Christmas in WaWaWashington

Having received word of some nasty weather back in Nebraska over this Christmas break, we are even more happy to be here in Washington.  Here are a few pictures.  We will be posting more later.

Emmie as a little elf.

 

Us on the boardwalk between Boulevard Park and Old Fairhaven.  That is Bellingham Bay and the Canadian Cascades in the background.  Have we mentioned how beautiful this place is?!

Emmie catching bubbles she got in her stocking from Santa on Christmas morning

Emmie opening presents.  She is wearing a super cute hat and scarf that Linda made for her.  Super cute!  She wore it around for a while.

Santa put some Pop Rocks in Emmie's stocking and this is her reaction to them.  We thought she would really freak out so we were taping.  She didn't really react much at all.  It was funny because whenever she opening her mouth you could hear them sizzling.

Julianne and Emmis Christmas morning.

Emmie and her two cousins Jenna and Cora in their PJs.

Christmas in Bellingham

We arrived in Bellingham, WA on Monday. After an hour drive to the Omaha airport, a 1.5 hour flight to Denver, a 1.5 hour layover, a 3 hour flight to Seattle, a 2 hour drive to Bellingham, and only 4 dirty diapers we made it.

I (Julianne) have already checked 2 things off my to do list: Costco churro and lunch at the Bagelry.

We have been having fun. Here is proof!

2009 in Review

2009 highlights

News from Emilia

Obviously, it had been a big year for Emzilla. She is walking (actually its usually running, if she is going somewhere it is at top reckless top speed always), talking (babbling mostly), cutting tons of new teeth, dancing, babbling some more, and slowly but surely growing some red hair (thanks to Grandma Jody). She is quite tall for her age, loves all of her friends at church (sassafras) and generally stomps around happily making toys of of pots and pans, chewing on things not meant for chewing, pointing at things and yelling out madeup words for them, and making our lives very happy, though hectic.

News from Brenden

The dissertation is coming along well. I will be graduating in May with my Ph.D. and hopefully starting a job as a professor next fall. If you really want all the boring details about my academic and professional exploits, you'll have to send me an email - I don't want to bore the rest of you with further details. Work in the singles ward bishopric is as great as ever and we have made so many good friends there. A shoutout to all of our YSA peeps.

News from Julianne

Julianne has been tremendously busy this year. Besides being a super mom to Emilia (and an amazing wife to me) she has been discovering new callings in life. Julianne is a crafting fool! She has been making print t-shirts, sewing dresses for Emmie, making all sorts of cute things out of felt, taking photography classes, mastering photoshop, etc . . . The list goes on. Her work shedule this year is the best yet - 1/2 day Mondays, full days Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and Fridays OFF! She is at 3 elementary schools and the kids keep her busy.

Trips we made

1. 2008-2009 Christmas in Arizona - wild times, nice weather, got to see both of our families.
   
2. Gregg and Rachael's Wedding in March - HOORAY for weddings! We love Rachael and were so glad to welcome her to the family! We also made a crazy overnight trip with Lorinda, Matthew, Carianne, Rusty and Jeff to Disneyland (and left the kiddos with grandparents). It was a wild time in the Magic Kingdom. Brenden swam at Huntington Beach and is still bitter that no one else would get in the water with him. Julianne stayed in AZ for another week (and Grandma Linda came down to visit) and Brenden flew out to Wasinghton D.C. to do research at the National Archives. He got to reconnect with some old mission friends - Rhett and Kyle. Eternal thanks to Rhett and Megan for letting me crash in their basement.
   
3. We made a long drive down to Arlington Texas for Easter with our friends Mike and Jamie. Emillia did ok in the car . . . except for the parts when she was screaming like mad. Other than that, she was a good kid. It was so good to see our friends again!
   
4. Julianne made a quick trip to Des Moines to see her friend Betsy. Brenden stayed in Lincoln and moped around lonely for a few days.
   
5. Julianne made another trip to Arizona to visit family. I can't believe how many trips she made!
   
6. Washington D.C. for the 4th of July - a 10 year Clawson family reunion at Lake Anna, VA and Washington D.C. It was crazy and busy, but so much fun. Julianne was very glad to reconnect with long-lost cousins, and Brenden was happy to meet more of the Clawson extended family. That is one wild bunch!
   
7. 2 weeks at the Cabin in Yellowstone (and Brenden to the Glenbow Archives in Calgary for 1 week) - Brenden had funding to do research up in Calgary at the Glenbow Archives, so we made a vacation out of it. Brenden dropped Julianne and Emmie off at the Buehner cabin (Mack's Inn, ID), Brenden went to Canada for a week, then came back and joined the family for another entire week of Yellowstone bliss. Ken even came and visited. Mucho fun!
   
8. Julianne and Emmie to Arizona for Fall Break and Halloween - while Brenden played the productive dissertator, the girls went to Arizona. Grandma Linda joined and they had a lot of fun with the cousins - Jenna, Cora and Kate.
   
9. Christmas in Washington - next week we head up to Bellingham. Can't wait!
   

We have had a momentous year, and indeed, a momentous decade! 10 years ago this Christmas, Brenden was in Romania on a mission and Julianne was a sophomore at Northern Arizona University. In the 2000s we both graduated from college, got married, had a kid, moved to Nebraska, had lots of totally awesome times, made lots of good friends, etc . . . Hopefully the 2010s will be as exciting. 10 years from now we will be approaching 40 years old, Emmie will almost 12 and who knows how many other kids will be running around. Who knows where we will be living by then. CRAZY!

