EASTER

Easter weekend went by FAST at our house... or more correctly put, grandma and grandpa Claytons house.

We started with Heathers wedding on Friday and then got up bright and early Sat morning and drove to St. George for our traditional Easter weekend.

Sat night we colored eggs

grandpa helped Kaden

Daddy helped Taycee

They both thought it was the greatest thing ever, and we spent most of the time trying to keep the dye cups upright and fingers out of them.

the finished product

Not sure what to say about this...

I am biased I know... but are they not the cutest ever??

They wore these outfits to the wedding on Fri but it was too cold to get good pics so I took advantage of Easter and snapped a few shots. Also Taycee has HORRIBLE allergies so she looks a little sickly in all these pics. I still find her adorable :D

At the temple, there was a tourist lady on temple square following these two taking pictures as they were walking down the street holding hands.

Our fam on Easter morning, squinty eyes and all.

The egg hunt.

Every year the egg hunt is intense at the Clayton home, probably because the eggs hold things of real value. We made 25 dollars from our findings this year. Luckily the little ones get their own eggs on the grass that are off limits to the big kids.

Taycee loved finding eggs, she had to carry her new easter purse and her egg basket everywhere she went.

Kaden made a haul, his basket was over flowing...

yet somehow he still felt left out when there were no more eggs to find

here is one shot of the big kids looking for the "golden egg"... I found it! :D

Hope you all had a Happy Easter.

Wedding Bliss

My baby sister Heather got married this last weekend. And I know it is totally backwards to post pictures from the wedding day before I even get around to editing her bridals... BUT, I only snapped a few while I was following them around so it didn't seem so daunting to edit the handful I had. :D Her bridals will be posted sometime this week... I hope!

In no particular order... pictures from the temple and luncheon.

It turned out to be a beautiful day, a tad but chilly but no rain at all.

My cute cute parents with Hunter

My cute cute brother and his cute cute uh... fiancé... well almost ;)

We sure did miss the other sister. :(

Kaden wants to be just like his uncle so now they BOTH smile like this.....

Lovely.

Our family hanging out during pics, can you tell both my kids have my husbands sensitive eyes... we have yet to get a good outside pic with eyes open.

For Time and all Eternity

Congrats you two!!

From the mouth of my little babe

Kaden cracks me up lately. Seriously the things he says make me giggle. He has recently gotten a lot better at saying his own prayers. He is finally grasping the concept of thanking and asking for blessings. However he hasn't grasped the idea of what we do and don't pray about. Here are a few clips from last nights prayer

" and I'm thankful for my big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big new bed. Please bless it to grow healthy and strong."

"I am thankful for grandpas car, please bless I can get in it and go away really really fast."

"Please bless my rope swings ( that is what he calls the new bead curtains in his room) that they will get taller and taller"

"I am thankful for treats and my drink"

"Please bless that mom and dad will be nice to me"

" Please bless my light, and my TV and my crayon stickers and all of my stuffses" ( that his way of making a plural out of any word.. just adding "ses" on the end of it... dinosaurses, drinkses, treatses"

I guess we will have to keep working on the prayer thing.

He has an incredible imagination and I love listening to him tell me his stories. Yesterday Taycee was on the ground and he walked up to her and said "come here puppy." she didn't even glance at him but he didn't care he just kept talking "oh you are so beautiful and orange, come here I will hold you so you don't fall" on and on and on about his beautiful orange puppy.

He was telling me about his breakfast and said "oh mom, it was so incredible and delicious."

We were talking about the baby and I said "what is right here?" pointing to my stomach, he said "a big big belly!" Chris thought that was especially funny.

He loves to tell me he is too big or too small to do whatever I ask him to do.

ex. Me: Kaden go find your cup Kaden: "Mom I just can't I am too small"

He also tells me he is broken when he doesn't want to help out.

Taycee has recently picked up a new thing as well, when she gets in trouble she lets out a big sigh and says "oh man, come on mom." or dad or whoever is getting after her.

A few days ago I was in her room and she pointed to my chest and said "mom you have woo-hoo's huh!?" I think I didn't reply for over a minute because I was in shock. Still have NO idea where she picked that up from. I asked Kaden later that day what who-hoo's were and he said "you know like the song that goes, (singing) woo-hoo, woo-hoo" He was referring to black eye'd peas "I've got a feeling". I was relieved that he too wasn't calling womens chests woo-hoo's. :D That would have been fun to explain to his pre-school teachers.

Ah the joys of children who pick up on EVERYTHING!

26 weeks

26 weeks? Really? Does the ticker on this blog really say 14 weeks left? HOLY CRUMB where does the time go?

Here I am in all my glory at 26 weeks...

I am so so happy to report that I am feeling better in this pregnancy than any of the others. About 2 oclock I get extremely tired but other than that and the sore muscles I have no complaints at all.

We had another ultrasound last week and were so happy to hear that things are looking better than last time. I still have SUA but her heart and other things they were worried about look much better this time around. She is very small and is measuring a few weeks behind where she should be but other than that things are good. Thanks so much for all of your prayers and well wishes. We are very optimistic!

And lastly the hair... as you can tell in the above pics I did not cut it. I was too afraid I would regret it. I didn't want to cut it just because I am pregnant and dying to change something :D ha! So I will wait til after the baby and see how I'm feeling about it then.

Still long... you should have seen the smile on Chris's face when I walked in the door.

Here comes the bride

Just a few pics of this beautiful bride.

Karo-Syrup Plates

Chris doesn't have a living blood grandma. Both of his mom and dad's mom and dad have passed away. This is so sad to me because both of my grandmas are alive and awesome and so fun and we get to see them all the time and spend time with them.

