Jeff, Aubree, Clara and Ashlyn

Clara's Dance Recital

2012-01-15T21:25:00.004-07:00

On December 10th Clara had a dance recital. She did so good! I went to her rehearsal the night before and she didn't really do the dance, so I thought she didn't learn them very well but when the recital came she did most of the moves! They danced twice in a row and after the first dance she saw me and I waved to her and she came to the edge of the stage to talk to me. Luckily there was a little helper to put her back where she needed to go.
This picture is hard to see, but we saw her peaking out behind the curtains at the other dancers.
When all of the dancers came out at the very end they were supposed to bow and then move to the back so the other dancers could come on. Clara was so concerned about finding her little sticker that she wouldn't move back.
Also there were so many people on and around the stage afterward that we couldn't get to Clara right away and I think she got scared and went looking for us and we couldn't find her for a minute so it was a little scary for both of us.
Jeff's sister Wendy and her husband Chase came to congratulate Clara on her first dance recital.

Ashlyn got a little flower for herself too.

Catching Up

2011-12-10T13:05:00.001-07:00

We haven't been very good at keeping up on our blog in the past few months. But we finally got around to doing 6 posts below. Enjoy!

Santa Claus

2011-12-10T13:00:00.003-07:00

Last week, our ward had a Primary party with Santa Claus. Both girls were happy to sit on Santa's lap, and Clara told him what she wanted for Christmas.

Windstorm

2011-12-10T12:56:00.003-07:00

On December 1 - 2, we had a crazy windstorm in Davis County. Wind speeds were nearly 100 miles per hour. Unfortunately, our house suffered some damage. We lost two big trees, a lot of shingles, part of a fence, pieces of rain gutter, and had a lot of garbage blow into our yard.

Anniversary Trip to Vegas

2011-12-10T12:42:00.002-07:00

For our 9th wedding anniversary, we took a trip to Las Vegas. Jeff's mom was nice enough to watch our girls for three days so that we could go. We didn't take a lot of pictures, but we sure had a lot of fun.

On the first day, we flew down to Vegas and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Aria Resort, which was AMAZING! We ate at the Aria buffet, and ate so much crab, lobster, and other delicious food that we could hardly move.

The second day we went to the M&M store, the Coca-Cola store, an arcade, and walked around a few hotels. At the Coca-Cola store, we did the "Around the World" soda tasting, where you get 16 different sodas from around the world. Some of them were really good, but some were terrible. There was one drink from Italy that was by far the worst. It was fun to watch other people around us take a drink of it and almost throw up. That night, we ate at a really nice Spanish restaurant in our hotel, then we went to the Venetian and saw "The Phantom of the Opera."

A Jelly Belly Statute of Liberty at the New York, New York hotel

The "Around the World" soda tasting at the Coca-Cola store

Outside our hotel

Of course, we had to stop by the Bellagio for the fountain show

On the third day, we walked around some more hotels, went shopping, and ate lunch at Bobby Flay's restaurant Mesa Grill. It was amazing! That night we saw Cirque de Soleil's "Ka" at the MGM Grand. It was a spectacular production.

Halloween

2011-12-10T12:34:00.002-07:00

We had a great Halloween. Ashlyn dressed up as a ladybug, and Clara was a "poodle skirt dancer" (as she told people). Luckily, we had good weather this year, so we were able to go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood for over an hour. Clara was really loving trick-or-treating, and was sad when we finally had to quit.

The girls went trick-or-treating at Jeff's work

Pumpkins

2011-12-10T12:29:00.003-07:00

We continued our tradition of going to the Pack Farms Pumpkin Patch. It's fun to pick out your own pumpkin, plus they have a hay maze and some other activities.

Finding our way through the hay maze

Ashlyn wasn't real excited about the hay maze, but she loved the stairs

Looking for the perfect pumpkin

Too big to take home, but just right for sitting on

The finished product

Hogle Zoo

2011-12-10T12:07:00.005-07:00

In October, we took the girls to Hogle Zoo. They loved it! Their favorite things were watching the monkeys play, watching the elephants eat, playing on the playground at the zoo, and climbing on the statues.

Ashlyn Turns One

2011-08-17T15:55:00.005-06:00

Okay, I'm a month late, but better now than never.

My baby is one! It's gone so fast. It's a bit different having Ashlyn turn one because with Clara I was already pregnant with Ashlyn so it almost seemed better at the time that she was getting a little bit older and more able.

We went to the doctor and here's where she's at:

weight: 19.6 lbs - 25%
height: 30 inches - 88%
BMI: 15.28 - 10%
Head circ: 18 inches 60%

Ashlyn is changing every day. Some words that she sometimes says:

Mama
Dada
Uh or Ara = Clara
Uh (then blows air) = Uh-Oh
chs = cheese
whasa = What's that?
She also will sometimes repeat things after you ask her to, but she doesn't really say much else on her own right now.

She's walking very well at this point. She walks with her knees wide and lifts them high with each step. It's really cute. Her and Clara are the best of friends. Clara is a friendly girl and doesn't have a problem making friends, but one day when we could hear Ashlyn on the baby monitor that she was awake, Clara said "Let's go get my best friend, Ashlyn!". This makes me very happy. I'm not saying that they don't fight some, but that's to be expected.

We did an animal theme for her birthday because whenever we go to Lagoon, Ashlyn loves riding the train. When we're standing in line and we're holding her, she will lean her body toward the train to try to get us to go. She loves to look at the animals and she will reach out to them when we pass them. She also has loved seeing cats at family members houses.

Raspberry lemonade and double chocolate cupcakes!

Ashlyn had no problem with the concept of opening presents. Christmas is going to be a blast!

Very small nibbles at first.

Oh but it didn't take long for her to get the idea. She wouldn't let me take it away! She was at it for about 20 minutes. She also had a couple of other little girls to help (Clara and Cambree):).

Stopping to pose for the camera.

A quick clean-up in the kitchen sink.

Birthday rasperries from Grandma.

My silly girls

2011-07-24T17:27:00.004-06:00

I haven't blogged a lot lately and I have so many fun pictures that I would just put all in one post.

Ashlyn loves bananas...

and yogurt.

Scary Ashlyn (I know I'm a mean mom for even taking this picture, let alone thinking it's funny.)...

Cute Ashlyn.

We had so much fun at Jeff's sister's ranch.

The girls have had lots of fun playing with the new water table.

My little mommy.

Clara's owie from burning herself on a sparkler :(

Heeeyyy!

Cute matching outfits.

Ashlyn's walking!

2011-07-24T17:24:00.002-06:00

Ashlyn took her first steps this week on July 19th! She's now 11 and 1/2 months. Jeff would stand her up and she took a couple of steps towards him! We have an ancient video camera that I don't know how to upload on a computer, and I couldn't even find the cord for it, so I missed this beautiful moment. Oh well, we'll get it on camera eventually.

Winning prizes at Lagoon

2011-07-24T16:59:00.004-06:00

We got season tickets to Lagoon this year. We haven't really been able to enjoy Lagoon the way we would have liked, having it so close to us in years past, but this year we've gotten more than our moneys worth.

Jeff's favorite part about Lagoon is their games. Clara likes when Jeff plays the games because she gets to bring home all sorts of prizes.

The hammer was a fun one because it was different from the many stuffed animals that we have.

I really should have taken a picture of all of the stuffed animals that we have, but I don't know if I could fit it all on the camera screen! ;) I found this picture where Clara covered Ashlyn with all of her little puppies. She has 2 big dogs as well.

Anyone want to come stuffed animal shopping at our house?

First word, faces and sleeping

2011-06-06T15:44:00.002-06:00

As we close a prayer and everyone in our family says "Amen", Ashlyn would say "Mmmen". Even after the second and third time I looked at Jeff and thought "Was that a coincidence?" But today I said "Ashlyn, say A - men." and she repeated back to me exactly as I said it! So I guess Ashlyn's first word is Amen. She will sometimes say "Yay!" when she claps or "Hi", but Jeff and I think that Amen is really her first true word.

Ashlyn pulls some of the funniest faces and I've been trying to get a picture of some of them unsuccessfully. Clara was playing around with the camera the other day and captured this! I was excited to finally have it recorded so I can embarrass her with it some day. :)

This is what I found today when I check on her for her nap today. Camera ready even in her sleep.

Nine Months

2011-05-11T14:19:00.000-06:00

I left the papers that had all of Ashlyn's weight and height, but I'm pretty sure I still remember, I hope:

Height: 28 inches
Weight: 17 lbs 15 oz

Ashlyn started crawling the first week in April which was the week before she turned 8 months. She's now pulling herself up on things and has even let go for seconds at a time when she isn't paying attention. She's starting to also slowly walk along things.

Ashlyn just cut her 6th tooth! They're coming in like crazy!

Ashlyn loves to clap and say "Yay!" but her favorite thing to say is "Uh-da". She'll say that over and over and over. That's her happy sound and when I say it she'll repeat it back. She also tries to repeat other sounds that I make, like when I say "Mama" she'll say something like "Rara". Another favorite thing she loves to do is she'll make funny noises by talking and rubbing her tongue from front to back over her front teeth.

Ashlyn is also going through the dreaded separation anxiety. She will notice every time that I leave a room even when daddy's home. It's going to be really hard when I have to teach YW this Sunday and Jeff has to take her! She's already ornery at the end of church because she's tired as it is. Oh, well. She's being really snugly and I sure do enjoy the snuggles. It luckily hasn't interrupted her sleeping schedule. She still sleeps about 10-11 hours at night and takes two 2-3 hour naps during the day.

One last thing that Ashlyn does that's kind of cute is when someone looks at her and tries to talk to her she'll tuck her head as far as she can into he shoulder acting shy.

Clara's sayings

2011-04-29T11:09:00.004-06:00

I haven't ever really written down some of the cute things that Clara says, and I figured that it's about time I do. Here are some of the many cute things that Clara says:

"I eat you." She means "I will eat by or with you".
"I make all done." When she's finished eating or doing whatever she's doing.
"I feeled all better." After I give her a hug or kiss when she gets an owie.
"Hold you." When she wants to be held.
"I show you how." When we don't understand what she's saying or she just wants us to follow her, but she will also say "faudo (follow) me!"

Fun facts about Ashlyn

2011-03-15T19:45:00.005-06:00

Ashlyn is changing and growing so much that I just wanted to update about what she's up to.

