Summer Happenings

We have had a fun summer... trying to stay busy despite the fact that I can't spend much time outside in the heat.

Clara's first movie... Horton Hears a Who. She loved sitting next to her friend, Maylie.

Dancing at the downtown 4th of July festival.

Music in the Park- if you haven't tried this, you are missing out. Free concerts at varying Greensboro parks every Sunday night during the summer. Bring your picnic blanket, chairs, and treats. A great way to spend a Sunday night with the family.

We've read lots of books.

Clara has been understanding about my being very pregnant and not being able to be as active usual. She even brought me a pretend "breakfast in bed" one morning.

Diaper Shower

My sweet friends threw a "diaper shower" for me.

There was good food...

Good company...

Cute homeade gifts...

and LOADS of diapers...

Thanks, everyone... I had tons of fun and we really appreciate all of the diapers for Sarah-Jane.

The Beach

Clara used to have a rote prayer that went like this...

"Heavenly Father,

Dank you day

Dank you food

Dank you bodies

Dank you Jesus

AMEN

Ever since we went to the beach she has been adding a lot more things that she is grateful for...

TOPSAIL ISLAND, JUNE 13-20th

"Dank you we could go to da beach"

" Dank you we could go walk at da beach"

Greg, Clara and Nicolle (34 weeks pregnant with Sarah-Jane)

"Dank you we could get mawied (buried)"

"Dank you we could take a baf" (we would scoop out a little pool for her in the surf... this was her "bath")

"Dank you we could watch Tarzan"

"Dank you Anna, Wex(Rex), Eban (Evan), Cwoie(Chloe), Yuke (Luke)- her cousins,
am (and) Gigi am Poppie (her grandparents)."

And ever since we got home, she has prayed "pwease help get to go back to da beach house."
We can't aruge with that prayer!

Happy Father's Day

Dear Greg/Daddy-
Thanks for being such a great husband and father. We love you!

Happy Memorial Day

Our day was filled with fun. Hope yours was, too!

Swimming, cookouts, and friends!

NYC

Last weekend we went on a little get-away to NYC. My generous sister watched Clara for 3 days and 2 nights (our first time leaving her overnight).

We stayed in Times Square. Here is a view of the Chrysler Building from our hotel room. Our first indication that we were going to miss Clara more than we thought was when everything we saw reminded us of "Annie"(Clara's Favorite movie). "These floors better shine like the top of the Chrysler Building, or your backsides will"- Miss Hanigan

We did what we usually do for a vacation, pack as much as we possibly can do into a 2 day period of time.

We first started with a Night in the Museum, and after Greg got lost looking for moon rocks, we were able to enjoy some overgrown Lizard Bones. (Natural Selection, yeah right, this guy should still rule the food chain)

(Nicolle 27 weeks pregnant with baby girl #2)

Friday evening we walked through Greenwich Village, Soho, and Little Italy an ate at this delicious little Italian restaurant.
Saturday morning, we had breakfast with Greg's cousin and his wife- James and Emily. Sorry, we forgot to snap a photo of the lovely couple.

On Saturday afternoon, we saw La Cenerentola (Rossini) at the Metropolitan Opera. This was the highlight of the trip for Nicolle.

And the highlights of the trip for Greg were 2 trips to Wegmans (It is a supermarket, if you have never been there, you will not understand).

Overall it was a great trip and Nicolle has never encouraged Greg to drive faster than when we were heading back to Roanoke to pick up Clara.


We missed her!

swaptree.com

swaptree

Have you tried this? My friends Kelly and Tom told me about this website. It is awesome. I enter in the books I own and don't want anymore, then this site finds a trade for me, automatically. I just have to print out a mailing label and throw my book in the mailbox. I have been getting "free presents" of new (to me) books all week in the mail. Very fun and easy. They also trade music, DVD's, and video games. All free, you just pay to ship your own stuff out. You should try it!

1/2 Marathon Trail Run

Greg ran a 1/2 marathon lat Saturday- it was at our very favorite park- Bur Mill Park. Clara and I (Nicolle) rode my bike around on the bike paths to meet up with Greg and cheer him on as he ran on the hiking trails. We all had a great time-

• Greg loved the race
• Clara loved watching the runners (she thought it was hilarious that they would dump water on their heads and then drop the cup and run away... without getting in trouble! -A TWO YEAR OLD'S DREAM COME TRUE!)
• Nicolle loved taking in the beauty of the trails around the lake and dreaming of living in a house right by the trail... someday.
• Greg finished in less than 2 hours and 30 minutes(by 40 seconds)

Clara painted this sign all by herself... the "Go Daddy Go" was a little covered in paint by the time she was finished.

Greg did a fantastic job on a very tough course. Way to go!!!

(Here he is right after the race- Alive, but barely).

Greg is Sure Cheap

My old roommate, Greg Dibb, is cheap just like me. But he just won $999.99. Check this out.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090419/COLUMNIST0401/904190309

Congrats Greg

Help Greg Win

Greg did the Winston Salem Adventure Race again. He got 5th place out of 65 teams. But his team name can still win. Please click on http://ww.sceneinwinston-salem.com/ and vote for "The Very Pants he was about to return"

The Sun'll Come Out, Tomorrow

We finally got it on video (usually she stops whatever cute thing she is doing and runs straight for the camera as soon as we pull it out).



