Clarissa's Birthday

I thought I would post a few pictures of Clarissa's birthday, but there are more to come.

Clarissa turned 5 last Friday! She is now excited to be 5, but the day before her birthday, she was pretty sad that she would never be 4 again! I think a fun birthday helped her realize that everything would be ok. She has been talking about having a princess birthday for the last 6 months, so that is what she had.



The night before her birthday, she helped me decorate her princess cake. We had such a fun time together, and since I was doing it with her, it was a lot less stress, and it didn't bother me that it wasn't perfect. She was so proud of it, and I really enjoyed sharing that special time with her. It's fun to have your child enjoy doing something with you that you love to do! As you can see in the picture, Clayton enjoyed helping too! I have a little video of us decorating it, so once I figure out how to post it, I'll put it on here.

As per our family tradition, at least for the kids, we served the birthday girl breakfast in bed!

For the second year in a row, and maybe a tradition as well, Clayton gets the very first bite of her special breakfast! They loved eating breakfast together in her bed. I'm anxious to see if Clayton will be as generous with his breakfast on his birthday this year. He's never had his birthday breakfast in his bed before, but this will be his first birthday not in a crib.

Just one picture of Clarissa dancing at her princess party, I thought it was the perfect little shot of her twirling. I still need to put the rest of the pictures on my computer.

I'm glad our little princess had such a fun birthday! (I just have a really hard time believing she is 5 already, my how times flies!)

Pictures

Just a few pictures of the kids!

Memorial Day!

A few days before Memorial Day, Clarissa saw all the plastic flowers in Walmart (the ones they sell to put on graves) and wondered what they were for. I was explaining to her about how for Memorial Day we put them on the graves of people that we love and remember. Since we don't live by any of our relatives, I suggested that for Memorial Day, we visit Carol Marlat's grave (she was an older lady in our ward that died about a year and a half ago). Clarissa was very excited to do this, and kept asking if it was Memorial Day yet for about a week.

It was a busy weekend, but we were able to go Sunday evening. The kids were very excited to take flowers to the cemetary.

We would always see Sister Marlat at church, and we visited her once at her home, and once at a chocolate store where she worked and passed out samples. Every time we drive by Fanny May Candies, Clarissa always remembers Sister Marlat, it's fun to have that memory of her.

I wanted to share one other funny story about Clarissa and Sister Marlat, and another lady, Ruth that is in our ward. Ruth is probably in her sixties, and Sister Marlat was 79 when she died, but they both have/had grayish white hair.

Last summer, about six months or so after Sister Marlat had passed away, Ruth, had come to our house to pick up something. As she was leaving, Clarissa loudly whispered to me "Mom, was she resurrected?"

Apparently, Clarissa thought these lady's both looked pretty similar and thought that Ruth was Sister Marlat, and had been resurrected. We all got a pretty good laugh out of it. A few weeks ago we saw Ruth at church, and Clarissa asked the same question, I don't think she had remembered asking it before.

We are grateful for the opportunity we had to celebrate Memorial Day, and remember every one that has passed on before us, especially those that died to preserve our freedoms.

A Sad Goodbye

Quinn plays the guitar, and his guitar case had seen better days, so we decided it was time to get a new one. As you can see in the picture, the case was totally falling a part, and not protecting the guitar very well. But it wasn't sad to say goodbye to the case, we were very happy to see it go and to get a new one. The sad part came the next day, but first, the happiness that came before it...


The guitar case came in a giant box, which the kids loved playing with, and some wonderful packing paper that made fantastic dresses!

These two pictures were taken right before I dragged the box out to the dumpster. These were genuinely sad faces, I didn't realize how sad they were until I pulled up these pictures. It was their playhouse, their stage, a house for their toys, and many other things. It's amazing how a box can provide so much entertainment. The only way I was able to drag it out to the dumpster, without too many tears, was the promise that we would be having plenty more boxes in the house over the next two months as we prepare to move.