-Probably my favorite thing that she's doing right now is she will give me a kiss when I ask for it. I'll say "Can I have a kiss?!" and she'll open her mouth as wide as it'll go and presses her lips against my cheek. Then I say "Oh thank you!" and she laughs. It so precious.
-She hasn't really mastered the rolling over thing because she has always loved to sit up so much, but yesterday I laid her on her back to change her diaper on the floor and I was watching her as I washed my hands and she rolled from her back to her belly and then sat up! I was pretty impressed.
-Ashlyn is trying soooo hard to crawl. She will go from sitting position to hands and knees and then she'll push with her hands so she goes backwards. Then comes the cries of frustration because she's moving backwards instead of forward.
-She can feed herself snacks now, which is so helpful! I've been trying for weeks to get her to feed herself, then on Sunday during church, Jeff teaches her how to do it in like 10 minutes. He did the same thing with Clara when she was that age. I don't know how he does it.
-Something that's kind of freaky is that I see myself a lot in her. At first I only saw Jeff, but lately I see little glimpses as if I'm looking at a baby picture of myself. The funny thing is that as a toddler I hear all the time that Clara looks like me, but I just don't see it.
-Another funny fact is that she has three teeth. Two on the bottom, which she got at 5 and 1/2 months, and one on top, but it's not one of the front ones, it the one right next to those! I thought that was so weird.
-She also "sings" when she wakes up, which is nice because Clara did the complete opposite the second she woke up when she was Ashlyn's age.

Why, oh why do I have such a hard time choosing pictures? Probably because she's so cute!

Big girl trying to crawl.

I love this one because it looks like she's doing push-ups!

Tired from all the failed attempts.

Feeding herself.

Once there was a Snow Man...

2011-02-22T21:49:00.003-07:00

Jeff was out shoveling the snow and Clara wanted to see what he was doing, so I took her to the door and in her bare feet she started out on the porch to go help her daddy! Jeff told me to get her in her snow gear which she hadn't used this whole year and they went out and built a snowman. That was on Sunday, and she's still talking about it two days later.

Ashlyn's favorite toy

2011-02-22T21:44:00.002-07:00

I didn't get a picture of the front, but you know this toy, the one with the pop-up animals. Ashlyn loves when I open them all up and then she will close them all.

Ashlyn is learning and growing so much! She's so much fun.

Ashlyn at 6 Months

2011-02-17T12:46:00.005-07:00

Weight: 17.1 lbs - 75%
Height: 27 inches - 95%
BMI: 16.42 - 30%
Head Circ.: 17 Inches - 70%

Six months is one of my favorite ages! Ashlyn's personality has just blossomed so much more in the last couple of weeks. She loves nothing more than just to sit up and watch Clara play while she sucks on a toy. She doesn't like to lay down very often, except to go to sleep. She has rolled over several times, but she just doesn't seem to have the desire, which I'm fine with, it's easier on me! :) While I was at the doctor I mentioned that Ashlyn has been saying dada, gaga, and baba a lot. He said "Wow, you've got yourself a little linguist, huh?" He said that that usually doesn't happen until about 9 months. I'm sure it happens much more than what he made it sound. Doctors know that moms like to hear how smart and advanced their baby is!

Sleep was pretty bad for a while, but about three weeks ago I put Ashlyn downstairs in her Pack N' Play and let her cry for a little while before she went to sleep. Now she will usually sleep about 10 or 11 hours, but will sometimes wake up once in the middle of the night. I try to let her cry for a little bit before I go check on her, but I get nervous having her so far away. Before we started doing this, she was waking up every 2 to 3 hours and Clara was having a hard time falling to sleep because they were sharing a room.

Ashlyn is really such a good baby. She's pretty easy going and happy!

"Yuck, Mom. What is this?"

"Hmmm, I wonder if my next meal will be those yucky sweet potatoes, or yummy pears."

Catching Up

2011-02-15T23:23:00.002-07:00

Phew! I have three catch up post down and I don't know how many more to go. Jeff and I keep saying "We need to update the blog. We need to update the blog." Life is so much more hectic having two kids and life has just been so busy lately. I have so many memories I want to record, so I feel like it's worth playing catch up even if it has been months. I talked to my mom tonight and we just don't get to see each other as often as we'd like and she told me that she just keeps checking the blog to see if there's any new pictures, but there never is! So that was even more motivation to get the ball moving. Here ya go mom. I'll post more tomorrow!

Clara turns Two!

2011-02-15T23:10:00.004-07:00

This year for Clara's birthday I decided to do a princess theme party because my friend April has been dressing up like Mary Poppins and she mentioned to me that she was going to start doing Belle for partys! Clara has so many cute little friends in our ward that are close to her age, so we invited all of them plus her twin cousins. It was so much fun and April did such a fabulous job!

Temple Square Lights

2011-02-15T23:04:00.004-07:00

I've only been temple square one other time to see the lights before this trip. This year we decided we really wanted to get Clara in the mood for Christmas and we had lots of things planned, but this was probably the only thing we got around to. We didn't even get a Christmas tree up! We all enjoyed this trip to temple square, it was beautiful.

Christmas 2010

2011-02-15T22:20:00.003-07:00

This Christmas was really a lot of fun this year with Clara being almost two. She really understood what to do with the presents... a little too much, because she opened everyone else's too. We have a pretty good Christmas tradition. We will go up to Jeff's parents on Christmas Eve and have the Gittins extended family Christmas party. Then we'll spend the night and open presents with just Jeff and me and the girls. After that Jeff's siblings that are close or have spent the night will come over and open presents. And finally we go to my sister Amy's house in Preston, which is only about a half hour away from Jeff's parents' house, and open presents and eat lunch.

We tried to keep it pretty simple with the girls' presents because we open so many presents with Jeff's and my family that there's just no reason to go over board with tons of presents. Clara got a few toys and clothes and Ashlyn mostly got clothes, one toy and a bumbo which we gave her a couple of weeks before.

Jeff came up with the idea to just spend as little as possible with gifts for each other and I agreed because my Christmas presents are just watching Clara and Ashlyn and everyone else I gave presents to open their presents. So I got the idea to give Jeff a vintage map of Spain (where he served his mission) and I thought it was the greatest gift ever! He liked it a lot, but then I opened my present, and found out the real reason Jeff wanted to go cheap this year for presents for each other. He totally surprised me with a Nikon D40 camera! I'm not surprised very easily because I completely over think everything. So when I opened it I totally lost it and started crying (which I don't usually do unless I'm feeling the spirit). It was a really fun surprised and I've loved playing with it. I'm not very good with it yet, but I've been getting lots of practice.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, we had a ward party. When Santa came, Clara watched about 3 kids go up and sit on Santa's lap. Then she decided it was her turn. She'd never seen Santa in real life before and she was totally not shy.

Like any other 4 months old, all Ashlyn wanted to do was EAT the presents. She didn't care about what was inside.

Clara was lucky enough to encounter Santa twice!

I made Clara and my twin nieces these tutus. This picture is about as good as you're going to get with three 2 year olds!

Four Months

2010-12-11T17:51:00.004-07:00

(By Aubree)

I took Ashlyn to the doctor yesterday and she looks great! Especially those healthy cheeks. Here's where she's at:

15.5 lbs - 90%
26 inches long - 95%
head 16 inches - 50%
It also amazes me that my babies are so chubby, but they both are and were considered long and lean according to their BMI's.

Ashlyn started on rice cereal this week and she devoured it. She was so ready for solid food. She would watch me eat from the fork leaving my plate to it entering my mouth as she would smack her lips. She looked like she was chewing food when there was nothing in her mouth.

We got Ashlyn an early Christmas present which was a Bumbo. It's kinda a present for me too, because she really likes to sit up, but can't quite do it on her own yet. So this keeps her happy while I can get things done.

As always, she loves Clara so much and she probably laughs for her the most.

Tonight she was "talking" using her "b's", such as bwa, ba, etc.

You gotta love the deer in the headlight look!

I think babies look so adorable sitting in Bumbos.

H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N

2010-11-08T14:03:00.003-07:00

...spells Halloween.

Cinderella, Cinderella

We didn't even coach her to do the flaring of the dress. She did that by herself.

Little Miss Piggy

Two Months

2010-10-25T20:44:00.004-06:00

(By Aubree)

So this post is a couple of weeks late, but I really like to have this information written down so I have it to remember and refer back to. Ashlyn is now 2 and 1/2 months old now. I took her to the doctor a couple of weeks ago and here is where she's at:

12.6 lbs (95%)
23.1 inches long (90%)
Head 15.2 inches (50%)
BMI (50%)

I was looking back at when Clara was 2 months and she was over and inch taller than Ashlyn and they weighed about the same at this point. It's kinda weird because I feel like Ashlyn doesn't need to eat quite as often as Clara did at this age. There are also a lot of opposites about them at this age as far as personalities. Clara was pretty good at night. She had a pretty good bedtime but she probably got up about the same amount as Ashlyn does. Clara didn't nap pretty much at all at this age. She would fall asleep in my arms and when I'd lay her down or move or anything she would wake up. Ashlyn has had a really late bedtime ever since she was born. The last couple of nights have been pretty close to 10 or 11, but I'm not holding my breath thinking this will last. She usually won't go to bed until at least 12, sometimes 1 or 2 am. However, she is a great napper! She doesn't really have a set nap routine, but when she's tired she will fall asleep with a little bit of coaxing and sometimes will wake up when I lay her down, but will a lot of times fall right back to sleep by her self. If not, she will usually go right back to sleep if I bounce her.

Clara was really high maintenance as far as she wouldn't be content unless she was nursing or being bounced standing up. Ashlyn will actually sit and be content and she really loves her bouncy seat. She will pump her legs to get the spider toys to move and bounce herself. This has been really nice because it would be impossible to have 2 kids this close together if I had another that had to be held/nursed constantly.

Another thing is that Clara HATED baths. Ashlyn however LOVES baths! She will smile and just relax in the warm water.

I've tried to decide between the two of them, which one would I rather raise as a baby again. Good thing I don't have to decide that, because sleep is really important to me, but it was really draining not having any time to be by myself during the day let alone not be able to get a thing done (not that I have all that much time to get stuff done now). So I think it's sixes.

Ashlyn is really a sweet baby and it's only getting more and more fun as she gets older. She loves Clara and will smile at her when Clara is sitting next to her trying to entertain her. However, Ashlyn will flinch when Clara makes sudden moves because of past experiences of Clara laying on her face, or leaning her elbow on her neck, etc.

It will be so much fun to see my two girls grow up together! I just know they'll be great friends.

Hat Model

2010-10-24T17:33:00.002-06:00

(by Jeff)

Aubree has been knitting some hats to sell on Etsy, and she has been using Ashlyn as her hat model.

Sometimes Ashlyn looks happy . . .

Sometimes she looks ambivalent . . .

But most of the time, she looks mad because she hates wearing hats.

Autumn Leaves

2010-10-24T17:17:00.005-06:00

(by Jeff)

I've been waiting for enough leaves to fall so that Clara and I could make a big pile of them to play in. This week, the leaves finally started to fall, so I raked up a big pile. I though I would have to show Clara what to do, but she was way ahead of me. Before I could even finish raking, she was already jumping into the pile and throwing the leaves everywhere. It was a lot of fun!

Pumpkins!

2010-10-24T17:04:00.004-06:00

(by Jeff)

A few days ago, we decided to go get pumpkins for carving. Normally, we would just go to the store and get pumpkins, but Aubree had heard about a pumpkin patch in Farmington that she wanted to go to. So we gave it a try.

