Hailey turns 10, Clayton turns 7, and Miles turns 12!

March 23, 2018:

Hailey turned 10 this spring. I can't believe she's getting so old! She had her heard set on a birthday party at Classic Fun Center. The girls had a great time skating, eating pizza, jumping on the bouncy houses, and playing at the arcade.

Dear Hailey,
You are a delight and we love you and are so grateful you are a part of our family.

You love gymnastics and this year you are always standing on your head. You got amazing 'straight As' at school, and I never ever have to worry about you and school. You are so intrinsically motivated.

You're very athletic and are currently playing softball. You love to go outside with Dad and practice your pitching. You love to pitch for your team. You love to read books and play with your beenie boos and other toys. You have never minded playing by yourself.

You are an amazing big sister and a great friend to all your siblings. You're a wonderful babysitter, and we are so blessed to have you each day in our lives.

I love you! Happy 10,

Mom

April 25th, 2018 Clay turns 7!

A month after Hailey's birthday Clay had his own birthday, a surprise party! We decorated with the pasture fence with balloons and crepe streemers while he was at school.

We had lots of friends from the neighborhood come over to party with us. Clay was super surprised! We played all kinds of outside games, had pizza and cupcakes and opened presents.

Dear Clay,

You have a heart of gold! You want to read your scriptures and you try hard to choose the right. You are such a light to our family. We are so thankful for you!

You love all things sports! You love to play with friends. You love Legos and have become such an amazing reader this year. You are a great friend to Paige, she always wants to do what you are doing. She loves being your little sis.

I am thankful for you!

Love,

Moma

On May 12th Miles turned the BIG 12!!

This was a really special birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Hancock came all the way from Arizona to see Miles receive the priesthood. On May 12, it was a Saturday, we spent the day celebrating with chocolate cake, presents, grandma and grandpa in town. At night we went to a wonderful dinner at Olive Garden. It was so delicious and the servers treated us SO GREAT! Miles was sung to by the staff and got a free dessert. On Sunday May 13th we watched Miles receive the priesthood and become a deacon. 

Dear Miles,

You are truly becoming a great young man. You have learned so much in 6th grade, about responsibility and working hard and always doing your best. You have a great attitude and are a great worker. You are growing taller and faster! 

You are thoughtful and kind. You are a good big brother and such a great babysitter! Watching you learn and grow is such a wonderful blessing!

I love ya!

Mom

November 2017 Friend Magazine

Today at church a friend said he had seen the boys in the Friend. I had no idea! I remember taking this picture for Miles because he wanted to e-mail it to the Friend. I guess he did!! So when we got home I check the current issue online, and lo and behold there they are. Live it up boys, this is your 15 minutes of fame!

Now I'm anxiously awaiting our copy so I can keep it forever! 

kindy graduation

Clay graduated from kindergarten in May 2017. I loved his teacher, Mrs. Olsen. Clay was in afternoon kindergarten this last year and looked forward to school every day. Every Tuesday morning he had a playgroup with 5 other neighborhood boys. On Wednesday he went to swimming class at Miss Holly's house. He became a good swimmer. On Friday mornings we'd almost always go to story time at the library.

Paige and I are going to miss Clay when school starts next week. He was our little morning buddy, and although he's super excited to go to full day school this year and eat lunch in the cafeteria Paige and I are going to miss her big brother. 

Happy Birthday Clay 6 years old!!

Clay turned 6 on April 25th 2017.

Dear Clay,

This year for your birthday we had a family celebration. You were so excited to turn 6 years old. We brought a treat to your class, little blue cupcakes from the grocery bakery. We also took you to your most favorite restaurant--Subway!

Clay, you've got such a big heart. Whenever I go out on a date with dad you run over and give me a big hug and you tell me it's "to remember me by" and then you usually run outside as I'm leaving and give dad and me another big hug.

You really love your big brother Miles. You guys go on lots of bike rides together. You stay up late talking in your room with Miles, and you feel like you cannot go to bed until Miles is in his bed in your room.

You are a great reader, and this summer I've had you participate in the Mapleton Literacy Center and I hope to continue that in the fall. You also love to play sports and before school was out you started t-ball. You had an awesome coach and you did SO well! But you felt like t-ball was a bit young, you are already eager to try out baseball next year!

You still love legos, riding your bike, playing with friends, playing outside, and reading with me. I'm excited to see what 1st grade will bring your way. I love you Clay! Thanks for being my sunshine!

Love,

Mom

Clayton's 5th birthday

For Clay's birthday we had a superhero theme. All the kids came dressed in superhero costumes and we played superhero games outside and inside. There was quite the crowd of boys! You had a Spiderman cake, which you helped me whip up. Do you remember the HUGE batman balloon dad got for you? We played "Don't Eat Captain America" and "Run Superman" (freeze tag), as well as "Ouch Batman" (Hot Potato) We found a superhero pinata at the grocery store which we filled with lots of candy. I think everybody had a great time.

