The Bird's Nest

We just spent five days in CA at the in-laws' house. It was a great trip! Allan and Gig (my in-laws) love being grandparents more than just about anything in the world. They are loving and generous and my kids are so blessed to have them in their lives. One of the coolest things they have done for their grandkids is build a second story onto their house. The room is called "The Bird's Nest" and it is a little girl's paradise (eventually they will incorporate a few boy things as well). Claire has yet to sleep in one of the three princess beds, but she had a blast playing in all the dress up clothes and pulling everything she could reach out of the huge toy closet. We are all looking forward to the day that the cousins can go to Mimi and Papa's house for sleepovers and get a lot more use out of this great room.

Seriously Cute

I am sorry, but they are!

Claire dressed herself the other day in her fancy "ballerina shirt" that Ms. Leanna made her and matched it perfectly with some striped pants. No outfit would be complete without just the right amount of accessories. I LOVE her unique personality and style. She would be dressed like this 90% of the time if she had her way (and most of the time she does). Since it was 30 degrees outside I did require a coat to be added to the outfit when we headed out to run a few errands. I am so proud that Claire is showing tendencies towards confidence and being assertive and being true to who she is (even if sometimes she wears me totally out). I love her with all my heart with and without her funky outfits that I personally find totally adorable.

Jacob is a changing little man. He got his first tooth the day after he turned six months. It is the bottom left one and he got it like a champ...no fussing. I have been praying that he would teeth like his sister and that I would not know he was getting a tooth until it appeared and so far he is one for one...thank you Jesus. He had his first sippy cup of water today and loved it. He has been obsessed with our glasses for the last couple of months and has even managed to knock TWO Sonic drinks out of my hands (the nerve!!!). I decided it was time to test out his interest and boy did he take to it like a champ. So far he has had about a quarter of a sippy cup of water. A little bit ago I was giving him a little floor time and when I looked over he had his knees pulled underneath him. I wonder if he will crawl earlier than Claire did. It is so fun to watch him grow and change. I am so thankful that I get to stay home and have a front row seat to my kids lives on a daily basis. They are seriously cute...what can I say?!?!

Christmas Festivities

I just love this time of year for so many reasons. This has been a special holiday season because Claire seems to be "getting it" for the first time. Last night she asked us to play Mary and Joseph and assigned us all parts: Claire was Mary, Jacob was Joseph, I was a sheep, and Allan was a king, her new little teddy bear was baby Jesus. It was so cute. She even draped a blanket over her and Jacob and said they were "wearing their hoods just like in the story". We have made sure that she knows that Jesus' birthday is the real reason for Christmas, but it is also fun to ask Santa for gifts and we have already planned out what cookies and milk we will leave out on our Christmas Eve (which is actually going to be this Friday night since we will be out of town on actual Christmas). We wrote Santa and asked him if there was any way he could come to our house a little early and he kindly said sure ;)

I have tried to do as many Christmas-y things this month as possible. This weekend was so fun since we hit up a few local events and even met up with some friends on Sunday afternoon for a walk around the arboretum.

Saturday afternoon we made our first trip to a local church that puts on a live nativity. It was really neat. We rode the hay ride tour through all the main scenes, then went to their petting zoo, and finished up with cookies and hot cider and cocoa. Claire LOVED seeing all the real animals and thought the scene of Mary being woken up by an angel was really funny. Jacob was just happy to be all cuddled up in the carrier looking cute.

After we saw the nativity we headed across the street to a little festival even though we were short on time. Claire had to choose which line she wanted to wait in, Santa or the Boogie Woogie Choo Choo, she chose the train. She did not quite understand that she was making an either/or choice and was really sad when we didn't have time to go see Santa. Jacob was in rare form and had a blast playing with Allan. He would squeal at the top of his lungs and then give a big belly laugh. He was the hit of the line...what can I say, we have some cute kids ;)

Sunday we met up with some of our new friends at the Arboretum. It was a beautiful day to be outside. I was a little bummed that once we paid to get inside we found out that all the activities cost even more money, but we had fun walking and talking anyway. Once again Claire missed out on her Santa opportunity. One of the many funny things she said when we were heading over yesterday was "will Santa be there and not baby Jesus? I really just want to see Santa this time." It was also fun to revisit the bench where Allan asked me to marry him. We have started a tradition of going back to take a picture on it after we add a kid to the family (see family picture above).

We ended the weekend with our small group Christmas party at our house and although it was loud and chaotic with all the kids a babysitter that was a no show we had a good time. We played games and had good food. It is so great to be building relationships with so many great people.

What a great weekend! The rest of the month is going to be just as fun I think and that makes me happy.

6 Months Old

My sweet Jacob Allan came into my world six months ago and all I can say is that I am so deeply in love with this little guy. He is a true joy and has been the most precious addition to our family. I cannot believe that we are half way through his first year of life, time has never flown by so quickly.

This last month I have seen Jacob change from a squishy little baby that doesn't do too much into a super cute squishy baby that sits up on his own, rolls all over the room, says "dadadadada", and he eats three to four jars of baby food a day (he is not a huge fan of fruits, but loves all veggies). He has a smile that will melt your heart and is generally laid back and happy. Just in the last week we have started doing a little "sleep training" and the boy that never let me sleep more than a couple of hours a night has had a few fantastic nights of only one wake up which is amazing.

I love watching the bond grow between my two special guys. They are getting more and more time to interact and watching Jacob's face light up when his daddy is around makes me so happy.