Aubree, Clara, and Ashlyn getting ready to enter the hay maze.

Clara deciding which way to go in the maze.

Off we go!

Pausing for a picture.

After the maze, we headed out to the pumpkin patch to find our perfect pumpkins.

Clara was more interested in the dead vines on the ground than the actual pumpkins.

Ashlyn enjoyed getting out for a walk with mom.

Clara decided it was more fun to ride than walk.

Clara wanted to color her pumpkin, so we got out Aubree's old paint and let her go at it.

Ashlyn's Blessing

2010-10-24T16:56:00.002-06:00

(by Jeff)

Last week was Ashlyn's blessing. It was a great day, and we were happy to have so many family and friends come spend it with us.

Ashlyn and Clara

Our family.

Clara and Ashlyn with Grandpa and Grandma Gittins.

Ashlyn with Grandpa and Grandma Larson.

Ashlyn with Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Ashcroft.
(Ashlyn's middle name, Elaine, is Great-Grandma Ashcroft's name)

Hogle Zoo

2010-10-24T16:47:00.002-06:00

(by Jeff)

Clara has been really interested in animals lately, so we decided to take her to the zoo a few weeks ago. We had a really fun morning seeing a lot of animals that Clara has only seen in her books.

Clara and her favorite animals--monkeys!

Aubree, Clara, and Ashlyn

Ashlyn spent most of the morning asleep in her car seat.

Clara LOVED the real elephants . . .

But was not a big fan of the elephant statue.

She missed her daddy...

2010-10-01T13:33:00.001-06:00

So she decided to dress up like him.

One Month

2010-09-08T22:36:00.007-06:00

(by Aubree)

Why is it that the first month of these little ones go by so fast? I guess it doesn't go by any faster than any of the others, it just feels like being one month old seem sooo much older than 1 day old and being 2 months doesn't seem that much older than 1 month and so on. If that makes any sense at all.

Ashlyn is so much fun! She loves to study faces and is already entertained by her big sister when she shoves things in her face to look at or does a silly dance. The last couple of days it feels like we've kind of gotten a good routine down. We've gone to bed before midnight, and Ashlyn is a lot more content after she's fed and burped. She'll just sit by herself for longer periods of time, which is very helpful. It feels like we have a bit more of a feeling of normalcy at this point.

Babies are so hard to take pictures of! Out of probably about 30 pictures, here are pretty much the only usable ones!

First smile captured on film.

Stretch! Kinda looks like a smile though right?

2 weeks

2010-08-30T18:08:00.005-06:00

(by Aubree)

Okay, so I'm about a week late on this post, but better late than never. I took Ashlyn to her 2 week check-up last Wednesday and here's where she's at:

21.2 inches - 90%
8 lbs 7 oz - about 60% (1 oz more than what Clara weighed at birth)
head 14 inches - 50%

The last 3 weeks have been kind of a whirl wind! It's really great to have Ashlyn here. It really is fun having 2 kids, but at the same time very challenging. When I had Clara it was really hard for me to adjust to being home all day after working full time for so long. Now I'm pretty much in a routine and it didn't seem to really throw off my schedule too much having a second baby. Although Clara's communication skills are very limited, it's nice this time to have someone I can talk to throughout the day as well.

Ever since Ashlyn was only a couple of days old, Jeff's mom mentioned that she was focusing in on faces really good already. I had noticed that also. When Ashlyn was just over a week old she smiled for the first time! It was while she was looking right in my eyes and she did it a couple times in a row. She's done it a few more times since. She will also watch as people approach or walk away. It's really amazing to me that she can see so well already! She's also very wiggly and strong. She has held her head up really well for the last little bit and when you have her laying down on your lap facing you, she will use her abs to try to sit up so she can look more closely at your face.

Ashlyn has slept 6 hours at a time twice. Other than that it's pretty much 3 hours or less at a time. That's okay though because I USUALLY will get a nap in when Clara's sleeping, which is really nice. So I feel like sleep really isn't too much of an issue yet. That's the great thing about Clara being so young when I had my second baby.

Ashlyn has a birth mark in between her eyes, as you can see, and the doctor said that's a pretty common birth mark that will disappear when she turns about 2. After that it will show up for a few more years when she gets mad or her face turns red. My sister, Amber, had the same thing and she said she passed out one time when she was showing her friends by holding her breath.

We're very thankful for our second little miracle! It's going to be so fun to see Clara and Ashlyn grow up together. I think they're going to be great friends.

Silly Girl!

2010-08-26T17:30:00.002-06:00

Remember this girl?

I haven't posted anything about Clara for a while and the other day she was wearing these ears and carrying around this cat all day. I had to capture it and share. She's as cute and silly as ever! Clara has adjusted pretty well to our little new-comer. She loves to give Ashlyn snuggles (a little bit too hard) and kisses (right on the lips, can't convince her that her head is a better place to kiss) all the time. She's shown a few signs of jealousy by stealing her blanket and binki, but she has shown a lot of improvement just in the last couple of days. She will play with her toys on her own until I'm done feeding Ashlyn, or I'll let her watch her latest favorite show, Dora. I love this girl!

Ashlyn Elaine Gittins

2010-08-12T19:57:00.007-06:00

(by Aubree)

On Sunday morning, August 8th, I was induced. My doctor broke my water at about 8 and shortly after they started me on pitocin. I received my epidural at about 11. This time it went so much better than with Clara. With Clara my epidural wore off, and it was just a really bad experience. I was comfortable this time except I hate not feeling my legs, it made me feel almost clausterphobic. My mom got there about 11:30. My doctor got there a few minutes before 3 and after pushing with 2 contractions Ashlyn was here at 3:04 pm! I couldn't believe how smoothly it went. Ashlyn weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 21 inches long.

Ashlyn had a little jaundice but is doing really great. She didn't have to do the lights at all. She is nursing so good. It's nice to not have to stress out about that this time. She is sleeping for longer periods during the day and waking up about every 2 hours at night, but she usually will go right back to sleep. So far she takes a binki pretty good which I'm excited about because Clara never really took to one.

Clara is doing so great with Ashlyn. She loves her and wants to help out by putting blankets on her and loves to give Ashlyn kisses. She will maul her a little too much, but for the most part is pretty gentle.

I'm feeling great! It's been a really great recovery this time.

I forgot to upload the pictures backwards, so they're chronologically backwards because I'm too lazy to start over. :) Enjoy.

30

2010-08-07T21:23:00.002-06:00

I just want to wish Jeff a happy 30th birthday today! We love you.
I'm being induced at 7 tomorrow morning. Our life will never be the same!

Keeping Busy

2010-07-28T11:20:00.004-06:00

Well I have 2 weeks as of tomorrow until my due date. I've had a couple of false alarms including Monday night I was contracting every 2 to 5 minutes and even every minute at one point. This went on for about 6 hours. So I'm hoping that's my body saying, "Get ready, it's coming soon!"

I've been using my nesting energy on knitting projects I've really been wanting to get done before the baby comes. It's kept my mind off of the waiting part, so it's been a nice distraction. I still would like to get more done, but having a baby right now appeals a lot more than getting more knitting projects done.

Of course you have to have baby hats!

This was something I was just trying out. It's a tad big for a hair bow, but maybe I'll make it into a headband for Clara or add it to a hat. We'll see.

This one's kinda fun. It's a baby hammock that you hang up in a crib. Clara's still using the crib but it can still be used for the baby to nap in when Clara's not napping. I wouldn't want to leave a baby in there all night anyway. Looks pretty comfy right?

The rest of these are all baby photography props. Not only do I want them to take pictures of our baby in, but as soon as I have more time, I'd like to start selling similar items on etsy.

Hat and diaper cover.

Another hammock that isn't really as safe and practical as the other one, but it sure makes for a great picture. My flour baby sure seems to be enjoying it. I for sure need to make some adjustments, like making it wider. I didn't have a pattern and this was my first try at it.

Baby cocoons.

This one I made for my friend, Kasey Sanders, who is a photographer. Check out her blog here. In fact if you go to her site and click on babies under view by catergory, then go to the bottom and hit older posts. The first baby on there (Jayda) is using a pink cocoon that I knitted previously for Kasey. Clara's also on the same page a little bit further down.

Pod/Egg.
Of course a real baby is going to be bigger and fill it out more, but you get the idea.

Lookie What I Got!

2010-07-20T21:36:00.002-06:00

My super great friend Amelia made this gorgeous diaper "cake" for me and it's just too pretty not to share. The "cake" part is of course made of diapers and it's garnished with flowers, toys, ribbons, binkis, a bottle, slippers, and in the middle there was a pretty little blanket!

Isn't it great? Thanks Millie!

Pluto

2010-07-06T20:06:00.004-06:00

Clara has fallen in love with The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Whenever she wants to watch it she says "Pluo" which means Pluto and "Goo" which means Goofy. She seems to love these two characters the most. (It might be because they're the only names she can say?)

The last time we were up to see my parents, my mom asked me to go through some old things of mine to see if there was anything that I wanted to keep. I came upon this little Pluto pillow that my mom and I made when I was probably about 7 or 8. (I probably only cut out the material and helped put in pins, I've never been much of a sewer.)

Clara loves her "Pluo" and loves to cuddle him when she sleeps. Isn't this the sweetest thing you've ever seen? It's really fun to be able to pass something on that was from my childhood.

Pregnant Ladies

2010-06-21T21:21:00.003-06:00

There have been and will be a lot of new babies born in my ward in 2010. We had 2 born this spring and there are 4 more pregnant including me. My visiting teaching partner is due in about 2 weeks and a girl that we visit teach is due this Wednesday. It's been really fun to experience our second pregnancies together! We all have 1 daughter already and are all pregnant with girls. When I was pregnant with Clara there was a girl I worked with who was a couple months ahead of me and it's just so fun to go through that at the same time as someone else!

Left to right: Kasey- due Wednesday, Stephanie- due the first week in July, and me-due August 12th.

Trip to Ginger's

2010-06-17T20:21:00.004-06:00

(By Aubree)

Last weekend we decided to head down to Aurora, which is near Richfield, to visit Jeff's sister, Ginger . We knew it was going to be rainy but we haven't seen her and her family since Christmas and we didn't know when we'd get another chance.

We pretty much just hung out and played games and played with kids. The highlight of the weekend was on Saturday when it decided to clear up and let the sun shine for about an hour or so. We decided it was a good chance to go for a swim in the front yard.

Clara didn't love the swimming pool so much. Katelyn is almost 5 and Hannah just turned one in May.

Hannah tried to show Clara how much fun it was in the pool, but Clara preferred the grass.

Our little dare devil, Katelyn, taking a dive in this shallow pool. She was doing belly flops before this.

Clara and Hannah had a great time playing with the water table.

Check out those legs! Hannah's legs aren't really that big, they just have these gorgeous little rolls that I love!

Soon enough the clouds came back and it got too cold to be outside.

