Girls in Curlers

I thought it would be fun to see what the girls hair would look like curled so on an evening after baths, I sat them each down and put curlers in their hair. I was surprised to see how still they sat so I could put them in. They didn't even mind sleeping in them. They had such pretty hair the next day. I learned the Abby's hair will hold curl for a pretty long time. Clarissa's on the other hand, only last about a day. It amazes me what unique hair they each have. It is so much fun to have girls!

The Wild Hair Do

Finger Painting Day

I am the type of Mom that doesn't usually do play-dough and finger painting projects. They are just way to messy for me. Well over Spring Break I decided to let the 3 little kids do it. I know, many of you are asking why? I decided that they are missing out on some of the crafts and stuff their older brothers did. (Back when I was a more adventurous Mom.)
Well it turned out to be quite a successful activity. Caleb has always been quite artistic so I wasn't worried about him. Clarissa is a neat freak. She doesn't even like water on her sleeves when she washes her hands, so I wasn't' worried about her either. My worry was with ABBY! Anything simple with Abby quickly turns into a disaster. You name it and she can figure out a way to make a mess out of it! I guess you could say she keeps life interesting. Even Abby surprised me and she stayed clean. Since this was a huge success with all those involved, there is a high percentage that I will do it again!

Clarissa's Pictures

Flour Girls

Today while I was working on insurance stuff with Matt, our sweet little girls were playing upstairs on the main level. I heard Clarissa tell me that Abby was in the sugar and that she has it on her nose. I told her to help Abby out of the pantry and to shut the door. She told me she did and I continued to work on the computer. Well about 15-20 minutes later, I came upstairs to get them ready to pick up Aaron & Caleb up from the bus stop so we could go to the school to see Jake tryout for the annual Talent Show. When I came upstairs, this is what I saw.

Clarissa's only response was, "Mom, I told you I was making pies." I really wanted to scream, but I said to myself, "Grab the camera and call Matt." I did just that. I went onto tell Matt what had happened and I really wanted to cry at the mess that I was going to have to clean up, but we decided it was best to laugh it off. Cleaning up Abby was quite the chore. I patted her jammies and dusted off her hair the best I could. Once the girls were ready to get in the tub, I had to rub Abby's head pretty vigourously to get the flour that was caked onto her scalp. I finally ended up getting her comb and combing the globs of flour out of her hair. While I was doing all this, the phone rang, the boys walked in from school (which I was suppose to meet them at the bus stop) and Aaron hollers up, "Mom, someone is at the door." I start coming down the stairs and see the top of a man's head and proceed to tell him that I am not interested in buy anything from him. Talk about Open mouth, insert foot. He says, before I realize who it was, Mam, I am not trying to sale you anything, I just need to take a couple more pictures of your basement. He was the insurance adjuster. To see his face when he saw my kitchen floor was priceless. I quickly apologized, explained what has just happened and he laughed and said, God bless you. I have four kids of my own and boy am I glad they are raised. I have Aaron watch the girls in the tub while I take him to the basement to take a couple more pictures, he got a sample of the damaged carpet and he was on his way. I quickly had to get the girls dressed and head off to the school to pick Jake up from the talent show tryouts and swing by the library to drop off books, go to the grocery store to pick up a few things and then back to the school to pick Danny up from his first day of track. Luckily, the girls fell asleep in the car on the way home so I was able to get my kitchen all cleaned up before they tracked all the flour through the house.

Just last night, Grandpa Rogers called and I had told him what a handful Abby was and he just said, "She can't be that bad." I told him he was welcome to come visit and see for himself. I know that is not possible, so here is proof how busy Abby and in this case, Clarissa too!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Clarissa!!!

We have had a very Princess-filled weekend. On Saturday, Clarissa had a Princess party with a few of her friends. She had so much fun. Her friends came dressed up as a princess, so our guests included Snow White, Cinderella, Belle and Tinkerbell along with our two precious little princesses. After I had invited her friends to the party, I decided that I might as well have a duel party since Abby's birthday is three days later. Abby loved being involved in all the princess activities. She was glowing through the whole party! When the guests arrived, we gave them each a homemade princess hat and wand so they could complete their attire. We played Princess hopscotch, Pin the star on the wand, painted fingernails and some toenails, colored castle frames, opened presents, ate princess snacks and of course the best thing, ate the castle cake and ice cream! The little princesses had so much fun that by the time it was time to go home they wanted to stay longer. Thank you to the friends that came and spoiled out little princess. It was a wonderful party!

