Let it Begin!

Let us now begin the countdown! We have some dirt, a mortgage, and a building permit! We are told that the house will be done around Valentine's day. We are very excited. We don't expect to be finished by Valentine's day, but we hope that will be the case!


Here is a picture of our ground breaking ceremony.




Here is a picture facing north looking at our lot. They are our new neighbors.




This is a picture of our exciting weeds. It facing west. Our back neighbors are on the other side of the canal. We will have little wooden play set left back there that we will hopefully be able to salvage. It looks like it's in good condition, but will need to be reassembled.





Here is our view out towards the south east. Our driveway will come right up to where the van is parked.


We'll keep an update of what is going on, but for now all we have is dirt. Monday or Tuesday, will will have a big hole in the ground. We are now praying for nice weather and fast subcontractors. Until then, we are enjoying life at the Clement home.

Mitchell turns 5!

Michell had a birthday and we celebrated per his request. To start off, he wanted a birthday cake that looked like an AT-AT. Becca passed the test and created one of the coolest cakes yet!


Mitchell is getting bigger. He's looking like a little Man in this picture. I'm grateful he finally got some flashlights so he can leave mine alone. We have already gone through a set of batteries.




Next on the list was a friend party with games and treats and favors and presents and lots and lots of FUN! The theme was an ARMY party. Keven and Cary let us use their back yard and his dreams came true. The weather threatened to rain, but it was a pleasant morning. The trampoline was the main attraction, but . .



The TANK pinata was the Biggest "hit". Hannah was the first to hit it and made sure it knew she was tough.

In the end, it was MOMMY who got the killing blow.



Afterwards, we descided that parties like that should only be for super special birthdays like 5. BTW Caleb has enjoyed all of Mitchell's presents as much as he has. And Mitchell has been very good at sharing his presents.

Summer of Fun

Becca would like everyone the opportunity to experience a little of what we did for our summer. Here is a picture of her taking a breather during the my birthday party:

I got a chance to go to scout camp at Bear Lake with my brother and dad. We played a lot and earned a few merit badges. They are tryint to tie a monkey bridge.

Here are a few neices and a friend having some fun playing the Wii.

We put together the bunk bed from my childhood. Mitchell, Caleb and Becca all helped putting it together. Mitchell loves the top bunk. Caleb is loving being in a big bed.

Here is a picture with me and the boys at my last Court of Honor. They got to see me get my beads from wood badge. It was a lot of fun to have family and friends there.

Caleb and Hannah love slurpees. They played a lot all summer long. It is a little tricky not living so close to them.

Caleb was Mitchell's biggest fan during the soccer season. He loved to cheer him on and watch the games.

We got to go to Lagoon with my work. The boys loved every minute of it. They got to go on a lot of rides and eat some fun food. This will be a repeat for next year!

Mitchell's a great little soccer player. He loved playing with me just as long as I go easy on him. This game was great for him. He followed the ball and came out with a few goals in the end.

This is the finished product of our kitchen. We were very excited how it turned out. It surely helped when we sold the house!

Mitchell's last day of school was a pirate program. Here is a picture of him after the program with his friend Jaiden.

Here was a during construction picture. It was a big mess, but Becca lived through it!

Here is another pre-kitchen picture for the history books.

Caleb and Hannah playing in the back yard again.

The best news for last: It's a GIRL!

We sold our house and are now homeless squatters. We are now living with Becca's parents. We hope to be able to have a better idea of where we are going to live within the next few weeks. I'll try to be better as we build our house and post the progress.

Last Winter Days

These last 2 months have been full of fun, sickness, and finally melting snow. We are excited for springtime!!

Our annual cub scout cake auction was at the end of January. Clint made a rice krispie treat cake catering to the gluten-intolerant people in our ward. I made cupcakes for the primary kids to bid on with their small change. We had a fun time. The monkeys were definitely the most popular and the most fun to make. Mitchell had a great time helping me and was very excited when I told him he could eat all of the broken M&M's.

I don't know what it is about swim daipers but the kids LOVE dressing up in them.

I think they're ready for warmer weather...........

It has been really neat being a part of the Draper Temple Open house. Clint and I both had opportunities to volunteer. We are planning on going with the primary kids on March 14th to take the tour but I wanted to go more than once so I convinced my parents to come with me and the kids a few weeks ago. We had a great time. Mitchell saw a picture of a cougar in one of the rooms and said, "Mom, there's a BYU cougar in the temple!!". Clint has raised that boy right. This picture is of us waiting for the bus just outside the temple.

Caleb's birthday was in February. We were planning on having a little party at our house but unfortunately Caleb was feverish on his birthday so we just had a little celebration with just us. Caleb had a great time blowing out candles and opening presents. We were trying to teach him that he is 2 years old. After awhile we would ask him "Are you two?" and he would answer in a deep, growly voice "NOOOOOOOOOO" then laugh hysterically. Caleb still has his little girlfriend, Hannah. I would be lying a little bit if I said I didn't set this up for a picture. They are so cute together!!

Crazy 2008

I (clint) was charged with creating the blog for the new year week, and I started this last Sunday, and finally finished this. . .