Time to get warm in the bathtub!

p.s. I bought Clara's swim suit this spring and it fit her just fine. This girl grows way too fast!

28 Weeks

2010-05-25T22:18:00.002-06:00

(By Aubree)

I'm already in my 3rd trimester and realized that I haven't said anything about this pregnancy except that I am in fact pregnant again and that we're having another girl. So I wanted to write a few things about this pregnancy so I don't forget. Right now I am actually 28 weeks and 5 days so I'll be 29 weeks on Thursday. Only 2 and a half months to go! This pregnancy has gone by so much faster than my first. I've been meaning to take a picture to post because I would feel bad if I didn't have any this pregnancy when I took some when I was pregnant with Clara. I really hate the way I look and I took this picture myself and so it's just lopsided and blurry and not very good, but I didn't want to have to look at any other pictures of myself so I'm just keeping this one.

I'm already so big and uncomfortable and I swear I was close to this size when I delivered Clara. As you can see I'm carrying in my butt as well as my belly. I can't wait until I can actually move again so I can get in shape. It's always when you aren't really able to do much that you feel motivated to exercise...ironic.

Anyway, it's been a pretty good pregnancy. The first trimester and first part of the second I was sick but never threw up. I actually threw up a couple of weeks ago when I was cleaning up Clara's throw up, but it really wasn't pregnancy related too much. I felt pretty much the same as I did last time except this time was scaled back just a few notches. I had the same bad taste in my mouth that I had with Clara and it has suddenly come back a couple of days ago which didn't happen with Clara.

When I went in for my halfway ultrasound, I found out I had placenta previa, which is when the placenta is covering or near the cervix which can be dangerous during delivery. Most of the time it resolves itself as the uterus grows and I had another ultrasound last Thursday that showed it is completely out of the way of my cervix! Jeff and Clara came to that appointment and Clara started freaking out when I had to get my blood pressure checked, and then it got even worse when I had to lay on the table for the ultrasound! It was kind of funny, but sad and cute that she doesn't want anything to happen to me.

I've been much more on edge and nervous about something happening to me or the baby this time around. I'm a little less naive and know that I'm not only at risk of losing my baby in the first trimester. Late pregnancy losses happen so much more than I realized and I was pretty much just bracing myself for a loss. I don't take this pregnancy for grated one second. I'm incredibly grateful that it happened so quickly compared to the years it took with Clara. I'm also very thankful that I've made it this far and pray the remainder of the pregnancy will go as well. I can't wait to meet this precious little baby!

Guess What We Did This Morning?

2010-04-30T12:56:00.004-06:00

(By Aubree)

This morning I was changing Clara's diaper and she kept on pointing to her bows that are above her changing table. So I grabbed a random bow and put it in her hair. She didn't like the one I chose, I guess, because she started to throw a fit. So I tried a different one followed with the same reaction from Clara. We did this one more time before I just decided to take her bow board off the wall and let her choose her own.

Cute Bow board right? My friend Lyndzi makes these and adorable bows and hats. Check out her blog here.

I left Clara in her room with the board while I sat in front of the TV folding laundry. Before I knew it Clara came out of her room and excitedly handed me a bow. I put it in her hair. She went back to her room and pretty soon she came back out and handed me another bow. I put it in my hair. She seemed pleased with this process as she continued to do this until most of her bows were off of her board and in our hair!

Healthy, Fun, Frozen Treat

2010-04-14T21:16:00.005-06:00

(By Aubree)

I found this on the website of Our Best Bites. It was called "One Ingredient Ice Cream." My wonderful, lawyer husband kindly informed me that it was illegal to call something ice cream that doesn't contain at least 10% milk fat, so we'll call it a "frozen treat"!

It is only one ingredient, which are bananas.

You start with aged bananas that look something like this.

Then you cut them up into slices, flatten them out in a bag like this, and freeze them.

Then you put it in a food processor and blend it up really good. Surprisingly, it does have the consistency of ice cream. It does, of course, have the flavor of what it's made out of, so you do have to like bananas.

It should look a little something like this.

It's great topped off with a little bit of chocolate syrup. The website even suggested blending it with a little bit of cinnamon, but we haven't tried that.

So if you have aged bananas that you don't want to go to waste and you don't feel like making banana bread, you should try this! It's great!

15 Months

2010-04-14T20:53:00.005-06:00

(By Aubree)

These updates about Clara's stats and doctor's visits are mostly for me and my records, so I understand if they're not exciting to read. I don't blame you if you decide to skip over these posts.

Clara had her 15-month well check yesterday and here's where she's at:

Height: 33 inches (way above 95%!)
Weight: 22 lbs. 15 oz. (50%)
Her BMI actually went down from last time, which is 14.81, and that puts her in the 5% for BMI.
Head: 19 inches! (95%) The Gittins' big head gene is kicking in!

Everything is going really well with Clara right now. She's actually eating a little bit better than she has been except for her fruits and veggies. My doctor gave me the idea of making smoothies with fruits and hiding carrots, celery, or even spinach(?) in them. I shared a smoothie with Clara from a store the other day and she loved it, so I'll definitely have to try this.

Clara loves to be read to (same books over and over and over...), being outside and going for walks, playing with other kids, performing, and singing (or at least doing the actions to songs). We go to a music class for babies and she's learned so much and loves it . . . and so do I. She has said a lot of different words, but she will stop using some of them after a couple of weeks. My doctor said this is not uncommon at her age. One of my favorite things she says right now is "Whedo" which is "Where did it go?" She's just learning so much so fast!

Tonight we went on a picnic at the park and played on the playground. It was the first time she had ever gone down a slide all by herself and she had SO much fun!

This is how sad she was when we had to leave. :(

Easter

2010-04-06T13:50:00.003-06:00

(By Aubree)

We enjoyed Easter/General Conference weekend at home. We were planning on going up to see family, but Jeff and I weren't feeling well, and my mom and sister and her kids weren't feeling well unfortunately. We missed our families, but we had a fun little celebration by ourselves at home.

Clara got to enjoy her Easter dress a week early since the Easter program was last week. I think she looks so pretty in her little dress and so did every other woman at church!

This is what the Easter bunny brought for her on Easter morning!

He gave her some books, a ball, a harmonica, socks (which I think she thought was misplace in her bag because she quickly handed them over to Jeff!), some candy and bunny ears. Whenever we put the bunny ears on her she would say "Kah" which means cat!

Jeff made Clara a bunny pancake!

Beautifying

2010-04-02T13:50:00.004-06:00

(By Aubree)

Girls are just girls from the day they're born! At least Clara has been. She loves to accessorize and put on makeup when I'm getting ready. Here's some fun pictures of her beautifying herself!

That's makeup on her cheek, not bruises.

She was using my blush as I was putting on my mascara and without me realizing it she was dipping my blush brush into the open bottle of mascara!

She saw me wearing this bracelet and as soon as she could get her hands on it she was doing the same. She found a toy to balance out her other arm!

She found some stickers and I put one on her hand and cheek, and after that she put them everywhere on her body. Her favorite was her hair which wasn't very fun getting them out!

She's always trying to put on our shoes.

These next two pictures have nothing to do with the rest of the post, but I wanted to add them. She reminds me a lot of me when I was a little girl. I was always curious and hiding in the dryer or other places like that. The other day I found her playing in this upside down step stool.

This picture is kind of embarrassing because the room is such a mess, but Clara just loves her little couch that Jeff bought her. I think she looks so cute sitting there watching her Baby Einstein!

The baby is...

2010-03-17T22:19:00.001-06:00

A GIRL!

Birthday Present

2010-03-16T13:50:00.003-06:00

(By Aubree)

Jeff gave me these lilies on my birthday which was a week ago from yesterday (the 8th) and they are so big and have lasted so long! This was taken on Saturday, but the first blossoms are just starting to wilt. The blossom is as big as my face or hand. I wish I could remember the name, but Jeff and I thought it was something like Oriental or Chinese Lily. I couldn't find a match on the internet.

Thanks Jeff! You know how much I enjoy lilies!

Randomness about Clara

2010-03-10T10:51:00.003-07:00

(By Aubree)

I wanted to tell a little bit about what Clara has been up to lately. She is changing so fast, and I want to remember some things that she's doing.

Words she's saying:
Tha= What's that?
Sss= Cheese
Sh= Shoe
Behbe= Baby
Buh= Ball
Bup or up= Up
Dah= Down (She has only said this when I ask her if she wants down.)

Some funny things she has been doing.
-She does this stomping thing with her foot when she gets excited and sometimes it looks like she's doing a river dance.
-She had learned that before we eat we fold our arms. Sometimes she will randomly fold her arms and bow her head while she's playing and I'll stop and say a little prayer with her.
-She will do a fishy face when you do it at her.
-This isn't funny, but she's getting confident at going down stairs by herself which is kind of nice because she can go upstairs to her toys and then back downstairs if she feel like it without me helping her.
-She still gives her wide open mouth kisses on the cheeks. I love it.

I got excited when I realized that I can put her hair into piggy tails! It doesn't look very good yet, but at least her hair is growing. They kind of look like rat tails.

A couple of different friends have posted bathtub pictures and I realized that I hadn't taken any recently. So I decided to do the same.
Looking through these pictures made me really sad though. She looks so grown up in these pictures! It's the first time I've really felt like I'm losing my baby!

Crazy girl!

Pretty girl!

Her new favorite game is to line up all of her animal toys and knock them onto the floor. Yes it does make a big wet mess, but she loves it.

Puff Balls

2010-02-18T19:04:00.003-07:00

(By Aubree)

Puff balls, pom poms, whatever you want to call them. Jeff calls them puff balls. My friend Laurel had pictures of these adorable little pom poms in her little girl's room on her blog and I had to ask her where she got them, or how to make them. She told me to go here to find out how to make them. They didn't turn out perfect, in fact I might re-do the dark pink one later, but I think they added pizazz to Clara's room!

New Sleeping Schedule

2010-02-11T16:16:00.003-07:00

(By Aubree)

Clara and I have been trying to figure out a new sleeping schedule. She is starting to want just one nap instead of two which trying to figure this out has kind of messed up her bedtime and everything is just kind of chaotic right now. On Sunday she slept in my arms at church for about 40 minutes and you can bet she wouldn't go down for a nap later in the afternoon because she's stubborn like her mommy. Well when dinner time came around she would take a bite and then turn her head and kind of doze off, then I would try to wake her up and give her another bite, but it got harder and harder to wake her up. So she took a 20 minute nap in her high chair.

How can I be mad at this sleeping angel when she looks this sweet?!

Clara's Big News

2010-01-31T18:30:00.002-07:00

(by Jeff and Aubree)

CLARA IS GOING TO BE A BIG SISTER!

Baby #2 is scheduled to arrive August 12th!!!

Clara's Birthday Party!

2010-01-12T15:44:00.004-07:00

(By Aubree)

We celebrated Clara's birthday with family on Saturday. I first wanted to say a few things about the birthday girl!

