Clara Jump Up!

In the mornings, I've been putting Clara in her Johnny Jump Up while I get ready for the day. She loves it! At first, she kinda just hung there. Now, she bounces all over the place and plays all sorts of tunes on the little mat that sits under her feet!  Thanks Cousin Ben for letting us borrow both fantastic babysitters toys!  Enjoy this video!  Clara is such a joy - I love that she's a trooper when it comes to trying new things!

staredown.

When I was pregnant, I reconnected with some high school friends who I hadn't seen in years.  (That makes me sound really old!)  I found out that two of my good friends were also pregnant!  We were all shocked and wonderfully surprised!  I had Clara, a few weeks later my friend Angela had little Austin, and three months later, Marla had little Faith!  We've had such fun with our babies!  We have gone on lots of walks and we've even had a handful of picnics in different parks.  The babes LOVE spending time on the blanket in the shade of a big tree, and us moms love to chat and learn how this parenting thing works together! 

Here is a shot of Clara and Austin "enjoying" some tummy time staring each other down!

Clara promptly passed out! 

Thanks girls for the fun times!  I love that our babies are spending lots of time together!

Clara meets her Great Great Uncle

Kurtis' great uncle Arlen came to town for a visit and Clara got a chance to meet him!  Here they are...obviously enjoying their evening together!

 Here is Clara with her Dad, Grandparents, and Great Great Uncle!

 Four generations - Arlen Appleford, Janet Appleford Brooks, Kurtis Brooks,and Miss Clara Ann!

 Clara was a nut that evening!  She was very grumpy at first, and then got so much energy and was full of smiles!

It was a fabulous night of great food, great wine, and the BEST company!

important.

Loved this article!  I couldn't agree with the author's words more!  I'm guilty of this all the time, even in my first grade classroom.  It is going to take some unlearning to get on the right track for when Clara gets a little older so I can be a good model for her!  Read this (so I don't give you the stink eye when you talk about Clara's outfit or how cute/beautiful/adorable/etc. she is)!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-bloom/how-to-talk-to-little-gir_b_882510.html

first camping trip.

What a weekend!  We decided to go camping about a week ago.  You'd-a-thunk we'd have started to prepare for this maiden voyage with Clara early!  Well, I can say I went to the grocery store on Thursday, and that's about all we did in advance to get ready for the trip!  We're such slackers! 

 

Friday afternoon rolled around, and I started to get things packed.  Of course, it is a busy time of year for Kurtis, so he didn't get off work till around 6:00.  He rushed home and started throwing things together with me.  Just when we'd get on a roll, I'd have to stop and feed Clara, or we'd get distracted looking for camp cookers in our garage for 30 minutes on and off!  To make a long story short... we didn't jet out of town till around 8:30.  Not a great start!

We drove the 65ish miles to Sage Hen Reservoir, which took about 2 hours.  By the time we got there, half of Boise was already camping there!  Wow!  We drove through the dark campgrounds searching for a spot!  At one point, I honestly thought we were going to have to sleep in the truck with our four month babe and drive home Saturday morning!  But... at 11:30, we pulled into the LAST campsite out of the 5 campgrounds around Sage Hen!  Thank goodness!

Before we left, my parents shared the story of their first camping trip with me.  At some point in the night, my dad exclaimed, "This is a (insert choice word here) fiasco!"  This is exactly how Kurtis and I felt, setting up the tent trailer at 11:30 at night in the dark with our truck engine running and headlights shining on our site!  Our neighbors surprisingly didn't kill us on the spot!  When we've gone camping in the past, there always seems like there is one jerk who pulls in super late and keeps everyone in the campground awake with their loud truck and noisy camp set up!  I guess we're that jerk now!  Having a child is teaching me that circumstances happen in life and I shouldn't judge others so quickly. 

Anyway, the trip started out as a complete fiasco.  But by midnight, we were in our big double sleeping bag with Clara swaddled in between us and all of us were content! 

Clara ended up sleeping from midnight till around 8:00 am.  I slept better than I have in years while camping (I think it is due to sleeping up off the ground in the tent trailer - thanks Jeff and Janet for letting us borrow it!). 

Saturday was awesome!  Clara woke up, ate, and went back to sleep till around 10:00 am.  Kurtis and I enjoyed coffee and oatmeal around the campfire under the peaceful pines!  Jeff and Janet drove up for the day to hang out with us and were able to stay through lunch and dinner.  We sat by the water, tried to take a little nap (Clara was absolutely a nutcase during nap time and was cracking Kurtis and I up with her silly antics).  Jeff and Janet headed home, and we sat around the campfire.  Clara was mesmerized by the fire.  She was so happy to be in the woods. 

Because the first night went so well when it came to sleeping, I was certain night #2 couldn't go well.  But Clara surprised us and slept from 11 pm till 7:45 am.  What a good camper she is!  We woke up Sunday, ate some breakfast and packed up camp while Clara slept.  We headed out of camp at 10:40 am - which is a lot earlier than we usually get out of the mountains.  We drove home, unpacked, washed ourselves and our camping laundry, and were able to relax for the rest of our Sunday!

We picked up Mac (who stayed with Jeff and Janet while we camped) and headed to my parents' house to eat some dinner and meet up with Gwen who stayed there for the weekend! 

Kurtis and I were so happy with how the weekend went!  The start was rocky, but the rest of it was such a treat!  We're planning a few more trips this summer and now have confidence in Clara's ability to be a good camper!  Here are a few pics from the weekend!

 Love Clara's face here!

 Crazy baby smile!

Here is Mac at my parents' house jumping in the pool.  The dog swims laps.  You've never met a dog who loves the water so much.  We have to force him to stay out of the pool.

Here are our dogs doing their synchronized swimming routine!  Or not!  They both jumped in after a ball, Gwen got it and was then stalked by Mac until he could steal it from her!  We have some crazy puppies!  To bad I didn't get Gwen doing what she does best - jumping off the diving board after balls!

I have a cute video of our camp and Clara sleeping in the trailer but it is a little too large to load to my blog!  Sorry!

In the future, we'll be looking for a tent trailer of our own!  Those things seriously rock!  Thanks again Jeff and Janet for letting us use yours!  It was so nice to have for the weekend!

the little impatiens that could.

Remember these?  Well they've grown into these!

 Can you believe it!  This one is flowering!  Propagation is like magic!

 So...I tried it again!  These are newly propagated impatiens.  They look rough at first, but they'll come around.

I've started geraniums and they also seem to be growing fine!   I see less money spent on annuals in my future!

what we did on the 4th.

While Kurtis and my Dad were out on this river...

 the Owyheee...

 we girls were playing in the sun!

 And of course, we were eating our sun hats!

 The pool was nice and toasty  We were loving every minute!

 Loving every minute till I gave Clara a little dunk.  She got over it!

 Swimming knocked the babe out!

 For a brief moment at least.

 Classic!  This was the look Clara gave Auntie Em after Em gave her a small taste of Greek yogurt!

 Dad and Kurtis finally made it back and we ate a delish dinner of fresh kokonee, asparagus. pasta salad and fruit pizza.  Then we watched the fireworks over Hawk's Stadium.

 Clara is always this excited to see her Dad!

It was a fantastic, low-key holiday.  And it is always priceless watching my Dad get all worked up about neighbors shooting off illegal fireworks.  He's always certain their house and the gravel pit below their house are going to burn to the ground on the 4th.  Classic!