

Pirate Ship with Captain Jack!

Lily was a champ to just chill in her stroller


My sweet cautious Clairey girl

I can't believe how grown-up and brave my little girl is getting.

Lily turns ONE!

2010-10-05T01:01:00.038-06:00

Oh my Lily girl. Not long after you were born you snuggled up close to me and told me you wouldn't grow up. You said you'd stay my tiny baby girl forever.

I guess I should've gotten that in writing. :)

Our lovely lady Lily has been our sweet smilin' girl from day one. She has brought so much joy, hope, and love into our lives we can hardly stand it! She is such a special babe. What would we do without her in our family? Happy Birthday Lily-bug!

Sleepy shy starey morning smile

Patiently waiting for her one pancakes

Of course this good little eater loved her pancakes. Seriously, dream baby of the world!

We had each of Lily's grandparents (and Austy too) over for some yummy dinner. We sang and ate yummy pumpkin cupcakes w/ cream cheese frosting.

You mean, I get to eat this whole cupcake by myself?

You're sure?

Bottoms up!

Excited for presents!

Or rather, for Claire to open her presents!

Love you Lil!

Good morning Lil'

2010-07-01T16:10:00.006-06:00

I love to get my girls up for the day.
I love their sweet sleepy faces and how they light up when they see me come to their rescue. Claire is ultra snuggly whenever she wakes up and Lily is ultra smiley. See?This morning Claire came in with me to get sweet Lil out of bed. It's so fun to hear her morning greetings . . . she says everything I say, only in a much cuter Clairey-girl voice. "Good morning Lily! Did you wake up? How was your snooze? Did you have good dreams? Did you sleep so good?"

Oh how I love that cute little cheeser.

No wonder Lily did some more of this:

Lily LOVES Claire. She lights up every time she comes near. She has special giggles and smiles reserved only for her sweet big sister.

Taking matters into her own hands

2010-06-30T16:44:00.002-06:00

Claire knows where we store the chocolate milk*.
*=the Carnation instant breakfast that the pediatrician told us to get for our picky eater :)

Apparently I don't put nearly enough chocolate into the mix as I came in to find my sweet little miss independent taking matters into her own hands.She left her parents out working in the yard, slid the chair over, climbed up to the cupboard to pull out the good stuff, dumped a fair amount into her cup, and began shoveling it into her mouth when I came in with the camera.

Taking after my cousin Ben Randell I think.

See mom? That's how much I'd like you to put in it!

Better make sure we have great dental insurance! ;)

Two bottom teeth

2010-06-01T16:18:00.001-06:00

Can you see them?

How 'bout now?

Ahh yes. There they are.

Tutu and 2 1/2

2010-01-14T15:51:00.003-07:00

I had to document one of Claire's favorite Christmas presents from my sweet friend Wendi. The tutu. Oh my heavens. When Claire puts this thing on she's all twirls, spins, pointy toes, and fairy/princess for sure. As you can see it goes great with her princess jewelry. Phew!

Claire has been waking up throughout the night lately, which takes its toll on this lady who is already tired from waking up with a nursing baby. One night I begged Claire to please go back to sleep. I said things like, "Claire, it is night time. We all need to be sleeping. Daddy is sleeping, Lily is sleeping, Mommy is sleeping. Claire needs to be sleeping. Please just go to sleep!" She thought about this for a minute, grabbed her blankie, and rolled over to go to sleep. Sweet! Was that all I needed to say? I went back to bed and about 2 minutes later heard Claire declare (with crescendo), "Lily's sleeping, daddy's sleeping, mommy's sleeping . . . AND CLAIRE'S AWAKE!!!" Oh how I love my smart and hilarious 2 1/2 year old Clairey. :)

3 months old

2010-01-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

I tried to take some pictures of Lily when she was 3 months old . . . but she was a bit camera shy.
So Claire tried to jump in and make her feel better with some snuggles. :) Claire loves to snuggle Lil. Maybe a little too much.Luckily, Lily eventually warmed up to the idea. Could those cheeks be more adorable and chewable?
We love you sweet Lil. I can't believe how fast the time flies. You are growing up so quickly! Thank you for your sweet snuggles, smiles, and for being so patient with us.

We ended up blessing sweet Lily on December 27th in my parents' ward so the majority of our family could be there. It was such a special day. Brenton was cool, calm, and collected (oh how I love this man!) and gave the sweetest blessing from our Heavenly Father. He talked about how Lily would bring hope, light, and love to those around her. It is amazing to think about how she has already done this in the short time she has been with us . . . and how wonderful it is that she will continue to do this throughout her life.

Gorgeous girl . . .

2010-01-09T22:47:00.000-07:00

Did Claire absolutely LOVE the glittery lip gloss and pink eyeshadow she got for Christmas from Grandma?
Did she go hog wild?Did she dress herself in clothes and dress-ups from our sweet neighbors?

Did she know she the most gorgeous girl on the planet when all was said and done?

Yes. Yes she did.

When you got it, you got it.

All Smiles Lil

2010-01-05T22:41:00.000-07:00

Oh that little Lily. She is all smiles and oh so chewable.

Seriously.So smiley.

Almost all of the time.

December 2009

2009-12-28T17:25:00.005-07:00

Tom and Jerry (my uncle and aunt) sent a darling outfit (heart tights and cream dress) for baby Lily. They also sent along a little something for Claire. She was so stoked to open her own pad of colorful paper and GLITTER PAINTS! Oh my goodness. As I sat near Claire at the table I would hear her say, "Ooooh! This is pink! Oooh! This is white! Look mom! Is that so beautiful? Is that so pretty? Oooh! This is green!" Repeat repeat repeat. :) She had a ball.

Lily was just happy to be a part of the action and offered that huge smile of approval for all of her big sister's artwork. It's so crazy to think that some day these two will be ooooing and ahhing about their masterpieces together . . .

Party hopping in December is so much fun. It is also a bit exhausting. :) We're talkin' fall-into-a-deep-sleep-mid-licorice-bite-you're-so-tired exhausting.

Brenton and I both grew up in homes with the Christmas Eve p.j.'s tradition. So we decided to keep it going for our girlies.

Claire loves "pokey dots"!

Lily was obviously thrilled about the jammies as well.

Claire kindly helped Lily open her package. She is so helpful (especially when doing tasks that she LOVES--like ripping crunchy wrapping paper).

So we woke up Christmas morning and didn't have enough time to open our presents (we had a missionary to talk to people!). The next couple of days Claire didn't feel too great, so we literally didn't open our presents until the 28th! Claire is such a good sport. We totally realize that this will never fly in the future, but for now, Claire was fine with it. I'm pretty sure she was beginning to think the presents under the tree were just part of our Christmas decorations, all lookie no touchy. Needless to say, she was thrilled when we finally told her we could actually OPEN the presents that had been sitting out for days.

Lily was content to just hang out and snack on her little hands.

Claire loves to join Lily on the bouncer . . . oh how I love these two.

Claire was totally diggin the pink princess bling.

Cheese!

She insisted that I try it on too. Sleeping BeautyAnd Snow White . . . lovely.

Lil loved her new baby doll.

Just a little taste mom.

A much better fit for the Snow White costume.

Austy is HOME!

2009-12-04T15:13:00.003-07:00

Austin came home from his mission to Brazil! Hooray!

It has been so fun for B to speak Portuguese with a fellow Brasilero. It was so great to introduce Austin to the lovely lady Lily.

Claire and Jack had fun being silly together by rolling around on the airport floor

And all the kids got a kick out of the escalators

Claire was only 6 months old when Austin left. A few minutes after seeing him again she said, "I wanna hold you Austy!" She sure loves her uncle. We're so proud of this Elder and LOVE having him home!

