Christmas 2012 Part 4

* I must have accidently earsed all the pictures I had from Boise...

The day after Chritmas we left and made our way to Boise Idaho. My brother Clifton was there from Hawaii visiting his boys for Christmas. The last time I saw Clif was over 6 years ago when Derrick was just 10 months old. I had seen the boys about a year before - they were living in Salt Lake at the time and Julia had a late Dinner to attend so they came and spent the night at our house in Eagle Mountain.  Since Clif was in Boise there was no way that I could not stop and see him - plus this would be his first time meeting Riley and Owen. 

It was such a good visit. We rented a hotel room for two night- it was AWESOME - it had two queen beds and a separate sitting area. It was perfect for us to sit around in and visit. We went swimming in the pool, ate pizza, watched movies and played video games. 

We had a zoo pass the the Hoggle Zoo and Boise was on the list of zoo's we could visit at a discout. So I called up to see how much it would cost - 25 cents! Awesome! So we headed out to the zoo and had so much fun. Simon and Derrick got along great and Everett stayed with and talked and talked. Our favorite part - and Clif's - was the Male Lion. He was growling and running back and forth. Clif got a couple of videos of it. 

Before we left Boise we stopped at Ka-Rynn's house - where Clif was staying - she was pregnant and had been in the hospital and was finally home - we stayed about an hour before headed back to Utah. It was so hard saying goodbye, because He lives so far away and I do not know when I will be able to see him again. It was so nice and refreshing to see my brother again. I loved every single minute of it. 

Christmas 2012 Part 3

The Sunday before Christmas the kids got to wear their Christmas outfits. They looked so cute - especially Owen in his hate and bow tie.

Christmas 2012 Part 2

While we were in Coeur d'Alene went went to Dockside and had Gooey's! Dockside is a restaurant

inside the Coeur d'Alne Resort located right next to the lake. We good 2 HUGE Gooey's and a Slice of Coconut Cake.  Yum. We sat in a booth overlooking the lake and could see all the Christmas lights. A group of carolers stop right next to our booth and started singing Christmas songs. It was so fun. I am glad that I got to take my kids and enjoy this yummy treat!

December 2012 Part 1

 Better Late then never right? I need to blog about last December so that we have it on the blog and remember it and so that it goes into the 2013 blog book! So the next fee post are going to be about our trip. 

Daniel was laid of from Flatiron Construction at the end of November. He decided that he was going to go and work for his Dad until he found a new job. I was tired of him being out of town and I hated the idea he would be gone from us during Christmas time. So I asked him if he all might be able to go with him - he said YES. I called the school the next day and told them what was happening and and they excused Derrick for the entire month of December. I then called his Teacher to see if she might be able to put together a packet for him - or email he his work. She told me that since Derrick was so far ahead of the other kids that he would be just fine and the only thing that he needed to work on was reading. What a relief! So within a day we packed and left - and I left my house a mess.

   

I love this picture of Riley reading to her baby dolls. She is such a good little mama.

Derrick had his first loose tooth during our trip and wanted me to take a picture him wiggling it. So that is what is happening in this picture. 

Pine Wood Derby 2013

Daniel is the cub scout master in our ward - He has been cub scout Master since Septmeber but the barley just called him a couple of weeks ago! 

Last week was the pine wood Derby. He really wanted to give the boys trophies after they raced their cars. BUT, he only has $40 budget. That includes the treat, rewards and activity...So what do you do with that kind of budget? Your wife gets on pinterest and starts searching. 

I wish I had taken a picture of everything that I did but, I ran out of time and was just finishing up before Daniel had to be there. 

I found a really cute pine of hot wheel cars painted gold and glued to a plaque. Gold spray paint was NOT in the budget. I found a square piece of wood at hobby lobby, and painted it the boy scout blue. We found some hot wheel cars at Walmart that were racing cars (they all had a number on the side) and I left them unpainted and hot glued then to the wood. Then I had a gold paint maker that I used to right down what trophy it was and the year. There was a trophy for fastest car, best paint job, and best design. Then more trophy's that were for everyone else - we wanted to make sure that every boy received a trophy. I think the total for this was $16.00. 

