okay, okay, it's been a month and I haven't updated. This month has been pretty uneventful. Claire and I got back from visiting Michigan and we all got back on our routine pretty quickly. That's pretty much where we are. Claire has been learning lots of new things like her colors and her body parts. I just love it when I get to ask her where her elbow is and she knows where it is, but can't figure out how to point to it to show me. So cute! Justin and I have been busy in school but thankfully summer session is over next week! I'll be done! FINALLY! I just have to take my certification tests in October and it will all be official. The only "exciting" thing that has happened this month is one that I cannot share yet, but when I can, I will. School (as a teacher) is starting soon and I'm getting excited for the new school year. This is a boring post, but at least it's better than no post right?????

Hey you guys! I have to say you guys since I'm back in Yankeeland. I'm on vacation back to where I grew up. I am having a great time and remembering lots of things I forget while I'm in Texas. Claire and I flew in on July 4th and got to see some fireworks! We've also been in a kiddie pool and had lots of fun with family! Here are some pictures to prove it. I'll post more later!

This week was very busy! I bought a bed for Claire on Ebay and on Tuesday Justin and I went to pick it up. The bed was 4 hours away so we drove Tuesday afternoon, got the bed, turned around and drove back. We got back about midnight and unloaded the bed. The next day we started to put it together. WOW! It took us all day to get the bed together and Justin even got a new power tool called a Dremel in order to complete the project. Even though it was not as easy as we had expected, it still turned out well and Claire has loved sleeping/playing/jumping on her new bed. Once I get her room finished, I'll post some pictures.

Here's something kinda crazy. Last night, Claire was eating dinner and she had beans on her right and rice on her left. I noticed that she switches hands to eat. She ate the beans with the spoon with one hand and the rice with the other. She really does take after Grandpa. I'm gonna have to keep a close eye on that!! Here's my proof!

One hand......


Then the other......



Claire and I are flying up to Michigan on Wednesday to visit, but while we are there, her cousins Maggie and Reese happen to be visiting family down here. Kind of a switch off. Since we won't get to see them much up there, we got the chance to visit with them today. We met at the San Jacinto Monument and had a great time! Here are some pictures!

And she's off.......

We started off the week big. On Monday, Claire kept taking her pants off at daycare. Justin noticed on the webcam, so when I went to pick her up, I asked them about it. She then proceeded to tell me that Claire had been taking her pants off and going to the little plastic potty and sitting on it diaper and all. She would go to the bathroom in her diaper and then ask to be changed. She suggested potty training. Now I had noticed all weekend long she would take her pants off, but I wouldn't let her and pulled them back up. I had never correlated her diaper changes with it. So off to potty training we go. The rest of the week was not really exciting as far as that.

Justin however got a 95% on his math test. I am so proud of him for doing so well in math. His problems take up a whole page and then some. He writes small too! Keep it up!


On Friday, I went a got a little plastic potty for Claire. We came home and set it up in the bathroom. What do you know? The child is ready. All weekend we have been going in the potty and today (Sunday) only twice did she go in her diaper. Those two times were under extenuating circumstances too. Way to go Claire. I just hope it keeps up and stays this easy! I know it won't, but I'm still praying that way!


Ok...now that you managed to get through all the crap (hehe) here are the pictures you've been waiting for.

These are all from Disney World that we took almost a month ago now. My how time flies!

Here are some more since then that I better post now before I forget.
This first one is special. There is a picture of my sister Trish when she's little where she's eating an apple seated this way. When I saw Claire eating animal crackers sitting like this on the couch, I just had to see the family resemblance!


These next two were when we were working on her puzzles. This is a stepstool that my parents got her and her name is the puzzle. We use this to get to the sink, etc. It comes in handy and it's teaching her to recognize her name and the letters in her name.


This face is priceless due to family resemblance again. Reece, our nephew used to make this face all the time when he would get frustrated. Although Claire has never seen Reece do this face (he's grown out of it now) she's still picked it up. What you can't see in the stillshot is that she is shaking with frustration. Oh my!


Today I was on the phone with Grandpa and this came walking into the living room. I bursted out laughing and so this is the explanation Grandpa.


I can get her hair into a ponytail! Finally!!!!


Hope this fixed your picture craze!

June is blooming!

I know it's been a while since I've posted and there are a lot of reasons why most of which I won't get into here. I will say however that we had a fabulous time at Walt Disney World and Claire loved it. Pictures will be posted at a later date. We had a wonderful vacation and enjoyed the relaxing time together as a family. We also got to see my sister for a day and although we'd wished it was longer, we still enjoyed the visit!

When we got back, summer school began. Justin and I began playing raquetball together before our classes. It is a great workout and even though we're both competitive people it is working out really well. No pun intended. =)

Claire had a hard transition back into day care when we got back since she'd had Mommy and Daddy together for a whole week nonstop. It's been a week though and we're getting into our summer routines.

Speaking of summer classes, I'd forgotten how boring some of my biology classes are. It's been over 2 years since I've taken a college science class and boy I sure don't miss the hiatus. Thankfully, I'm only taking 2 this summer and I'll be done. Perhaps it's the type of biology courses I've chosen. Ecology of Polluted Water and Medical Entomology. I'm in the pollution one now and I can only hope the bug one will be better.

