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So our ward didn't have the jolly man at the Christmas shin dig. So I wanted to attempt a photo with the festive guy. So I heard Thanksgiving Point had him for just 5 bucks for two hours last night! So I dragged my friend Juli and Eric didn't mind being replaced for the outing! We get there about 10 minutes after Santa got there. Already an hour wait! So Clara and I went and saw the reindeer and roamed the shops while Juli waited in line. Fast forward about 80 minutes and we are at the front of the line. Clara is wearing her I love Santa shirt I just purchased for her. So we go up to him and Clara declares, "I like Elmo!" Santa then gives her a candy cane. Things are looking promising! Next I sit her on his lap and as you can tell from the photo it all went downhill from there. So moral of the story... the shirt lies! Still glad we went as it was quite the bonding adventure and we got yummy food afterwards!

Zoo Lights

Saturday night we had a festive night out on the town. We all bundled up and met up with our good friends the Zaelits to see the lights at the zoo. We had never been and we had a blast! It was so fun to see the animals all made out of lights! Clara Jo recognized most of them and made animal noises each time she saw them.





Peggy Zaelit works at the zoo so we got a few perks! Besides getting in for free, we got to get a free ride on the carousel. Clara had never been on one before and lets say she is quite the fan! I love how the last picture shows the joy on her face that she had the whole time! What a great night of friends and fun!

Brycina

Well, once we knew we were having another baby the big question I wanted answered was... what was the gender. So at my 12 week appointment, I made a deal with my doctor that if he wasn't too behind schedule at my 16 week appointment then he would take a peak for me. So over a month ago, Clara Jo and I went to the doctor and the doctor took a peak. He said I was impatient, but I told him I was simply being proactive! Well, the baby had a foot in the crotch area so the doctor couldn't give me 100% sure but saw no specific body part! So we knew that we were probably having another girl! He gave me an 85% guess. So I called Eric and told him the news. He quickly responded with something about having to build more bathrooms in the house. Poor Eric is going to be completely surrounded by females...including the dog.

Yesterday afternoon, we went to our 20 week ultrasound to see if that 15% was going to grow into anything! The nice ultrasound lady took a look and said if it were her, she would feel confident enough to paint a room pink! Fair enough!
We are both really excited as everything seemed to look great on the ultrasound! Our big issue now is what to name our new little girl! We have had our boy name since I was pregnant with Clara Jo. Bryce Eric Young! So since we had our suspicions of the female gender, I have lovingly called her Brycina! Eric says its never going to happen which I am aware of, but until we find the name...its going to have to do! :)
Here are some pictures of our little girl! I think these pictures are really great and I can actually tell what is what!

Thanksmas

Thanksmas is something that started many years ago when all of my older siblings were getting married and thus we had to share them on certain holidays. So we would have Thanksgiving all together and then a day or two later have Christmas together. After a several year break...Thanksmas was back!! It was the only bonding thing to do since 4 out of us 5 kids were together. Oh how we missed Shane and Julie and their family!!!

We started the day off with an amazing spread of food. Each family brought a party finger food and a sweet! It was of a most scrumptious nature!! We took some breaks throughout the eating to get some pictures of the family bonding! Thanks to my sister-in-law Heidi for the great pictures. Also, let us all remember that there is a good reason for my chubbiness in these photographs!


Grandma with the oldest grandchild, Kennedy


My cute niece Cassidy and I! Her parents say that she looks and acts a lot like me..poor girl!


My nephew Brock digging in!


My brother and 2 sisters! Somehow we need to photo shop my brother Shane it for it to be complete!


My nephews...what studs!!

After we ate, we went downstairs and all of the grand kids had drawn names and exchanged gifts. Clara was pretty excited about her church activity felt book from her cousin Mitchell! We had 13 out of the 17 grand kids all together! Crazy fun!








Next, the adults did a white elephant exchange! We did nice gifts instead of gag gifts. It was fun, but there wasn't as much stealing and drama as I would have liked! Eric and I scored!!





Then came the candy bar game. We did this in Shane's honor since he was in Washington D.C. This is something Shane and his family would do at Christmas every year.


Kenzie and Cassidy showing off their goods!


Kennedy and Crew...who went around and sampled as much candy as he could!

Mama Jo was all prepared for Christmas. She had gifts for everyone. Most people got some kind of BYU gear. However, she found something red to make my hubby happy! He who likes to be unique! I scored a fancy paper cutter while Clara Jo ended up with an Elmo lunch box which included videos and a C.D. player! We were spoiled!!









The most amazing gift that was given was the first volume of my mom's life history. She had spent countless hours working on this special book for each of us. The first volume just covered her parents and siblings. I can't wait for what is to come. What a treasure!











As you can plainly see, Thanksmas was an ultimate success! It was so fun to be together and revive this splendid tradition. Simply tender!!!

Cold Lost

The day after Thanksiving, Eric and I dropped little one off at Grandma's and headed to the Utah football game. A lady from Eric's work offered us free tickets. Yes please!!! They played against Colorado and totally lost. It was also really cold and frigid. However, amongst all of this...it was still fun!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We had four out of the five Rushing siblings together for some good food and fun. We got a few pictures outside with the festive fall background. We have so much to be grateful for!!

Halloween

We were excited to celebrate Halloween this year with Clara Jo. She would be able to get into the festivities a little more since she is a whole two years old.
First of all, my sister got her a darling costume for FREE! You can't beat that. She was our little Champ Bear and she loved her costume. She is into the Care Bears and knows exactly who they are!

We started the day off by going to my school's Halloween parade. I lucked out by having Halloween off again this year. I don't think my cute job share partner is going to let me off the hook for next year though! So it was fun showing off my cute Care Bear. However, Clara Jo wasn't so happy at my school. I think she got frightened by the scary looking costumes and the tons of people everywhere. So our visit there was short and sweet!





We left my school and headed to Dad's place of employment to show her off to his co-workers. She was much happier there since no one was dressed in a frightening fashion and they gave her candy! Notice how dressed up the Father is! Party pooper!!!



Later on in the evening, we met up with some neighbor friends and went trick or treating to a few houses and then had pizza and hung out. Clara enjoyed herself and understood this whole getting candy thing!!! On the doorstep she would say, "Candy please!" Until next year!!!

Two

Yep! It is confirmed! We officially have a 2 year old on our hands! Oh how we love Clara Jo. She loves to read books and loves to dance. She can really shake her groove thing. She loves her Daddy and her binky. She is such a joy that is growing up on us fast!



So the day of birth was on Saturday of Conference weekend. So in between sessions, we took Clara out for a special outing. I found this trampoline place in town and it was full of trampolines. We paid 2 bucks for an hour of jumping. Eric and I joined in on the fun! Clara Jo loved it! It wore her out and she had a blast. It was a perfect little adventure for our birthday girl.









The day after Clara's birthday we had a little shin dig with family to celebrate the birthday! It was warm enough that we could have it outside on our new purchase...our patio!! It was fun getting everyone together and celebrating our little one!










Clara Jo definitely felt the love and was spoiled with a lot of gifts. Here are a few pictures of Clara Jo with just some of her new purchases.