Happy 2nd Birthday Claire Bear!

Happy 2nd birthday to our beautiful Claire! We can't believe she is already two. She has grown so much and is so active. She has a very large vocabulary and can talk in complete sentences such as "more cake please." Her favorite things to do are take care of her babydolls, cook on her new play stove, and help with any household chores. She has started wanting to pick out her clothes and would pick a Minnie Mouse shirt everyday of the week if we would let her. She sleeps about 10-11 hours each night and takes a 2 hour nap every afternoon. She weighs 25.4 pounds now and is in the 25 percentile for height and weight. Her favorite foods are rice, french fries, blueberries, strawberries, chicken nuggets, and cake. Her favorite songs are the ABC's, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and If You're Happy and You Know It.

It's been a long time!!

So it's been a really long time since I've updated the blog. I'll just share some of the pictures from the last few months. We've had a great summer so far, with the exception of the crazy heat this year and just not being able to get outside as much as we would like. We are expecting our second baby and can't wait to find out what it will be(only 3 more weeks until we find out!). Claire is very active and very talkative! I think her vocabulary grows by 5-10 words a day some weeks. She loves playing with all of her stuffed animals and taking care of them by rocking, singing to them, covering them with blankets to take naps, and taking them for walks in her babydoll stroller. She loves singing songs and watching Sesame Street and The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We can't believe she will be turning 2 next month!

Easter Weekend 2010

We had a wonderful Easter weekend this year. Claire and I went to Grandma and Grandpa's house on Friday and Saturday and got to visit with everyone in Anniston. We had fun swinging on the back porch, going to the park to feed the ducks, and seeing an Easter egg tree for the first time. On Sunday, the easter bunny came and we went to church. After church we ate at MiMi and PopPa's house and had a wonderful Easter egg hunt. Here are some pictures from our wonderful weekend.

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.