oh hey...remember us?

sorry for the lack of posts these days. turns out life can get busy quickly. and you lose track of time. and you forget to take pictures. and then when you do take pictures you say to yourself, "ill do a blog post tomorrow" and tomorrow becomes the next day...and then the next day turns into a week, a month...well you get the picture...



SOOOOO big

this is a very common facial expression these days

"bubble" is now in her vocabulary

hanging out on our new couch

another common facial expression....

loving those eyes...and the drool dripping from her chin...

loves to sneak into the pantry

bubbles and daddy

oh claire. how she is growing and changing so fast. she loves bubbles and gets REALLY excited over them. we got a bubble machine and man does this thing crank out the bubbles. seriously its kinda overwhelming for me let alone claire but she enjoys it. every once and a while. 

and she is always on the move. always. and it seems to always be where we are. especially when we are in the kitchen. she wiggles her way into the smallest of openings...or whines until we make room for her.

and im about 99.9% sure shes a hard core daddys girl. which i like. (and so does the hubs!)

birthday and baseball.

we went to visit good ole wisconsin again...to celebrate some more birthdays. claire loved all the hugs and kisses she got (mainly from her cousins) and had lots of fun playing and seeing everyone again.

miles was helping uncle dave fix a headboard. 

and then at the birthday party all the young ones celebrated in the bounce house. even uncle dave was jealous and wanted a turn too! and then miles showed off his new hairstyle! (which he did all by himself!)

we even caught some baseball games too. of course i think dave & andrew were the only ones really able to watch, shannon & i were busy corralling the kids. i love these 2 pictures. showing off how claire LOVES to point at everything and is so interested in her older cousin emma.

miles showin claire some love. 

and auntie shannon. spending some quality time with claire and yet keeping emma entertained at the same time. now thats a good mama!

todays letter is c

c is for cardigans and climbing. and of course claire.

just had to share these pictures. im lovin claire in cardigans. (thanks to some inspiration from emma on her birthday) claire has really taken a liking to this chair lately. when it gets quiet in the house, half the time she can be found just sitting in her chair. lounging. the ex-dance liner in me hopes her flexibility stays like this...

and then climbing. man on man has she gotten some muscle & climbing ability. it amazes me that she knows to bring this little push toy to the side of the couch or the gate & can climb up on it.

late entry

over memorial day weekend we trekked on over to wi to see family & friends and to celebrate our neice's 2nd birthday. we had a lot of fun...so much fun that i didnt get a lot of pictures (bad mom, i know)

even though she doesnt look like a happy camper here, claire had so much fun playing with her cousins and seeing her extended wi family. she even got to play with her friend jameson too. buuuut check out that hair! its growing!

we went out to eat and claire loved eating grandma kellys supper with her. we even attempted to get a shot of all three grandkids...as you can see...its pretty funny & pretty much impossible to get everyone looking the same way at the same time...and you gotta love all these facial expressions too!

grandma kelly also found this piano at a garage sale (i think) claire loves it! shes always walking around it, sitting down and trying to play some music. that is when she isnt distracted by her purse. she loves this purse & some how knows to put it on her arm...

claires hobbies

she loves to play with my hair. and of course by play i mean pull. 

she loves to bite. anything and everything. even us. and boy oh boy does it hurt. 

and just like mommy, she likes to read. well techinically its looking at every book, pulilng all the books off the shelf or having mom or dad read to her. same thing right? 

and since ive been doing a craft project with balloons, she has been enjoying playing with those too. she even popped one and didnt get scared or cry or anything just sat there.



push it

push it real good.

claire loves to push things.
especially if she can walk behind, around or under it.

she has yet to learn how to turn around when she runs into something though. oh well. soon enough im sure.

auntie kenzies birthday

auntie kenzie celebrated her golden birthday on the 21st.
turns out claire sorta stole the show. (sorry auntie kenzie)

after playing with her new sunglasses, claire ate some table food. ive never seen her eat so much at one time. of course we typically dont have the wide variety of  foods available. she tried bites of flatbread with mozzarella and peppers, chicken fettuccine alfredo, french fries, green beans, garlic mashed potatoes and a giant pickle slice. pretty sure the pickle was her favorite. (i think thats everything.)

and after all that eating she was happy to relax by uncle kyle.

(probably because he didnt bring his big dog with)

10 months.

10 months already. crazy.
lets see whats new???

shes trying more and more table foods. her favorites so far are cheerios and graham crackers.

she got her 3rd ear infection. on top of that we think she was going through a growth spurt and is working on more teeth. those 3 things combined = one fussy baby who woke up lots during the night and 2 tired parents. we also learned that when claire gets her 4th ear infection she will "earn" or "win" herself some tubes in her ears! haha.

she has officially stood on her own. for about 3 seconds. but whos counting?!?!

shes given herself some bruises. whether its climbing on and all over our barstools to trying to put her pacifier in her eye...she always seems to have some sort of bruise or spot on her. and of course...who can resist a side by side? (not this girl)

featured on the next episode of hoarders...

will be our daughter. 

the pacifier hoarder.

if we have 3 of her favorite toys, ones playing music even, a remote and a pacifier spread throughout the room...she will no doubt go for the pacifier as soon as she sees it. 

(a little hard to tell but she is holding 3 pacifers in her hands)

we've glanced at our baby monitor at night to see how shes sleeping and have seen her cry/spit her pacifier out and immediately put a new one in because she loves to hold them even when going to sleep.