Asa's Mission Call

This post is for the Clements' fam. Here is Asa opening his mission call. It will almost be like you were actually there! :-)

(P.S. For everyone else out there reading this, Sam's brother Asa just received his call to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He will be serving in the Massachusetts Boston mission.)

Splish! Splash!

Bath time with two is twice as fun!... and twice as wet. :-D

3 Bs

On my side of the family, there have three girls born within the last year...and all of their names begin with B. Well, we finally got them all together and took a picture. Here there are back at the beginning of June.

Brooklyn (10 months), Baylee (8.5 months), and Brinley (5.5 months)

For those who know my family, Brooklyn belongs to Jared and Kristin, and Baylee belongs to Lacey and Evan. My brother Justin and his wife Shelly are also expecting a girl. Her due date is just a couple days after Brooklyn's first birthday. I think her name is going to start with an E, though.... :-)

Brinley's 1st Haircut!

After months of procrastination, it finally happened: Brinley got her hair cut!

Aunt Kristin cut it on June 2nd. Brinley now has bangs. :)

The before picture:

Brinley did a great job--as did Kristin, of course!

The after picture:

Sam's 30th Birthday

Here's another post from long ago. The day Brinley and I came back from Utah was Sam's 30th birthday. (Holy cow...that sounds so much older than it really seems!) I wanted to do something special, so I told him that we'd go out to dinner at a restaurant of his choice with his family. Meanwhile.... I was secretly scheming and setting up a big {SURPRISE} party for him. With much help from our nearby family (thanks!), I was able to pull it off, even though I was out of town. Sam was totally surprised! I am so glad that I was able to do this for Sam, and am very grateful to all the friends and family who came to wish him well on his big 3-0!

More than anything, I am glad that Sam was born and that I'm the lucky girl who gets to be married to him!

Ben's Graduation

You might be asking yourself, "Where the heck did Kelsey go?" I've been asking myself the same thing. Nevertheless, I am back now and hopefully will have a firestorm of posts coming to catch up on everything that I've missed. Here's a post from a long time ago. The tardiness is for good reason, though, as I had to get the pictures off of my brother's camera.

Way back at the end of April, I had the opportunity to attend my little brother, Ben's, graduation from Brigham Young University. He graduated with his bachelor's in Economics. I went with my parents and took just Brinley with me. It was very weird being without Levi, but he did great from what I hear. Each work day I was gone, he went to a different cousin's house while Sam was at work, then got to hang out with his dad at night. Brinley also did well on the trip, considering how much time she spent buckled into a car seat...poor thing.

While we were in Utah, I got to see my childhood friend, Brianne, whom I had not seen since I was 9 weeks pregnant with Levi. It was so much fun catching up with her and introducing her to Brinley. I can't wait to see Brianne again!

Mom, Dad, Ben, A. Carolyn (Dad's sister), U. Blaine (Carolyn's husband), and A. Joyce (Dad's sister).

Me, Brinley, and the Grad

Isn't that a beautiful orange flower I picked out for Ben?

Wahoo! It feels great to be done!

Ben ringing the Victory Bell.

Run! Joe! Run!

This past weekend, our little family drove up to Spokane to see Joe (Sam's youngest brother) compete in the Track and Field Regional Competition. Joe was racing the the 110 meter hurdles, and the 300 meter hurdles. Unfortunately, Joe crashed in the 110 race. The hurdles were college ones, which are much heavier than high school hurdles. If your toe catches, the hurdle doesn't just tip and slow you down. If your toe catches, the hurdle doesn't budge and you go down. It happened to several people. But the good news is, Joe did come in 2nd in the 300's, so he will be going on to State this weekend. Good luck, Joe!

It was a rather warm...okay hot, day. The forcast was for the mid-70's, but it was much warmer than that and shade was scarce. By the end of the day, the kids were pretty tuckered out. The both caught some Z's in the stroller. Levi had a blast playing with his balls on the blacktop. He got so incredibly dirty from doing so, as evidenced by the picture above. The strawberry Levi is holding in the first picture was so huge! The picture really doesn't do it justice, but it was the biggest mutant strawberry I've ever seen! And doesn't Brinley just look stylin' in her pink hat?

110 Hurdles - Joe is in lane 3

300 Hurdles - Again, in lane 3

Levi asks to watch "Joe run" over and over and over. He just sits here at the computer watching this clip and then pushes the button to make it play again after it is over. He has probably watched it 50 times by now. Levi really loves Joe.

Projects!

I love to do artsy/decorative projects around the house, but since having two kids I haven't had time to do much in that area. Well, now I'm making time! Here are a couple of projects I've done recently. I can't wait to do more as time and money allow!

I made this for Sam for his birthday:

I tried out a new technique and I love how it turned out. I call it "black-washing." First I painted the board green, then I super-watered down black paint and brushed over the top, then wiped off the excess with a rag. I think it looks pretty awesome.