Clay is Captain America, Miles, Paige, Hailey, Brielle, Talmage, Kyle, Kallon, Brayden, Willard.

Dear Clay,

I'm writing this a few months after your birthday. Are you really starting kindergarten NEXT WEEK? I'm going to miss you. You're such a joy to hang out with. One of my favorite things to do with you is snuggle up and read stories. You did a whole year of "Upstart" and that really boosted your reading! You worked hard. You are so sweet to Paige and you look up to Miles like he's the coolest. It's pretty cute. You and Hailey, you two have kind of a mother/kid type relationship, she's a little mother to you and you don't mind one bit. In fact one of your favorite games to play with Hailey is called "Max and Mom" where Hailey is the mom and you are Max. Haha! So funny to watch. You have dad wrapped around your little finger, he thinks you are so cute so I think you get away with a little more than you should sometimes with him. Our family wouldn't be the same at all without your bright little spirit in our home. 

Thanks for being my sweet boy!!

I love you, Mom

Clay's Lego lesson

Joey wanted me to record this memory:

This last Friday Clay went to play at his friend, Talmage Perry's, house. They had lots of fun playing with Legos.

Later that same day, Clay was playing with Legos at home when Miles came to me concerned. Miles explained that Clay had taken some of Talmage's Legos and was now playing with them.

Clay and I chatted about the situation. I was happy and loving, he's only 5, I understood and wasn't the least bit upset, but I did suggest we take the Legos back to Talmage. The pieces he had taken were small (of course) and some were already mixed in with all the other Legos we have (we have two large containers full of Legos). We looked for a while, but could not find them.

This morning (Sunday) I told Clay we should try to find those Lego pieces to give back to Talmage. He agreed, we found some, but again we could not find all the pieces mixed among all our Legos. We decided to pray--Clay offered the prayer and *literally* RIGHT after he said "amen" he dug his hand into the Lego box again and immediately found the last Lego pieces that belonged to Talmage!!! Wow! We were all there, the who family thought it was pretty amazing.

I happen to be Clay's primary teacher at this time. It just so happens that this weeks lesson in our primary class was on making wrongs into rights (repentance).

The other teacher, Sister Bell, was teaching this week. She told the story (from the lesson manual) of a little girl who went to her friend's house and had fun playing with some very small toys, put them in her pocket, and took them home. Later on she gave the toys back and asked for forgiveness.

You should have seen Clay's face during this story! I just wanted to hug him and tell him it was OK! He looked SO sad. In fact Sister Bell asked the class how they thought the little girl felt after taking the toys home and then noticing Clay's face said, "Look at Clay's sad face! Yes, I'm sure that's how she felt!"

I asked Clay after church why he looked so sad and he said, "Because I took Talmage's Legos." It was so sweet to see him learning from his experiences. I told him not to worry, to be happy because he'll be returning them tomorrow and making things better means he can be happy once again!

I've heard it said in General Conference that the Church is like a hospital we all go to become better from our sins and imperfections. None of us are perfect, and I think we've all had moments when we are sitting in church and we know we need to make a change.

Clay is such a sweet little boy, and it was kind of fun to see firsthand as he learned from a mistake. I'm thankful that the lessons he is learning at church are sinking into his heart and I hope they always will. How thankful I am for our sweet little Clayton! I'm also thankful to attend church each week and learn and see my children learn.

Another post about child prayers

Clay has been cracking us up with his prayers lately. He is giving a lot of thought to his prayers and they do come from the heart, but boy are they funny!

For example:

About a week ago he gave family prayer at the end of the day. He is trying to pray for individual people in our family I guess and it's sometimes hilarious what he says. So he was praying for Aunt Jacque--who is actually my aunt, his great-aunt--and he said, "And please help Aunt Jacque....long pause...that whatever problems she has...long pause...that those problems will come back to her." (What?? Haha, I don't think he really knew what he said.)

Then there was this in Sharing Time opening exercises on Sunday (I'm a primary teacher so I'm glad I just happened to be there to hear it.) He volunteered to say the opening prayer. He starts his prayer : "Dear Heavenly Father I'm thankful for my family...LONG, LONG PAUSE....he looks up and looks around the room...and I'm thankful for all the other families too." He always starts his prayers off with "I'm thankful for my family" and I thought it was so cute how he decided to be thankful for the other families too.

And what is it with the following part of family prayers at our house that ALL of our children (expect Paige) pray for on a regular basis?!?! "Please bless (fill in the blank with a sibling's name) that he/she will close his/her eyes for the entire prayer."

