Sick Days & Snow Days

Well pretty much after Tuesday evening the rest of the week went down hill fast! A yucky cold virus hit our house and then SNOW. So needless to say we are all a little stir crazy and along with sneezes, snot and coughs have a case of cabin fever! But we have found ways to keep ourselves entertained and have made the best of our week at home. And a big thanks to a fun art package that came from Grandma & Poppa that saved the week! Lots of paint, stickers, glitter and glue- what more can a 2 year old ask for!!

Watching Dora with Caitlin & Carson Tuesday night
Enjoying my first experience at water color

What an easy fun thing, just water and my minnie book!

I still dont feel good though....

Making some Valentines with Daddy and Mama

Watching it snow

Just playing around...it was full jammie day!

Showing Daddy how this works, I love my art easel

22 Months

So we're on the official countdown to her second birthday....8 weeks and 3 days! I can't believe it every time I think about it! But if you spend more that an hour with her, you definitely know that it's right around the corner!

She is the talker of the house....never stops, always processing and constantly repeating! She loves to say anything new and is up for the challenge of something difficult. Her new favorite movie is Charlotte's Web and not only does she say and do what she sees in it, her favorite word she picked up is salutations. We laugh and think of all the words for her to choose, she decided on that one! A long 4 syllable word that she already knows the meaning of!

She is out of her high chair and sits in her new booster seat at the table for every meal, which she loves. She feeds herself with her fork and spoon and is still very adventurous in trying anything new. She loves any type of "sauce" and wants you to "dip it" for her.

She enjoys talking about and trying out her new potty. We sit on it whenever she asks to and every night before bath time. We've started a sticker chart and every time she goes, she gets a sticker and after 10 stickers she gets a prize. She is very proud of it!

She still enjoys the library, it's one of her favorite places. She will sit at the little table in the children's area and read books for hours. She and Daddy went to story hour this morning and made sock puppets for her craft. She was excited to tell me all about it when they picked me up afterwards!

She is quickly outgrowing her playroom and over the next couple of months we are going to move it into the bonus room. One for more space and two the playroom will soon become the nursery. She is excited about getting her new big girl bed and big girl room. It will be much for interesting for us to see how she adjusts to staying in a bed without rails to keep her in! We're hoping for a smooth transition and that we wont lose our 12-13 hour a night sleeper!

She still loves playing outside, taking walks and the park, however between the cold temps and all the rain, that hasn't been possible over the last couple of months! She likes to color, paint and do crafts though, so we've been filling our afternoons with some fun indoor activities.

I think her absolute favorite thing is talking on the phone...she loves to pretend and do it for real. She will tell her pretend phone all she has done that day and just talk away. And of course when she's on the real phone, it's nonstop no matter who is on the other end!

She can sing several songs, which are absolutely precious to hear! She knows her ABC's, can count to 10, and we are still working on colors, she knows them, but lately everything is red. Ha!

We are looking into preschools for the fall and are anxious to see how she does with that. She will just go 2 mornings a week for several hours. I think it will be good for us all, especially once the new baby is here.

Well there is a quick and condensed Claire update, but stay tuned for some more baby bump pictures and baby #2's gender...we're hoping to know in a few weeks!

Such a big girl

We got back from dinner tonight with some friends and started playing around and Claire was being such a little performer that we had to break out the camera!

She was patting and kissing my belly and saying, "oh that sweet little baby!" as she calls it. I'm still trying to squeeze into my regular jeans, so I just realized how much that little bump actually looks like a gut over a tight waist (ha, or it was my full belly of pizza!).

Just being silly, sassy and somehow looking like she's 3 or 4 years old!! She just seems like such a big girl today, I can't get over that my baby is gone! And yes, we have on matching outfits and I didn't even realize it until I started looking at the pictures!

She got another hair cut last week and if you look closely at her hands, we had to get our nails painted again too!

Back into our routine

Whew, this week has finally felt like a normal week! It seems like it has taken us all month to get back into our routine and into the swing of things!

We have started back to our Kindermusik class for this semester and also had our big mid year show at Little Gym to show off all of our tricks!

