My daughters.....getting crafty.

Brielle painted ornaments for her two preschool teachers. Clara supervised. And chatted. And gossiped. And sang.

"With jam and bread....."

(followed by: "Quando sono sola sogno all'orizzonte " in her opera voice)

"I think I could reach those ones....if only I knew how to unclasp my hands."

Brielle's Preschool Nativity

Brielle's Preschool class put on a Christmas program on their last day before the break. Brielle was thrilled to get to play "Mary" in the Nativity! One of her best buddies, Landon, was Joseph.

An Angel and some Wise Men. In a shocking plot twist, one of the wise men turns out to be Joseph's twin brother....

Singing...the class sang "Away in a Manger", "Joy to the World", and a song about angels where they each got to ring a bell.

"Joseph" and "Mary" posing with their baby. During the program the baby was suffering from severe colic, fortunately my little "Mary" knew what to do, there was much bouncing and burping and 'shhhhhhh'-ing and rocking and swinging.... However what REALLY did the trick was when "Joseph" started swinging his staff around like a Ninja weapon. That distracted "Mary" and immediately her baby settled down. =0)

Three Months

Okay, these pictures were TAKEN when Clara was three months old, I just haven't posted them before now. Stay tuned for her 4 month pictures to be taken next week (and posted in June with my current rate of delay....) =0)

My baby LOVES to grab her hands, I think it's cute.

These two pictures are my favorites. Clara is the happiest baby, though often it's hard to capture that because I put the camera up to my face and she gets this very concerned look. Normally Clara loves to look into your eyes and babble and coo. I've never had a baby talk as much as this one, she loves to chat.

And the hospital bills come rolling in....

It costs $6,600 dollars for an epidural.

That's more than BOTH of our cars put together.

But it's sooooo worth it!!!

Christkindlmarkt

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we drove to Leavenworth to attend the Christkindlmarkt. Leavenworth is a darling little Bavarian town, about two hours from us.

The children made lanterns for the Lantern Parade. They were pretty neat, a large glow stick hung inside each, so the lanterns were surprisingly bright, and still safe to hold.

Meeting a Nutcracker. Every child's dream.

For the Lantern Parade, the children got to march down the street with their lanterns held high, leading the way for Santa, Mrs. Claus, and St. Nikolaus. (St. Nik and Santa must be cousins)

The town was fun to explore, tons of cute Germanic and Scandinavian shops. There was even an Australian shop, which seemed a tad out of place, but still neat to browse through.

Hyrum's feet got wet (from jumping in puddles) so for the last half of our visit he sat in the stroller, with new dry socks on his feet, no shoes, and his legs stuck in the arms of my extra coat. So that's why he isn't in any of the Santa pictures. =0)

Brielle was thrilled to meet Santa.

Showing Santa her lantern. Ideally this is a town that should be perused without children, but we still had a great time at the festival!

Halloween

I know, I know, it's December. But better late than never!!

One Brave Firefighter. So fearless that both his ax and his flashlight had to be confiscated before the evening was done.

And a Spooky-Yet-Glamorous Witch. Complete with cauldron for potion mixing.

Visitors

Russell's parents came to visit us in October, back when Clara was one month old. We blessed Clara during their stay so this post should go back by those pictures, but I'm lazy these days. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit, and we did tons of fun things. We went to the zoo, the Pacific Science Center, restaurants, and the kids had a wonderful time playing with their Grandparents. These are all pictures from the zoo.

"Nevermore"

Most days I feel a lot like that gorilla must feel. Except throw one more kid on that back.

There ya go!

The jaguar is one of our favorites. If you look in the reflection of the glass you can see all of us in this photo. Russ wasn't there, he joined us later for dinner.

All grown up...

Remember Zazu? Here's an old picture of him, back when he still had his baby feathers. Grey head, bland, unremarkable. But NOW:

Voila!! Orange and cream. He is such a pretty little thing!

And he is deeply fascinated by pacifiers. =0)

Clara's blessing

Asleep

Stretching

Hi there!

So, we actually didn't take a single picture of Clara on the day she was blessed. Or the week she was blessed. Actually these pictures are several weeks after her baby blessing. It's pathetic really, the house was FILLED with people that could have taken pictures, and alas we have none. We blessed Clara on

October 10th.

Have I mentioned how much I love her hair!!

My friend Jenny asked for more pictures of Clara, and so pictures she shall have. Lots of pictures. Tons of pictures. Oodles of pictures.

As a doting Mother, I'm allowed to post on my blog as many photos of my baby as I desire, EVEN if they all look exactly the same to the casual observer.

If the casual observer is bothered by this then the casual observer is free to peruse another blog, perhaps one owned by someone not in possession of the cutest baby on the planet.

Oh, oh. The tremble-lip. Now she's done with the picture taking.