And last, but not least, have you ever had this prayer situation at YOUR house? Because we have had it multiple times at our house...

Hailey gives wonderful, thoughtful, heartfelt LONG prayers even if it's just a simple blessing on the food. It can go on...and on...and on...I mean she'll start praying for all the apostles and being thankful for things like clouds and saying thank you for each individual dish of food at the table...wow! And as Joey and I sit there with our arms folded and heads bowed we'll hear a whimper from Paige (whose prayer limit is about 30 seconds), then a whine, then she'll start crying, then she starts trying to climb on the table to grab the food and asking to eat. None of this phases Hailey, she'll be engrossed in her prayer being thankful for the monkey bars at the school playground or something like that. Patience and deep breaths get me through it. By the time she's done I'm doing stress management breathing techniques while continually whispering to Clay "not yet, shhhhh..." while simultaneously spooning a bit of food onto Paige's high chair to keep her from completely loosing it. Keeps me on my toes. :)

Post Script: Another funny prayer said by Clay recently: "Please help Miles to tell the truth. Help Paige to get what she gets and not have a fit. Help Hailey not to whine. Help Mom to be nice to us." Well, hmmm, amen to all that son! Way to notice our best qualities : D ;) It honestly cracks me up.

Recent Memories of Clay and Paige

Recently I was shopping with Clay. We happened to see some clearance Halloween items and in our same line of vision we could see a very large Christmas display. Clay said to me, "Happy Hallo-Christmas!"

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Today while talking about basketball Clay kept mentioning the "Refugees" in the game. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I figured it out when he told me how the "refugees blow the whistles." Refugees = referees in his four year old world!

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Paige is SO funny! She LOVES to bring items to people that she knows they belong to. She is constantly bringing me my shoes!! I put them by the back door and she bring them to me all day long! :) Well, this morning Paige saw Joey's pajama pants on my bedroom floor. Joey had already left for work. She picked up his pajama pants and toddled over to me saying "daddy!" "Yes, those are daddy's!" I told her. I took them from her and flung them back onto the floor. (I know--we sound like really tidy people, right??) Paige promptly picked up the pajama pants again and this time toddled out of the room. I followed her. She took those pants all the way to the front door (she often sees daddy goes out the front door every morning). There she dropped them. She was trying to give them to daddy, who was already at work! :)

Who knows? Maybe she's dreaming about bringing me my shoes!

In this photo I was helping him fold his laundry and he was talking a mile a minute about all the wonderful things he loves about Christmas. It was SO cute. I just had to pull my phone out of
my pocket and take a picture. He's in mid-sentence, can you tell? He is such a fun person to have a conversation with!

Clay

Clay, I love you. You, my usually sweet, kind, mild mannered boy have turned into a whirlwind of tears and tantrums these past few weeks.

I often stand in the moment puzzled by the wailing and cries. I am certain this is a phase. And because I have been through these trenches before, I am seasoned, and I know to be patient. Patience is important. I feel wiser too. I've had 9 years of experience, and have gleaned a bit of wisdom from my daily job as mother. I stand above you (you usually fall to the ground in these moments) and watch as you fall apart. You scream. You kick. The tears make little streams down your cheeks. I am concerned. The wheels in my head start turning: How can I help you? What can be done? I pray for help. Prayer has been my go-to instrument in dealing with tough motherhood moments.

A powerful, quiet answer comes, the same answer: Love. The answer is to love you, love, and love you so more.

Yesterday I could not allow you to not buckle in when we drove to preschool. You were not happy with that. Today I could not allow you to put those toys into our grocery cart. Your tears streamed down when I said no. In the afternoon when we drove passed the pumpkin patch and you asked if we could go right then I said we needed to drive home and make dinner, we could go another day I promised. You kicked your legs. You yelled. More tears washed your cheeks. I cannot give you all you want when you want it.

But love, my son, that I CAN give--always. There's something about a mother's heart that has made it possible to give that to you and your brother and sisters always. Even when you seem least lovable.

I am grateful for the love that fills my heart even when you yell, even when you cry, even when you throw yourself on the ground and roll around in fury.

 I can be soft when your fury flies---and I am grateful that Heavenly Father has helped me learn to be soft in moments of 4 year old fury.

I love you Clay. I hope this phase will pass sooner rather than later, but no matter when it passes, don't you worry, I'll be right here, loving you right along.

Clay turns 4. Happy Birthday Little Buddy!

Clayton got this Sully stuffed friend from Miles for his birthday. He LOVES Sully and takes him in the car often when we run errands. 

I can't believe how fast Clay is growing up. I always think of him as our baby boy, but he's already 4 now! How did this happen so quickly?

