The holidays have passed in a flash and I have never been so grateful! Here's Avery's latest pictures and our recap of the last several months.....
First was Zachary's birthday and we women and kids went to Boondock's fun center to celebrate! If I could imagine the kids addicted to drugs this would be the closest I could compare it to as they dug in "my" pockets and at each other in a glaze of ecstasy for more tokens for the machines. We took a trip on the go karts which poor Zachary had to hear me squeal with delight as soon as I put my foot on the pedal. What a weird aunt huh. I made Candy go just so she could feel the same, but alas, she is a grandma driver and Nathan didn't feel the complete power of the go kart! What fun!
We celebrated Turkey day in style with Cam and his family braving the snowy weather to join us and Candy's family for a scrumptious meal. It is true that many hands make light work! We made a delicious turkey that we brined the night before and all the tasty dishes to go with! Avery got to have her first slumber party (cousins only!) and had a great time with so many girls in the house! We loved staying up late playing hand and foot which thanks to Brandy teaching us all how to play, is now a new Clement family tradition....along with the tasty cheesy cocktail weenies in BBQ sauce and garlic/jalapeno stuffed olives! YUM! And yes....that is Bryan in the photo. He does exist and we enjoyed him and his hospitality!
Next Candy and I scrambled with only a couple weeks notice to enter our first craft bazaar together. It was a hit with most of our stuff selling out in the first few moments of operation. Somehow the success was overshadowed with our neglected kids and angry husbands, and makes us wonder how we get ourselves into these things! We've been invited back to the spring bazaar and have been busy planning what to do!
During the middle of our craft madness Zachary was losing his second tooth and wiggled it constantly to my chagrin. I get squeamish over few things and this is one of them. He wiggled and pushed one night over at my house with Avery and Nathan in complete excitement and awe. It bled and bled but didn't come out. I think Candy eventually yanked it out....another thing I couldn't do.... It made things easier when about a week later Nathan and Avery crashed head on into each other. Avery's lips were split open and her front tooth bleeding, bruised purple and almost knocked out. You can imagine my biased attitude when it happened to be the exact front tooth I mysteriously lost under the watchful eye of my big brother Vaughn some 33 years ago..... Luckily she healed up with only a lovely gray bruised tooth with no nerve or root damage. Notice all pictures from here out, gray gray gray.:( Nathan had a huge bruise and the imprint of Avery's tooth on his forehead for more than a week. Notice Candy's family pictures.....
Grandma Thelma Smith celebrated her 90th birthday and we went up to Twin Falls for her party/mini Smith reunion. Here are some photos from that day of Avery with Grandma Thelma and Jana, Cal, Sean and Dillon Lindsay. Jana is Linda's baby sister and her and her family are saints we don't know how we'll ever repay their kindness to us. Jana made a wonderful video of her life and shared it with us and presented it to her during a ward celebration for her. We have just loved being close to them here and get together every Sunday night to watch The Amazing Race together.
Christmas crept up on us so quickly! Each year I seem to get more and more disgusted with the materialism of the holiday. It has made me all the more grateful for our family ornament exchange. I get so much joy out of decorating the tree and especially this year with Avery, being able to tell her who gave us each ornament. I hope this is a family tradition that is a permanent one. Avery was hilarious opening her gifts but was funnier to watch pick out presents for her cousins and then not be able to keep them a secret. As long as she gets more excited to give than receive I don't care....
She also became obsessed with nutcracker dolls and we found a girl version to make her happy.
She also became obsessed with nutcracker dolls and we found a girl version to make her happy.
Avery, Nathan and Zachary finally decorated their ginger bread houses a week after Christmas. Britt ripped the roof off to eat within hours and I didn't sound too convincing telling him we need to just enjoy looking at it until it gets stale, then you can eat it....
Britt and I celebrated our birthdays with store bought cakes from the yummiest pastry shop here in town. I think they tasted even better than usual because I hadn't slaved away in the kitchen making them. Britt took the day off for my birthday which he's never done before. It was such a great day with sweet phone calls and pure relaxation! I didn't even mind the 2 new gray hairs I found! Here we are on both days wearing "the Birthday hat" given to us a couple of years ago by Barney. It is pretty silly but hey if it makes you feel good on that special day.....
It's hard to believe that the month is almost over. We have been so busy with life that the last few months are a blur. While Britt is busy with work he is still getting ready for his upcoming scout hikes and dons his backpack stuffed to a 50lb weight and his hiking boots and hikes on the treadmill an hour a day. Trying to be social I signed us up for a dinner group in our ward and joined a home made card class. Candy and I have been busy searching for projects to do and get so easily excited and distracted with something new we want to try. I enjoy her so much! I have been so baby happy lately and I am so thankful she is close and I get to love little Andrew. He is so sweet a boy!
Avery is sprouting like a weed and I feel like I'm doing poorly with keeping up with her! She has become quite the artist and loves to dance. She also keeps sneaking into my makeup and doing herself up. I knew she was growing up fast when we were watching Harry Potter and she told me the white hair boy was soooooo handsome. Yuck Draco Malfoy? Well he was cute until he talked anyway.... She has been obsessed with going to Disneyland lately with all the advertising propaganda on TV so I asked her the other day which she would rather have.....Grandma and Grandpa moving to live close to us or going to Disneyland.... When I heard the beginning of her answer I was so pleased with her..... "I want Grandma and Grandpa to come move close to us......and.....they can come get me and take me to Disneyland and we can live there forever!" I couldn't agree more!;)
