10 Months!!!

Things have been so crazy busy at our house lately that I completely missed doing Claire's 10 month post! I know that she will be 11 months tomorrow but I had to complete this post for my own records.

At 10 months Claire was definitely getting the hang of crawling! So many people told me that crawling isn't that bad, they don't get into too much stuff. Haha yeah right! My little stinker gets into EVERYTHING! She's smart and will find a way to get into anything that she wants!

She is definitely our little chatter box. She gabbers and squeals at anything and everything! Her favorite movie is Tangled! She will sit and watch the whole thing!

She HATES getting her hair done but I love trying new things with it now that it's getting longer!

She loves to play with anything that isn't a toy...including my camera case! :) That case is pretty much the only thing keeping her still long enough so that I can get a picture these days.

We celebrated Claire's first Easter this month! And we had a blast with family!

But other than crawling there isn't much else to report! She is still an awesome eater, loves her blanky and giraffe, is the silliest baby ever known, and is still crazy when she sleeps! Love my baby girl!

Easter Weekend

We spent Easter this year at Kayleen and Rex's home in Utah. It was a blast! The whole family came and we all spent the night in their new place. My mom and Savannah arrived on Friday but Joe and I had to come on Saturday morning since Joe had to work the previous day. Saturday was also Kay's birthday, it was so fun to spend the day with her!

In the morning the boys all went to Cabelas and after lunch all of us girls left the babies (minus Seth since Kay is still nursing) with the daddies and spent a few hours in Ikea. I had never been and I have to say that I think that is my new favorite store! They have amazing stuff in there and it's relatively cheap.

We spent the rest of the day eating, talking, playing with the kids, and the boys played lots of games. The kids had so much fun playing with each other! They are all so good at sharing toys!

All three playing together!

Sammy got bored with the girl toys pretty quickly.

Allie was a little upset when Claire kept knocking the doll house over. :)

But Claire was content to play by herself too. She LOVED that doll house.

Sammy and Allie playing with the play food. So cute!

We got the Easter baskets ready once all the kids were put to bed but soon after that Claire woke up screaming and had a total melt down! I have never seen her like that. She was crying, pulling on me, she had no idea what she wanted (she wanted her giraffe, she didn't want her giraffe, she wanted to be held, didn't want to be held...), and this lasted ALL night long! I think she was just a little out of sorts from missing naps, waking up early, and she wasn't home. She is definitely a home baby. She ended up sleeping with Joe and I because she would not calm down at all. But as usual, her sleeping with us meant we got zero sleep and she kept waking up screaming anyway.

But even though our night was kind of a disaster, we still really enjoyed Easter Sunday. Joe and I were in charge of making breakfast so we both got up early to get ready, then made breakfast, and rushed to get dressed.

Joe making some eggs.

Our little rag muffin on Easter morning. :)

Amazingly, all of us made it to church on time at 9! After church we had so much fun watching the kids open their Easter baskets and do the little egg hunt we set up for them. The egg hunt was so funny because Allie was really the only one who understood what to do. Sammy would follow Allie around and Claire was just content to play with the first one she got. :) Eventually we just started surrounding Claire with the eggs and she would try to hold them all at the same time. Haha it was pretty cute!

Later we all enjoyed a nice, super yummy Easter lunch together. But the end of the weekend came way too quickly since everyone had work the next day. We all had so much fun together this weekend! It was sad to have to go home but we hope to do it again soon!

All of the cousins!

Favorite Uncle!

She loves her Grandma!

They all love their GG!

My baby girl on her FIRST Easter Sunday!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter as well!

Spring is Finally Here!

It finally feels like spring is here! For a couple of weeks now we have been having AMAZING weather! The grass is turning green, the trees are getting their leaves, there's a warm breeze, and the sun is always shining! Claire and I spend as much time as we can outside. We go on daily walks and the swing in the front yard has also been incorporated into our schedule. I love soaking up the sun with my baby girl, she loves being outside and it adds a little variety to our day. I have even had my first sunburn of the year. Ouch! :)

We also enjoy spending a little time with our landlord's dog, Pie. She's a really sweet dog and really great around kids but Claire is TERRIFIED of her! Haha it's pretty funny because she wants to see Pie but she does NOT want to be anywhere close to her!

Daddy trying to get her to pet the dog.

She was not interested in being anywhere near that dog...but Pie loved her and licked Claire's face and she freaked out!

Trying to push Pie's face away but Pie didn't want to leave her alone. :)

Finally a safe distance from Pie! The whole time she was swinging she kept a close eye on that dog! I think she wanted to make sure she would stay away from her!

