festival of lights

got time to write about our adventure last night. we went to the festival of lights (a park all decorated with lights that you drive through and the kids go ooooh and ahhhh over.) with all of my in-laws. after thinking about how it turned out, i think each person had a different experience all together. we met up at a parking lot close to it, and got into the trailer hitched up to the back of a durango. when we got there it was about 34 degrees, and just a slight breeze. the line to get in was amazingly long, and there were two lines. the officer directed us to go to one line, which appeared shorter, and 45 minutes later we learned was actually, the longer line for people from elsewhere to merge into. hmmmm...... so four kids under four dressed like ralphie, in the freezing cold waiting for some lights...... a set of grandparents, two sets of parents, and a teenager also on board... got that picture in your head? now here's what i imagine everyone was thinking....or saying...

Papa: grumble, grumble, whats this line about, grumble, grumble, move! grumble, grumble, communists.....

Ya-Ya: i just want someone to sit in my lap so i can be warmer. it would be warmer for the two of us.... daniel! stop taking my blanket! paige, please come back.....

Jason: glad i'm driving this thing all nice and warm, poor wife, i'll just start moving the truck while she gets in, that'll be funny to everyone, oh and i'll do it when papa is trying to get out so everyone has to jump up and help him. mwah-ha-ha....

Laura: Sit down! rudolph the red-sit down!-nose-noworelseyouareinthecar - reindeer- imeanitthistimepaige-had a very shiny nose, and if you ever saw it- okayletsgoyouarenotlistening....

Joe: Katie, are you okay? do you want to sit in the chair? No really, do you want to sit in the chair, you can have my chair, more blankets? i can give you mine even though you have six already.....

Daniel (age 12): its not that cold out here, what are you guys cold for? can i have a blanket, its actually freezing now.... whats sticking me up the bum?

Jamison (4): wowwwww, ohhhhh, that rainbow is blue, and that one is GREEN!!! my favorite color is black. RUDOLPH!! look at the PENGUIN! MOM loooooooook at the PENGUIN!!!!

Sierra (3): {shes a little harder to read...} oh that was really pretty. why is paigie running around? ya-ya is nice and warm. i'll just sit here and be content and cute. although this hat bugs me. good bye hat...

Paige (1): weeeee!!! jump, run, no mommy you don't get it. i want to STAND. although you are holding me tickling it won't last long..... i WWWWOOOOOONNNNN"TTTTT!!!!

Claire: zzzzzZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZ (slept the whole time!)

Me: well, i'm warm. i am content. i will just be happy for everyone else sake. the lights are beautiful, and although its cold, i am so happy to be with family. they are wonderful and loving. its too bad my butt is numb.

i love my in-laws. promise! we had a good time, joked, made a few memories. and then watched byu make a oregon cry. it was a great night!

cousins

i'm sure there will be more! we had a little photo shoot with the brewer cousins. too cute!

warm and snug in nc

we made it safely to nc on friday! it was a LONG trip, but definitely worth it! we have been showered with love and affection, and claire is obsessed with her cousins. everyone is just so generous and filled with love, and we are just having a blast getting to be with everyone.

claire hanging out with papa

claire shared a bath for the first time with her cousin paigey-poo. i think she liked it but was really just confused!

she loves being close to the tv to watch elmo. she is OBSESSED with everything elmo.

joe's nephew has really warmed up to me! he LOVES being tickeled and taking pictures on the cell phone and looking at the them. silly, silly sweet boy. total poser for the camera!

we'll see how much i update this while we are here. i love getting to know joe's family!

start 'em early

did anyone else's mom do this growing up? we HATED this when my mom put the dreaded curlers in our hair saturday nights for church the next day. it hurt to sleep on and our hair would get all puffy (take a look at lindsay's blog for a perfext example). we all knew what would happen when claire finally had enough hair on top! mom went out and bought a UGE bag of sponge curlers for miss claire and got that thing in easy peasy. last night i was thinking about my fam and how i miss them, especially because we won't see them for christmas, and i wanted to see how much hair i could get in curlers. voila! it was tricky, but i'm sure with practice it will improve. the funniest part? of course they all fell out while she was sleeping, and she woke up with the straightest hair.... even though her hair is naturally really curly!

