Introducing Brinley!

She is here!!!!!

Brinley Victoria Clements

December 13, 2008
6:51 pm
6 lbs 10 oz
18 inches

More to come when time and energy allow...

Giving the Tree the Trim

I love Christmas time, and I have found that a Christmas tree is pretty essential to making your home feel Christmas-y. Sam and I have only had one Christmas tree since we've been married because the last two years we were in Pittsburgh and did not have a tree there for two reasons: 1) Our first apartment was too small. There wasn't room for another person to stand in there much less a tree, and 2) We always left to come back home to Washington by the middle of December, so there really didn't seem to be much point in getting a tree. But this year, I was itchin' to get a tree. We had it purchased by the 2nd of December and spend the evening of the 3rd decorating it. So here are some pictures of our beautiful tree. (And just to give credit where credit is due, Sam did most of the work: hauled the tree in, sawed off the trunk, put it in the stand, helped Levi with most of the decorations... he even vacuumed up all the pine needles! What a man! I did put the hooks on the ornaments, make the candy cane hearts, and manned the camera... very important! :D)



Levi loved the ornaments... or should I say "balls". Luckily, I had enough foresight (or just plain dumb luck) to have bought plastic ornaments instead of glass ones. Most of the tree decorating time was spent trying to keep him from kicking the "balls" all over the house. Now that they are on the tree, though, he does leave them alone for the most part.

Levi was being so funny! I was trying to get the camera timer set up so we could take a family picture, so I had the camera sitting on a chair. Levi just came up and crouched down right there posing for a picture. I, of course, obliged. This is probably the second time he has posed for a picture. The things kids learn at such an early age...

Thanksgiving

Well, this post is a little late in coming, but better late than never as they say. We hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving just like we did. Our Thanksgiving was split between the Clements and Thurgood sides of the family. You know what that means... twice the food! Good thing I'm pregnant and can totally justify it. Actually, we did a good job with taking small portions so we didn't really stuff ourselves but still got to eat all the delicious food.

What made our Thanksgiving even more fabulous? The day before was our third anniversary (Hooray for us!!!!), and we actually celebrated on our actual anniversary. We went to Olive Garden where we thoroughly enjoyed our salad and breadsticks and somewhat enjoyed our entrees. (We should have gone with the pasta dish we were both eyeing instead of trying "something new". Oh well.) But here is the best part: Levi spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Thurgood's. This is the first night Levi has spent away from us. We figured we'd better do it now, because chances are (with nursing and everything) it will be at least a year before it would even be a possibility for us to have a childless night. It was AWESOME! We watched one of our movies without having Levi take it out and put in one of his movies. Then, the next morning (and this is what made our Thanksgiving even more fabulous), we slept in until we wanted to get out of bed... not when our dear son dictated we get out of bed! The simple things you relish when you are a parent of small children. And for those concerned about how Levi did sleeping away from Mom and Dad, he actually did pretty well. My sister Amber and her family came into town that night for Thanksgiving so he had cousins to play with. A few times he went to the door looking for us and being sad, but Amber was able to rock him to sleep finally.

For Thanksgiving at the Clements' house, Asa (Sam's brother) was able to come home from BYU so that was really fun to see him. Other than him, it was just in-town relatives. Mom and Dad C., Joe, Lauren, and Arina (who all three still live at home), Rhonda (Sam's sister just older than him), her husband Jared and their kids Kamora and Nate, and then Sam, Levi, and me. Unfortunately, I forgot to get out my camera there, so no pictures of that Thanksgiving celebration. Sorry.

At the Thurgood's, I actually did remember to pull out the camera and I think I got just about everyone in a picture. The only thing is, I didn't tell them that I was taking a picture, so some are not very flattering... oops! None the less, here they are:

1. Doug (married to my oldest sister, Amber), Carson, Bronson, Amber, Mom
2. Dad, Jared (oldest brother), Kristin (married to Jared), Madison
3. The spread... yum!
4. Sam, Levi (in the background) and me
5. Levi
6. Levi again (we sure like taking pictures of that one!) He loved the olive-on-the-finger thing.
7. Savannah, Jackson, and Sierra

My brother Justin and his family were in Utah, along with my younger brother Ben who goes to BYU. My sister Lacey and her family were at their in-laws house. Oh, and if you are trying to make connections about what kids belong to what parents, all the children ending in "son" belong to Amber and Doug. Sierra and Savannah (and Brooklyn, not pictured) belong to Jared and Kristin.