About a week ago we took Claire to the park for the first time! We ended up just walking around though because it was so crowded! Guess everyone else had the same idea we did. :)

This picture is Joe in a nut shell! He's handsome, crazy, silly, but that's why I love him!

That same day we also had our first bbq of the year! We grilled up a few hamburgers and zucchini and it was so delicious! Totally hit the spot!

Claire and Joe

Yum!

Claire helping daddy grill! Haha she was having so much fun chewing on that spatula.

My lettuce wrapped hamburger (Joe even wrapped it with wax paper so it wouldn't fall apart). Our meal was 100% carb free! And it tasted yummy too. Grilled zucchini is one of my favorites!

I love the warm weather but I love the time I get to spend with my little family even more! So excited because only two more days of school and then it's summer break with Joe until September!

9 Months!!!

I know I say this all the time, but it's so hard to believe that my baby is 9 months old! She is growing up way too fast! Claire has grown and learned so many new things this month.

Claire is 19 pounds (59%) and 29 inches long (92%)! Still pretty tall for her age!

She is now in 9-12 month clothing. But depending on the brand she can fit into 18 month clothing as well. My mother-in-law just bought her a whole bunch of clothes and she looks so adorable in all of them! Thank you Grandma!

(this little jacket is my FAVORITE!)

She is now a pro at feeding herself. She is still trying to figure out how to use her spoon though. She does pretty good with her sippy cup as well but is usually drenched in water when she's done. :) And she is not a picky eater at all! She will eat pretty much anything you put in front of her.

She now has SIX teeth! All four of her top teeth came in at the same time!

Claire can now clap and will do it when you sing, "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!"

She babbles, squeals, and says "mama" and "dada" all the time.

She has finally gotten tired of Baby Signing Time and her new favorites are Toy Story (1, 2, and 3), Tarzan, and Tangled.

She loves to play with hair! At the beginning she's pretty soft but then she ends up trying to rip your hair out. (Makes Sundays really fun when she's bored at church. Ouch!)

She loves to "help" me with the laundry. I can't leave any folded clothing anywhere near her because she will very quickly undo it all.

Her favorite things are her paci's, her giraffe, her doll, and her purple blanket.

She LOVES her daddy! She's the happiest when both of us are home and spending family time together.

She LOVES to give kisses! It's the sweetest thing, she puckers up her lips and will follow your face around until you let her give you a kiss. She also does this with dolls, stuffed animals, and pictures.

She is now crawling (March 29)! There was a couple of weeks where she was SO close. She would scoot around on her bum and then she finally figured out how to get up on her knees and move forward a step. She is definitely a goer! She is very mischievous now and has managed to either hurt herself, trap herself, or get into something she shouldn't every single day. Some things she has accomplished in the past few days include pulling her night light out of the socket and promptly stick it in her mouth so that she gets a little shock, getting her hand stuck on the sticky bug traps (thankfully no bugs were in it), smash her fingers in the glider, pull her video baby monitor off the wall, and she has almost pulled our tall lamp in the living room on top of herself several times. She loves to play with our shoes, the dvds and books in the living room, and the dvd player. Life was definitely easier before she became mobile! But we still love her! She is also trying to pull herself up on things, so things are about to get a lot more interesting around here!

And because she is becoming more mobile, we have had to baby proof a little bit. We got the covers for all the outlets because she is absolutely fascinated with those. And I have also had to fix her video baby monitor that hangs on the wall just above her crib. The cord hangs down to the outlet and she has managed to pull it off the wall twice now. So I secured the cord out of reach but it hasn't done a lot of good cuz she has figured out where it is so I'm going to have to move it to another part of her room.

She will pick up anything on the floor and instantly pop it in her mouth! But as soon as you try to get it out of her mouth she will swallow it as fast as she can. So I've kind of become obsessed about vacuuming.

She loves to be outside, so the swing in the front yard has become our new best friend! She loves it and will just laugh and squeal and kick her little legs!

She also loves going on walks! And I do too, it's nice to get out of the house and get my work out in while she's awake!

She has recently started sleeping on her tummy! She hasn't slept that way since she was a newborn and would sleep on my shoulder.

And she takes two naps a day. The first nap is usually two hours and her second nap is an hour. I have learned to appreciate those blessed few hours where I'm not constantly worrying about what she is getting into next!

I love my baby girl's hair! It's getting longer, curlier, and is so thick!
I love the little blonde curls!

And of course the longer and curlier it gets, the CrAzIeR it gets!

She loves being tickled on her face when she is falling asleep and apparently really likes to have her tummy tickled as well. Silly baby!

Overall, we just love this little girl to pieces! She is so happy, so sweet, and mostly very silly! Wouldn't trade her for anything!