 I also made a medal for all the boys. I just took tin foil and wrapped it around a Ding Dong. Then I hot glued Ribbon onto it. This cost about $8.00

For the refreshment they had Milk - Racing Fuel, Oreo Cookies - Tires, and Water - Gasoline. For each treat, I took a hot wheel car (that my kids had duplicates of, or were already broken) and drilled a hole in the top. Then I placed a small wooden dowel in the hole, and made a little sign. I also took a bigger car that we had that was broken, drilled two holes in it and placed a sign in it that said, "Pine Wood Derby". I connected the two signs with string and made a banner with some strip Washi Tape I had.  They only money that was spent on this was for the Milk and Oreo's $20.00

*I got a picture of the signs but not of the finished product!

 We went over budget by $4.00, Which I think is pretty good! 

I thought everything turned out really cute and ALL the boys loved their prizes. We had the Dad compete too, and the Dad's even liked the prizes they received!! I love doing crafts like this and it was fun to help Daniel out. 

Best Friends - When No One is Looking

 When Derrick is gone to school, Riley and Owen become the best of friends. They will play for hours and hours. I love watching them interact with each other. Sometimes the things they do together makes me want to scream, cry, laugh and pull my hair out all at the same time - like taking a gallon bag and filling it with water and dumping it on the bed (more then 6 times). Owen gets blamed for a lot of things but, I have a sneaky suspicion that Riley is the ring leader...

Most of the time they play quietly together, while I am doing chores around the house. Yesterday it was cars. They brought out all the hot wheels and lined them up on the living room coffee table. I love having these two all to myself in the mornings. I am going to miss Riley when she goes to school next year - I think 1st grade is worse then kindergarten - I never cry when they go to kindergarten but, when Derrick started first grade I bawled like a baby. 

Dan Clement Family Pictures 11-4-2013

 Oh good gravy, my kids are crazy! The boys are exactly like Daniel - crazy, jokers and hardly every serious in a crowd of on lookers - they are great at being the center of attention. Owen is just learning this and is 10 times worse then Derrick - I don't know if I should laugh or cry at what the future brings!  Riley takes after me - super shy, quiet and hates to be the center of attention (as we saw in the grand kid picture) - she gets embarrassed easily.  

After the blessing they wanted  a group picture of the "Daniel Clement" family. Here are the end results.

I am glad these hooligans are mine. I love them all so much, even when they stick they nasty toes in their mouth...

Clement Grand Kids

After Mimi's baby blessing the Clement grandparents wanted to take some pictures with the grandkids that were there. Everyone was giggling and laughing except for Riley.  She is super shy and did not want to set next to anyone but me. I made her go and sit on the couch anyway for the picture which resulted in her crying, sitting side ways and looking away from the camera. 

Their are 11 grand kids in this picture (including the two youngest). In total their are 20 grand kids! Hopefully sometime soon we can all get together and take a picture with the rest of them...But I have a feeling that their still might be a couple more in the future! 

Baby Blessing

Daniel's sister Mimi had a baby girl - Elsie - in October. She has taken a lot of time coming to earth and we could not be happier for the Sproul family! 

This past weekend was Elsie's baby blessing and the first time my kids have seen their new cousin. Owen could care less about babies - he was in Ardell's room the entire time playing. Riley and Derrick loved her and were excited to finally get to hold her. 

It was a wonderful baby blessing. Grandma and Grandpa Clement were able to make it along with Jenna. Travis family came up from Las Vegas and so did Dan's Aunt Linda  and Aunt Dorlene (Mary's sisters).

BUT, did I mention that one of my favorite people came down with Grandma and Grandpa Clement? TASHA! It was so good to see her and she brought along her cuter then cute son Wyatt.  It was such a short visit but it was so nice seeing a lot of the cousins and hanging out with Dan's sisters. 

Did I mention that Dan's parents, his sisters, and nephew all stayed at our house - condo? It was one packed little places, but there was enough space for everyone and everyone visiting had a bed. I am so grateful that we have such a huge bedroom (The kids slept on our floor) and that our dinning room and living room are so spacious!