We finally got unpacked from our trip last weekend and enjoyed a short week at work for Daddy!

We are starting a new class at church on Monday mornings for people who have just moved to Knoxville. So I'm looking forward to meeting some new women while Claire has a chance to meet new friends and have some time away from mom! She is finally back to enjoying church and what that means as far as going to play for a few hours without us. Hopefully between Sundays and Mondays she will start to feel more comfortable and things will seem more and more familiar.

We are looking forward to the weekend and hopefully we'll see the sun at some point!

Here we are 2010!

So I know in a previous post I made the comment about hoping that this new year would be a little slower, less stressful and not as chaotic....but I'm quickly learning, don't speak too soon!

I sat down the other day and starting filling out the calendar & I realized that just the first few months were already busy! We are hoping the winter comes and goes fast, we are all ready for spring! We enjoyed our trip to CLT this month and are looking forward to meeting up with our group of friends from Queens in Feb.

Then in March somehow our little baby girl will be turning 2!! I'm already thinking about her party and how we want to celebrate. Then 10 days later another big event happens in our household....I will cross over and join the 30's! I'm still coming to grips with that, but hey, how bad can it be, right??!! My 20's were fantastic, so here's hoping it keeps getting better!

Then the biggest event of 2010 will happen this summer....we will be adding another person to our family in July! We are all super excited and can't wait to see how we transition from 3 to 4. Claire is really happy, loves to "see" the baby when my shirt is up and gives it pats and kisses all the time. We will get to find out what we're having next month, however, Claire is sure it's a "baby boy" and she says we're naming it, boy. So we'll see if she's right...

Stay tuned for many more baby updates and of course funny Claire stories!

Weekend in Charlotte

As you can see, Claire enjoyed meeting up with her old friends for some fun times! We got to see our old neighbors, friends and Sunday school class, here are just a few pics we had time to take!

Playing with Taylor and Brooke at the Park
Stopped by Joe's for a little play date

Can't be in town without seeing her best friend AJ!

3 Amigos: Claire, AJ and Isabella

Big hugs goodbye!

Busy week

I haven't had any time to post since the first of the year, I'm not sure how we're half way through Jan already! All of Claire's activities started back last week and with getting back into the swing of our schedule and Auntie Jess coming to visit all this week, we've been on the go.

We're back into her Kindermusik and Little Gym classes once a week and also go to Gym Bugs to play at their open play once a week, so lots of moving, dancing and getting the sillies out...makes the time at home a little more "still!"

We're heading to Charlotte this weekend for some long awaited time with friends. We are anxious to get back and catch up with people, go to church and just enjoy some much needed time away. We're taking a long weekend and looking forward to some fun memories.

Big Girl Potty

Today was a big day...Claire picked out her new big girl potty! And even more exciting the very first time she sat on it, she went pee pee!! I know, I never thought I could get that excited over a little bit of urine, but hey, these days it's all relevant, right??!! So we talk about it a lot and sometimes sit on it, but we're taking it slow and seeing how it goes.

Out goes 2009

So thinking back and looking at my planner from the last year, I have to say that 2009 was definitely a year for our family. Being good, bad, difficult, successful, trying, stressful, exciting and last but not least eventful.

We started the year off by finding out Chris had been accepted into the FBI and would start the 20 week academy sometime in the spring. We anxiously awaited any new updates throughout Jan and then in Feb we found out that they wanted him to report March 15th. I of course said no immediately knowing he could not miss Claire's first birthday. So taking a leap of faith we said we couldn't do that date and then they finally came back and said OK, how about the 29th. I was still in shock that all of this was becoming quite real and that in less than a month our life as we knew it would be a totally different degree of "normal." Our house went up on the market and we planned our baby's first birthday party. Between she and I getting sick the week of the party, Chris working out his final 2 weeks at KPMG, checking off the to do lists and what to bring lists for Quantico and trying to spend any bit of family time, our life was completely chaotic!

March 23rd came and we celebrated the happiest day of our life with our precious little girl. She had been the best blessing we could have ever asked for & the first year of her life was amazing. We enjoyed celebrating with our friends and family and watched her take her first steps on her first birthday.