What I am looking forward to in the next few weeks is 2 weeks back "home" in Michigan with Claire and lots of family and hopefully lots of friends. Justin can't take off the time for work, so it will be just Claire and I, but we'll be in the Detroit area from July 4-16. Woohoo! So if you read this, send me a message/comment/email and we'll get together!

Claire surprised us this morning by climbing out of her crib totally unassisted and silent. Justin and I are going to have to figure something out about the sleeping situation since now the crib cannot contain Claire!

Hopefully no more surprises tomorrow!

Summertime is here!!!!
It

I am so excited that the school year is over. Yesterday was the last day for the students and today is just a faculty meeting and then I'm finished! It has been a very stressful year, but it went well and the most important thing is it's completed!

Today, after the faculty meeting Justin and I are driving to Kissimmee for a Disney World vacation. I'm very excited about that as well. Claire left this morning with Meemaw and Papa and Matty who are flying there. We'll meet them there late tonight.

Just a few updates on Claire's new things. We have taught her how to jump. The first day it was pretty rough. She would only lift up one leg and think she had done it. We still praised her because she was trying. On the second day, though, she got it, and then we couldn't stop her. She jumps all over the house now. Perhaps we shouldn't have taught her how to jump.

We've also been teaching her to pray before we eat. We've been doing this for a while, and she knows to put her hands together and wait for us to pray before touching the food on her plate. This week however, she put her hands together and said, "Dear Jesus." I swear my heart melted like butter in the microwave. I had to hold back the tears. This is truly what parenting is all about. Showing Claire the way to Jesus and praying the whole way that she's receptive to it and that we don't become obstacles in the path to Him.

Hope y'all have a good Memorial Day weekend. I'm not sure if I'll be able to post anything while I'm in Florida, but if I can and have time, I will!

Happy Mother's Day

My, where has the time gone? Claire truly is growing up before my very eyes. Well, a little catch up. She had her 18 month check up at 19 months. Oops! She weighed 25 lbs 3oz and was 32" tall. Right on schedule! She is still in the 50th percentile for her age in both categories. She is also talking so much more. By talking, I mean "jabbering" in her own language. She is very adamant about what she wants and what she is saying, it's just that no one else understands any of it. However, she is communicating through speaking. I'm sure it will come soon enough. She sure does have enough to say. She says "Dye, Dye" to absolutely everything and anything she thinks that she needs to say bye to. She says it to every room we leave, to every person, vehicle, and animal that we may see. She's so funny about it too. Yesterday, we were in Wal-Mart and I was pushing her in the cart. An employee was walking the opposite way toward us. Claire saw him coming and was quiet. As soon as he got right beside her, she screams "Dye, Dye" as loud as she can and waves at him. She was just trying to be nice, but I truly thought he was going to jump out of his skin. All I could do was encourage her to be nice to everyone. hehe =)

For Mother's Day, Justin surprised me and got me an iPod! I couldn't believe it! He had gotten me a nice mp3 player for Christmas, but I couldn't get it to work in the car and I refuse to wear headphones while driving. So, even though he'd spent lots of hours putting my favorite music on the mp3 player, it wasn't getting used. For Mother's Day I simply asked him to get an attachment so that I could play it in the car. He went way out of his way and got me an iPod, put ALL of my cd collection on it, AND got me a docking station to go into the cigarette lighter of the car so I can listen to it on my way to work and back. He's the BEST! Thanks sweetie!

We did have lunch with his mom today for Mother's day and it was her Birthday too! So she had an extra special day!

Only two more weeks of school left and then we leave for vacation. I haven't decided yet if i'm more excited about the vacation or the fact that I'll be done with the school year at that point. Either way, it's a motivating factor to make it these last two weeks.

One more thing, today in Sunday School the take home point was to either start a Bible study on your own (devotions) or to give it a wake up call. The lesson was taken out of II Peter 1:12-21. Anyway, I pass the same challenge onto you. Either get in the habit of spending time with God daily and studying His Word or STEP IT UP! Make it better!

I'll leave you with some pictures of the cutie pie!





This is taken Sunday morning right after I put her hair in cute little pigtails. I don't even know why I bother anymore.



She's a computer geek already!




I was spinning her around in the computer chair when this great photo got taken! See the joy?

Another busy weekend is upon us again. It's amazing to me how quickly the week seems to go by. Anyway, this morning Justin and Claire got some good Daddy/Daughter time while I was out of the house. This is apparently what happens when Mom is outta da house is playing the piano. I hesitated to post these pictures since she looks like an orphan with her hair in her face, however, I would appreciate any helpful hints on what to do. Barrettes and Ponytail Holders come out of Claire's hair in about 0.2 seconds.




Then, this afternoon once Justin went to work and Claire had her nap, she and I packed up to go to Houston. We went to see Cole (Claire's first cousin) play t-ball. Cole is 5 years old and is almost done with kindergarten. He played so well today and is a very quick runner. I didn't manage to get too many pictures at the game since Claire was running around as usual screaming at the top of her lungs. I know it probably annoys some people, but it is a happy scream and not a temper tantrum scream. We still are working on it though. I did manage to grab a picture of Cole batting and his little sister Alyssa (7 months old) being as cute as can be.





