baptism weekend; part 2

so after the fun of a parade, inflatables, lasagna and spending time with family we celebrated claires baptism. turns out this little one didnt make a peep even when the pastor got her hair wet. (this NEVER happens during bath time. just saying) 

Claire's Sponsers: Kenzie & Shannon

After baptism we again celebrated at our house with food, drinks, sequence and just spending time with each other. the weekend flew by too quickly in my opinion, but it was a lot of fun to spend the weekend with family and friends. 

baptism weekend; part 1

last weekend we were surrounded by lots of family and friends for claires baptism. but instead of just a one day celebration we made a weekend out of it. sorta. it just so happened there was a town parade and some other festivities to participate in so we made the most of it.

the weekend started out with hanging out with claires aunt & uncle & cousins from wisconsin.

miles & emma were very excited to be able to ride some rides. they even convinced their mom & dad to ride with them and even uncle dave (the hubs) joined in too.

the next day we were joined by the hubs' parents and grandparents and cousin. we hung out and watched a parade filled with bands, aztec dancers, bagpipes and a bunch of other clubs, schools and organizations. all of which claire slept thru. after the parade we went to check out the food, the music and the inflatables. this time claire didnt sleep thru it all. 

  

 

 

after that there was swimming in the hotel pool and then everyone headed to our house for a lasagna supper and of course a game or two of sequence :) it was fun to just relax and spend time with family.

claire's nursery

finally. it only took 11 months but we have claires nursery finished. i hope :) her closet is full of cute clothes and a few toys. and we have curtains which were originally shower curtains. but dont tell anyone. and a glider. this glider is extremely comfortable. just saying.

 

and we have a little "changing table" from ikea. and the center picture in those frames is from the baby shower in wi, a tree with personalized leaves with little messages from everyone. (super cute idea!)

and then a crib from ikea, homemade pinwheel mobile & pouf, cutout C and some shelves complete the room. nothing too crazy or anything too complicated to change when she grows up.

sorry, couldnt resist showing you how much claire LOVES tummy time. but at least her head is up! 

and just cuz i can, another pic of claire. one of the first few pictures of her smiling. smiling to smile not smiling because of gas. crazy how shes growing so fast! but exciting too.

wreath, take 2

so this one time i fell in love with a little thing called pinterest. and found this GREAT and INEXPENSIVE way to make a wreath. ie buy some sort of foam hose thing from home depot and use duct tape to make it into a circle. easy. so i did. and the wreath turned out great. add in some felt flowers and you've got a cute wreath. that is until i hung it up in our door. a few days later...we have a sad, tear drop looking wreath. 

add in being lazy and having a baby and about 5 months later ive done something about it.  so i spent the money to buy a styrofoam wreath (with a discount of course, thanks kenz) and made a new one. i just cut the flowers off the other one and re-glued them on. time saver.  simple fix. now no one can say my life revolves around claire. ha! 

resolution, part 2

click picture to enlarge

alright, finishing up the resolution for august. so technically some of these pictures were taken on the same day, but i figured you wouldnt want to see 15 pictures of claire sleeping in her bassinet thingy. right? right

we have a lot of different activities going on here. surfin the internet with daddy. her first pair of (borrowed) sunglasses. push-ups with daddy in the baby bjorn. hanging out in a hammock, not paying attention to a jack in the box, meeting her second cousin landon, her great aunt loie and great grandma rose, her first nap in her room to be watched anxiously by her mom via the baby monitor. and then, of course, some sleeping ones. (which lately hasnt been happening very often)

just a little laminate...

earlier this summer while my mom was away her freezer decided to act up and flood the kitchen floor. what better surprise to come home to after a mini vacay to nebraska? so after checking out all her options & dealing with insurance she picked a new laminate floor to install. 

so this past weekend we headed over to help her put the floor in. when i say we i do really mean we. we all had our jobs. the hubs helped my mom install the flooring. claire supervised. she was awake most of the time due to some loud banging, but did manage to catch a cat nap here and there. 

and my job, well my job was to ensure the supervisor was happy (had to keep her tummy full) and of course keep the mood light by constantly asking the hubs and my mom "on a scale of 1 to 10 how much fun are you having", id especially ask this question after hearing some frustrated words after hammering a finger or something like that. cuz im nice like that. 

 

claire also got to spend some quality time with grandma and auntie kenzie...but still had no interest what-so-ever in a new toy. even if we attempted multiple times (i lost count)

 

ps now that i know how relatively easy (but time consuming) this whole flooring thing is...im wanting a new floor for our kitchen and dining room. heres to hoping i can convince the hubs to do this again...soon! :) 

Daaaaa bees

So I've been meaning to post something about how my landscaping project has been doing over the past couple weeks, but things like a baby & computer games tend to get in the way!

As I was researching plants to put in our yard, one of my deciding factors was if they'd be good plants for pollinators (bees and butterflies). I am a big fan of bees since they give us so much and only ask for a little bit of pollen and nectar.  Some people might have a hatred for bees since they will fly around your open can of pop on a summer day and can sometimes ruin a picnic. Those "bees" are actually yellow jacket wasps and not bees at all!

Here are some facts about bees:
-There are 1,200 native pollinating bees in North America
-A bee traveling at a top speed of 15 mph will visit as many as 100 flowers before returning to it’s hive.
-Bee pollination accounts for 1 out of every 3 bites of food.
-Most bee species are solitary. A female lays eggs and provisions her own nest. 
-Only the bees that live in a colony or hive (“social bees,” i.e., honey bees and bumble bees) are likely to sting, because they have a colony to defend
-Of the forty-five species of bumble bees in the U.S., only about four have a feisty nature.
-When foraging away from the nest, no bee is looking for conflict and will only sting as a last resort–perhaps as a result of being swatted or squashed, or accidentally being caught in someone’s clothes.

If you haven't fallen asleep after reading those facts, then here is your reward!  Some of the late August blooming plants in our yard (with one of their pollinators) are:

Blue vervain with skipper

Sneezeweed with rusty-patched bumble bee

Cup plant with European honeybee (not native, but these are the ones that make the honey we eat)

The rest of these pictures are just of some of the other flowers in our yard without pollinators:

Bottle gentians are pollinated exclusively by large bumblebees due to the difficulty of opening the top of the flower to get to the pollen inside 

and finally, here is my favorite prairie flower, rough blazing star