The Stash..

My kids got TONS of candy for Halloween, which surprised me since we did not go to that many houses. Someone even gave one of the BIG candy bars. 

On Halloween night we let them pick out a couple pieced before it was time to brush their teeth and get into bed. 

They dumped out all their candy and waded though to see which ones they wanted. Owen and Derrick were quick to pick, but Riley... That girl can not decide if her life depends on it and rushing her does not help at all. She dumped all her candy beside her on the couch and just looked at it. I finally told her to pick the things she did not want and put them in the bag. Finally after about what seem like hours (10 minutes?) she picked what she wanted to have, a kit kat bar and a twix - she takes after her Dad!!

We made a rule that they can only have 3 pieces of candy a day and only after the get their chores done. I am wondering how long their candy is going to last...

Halloween

I loved the outfits my kids picked out this year for Halloween - one of the biggest reason was because they were all FREE.

Derrick wanted to be Luke Skywalker again and since he is slow at growing his costume form last year still fit. 

Owen wanted to be his most favorite super hero Iron man - he is obsessed with him. He even has an iron man toy that he got for his birthday that is hard plastic that he sleeps with most nights. We even let him watch the newest Iron man movie - does that make us bad parent? - He loved, loved, loved it and I am sure he would watch it every single day if we let him. Anyways, I mention to one of our neighbors what Owen wanted to be and she said that she had an Iron man costume that I could have...We got it about a week before Halloween and Owen put it on right away and I had to pry it off is body each night - I can honestly say he LOVES it!

Riley wanted to be Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I think her costume was my favorite because we used things we had lying around the house. She already had a pair of purple pants and brown boots - so we used those for her costume. She wanted a shirt that looked like a pirate shirt and I did not want to spend money on a pirate shirt that she would only wear once. She had a purple shirt that would work - the only problem is that Izzy's shirt is pink. I remembered I still has some pink dye left over from when we tie-dyed shirts. BINGO! So I dyed the shirt pink and it turned out perfect. I made Izzy's pouch of pixie dust with some white yarn and left over yellow fabric scrapes that I had. I think she made a pretty pink Izzy. Tons of people recognized who she was, which made her feel fabulous! 

Sleeping Bags.

A couple of months ago Daniel brought home a (free) doll house for Riley. She loves it. Lately however, she has been stealing my small decorative pillows to use for her Barbie's bed. Which I kept found annoying every time I had to go into her room and fetch them! So I decided to make some little pillows for her Barbies, which turned into blankets, which turned into sleeping bags, which turned into a trip Walmart to buy more supplies to make a blanket/sleeping bag so that every single one of her barbies could have one!

Before she left for school (and my trip to Walmart), I had the pillows done, one of the blankets and a sleeping bag, which I gave to her.  By the time she got home from school I surprised her with everything else I had done - which included 4 more and 3 more blanket. It made her day and I loved taking the time to so something special for her. As soon as Daniel got home she pulled him into her room to show him.

I love doing little things like this for my kids. Most of the time it is something little that does not cost a lot of money. But, it always brings a smile to their face and makes them feel like a million buck!

Pumpkin Carvings

Were were pretty late carving our pumpkins this year. I meant to do it for an activity after our family home evening the week before Halloween and that DID NOT happen. We finally got around to craving them yesterday -two days before Halloween. Better late then never!! The kids drew what they wanted their pumpkins to look like and with the help of Daniel and I,  they cut them out. We saved all the seeds and I roasted them. I did two batches salted, and cinnamon and sugar. The cinnamon and sugar seeds were a big hit! 

How can you not love these faces!

i

Halloween Program

*I have 3 videos but they were taken on my iphone and for some reason they will not load on here.

The other Day was Derrick's 2nd Grade program - they second graders do a Halloween program! 

For the last month and a half we have listened to him sing nothing but Halloween songs. Riley and Owen even started signing along with him. He was so excited to go to his second grade program since last year he missed the 1st grade Christmas program because we were up in Idaho. 