-She's a pro walker now. She took her first steps at the end of 9 months, but didn't really try every day until the end of 10 months.
-She likes cow's milk! Yay!
-She's a great sleeper, never wakes up in the middle of the night anymore. Usually always sleeping about 11 hours straight.
-We call her monkey, and she definitely lives up to the name, she is constantly moving and wiggling!
-She LOVES being the center of attention. This is cute, but can be really annoying at church when she won't hold still!
-She used to eat pretty much anything we would give to her, but lately she's been really picky! It's really frustrating because she's getting so skinny and I want her to eat!
-She loves when daddy's home. She'll just say "Da" over and over again. Sometimes she'll say it in a sweet, high little voice as if she wants something from him. She knows what she's doing, it will definitely come in handy when she gets older!
-She says "What's that?" which comes out "That?" or "Ustha?" and as she says it she point at random things with her index finger and thumb extended like a gun. It's so darn cute!
-She says Mama.
-She will sometimes say hi.
-She says "Nanana", which is nonono. :(
-She LOVES playing peek-a-boo. Last night I was playing it with her by putting a toy in front of my face. When I stopped, she handed me the toy, and would laugh so hard over and over again!

I say this time and time again, but I can't say enough how much we love this little girl! We waited so long for her to come, and even after a year, it's hard to imagine that she's really ours! She makes us so happy, and sometimes after she goes to sleep Jeff and I will say "I miss Clara!" She's so happy all of the time and just so entertaining!

I took her to the doctor yesterday and here's where she's at:
-30 inches - 90%
-19.8 lbs - 25%
-Her head is starting to get big! It's now 18.2 in - 75% . She has been average most of the time in the past.
-And as always she's really low on the weight vs. height chart. Long and lean.

This is the party group! We were so glad to see everyone and appreciate everyone making the trip to come down!

Clara had soooo much fun playing with her cousins, aunts and uncles, and Grandma and Grandpa! You can see there's lots of feet and hands in this picture and she just loved having so many people around.

I thought after Christmas Clara would be a pro at opening presents, but I still had to do all of the work. I think this picture is funny because there's toys all around Clara, but she found a receipt to play with!

This is how spoiled she got! We were trying to get her to smile for the picture and everyone was clapping, so she decided she wanted to clap too.

We wanted to make a monkey cake for our little Monkey, so we found this idea on parenting.com.

She still didn't get very into eating her cake, but she got a little bit messy again!

Clara's First Birthday

2010-01-06T20:21:00.007-07:00

(by Aubree)

Today was Clara's first birthday. We're having a party on Saturday with family and friends, but we wanted to have a little celebration of our own tonight. So we had Clara open one of her presents, then we had cake and ice cream.

Here's the birthday girl, patiently waiting to open her present.

Not quite sure what to do with it.

With a little help from dad, she opened up her Lullaby Gloworm.

She loves her little doll, especially because it plays music.

A big cupcake!

A little hesitant at first.

I don't think she ate any of the cupcake, but she sure enjoyed playing with it.

After a few minutes of playing with her cupcake, she decided she didn't like the feel of the frosting on her hands.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CLARA !!!!!

Christmas!!!

2010-01-03T16:01:00.004-07:00

(by Jeff)

We had a great Christmas this year! It was especially fun to celebrate Clara's first Christmas with her. Although she was scared of Santa and only opened a few of her own presents, she still had a lot of fun (especially with all the boxes and wrapping paper).

On Christmas Eve, my extended family gets together for a party at my parent's house. Santa Claus came, but Clara wasn't too keen on sitting on his lap.

My Aunt Christie has apparently spent the last few months doing nothing but making hats, because she brought a bag full of hats and made sure that each of the girls got one.

After the party, Clara opened up her first present - - new Christmas pajamas.

On Christmas morning, we opened up the presents that Santa had brought us. He knew that I wanted a USU shirt to wear to work.

Aubree must have been a good girl this year, because Santa brought her jewelry.

Santa brought Clara a forward-facing carseat, clothes, and several toys.

Later Christmas morning, all of my immediate family came to my parents' house. We had a big breakfast and opened up presents from each other. Aubree was excited for the pressure cooker we got from my parents. Clara loved the big book of Mother Goose stories and the toy cars from Grandma and Grandpa Gittins.

These are two hats that Aubree made for my sister Wendy and her husband Chase.

We hurried off to Aubree's sister's house in Idaho to celebrate with Aubree's family. We had a big lunch and opened more presents. Clara loved the new dress she got from Grandma and Grandpa Larson. We also played some Apples to Apples--one of our favorite board games. Clara played as well, although her idea of playing was to carry one of the cards all around the house.

Our Christmas Season so far

2009-12-18T19:48:00.009-07:00

(By Aubree)

We've had fun preparing for Christmas. A couple of weeks ago, we decorated for Christmas. This is only the 3rd out of the 8 Christmases we've spent together that we've had a tree, and it was especially fun to have Clara around for it. She was a "big" help!

Before

After

Our Lladro nativity set, guarded by the reindeer.

Our Fisher Price nativity set that Clara loves to play with, and that's good because it keeps her away from all of the other more breakable decorations.

Our little Christmas Village. We weren't able to put up our complete collection, but it's a really fun thing to decorate with.

Our lit Christmas tree.

Last Saturday we had our ward Christmas party. It was a breakfast and any kids under 12 were invited to wear their pj's. Jeff's sister Wendy and her husband Chase were able to go with us because they had spend the previous night at our house before they left for their cruise. (Jealous)

Santa came late, but we were able to steal a quick photo with him and Mrs. Claus before we left. Clara was too interested in his fuzzy sleeves to look at the camera.

She really enjoyed playing with the other kids and babies.

We hope you all have a safe and very merry Christmas!

Check This Out

2009-11-28T21:44:00.007-07:00

(By Aubree)

My friend, Kasey Sanders that did our family pictures just made a photography blog. Check it out!

http://kaseysandersphotography.blogspot.com

Family Photos

2009-11-23T21:14:00.007-07:00

(By Aubree)

My dear friend Kasey Sanders was nice enough to take our photos not too long ago. I love how they turned out. Thanks Kasey!

If anyone would like to contact Kasey to take your photos, contact me and I will put you in touch with her.

I have to brag a little, I made all of the knitted stuff you see here. Both of our hats and my scarf!

You can see where Clara got her gorgeous blue eyes from...her dad! They're an exact match!

Nine Month Update

2009-10-28T22:08:00.002-06:00

(By Aubree)

Okay, this post is about three weeks past due, but better late than never right? I just can't believe that she's nine months old, that's practically a year! I don't think I've gone a day without thanking Heavenly Father for my beautiful little blessing. She is so much fun and makes us laugh all the time. We love her more than words can describe.
Clara had her nine month check up on the 6th and here are her stats:

28.7 inches long (95%+)
18.4 pounds (50%) That's the first time she's been under 90% on height or weight!

Here's what Clara's been up to:

-She took her first "step" tonight, kind of. I didn't see it, but Jeff said it was more of a pivot of the foot. But even so, that's hard to balance on one foot even for a second, for a baby!
-She gives the best kisses if she's in the right mood!
-She gives high five.
-She says mama and dada, and I think she really is starting to understand what they really mean.
-She loves, loves, loves to climb. We have a wall made of boxes and storage containers so she wont fall down the stairs. She doesn't even care about the stairs anymore, she just loves to climb on the boxes, and then onto the ottoman, onto the chair and then onto the couch. That's her favorite thing to do this week.
-She loves music. When she hears music she will stop what she's doing and smile at me, and I'll say "dance" and she bounces up and down, and sometimes will try to sing.
-Something I've never mentioned about her but I've always loved is that she has the most genuine smile. She has a sparkle in her eye when she smiles.
-She's started to do this fake laugh when I laugh at her or she thinks I laugh at her. I think the reason she does it is because she wants me to laugh again, which I do just to make her happy.
-She's never been that into toys, but one of her favorite games is when all of her toys are in the box, she will pull all of them out one by one.
-Another game she thinks is fun is dropping everything onto the floor. Her sippy cup while in high chair, a paper that's on a chair, etc.
-She will eat just about anything, she's not very picky which is fabulous. It makes me feel like she's getting a lot more nutrition than if she just ate the same thing every day.
-She has the two teeth on the bottom, and just got one on the top about 2 weeks ago.

Fall Pictures

2009-10-21T19:37:00.004-06:00

(by Jeff)

A few days ago, Aubree and Clara had a photo session in the fall leaves. I thought the pictures were too cute not to share.

Yellowstone Trip

2009-10-05T14:51:00.010-06:00

(by Aubree)

We have been trying to figure out where to go on vacation this year. Our choices are limited with Clara because she's still too young to leave with anyone, and she's not old enough to really enjoy what's going on. So we figured we would try to stay fairly close to home, and that's why we decided to go to Wyoming.

We left last Wednesday night and stayed at Jeff's parents' house so we could get an hour out of the way. Thursday we left for Alpine Junction where we met up with Jeff's brother Ben and his family who were camping out just outside of Alpine Junction.

We enjoyed some beautiful views

We thought this was really pretty with the fall colored trees and the snow frosted Pine Trees.

As you can imagine, it was extremely cold. And yes, that's Clara. We had three different people call her a boy because of her blueish/purple jacket. It has hearts on it for heavens sakes! :) Plus I didn't put any bows in her hair the whole time either.

Ben took us on a ride in his ranger. On the ride my eye started to tear up and all of the sudden it went blurry. I later realized that my tears had frozen onto my contact!

We didn't last very long, so we went in their camper and played games while the kids (Wes, Clara, and Kelsey) watched a movie. Wes and Clara didn't last very long at all.

That night we stayed in Alpine Junction. We stayed in a little cabin that a hotel there rents out. It ended up working out really well. We really enjoyed our stay there.

On Friday we headed out for Yellowstone. It ended up being a LOT longer drive than we realized, and Clara let us hear all about it both ways.

Old Faithful

While we were waiting for the geyser to go off, we saw the most unusual animal that I bet none of you have ever seen!
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A pink bear!

On the way back, we stopped at West Thumb Geyser Basin to see the thermal pools.

While we were there, we saw a group of elk. There were probably about 20 in the group.

On our way out of the parking lot, there were a bunch of people that were stopped taking pictures, and we figured it was just a bunch of females that we had seen earlier. But when we pulled past the cars, we saw this bull elk that was right next to our car! So we pulled forward and took a picture. It must have been an old elk because it walked like it had arthritis and look at his antlers! They're huge!

A pretty waterfall on the way back.

We're kind of lucky that it took so long to get there, because on our way back the sun was settling and it was the perfect time to take pictures of the Grand Tetons and other beautiful mountains.

This one was actually taken on our way up.

It was a beautiful sunset that night.

Saturday was our last day and we spent it in Jackson Hole. We met up with Ben and his family again. We first went to Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. Then we went to lunch at Jeff's favorite BBQ place, Bubba's. And we finished off looking around at the many shops.