On a much sadder note, Justin's boss lost his daughter-in-law yesterday to a drunk driver. She was a police officer just doing her duty and it ended up being "her time." I had also known her from CVS and was truly saddened by the loss.

Today was a special day. Not only because it was Sunday, but because of Ryan. Ryan Morris is a friend of ours. Well, originally he was a friend of Justin. They went to high school together and to the same church as well. He was one of the 3 groomsmen in our wedding. Well, tomorrow he is going to Basic Training. He has joined the military and we won't see him again until late August. We haven't really seen him that much with our busy, crazy, hectic schedules, but I guess the idea that we could if we wanted to was always there. Now it is gone. Did I mention that Claire absolutely loves Ryan? We attended a barbeque at his parent's house today after church as a sendoff for him. As soon as she saw him today, she reached for him to pick her up. He's just such a great guy and an awesome friend. We're gonna miss you Ryan. Good luck!



We got back home just in time for Justin to go to work. This meant that Claire and I had some good old fashioned mommy daughter time. We played outside in the yard with her Strawberry Shortcake ball and even sat down and threw grass at each other. She didn't get the point at first because she started to eat the grass. Then she figured it out and started laughing. That threw us into a tickle fight which she just loves. I have to admit I like them as long as I'm not the one being tickled. Her laugh is so infectious. Once inside again, she found her favorite plastic Easter eggs and began her funny face again. I tried to capture it with the camera, but once she sees the camera out, nothing else matters.




We finished off the day with Sunday evening church and a guest speaker on Financial Freedom. It was an excellent message and very encouraging to us as Justin and I have been doing some real work on our finances lately.

Off to another week of craziness but this is the last week of the semester at Lamar. After Friday, it's just finals left. Just finals. HA!

Last Saturday, we had pictures of Claire done for Easter/18 months old. I tried to put her Easter dress on her and it just didn't look right so I opted for a more casual look. I think they turned out pretty well. What do you think?

This week also brought new adventures for Claire. She now is capable of feeding Nina treats. Nina is our dog and although I was a little afraid at first that Claire would try to eat the dog treat herself, she did well and gave it to Nina. Of course, I'm sure it helped that Nina was basically going to knock Claire over to get to her treat. Once Claire has given Nina the treat, she follows Nina to the corner where Nina is eating her treat and gets down in Nina's face to make sure she eats the treat. Once Nina is done, Claire stands back up and claps for Nina finishing her treat. It really is just adorable.
Another something new for Claire this week is a very distinct frustrated look. We were playing with the plastic Easter eggs that we got a few weeks ago when we noticed it first. Claire opens them up and then hands them to Justin or I to close the egg back together. She is usually pretty good at getting them opened up, but every once in a while the egg sticks together. This is where she grits her teeth, puts her lips in a square, and literally shakes her head in frustration. Her cousin, Reece, used to do the same thing. He eventually grew out of it. Hopefully, Claire will too, although right now it is still cute.

Today we went to the library and Claire was very good about keeping the books on the shelves AND being quiet. I was a little nervous too because when we first walked in there were quite a few senior citizens and well, usually, they're not as understanding with toddlers as others. All was good though and I got 3 new books to read this next week.

Last night I read an entire book called House by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti. It was an excellent book (obviously if I read the whole thing in 3 hours) even though it was scary. I'm usually not a suspense book reader, but I have to say this one was really good. So today at the library I got 3 more by Dekker and Peretti.

My dearest Claire,
I know that it has been a long while since I posted on here, but here I am again to write to you about yourself. You turned 18 months this week and I honestly have no idea where the time has gone. You have changed from a baby to a little girl with your own personality and individual ideas. Your favorite thing to do is CLIMB on anything and everything you can. You have a determination that is unmatched. Yesterday at Meemaw's you spent 3 minutes trying to climb into your own chair. You never gave up and you finally made it. I pray you never lose that tenacity to get what you want. However, on that note, you are also very talented at throwing temper tantrums. Daddy and I get frustrated with you sometimes due to these, but always know that we love you more than anything and just want the best for you. We let you cry it out which isn't easy, but you are learning that when you cry like that, it doesn't get you what you want. You have lots of fun at day care and although it still hurts me to have someone else watch you all day, I do see benefits. You are a very sweet, sharing, patient, little girl. You like to read books, but only at your own pace. You are an excellent eater. Today is Easter, and we learned you like brisket. You ate brisket almost exclusively at lunch and dinner today.
Anyway, I hope that when you are old enough to read this, you understand most of all that we love you and more than us, God loves you. He sent His Son to die for you and if you were the only sinner in the world, Jesus would still have come down from heaven and died for you to be able to go to heaven to live with Him. Not only that, but Easter is so important because that is the day to celebrate Jesus rising from the grave to proved His true identity. Claire, He loves you so much!
We love you too. Happy 1/2 birthday!

Love,
Mama