Check out the Poll in the Sidebar

Alright... I'm 37 weeks and counting (it will be 38 weeks on Wednesday). So I thought I would put up a poll to see when y'all think this baby will actually be born. I will just do it by weeks, so if you want to put in a more specific guess feel free to leave a comment telling me your exact prediction. The winner will receive the grand prize of being right and having the privilege of rubbing it in others' faces. Really... is there a better prize than that?

A little back ground info to level the playing field. Levi came at 38 weeks and 2 days after I had contractions for a solid week (about 8 hours straight each day), was dilated to a 4 in the doctors office, then taken up to Labor and Delivery and given Pitocin (drug used to induce or augment labor).

I had a doctor's appointment last Tuesday (one day before I was 37 weeks) and was dilated to a 1. I have been having contractions (sometimes pretty painful ones) for about 2 or 3 weeks now. They are super irregular, but extremely irritating!!!!

Alright, that's all the info you get. Now go vote!

P.S. If any of you vote for next year "I will hunt you down and gut you like a fish!" - The Grinch

Baking Banana Bread

So I have been MIA on the blog scene as of late. I haven't even checked anyone's blog! So, I'm going to have to find some time to catch up on what is going on in all of your lives. I have been busy preping for this baby to come. Cleaning, getting the nursery ready, packing for the hospital. Not to mention trying to get as much Christmas stuff done in advance as I can. I am proud to say that I have all of my shopping done, I only have one project left to finish (and it is almost complete), and about 90% of my gift wrapping done. Hooray for me!

Anyway, back to what this post is really supposed to be about. Levi is always my little helper in the kitchen. He loves to pull his step stool up next to wherever I am working and participate in the process. This only seems to happen when it is just him and I around, so I finally pulled out the camera and snapped a few shots. I even did the self-timer thing to try and get both of us in the picture. The shot didn't turn out great, but oh well. Here Levi and I are baking banana bread together... YUM!

Watching the bread bake.

Oh yes, and Levi loves to climb up on the counters now, too. Pretty much nothing is out of reach anymore. Here he is "helping" me measure the flour. Maybe I should have stopped him, but he is just so darn cute!

Fall Activity Checklist

This checklist was hanging out in my sidebar throughout the Fall, and I want to create a post of it for family history's sake before I took it down. So here is what we did Fall 2008.

Go to football games
Go pick apples at a U-pick farm
(Bought apples directly from a farm... close enough!)
Bake pies & crisps
Take Levi Trick-or-Treating
Go to a harvest festival
Carve Paint pumpkins
Make carmel apples
Rake up leaves and jump in them (Didn't get around to this last one. Sam just mowed up the leaves. Maybe next year...)

Baby Shower

My wonderful sister and sisters-in-law threw me a baby shower (isn't that so nice of them?). Lots of people came, we had some great food, played some fun games (unusual for a shower...), and we got some great stuff for Brinley. I am very excited to see her in some of the extrememly adorable outfits we got. My sister was in charge of picture taking, and she did a great job the first 5 minutes. After that, she forgot all about it. So anyone who didn't show up right on time didn't make it into the pictures... sorry! At the end of the night, right after I opened the last present, I remembered the camera. So Lacey snapped a shot of me holding up the last present - a very beautiful Christmas dress for Brinley to wear next year. (And my apologies go out to Mom... Lacey never did get a good picture of you.)

Oh, and funny story. My Aunt Louise arrived quite early with my Mom and Grandma (even before I got there). As they were coming in the door and taking off shoes, my grandma fell backwards and my Aunt Louise made a snide remark like "Way to go, Grace!" Then the next second, she tripped forward and ended up hurting her foot and ankle pretty bad. She had to sit the entire night with her foot up on a chair with a ice pack to keep the swelling down. At the end of the night Illeen Hodgson, from my ward, let her borrow some crutches to get home on. Moral of the story: don't make fun of other people because something bad will happen to you and everyone else will get a good laugh out of it.

