Cotton Bowl

We all know the outcome, but here are some pictures from the Cotton Bowl. Marshall and Jennifer were able to get Jennifer's uncle's 2 season tickets to the Aggie Game. Then Marshall traded his boss those 2 tickets for 4 tickets to the Cotton Bowl and 4 passes to the Dr. Pepper pre-game party. So Jordan, Jennifer, Marshall, and Peter got to go to the game, and they were so excited!


They parked and had this view of Jerry's World. Then they walked all the way past it to the Arlington Convention Center for the Dr. Pepper party.

After the pre-game party, with ALL sorts of food, they walked back to Jerry's World during this beautiful sunset.


And then it was game time! They were all going for A&M, of course, but that didn't work out too well for A&M. It was cool to see LSU play, too, since we are here in Baton Rouge, (where LSU is).
I think it's awesome - and way nice - for Marshall's boss to trade 4 tickets for 2 in return. The 4 tickets were on the lowest level, but they were on the corner. The 2 tickets were on the highest level -- on the 40 yardline. Maybe he wanted a more centered view of the field. (And with that screen does it really matter what level you're on?!!!) But they said their seats were great.

So there's a little preview of Jerry's World. I'm sure many of us will see it next week for the Super Bowl.

Leftovers

Here are some leftover pictures from our trip that I just haven't posted yet. Enjoy!

Jordan, Taylor, Peter, and my dad worked on cutting down a dead tree.




Claire had a great time playing in the bathtub,


in a laundry basket,

and in the sink!



When we got home, I went to the post office to pick up our mail. The lady there told me to take the basket with me, since we had so much! I love mail. I love checking the mail. And I love getting good mail. So it was pretty fun to have lots and lots of Christmas cards to read in this huge stack of mail!

Favorite Toy!!

This video shows just how much Claire loves her favorite toy. At one point Claire is entertaining herself with something other than the toy, but when the music stops, she immediately goes back to it. I love that part!

Oh, and I guess I should mention that Claire loves to eat her socks!



(I took this video yesterday and tried to upload it then, but it didn't work for some reason. - But I did take it the day she was 10 months old, as I say in the video!)

10 Months

Claire is 10 months old today! She is such a happy little girl, and she is growing and learning many new things.


Her favorite toy these days is the one she's holding in these pictures. When she pushes the button, music plays! (It has pretty good sound quality, and I like the selection of classical music that it plays. - I approve!) :-) She figured out how to push the button herself within the past few weeks, and she LOVES to push the button now! She can be sitting with lots of toys in front of her, and her attention will go from one toy to the next, but when the music stops, she usually goes back to this one and pushes the button again.

I think her second favorite toy is a little ball that came as part of a toy she got for Christmas. She can keep herself occupied by chasing the ball around the room.


While we were in Dallas, she waved to people a lot. - She waved to my dad just about every time she saw him, I think! But now that we're back home, she doesn't really wave anymore. Instead, she points. When I get her up from a nap, she immediately points - either at her stuffed animal frog that sits on the bookshelf, or at the picture frame in her room that has pictures of her with her dad and her with both of her grandmoms, or at the picture of a flower that's on the wall, or at the doorknob, or out the door. She just loves to point.

Claire can say ma ma (mom), da da (dad), ba (bath - she says this multiple times a night when it's bath time!), and ba ba (bye bye). She is very good about giving kisses. Sometimes she'll lean in to kiss someone (usually Jordan) without him asking for a kiss. Other times she'll kiss you over and over and over again. It's so sweet. She also loves to look at the pictures of relatives that we have in the house. She kisses the people in the pictures, too. And for the past few nights she has spent the majority of her bath time kissing her reflection in the silver part of something in the tub. (I have no idea what it's called. It's a circle screwed into the tub beneath the faucet and above the drain).

She has one tooth. (Many months ago we thought she had a tooth. It was a false alarm). But she does finally have one tooth. She got it almost two weeks ago. She likes to walk with the help of her walker, kitchen chairs, a little stool, or anyone who will hold her hands while she walks. She has become ticklish, so it's fun to tickle her and hear her sweet laugh.

Claire is a sweet, happy girl, and we love her so much! We feel so blessed to have her as a daughter, and we are so excited we get to be her parents.

Loads of Fun!

Or is it lids of fun?!!! Either way, Claire had a great time playing with the lids and containers from this cabinet while I cleaned up the kitchen tonight.

Sportsman's Paradise

Since the license plates of Louisiana indicate that Louisiana is a sportsman's paradise, Jordan had to test out the waters, so to speak. He passed his Hunters Ed course, got a Louisiana hunting license, and found a place to hunt for duck and geese before the duck season ended. He and 5 other guys went with two callers, (the main guy, David, and his short round), to a duck blind in a levy between two rice fields.


