Claire's First Blogpost!

                           Claire's birthday

                 On my birthday I opend my presents: 2 dresses,a shirt, Oreos, goggles, and a swim suit. We watched "Finding Dory." We had mac and cheese for breakfast. Then I packed my bag for Tucson,and sewed a little pillow for Nike (Annika). Sybil got lost so we had to go and try to fined her she was not in Elijah's room,or in my room,or in Iris's room,or in the bathroom, or in mom's room or out side.I found her in the car that was parked in the garage and she was sleeping in her car seat all buckled up in her pajamas.
Now we will drop off the pillow that I sewed and a poster I drew to my best friend. Then, we are going to go to eat Pupusas with grandma and grandpa Udall. Then we are going to go to Tucson. In Tucson we are going to swim and eat with family.
It is fun being 9 instead of 8 because I get more privileges then when I was 8.

These are some pictures I took of my pillow that I sewed.

Claire = 9

Favorites
Color: I don't have one
Food: Nachos
Dessert: Chocolate covered gummy
Subject in school: Sign Language
Book: Rats of Nihm
Movie: I love all movies
Friend: Annika, Lidia, Talia, Zoe, Sophia.
Occurrence in the last year: Disneyland
Hobby: Art
Gospel principle: Family
Favorite thing about having your own room (she has only had it since Spring Break and will only have it for another month): I don't have to clean up after anyone else

Future
Car: Car that drives by itself and it has a house
Job: Dentist, doctor, artist, mother, gymnast, ballerina, actor
Residence: In a mansion close to Disneyland and Waterland (Waterland doesn't exist yet).
Husband (she told me to put that one and then told me not to put it): Don't have one.
Number of children: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (She wrote this.).

What are you good at? Art, gym, running, math, reading, playing, swimming, writing, begging
What do you like doing in your spare time? watching movies, swimming, drawing, sketching, painting
What's the best part about being in this family? Mom and Dad and Porfirio
A word to describe Claire: Nice.

Claire told her soccer coach that she had to stop playing soccer so she could "Follow her dreams." Her birthday present this year will help toward this goal: acting camp.
In the past 3 Sundays, Claire has given the talk in Primary at church twice (Elijah gave it the 3rd time.). This is partly because our primary is tiny and partly because Claire volunteers to give talks. She likes the spotlight. She writes her own talks, always using props, pictures, and spiritual experiences from her own life.
Claire is thoughtful, spunky, friendly, helpful, faithful, still a very stubborn and picky eater. Claire loves snuggles and listens to John Bytheway on Youtube every night when she falls asleep. She loves being read to and reading (when she finds the right book, or is incentive at school). She created stories and pictures in her many notebooks and the tips of her hair are already stiff and green with chlorine from swimming so much.

 Last Friday Claire invited her best buddies to her end-of-the-year/ birthday party. We met at a park that has water features and played with shaving cream, whipped cream, and balloons.

Other games: Untangle the arms

 and The Bootie Shake

Then we came back to our house to watch a movie (Moana), pillow fight, play musical pillows and eat pizza and ice cream pie.

Claire requested nachos for her birthday breakfast today. We settled on mac and cheese.

She put on her own pants

Backwards

Inside-out

Not quite over the hump
I'm not going to change them.
She's a gangsta.

That's my boy scout in the background, working on the push-ups.
He put on his own pants too.
PS. Baby + Fiber One brownie = No Fun

Baby Adventures

This morning, after taking the dog on the usual bike ride, I decided to take a quick nap before church (if sleeping at 6am counts as taking a nap). I awoke to knocking at our front door.
It was Sybil.
She was naked.
And she wanted to come back home.

The best time of year

Today was Disney Day. 

Iris said she wanted to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I think she just wanted an excuse to wear the dress David bought her when they went on a date recently and to have her hair curled (neither on of which is reminiscent of Belle).

We rummaged through the dress-up box for Claire. At first she said she was Nacho Libre's wife. Then she said she was CLAIRISSIMO!

These few weeks are some of the best of the year. The heat isn't suffocating yet, but it's hot enough that soccer practice has ended and the pool temperature is pleasant. The kids are in school (meaning I have a few hours of productivity) but school has morphed into daycare = no homework and playdates almost daily.
Today, a few girl friends came to swim with the girls and Elijah played basketball and Nerf War with a group of neighborhood boys.
Only a week left of school!

Fish Heads

Yesterday was the Pueblo Elementary School Talent Show. 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is the same talent show act that I did when I was Claire's age. 

 Proof that 

WIERD IS A TALENT...