Wordless Wednesday

Pregnancy Picture

I haven't posted one of these yet, so I thought I'd better. This is me last week at 33 weeks (just over 7 months along, for those not acquainted with pregnancy lingo). And just so you know... I feel so much HUGER (is that grammatically correct?) than this picture looks.

Day-After-Halloween Shopping

This year Levi and I hit the post-Halloween sales at Target and Walmart. We got some really great deals and some much MUCH needed Halloween decor. Levi was pretty hilarious at Walmart, so I just had to post these pictures. I picked up a witch hat (for 50 cents... perhaps I'll be a witch next year...) and Levi loved it! He wore it the entire time that we were in the store. Everyone got a good laugh out of it-me most of all. And I guess all that shopping just wore Levi right out, because when we got out to the car, I opened the hatch and let him get out of the cart, he immediately sprawled out using some blankets as a pillow. That kid just cracks me up.

Trick-or-Treat

Trick-or-Treating was so much fun this year! Levi went as the cutest Mickey Mouse you've ever seen, Sam was a Mad Scientist, and Brinley and I went as a Jack-o-Lantern. We went to Truck-or-Treat at the church, then over to Grandma and Grandpa Clements to show off our costumes. We also went to our next door neighbors house. Then Sam went with his parents to Joe's football game in Sunnyside (which the dominated!!!) and Levi and I went to my brother Justin's house for more Trick-or-Treating with the Thurgood side of the family.

Levi picked up on the whole Trick-or-Treating bit pretty fast. He would walk up to the cars (since we were at Truck-or-Treat first), set down his soccer ball bucket, and then step back. After they put in the candy, he'd pick it back up and move on to the next Sweet Stop. Levi had a lot of fun Trick-or-Treating with his cousins, too, but I got totally worn out so we didn't stay out as long as his older cousins. He still got quite a bit of candy... I think the last two weeks may have proved that that isn't necessarily a good thing... oh well! It was so much fun to watch my cute boy walk around in his little costume and approach the cars and houses. Below is a slide show and some movies from Truck-or-Treat. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the cousins (on either side), but they were all dressed very cute.

Painting the Pumpkin

This pumpkin was growing in our backyard when we moved in. A vine from the neighbors had sneaked through the fence... so we reaped the benefits! Isn't it a gorgeous pumpkin?

Sam was our chief artist (and by chief... I mean the only one who actually painted the pumpkin). He did a fantastic job, as you will see in the final picture.

Levi, of course, wanted to paint too, so we let him paint in his coloring book. This was Levi's first time painting ever. He did a good job not getting it absolutely everywhere... just several places. Nothing that didn't clean up, though. He had a blast and really loved it.

Here is Levi towards the end of the painting escapade. He is looking a little more colorful. Notice the paint on his lips... every time he got paint on his fingers, he would try to lick it off. Yuck! We had quite the time trying to teach him not to eat the paint. He finally got it though and would go to put his fingers in his mouth, then stop, scrunch up his nose, and say "Yuck!"

Ta-Da! The final product! See, I told you Sam did a fantastic job. He copied (not traced, just freehand copied) the tractor from Levi's coloring book (tractors are currently a favorite of Levi's). What a good lookin' pumpkin... and family, too!

What a character!

So, I remembered a story that happened while we were canning applesauce that I really want to record for family history's sake. Plus, I'm pretty sure you will all find it quite amusing.

Towards the end of the canning project (I really only had clean-up and a couple other things to do), I guess Levi had decided that we had spent enough time in the kitchen and that he was DONE. He walked over to the pantry and pointed/grunted at the door. I figured he wanted some chocolate chips because that's pretty much what it always means. So, I opened the door and started for the chocolate chips when I noticed Levi pointing at something else... something besides chocolate (weird, I know). He was pointing to the hook on the inside of the door where I always hang my apron. So I asked if he wanted me to take off my apron, then I did and hung it up. He started clapping... how funny is that!?!?!?!? Like, "Hooray for Mom! She did what she was supposed to." What a smart cookie. That's how we always let him know that he did the right thing, so I guess he's using the same trick on us. He was kinda mad, though, when I put the apron right back on...