We had to take a picture in front of one of the famous antler archways.

We ended our trip by spending the night with my parents in Grace, and then had lunch at Jeff's parents house. It was a great trip!

Labor Day at The Treehouse

2009-09-08T20:45:00.008-06:00

(by Aubree)

Yesterday my friend Lena was going to The Treehouse, a children's museum in Ogden, and she invited me to tag along. It was sooo much fun! They had a pirate theme, so I dressed Clara up like a pirate the best I could with what we had, and enjoyed "Pirate Day."

If you've never been to the Treehouse, they have tons of little stations that kids can learn from, like a medical station, music station, Renaissance station, barn, etc. They also had a little workshop show on how to be more like a pirate. It was pretty cute.

I apologize that there's so many pictures, but I just thought there were too many cute ones and I couldn't leave them out!

My little pirate!

Clara dressed up in Renaissance attire.

This is Lena's daughter Gwen playing with the giant chess pieces.

Lena and me.

Clara at the doll station.

I love this one! Clara had so much fun playing with Gwen.

Those are some big chompers!

There was a lower table for babies, and she had a lot of fun there.

Lena's other daughter Elsie and Clara on the fire engine.

Such a cute little cow girl.

Clara in the tepee playing with the drums.

Clara and Gwen playing on the drums.

Elsie got chosen to go up on stage for the pirate show. She was so excited!

Vern (Lena's husband) and Elsie

Clara was worn out, so it was time to head home...

But first we had to get a picture with the cow for daddy.

Little Home Improvements Make a Big Difference!

2009-09-06T23:53:00.005-06:00

(by Aubree)

If you've ever watched home improvement shows on HGTV, you always hear them talk about the importance of window treatments. When we moved into our house two years ago, almost all of the windows had blinds, but no window treatments. I was a little intimidated about picking out window treatments, so I kind of put it off. But I finally decided it was time, and I talked Jeff into helping me pick out and hang some window treatments. It's true what they say . . . window treatments make a big difference. Here's some before and after pictures.

We have a sliding glass door that leads from our kitchen out to our deck. It had some vertical blinds that were ugly and broken. We finally got to tear them down and put up some curtains.

Before

After

For Clara's room, I found some cute flowery valances for her two windows.

Before (window #1)

After (window #1)

Before (window #2)

After (window #2)

After (both windows)

Our bedroom is fairly dark, with a dark accent wall and dark wood furniture, so I wanted something light for the window treatments. I thought these white sheer curtains would be perfect.

Before

After

Eight Months Old!

2009-09-06T22:29:00.005-06:00

(By Aubree)

Clara is Eight months old today! It's going so fast, and we just love our little Clara Bear more and more every day! She has such a cute personality, and it's been so much fun watching her change and learn new things.

Here's what Clara is up to now:

-She started crawling about 3 weeks ago, but has done straight crawling (no army crawling) for about a week or more.
-She pulls herself onto anything she possibly can. Her favorite thing right now is to pull herself up on the couch or a chair and stand up.
-She has 2 teeth on the bottom front.
-She says dadada and we have decided that is her first word.
-She has said mama, but only a couple of times.
-She makes this sound like she's hissing, but with more of a k sound. She doesn't do it as often as she used to though.
-She isn't stranger shy anymore. She got over that pretty quickly, thank goodness.
-She loves to flirt with the people sitting behind us at church. We try to move her so she can't see the people behind us, but she will worm her way back up to look at them.
-She can crawl up stairs.
-When she wakes up, from naps or in the morning, she will be standing up in her crib looking at the doorway, just waiting for someone to come get her.
-She eats pretty much anything, but recently she is getting a little bit more picky. She will still eat anything, but just not the whole thing if she doesn't fancy it.
-She likes to blow raspberries on my cheeks and arms.
-She LOVES when Jeff gets home and when he comes in the house he will say hi for a minute, and then go change his clothes, and she will throw a fit when he leaves the room.
-She's probably the happiest she has ever been and I think it's because she can get around on her own.
-She has stood up without holding onto anything for a few seconds at a time. I think she will be walking as soon as she possibly can!
-It seems like she can understand some things that we say or at least she's trying to understand.

Here's all of the things she likes to pull herself onto! (i.e. anything!)

The big girl crawling!

My parents came to visit yesterday and she had so much fun playing with them!

This is her waiting for me to come get her after her nap.

She gets into everything! I gave her this ribbon to play with and it was sealed, the next thing I know the seal is off, and half of the ribbon is unwound!

Toys?

2009-08-14T11:19:00.005-06:00

(By Aubree)

I don't know about anyone else, but I've heard this many, many times: "Why do I even bother buying toys?" Clara loves playing with things that she knows she shouldn't be playing with and things that don't look like toys. She has recently started to think that it is a game when she goes for something she knows we will take away, like the phone, and she will army crawl as fast as she possibly can towards it (which is pretty darn fast) and we will come behind her and she will have a huge smile on her face!

Here are some example of her enjoying things that aren't actual toys.

You can't see it very well, but Clara has chosen the bowl of snacks to play with instead of all of the toys around her.

We bought a toy remote for her because she was constantly going after the real ones. As you can see I set up a test to see if she would choose the toy closest to her or the actual remotes. What do you think happened?

Yup, she crawled right over her toy and went after the real ones. What can you say? The girl enjoys a challenge!

In her hand is a granola bar still in the package.

Saving her favorite for last. . . paper. She could probably play with this all day if it was indestructable, but I guess the destructability is half of the fun, right?

Happy Birthday Jeff!

2009-08-08T13:00:00.006-06:00

(By Aubree)

Jeff's birthday was yesterday and we had such a nice day all together! We all slept in and then Jeff did some work from home, and a few hours later, he and Clara decided to take a nap. Then Jeff opened his presents--with Clara's help, of course. In the afternoon, we went shopping and then ate dinner at the Training Table. For dessert, we got cupcakes from Cold Stone and we enjoyed some Simpsons on DVD.

Happy birthday yesterday, Jeff. I love you so much and appreciate all that you do! You are so kind, loving, patient, great dad and husband, great supporter, and hard worker. I can't imagine my life without you!

Clara couldn't wait for daddy to get here. She wanted to open the presents all by herself!

Yay! Daddy's here to open presents!

This one's just cute!

She's such a great present opener! She's warming up for Christmas!

Daddy and Clara posing with the ties that she gave him.

We got Jeff two shirts, two ties, and a grilling rack.

Six Months Old

2009-07-15T14:17:00.004-06:00

(By Aubree)

Clara had her six month well check yesterday. Here's where she's at:

weight: 17lbs. 4 oz. (about 90th percentile)
height: 26.4 inches (about 75th percentile)
BMI: 17.59 (more average than it has been, she's been on the lower side)

Here's what's new:

-She can now get pretty much anywhere she wants to by rolling and scooting. She's just not very fast yet.
-Her hair is starting to thicken a little bit, thus getting rid of her bald spot, slowly but surly.
-When she scoots she pushes with her feet and puts her head down on the ground, so she doesn't get very far because of this. She hasn't quite discovered her arms in this process.
-Her naps are becoming even shorter, and less frequent, but she is still doing well at night. (About 10 hours)
-She loves scratching everything, I think that's just how she feels and gets to know the world around her along with tasting everything.
-She loves paper, including scratching paper and that's one of the worst sounds in the world to me. I've discovered if I let her at a glossy magazine, it doesn't bother me and she's happy as a clam.
-Along with paper, she would rather play with the tags on her toys rather than the toy itself.
-She doesn't like church, especially the last hour. It's becoming very difficult.
-She babbles by saying dadada a lot and when she's mad it sounds like she's saying mom, but we don't consider either one her first word yet.
-She's been a lot happier now that she is able to get to toys and such on her own.

The doctor said that if she wants to get involved in eating by grabbing the spoon and we don't get her involved, she will lose interest. So I have a spoon and I put a little bit of food on the end of another spoon and she thinks she's feeding herself. I've only done it once, but she seems a lot more interested in meal time.

I finally got her sucking on her big toe on camera. She does this often when I'm bathing or dressing her.

Clara's been doing this crinkling of her nose when she smiles sometimes. It's so cute, but it makes her look like an evil elf sometimes!

Fourth of July Weekend

2009-07-07T21:45:00.010-06:00

(by Jeff)

For the Fourth of July weekend, we headed down to visit my sister Ginger and her family. They were blessing their baby Hannah on Sunday, so we figured it would be fun to go down a few days early and have some fun on their ranch.

We got to Aurora on Thursday night. I went golfing in Richfield, while Aubree and Clara took a trip to the park. We learned a few weeks ago that Clara really loves the swings, but none of the playgrounds in our neighborhood have swings for little kids, so Aubree was excited to that the Aurora park had swings for Clara. That night, we enjoyed a great dinner at El Mexicano, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants.

On Friday, Aubree and Clara headed up to the ranch, while I went golfing in Ferron. Aubree had fun with Ginger and Katelyn. Katelyn's favorite activity was floating boats in the creek. Later that night we went to Aurora's Fourth of July festivities, including a dutch oven dinner and fireworks.

On Saturday, we all headed up to the ranch a full day of fun. We tried to find a hat for Clara to keep her from getting sunburnt. We tried this hat first . . .

But Clara kept grabbing onto the brim of the hat and turning it sideways. I think she wants to grow up to be a gangsta.

Since that didn't work, we tried a cowboy hat. Clara loved it!

We went of a family four-wheeler ride. Clara really liked the sound of the engine and the wind in her face. In fact, she liked it so much, she fell asleep.

Here's some pictures of the ranch we took during our four-wheeler ride.

Jared and Ginger just bought a new pony for Katelyn to ride. We put Clara on the pony for a few pictures. She was a little hesitant at first, but then got comfortable with it. Maybe next year she'll be big enough to go for a real ride.

After lunch, we went on a short hike.

That night, we went back to Ginger and Jared's house. Ginger noticed that Clara likes to scoot around on her belly, so she suggested that we put Clara in a walker that she had to see if Clara would walk around in it. So we took Clara and the walker out to Ginger's dance studio where there is a big wood floor, and let Clara loose. She loved it! You could tell how excited she was that she could move herself around.

On Sunday, we attended Hannah's blessing and the lunch afterward, and then headed home. Unfortunately, we forgot to take a picture of Hannah in her blessing dress, but here's a few pictures of Hannah and Clara together.

Mom's Birthday

2009-06-30T11:30:00.003-06:00

(By Aubree)

Last Saturday my sisters and I decided to treat my mom for her birthday. All she knew was that we were meeting in Logan (everyone lives north of Logan in Preston and Grace, except for me) to have lunch and there was a surprise after. So we met at the Copper mill Resteraunt and had a wonderful lunch and then we were off to have PEDICURES! It was my moms and my first time getting a pedicure. It was wonderful!

Lunch at the Copper mill. Counter clockwise from the back: My mom, me, Clara, Amy, Cloe, Andrea, Cambree, and Amber.

The pedicure!

Pretty toes!