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-26T12:55:00.002-07:00

Oh how I love Thanksgiving. This year we celebrated at my parents' house. Everything was so beautiful and delicious.

My aunt Laurie made the delicious pilgrim suckers (LOVE THOSE!). Lucas and Seth made the turkey place-cards. So cute.

My dad did a mean carving job on one of the biggest birds I've ever seen. This guy is such a hard-working, generous and selfless provider.

My mom cooked effortlessly for the masses like she always does. She quietly and selflessly serves and nurtures everyone around her and has such a grateful heart.

Liz cooked as well--and almost looked preggers. Almost. :) Bizzy Lizzy is so good at going above and beyond with everything she touches. She is so sensitive to the feelings of others and is so easy to talk to.

A heaping bowl of mashed potatoes . . . it's a beautiful thing.

And here's a lovely "candid" shot of dad, taken before he really did chug straight from the jug (I'm a recovered jug-chugger . . . seeing this picture ALMOST tempts me to go back, but no worries, you're safe to drink untainted milk in our home). Bring back any memories Preston? ;)

I am so grateful for this beautiful lady. :) So witty, funny, loving, and full of "pep". I have always looked up to her. Growing up I didn't have any cousins my age to play with on the Irion side so my grandma would come downstairs and play dollhouse with me. She has always been so good at making others feel so special and loved. She's got us all convinced that we're her favorite grandchild . . . but I know that I'm really the fave.

Sweetest little Claire-be-doos getting ready to dig in. She may have only eaten a roll and some jello . . . it is just so hard to sit still and eat at family functions when there are so many fun cousins to run and play with (and almost always desserts at the end of the night)!

Bobert and Lindsay-doodlebugs--oh how I look up to these two! Robbie--so tenderhearted and temperate. Lindsay--literally all that and a bag of chips (I daresay she's an 8).

We went around the table and each said what we were most grateful for in 2009. Of course this year I am so grateful for hospitals, doctors, and technology that helped bring our Lily safely into this world. But that wouldn't mean much without the Gospel. I thought back on this year and how lucky I've been to see two new beautiful temples be built minutes from my home. How grateful I am for a mindful and loving Heavenly Father, my Savior, and temple covenants that make it possible for me to be with my family forever.

Claire hair, chair, and bear

2009-11-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

Oh Clairey girl. How can someone with such a serious case of bed head still be so stinkin' cute?

Pulling out the bouncer seat again for Lily has been just as fun for this little bug. :) Claire loves this chair and she is very good at making sure the music and vibration switch is turned ON at all times. She loves to be so helpful.

Lily also loves her bouncer seat. Almost as much as she loves the bears on her pack n' play. What is it with my girls and these bears? Lily will coo and smile at the little guys the entire time we change her diaper, just like Claire did. Of course when I pull out the camera to capture it, she all but stops. But I wanted to document the attempt.

New Moon

2009-11-19T09:58:00.001-07:00

I went to the midnight showing of New Moon. Should I be embarrassed? Probably. Was it a blast? Most definitely. I went with my older sisters, my parents (yes, Iron Man Rich Irion came to the show and unfortunately slipped out early and missed the photo op), Jen, and her wonderful Tranter ladies. Would you believe that Brenton showed up as Jacob and Dave came as Edward? I sure hope you wouldn't believe that. Our sweet husbands opted instead to stay at home with the chillins. Thanks for the fun night out!

Over-you-go!

2009-11-14T22:12:00.000-07:00

It is so fun to pass on the things that I LOVED to do when I was little to my own little ones. Here is one of those things. OVER-YOU-GO! Side note: We all LOVE Clairey's new haircut! My cousin Allie cut it and when she was finished, Claire smiled at herself in the mirror and said, "Ooh! Like a princess!" She then went on to flirt and play with Allie's husband Mike while I got my hair cut. Wow. Thank you Allie (and Mike)!

P.S. Pay no attention to the messiness of the house. Oops. When there are "Over-you-go's" to be done, cleaning can wait!

Photo Shoot

2009-11-10T22:07:00.002-07:00

Here are some of the pictures I took of our sweet Lil at the one month mark. This little munchkin has literally been smiling since day one so it was fun to snap a few quick pics.

Oh how we love our lovely lady Lily!

October

2009-10-31T16:34:00.000-06:00

October has been filled with snuggling our new little sweetheart and visiting with friends and loved ones who come to call! Claire has transitioned into the role of big sister better than we could have hoped for. She’s been so sweet with her “cute baby sister Lily” and makes us laugh with the high pitched voice she uses each and every time she addresses her.

Meeting Auntie Cheryl

Totally couldn't have planned the yawn pic better. . . she looks so mad, but she's really just in the middle of a serious yawn.

Claire's biggest problem with Lily is that she sleeps so much! Claire just wants "baby Lily WAKE UP!" so they can play. We often find Claire peeking in on Lil to see if she's awake or asleep. As you can tell from the pictures . . . she's usually asleep. :)

I caught Claire putting her shoes on by herself. I thought it was funny how she did it. :) She's such a cutie.

We loved our visit with the Webster fam. Cute McKenna gave Lily the sweetest kisses.

Opposites . . .
My aunt Peg came over with little gifts for Lily AND Claire. Claire felt so special to open such a fun Mickey Mouse coloring book. We love that Aunt Magpie. :)

I tried to catch Claire using her helium voice around Lily, but as is often the case, when I pulled out the camera she got pretty quiet. Here is the attempt anyway.

Claire loves to talk to Lily and teach her all she knows. In these pics she was teaching her all about her memory game cards. "This is the big lizard (dinosaur). He's green." You never know, this information could come in handy someday. Thanks Claireygirl! So helpful!

Pumpkin carving with Auntie Cheryl

Claire is not such a big fan of getting "messy messy" so I was proud of her for giving it a go. She even got a little on her chinny-chin-chin.

Halloween was so fun this year. Claire was just as excited to be a jack-o-lantern as she was to be a princess fairy. She ended up choosing to be the cutest little pumpkin. Also, Lily was a purrfect little kitten.

When we went out trick-or-treating Claire coupled her princess shoes with her Jack-o-lantern costume. Perfect!

Lily's 1st Tubby at home

2009-10-09T20:48:00.002-06:00

Here is Brenton giving Lily her first "bath" at home. Claire helped on the sidelines.

Much like her Daddy, this girl loves getting her head rubbed. Puts her right back to sleep.
What is better than a clean, sweet smelling baby fresh out of the tub? Oh how I love it!
When she's not doting on her little "Lolly", Claire can often be found playing with the buckle in the car-seat. This is something she has always loved doing. :) Funny lady.

Lovely Lady Lily

2009-10-08T11:55:00.002-06:00

Brenton, Emily, and Claire are thrilled to announce the arrival of

Lily McDonough
10/05/09
2:51 pm
6 lbs 7 oz
20 inches long

We got to the hospital around 11 am and laughed the whole way there. I turned to Brenton and said, "Here we are, just driving to the hospital like it's so normal! We're going to have another baby!" The whole process was surreal; checking into the hospital in the middle of the day, my name on the schedule, feeling no pain and having just dropped Claire off at my mom's. I was a little apprehensive about being induced, but it was totally awesome.

Here I am getting ready to board the "Princess Cruise"-AKA induction (with epidural administered before pain could be felt). This is of course, was before I would discover that the epidural would only make my legs completely numb, and contractions would soon be felt. ;) Doh! Things were adjusted before Lily came and the pain was lessened to just uncomfortable. Thank goodness for modern medicine. Apparently Brenton thought it was funny that I was just maxin' and relaxin' and had to document with a pic.