Christmas Vinyl Wishlist

In hopes of driving the Mrs. even crazier, here is my Christmas Vinyl Wishlist:

These are my top 2 choices:



Here are a bunch of others I hope to acquire soon:

Dress up

Those of you who knew me in my younger years can remember my obsession with jewelry. I loved all things with sparkles. Some even called me Jewelryanne. Have you ever been on the ride Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland? I wanted to live here. . .


We have had a bit of cabin fever the last couple of days because of the snow. School has been canceled which I am loving but it is hard to be cooped up all day. I was getting a little desperate trying to find things to entertain Emmie while I finished up a couple of Christmas projects. I looked over and saw my necklaces and knew that would do the trick and it did!

I guess Emmie has inherited my love of pretty things.

The Snow's 1st Casualty

8-10 inches so far. Another 5-6 (6-12? 12-18? who knows!) inches to go.


The 1st Casualty:
A 12 pack of Diet Cherry Pepsi left in the trunk of our car.

Thankfully, since the exploded soda was frozen, it did not leak out of the cardboard 12 pack box!

Chompers

As far as we can count, Emmie had 4 new teeth coming in. That brings the grand total to nine.

If my denistry skills are correct (and they are probably not), they are her canines (or maybe 1st molars) on the bottom and top.

Chomp Chomp.

Finished!

I have finally finished the chair. Emmie will get her Christmas gift early. I am pleased with how it turned out.

BEFORE

AFTER

Christmas gift

We wanted to get Emmie a chair for Christmas this year but we had a hard time finding one that wasn't outragiously priced or didn't have Dora or Elmo on it. So we have been looking for one on craigstlist and found one! It is white leather- not my favorite. It just so happens that I have been looking for an opportunity to learn how to reupholster a chair. So I went to the fabric store and got some great red and cream hounds tooth fabric. I have it almost finished but here are a couple of pictures from when I started. I keep telling Brenden how proud I am of it. It is going to look pretty sweet.

What does a ______________ say?

Emmie is starting to say so many words. I really enjoy the fact that I don't have to guess what she wants anymore. She also has quite a vocabulary of animal noises and signs. Her favorite thing to do lately is to jump.

Words:
Dad
Mom
Happy
Baby
Nana (Banana)
This
Cheese
Teeth
Shoe
Yes
No
Ball
Whats that?

Animal Sounds:
Lion
Bear
Snake
Snail (slirping noises)
Cat
Santa (Ho Ho Ho)
Cow
Dog
Fish

She can point to the following body parts:
Hair
Eyes
Ears
Mouth
Nose
Tongue
Teeth
Belly button
Fingers
Toes

FAT LIP! Emmie's 1st Red Badge of Courage

Walking in from the grocery store tonight, Emmie fell on the pavement, got a fat lip and a bloody nose. She screamed for a good 30 minutes as we wiped away the blood (and bloody snot) and tried to clean her off. A bath with mom helped calm her down a bit and now she is getting some much deserved lap time with mom on the couch. How sad! I'm sure this will be the first of many injuries. Thankfully, the bloody nose stopped quick and the cut on the lip is quite superficial. It also stopped bleeding pretty quick. No stitches needed. Actually, I don't think there will even be a scab. Just a nice fat lip. Maybe this is Emmie's way of telling us that she wants to pursue a career in boxing or ultimate fighting.

Here's the sad kiddo:

Emmie + Scooter

(Sassafras)

Children's Museum and Photo Class

Emmie and I went to the Children's museum with our friends Emily and Mya on Saturday. Lincoln has the BEST children's museum. We had a grand time. Here are a few pictures of our fun.

As you know, I am taking a photography class at the community college. Brenden has been such a good sport being my beautiful model. Here are a few from this week's assignment. They made me laugh.

Photo booths

I LOVE photo booths. While we were at the fair we thought it would be fun to get the girls picture taken. We didn't realize that once you put your money in the pictures start going. So the first picture is Carianne putting the money in. Nice torso!

We figured out how to work the machine in this one. Carianne got out just in time. Maybe next year we'll be able to see all of their faces. I love it anyway.

Highlights from Arizona

The State Fair: There is nothing better than fair food and people watching. Notice anything unfortunate in the background?

Emmie's first ferris wheel ride.

The petting zoo. Kate LOVED this sheep. She couldn't stop hugging it. I think Rusty and Carianne should consider getting her one as a pet.

Cousins: These girls are pretty much the cutest.

Halloween: Toto doing her "donkey face".

Grandma's who fly hundreds of miles to be with her granddaughters and are willing to dress up are the best.

Emmie adores her cousins or maybe she was really getting into character.

Kate's pants just wouldn't stay up.

The Pumpkin Patch: There was a hay maze.

Pumpkin decorating.



The Arizona version of the pumpkin patch (no pumpkins were actually grown here).


Grandma and Emmie's hair match the pumpkins.

Pictures: We tried and tried to get Kate and Emmie's picture together with their matching Christmas dresses. Every picture turned out like this...

This is the best we could do. Carianne and Rusty would place them right by each other and then jet as fast as they could. We did find out that Kate can seriously out run Emmie.

After Halloween Slumber Party: What you don't see in this picture is Cora sharing her lollipop with Emmie. What a nice cousin.

Emmie gave this trip a "10".