Tae Kwon Do

Syd has been taking Tae Kwon Do since September. When she started out she was what is called a no-belt. Syd had her first belt test on Saturday and she passed! She is now a white-belt. It was pretty cool to watch her testing. She showed all the punches and kicks she knows along with what is called "forms". It is a combination of moves put together. She knows three of these.
There were almost 20 people testing on the same day, ranging from those testing for their white belt, like Syd to two girls testing for their second degree brown belts. It was really fun to watch the different levels. They showed their sparring ability and even got to break boards with their arms and feet. There is something Syd can look forward to!


So Syd is really excited to wear her belt to class now. She looks great! She told me that she couldn't smile for the pictures because that wouldn't be tough, but I got her to smile for one.
We are super proud of Syd and you all better watch out, this is not a girl to be messed with!

More Antics From Claire

The other morning Shawn and I were upstairs. He was getting ready for work and I was cleaning up breakfast. Brynn was sick and home from school. She was downstairs playing computer games, and Claire was watching her. Or so we thought. After about 15 minutes of playing, Brynn came upstairs and said "Mom, Claire is making a mess with conditioner." My mind immediately went all sorts of places, like conditioner squirted in the tub, on the bathroom floor. But I do not give Claire enough credit. She is much more creative than that.



This is what was left of a brand new bottle of conditioner that she squirted on MY COUCH them proceeded to rub in. Saying it was a mess was an understatement. You will be happy to know that my couch is now silky soft and tangle-free.

Naptime is sacred at our house. It is the one time of day that I get a reprieve from the child and don't have to worry about what kind of trouble she is getting into. When I went in yesterday to get Claire from her nap, this is how I found her:


She had reached out of her crib onto the changing table and gotten a tube of diaper rash cream and decided to have a little snack. After her snack she pulled up her pant legs and put "o-shen" all over her legs, and clothes, and blankets.

I am at a loss for words to describe my feelings about all of this. Well, except for one question. Who wants to babysit?

Halloween Happenings

Happy Halloween! We had a fun night full of tricks and treats. Here are some of the most memorable moments:

Brynn brought home a little pumpkin plant from school in the spring. It grew and grew. . . and grew. We ended up with 8 very nice pumpkins! Good job Brynny!
Syd carved her pumpkin all by herself this year. It looked great!
Here are our finished products. Can you guess whose is whose? :)
Here are the girls all dressed up. We had a cheerleader, a pixie/flower/Thumbelina/ and a princess.

We also had some fun trying to get our little princess to hold still long enough to get a good photo.
I told the older girls to just hold the smile. . . keep smiling!
Keep smiling!
And I guess we are done.

Our cheerleader. Rah, rah!
Thunbelina with her candy haul. Not too bad!
The princess eating her dinner. It's a good thing Halloween only comes once a year.

And now for the pieces de resistance: I present Bubba. He is the local mechanic who came by to visit. He had some great conspiracy theories about the moon landing and alien autopsies. He also shared his "oregano" with us.
Shawn got to play a part in the ward murder mystery. He took his role to heart. I think he jst wanted an excuse to grow his beard out for a week. :) You did a great job baby.We had a fun Halloween. Hope you did too!

Sydney the Hobo

Syd came upstairs tonight and announced she had decided to hit the road as a hobo. She had her hobo sack ready and everything. She even took it apart and told me why she had put the things in that she had. Here is what she said:

1. During the day I will use the blanket as a sack and at night it will double as a blanket.
2. I brought paper and a pen so I can keep track of where I have been.
3. I brought a telescope and binoculars, but maybe I only need one of those. I think I will put the telescope away and keep the binoculars.
4. I am taking Mr. Alien with me so he can keep me company. The little red container is his house.
5. I am taking a ball with me because it's important to have some entertainments.
6. This is a fold-down brush. I will need to brush the snarls out of my hair.
Pocket-knife. (I forgot to number that one). You never know when it might come in handy.
Just as a side note: Syd used a curtain rod as her stick in her hobo sack.



So Syd is ready to go. She wanted to be sure that I knew that she wasn't really going to run away but that the hobo sack could also be used as an emergency kit. She just went to bed and the hobo sack is strategically placed at the foot of her bed. In case she needs it in the middle of the night.

In Addition to Yesterday:

This is for all of you who think I might have been exaggerating with yesterday's post. I was in the kitchen today measuring out sugar for making jelly. I thought to myself "This sugar smells like something but I just can't put my finger on it". I shrugged and went back to measuring. A minute later I thought "I know! This sugar smells like baby powder. How weird is that." Then I realized how quiet it had gotten in Claire's room. She had been playing noisily in there for a while, but now there was no sounds to be heard. So I went back to see what she was up to and THIS is what I found:
Claire was having a grand time with an entire bottle of baby powder. She was clapping her hands and sending puffs of powder everywhere. There was a fan on in her room which was adding to the fun. I figure this is why I could smell it all in the way in the kitchen. Darn baby. I couldn't be mad because she was just so excited about the whole thing. She even thought it was fun when I used the vacuum hose to clean her off.

Some Moments With Claire

Claire is 18 months. Having a toddler around the house is interesting to say the least. Maybe I have just forgotten, but Claire seems to have more, ummm, ideas (read: attitude) about the way things should be than the other two did at this age. Syd was and still is so happy-go-lucky and Brynn was so mellow at 18 months considering she was still sitting around with her bucket of toys, not crawling or even rolling over. So with Claire we end up with quite a few funny moments at our house. Here are some that I caught in photos.



Claire loves her blankie. It kind of goes everywhere with her. Shawn took her for a ride in her wagon yesterday. He said they were just walking along when Claire started sobbing like her heart was broken. Shawn stopped and looked back. Blankie had fallen out of the wagon and was about 10 feet back laying forlornly on the sidewalk. Claire was reaching and crying. Very sad. Good thing dad came to the rescue and Blankie made it home.


I took Claire to the doctor for her 18 month check-up yesterday. She got four shots. She cried super-hard until the nurse pulled out a sucker, the the tears stopped instantly. I was trying to get a picture of her little legs with the band-aids on them. I thought the pic above was cute but didn't show the band-aids very well. So I was trying to get a better picture. . .and things quickly deteriorated into this:Claire won that round.



Claire has a bit of a preoccupation with shoes. She loves to put on her "saw" and "sues" and "go, go". She also likes everybody else's shoes. She got one of these boots of Syd's on by herself. I helped her with the other one. What can I say. She definitely is ready to "Go, go".

We love our little girl!

Photo Shoot

Go HERE to see some cute photos of my babies. Thank you so much Danelle for spending some time with us! Love you much.