So I decided I needed a picture of him. Are you kiddin' me with that handsome face? Mmmmhmmm! Love that husband of mine. :)

Aside from the whole "epidural not totally working" thing, the delivery couldn't have gone smoother. They checked me around 2:00pm and I was dilated to about a 5 (I came in at a 3). About 20 minutes later the nurse was having a hard time finding the baby's heartbeat. She decided to go and attach a monitor to the baby's head and as she lifted the blanket to do so she was shocked to see the baby's head. I was obviously fully dilated and rip roarin' ready to go so she quickly stopped the pitocin and ran out to call my doctor back to the hospital. As soon as he got there I pushed a whopping one time (was told to stop mid-push as the doctor realized that she was ready to come out with just one push) and out came our lovely little lady! We were so surprised to see a perfect little head of dark hair!

My dad came in after she was born just in time to give his thumbs up of approval. Phew! :) Sure love these men in my life!

As many of you know, we went to the hospital with a list of names. The top 5 being Lily, Hannah, Mindy, Ella, and Sarah. Lily happened to be the name Brenton thought of when we were expecting Claire, but when she was born it was so clear that her name was Claire. We hoped that when we had baby #2 we would just know what her name was . . . but it honestly took a couple of days to know who she was. Our nurse's name was Mindy and when she found out that name was on the list she just kept calling the baby that. :) So funny. Maybe that's why we were having such a hard time settling down on Lily.

Right after she was born they cleaned her off and handed her to me for some skin-to-skin contact time. Oh man! That was a little bit of heaven.

She had some snuggles for Daddy too. Sure love this proud father.

You know how you can just stare at a newborn all day long? It was so wild to look at this little munchkin knowing that she's really been with me for the last 9 months. It was so nice to see her sweet little face and just try to take it all in. She just had her own look . . . One minute I would think she looked nothing like Claire, and the next minute I would call her Claire because she looked exactly like Claire did when she was born.

Speaking of Claire, after a fun day with Grandmother she came to the hospital with flowers for me and her baby sister. She was a little nervous at first.

But warmed up to the idea once she saw Brenton, me, and the baby.

Here we are together as a family

A pink flower for "Lolly" as Claire calls her.

Claire hopped right up there and wanted to "hold you baby". She was so sweet with her new baby sister.

When Claire was born we were terrible at taking pictures of her visitors. We tried to be better this go around, but we still missed some pics. Lily girl, you are sure surrounded by people who love you!
Grandpa and Grandmother

Grandma and Grandpa McD

Cute Lindsay and Ellen drove up from Provo just to hold the little munchkin for a few minutes only to turn right back around and drive back. So rad.

Aunt Katie O.
Aunt Nanny

Uncle Robbie

Great Grandfather even stopped by to squeeze in a quick snuggle.

Aaron and Wendi-what would we do without these two close by?

Each night Brenton would take Claire home so she could sleep in her own bed. Lily and I just tried to take it easy and get to know each other. Actually, at this point we didn't know for sure if we were really going to name her Lily. Here she is a little scratched up, but cute nonetheless.

On Wednesday we were told that Lily's bilirubin levels were really high. They told us we would have to put her on a bilibed to help her get back to normal. She was such a good sport and took it all like a champ.

Before they sent us home we were told that we would need to have a bilibed and biliblanket sent to our home. You can see in the following pictures how orange her sweet skin had become. Wowsers!

Claire was so excited to see her sister again. She ran up to her car-seat and asked to hold her again and again. She was especially fascinated with Lily's toes.

Meeting aunt Lizzy

So we got home, had the bilibed delivered to our house and were instructed to leave her in the bed at all times except feedings. While it was difficult to do this, we reminded ourselves how lucky we were to be able to have her at home with us. Needless to say, after 3 days and many lab tests later her levels went down and we were thrilled to take her out of the bilibed so we could finally snuggle her like crazy!

It is amazing to me that our capacity to love can grow so much. Lily is so sweet, calm, and precious. We have only had her with us for a short time, and already can't imagine what our lives would be like without her. Oh how we love you our Lovely Lady Lily!

SEPTEMBER

2009-09-30T20:30:00.005-06:00

It’s hard to believe that the next time we sit down to write one of these we will have had our baby girl. We are all so excited to meet her and hope that we’ll know what to name her when we do finally see her! ☺ This last month has been an eventful one; full of both happy and difficult moments that have caused us to pause and reflect on the blessings we receive from our Heavenly Father. We loved the chance to celebrate Grandfather’s 85th birthday. We feel so lucky to have him in our lives. That weekend was also a fun one as Brenton was honored to receive the “Pharmacy Student Intern of the Year” award for Utah from the USHP. We’re so proud of him and humbled by the great honor. Emily had a great birthday week of celebrations and was thoroughly spoiled by everyone. The General Relief Society Meeting was wonderful and gets us all that much more excited for General Conference.

And finally, we needed to get out for a little hike around Silver Lake. Can you tell it's one of our favorite hikes? Beautiful, easy, and close by.

AUGUST

2009-08-31T20:30:00.006-06:00

Brenton continues to be found hopping from hospital to hospital as he continues this his 3^rd pharmacy rotation. He has been able to see the management side of the American Fork hospital as well as help prepare for the grand opening of the Park City hospital pharmacy. Emily can be found clipping coupons and “sticking it to the man” in her latest couponing craze. Claire continues to make us laugh as she repeats phrases that she’s learned/heard . . . the latest, “Boo yeah gramma!”, “What the heck?”, and “SO nice, I like it, I LOVE IT”. We’re all doing our best to prepare for the arrival of our tiny wiggly lady II as we realize that she’ll be here before we know it.

We were so excited to go to Ashlyn's baptism, even though I was violently ill (thought it was food poisoning . . . turned out to be the crazy flu bug that EVERYONE got on the Bear Lake trip). That Ashlyn is such a special girl--so smart, funny, and sweet. She takes such good care of her siblings, cousins, and everyone else around her for that matter.

Claire found Brenton's headlamp and had the time of her life with it. :)

The Miles family girls came into town and played at Midway . . . so naturally the rest of us available cousins had to join the party! Oh how I love and look up to my incredible cousins (aunts, uncles and grandparents). I'm so lucky that I was able to grow up with them and have such wonderful examples then and now. Wowee!

Claire just looked so cute and grown up when I curled her hair for church. We had to document with a few pictures.

SOOOO BIG! :)

JULY

2009-07-31T20:29:00.016-06:00

We had a good time throughout the month visiting friends, going on hikes, TURNING TWO (that calls for its own post), hanging out at the Midway cabin, and doing some boating up in Bear Lake (the raspberry shakes were very tasty).

Here is Claire LOVING the new dress our Brazilian friends gave her. She twirled and danced all over the place once she put it on.
Sweet Lucy
Terhesina and family

Dog Lake Hike

Pudding Painting

. . . and tasting . . .

Midway Retreat
Claire's first train ride was not all it was cracked up to be. The train was "kinda loud" and made her feel quite nervous. Poor thing! Grandpa ended up saving the day by getting ice cream for everyone and Claire now bravely talks about the train ride as though she had the time of her life. :)

Silver Lake Hike with some McD cousins

Bear Lake with the McD and Prisbrey families

Claire loved watching her daddy ski. She did not love watching him fall. I wanted to document her concern for her father so I snapped a quick pic. She was more sad than I realized . . . oops. Look at that awesome mom in the background, laughing as her daughter is clearly distraught. I tried to comfort her, remind her of the sweet licoricey goodness in her hand, assure her that dad was okay, but she was just plain sad until she saw him emerge triumphant back on the boat.

