Park City and Super Tired

On friday we headed up to Park City to get our Christmas shopping done, it was cold so we had to bundle up the babe! She was unhappy with me for putting a hat, (thanks Stace for the hat), gloves, extra coat and an extra blanket, but we had to keep her warm. After that she took a nap and we fed her when we got up there and she was happy as culod be until, she didn't want to be in her carseat anymore. We got most of Christmas done, what a big sigh of relief!!
Saturday we helped my brother and is family move into there new house, so Claire was with her grandparents, she was super tired, she hadn't slept well that night and was fussy. That night I fed her, gave her a bath and then I went to make popcorn. So I put her in her bouncer and she played for a good while, she is very fascinated with her bouncer, she gets excited from looking at the toys that hang from it and makes it bounce and then gets a scowl on her face, because she is not sure why she started moving, and then does it all over, it is fun to watch. So after she was done with her bouncer I needed to take my contacts out, but she didn't want to lay down, so I set her on our large couch in the crease and she just sits and looks around and smiles. So I went and took my contacts out, which took about 2 minutes, and I came back to this...
...it was so cute, I had to take a picture so I could show Brandon when he got done shoveling the snow and going to get salt to clear the ice.

Not much, but a little bit of everything!!

Well not a whole lot has been happening as of late. We are just getting ready for Christmas that as I was going around Christmas shopping yesterday realized was in two weeks. Brandon and I and Claire are going out tonight to finish (hopefully) all of our shopping, that will be fun.

At the moment I am looking for the perfect story about the Savior's birth for Family Home Evening the Monday before Christmas, one that will make Claire smile and Brandon and I think about the Savior's birth an how absolutely amazing it was! That we get to celebrate this holiday, we get to give to others at enormous rates, and we get to remember that people are good and generous. I talk to Claire about Christmas, about how the baby Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph, the Wisemen came and the Shepards as well. She gets this huge smile on her face, and I just have to sit and think how blessed I am to have this beautiful daughter in my life, that has come straight from the man that we are celebrating this special holiday. How close she is to heaven still, and that as a daughter of God she has very special roles in her life to come. I love the feeling I get when we talk about Christmas with Claire and that huge smile she gets.

A little update on the little girl, she is almost 3 1/2 months, and is learning lots of things, she is starting to put everything in her mouth and I can get her to hold her toys, she holds her head up like a champ, and she smiles at almost anything. The last two nights she has slept 8 hours, yahoo!!
She is so fun, we love her lots. Here are some photos we have taken and yes I realize she is in the pile of stuffed animals, Brandon did it and she looked at us like we were crazy. She finally just gave up on us and started to eat Speedy (Brandon's turtle).
Sorry I had to turn the flash off or she wouldn't smile, so here is her stick my tongue out and smile

Brandon was playing with her and she always smiles so big, but as soon as the camera came out, the smile turned down!

When she gets really tired she tends to put her hands up by her face, I like to tell her she is thinking to hard to fall asleep, she should just close her eyes, instead we get the finger on the chin, or the fist, or something else.

I went in to check on Claire, she had been making noises, so I waited for them to stop and went in to see if she had got herself back to sleep, this is what I found. Usually she screams when she pulls her bows over her eyes, but she was so tired that she just moved around a made a little sigh, realized she couldn't do anything and just went back to sleep.


Hope you loved those, we sure do.
Have a very Merry Christmas!! Enjoy this amazing time of year, it will stick with you if you do!

A Family Divided

Well, as I am sure the entire state of Utah and probably beyond knows, that Saturday was the UTAH vs. BYU game. So we got all decked out and headed over to my sister Dera's house to watch. My family was there and we have a good mixture of BYU and Utah fans. in these pictures I am wearing red, simply because I graduted from the U and have to "SUPPORT THE TEAM" (sinfeld). I don't really care about football, and don't understand all the rules.
Here is Claire in her Utah cheerleading outfit, that her Aunt Shannon bought for her. She looks so cute that even the BYU fans thought she was a cute.



Brandon, Claire and I after the victorious game.
The Ute fans with there smiles.

The BYU fans with there sad faces.

All in All a good game., good food and family. Thanks for a fun Saturday.

Getting there Groove on!

Last night Claire and I headed over to Hunter Junior so see a little dancing. My niece Chelsea is on Dance Company and they had there concert. It was so fun, I was a little unsure of how Claire would do, but for the first half an hour (which I should add, was suppose to be when she was a sleep) she just stared up at the stage. And she loved Chelsea when we went and found her after, she just stared at her. Just couldn't get enough.
Look how cute she is, all dressed in her dance attire, so fun. Love ya Chelsea!!!