P.S. I am tring to catch up on my blogging/journaling about Clara. I started a post way back in November, but never finished it. If you are a Clara fan, click here to see this new/old post.

Clara's Favorites

Clara posed for a photo for first time. Our friend held up the camera and she put her arms around both of us and pulled us in. We loved it.

Favorite phrases:

"My do it"

"I do it my- by- self" (Clara is a very independent, strong-willed girl)

"Daddy go work(/church/class) go wide Daddy's twuck" (Daddy is going one of those places in his truck).
"My go pway dess-up (My go play dress-up). Mommy pay dess-up, too"?!?

Cutest phrases:
A'm habin a tea pody (I'm having a tea party- she uses the whole range of her voice, from low to high during this sentence.)
I cweam up (I clean up... not usually as productive as it sounds)
No tank you! (No thank you... usually in a desperatly sad voice)
Favorite songs to sing:
Tomorrow and Maybe from Annie
Cuckoo, Cherry Tree and Sitting Here Together from Kindermusik
I am a Child of God and I Love to See the Temple
Favorite activities:
Dress up (all day, every day)
Dancing
Play-dough
Coloring
Favorite Places to go:
The zoo (almost every morning she smiles at my coyly and asks... "Go fun zoo day?!?")
"Go gym" (Mommy works out while she has a blast on the moon bounce)
"Go school day"
"Daddy munch" (meet Daddy for lunch)
McAllister's Deli- our usual spot

She sits at the table with us, now, but she usually ends up on one of our laps (easier to reach the table and easier to steal the food off of our plates, I suppose).
We're working on potty training... this is what it looks like at our house.
She is (maybe) finally getting the idea about the new baby on the way. The other day she shoved a baby doll under my shirt. "Mommy hab a baby in da tummy."

Camping Trip

Here are some photos from our camping trip a couple of weeks ago. We went to Hagan Stone Park with some friends and had a blast. I think there were about 6 toddlers, there, and they loved playing together in the great outdoors.

It looks like Shaelyn is about to go bowling and Clara, Grant, Evelyn, and Collin are the pins.

Swinging with Daddy is fun because he pushes way too high!

Hanging out in the tent... this was probably the favorite camping activity for the girls... running in and out and in and out of the tent.

Picking flowers and running in the grass was fun, too.

P.S. You have to get this hide-a-mat. I bought it (from Costco) to sleep on in the tent and it is sooooo comfortable- way better than those air mattresses that deflate by morning. (Just make sure you don't share it with a 2 year old who likes to sleep horizontally).

Happy Easter

We have had a great Easter Weekend.

First Greg got Friday off so Thursday night we went camping(that will require a seperate post, but here is a preview photo of Clara loving her first S'more).

Saturday Clara had a easter egg hunt at Nicolle's Gym. We feel that for Clara's agressive and competitive development it will be to her advantage to compete against children older than her. So when given the choice, we registerd her for the 12-18 year old easter egg hunt division. Clara enjoyed seeing the eggs and the staff that was responsible for the hunt did a good job in making sure Clara was able to get some eggs, before the college freshman came in to take them all. Only after the easter egg hunt did Clara realize that there was candy associated with each egg. She will be kicking herself for that one for weeks to come. It was her only shot at getting refined sugar this year.

After the Gym we went to the Greensboro Farmers Market. We had a hearty breakfast to give us energy back that we lost from the Easter Egg hunt. While we were looking for plants for our garden, Greg saw some beautiful flowers and decided to surprise Nicolle with flowers. OK, Nicolle did drop some serious hints before he bought them

Nicolle "Those flowers are the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen"

Greg "Speaking of flowers, I was at a yard sale today and this guy wanted $.15 for a half used stick of chalk. I told him I could not go higher than $.12."

Nicolle "Those flowers would look great in our kitchen."

Greg "You know what would look great in our kitchen is one of the hats that you can drink soda from two sides"

Nicolle "I am buying those flowers"

Greg "Then it is coming out of your fun money"

When we got home, we painted eggs, and Clara went for the Neo-Impressionist style and summoned her inner Seurat . Here are Clara's eggs and one of Nicolle's as well. Nicolle's style is the lesser known Out of Focus Camera Style.

On Sunday, Clara got to wear her Easter outfit and we got to go to church as a family for once. After church we were able to look at some of the flowers in our yard.

Also, after watching Mary Poppins, Clara has been wanting to 'Go Fly a Kite." We got one and figured that the wind generated from a passing vehicle would help fly a kite (Trucks are the best). Here is what Clara was able to do. She is a Natural.

PS. For those of you wondering, Nicolle won the NCAA Brackets, and Clara got 4th out of 16 people. That is right, a 2 year old was able to predict that MSU and Carolina were going to play in the finals. Makes Greg's pick of Wake Forest winning it all look kind of silly.