Two

Yep! It is confirmed! We officially have a 2 year old on our hands! Oh how we love Clara Jo. She loves to read books and loves to dance. She can really shake her groove thing. She loves her Daddy and her binky. She is such a joy that is growing up on us fast!



So the day of birth was on Saturday of Conference weekend. So in between sessions, we took Clara out for a special outing. I found this trampoline place in town and it was full of trampolines. We paid 2 bucks for an hour of jumping. Eric and I joined in on the fun! Clara Jo loved it! It wore her out and she had a blast. It was a perfect little adventure for our birthday girl.









The day after Clara's birthday we had a little shin dig with family to celebrate the birthday! It was warm enough that we could have it outside on our new purchase...our patio!! It was fun getting everyone together and celebrating our little one!










Clara Jo definitely felt the love and was spoiled with a lot of gifts. Here are a few pictures of Clara Jo with just some of her new purchases.

Gun Shy

Watch out....this post contains blood and gore.

So here is a little story for your reading pleasure! One day (a couple of weeks ago), Sommer (the author of this story) came home from work and her hubby had an evening full of plans. These plans included going to the shooting range to get his gun (a.k.a. his Fathers Day and Birthday present) ready for the hunt, home teaching, and a little basketball. So Clara Jo and I called up my good friend Juli, and scheduled a little dinner outing. So we were at Zuppas, and we had just started dinner when my phone rings. Caller ID told me it was my one and only. So I answer and he starts asking me where I am and what I was doing. I had thought that we had covered this information before he had left. So I asked, "What is going on?" He replied something about how me might not need stitches, but I might want to see for myself. Really? Seriously? So we swallowed our dinner without having time to savor every delicious bite. We drove to Eric's cousin's house who he went to the range with. I walked in and there was my hubby with his bloody shirt and with a bloody rag on his forehead! Lets just say, the first shot of his new purchase was a doosey! Then he proceeds to tell me that shot around 10 more shots dripping blood all over, so he wouldn't be gun shy in the future. Something about getting back in the saddle! So Juli, being the amazing friend that she is, drove my car home with Clara Jo and stayed with her why Eric and I headed to the Insta Care. Talk about a hot date!! We walk in, and the lady at the desk says... "I know what happened to you!" So that made Eric feel better that he was not the only one that had gotten bit by his gun. So they took us back and got him cleaned up and stitched up in no time! Five lovely stitches! I asked them if they had purple stitching thread! No luck! So we settled for a hot pink band aid. By the time we left, Eric had his hot pink band aid, a Captain America sticker, and a red sucker to make him feel better! Oh what fun I would have with this! After a week of healing, he got his stitches removed and we are pretty sure he is going to live. People tell me that I need to take away his gun. It has bee brought up that the hunt isn't going to happen. However, I think the best end result is this lovely blog post so we can have this to look back on forever and ever and laugh!




After Eric got in a fight with the gun and lost!! Thanks to the cousin Troy who helped the hubby in his time of need!



Eric after we got back from Insta Care!


The battle wound right before getting his stitches out!


After he got the thread out of the head!

American Vacation

We got back from a little family vacation last month that boosted our American pride. We decided to go to Washington D.C. for a vacation and we had to do it before our little one turned two and cost us a plane ticket! We thought we would enjoy D.C because of three main reasons... my brother and his cute family are there, my best friend Andrea is there, and finally we heard there might be a thing or two to see while we were there! Here are some pictures of our amazing trip!


Clara and I are excited and ready for our Capitol tour!


Paying our respects to good ole' Brigham Young. Even though were aren't directly related... even though BYU got killed in football while we were there! We still felt he was picture worthy!


So when I told Eric to kneel down in the middle of the Capitol which is the middle of D.C. for a picture, I wasn't expecting him to have a spiritual experience!


Here we our with the other statue from Utah. This man whose name I can't recall invented the television. Thank you sir!!


So here is my darling friend Andrea! We got to go to lunch three times and spend some other quality time with her! She makes me happy!


Clara Jo is quite a fan of Andrea! She makes her happy even though her facial expressions might suggest otherwise!


We stopped in the Museum of Natural History! Clara Jo loved the massive elephant! She is quite the pro at telling people what an elephant says!


We went with Shane to see some memorials at night! The Lincoln Memorial was quite the spectacular thing to see.


There was a small museum at the bottom of the Lincoln. It was really interesting to go and read about good ole' Abe!


At the World War II memorial, I wanted to show people that (to quote a Kenny Chesney song)... I am proud of where I come from!


Eric looks pretty happy about his home state as well!


So out of the museums, our favorite was the American History Museum. They had a lot of really neat exhibits. I loved the one with all of the gowns of the first ladies. We both loved this one that took you through all of the wars starting with Revolutionary and ending with Afghanistan. Here we are in front of the exhibit that showed the original flag Francis Scott Key saw that inspired him to write The Star Spangled Banner. I felt the need to spice up our picture! Eric doesn't seem to appreciate?


On the Saturday we were there, we bonded with the Rushings. We went and saw the Iwo Jima memorial that pays tribute to the Marines. It was something Shane and the kiddos hadn't seen yet! It was pretty impressive.


There is a famous cupcake place that Julie and I went to while the boys and kids bonded at home and watched football games. Here we are waiting in line!


Here I am posing with the cases of the pretty cupcakes! The store was really cute and I was told the whole place looks like a scrapbook page! I agree!


Here Julie and I are with our purchase. They were of a yummy nature!


As you can plainly see, Clara really thought the purchase was pretty scrumptious!


Shane and Julie's church was at 3 so we had time to go to the Washington D.C. temple and the visitor center. It was really fun to see and such an appropriate Sabbath day activity!


I think this is a tender picture with Clara Jo and her D.C. cousins (except Lyla).


Mr. and Mrs. Young


Shane with his most favorite sibling! We try to keep that under wraps though.


Clara enjoyed the attention that she got from her cousins. She and Lyla however will need to work on their tightness. Clara, I think, was a little jealous of some of Lyla's toys!


Show me the money!!! We went and saw how they printed and made money! Pretty intriguing!


We stopped in at the Holocaust Museum. You could spend hours there but we did a shorted version that took you through the life of a child that survived the Holocaust.




As I said before, we met up with Andrea for lunches while we were out and about touring! Our last day there we met up and ate at Union Station. Andrea's friend that I know quite well joined us. We took a couple pictures before they had to go back to work!


Here is Clara and how she spent her time while we were going here and going there seeing the sights. She would fall asleep and take a snooze each day while we pushed her around! She did so well!!!


Here we are at Obama's humble abode. Although we didn't get to meet him we think we can still go on with life.


Perfect way to end a trip.... TGI Friday's mozzarella sticks at the Dallas airport.


As the pictures clearly show, we had a great trip where we saw lots and got it some good bonding with people that we just love!!! GO USA!!!