Gardening Experiment

As the adults were outside talking about where to put the garden, the kids had fun exploring and helping to place the garden boxes.

Derek found a baby slug

I love that he shows me everything he catches. :)

Bryce helped Mitchell and Colton place the garden boxes in just the right spot

Starting Clara's Mobile

My mom and sisters came over to hang out with us for a while. Mom surprised us with Whataburger for lunch (she knows us...well, me... too well!) and Derek proceeded to tell Nana all about Bigfoot: what he looks like, sounds like and the reindeer he hunts to build his sleigh. He doesn't eat the deer, he just uses them to build his sleigh. What pulls the sleigh, you ask? Dragons. Uh-huh. After lunch, we pulled out Clara's mobile so we could tell Clara that Aunt Kelly, Amy, Val and Nana helped make her mobile. While Clara was passed around between people, we measured, cut and strung fishing line with crystals. Bryce wandered over to reach up and grab crystals and Amy started saying, "Wee Woo! Wee Woo!" really loudly to try to distract him. I got a great picture but she's forbidden me from putting it on the blog, so it will have to make the yearbook edition. :) After we strung all the crystals we wanted onto the fishing line (most had three crystals at varying lenghts along the string), we then tied these lengths of fishing line to a wire wreath that I hung in the garage. I'll hot glue flowers on it and then we'll hang it in Clara's room! Thanks to Nana, Aunt Kelly, Aunt Amy, Aunt Val, Rob and Mitchell for working on the mobile. It's going to look awesome!

Nana recorded some of Derek's Bigfoot stories. This kid...

Aunt Bella gets some Clara time

Stringing crystals is intense...

...and can even make you a little crazy. :)

Concentration

Aunt Val gets some Clara time, too

Clara's First Solid Food and Meeting Ivan the Boxer Puppy

Back to Keller we go! Mom had a surprise for Clara - solid food! We usually start the kids on solids at six months, and I think Clara was more than ready. Applesauce was her first taste and she LOVED it! Nana was thrilled to give her her first bites and the two of them made for quite the entertainment. Clara demanded food almost as fast as Nana could shovel it and then she tried to grab at the spoon to make it go even faster. After a while, Aunt Jenn and Uncle Tim arrived and brought a surprise with them - their new puppy, Ivan! Derek and Bryce were instantly fascinated. Bryce was, again, more content to watch, but Derek was obsessed. Ivan is only five weeks old, so he wasn't too interested in being played with, but he was pretty happy to be held comfortably. When we started heading home, Derek started begging for a puppy and I'm pretty sure he won't stop for at least a week.

 Yum! Apples!

 Keep it coming, Nana!

 "Ooooo..." says Bryce. He thought Ivan was pretty cool.

 Ivan wasn't so sure about Bryce

Ivan the Adorable! He's a reverse brindle boxer which means he's black and white. Pretty neat.

 Mitchell was pretty smitten, too

 Aunt Bella and Aunt Amy helped Clara fill her need for cuddles

 Derek didn't even want to leave Ivan alone so he could eat

 Looking at Ivan through a pair of binoculars

Aunt Bella, Nana, and Bryce

Aunt Bella loves her Brycie Bryce!

Liz's Baby Shower

It's getting closer! Liz's fourth baby is almost here! One of the wonderful sisters in the ward opened her home and threw a baby shower for Liz. Tammy made this adorable cake and several sisters in the ward brought cute baby clothes and blankets for little girls. I didn't get a chance to take any other pictures, but Liz got so many cute things, I can't wait to see them on her littlest girl. Congratulations Liz and massive thanks to Holly for hosting and setting everything in motion.

 Everyone loved this sweet peachy-pink cake - and it tasted even better than it looked! Vanilla cake and raspberry filling on bottom with lemon cake and raspberry filling on top.

Mommy-to-be (again!)

Curiosity

He wanted to watch the microwave work 

Forget Curious George - Curious Derek gets into more trouble

Sweet Moments and Amy's Birthday

We'll get to the birthday in a minute, but first I wanted to share this adorable moment - brought to you by Derek and Clara. Derek often asks to hold or feed Clara and he does a great job. This time, I propped her up with a few more pillows than normal, but they still had a sweet interaction.

 Proud big brother!

 Clara loves her big brother

 She loves to look around while she's eating.

Sometimes Derek gets creative with his bottle hold. :)

Now on to the birthday celebration! Amy is older! Actually, I think she barely broke 22. Everyone graciously came out to Prosper to celebrate with cake and presents and fun. Boy did we have fun. Derek and Bryce recorded a sweet message on a squeeze-activated stuffed apple that we found for Aunt Amy. She can squeeze it anytime she misses the boys and she'll get a laugh. Isaac and Andrew shared their artistic talents and made a cute little card for her. Tammy made an awesome cake that Amy has been begging for ever since her first brownie bomb.... a brownie bomb studded cake. It was AWESOME!

 The crew! Nana, Clara, Papi, Amy, Emeri, Liz, Austin, Mitchell and Danny. The other kids are somewhere.

 Amy's thing is flying pigs, so I made her some flying pigs. :)

 It wasn't the prettiest cake in the shop, but it sure tasted good! Happy birthday, Amy!

 Isaac, Aunt Amy and Andrew with the cute card

Clara and Aunt Amy

 Nana and her Brycie Bryce

 What party is complete without face painting? We had a blast! Derek wanted to be a red dragon and Isaac (with some subtle suggestion from Liz, lol) wanted me to turn his mouth into a snake. Turned out pretty cool!

 Emeri's face painting turned into butterfly meets Lucha Libre, but it's still pretty cool. :)

 Danny and Bryce. Wow, if bromance was ever a thing, this is the poster for it. These two adore each other and it's so cute to watch them play. Bryce loves his Danny!

 Danny tried so hard to get Bryce to do "duck face." It was hilarious to watch Bryce try to get his lips in the right shape and then this was the only picture I got while he was doing the right lips. I call it "Drunk Duck at the Party." Whoopie! Neighborhood! - name that movie!

Eating Pickles!

Derek's attempt at eating a pickle

Bryce was less interested

Sweet Little Lady

This sweet little lady is almost six months old! She's still tiny, but I think I kind of like having a little baby. She's very portable and lifting her is a cinch compared to lifting the Brick. We should probably start calling him the Boulder. Here's our pretty little lady bug!

 Little Ladybug

 Derek adores her

 Don't bite the back of he who hugs you!

 Got your face!

 She grabs her toes a lot... one of the perks of having long, skinny legs.

Clara kicks when she's excited

Drawing Eyebrows on Clara

 Found this crazy idea on Pinterest - and I still can't stop laughing!

High school baby picture right here. You're welcome.

Pudding Face!

 Who me?

 I hear pudding is a good hair conditioner

Shhh.... don't tell mom!