Big Sister in Training

Oh, hey, remember this thing I have called a blog? It's about timeC I get back to this, sorry folks.

We have been crazy busy lately....between the holidays, traveling and getting ready for the baby, things are a little crazy around here.  I could really use a laundry maid right about now...any takers? :)  

Here are some pictures from November to update you a little bit...

 Claire got a stroller for her birthday and loves to take her baby for walks around the house.  On this day, she asked me if she could bring her baby and stroller outside, and I told her I thought it was too cold for the baby (or in mommy terms...I don't want to), so Claire quickly grabbed a new outfit for the baby that has a hood, some socks, and a blanket.  Sooo, baby came out with us. :)  She's too smart for me!

 Claire really loved helping me decorate the tree and wanted all the ornaments to be 'up high!'

 She really loves her bitty baby, and has been getting really good practice in for when her brother gets here.  She loves to change, feed, burp and snuggle with her baby.  She will put her blankie on her shoulder, hold the baby and bounch and sway saying 'shh shh shh' to help her baby settle down.  It is SO sweet.

I will try and update again soon with pictures from our visit to VA/DC to see Bud while he was away for work, our trip to IA to meet 'baby Wy', Christmas and my ever growing belly.  Stay tuned!

She's 2!

Our baby girl turned TWO on Thursday, and we celebrated on Saturday with her friends.  We had a fabulous Mickey party complete with the best bounce house ever, all of Claire's favorite foods, and of course, cupcakes!

I can't believe that in two short years, our beautiful baby has grown in to such an amazing little girl!  She is wild and hilarious like her daddy and sweet like her mommy, the best of both worlds. :)

 2010

2012

Daddy's Girl

Claire is absolutely loving her daddy these days, and it completely melts my heart.  She has always been more of a momma's girl, but the past month or so she just adores him.  She cries when he leaves with out her, runs to him when he gets home and her newest favorite thing is to sit down in the morning and share a bowl of cereal with him.  So sweet.  They are out running some errands right now, and she was so excited to go.  She just looks and me and waves and says, "Bye, mama! Love you!"  When he leaves with out her? Big alligator tears and my sweet girl standing at the door crying for her dada.  It breaks my heart and makes me completely dread the next time we have to say good bye to him, because her heart is going to be just as broken as mine.  Here are my two favorite pictures of them from the past couple weeks.

Bud was really hesitant when we found out Claire was a girl, and now being a Daddy to a girl completely fits him.  We even had friends comment that they were surprised he didn't want a girl with how wonderful he is with her.  They are two peas in a pod, and make each other giggle like no one else can.  I am so thankful for my little family!

Happy Birthday, Rah Rah!

Today is my favorite sister and Claire's favorite aunt's birthday!  Claire absolutely adores her Rah Rah, as do I.  I am so thankful and blessed to have such a wonderful big sister.  

  From matching Christmas sweaters to matching baby bumps!

It is so fun to me that we both had our sweet baby girls, and now we are getting ready to have baby boys!  Some day we WILL live close to each other so that our kids can be wonderful friends.  

We LOVE you, Sarah!  Happy Birthday!!

Halfway!

Finally!   I feel like I am a whole new person this week.  Apparently it took half the pregnancy, but oh well.  My house has been clean for a whole week, little dude's room is making some progress, Claire's room has gotten a lot of attention and our room is clean.  That's a lot, people.  I am SO thankful to be feeling like myself again!  Our little guy doesn't feel so little, and makes his presence known A LOT.

The next few months are going to fly--we are packed for October, November is very busy and then Christmas in December...it seems like it will be January before we know it.  So, we are trying to get as much done now as we can so we are ready for him if he decides to come early.  (Not holding my breath on that one, but better safe than sorry.)

18 weeks!

18 Weeks!  I am starting to feel a little more human lately, so that is a good thing.  I am also feeling a lot of kicks and jabs from the little dude--I think he is preparing me for the energy that he will have. :)  I know he is going to be just like his dad, and that means a constant, ridiculous amount of energy until he crashes.  Watch out!

(A Few of) The Many Faces of Claire

I took all these pictures in a span of less than 5 minutes.  This girl cracks me up.

Such a silly smile. :)

16 weeks

And "hello, belly!"

