Conference Weekend with "Nana"

This weekend as most of you know, was General Conference. We were also fortunate to have Mitch's mom (a.k.a. Nana) come over to visit. We had a good time visiting and catching up. On Friday, we got a sitter for the kids and went to see Mitch cousin Antje sing and perform in the Navy Sea Chanters. For those who don't know who or what this is... it is the elite choir of the United States Navy. They perform quite often for the President and all over the U.S. and also the world. They were doing a Northwest United States tour and we were priviledged to hear them perform. Talk about AWESOME!!!!! I could have listened to them all night! The men were so fun to hear and watch and the women had the most incredible voices I've heard! So if any of you ever get the chance to hear them.... DON'T MISS OUT!!!

On Saturday, we just lazed around and watched conference- quite a new experience seeing the First Presidency sustain everyone in the Solemn Assembly. I've never seen that before- at least that I remember, and it was pretty neat. It will be different getting used to President Monson as our new Prophet, but I have no doubt that he is called of God, as are his counselors and the Twelve.

Saturday, rather than teaching her grand kids how to make cream puffs (a new tradition for Nana), my kids talked her into making new blankets, since the ones she made for them as babies were getting too small. So off we go to JoAnn's Fabric to make snuggly fleece blankets.

After picking out the fleece of their choice, we come home and bust out with Cameron's blanket within an hour!!! Wow! This is something I can actually do! Now let's just see if I can do it on my own for the baby blanket!

On Sunday we finished Collin's and Madeline's blankets in the first session of Conference, and the results were darling! Thanks Nana for the snugglies!

Just an old fashioned update

Well since I don't have much to post, I'll just tell about how life has been lately.
Mitch left on Sunday for work training in Austin, Texas. When he got there, he turned on the TV and watched in wonder as the TV stations were issuing tornado warnings left and right! Hmmm... nothing says welcome to Texas like a tornado huh? Well, lucky for us, nothing ever came near his hotel.
Although he has only been gone for 4 days, it seems like a month! The kids are more difficult to deal with- or maybe I'm just tired and don't get that break at the end of the day when he comes home. It really makes me love and appreciate what a wonderful husband and father he is!

I am just waddling through life! I am about 25 weeks along now. Some good news is that the doctors said our baby boy was measuring big and so they moved my due date from July 7 to June 28! Yeah! Any woman who's had a baby knows this is good news! I am feeling the little guy more regularly lately, it took a while because apparently he is at the very bottom of the placenta.
We are still trying to think of baby boy names. Mitch has his favorites, but I just keep coming up with different ones and he just shakes his head in defeat. It's not that I don't like the names he does, because I do, I just can't decide what sounds good with our last name.
So for all those who are wondering what names we are debating... here they are:
Creed, Cache, Colton (which we think might be too close to Collin), and the newest one (which Cameron came up with) is Cyden... although, I think this is usually spelled with a K instead of a C. So that one is probably out too. So what does everyone think?

Not much has changed with the kids. We are getting ready for Easter this weekend. I also have a wedding cake this weekend, so Easter is pretty much shot. But that's okay, because I never understood what the point of Easter bunnies, baskets and candy had anything to do with the real reason we celebrate Easter. Of course, around Nampa, apparently the reason most people celebrate Easter is because Jesus died. It's weird, strange people come to my door and handout all sorts of stuff about the death of Jesus and that's all they focus on. I feel like handing them a Book of Mormon and telling them what we think Easter is about. But me being the not-so-confident person that I am, usually just take their handout and throw it away as soon as the door is shut. I'm not much of a missionary I guess!
Well I've rambled on enough for now. I gotta go stop the kids from fighting... and Spring Break just started! Great!!!!!

A McClellan Original

Well folks, we finally made it to Cub Scouts and last week was Cameron's first Blue and Gold banquet. It was a "Chinese New Year" theme... only, no one told us it was the year of the rat!
So we decided to make a Chinese Dragon. This was a father and son thing- so no moms allowed! Well, after talking to all the moms, and getting there replies of "yah, right, my husband and son make a cake without my help???" So, I decided that IF they wanted my help, I would help a little, but I wanted to see what they came up with. And now I'm starting to think that Mitch is a better cake decorator than me!
Okay I will admit to helping with the head a little, but it was Mitch's design and Cameron's idea for the face. They did the body out of colored fondant disks (all individually cut out and stuck on) The horns and toe nails were made from vanilla tootsie rolls (they shape up wonderfully) but the coolest part of it all is that this was made up from an idea from their heads- no books or pictures! It's a 100% McClellan original! And it stole the show! Each scout brought a cake and that was the desserts for the night... well, we didn't take one piece home- that's how much the boys all loved it! There were cheesy awards for each cake so no one felt left out, and Cameron's award was "The Greatest Cake". He was one happy little trooper! Here are some shots of the cake:

Code Names

This was something fun to do that my sister sent me. It's not a "tag" type thing, just humorous to do:

YOUR REAL NAME:
Carlie Anne McClellan

YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of your real name, plus "izzle")
Carizzle

YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fav color and fav animal)
Blue Beaker

YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (your middle name and the street you live on)
Anne Cairn

YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)
MccCa

YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (color of your shirt, favorite soda)
Pink Fanta

YOUR JAPANESE NAME: ( 2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your middle name, last two letters of your first name, then last 3 letters of your last name)
Anielan

YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: ( both parents middle names)
Marie Craig

YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, then the name of one of your pets)
Black Parker

This gave me a laugh, but that could be because I'm tired too, who knows?

