February / March 13 months

Claire's Dedication on March 7th





















Playing with Cousin Mallie

Cruisin' with Jack in the FJ Cruiser

Heading out for her golf game

Admiring the dafodils

Constantly on the go.....

Spring time is finally here!!! We've had a busy couple of months and spending lots of time outside. Claire is now 13 1/2 months old and each day she brings something new into our lives. Each morning when she wakes up, she greets us with a "hi" and then an "up" which means she is ready to get out of her crib, a stinky diaper, the word "more" which means she is needing some warm milk, then the word "shoes" followed by the word "outside". She is ready to be on the move and outdoors right away. I'm usually lucky to get a cup of hot coffee in my hand before the back door is opened and all of the toys are being drug out onto the driveway. Lately she can be lulled back inside when she hears the tune of Sesame Street on the television. That is usually our cue for breakfast and a good 30 minutes of coffee drinking!

As for our Month of March, we had her dedicated on the 7th which was her 13 month birthday. It was a special day for all of us! We also had a fun time at Currie Howard's 2nd birthday party where Claire enjoyed climbing in tents, eating cupcake icing, playing in the sand, and getting to ride in a big boy jeep with her friend Jack. She had a blast with these older kids!!!

We are looking forward to a full summer and our Mommy and Me swim class coming up in May. Hooray!!! We are hoping that Claire enjoys pool time as much as she is enjoying bath time at the moment. We went through some rough months with the bath time, but now she loves it!!! Hopefully she willl love the pool just as much. More updates to come.....

Turning One!

Happy 1st Birthday!!!

Always on the go and loving naked baby time!

My birthday dress before I played in the dirt!

Drew, Me, Paige, and Kyle all posing for a picture for our Nanie Turner.

The new pink car I found waiting for me on the morning of my birthday!

The month of February has flown by so fast and we have some very blog worthy news to share. Miss Claire turned one on the 7th!!! It was a very special day for all of us as Matt and I reminisced about all that has happend in our life in just one short year. It's hard not to say, "This time last year, we were......"We have decided that Claire's first year of life has been the fastest year of our lives. Just about a year ago we spent our days swaddling up this tiny little infant that just starred up at us and rarely made a peep. She's now a vivacious toddler whom is constantly on the go and babbling up a storm. Her vocabulary is growing each day and her favorite words right now are: up, dog, more, bye bye, no no, ball, mama, dada, papa, and lots of other words that we haven't figured out the meanings to.

She loves playing outside, getting in and out of her toy car, going to the zoo, cleaning out the tupperware cabinet, pointing and talking to all the dogs at the park, reading books about animals, playing fetch with our dog Max, climbing up the stairs all day long, and dancing to the sounds of her musical toys.

We are looking forward to Spring time and more days of beautiful weather!

Christmas

Surprise!!! I'm now walking!

I can't wait to see what's inside this box!

Checking out Daddy's new guitar.

Cousin Mallie pretending to be a puppy.

Mimi reading me the story of Rudolph.

This past month has been a whirlwind with lots of fun things going on. We took a trip to Amarillo to have an early Christmas at Papa and Grandma Pat's house. Claire and her cousin Mallie had such a fun time chasing each other around and emptying out the tupperware cupboard. I think tupperware will be on our Wish List for next year :) Thanks Pat for allowing these two to reorganize your dishes.

We enjoyed Christmas Eve at our house with Grandpa, Gigi, Grandy, Brad, Elhahm, Cousin Mallie, Jay, Elaine, and Jonathan. Then Kelli and Drew came to town for a two day visit and we had a great time playing tennis on the Wii, visiting, shopping, eating out, and we even squeezed in a comedy club.

Our last visitors were Abbie, Wes, and Baby Natalie. We enjoyed having them come stay with us as they were making the long drive back to Tennessee. We miss our friends, the Gristy's!

On December 28th, Miss Claire took her first steps so that was very exciting. She was eager to get the remote control and took off across the living room floor. It was so cute as we were cheering her on, she would stop in between steps to applaude herself. We are thankful that we were both there to witness this new milestone.

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and Happy New Year!

Claire 9 months

Happy 9 months!!!

Playing on her musical toolbench

Go Red Raiders!!!

