Down & Dirty

While my mom was here last week, we planted some plants. Claire wanted to UNplant the plants we had just planted, so we just gave her a bucket of dirt to keep her occupied.
It worked very well! Claire had a blast dropping handfuls of dirt on the ground.

Happy Birthday, Claire!

Wow! Claire has been here for an entire year! That's hard to believe! Jordan and I are so happy to have our sweet little girl in our family! She is wonderful! She is a happy, sweet, pleasant girl, and we love her so much!


Claire still weighs between 21-22 pounds, and she is 30 inches long. She walks everywhere now, but she still wobbles some. She likes to say, "yum, yum, yum," when she eats. She loves to point at anything and everything. She loves to swing at the park, and she loves to get into anything that's new to her.

We had a small celebration for Claire tonight. She got some new toys!

And she was {slightly} more experienced in opening presents.

She got some new books, and she enjoyed looking at a few for a few seconds before she moved on to the next thing.


Here's Bando's favorite page in this book. {Anyone know why?}

And then came time for the cake!!


She went for it!

And so did Dad!

YUM!

Happy Birthday, Claire!! We love you! We're so happy you're in our family!

Pre-Birthday Party!

We had a pre-birthday party for Claire in Dallas last weekend with the Hervey clan.


After a dinner of steak and potatoes, (for most), I thought we'd have cake next. Thankfully, Peter suggested that we open presents next because Claire would probably need a bath after she ate some cake! So we opened some presents. Well, I should say that I opened some presents.


Claire had much more fun with this balloon!

But Claire did leave the balloon alone long enough to look at this card that Aunt Laura made for her.

After presents, it was actually time for cake!

At first, Claire wasn't sure what to do with her cupcake.

But she figured it out soon enough!

She kept looking at her fingers with a look of -- what is this stuff? She tried to shake it off, but, unlike bananas, the chocolate didn't just fly off!

She obviously liked it!!!

Happy pre-birthday, Claire!!!

Dressed Up for Church

Great Aunt Carolyn gave Claire this dress back when Claire was born. I think it's so pretty! ---So I wanted some pictures, of course! Claire was certainly cute walking around in this at church today!

Our Little Flower Girl

Before I had Claire, some friends from work gave me some hand-me-down clothes. In that awesome stash of clothes, we got a Halloween costume of a flower. - Isn't it cute?!!


It's a 12 month outfit, so Claire can't wear it for Halloween, but we did have some fun this week dressing her up just because!


Soaking up the sun!

Bore-A-Hole

Growing up, I remember my dad playing Bore-A-Hole with me. He would point with one finger and move his hand in a circle coming towards me. At the same time, he would say, "Bore-a-hole, bore-a-hole," and then he would tickle me. I loved it.

It looks like Claire loves it, too.



I'm glad Claire can spend time with our family members and enjoy some of the same things I did when I was a little girl.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Claire hopes the luck o' the Irish is on your side!

But if it's not, here's what she has to say about that!

Marcus's 4th Birthday Party!

Claire and I were in town for Marcus's 4th birthday and his party. The party was at Aunt Ginny's ranch, and it was a gorgeous day to be outside! Everyone had lots and lots of fun!

We played games:
The Penny Toss


Tug of War
Water Gun Fight

Pass the Bursting Water Ball, but Don't Get Wet!


Pinata Time!
After all the kids had a few turns, and it still wasn't broken, Jennifer took a few swings at the pinata. -- Too bad Ginny had it on the ground!! Jennifer couldn't find it for a while!

Claire had a wonderful time eating dirt, playing in the dirt, and just getting dirty. Way to go, girl!



She also LOVED playing with this rope. It kept her occupied for a LONG time!


Claire squares off with Midnight!

Marcus and Taylor had fun hanging around.



And we got to ride horses! I love riding horses!!!

Then, Marcus was ready for his cake.

First he blew out the candles, and then he tried to blow out the sparkler, (but it went out on its own!)


Finally, it was time for presents.
I had a fun time at the party! Happy Birthday, Marcus! (And thank you, Laura, for taking most of these pictures!)