8 Months!!!!

Claire turned 8 months on the 15th! She has gotten so big this past month! It's hard to find clothes that fit her because she's so long that she doesn't fit her 6-9 month pants but she's so skinny she doesn't fit the 9-12 month pants. I can hardly button her pajamas or her onesies and all of her dresses are getting really short! Her hair has gotten so thick and is really starting to get long and curly. I'm excited for it to grow out a little more because I think that she is going to have ringlets. :)

I love her long eyelashes! They are so long that when she is looking straight ahead they touch her eyebrows.

I love her little curls.

She loves it when you read her books and loves looking at the pictures.

She loves it when you throw a blanket over her head and ask, "Where's Claire?!" It's funny cuz she will just sit there and giggle under the blanket. :)

I love her crazy bed head!

This has been her newest thing, she sucks in her top lip and then tries to smile. Silly baby!

She still loves bath time. But I love it when she's all wrapped up in a nice warm, fluffy towel. She looks so snuggly!

I think she misses her daddy a lot when he's gone because whenever he's home she takes a nap with him.

She loves to talk to the baby in the mirror! It's so funny to watch her squeal and laugh at herself!

She loves dolls and stuffed animals. She talks to them, hugs them, and kisses them.

She will also kiss any part of you that is closest to her. (Including toes which I think is kinda gross but what do you do?) Haha she's my little weirdo.

She loves snack time and has learned how to feed herself crackers and pick up her own cheerios and gerber puffs.

She has been spending more time on her tummy and is really good at scooting around the living room. I don't think it's going to be much longer before she's crawling! She can get into a crawling position from a sitting position and just yesterday she started rocking on all fours. We are in trouble as soon as she becomes mobile! :)

She is a very happy baby! (most of the time. :)) I love that smile and I love that baby! She is such a happy, sweet, loving, little snuggle bug!

Valentines Day

I have always loved Valentines Day! I love the reds and pinks everywhere, I love that there is a day where people can show their love for each other and be cheesy about it, and I love that I have people to love and that they love me back! Usually Joe and I plan a huge date night but this year he was going to be really busy so it was pretty low key.

It was just Claire and me all day since Joe had school and mutual with the young men in the ward. I had been planning on making a nice dinner for the two of us but all of that got thrown out the window when Claire refused to take any naps, which resulted in her being extremely crabby, and eventually threw up all over the place. (This has been a new thing. When she is really tired and cranky she gets herself so upset that she throws up.) She threw up all over herself, the changing table, her blanket, fresh pajamas, and me. I had just finished bathing her too so she ended up with a second bath where she screamed and cried so loud that our upstairs neighbor called to make sure we were ok. Good grief! I was upset, she was upset, everything just felt so overwhelming. I missed my husband and felt so alone but I got her to bed and took a moment to breathe. The moment passed and everything was fine again.

But I was glad that she enjoyed the present we got her. We bought her a pink giraffe that we named Dottie. She had seen it at Wal-mart and had cried through the whole store because I couldn't buy it for her. She loves that giraffe and won't sleep without it either. She likes it when you wind it up because it plays "Rock a by Baby". So even though she can be a little stink sometimes, I still love my little Claire Bear!

My baby on her first Valentines Day!

I really hadn't planned much for Joe except the dinner so I felt horrible when he came home and there was no dinner and he had bought me flowers. But I have a pretty awesome husband, he didn't mind that dinner wasn't ready, he didn't mind that I smelled like baby throw up, he was just glad that I liked the flowers and was excited to surprise me with something. He really is the most amazing husband a girl could ask for! He is always so selfless. He puts himself last even when he's had a long day of work and school. He works so hard to provide for our little family, I love him more than anything!

And for a month I had been planning a luncheon for the day after Valentines Day for all the women that I visit teach and it turned out so great! The luncheon was at my place and my companion and I had made beef stew, salad, rolls, and sugar cookies. It turned out so yummy and it was such a great way to learn more about all of them! It was also really great because all the women I visit teach stay at home all day. All of their kids are out of the house or at school all day and two of them have social anxiety so I think they really enjoyed getting out of the house and having a little girl time! I have been pretty bored at home so I actually got a little crafty and made invites and treats for them to invite them to our luncheon. I filled jars with caramel popcorn and made invites that said,"I'm gonna 'pop' a 'corny' question...Will you be my Valentine?"

The little jars turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself! :)

Happy 1st Birthday Sammy!!!

Our little nephew, Sammy, turned ONE on January 29th! He is such a handsome little dude and is getting so big so fast! We had a fun little family party for him complete with pizza and ice cream and brownies!

The birthday boy with his mommy and cousin!

Claire loves it when Sammy is around to play with. :)

And Sammy had a lot of fun playing with the balloons.

Playing together! :)

Opening presents!

