A Portrait

This painting hung in my mom's family room until we moved to Illinois. It now hangs in our living room. It was painted by a good friend of mine, Jared Miller, when he was a freshman at BYU. He is now studying art at the Art Institute in Chicago. I've always been impressed with Jared's artwork. He has a wonderful talent and has worked hard to develop it. If you'd like to see some of his more recent work, check out the link on our sidebar.

Strawberry Jam

Yesterday morning Clarissa got scratched on the nose while playing with a friend. Quinn had gone to work that morning and then came home for lunch. Clarissa was already in the middle of eating a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich. Clarissa doesn't really eat a peanut butter sandwich, she just licks the jam off, which results in a very messy face. I was busy on the phone so Quinn started wiping Clarissa's face off. He kept wiping her nose and couldn't figure out why the jam was not coming off!!!

President Hinckley

This past week Clarissa has started saying a few more words. Last Friday I was cleaning out some folders and found a picture of President Hinckley. I didn't say anything, but Clarissa pointed to it and said "Grandpa". I'm not sure why she thought that, but she said it again on Saturday when she saw the picture again. Even though he is not her Grandpa, I think in a way he is a Grandpa to us all. Someone that we all look up to, and hope to be like. Just like Quinn and I will teach Clarissa about her two Grandpa's, and hope she will follow their wonderful examples, we hope she will also look to the example of President Hinckley, as well as our future prophets. We are grateful for the service of President Hinckley and will miss him dearly, but we are also grateful to know that he is with our loving Heavenly Father.

A Fresh New Look!

Wait! Stop. . . Don't go away. You are in the right spot. We just changed the look of our blog. We hope you like the new look and that you enjoy the recently returned music. Clarissa is a big fan of this song and likes to dance to it.

I also got a fresh new look this week--a new suit. An early birthday present from my parents. It matches our new blog look. Now we are all in sync.

Clarissa and Her Baby

Clarissa got some baby dolls, a stroller, and a little playpen for Christmas. At first she fooled us and made it look like she knew that the stroller and playpen was for the baby.

Nope!

Clarissa decided to climb right in.

Just like the manger on Christmas Eve, Clarissa tossed out the baby and made herself comfortable.

Mmmm! BBQ Sauce and Apples

Clarissa has been experimenting with new tastes lately, in this picture it was apples and honey mustard bbq sauce, and today it was green beans and string cheese dipped in bbq sauce. Maybe it really is delicious, or could it be that she just thinks it's fun to dip her food in something???

Look at that Hair!

Clarissa was playing with her pony tail holders, and she finally sat still for me to do her hair. So, I decided to have a little fun!

A Soggy Shoe

This morning Clarissa was playing with her shoe while I was putting my contacts in. All of a sudden I hear Clarissa saying "ah ah ah" which means she is trying to get something she wants. I turn around and realized she dropped her shoe in the tub. It serves me right for forgetting to drain the tub right after her bath. I guess she will be wearing a different pair today.

An upsidedown ottoman

Who knew that the most popular place to sit was the upsidedown ottoman that we used for the manger.

Clarissa would have slept there if it was up to her.

Charlie and Clarissa loved climbing in it together and playing.

Even Theron tried to have a turn, but as you can see, Clarissa still had to be there, she wasn't too keen on sharing.

Christmas Pictures

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve. For a complete story of the evening visit the post on January 7th on Britt's Blog.

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Quinn holding Baby Jesus

Mary and Joseph standing next to the manger (we at least got a couple pictures before Clarissa discovered how fun it was to sit in the manger.)

The Shepherd and his sheep.

The three wiseguys.