Today's events

This week we are starting the process of getting our basement finished, and it has been very loud downstairs.  I didn't know how I was going to be able to get Clayton down for naps in the next 8 weeks, but I was very surprised when I put him on the couch to watch TV while I caught up on my reality shows, and came out 2 minutes later and he was sound asleep.  I can't even tell you how loud it is here.  They have their music on, and with the sawing and nailing, it is SOOO loud.  Yeah, I am feeling confident I will be able to get him down still in the afternoons.  Plus, it's hard to tire him out because the gate is open for the guys to carry things to the basement, so we haven't been able to go out and play.

It's a bird

I am SOOO not a nature or bird person but today Clayton and I were outside playing and saw what I think is a hawk flying around our backyard.  This is the only picture that came out clear and I don't know if you will be able to see it, but still, kinda cool.  Jared would probably tell me it's a duck.  I got a picture of a fox last year and he said it was a cat until I proved him wrong and he saw one himself.  

Bad day turned into a good day....

Today didn't start off too good.  While I was in the shower, Clayton decided it would be fun to take Coconut's food (Coco is the cat) and mix it in with her water, and pour it all over my brand new quilt on my bed.  He specifically laid out the throw pillows perfectly and dumped it all over the pillows.  It was like it was in slow motion.  I could see he was up to something, but didn't know the extent of what he was doing.  Needless to say, he had a very long time out in his bedroom.  So I decided it would be time to go outside and tire him out so while he napped I could get to work on cleaning my quilt and all he wanted to do was to swing.  So we sat in the swing for a good 30 minutes watching the planes (he loves to watch the planes fly over our house) and one second he was talking about the planes and the next second he was sound asleep.  I actually got him out of the swing and into his bed without him waking up which is a huge accomplishment.  It turned into a really good day.  He hasn't napped for me for weeks, so this is seriously the best day ever!!!

Clayton Update

Now that it's getting warmer Clayton and I have finally been able to go out and play in the backyard, but here are a couple of pictures we took when it was cold outside and we were stuck inside.  The picture of Clayton on the chair is my wonderful fort I worked so hard on.  I know, very creative.  

I Love NY

Jared had to work in New York last week, so my friend Amber and I tagged along and hung out in the city while Jared worked.  I don't have any pictures of me and Amber (sorry Amber) so here is one of me at The Top of the Rock. 

The Zoo

Clayton and his friend Will went to the zoo last week, but this is the only picture that came out. ( Sara, if you took pics, send them my way).  Ummm, that's all for this post.  Short and sweet!

Clayton Visits Washington D.C.

Jared had to work in NY for a week, so Clayton and I went out to DC to visit my friend Jamil and meet baby Mikey.  Clayton didn't do so well on the plane out (he pretty much screamed the whole way, no joke) but the flight home he slept the whole way!  

Hailey and Clayton played really well together.  We played at their neighborhood park, attempted the grocery store twice, and went to Chuckee Cheese which is far better than ours in SLC.  We had a good time and hope that next time Jamil, Hailey, and baby Mikey will come to us so we don't have to go on a plane again for a long time. 

St. George Trip

Jared has been doing a lot of traveling the last few months so Clayton and I decided last minute to fly to St. George and visit Papa and MaGra for a few days.  Clayton loves sitting with Papa and having cheetos and watching golf.  I wish I had a picture of it, but they also wash their golf clubs together and you can see the frustration with my dad dealing with Clayton splashing and trying to pour the water out of the bucket.  We went to the park almost everyday and found a cute little place on Main Street where they have cupcakes, so we hit that place everyday.  Sometimes twice.

Valentines Day in New York City!

Okay, so I know it has been a long time since I have blogged so I am going to try to catch up while Clayton is napping.

Jared took me to New York for a week for Valentines day.  This is us at Morton's Steakhouse in Manhattan.  It's not the greatest picture because I ended up getting bronchitis the fourth day there and barely made it to dinner that night.  But we had a good time and did a lot of shopping!  Jared had to work a few days, so I wondered around NY by myself.  

This and that

Not too much has been going on the last few weeks.  Clayton and I keep passing a cold back and forth, and can't quite get back to feeling good, so we have been in the house most of the last few weeks.  Here Clayton is in his Led Zeppelinn t-shirt he got from Uncle Logan just bumming around the house.  Snoop (my dog I got from high school that lives with my parents) is here visiting for a week or two and Clayton loves having him around.  I don't know how many treats Clayton has given him that I don't know about.  I did catch him trying to give him Lucky Charms the other morning.  He loves Snoop.  They pal around with each other all day.  I even found Clayton trying to read him books, and he tried to put him to bed the other day.  He put a blanket on him and turned out the lights and shut the door and told him to go sleepy.  So cute!

This last picture is of Clayton the other night on his love sac.  Like I said, he has been sick and he didn't go down for a nap the whole day and at 6:00 pm I came up to get him for dinner and found him like this with the lights on and watching cartoons.  He was so tired!  He ended up sleeping until 5:00 am and he came down and turned on our lights in our room and announced "I'm awake" so that didn't start the morning off well.

Let's see, what else is going on.  I am back in school and taking probably more classes than I should, but this whole school part time thing is taking way too long!  Jared has been working a lot, but luckily I am keeping busy by doing tons of play dates, going to Clayton's music class, and having help from Jared's mom, and my mom.