Clay told me he was trying to drink the water...

This is at the Provo Temple in May. I was sure he was going to fall into the fountain! He didn't :)

Jacque gave Clay a special cake for his birthday.

There's so much I love about Clay. His big dark brown eyes, his super light blonde hair, his olive skin that tans so easily His unconditional love for us, his joy in the small and simple things in life (getting to wear a favorite t-shirt can make him literally jump up and down with excitement) and our wonderful, special conversations that we share most often during the days when the "big kids" are at school.

This birthday Clay was really spoiled! He had been wanting these HUGE Hulk fists since he saw them in the store way back in November. He did not get them for Christmas. He asked if he could save his money for them, but the months went by and he didn't save enough--other holidays (Easter, Valentines) brought surprises, but definitely not his desired Hulk hands. Grandma and Grandpa Hancock came to the rescue for his birthday. They found out that this is what he wanted and sent the gift his way.  Clay also received wonderful and treasured gifts from so many other people, all of his siblings gave him gifts, Aunt Jacque, Grandma and Grandpa Jones, as well as mommy and daddy of course.

Yesterday Clay wrote me a note. He asked, "How do you spell Tiffany?" I said the letters in my name slowly so he could write each one down. Then he worked busily on the rest of his note. When his note was done he put it under my pillow. Before bed he asked me if he could watch me read his note, so we went to my pillow to get it. I looked at this sweet note from Clay. It was full of random letters from the very top corner of the page to the very bottom corner of the page. Right in the middle of the page he had printed T-I-F-F-A-N-Y. It was beautiful. I treasured it immediately! This is not the first time he has written me a note, he often does this and enjoys hiding them!

 He asked me, "What does it say?" Since I knew what was in his heart when he wrote this 'note' I improvised and said, "It says, "Dear Tiffany, I love you very much. You are my mom and I love you. That's why I wrote this note and put it under your pillow." Clay responded with joy, "Wow!! I that's what it says! I can't believe I wrote all that! I thought it said gibberish!"

Clay's joy is contagious. I love him so much!

Here are some photos:

Showing his new Ninja Turtles shirt from Grandma and Grandpa Jones

He wanted "batman brownies" for his birthday treat, so we cut brownies into the shape of bats using a bat pumpkin cutter--it's like a cookie cutter, but sharper so it can cut pumpkins. 

Dear Clayton,

I love you!! I wouldn't change a thing about you, buddy. You're awesome. I love your sweet, little budding testimony (you love me to sing you "I Love to See the Temple" and you love primary). I love how sweet you are to your family. Today you wrote love notes to me, Miles, and Hailey. You asked me how to spell each of our names. After spelling our names you added your own "words" (jumbled, random letters bunched together in word-like groups) to write the letters. Then you hide the letters for us to find. Hailey found her letter in her pajama drawer. I found my letter in my closet. Miles found his letter on the table. You are wonderful! You are sweet! Happy year 4 bud!

Love,

Mom

Cutie Clayton

Clay cracks me up. He says things to make me giggle so often. He also does things that just make me smile. I love spending my days with him and our little Paige.

Here's the things he has said just this week:

Clay usually asks for help in saying his bedtime prayers. He wants me to whisper to him what to say. Every Wednesday he goes to a preschool swimming class. He LOVES his class and his teacher, Miss Holly. This last Wednesday as I was whispering to him what to say he was thankful for he paused then whispered back to me, "Mom, whisper to me to say that I am thankful for Miss Holly." So I whispered to him to say this and then he added that part to his prayers too. 

Today he's having a play date with Cameron Liggitt. I think it was because he knew that he'd have a listening audience that wasn't his family that he jumped at the opportunity to say a blessing on their lunch. During his blessing on the food he said, "Thank you for the astronauts." Later in this same prayer he said, "And the next time I get sick please help me get better."

One last thing, also from his play date today:

Cameron wanted to have goldfish crackers with their lunch so I instructed the boys to get the box off the pantry shelf. Cameron ran to get it. Clay said, "No! I'll get it!!" Cameron then said, "No I want to get it!" I could tell the tension was building--when two preschoolers both want to get the same thing a problem can brew quickly. However as they stood looking at the fish cracker box Cameron said, "I just wanted to get it so you wouldn't have to do any hard work today." Then Clay responded, "Well, I just wanted to get it so you wouldn't have to do any hard work today. I'm very helpful."  In the end Cameron let Clay get the box (what a peacemaker he was!). Of course, Clay was just trying to be helpful for Cameron's sake ;).   