Then a week later we had to pack Daddy up and say a very difficult goodbye. We sent him on his first of many 6 hour trips to Quantico and began our journey down that long road.

April came and we celebrated Easter and then finally our first 3 weeks of being apart were over and Chris got to start coming home every weekend. We enjoyed the rest of spring and sailed into summer with our annual family beach trip to Hilton Head. However, this year things were a bit different, without Chris and Auntie Jess (neither being able to leave the academy), but we still had fun and made the best of it. Claire of course loved the beach, ocean, sand and playing with Uncle Ty Ty, Poppa and Grandma.

Looking back I am so glad we were lucky enough to get that week away to relax and rest, because the Sunday we came home we found out our house had a contract and we had to be out by June 30th...that meant 3 weeks! So I tackled sorting, organizing, packing and stressing with a one year old in tow putting Chris to work every weekend when he was home. Then finally by the end of the month, we had a 7 week lease on an apartment in Charlotte, the movers had packed up and taken our things to storage and we said good bye to our house, which was very hard to do. We closed a chapter in our life that held very special memories.

Then came July and we made our first trip to Knoxville on a house hunt. We didn't have good luck with that trip, so panicking, we prayed that things would work out and what God had planned would be OK. We were able to celebrate Auntie Jess's graduation from the Police Academy mid July and were so happy to be a part of such a special day in her life. We were and still are so proud of her! Later that weekend Chris and I made a second quick trip back to Knoxville to meet a new realtor and having a little more success, found 3 houses we were willing to go with. After all 3 didn't work out, I was in total stress mode and full of uncertainties. Then after a week of debating, phone calls and sending Tyler out on wild goose chases to meet our realtor, he found a house for us. They took tons of pictures, inventories, gave thoughts, opinions and we trusted God that this was the house that was meant for us. The sellers could close in 30 days and so on July 28th we had a final contract to close on Aug 28th. Whew, what a hurdle!

I know again looking back that God let that play out exactly the way it was supposed to and that part of our stress was over, because what the beginning of August held for our family was nothing in comparison. On Aug 9th, our family lost one of the most important people in our lives. My grandmother was able to spend precious time in her house after being gone over a month, visiting with her 2 sisters, her children, grandchildren, her great grandchild, spoke with friends and neighbors and then let God take charge of his plan. I don't know that I will ever get over the events of those days and know that at the same time I am so thankful for every second I had with her. The world was such a better place because she was in it and I know that now Heaven feels the same way.

One week later we had a huge accomplishment to celebrate. On August 19th, after 20 very hard and difficult weeks, Chris graduated from the FBI academy. It was not easy to turn mourning and grief into smiles and sunshine, but that was a big day for our family as well. Everything Chris had worked for and the sacrifices our family made, had now payed off. We had made it through the hardest part and now we could reunite as a family and start yet another new journey.

The rest of August was quite like the rest of the year had been, complete chaos. We went back to CLT to pack up our little 700 sq ft apartment, drove back to Hilton Head for a fast 4 day family vacation, which was cut short because Claire got sick. We rushed back to CLT to see the pediatrician, because in 48 hours we our lease was up, our cars were packed, and we had to close on our new house. So we got her better, said some final goodbyes and headed off to TN.

We got into our new house and on Aug 31st, our 7th anniversary, the movers came to unload our belongings. After one week in our new home, city and state, Chris and I were back on the road to CLT to celebrate another very joyous occasion. One of our best friends had found her soul mate and they exchanged their vows on Sept 5th. A day we definitely wouldn't have missed for anything!

The rest of Sept, Oct, Nov & Dec were honestly quite uneventful as we continued to settle in, unpack, learn our way around Knoxville, make friends and enjoy having Daddy home every evening! We of course enjoyed Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas more than ever before through Claire's eyes. The holidays came and went very fast this year and then before we knew it, the new year was here.

So here is looking back to 2009 and thanking God for pulling us through the hard events and for blessing us with the happy ones! We are truly lucky to have supportive friends, family, & neighbors who give us love and support! Here is to a healthy, happy and a little less crazy 2010! Happy New Year!

Elmo Live