About an two before we were suppose to leave we received a call from Daniel telling us that he was still working and that he would be an hour of two late getting home. Derrick was heart broken. So I packed up the kids in the car and went to the school myself - we came about 45 minutes early and their was already a line of second graders and their family waiting to get in! As we were standing in line waiting my phone rang and it was Daniel saying he was off work and to save him a spot and he would just meet us there. Derrick mood brightened up and we were ushered in and Derrick took his spot on the stage and I found us a set in the audience. Daniel showed up about 5 minutes before they started in his construction cloths - which sometimes are rather dirty. Riley took one look at him then whispered to me "Mom can Dad be here looking like that." Hahaha, I told her he could!

The program was so CUTE. Derrick saw me video taping and hammed it up for the camera. He knew every song and sang his little heart out. I am glad that we were able to go this year!

As I Lay Me Down to Sleep

There a lot of nights I let all 3 of my kids sleep in the same bed - Riley has a Queen so they all fit and sleep comfortably. The other night they just would not quiet down and go to sleep. I finally went in Rie's bedroom and kicked the boys out and told them to go and sleep in their own beds. The whining that followed could make anyone want to pull their hair out. After about 10 minutes of whining and crying that they all were scared - I finally raised my voice and said, "YOU CAN NOT SLEEP IN THE SAME BED." It seemed to quite them down. Daniel was playing a video game on the living room TV, so I left him in charge and went and jumped in the shower. When I got out of the shower I went and checked on the kids, I found then ALL on the floor of the boy's room all scrunched up in the door way...

I called Daniel over to have a look and we both laughed...We just left them there and they slept that way all night long! I guess I should be grateful that they listened to me about not sleeping in the same bed!

Two Peas in a Pod

Last night when I got home from much needed "Girl's Night Out", I walked into my room and saw these two. Aren't they precious?

I showed Daniel the picture this morning and he just laughed. 

They were watching a show called "The Turtle Man' - or something like that. 

I love that they are buddies, I hope they always are. 

Almost a Year

 Three words. Baby. Sitting. Swap.  Us and two other couples who we are friends with have decided to swap baby sitting so that we can all go out on dates - LOVE IT! For the past two weeks we have babysat the other couples children so they could go out on their dates - we split the kids up between the two couples staying home - Finally this week it was our turn!!! 

I really wanted to go to kneaders for dinner since I have never been there. We walked in the door, Daniel looked at the menu and asked if we could go somewhere else. Fancy sandwiches and salads are just not his thing. I smiled and said sure and we got back in our car and headed to Five Guy Burgers - Dan's pick. 

We then went to target and walked around and then headed home - It a school night and we did not want to get home to late!

The last date we went was almost a year ago when we went and saw Les Miserables in the theaters. 

It was so nice to get away for a couple of hours and be able to talk without anyone interrupting us. 

I hope we can be able to go on many more dates together!!

Say, Cheese

Owen loves cheese. He would eat the entire block of cheese if we let him. Sometimes I will get the cheese out of the fridge and there will be bites taken out of it... At least it is not butter- he used to take bites out of butter - I am glad he grew out of that. 

This cheese in this picture was a from a huge bag of shredded cheese. I am grafeful he got a bowl...

Before/ After

About a year ago(?), I got this little table with two chairs for free. We were on our way home from church and they were on the side of the road with a FREE sign taped to them. I have loved having them, but I wanted to spruce them up a little. I am addicted to pinterest and I had seen a DIY table that was chevron print - I loved it. So, with my handsome husband by my side I decided that this table needed to be made into a chevron table. 

Oh, my goodness it was a lot of work. After I sanded it and painted it white Daniel got super busy  - I needed his help tapping the strips. So two months later the strips were finally tapped and painted blue. 

I love the way it turned out. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE IT. 

When Daddy Comes Home

My kids love their Dad and he in return loves them. They are always excited when they hear the door open and he walks through the door. 

We love the summer because we can go outside and wait for him to get home. However; with summer also brings overtime hours. Which means there are times when Dan does not get home until after the kids are already asleep in their beds. last night I let them stay up late so they could wait for Dan to get home. They were already in their pajamas and I told them they could go and wait for him outside.  I came outside and found them on the stairs watching and waiting. 

