Six Months Old

(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

(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

(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

(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!

(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

(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!