Today

Today when Paige napped I fell into bed. I was sooo tired and not feeling well. I gave Clayton the legos to play with and he played with them in the living room for about an hour. I woke up to my hair being stroked. "Mommy?" Clay said. "hmm?" I answered. "Call me Hulk. I am Hulk. I will make you feel better." I smiled, "Thank you Hulk." He stroked my hair and tickled my back. After about 5 minutes Hulk was fast asleep, cuddled right up next to me as close as he could get. I could hear his steady breathing. I turned over to admire his beautifully long eyelashes. I was thankful for his kind heart and understanding attitude. I love my Hulk!

Clayton age 3 1/2

Now that Hailey is gone all day at school I have really had a chance to focus on doing special things with Clay. He has come SO far in just 6 months! In the past 6 months he has been potty trained, learned to share a room with two other children (the three oldest share a room right now), improved his speech, learned most of his letters and many of the letter sounds, and (just recently) started to hold his pencil the correct way and draw and even WRITE a few letters on his own! His writing has just started happening in the last couple of weeks and I am super excited! We sit down each morning while Paige is taking her morning nap and we play the "chocolate chip game" (aka "mom will bribe you"). We take a little magna doodle and I show him how to shape a letter then I encourage him to try to write it. When we first played this a couple months ago his letters were mostly illegible and he asked for a lot of help. But now we are getting to the point where his letters are not only legible but he is able to write some of them on his own. He has also learned how to get himself dressed on his own, he can even put his shoes on by himself! This has been a great blessing and help to me.

Here is the proof that this boy dresses himself!! September 2014

 Some other "special Clay things" we try to do each week are "letter projects" from a preschool blog I found. These projects help him get better with cutting and gluing. And, when we can make it, we try to go to story time at the library on Fridays. After attending story time with one toddler or another for the best part of a decade I am getting a little tired of trekking off to story time, but Clay LOVES it so much that I have made it a goal to take him, it is only 30 minutes once a week so I can make it to a few more years of story times I guess. :) He also has a preschool on Tuesday mornings with a few other families in the neighborhood. He loves preschool!

When he dresses himself he especially likes to pick out 'basketball clothes' as he calls it. 

Clay naps very sporadically. He gets tired by late afternoon because of this. On nights that we plan to do something as a family I will tell him he has no choice but to take a nap if he wants to go. Today he asked to lay down for a nap, which is a rarity, but pleased me. Usually I don't fight him about naps and we try to get him in bed by 7:30.

Here he is taking one of those sporadic naps a few months ago...

He LOVES to build things. He is always using legos and trios and building rockets. He is super happy when I will sit down and build with him and I'd like to try to do this more often. Clay loves to play outside with the neighbor kids too. He is always wanting to play with Kallon or Brielle. He loves to jump on our neighbors' trampoline and climb in the "tree house" (a little wooden house with stairs and two slides that KC built).

Firetruck fun!

He loves his siblings too. Miles and Hailey let Clay join in along with whatever they are doing, and he just loves them for it. Yesterday before church started all three of them colored in coloring books together at the kid table. He chatted right along with them and colored along too. It makes me happy to see all three of them doing things together. Of course, he's so loving to Paige. He does tend to get right into her face. He likes to stick his finger in her mouth, and he touches her constantly, and I have given up asking him to wash his hands or stop so I guess he'll help rev up and strengthen her immune system this winter. :)

Huge fan of his baby sister!

Clay loves his family! (October 2014)

Clay looks the most like Joey to me. He's in the 3rd percentile for height and weight and I hope that the next 6 months will see him growing in every way. I love Clay and am so grateful for him! He's an easy, happy kid to have in the house and I'm a lucky mommy!

3 years old!

On April 25, 2014 Clay had his third birthday!

I don't know exactly how he got so old so quickly! Sure, 3 isn't that old, but it seems to me that when we moved here to Utah I had this chubby baby boy on my hip (he was barely 18 months old). He didn't say much, he loved to cuddle, he took long afternoon naps in his crib, and he was still in a stroller on walks. And then little by little right under my nose he GREW UP and only now can I see the stark contrast between him then and him now! It still feels like we moved here only yesterday, and he was just my little cuddly tot yesterday--but for him it's been half his lifetime and what a difference!

He now talks in sentences. His pronunciation is often off and often cute enough to make me smile. He is way too busy to cuddle these days--he's got legos and trios that must be built, papers that have to be colored, play dough that must be squished and rolled and reach under every one of his fingernails, and a backyard that he feels his bare feet must go out and touch as much as possible. He now only naps every 2 or 3 days and it is no longer in a crib--but a bed! He potty trained about a month ago and that was that--he even stays dry at night about half the time! And, no more stroller either, now he peddles his tricycle to the park down the street.