They melt my heart. 

Geocaching

One of our new favorite things today is Geocaching. Wikipedia tells it better then I can... 

Geocaching /ˈdʒiːəˌkæʃɪŋ/ is an outdoor recreational activity, in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world.

A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. After signing the log, the cache must be placed back exactly where the person found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (Tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little financial value, although sometimes they are sentimental. Geocaching shares many aspects with benchmarking, trigpointing, orienteering, treasure-hunting, letterboxing, and waymarking..

I just downloaded an app to my iphone - it was $10.00- and off we went. The kids LOVED it. We spent all day Saturday driving around finding caches. We had SO MUCH FUN! Some of the caches were just logs, for us to write our names in and others were canisters that had treasure inside for the kids to trade with. I think this is going to be one of our favorite go to activities, that we can do ANYWHERE we go. We think it would be fun to hide a cache in different place we go and visit. We think it would be fun next time we are in Oregon to not only go and find a cache but also make one to hide with Grandma Nette and Papa Joe. 

She's in Kindergarten?

The day came...

She was so excited to strap on that back pack and head to school. The night before we had went to the "Kindergarten Back to School Night" - which for Riley was not back to school since this would be her first time! This is her teachers 2nd year teaching and she seems really nice. 

After we dropped her off Owen kept calling for her. He cried all the way to the car and could not believe that I was leaving her there. He was super happy when we went and picked her up at the end of the day!

Cake

I think one of my most favorite things about my kids birthday is making their birthday cake. I am always saying that this time I am not going to go overboard and that I am just going to buy a store bought cake. It never happens....

I loved Riley's pink cake - EVERYTHING was pink on this cake! The only problem I had is that I used a different recipe for the frosting and it was TOO SOFT and my house was TOO HOT and no matter how fast I was working, the frosting was melting. It was horrible, but luckily it resulted in a beautiful pink cake that Riley loved! 

CORN

Remember me saying that it will be a while before Derrick is able to eat a whole apple? Well I guess it goes for Corn on the Cob too. It is pretty hard eating corn when you are missing 4 of your top teeth.

At least he is a good sport about letting us take his picture. He had been singing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth."
When he sings it and I laugh he looks at me and says, "I AM SERIOUS, THAT IS ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS!"

Miss Lilly

For Riley's birthday weekend my sister Ka-Rynn came to town and brought her hubby Ethan and her 3 month old daughter Lilly. It was our first time meeting Lilly and we were all super twiterpated. She is one cute little girl. Plus I am the baby whisper, so anytime I held her she promptly feel right to sleep - there is nothing better then holding a beautiful sleeping baby -  it makes me want to have another one....(Stay tuned)

She is such a good little baby and has the best features of both her mom and dad. I hope that we get to see her more often. 

5 years old.

I love this girl so much and I can not believe that she is 5 years old. I can not believe that she also will be starting kindergarten next week. She is so excited and can hardly wait. I don't know what Owen and me are going to do, we will have 3 hours all by ourselves!! 

 Best Friend : Kaleb

Favorite Food: Spaghetti

Favorite Color: PINK

Favorite Movie: Cinderella

Favorite Toy: Lego's 

I remember the day I had Riley, It was SO LONG. I had 2 nursers in the room, the midwife, and the surgeon on call. Riley was just not cooperating. When I first came in and the nurse checked me Riley was  head down. The nurse walked out of the room came back and decided to check me again before she started the potocin, (she had just checked me 2 minutes before)and Riley was BREACHED. It took two nurses, Daniel and the surgeon to hold my tummy, so that my midwife could turn her and break my water - to prevent her from becoming breached again. After hours and hours of labor, the surgeon coming in and telling me I had two more pushes and if she was not out I would have to have a c-section, I was finally holding this beautiful little girl in my arms and it was time to choose a name. The surgeon came over looked at my baby girl and said, "I think that you should name her Riley since she got us all riled up today." I already loved the name Riley and after the surgeons suggestion we could not call her anything else. 

In a sea of brown eyes, she had blue. I love her blue eyes!