Merry Christmas 2009!!

We have had a wonderful Christmas this year. We celebrated Christmas Eve with my parents and then opened gifts from Santa on Christmas morning and had a wonderful Christmas morning breakfast with both sets of grandparents at our house. We still have Christmas with Todd's parents on Sunday--but I figured I would go ahead and share some pictures from Christmas Eve and morning. We had a very Elmo Christmas this year--Claire's favorite character right now-- along with a lot of Alabama stuff--Roll Tide!! We hope you have all had a very Merry Christmas!

Claire loves basketball!! (and eating leaves)

Claire loves going outside and will stand at the front door so excited to go play. She loves putting on her jacket because she knows it means she gets to go outside. Picking up leaves and tasting all of them is a daily activity right now.

She found the basketball in the garage a few days ago and has loved it ever since. She loves to watch us make a basket(or at least try) and she gives it a try too.

I know it looks like she is studying the basket and is about to make a foul shot, but really she was watching a bird in the tree.She has so many teeth now (8 total)!!! You can even tell where she is about to get about 4 more. It's waking her up at night some, and me too of course.

Trunk or Treat 2009

Last Sunday night after church we went to the annual Trunk or Treat and Claire dressed up as a ladybug. She really enjoyed walking around the parking lot, but not going up to people and asking for candy. (I believe she only came home with 3 pieces of candy in her bag) She did give out candy for about 30 minutes and really did a very good job of putting one piece of candy into each bag that came by. She made a very cute ladybug and even did a great job of leaving her hat alone.

Fall Pictures

So it's been a while since I updated the blog...I know. Here are some pictures of what Claire has been up to this fall so far.

Getting ready for church on Sunday morning and posing on the fireplace. I believe this is the first Sunday we really attempted to keep a nice bow in her hair. So cute, but oh so hard to keep on top of her head!

The need to carry a passy around while there is already one in her mouth. She gets angry if you try to take the extra one away!

Playing with Daddy's glasses. She is facinated by them!
Standing on the fireplace and talking...her new favorite pasttime. The only problem is that she hasn't figured out how to safely get down yet.

Happy Birthday Claire!!!!

Happy Birthday Claire! Mommy and Daddy love you so much and we have really enjoyed this last year. You have grown so much over the last year and are such a sweet, smiling, little girl. We have loved getting to watch you grow and get to know your personality. Daddy made you a video for your birthday to show your changes over the last year. You have learned so many things and are such a loving little girl. We love you!!

Claire's 1st Birthday Party

Claire's 1st birthday party went so great today! Thanks to the grandparents for putting so much work into helping prepare for the party! We had so much fun celebrating her birthday and enjoyed spending the time with family and friends. Claire really did well with so many people there, even though she was pretty tired for the last half of the party. We planned on having an outdoor luau by the pool but the weather was not cooperating, so we went ahead and did all the deocorating inside. Here are a few pictures of the pig cake(that really took way too long to make--but I think it turned out cute), and Claire eating her own little cake(although she was already full from eating and only seemed interested in the "1" candle on top of the cake).

Getting Ready for Claire's 1st Birthday

We have been working hard all week to get ready for Claire's 1st birthday party tomorrow. We can't believe she is already one! I have been working on a quilt for her since I found out I was pregnant and decided that it would make a great 1st birthday present. I finally finished it last night and was pleased with the outcome. I am in the middle of baking her a pig cake to go with her luau birthday party theme---we'll see how that turns out. I'm not going to be surprised if I have to make a trip to the grocery store in the morning to get another birthday cake! Wish me luck! Here is a couple pics of the quilt:

Funny Faces

Usually I share all of the pics with her smiling perfectly, but last week my Mom got a lot of cute outtakes while trying to get some good ones of Claire playing. Here are a few. As an update, she now has her two bottom teeth (they look like they are about half way in), and she is standing up all the time and actually tried to take a step on her own last night but fell down. She wants to walk soooo bad. She got promoted to the 12-18 month class at daycare last week and I think it is inspiring her to act like the older kids. We also are starting to slip milk into her bottles now to wean her off the formula, so far so good. She hardly eats any baby food anymore and is pretty efficient at feeding herself table food. Her favorite food is the Gerber Graduates little crunchies--she won't eat anything else if she even sees the can in the room (they are pretty much cheese puffs for babies--they are good, I can't blame her for liking them). Grandma has taught her how to hold up the number one when you ask her how old she is, that is what she is doing in the second picture. We practice it about 100 times a day so she will be able to do it on her birthday!

Claire's First Tooth!!!!

Claire now has her first tooth!! (and the second one looks like it might be budding out too!) Todd and I worked very hard to get a picture of the now infamous tooth--so please enjoy the 2 pics out of 50 that actually show the tooth. She has had no problems with typical teething behaviors so it really took me by surprise yesterday morning. I've heard all kinds of stories of babies waking up in the middle of the night, running a fever, being fussy--but she didn't do any of that. We also took some pictures of her at church in the little tables they have with seats in them. They are so cute, and I keep meaning to get Sunday morning pictures with all the babies dressed up together.

Claire is growing up so fast!!

Claire had another good Monday with Grandma today and took quite a few good pictures while playing today. I thought I'd share a few. Claire is really getting around so good. She can climb up the entire flight of stairs now with no help, she has managed to turn on the DVD player and actually get it to open and take the DVD out, and she takes all the books off the bookshelf whenever she gets a chance. She had her 9 month check up last week (really at 10 months after having to wait for her to be fever free for a couple weeks before getting shots) and she was in the 25th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height. She was up to 17 pounds 2 ounces.

Boy Scout Summer Camp 2009

This past week Todd and I went to Camp Sequoyah (Boy Scout camp in Delta, AL just south of Oxford). It was my 7th year and Todd's 21st year. He hasn't missed a year since he was 11 years old. Claire got to spend the week at Grandpa and Grandma's house (Thank you so much!) while Mommy and Daddy camped out for the week. We had such a great time this year as usual and Claire got to come and visit us on Family Night (Wednesday night). Here are some pics of her in her matching scout uniform and in her swing that Daddy hung at our campsite just for her. The pictures from the week at Grandma and Grandpa's house will come later when I get them from her. In case you were wondering, I couldn't stand to leave Claire for a week so I went and spent the night with her a couple of nights during the week--the break from the hot weather in the nice air conditioning didn't hurt either.

She has started talking! and First Visit to Camp

Claire has discovered that she can talk. Last night sitting in her high chair she kept saying da-da over and over again. Since then, she has not been quiet. It's da-da, la-la, ya-ya all day long and is so cute! Today we also took Claire up to Camp Sequoyah for her first visit to boy scout camp. She wasn't feeling very good, but seemed to enjoy being carried around in her snugli while we hiked around a little bit. Here is a picture of us sitting out front of the medic hut(you can tell she doesn't feel good).

Homemade Baby Clothes

I took a couple of sewing classes while I was pregnant with Claire. In the beginners class I made a very simple a-line dress for Claire that will fit her in a few more months, and in the intermediate class I learned how to make a bubble outfit that included piping, buttons, elastic legs, snaps under the legs. Well, I never finished it during the class and Claire was born soon after. The outfit I started was a nine month outfit and I figured I should finish it before she is too big to wear it and I really think it turned out cute. Here she is modeling it before church today.

And then, here is just a cute picture Todd took while she was taking a bath the other night.