Christmas at the McClellans

Today is our first official day of Christmas.  We are leaving in the middle of  next week and wont be back until the first of the year.  We decided to do our won Chrsitmas before leaving.  they were very excited about all thier presents and had to open each one immediately.  The two presents I made myself I took pictures of them in them.  The tutu and superhero cape.  I will put a better picture of those soon.  After presents we had a traditional breakfast of abbleskievers.

All aboard the Polar Express

Our Ward had a Christmas party and the theme was the Polar express.  The train made three stops one at a reading of the book and hot cocoa, one was a room of nativities and a movie and the third stop was a humanitarian aid room.  After each stop everyone met in the gym for a big dinner.  It was very cool and the kids loved being in their pajamas for a party.

All wrapped up

I woke up one moring to Dane on the couch wrapping himself in Christmas paper.  I love the little things kids do to make us laugh

Beuty School drop-out

Kemarie loves to play beauty school and here is the end result in my hair.

Hospital Aftermath

In the middle of November Kemarie took a trip to the hospital to see why she was having frequent urinary tract infections.  she had to be sedated via IV and so she was doted on hand and foot and came home with all these new presents.  One of the dolls had an IV in her so they could tell her what was going to happen to her on a doll first.  She did really well and This is her sleeping peacefully on the couch right after we came home with all her new presents.  Results are sorry this is not very pleasent but she refluxes her urine into her kidneys when she goes potty.  We now need to see a urologist to make further action.

Riverton trips

I have a best friend I grew up with in Colorado, and she now lives in Riverton with her husband and kids. We love to go visit.  In one the kids are jumping on the bed listening to music on youtube, the second picture is Kemarie and Dylan hugging goodbye.  It is fun to watch one of my highschool friends kids grow up with mine.

Dane birthday number two

Dane turned two and we had some friends and family over to celebrate.  It was a blast but my favorite was the cupcakes I made they looked very cute.  Sorry you can not see them very well.  Look at the present openig frenzy, the kids would not look my direction.

smashing pumkins

So the day after Halloween we went up in the mountians with our friends and rolled our pumpkins of a hill to watch them get destroyed(at first I felt like we were going to get arrested or someting it was wierd).  Well to get there we had to do a little four wheeling.  kemarie was in the jeep with her friend Kassandra.  kassandra's dad was driving and kemarie yelled out to him, "Aaron you are freaking me out."  I guess he is a scary driver?  Some times I wonder about that girl of mine.  I am sorry for no pictures of the children in thier costumes.  I am going to make them put them on tomorrow and I will post them soon.

Goofy kids

I love capturing the silly moments in my kids life.  They are so fun.

pumpkin carving

This was Tyson's creation he did not even use a pattern, but it took him two hours to carve.  for some reason my really cute pumpkin has no picture to document. I guess that is the life of mommy hood you are often forgoten.  oh-well.
Dane wanted a spider pumpkin.  yes I know, he is almost two and still has a binky and very large feet.
Kemarie wanted the bat pumpkin and so here it is.  Dont you love the closed eye smile!
Kemarie was not loving the feeling of the pumpkin guts.

Vernal/Canning

Last weekend we went to Vernal to visit Tyson's family.  while there we went four wheeling and found an amazingly beautiful canyon the picture does no justice.  The last picture is Dane and his cousin Daxton eating a snack.  They had so much fun together.  Dane's favorite thing to do was tackle him and I think Daxton was not really sure how to handle the situation.  Kemarie of course was more than happy to boss them around and loved the attention from Grandma and grandpa.  

Canning

The last thing we did was can apple sauce.  It was fun especially since the apples were free.  We did learn that we need to remember to add the water we boiled the apples in to thin out the sauce.  I don't have any canning pictures but I am very proud of myself because I canned  12 quarts freezer jam, 24 quarts of peaches, 16 quarts of pears, 18 pints of Salsa, and 17 quarts of apple sauce.  First time canner and all with the help of my wonderful mother in law and my good friend Jessica.  Thanks for all the help.

Pumpkin Patch

For family home evening  a few weeks ago we went to a local pumpkin patch and let the kids pick their pumpkins.  they had a blast picking  thier own pumpkin. They also had a really cute little hay bae maze for kids to run through.  the huge pumpkin of course was  the one Tyson picked out.  It was cute to have both kids excited about Halloween coming soon.