This little boy is so special, so of course we had to try to make his birthday special. I guess I love my kids because I keep throwing them birthday parties....so we threw Clay a little birthday party. He was so excited to hand out invitations! The party was chaos--mass, happy, "our-house-is full of three-year-olds-with-frosting-on-their-faces!" type chaos. They played 'Duck, Duck, Goose' and Pin the Tail on the Donkey', I read them stories, and we had snack time with the cupcakes, opened presents, and all the little ones played with the new toys.

At the party: Willard, Kallon, Clay, Gavin, Lincoln, Hailey, Brielle, and Miles (take note of that pregnant belly if you want:). I need to do a nice belly shot one of these days and post before this little princess is born...

Dear Clay,

You make me happy. I love how you pat my tummy and tell me you love the baby. I love your beautiful, big brown eyes and olive skin and your bright blonde hair. I love how honest you are and how gentle you are. You love chicken nuggets and would eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if I let you! You see the best in your brother and sister and love to be around them. You love to wave to the school bus when we watch Hailey go to kindergarten. You like to snuggle in our bed with us in the early mornings and you are never shy to tell me when "the sun is up." I love your prayers, they are so sincere and I know Heavenly Father hears them. You have a great heart. I love you!

Conversations with Clay

Clay and I have been discussing how he will have a baby sister soon. I told him how the baby can hold his finger, and how he can give the baby her pacifier, and talk to her, and help her be happy. Later on I asked Clay, "So, when you have a baby sister what will you do with her?" He replied, "I will play basketball with her. And I will not flash a flashlight into her eyes!" Yep, he'll be a great big brother!

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Clay loves his screen time, which I usually limit to about 30 minutes to 1 hour a day, usually an hour these days! One day I turned off the TV and he protested. I said, "Watching TV is not good for your brain!" and Clay replied, "Watching TV makes my brain happy!" I just love talking to this little guy!

"Doe make a no-man peeeeese?"

This is what Clay asked me a few mornings ago. The translation is, "Go make a snowman please?" It was 8am and about 15 degrees outside. I was barefoot and in my pajamas. The kitchen was a mess. I wanted to say no. Then I looked at those big brown eyes. He was handing me one little blue mitten. I was smitten! How could I say  no to that?

So we bundled up from head to toe and out we went to play. We could not build a snowman because the snow was too powdery, apparently that is why it is called "the greatest snow on earth", however that does not make for the greatest snowman snow. Instead we played "choo-choo train" by shuffling around in the very deep snow. Then we threw up handfuls of snow like confetti. We admired how everything sparkled. We brushed the snow off our van together. We were out for a good 30 minutes, which is a long time when it is cold outside. This boy loved it.

Playing in the snow is also an EXCELLENT way to tire a toddler (and a mommy) out for a great nap!

Decoding a two year old

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving! Here's our "Thankful Tree" which has become a fun little tradition in the last few years.

I have become an expert at decoding Clay's speech lately! Here's a little bit of what I'm talking about:

"Ooowh." said in a high pitched tone of voice. This means "little." Joey and I know this for sure by the times he uses it and other things he says along with it. For example, "Ooowh be-be" would translate into our English to be "little baby." 

"How" said in a growl. Not kidding. A growl. This means "bear" "lion" "dinosaur" or any other animal that Clay thinks is ferocious. So when he says, "I unna hear papa how, mama how, and *ooowh how." The correct English translation would be "I want to hear the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears." 

*see above word for translation

"Hi-ya" This is how he pronounces Hailey's name. So, "Hi-ya doe bye-bye bus." In our language this means, "Hailey goes bye-bye on the bus."

"My" The pronunciation of Miles' name. So "My! My! My! My!" you can probably guess means "Miles! Miles! Miles! Miles!" and is usually said while running through the house searching for Miles. 

"Nap-Nap" This is an interesting one. He uses it interchangeably to mean "Naptime" "Bedtime" (at night) or "Bed" So if he says, "I unna doe nap-nap in Hi-ya nap-nap." This would mean, "I would like to take a nap in Hailey's bed." (He gets to choose which bed to take a nap in every afternoon. He usually chooses Hailey's bed or Miles' bed.) And at night he sometimes says, "No nap-nap, mom!" Meaning, "I don't want to go to bed yet mom!"

"O-tay!" I love this one! He always says it with a lot of enthusiasm. It means "Ok"

"Who-who" Train

"My Who-who" What he calls his favorite blanket (it has trains all over it)

"Wa-wa" water. One he says frequently, "lot wa-wa mom." means "I want a lot of water Mom."

"puuuh-pee" Puppy or Dog.

"haaa-pee!" happy

"sad..." always said with a sad voice and a frown. We play this game with him where we give him a simple situation like "The baby got some milk! Is the baby happy or sad?" and he will answer us what he thinks. It is a fun game that we all love to play with him.