Cambree (in front) had so much fun she just needs a nap. Cloe's in back kicking her so she can't fall asleep. Their mom (Andrea) said that it's okay because Cambree kicked Cloe the whole time they were in her stomach.

Ashcroft Family Reunion '09

2009-06-24T13:44:00.006-06:00

(By Aubree)

Jeff's mom's side of the family (Ashcroft's) had their family reunion this last Friday and Saturday. On Friday we went to Henefer, Utah and had lunch at the city park, played on the playground and learned and sang about the pioneers.

Then we drove to Salt Lake's This is the Place monument and heard more about the pioneers. Jeff was assigned to tell us about the Vanguard Company, who were the first group of pioneers that Brigham Young put together to go west. We then had dinner and enjoyed visiting with family.

On Saturday morning we hiked to Ensign Peak, which is the peak that Brigham Young was on when he had the vision of Salt Lake Valley. I thought about leaving Clara behind with Jeff's aunt, but we've been talking about going on some hikes around here and I wanted to see if it was really possible to hike while carrying Clara. It was really not that bad at all, I just put her in the Snugli and we had a great hike. Anyway, we hiked to the top where there was a monument. We took pictures and Jeff's grandpa was talking about Ensign Peak when we decided that Clara had had enough and needed to be fed, so we went back down.

There is a church house that is at the bottom of the hill where we had snacks and had more pioneer programs and lunch. It really was a great reunion!

At Henefer city park I decided to have Clara try swinging for the first time. She loved it! I pushed her higher than I was comfortable for a minute, but she was just smiling away. She would move her feet back and forth like she was running, it was really cute!

Jeff's neice Katelyn pushing Clara

Jeff pushing Katelyn on swings.

About halfway up Ensign Peak. Hi Wendy and Chase! (They're the ones you can see on the trail)

Jeff's sisters Ginger and Wendy, and their husbands Jared and Chase, and Katelyn (Ginger and Jared's daughter).

The top of Ensign Peak. It was the perfect day for hiking. It was overcast with a slight breeze, so the sun wasn't beating down on us. Then it decided to rain once we got back, perfect timing.

Downtown Salt Lake

Best Dad Ever!

2009-06-21T17:54:00.002-06:00

(By Aubree)

Jeff you are such a great daddy! I knew you would be and I'm so happy to watch you with Clara. You are so patient and kind to her, and you are such a fun dad too. It will be so great to see you with her when she can run around. I can see in your eyes how much you love and adore her. You are always so excited to see her when you've been away from her, and she gets so excited when she sees you. I know you will have so many things to teach her about everyday life and the gospel and everything else in between. We love you so much! Happy Father's Day!

I love this picture so much, I think it's so sweet!

Five Months Old

2009-06-06T13:01:00.012-06:00

(by Aubree)

If anybody knows how to freeze time so that my little Clara will stay this age forever, please tell me how. This has been the best month so far, but I think I'm going to have my hands full with her the next few months.

Clara has started to giggle a lot more. She isn't very ticklish, so I have to get creative to get her to giggle, like make annoying sounds over and over, but I think her giggle is the best sound in the entire world, and it makes me so happy. She also rolled over for the first time on Thursday (June 4th), and today, that's all she wants to do. She thinks she's pretty cool now.

Rolling from her back...

to her belly. She hasn't figured out belly to back, but sometimes when she has rolled to her front and she still has her arm under her she is able to push herself back over to her back.

Last month she loved playing with her tongue, and now it's her toes. This is also how she starts the rolling process. She grabs onto her toes and rolls herself to her side, and then she is able to push herself over.

Clara is also starting to hold herself in a sitting position. If you put her in that position, she will put her hands in front of her to hold herself up and she does pretty good.

She really enjoys her thumb which is really helpful in putting herself to sleep.

She loves the ladybug toy that her cousin Kelsey let her borrow.

Jeff's sister, Ginger and her family stopped by yesterday, and I met their new addition, Hannah for the first time.

(Left to right-Ginger holding Hannah, Katelyn, Jared holding Clara)

The other day we took a walk and she fell asleep in her stroller. She woke up when I got her out, but then I put her in her high chair to feed her and she fell right back to sleep!

Clara likes to get right up in your face and stare you down, so Jeff did it back, it was really funny. I just wish the rag wasn't in the picture.

The rest are just cute and funny pictures that I like. Enjoy!

Healthy Recipes Needed

2009-06-04T11:48:00.002-06:00

(By Aubree)

I've been having such a hard time coming up with ideas for dinner, and Jeff and I are trying to eat healthier so it's even harder to get excited to fix anything because I'm running out of ideas. I need your guys' help. If you have any great recipes that are on the healthy side, even if they just aren't really fattening, please send them to me. You can send me an e-mail at aubreegittins@yahoo.com, or just leave it in the comment field that way every one can benefit. I am mostly looking for main dishes, but if you have any sides or dessert ideas that would be great as well. Thanks!

Real Food

2009-05-23T21:08:00.007-06:00

(by Jeff)

Clara has started eating "real" food. Well, rice cereal anyway. She really likes it, but (as with most kids) she is a messy eater. We bought a new camera today, and we decided to give it a test run by taking pictures of Clara while she was eating.

Also, Aunt Wendy and Uncle Chase stopped by tonight to visit Clara.

Four month update

2009-05-07T13:48:00.004-06:00

(By Aubree)

Clara had her 4 month check up yesterday. She is still growing like a weed!

Height: 26 inches
Weight: 15.2 lbs.
BMI: 15.8

Clara is learning so much each day. She will just start doing something one day, and I think "Where did you learn that?". Like any other baby her age she is grabbing anything and everything that is close to her. She gets a grip on my hair and it's really hard to get her to let go. She also likes to grab the hair on guys' arms. She recently started to play with toys. We would put a toy in her hand and she would hold onto it because of her reflex to grab things, but she didn't understand how to play with them. Then one day she just out of the blue would grab the toy if it is laying next to her and she would shake it and play with it. Something funny that she recently started to do is babble with her tongue hanging out. It's really cute!

Clara got sick AGAIN this month. This is the 3rd respiratory sickness in her short 4 months of life. This kind of threw her sleep schedule off just a little bit, but she is now sleeping pretty much about 8 or 9 hours a night, and then will usually go right back to sleep for a couple more hours after she has eaten and had a diaper change. She still isn't a very good napper, but we are dealing with it. She's doing a little better than she was. Thanks for all of your advice, I used a lot of it.

I think about before we had Clara, and I just have a hard time imagining our life without her. Jeff and I were lucky to have so much time to get to know each other and to build our relationship, and I am very thankful for that time we had, but I felt like something was missing. I'm so grateful for my little family. This is what I am meant to do right now, and I love it so much. It's so fulfilling, and I am so glad that Heavenly Father trusts me with this sweet little spirit to teach and love her for the rest of her life.

Enjoy some recent pictures:

Clara decided she wanted to try the binki out. She tried it a couple of times before naps and then she quit. At least she's somewhat open minded! I just think babies with binkis are so cute.

Having so much fun with her toy!

This picture really shows how long she is! She mostly has a long torso and is going to have the same problem as I had finding shirts that are long enough. Poor girl.

Her new favorite toy... her tongue.

This is my new favorite picture. Our camera is so slow, and I was so excited when I caught her right in the middle of her pretty smile.
Kelly, I don't know if you regularly read my blog, but this picture is for you because she's on the blanket you gave her, and she's wearing the dress you gave her!

Clara loves this blanket. It is silky on one side, and furry on the other. She will pull it right up against her face, and I think that it comforts her.

Tulip Festival

2009-05-02T09:51:00.007-06:00

(by Jeff)

On Friday, we went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. Aubree and I went to the Festival last year, but it was too early in the season and only about 10% of the tulips had bloomed. So this year, we went later in the season so we could see all of the tulips.

As you might suspect, we took a ton of pictures. We tried to narrow down our favorites, but there are still a lot of pictures. So, enjoy!

Tulips

2009-05-02T09:43:00.005-06:00

(by Jeff)

Here are pictures of some of the many varieties of tulips that we saw:

China

2009-04-28T22:56:00.002-06:00

(By Aubree)

On Friday Clara and I were taking a walk, and I passed a sign for an estate sale. I didn't have much on my schedule for the day so I decided to take a look. When I walked into the garage, I could tell that there really wasn't much, just old blankets and sheets and things like that. Then I walked past this china set. Jeff's mom has a set almost exactly like it that I have always loved. It's so simple but elegant. It's all white with a stripe of silver around the edges. Anyway, I decided to do some research on the real price, and although they were selling it for a great price I couldn't justify buying it. The next day was the last day of the sale and I had kind of forgotten about it until I took Clara for another walk and saw the sign again. I decided to just take another look at it. I called Jeff and we thought maybe if they went down a little bit, we might consider buying them. I went on a limb and decided since it was just hours away from the end of their sale, that I would ask if they would drop the price by 1/3. They agreed and now I'm the proud owner of this beautiful China set. It has 12 dinner plates, 11 saucers, 12 cups, a serving bowl, and a serving platter. I love it!

Sleeping Like a Baby

2009-04-13T14:45:00.002-06:00

(By Aubree)

I feel like I have been complaining too much in the last couple of blogs. I don't want to come across as not liking motherhood. I've never had so much meaning to my life as I do now. I wouldn't choose to do anything else but be Clara's mom and Jeff's wife right now. I am so in love with my life, even if I do have to make some sacrifices.

That said, I have been trying something new at bedtime. I've only done it a couple of nights, and a few times during nap time. My pediatricion said that as soon as Clara is really good at sucking on her fist, between 3 to 4 months, to lay her down when she is drowsy, but awake. I have also talked to several other moms who have had success with the book "Baby Wise", which from what I understand, is the same idea. I tried this over a week ago, but didn't succeed, because I couldn't let her cry like that. So I tried again on Satuday night, and I decided to try using a mobile to help comfort her. It is the best. It plays music and the mobile does it's thing, and it also has kind of a light show too. It definetly helped, and she would cry or cry harder when it turned off.

So on Saturday I layed her down drowsy, but awake, and it was so hard. I think I cried almost as much as she did, for two reasons. 1- I don't like just letting her cry and not think that I don't care that she's upset, and 2- I'm going to miss the time I spent with her rocking her to sleep. But I feel like this will help her in the long run. I was watching her the whole time. She would watch the mobile, and then cry, dose off a couple of times, find her fist, and cry, then cry harder. I picked her up to calm her down, then layed her down again and not too much longer she was asleep.

Last night was much easier. She cried a lot harder at first, so I thought maybe she wasn't ready for bed yet, so I calmed her down and she actually fell asleep in my arms. She then woke up and I layed her down. She wimpered for a second and then she was fast asleep! And what's even better is she slept for almost 10 hours!

Nap time is still not quite as good, but at least she will lay down by herself for a short time. Who knows, maybe she will get better, or maybe she won't, but it's worth a try.