Domestic Diva

Yes, that's right. I am turning into a domestic diva. This past week I tried my hand at canning for the first time ever. I was pretty excited about it. And the lucky food that got to be my guinea pig was... applesauce. And some mighty delicious applesauce at that! With the help of a Victorio strainer (one of my favorite new things), a very large stove (hooray for my stove!), and a sweet little boy, my canning experience went beautifully and the product turned out fabulous! Levi downed the applesauce I gave him, which is saying A LOT since he has been the pickest eater lately. Check out the slideshow for the entire process and the videos to see how good of a helper Levi was.

The white bowl has lemon juice on it to preserve the color of the apples. That is what Levi is sucking off the apple. Strange, I know, but the kid loves lemon juice. He'll drink it straight.

Grandpa's Hats

We were over at Grandma and Grandpa Clements' house while Sam helped his dad fix his truck. Levi found Grandpa Clements' hats and decided to see how they fit. He was so cute, I had to grab the camera and take some pictures.

I'm not quite sure why, but Levi loves to pull the hats over his face. He does it with our hats at home, too. Then he walks around like a blind man until he runs into something. What a silly kid.

We went outside to show Dad and Grandpa how cute Levi was, and he decided to give one hat to Daddy and one hat to Grandpa... Levi is really good about sharing and is always finding toys for other kids to play with.

Isn't this one just adorable!?!?!

(Sorry about the color... the light wasn't on in the hallway.)

Ward Talent Show

On October 18th, we had a ward talent show. They seemed pretty desperate for people to participate, so we decided we'd better do our part. I displayed pictures of some arts and crafts decorations that I've made for our house. Levi and Sam preformed the classic Flip Flop maneuver. The crowd loved it! (They don't see toddlers very often...) The movie clip is below. Unfortunately, I turned off the camera too soon. After they finished and everyone clapped, Levi totally started bawling. He wasn't crying because of the Flip Flop, it was because of everyone clapping. It scared him. Poor kiddo.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Mom's homemade strawberry jam...straight out of the jar. (Who needs bread?)

CARS! (Or as I currently say, 'ars). Here I am holding just four (but one is a monster truck). I often have even more in my hands and will play for hours with my cars. I also have to go to sleep holding a couple of them.

BALLS! (I have actually started saying the "b", so I'm pretty much an expert on this word.) I can spot a ball anywhere... and every circle is a ball to me. Here I am at Old Navy... it took me two seconds to find the balls here. For a while, I liked throwing balls most of all. Now I spend most of my time practicing running and kicking balls. Mom says I have lots of coordination and that I'll be quite the athlete.

Sprinkler Blowouts

Nice house, huh? I have no idea whose it is... I Googled it. I just wanted a visual representation of what has been occupying most of my time and has kept me from posting anything for a shameful amount of time. Sam's dad has a sprinkler blowout business and this year we volunteered (can you call it that when you are getting paid?) to help out. I am in charge of contacting and scheduling people and organizing the blowout routes. This takes a lot more time than it sounds like. Sam is helping his dad do the actual blowouts. So... that's pretty much the update on our lives... yay. This is supposedly the busiest week for blowouts, so maybe next week I'll get around to an actual post... that is, if you're lucky. ;-) (Just pretend like it means that much to you. Thanks.)

Girls! Girls! Girls!

Jaime, Allison, Taylor, Alison, Paige, Sam, Kelsey, Levi, Amy, Brittany

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to host 7 high school girls at our house. Sam's brother, Joe, was on a committee in charge of the WASC (Washington Association of Student Councils) Conference. To help him out, we volunteered to be a home stay family and have student leaders come stay out our house. It was a fun experience. Levi loved all the attention. I was really impressed by the caliber of these girls and how polite they were. One of the girls who stayed with us, Jamie, is highly functioning mentally retarded. Her friend and mentor, Amy, also stayed with us. Amy was absolutely amazing with her, and I was really impressed at how well all the other girls did with her as well. The girls were also so thoughtful as to bring us gifts! I think it is something we would definitely do again in the future. The only downside was that Levi lost out on quite a bit of sleep staying up late and waking up early. Then on Sunday, we switched church times to 1pm... Levi usually goes down for his nap around 12/12:30. So he only got an hour nap on Sunday. Well, yesterday he really made up for it. He woke up at 9am. At 9:50am, he went back down for a nap... AND SLEPT UNTIL 2PM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Needless to say, he has been much happier since catching up on his missed sleep.