Good Job Chelz, you did so great, can't wait for another dance concert, it was great to see you do what you love to do.

Guila Vera Olsen

This past weekend we ended up going to my Grandma Olsen's funeral. She had Alzheimer's for a lot of years. A lot longer then most of us think she did, because it comes as just forgetting a few things before actually diagnosed as the actually thing. My grandpa, her husband, passed away 9 1/2 years ago and I just pictured the amazing reunion she had with him. So amazing that families can be together forever. She was also be able to reunite with her youngest daughter Valery that was still born. She will be able to raise that daughter and love and teach her things that she never had the chance to do on this earth.

She was taken to the cemetery by a horse drawn carriage just as Grandpa Olsen had been. Here are a few pictures of the horse and carriage with my cousins and brothers as pall bearers.


Her favorite motto was:
"Eat it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without"

Her favorite color was red, and the flowers on her casket showed it. They were beautiful.

Some Growth and a Little Heart

Last week we went to the pediatrician for her two month check and shots.

Claire is growing really well, she is now double her weight from when she was born at a great 10.5 lbs, and she is now wearing 0-3 months clothes, yahoo. She is 22 1/8inches long which puts her in the 40 percentile for height and weight, she started at 5%.

She got her shots as well, and was not liking that at all, they did the three shots in her legs so fast all she could do was turn bright red until they were done so she could cry, she cried for about 5 minutes and then was done. What a trooper.
She also listened to Claire's heart and told me she loved what she heard, good news since her Cardiologist appointment was the week after this appointment.

Claire's favorite things to do are:

1. sticking her tongue out after you stick yours out at her, she will wait sometimes after we play this game and then just get excited and stick it out a bunch of times.
2. screeching is her new found voice and just smiles after she does it
3. smiling
4. giggling
5. we are learning to love the bath more than hate it, a week of no crying how could ask for anything more while in the tub.
6. pulling faces
7. sucking on her hands, when she can find them

CARDIOLOGIST

We went to the heart doctor yesturday and had an ECCO and an EKG done. The Ecco was first, we feed her while they did this, it is just an ultra sound of the heart, this is how the found the severe pulminary vavle stinosis in the first place. She did so great no crying. Then we headed over to get the EKG done, and her blood pressure taken, during the EKG last time she screamed and I had to try and calm her down long enough to get a print out on her heart. She was not a fan or the 16 stickers they put all over her chest and she was also not diggin' all the wires that were connected to those stickers. this time she was so interested at were she was she couldn't stop looking around the room long enough to cry, so it took two tries instead of 7 to get the print out.

During her blood pressure she was a little wiggly because of the tightness of the cuff, that the nurse magically pulled out bubbles from her pocket and started blowing them, she loved them, she would stare at them and then smile, so we got everything done in a short amount of time. Bubbles, what a fun toy.

The cardiologist said she still has a little bit of a gradient on the vavle and the right side that was enlarged, but said that usually takes a while to go away, or he is hoping that she will just grow with it if the valve is large. But he said come back in 6 months and we will check again, but she looks awesome, she is growing good and had a cold and got over it like a champ. She may never need to have anything else done to her heart just a few check-ups along the way. That is what I like to hear.

We love our vegetables...

...especially our Carrots
Well Brandon came home fromw work with a surprise, I didn't think he had time to get his costume, but came home with this shirt. It was so cute. It has a bite taken out of it because Claire ate him. he he he notice how her mouth is WIDE open and ready to bit again.
so cute, and here are the pumpkins I carved the night before

Got Carrots?

Claire and I carved pumpkins last night while daddy was in class, we had a good time, honestly she slept through most of it, and I had a good time. I will show you the finished products after I take there pictures when I get the candles.


When my sister was in from Australia, we went on a few shopping trips, one was to Wal-mart and we found the cutest bunny costume ever, I wasn't going to get it, so Stacy got it for me, therefore our baby girl is the cutest bunny ever. Her daddy was going to dress up as a carrot, but we ran out of time to get the costume ready, sorry Stace I know you were dying to see that one.



We took some pictures in her First Halloween shirt, and apparently it glows in the dark, but Claire doesn't always like the dark so I haven't tested it out. what fun we had taking pictures, even though I am not all that great at it.



Well, I am aware that she is crying big time in this picture, but it was so cute, I set her down to take a picture and that is what happened she just sat there, the costume was so bulky for her that she couldn't slide or anything.

4th picture in my 4th folder

Here is that my picture in the 4th and 4th, what a fun day my wedding day was.