Ahh, that's better! Mmmmhmm! Love that handsome guy!

Claire turns 2!

2009-07-20T15:33:00.002-06:00

Claire officially threw her biggest, most impressive tantrum on her actual birthday. Why was she so upset you ask? She wanted to run around naked--I wanted to maintain the cleanliness of my carpet. Who am I to deny the girl a chance to run around in her birthday suit on her birthday? And thus it began.

Aside from that, Claire had a wonderful birthday. She really is the sweetest little 2 year old. :)

She was stoked to open her presents.

A giant pink glitterball, bubbles, drinks for her baby

a purse, keys, her own pack of gum

(this girl LOVES gum)

chapstick

bracelets

stroller with a buckle
for her baby from her grandmother

She was in heaven!

After her nap we visited great grandma Irion who gave her a sweet little cow to snuggle.

And finally, we were able to go celebrate with Great grandma Prisbrey (the other birthday girl).

Two sweet birthday girls!

We can't believe how lucky we are to have shared 2 wonderful years with you Claire-be-doos! We love you lady.

JUNE

2009-06-30T09:21:00.007-06:00

June found Brenton busy jumping from (as Claire puts it) hossipull to hossipull (IMC hospital to Alta View). He finished up his IMC pharmacy clinic rotation and begin the next 6-week rotation working alongside a great family friend (Kevin DeMass) in one of his pharmacies. So that's one down and . . . many more to go. :) Lucky for us, he'll get a six-week break right around the time our baby girl should come. I started out the month by going on a little cruise with some of my dearest girlfriends (see DaNakkily post). I had a wonderful time reconnecting with them and came home appreciating my husband and sweet daughter all the more!

Things with baby girl McD are looking great. We've yet to choose a name for her but have a current favorites list of Sarah (or Sarah Jane), Lily, and Hannah. Claire has been "practicing" being a big sister with her little baby doll as she wraps her up, reads her stories, changes diapers "changeyourdipe", and sings to her. We're doing our best to ease Claire into this new phase of life and welcome any advice/input you may have on the subject! We can't believe our baby Claire will be TWO in JULY (give me strength)! This sweet little munchkin has added so much to our lives in her short 2 years and we look forward to the many new and exciting discoveries that lie ahead.

One of Claire's favorite pastimes is bubble blowing. Claire is so proud to be blowing bubbles on her own. Please note that all the bubble juice is on her lap. :) Lovely.

My sisters and I have had a lot of fun loading up the kids to do a weekly hike this summer. Oh how I love those Utah mountains! :) Claire is no longer content to just enjoy the scenery from the snugli. This girl wants to get out and hike on her own. Here we are at Silver Lake (one of our favorite hikes) with some Irion cousins.

DaNakkily Cruise

2009-06-16T18:03:00.002-06:00

Some of my dearest girlfriends and I decided to go on a little cruise to reconnect, recharge, and belly laugh to our hearts content. Oh how I love these girls! You know the people that no matter how long it's been since you've seen them, you're just able to pick up where you left off? I realize that we took way too many pictures, and most things will only be funny to us, but I had to document with a little slideshow.

Here's to incredible girlfriends who know me in and out and somehow love me anyway (cackle laugh and all). You girls are the best!

Love that funny little nutnose

2009-06-13T09:49:00.000-06:00

As I was looking through our pictures, I saw a plethora of images that made me think about things I love about Claire's personality that I don't want to forget.
Claire loves to wear her sparkly blue sunglasses. Here she is sporting them at the zoo.

Never you mind that it was a cloudy day (perfect for the zoo) and the "cute glashes" were totally unnecessary for eye protection. This girl is just all girl and has a need to accessorize.

Claire loves her aunt "Dinsey" and knows that Russ is the guy who goes with her. :) This is also one of the last pictures we'll have of Claire in the Snugli, as she much prefers to hike on her own now.

Every once in a while Claire will ask to go to bed on her own. Who is this kid? It most frequently happens on Sunday afternoons when we get home from church. She says "nap", "nigh-night", or "little snooze" if we're not getting the hint that she'd rather sleep than eat lunch.

She likes to cheese it up for the camera, and often smiles her cutest smile just before she charges the camera to get a closer look. A lot of our pictures turn out looking like this:

Claire has a bit of a shoe fetish. She loves to pick which pair she'll wear each day. Her favorites tend to be her "beoots", "sanals", and her "jellyshoes". One day I found her in her room concentrating so hard on getting her stuffed animals and dolls ready to go in her favorite shoes.

If the laundry is out or she gets into her drawers, she likes to dress and undress herself. Here she is in her jammies and diaper cover. She knows when she looks good.

What can I say? When you got it, you got it.

Grandmother Party- A Mother's Day post

2009-05-16T14:00:00.004-06:00

When I started this blog I was fairly good at posting a few pictures of each event. I am now terrible at narrowing it down to a few . . . I just can't choose! Please forgive.

Liz found a cute idea to do a "Grandmother's Tea Party" for my mom for Mother's Day. We got together at her house for a mini talent show, dancing, cupcake decorating, and visiting. Have I mentioned that we just really like any excuse to get together? Ah yes, I say that every post. . . Anywho, here are a few of the pictures from the event.

Cute ClaireyTyler breakin' it down with 10 intense somersaults
Lucas sportin' his headstand/cartwheel/somersault skills

Tickling the old ivories

Graceful Ashlyn

Dance party action shots

Cupcake decorating

As you can see, Claire is her momma's girl . . . decorating minimalist, taste-testing enthusiast

S-MAN

Ty-guy

Ashlyn certainly has the creative gene. She is so gifted!

Ali-tink

Sophs

Luke

The girl of the hour showing us how it's done

Best aunt ever and my favorite little sister Lindsay-doodlebugs who also managed to snag that creative artistic gene.

Somehow I don't have pics of Liz and Katie who really put this whole thing together. They are such great moms who are so good at planning fun, creative, meaningful moments with their kids.

I am so blessed to have such incredible mothers in my life. Grandmothers, my mom, mother-in-law, sisters, sisters-in-law, aunts, cousins, friends, neighbors, etc. It really does take an entire community to raise a child, and I certainly have so many wonderful examples to look to and draw strength from.

I will forever be grateful for my mother-in-law Dorothy who was and is a wonderful mother. She raised my favorite person, along with some of my favorite people. She is so patient, sincere, loving, and kind. From day one she has treated me not only as a dear friend, but as one of her own. I've always felt we were kindred spirits.

My own beautiful mother raised me in such a way that I never wondered if she'd rather be somewhere else. She made a point to emphasize how lucky she was to be a mom and how much she loved fulfilling that role. I've been excited to be a mom for as long as I can remember and I can thank my angel mother for that.

When Claire was born she was placed in my lap, and all I could do was stare down in wonder at this tiny, beautiful, miracle. She reached up and grabbed my finger as the doctor said, "Isn't this the moment you've been waiting for all your life?" I'll never forget that moment, my sweet calm Claire. I love being your mom, and I hope that you can continue to be as patient with me as you have been up to now.

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."
Abraham Lincoln

Sheep . . . LOUD!

2009-05-15T13:53:00.000-06:00

Clairey girl loves animals. She has a cute little "Ohh ohh ohh!" sound that she makes every time she sees any and every animal (from sweet bunnies to yucky snakes). She has also been interested in making animal sounds for as long as I can remember. We decided to take her to Wheeler Farm to get a closer look at the animals there.She couldn't take her eyes off of those interesting creatures! As we looked at the lambs I asked her, "What does a lamb say?" After staring at the silent sheep for a bit, she finally answered, "Baa!" To which all the sheep answered back with extremely loud bleats. They scared her to death. As we walked by a little bit later, I asked again, "What does a sheep say?" Claire answered in a nervous voice, "Sheep . . . LOUD! Baaaa LOUD!"
She liked taking a little peep at the peeping chicks. But like the other animals, she had to have dad closeby.

This girl loves her "cute sunglashes".

Here's another nervous nelly shot we captured as we walked by the sheep on our way out. (I'd be lying if I told you that I didn't sort of love it when she holds on tight and becomes more snuggly as she gets worried.)

Speaking of Nervous Nellies . . . As I tried to capture Claire's cute goose noises I heard a goose behind me that kept getting louder and closer. I had to cut the video short for fear I was about to be the goose's next victim. Yes, I sheepishly admit that I'm scared of the hissing brutes. Poor Claire. She comes by it honestly.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

2009-05-14T13:44:00.000-06:00

Claire and I had the opportunity to see the Oquirrh Mountain Temple with some of our family. What a beautiful building! Each temple is so unique. Claire especially loved the "twinkle twinkle stars" found on the windows. She also "oooohed, wowed" and remarked how "pretty pretty" each of the chandeliers were.

St. George, Elmo kites, and Claireisms

2009-05-11T15:19:00.002-06:00

We got to go to an all white wedding ceremony for Brenton's cousin Jennie in St. George this weekend. I've never had the opportunity to do that before and I must say, it was quite a wonderful experience. It was so neat to walk up the stairs inside the St. George temple all dressed in white with so many people that I look up to and admire. It felt a little bit like heaven that's for sure! Of course we didn't get any pictures of the wedding festivities or fun times with the Boyces . . . but we did get this one shot of Clairey's piggy-tail-buns. She's so cute. I wanted to document a few of the memorable moments of this trip, just so I don't forget.
-Being in the St. George temple with Grandma Prisbrey. That alone was worth the trip down and back. Jennie and Jed were sealed together in the same room that Grandma and Grandpa were sealed in all those years ago. It was so fun to think about what those two started!
-Sweet Tracy's serious skills in getting all of the cousins together to do the traditional song and dance for Jennie. Mindy was an animal on those spoons!
-Playing baseball in the backyard with everyone as it cooled off in the evening. Note to self: Hitting tennis balls with a baseball bat makes you believe that you are an excellent hitter so stick with the tennis balls.
-Mindy's Pazookies. As always, they are a highlight of the trip.

And then I had to document our first kite-flying experience with Clairey. Brenton bought an Elmo kite for $1 at Wal-mart. Score! Claire was thrilled with "Elmo . . . in da sky!?!"

She was also ultra happy because her daddy gave her gum. Love that little cheeser.And finally, it is impossible for Claire to walk by a swing set without giving it a test drive. This girl loves the "wee! wee! swing!".

Claire is talking like crazy lately and amazes us with all she knows/remembers/repeats. She has such a cute and funny way of saying most things but she is loving the fact that we can (for the most part) understand her. It's hard to believe that I could ever forget this fun chatty phase of life, but just in case I do forget here are a few of the words/phrases she's been saying lately.
Hallo Dahdee! (Brenton and I are both daddy), mores, sippy, b-fffffffsssssst (breakfast), seeyoh (cereal), waters, meewk, shooze, socks, pahnts, shiht (shirt), bows, pretty pretty!, messy messy!, birdies, tweet tweet!, walk, outside, swing!, peese, ginkooo (thank you), twinkle twinkle stars, sad?, wah happened?, faunny, iss da temple, temple song, doggie song, la la song, ashes ashes all all down!, aaahh tooo da town, happy to you! (and blow out candles), beep beep, cars, grass, trees, fowers, shon-lo (lotion), baubbles, tubby, jammies, knees, pay (pray), a-men!, ba-pa, ma-pa, molly doggie woof!, kitty cat meaow!, cow boo!, horshe (she does an awesome and quite accurate neigh sound), sheep loud! bah, ticken babababa!, rooster cockadoodoo!, gooshe, baby, bottle, binky, up, down, candy, numms, treat, eggies, crackas, chips, apple, nana, oange, gum, hode you!, come see me, shows, pichures, cute, fwag (flag), keysh, sunglashes, tickle tickle!, books, bed, jaumping, bouncing, nigh nights, eyes, nose, mouth, eauws, cheeks, taummy, toes, hands, finghers, bless you!, wow!, kishes, ahh you? (where are you), lauh you, snuggles, nice, happy!

It is so fun to watch as Claire becomes her own little person. She is very timid and shy, mostly with adults. For the most part she warms up quicker to men than women (go figure!). She loves to laugh and giggle with other kids. Music is in her soul, she loves to sing, dance, and wiggle to music. She is an AWESOME sleeper . . . IN HER OWN BED. She has her mom and her dad wrapped around her little finger and she just might know it. :)

6th folder, 6th pic

2009-05-10T15:35:00.000-06:00

This is for you SWA! :)
For some reason I'm not feeling motivated enough to do the old bloggie lately (a blog funk if you will). So I thought I'd start with something simple. A little picture tag from my cousin Sarah Jane. You know the drill. The 6th picture in the 6th folder.

Here we are at my graduation from the BYU. :) Can't believe that was 4 years ago. Wowsas! Where does the time go? It's kindof fun to take a look back. What's the 6th picture in your 6th folder?

Easter

2009-04-22T16:32:00.001-06:00

Easter was wonderful. Claire thoroughly enjoyed Easter egg hunts on Saturday with her cousins. She couldn't believe we were encouraging her to find and then devour candy, but she lived it up as best as she could. We originally planned on going down to St. George to celebrate Easter with the McDonough extended family, but Brenton had to work and I was asked to speak in sacrament meeting (and sing in the ward choir). Although speaking in church is always a terrifying experience, I really enjoyed preparing by reading talk after talk about the Atonement. It was good for me to take time to study and be reminded how much the Savior has done for us. How blessed we are to know what we know! We’re so proud of our little missionary force that are out there spreading the good news about the gospel and representing our Savior Jesus Christ. After church we just had a little basket set up for Claire with an "I am a child of God" book with pictures of the Savior, her own picture of the temple for her room, and some more sweet treats. Lately she has been obsessed with the temple. Every time she sees a picture of any temple (or building that could remotely resemble a temple) she gets so excited and says, "It's da temple!" She also requests to hear "I Love to See the Temple" each night before she goes to bed. So, needless to say she was thrilled to have her very own picture of the temple for her room. Where did this girl come from? Honestly. She is the cutest.
Sunday night we went to the McD's and did another fun Easter egg hunt. Of course I didn't remember to take out my camera until the end of the night when Claire and Jack were playing the piano. And of course I wasn't fast enough with my camera to get Jack in the picture. That boy has places to go!

Swan Lake

2009-04-09T16:01:00.000-06:00

Claire and I had the opportunity to go to Kingsbury Hall to watch Ashlyn tear it up as a party girl in the ballet Swan Lake. Claire is so lucky to have such talented and hard working cousins! ;) And I couldn't be a prouder auntie Em. Not only is Ashlyn an incredible dancer, but she is quite the actress as well. When she was on stage I was captivated as she dazzled us with her abilities to perform. What a gal! At one point she had to put on a blindfold and chase kids around the stage. She was marvelous! I literally had tears in my eyes I was so proud. Claire had a wonderful time listening and dancing to the music from the comfort of my lap.
Before the show began I thought it would be fun to take pictures of Ashlyn's adoring fans.
Luke, Seth, and LizzyAs I took this picture of Robbie (who came up from Provo to see his niece in a BALLET . . . such a stud) Ty-guy, and my Dad the announcement was made that NO flash photography was allowed. Oops! So I didn't get a picture of the extended Owens' Fam.

