New National Holiday: Crazy Outfit Day

I don't remember exactly what it was for, but today at the girls school they had "Crazy Outfit Day". They have been so excited about this day and have had their outfits picked out for a while. This is how they looked when they left this morning:

I love watching my kids get so excited about stuff like this and see how creative they are. They make me laugh!!

Note: It's still a little wet outside from the snow yesterday so they actually wore real shoes (mismatched of course), but they took their slippers to change into at school.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day in the Cluff household is not complete without:

and

A new tradition that apparently started though was this:

I think it's a Valentine's love fort!

We had a fun day celebrating Valentine's Day today. This day is an extra special day for Matthew and I. For Valentine's Day back in 1999 my sister and I invited our boyfriends over for dinner at our apartment. Later that night Matthew actually proposed to me. It was a complete shock.....to him and to me. It was not something that he planned. It just felt right and he seized the moment! We had only been dating for 2 weeks! So Valentine's has always been a day that has been that much more special for us. Every year we re-create the meal that I made for Matthew that Valentine's Day 11 years earlier. Over the years the day has evolved into a fun "family" holiday. I love all FIVE of my valentines!

One last thing I wanted to share....
Among the candy that September came home with from her school Valentine party on Friday was one of those typical Necco hearts that said:

The world sure is a different place than when I was bringing home Necco hearts from school Valentine's parties!

I hope you all had a fun Valentine's Day and you got to spend it with at least one person you love!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Haircuts!

September was in DESPERATE need of a haircut (she had been trying to grow it out, but it wasn't working too well - it was just looking "stringy"), and both Kya and Peyton could use a trim. My friend Katie's daughter, Annie (who is a good friend of Kya's) was wanting her hair cut too. They were out of school last Friday, so we decided to make a GIRLS DAY of it and took them all to get their hair cut. Then we went home and did manicures. What a fun, girly day! I forgot to take before pictures, but here are the afters:

The girl that did Kya's hair was done before anyone else, so she decided to curl it. I LOVED IT! I wish I could figure out how to do it because it really just gave so much volume to her face. She looked like a completely different person! But alas, I lack skills in the hair department. I've tried and tried to recreate this look with no success. :(

September's was a little shorter than I requested.....but as long as there isn't anything big coming up (and there's not), I'd always rather have them go too short then leave it too long. It's that much longer we get to wait until a haircut is needed! She looks so cute! I've always loved her hair short.

This was Peyton's first REAL haircut. It kind of made me sad! I think we cut off the majority of what she had left of her curls. :( All of the girls at the salon thought she was so stinkin cute. I would have to agree! She is so stinkin cute, but man is she hard to get a good picture of! She is one of my favorite subjects to photograph because she is STUNNINGLY beautiful, but I can never get a good shot of her because she's also a complete character!!! I couldn't get her to sit still to get a good shot that would show off her haircut....but as she was running away from me I hurried and snapped one that kind of gives you an idea.

Guess who got glasses???

Doesn't she look so cute and smart?!

We've known for a few months now that September needed glasses because she would squint to see EVERYTHING! But we had to wait until open enrollment with our insurances....and then we still had to wait for January when her coverage would start. This girl was counting down the days til her appointment. She was so excited to get glasses! We found out at the appointment just how desperately this girl needed them. Her vision is 20/200!!! For those who don't understand what that means (I didn't), it means that things the average person can see at 200 feet away September would have to be 20 feet away! Holy crap! The dr. joked that he wasn't sure how she'd made it so far in life. ;) She has had them for two weeks now and still just loves them! Being able to see is really an amazing thing!

Christgiving Thankmas!

We started a tradition with my family last year of celebrating Christmas and Thanksgiving together. We call it "Christgiving Thankmas". We do all the gift giving and the big feast all in one get-together. It's the best of both worlds! Last year we did it in between the two holidays, but because of scheduling conflicts this year we ended up doing it early January. Plus, we have 4 birthdays in my family ranging from 12/28 - 1/26, so we celebrated them too! We did it in Bear Lake again in one of Chuck's and Ginger's cabins just like last year.