and happy birthday to fabio (aka dad)! just move out here already! love you!

you know it was bad when....

my visiting teacher stops by after church and asks if everything is okay. is everything okay? yeah, why? oh did i look tired or something?..... lets recap, shall we?

it was great until my former book of mormon teacher came up and asked how i was doing (right before church started. the good lasted all of about two minutes). we've been in the ward for... almost TWO YEARS and he never realized i was the one who made the mistake of scheduling the class for 2 p.m. and sleeping through nearly every class and barely getting a passing grade. until today. how are you sister bowerman, i mean brewer? yeah, that wasn't totally embarassing. he claims he doesn't remember me (joe told him about it. i recognized him the first day of church and almost walked back out. thats how embarassed i was.) did i mention that his WIFE is my VT companion now?

that was nothing. really, it was the rest of it that got to me. yep. i was tired. and so was claire. neither of us slept last night. and she wouldn't take a nap at church. and she kept messing her diaper. and would not. sit. still. for two seconds. and wanted to run and jump and talk and scream and show how cute she is. and bang on the piano and fall off chairs, kick off her shoes, and then steal a candy cane from a young woman, start eating it and then freaking out when she realized her hands were sticky. was i on the verge of tears or screaming at claire every other minute? you betcha.

all of this would be solved very, very easily. i can see the answer. taste it in the air. feel it everywhere around me.

but alas, we have FIVE MORE LONG MONTHS before she can go to nursery.

the worst is that i know a lot of people with kids who have a reeeeaallllly hard time with nursery. claire would handle it better than the 3 year olds. shes pretty attatched to me at the moment, but give her room to romp and shes a happy girl!

i try and enjoy church. promise. we take books, snacks, bottles, i pay attention to her, but its just not enough anymore. the girl has more energy than a nuclear bomb. i know that because it looks like one went off on our pew each sunday after sacrament.

may 3, 2010, you cannot get here any faster.

next week will be better. it will be better because we will be in joe's home ward with extra hands to help. joe's home ward won't know what hit them. maybe we'll just tell everyone shes 18 months and stick her in nursery there?

done venting.

i can't get enough of this. so in love.
luke and claire

please. just click and watch. it'll make your day.
its like they are already an old couple.
and the way she lays her head on his shoulder.

(claire has an obsession with being "in" things right now.
drawers, baskets, boxes, laundry, legs of a chair, you name it.
pretty sure she convinced him it was fun.
looks like it was)

about DIED

when i saw this on my friend katharine's blog! claire and her buddy luke had a play date on friday. little did i know it was a real date! i guess these two know what they want and just go for it. my goodness. gotta watch out for her i guess!

already holding hands??? they aren't even two!!!

how to frustrate your parents

by Claire Brewer

1. climb the chairs and get on the kitchen table, over, and over, and over again.
2. when they pull you down and spank you, cry for a second like it actually hurt, then climb up again.
3. when they put the chairs in the family room on their sides, climb on those then fall and cry because you got hurt.
4. when they stand in the way of the table, run around the other way, trying to be sneaky.
5. try and be cute and funny when you are really misbehaving, saying "hi" and nodding like its cute or something. (it really is. but stop trying to get us to forget what we're talking about!)

claire, i love you! you are too smart! i just want you to be safe. please stop climbing on the table.

love, mommy

ps- while i am frustrated that you have a fascination with climbing on the table, i am very happy you learned your lesseon that the christmas tree hurts when you grab at it.

whoops...

forgot about blogging again.... not. just been a little busy! we had thanksgiving at our house this year, and what with everything going on.... claire's bday, chris's bday, my parent's anniversary, oh and chris got married, its just not been top ofthe priority list- sorry ya-ya! but to make up for it: some pictures!
this is claire right after the byu-utah game. go cougs!
these two are mostly for claire's yaya. she LOVES her new dress. can you tell?

a few snapshots from the wedding. didn't take many because there were about fifty other people with cameras. i'm sure there will be more to come.


my older bro. probably the happiest i have ever seen him.


this is my young, hottie mom. my cousin called her a young, spring chick. and she was mistaken as my sister once, and as claire's mom another time. miss her a TON already.