I am so excited to watch my little man grow. I know that the big first birthday will be here before I know it (lump in my throat). Jacob Allan you are one special little man and I am so blessed to be your mommy. Thank you for all the joy you bring to my life every day.

Claire's FIrst Christmas Program

Today was one of those moments...you know the ones where you think, 'I have waited my whole life for this' except you didn't even know it. As I watched my baby girl walk down the aisle and then up onto the stage to perform the little songs I had been hearing her practice at home for the last couple of weeks I had tears in my eyes. I was so proud of her! She did all the motions and sang most of the words. She saw me in the crowd and got excited, waved, and even said "Mom"- I loved it! She looked adorable in her white princess angel dress.
After the performance we had cookies and punch (which was red and I was a nervous wreck she would ruin her dress) then it was time for her to do a wardrobe change and put on her PJs for the rest of her Christmas party. She was so sad to take her beautiful dress off so we made a compromise she could keep on her golden bow, sparkle shoes, and her "high heels" (most of you would probably call them tights, but not my funny girl). She spent the next couple of hours with her classmates eating pizza and cake, reading Christmas stories by the "pretend campfire", and doing crafts.
Another great perk of the day was having my sister and parents come to the program. It really meant a lot to me that my parents took the day off of work to come and watch Claire sing in a group for thirty minutes. Thank you so much for loving my Claire Bear!!

I am so thankful for this Mother's Day Out program and for her super sweet teacher. It is such a great feeling to know that I can trust my baby girl in the hands of these godly women a couple of times a week and that she will be having a great time and learning a few things in the process.

Gaylord Texan Fun

This last weekend we headed over to the Gaylord Texan to get a little taste of the holidays. It was decorated beautifully and Claire loved all the sparkly things. I was a little bummed that we missed out on seeing all the amazing lights after dark, but when you have two little kids and there are important football games on at night "you get what you get and you don't get upset". I was in awe of the HUGE gingerbread house and gingerbread cowboys. There are some seriously creative people out there. Allan liked the trains and Claire just liked the freedom of leading us all over the place. I love the Christmas season!

Princess Time

Claire got a new dress to wear in her Christmas program at school this week and she loves it! She calls it a princess dress and when she tries it on she just twirls and twirls. The other day she asked me to put on my princess dress and I thought...why not. I found the poofiest dress in my closet- my wedding dress- and squeezed right into it. We spent a little bit of time dancing and singing "I'll Love You Forever" to each other. It was a memory I will never forget. I am so glad that I took the chance to make my little girl's eyes light up as I came around the corner in my white sparkly dress. It was so much fun and so very sweet.

Decorating for Christmas

We had a laid back morning last weekend decorating for Christmas. I love this time of year, I love how cozy the living room feels with a Christmas tree. I recently came across a couple of ornaments that belonged to my Granny and Pap and it makes me happy to see them hanging on my tree. We continued our tradition of everyone in the family getting a new ornament to hang on the tree this year, Claire received a princess castle, Allan got a Santa catching a trout, Allan was given a cute little airplane, and I added an ornament with a picture of my favorite place in Washington Lake Crescent Lodge. It is so great to look at our tree and see it filling up with memories. Jacob is at the perfect age this year he is intrigued with the tree, but isn't mobile enough to bother it. Claire is full of Christmas spirit this year and I LOVE it!!! She sings Christmas carols and makes Christmas crafts daily. She is also quite obsessed with opening the gifts under the tree and asks daily if it is Christmas yet. One of the highlights of the Christmas decorations this year is the LGB train that Allan has had since he was a little boy. It makes many circles a day around our tree. It has already been a good December and I look forward to many many more memories being made over the next few weeks.

Fun Times (More Often Than Not)

My kids are becoming buddies and that is a fun transition to watch. The adoration that Claire has poured out on her brother since he was in my tummy is finally starting to be reciprocated. Jacob usually lights up when Claire comes near, unless of course she has recently "hugged" him a little too hard, then he kind of whimpers as she approaches. Claire often says "you are my best friend buddy" and that makes me so proud. I really hope and pray that my kids will always have a close, fun, loving relationship.

This little guy is almost 6 months old and he gets more fun everyday. He is generally very happy and still pretty laid back although there are moments that he will let us know that he has an opinion. He is a lot like his daddy that way- rarely has an opinion but when he does watch out. He is sitting up and rolling all over the place. He is starting to play with toys which is so fun. As you can tell he is still quite the eater and will eat pretty much anything offered to him. There is not a baby food that he has opposed this last month and would easily eat two jars of food per sitting (I have only done that once, he puked a lot of it up...oops). He is beginning to chatter a lot too. His favorite sound is "dadadada". I am just so in love with my sweet Jacob and love watching him grow.

Watching the kids play together is one of my favorite things ever. It is nice to get five or ten minutes to work on laundry or dishes or catch up on Facebook while they play together on the floor for a bit.

This little beauty keeps me on my toes about fifteen hours a day. She is hilarious and sweet most of the time, but she can also be a force of nature that shakes me to my core at times as well. It is in those moments of total angry chaos I find myself praying "Jesus let her get saved quick!!!!" . I won't focus on those moments right now, they are no fun to relive. Some of the great things about Claire at the moment are her imagination, her reasoning skills that are not always practical but usually end up making sense, her love of all things artsy, her love for her little family, her "fashion" preferences. She is becoming such a great little person and I love her more deeply everyday.