One of Chris's best memories with one of his grandmas is making Karo-syrup plates. I had never heard of this but it was something he did almost every time he went over, so this week for FHE we made Karo-syrup plates. The kids LOVED it and thought it was the coolest thing ever. It is so simple to do and you probably have everything you need on hand.

First take a plate ( we used Styrofoam but Chris usually used plastic ones)

Put a few puddles of karo-syrup on the plate

Add a drop of food coloring to each puddle

Then just rotate the plate around and let it run till all the colors mix together for some fun tie-dye action.

WHALA! Karo-syrup plates

Ignore the awful blurry pic, it was the best I captured of all three

beautiful masterpieces. Chris said normally the syrup spreads out better and the colors aren't so dark, but we used small plates and weird food coloring.

It was fun to relive a blast for Chris's past. :)

Death of the TV

Meet our TV... actually I should say meet Chris's TV because that is how it really is.

Everyone has their "thing" mine is pictures. I take pictures of every event, Chris doesn't get it. For Chris getting a nice big TV has been his "thing" since we got married I don't get it. For me our 15 year old big box TV was just fine. But Chris wanted... no needed this TV, and so we spent our entire Christmas budget this year on a TV. Granted we did get it on Black Friday for a screaming deal... but still it was out entire meager Christmas Budget. We did not get one other thing.

Fast forward to last Wednesday....

Okay take a closer look at that bottom left had corner....

Did you throw up a little in your mouth? Because when I got out of the shower and came downstairs to find this.... well it wasn't my proudest moment. I was sick, and scared to death for my little son who I was sure would be dead when his daddy got home.

The culprit? This little treasure...

If you are wondering what in the world that is, it is what is left of a bunny ear antenna. We have never had "TV" and have always just got whatever we could through an antenna. We bought this gem when we first got married and over the years it has been abused. It still does a decent job however and we have kept it around. Last week Taycee broke the top off the longest end leaving it sharp and jagged. I guess Kaden though the lines it made when he drug it across the TV screen were pretty cool, "like his doodle pad" in his words. Unfortunately there is no magic erases to sweep across the TV and erase those lines.

On the bright side of this story..

I called Chris hoping to lessen the blow for Kaden by telling Chris before he got home. Do you know what he did? That kind, gentle, understanding jewel of a husband I have said "Oh well, life goes on." The TV he had waited and begged for years for, the TV that he still gets a big childish grin about when he watches, HIS TV had just been defaced and he didn't even flinch. I felt silly for being so worried. And my love increased for him 10 times more. He truly is an AMAZING guy.

Also, when the TV is on you don't notice the scratches at all, so the picture quality is still just as good. :) It just looks sad and damaged when the TV is off.

And her name will be...

*Note since the making of these letters there has been a great debate on weather it should be an *i* or *y* so it might be changing!

This story actually starts back when I found out I was pregnant. Kaden insisted that I was having a "sister" from the moment he knew a new baby was joining our family. I tried to convince him numerous times it was a brother because I really wanted a boy. He was not budging, no matter what I said he insisted that this little baby was a girl. Lo and behold he was right.... well about a month ago I was sitting with him in the living room and out of nowhere he tells me "her name is Addison baby" once I realized he was talking about our baby I teased him a little and said "no her name is Tessa ( or one of the other names we had been throwing around)" he would get so upset each time and tell me with conviction her name was Addison. About a week after that he was saying the blessing on dinner and out of the blue said "thankful for baby Addison, please bless her" a few days after that as we were sitting down for dinner and Kaden looked to Chris and said "Oh no daddy, someone is missing!" Chris tried to reassure him we were all there and pointed us all out by name, he replied "no daddy, I mean baby Addison." It was sweet and I had a definite feeling that Kaden was already very familiar with this little girl joining our family. It was a simple reminder of how thin the veil is for these little ones.

Since then both kids call the baby Addison, every time Taycee sees a baby she says look it is an Addison baby. We've tossed around other names but nothing feels right. So it has been decided by Kaden that her name will be Addison Marie Clayton... or maybe Addyson Marie Clayton. :) Anyone have an opinion there?

Me Day

Today was a "ME" day. As in Chris worked from home and watched the kids and I spent the day out of the house with just ME, MYSELF, and I. Then I went and got my hair done and ended the day with a Relief Society Dinner party. Now I am in bed, a plate of nachos polished off and two kids sleeping soundly across the hall. The only thing that could make today better would be to end it with a massage... and to be honest, with the husband I have that just might happen. I know what you are thinking.... yes he really is that great. He lets me have "me" days when he can tell my stress levels are reaching maximum. With 2 weddings and about a zillion things to get done in the next 2 weeks I was there. Not to mention I lost my phone, Kaden defaced our new flat screen TV and I am quickly running out of clothing that fits. So he took over for a day and somehow managed to get all his work done, take the kids to the park and clean up the house.... yes he really is that great. He is my super hero, my modern day real life super hero. I couldn't make it without him.

Tomorrow I have an endless to do list...

Finish editing Kelsey bridal session

Finish... okay start the wedding video

Find music for above mentioned video

Write a toast

Do the laundry

Unpack from last weekends trip

Return countless dresses I have bought, tried on.... and looked like a fat cow in

Update this good ole' blog with the recent happenings including the latest baby update, the name story, the TV story, the latest (LARGEST) belly pic, the new hair ( the votes were totally split), a few pics of (one of) the beautiful bride(s)

Work on hand stitching the veil

Get things ready for this weekends party

Get things ready for next weekends bridal shower

Set up appointments for my "pamper day" for Heather

it goes on and on and on.... you get the idea

But tonight is still part of the "me" day so I am going to forget about the above mentioned looming list and finish off the day in peace.

Goodnight.

-Me