i just can't believe how fast claire is growing. she was at 24 lbs., and 32 inches at her one-year check up. she is talking up a storm and finally has two sign language signs down. more, which in general means give me some of what you have, and drink. and shes starting to nod yes and no. which i fully attribute to sesame street. and she totally loves slides! like, gets mad when you take her away from one.
claire's boyfriend luke. total hottie. they give each other hugs and claire just follows him everywhere.

addy is the smartest girl you will ever meet. she's the most proper little girl.

a little of late

all out of order, but here's some of what we've been up to. trip up to park city- claire was really interested in the snow, but could care less for how cold it was! she HATES being cooped up and tried to escape as often as possible. turns out joe actually broke his ankle, and as such gets special privileges, such as riding in the scooter thing at costco. claire turned one, she loves bathtime more than anything. we threw a little bridal shower for my soon to be sister-in-law! claire thinks she is hilarious when she looks in the mirror. and the best one- claire got a tu-tu from her grammy and LOVES it! she twirls and spins whenever she puts it on. and she likes being in boxes. and she thinks the vents are funny when the blow her hair.

and thats that. enjoy.

for your enjoyment

i think everyone should click over to the vid-blog right now and watch the newest video. this is what we did for the entirety of our FHE on monday, because claire was having a really good time. she loves if you're happy and you know it, popcorn popping, and jesus wants me for a sunbeam. and note: this video was taken at the end of it, after singing it 20 times already. she just cracks us up.

CLICK HERE

my little sweet

oh how i love my little sweet claire. we got her one year old pictures today. she did so well, as tired, runny-nosed, and bored with the whole thing as she was!

before you wonder what is going on with the pink fairy/ballerina/pj's thing you need to be informed that my mom would buy my sisters and me these nightgowns every year from mormon handicraft. they were made of the same silky stuff, had a robe, and lace- we loved them. my mom found this and thought claire had to have one. i think she looks like a mischevious little fairy in it! and i think its great.
we brought in the quilt her ya-ya made. love it.



she is currently trying to figure out how to jump. its hilarious.

her giraffe toy from ya-ya. she scoots around all the time.

she is ALWAYS putting her hands behind her head. such a babe.
i love her.

thanks for taking us grammy! claire loves ya as much as she loves us i think, and her heart is so big, i don't mind. i love grammy too.

trying to collect

i've had this in my head for a while.... i read the entire series in fifth grade {and LOVED it} and recently decided i wanted to get the whole series. i found the first one yesterday at the DI and was pretty stoked. it wasn't this one, it was #4. just thought i'd share.

my new get-things-done device

elmo dvd's! we finally decided on getting claire some elmo dvd's for her b-day. she LOVES watching vidoes on youtube, but she also tries to destroy the computer.... so now she can watch them on tv! and i can get some things done. because her three hour nap each day is NOT long enough for me to do it all. i PROMISE to use this sparingly. at least she gets up and dances when its on!

{FYI- here are the reasons why i cannot get it all done

1-she HATES anything that makes loud noises like the vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, etc.

2-i cannot get things in the dishwasher without her grabbing a knife.

3-going through ANYTHING with paper (bills, coupons, magzines, books, you name it) cannot be done- paper is her favorite and will eat it.

4-i can't sweep or mop- she grabs either the mop and/or broom, or the dirt being swept up.

5-she can climb onto the table now.

6-i can't take a shower when she is awake- she wants in!

7-the high chair only lasts so long, and picking up the cheerios gets really old, really fast.

and there are plenty more. so glad grammy is here to help out with her for a few weeks!}

a year of claire

claire turned one yesterday! it was a great day because her grammy flew in just to see her on her birthday! she came with plenty of surprises, and is definitely one spoiled little girl. she is loved by so many- here, north carolia, illinois, brazil, and everywhere in between. she was a trooper with all the driving! she attatched right back onto 'grammy' and would not leave her side yesterday. i made a rather sad attempt at making her an elmo cake yesterday, and she did not enjoy it very much! i made it with sprinkles on it, and as soon as she got it on her hands decided to fling it around trying to get the sprinkles off. oh well.....

maybe next year she will get all into it.... anyways. she is just the best little buddy to have around! no matter what she does, everyone just thinks shes adorable. which is great.... i think! i think shes adorable, and i love that i get to spend every day with her. i feel like shes not a baby anymore though- she just acts too old! i love my little claire!