I got this chair at a garage sale for $2. Awesome deal, huh? I stacked a few coffee table books and a plant I got on clearance from Joann's on it, and it makes a great filler for the empty corner in my downstairs bathroom.

This is the project I am most excited about. I painted canvases the same color as the wall and then "green-washed" (I guess...maybe I should just call it "color-washing" since you can use whatever color you want...) them and painted the edges black. I love, love, LOVE how it turned out. This hangs in my downstairs bathroom as well. With the chair and this artwork, my downstairs bathroom is now complete...probably the only room in my entire house that I am satisfied with decor-wise. Probably also the least used room. Oh well. So exciting!

p.s. All the vinyl in my projects I got from my sister, Amber. Thanks Amber!

The First Roses of Summer

(This is Levi smelling the roses by blowing air out his nose :D)

I took these pictures last week. Since then, our rose bushes have gone crazy and are brimming with roses.... {sigh} I love summer!

Around the House Randomness

The first fruits (or rather vegetable) of our gardening efforts:

We were really rather surprised to see a bean on this plant from our windowsill that we still hadn't gotten around to transplanting. Hooray for beans!

How not to grow a radish:

The red stringy thing on the left is in fact a radish...one from our windowsill that did not get transplanted and was only growing in a couple of inches of soil. Not very appetizing. The radish on the right, however, is from our garden. Doesn't it look beautiful? Too bad I don't like radishes, but Sam is certainly enjoying them!

The Squirmer:

Brinley has got the whole back-arch-get-me-outta-here thing going on. This picture doesn't truly capture her talent very well, but that's why her feet are sticking so far off the end.

Mommy's Big Helper:

Levi can be such a great helper sometimes. I love it! Here he is helping me empty the dishwasher by putting away all the silverware. He even puts everything in the right spot!

What greeted me as I walked up the stairs:

Two things ran through my mind at almost the exact same time:
1- Wow! Levi has such a creative imagination. I wonder what he was thinking when he put the cars there;
2- This is why my house will never be clean!
(Hey, at least #1 did beat out #2...even if it was only by a split second!)

New Toy!

[Brinley got a new toy!]

I picked up this Exersaucer off of craigslist for $15. Brinley loved it from the first minute we put her in it! I can't believe she is already 5 months old!

Levi decided to give the Exersaucer a try. It was still in the compact mode, so it was extremely short. Levi looked so goofy with his big toddler body crammed in the baby toy.

Levi, of course, had to help Brinley out with her new toy. I think he was a little jealous, but he got over it very quickly.

Brinley just having a blast!

Here is Levi his first time in an Exersaucer. This is in our second Pittsburgh apartment with an Exersaucer that we borrowed from a friend. He is four months old here.

Brothers

Well...I'm falling a bit behind on my posts. I've been busy! Anyway--this post dates back to the beginning of the month, to the weekend Reuben got home from his mission. With Reuben home and Abe in town, all of the Clements brothers were together for the first time in a long time! I got some pictures, but my camera was being retarded and they are pretty blurry. Oh well...take them for what they are worth!

Joe and Sam getting cozy!

The boys, right after Mom said "Sit up straight!"
Asa(4), Joe(5), Sam(1), Ben(3), Abe(2) (and Tag)
Like the affinity for 3-lettered names?
p.s. The numbers are their birth order.

Dad joining in on the action.

Of course, that peaceful pose couldn't last long...it took about two seconds for the tickling to begin.

Goofy faces picture (Levi couldn't be left out of that!)

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

This is what I got for Mother's Day:




Isn't this piano bench beautiful? Sam made it himself from an old mahogany bookcase. Pretty amazing, huh? I love it!

Softball at the Park

While Connie, Abe, and Ann were in town, the Clements fam went down to the park to ball a little softball. Instead of playing an actual game, though, we just took turns hitting and fielding the balls, which working out great since there were no bases and we really didn't bring anything to mark them with. Plus also, that allowed us to come and go as we took care of our kids. Sam's youngest sister, Arina, surprised us all with her hitting skills.

Another surprise was our little Levi. He is seriously just a natural athlete. Jared and Rhonda brought a little t-ball set with a wiffle ball and plastic bat. Levi watched us hit the ball a couple times and probably watched Nate hit the t-ball a little, then he picked up the bat and started playing t-ball. No one had to show him how to hold the bat or anything, he just picked it up from watching. I'm pretty sure Levi must have specifically watched how his dad hit the ball, because even though he is right-handed, he batted left-handed. Hey, what ever works!

Manly Stuff

Sam has taught Levi the fine art of chest bumping:

Unfortunately, I stopped the camera too soon, because Levi went in for a big hug. I sure do love my boys.