I also feel like I look a lot more tired in the second one, which would be accurate.  This little dude is taking every once of everything I have lately, which makes sense considering how much he has apparently grown in the last week!

Wordless Wednesday

[i LOVE these two!!!]

Birthdays!

We went to MN for 2 weeks in early August.  We were able to go to two very special birthday parties while we were there...my grandma's 85th and my niece's 1st!!

 Claire had so much fun playing with her cousins at the park where we had Grandma's party.  They watched her like a hawk and were never more than about a foot away from her at all times. :) It was very sweet.

 Grandma and most of her great grandchildren!

My mom put together the party for my grandma and it was so great to see almost all of my family while we were in town.  The weather was SO beautiful that day--just like my grandma likes it. We had a great afternoon celebrating her!

The next weekend we headed down to Iowa to be with sweet Lainey on her FIRST birthday!  Lainey had an ice cream parlor set up in her living room and it was so fun and a perfect way to celebrate such a sweet girl!  This was the first time my entire family had been together since Christmas 2010 (thank you, Marine Corps), so it was very nice to have all of us in one place.  I asked Claire who she wanted to go to for this picture and she said Sarah, so we just switched babies. :)  Claire LOVES her Sarah, we hear about her at least once a day around here!

 Claire found the dirt!  She was such a mess when she was done playing, but was very proud of herself!

Claire and Lainey (and the two peanuts on the way) have the best Gramma and Papa!

15 weeks

15 weeks.  15 weeks of feeling like crud, headaches, feeling (and looking) like a whale....shall I go on?  This pregnancy has been completely opposite of my pregnancy with Claire.  I LOVED being pregnant with her.  I could be pregnant with Claire 10 times.  This little person? Not so much. :)  Kelly asked why it has been so long since I updated the blog and I told her it was because I feel like I have nothing new to write about--I wake up, feel like I drank far too many glasses of wine the night before, attempt to keep Claire occupied all day by something other that Disney Junior, get in a load of laundry if I can, try and get dinner on the table, and collapse on the couch still feeling like I had too much wine  by the end of the day.  Over, and over again.

I know that it could be so much worse.  I am not being hospitalized for fluids because I can't keep anything down, I am not laying on the bathroom floor all day, and I have had a few days of feeling like myself.  I really don't want to complain, because I am very thankful just to be pregnant and to be bringing another person into our family.  But, if you were wondering why I have been missing...that's why. :)

I have lots of pictures to post from our trip to MN, and of our almost 2 year old just being her crazy self, so stick around...I will have updates for you soon!

Today is the day...

...that I get to see that sweet face in person again!! (Sorry for the blurry picture, but look at the sweet face!) It has been 7 months since I have seen her and her sweet momma and daddy in person, and I (we) are SO excited!!

I am incredibly thankful for Skype...it really doesn't seem like it has been that long, but I can't wait to get my hands on the sweet niece of mine!  She really likes me over the computer screen, so here's hoping she likes me in person! :)

I love that our girls are so close in age (only 10 months apart)...they are going to have so much fun playing this weekend!  The only thing that would be better is if Gramma and Papa could be here too!

Claire and Patrick

Last week, we were lucky enough to have some visitors for a few days.  Some of you may remember our friends, the Roy's, that we met in Florida.  They have a little boy who is 3 months older than Claire...

 Claire (2 months) and Patrick (5 months)-December 2010 

Look how sweet they were!  I was so excited when Michelle called and said they were going to be able to come for a few days.  We haven't seen them in person since that night we took that picture!  They moved to Alaska, and since that isn't exactly the easiest state to get to, we haven't been able to visit them.  We skype every once in a while, so I have seen Patrick, but I couldn't believe what a crazy kid that sweet baby has turned into!  I'm sure Michelle would say the same about Claire. :)

Here they are now!

Claire (20 months) and Patrick (23 months)-June 2012

We had a great couple days (minus Patrick's fever and Claire's cold) catching up and enjoying each other's company and kids again.  One of the hardest parts of this life is saying good bye to good friends, so it is always so great when you can see them again, even if it is just for a couple days.

Chair

We had turned on Mickey Mouse for Claire while we were making dinner, and I came out to check on her and saw this:

Why sit in her chair when she can sit in Daddy's chair?  

Fun with Daddy!

