{ A YEAR OF CLAIRE IN PICTURES }

I am in the process of putting together a tiny prints book with our favorite pictures and memories of Claire from the past year. I think it just might end up being 500 pages, considering the amount of photos I have taken of her. It really is out of control. Anyway, I know this post is going to have way too many photos but these are just a small portion of our favorites. Looking at all these photos remind me just how grateful I am to have such a happy a vibrant little girl in my life. She is the best!

Our Bear turns one!

Claire had her first birthday on December 3rd. It just so happened that Brian had the LSAT that same day (brian is thinking of going back to law school) so we didn't really get to celebrate the way I had hoped. I am still planning to throw a party for her. It's just going to be a very belated birthday party. Better late than never right? So we started out the morning with a living room full of purple balloons. She loved them. She especially liked it when you kicked them at her (go figure). Her uncle chase discovered this, not me. She couldn't stop giggling. After playing with her balloons, I made her, her very first pancakes topped with powdered sugar and a candle. We sang happy birthday and dug into our delicious breakfast. Well I did. Claire just had fun throwing her pancakes on the floor. We then waited for dads six hour test to be over so that we could have some cake, sing happy birthday, and open presents. Just like her pancakes Claire threw her cupcake on the floor, she was a little confused by all the singing, and all she wanted to do was eat the wrapping paper from her gifts. I guess thats how it goes when they are one year old. We loved celebrating our first year with our little gremlin. She is such a happy and loving little thing and we look forward to seeing how she changes throughout the next year.

Family Photos

I know, I know. I have failed miserably at blogging the last few months. I blame instagram. I feel that between instagram, facebook, and blogging it all become so repetitive. But I have some good stuff to share so be prepared for a bunch of catch up posts, and photo overloads.

First off, we headed to California in November for a little family and friend time. While we were there we had our talented friend Jill take our first family photos. They were much needed. However it was a lot harder to get some good pictures of us all together than I thought it would be. We were trying so hard just to get Claire to look at the camera, let alone smile. She had us all working up a sweat. We finally resorted to using the iphone to get her to look in the general direction of the camera. And it paid off. We got one good picture of us all together with Claire looking at the camera. Thats all I could ask for. Hopefully next time around she will be way more cooperative. Otherwise we are doomed to a life time full of a little less than perfect family photos. Here are my favorites.

{ THE HAPPIEST OF HALLOWEENS }

{ Not happy }

{ the mess that occurred while attempting to put on Claire's costume }

Being that it was Claire's first Halloween, I got the bright idea to make her costume. I thought it was a bright idea until I attempted to put on her costume and it wouldn't fit! I could not believe it! All that effort and it didn't fit!! Poor Claire was a mess. I was determined to make it fit and Claire thought I was trying to suffocate her. Well after a few attempts and many tears from Claire, I gave up trying to make it fit the traditional way. So I had to cut all along the side and then safety pin her in. It was a disaster but it all worked out. Luckily Claire recovered from the whole ordeal and finally cracked a few smiles. Hopefully she will trust me enough next year to put her in another costume.

{ PUMPKIN PATCH TAKE TWO}

{Giving me her teething face}

{ showing off her two teeth that took forever to come in}

{loves from her uncle chase}

So for Claire's first fall we actually went to the pumpkin patch twice. The first time we got there a little late and it was basically dark. Soooo being as addicted with taking pictures as I am, I insisted we make another trip to get some good pictures. And even then it was hard. Claire has been teething BIG time and it seems impossible to get a picture where she is smiling and looking at me. Bah! You wouldn't believe the things I do to try and get this girl to smile for the camera these days. People must think I look and sound crazy. Oh well, thats life. And its only just the beginning.

{ LONG OVER DUE }

{From this}

{To this}

So when we moved from California (16 months ago!) our table, among other things, got all kinds of scrapes and scratches. However, I was in no mood to refinish it. Not only was I pregnant with zero energy, we had zero space for me to work on it. So now that I am not pregnant (lets hope it stays that way for a while) and now that we have sufficient space, I decided to finally refinish it. It wasn't nearly as much of a hassle as I expected. Now onto the next piece of damaged furniture!