Here was the view from the blind.

And here are lots of the decoys.

David would call in the ducks or the geese, and then he'd tell when to shoot. Jordan said the ducks zoomed down incredibly fast. They all shot, and when they got one, David's dog, Kas, knew just what to do.

Kas coming back with the duck.

Good dog!

It's a good think Kas was there because some of their ducks/geese fell FAR away. Do you see that black speck on the other side of the rice field? That's Kas working on retrieving a Canadian goose!

Here are some of the ducks and geese that they killed that day.

They killed 13 waterfowl in all. What a handful!

When they were finished for the day, they headed back to their cars, and they saw TONS of birds flying by. Jordan got a close-up of one of the V's, and he also took a video of it.





Jordan got to bring home a duck and a goose. And he knows he shot the goose because he got two shots off before anyone else did, and the goose was already in the water! (Yes - the second shot was JUST to make sure!)


A female Mallard
A Ross' goose - David said this was the biggest Ross' goose he's seen this season.

Soon after these photos were taken, Jordan gutted his kill, and now we have a goose and a duck in the freezer. - I think we'll be having duck stew and maybe a Christmas goose in the near future!

The Shooting Range

While in Dallas, Jordan, Peter, Marshall, and Matt went to the shooting range for some guy time. The first time they went, I asked Jordan if he wanted to take the camera, and he said no way! Later, he said that I could come and take pictures, but I would have to shoot. That was fine with me! So Peter, Jordan, and I all went the day before we left town.


The gun was big - too big for me, I think. It was heavy, and it had a big kick. Peter and Jordan had a system where each of them would shoot 12 clay pigeons in succession, and then they'd switch shooters. I tried to join that rotation, but after 6 pigeons, I was ready for a break. I ended up only shooting at 12 clay pigeons in all because that was plenty for me. - My arms and my shoulder had had enough. (And yes, I said that I shot at those clay pigeons because I didn't make contact with any of them. Oh well!)

I've never been the best at directions, but I made sure not to shoot north! (It was nice of them to tell me that north was to the right!)

Jordan was ready,

and he did a great job at hitting the targets.

(The clay pigeon in this picture has been shot!)

And here's Peter: Ready...
Aim...

FIRE!!! (He made contact with this one, too!)

A Good Laugh!

One day in Dallas, Laura and Matt were outside with Taylor, Marcus, and Claire. Taylor was bouncing a ball, and Claire evidently thought it was pretty funny because she really laughed!! At the same time, Marcus had fun riding around in his little car. - You'll see Claire get sidetracked by Marcus when he rolls by her. I'm glad I was able to capture Claire's sweet laughter at the simplest thing!

Playing

While we were in Dallas, Claire had a great time playing with things from this drawer, which was just right for her!


She also got better and better at pulling up and cruising along while holding onto different pieces of furniture.

But Claire wasn't the only one who played. Some of the boys, (often including my dad, but he's not pictured here), made it a habit to enjoy the hot tub. And, guess what? Jordan decided to play, too. He decided to go under water to "hide" from the picture.


But I got him!

And then there's Matt, the ultimate playmate of Marcus and Taylor, at times! - What 3 or 7 year old boy wouldn't love this?!!

I love the expression on Taylor's face here!

And finally, all three cousins playing together!

A New Addition!

We got a new couch!


I am completely thrilled about it! I'll spare you ALL the details of our previous couch, but let's just say that it wasn't comfortable. At all. And I really mean it was COMPLETELY uncomfortable. So we've been thinking we could look for one - at Goodwill stores, (the couches there were actually scary), at garage sales, on Craig's List, etc. My previous searches on Craig's List were unfruitful, but last week I decided to search again. - And look what I found!!! I absolutely love it! It's soooo comfy! It's sooooo nice compared to our other one! And it doesn't hurt that the previous owner used it for less than a year. (She said she had a furniture store, and she's moving, so I guess she probably has a better couch lined up for her new place).

Every time I even walk through the living room and see the couch from the corner of my eye I get so happy about it! Yay for simple pleasures, and yay for our new couch! It's wonderful! :-)

Keep Your Pants On!

I know it's just an expression, but Claire really does need to keep her pants on! I put her down for a nap one day this week, and she didn't go immediately to sleep. That happens sometimes, so I usually go back into her room and put her down again, and then she generally goes to sleep. Well, this time I found her without her pants on! She looks so proud!


P.S. Today when I went back into her room to put her down for her nap again, she was sitting up, and one of her legs was hanging out of the crib. I tried to keep a straight face - to stay in my "you should lie down and go to sleep" attitude - but I couldn't. I just had to laugh. And then Claire was really proud of herself!

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