Amateur Photographer

Guess which little photographer took all of the following pictures (and many, many more)??

Playdate

During the week of snow, these girls needed some time to play! Taylor came over to our house one afternoon for a little playdate.

Both girls have recently gotten LeapFrog "tablets" and boy, are they big hits! Taylor came over with hers and they swapped games and gear for a bit.
Then we all made Gook (w/ cornstarch, water and food coloring).
We never know how Clem will react to slimy, sticky stuff. Sometimes she will dig right in and other times she wants no part. This time, Clem dove right in but Taylor wanted no part of it!
Clem's hands were purple for quite awhile after this!

Snopocalypse 2012

We survived Snopocalypse 2012! I would even say we *enjoyed* the week of snow, ice and below zero temperatures! All three of us were out of school for a full week and we LOVED every minute of it! It happened to be the same time Grandma and Grandpa were visiting from Alaska trying to get away from snow! Oops!

We all made the trek to Kelly and Mario's place, where they had a very good amount of snow. Clem brought out her sled and snow gear and hit the slopes!

She loved sledding with Aunt Kelly and Grandma,
and she loved making snow angels almost as much as she loved eating the snow.

But when this girl was done, she was d.o.n.e. She hollered at all of us "I want out of this snow! I'm going back to the house!" and off she went.

Birthday Cake

For my birthday earlier this month, Sissy came up to do pedicures with me. She brought Nolan and he and Clementine played while we got our tootsies did!

Cam and Clem had picked me up an ice cream cake (swoon) and flowers that morning and I couldn't wait to dig in.
The ice cream cake was de-lish, of course, and the babes loved it too. The blue frosting was SO blue, it turned their tongues, teeth and lips blue!

Baby BOY!

The newest addition to our family will be a baby boy! I can't believe it! Even though I suspected all along (only because this pregnancy has been so different from Clem's) I still thought it *might* still be another beautiful little girl!
Instead, this one is a big, long legged chilled out (all of these things very different from our ultrasound 4 years ago when we saw a teeny tiny, rowdy little girl!) little boy. We went to our ultrasound yesterday, in the midst of Snopocalypse 2012, and spent over an hour watching this little man squirm, yawn, wave, flip over, wave peace signs and contentedly hang out.
Cam asked the ultrasound tech to check the gender at least 5 times. She happily obliged, even when we were wrapping up and just about to leave, she showed Cam once more those major indicators: it really is a boy.
We are thrilled, shocked, ready to shop to BOY section. Can't wait to meet this handsome little guy.

Christmas Morning

This was THE year for Christmas in our little household. Clem totally *got* the Santa thing and was so excited. She's a tricky girl, though, having asked for only one thing this year: a Nutcracker Christmas decoration (we have no idea what this was all about).
Here she is with her beloved Nutcracker!
Clementine has a hard time with gifts. Not only does she struggle to come up with things she wants, she has the attention span of a gnat so opening gifts can take HOURS for her to get through!

After opening presents, I made psuedo Santa faced pancakes while Clem sang into her new microphone (her favorite present this year). I swear she didn't put that mic down for several days!

The REST of Vacation

It had been my intention to post pictures each day of vacation last week. That didn't happen...but let's get caught up now!

Christmas day we drove to my hometown of University Place to spend the holiday with my mom, aunts, uncle and granny. Of course, Megan, Patrick and Nolan came, too! The babes had a great time playing at Carolyn's house.

Afterward, our little clan stayed the night in a hotel. I specifically wanted to stay in a hotel because of the indoor pool. We checked in right around bedtime, put on our snuggliest pajamas, jumped on the hotel beds then had cocoa and popcorn in bed while we watched movies (that's the picture above).
The next morning we woke up bright and early (emphasis on early) to go swimming. Clem was so jazzed to swim she threw on her tankini, life jacket and rain boots then ran down the hallway squealing.
Before we got there I asked her to stop so I could take a picture. She turned around and immediately threw her hands in there air for this pose. No matter how long I live, this will always be how I picture Clem: cheeky, full of excitement and dressed like a rock star!
The rest of vacation was filled with bike rides, park visits (this park is a new one in U.P.)


and Clem's first ever BOWLING experience.

Like a pro.
Can I just say that my 4 year old out-bowled my 34 year old husband?? And it was on her first try ever. I'm just sayin'...she should probably go pro.
Most days we got out of the house as soon as we could (trying to enjoy the last few days of dry weather & trying to burn off some of this girl's endless energy).
But on days we couldn't get outside, Clem practiced her photography skills.
First she took dozens of pictures of her hopscotching,
and of course, the blurry Christmas tree photo.
She snapped daddy doing what he does best: being super silly.
There were lots of self portraits.
And one simple picture of me, doing what I do best these days: snoozing on the couch.