What I'm Lacking...

I don't know about all of you out there, but I find some of my best thinking comes while I'm washing dishes. Can I just tell you how much I hate washing dishes though? Really hate it. But, as I just stated, I find myself doing some productive thinking while I'm elbow deep in suds. Today was no exception.

I've been lacking in the Gratitude department and it really hit me hard today. I don't remember how it came about really. My thoughts tend to be scattered and random while I am pregnant and I'm so forgetful these days, I hardly remember how I got to a certain point in my thinking. (I know, it's bad.)

I think it started when I realized how lucky we are to live on the bottom/basement floor of our apartment building. We're partially underground, which keeps us a lot cooler in the summer than most apartments. Claire and I had just gone to visit our friends in the next building over and they live on the 3rd floor, and it is very warm in their apartment. So, I started thinking about how grateful I was to live on the bottom floor. But then, oh yes, THEN, I started thinking about other friends of mine who live in homes and who have A/C and have the cars, the clothes, the lives that I think I'm yearning for. They look like the perfect mothers, as their kids are talking, eating healthy foods, playing in yards, swimming in pools, and doing things I think my daughter should be doing. So questions arise, like, "am I good enough? Am I really doing my best? Am I a good mother? Am I a GREAT mother? What am I doing wrong??" And then I remembered this little gem that I had pinned on Pinterest a few months back.

"Comparison is the thief of joy."

-Theodore Roosevelt

"What am I doing to myself??" I thought, as I continued loading dishes into the dishwasher. "WHY am I doing this to myself?" I looked around my apartment and saw the things that matter most to me, pictures of my family, the Temple Dallin and I were sealed in, my sweet little girl as she runs around with a head full of curls and lungs the size of Texas (with a sound to match). What was it that I was really lacking? Was it the clothes, the cars, the house, the talents, the perfect children? Oh no. Not at all. What I was/am lacking is the gratitude for the things I do have. 

I find myself repeating these words as I pray, "I am so grateful for all that Thou has given to me". Apparently, to me, they've just been words. If I was truly grateful, the complaining would stop, the wishing for the next best thing would stop. So today, I'm going to make a change. I'm going to stop wishing for what I don't have and start being grateful for the things I DO have. Because, really, I have SO much. So much than I really deserve. Here are some things at the top of my list of gratefuls.

1. My hardworking husband. It's hard in the summer time when I don't see him too much, but I am so grateful that he works as hard as he does to provide for us. I am so lucky.

2. My daughter. She has entered this terrible two phase in full force, but the sweet moments, the ones I cherish the most, far outnumber the grouchy moments.

3. My husbands decision to attend graduate school. I can't tell you how proud I am that Dallin has decided to go on and get this higher level of education. It's been a sacrifice in many ways, but one that I (and he) will forever be grateful for.

4. My apartment. It lacks A/C, but it is home to so many memories that I would not trade for the entire world. 

5. Our truck. It might be a little cramped when this next little one comes, but it runs (and runs well!) and it has A/C, so I can just jump in there when the apartment gets too hot. :)

6. The Gospel. It keeps me grounded, gives me hope, lifts my spirits, and reminds me that I am a beloved Daughter of God. 

7. My family. All of my family. Mom, Dad, brothers, sisters, Mother-in-law, Father-in-law, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, everyone! They are the examples I look to, the support system when times are tough, and the love that keeps us going. 

I could go on, but I'll stop. I needed a little kick in the behind to remind me how fortunate I really am. Life isn't always easy, but there is always, ALWAYS something to be grateful for. I just need to to remember, even when it's difficult.

{My greatest blessing}

22 Months!

I haven't done a post focusing on Claire for a while now and I figured, if nothing else, for my future reference, I should do that! I am amazed at how quickly I forget things that she's done and she's only been on this earth for a couple months shy of 2 years! So here are some things I want to remember about Claire at this age.

We are entering the terrible twos. It's a sad day in this house. She hates being in a shopping cart and likes to run away from me at any given moment.

She loves to scream! It's usually a happy scream, but nonetheless, it's loud!

That would be her screaming!

She loves to sing. We are really happy about that, because it's much sweeter than the screaming. The first song she ever sang was "I am a Child of God" which melted my heart the first time I heard it and continues to melt my heart anytime I hear it now. Just today she started singing along to the songs on Tangled, which I thought was pretty darn cute (that might be a sign we watch it too much though...)

Her vocabulary is hit and miss. Sometimes she repeats what I say and other times she will say a complete sentence that totally pertains to what we are saying and then she speaks in a language that we have affectionately named, "Claire-abic". It makes no sense whatsoever, but she talks a mile a minute like we should know exactly what she's saying!

