Announcement!

We have an announcement!

We are moving to Logan, UT!

I bet you thought it was something like we were have another baby.  

Brandon has been officially accepted to Utah State's Mechanical Engineering grad program.


He has also has been blessed to receive a Research Assistantship.  This is where he works with a professor doing research on a specific topic.  His topic will be the feasibility of using nuclear fusion reactors in the future. He's actually pretty excited about it. Which is good because he'll be doing that for the next two years as he gets his Masters.

We are super excited for it and know that it's an answer to many prayers.  In other good news Brandon also passed the FE Exam.  Which happens to be the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam.  This is an eight hour engineering exam. :(  This will open up some opportunities in the job field but it will also give him the opportunity to take the PE (Professional Engineering Exam) which really will help a lot in the job market. He took it back in October and we found out that he passed it the same day we found out about the Assistantship.

Now enough talk, here are some pictures!

This happens often in our house.

Clara in the Christmas dress borrowed from her cousin Ashlynn.

 Ashlynn in the same dress five years ago.  Can you tell they're related?

Discoveries!

These last few weeks have been full of new discoveries at our house.  Here are a few:

 We tried peaches, prunes and rice cereal.  She loves the peaches and doesn't mind the cereal... the prunes, well, we're working on those. :)

She does love Popsicles though.  Mostly she loves food.  She has gotten to the point of trying to take the food out of your hand and feed it to herself.  She also like saltine crackers.

She LOVES her toes and blowing raspberries.

And someone learned how to roll!

We also got new flowers from Grandma Lee for Christmas... They are pictured here:

And finally Grandpa Nelson made her a hat! 

4 Months!

Can't believe our sweet little girl is 4 months old already.

Her stats are:

Wt:  13.5.....49%

Ht: 24 in.......41%

Head: 15.8 in....24%

She is growing and changing everyday!  Here are my attempts at taking her 4 month picture.

Finally I did get a mostly good picture.

Here are some more pictures for you to enjoy! :)

 She really is a happy baby.  I love her smiles!

Watching Lion King.  I can turn on 'Can't Wait to Be King' and she is captivated, even if it's only for a second.  

She's getting quick with her hands.  Yes, those are my glasses that she took off of my face.

She loves to stand!

Don't worry, we're starting her young. :)

First Snow!

This morning we woke up to our first real snow of the year.  That means that it's Clara's first experience with snow so of course that means pictures!

Clara was not too sure about this snow stuff.  It probably didn't help that the wind was blowing and it is FREEZING outside today.  

                                                                                                                                             We also decided to take pictures of her in her cute 'First Christmas' outfit.  She wasn't so sure about that either and she's getting so squirmy that it's getting hard to get a good picture.

Another thing that happens in our house is the coming up with and evolving of nicknames.  I am no good at nicknames but Brandon is pro at coming up with them.  From the day Clara was born Brandon has called her Boofa which has turned into Loofa or Boofa Loofa or Loo... you get the picture.  We also call heads noggins... our poor children will hopefully know the correct words for things when they grow up.  Anyway, Clara's head is a Boofa Noggin which has been shortened to Boof Nog, which inspired the following picture:

Our poor little girl had a cold when this picture was taken... you can tell that she doesn't feel good.  Thankfully she is feeling much better and growing everyday!

This is Halloween!

This year for Halloween we were going to dress up our sweet baby as...

A little pumpkin princess.

But after a video chat with Brandon's siblings she became an:

Avatar! Or the Last Airbender!

This costume was significantly more stress but I think it was totally worth it.

Brandon was going to go as Appa, the flying buffalo beaver but we couldn't find a costume for me and he didn't want to be dressed up if I wasn't.  So we almost didn't dress up and then I had a brilliant idea.  We could go as the 'creators' of the Last Airbender!  I thought I was pretty clever.

Every year growing up we had hot chocolate and donuts after we went trick or treating.  I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of Halloween but this is something that I won't do without. This year our apartment complex had a trunk or treat that we went to after the ward party.  They had hot chocolate and donuts so we had someone take our picture so we had proof that we are continuing the tradition!  We also wanted Aunt Myrna and Uncle Rennie to see that we are missing them.  (That's where we went after trick or treating)

I also had this great idea to dress up Clara in her pumpkin outfit and take pictures of her next to the pumpkin we bought.... these are the best I could get.

A few of our favorite things :)

This beautiful little girl is 3 months old! (Well now she's closer to 3 1/2, I'm a little behind.)

 She loves her Daddy and he's pretty smitten with her.  She also loves her hands... a lot.  She loves to eat them, look at them, and she's starting to grab things around her.

Happy 25th to this wonderful guy! I really don't know what I'd do without him.

This is Mr. Beaver... sometimes he saves lives.

She loves sitting up.  If she's lying on the ground and you grab her hands she will automatically try to sit up and then stand up.  She is getting so strong!

She LOVES her bath.  It seriously solves a lot of problems.

Sometimes I'll leave Clara with Brandon while I do something else and often when I come back he doesn't have her anymore.  I usually find her places like the above picture.  Yes that is an empty drawer.  I've also found on our bed, in her bed, under the coffee table, on the couch, on the blanket pile... you get the picture.  Don't worry though, she's always safe.

Told you they love each other.

We love this little girl so much!  She is growing and changing everyday.  I love it!