an Alpine Christmas

I've been updating my recipe blog like crazy, so it's about time I caught up here. Let's begin with the worst part of parenting EVER! (Tied with sleep training. At least unlike sleep training I only had to do it once. So maybe it's the second worst.)

We threw a potty party to motivate her (decorations and books and movies, etc.) and taught dolly how to use the potty and bribed her and after about 10 accidents the first day and only a few the second, she was mostly trained! We wore pull-ups outside of the house (thought she rarely actually went in them) for about a week (and flying for Christmas) and shortly after our trip she was trained for naps and night-time and outings as well! (She still won't go on a real toilet without being terrified so we tote her mini-porta-potty just about everywhere.) The first day was torture but overall it went so well!

Pneumonia :(

Katelyn and my mom visited in December 

And then we flew to Utah and spent Christmas with my family in Alpine (pictures mostly taken in the basement where Katelyn and Dan are living)

We could theme this blog post "Clara trying to escape every photo"

Christmas Eve

And Christmas morning

and Christmas Dinner (still in our PJs)

dinner at Red Iguana

BYU basketball game

temple square lights

oh, Clara :) ...

a white Christmas

and now for all my iphone photos...

Clara opened her tent before our trip

SHORT hair!

the view from my treadmill one morning

 backyard sledding

and a few of our beautiful little sis in Argentina... we miss Brookie!

Moab Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Moab with Dustin's family (but I didn't get any pictures with anyone besides Erik when we went exploring). Clara enjoyed it more than she let on. 

On our way home we spent the night in Vail. It was beautiful but the skiing is $$$. And Clara got sick that night (ended up being an ear infection and walking pneumonia) so nobody slept. 

Colorado Fall (part II)

September - November

starting with a trip to Utah in September to say goodbye to Brooke, leaving on her mission for Argentina...

sick/sleepy girl 

dinner at the American Fork Farmer's Market

hiking in Boulder

bath time, sick girl again

artist/yogi at work

grandma/grandma visit, the zoo we can't get enough of

meeting sweet Holden^

my mom refinished Clara's dresser and it looks a million times better ^

sick again ^

Colorado fall colors

Clara and I went to VA for the week of Halloween (since we won't be spending Christmas there)

It's stunning there this time of year

Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery

halloween dinner ^

my little mermaid

and then Kristin and Madeline came to visit (we are the luckiest!) ^

crazy cold/snow ^

pre-haircut (it was wild) ^

first haircut @ 2.5 years

and post-haircut!!

much time spent in Denver with the Hatch's thanks to car troubles