She loves the piano. She always climbs up and plays (or pounds) and turns the pages of the Children's Song Book while she does it. I'm pretty sure she thinks she's actually playing a song.

She loves to be outside. I wish we had more of a lawn area where she could run around, but we don't. We do have a park that's like a minute walk from our apartment, so that is nice. She loves to climb on the jungle gym and swing and just run around (and away). She never walks anywhere either, it's always a run. Why walk when running is faster, right??

Claire LOVES animals. Dogs and cats are the favorite right now (probably because they're the only kind we really have in close proximity) and she is finally getting brave enough to pet them. Her petting is hilarious. She holds her hand out with her fingers totally extended so that her hand is rigid and just rubs back and forth a bunch. I wish I could more accurately paint that picture, but that's the best I can do!

Her imagination is expanding. She plays with her toys a lot more, especially her animals (go figure) and tries new things all the time. It's so fun to watch her learn and grow!

She loves to dance. Oh she loves to dance! Anytime there is music, she gets her groove thing on. It's hilarious. She is adding new moves into her repertoire everyday, too. Tonight my brother, Marcus recorded her dancing on his iPhone and we were all dying. She is so funny. She loves to perform in front of a crowd. At least as far as dancing goes. It seems the more people there are to cheer her on, the more into the dancing she gets.

Claire is a girl after her mothers heart. She loves shoes. Her favorites right now are her Jellies, her tennis shoes and her white ballet flat Sunday shoes. Those are really the only ones she wears anyway, because it seems we haven't had a ton of flip flop occasions around here lately. We were in Costco the other day and I saw they had some really cute rain boots in Claire's size and I went to look at them. As soon as she saw them, she wanted her shoes off and those boots on and threw a major fit when we left the store without them. A little birdie told me that Grandma Henry bought some for her today for her birthday, so all will be right in the world in a couple months. :)

She's starting to have an opinion on what she wears. She only likes certain Sunday dresses and sometimes the outfit I put on her for the day will just not do. Luckily, if I put her jellies on, it seems to make up for the, in her eyes, less than satisfactory outfit and we avoid a major meltdown.

She does somersaults when she's mad. :) It's kind of funny, actually. She throws herself on the floor and then sticks her bum in the air and decides to do a somersault. I have no idea why that is the reaction, but it is!

Her "scrunchy mad, but not really mad" face

She is a picky eater. I can hardly get that girl to put anything in her mouth that isn't a chicken nugget! Luckily she loves green smoothies and so I make her one almost everyday to counteract the lack of nutrition everywhere else in her diet.

She loves to give kisses. She puckers up her lips and will kiss just about anyone who will ask for one. :) We might need to curb that pretty soon so that she knows she can't kiss just anyone!

She's very attached to me. I am kind of dreading what life will be like when the new baby gets here, because Claire is quite possessive of me. Hopefully by then she will get super attached to Dallin :) She also has been having a really hard time going to Nursery the last few Sundays, which is a shocker for us, seeing as she practically ran in the first Sunday and never looked back. We're hoping that now we are back in our old building and have a much better time (10:30-1:30, holla!) she'll do better. At least we are crossing our fingers!

So that is what life is like with Claire these days. We love her so much and feel so blessed to have her in our family, even with the temper tantrums :) She really is a sweet girl and loves life, I just have to run to keep up with her! Being her mom is so rewarding, especially when she grabs both my cheeks and plants a huge kiss on my lips and says, "la-loo" (translation: "love you"). I couldn't ask for a better job than this.

Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?

I looked at my last post and realized it's been over a month since I last posted on here! My goodness how time flies. We've been so busy, sometimes it feels like we've barely caught our breath when we move onto another thing. At the end of June, Dallin and I both got food poisoning (yuck!) Dallin got it much worse than me and we ended up in the ER one morning after a particularly bad night. Needless to say, it will probably be a long time before either of us eats at that restaurant again!

Claire swimming at Rachel and Chad's in June. She's a total water bug!

 The first week in July, as is tradition, we headed to Priest Lake with the Calaway's and had ourselves a wonderful, relaxing time! The water was FREEZING this year, so the majority of us didn't get in the lake until Friday, when it was super hot! Janelle, we're convinced, is part mermaid, seeing as she was in the water almost everyday for hours at a time. Seriously, I don't know how she did it, but she was in the lake constantly!

For some reason, my SD card wouldn't work and I didn't figure out how to format it to my camera until Friday, so I took the smallest amount of photos this year than I ever have. I still need to get a bunch from Jeff and Valerie, so once I do that, there will be more documentation of our trip :)

Claire "swimming" in Priest Lake

The Firework show at Kalispell Bay. It was AMAZING!

