Rainy days

I love the rain.

Especially when it's raining hard enough to get wet, it's a warm rain and the sun is still out somewhere.



Yesterday I was cleaning the kitchen when I looked out the window and saw the kids soaking wet in this great downpour. Then I noticed the sun behind them and rainy pictures are awesome when they're backlit so I ran and got my camera.











So fun!

Moms

Moms are everything.

Moms make food like a chef,
when dad screws up at cooking
mom always is a fire woman,
she gives us our medicine like a nurse,
she builds shelves like a builder,
she teachers her kids stuff like a teacher,
she would need to get married and have children,
she would do everything she could.
I want to be a mom to help and raise kids! I love my mother!

-Aria Alger

Miss Clara is 3!

I sat down at the computer just now to blog Clara's birthday pictures. I'm holding Hyrum and he's fussing a bit and Clara shows up to do what she's been doing every single second since he was born 3 weeks ago.



She grabs his hand a bit roughly and I start to stop her and she says "I'M JUST TRYING TO KISS HE!" So I remind her to be gentle and she gives his hand a kiss. Then she goes to pull him off my lap. I start to stop her and she says "I'M JUST TRYING TO HUG HE!" So I remind her to be gentle and she gives him a hug. Then she grabs his binky and jams it in his mouth. I start to stop her and she says "I'M JUST TRYING TO GIVE HE HIS BINKY!" So I remind her to be gentle and she gets the binky in his mouth. Then she goes to grab his head and I start to stop her. She hollers "I'M JSUT TRYING TO PET HE!" So, again, I remind her to be gentle and she pets him on the head. Then she tries to touch his eyeballs. I say "don't poke his eyes" and she says "I JUST LOVE HE!!!"

Then she joins him on my lap and tries to snuggle in and make sure she's getting most of the mama lap love.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

So we've been playing up her birthday and making sure it's all about her and she's loving it. One day I got balloons and we did a little photo shoot. (don't you love how I'm so lazy I take my kids pictures on the street in front of our house?)













Then we had her party at Chuck E Cheese. She's been talking about this for months! Nearly every day she'd ask if it was her birthday yet and I'd say "when's your birthday?" and she'd say "May 4th" and I'd say it wasn't May 4th yet and she'd put the question on hold til the next day.











And this morning we woke her up for the traditional birthday breakfast and a present in bed.



And tonight she gets to pick dinner and we'll have cupcakes.

I love you, my Clarabelle! Happy Birthday!

Blessing Day!

We blessed Hyrum on Sunday. It was a lovely blessing but Hyrum wasn't too excited about it. He cried through the whole thing. Not just fussing. Really crying. I had hope because he's my first kid to take a binky so I figured we'd pop it in and he'd be fine through the blessing. Nope. He spit it out as soon as the blessing started and that was that.

But he was cute! And I have pictures!

The super soft and gorgeous green blanket was knitted by my mom. I love it!



































One of our awesome sister missionaries was able to hear past the crying and wrote some notes about the blessing for me. He was given his name and told that his parents love him and are thankful for him. He was told that he was close to the Savior in the pre-existence and his desire is to follow Him. He came to earth at this time to fulfill the Saviors will. Life will challenge him but he was blessed to be able to bear up those burdens.

We sure love him! He's already brought so much joy to all of us.

Thanks to everyone who came to support us on his blessing day!