During intermission my dad took a picture of Claire and me. Claire may have been getting tired at this point. :) Luckily crackers and treats kept her entertained through the 2nd half.

And after the show we got to go congratulate Ashlyn with hugs and kisses.

Katie, Ashlyn, and Tyler

It was such a fun night. Ashlyn is growing up so fast! I VIVIDLY remember the day she was born and how much my heart was BURSTING with love for this tiny baby girl that I hardly knew. She is such a special friend and she's growing up into such a smart, funny, kind, confident, and wonderful girl. We love you Ashlyn!

Claire's special shirt

2009-03-15T15:40:00.000-06:00

Claire has a special shirt that she has only worn 3 times. We got it from the hospital on the day she was born and I couldn't ever imagine that she'd be big enough to fit into it. Well friends, it now fits and after adding a few changes to it with a sharpie I think it gets the message across.
Here is my dad getting ready to read what it says . . .Here is my mom trying to direct my dad's attention to what the shirt says. Isn't my mom adorable?

And here's a close-up of Claire proudly displaying the information that she has no idea is coming.

"Congratulations! There's gonna be another special delivery c/o Dr. Barton."

We're going to see some big changes come October!

We are thrilled!

Party in P-town

2009-03-14T20:16:00.001-06:00

For my mom and dad's 35th wedding anniversary we went down to the Museum of Art at the BYU and then my dad treated all 21 of us (we missed you Ricky, Casey, and Russ) to Zupas in Provo. Those who know me best know that I love ANY and EVERY excuse to get together with my family. This day was no exception. Thanks mom and dad for getting married in the temple 35 years ago making it possible for us to be together forever!
Cutest couple with the sweetest Dunkster
Claire was loving her grilled cheese and fresh fruit. Yummy! She has also started to say "Cheese" while we take pictures of her. Cutie.

Ali entertained our table when she was through eating. Claire could not stop giggling at her fun cousin.

I love my timid and cautious little girl.

Duncan and Robbie--these boys just may have two of the greatest smiles out there. :)

5 years of wedded bliss . . .

2009-03-12T16:09:00.002-06:00

Brenton and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary this year. WHAT!?! I made Brenton a little book that has the highlights and a couple of pictures from each of the years we've been married. It was so fun to sit and look back at all we've done and seen together these past five years. Brenton totally surprised me with a romantic night on the town! Mom and Dad McD watched our Clairey-girl and made the whole thing possible! Thanks Mom and Dad! We went out to eat at the Olive Garden where Brenton surprised me with a wedding band . . . what the!?! He is awfully romantical.

We went on a little walk around beautiful downtown Salt Lake and ended up on the 12th floor of The Little America Hotel! WOW!

The next morning we got breakfast at The Original Pancake house . . . delish! It was so fun to have Brenton all to myself to celebrate! He is so good at taking care of me and making me feel like a queen. He's the whole package, or as my grandma Irion would say, he's smart AND good looking . . . what more could anyone ask for?

I may never know how I tricked this incredible person to be with me for eternity, but boy am I grateful! Love you babe.

That's hot.

2009-03-11T14:07:00.003-06:00

We got a new computer. A Mac-daddy to be exact. :) Needless to say . . . we're having a bit of fun with the photo booth application. Good times.

Dad McD's 60th

2009-02-24T16:41:00.001-07:00

This year was Dad McD's 60th birthday so a surprise party was in order! Brenton's wonderful sister Mindy planned the festivities and set up a fantastic dinner at the Asian Star (I'm still drooling just thinking about the delicious walnut shrimp). Mindy deserves extra kudos for throwing dad off the scent multiple times as he tried to plan his own party. :)

We sure missed Austin but loved having everyone else in town! Happy Birthday to Dad McD! You are so good at making everyone near you feel like a million bucks. :) We love you and feel so lucky to call you ours.

Wooty woo!

2009-02-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

Pictured below are Claire's attempts to get rid of pesky articles of clothing during sleep/nap time. While she wasn't able to completely remove said articles of clothing, I was pretty impressed with what she was able to do. She was so proud of herself. :) Oh how I love this bubba.

Modest is hottest dear. Modest is hottest.

Claire-be-doos

2009-01-24T16:11:00.011-07:00

This has been a big month for our little Clairey. We are so amazed at what she learns in a month! Prior to January, she'd take a few brave steps here and there, but crawling was her primary mode of transportation. We were beginning to wonder if she'd crawl her way into Nursery at 18 months of age. About a week before she went into Nursery for the first time (January 3rd) she decided that she preferred walking. She hasn't looked back and we're so proud! It is so fun to watch her grow and figure things out. She surprises us with what she says, does, and understands. We're not sure how we feel about her getting so big so fast though. The only tears shed during her first week alone in Nursery were from her mother. Oops! Her favorite part of Nursery is (not surprisingly) snack time. When the other kids go back to play with the toys, Claire pulls their plates closer to her and munches on the left-behind-left-overs . . . "you gonna finish that?". She is so cute. Her newest fascination is with bellybuttons. She loves to find her own (not an easy thing with such a cute little chubby tummy and short arms) and say "bee buh!"

Here are some random pictures and tidbits from this month that will help me remember what Claire was like as an 18 month old. I can't believe my baby is one and a half!

She loves to "help" me in the kitchen. So one night we made some edible play dough. She knew just what to do as she promptly grabbed a huge chunk and shoved it in her mouth.

She rubbed her hair with her greasy little fingers so naturally I took it one step further. Side note: Claire loves it when I put lotion in her hands. She'll rub it in for a few seconds and then rub it in her hair. Either she thinks it's hair gel or she likes this look.Claire loves hats and books. She'll often get up, quietly walk to her room, accessorize, and pull up a good book. I love how she giggles when I creep in with the camera. There aren't a lot of people who can pull off the mullet. Much like the Suaze, Claire makes it look good.
She is a great little sleeper. She goes to bed around 8 and usually sleeps in until 8:30 or 9:00. HEAVEN! She must move around in her sleep a lot as evidenced by her serious bed-head (I should say, that this isn't a typical bed-head . . . this day was the exception, hence why I pulled out the camera). But it was glorious!

It also happened to be Brenton's birthday that she woke up with this 'do. She wanted his day to be extra special so she worked on that hairstyle all night long!We finally decided to tame that mane.
We turned on Baby Beethoven and Claire was still as could be.

We only ended up taking off an inch or so, but it's amazing how different she looks to me. She's growing up so fast!

How can someone I've only known for such a short time be one of my very best friends?

We love you Claire-be-doos! Thanks for taking us to the next level! ;)

Draper Temple and Nat's surprise

2009-01-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of January we had the chance to go through the beautiful Draper Temple Open House with my Grandfather, his wife Wendy, and the available extended Nelson family. It is such a beautiful building and like other temples, it holds that special peace the Spirit brings. Claire "ooed", "ahhed", and "wowed" in every room. She also walked off in the opposite direction whenever the group would move from room to room, but it was so neat to have her in there with us. Here's a picture I took with the flash . . . it was snowing like crazy that night!And one without the flash.Brenton was (and I will be) blessed with the opportunity to help as ushers for the open house, so we're excited about that.

