Another Instagram Post

A little while back I posted all of the photos that I had taken with my iPhone using the Instagram app.  I finally pulled the photos that I have taken since then and am dumping them all into this one giant, photo-laden post.  It turns out I pretty much take photos of three things with my phone:  1. Clara.  2. Myself.  3.  Food.  Often the photo is some combination of the three things, especially photos of Clara trying new foods (which is endlessly fascinating for me and I am not sure why). 

At Ikea eating a lunch of swedish meatballs.  It is so weird to me seeing Clara's bottle since she has been weaned from the bottle since her birthday almost two months ago.


Just after Ikea when Clara barfed up her meatballs on my shirt and I had a thirty minute drive home where I was trying to ignore the smell on my chest.  Ugh.

At the YMCA.  She looks so grown-up in this little outfit which makes me think of Cindy Lauper.  Girls just wanna have fun, right Clara?

 Digging letters out of a jar during class at church.

A dinner I made on the grill while we were remodeling and had no kitchen.

Just before swim lessons.

We often go outside just before bedtime.

Sometimes on bad hair days I put my hair in a ballerina bun.

The artichokes at the farmer's market were so beautiful I just had to take a picture.

We like to go to the mall and play at the indoor play area when it gets too hot for us to hang out around our house which lacks air conditioning (like most houses in our area).


Clara's birthday cake!

Bathtime after her birthday party.

Opening presents with dad.

Sometimes I wear my glasses when my allergies are really bothering me.

At the memorial day pancake breakfast that our ward held in the church building.  It was the best pancake breakfast I have ever been to with tons of blueberries, strawberries, and whole wheat banana pancakes.

Our corner of San Jose used to be entirely fruit orchards and even now there are fruit trees everywhere in yards and lining the streets.  In our yard we have a lemon, apple and fig tree (and used to have an orange tree that we took out).  Trees planted between the sidewalk and the road are actually on public property so it is legal to pick the fruit and eat it (at least according to a book I read - I haven't actually researched the law on this and it feels a little sneaky to do it) so these cherries were ripe for the plucking. 

At a memorial day bbq with friends.

This was right after our new floors were installed and Clara could walk barefoot around the house again.

I am not sure what she was eating here but her pigtails were so cute.  This was before her first haircut.

Playing at the splash table that was a birthday present from Grandpa & Grandma Nash.

She was supposed to be sleeping in this next picture.  Clearly, she was more interested in having a party and staying up late.

Eating brussel sprouts for dinner.  What a good girl since they are pretty much mom's favorite vegetable.

Checking out the police & firemen ride at Happy Hollow with her cousin Emma when my family came to visit.

Okay, I will admit to a point of vanity regarding this picture - I totally took it because I thought my eyebrows looked perfect this day.  I sort of hate my eyebrows almost always (weird, I know) because they are white and I have to draw them in and I always rush it and do a bad job.

Getting ice cream at Marianne's in Santa Cruz.  I had the Maple Nut and the Raspberry Cheesecake swirl.

Paul and I went and saw "Snow White & The Huntsman" at the movie theater.  I actually liked it and it was the first movie we had gone to see in a long time.

Sleepy girl in her carseat.

Clara is a TOTAL beach baby.  She loves playing in the water and the sand.

Clara & Paul playing together after Paul got home from work.  I think Paul was trying to get Clara to climb onto his back for a horsey ride.

I was supposed to be making a stink-face in this picture because the Young Men were in charge of the combined activity and for refreshments they boiled hot dogs in the kitchen just off the gym.  The entire cultural hall was a cess-pool of steaming frankfurters and adolescent perspiration.  Ick.

Beautiful girl on one of our daily walks around the neighborhood.

Father's Day breakfast.

Father's Day dinner.  Clara ate all of her asparagus, halibut and salmon but just picked at her roll.  The one thing she doesn't seem to eat very well is bread.

Getting her first haircut.  We went to Kinder Kuts, which is one of those places where the kiddos get to sit in cars and watch cartoons while they are having their hair cut.  She did great and it was nice to even up her length since she had a really uneven patch in the back where she had worn away a lot of the hair as an infant.

Reading books before bedtime.

Clara has a favorite spot.  It is in the closet in the office where there is a box of photos that makes the perfect size chair for her.  She sits here while I am getting ready in the morning or if I play the piano for her and talks or plays happily.  She went through a phase where she carried this green sieve around everywhere she went.  You can see her holding it in her right hand.

This was at the airport before our Utah trip, sieve in hand.

Checking out the airplanes while holding onto her trusty sieve. 

This was her look if you tried to take the sieve away from her.

The Grand Canyon! 

Playing in one of those pop-up tunnels at Paul's parents' house.  This is one of my favorite dresses of hers - it has a square sailor collar in the back and has sailboats all over it.

Clara tore apart my parents' basket of newspapers that were supposed to go out to the recycling bin.

When things started looking like they might be falling apart with the adoption, my mom was so great and listened to me analyze every interaction and text with the birthmom.  We enjoyed sitting out on their front steps and watching my dad weed the flower patch.

I was starving while in Utah (like, I literally lost six pounds in just a few days because I wasn't eating or drinking because there was just too much happening too fast with the new baby and birthmom and then things started going belly-up and I was feeling sick).  One night it was probably 9:00 p.m. and I hadn't eaten and the only thing that sounded good was Chick-Fil-A (which we don't have in the Bay Area) so my mom took me there to get a lemonade and a chicken sandwich. 

Sadly, this is the only picture I took of Clara in her Fourth of July dress.  I should take her out and do a little photo shoot still.  Maybe Paul and I will dress up too since we took Fourth of July pics as a family last year.

Kissing her cousin Lily on the Fourth of July at the splash park in Spanish Fork.

We are eating lots of popsicles to beat the heat these days.

Teaching Clara how to jump rope.

Phew, that was a lot of Instagram photos.