Three Months Old

2009-04-08T09:28:00.002-06:00

(By Aubree)

This month has gone by so fast! Probably the main reason is because Clara, Jeff, and I have been sick. Clara got RSV and Influenza B. We were really lucky, because she didn't end up on oxygen or have to stay in the hospital at all. There was really only one scary day and I took her in to have her oxygen level checked and it was between 88-90%, which isn't very good. I went back later that night and it had gone up to 93%. They ordered a little vacuum that sucks out her nose, which she hates, and that helped so much. Then Jeff and I got the flu and Clara and I ended up with ear infections. So this took up a good portion of the month, but we're all pretty healthy now.

Clara has been a lot of fun this month. Her favorite toy is a mirror. She will smile and talk to herself forever! It's the cutest. She slept through the night for the first time last night! 8 and 1/2 hours baby!! She is really grabbing things, but doesn't realize it all the time. She will be holding a toy and not even know it's there. I can't wait until she can entertain herself better, because she's still pretty clingy, but I'll take the snuggles while she'll give 'em.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to help her to sleep during the day, please tell me. I've probably heard them all, but I want to hear it anyway. I don't know why she won't nap, but it's really frustrating. She will sleep for maybe 30 to 45 minutes while I'm holding her and anytime I try to lay her down to nap, she'll wake up not even 5 minutes later. Any suggestions are welcome.

This is her favorite toy. There's a mirror that she's looking at and she will stare at herself and just smile and talk.

My sister-in-law Wendy let us borrow this. It's to help with tummy time, but she hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. It sure makes for a cute picture though!

We love bath time! She is very content and relaxed in the tub now. It's one of our favorite times of the day.

Clara loves hanging with her daddy. She will talk to him more than anybody else. Look at those chubby cheeks! It seems like she's gotten so much chubbier in the last couple of weeks.

This is the first and only time she has sucked on her thumb that I know of. I have tried and tried to get her to do it since, but she won't. It would help her be more content by herself if she got the hang of it.

Clara still loves her walks. She usually will sleep most of the way.

This is the walk to the park. It's only about 1/2 mile from our house.

The park has a track that we walk around.

Five Generations

2009-04-06T22:02:00.003-06:00

(by Jeff)

We spent last weekend with both of our families. We left Friday afternoon and stopped in Preston, Idaho to visit Aubree's sister and her family. They were unable to make it to Clara's blessing, and most of them had not yet seen Clara. We then drove up to Grace and spent Friday night and most of Saturday with Aubree's family.

Late Saturday afternoon, we drove to Smithfield so that I could attend Priesthood session with my dad, followed by a family meal with most of my family. On Sunday, we watched conference with my family. Everyone came for lunch, including my Grandpa and Grandma Ashcroft and Grandma Florence. Grandma Florence is my great-grandma. She will turn 100 years old this year, and is still going strong. While we had everyone together, we figured it was a good time to take a five-generation picture.

Five Generations
Clara, me, my mom, Grandpa Ashcroft, and Grandma Florence

Grandma Ashcroft didn't get in on the five-generation picture, but we did get this picture with her having fun with Clara.

Clara is so lucky to have such wonderful grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandma!

St. George and a Wedding

2009-03-19T09:28:00.004-06:00

(By Aubree)

Just so you all know, I posted 3 posts today, so if this one is too long for you to read and you want to skip it, the next 2 are mostly pictures!

This post is a little late, but we wanted to write about it. The first week in March we went down to St. George because Jeff went to a work-related water convention. He had to get a hotel anyway, so Clara and I decided to join him. We were there for 3 nights. On the way down, Clara slept most of the way until just before Cedar City. We had to stop to feed and change her and then she fussed for a little while, but finally slept again. She slept really well that night at the hotel. I think it was the first night that she slept for 7 hours straight, which was surprising for how much she slept during the day.

During the days, while Jeff was gone to the convention, Clara and I went shopping and took walks in the nice weather. It was nice and relaxing.

We didn't dare go out to eat with Clara--you just never know how she's going to act. So we ordered in every night. The first night we had some really good Mexican food, the second night we had some pretty good Chinese, and the last night we had hamburgers, fries, onion rings, and shakes.

The last full day we were there we decided to get Clara's pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids that was across the street from our hotel. Boy, was that an experience! We had made an appointment, and I had timed it just right. She had just woken up and I fed her so she was happy and smiling. But we got there, and waited and waited and waited. It was more than 1 hour and 15 minutes later when they took us back. By this time, Clara was hungry, tired, and fussy. Although Clara was unhappy, I thought we got some pretty good pictures. But I'm sure we could have got some great ones if we had been able to get in when we were supposed to. When it was time to choose the photo package, the girl rushed us and was acting all sorts of impatient. In retrospect, I would have totally redone some of the pictures we chose! Nevertheless, it's nice to now have some good-quality pictures of her.

That night we also went over to Jeff's old mission president's (President Larkin) house to visit with him and his cute wife. They are always so nice to visit with, and she has such good decorating skills. I love to look around to get ideas to decorate my own house.

We left St. George on Friday morning, and on the way we picked up Katelyn, Jeff's niece. We made it to Farmington, did some laundry, relaxed, and stretched our legs for a couple of hours, then it was off to Smithfield. Once again Clara did really well until the very end. So in one day we went from the very south of Utah to the very north. We spent the night at Jeff's parents because his brother's wedding was on Saturday morning and we thought it would be easier to get ready there. Clara had a really bad night, and I was beyond exhausted, so Jeff took her and put her to sleep (he even had to drive around with her for a while). I have the best husband. Altogether though, I think we each got about 5 hours of sleep.

On Saturday I got her ready and she was wearing her pretty new dress and guess what happened? Do you remember her blessing day? Yep, she blew out AGAIN, only this one was way worse. It was almost as if she weren't even wearing a diaper. Luckily I had brought another dress. My sister Amy sat with Clara in the waiting room during the sealing and I was nervous about her being a little pill, but she was so good for her!! Thanks Amy! The sealing was beautiful.

Jacob and Amy at Clara's blessing. (We don't have any pictures from the wedding because we forgot our camera for this whole event-filled week!)

One thing that's funny is Jeff's brother Jacob married a beautiful girl named Amy, and Jeff's other brother Ben also has a wife named Amy, and I have a sister named Amy, so we have to use all sorts of code names when talking about our many sisters named Amy!

Surprise!

2009-03-19T09:07:00.007-06:00

(By Aubree)

On Monday, my friends threw Lyndzi a surprise party because she is moving far away and because she is having a baby in June. We had lunch and chatted, and it was so much fun to get together. Lyndzi, I'm going to miss you so much!

Top from left: Me, Amelia, Lena
Bottom from left: April, Lyndzi

I think they both look so cute!!

Clara slept so good for me. I think she like to sleep with noise, because she always sleeps better in public.

April's daughter, Carlie

Amelia's son, Grayson

Lyndzi's son Camden. The balloons were a hit with the kids!

Do I dare say we have a routine?

2009-03-19T08:47:00.007-06:00

(By Aubree)

Knock on wood! This week has been pretty good and consistent. Four nights in a row, Clara slept for 6 hours, woke up for about 20 to 60 minutes, and went going back to sleep for another 2 hours. Last night wasn't quite as good, but she slept for 4 and 1/2 hours and then 3 hours. This makes her mommy very happy!

Daytime is pretty much the same old, but I am seeing small improvements. She has found her fist, which soothes her for a short time, so she will sit by herself for a little longer than usual. She still wakes up when I try to put her in her crib during the day, which I don't understand because the last 2 nights she didn't even flinch when I put her down. She must be super tired from not sleeping well during the day. Actually, right now she is asleep on the couch, but we'll see how long that lasts. She take about an hour nap in the stroller on our daily walk (Mommy's favorite time of the day!).

Here are some current pictures.

I thought this one was funny, and it also shows her putting her fist in her mouth.

Two Month Check-up

2009-03-11T14:53:00.002-06:00

(By Aubree)

On Monday I took Clara to the doctor for her two month check up. Here are her stats:
24 1/2 inches - 97th percentile - 3 1/2 inch gain since birth
12 lbs 6 oz - 90-95th percentile - 4 lb gain since birth
head - average
I don't know how this works, but he said that she is still lean for her height. I still don't know how they factor that.

Clara has been a lot of fun lately, but at the same time more difficult than last month. She has the smiling and gibberish thing down pat. It's so much fun to be able to connect with her a lot more. She is using her legs to push herself up while I'm holding her and she will sit on my knee with very little help except for balance. She enjoys the bath a lot more, which is nice. When she has no clothes on we will stand her up and there's something about the width of her abdomen and the skinniness of her legs that reminds us of a frog. We laugh every time we do it!

The reason why she is more difficult is that she is just fussy all day long. She still sleeps fairly well at night. I even get an occasional 7 hours straight! But during the day, that's another story because she just does not sleep well. She doesn't want to do anything except eat. There are moments when she will be happy and talk and smile with me, but that usually doesn't last more than 10 minutes. When I try to put her down she will sit by herself for about the same amount of time before she wants me to pick her up, and usually the only thing that will make her happy after that is nursing her. Some days are better than others, but I just find it so hard to try and get anything done during the day. I try to watch what I eat most of the time, but I think she has a little bit of colic.

All in all though, she really is a joy to have around and I know it can only get better from here. She has already shown small improvements. We love our little Clara!!

Clara's Blessing

2009-03-01T21:48:00.005-07:00

(by Jeff)

Today was Clara's blessing day. We got up early and gave her a bath, got her fed, and dressed her in her blessing dress. Everything was going great, until we were just heading out the door. Clara decided to have a "blowout." We had to scramble to change her diaper and clean off her slip and her dress. Luckily, her onesie took the brunt of the mess. Anyway, we were still able to make it to church a few minutes early. We were a little worried that she would cry during her blessing because she has been pretty fussy most mornings this week. However, as soon as we got to church, she went to sleep and stayed asleep the whole meeting. She was a perfect angel during the blessing!

After sacrament meeting, we had a lunch with family and friends who had traveled down for the blessing. It was fun to visit with everyone on such a special day!

Our family

On the car ride to church

All of the Gittins grandchildren (Kelsey, Wes, Katelyn, and Clara)

Clara with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Ashcroft

Aubree's friend Amelia and her family

This picture has nothing to do with Clara's blessing, but it's Aubree's new favorite picture of Clara, and she told me I had to include it.

Smiles and a Baby Shower

2009-02-17T21:03:00.003-07:00

(by Aubree)

I have the best friends in the entire world. They threw me a baby shower a few days ago. It was so much to be with everybody. We're lucky that everybody lives close together, although Lyndzi is moving far away, and we're sad. Thanks, April, for hosting the shower! And thanks to Lyndzi, Lena, and Amelia. It was so much fun!

Between the five friends, we have ten kids!

The four most recent babies

Daddy and baby

Clara has started to smile a little bit. This is the closest we've come to capturing it on film. I also think she's developing a dimple on her right cheek. It's so cute!