A few days later we got to go to a little surprise party for Natalie thrown by the J-man. As you can recall, the last picture I'd taken (see above temple picture) had no flash . . . so the picture I got of the initial surprise was flash free. This equals 1) kind of dark, 2) a bit delayed, and 3) focused on JJ. I'm pretty sure JJ's face says it all though. . . this kid is easy to please and he LOVES to do cute (and sneaky) things for Natalie. I'm so glad they're married. Look how cute Natalie is. :) Awwww!
I love taking candid shots. Especially when they're of Camille, Cheryl, and Natalie.
Love, love, love these girls. Here's my brother's brother-in-law and my sister-in-law's sister-in-law. I love that we're related!Here is Aunt Nanny with Claire . . . documenting the special bond they share (as Claire tries to dive-bomb out of the picture). Sorry Nat! You know she loves you! I love it when Cheryl is in charge of decorations and accessories. :)

Happy Birthday Natalie! I'm so glad you were born. I couldn't ask for a better friend and sister-in-law's sister-in-law.

'Tis the season

2008-12-31T11:09:00.000-07:00

So we're gonna re-cap December in one go.
December 1st Claire and I went with my sisters and their darling families to Temple Square to see the lights. Claire's mouth was open the entire night as she "ooed and ahhed" at everything. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was really quite nice to go before the weather outside was frightful.

We enjoyed many a Christmas gathering with family and friends. For the Nelson family Nativity this year Claire was a Christmas cow near the manger. Here she is before her Nativity debut with sweet Ashlyn, who played Mary this year.

For a short while she was fascinated with the beautiful baby Jesus (McKenna) and then decided it would be more fun to graze and wander throughout the house. Whatevs! It was sure fun to watch her participate while it lasted! I'm an Activity Days leader in my ward and I love it! The girls I work with are enthusiastic, fun, sweet, and have so much energy. They can't seem to get enough of Claire, which is so fun to watch. They pass her around at each activity and they'll even come and find me at church to see if they can hold her. She's not always so sure about it, but she's a good sport and they're patient with each other. Anywho, this month we went caroling and delivered little snowflake ornaments that the girls made to various people in our ward. It was so fun to watch the people light up as they listened to these beautiful angel girls sing. The girls felt so good as they brightened the days of so many. On the way home the girls asked if they could stop by one of their friend's apartments. It was FREEZING cold outside and yet they wanted to make one more stop. When we got to the door they sang their little hearts out and brought everyone in the apartment to tears. The girl that answered the door told the girls that she and her family were going through some really hard times and that it meant so much to them that the girls would stop by. The girls cried and beamed and really felt the Spirit. It was the neatest thing. I love moments like this where I am taught and led by these sweet valiant girls.
We love this time of year where family and friends come home for the holidays! It is so fun to catch up and re-connect with those who have been away!

Contrary to what you may be thinking by looking at Claire's face in this picture . . . she loved the chance to reconnect with her buddy Brenden. She loves her aunt Danielle too!Our own little family celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve. It was so fun for B and I to watch Claire concentrate and work so hard to unwrap her gifts. She loved her new "sssshoes", "book!", puzzles, and jammies. She's so easy to please.

Here she is unwrapping presents on Christmas day. All that staying up later than usual, shortened naps, and party hopping made for one sweet tired baby doll.

November Part 2

2008-11-28T13:47:00.004-07:00

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving enjoying delicious food, family, and fun with the Nelson side at Midway. I was responsible for the green beans for 80+ people . . . luckily a couple of my aunts were also in charge of this in the form of green bean casserole (oh how I love the green bean casserole!) and we had plenty to go around. :) My incredible mother was in charge of potatoes . . . sweet and mashed. Bless her heart she even followed my grandmother's tradition of putting a few almonds in for good luck. I can recall a couple of years where I was the lucky recipient of more than one almond. I sure love my angel grandmother and miss her at times like these. Her influence certainly lives on in her wonderful children for which I am grateful. It was so fun to share this day with so many people that I love so dearly. We sure missed those who couldn't make it for whatever reason. Here is a picture I took from my cousin Brynn's blog . . . I'm pretty sure that you can see the back of my head behind my mom's beautiful head. :)After dinner and chatting we jumped in the car and headed on down to St. George to spend the weekend with Brenton's extended Prisbrey family. We are so blessed to have such wonderful extended family members! Many a conversation has been about how lucky we are to rub shoulders with such incredible people.

Our cousin Tyler took us on a fun hike to see an AMAZING view of Snow's Canyon. Here we all are getting ready for the journey . . .B's oldest brother Brian and sweet William waited along the trail to point us in the right direction on our way up.Brenton carried Claire the entire time and she was loving it . . . so much so that she fell asleep for a good portion of the journey. She woke up just in time to see the view at the top.Is that UNREAL OR WHAT?!?! Pictures do not do justice. But I'll post them anyway.

That was a sheer drop off. Pretty much like the cliffs of insanity for those who'd like a reference.

Gorgeous Tracy was so fun to chat with on the way up. I'm sure she could talk to anyone about anything . . . she is the sweetest thing. Claire needed to try out my sunglasses.

Doesn't the background look fake?

Me and the bedoos.

Family shot And then we kind of got lost on the way down. :) Oops! It just added a little adventure and maybe a few steps to the hike so it was all good. Thanks again Tyler!

That night Brenton went to a park to play football with the boys. Claire and I chatted with the girls and played with the kids and then went to watch B work it as the quarterback for a while. I had to take a picture of the beautiful St. George sunset. It was breathtaking.

That night Brenton stayed in the hotel room with Claire while I went with the girls (and boy who wishes to remain nameless) to see Twilight. The movie has its issues but overall I really enjoyed it!

The next day we finally got to see the Boyce bunch. St. George just isn't complete without them! Mindy and Brett graciously hosted (as they always do) EVERYONE and allowed us to see their beautiful new home. We went to a park where Claire and Annie reunited on the swings. I had turned off the flash to get the picture of the sunset and forgot to turn it back on . . . so we have some blurry shots of the girls having the time of their lives.

As usual, Claire did not want to get out of the swing.

But once she did she was off to explore the playground and chase her cousins.

The rest of my pictures capture what we saw the rest of the night.

The back of Claire's adorable head. The end.

November Part 1

2008-11-19T12:12:00.004-07:00

What did we do in November you ask?

Brenton kept busy by raking up 33 bags of leaves from our yard. This was in one day.

That's my handsome Mr. Muscles. :)

Claire helped a lot in the kitchen. One day she helped me bake yummy treats by "ooohhing", "aahhhing", and begging for a "cracka" (cookie) the whole time they baked.

She also loves to unload the dishwasher (clean and dirty dishes), empty (and sometimes refill) the cupboards/drawers, and model the oven mitts.

She's just helpful like that.
Claire also enjoyed being a princess courtesy of the Knifty Knitter Loom I've been using to make baby beanies for those in need. Isn't she the cutest little nutnose?

6 QUIRKY, unimportant things about Emily

2008-11-13T08:54:00.005-07:00

Not quite sure why I'm doing this post/tag. It is very revealing and reminds me of my severe nerdiness! WOW! But, I so enjoy reading this post on other's blogs . . . it's fun for me to read about other people's quirks! So, without further adieu . . . JUST 6 of Emily's quirks.

Definition of quirk: n. 1. A peculiarity of behavior; an idiosyncrasy: "Every man had his own quirks and twists" Harriet Beecher Stowe. 2. An unpredictable or unaccountable act or event; a vagary: a quirk of fate.