I was laughing so hard that I was crying and snotting all over myself (no exaggeration). I couldn't stop slapping Elijah's leg--going into convulsions. I may have been the only one like that in the auditorium, but not all have a sense of humor as keen as mine.

Elijah was voted "Most Humorous" in the 5th grade, as noted in the yearbook.
These apples don't fall far from the trees, if I do say so myself.

Crazy Hair Day

Crazy Hair Day

Not So Crazy Hair Day

Iris and I looked up a lot of crazy hair ideas online, 

but all she wanted was black hair. 

That was crazy enough for her.

Elijah currently still has bed-head. His classmates went on a sleep-away field trip that he wasn't interested in so he gets to sleep in as much as he wants. 

Sybil is in the backyard pacing. She on a heated business call on her calculator. 

End of the Year

On Friday and Saturday Elijah and David went on the priesthood commemoration camping trip, so we had an end of the year party for Iris. She invited all of her besties from school.

It was a Paw-ty: dog themed.

Here, they are eating pudding, doggy style with decorated dog ears.

They also had to carry dog bones on spoons in their mouths. If the dog ate the bone when it fell, they were out. They each got a doggie toy, which was Iris' favorite part.

The balloon on the ankle game:

Next day: the doggie cha-cha.

David and Porfirio usually provide a daily prelude to scripture reading that looks similar to this.
Notice the placement of the dog's mouth.

This has been the the best Mother's Day yet. David woke up early to take the dog for a walk. I can't remember the last time I slept in (for me, sleeping in is 6am). It was splendid. When we got home from church, the kids played restaurant and made me a splendid lunch. David made a great dinner with the help of the elders, and now we are watching The other Side of Heaven.

Perfect day.

Gala time

I get to go to prom every year.
Maybe it's punishment for skipping it my junior year and going stag my senior year.

David is good at proms. 

David took the kids kayaking earlier that day.
Way earlier that day, when I took the dog for a bike ride, I noticed that his front paws were blue; like smurf-blue. I found the exploded pen remnants soon after. He has taken to eating off the counter lately too. Today he finished the dinner before I could cook it and a few hours later, bit into my homemade banana bread. Anyone interested in a dog?
We also made an appearance at the church party the same day as the Gala. A friend was introducing me to her neighbor whom she had invited. Sybil approached us and I told her to say "Hi." Instead, she pulled up her dress to reveal nothing but skin underneath. She had dropped her diaper by the pool and flashed most of the ward before I could retrieve it.
Welcome to our church!
Anyone interested in a child?
Just for an hour or two, maybe.

Cinco de Mayo

Claire and Iris had 5 de Mayo musical performances at school. Claire sang "Color Esperanza" accompanied by sign language. Iris did a few cute ones too.
 After school, we went to the Frida Kahlo / Diego Rivera exhibit at the Heard Museum.

 The next 2 pictures are Iris with her favorite paintings of the night.

My grew up in the museum's neighborhood. I drove back with him and he pointed to every house, told me the name of the previous inhabitants, the profession of the fathers, and I wouldn't be surprised if he could have told me which ones attended Ivy Leagues. He also told me that he and his buddy would bike all the way past the Papago Mountains to Mesa (over 20 miles) where his grandma (Sybil's mom) always had lemon meringue pie waiting for him. He said his buddy talked to her so much that my dad was able to eat 80% of it before his friend noticed. I love nostalgia!

And no Cinco de Mayo is complete without bad Mexican food. At least they didn't mind the screaming toddler, which is the most important part of a restaurant.

And we just finished by watching La Misma Luna: a very good movie.

Feliz 5 de Mayo to all Americans and to people from Puebla!

Please excuse the bad-quality phone pics.
This is Sunday dinner at my parents' house. We had a cake for Livi and Sybil.

Below is from this morning at a recorder concert for Claire. She loves being in the school choir. The music teacher is fantastic. After the show, Claire demonstrated her baby sister's prodigious math skills to her friends. She asked her what 1 +1 is, the square root of 4, and 50 divided by 25. Sybil also knows (sin(45)^2)((4π) / π), the square root of 81 minus the square root of 49, and so much more.

This is the photo that will be on Iris' end-of-the-year get-together invite. 

She is obsessed with a trouble-making creature. He is obsessed with trouble. And meat.

This weekend, we discovered one of Elijah's new favorite foods: chicken hearts. He found out at Rodizio Grill on a lunch out with his dad this weekend. They had Indian food earlier in the week after a trip to Scottsdale Modern Art Museum. They've also recently started pumping iron together.

The Boulevardiers