Little cubs on Halloween

Family pic in Aspen

We are now three months shy of Claire's one year birthday. It's crazy just how much they grow in such a short amount of time. This past month has been very busy as she does not stay in the same place for very long. She's cruising around furniture, chasing max on her hands and knees, dancing to anything with a beat, emptying the pantry, walking while pushing her musical walker, and cutting teeth like crazy. These pictures are a recap of what we've been up to this past month. We took our first little mini family vacation up to Colorado for a few days and had a wonderful time walking, eating, and relaxing. Claire got to see it snow for the first time while we were there. We are looking forward to the holidays which are right around the corner.

8 months

Daddy, why do you put my stockings on my head?

















Thank you Gigi for the cute outfit!






















Here we are at the zoo! It was a little sunny that afternoon.

Here's my pumpkin that I picked out at the Farmer's Market. However, we had to replace it since it disappeared off our porch :)

Not sure how we would get this pumpkin home.

Hooray Fall is finally here!!! We have been enjoying this cooler weather and being outside. We have visited the zoo this past week, picked out a pumpkin at the Farmer's Market, and also took a trip to the State Fair. Claire loves being outside and with large crowds of people so we really enjoy getting out with her.

Now that she's 8 months old, she has completely mastered the art of crawling and is now interested in learning to climb. We are really having to watch her closer than ever. Gigi and Grandy came in town for a visit and stayed three days with Claire while Matt and I enjoyed a wonderful weekend getaway in Arizona with his company. It was a much needed vacation and Claire had such a good time spending time with her grandparents. Gigi introduced her to teething biscuits while we were away and now she looks forward to afternoon snacks. She has also developed a love for cheerios, baby mum mums, dried peas, and sweet potato puffs. She has really changed into a little toddler this month and it's so much fun to see the daily changes in her!

Happy 7 Month Birthday!

Oops, I almost forgot! Today was Claire's 7 month birthday. Here she is with all smiles and no nap :)

Mobility is Official!

Well we can officially say that mobility has begun! Claire is now practicing pulling up on things, rolling around the room, and "trying" to master the art of crawling. She has also learned how to go to the sitting up positioin from laying on her back and tummy. This is a huge bonus as she no longer feels the need to let out a cry for help each time she's fallen over. Way to go Claire, we knew you could one day do it! Her favorite friend is our dog Max and he is now learning of her new found ability of movement. He is now more than ever on the look out!

Claire's Painting

I wanted to post this painting of Claire as it has become my most favorite thing! We worked with Lindsay Groce in Fort Worth and she did a wonderful job on it. She was also so much fun to work with! If you come across this blog then please feel free to message me and I will pass along her contact information to you. I will also post the original photograph of Claire to give you an idea of how she made the picture come to life. Thank you Lindsay for this beautiful gift of our favorite little girl!

Claire at 6 months

We must say that Claire's six month of life has been by far the most enjoyable to watch. She turned 6 months on August 7th and it seemed like so many changes took place in her just overnight. One afternoon Matt stopped by between meetings and saw Claire sitting on the floor playing with all of her toys. He was like, "I can't believe she's just sitting there like that and playing all by herself". She's all of a sudden like this little person! It's pretty neat to watch her autonomy taking place and to see her little personality already starting to develop.

She babbles all day long and definitely lets us know when a toy is no longer interesting to play with or a tag that she wants is no longer within reach. As you can see from the picture, she's covered in drool most of the time and is so proud of her first tooth. As far as her diet is concerned, she has completely lost interest in anything that is given to her with a spoon. She is very happy and content with the bottle now so we are just going to wait until she shows interest in eating something else. As for her sleeping schedule, she has finally decided that sleeping twelve hours at night makes her feel good so we are keeping our fingers crossed it lasts!! Our little angel is a six to six kind of girl which makes Daddy sad as he's very seldom able to make it home from work in time before she's turned in for the night. We've tried everything known to man in order to keep this little girl up later in the evening so we can have family time, but Claire is just not up for it yet. It makes no difference whether she's taken 3 hours worth of naps that day, taken an evening power nap, etc. She's completely wiped out by 6:00 and ready for her bed.

Trip to Santa Fe

Here we are on the square in Santa Fe. Sarah and Cate joined us on our mini vacation. I loved looking at all of the fun jewelry that the Native Americans had made.

Here I am wearing my new dress that Mimi bought me during our shopping trip.

This past week we flew to Santa Fe, NM for a mini vacation and to visit my mom. Claire slept on the plane and enjoyed watching all of the people at the airport. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go again one day soon.