Joy!

Claranna's sweet laughter brightens any day!
Enjoy the video clip:

An End to an Era

The day has been a little rough around here. Mark had an early morning phone call from his dad letting him know that Mark's grandpa passed away very early this morning. Even when death is expected, it is never easy to say goodbye and Great Grandpa O will be very missed. He was the last living grandparent for Mark and me and so begins a new era where our parents represent the oldest generation in our family.

As if our sad news this morning was not enough to dampen the day, Claranna awoke not feeling well again this morning. I was hoping that March was going to be the beginning of a healthy month for our family. We have earned it. Between strep, a stomach bug and colds, there were about three days in month of February where everyone in our house was feeling great at the same time. Claranna's illness today helped me to experience a new first. While I was carrying my sweet baby down the stairs this morning, she threw up all over the both of us. Just like that. She was all snuggley and cuddley one second and in the next second, we were both covered in goo. I guess she wanted to overshadow my "lego retrieval" experience from earlier this week when I had to carefully extract a tiny lego from her tinier nostril with a tweezers. Fun stuff!

Right now, Claranna's napping and James and I just put a batch of brownies in the oven to bake. While we were mixing up the brownies my budding scientist, James, told me, "I love you all the way to Jupiter... and that's a lot farther than the moon!" It's those little moments that brighten even the gloomiest day.

Snow Day!

There's not much to do today, except to watch it snow. We did make it to church this morning so that I could sing with the choir, but the roads were terrible. I'm glad to be stuck inside today with my wonderful and beautiful family. I'm sure we'll be making it outside later to do lots of shoveling. James thinks shoveling is so much fun, so he probably has the best attitude about this fresh snowfall.

Sledding with Cousins

A couple of weekends ago we met up with cousins Bryce and Brennen and Auntie Karla to do a little sledding. Grandma Judy was kind enough to watch Claranna so we could just focus on some fun with the big kids. We met the cousins half way between our homes at a school yard and we really enjoyed our time together. It was great to be laughing and playing outside and we were able to stay quite awhile since we didn't have the little one.

A lot of our snow melted this past week when the temperatures climbed into the 40's for the first time in a very long time. The grass in our yard is actually visible in a few spots! I didn't get to enjoy the beautiful weather because I was quite sick on a couple of the nicest days and then James caught my nasty stomach bug and kept us inside on more lovely days. James and I are recovered, but Claranna is really struggling with tummy issues that are either an extension of the stomach bug going around or are somehow related to her food allergies. We have been having a hard time getting her to eat much of anything the past couple of days. Hopefully she'll be much better tomorrow... I don't think that we've had more than a two day stretch of all three kids healthy at once in the past month. I'm ready for spring, but it is more snow that is on the way! We will probably have a day at home tomorrow as the forecast of excessive snow and ice suggests that hanging out at home might be the best way to spend our day. Enjoy the sledding pics!

Social ICE

Social ICE was part of Winter Fest again this year. We managed to make it downtown to enjoy the ice sculptures and the ice bar for a bit on Saturday in the early evening. Our friend Jenny was able to join us. It really was fun to take in all the art, people, and music on a beautiful winter day.
Claranna looks a little guilty in this picture next to the broken sculpture, but she really didn't do anything...

Celebrating the Day

In many ways, our day today was quite normal. The big kids went to school (and had Valentine parties, of course!) and Mark had a good night bowling in his Monday night league. We did manage to squeeze in some special fun with cards, gifts, a nice late dinner (Valentine Jello makes any meal special), treats and a little time together.


Ella is very crafty when it comes to cards and making gifts. Our day began with a nice Valentine's gift display that Ella so sweetly arranged.

Claranna happily read a card this morning. Thank you to all for the lovely Valentines!

I mistakenly thought this gift might be from Mark to me. It was the bag that confused me. Evidently, Ella thought the bag was just the perfect size for a nice gift she had made for James.


All the big people in the house enjoyed the special cookies that Grandma made and delivered with Grandpa this afternoon.

A sweet baby girl loved getting a new puppy to cuddle.

We had a great Valentine's Day that ended with our Valentine's Day tradition that the kids have grown quite fond of -- giant lollipops!

This is the gift of LOVE!

A Valentine's Greeting!