1. I can sleep anywhere, anytime, for any given amount of time.
I've slept:
-in my car and in bathrooms in between classes in college (they've got some awesome comfy couches in some of the BYU ladies' rooms)
-on Trax and missed my stop because I was totally zonked
-while writing in my journal in an english class in college (and in the middle of a totally coherent thought wrote, "Can make you stop speaking that languages". Nice.)

2. I may have a couple of OCD tendencies.
I have a candy system. I like to have the same amount of each color candy when I have a handful. Say you have 3 orange, 4 red, 2 yellow, and 2 green skittles . . . You eat 1 orange and 2 reds to make it all even-steven. Then you eat each color until you have 1 of each kind left, and then you eat those and do it all over again with a new handful! I'd like to say it's because I like to equal out the flavors, but I do it with Reses pieces and M&M's too.
Microwaves also bring it out of me, as I like to do repeat numbers. For example: Oatmeal: 1:11 Burritos: 2:22 Easy Mac 3:33. And so on. If it's a quick heat up . . . I like to do :33 seconds. I won't shy away from the minute button mind you; I'm not that crazy.

3. Quirk #3 is two-fold. One good and one bad. Good: I'm addicted to flossing (mint GLIDE is my absolute favorite!). Bad: I totally grind my teeth at night. Gross huh? Believe me, if I could control it, I'd stop. Sometimes I wake up with a sore jaw from a night of clenching . . . awesome. In order to protect my pearly whites, B made me a retainer that I wear every night (nerd alert!). That way I'm wearing down acrylic instead of my teeth. :) It's working . . . as I've totally grinded huge chunks off of my retainer. Sweet Dave and Jen made me a new retainer to get working on. I wonder how long it'll last?

4. I like to have a clean plate. You can always tell which plate was mine after dinner, as it looks fairly clean. I have a theory of where this started. When I was little and eating at my Grandma's, there were 2 scenarios after the meal.
1) If I didn't finish everything on my plate:
Grandma: "Oh Emily! Didn't you like what I made?"
me: "Oh, yes grandma! I loved what you made, it was all so good, I just took too much and couldn't finish it all."
Grandma: "Oh, well, okay then." SAD FACE.
2) If I did finish everything on my plate:
Grandma: "Look at you! You ate EVERYTHING from your plate! You must have liked what I made for you!" HAPPY FACE!
me: HAPPY FACE!
P.S. Sorry to anyone who received the dregs (corn cobs, food I didn't like, etc.) from my plate. You know who you are. You'll be happy to know that Claire shares this quirk of mine and seems to like her high-chair-tray COMPLETELY cleared at every meal. This makes for a messy messy floor, and gives me sympathy for all those who've suffered at my expense. Again, I apologize.

5. I talk, cry, and laugh in my sleep. Poor Brenton. I've scared him on many a night. Recently I rapidly tapped his shoulder over and over while loudly saying, "B! Hey B! B! B! B!" He had a mild heart attack from being awakened like this and quickly answered, "What Em?! Are you okay? What's going on!? Emily? Emily?" I had quietly rolled over and continued sleeping soundly. Oops.

6. I am pretty good at memorizing UNIMPORTANT things. Movie quotes especially (I've had "The Princess Bride" memorized for as long as I can remember). I'm pretty sure that my ability to retain unimportant information inhibits my ability to retain importat information. I've gotta find a way to switch that around . . .

History . . .

2008-11-05T22:45:00.002-07:00

Wasn't it exciting to be a part of history? To watch it happen? I was so moved by Senator McCain's concession speech as well as Barack Obama's acceptance speech. I wanted to write down a few of the parts that I especially loved so I won't forget.

McCain- "I urge all Americans ... I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.
Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that."

Obama- "This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other. America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made? This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can. Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America."

I love my husband . . . and Halloween

2008-10-31T21:51:00.001-06:00

Mullet Muncher

2008-10-18T13:45:00.002-06:00

Sometime near the beginning of October Brenton said he needed a haircut. He hadn't had it cut since May and I was quite enjoying his curly locks. I reminded him that Halloween was coming . . . he just HAD to grow it out right?!? I then spent many sleepless nights deciding what he could be for Halloween. By mid-October he was looking nice and mullet-muncher-ish. Mullets away!

Claire thought it was hilarious. She was right.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this man!

Midway retreat

2008-10-11T13:03:00.001-06:00

My sweet sister Katie decided to have a sleepover with her kids at our family cabin. She was gracious enough to let Claire and I join in on the fun. I love any excuse to get together with family. :) Thanks again Kates for the fun time. Love you.

I loved 1) seeing the beautiful fall leaves in one of my favorite places, 2) going to Dairy Keen with Mom & Dad I. and tasting Dad's amazing pumpkin pie shake, 3) staying up way too late chatting and punching out Christmas tags, 4) devouring Katie's delicious bread bowls and homemade chili, 5) waking up to find the first snowfall (Bree's very first snowfall!) of the year. Sweet girlies all 10 months apart Supermodel . . . I mean hardworking Ashie

Hilarious Ali with 2 hats and sweet sunglasses . . . Why so serious!?Midway stairs

Funny Ty-guy

And here is the blasted puzzle that consumed my life for a couple of hours. We started it while Claire was napping and I continued to do it until I got it to this point. I must be old because I was really enjoying myself. Claire woke up and was happy to crawl around and explore the cabin while I kept working on the puzzle. She would come check in with me every couple of minutes until she found the rocking chair. Oh did she find the rocking chair. She decided it would be fun to stand up on the rocking chair and really see what that thing could do. Yeah. She totally fell off, bumped her head, bit her lip, and screamed like the dickens. Good mom moment. FYI: Lips bleed like crazy when bitten. Ouch. We needed some serious distraction . . . so we decided to pay a visit to the cows.

Claire loved her first up close and personal experience with the cows. She totally mooed back every time she heard them moo. Oh I love this little pumpkin!

And now it's time for our random side story titled: "Why Emily is always a little bit creeped out whenever she goes to see the cows" Yes SWA. This one's for you.

When I was 11 or so (how old were we Swa?) my cousins SarahJane, Jake and I decided to get on the old family bikes and take a ride on down to see the cows. This was a regular occurrence. Probably something I did every time I went to the cabin (along with riding bikes to Nielsen's for treats, feeding the horses in the field across the street, and naming all the white horses Lightning). Anywho, we were just walking around the "teenage cow" section when we saw one cow snorting and going crazy in its little red box.

Next thing we know, that sucker kicks down the walls, jumps out and starts chasing us. Holy hannah, my heart rate goes up just thinking about it! We were all screaming and scrambling to get back on our bikes to fly home. Swa and I had the tandem bike (Nelson cousins know that thing was sometimes hard to get started) which we couldn't get going so we ran with the bike as fast as our little legs could carry us. The hideousness of that memory will haunt my dreams forever. :) And thus began my apprehension to visit the cows.

Delicious dirt

2008-09-24T12:31:00.000-06:00

I was out weeding our backyard as Claire happily crawled around and made various discoveries. One discovery was the deliciousness of dirt. Yeah. She grabbed a handful of dirt and went to town. I thought she'd realize how disgusting it was and spit it out. No sir. I had to go over and help her remove the dirt from her mouth. This girl cracks me up! I had to document with pictures. This is her "Dirt? Who me? I didn't eat dirt! I would never eat dirt" face. This is her "What are you doing with that camera? We don't need to document this! Give me the camera or I'll have a meltdown!" face.
This is her "I can't believe you won't give me the camera and you're still taking pictures of my dirty face" face.
More reaching for and wanting the camera.

But then she got over it and moved on. Cutest little dirty goopy face.