January

 January down here brings clear, fresh, gorgeous weather. We tried to fully enjoy it. Here are some of the things we did:

 Claire built a marshmallow and toothpick creation

 Christian painted the house! All by himself while I watched the kiddos (still some touch-up to do, but I am impressed with his hard work. He is also redoing the patio and pool surfaces by himself right now too!)

 Free culture passes to the zoo. Good thing I took the pic when i did, because some hanky-panky between these two teenage orangutans started right after I took this picture. I non-chalantly ushered my family outta there to avoid the awkwardness around the other adults in the room...

 Birthday time!! This sweet boy turned ONE on the 21st and Claire turned three on the 16th. 

 The Gilbert Temple open house was so awesome! We love the temple and can't wait until our temple is done sometime this fall.

Hiking date

Lots of time in our backyard is awesome!

Sometimes it's fun to dress up and pretend it's cold! Ha!


Well, some mornings it actually is chilly, so they bundled up for a run

Christmas at Gammy's 2013

                                          Christmas jammies at home before we left for California

                 

The nightgown Gammy got was a hit! Claire asks to wear it almost every night.

 Claire was hyper-excited Christmas Eve night and thus decided to prance around the tree and then snuggle up underneath it.

 

Around this time Clark began his obsession with dogs (he's pointing to Jens out the back door) and said one of his first words there, "dah!" for dog. He also took his first step!

 

Christmas Day at Carmel

Christmas Day on the central Cali coast brought gorgeous weather. The beach had unprecedented amounts of people enjoying the holiday. We still found our spot undisturbed for a bonfire though. Christian's little sis Sarah took some beautiful pics of our fam on the beach. Thanks so much Sarah - you are so awesomely talented.

                                  

Finishing up Florida

 Claire loved the many elevators we rode on during our trip and would consistently run to the handrailing and hang on it every time we went up or down.

 Amazingly we made the whole nine-day trip without losing Cinderella and Dora, two favorite toys.

 Orlando, FL temple. So beautiful

Hangin' out at the Chicago O'Hare airport in a great kids area. We also made sure to visit the USO there  for free lunch, a toy area, and some quiet relaxing time, courtesy of the US Military. What a great perk.