My First Earthquake

Well I was laying in bed this morning, Mitch was running late for work and still happened to be home. He was just getting the kids up at 7:15 and I was awake, but just laying there, when all the sudden I felt my bed shaking. My first thought was that one of my kids was at the end of my bed quitely moving it, but when I looked up, of course... no one was there.
My second thought was "Hmmm... weird, probably an earthquake- ya right" then I put my hand on the wall behind our bed, and sure enough, I could feel our house shaking too! I thought "Holy Crap, we are having an earthquake!"
So I called to Mitch and he came in, but by that time it had stopped. He never felt anything and looked at me like I had sprouted horns when I told him I thought we just had an earthquake. The kids of course didn't feel anything either, so I thought I was losing it. Then Mitch was pulling out of the driveway and came back in to tell me that I was right after all, it was an earthquake!

The weird thing is that in the past week, a meteor has fallen (though I can't remember where in the U.S.), we had a lunar eclipse last night (that Cameron thought was totally cool) and now today we have an earthquake!!! What is going on??

What's In a Name?

*Note... we tried to keep this G to PG, but it may have ended up PG-13, forgive us if it get's a little crude*




The Unit



Schmekel



Twig n' Berries



Pee Wee and the Newborns



Lil' Smokie



Schlong (or schlort)



Ding Dong



Inchworm



Pink Slinky



Trouser Snake



Weiner



Dipstick



Pee Pee



Noodle

(If we've missed your personal favorite, feel free to humor us!!!)



Whatever you wanna call it... he's got it! Yep, IT'S A BOY!!!






I wasn't surprised, I kind of thought it would be a boy the whole time. Mitch was happy with the news, but I think deep down he wanted a girl- just to even the score. Cam didn't really care, he just wanted to get home and play Mario Galaxy. Madeline was down right mad at the ultrasound tech! She told her that she wanted a baby sister! And Collin's prediction of having a baby "bwudda" was right on the mark, so he was happy.

Now, as for names... we are sticking with the "C" names for boys. We have a name that we like the best so far, that wasn't already taken by friends, family or their dogs...
If anyone has any good "C" names for boys that you'd like us to consider, we'd love your input!

It's Great to be Eight!

For those of you who don't already know, Cameron was baptized on Feb. 2, 2008. We were saddened to hear that most of our family could not attend because of weather conditions, but we were also glad because we were also hit with a huge snow storm that would have made it dang near impossible to leave Nampa! But we were blessed to have Carlie's parents and sister fly over, and her sister that lives in Meridian attend. We are thankful for those who were able to come, and also for the thoughts and prayers of those who were not able to come, but wanted to. We truly felt your spirits with us and are grateful for you!

The blizzard that started Saturday afternoon and lasted all night Saturday was scary and cold, but the feeling and spirit that was at the baptism was warm and peaceful. We had a wonderful wintertime barbeque before the baptism with all sorts of good friends being able to attend from around here. Thanks to everyone (especially mom) who provided all the yummy food- and a huge thanks to my wonderful husband who braved the storm to grill hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone!

It was a wonderful day! Mitch did a beautiful job baptizing and confirming the gift of the Holy Ghost upon Cameron.

Sorry about the lack o fmore pictures... a friend of mine took these before the ceremony started because like usual... we were late! It was no ones fault but my own: all the guests at the dinner planned on caravaning over to the Stake Center-- well someone forgot to remind me that it was at the Stake Center and we (I and my kids were in my parents rental car, with my sister following) drove over to our church. Imagine the look on my face as we pulled in to our church parking lot only to find it completely empty! *Ya, mark that one down in the book of biggest idiots!*

But we walked through the chapel doors of the Stake Center just as the meeting was starting! And yes, everyone that was at our house and already there was laughing!

I guess Cameron felt the spirit strongly and decided to do a little missionary work after the baptism meeting was over, but just before we confirmed him...Without Mitch or I knowing, he walked straight up to our neighbor who is inactive (who lives right across the street from us) and has quite a bit of a Word of Wisdom problem. He walked up and said "Red, you need to stop smoking!" Luckily, his family just laughed and thought it was sweet, and agreed.

Oh, the things kids say! Who knows, maybe it will make a difference!

So back to the house we go, through the blizzard and icy roads... to do what??? Have cake and ice cream sundaes of course! What better time to eat ice cream than in the dead of winter?!

Cam convinced me at the last minute to do a baptism cake for him ( I hadn't planned on it). but don't look too closely, my writing sucks! But he loves the color red and wanted his cake to look like this:

So the old saying proved to be true for Cameron: It is Great to be Eight!!!