Today, we had the girls family party. The boys had a lot of fun shopping for them. I think the girls will be going through some withdrawal after having two days of gifts. =) They were spoiled by clothes from Dad & Mom, Strawberry Shortcake toys, Princess games and puzzles from the boys, more clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Jenson and money from Grandma & Grandpa Rogers, Shel and Tom and their great grandma. Clarissa is so excited about going shopping at Build A Bear and Toys R Us since she got gift certificates from there. We even used the leftover cake to make a parfait cake for them which had a nice refreshing 'healthy' taste to it after all the cake we ate on Saturday. What a fun weekend it has been to celebrate our girl's birthday. We sure do love you, Clarissa and Abby.

Weekend Fun

Last weekend we had the opportunity to have Caleb and Clarissa's friends, Brock and Bethany stay with for a few days. Both my kids were excited about the extended sleepover! This is a prelude of what is about to come . . . their best friends moving away.

Caleb asked how can he still be friends with Brock after he moves and I kindly explained to him that he could write letters, color pictures and send him pictures in the mail as well as keeping in contact through the computer or by simply calling him. We do know this, Caleb will miss Brock TONS!!

I am not sure how this is going to effect Clarissa. She is constantly talking about having Befany (as she says) come over to play dress up. Almost daily she tells Matt or I that she is going to play with Beth today and when is she coming over or when do I get to go over to Beth's. We will miss them dearly.

Continuing on with the weekend adventure, we had a Primary activity Saturday morning and from there we went to Barnes and Noble for a storytime with Curious George. For the most part the kids were very timid around him. Clarissa was a little scared, but what bothered her the most is that he did not have any pants on. For several days after she kept asking me why Curious George didn't have pants on. After about Thursday, I simply replied that monkeys don't have to wear pants. That must have satisfied her because she hasn't mentioned it again.

Sunday we went to church and I am so grateful for Matt who got the little kids up and ready while I was working on the big kids. I didn't realize until later that he did a mass bathtime. I think this was kind of funny. Good thing they are young enough to not know the difference.

After church, Caleb asked to have a picture with his best friend. What five year old would think of things like that? A five year old with a scrapbooking mom of course! I loved that he thought of it so I took advantage of the idea and took some pictures of both sets of kids.

On Monday, after getting Danny to school, Jake & Keslie to band at 7:20, Aaron and Brock off to school at 8:15, Caleb, Clarissa, Bethany and Abby had the opportunity to make cookies. They really enjoyed it. I think their favorite part was eating some of the dough while I was trying to get the pan full of cookies to bake. They seemed to grab them off as soon I put them on. It was kind of comical.

When it was time for Caleb to go to school, he was very concerned that Brock would not be able to play when he got home. I told him that I would pick Brock up after school from the bus and would be home shortly after he got home and they would have plenty of time to play. I have never seen Caleb put his stuff on so quickly to get to the bus stop. It sure is nice to have great friends for my kids to play with!

Clarissa at Build-a-Bear

We are so excited to have Clarissa potty trained. We wanted to reward her because she did such a great job. So on Monday we took her to Build-a-Bear in the local mall. She had so much fun deciding what to get. She was so cute choosing all the different accessories. It broke my heart to tell her that we were only going to get the bear and one outfit. She still had fun and she named her bear Katie Beth after her two little girlfriends.

Enjoy her adventure!!

Princess Potty Training

Clarissa has shown interest in potty training three different times since last March. Last Thursday she told me she needed to go potty. I thought, "Here we go again." I really didn't think this would go anywhere. While I was trying to find a Princess Potty chart online, I came upon another mom's idea about training a teddy bear for a day then her daughter the next day. I thought this might work. I planned on doing this all on Monday. On Sunday, we had Clarissa wear a diaper to church just in case she didn't really want to potty train. She really surprised us when she told us that she needed to go potty while we were at church. I was really surprised to see that her diaper was dry. After the three hours at church, going potty once there, she came home and wanted to go and was dry again.