The group floating on tubes, working on tans :)

 After Priest Lake, we headed back to Pasco for a few days with my family and then finally headed back down to Salem mid-week. I had my 14 week appointment and a presidency meeting and so I figured it was time to get back to real life. We miss being around family!

14 weeks!

Claire on her cousins trike. I think I know what we'll be getting her for her birthday!

Two of Claire's favorite cousins, Emiline and Savannah.

 Now that we're back down in Oregon, harvest has begun and the craziness has taken over our lives! Dallin has probably slept in our bed 5 times in the last 2-3 weeks, which stinks, but that's life in the summer time. Claire and I have gone out to the fields where Dallin is working the last few days and Claire absolutely LOVES it out there. She loves the tractors, she loves running wild in the fields and I love picking blackberries from all the wild blackberry bushes that surround the field. There are thousands upon thousands of blackberries! They're just barely starting to ripen, so as the season wears on, I will be out there more and more so I can store up tons of berries for the winter. And the best part? They're free! My favorite part of the summer is picking blackberries out at the fields. So fun!

Claire making sure Dad's truck is all safe and secure!

She picked up hay off the ground that the baler missed and tried sticking it back on the bale. It didn't really work.

Once she discovered she could sit and stand on the bales, she didn't want to get off!

Claire's first tractor ride with Daddy!

Riding with Uncle Derek while he stacked bales.

Claire and Mom! I had the camera focused way too close, so that's why part of Claire's head got cut off. She wouldn't let me take another picture with her after this. Ahh well! We got one cute one, that's all that matters, right??

And Then There Were Two...

Claire has this picture she just cannot stop looking at. It's her new favorite. And quite frankly, it's kind of our new favorite as well...

{Ultrasound picture taken at 10 weeks. I'm now 12 weeks}

Baby Calaway #2 is set to join our family January 7, 2013. (Although, if he/she is anything like Claire, he/she will arrive before Christmas!)

Once again, we're not finding out what we're having, so let the guessing begin! :) We couldn't be more excited!

To the Men in my Life

To the perfect Father for my child, Happy Father's Day. I couldn't ask for anyone better.

To my own father, thank you for being the best example and for loving me completely and unconditionally all these years.

To my father-in-law, thank you for raising a son who works hard, provides for his family and loves us through it all.

To my brothers and brothers-in-law, thank you for teaching me what to look for in a spouse through your love and examples. Each one of you are amazing men whom I love dearly.

Happy Father's Day

It's Always Fun At Grandpa and Grandma's!

Last week, Dallin, Claire and I all headed to Washington for a week to help my mother-in-law with my brother-in-law's graduation. It was a super busy week filled with wonderful food, even better company and lots of laughs! What made it even better was that my sister-in-law Hillary and nephew Colton were there to play with us! It was too much fun and Claire has been a little lost without all the play time companions. (Apparently I am just not as cool as Colton... How can I compete with an almost 5 year old though?) Here are some pictures from the week! 

 Claire and uncle Bryce on the four-wheeler

 Think she was having fun?? :)

 Grandma Calaway took us to a bounce house and Claire LOVED the slides.

 My little construction worker...

 If Colton was Claire's favorite person last week, Aunt Hillary came in at a VERY close 2nd.

 Claire and I going down the big slide! My face looks weird, but she looks cute!

Claire and Mom. I don't take nearly enough pictures with her, as I am usually the one behind the camera. Thank you Hillary, for taking these pictures! I love them all.

Memorial Day

Say what?! Where did the time go? Suddenly it's June 12 and Memorial Day was a little more than 2 weeks ago. I'm so behind! In my defense, I was in Washington for a week helping out my MIL with my BIL's graduation. So, there's my excuse. :)

Dallin and I decided we wanted to go to Lincoln City for Memorial Day and luckily, it was beautiful! It was cold and windy, but the skies were clear, so we were happy. We hit the beach (Claire enjoyed it a lot more this time) the Tanger Outlets and, our new favorite, Figaro's Pizza. Seriously Best. Pizza. Ever. All in all, it was a fabulous day.

 This was our second attempt at taking a family picture. Right as the timer went off, the waves came crashing in. (The tide was just starting to come in.) This was us racing toward the camera to save it from certain death by drowning. Thankfully, we got it in the nick of time!

This was Dallin's attempt at a Sand Castle. Considering he had no tools, I'd say it was a success!

We're so grateful to the men and women who have fought for the freedom we enjoy in this Country. I'm also grateful to the people who are still fighting for our freedom today, whether they are in battle or here on the home front. God Bless America.

{Picture I took last year on Memorial Day at the Othello Cemetery)