Just because

I just thought this one was funny. She's always trying to put things on her head, so I helped her out this time!

1 Year Photo Shoot!!

So, again, we were lucky enough to have Heather do a photo shoot for Claire's 1 year pictures. I can't even express in words how amazing they turned out! I couldn't be happier with them. We also had a grand idea to get some helium balloons, but we lost them before 1 picture could even be taken...nice. So, enjoy!

She's 1!!!

So, I'm a month behind on that post, and I have no idea how that happened. On Claire's birthday, we had a big family party at my parent's house. All of the Calgary family was there, minus Kandice and Brett, and we had such a fun time. Claire was a little under the weather to start with, but after we got some motrin into her, she started to perk right up. We had a ballerina birthday cake (we wanted a bunny, but Costco didn't make them), and since it was Sommer's birthday too, she chose tuxedo cake. Claire got so many wonderful presents, and started playing with them right away. She got some new clothes and beautiful new dresses as well. She was spoiled big time! She also had 2 big bruises on her forehead from falling. She's a constant bruise! I tried to take a bunch of pictures, but part way my flash died. I got some fine ones, but for most of them she looks like she doesn't feel well. I'll post them as soon as I can edit a few. I'll have to add to this post later. Here are some of the things Claire was doing at 1

-Of course, she walks EVERYWHERE
-She says quite a few words "Mommy" "Daddy" "Baby" "Ball" "baba" "Mimi" "Papa" "Nana" "Hi" I know there's more but I don't remember right now.
-She sleeps horribly. Yay for me!
-She loves to be around kids
-She weighs 19.3 pounds(25th%), and I don't remember height, but she's in the 50th for that

13 months-
-she is like a little parrot. She tries to repeat everything you say. She has now added to her list of words
-hello, love you, thank you, peekaboo, wow, boo
-she's trying to run, and falling still
-she's a very picky eater. She likes a few foods a lot, but won't branch out too much. She loves eggs, toast, yogurt, strawberries, blackberries, zucchini soup, mac and cheese, cheese, and that's it pretty much, but we're working on it.
-She just learned how to do peekaboo, and it's the cutest thing in the entire world!
-She's become a daddy's girl. She loves to be with him, and she will stand outside the bedroom door banging on it and crying for him when he's asleep.
-She wants to be doing anything you're doing.

I just can't believe how fast the time has gone and how much she's grown. It makes me so sad to realize that I don't have a tiny baby anymore! It's a good thing she still keeps things fun!

Just so I remember

This post isn't all that fun. I have no pictures of anything, but I just wanted to document our lives for the past little while. This past weekend, we got out of town for a few days...to Edmonton. Not the most exciting of destinations, but it was nice to get out of the normal routine for a little while. We went for Brett's basketball tournament...which they won. It was really fun to watch the games, and Claire LOVED it too. She would dance when they would play music, clap anytime someone else did. Which meant, she would cheer for the other team too, we need to work on that. She walked all around the floor during half time, and LOVED it. She also charmed all of the fans around her. It was really so cute to watch. She loves people! We've had a pretty slow week since we've been home. We fed the missionaries for the first time on Tuesday. That's sad to say it's our first time, but at least we did it this time right? Claire's sleep is brutal, and the night before last (17th), she was up at least once every single hour of the whole stinkin' night. It was tough for me. It's especially hard since Michael's at work, and I do it all alone. The next morning though, we found the culprits. She got her 2 front teeth. We were hoping that they would finally arrive since they've been on the verge forever. So I was thinking that last night's sleep would be awesome since the teeth were here. But, alas, I was up every hour until 3:30 when I realized why. Claire got the stomach flu. AWESOME!! I called Michael to get him home, and got her and my bedding squared away. It was nice he could just come home to us. He let me sleep in this morning, and right now Claire is still asleep in her swing. Going on 3 hours. Poor girl. She was brave, and somehow that makes it harder to watch because she's just looking at you confused, but not sad. So, we're PRAYING that we don't get it too! I'm just hoping that tonight, I will actually get a few consecutive hours of sleep...at least 2 would be nice!

Michael and Claire

It's no secret that Michael and Claire are bonded. Anyone who is around them, knows just how much this little girl loves her daddy. I guess a few days ago, Michael was at his parents house, and she decided to start showing everyone, and luckily Heather was there to capture it! I am so grateful! I am so in love with these pictures. It's so nice to have others be able to see a little of what I see every day. Heather posted these pictures on a site she uses all of the time, and one of the comments someone left, almost had me in tears. They were just talking about how emotional everyone will be when we see these pictures on her wedding day! (If Michael actually lets any man marry her!!)

One of the biggest things Claire does right now is give kisses. She will pucker her little lips, and give kisses to everyone on demand. It's so adorable! Usually when she kisses someone, she has to kiss everyone around her. When it's just us 3 at home, Michael and I usually get 2 or 3 kisses at a time. She goes back and forth between us, and if I'm out of the room when she kisses Michael, then have to come find me so she can kiss me too!! It's heartbreaking! How did we ever live without her?

This is the pucker face. How could you ever turn a kiss down when this face is coming at you?


That is love! And I could never want anything more in the world than that right there!
Thanks again Heather...as always!!

Cute pics by Heather

All I have to say is, it's AWESOME to have Heather home!!! Thanks again for the cute pictures! LOVE THEM!

More of Heather's awesome pictures

This is Claire's Christmas dress. My goal was to get a family picture with all of us dressed up, but Michael was away on the Sunday before Christmas, and then we never got around to doing it. I was thrilled though that Heather got this one for me. She looked so cute in her dress!



These are some adorable pictures that Heather took too. Thanks again Heath!!

11 Months Old

I can't even believe we're one month away from Clarie turning 1. This is the faster year of my life by far. I tried to get some cute pictures of her today, but she wasn't into smiling much. I still got a few in her darling baby jailbird outfit. I love this outfit! She's so cute in it! Anyway, here's the update for 11 months.

-She's saying a few more words now. "Ba-ba", "daddy", "hi", "bye", but nothing even close to "mama". It's so not fair. She also jabbers all the time like she's really talking to you. She uses different sounds, and different inflections in her voice to really get her point across.
-She's taken 7 steps...that's her record.
-She's stopped eating baby food, and is now super hard to feed. She doesn't seem to like a ton of things so it can be tricky. If she likes it, she says "mmmmm", and if she doesn't like it, or is donw with it, she spits it right back out. Some of the things she does like are nutrigrain bars, pancakes, egg yolks, rice krispies, peas and green beans (not the baby food kind...the real deal) and if there are peas and carrots together, she will pick out the peas and leave the carrots.
-She is dancing more and more, and it's so cute to see her shake her little body.
-She melts our hearts every day, and we can't even believe we're so lucky to have her.

I know this post is sort of boring, but I wanted to remember all of these things, so you get to know them too!!