On Monday morning, Clarissa woke up dry. About two hours into the morning she had an accident with both #1 and #2. I decided that I should start my plan. The plan was to decorate her bathroom as a castle. I drew a castle on some paper (yes, I know, I am not an artist) and taped it on the door. We even added her favorite Princess stickers to her castle. She helped me put her name on her little potty, put her tiara by her potty and we hung up her chart. We were ready to start stage 2.

Next was to start 'potty training' her little bear, Cissy Ann. She was so excited to see that her bear had gone potty in the toilet. A few minutes later I mentioned that just maybe her bear had to go potty. Boy, was she surprised to see that Cissy Ann went both pee and poo. Of course, when the bear went potty, Clarissa was awarded the treats. Since then, Clarissa has not had a single accident, either pee or pooh. We are so excited that Clarissa is completely out of diapers and pull-ups (which she only ever wore one and it was dry).

Cissy Ann went potty (of course, this is a tootsie roll and water)


We are so proud of Clarissa. She has grown up so much this week.

Visiting Santa

We had our Ward Christmas party last Saturday and one of the traditions they have always done is to have Santa come. This year was so fun with the girls. When Clarissa got up to Santa, she was a little intimidated when she realized that she could sit on his lap.

Anyway, Clarissa told Santa she wanted Princess underwear. Matt quickly added to that by saying "this is her encouragment for potty training". It was so funny. It reminds me when Danny was about that age and all he wanted was a candy cane. I love it when they are so innocent and ask for very simple realistic presents.

Ouch, Tears & Stitches

Basically as soon as Matt left for his fishing trip, I spent the evening in the ER with Clarissa.
About 6 p.m. Friday, November 14th, Clarissa fell and sliced her forehead open. I couldn't believe it. I was home with all the kids and within two hours of Matt being on an airplane I was panicking as I saw that Clarissa had just injured herself. I took Danny with me so he could hold the towel to her head in the car. I had Jake stay with the other kids. Thanks to Tom and Michele for coming over to stay with the kids while I sat in the ER with her.
When they numbed her at the hospital, they used a cotton ball with medicine and just taped it to her forehead. Yeah, no shots!! When they were stitching her up, they placed the blue sterile hospital towels around her. The one they placed on her face had a hole in it so they could see the wound. The doctor couldn't believe that Clarissa was watching her stitch it up. We calmed her down be asking what color of popsicle she wanted when she was finished.
Four hours, 2 stitches and $100 later, I brought Clarissa home, gave her some Tylenol and put her in my bed. I was told to watch her every 2-3 hours through the night so I figured since I was already dead on my feet, it would be best to have her in my room. She did really well through it all.
On Thursday, November 20th, Clarissa went back to the ER to have her stitches removed. Overall, she did fairly well. She was a little freaked out when she saw the nurse holding little scissors near her face. We reassured her that she wouldn't feel a thing and it would be just like when mommy trims her bangs. That seemed to calm her enough for the nurse to do the two little snips and all was done.
(The pictures were taken on Sunday evening and on Thursday at the ER.)

Clarissa & Jake

Clarissa loves riding the four-wheeler.

One Saturday afternoon, she begged her big brother Jake to take her for a ride on the four-wheeler. When it comes to Jake and the girls, he will do about anything for them, so of course he took her. He totally made her day!

Who Says You Can't Sleep Anywhere?

One day while I was working on the computer, Clarissa was playing with some toys on the stairs. I realized that it had become to quite so I decided I should go see where she had ventured off to. I was surprised to see her asleep on the stairs.

I quickly grabbed the camera, took a picture, then carried her off to bed so she could finish her nap in a safer place.

Sweet Dreams Clarissa!

Ticklish Clarissa

One thing I know for sure is that Clarissa has her daddy's tickle bone. She is very ticklish! It doesn't take much for her to start giggling when you start tickling.
There are many days that she will laugh and laugh and it make those around her laugh. Her laughter is very contagious. What a joy it is to have Clarissa in our family. We love you Cissy Ann!