Claire and her daddy have been having a lot of fun getting to know each other again.  Now that he is back at work, she asks for him ALL. DAY. LONG.  Seriously.  He is the first thing she asks about when I get her out of her crib, and I would bet we don't go 30 minutes with out her asking again.  I think she is happy to have him back. :)

Another lady in our life is also VERY happy to have him home.  

Together again!

He's home!!  Tuesday morning about 2:30, I was full of butterflies as I watched motorcycles escort 2 buses in front of us.  It took a little bit to find him, but that first hug was as magical as it always it.  It erases 7 months of fear, stress, anxiety and worry.  It makes you forget how hard it was and how much you missed him, because in that minute, you are complete again and it is like he never left.

Claire wasn't too happy--it was 2:30 in the morning, and she was SO tired.  But, she was a trooper and (barely) stayed awake.    I looked down at one point while she was sitting in her stroller, and she just had tears in her eyes, poo,r sweet baby girl, she was so exhausted and just didn't understand why I was putting her through this!

Lacey, on the other hand, could have cared less what time it was--her Daddy was HOME!  She was every bit as thrilled as I knew she would be, and hasn't let him get too far away since that morning.  She loves him more than anyone else in the world--she was so exhausted after saying hi to him and she just had to lay down. :)

Claire slept the whole way home, and was much better after watching Lacey be so excited.  She helped Daddy open his presents, and they played for a bit before she went to bed.  He even got a big hug while they were playing. :)  She still hasn't decided if he is totally okay or not, but she really doesn't like it when he is out of eye sight.  We were at the mall the other day, and every time he would walk away, she yelled for him.  But, she doesn't like it when he gets too close either.  :)  She just can't decide.

It has been so great to have him home.  In some ways it really feels like he never left.  He has the whole month of May off, so we will be making up for lost time and spending it all together just being a family again. It will be wonderful.

Wordless Wednesday

Say Cheese!

18 Months Old!

Our sweet baby girl turned 18 months old last week.  I can hardly believe it.  She is turning into such a fun, sassy, amazing little girl and I absolutely love that I get to spend every day with her.

The first picture shows her normal, sweet smile...the second shows just how goofy she is. :)

We are in the final countdown!  This week is jam packed with things to keep us busy, and soon enough I will be posting pictures of my whole family together again!!

Easter 2012

Claire and I had a great Easter weekend. We started early with a great package from Grammy. She is the best about sending boxes when we need a good pick me up. Claire had some great surpises, but her favorite were these Minnie Mouse bubbles. As you can see, she was SO excited about them!

The Easter Bunny came agan this year, and Claire got a new movie, a couple books, and a couple other little things.

Silly face while opening presents.
WOW! was Claire's favorite word while opening this year. Minnie Mouse bath toys are the best!

My sweet girl in her Easter outfit.

Jaci, Cayden and Mason.

For those of you who don't talk to me often, Jaci is one of the main reasons I made it through this deployment. She is an amazing friend, her boys are so sweet, and she deals with Claire and I with a smile on her face. I am so thankful for her. She is an exceptionally strong woman, and she proved that when she had Mason. Mason was born about a month ago, while our husbands were in Afghanistan. I watched Cayden, her mom was by her side, and she had this baby with out her husband. Can you imagine? I can't. I have watched her go from worrying about how she would do this to mastering her two boys while all by herself and I am so proud of her. Tonight while we were out to dinner, we were talking about how close Mason is to meeting his Daddy. She said to me, "He doesn't even know his voice." I had a hard time keeping it together. He doesn't. He knows my voice more than his daddy's. These next few weeks can not go fast enough. We need our husbands back, our kids need their daddy, and even more important than that, Mason needs to MEET his daddy. I can't wait to watch that moment.

Me and my sweet girl. Pardon my WHITE legs.

These two are the best of friends, as is evident in this picture. Cayden adores Claire, and Claire pretty much thinks he is the best thing ever. She laughs at him like no one else and loves to give him hugs and kisses. They are wonderful play mates, and get very excited to see each other.

This was our last holiday with out Bud. Thank, God. I can't even explain how thankful I am for everyone's thought and prayers and the fact that I will see my husband in just a few weeks. Video chatting is wonderful, but just another reminder of how much I miss him.

Stay tuned for more updates, and in just a few weeks, seeing our family TOGETHER again.

I CAN NOT wait.