Well, I guess that's all.  I will try to update the blog more often.  Clayton isn't a fan of me getting on the computer and always ends up trying to take over so I rarely get online.  

Christmas 2008

Okay, so I know it is the last day of January and I am just now getting this post done, but better late than never.

Christmas was good this year.  Because of the weather my dad didn't make it up  and we didn't get to make our rounds to Jared's parents houses.  We did have my family here though.  

Here we are Christmas morning opening presents.  Clayton was happy to see his train set he has been asking for, which is good because Santa and Mrs. Claus were up pretty late putting that thing together.  He also got a tool bench, a love sac, and tons of books and clothes.  All and all,  a good Christmas!

Feeling Festive

Apparently Christmas is almost here.  I know it must be coming soon because my wallet is hemorrhaging cash.  But in the spirit of the holidays, we decided to take Clayton downtown with cousins Olivia and Casey to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square.  I think it was the first time I have gone to see the lights since probably before I was in high school.  We thought Clayton would like all the lights, but he was kind of tired and cold and didn't think it was such a big deal.  You can get a pretty good sense of how excited he was to be there in the picture above.
All the lights are pretty elaborate, and it must take an insane amount of work to put them up.  But Temple Square isn't as big as I remember it being as a kid.  It was a pretty quick walk through.  Mostly I just walked around thinking that wrapping lights around the tiniest tree branches is a crappy job.  There are other jobs I would enjoy even less than that (like phlebotomist, Ikea assembler, or "community organizer"--whatever that is), but Christmas light hanger is right near the top of the list.

We took this picture of me and Tina in Temple Square.  And Tina observed that we look exactly the same in every picture of the two of us.  Which is pretty true.  So we've got the consistency thing going for us.

My Martha Stewart Moment

Yep!  I did it!  I made Thanksgiving.  Jared helped of course.  For you that know me, know that I can't cook.  I can bake cookies, cakes, and pies, but not "real food".  I can't even fry chicken, yet alone make a whole turkey!  I think it went pretty good, and I learned a lot!  I am happy to say that I bought a free-range turkey so it had a happy life before it was slaughtered.  (I do everything Oprah tells me to do).We had Jared's brother Logan and his girlfriend Ashley over, along with Jared's mom Souzzann and Jim.  Clayton fell asleep at the top of the stairs, so he missed much of the dinner, which honestly was nice.  I rarely get to have a meal without having to try to force feed

 him some food.  Here's my man carving the turkey.

Thankful for Clayton, the Narcoleptic

So, today is Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be thankful for, especially in these tough times. But mostly Clayton. That kid is rad.

Onto another update on Clayton's hijinks. Specifically, Clayton has developed a strange habit of falling asleep at the top of our stairs. For two mornings in a row, we got up in the morning and found Clayton sleeping in basically this same spot. I have no idea how early he gets up and moves from his bed in the morning. But he has also done it in the middle of the day. This picture was taken in the afternoon, shortly after I chastised Clayton for throwing something on the floor and took him up to his room to think about it. Clayton decided to think about it by passing out on the landing. Hey, whatever works.

Halloween is finally here!

We started off the day with going to Casey's Halloween parade at school.  Casey was a storm trooper. (I think) I'm not a fan of Star Wars, so he tried to explain to me which "trooper" he was and got confused.  Anyways, my mom thought it would be fun to pretend Clayton was in the parade, so she walked him through the line after the other kids.  Here they are.  Clayton was not a fan.

And the top picture (I can't quite figure out how to get my pictures lined up how I want) is a picture of Clayton right before he headed out to trick-or-treat.  He wouldn't put his mask all the way down, but Jared managed to get it on his head.  Clayton seemed to have fun.  Jared said he was really shy at first, but then once he got used to it, he was was saying trick-or-treat and thank you and I guess he tried to even go into some peoples homes.  

Pumpkin Carving

Clayton invited Casey and Olivia over to carve pumpkins Thursday night.  Once Clayton saw us cleaning out the pumpkins, he didn't want much to do with it so he headed up to his room to play.  That's why he isn't pictured.  Good times!

Clayton's girlfriends

Clayton and I met up with my friend Amber and her two little girls Madison and Marli for lunch at Gardner Village last week and took some pictures. Clayton loves the ladies!  

Party Time

Clayton was invited to his first Halloween party. The party was hosted by his cousin Casey, but I don't know why Casey isn't dressed up.  I could have sworn he was dressed as a storm trooper when I picked Clayton up.  Here Clayton is dressed up at Batman.  

I also found this picture of Clayton last year dressed up as a spider.  I remember he hated that costume.  We didn't even end up taking him trick or treating because we put the outfit on him and he started screaming.  I can't believe how big he has got!

Halloween Festivities

Okay, so for you that know my family, we take Halloween pretty seriously.  We even make Halloween gingerbread houses.  Here is Clayton and his cousins Casey and Olivia working hard on their houses.  Aunt Dina said that Clayton didn't decorate much, but he did enjoy the candy.  

Jared's 29th Birthday

On Saturday Jared turned 29 and we had a small party for him.  We just had cake and ice cream and watched Boston College beat Virginia Tech.  As you can see, the two of them had their BC shirts on.  Go Eagles!