Last week was great! We finished off the year with a bang. Mitchell got a soda science kit for Christmas from his cousin Porter and we got a chance to use it. Mitchell and I didn't know Becca was awake when we did the experiment of Mentos in Diet Coke, or you would have the pleasure of watching a video of him knocking it over and soda shooting all over the driveway.
If you haven't seen the two guys that put on a show using the Mentos and Diet Coke, here is the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM.

We came in and did some more experiments using Dr. Pepper and salt. Mitchell wanted to be extra safe, so here is a picture:



In one experiment, we almost shot soda up on the ceiling from the kitchen sink, but luckly we could stop it before Mom would get mad at us.


Caleb and Mitchell enjoyed the neat dancing macaroni noodles in Sprite. But they didn't want their picture taken.

Besides the excitement of playing with soda, we really enjoyed ourselves. I have a new job at Overstock.com. I was able to have a short week and stay home. It worked out because Becca had strep on New Years Eve. This made for a short evening without any major festivities. We also went to Wyoming for a Christmas party with my family. It was snowy and the roads were horrible on the way up, but the way home was smooth sailing. It was fun to go swimming with them. Mitchell is excited to be at school, and I am loving my new job.

Merry Christmas!

We have had a wondeful Christmas day so far!! I've really enjoyed sewing this fall and so made pajamas for the boys this year. I let Mitchell and Caleb pick out the fabric just to make sure they would like them. I really wanted to try to make footsie pajamas for Caleb so I did. They turned out so cute! I love them and he will even wear them. They were both excited to wear them last night and wore them for most of the morning. The best was when we could hear them giggling in the morning and found them lying together in Caleb's crib looking at books! (Heather, notice the dog that Caleb is holding. He LOVES it and carries it around everywhere!)

The kids have enjoyed their gifts. Mitchell was really excited to know that Santa had come to our house. Seeing the gifts under the tree wasn't convincing enough. He had to make sure that he had eaten the cookies and milk we had left!

We hope you all have had a great Christmas day!

Happy Halloween, Thanksgiving, & MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Clint working in the computer world means that I hear a lot of technical jargon that I don't understand. One that he used more in the past was "zipping". I know that is pretty common, and yet, I don't understand it. I only understand that it takes something big and makes it smaller. So I hope this transfers well. I am "zipping" our holiday blog. You get three Sorensen holiday experiences for the price and effort of reading just one post.

Halloween was great! Mitchell wore his dinosaur costume from 2 years ago and it only looked a little too small for him. A few days before Halloween he participated in his pre-school Halloween program. Right before it was to begin he informed me that he had some business to take care of in the bathroom. I knew if he went he would miss the entire program so I asked him to wait the 5-10 minutes that it would take for it to be over. He was not pleased and spent the majority of the program either sitting on the floor or looking at it. (There were no accidents for those of you wondering. Mitchell has excellent control.)

Trick or treating was a success. The kids loved it. The best part was that after a few streets Mitchell told me that he had enough candy and was done trick or treating! Caleb did better than I thought he would do. He went to everyhouse in silence but as soon as he would close the door he would burst out "Drick or Deat" and "Dank doo". Maybe next year he'll speed it up and actually say it to the people handing out candy.

Thanksgiving was great. We spent the day at my parents home. I've always loved Thanksgiving meals but for some reason this year everything tasted more excellent than ever. I can usually eat a little sandwich later on in the evening but I had stuffed myself so full this year I could barely make room for a piece of banana cream pie. Thanks Mom and Dad for having us over!

The highlight for our kids the past few months has been the snow that has come (and melted away much to Mitchell's dismay). Mitchell thoroughly loves the snow. I've never seen someone get so giddy because it is snowing. He got into his snow clothes as soon as I would let him. Caleb didn't want to miss out on anything until he fell into the snow with his gloves off. Then he wasn't such a big fan. He still loves watching snow through the window from inside the house.

We are all excited about the Christmas season. We have enjoyed doing weekly advent that my uncle and aunt gave to us years ago. We have invited Clint's home teaching families over each week for dinner and had them stay for advent. Basically we just didn't want to sing alone. Mitchell really enjoys when the families have kids his age to play with. And they love taking turns blowing out the candles.

For our primary sharing time this year we had all of the kids participate in an advent. It was very cute and the kids really enjoyed it. Our music leader orchestrated the event and did a wonderful job. Mitchell had the part of a sheep. I made him his sheep hat the night before. He wasn't sure he wanted to wear it but did really well today. He wore it the entire time and was enraptured by the nativity. I've never seen him quite so attentive.

Even though I've been terrible about blogging (and taking pictures) when I got the camera yesterday to take Mitchell's picture Caleb came running up to get his picture taken. He definitely has NOT forgotten how to cheese for the camera!

I think that our biggest present of the season is that Clint got a new job. His last day at Energy Solutions will be January 31st. He starts at Overstock.com on January 5th. The pay and insurance are better, it's closer to home, and (my very favorite) he won't be traveling. We are very excited but will miss the good friends that he has made at Energy Solutions.

Merry Christmas to you all!! Have a wonderful holiday!