"vvvvvvvvvuhh!" Car or truck so "boo vvvvuhhh mom!" in English means, "There's a blue car mom!" He points out lots of cars! :)

There are a few words he says perfectly and that number is growing on a regular basis. Today he said green perfectly which was a new word!

He still uses sign language for a number of words including milk, juice, horse, bike, more, cracker, and please. When he uses these words he will say to me, "See me!" and when I look he will then make the sign and sometimes add other words too. For example, when I go walking and he's in the stroller sometimes I hear him yell, "See me!" so I will stop and look and he usually makes the sign for horse and will add "dere" (there) and point. (There are a lot of horses in Mapleton.)

Last but not least I wish you could come to our home and ask Clay to sing you a song. It is the best! He gladly sings in a very interesting melody--"Da, do, oh, he, mo, me, da, do, do, do..." It is the CUTEST thing.

I sure love communicating during the two-three year old phases with our kids. By 2.5 yrs. the tantrums have decreased dramatically and they start saying the funniest things and have the cutest "baby" accents on their words. Clay is in a great stage! I am loving it! 

Sweet Little Clay

Clay is constantly making us giggle with his cute doings/sayings.

At Costco the other day we passed by the TV section and they had a football game on the TVs. Clay got excited and pointed to the TVs and yelled, "DADDY BALL!" Which is what he calls football. :) He knows what his daddy loves!!

We have given Miles and Hailey their own little Book of Mormons which have their names and their own bookmarks in them. Clay was kind of sad when he realized he didn't have his very own (with his name). He started to cry a little. So Joey took a marker and wrote "Clay" on one of our many copies of the Book of Mormon and gave it to Clay. Clay slowly ran his finger over the word and sounded out the word, "Mine!" It was cute.

He gets the concept that letters make words, probably because he sits by Hailey and me while Hailey sounds out her hooked on phonics books. He points to our welcome mat almost every time he comes in the house and runs his finger across the letters and says, "GO!" as if the words says go (It says Welcome!). It makes me laugh. Can you imagine if we really did have a welcome mat that said GO! :)

Another day the kids and I were all out by the bus stop as the school bus pulled up to pick up Miles in the morning. Clay ran to Miles wanting a hug and a kiss, but Miles had his back turned to Clay and didn't realize that Clay was behind him trying to hug him. Clay started to cry. The bus engine is kind of loud so Miles still didn't notice. The bus driver saw all this and told Miles to go back and hug his brother. Miles ran off the bus and gave Clay a big hug and kiss good-bye. It was so sweet and Clay was immediately happy.

In the last month Clay, Hailey, and I have started a little routine of going out when the bus is about to pick up Hailey after lunch and waiting for the school bus together. One day Clay put on his backpack just like Hailey. We waited for the bus and when it came Clay got behind Hailey to enter the bus. When I picked him up he cried. I explained to him that he had to be 5 years old to ride the bus. I asked, "How old are you?" He answered with his head hung, "Two." He was super sad. He must have thought the only prerequisite to riding the bus was wearing a backpack!

Clay loves blue. It is his favorite color. When given a choice he will always choose blue ice cream, or blue cups, or blue markers.

His language skills are improving! He has learned several new words and is starting to learn phrases too. His biggest word is "Yellow" and his biggest phrase is "I want some of that" which actually sounds more like " I- ont-some-a-dat." He says it all together, almost like one big word. Many of his phrases sound like a huge word squished together and I have learned to listen carefully for this reason. His other phrases include, "I-onna-go" (I want to go) "Kal-up-dare!" (Kal is up there.) "Pee-on-da-poya" (Pee in the potty.) He surprises me with these phrases, sometimes he will say a completely new phrase in perfect English--something that I didn't know he could say before. Today at lunch he said, "I-don-wan-dat-mom" (I don't want that mom) when I offered some almond milk to him. "Oh. Ok." I said, feeling a little dazed after hearing him say a new phrase he's never said before. His speech does take me off guard at moments, he can be so quiet and non-talkative and has been so for so long that hearing him say a complete sentence still blows me away!

Clay loves his family so much. He hugs and kisses us and he gives our pictures kisses sometimes. I will always be grateful for our little Clay.

