Claire is Now 8 pounds!

Claire has officially made it to 8 pounds! She is getting so much bigger every day. Her newborn diapers barely fit her and all of her newborn outfits fit perfect. She had to wear premie clothes the first few weeks because all of the newborn outfits just swallowed her up and now she fills them out just perfectly. She is really starting to look so much more responsive to our talking to her and she even smiles a little bit at us (at least we think she's smiling at us and not just the normal gas smiles). She is starting to lose her hair already, so she will probably be a bald baby for a good while (I did the same thing when I was a baby), and the infant acne has set in on her cheeks. She does sleep really well at night, although she thinks 4:30am is a good wake up time a lot of mornings. She usually lets me get about 6 hours of sleep with only one feeding at night.

Claire is One Month Old

It is so hard to believe that Claire is already a month old(tomorrow to be exact)! We are doing well, she sleeps pretty good at night. I usually get a total of six hours of sleep with one feeding in the middle of the night. She is growing a little bit everyday, she is getting close to eight pounds now. She is really starting to look around a lot more, and making eye contact with Todd and I--which we are loving. We can't wait to get that first good smile out of her when she looks at us.

In honor of Alabama's great win over Georgia this past weekend, Claire got all dressed up in her first Bama outfit so she could cheer with her Daddy. Roll Tide!!

Here she is being put to sleep by her swing after an inconsolable crying spell that she loves to start when she gets cranky and tired.

Here she is all dressed up after coming home from church this past Sunday--very asleep while she is being posed on the couch.

Highlight Video of Claire's Arrival

Claire at Two Weeks Old

Here are some cute pics from Claire's first two weeks at home with us. The first two weeks have been a blur of eating, sleeping, not sleeping, and diaper changing. Todd and I could not have done it without the help of my Mom staying with us for the past two weeks. It has been such a blessing to have her with us. Our wonderful church family has been bringing us meals every other night and we are so thankful for their support!

Claire Has Arrived!!!!!

On Saturday, August 30th, at 10:12AM Claire Marie was born weighing in at 6 pounds 5 ounces and 20 inches long. We are all back at home now and doing well. Here are some pictures from the hospital. Todd bringing Claire out to show off to the grandparents in the waiting room.

Claire looking up at her Daddy. You can tell she loves him already!!

Claire with Todd's parents.

Claire with Lisa's parents.

Claire wrapped up ready to leave the hospital to go home!!
Claire spread out on Mommy's hospital bed.

We love our Claire!! We will be sharing more photos soon!!

Update on the Hardwood Flooring

Since April we have been busy hardwood flooring our entire house, along with painting, putting in new baseboards, and countless other side projects along the way. Todd has eagerly awaited the day that all of our furniture was back in place--and it has finally happened. Today was the end of the hardwooding (with the exception of the stairs) and we are so happy with the results. Our bedroom needs a little more touching up with blinds and curtains before we move back downstairs, but we were eager to go ahead and put some updated pics on the blog. Claire's room has turned out so cute and I know a lot of you have been waiting to see it.

My parents have been a big help along the way, and my Mom has come to visit on countless Saturdays and worked all day long helping with painting, cleaning, and whatever else needed to be done.

Riverchase Baby Shower

To catch up a little....on Sunday, August 3rd, a bunch of very dear friends from church threw me a wonderful baby shower. It was decorated so cute with animals (our playroom theme) and birdhouses (the theme in Claire's room). The hostesses did such a good job planning the shower and preparing food and decorations. There were so many people from church that came and we were definately showered with tons of gifts. Claire will be a very well dressed little girl!!! There will be no need for her to run around in just her diaper!This is a picture of me with the wonderful hostesses: Shannon, Hilarie, Whitney, Jana, Windy, and Rachel. (There were also a few hostesses that couldn't be there--Kortney, Michele, Maleah, and Stacey)

Summer Camp 2008

The last week of June we went for our annual week at Boy Scout Camp. I'm sure most of you have heard us talk about camp before, but just don't quite understand. This was Todd's 20th year of camp attendance (he hasn't missed a year since he was 11 years old). His brother Tim has been going for 22 years, and I have now been for 6 years (2 of which I was on the camp staff). I'm sure most of you have heard the story of Todd and I meeting each other at Boy Scout camp. We love going to camp and definately go overboard in decorating our campsite--which is what our group of young adults is known for. So here are some pictures of the site from this year.

It was definately very tough being out there in the heat for a week while 7 months pregnant, but I stayed the nights at my parent's house which was such a great idea. I did stay one night out there in the tent and my whole body was sore for a couple of days afterwards. We throw an annual party for the whole staff and it kept me out there until midnight so I thought it would be a good idea to just stay the night, but it was a pretty rough night of trying to get comfortable.

Todd, his brother, and their friend Ben all participated in the Triple Ripple triathalon this year and Todd was able to swim three miles in the lake in what was record time for him. He was really worried about how he would do having to swim three miles (he swam 2 miles last year), but he was able to shave ten minutes off of each mile from last years times. I am very proud of how much he had improved with a little swim training this year.

On Friday night, there is always a closing campfire and Todd dresses up in a bear costume and runs around while "The Bear Song" is being sung. This is a picture of Todd with one of our good friends Joey. As you might can tell, the costume was homemade by Todd and Ben about 10 years ago, it looks pretty good to me for two guys hand sewing fake fur with dental floss.

Father's Day Weekend

This weekend was busy for our family and we also had a lot of fun too. Friday night we went to a cookout for our Sunday school class at Josh and Rachel's house that was a lot of fun. On Saturday morning Todd and I went and picked up the crib!! That was definately exciting. It made us come home and work all day on finishing Claire's room so we could put the crib together in a finished room. Todd spent half the day in the attic installing the new fan in her room, then we put in a new closet shelf in her closet, and then Todd touched up all the paint and trim in her room. After a good cleaning the room was finally ready!!!

My parents came into town Saturday night and we took my Dad out for Father's Day. We had a great meal and got to show off all the hard work in Claire's room. After they left, Todd could not wait to put the crib together--it was so much fun and was much easier than we expected. That got us really excited and we moved a lot of her stuff up to her room (including her changing table that's been sitting in the living room for about 3 months now driving Todd crazy). Todd has been working so hard for months now to get the upstairs ready for Claire to move in and I think it has been very rewarding to him to finally get to see a finished project.

On Sunday we went to church and then ate at Todd's parents' house for lunch. His Mom had cooked a wonderful Father's Day spread for Roy that we all enjoyed. We both had a great weekend and feel like we are finally getting closer to being ready for Claire's arrival.

Update on the Remodeling

So we haven't posted in almost a month now. Sorry, we have just been staying so busy lately. With Mother's Day weekend and all of Todd's baseball game attendance the remodeling has been kind of slow lately. This weekend we finally finished up all the floor moulding and quarter round in Claire's room and most of it in the playroom and guest bedroom. Here is a before and after moulding picture of Claire's room.

This is just a good pic of the playroom. It has almost all of its moulding now (not pictured) except for a few pieces while we figure out how to make some kind of built in bookcase under the window area. Todd has been working very hard upstairs and I have been trying to help out as much as I can. After all of these rooms have been caulked and touched up with paint, we are on to the upstairs bathroom, putting all the furniture back into these rooms and getting Claire's room ready, and then downstairs for a lot more hardwood flooring!