Walking

Claire took 8 steps on Friday...

I was at work and Becky and Danny were watching her for the afternoon.

I missed it.

I'm not sure that the BYU Management luncheon and my afternoon client meeting were worth it. Sigh.

She wouldn't walk again over the weekend, although she does stand up on her own now without holding on to anything. Who knows, she might have already walked at Emily's house but I told her to let me stay ignorant of it so I will think Claire walks for the first time at our house. Is that weird? Anyway, now we know she can walk, but just chooses not to. Stubborn.

Cousin Time, Playing Tourist

We have had some more chances than normal to get in some cousin time - from back in September with Cousin Evie's birthday, to hanging out at the Hillers for Sunday dinner, to this past weekend with a visit from McKinley, oh and her parent's too, my sister Becky and her hubbie Dan.







We played tourist yesterday and went down to The Strip, something I haven't done in a long time. I think the last time was a Michael Buble concert at the MGM when I was 8+ months pregnant. We went out to dinner at The Salt Lick in Red Rock Casino, then on to walk on the Strip and see the two new casinos we haven't been to yet - The Wynn (which has been open for a few years, we just never got around to going), and The Palazzo.

And we topped the night off with a Nothing Bundt Cake for Dan's birthday - so good! We had fun with them and can't wait to see them again for Thanksgiving.

Young Women's - Take 151

So, I have calculated that I have been a part of, or been in charge of, at least 150 Young Women's activities over the past 3+ years. It gets difficult to think up a new activity every week.

So this week, I finally found a use for these cute little lip gloss pots that I bought about five years ago, thinking that I would start my own lip gloss line of products someday. Side note: I am addicted to all things lips. I have chapstick or lipgloss stashed away in pretty much every purse, diaper bag, drawer and car console. Anyway, I digress. So, I decided to use these pots to make homemade lipgloss for our young women's activity. It actually turned out very well! We made coconut, strawberry and peppermint flavors.

Here is the recipe and a few pics from our activity night. My car still smells like coco-berry-mint.



4 T. petroleum jelly (vaseline)
2 t. beeswax
ground eyeshadow (it should look like a powder)
medicine dropper
lip gloss containers

Grate the beeswax so that it's easier to melt. Put eye shadow into one section of an ice cube tray. Melt in pan on medium heat. Add extract for desired scent (vanilla, cherry, coconut, root beer, etc). Use a dropper to transfer the liquid into the ice cube tray. Use the dropper to mix the color throughout the liquid (squeeze it in and out). Use the dropper to transfer to pots and then freeze until solid (10-15 minutes). This batch will make about 4 pots of lip gloss.

Birthday Party Pics

A photo recap of Claire's birthday party at the Hillers - I made the cake, nothing fancy but it turned out pretty cute. Claire did eat the cake - but she was dainty about it, just picking up small pieces with her fingers - she got a little bit messy, but nothing like what we had hoped for, given that this was her first full fledged sugary treat.

She was very spoiled though- we got some great presents from everyone including some really fun toys that actually make noise! And we are keeping the batteries in this time, don't worry.

Girl After My Own Heart

Claire loves Kate Spade already... even it if is a knock off from New York... she has good taste :) She will carry this purse around and even if she falls down or is crawling, she will hold on to the purse so it never leaves her arm.

No more working from home

So, it's official. I can no longer have a regular day to work from home. I have been working 2 days from home since January so I could be with Claire, and although it was getting difficult to balance things as Claire got older and wanted to play and move all around the house, I still really valued the extra time with her. I went to four days in the office and one day working "remotely" a few weeks ago, and then just got an email from my boss saying that anyone who was doing work from home had to stop by Sept 30 since it wasn't efficient for the firm. Maybe this is why I can't sleep and I am up blogging at 3 am...

I will miss things like seeing this while I'm typing at my desk.


Claire got underneath the desk and scared me half to death when her hand shot out on my keyboard. It was pretty funny though - she loves to hear the keys click clack and will do anything to get to them.

We found it... now do we want it?

Yep. The truck was found on Tuesday morning at a construction site off of Jones, just North of Russell. A construction worker actually called Matt - not the police. Go figure. We assume he must have got the contact info by looking inside the truck...


The tires and rims were gone - it was up on blocks of brand new wood. Dents and scratches on most of the sides and all equipment was gone, except for the water tank.

The police came about 2 1/2 hours later and looked inside... it had paint splattered all over the place.

My vote is to just take the insurance money, which Geico is actually still letting us take if we want it, and walk away from the truck. I think Matt wants to keep it, but we have to decide in a day or so what to do.


I just wish they would catch the people who stole it - they must live around here to dump the truck just a few miles from our house, after 3 weeks.