Here is a long belated list of his words from the last year or so:

wave "hi" or sometimes "bye-bye" Not positive that he understands it completely, but seems to be on purpose... (December 2011)
Clap hands (December 2011)
Learned to crawl (December 2011)
Points at things with his pointer finger! (February 2012)
Shakes head and says "no, no, no..." (April 2012)
Shurgs his shoulders and puts his hands up when you say "where." (May 2012)
Points to toothbrush, then points to toothpaste, when I put the toothpaste on his toothbrush, then he puts his toothbrush under the faucet and waits for me to turn on the water!! (April 2012)
"dod" (dog) (April 2012)
Took first steps by himself!! (April 2012)
Can answer questions. For example: "Where's your blankie?" He will walk over and grab his blanket. (May 2012)
Says, "Uh-oh!" (June 2012)
Says "mama" and "dada" (June 2012)
Gives "high fives" if you ask for one (June 2012)
says new words "ni-ni" (night-night), "daa-done" (all done) "doe, dod, doe" ("Go, dog, go!" the name of his favorite book) August 2012
"ball!" (Nov 2012)
uses sign language signs for "water," "please," "more" consistently (Nov 2012)
says "bye-bye" while waving (Nov 2012)
consistently says "cracker" in sign language (Nov 2012)
Says "Quack"when you ask what a duck says, says "oooo" when you ask what a cow says (December 2012)

Since this list was last updated his vocabulary has really taken off, so I think I'll stop the list here :)

Playing with his best buddy Kallon. They chase each other, "fight" with bats, and sometimes tackle each other and fight over the same toy...all that little boy stuff. (Summer 2013)

First haircut by somebody other than Mom or Dad (August 2013)

Loved playing with the mirror at Hailey's ballet class (July 2013)

Always wants to keep up with siblings. If he can't keep up sometimes it makes him sad. He loves these kids. (May 2013)

April 2013

Clay turns 2

Clay turned 2 on April 25th. I wanted to record this before I loose track of time and it never gets recorded.

How did I take a picture of everybody BUT the birthday boy when we ate cupcakes?? This is what happens when you are the third child!!...sorry buddy....:). We did record everybody singing to him and him blowing out his candles at least .

We had monkey cupcakes and sang and opened gifts. His big gift was a new tricycle.

This is Clay's new trike! We go on family walks often now that it is warmer and he has tried so many times to climb onto Miles and Hailey's bikes on these walks. Now he has his own!

Brielle, Hailey's friend came along.

We took the kids on a bike ride in Spanish Fork so Clay could try out his new gift. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful evening. It was warm and sunny and pretty. We followed a well-paved path next to a beautiful river. Joey and I just walked and walked and walked and the children happily followed along, but often raced ahead.

We will be using this walkway a lot! It was very beautiful!

Clay is a precious part of our family! Now he's 2.

Looks whos 15 months!

Clay is my sweetheart! He is already 15 months old. I love so much about him....

His kisses: If you say "give me a kiss" he opens his mouth wide, leans in and puts his open mouth against your cheek then pulls back and smiles.

July 2012

His jibber-jabber: When we were making muffins the other day I was holding Clay in one arm (because he wanted to be up near the counter and part of the action...) while holding the bowl with another arm while another child stirred the dough. Clay watched the yummy smelling dough and said his newest word over and over again, "moe, moe, moe, moe, moe, moe..." Translation: More. More. More. More... He says "more" when he wants to eat something. It's cute!...for now ;-).

He says "dow" (down), "uh-oh" "bye-bye" "no, no, no, no,.." "dod!" (dog) "mama" and "dada" too. He signs "doggie" by patting his tummy (the sign is to pat your knee), "please" by rubbing his chest (which actually is the sign), "bird" by pinching his fingers together over and over again.

If you ask him "Where's your nose?" He will point to your nose! He can also find and point out his belly button if you ask.

July 2012

His favorites: He LOVES shoes and sandals. He will bring his shoes to me then sit down and look up at me, waiting for me to put them on his feet. He will bring me MY sandals too.He loves pushing the laundry basket around the house, climbing Miles' bunk bed ladder, getting rides on his little push toy, and playing with his older siblings' toys (Hailey's ponies and Miles' hot wheels).

June 2012

His Mommy time: I am a BIG believer in reading to children as often as possible, and I have taken a few minutes most days to try to read books to Clay since he was born--but it hasn't been until now that he will finally read entire board books with me and sit still and listen! He seems to understand more now and I think that's part of it. I cherish the time I have to have him on my lap and read together. (I remember when Miles got too big to sit on my lap to read---I couldn't see over his head anymore!---and we were both sad about it. I know how fast and fleeting those sitting on mom's lap years go so I'm going to cherish them with Clay!)

May 2012

Nap times: Well, here I am writing about Clay, and I can hear him talking to himself in his crib now--he's up from his nap! Nap times are wonderful opportunities for me to get things done (forget about doing big chunks of to-do lists when he's awake!!) during his nap time today I cleaned up clutter around the house, swept and mopped, changed the sheets on the beds, read a little and worked on a lesson, and wrote this update so it has been very productive! Nap times are vital and important to both Clay and me. Now, it's off to say hello to my favorite little toddler and be his mommy again :).