My camera went missing during all of the gift opening so I didn't get any pics of that, darn it! But here a few fun, random snapshots I took:

Joey, what are you doing???

Kya, Kaylee, and September enjoying looking at the photo books my Mom made.

My Dad wearing the new hoodie and pj bottoms we got him.

Emily showing off her drawing skills.

Why is Zenick not happy? Maybe his Dad just gave him VINEGAR to drink! Chuck played a mean trick on him and gave him a cup with vinegar in it that he thought was just water. Poor kid!!

Peyton showing off the mess she just made of herself. Who left the red marker out?!?

Nick brought up his girlfriend, Sami. Last year Joey brought up Emily and 5 months later they got married. We'll see.... :)

Zenick is obsessed with tags!

Peyton can touch the ceiling!

Nick too! ;)

Bonnie making her famous and delicious egg nog! Yum yum!!!

I don't remember what was going on here, but apparently Peyton thought it was TOO LOUD and thought she'd help protect the ears of the innocent!

We brought up our Wii and the new Super Mario Bro's game, which is kind of a throwback to the Super Mario Bros. on the original Nintendo gaming system. It was so much fun to see the little kid come out in everyone......ahhh, childhood memories!

I LOVE everybody's faces! We're all so serious!!

Well, except Chuckie....

Wow, this must have been a really tense moment....

Not for long...

The whole trip was sooooo much fun! Great food, great company, and so many great memories made! Thanks Fam! Can't wait til next year!!

Christmas!

For Christmas this year we did things a little differently. We put in a request with the big guy and he came through. Each member of the family got 4 different gifts: something they WANT, something they NEED, something to WEAR, something to READ. Plus, they got a few things in their stocking....some fun, some traditional. I definitely think we've found ourselves a tradition!

The whole day was great. The kids actually let us sleep in til about 7:30. We opened gifts and took our time. Then we made a big pancake breakfast....another tradition. We all stayed in our pj's all day and just had a nice, laid back day playing with all of the new things we got and spending time as a family. As usual, Matthew's parents came over later in the afternoon and spent time with the kids and let them show off all their new things.

Here's the annual "right before we open gifts" picture!

The kids with their stockings.

Q got so excited about all of the wrapping paper! It was like, well....Christmas morning! ;)

Logan had a very Wii Christmas. All of his gifts had something to do with the Wii and more specifically the new Super Mario Bros. game. The nunchuk was a bit of a stretch....it fit into his "need" category, but technically he did need one since the first one we had Logan decided to cut in two with a pair of scissors. In his defense, he was only 2 at the time, but we were still very upset.

September and Kya wearing their new puffer vests.

Rock out, Kya!

My new camcorder/camera.....but somehow Matthew spent the majority of the day "playing" with it. Hmmmm......

We thought Pey was just snuggling under the tree with Q.....

Nope! The little thief had taken Logan's hot tamales and was trying to hide somewhere so we couldn't see her!

Q loved getting in on all the action.

Here's the fam playing the new Super Mario Bros. game. It is sooo much fun!

While the rest of the family was playing, Peyton was in the kitchen with me helping to make breakfast. She was so cute!

What a great day! We felt so blessed!!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we always go over to my in-laws and do the big gift exchange with all of his siblings and their families. We were missing Dave and Kenia this year because they were in Miami visiting her parents

This year it was I who made the "birthday cake" for Jesus. White cake with homemade peppermint cream cheese frosting.....YUM!!! I love this tradition! And speaking of tradition, my in-laws also gave all of the kids some new pj's (they get double because we always get some for them too), and then we went home and had the traditional "sleepy" hot chocolate. What a fun Christmas Eve!

Peyton Claus

Peyton opening her Tinkerbell coloring set

Wow, could he be any giddier?

My gift was in a very oversized package. I totally thought it was a gag gift and that it was going to turn out to be a gift card inside. Turns out I was wrong. It was a very cute metal wall hanging. Now I just need to figure out where to put it....

Here are the kids being very goofy posing in their new pj's from Gma and Gpa Cluff

The kids enjoyed their "sleepy" hot chocolate....although it looks like it originally had an adverse effect on Logan.

Peyton REALLY enjoyed hers!!!