Jordan, Crystal, Clara, Lucas and Will

Playing with cousins

2011-11-13T14:27:00.001-07:00

We had some fun with cousins in the last week. First, Crystal's sister, Heather, and her family came to visit us. My brother-in-law Scott and I drove to Canton and spent Saturday in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which was really cool. When we got back, Crystal and Heather (in true Sorensen girl form) had made tons of treats - mostly pastries like bearclaws and Danishes - so we got to enjoy those, as well.

Clara and Lucas loved playing with cousins Payton and Jenna. Here are some pictures of Payton holding Will and playing with other kids.

Clara likes to make funny faces.

Lucas decided to put his hand in his pocket, and with his curly hair and untucked white shirt, he looks pretty debonair. He would look even a little grown up, too, if not for his lack of teeth and chubby wrist.

A couple days later, Harry and Wyatt came over for an hour or so, and it was such a nice day that Lucas took them in the back yard to play. Clara was taking a nap (shocker!), so it was an all-boy cousins party in the back yard. Check out the fun.

Stripey buddies.

Happy brothers.

There is a reason ATV manufacturers no longer make three-wheelers. They are dangerous. This is one of the times Lucas had not crashed his.

Wyatt and his hog.

So, here is Lucas after another three-wheeled vehicle caused him consternation.

And, I don't know why he did this, but Lucas went and knelt in the grass under a fruit tree and folded his fingers like he was praying. It is a little reminiscent of Joseph Smith. I hope he was praying for me to find a job, and that it is answered quickly.

Will is growing

2011-11-13T14:15:00.001-07:00

Here are some updated photos of young Will. He is growing quickly, having gained more than 2 pounds and 1.5 inches since he was born.

He is getting more alert and stronger each day and his personality is more apparent, as well. He is pretty mellow.

Here's a short video of Willberforce, as we sometimes call him. Willster is another common nickname.

Grandma Arrives!

2011-10-11T18:11:00.000-06:00

So I have thankfully had a pretty light school load for the last week, so I've been doing more direct parenting than usual. I have a greater appreciation for Crystal and any other mom of young children, and I've also had a lot of fun cruising around with Clara and Lucas.

Crystal's mom got her today and we are all so excited and grateful that she's here. Will has taken right to her, at least as much as he's taken to any of us!

So, Clara and I had a great scheme set for after dinner today. We've been telling Crystal we had a surprise for her for a couple days, and today was the day to spring it on her. We all put on our sandals and decided to enjoy the 78-degree mid-October weather with some ice cream. There is an ice cream shop less than 50 yards from our house and this was the fourth time we've ever gone. We got two-scoop sundaes (on sale for less than one-scoop cones - go figure) and walked (or, for one of us, toddled) back to the front porch to enjoy our treats.

Lucas' ice cream ended up, appropriately, all over him.And Clara enjoyed hers immensely, as well.

Will will be upset with us some day because he didn't get any. (Also, that is the first time I used his name next to the future-tense word that is exactly the same as his name. I'm sure it won't be the first time Will will hear that.)

Clara helped Lucas get his last sticky bite. And then hammed it up for the camera for a while

Then, it was clearly time for a bath. The water was dirty about 5 seconds after we plopped them in, so it was a good thing we gave them a bath.

After the bath, lotion, diapers, hairbrushing, hugs, etc., they kids were ready for bed. They love the jammies Aunt Rachael made for them!

And, they love their Momma. Both kids are still adjusting to not having as much of her time and attention right now, but Crystal is doing a great job of spreading her love and time around.

I'll post more Will pictures soon.

The Grants

2011-10-11T17:49:00.005-06:00

Our friends Lindsey and Edwin Grant came over to visit Will and hang out (we stayed up laughing and playing for a long time, it was great!)

They also pampered the kids with presents, taco dip, and cupcakes.

The cupcakes were obviously addressed to will, but Lucas was quick to grab a handful.

Meet Will!

2011-10-03T18:03:00.006-06:00

Will Muhlestein was born today at 2:32 p.m.
Like his siblings, he has no middle name, and we'll let him choose his own for his 16th Birthday.
He was 7 pound 10 ounces, 20.5 inches long, and is cute as a button. Everything went well for Will and Crystal and we are so grateful he arrived safely. Here are some photos!

He is a little sweetheart, hardly even cried after he was born and then went right to cuddling with his Mama. He also loves to eat already, so he'll fit right in at our house!

Lucas is saying "cheese!" He really likes to get his picture taken.

The older siblings were so excited!

And Will got to meet his cousins Harry and Wyatt and Uncle David and Aunt Megan for the first time, too. He took right to them.

My Law Graduation Speech

2011-09-04T09:22:00.003-06:00

So, I was selected as the speaker for Honor's Convocation at law school graduation in May. I wanted to share my speech. Sorry it's taken a while.

I titled it, "A Change for the Better."

The video doesn't have all of my speech, so I started out with this story:

One morning in a Professional Responsibility class during the fall of 2009, a visiting speaker came to explain the documented increased risk for mental illness and substance abuse in attorneys and law students. He talked about the stresses we just put ourselves through for the past three years, and those which we are heading toward in future … actually starting Monday (look at watch), less than 65 hours from now, when we start studying for the bar.

After explaining the stresses on time and relationships related to legal study, the speaker asked us a question.

“With regard to what kind of person you are, who here has changed since they began law school?”

Every hand in the room shot up immediately.

Then, he asked the follow-up: “How many of you like how you’ve changed?”

(this is where the video picks up)

The Stars at Night are Big and Bright...

2011-08-11T20:17:00.010-06:00

Deep in the Heart of...

For Spring Break we decided to leave chilly Ohio and visit my brother, Joseph, in Texas. Joseph, his wife, Maren, and their son Nicholas (then about 18 months old) live in Irving (near Dallas) while Joseph is studying to be a doctor. His Spring Break was the week before ours, but we were able to get a free weekend with him and he was kind enough to study ahead so he could play with us when he wasn't in class.

We left Columbus on a Thursday night and drove, drove, drove. About an hour south of Columbus we had a mishap: Ranch dressing spilled in the car, so we had that to deal with. While Crystal was dealing with the spill, Lucas grabbed a bag of pita bread and dumped it all over himself. This caused some sort of reaction on Lucas (rash, mucusy breathing, etc.) which caused us to have to stop and get Benadryl for him. Then, Clara only slept like three hours the whole night and the next morning, as we had just gotten into the Dallas area, Clara threw up all over the car. Clara wasn't that sick, but Lucas was throw-uppy about the whole time we were there, and he was (un)kind enough to share that with Nicholas, who was sick while we were there, too.

Despite all the throwing up (and getting to watch BYU play its way to the Sweet Sixteen that week), we were able to go out and have some fun.

On Saturday morning, Clara and I went with Joseph, Maren and Nicholas, to Fort Worth's old-time stock yards, which have been refurbished into a cool tourist area. Crystal and Lucas stayed home because he was sick and she was tired from the all-night drive the night before and staying up with Lucas that night, too. (And being pregnant, but shhh! no one else knew at that point.)

Here is Clara showing off the Longhorn pen.

I love how their horns are spirally from the side.

So, like I said, they refurbished the old stock yards that had been used for years and years, but in about the 1970s it became cheaper to ship the cattle by semi-trailer rather than driving them to the stockyards and loading them on trains. Here is what the unrefurbished areas look like:

Here is what the re-done part looks like. Much nicer.

Clara and I tried to measure up to the big cows.

Twice a day they drive the herd down the road and we got to watch the cows mosy along the cobblestones. They don't run them because I think they would end up with tourist-kebabs and no one would want to go and visit.

Around the corner from the stockyards is Billy Bob's, which is the worlds largest honky-tonk. It has concert stages, a rodeo arena, tons of pool tables, a restaurant, and dance floors, all under one roof.
Oh, and the world record belt buckle.

Clara got to dance a little, under the mirror saddle (which is the Texas equivalent of a disco ball).

We had a great day Sunday, going to church and then having dinner with Joseph's classmate, Matt, who also happens to be one of Crystal's great friends from college. It is a small world.

On Monday, Joseph went to school and then we picked him up and went to the Dallas Farmers' Market. It was so fun to be in shorts and to be around all the bright, fresh, delicious fruits and vegetables. (It was snowy when we got back to Ohio).

The food looks great and so do my girls!

We then drove through downtown Dallas and got to see the cool larger-than-life statues of a cattle drive which is in front of the conference center. It is really an impressive sight.

Then, we got to have a fun cookout at a park in Irving. Joseph and Maren were very hospitable, breaking out their grill and letting us just hang out and enjoy the wonderful Spring weather.
It was a wonderful trip and so cool to see where Joseph and Maren and Nicholas and Soon-t0-be Daughter (we found out they are expecting, too, shortly after we got home).

PS - Doesn't Crystal look cute eating her mango from the Farmers' Market.

I Love to See the Temple

2011-08-11T15:55:00.003-06:00

Clara has been learning so much in nursery at church (and hopefully at home too!) She talks about going to the temple all the time. One day in February, we decided to take Clara to see the temple. She frequently says she is going to get married in the temple some day. We wanted to start create memories of the temple for her, so we dressed up in church clothes and went on a little outing to the Columbus Temple.

We had a really fun time, and afterwards we went and got some ice cream.

Lucas Growing Up

2011-08-11T15:40:00.005-06:00

Here are some pictures of Lucas growing over the past few months. These stop just before his first birthday. These were all just random pictures I took, nothing important going on, just enjoy the progression!

Disney Princesses on Ice

2011-08-11T14:41:00.003-06:00

Back in January, my friend Hillary found out about a deal where if you donated a pack of diapers, you could get a ticket to see Disney Princesses on Ice. We both thought our girls would LOVE the show, so we decided to do it. I found a nice deal on diapers, and got me and Clara tickets for the show for less than $10 total. Sweet! Before the show, we went to dinner at Buca di Beppo (no pictures of that) with the girls, our husbands, and of course, Lucas came too. Hillary had princess dresses, crowns and light up wands for both girls. They were both ready for the show! Clara had the same smile plastered on her face from the moment she put on the princess dress to the moment the show started.

Then she got a little more serious.

Mickey and Minnie were the first charachters to come out. As soon as Clara saw him she screamed "MICKEY!!!!!!" as loud as she could- she was mesmerized.

My cheap camera doesn't take the clearest pictures in situations like this, but there were all sorts of princess stories from Ariel to Sleeping Beauty, to Jasmine and Snow White and of course, Cinderella.

This pretty much sums up what Clara looked like the entire show. She had such a good time, but I think it was also a little overwhelming for all these characters that she knows and loves to come to life.

I think this show was all I heard about for 3 weeks straight after the show. Clara could not stop talking about it, singing the songs, and pretending to dance on ice like all the princesses. Every now and again she will bring it up again, and I am amazed that she remembers it. It was such a fun night. I would definitely go see another Disney on Ice production. Disney knows what they are doing!

Air Force Museum

2011-08-11T14:16:00.003-06:00

One of the last days of Winter Break for Jordan, we decided to head over to Dayton and visit the Air Force Museum. We were excited to have a fun day out as a family, but I had a cold and was having some serious side effects from it. On our way out of town, we stopped at a Walgreens to pick up medicine. The only kind they had was a night time variety, so I spent the entire day in a foggy daze more interested in every bench that we passed and how nice it would be to lay down on one, than all the cool planes. Besides that little hiccup in our day, we had a lot of fun.

Since I am blogging this some 8 months later, I don't really remember a lot of details about the planes. The thing I am noticing the most, is how much my kids have grown up since then! While I may not remember a lot of details, I do remember thinking a lot of the planes were really cool.

The Disney exhibit was one of my favorites (surprise, surprise). It was really cool to see how Disney let the Air Force use its cartoon characters as a way to boost moral for the troops. It was fun to see all the different characters and how they made appearances. We had a few other pictures, but they were blurry.

We also really enjoyed the World War II section and the modern day warfare section. There were things from the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those exhibits were very touching, especially since there are troops still in those countries. I have such a profound respect and appreciation for all the people who serve in our armed forces.

We thought the name of this plane was kind of funny. We called Lucas "Jucas" a few times that day in honor of it!

I think this may have been Clara's favorite part of the museum. There was a family there with a big bag of coins and they were putting them into the coin twirly thing. Yeah, I'm not really sure what that thing is called. The dad was telling the kids how all the coins they put in there would go to help the museum. I thought it was cool to see this little family do that. I didn't have any coins on me, but I went and bought a few post cards and then me and Clara used the change I got back to have some fun with.

As I am writing this, I am sitting in the back yard of my parents house on a nice summer day while Clara plays in her little pool. With that said, looking at this picture of Lucas still reminds me oh how stinking cold in was that day! I remember running from the car to the museum and back again. Oh winter, how I do not miss you!

Winter Fun

2011-08-11T10:12:00.002-06:00

Every time it snowed, Clara BEGGED to go out and build a Frosty of her very own. We had a very cold winter, but it seemed like there was never enough snow at one point to do a whole lot of snowman building. Or at least it never seemed to coincide with when Jordan had time. And lets face it, I wasn't going to go out in the snow and build a snowman! I don't like snow. I don't like cold. Nothing about that sounds fun. I will, however, go and take pictures, since they had a lot of fun doing it! First, we had to get Clara all bundled up. What a chore that is! I am surprised she can even move with all those layers on!

After all snow was gathered and formed into a snowman-like shape (Jordan pretty much did all the work for that), it was time to put on the face- a carrot nose, we used chocolate for the eyes,

and beans for the mouth- you use what you have! Clara loved it!

I am pretty sure her face says it all. She loved building a snowman and that was all she wanted to do for the rest of the winter, but this was the only Frosty that was actually built.
I am throwing this picture in because I like it! Jordan loved that he and Lucas had matching hats. They both wore them a lot during the winter. This was before church one Sunday. They both look so handsome! And Lucas looks so little, compared to now!

We Are Alive

2011-08-11T10:08:00.003-06:00

Did you all think we dropped off the face of the earth? It kind of seems that way! But we are still here and doing well. I am going to attempt to catch up the blog on some of the things we have been doing for the last 8 months- yes that is right, 8 months. Wow, I feel like a slacker! Actually, for those who don't already know, I am 8 months pregnant right now. Yup, that's right. I pretty much dropped the blog the second I got pregnant. I just haven't had the energy, motivation, or will power to do it! But now I am thinking about a new baby making its way onto this blog, and there are so many things that we have done between now and then! The good and bad thing is, since I haven't been blogging, I haven't been taking as many pictures lately, so there probably aren't that many things to blog about! I guess we will see as I go through the pictures and reminisce about the last few months! So, you can ignore the next few posts, or you can enjoy a look at a few of the happenings from our life!

It's Over

2011-05-14T20:55:00.003-06:00

I finished law school this week. Hooray!

Power Outage

2011-02-03T14:12:00.002-07:00

Starting Monday, here in the O-H-I-O, we has some fun weather coming our way. Tuesday morning we woke up to a quarter inch of ice covering everything, including our cars. And the weather was only supposed to get worse from there! Our friends to the north were expecting to get a lot of snow, but we were supposed to get a "warm" front that would just bring us freezing rain and a lot of wind. We went to bed at about 10 pm on Tuesday night. At 10:45 I woke up because it sounded like some idiot was doing fireworks outside. I looked out the window, and I saw a bunch of smoke and flashes of light. Then I saw it. A power line had snapped and was going crazy, making sparks fly everywhere. Then the power went out. The snapped line was two houses down from ours and caused a small fire to start, but because it was raining outside, it went out quickly. Jordan and I figured there wasn't much we could do about it, so we put extra blankets on the kids and went back to bed. When we woke up the next morning, it was 58 degrees in the house, and dropping. Jordan had school, even after he diligently checked to see if it was cancelled about every 30 minutes until the power went out! Clara, Lucas and I tried to brave our cold house for a little while, but the temperature kept dropping. We finally went over to David and Megan's house when it hit 55 degrees. It was just too cold for us! We spent the day just hanging out and trying to figure out what to do. We decided to spend the night back at our house. Some friends from our ward loaned us their propane space heater that is safe for indoor use. I got our the camping stove so we could heat up water for hot cocoa and oatmeal for breakfast the next morning. We brought the kids into our room and had a little slumber party. Parties like that hold very little slumber for me. The next morning, we had a picnic breakfast on the floor of our room. Clara thought that was the coolest thing ever, but she kept asking why she couldn't go play with her toys are be in her room. We tried to teach her about electricity, but only so much can sink into a 2 1/2 year olds mind. I called up my friend Hillary and asked her if she was up for a play date that morning. Luckily she was! As I was leaving, I saw someone from the power company checking the lines. He was about to leave, then asked me if we had power. I told him no and that we had made several calls to the power company to report the outage. He knew nothing about the calls and at first couldn't find anything wrong with the lines, except for the broken one that went to a vacant house, so we was going to leave. I guess a transformer blew, and he couldn't tell that from the ground. I am so glad I stopped and talked to him! Because only 4 or 5 houses were affected by this line being out, we were on the bottom of the fix it list. There were places that had 20-30 or more houses affected by one problem that were a higher priority. But since the guy was there, he said he would fix it right up! YEAH! We went over to Hillary and Leila's for a play date, and when we got home, we had POWER and HEAT! YEAH! Our house got down into the 40's by then. Luckily our fridge was pretty bare, so we didn't lose a lot of food or anything. For the next month, Clara made sure to add electricity to the list of things she is thankful for in her prayers!

Rolly Polly Lucas

2011-01-05T17:50:00.004-07:00

When Lucas had his 4 month check up, back in October, his doctor asked me all sorts of questions about his development. Does he coo, does he grasp toys with his hands, does he eat well, and so one. She also asked if he could roll over. Just as I said no, Lucas rolled over. I was shocked! He had never done that before, and there he was, performing for his doctor. Now, oh, 3 months later, I am FINALLY posting a video of him rolling over. He is so close to crawling. He pushes up with his hands and is now starting to get on his knees. I guess the video can show you better than me!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Lucas just had his 6 month check up a couple weeks ago, and poor kid! I was starving him! Since I had my tonsils out, his feeding has been a bit off, and apparently I was only feeding him half as much as I should be, and that was after I doubled what I was feeding him a month and a half ago! Needless to say, he didn't really grow between his 4 month and 6 month check ups. He is also a MUCH happier kid than he was 2 weeks ago! This kid is happy and smiling as long as he is well fed(like any man, I guess!) and well rested. And now that he is getting enough to eat, he is both of those things. During his hungry phase, he would wake up every hour at night, but now I almost have him back to sleeping through the night. I feel so bad for starving the poor kid, but I am glad that he is so resilient, good natured, wont remember this part of his life, and that he is no worse for the wear!

Thanks Mom!

2011-01-05T13:42:00.004-07:00

The week before Christmas we went to Illinois to visit my sister and her family. My mom sent a package of bearenwaka( yes I know it is a weird name, but it is also delicious!) to my sisters house for us to share. Well, as reliable as the mail is(yes that is a little bit of sarcasm) the package did not arrive before we left Illinois. But, being the fantastic mother my mom is, she just sent me my own package. And because the post office only had one size of mailer boxes available, she decided to stuff it full of all sorts of goodies. For me, there was a loaf of bearenwaka, a loaf of REAL California oranges and a loaf of sourdough bread(you just can't get good sourdough outside of California!) and some extra filling for the bearenwaka so I could make another loaf. These of course, are to be shared with Jordan and Clara(sorry Lucas, none for you yet!) However, I couldn't help but hoard the goods for a few minutes!My mom also included (if for no other reason than to weigh down the box) a bunch of her old jewelry for Clara. Oh my, was that little girl in heaven! In fact, it has been a couple of days since we have received the package and she still insists on wearing at least one, if not all, of the necklaces at any given moment.

Don't you just love her cheesey smile?(Sometimes I secretly wish I could just get her to smile nicely, but this is so Clara, and since I love her tons, I can't help but love her cheesey smile!)
And here she is examining each necklace. Boy does she love these!
So, thank you mom for making this week taste like Christmas with all the treats! And thank you for making Clara's week with the jewelry!

End of the Year Projects

2010-12-30T09:05:00.007-07:00

It seems like most people get projects done at the beginning of the year, so either I am really early in getting this done, or really late! You decide! Anyways, my first project was to hang some mirrors that we bought,oh, 2 years ago. Its one of those projects that I had to a) think about doing and b) have Jordan around to help me with, and having both those things happen at the same time took, well, 2 years! I am really happy with how it turned out and it makes the room look bigger and brighter.
The second project I did was to transform the boring, plain wall in my kitchen into something useful and cute. Here is the plain wall. Attractive, I know.
The first thing I did was starch some fabric to the wall. Thank yous go out to my sister, Tanya for the idea and to my mom for talking to me on the phone while I was in the fabric store trying to pick a fabric. I lack the confidence and decisiveness to do things like that quickly.

UPDATE: After a few questions on how to starch fabric to a wall, I decided to answer them! You need liquid starch(not spray starch. Don't worry, I didn't know what it was either, but it was right in the laundry section of the grocery store! Usually in a blue bottle. It costs about $3 and I only used about 1/4 of it. Think of how many more walls I can fabric!) and a sponge. Pour some starch into a shallow pan(like a pie dish) and use the sponge to apply the starch to the fabric. You may want to tack the fabric to the wall first so it is hanging evenly. Make sure to evenly saturate the fabric. Using a large scraper (or old gift card) smooth out the fabric so there aren't any bubbles. Let it dry. Yup, thats it.
Next, I spray painted some moulding I purchased. Again, thanks go to my sister Tanya, for the awesome idea and to my dear husband for taking my 7, yes I think it was 7, phone calls I made to him while I was Home Depot due to the reasons I mentioned above. And a very special thanks to Clara who was very good for the 2 hours we spent in said store.

After allowing the paint to dry, I glued the frame together using wood glue.
Once the glue dried, we applied adhesive strips to the back of the frame and mounted it to the wall on top of the fabric. Love it! I used adhesive strips so it wouldn't be permanent. Command makes a bunch of varieties to choose from and they don't damage your walls, so that is what I went with. The frame is very light, so it doesn't need too many. After the frame was up, we nailed in a few nails under the top and bottom of the frame to add a little extra support.

After framing the fabric, we hung all the cute frames that my sister made me for Christmas, my calendar and a small 3 tier shelf. Thanks go to my sister, Heidi, for the super cute and useful Christmas present!
And here are some extra pictures just because I am loving it so much!
My kitchen looks so much prettier now!

Christmas Present Thank Yous

2010-12-26T18:41:00.004-07:00

This post is mostly for Grandma and Papa Muhlestein. They gave Clara a slide for Christmas and we videoed her reaction to seeing it for the first time. Like any little kid, she was a little distracted by the wrappings so it took her a minute to notice the real gift. She was definitely in awe of it, though! Here is the video:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We also want to say thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen. The new rug made Christmas morning so much more enjoyable, since we had a comfortable place to sit! And Clara loved the new clothes for her doll. The tutu princess skirt you made her matched well with her doll and she loved that! And I love the Snug Bugs you gave Lucas! Those are really fun! In fact, Clara has hijacked them a few times and I have to repeatedly remind her they are for Lucas!

And thank you to Heidi, Greg Brooklyn and Boston. All your presents were a huge hit! Clara loves the Cinderella Doll and her matching skirt and crown. I love the crayon holders for her and Lucas and I love Lucas' new trucks! Yea for more boy toys coming into our house! Jordan loves his game and the book. I love all the kitchen stuff you made me! I can now decorate my wall with the menu board, shopping list and FHE chart. I am sure there will be a blog post when that project gets done.

Thank you Thank you Thank you to everyone!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-26T15:07:00.007-07:00

This Christmas was the first one, since Jordan and I have been married, that we haven't been with family. While it is kind of sad to not be together with everyone and missing out on all the fun activities and traditions (like making tamales! Oh how I miss you!) it has been a lot of fun to start our own traditions and have Christmas in our own house. We were much more motivated to decorate our home since the whole holiday season would be spent here. And it is much easier on Christmas morning when you don't have to plan gifts around what you can pack, or just give IOU's for stuff that is waiting for you at home. Clara is also old enough for Christmas to be magical, so it was a lot of fun for us to see that and have her experience it with just us.

For Christmas Eve, Jordan and I decided it would be fun to make tempura (using my Christmas gift from last year, a fondue pot!) and sushi. It was a lot of fun.
The sushi was awesome! It is so easy to make, but I don't always think about it. Making it made me want to make it more often! The tempura wasn't as good, but now I just see that as a challenge to get better at it! After our fun dinner, we each got to open one present- new Christmas pajamas! Jordan and I always pick out the kids' jammies together, and then we each pick out the others, so they are a surprise. Clara was already hyped up on Christmas fun!

And had a hard time sitting still for pictures!
Here is a little video of Clara singing Jingle Bells.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Can you see the footsie pajamas Jordan got me? They are two piece, and not one, but they do have the feet on them! Jordan's may look a little boring in comparison, but he loves them! He said the piping on them made him feel classy.
After putting on our new pajamas, we read the accounts of Jesus' birth out of the Bible and Book of Mormon, then sang a bunch of Christmas Hymns. Clara has a love/hate relationship with singing, and apparently Christmas Eve was a hate day. The entire time we were singing (and we sang about 8 songs!) she was yelling at us to "turn it off". After that, we got out egg nog and cookies for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer to share. Then we went out to the front yard and spread reindeer food (oats mixed with glitter) to help them lead Santa to our house.

Then we sent the kids to bed and finished wrapping presents and awaited Santa's arrival. I t was such a fun night. We made great memories and, hopefully, started some fun traditions!

Cakes 2 and 3

2010-12-26T14:51:00.006-07:00

I have completed my birthday present to myself by making all three cakes! I had to wait, of course, for occasions were there would be more than just our small family so we wouldn't eat the entire cake! I just wanted to try the cakes, not eat the whole thing! The first cake, I made for my birthday and we invited people over to come and eat it. The second cake, I took to a Christmas party at church. I made sure I got one slice! And the third cake, I made while visiting my sister and her family.
Here is Cake #2. It is the chocolate cake with a peanut butter frosting and a chocolate peanut butter ganache. My goodness is it good! Super rich, so only make it when you have a crowd to share it with and make sure you have a nice, cold glass of milk to drink right along side it. It was so good! I am in love with all things ganache!
Here is cake #3. This one is a brownie mosaic cheesecake with a chocolate cookie crumb crust and a chocolate ganache. Again with the ganache. I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!(Can anyone name the movie?) This cake is a triple threat with brownies, cheesecake and a ganache. Does it get any better than that?All three cakes will be made again. In fact, I have already remade cake #1 for Christmas dinner! I added some crushed candy canes to give it a holiday flair and it was still just as tasty as can be! If any of you are up for the challenge, I strongly recommend all three of these delicious confections! Happy Baking!

Birthday Cake Extravaganza

2010-12-03T18:19:00.003-07:00

Since I am the cook/baker in the family, I either bake my own birthday cake or buy my own (if its store bought, its usually a pie or an ice cream cake). I'll admit it, I can be somewhat of a food snob. I don't really like cake that comes from a boxed mix. I usually do something else with a cake mix than make actual cake from it. In fact, I don't really like most cakes. It has to be really good (think words like raspberry filled or ganache and you are getting closer to cakes that are up my ally) for me to like it. This year, I decided I wanted to make a cake and started looking through recipes on one of my favorite food blogs, smitten kitchen. I found three recipes that I really wanted to try and just couldn't choose! So I decided since it is my birthday and I am doing all the work for the cakes, I would make all three throughout the month. Genius, I know. So today we had the first cake. Its called an icebox cake, but really it should be called the Ultimate Cookies and Cream Cake. Here are some pictures. You can start salivating.... now!
This cake was really easy to make. I ended up making my own wafer cookies because i couldn't find any in the store, but if you found the right cookies, this would be a piece of cake(pun totally intended!) to make. If you like cookies and cream type things, this is the cake for you!

Here are all the cake recipes I am trying out if any of you are interested.
http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/08/alexs-choice/
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/chocolate-peanut-butter-cake/
http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/01/wafer-wonderland/

Sickos

2010-12-03T18:14:00.002-07:00

For about 4 days, we were a house of sickos. One by one it hit each of us. Luckily it was quick moving, but this picture about sums up how we felt. While sharing is a good thing, I am sorry if we shared our germs with you!

Christmas Tree Triming

2010-12-03T17:54:00.003-07:00

We decorated our Christmas tree over the Thanksgiving break, and Clara is in LOVE with all the lights. Instead of putting lights outside of our house, we put some on the banister of our staircase and lining our window. Currently, we are watching a movie by the Christmas lights. Cozy! Anyways, here are some pictures of us decorating the tree. Please excuse Clara's crazy hair.
Lucas just lounged about while we decorated.Clara and Lucas both love the lights.
And proof that I was a part of it.

Close call...

2010-12-02T07:14:00.001-07:00

Dear Driver Who Stopped On The On-ramp This Morning,
The goal of an on-ramp is to reach freeway speeds so you can merge smoothly into traffic without problems. That is what I did. I was at 60 mph before I saw what you did. What you did was go slow and then stop and wait for a gap (in rush hour traffic). Thank goodness there was a wide shoulder, because I needed it when you gave me 5 feet too few to stop. That shoulder saved you a pile of yellow Nissan on your tail. I'm glad no harm was done, but please learn from this in the future.
Sincerely,
Jordan

Clara's New Shoes

2010-11-30T14:27:00.008-07:00

Clara is not a kid who likes to wear shoes. In fact, she loves to be barefoot and let her toes wiggle free. She takes off her shoes and socks whenever she gets the chance- the second we walk into the house, in the car, in church, sitting in the cart in the grocery store, pretty much everywhere. For the last few weeks I have been looking for some nice, brown shoes for Clara to wear to church or with everyday clothes. While we were at the thrift store looking for costume components for the Harry Potter Party(see previous post) I found some shoes that fit the description, fit Clara, and at $.99, fit my budget. From the second we got these shoes, Clara has wanted to wear them. She does not want to take them off-EVER. Its a sad time in our house when it is time to get pajamas on because those shoes just wont fit inside her footsie jammies. However, nap time is a different story. And that is where this picture comes in...

She couldn't get her feet under the covers with her shoes on, but taking them off was out of the question, so some days, she just naps with her shoes on! I find this really funny, seeing as I deal with her hatred of almost all footwear on a daily basis. So if this isn't as cute/funny to you, just humor me.

And because I am trying to be an equal opportunity blogging mother, here is a picture of Lucas! Isn't he so cute? Especially on this pink Disney Princess blanket of Clara's that has, for some reason, become the blanket that we put Lucas on 9 times out of 10. I try and tell myself that at 3 am when he is screaming his head off. Seriously, he can scream for 2 hours straight in the middle of the night and not fall asleep. I have witnessed it on several occasions. Looks like he (and me) wont be sleeping through the night for a while.(seriously, I spent two weeks sleeping with ear plugs and trying to let him just cry it out and he would cry for 2 hours! Jordan would go sleep in the guest room, and after a while , oh say two hours! I would give in and pick him up. Was that enough? Oh no, he wants to eat. My chunkamonk not so little, 19 lb. not quite 6 month old wants to eat. So I have come to the conclusion thatI will get more sleep if I just keep feeding him in the night, though in the back of my mind, I think he SHOULD be able to sleep through the night. I guess we will try again once Jordan is on Christmas Break from school and I can ensure I get a nap in. Fun.)
Its the most wonderful time of the year! There are toy catalogs all over our house, because whenever one comes in the mail or with the Sunday paper (or from a friend who gives us one because there is a doppelganger of Clara inside. Thanks Lindsey!) Clara inevitably finds it and it gets added to her book shelf because she can't bear to part with them. The other day, she brought one to the dinner table for a little reading during her meal. It was really funny. Again, if you don't think so, humor me.
Well, that is all for now from the Muhlestein household. Stay tuned for a post (if you are lucky) about our no good, very bad week. That's right folks, we are all sick. Thank you to Clara for being the carrier monkey of this lovely sickness. But don't worry, we have been kind enough to share our germs with those around us. Tis the season for giving...

Harry Potter Party

2010-11-22T09:23:00.007-07:00

Our friend Lindsey is a HUGE Harry Potter fan. Since we have lived here, she has thrown a party when a new Harry Potter movie comes out. In order to attend said party, you MUST dress up as a character from the books. When The Half Blood Prince came out in July of 2009, I was a witch in muggle clothing, Clara was a house elf and Jordan was a portrait of a former headmaster.

We didn't want to repeat our same costumes, so we headed to the thrift store to get some inspiration. I originally wanted to go as Bellatrix, but then I found this sweet hat at the thrift store and decided that I should go as Rita Skeeter instead. Jordan is a Quidditch player, Clara is Hermione, and Lucas is baby Harry Potter, scar and all.

Here is some of the decor at the party:

And the snacks- licorice wands, cauldrons cakes, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Gummy Flobber Worms, and so much more!

Clara enjoyed the Cauldron Cakes a little too much!

Rita Skeeter and Baby HarryGryffindor Quidditch Player and Baby Harry

Rita interviewing an uncomfortable Hermione with her handy Quick-Quotes Quill.
Thanks again to our hosts, Ed and Lindsey, aka Ron and Hermione!

Latest Project

2010-11-06T14:53:00.002-06:00

These little creatures are called amigurumis. They are my latest project. I have been having a lot of fun making them and have plans to make many more in the future. (including Star Wars ones!)

Growing Kiddos

2010-11-06T14:17:00.014-06:00

WARNING: LONG POST WITH LOTS OF PICTURES

(if I were you, I would skip the text and just look at the pictures!)
I am a slacker when it comes to blogging. I know this. I am mostly ok with this. The only times it bothers me is when I see how much my kids have grown since the last time I posted pictures of them. That usually means it has been a while since I have actually gotten out the camera and taken their picture. I wish I were one of those people who captured all the fun little things on camera, but that is a goal I am still working on. So in the meantime, here are some pictures over the last couple months that show a little bit of what we have been doing, but mostly just some growing kiddos.

Back In August, after Lucas' baby blessing, we attempted to take some family pictures. Nothing fancy, just us and our handy camera after church trying to capture a good image. Not so easy, but hey, that's life!

In the past few months, I feel like Clara has been changing from toddler to little girl. Maybe its just because she is so darn big for her age, but she just seems so grown up! The transformation begins...
Back in August we went to a hot air balloon show called Balloons and Tunes. Here are some pictures of the event. Clara got her first experience with a bounce house. I think it was a success!

We enjoyed a giant cream puff from Schmidt's. I love those things!
Jordan and Clara watching the balloons
I tried to get a good shot of Lucas, but he was sitting in my lap. Oh well, at least you can see how much he has grown!

Lucas kind of lost it at dusk. We wanted to stay and watch all the balloons light up at night, but two tired kids vetoed that idea with their resounding screams.

And a picture of the parents who made this lovely outing possible!As we were walking out we were able to see the balloons lighting up. It was really fun to see.

On Labor Day, Jordan and I ran a 5k, toting the kids along in the jogging stroller. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted the only picture I had of all of us at the race, so instead, here is a picture of Clara eating one of the cookies that was in our participation packet.

And another one of her wearing one of our race numbers. That is all the proof you get.
The kids chillin' with their favorite parent. Yes, we all know its true.
So stinkin' cute! (Though this picture would be a lot cuter right now if this little boy weren't sitting on my lap right now screaming as loud as he can)

This picture is so coming out when Clara goes on her first date.And he is growing...

And growing...And growing! He ate his first semi solid food a few weeks ago. He wasn't a fan. Fast forward to today, and you can't shovel it in his mouth fast enough!
Look at that chub!
I took these last two pictures today. I am in LOVE with this little outfit, but Lucas seems to have mixed feelings about it since every time he wears it, his bodily functions get the best of it.

Done and done! I am now caught up! We will see how long it lasts...

Halloween and Other Scary Things

2010-11-05T19:23:00.006-06:00

In Columbus, most of the trick or treating took place on the Thursday before Halloween, so our Halloween celebrations took place then (and yet I am still kind of late blogging about it!) We had quite the adventurous day! My mom was here visiting for two weeks while I recovered from having my tonsils out, and sadly, she left that day. Good thing we had so many other things going on, or Clara would have had more serious Grandma withdrawals (read: tantrums) than she did!

Clara was really excited that she and Lucas both had shirts with owls on them. I attempted to get pictures of them both, however Clara was not very cooperative, so you take what you can get! Here are a few cute ones:
While my mom was visiting us, we had quite a few exciting moments involving the police. A house across the street from ours was being rented by a drug dealer and the police were trying to catch the guy, so in the two weeks my mom was visiting there were three or four SWAT team visits. The last one happened on Thursday and I captured a few pictures of the action.

This last visit was the final one. The police boarded up the house and shut down the operation. It was really crazy to see all the action!

That night, we went to downtown Grove City to Boo on Broadway. A bunch of businesses all come together and hand out candy (and a little bit of advertising) to all the kids that come trick or treating to them. Considering the action on our street as of late, I considered this as a much safer option than going in our neighborhood! We went with some friends of ours, the Avery's, and had a great time! My mom helped me make the kids' costumes and I was really happy with how they turned out.

Lucas was Yoda

And Clara was Leia. She LOVED the ear buns. She kept calling them her princess ears. I was so happy she liked her costume so much!
Family Shot. Jordan and I were responsible adults for Halloween. Creative. I know.
The Avery's (Leila is one of Clara's favorite friends)

Me and Clara. It was the first cold night, but Clara couldn't have cared less. She was so mesmerized by the whole experience. It was really fun to see how magical everything was for her.
On our way home, we stopped by David and Megan's house so Clara could see her cousins, Harry and Wyatt in their costumes. It is really hard to get a good picture of four little kids! So here are two pictures for your enjoyment.

Cohort Day 3

2010-10-17T07:20:00.002-06:00

Here is more info about my study-related lockdown.

Cohort Day 2

2010-10-15T19:24:00.003-06:00

Today I feel like a pin cushion. I fainted on blood draw number 7 or 8 (I lose count), so now I get to lie down when I give blood. After this and my last experience donating blood, I think I might not be volunteering for such things for a while.
On to the video:

Guinea Pig Day 1

2010-10-14T19:11:00.000-06:00

So, I am currently on lockdown at the OSU clinical pharmacology lab doing a drug study.
Watch about it now!

Dear September

2010-09-30T10:57:00.002-06:00

Dear September,

How are you already almost over? I keep thinking it is still summer, but I must have blinked and you made the switch to fall. I am enjoying the cooler weather, especially now that I get to snuggle up under blankets at night. I am also enjoying crocheting again, which is something I always seem to pick up again in the fall.

September, you have made me notice the gaps in my kids' wardrobes that need to be fixed before your good friend October comes to stay. We need to switch out all the shorts for pants and start wearing socks again(blast those socks! I wish I could go barefoot all year!)

A lot of good memories have been made while you were here, September. Clara is talking ever so much. Her favorite thing to say is "no way" and she loves to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". She knows about half of her letters and can count to 3 on a good day. She loves to love Lucas, Anytime she sees a picture of a big, pretty building, she excitedly yells "Temple!". She has gotten much better at folding her hands (never her arms!) and bowing her head for prayers and is trying to say them with me. Her hair is as curly as ever and I never realize how long it is until I give her a bath and wash it. She is growing up so fast and it seems like everyday I stop myself and just hug her for a minute because I don't want to miss out on that.

September, you have been so good to Lucas, too. He has grown so much! I am a little sad that he doesn't fit into his 3 month clothes anymore. He can hold his head up so well and even had his first playtime in the exersaucer. He doesn't love it yet, but I am sure he will, since he loves to be in the middle of the action. Lucas loves to laugh and smile. If you make eye contact with him and smile at him, most of the time he will smile back and start kicking his legs and get very excited. I can't believe my little man is already so big! And when I say big, I mean it! He is about 16 lbs now, though he isn't as chubby as Clara was at this age. He is just as sweet, though. I love to just hold him and cuddle with him.

It seems like the most changes have come for Jordan during your stay, September. He started his law school class, then he started his Health Admin. classes and we have all had to get used to him being gone more. As for me, with fall here, I have to get used to a new schedule too. All those freezer meals I made before Lucas was born are just about gone. I have to start making dinners again! No more sleeping in just a little bit, no more childless trips to the grocery store during the day, and a whole lot more cleaning needs to happen! I think as you leave, September, so does my "I just had a baby" excuse.

September, your stay was far too short! While we wont see you for another year, please tell your good friend October that he doesn't have to rush his visit. There are a lot of fun things that are going to happen when October is with us, and I want to make sure we get to enjoy them all.

Thanks for the great month, see ya next year!

Love,

Crystal

Random August Stuff

2010-09-03T17:42:00.002-06:00

I have been meaning to update the blog, oh I don't know... all month! So here is a random post with random stuff.

I made 2 batches of brownies the other day, testing the original recipe against my own tweaks. This picture shows the difference between making brownies while just making brownies and making brownies while trying to help 2 screaming children. They were both delicious, but the top pan definitely looks better!
While I was making brownies, Clara decided to rearrange all the pots and pans in the cabinet.
And this is just a cute picture of cute Lucas being his cute self.
I commissioned my sister Tanya to make Clara an apron so she could help me in the kitchen Here is Clara modeling the apron. So stinkin' cute! Thanks again Tanya! We love it!
If my kids weren't the subjects of the other pictures, this would be my favorite picture! I scored some AMAZING deals at the grocery store! I do love my kids more than I love getting good deals, but some days, I think it is a close call. I paid $24.61 for this lot of groceries. My favorite parts of this are the 19 packages of berries (priced at $.08-$.12 per package)! Those alone would normally have cost me $40-$60, depending on if they were on sale or not. I also got free pizza, free ranch dressing packet, free hot sauce, milk ($1.34/gallon), Warm Delights for $.25 apiece, free Chex Mix, peanut butter for $1.00/jar, loads of produce (carrots, peaches, asparagus, lettuce, summer squash, zucchini, grapes) rice, yogurt, and freezer Ziploc bags. I saved well over $100. It was a great day, and now my freezer is super happy with all those berries in it!
I really like this picture. Clara dumped a cup coarse salt on her face and you can see the little salt crystals stuck in her eyelashes. This little girl sure does know how to get into mischief!
Well, those are the recent happening in the Muhlestein household, hope you enjoyed it!

Swagbucks

2010-08-24T11:31:00.005-06:00

Ever heard of swagbucks? Heard of it but skeptical? I decided to give it a try, and I love it! For those who don't know what it is, it is a website that you can do internet searches through (like google). Every now and again, when you search, you are awarded swagbucks. Save up those swagbucks, and you can cash them in for prizes. For example, 450 swagbucks will get you a $5 amazon gift card. And all that just for searching things on the internet like I normally do! I have been using swagbucks since March, and I have already redeemed $50 in Amazon gift cards. I have used those gift cards to make purchases, too, so I know it is legit. The search engine for swagbucks produces results compiled from google and ask.com, so it is a quality search engine. There are also other ways to earn swagbucks to get you those gift cards even faster. Interested in giving it a try? Click on the link below to get started! This is a super easy way to save up for Christmas or other gifts all through the year.

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/ccinderella12

(PS- you get extra swagbucks when you refer people, so if you like this and want to give it a try, please sign up through the link I put up here!)

100 more miles...

2010-08-03T07:18:00.003-06:00

About 28 months ago, our friend Ali and I decided to create the 100-Mile Challenge, a race to be the first to run 100 miles.

Well, since then, she has moved, had a baby, her baby has had several heart surgeries (he is doing great now, though!) and a bunch of other stuff.

Since then, I have moved, fathered two children, done two years of law school and a bunch of other stuff.

So, we've decided it is time to start the challenge again to get back in better shape.

You can track our progress on the little box on the right side of our blog.

Happy running!

Happy Birthday Clara!!!

2010-08-01T18:12:00.006-06:00

WARNING: This post is heavy on the pictures.

Clara's birthday was on June 20. I should have written this post long ago, but in my defense, Lucas was only 12 days old on Clara's birthday, so I am just proud of myself for getting her birthday done! And as for the tardiness of writing about it, better late than never!

Here are pictures from Clara's birthday photo shoot. I love her scrunched up face smile! That is what she does pretty much every time we ask her to smile.

Like any kid, Clara really enjoyed opening her presents.

We went with a summertime theme for her birthday this year, so most of her presents revolved around summer activities. She got a beach ball (thank you Grandma Muhlestein!)

She got sand and pool toys and sidewalk chalk (thank you dollar section at Target!)

She got a cool doll that has clothes that snap on, so she can change the dolls clothes all by herself and a purse to put her doll and the clothes in. (Thank you Grandma Sorensen!)

Do you think she likes it?

And for the grand finale, she got a sand box!

After presents, we went outside and enjoyed some yummy birthday cupcakes

Then the kids enjoyed the sandbox and toys.

It was a great day! We are so blessed to have Clara. She is such a good girl and has become such a good big sister! We love watching her learn new things. She has such a sweet spirit and is so kind and gentle and yet so rambunctious and ridiculous. Everyday is a new adventure with her and I am so thankful to be her mother! Happy Birthday Clara, we all love you!

Political Ad

2010-08-01T14:27:00.004-06:00

I'm slow getting this up, but here you go:
In April, my summer job boss, Mark Weaver, called me and asked me to get as many people as possible to show up to be extras in a political ad for Ohio's Issue 1.

I called Crystal and she brought Clara, and then I called David and he brought Megan and the boys.
Here is the video. Click to see it.

Crystal and Clara are in the first shot, and then you can see them, and me, on the left side of the screen later, (when the main actor is facing the camera) and you can see David (in a suit and tie) with Harry on his shoulders on the right side.

It was fun, and the money we got paid for my birthday dinner at Benihana's.

Lots O' Lucas

2010-07-29T18:50:00.005-06:00

This post will be heavy on the pictures to appease all of you who have been demanding new pictures! Here they are in chronological order. Hopefully you can see some growth, though I am not very consistent at taking pictures.

Sleepy Head

More Sleepy Head

And more sleepy head! That is one of his favorite past times!

One night we built a fire, roasted hot dogs and had smores. Hmm, I can't tell if Clara likes them or not, can you?

I walked into the kitchen one day and saw this. Little rascal!

This is a typical Lucas face.

And so is this

And so is this! He loves to have his arms above his head and to play with his hair.

Ooops! Forgot to turn the image! Just turn your head!

I LOVE this little outfit! Thanks again Maren! Lucas likes to put his hands up to his face when he sleeps.

Isn't he cute?

This is another outfit I absolutely love! His hair is a little curly, you can kind of see that in this picture.

And just in case you haven't seen enough, here is one more!

Clara And Lucas

2010-06-16T12:41:00.006-06:00

These first couple of pictures are a blog post I meant to do before I had Lucas, but that didn't happen, so we will start off with those!

Clara had her first ice cream cone on Memorial Day. As you can tell by the look on her face, she loved it!

I got a kiddie pool on clearance at the end of last summer. We pulled it out for Clara and she loves it. She might as well be part fish! I am sure this little pool will be in constant use this summer.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Now onto Clara and Lucas. For the most part, Clara loves her little brother. She loves to hold him and give him hugs and kisses. She definitely has her moments when she wants things to go back to the way they were before Lucas. Those moments usually come when nap time or bedtime are approaching.

Here is Clara meeting Lucas for the first time.

Clara showing off her "Big Sister" shirt.

Right after we decided on the name Lucas, Jordan leaned over and whispered in his ear "Luke, I am your father." We have some friends, Ed and Lindsey, who love Star Wars. They got

Lucas his very own Yoda! They also got Clara an elephant. Thanks again Ed and Lindsey!

It was so nice to come home from the hospital and sleep in my own bed. Clara was also very happy to have me home. She decided to ham it up for the camera for these shots!

And she loves to give Lucas his pacifier, though we have to remind her to be gentle with him!

I can't believe this little guy is already a week old! We will try and keep the blog updated with pictures and info.

Meet Lucas.

2010-06-08T22:45:00.003-06:00

Lucas Muhlestein was born at 8:51 p.m. June 8, 2010.
He weighs 8 pounds 5 ounces and is 21 inches long.
He is happy and healthy and so is his wonderful Momma.

I'm sure you'll hear more later, but here are some pictures.

Summer is Coming!

2010-05-29T09:16:00.008-06:00

I've been kind of bad about blogging and taking pictures to document what we are doing, so here is a hodgepodge from the month of May! Clara is growing so much and learning so many new things, and I need to be better about marking all those milestones, especially with a new baby due any day now! I am really going to have to be better if I am going to document both their lives! Anyways, here are some of the things we have been doing...

We went to a baseball game with David and Megan (and her mom, and Harry and Wyatt of course!) It was Dime-a-Dog night, so we all enjoyed a few hot dogs, some of us more than others. I had 2. David had 12. I think I lost. To each their own!

We have been enjoying corn on the cob. Clara got her own ear of corn for the first time, and DEVOURED it! She loves corn on the cob now!

We have been playing in the backyard and gardening. As I was watering the garden, Clara decided to pick a radish, so we ate it! Do you like Jordan's Dharma jumpsuit? We both have one. They were our Halloween costumes. It is now his yardwork jumpsuit. Doesn't he look so handy?

Clara learned to smile for the camera. Usually when I pull out the camera, Clara gets very distracted by it and wants to hold it and look at it. She wont smile. In fact, if she has been smiling, she promptly stops and gets a very solemn look on her face until I put the camera away. She is now starting to smile for the camera, and of course, it is her super cheesy scrunched up face smile!

Clara sings the Jeopardy song. Jordan LOVES Jeopardy. He wants to go on the show someday. In fact, he has taken the test a few times already. We watch the show fairly often. Clara LOVES to sing the song. She has done this for a long time, but because she gets so distracted whenever we pull out the camera, we have had a hard time capturing the moment. She didn't sing it as well as she normally does in this video, but you get the idea! She also loves to sing along to the Glee soundtrack. Don't Stop Believin' and Jump are her favorites. Maybe those will be the next songs we try and record her singing!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Clara is learning her animal sounds, and is saying a lot more words. This has probably been the most fun and rewarding thing for me to see. She has been so stubborn about talking. I know she can do it, but she has to do it on her own terms. Just in the past two weeks or so she has made a lot of progress! She used to think that all animals said the same thing. Now she is getting better and learning new ones! She also says things like Mommy, Baby, Uh-oh, hi, and bye very clearly. She says a lot of other things, they just aren't as clear! It seems like every day she makes more progress!

I couldn't decide which video I liked best, so you get both!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Paying the Ransom

2010-04-30T10:35:00.004-06:00

This one is for you, Heidi!

My sister told me she was holding a box of baby clothes hostage and if I wanted them I had to post a pregnant picture of myself. Well, here are two for you. Hope you enjoy the belly, cause it is getting pretty large!

Spot and Speckle

2010-04-29T12:18:00.003-06:00

Some friends of ours had a couple of goldfish that they were looking to get rid of and they asked us if we wanted them. I wasn't too sure about taking on the responsibility of fish, but I knew Clara would love them, so we said yes. Yesterday David and Chelsie brought over the little guys, Spot and Speckle, and we set up their bowl. From the second Clara saw the fish, she LOVED them! These pictures don't really do her reaction justice. Most of that is because the second I pull out the camera, she stops smiling and turns into a different kid. I don't know what it is with her and the camera, but she has not learned to ham it up yet!

(Please excuse my messy counter. I had not yet cleaned the kitchen, nor was I expecting to have pictures of it taken!)

Clara spent about an hour just looking at these tow goldfish. She talked to them, she cried every time we told her it was time to get down, then got really excited each time we gave her a few more minutes (hence the hour of looking at them). While I am not too excited to have a fish bowl to clean out, I am glad that Clara loves these fish and that seeing them is such a treat for her. We have to work on keeping her hands out of the bowl, but other than that, she is onto a great start! We will see how long they keep her interested!

Bear Claws

2010-04-29T11:54:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago, Jordan and I went to Montgomery, Illinois to visit my sister and her family. While we were there, my sister talked about making bear claws. Since that conversation, my pregnant self has not been able to get bears claws off the brain! Jordan had, apparently, never had one because he didn't seem too excited about them (anyone who knows Jordan well knows he LOVES almond desserts and since bears claws are filled with almond, I thought he would have been more excited about my recent obsession). We went to Panera for lunch one day, and pregnant me was salivating over the bear claws all during lunch. Being the good husband that he is, Jordan went and got me one after I ate my lunch and was still talking about them. After he tasted it and realized how incredibly delicious they are, he decided to jump on the bear claw band wagon with me.

Having never made bear claws before, I knew this would be an adventure and I decided to go into it slowly. I researched out recipes online and found this blog and from there decided that I needed to get this book from the library so that I had all the instructions and pictures at my disposal. I got the book, gathered together the necessary ingredients and started on my way. One day, I decided to make them, but I didn't have enough time to do it all, so I made mock bear claws using puff pastry dough and the almond filling from the book. They were quite delicious, and further fed my determination to make the real deal. Since I already had the filling made (the recipe makes twice as much filling as one batch of dough) I just had to tackle the dough. I am not going to lie. It intimidated me. I am kind of scatter brained, and even more so when pregnant. I also have this problem of thinking that I know better than directions. That can really get me into trouble. So with a few deep breaths, I read through the directions a few times and got started. The road started a little bumpy for me. I think I may have measured the flour wrong, or it really just needed more than the recipe says, because my dough was more like soup after I added the called for amount. I knew that couldn't be right, so after talking to my dough for some time, trying to figure out what to do, I added a bit more flour until it at least came together. I was quite nervous at this point. I did not want to be disappointed in the finished product. I kept going, though, and followed the rest of the directions to a T. After, literally, hours in the kitchen, here are the finished product!

They turned out so good! The dough was super flaky and light and fluffy and yummy. The filling was just as good as the first time, and the apricot glaze on top added that little something extra that seals the deal. Mission accomplished. I am no longer intimidated by this sort of dough! I can now add bear claws to the menu of the bakery I hope to open someday!

Weight loss methods

2010-04-14T06:29:00.002-06:00

Since I have been a slacker since my last post and haven't responded to the several comments I received, I have decided to do so.
Thank you for all the congratulations. You should be happy to know that two weeks later I am maintaining my weight loss and feeling good.
Several people asked me how I did my weight loss, and the answer is really simple, basic and unglamorous ... it was portion control, eating less calories after 6 p.m. and exercise.
That was really it. Crystal's cooking being as good as it is, I had to work hard to do it, but I did.
The fact that it was a contest helped a lot, too, because I could get my competitive juices flowing to help me go.
One trick for portion control is using smaller plates. Crystal and I have full-size dinner plates, but for most meals we use half-size plates (maybe you'd call them salad plates) and that limits the amount of food we can put on the plate. There is something satisfying about seeing a full plate of food in front of you, and if your plate isn't as big, it can be full and you don't eat as much.
Another thing I found is that in the evening, about 9 p.m., usually, I get kind of peckish, and want a treat. At that point, I would drink a can of diet beverage, which had the taste I wanted, with between 10 and zero calories, plus it filled me up enough that I didn't want anything.
Finally, on nights when it was really hard, I would brush my teeth early so I had another barrier between me and the fridge.
One key was also that I didn't tell myself anything was off limits. I had ice cream a couple times and some cupcakes, etc. I just didn't have them every time they were available or every time I wanted them.
As for exercise, I have been running about 3 miles at least once a week, and playing basketball for one or two hours on other days.

As an interesting aside, I am now getting used to how my body feels with less fat reserves. Fast Sunday was a lot harder this past month because my body didn't have as much backup energy. Also, on Monday, I ran three miles then came home, showered, and ran some errands for a couple hours with Crystal and Clara. By the time we got home I was really, really hungry. I ate my dinner pretty quickly, but I didn't eat a lot (bowl of chili, biscuit and an artichoke), but afterward I felt really crummy and later ended up emptying my stomach into the lawn. My body just wasn't up for exercise and then a three-hour wait for food. Kind of a rotten way to learn my lesson there, but I certainly learned it.
I never thought about it beforehand, but there are a lot of changes beyond the physical ones after losing a chunk of weight. I would be interested to hear how the people who lose 100+ pounds deal with learning to live with their new body.

Biggest Loser contest

2010-04-01T08:32:00.002-06:00

Now that it is April 1st, I have completed my first major project of the year. On January 1, thanks to the creativity of my brother- and sister-in-law, I started a family Biggest Loser contest. The last day was March 31, so I did my final weigh in and now you get the results.

By the way, I know that today's date might throw some of you off, but I have photographic evidence below.

I am so glad to be done with this contest. I made a big change in my life and saw results, and I am excited to continue with my healthier lifestyle, but I am also excited to allow myself an indulgence here and there.

I started at 231 pounds and my final weight was 194.5 pounds. I lost 36.5 pounds, for a total weight loss of 15.8 percent. I haven't weighed under 200 since I was 19 years old. I turn 29 in about 30 days, so I'm going to try to better when I turn 39.

Here are my before-and-after shots.

I can now even wear my UnderArmour shirt without feeling self-conscious!

Clara's Animal Sounds

2010-03-20T05:00:00.002-06:00

Clara is a funny girl. Here is a video of what sounds she thinks animals make.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What is this?!?!

2010-03-20T04:36:00.003-06:00

So apparently my hands just can't get a break. My finger is finally healed up from me cutting a piece of it off back in January, but now I have something new and intriguing. Just take a look at these lovely pictures:

I couldn't sleep, so I had to take pictures by myself so I could write this. Both hands look like this, but seeing as I am not that talented, I couldn't take a picture of both hands at once, and since they both look the same, you guys get to see good old lefty.

I bet you are thinking "wow, what did you do?" and the only answer I have is I HAVE NO IDEA! I woke up with this yesterday morning. It started out as just some redness and swelling at the base of my fingers, and then yesterday afternoon blisters started to form. You can really only see two blisters in the pictures, but I have 4 more on that hand hiding in between my fingers, plus 4 on the other hand. The tips of my fingers are fine- it seems to just be at the base and in between my fingers and a whole lot of swelling in the knuckles. Also, it is only on the dorsal surface, nothing on my palms. It feels like I burned myself, but I haven't. I haven't changed any lotions, soaps or detergents in my house in probably a month. I can't think of anything odd or new that I have come in contact with recently. I called my OB she said it doesn't sound pregnancy related since she has never heard of that before. So I called my general doctor who said that sounded really weird and I needed to come in and have it looked at. My doctor, as well as all her colleagues in her office, were all stumped. None of them could think of any possible reason for this to happen. So now I get to play the waiting game this weekend and see what happens. Weird, huh!

Cheap Diapers

2010-03-01T11:14:00.005-07:00

If any of you are looking for cheap diapers out there and have never used diapers.com, I have a deal for you! You can get $50 of diapers for $25! Here is how:

Go to diapers.com

http://www.diapers.com/MyDiapers.aspx

Fill your cart with $50 worth of diapers.

Use coupon code CCIN6116 at check out to get $10 off your order of $50. You will automatically get free shipping because the order is over $49. This coupon code only works for NEW customers, so if you already have an account with them, it wont give you the discount.

When you are checking out, look for a banner that looks like this:

Click on it and print out the refund offer. Fill it out and send it in with a copy of your diapers.com receipt. I believe this refund is also only available to new customers.

With the coupon code and the refund, you get $50 of diapers for $25. For the sizes that I ordered, I got 284 diapers, which comes out to a little over $.08 per diaper. Not bad! I already ordered mine and they came in just a couple of days, so the free shipping is really fast. I submitted for my refund, also. It takes a few weeks to get that back, so I don't have it yet, but that will be a nice surprise in the mail when I do get it! Hope this deal helps some of you out!

UPDATE: I have received an email from parenting magazine and my rebate is on its way!

Clara Loves To Dance

2010-02-23T17:55:00.002-07:00

I think I have tried to post video of Clara Dancing before but couldn't get the video to upload. Clara's dancing abilities have evolved over time, but it is still super cute to see her rock out whenever music comes on. She routinely walks up to our stereo system and asks(without words, of course, because she still refuses to speak!) for music. As a side note, another form of music she likes in the Jeopardy theme song. One of these nights when we watch Jeopardy, I need to grab the camera and video her singing along because it is funny! Anyways, here is some cute Clara dancing for your visual enjoyment.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Clara and Lotion

2010-02-23T13:37:00.003-07:00

Anyone who has spent much time at our house knows how much Clara LOVES lotion. I think it is because she sees me putting it on several times a day since I cannot stand to have dry skin. Anyways, here is a video of her with lotion. She has done this for a long time, but she figured out what to do with it all on her own!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Slacker

2010-02-23T13:16:00.004-07:00

So I have been feeling like a real slacker when it comes to blogging. There are so many things I think about blogging about, but then I never do. I feel like unless I am posting pictures of something fantastic, then there is no point telling everyone about what we are doing. Really though, I just need to record all these things that are happening in our lives.

So here is a funny story from this weekend that I wanted to share. Jordan is involved in a local Boy Scouts Troop, and one of the Scouts had his Court of Honor on Saturday. Jordan was participating in the Court of Honor, so Clara and I decided to tag along to support Jordan as well as this Scout. Being the rambunctious kid that she is, Clara did not sit still very long. We chose to sit on the back row to try and be the least disruptive as possible. All was going well, until Clara decided to climb up onto the chair and stick her head through the back (I tried to find a picture of the type of chair it was, but couldn't find an image. ) The hole was just big enough for her to get her head through, but not pull it back out very well. Needless to say, Clara was NOT happy that her head was stuck in the chair. I hopped up quickly and tried to get her head out, but it was going to take a minute to get her out, so I decided to try and take her and the chair out of the room, but all the chairs were hooked together and I couldn't get hers undone. By this point Clara is screaming at the top of her lungs and no one is paying attention to the Court of Honor that is going on, but to me and Clara. In fact, the person that was talking stopped and came over to help, along with about 7 or 8 other people. I felt like I was in the middle of a bad joke- How many Eagle Scouts does it take to get a kid's head out of a chair? Well the answer to that in this scenario is about 5. I was laughing too hard to be of any help, but after a few minutes and a lot of help from others, Clara was free again! Boy was she happy to be out, but she was also a little traumatized, so we left the room and wandered the halls for a few minutes until she was calm enough to go back in and sit quietly. It was quite the adventure.

And just to top off this post, here is a picture of Clara. She was not very entertained by me trying to take a picture of her.

My Latest Project

2010-02-23T12:58:00.003-07:00

I have TONS of scrap yarn just wasting space in my house. You know all those bits that you didn't need at the end of a project? Well I can't just throw them away because I know I could use them for something. The problem has been trying to find a way to use them. I finally found a project for them! I am making foam blocks out of them. I got the idea out of a knitting book. Since I am not as good at knitting as I am at crocheting, I decided to take the idea and make it my own. I went to Joann Fabric and bought an 8x24 inch piece of 4 inch high density foam. Using an electric knife, I cut the foam into 12 4-inch cubes. Then I crocheted 4 inch squares using my scrap yarn and sewed the squares together. I have only finished 4 of the blocks so far, but here are a couple of pictures for you. It has been really fun to try out different patterns and learn new stitches, while only being committed to a 4 inch square. I am finding that I like a lot more of the patterns in one of my books than I thought, just because the picture doesn't really let you see what the finished product actually looks like. With the Olympics on right now, I am set every night! I have this project to keep my hands busy and me not feeling so guilty for being glued to the TV!

It's a....

2010-02-05T07:38:00.002-07:00

BOY!!!

We get one of each now! I had an ultrasound yesterday and my doctor is 90% sure that it is a boy. Just as we did with Clara, we have decided to give this little guy a nickname until he is born, since we wont decide on a name until we see him. His new nickname is now Otter Pop. I like this nickname because it sounds boyish, he swims around a lot, like an otter, and I am always FREEZING! Jordan and I joked early on in this pregnancy that I have a Popsicle in the freezer instead of a bun in the oven.

DC Trip

2010-01-26T17:21:00.007-07:00

Since I don't have class on Fridays this semester and I didn't have school on Jan. 18 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we decided to take a quick trip east (and a little south) to visit our friend Brandon. This trip has been about four years in the making, because he is in his last semester of dental school at Virginia Commonwealth University and I promised him when he started that I would come visit him while he was still in school. So, since this was almost the last possible chance to do so, we headed out.

We drove southeast from Columbus, through West Virginia and got to Richmond, Virginia (where Brandon lives) in about 7.5 hours. Not bad at all. Clara was a trooper on the trip and behaved pretty well (especially when we shared with her our favorite road trip snack!) We stayed up until about 1 a.m. talking with Brandon, and then he was kind enough to give us his bedroom and he slept on a mattress on the living room floor.

The next morning (Friday) we drove into Richmond with Brandon, and he showed us around the VCU medical campus, as well as the state capitol building of Virginia (which is right across the street). (It is also in the picture above this paragraph.) We ate lunch at Jo-Jo's Pizza, and then we walked Brandon back to his clinic and left him to do some dentistry. We drove around downtown a bit to explore some more and then drove back to Brandon's house for the girls to have a nap and me to be lazy on the couch.

This is Brandon inside an old church on campus that has been renovated into a really cool study hall.

When Brandon finished with his patients, he took a quick nap and then we went out to dinner at Jason's Deli (which gives FREE soft-serve ice cream to everyone who comes in ... incredible!) and then got some dessert at Frostings Cupcakes (delicious, too.) After we got back from dinner, Clara went to bed and Crystal read for a while and then fell asleep. Brandon and I drove around Richmond for a while, and he told me about the history of the area and showed of the big statue of Stonewall Jackson and the beautiful southern avenues in the city. We got back in time to hang out with Brandon's roommates for a little while, and see the great finish to the Suns-Hawks NBA game.

The next morning we got up and drove north about 90 minutes to Washington DC. Brandon left us there to go study for a few hours. Our friend Nicki (who works for Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah)) was kind enough to get our names on the list of visitors to the White House that day, so we parked on the west side of the White House and tried to get into the tour. We tried to walk around the south of the building to get to the East Wing (where our tour was) and were turned away by a uniformed officer. I asked him what was going on and he said he didn't know. So, we walked the long way around and then finally got to the line. We waited about 30 minutes to get in (showing our photo ID twice and going through a big metal detector). Clara was a good sport because I didn't let her get off my shoulders very much (so she didn't cause any national security alerts, ha ha).

As we went through the metal detector, I heard one of the Secret Service agents say, "Eagle and Trailblazer are here today, everybody's here." I figured out he was talking about people by their Secret Service codenames, and "Trailblazer" sounded really familiar. (It turns out Trailblazer is George W. Bush, and Eagle is Bill Clinton). The two former presidents were there with President Obama to talk about the Haiti earthquake disaster relief efforts. We didn't get to see them, but they didn't get to see us either, so we'll call it a draw.

The White House was beautiful and is a fitting place for the leader of our country to greet visitors and to live. It is large, but it still feels like a home, not like a government building. There is so much history and art in it that it was amazing to see and made me proud of our national heritage as I thought of all the great men who have walked those same halls.

Here is the Capitol. Very large and very beautiful.

After the White House, we drove to Crystal City (just across the Potomac to the south) and checked into our hotel, the Hampton Inn. We got a great deal (about $80/night) and a hot breakfast at the hotel, and would recommend it to anyone headed to DC, as it is only a five-minute drive from the National Mall. After getting settled, we changed into nicer clothes, met up with Brandon and his girlfriend, Shonni, and drove to Georgetown to eat at Filomena, a wonderful Italian restaurant. It is pretty expensive, but we got a good deal because it was Restaurant Week in DC. Since we had an early dinner, we had time to have more fun, so we drove back to the hotel, changed into comfy clothes and then rode the Metro to the Verizon Center to watch the Sacramento Kings (Brandon and Crystal's hometown favorite) play the Washington Wizards. The Wizards won a pretty close game, but it was sure fun to be there. Brandon and Shonni played with Clara almost the whole time and Clara ate up the attention. After the game, we rode the metro back to the hotel (that is the way to go, by the way, because the station is built almost exactly under the Verizon Center, and there was another station only a block from our hotel.)

The game.
Brandon and Shonni at the game.

We had hot chocolate and visited for a while longer and then Brandon and Shonni left and we went to bed. We got up Sunday morning and, after eating a delicious hot breakfast at the hotel, drove about 30 minutes to church. Shonni's ward is one of just a couple singles wards in the DC area, and I saw several people I know, including an old roommate, a mission buddy and a friend from Provo. There are three other people I am friends with who were gone for the holiday weekend, too, so I felt like it was a mini-reunion all around. After church, we went back to the hotel and took a wonderful nap. It rained all that day, and everyone knows rainy Sunday naps are the best kind.

When we woke up, we called Brandon and Shonni and they came back and we all drove into Maryland to see the Washington DC Temple. It was beautiful in the foggy rain.

We also got to visit the visitors center next door and Clara loved The Christus statute of Jesus Christ.

We drove back in the rain and hung out for a while longer before heading to be. We slept in a bit on Monday and let Brandon study some more while we went to the National Mall and visited the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the Lincoln Monument. It was wonderful to see these great monuments to some of the people who gave so much and did so much in the building of our great nation. It was humbling to see them and to think of what they represent. We didn't get to go up the Washington Monument nor into any of the Smithsonian Museums, so we already know we want to go back.

The WWII monument. Each pillar represents those who served from a state or US territory.
I like the flag in this shot.

Clara at the WWII Monument.

Crystal and Clara with the Washington Monument in the background.

Outside the Lincoln Memorial.

Inside the Lincoln Memorial.

The mall from the Lincoln Memorial.

All of us in front of the mall. The flash makes this look like we were pasted into a stock photo!

Clara cuddled up on my head!

After exploring there, we met Brandon and Shonni (after a 45-minute search for parking!) at Old Ebbitt Grill, a restaurant across the street from the White House where many of the presidents have eaten. I had a wonderful crab cake and Crystal had crab legs.
Crystal with her crab!

After that, we were having so much fun with Brandon and Shonni that we decided to go to get dessert at Georgetown Cupcake. Traffic and parking were again crazy, so it took a couple hours to get to Georgetown, park and walk to the cupcakes and the wait in line to get our goods. They were worth the wait. We then found a little park and talked there and ate cupcakes while Clara played. She found some water and some dirt and then a mixture of the two and got good and muddy. She was having a grand old dirty time, and Crystal said a few people walked by her and muttered stuff like, "Look at that little girl, I wonder who her mother is...," and "She is so muddy, where is her mother?" Pretty funny! We just took her back to the car, put her in her dry pajamas and she was set. We said goodbye to Brandon and Shonni and then headed home.

This is a pretty street in Georgetown.

The drive back was smooth and uneventful. We made it back in just more than 6 hours. It was a wonderful trip and so much fun to visit with Brandon before he graduates. It was also a good way for me to ease back into the hectic swing of my semester.

First Adventure of the New Year

2010-01-07T13:47:00.006-07:00

Maria: Gretl, what happened to your finger?
Gretl: It got caught.
Maria: Caught in what?
Gretl: Friedrich's teeth.
-- "The Sound of Music"

Crystal wishes her finger were that lucky!

I was at school yesterday about 3 p.m., working on my law journal article, when I got a call from Crystal asking me if I thought she should go to the ER because she cut her finger while chopping celery.

Crystal, as you may or may not know, is always reluctant to go to the doctor because she knows her body will heal and it will just be an expensive hassle usually to seek further medical attention than whatever she can do herself. Because of this, I knew it must be pretty bad or else she wouldn't have called me.

That, and she said the tip was flapping off the end. That was another good hint.

She had sliced it diagonally across about 40 percent of her nail on the left index finger. And she almost made it clean through.

Anyway, I rushed out of school, calling David and Megan, who went to help out. Megan picked up Crystal and Clara and I headed for the ER at the Ohio State hospital to meet them. When I was just pulling into the hospital, I got a call from Crystal saying they decided to go to an Urgent Care instead.

So, I drove to the other side of town and met them there. Megan took Clara and Crystal and I started our grand adventure.

After paying a $25 copay and waiting about 30 minutes, they brought us back and did some vital sign checks. Then the doctor came in. He looked at the finger for about 30 seconds and walked out of the room. We were wondering what was going on when a nurse came in and said, "The doctor said you need to go to the Emergency Room because we can't help you here."

Oh, well.

We drove back to the ER, where I had been to begin with, and began another round of waiting. We sat in that waiting room for about 2.5 hours (watching Law & Order episode after Law & Order episode) before getting called back. Once we got in our room, we waited another 45 minutes or so before a doctor came in. It turns out the ER was really swamped last night. It would have been nice to know we would wait that long, though because I could have run out and found some dinner.

Anyway, when the doctor came in, he said originally that he was going to take the nail off, sew up the finger and then sew the nail back on in order to protect the finger. The nail would be dead, but it would help the rest of it heal.

Once he numbed Crystal up, though, he found out there was nothing to sew. She almost completely sliced off an entire chunk, so much so that that piece of the finger was toast. He cut it off and then she started bleeding a lot, so he made a mini-tourniquet out of the finger of a surgical glove and stopped it that way. Then, he used some cotton swabs loaded with silver nitrate to chemically cauterized (read: burn the flesh) and seal off the bleeding. It was pretty cool, and Crystal even watched a lot of it (she would!)

Finally, they bandaged it up and we were off. We picked up Clara about 10:30 p.m. and David handed us some pasta he'd made (because we still hadn't eaten) and we got home. Crystal was in a lot of pain, so she took some Tylenol and was able to sleep decently.

She can't get her finger wet (so no washing dishes for her!) and walks around with her finger in the air like she is making a point, but seems like she'll survive. She even finished making the meal she was planning for yesterday.

I was going to put the pictures of the finger in the middle of the post, but I know some people have a hard time looking at blood-and-guts pictures, so I posted them last. Enjoy.

The first one is the cut. I apologize for it being out-of-focus. Blame Blackberry.

Here is the chunk after they removed it (and a close-up, in which you can kind of see the piece of nail as well as a bit of her [former] fingerprint.) I told her since her fingerprint is different that now she can get away with stuff!

Finally, here is the finger with the cauterized spot. You can see how much was chopped off. Also, notice how puffy her finger is as it is full of all sorts of anesthetic.

Final note: I have to mention that we laughed A LOT at the ER thinking about the fact that she chopped of a chunk of her finger. It is really funny, especially when it isn't hurting her. She'll be OK, but will always remember that celery. I think it means she'll have that much more room for cutting without worrying about another injury.

PS - As we were getting ready to leave the ER, I couldn't help myself. I thanked the doctor and told him he could keep the tip.

Holiday Goodness

2009-12-20T18:40:00.002-07:00

We are safely in Utah for the holidays, and enjoying time with family, eating lots (too much, I'm sure) and visiting. It has been a blast to play with siblings, nieces and nephews, etc. and to drive around and feel at home here. It is weird that it feels so familiar and so foreign at the same time.

Anyway, while I was at the store with my mom picking up a cake for my brother Tanner's birthday (he wanted one with Disney's Aladdin on it -- pretty funny considering he's 14 now) and my eye caught a tantalizing new Christmas treat ... Sugar Cookie Eggnog!

I rushed home and had a (small) glass. Small is important, because it is 180 calories per half-cup, yowza! It is delicious; it tastes like liquid sugar cookie, not really like eggnog at all. I had another little drink later in the evening, and my dad was having some orange juice in the kitchen at the same time. I told him to try the eggnog, so he swallowed some orange juice and took a drink.
He swallowed and then set down the cup and didn't say anything for a second. I was worried the orange juice's residual taste had made the eggnog less-than-yummy, but instead, after the brief pause, Daddy smiled really big and said, "That is fabulous. Let me have another drink!"

I think we'll be getting some more of this stuff, it is magically delicious!

How I am Feeling

2009-12-03T07:16:00.002-07:00

Due to the many requests to know how I am feeling, I decided to blog it, even though I don't really want to because it makes me feel like I am just complaining!

This pregnancy is DEFINITELY very different than my one with Clara. With Clara, I had a little bit of morning sickness and learned very quickly that even if I didn't want to eat, if I just ate a couple of crackers I would feel SO much better. That isn't really working this time. Anyone who knows me knows I DO NOT THROW UP. It takes a lot to get me to throw up. Sometimes I think my body doesn't know how to. So instead of just throwing up and feeling better, I just keep on feeling sick. And eating doesn't help.

My other problem, is that I am having a recurrence of some stomach problems I had about 6 years ago. Back then, whenever I would eat it would make me feel like I swallowed knives, or razor blades or something else that would be really stupid to swallow. I would curl up in a ball and just lay there until the feeling passed. Sometimes that would take 3-4 hours. I went to the doctor numerous times to try and figure out what was wrong, but he never did. A bunch of stuff was ruled out, but no one could tell me what it was or why it was happening, and eventually it got better. Over the past six years, I have occasionally had an episode of this weird sickness (maybe 3-4 times a year), but with this pregnancy, it has come back and I have been having episodes 2-5 times a week. Because of this, I just don't want to eat. I do because I know I need to, but sometimes I just end up laying down on the floor and not moving until Jordan finds me there and makes me get in bed. The past month and a half have been really hard, but Jordan has been AMAZING and has picked up all the slack that I have been leaving behind.

On the upside, I am starting to feel better. I just finished my first trimester so the morning sickness is wearing off, and I have had less episodes of the weird stomach thing the past week and a half. I am hoping that means it is going away! Also, I lost about 10 lbs in the first trimester, which should be helpful in the long run! All in all, the first trimester has been VERY hard on my body, but Jordan and Clara have been so patient with me and so understanding so it has made it so much easier. I am hoping the worst is over, but it is supposed to snow today, so I think I have a whole other set of problems coming my way!

Coming

2009-12-02T07:09:00.001-07:00

June 2010. Baby Muhlestein #2.

A Magical Time

2009-11-15T16:46:00.003-07:00

Way back in July, we went to a Harry Potter party at the home of our friends Lindsey and Edwin. There were more than a dozen people there in honor of the opening of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie (everyone but us fuddy-duddy parents went to the midnight showing that night). It was a lot of fun, especially the dressing up.

Clara went as a house elf, dressed only in a pillow case, socks and a smile. She was adorable, but was a little witch-y to Edwin's cats. She also played with a Harry Potter doll that Lindsey graciously shared.

Crystal went as a witch trying to dress like a Muggle, and I was a moving portrait Dexter Fortescue, former Hogwarts headmaster.

It was a lot of fun and we especially enjoyed all the food, including pumpkin pasties, butter beer (cream soda with butterscotch syrup) and Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans.

Speaking of Harry Potter, we can't wait until this is finished. More info here. I don't need to be Professor Trelawney to see a visit to Orlando in our future...

Clara's Talents

2009-11-03T18:33:00.003-07:00

Clara has learned a couple of new talents lately. Here are some videos to prove it!

This first one is quite a milestone for me! I have been trying to coax her to go down the stairs on her own for quite a while, but her few tumbles off the back steps have stuck in her mind and scared her out of trying. About a week ago, I decided that it was TIME to learn. We spent some time sliding down the stairs for fun, then I showed her over and over again for to go down on her own. Once she reached to bottom, I clapped and cheered a ton, so she would be excited about it. It worked! She loves going down the stairs now! And I love not having to lug an extra 30 lbs down them multiple times a day!

Clara's next talent (if you want to call it that!) is to beg like a dog for food. She gets a little camera shy, so she only does it at the very beginning of this video. Anytime Jordan and I are eating-regardless of if she has food of her own- Clara starts begging like a dog for us to share. It is very funny and very cute!

Note: You will notice there is no video. After NUMEROUS attempts to post this video of Clara begging for food like a dog, I have given up on it. You all will just have to trust me. Its cute. Better yet, come visit us, and you can see her do this trick for yourself!

California Trip

2009-11-03T18:03:00.005-07:00

This is a continuation of my attempts to catch up on blogging. At the beginning of October, Jordan, Clara and I headed to California for Fall Break and a couple of job interviews for Jordan. Again, I have been really lame at taking pictures lately, so only select parts of our trip (that are in no way a reflection of what our favorite parts were) are highlighted through photography.

You may remember a couple posts ago, of Jordan's Oops story with the gas pump. That happened on this trip to California. We drove to LA to see some friends and of course had to stop at In 'N Out for lunch.

I'll let Jordan explain the gnome later, but that was one tasty meal! Jordan let Clara have a sip of his milkshake, but once he gave it to her, he never got it back!

After that eventful day, Jordan had interviews the next couple of days, and we just relaxed at my parent's house. Clara had so much fun playing with cousins. One day while in Fresno, we decided to drive up to Shaver Lake for lunch and to see some mountains (especially since Ohio is SERIOUSLY lacking in mountains!) Clara really enjoyed the sand.

I think Clara traumatized this poor gnome!

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for a fantastic vacation!

Popcorn Festival

2009-11-02T08:40:00.005-07:00

In September, Jordan and I decided to check out the Popcorn Festival in a nearby town. While it was a lot of fun, the whole time Jordan and I were thinking "for a popcorn festival, there is a serious lack of popcorn!" I think there were 2 booths selling popcorn. Everything else was your usual fair or carnival stuff- lots of deep fried foods and rides that will give you whip lash just looking at them. Clara, however, couldn't care less! Once she had the bag of popcorn in her hand, she was a happy camper, and there was NO getting it away from her!

If we were lucky, she would share some with us! Our little girl LOVES popcorn.

We did spy some other corn type things such as a corn hole tournament

And the popcorn museum

The museum was pretty cool! The made it look like you were in a circus tent.

There was an entire Cracker Jack display too, which was pretty cool!

The Popcorn Festival was a fun experience, but I don't know if I would want to go back, unless they could promise me more popcorn stuff. There is a serious market to be filled there, popcorn balls, popcorn necklaces, caramel corn, corn on the cob, the possibilities are endless!

On the way home from the festival, we looked back at Clara and saw this

I think maybe she had too much popcorn, since it looks like it started growing out of her forehead!

Catch Up

2009-11-02T08:36:00.002-07:00

I have been a really bad blogger lately (and a really bad picture taker!) I just uploaded pictures from my camera from the beginning of September through Halloween and thought, wow! I have about 2 months of stuff to blog about! So here it is. Feel free to skip what you want!

While we're laughing at Jordan...

2009-10-12T12:28:00.002-06:00

So, since I've apparently made the day of a lot of readers with my Oops! post a few days ago, I thought I'd share a couple more funny things I've done.

One day when we were living in Ogden, Crystal told me there was a Tupperware with bean and bacon soup in the fridge for my lunch. She left before me that day, so I grabbed the first container with soup-like liquid in it and took it to work.

I warmed it up and started eating it and was thinking that the soup was really bland and there wasn't any bacon and certainly no beans. I scooped and scooped at the bottom to see if there were any beans and was disappointed to not find any.When I got home that afternoon, I told Crystal I ate the soup but that she must have scooped out all the beans when she split the can for me. She gave me this really weird look and said there was no way she took all the beans.

Then, she opened the fridge and found the soup. She quickly figured out what I had eaten instead (half a can of evaporated milk) and just laughed and laughed.

A couple months later I had a similar Tupperware mix-up, this time spreading caramel sauce all over my mashed potatoes instead of gravy. Luckily, it didn't taste too bad.

A year before that, by the way, I was making mashed potatoes at my parents' house and accidentally poured egg nog into the spuds instead of milk (in my defense, the egg nog had been mixed with some milk and was in a milk container). I realized what I had done before I mixed it in, though, so I dumped it out and put in milk.

Anyway, now I always make sure I know what I am pulling out of the fridge before I eat it or mix it with something else.

Oops...

2009-10-08T14:58:00.003-06:00

In college, I used to work all night twice a week as well as keep up with a full school and social calendar. I didn't sleep as much as I should have, but was still able to function pretty well (kept my grades up, kept my bosses happy and found and dated my wonderful Crystal).
Things have changed, though, in the past couple years -- whether it is from getting up earlier than I used to, having a kid, or just getting more set in my ways (yeah, I sound old, huh?) I can't function as well on less sleep than I am used to getting.
This little introduction will help you understand where I am coming from when I share my (as of now**) embarrasing moment of the week.
We are in California this week for me to interview at a couple law firms in Fresno. On Monday, though, I didn't have any interviews so we drove south about 5 hours to Irvine to see Crystal's good friend from high school, Kelsey, and our friends from BYU, Jeff and Ali.
The drive down was fine and we had a blast hanging out with our California friends (we like them so much we decided to forego Disneyland this trip to see them instead). After dinner with Jeff and Ali, during which Ali commented on how tired I looked (my mind was still on Ohio time - three hours later than it was in Irvine), we took off.
I drove about two hours and then pulled over for gas at the Flying J near Lebec, California (which is on I-15 in the mountains between LA and Bakersfield). It was about midnight (so 3 a.m. in my mind) and Crystal was going to take over for me at the wheel, so she went in to buy a drink while I parked at the pump. Clara had been sleeping and I tried to keep it dark for her despite the bright station lights, but she woke up anway. I jumped out of the car (which had maintained its nice SoCal-70-degrees feeling the whole trip) and started shivering at the 41-degree air and the added wind in the canyon. I swiped the credit card and started the pump then jumped back in the car. I saw that Clara was still awake, so I thought to myself that I would just pull the car up near the station in order to get us out of the lights and wait for Crystal. I started the engine and began pulling away from the pump when I heard a thunk and realized what I'd done. I stopped the car and got out and, sure enough, there was the nozzle and hose laying on the concrete after I had ripped it off as I drove away. There is a break-away valve on the hose, so no gas was spilling, but the meter was still running. I tried to stop the meter by hitting cancel and then tried to reconnect the hose (just ended up squirting gas all over my arms). Then, I sprinted into the station and told the girl at the counter and she called maintenance. I then went back out and waited for a couple minutes waiting, shivering and watching the dollars add up on the moving gas meter.
The maintenance guy finally showed up and I told him about the meter running but no gas was coming out, and he said he couldn't stop it. Crystal, not flustered or as tired as I, then came out and wisely stuck her finger in the hole on the pump where the nozzle goes, tripped the lever and made the meter stop - right at $99.72. The maintenance guy then scooped up the nozzle and the section of hose that was still attached to it and then he and Crystal went inside to figure out the whole mess I had made. I slinked back to the car and sheepishly pulled up to another pump to actually fill the tank this time - checking three times that the nozzle was finished and put away before I pulled out.
Crystal came out and was very nice about it, because I felt pretty stupid, although I also thought it was pretty funny. She said the station had refunded all but four gallons of the $99 charge and that since I didn't damage the nozzle (which is about $500 to replace) like most people do when they drive off and drag it down the freeway, all we would have to pay for was to have the hose reconnected and tested (which should be pretty cheap comparatively).
We then took off, with Crystal driving, and about 20 minutes later, I just started laughing. I turned to Crystal and said, "Remember that time I forgot I was pumping gas and tried to drive away?" She laughed, then told me, with a smile but quite seriously, that if I ever do that again, I won't be allowed to get back in the car while I'm pumping gas no matter how cold or wet the weather is.
We made it back to Fresno about 2 a.m., falling into bed quickly because I had an interview in 8 hours. That interview went well (I stayed awake!) and the one with another firm also went well the next day.

** This embarrasing moment is followed closely, I think, by another embarrasing moment that happened earlier on Monday. As we drove, Crystal and I were listening to the Sunday Afternoon session of General Conference, and we listened to the talk by Elder Dale Renlund, who is a cardiologist who used to work with my dad. Elder Renlund's talk used the example of heart donation recipients who have to take anti-rejection meds every day to keep their hearts healthy. He said that spiritually we are the same way, we need to keep our spiritual hearts healthy by repenting and living righteously. Anyway, as we drove past a sign for the "Famoso" exit, I said "Famoso... (which means "famous" in Spanish) ... just like you, Crystal!" I said this because I like to tell her how she is "famous" when she wears cool sunglasses or just does something cool, in general. Crystal looked at me with a weird expression and said, "What?" I told her about the sign and she said that I obviously wasn't listening to the talk at that moment, because Elder Renlund had just said "... people whose hearts are hardened by sin..." and I had chimed in immediately with "just like you, Crystal!" Oops, again.

My parents are famous!

2009-10-04T09:10:00.003-06:00

This weekend is General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It is a wonderful time every six months when we get to hear from our prophet, and president of the church, President Thomas S. Monson, as well as his two counselors and the entire Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It is truly wonderful.

One of the best parts of conference is the music, which is done in at least two of the five sessions by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. In the other sessions, the choirs are made up of people from congregations throughout Northern Utah.

This time, my parents had the chance to sing in the choir, so I thought I would tell them how great they sounded by posting some pictures of their performance.

Here is the whole choir in the Conference Center. There is an amazing organ in that building.

Here is Mother. She is in the middle in the purple shirt. She said before the performance that her goal was to not look at the camera, and she did a great job of that. It was fun to see her sing!

One of the first views of Daddy was only to top of his head. You can tell which one is him (he's quite bald) just below the conducter's left shoulder. He was on the front because he was the second-shortest tenor in the choir.

Here is a better picture of Daddy. He is in the middle of the men. He also did a great job. I think he should try out for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir some day, he'd be great. (The picture here is a little grainier because the camera didn't zoom in on him like it did on Mother.)

Here is the link to the video of conference. Check out "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" at the end of the Saturday PM session.

This is how she walks...

2009-09-28T07:18:00.004-06:00

Clara has been walking for a couple months now, but here is a good video of proof for everyone who doesn't get to see her frequently. This was recorded with my phone, so not great quality, but you get the idea. In fact, at first, the grainy picture reminds me of those Big Foot videos with poor quality. The moving white dot on the screen is Clara. You can tell more as she walks toward the camera.

Why I didn't do my reading for class...

2009-09-20T13:41:00.005-06:00

Dear Prof. Rose,
I apologize for not doing my reading for class last week. I sure am glad you didn't call on me. You see, I had a bit of an adventure which left me unable to comprehend the proxy voting corporate law cases I was supposed to plow through.
Let me explain further...
The faucet in the tub in our bathroom has been leaking for about a week, and Crystal isn't very happy about it. It drips more than two gallons in eight hours (she tried to catch the excess in a tub to use in watering the garden) and she doesn't want to waste so much water. On Monday night, she went out to dinner with some lady friends and I stayed home to get study, get Clara to bed and fix the leak. We had checked out a plumbing book from the library earlier that day and I was perusing it after Crystal left when I decided to work on the leak for a few minutes before it was time for Clara to go to bed. I thought Clara would get a kick out of watching me work.
I went to the basement to turn off the water and then went to the second floor to work on the faucet. I took it apart and figured out there is a cartridge which plugs into the pipes and then a valve regulates how much hot or cold water to let out the faucet.
After taking everything apart, I couldn't find anything amiss, so I put it back together and went two flights down to turn the water back on. I went back up and it was still leaking. With the water still on (cue laughter now, I know) I tried to work on it again. As I slowly unscrewed the ring holding the cartridge in place, water started leaking out. I recognized that this was from the water being on, so I took a washcloth, dried the ring off and continued to unscrew it. Of course you know what happened next; as I turned the ring off the last thread, a geyser erupted from the wall, soaking me and spraying all over the bathroom. Clara was delighted all the water and hubbub, and I wasn't excited about being wet.
I sprinted down the hall (with the sounds of roaring water and laughing Clara in the background) dropped my soaking cell phone on the carpet and dropped down the two flights of stairs to the basement, where I turned off the water.
Then, I ran back up in time to throw down all the towels I could find (and one of Crystal's rag rugs) to soak up the water which was filling the tile and lapping at the carpet of our bedroom. I got as much of the water up as I could and then hung all the soaking fabrics on the curtain rod to dry. At this point, a little giggling girl came running down the hall with a big smile and my cell phone. Before she could splash my Blackberry in the puddle, I took it away. She didn't even flinch, though, because she was already back on the floor playing in the water. I then re-assembled the faucet and went back downstairs to try the water again.
As I left the basement and walked through the kitchen, I noticed the sound of water and noticed a stream of liquid pouring out of the light fixture in the ceiling above the kitchen sink. Worried that I'd ruined everything, I turned the water off again. Figuring I should just give up before the house flooded or Clara had a meltdown, I (only an hour or so late) warmed up a bottle of milk, put Clara in some (dry) pajamas and helped her get to bed.
As I stumbled back down the stairs, I realized there was less water coming from the ceiling as my puddles upstairs dried out (turns out the bathroom floor isn't made to hold gallons of water) and so I was glad I hadn't ruined all our plumbing. I then sat on the couch and opened my book to study. I read a paragraph before I realized that none of the words in it had made any sort of impression on, so I closed it and then just sat on the couch. My mind was frazzled and I couldn't focus.
Then, Crystal called. She had had a wonderful time and was coming home. I explained how the time hadn't been so great for me, but that Clara had loved it. Crystal was concerned, but not as bad as I had thought, comforted me and thanked me for trying. We turned the water back on, no more leaks appeared in the kitchen ceiling and we're not going to use that shower for a while.
So, that is why I am not prepared for class. I appreciate your understanding.
Thank you,
Jordan

PS - On Saturday, Crystal and I attacked the problem together, ending up with a $40 replacement cartridge from Home Depot. The cartridge didn't fit quite right, but after a time we took a piece of the old one and a piece of the new one and put the whole thing back together. It now only leaks a little bit. I think I'll have to keep working on this, but I promise I'll do my homework before I try again.

California, Here We Come!

2009-09-18T07:03:00.002-06:00

That's right, we will be there the first week in October! So excited! We decided to go earlier this week and it is super nice, because we don't have to wait very long to go! T-minus 16 days!

Coupons and Deals

2009-09-02T12:04:00.003-06:00

Hi my name is Crystal, and I am addicted to coupons. Hi Crystal!, says the rest of the group.

Yes, it is true. Sometimes I feel like I need to go to a group like Couponers Annonymous. I can't even begin to describe how much I love them! There is nothing like the feeling of walking out of a store with a cart full of stuff, a reciept a mile long, and a tiny out of pocket expense. In fact, I love it so much I should start documenting my really good trips when I get tons for cheap. For example, this week I went to CVS and combined some coupons with some great sales they were having. I purchased 2 Covergirl face products, 2 revlon eyeliners, a kiddie pool, 2 dishwashing liquids and a candle. My total without any sales or deals, over $60. After coupons, my out of pocket was $20 and I got a catalina coupon from the store for $7 off my next shopping trip. That really makes it about $13, which considering each piece of make-up was about $8, that is a steal! I know I don't get deals as good as other people, but I LOVE getting these deals!

The other thing that I love, is planning my trip. I have gotten into reading blogs about coupons and getting good deals that break down the deals listed in the grocery store ads and what coupon to use with them to get the best bang for your buck. I love researching out the deals each week and figuring out what I can get for free that week, and putting my plan into action, then seeing my total falling as the coupons are rung in. My best percentage on a good grocery trip was 77%, and I am constantly trying to beat it.

I am heading out to the grocery store now, coupons in tow and hoping to get some fantastic deals, wish me luck!

Indian Cavern

2009-08-27T13:09:00.005-06:00

Side note: Sorry it has been a while since we have posted. School just started again last week, and I have sort of been boycotting everything because I wish it was still summer. Oh well, back to the real world!

A couple weeks ago, we went to visit the Olentangy Indian Cavern. It is about 30 minutes north of us, and it was a lot of fun! We had to wait about 30 minutes to go inside, so we walked around outside for a while. Clara was happy to be outside and play on the grass.

There was a little "ghost town" that you could go play in, and Clara went straight for the jail. I guess that police car ride when she was 6 months old really had an impact on her.

These are a few shots from inside the cavern. The Wyandotte Indians used to live inside the cavern during the winter because it stayed a balmy 55 degrees farenheit year round and the water in there wasn't frozen. It is also believed to be the hide out spot for a bank robber way back when. If any of you come visit, we can go here!

COSI

2009-08-27T12:34:00.004-06:00

For Christmas last year, my sister Rachael gave us a season pass to COSI children's museum. I decided to wait to start the pass until Clara could walk so we would both enjoy our time there better. Well, Clara is walking now, so we decided to start going to COSI, and she LOVES it!

COSI has a little kids section that is basically a giant indoor playground with lots of hands on activities, like a water table, electricity room, play doctors offices, etc. Clara loves to splash at the water table.

Clara and Harry playing in the water

When you first walk in, there is this giant tree house/slide/climbing place, and Clara loves to explore on it.

There is a giant bean bag with a ton of stuffed animals and puppets. Clara likes to play with all of those.

I really like this picture, she was so oblivious that I was there the entire time. She was content to just play and ignore me.

This video was in the electricity room. When you put your hand on the metal, music starts playing. Clara loves to touch all the different things to hear all the different sounds and dance. She LOVES music.

Hello Bumblebee (aka Tweety) OR Jordan's attempt to remain relevant

2009-08-11T15:35:00.003-06:00

For the past two years I have been trying to decide how to address the rust spots growing on my car. I decided to paint it might be fun to paint the whole thing, so I started deciding what paint job to do. I thought about a Buckeye Football Helmet design but decided that would be too much work. So, I thought I would paint it like the Transformers Autobot Bumblebee.

Thanks to a friend who owns a paint store, I got a gallon of Safety Yellow industrial acrylic paint (the stuff used to paint factory floors and parking lot pillars) and some black spray paint. David and I painted the whole thing yellow with rollers and a brush in about four hours total. Crystal and I painted the black lines on in about 30 minutes with spray paint.

One of my favorite small touches is that I painted the screws on the license plates yellow, too.

The yellow painting all happened while Crystal was in Fresno this summer, so she was surprised to see it when she got home. The safety yellow works as advertised, because, as Crystal put it, "the car glows in the dark!"

I have enjoyed driving it around and hope to get a lot more years and miles out of it (and less rust!)

On a funny side note, I was showing off my "new" car to some of the Boy Scouts I work with and one of the 15-year-olds said my plan to drive a car painted like Bumblebee would make me look like a dork. Crystal probably agrees, but I hope most people out there don't! Ha ha.

As noted in the post title, my car is now also called "Tweety," in honor of David and Megan's late neighbor Lee Dean. Lee lived next door to them and was always sitting on the porch willing to share a laugh and a good story. He and I also rode the same bus a few times while I was going school and he was headed to work. The last time I saw Lee before his heart attack was when I pulled up to David's house in the car before I put the stripes on it. Lee looked at it, laughed and said, "You're driving a Tweety Bird car!" A couple days later I was visiting him in the intensive care unit while he was in a coma from which he never recovered. During that last visit in the hospital, I told him I would call the car Tweety in his honor; I'm sure he would have gotten a kick out of that.

Rag Rug

2009-08-08T17:46:00.003-06:00

A year or two ago, my sister Rachael and I talked about making rag rugs, but we never got started. A couple of weeks ago when Jordan and I were in Nauvoo, I saw a rag rug making demonstration and decided I was going to get to work. I looked up how to make a rag rug on the internet, and I decided that I liked this idea the best. I liked the way the braids looked on this one the best, but there are a lot of different ways to make a rag rug. I had some old sheets that had holes in them, cut them into strips, and got started. The rug isn't perfect, and after doing this one, I know alot better of what and what not to do. Hopefully the next one will look better, but I am really happy with how my first one turned out. It is super soft and comfy to stand on. It is so soft, that Clara wont leave it alone! She keeps walking back over to it and sitting on it!

Cake Decorating

2009-08-05T15:18:00.003-06:00

Last night, I went to a cake decorating activity. We each had to bring a cake and some icing, then we got some tips on how to decorate cakes. Mine isn't perfect, but it did turn out ok, and it tastes even better! I made a red velvet cake and a swiss merengue buttercream frosting (recipe compliments of Martha Stewart). The combination is so yummy! Once you try this icing, you will never want to use another recipe again! Come on over and I will give you a slice!

Nauvoo Fun

2009-08-05T14:25:00.004-06:00

After our camping trip to South Bass Island, Jordan and I (and Clara) got to accompany the Young Women from 0ur ward on a trip to Nauvoo, Il. For those of you who aren't familiar with Nauvoo, please click here. From our house, it was about a 9 hour drive. Needless to say, Clara wasn't thrilled about being in the car the whole time, so we stopped and let her explore on the grass for a little while. I really liked this picture.

Once we arrived, we went to the house we were staying at, got settled, then went to the visitors center. There is a statue garden outside the visitors center. I love this statue, so Jordan, Clara and I decided to reinact it.

Once we had wandered around the visitors center enough, we went back to the house and had dinner, then we went to the Nauvoo Pagaent. It was such an amazing show. Lucky for me, Clara slept through most of it, so I could enjoy it! The next morning, we went on a wagon ride around Historic Nauvoo and saw all the sights. This is about how excited Clara was the entire time.

This was Clara at her happiest on the ride. She really wanted to crawl around.

After the wagon ride we went to the Brickyard and saw how they made bricks, then got a free brick. Then we went to the blacksmith shop and saw how they made horseshoes and wagon wheels and got a free prarie diamond ring. Then we went to the Family Living Center and saw all sorts of things like how they make bread, rugs, candles, and so much more. It was a lot of fun to see all the demonstrations and learn how to do things. In fact, that part inspired me to make a rag rug, which you all will hopefully see in a future post! We basically went and saw all the sights, including Joseph Smith's house and his Red Brick Store. That night, Jordan and I were able to go do a session at the Nauvoo Temple. The young women were more than happy the babysit Clara for us, and we were more than happy to let them! Words cannot describe how beautiful that buidling is!

The next morning, it was raining, so we weren't able to do the trail of hope as we had wanted, but we did go walk around the grounds of the temple again. After that, we drove to Carthage, Il and visited the place where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred. Here is a picture of our whole group at Carthage.

We had such a great time, and enjoyed seeing all the sights in Nauvoo, as well as getting to know all the people who were on our trip with us.

Dharma Cave

2009-08-05T14:20:00.002-06:00

I took this picture inside Perry's Cave on South Bass Island. Do you think this could be another location the donkey wheel can send you? I asked the tour guide about it and he came back with a pretty lame answer. I think he was hiding something...

Our Island Adventure (without leaving Ohio)

2009-08-02T19:43:00.006-06:00

For a summer vacation before I start school again, my girls and I headed north three hours to Put-in-Bay, Ohio, a small town (400 permanent residents) on a small island (three-ish square miles) in Lake Erie off Ohio's northern coast. We left on a Monday morning, ate lunch in Sandusky, Ohio (which is on the coast, as well as being the hometown of the newspaper company that owns The Standard-Examiner where I worked in Ogden, Utah, and Sandusky is also the home of Tommy Callahan, the protagonist in Tommy Boy) and then drove to the ferry boarding station.

The ferry carries all sorts of cars, buses, trucks and people back and forth from the mainland to the island. A boat packs up and leaves every 30 minutes. It was fun to ride along on "big water" without having large waves or salty stickiness on everything (not that I don't love the ocean, but this is a great alternative).

This is what the ferry looked like.

And here is our car parked aboard.

You can notice our gold Accord loaded with our bikes and Clara's bike trailer. With the island being so small, we parked at our campsite at a state park and then just rode around as we explored the island. The biking was a lot of fun and the island is pretty flat, so it was relaxing instead of strenuous.

Here are the girls on the ferry. I was glad Crystal wore a sailor-style shirt for the trip!

When we got to the island, we set up camp and then rode into town. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of our camp, nor of us on the bikes. The campsite was great, though, under lots of big trees for shade (and hanging a hammock!) and we got to use our new tent, which comfortably fit our things, our air mattress and Clara's portable crib. A 30 foot cliff to the lake was about 200 feet from our camp, so we could look out over the lake while still not having to worry about Clara making a break for a swan dive. Also, flush toilets and hot showers were right next to our site, so all in all it was really easy camping. It rained pretty hard the second night and a few things got soggy, but we three stayed dry and were able to sleep pretty well.

In town, we first went to Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial, a 350-foot monument which commemorates the Battle of Lake Erie, a key part America's victory against Britain and Canada during the War of 1812. Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry, who commanded the US ships in Lake Erie, defeated a British/Canadian fleet and stopped them from being able to transport supplies across the lake. This defeat allowed the Americans to maintain their borders as they were and has helped create peace between the three countries ever since. In fact, the flags of all three countries are flown at the same height at the monument in honor of this peace.
There is a neat visitor's center at the memorial, but the big highlight was riding up the elevator to the top of the tower. Luckily, we rode to the top only five days before the tower was closed for a two-year renovation project. It has stood since 1912 without major renovations, so, while it is still structurally sound, the National Parks Service wants to make sure it stands safely for another 100 years.

From there, we could see all over the island, as well as over to the mainland and to a Canadian island. Here is a great shot of the island, with the main part of the town and the harbor in plain view. The Harbor was really nice and it was fun to watch the boats come in and out. There was also a good restaurant on the boardwalk where we had some yummy seafood (including a great Lake Erie Perch sandwich for me).

Outside the monument is an example of what most Put-in-Bay parking looks like - it is almost all golf carts. That is how people get around the island, mostly, and it was fun to see all the different styles of the little buggys. Someday it would be fun to rent one, but it was also a lot of fun to ride bikes.

Other island attractions include two caves, across the street from each other. The first, called Perry's Cave was the source of clean drinking water for Perry's men during the War of 1812. He discovered the cavern and sent his men down to get water. Now it has a tour and a gift shop and mini-golf course above it.
Across the street, under a winery, actually, is the Crystal Cave, which isn't really a cave - instead it is the world's largest geode. The crystals inside the cave are all huge and reminded me of the fake caverns where Superman goes in the movies. The geode is about as big as our bedroom and can fit about 20 people inside at once!
Here are some pictures from inside Crystal Cave.

Our tour of the cave included a tour of the winery, which wasn't really interesting to us, but it was cool to see how the bottling machines work, and we did enjoy the grape juice they gave us. For only $3 we bought a big bottle of 100 percent grape juice, no sugar or water added, which we have been enjoying at meals. The juice is really good.

Down the road from the caves (the island is so small, everything is "just down the road") is a chocolate shop which advertises a chocolate museum. It was a two-room affair with videos about chocolate and some vintage candy displays. There was nothing specifically Put-in-Bay about it, but it was interesting, and free. We did get a couple cute shots of Clara pretending to be in some famous Hollywood chocolate-based moments.

We also toured a neat museum about the island (Did you know Put-in-Bay, in the '60s, was the last American town to close its streets to car races?) that talked about life on the island and how it has changed. In the early 20th Century, there were several huge hotels on the island, but they all burned down (the firefighting on the island suffered from a lack of water pressure and good equipment, apparently), so now visitors camp or stay at one of the cute bed and breakfast establishments on the island. The museum is a place I would have liked to spend more time, but Clara's patience for history and displays she can't touch is limited. She was particularly inclined to grab the many neat models of ships and boats which have operated at the island.
This is what would have happened if we had let her grab everything she wanted to!
The last thing we did was visit the home of the Doller family, headed by Valentine Doller, who was the first shopowner on the island and one of the political and business leaders for a long time. He lived in a beautiful house right on the water in downtown, and now that house is a tourist stop. It has been added onto in the past 30 years, but the additions are tastefully done in the original style and add a lot to the property.
Here is one of the rooms from the Doller house.

And this is what Clara decided to do as we explored.

Overall, we were very pleased with how exciting, close and fun this trip was. It could be done in a (long) day trip from Columbus, so if anyone wants to come visit we'd be glad to take you.

Clara would welcome some company in the back seat!

Cows

2009-08-02T18:07:00.004-06:00

Chik-Fil-A gave us free food for dressing like cows. Hooray.

David, Megan and Harry used latex gloves as udders, which was wonderful. This is our last picture of Megan before she had Wyatt Klaus, their second little boy (and little joy!).

Pasta on the Floor, Clara times Four

2009-08-02T17:36:00.004-06:00

We had the missionaries in our ward over for dinner one night recently, and Crystal, as always, made something delicious. The deliciousness was delayed slightly by the fact that the pasta spilled all over the floor, so we had to make more.
Clara loved it, and I have done a quick chop of four of Crystal's pictures of Clara's reactions to the delicious treat fallen from the sky. Enjoy.

Some things I am learning

2009-07-10T08:07:00.003-06:00

I haven't posted much about what I've been learning lately, but I just finished an externship with a judge here in Columbus and I learned a lot (about writing and how the courts work and, most importantly, that I have no desire to ever be a judge, clerk for a judge or even to litigate at all - it's just not my cup of tea, as it were).

Anyway, I wrote a (long) essay about my experience and something I learned about attorneys. There are some interesting stories in the essay and some of my thoughts about my education. It is long, but I think it is a good read, so enjoy:

When I was a cub newspaper reporter, I was invited to have lunch with the detectives from the local sheriff’s office. I rode to the “restaurant” – a bar/dive called Andy’s which offered delicious Greek fare in a dingy, dark, wood-paneled old house on the edge of a Wal-Mart shopping center parking lot – with my paper’s veteran court reporter and then walked in to meet the group of cops. The detectives and their lieutenant were very nice and we had a good meal and got to know each other better. That led to a better working relationship during the rest of my stay at the paper, but above all else in that meeting, one exchange stands out.

We were talking about a recent murder case the sheriff’s office was investigating and about my reports on it. The lieutenant made a comment about the motive, which hadn’t been reported yet, and I perked up. I said, “Have they released that information yet?” The wise, experienced lieutenant looked back and me and raised his eyebrow. At that moment I realized that the “they” to which I was referring was the lieutenant and detectives sitting around the table with me. Everyone smiled at me, and the lieutenant laughed and said, “You can’t turn it off, can you?”

I share that story because one of the most interesting things I witnessed in my externship was how the attorneys in the court “turned it off” (and back on) so quickly. I found fascinating their ability to do so, even if it was at a moment’s notice. My first experience with this was just after a recess on the second-to-last day of a lengthy medical malpractice wrongful death trial. I and my fellow extern had been watching the riveting testimony by the defense’s witnesses all day and had been impressed with the cross-examination of the plaintiff’s attorney – he was a master at using yes or no questions to get witnesses to paint themselves into a corner and then say something they would regret. It was interesting to watch his gaze and questioning pin physicians to the witness’ seat as he picked apart their testimony. Several times during the trial I had actually felt like squirming on my pew in the back of the courtroom because his questions were so barbed.

After a particularly long period of questioning an expert witness, the Judge called for a 15-minute recess. When it was time to start again, we externs were sitting in the courtroom and talking about what we’d been learning in the case. One of the plaintiff’s attorneys (who I later found out is the father of the cross-examiner) came over to us and asked us why we were sitting in on the case. We explained that we were externs for the Judge and that we were observing the trial. He also asked us where we go to school and when he found out we attend Moritz, he said his co-counsel (and son) had also attended Moritz.

The father called over the son and his eyes lit up when we told him we were Moritz students. He talked about how much he enjoyed studying here and about some of his favorite teachers. He asked about a couple we hadn’t heard of (must have retired before we got here) and then talked for a couple minutes about Dean Michaels’ appointment as dean of the law school this year. “I was in Michaels’ first criminal law class when he started at the school,” he said. “He’s a good teacher and a good guy.” His tone revealed that he had a high regard for Dean Michaels and was excited to see him become dean. He wished us luck with our studies and then stepped back behind the plaintiff’s desk and sat back down.

My first reaction was that he was nothing at all like I had expected, because all I’d seen of this attorney was him raking the defense’s witnesses over the coals. He was pleasant, smiley and had a kind demeanor; I’d be willing to bet the witnesses wouldn’t describe him like that, though. Just as I was thinking what a nice guy he was, he got the chance to cross-examine another witness and he burrowed into the witness’ testimony and slammed him for expressing a different opinion in court than he did in a deposition three years earlier. The prickly mask was back up and he was in full attorney mode just minutes after he was having a pleasant conversation about his alma mater.

The second example of attorneys flipping the switch was as I wandered around the courthouse one day, popping into courtrooms to see if anything interesting was going on. A defense attorney, while waiting for his client to be brought out in shackles, was talking to the judge about something definitely not court-related (I think it was about the judge’s staff eating a lot of candy, actually). Their conversation was obviously one between friendly colleagues, and both parties were joking and laughing. When the court’s officers brought in the accused, the attorney returned to his seat and waited for his client to shuffle into place next him.

Both stood and the judge started reading the charges explaining the defendant’s legal predicament. The attorney explained that his client had apologized for his wayward behavior and blamed it on drug use. The judge pointed out that this was the man’s third time being hauled in for drug offenses, and that the earlier punishments obviously hadn’t worked. The defendant tried to say something, but the judge curtly told him that he would be wise to keep his mouth shut. The attorney then explained that his client wanted to enter a plea agreement with the state that would put in on probation for three years and on house arrest for six months in lieu of going to prison for 18 months. The state agreed with this, but the judge was quite stern and reluctantly went along with it – although he did sentence the man to spend Dec. 23-27 in jail this year so that he could realize how lucky he was to not be in prison full-time. “I want you in jail on Christmas so you can know what you’d be missing if you weren’t on probation,” the judge said, later adding that if there was any drug or alcohol use during the probation, the man would get the entire 18 months in prison.

I’m sure it would have been unprofessional for the judge and attorney to have been laughing and joking (about candy!) in the courtroom while the client was there, but it was impressive how the court a defendant sees and the court others see is so different. All this is because the attorneys and judge change their actions, words and demeanor so quickly.

The last impressive interchange took less than two minutes. I was sitting in Judge Reece’s conference room waiting to speak with the staff attorney one morning when a prosecutor and defense attorney walked in for a status conference. The conference room table is covered with magazines and Ohio Bar Association publications, and when the attorneys walked in, the defense picked up one of the magazines and started looking through it while the prosecutor opened her notebook. “Can you believe this picture?” asked the defense, pointing to an art magazine’s photo of six small Chinese girls laying next to each other in a bed, nestled on pillows under a quilt and each holding an assault rifle over the covers. They two attorneys chatted briefly about the art and then spent no more than 30 seconds doing business for the status conference.

They were talking about a vandalism and destruction of public property case. The defense said, “So, we’d like probation on this.” The prosecutor’s body language showed that probation alone wasn’t going to cut it, “OK, but I think community service would help this plea.” “Sounds fair, write it up and I’ll get it signed,” the defense replied. And that was it. They went back to small talk about such topics as lunch and Monday morning blahs.

Each of these situations was impressive to me because these attorneys obviously have the ability to “turn it off” when they can and re-engage when needed. I think it comes from a sense of comfort and experience in a court setting, but also from years of experience. It is almost like me being able to causally slip in and out of proper speech and goofy colloquialism, because I have mastered the proper speech already. At this point in my legal career, I don’t feel comfortable enough with my legal skills to turn my mind away from that focus when I am in a legal setting. I’m sure it will come with time, and hopefully someday I’ll impress some young law student with my ability to slide back and forth between business and leisure.

Sewing Projects

2009-07-06T11:14:00.002-06:00

I am not the best sewer. I know how to and I can do the basics, but reading patterns is not my forte. So I decided to tackle this head on and try and see if I could figure it out or if I need to take a sewing class. I decided to take on two projects this week. The first was an apron and the second was a skirt. I went to walmart and bought some cheap $1.50 a yard fabric for both projects. I figured if neither of these worked out, I would only be out a few dollars.

I started with the apron, because I knew it would be straightforward and very easy. I cut out the fabric and got started on the sewing. It wasn't long into it that I bagged the directions and did things my own way.

The apron turned out really well! If I make another one like that, I will make it just a little longer, but I definetly liked my way better than the instructions. After tackleing the apron, I got started on the skirt. Again I cut it out and got started on sewing, and again it wasn't too far into it that I used the instructions more as guidelines than as an actual how to.

I think the skirt turned out really well too! I had some problems with the zipper, but apparently most people do! I would definetly make this pattern again. Jordan helped me with the hem(since it is hard to hem something on yourself) and I need to go fix it a little, but all in all it worked out great! I talked to one of the ladies in my ward and she said she would help me out with my next sewing project, which will be a lot of help when it comes to zippers and hems! All in all, I think I am like my sisters when it comes to patterns. They are great guidelines, but they don't have to be followed to the T. You can do things your own way sometimes and it is ok. Thanks again to my mom for answering the phone every time I called to answer all my questions!

Independence Day (Sort of)

2009-07-06T10:49:00.004-06:00

In Columbus, the big Independence Day celebration happened on July 3rd this year. I don't know if it is like that every year, or just this year. Red, White and Boom is a whole day event, with a parade, tons of vendors, other activities and of course, FIREWORKS! Jordan and I decided to spend a good part of the evening downtown for it. Unfortunately, our camera batteries were very low on power, so we couldn't document it with too many pictures, but we did have a great time!

We started off the day at the parade. This is us just before the parade started.

Mario Lopez was in the parade, which was really weird. He was too busy texting ro twittering to wave most of the time, but here is one shot where he is actually paying attention to what is going on.

After the parade, Jordan, Clara and I walked around downtown and tried out the food at some of the vendors. Clara was very into people watching. At about 9 o'clock, we headed back out of the crowd so we could watch the fireworks from a place that was less congested with people, and so we could easily walk home afterwards. We found some grass to lay out our blanket on and sat and waited for the fireworks to start. As always in the Sorensen tradition, I brought along some rice crispy treats to enjoy with the fireworks! Clara loved the rice crispy treats (of course!) and was a little scared of the fireworks at first, but warmed up to them very quickly!

She wouldn't even take her eyes off of them for a picture! The fireworks were amazing, and we all had a great time! We walked home afterwards ( we live about a mile from downtown). Clara fell asleep the last five minutes of the walk and slept VERY well that night!

One funny thing that happened while we walking around was we found a knife on the ground. It looked like a kitchen knife that someone may have lost with their picnic stuff, but we didn't want to leave it there, so we picked it up and took it to the first police officer we saw. They were bicycle cops, and int he middle of a huge crowd, so they told us to find a trash can because they couldn't do anything with it right then. So we took it with us and kept walking. As we got out of the crowd, we saw another set of police officers, so I took the knife back out and started walking towards the officers with it. One of the officers saw me, and got a startled look on his face and started getting the other officers attention and said to him "Hey, that girl walking towards us has a knife, man, she has a knife!" I explained to them what happened and they took it from me and said they would take care of it. I just thought it was funny how startled the officer was!

My submission for FailBlog

2009-06-22T13:11:00.002-06:00

I shot this great picture the other day. Think it would work for the Fail Blog?

Clara is One! Oh What Fun!

2009-06-21T16:27:00.006-06:00

Clara's 1st birthday was yesterday, and oh what a day it was! Since we just got back on Wednesday (really Thursday, since it was so late!) we didn't do a party. We just had some family over for the fun and had dinner, presents and cake. I think the pictures and videos can do all the talking!

While I was finishing making dinner, Jordan took Clara outside for a little photo shoot. Here are a couple shots from it:
After the pictures, we had dinner. Fajitas! Yummy!
This mess is just a preview of Clara and her cake.
After dinner, we cleaned up and Harry decided to give Clara a birthday kiss (with a little coaxing!)
Then Clara got to open her presents!

My parents have a ton of Little People toys at their house and Clara LOVED playing with them, so we got her the farm for her birthday.
This is how Harry felt about Clara getting presents. In 3 weeks, Clara will get to feel the same way for Harry's birthday!
While trying to get all the Little People out of their packaging, the box was more fun for Clara and Harry.What if you could actually buy little people like that?
Once the presents were done, we moved onto the cake. I made a double layer cake, then cut out the middle for Clara's cake and frosted them both so there was her little cake and a doughnut cake for the rest of us.

Clara wasn't quite sure what was going on, but she was excited!
And then it was time to dig in! The video is a little long, but really funny. If you don't want to watch it all, please skip to the end, it is worth it! But really, the whole thing is great!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

At one point, Clara started picking up the plate and licking it.
Then she wanted to share it.

Disneyland Fun

2009-06-21T16:12:00.002-06:00

So I am home now, but Clara and I did get to go to Disneyland one day with a bunch of my family. It was super fun, but so crowded-the park was sold out! Here are the two pictures we took.
The park was so crowded, it was hard to take pictures.

While at Disneyland, one of my very best friends, Kelsey, who lives in the LA area, came to visit with me! That alone made the trip worth while! Thanks for coming to see me Kels! Clara loves her honorary aunt!