Poor Baby

This is about 36 hours after Tyson had his bike wreck up Provo canyon on Saturday.  We rode our bikes from our house to provo canyon( I was proud of myself).  Just past the mouth of the canyon there is a park  and I decided to take the kids to the park and let Tyson and our friends ,Jon and Talia, keep going.   Almost an hour later I see them coming toward the park  and onlyTalia came over to see me and the kids and I thought thatwas wierd, she told me Tyson wrecked.  I went to see him and Tyson had blood all over his face and hands (these pictures show the cleaned up wounds they were a lot nastier)it was pretty gnarly. I think he was suffering from shock because he was acting strange.  Luckily for us there was a race which ended at the park we were at and so they had a First-Aid station.While he was getting all cleaned up there Jon and Talia rode bikes home and brought the car back so we did not have to ride bikes home.  I asked him what happened and we have determined he knocked himself out because he isnt sure where he hit and how and he does not remember a whole ton of what happened.

More Powell

Tyson and the kids on the wave runner(look at the tan, now that is hot!!!!)

Kemarie and Dane digging holes and filing them with lake water.

Lake Powell

Every year for the past 20 years we have gone to Lake Powell with my Dad's side of the family in September. we usually go at the end of September, but this year it was scheduled for Labor Day weekend (perfect). For the past two years we have not been able to go because my dad died right before we were going in 2006 and in 2007 One of the grandpas in charge was having surgery. So I was really excited. This year was especially fun because Kemarie was old enough to really enjoy the lake and swim all by herself (with her life jacket on). It was really fun to see family again since I live a state away from them I only see them a couple times a year. The only down fall was we slept in the basement of the house boat and had to share our bed with Dane and he is not a calm sleeper lets just say that.

aprons

These are the aprons I decided to make for our church's enrichment night (this was a couple weeks ago). we decided to do a service auction. people donated items/services/baked goods and the women bid on these with service points. It was way fun and I really had fun teaching myself how to sew aprons. Not to bad if you ask me.

New Bike

Kemarie got a big kid bike from a garage sale and Dane was very jealous. He found his big wheel bike gave it a good shove and said "no bike" and ran to try and get on Kemarie's. So Tyson told Dane if he would get rid of his binky (pacifier) then we would buy him a big kid bike. Dane looked at Tyson told him "NO" with all his spite and anger. Resentfully he sat on his big wheel bike and took off. He is just a little bit attached to his binky don't you think? Tyson, It was worth a try. I guess we have to find another way to rid him of his binky. Anyone have any suggestions?

Prayers

My sweet Kemarie was saying her prayers a few days ago and it made my heart melt. In her prayer she blessed everyone who has diabetes(her little five year old friend just found out he has diabetes) and bless me not to get it. Bless me not to have to get shots and eat the icky food.

They are much smarter then we give them credit for that is for sure. It is always the little things that make me love being a mother.

Sniffing Spree

My dear daughter Kemarie was eating spree candies last week and being a curious little girl she wanted to see if she could put one up her nose. So a few hours later and many tears we were at the pediatricians to fix the problem. Luckily by the time we saw the doctor the spree had melted enough that they only had to get her to swallow the candy through her sinus cavity and into her throat. Then they stuck an even huge cotton swab with antibiotic ointment to stop her nose from swelling and make it feel better. Here is spree candies just for a better visual.

Durango reunion

Over July 24th week my mothers family had a reunion in Durango, Colorado. It was really fun and I had the chance to see a lot of family I do not see very often. I saw my cousin Michelle and that was really fun, she took me to downtown Durango on my birthday to go shopping. It was fun to see her again. (Michelle I had fun and will see you at Christmas) We were really good friends growing up and I have such great memories of when we were younger.
Some of the things we did was tour an old Gold mine, See old Ghost town, swim in hot springs, visit Mesa Verde, Drive the Million dollar highway and more. See following posts for pictures. Enjoy pictures of the beautiful scenery we encountered.

My favorite part of our trip was the Ghost town we went to see. This town was known as Animas Forks and was an old Mining town North of silverton, Co. I only got a few pictures, but it was incredible view and many of the buildings were still intact. The picture on the bottom was my favorite house.

These are some of the ruins of the puebloan people or commenly known as Anasazi in Mesa Verde. It was really amazing to learn that in this Desert climate their water came from rain on top of the cliffs and would filter through the rock to the back of the cliff dwellings where it would cumulate. I also can not imagine these people bringing all their materials for building homes in the sides of enormous cliffs.

We went on an old gold mine tour. It was really cool to see how they use to mine gold and what a lonely and dark job(literally) they had. Dane is really excited to have his mining gear on.

In Mesa Verde kemarie posed next to an open Kieva (whole in the ground where peubloan people met together, they are usually closed in ,but they left a few open so you could see it from up above.)

While my mom and sister where in town we went to see the hot air balloon launch of. It was fun to see them up close. Once the balloons wee in the air they were suppose to have races and play games with eachother, but the wind was not cooperating and we did not want to stay and wait.

Discovery Center

my mom and sister came to visit and we went to Gateway Discovery center. Grandma was helping the kids in the beehive and Jessie helped Dane spell.