John William with His Big Sister

Claire was very excited to meet baby brother and I wanted to share some of their pictures together over the first month:

New Year's Eve 2010: The Arrival of John William

I am finally getting around to putting John William's arrival on the blog! Much to our surprise as we were getting ready to go out to eat on New Year's Eve my water broke. It was about 5:30pm and after spending some time debating whether or not I was really in labor and calling the doctor, Todd and I ended up checking in at the hospital at 7pm. I was having plenty of contractions by that point and was dilated so they decided to go ahead and do the c-section right away. John William was born 3 weeks early at 9:04pm on New Year's Eve. (He is already impressing his Daddy by being a very nice extra tax deduction for 2010!) He weighed in at 6 pounds 12 ounces and was 20 inches long. Both sets of grandparents were there for the arrival and got to meet John William after about an hour of warming under the heaters to get his temperature up. Big Sister Claire slept soundly at home while Uncle Tim and Aunt Rhonda babysat for us until Grandma and Grandpa could get back to the house.

Christmas Morning 2010

Santa was very good to Claire this Christmas and she had such a good time opening all of her presents and playing with them tirelessly for the next week while she got to stay home playing all day. She got lots of new puzzles, Tinkerbell stuff, a red wagon from Grandma and Grandpa, a refrigerator and shopping cart for her playhouse from MiMi and PopPa, and many other new toys. She slept in Christmas morning and we finally had to just wake her up because we were excited about her opening all of her gifts.

Gulf Shores Vacation with Grandma and Grandpa

Thank you to Grandpa and Grandma for taking us on a long Veterans Day Weekend vacation to Gulf Shores State Park this past weekend, and we had a wonderful time! We went fishing everyday, Claire played in the sand at the beach for the first time, and we got to see a great Blue Angels airshow in Pensacola (which we loved, Claire just wanted her ears to be covered the whole time due to the loud jets). We enjoyed a lot of fun time together and ate fabulous dinners every night. It was a great weekend for all of us, here are some of the pictures we took:

Monday with Grandma

Here are some of the latest "Monday with Grandma" pictures. Claire is getting so big and loves to play outside and go to the park as much as possible. She convinced Grandma to stay outside most of the afternoon this past Monday. Here are some of the pics:

Great start to the football season!

Claire had fun cheering on Bama to beat San Jose State this weekend in her cheerleading outfit and her brand new pom-poms. Sunday she wore her head to toe houndstooth to church and got to go spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house for the Labor Day weekend so Mommy and Daddy could get some work done on baby boy's new room. Here are some cute pictures from the weekend.

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.