I tag everyone who has not been tagged yet

Gardner Village

Sorry not everyone was looking at me, or they all would have been in the shot.

Well, Last Friday, my sister, sister-in-law and my mom and I headed over to Gardner Village. They were having there wee witches events and therefore was very very busy. We didn't stay very long but took some pictures with some witches.


There was one witch that was so fun, she was all dressed up and acted just like a real witch, she was so fun, we hd to get out pictures taken with her.



The rest of the witches you are suppose to go on a witch hunt, we never got the paper so we don't know if we found all the witches around Gardner Village. But it was fun to see what was there, we also found floating pumpkins in the river. Good times ladies.

Claire absolutely loved the witches, okay so I don't know about that, but she was so good while we were there.

more pictures

click here for some more photos of our pretty girl

A belated baby shower

Well last Wednesday I was given a baby shower by the people I work with. I was suppose to have the orignal shower the 4th of Septmeber, but seeing as my little one was born the 3rd we had to change that to a day that we could come. They were all so great and generous with there gifts. We got some great stuff, clothes, diapers, wipes, books, puzzles, fun stuff. We love our new book, "Little Pea". It is about a little Pea that has to eat all of it dinner, but the dinner is candy. He has to eat all of his candy or he can't have any dessert and he does not like candy. It is such a cute book. If you know of any other cute books please leave them in the comments.





We got a picture with one of my most favorite teachers at the school I worked with. She and I worked together the last two years, and a little in the month I was there this year. She is an amazing 3rd grade teacher!


Thank you so much for the shower gifts everyone they are so great.

Claire's Blessing Day

Yesturday we were able to Bless Claire. it was a great day, she although knows when big things that involve her happen. She didn't sleep all night, therfore I got about 3 hours of sleep. She did the same thing before her surgery as well. We had lots of family come, Aunts Uncles, cousins, brothers sisters. It was a lot of fun, after the block meetings we had lunch. It was a long, but good day. Anyways here are some fun picutures that were taken.



Here she is in her dress and her beautiful blanket Grandma Cooper made, thanks Grandma Vonnie



The cute Family!!!



It is amazing the spirit of a blessing day. Babies are absolutely special, and carry the spirit with them.

Park City Here We Come!

Well two of my sisters, my Mom and my oldest niece took a little trip to Park City on Friday. this is us in the Drive through at Wendy's, my mother is not in the vehicle anywhere in the first picture, she decided that it would be faster if she got out of the car and went inside to order, we finished at about the same time.



NO MOM, Where did she go? Oh right inside!!


theres Mom
this is Claire while driving



This is her "Mom are you finished taking my picture yet?" face



it was a good trip, we got some good deals. I got some warm clothes for Claire

Haircut

Well I got my haircut, I cut a good chunk of hair off, I did so for a few reasons:

First: I was painting a shelf white and my hair that was in a ponytail fell forward into the white paint, oops

Number Two: It was in my way, I would eat and it would fall into my plate, I would lean over and it would get in my face. That is when you know your hair is two long.

Three: Claire didn't like it when it got in her face


So I chopped it off. I will show you the long and then the Claire Blessing's post has the short.

What?! One Month already!

Well, our beautiful girl is already a month old tomorrow the 3rd. I would write this tomorrow, but I have time today and don't know about tomorrow yet.

Claire is an amazing little girl, and has been through a lot her short time here!
Mommy getting sick and having to have her early was such a blessing in disguise. I might have had a 8 pound baby and 21 inches or more. I am grateful for 5 lbs, 7oz.

Having a pediatrician who found a heart murmur and something that wasn't quite right, it could have not been found until she was older. We are grateful for great doctors.

She loves being outside, when we go on walks she is awake almost the whole time, loves the world.

She has a love/hate relationship with the bath tub. Sometimes she loves it and sometimes she absolutely hates it, someday when that rubber ducky and toys come out, she will never want to get out.

She loves blankets, and has started to grab onto them.

She doesn't always have to have her binki, which is a relief for me, and she doesn't suck on fingers, yet.

She is gaining weight and is almost done with premie clothes, is starting to fill into newborn clothes. She has graduated into newborn diapers.

Her skin rolls are turning into fat rolls, and she seems to always be hungry

When she is awake she is awake. She can't seem to get enough of the world around her, when we go to new rooms or places she has to check everything out.

We think she is absoultely great and beautiful and even though we don't get a lot of sleep it is more important to have her fed and loved.

Photo Shoot

We want to thank Janae (my sister-in-law) for taking such great pictures. We just wanted to share a few from the shoot: