Mother's Day and Yard Pictures (better late than never...)

Blogger was being a pill a couple weeks ago, so I never got these posted...


My first Mother's Day weekend was more than I could have asked for. Bud told me that the weekend was mine and we could do WHATEVER I wanted. What more could a girl want?!? So, Friday when he got home from work, I told him that he could grill, or we would go out for dinner. Can you guess what he chose? :) After an amazing meal at our favorite hibachi grill, we went to Babies R Us for a little shopping trip. We looked at all the toys we still have a few years before we have to buy, and we ALMOST bought a swing set. SO CLOSE. Maybe this summer. Claire absoluletly loves swings, so we would love to have a swing set in our back yard...we will have one soon. When we got home, I asked Bud to try and get a picture of me and my girls (both Claire and Lacey) and this is what we ended up with.....

Claire and Lacey ADORE each other. It makes me smile every time I see them interact. Bud and I say it all the time, but Lacey really is the best thing that ever happened to us. We both one day decided we wanted a dog, I had already seen her on the Humane Society's website, he fell in love just like I did the second he saw her....we were done. She needed to come home with us and be ours. She taught us many things...we are more patient, kind and compassionate people since she came home with us. She was, and will forever be, our first baby. When I said good bye to her last week, I started to tear up--I have never left her for more than a week...I miss her terribly. I am such a baby---I worry more about leaving her than I do leaving Claire!

My other 'gift' from Bud for Mother's Day was that he was my slave for the weekend. :) Ever since we moved into our house, I have been wanting to get the front landscaping re done. I have many ideas for the entire yard, but I really just wanted to start with re-working what the builder had done. My goal for the weekend was to pick a few new plants and flowers to plant, tear out the old, and put in pavers and mulch. We completed it all! Claire was an absolute angel, and took REALLY long naps all weekend, allowing us to get everything done! (Notice the baby monitor on the railing. :)

Still a bunch of junk on the sidewalk, but you can see the pavers done, mulch in place and new flowers planted in front of the porch (the yellow and red ones)

Close up of new flowers in front of our porch

To the right of the porch, in front of Master Bedroom window.

We replaced 3 of the bushes in the 3rd row with Azaleas, and then I added Gerbera Daisies to to second row. We are going with whites and reds...can't wait to see it all bloom!

Just pavers and mulch to the left of the porch...those bushes were there when we bought the house.

I am so excited with how it turned out. Like I said, I still have big ideas for the rest of the yard (like father like daughter???), but that can wait for now. The only other thing I want to get done soon is the mail box--I want to put some pavers, mulch and flowers around our mailbox. Hopefully I can get that done after we get home.

I have been in MN now for almost a week--Claire and I are enjoying some family time while we wait for him to come to town. Bud's youngest brother graduates high school this year, so we will be here to celebrate with him at his party on Saturday. We are so excited to be able to be here for Lee, and to enjoy some family time with everyone.

Claire and I went to Iowa this past weekend with my mom and dad, and we were able to visit Sarah's classroom. Stay tuned for those pictures in the next couple of days

7 Months Old!

Didn't I just post like yesterday that she was 6 months old?? Sheesh, slow down time!!!

Here are a couple favorites from our picture session with her puppy today...

I really should be packing right now, but I hate packing, so I am not. :) Waiting for laundry to dry and then I will pack...ugh...anyone want to come do it for me??

Uh, oh.....

We have a crawler! Watch out!

Even though we knew she was close, we are not ready for this! I see baby proofing in the near future!

And, last but not least....

Two Generations! This is probably the least flattering picture of me ever taken, but I don't care, because it is the first time I got to hold my beautiful baby girl.

If you know me well, you know that I have always wanted to have kids, and lots of them. :) When I was a little girl, I almost always was playing with a baby doll. I started to baby sit at a very young age, and became a regular for many families (a lot of them I still keep in touch with!). Every job I have ever had has dealt with children in some way, and I really don't know what it would be like to not be around kids all the time!

I really believe that I was put in this world to be a mother. The only thing I have ever really wanted in life is to be married and have a family...it's just a bonus to me that I got to marry my best friend who makes me laugh every day and we made an amazingly beautiful baby. Being a mom has been everything I was hoping for and more...I love every single second that I get to spend with Claire. (Ask me again when she is 13 and I might not say the same thing... :)

Bud offered to help me with yard work this weekend and then next weekend we are getting family pictures taken and he is NOT going to complain about it. :) (Pictures were my request, he hates having pictures taken, so I figured if I asked for it as a Mother's Day present he couldn't exactly say no!) Claire was an absolute angel all weekend and we had some really wonderful family time.

I feel so blessed to have such an amazing little family. I am so very thankful for Bud and Claire, and can not wait to see what the future holds for our family.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there!

Three Generations

We had two very excited grandma's when we announced that we were having a baby. She would be grand-baby #1 for both sides, so would be incredibly spoiled all the way around. She is an incredibly lucky little girl--she is so, so loved it is unbelievable.

Claire was born on October 18 and my mom arrived on October 23 and here is a picture of their first time meeting.

My mom was an amazing help--she would take Claire in the morning so we could sleep, did dishes, cooked, cleaned...all the things you don't want to do right after having a baby! I certainly hope the same things happen with the next baby...it was such a blessing to have her around!

Our next visitor after my mom left was Bud's mom, Claire's Grammy. We didn't get a picture of the first night...but the next day was Grammy's birthday, so we got a picture then...

Again, Marie was more than we could have asked for. She took Claire after her morning feeding so we could sleep in, made us meals, did the dishes....so incredibly helpful. She even put in a couple loads of laundry! We loved having her there, and enjoyed seeing her interact with her first grandchild--she was a natural!

Claire is so incredibly lucky to have two grandmothers who think the world of her. They have been beyond helpful to our family,and we are so excited to the journey that they will lead as grandma's...they will be amazing! We talked many times while I was pregnant about what kind of parents we would be, and Bud mentioned one time that we both had amazing parents, so how could we really go wrong? I couldn't agree more.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom and my mother in law...you are both amazing women, mothers and grandmothers! We love you!

Four Generations

Claire is lucky enough to have FOUR great grandmothers....how often does that happen? I don't think there is anything much better than seeing a picture of four generations of women....it doesn't happen all that often, and I just think it is so cool. There haven't been four generations of women in the Carey family since my sister was born in 1984, so it really is something special.

At Sarah's shower for beanie baby last weekend, we made sure to get a picture of my grandmother, mother, myself and my daughter....

I very much look forward to the day that Claire has a baby girl of her own and we can take another four generation picture.

I haven't gotten good pictures of the other 3 sets of four generations....but here is a picture from Christmas of 4 generations of Thomas'...

This is Great Grandma Audrey, with my father in law Tim on the right, Bud on the left and baby Claire getting all the attention (shocking, yes?). :)

This is Claire with her Great-Grandma Charlotte, my dad's mom.

And last, but certainly not least, is Claire with her Great-Granny...my mother in law's mom.

Next time Bud is in MN with us we need to work on getting good four generation pictures for his side, then next time we are in Iowa we need to get one with my dad and grandma. How neat would it be to have all four of them in one frame for Claire to look at one day? She is so incredibly lucky to be so loved already...she is a very blessed little girl!