Nicole and Clayton: September 2012

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Lawrence Finds a Bug

We found this Caterpillar in our garden, and Lawrence loved it.

He liked it so much he tried to squish it and eat it.

Luckily, we were able to spare the caterpillar's life.

Lawrence got in touch with his artistic side this week. He is busy following in Nicole's footsteps. He really likes playing with paint brushes. He likes the soft fuzzy bristles. The big trick is keeping him from eating it. Lawrence is still struggling to sleep. He has better days now and again but he has been pretty fussy these last few days.

Nicole continues to make progress on her sculptures. She updated he artist blog this week. Check out her blog, here. (Her new post is "The Necessity of Opposition") Nicole is also getting ready to go visit her family. She looks forward to getting some time with them during the next few weeks.

Clayton is busy with law school. It seems like this semester has a lot of little projects that keep popping up and requiring a lot of work. He really likes his classes and is enjoying his work at the Chamber of Commerce. Clayton is sure going to miss Nicole and Lawrence.

It was a little complicated, but we finally got registered to vote. We are both excited to be voting in a battle ground state. It makes you feel like your vote actually counts.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Lawn Gnomes

Lawrence is loving our backyard. We think he is about the right size for a lawn gnome. He is also starting to try to crawl. He can pivot clockwise and counter-clockwise and occasionally forward, but he is still trying to figure it out. Here is a video of one of his attempts. https://vimeo.com/49521630

Nicole had a lot of fun on Saturday baking with Megan. Nicole made bread. Yum! Lawrence wishes he could have some. Nicole also got clay and started working on her sculpture. She needed to shape a 40 lbs block so we took turns throwing on the floor to get it in the right shape.

Clayton finally got his grade on his summer class, and he did much better than he thought. Clayton continues to apply for internships for next summer. On Friday at the Chamber of Commerce, Clayton got to meet Commissioner Pai of the FCC.

Our grass is starting to look more like grass. Here are some pics of Lawrence in the yard.

Lawrence rides solo in the hammock.

Lawrence keeps watch over the backyard.

Lawrence loves the grass

He's a happy gnome.

Lawrence & Nicole relax

Happy Birthday Reagan, Mckell, BriAnne, Brian and Alan.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

The Grass is Greener in our Backyard!

Lawrence is sucking his fingers a lot now.

Our little Famidamily

We planted grass in our back yard on Monday, and it is already coming up! We just wish Lawrence's hair would grow as fast. We all went to the temple on Saturday. Clayton watched the baby while Nicole went in and then we traded. Lawrence liked the temple and especially liked walking around the beautiful temple grounds.

We had David and Carly over for dinner. We really enjoyed having them over and spending time with them. Lawrence started flirting with Carly and was disappointed to learn that she is spoken for.They are teaching seminary this year, and we wish them the best of luck.

Clayton enjoyed his first day at the US Chamber of Commerce. He will be working on mostly environmental projects. Clayton also applied for a couple more internships for next summer. He also signed up to compete in another Mock Trial competition with his friend David. He had a great time competing with David this spring.

Nicole made progress on her sculptures. She now has three prototypes ready to carve. She needs to pick up some more clay before she starts working on the bigger versions. She will be watching her cousin's kids for a few days this week so she won't have much time to work on sculpture.

Lawrence is having a tough time sleeping and is keeping his parents up all night. He enjoyed skyping with Grandma Natalie and Grandpa Brian. He also has started eyeing the babies at church that can crawl.

We took this family photo with our camera. We are still working on the amateur photographer thing.

Lawrence & Grandpa David at the family reunion in Colorado

Sunday, September 2, 2012

First Week

Clayton had a busy first week back at law school. He is enjoying his classes and is learning a lot about corporate structures and real estate law. He is also the co-chair of the Religious Freedom Moot Court taking place in February and is working on publicity for the 2013 Annual J. Reuben Clark Law Society Conference. This week Clayton also got an internship with the US Chamber of Commerce. He is excited about the internship. He will be doing some work with environmental statutes and the best part is the internship is PAID! He will be working at least once a week. Clayton also started car pooling with Lance and Meagan. Lance works in the city and gets subsidized parking. It's great for Clayton because he has a guaranteed ride.

Lawrence continues to enjoy eating food. We made him some baby food this weekend. He really likes the butternut squash. We also made him some acorn squash and carrots. He loves to eat!

Nicole decided to build her sculpture out of porcelain and is working on finding a near by supplier. She also has started sculpting out of string again. Hopefully she will get some images on her blog this week so you can see her new project.

Tomorrow we are planting grass in our back yard. Our landlord offered to pay for the materials if we would do the work. We hope that the weather will continue to be nice so the grass will grow before it gets too cold. Last year the weather stayed pretty warm well into November, so we are hoping we will have enough time.

Today we tried to have a Skype dinner with the Woodbury Family. It worked well other than we were running late and hadn't cooked dinner. We will have to try again.

Here are a few more pictures from our trip.