National Championship Trip to Pasadena

For our annual Connell Family Christmas trip we cancelled the plans to go to Memphis and quickly made arrangements for a 5 day vacation to Pasadena for the National Championship game. Todd's parents, his brother's family, and us all flew to Los Angeles a few days before the game. We met my parents out there who flew out a week earlier and had been staying at my Uncle Vincent's house (who lives 2 miles from the Rose Bowl). The flights out there went great and Claire behaved very well and slept about 75% of the time. It was fun to travel at the same time as so many other Alabama fans--we were definately in the majority at every airport we went through.

We traveled on Tuesday, and then went straight to Disneyland on Wednesday. Disneyland was a lot of fun for all of us. Thanks to my parents for keeping Claire and taking her to the park to play--she is still a little too young to enjoy everything at Disneyland.

On Thursday morning, Todd, Claire, my parents, and I went to visit my Dad's Mom that lives in a nursing home in Pasadena. The rest of Thursday was devoted to gameday preparations. My Mom dropped Todd, his Dad, Me and my Dad off about a mile from the Rose Bowl and the entire day could not have gone any smoother. It was definately a great game to be at and was an exciting experience from all the entertainment before the game to the game itself. (It might not have been so exciting had Alabama not won the game 37-21).

Friday we all took the 15 passenger van we had rented and drove to the Reagan National Library and Museum. It was located in one of the most beautiful areas of California and had some of the best views we saw on the trip. They also had a retired Air Force One that you actually got to go inside--definatley the highlight of the museum (besides my Mom stealing a couple of fresh oranges off the trees there-very yummy!)

Saturday, we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway for a couple of hours and then drove back through Hollywood and saw Rodeo Drive, Sunset Blvd, Kodak Theatre, etc. We also got out and visited the LaBrea Tar Pits. Sunday morning we all packed up and started the long journey home and got to experience the long waits of checking in at LAX. It was a great trip with perfect weather and was very exciting for me to finally get to go back to California to see my Uncle, grandmother, and where my Dad grew up for the first time since I was about 7 years old. Here are a few of the many pictures we took while there.

Thanks to my Uncle Vincent for being a wonderful host to us while we were in LA. It was great to get to spend so much time with you. Thanks to Todd for being a personal chauffeur to all of us driving that 15 passenger van all over in LA traffic while I concentrated on interpreting the directions from the GPS. Thanks to MiMi and Pop-Pa for another wonderful Christmas trip--I'm not sure if you'll be able to top this one though. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for being great California tour guides and keeping Claire a couple of days so Todd and I could enjoy some free time while on vacation.

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.