He was way more interested in the curly ribbon than the presents.

Time for brownies and ice cream!

They love their Uncle Adam!

Happy Birthday Sammy boy! We love you!

7 Months!!!

I can't believe that our little Claire Bear is another month older! She is growing up so fast and getting so big! There are so many new things about her I don't even know where to start!

First off...
She has become quite the little eater! She loves carrots, sweet potatoes, and pears! And LOVES her juice and water!

She is now in size three diapers.

She has FINALLY learned how to sit up all by herself!

She still only has two teeth but we are hoping that her top two come in soon! This whole teething thing isn't fun for any of us!

She loves to play by herself and will keep herself entertained for at least an hour. (As long as she doesn't fall over. :))

She has been saying "Dada dada" for a while now but now she says it when she sees her daddy! The smart little stink! I keep trying to teach her to say, "Mama" but she just smiles and says, "Dada!"

She is such a crazy sleeper and has so much hair that she wakes up with the craziest bed head ever! Another reason why we sometimes call her Crazy Hair Claire!

She has started rolling and scooting towards things that she wants but still gets stuck on her tummy. I know that she knows how to roll back over but for some reason she refuses to do it!

Claire has recently discovered that she loves the movies Baby Signing Time. She gets very excited whenever a baby comes on!

She has become very social this month. She will babble and squeal at anyone who looks her way. At church she will even reach towards people she doesn't even know and smile and talk to them all through class. Even if she has her paci in her mouth, she will gabber away but it sounds super funny! She especially loves talking to babies! We were in the grocery store a little while ago and there was a little girl in the cart next to us and Claire started squealing and babbling towards her. It made us laugh when the little girl responded back with her own little baby talk. She is certainly going to be our little social butterfly when she gets older!

She has learned where the buttons are on all of her noisy toys and will press them over and over! Haha guess that's kind of our fault since we bought her the toys. :)

She loves it when daddy gets down and "wrestles" with her, which is pretty much tickling her until she gets the hiccups! Haha I love hearing those little giggles!

She loves to study and stare at things. She does this the most with her jumperoo. She puts her face really close to the light up buttons and will stare at them until they turn off. When she finds a new toy she will hold it really carefully in her hands and turn it slowly to look at it on all sides and she gets this really concentrated look on her face. It's pretty cute!

I have also learned that she is afraid of the vacuum! I had her hanging out in her crib once while I vacuumed her room and she started bawling her little eyes out! I couldn't figure out what was wrong until I turned the vacuum on again and she jumped! But as long as she can see it, she does ok with it.

She has three favorite books that she likes read to her before bedtime: Tumble Bumble, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and I Want To Be a Ballerina.

She loves to have her face tickled with the silky end of her blanky when she is tired or upset.

She loves bath time! We bought her a floating tea set for Christmas and she loves it when you pour water on her tummy from the teapot. Haha she gets this funny grin on her face and will try to grab the water in her hand.

And she has recently started giving hugs and kisses!!! Oh my goodness it's the sweetest thing! She won't do it all the time but sometimes if you ask her for a hug she will lay her head down on your shoulder and give you a little pat on your back! And if you kiss her on the mouth or cheek she will return it with a really wide-mouthed, slobbery kiss! Love her!

If you can't tell I just love this little girl to pieces! She is such a happy and sweet baby! Every day with her is an adventure and I love that I get to stay at home with her! Joe and I just love being her parents!

A Healthier New Year

Our joint Christmas gift finally arrived last week!!! We have already started using it and we love it!

I know it's lame to say that our new years resolution is to lose weight but that's what Joe and I have decided to work on as a couple. But for us it's not just about being thin, we want to be healthier, more energetic, and we want to raise our family to live a healthy lifestyle. We want this to be a long term alteration not just a quick fix. So we have started on a "diet" (for lack of a better word) and have made it a goal to run a 5k together this summer! Haha I have never been a runner but I am determined to become one! It's nice having a treadmill at home because there have been so many times that Joe has wanted to work out but he's so busy with school and work that he didn't have enough time. But since it's right in our bedroom he just gets up half an hour earlier and runs a few miles before school. And now I have no excuse for not fitting a workout into my day!

And along with that Joe will be working out at the gym after school but since it costs way too much gas for me to go to the gym everyday I also bought some work out dvds! It's called The Firm. I have used them before and have loved them but these new ones are only 20 minutes which means it's super easy to fit into my schedule everyday! And they have different workout dvds for every week so there is a lot of variety!

So wish us luck! Haha cause I think we are going to need it!

Goldilocks

Claire's hair has always been pretty curly, especially after bath time. (She gets it from her dad!) So today I decided to put a little bit of mousse in her hair so that it would stay curly during the day and I couldn't believe how adorable it turned out! I can't wait for it to grow out some more! She is our very own little Goldilocks!