Its a....

We found out today that we are having a GIRL!

Mark has been so certain that we were having a boy that we having been calling him Samuel. I don't think that will work anymore. It is probably just because we found a boys name we both loved that we are having another girl.

I am excited for Claire to have a little sister so close in age. I am hoping she will be excited when the baby comes. Now we just have to figure out a name for her. We are both liking Emily. But Emily mean rival. Is it setting my girls up to be rivals if we name her that?

Claire refers to herself as Princess Claire and these are her clothes of choice.

Claire is 2!!!

My little Claire turned 2 on the 7th. So I thought I would post some of my favorite pictures of her over the last year.

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Happy Birthday my favorite 2 year old! Love Love Love you.

Claire has a lot more freedom now with a big girl bed. Every night after we lay her down, she promptly gets out of bed to correct any mistakes we may have made while putting her to bed. For example: getting the correct sleeping pal. Silly us we usually give her a stuffed animal. This is what I found the other night when I went to check on her.

I didn't know her preferred choice was her blue ball. I can't imagine it is very snugly but I have never tried it.

Big Girl Bed

We got Claire a big girl bed. She had started climbing out of the crib and crashing to the floor. We decided with another one on the way, and Claire turning 2 in a couple of weeks that is was time to get her a real bed. I spent the last couple weeks searching on KSL classifieds for a bed. I found this one in Logan for $50. We picked up the bed, sheets, comforter, and rail for her today. She was so excited for her new bed. She actually went and brushed her own teeth and found jammies so she could get in bed. I had to tell her it was too early.

I was a little nervous about her sleeping in her big bed after our last attempt at a big girl bed. She did so good. After we laid her down, she stayed in bed. Slept peacefully the whole night, and then stayed in bed until I told her to come out this morning. Now we need to officially take down the crib, her room is a little cramped right now.

She looks so tiny in that big bed. When did my baby get to be big?

Who needs a spoon?

A while back Claire watched carefully as Papa drank the milk left over from his cereal out of his bowl. Now she drinks everything from her bowl. Even if it isn't liquids for example scrambled eggs and many other things. I just had to take a picture of her eating, I mean drinking, her cereal this morning. The bowl is bigger then she is. She is proud of her cereal drinking.

Random

A lot of time has past since my last update. Halloween has come and gone. Claire looked so cute in her Chicken costume. We practiced the whole week before saying trick or treat. She had mastered saying "treat". On the big day she didn't say "treat" once. Instead she stared the people down giving them a suspicious/dirty look. Since Mark had to work that night, I took Claire out to my parents ward halloween party. They had a bunch of games for the kids to play. Claire's favorite was the cake walk. She was suppose to walk around the circle stepping on the pictures while the music played and then stop on a picture when it stopped. She however proceeded to entertain everyone by running around as fast as she could squealing. Every once in a while she would realize she hadn't stepped on the pictures, turn around make all the other kids stop walking so they wouldn't run over her and jump on the pictures. Most of the older kids were annoyed and kept yelling "this chicken is in our way". I guess I should have stopped her, but I couldn't ruin her fun or stop laughing long enough to intervene.

Mark has started working a new shift at work. He goes in at 3 and works till 11:30. I have to say I do not enjoy this shift. It feels werid to be home alone all night, and to go to bed without him. I am hoping this shift will only be temporary, but we will have to see.

I am now 12 weeks pregnant, if we haven't told you we are pregnant surprise! I have been just as sick this time as I was with Claire. I don't remember being this tired with Claire though. I can sleep 12 hours a day and still be tired. At times I wonder how on earth I am going to be able to care for 2 children at the same time. Claire keeps me busy as it is. I just keep reminding myself that millions of women do it, and if the can so can I. I'm excited to go to the doctor next week and see how our little one is growing. If you can actually see something in the ultrasound this time I'll post a picture of it.

Doctor visit

I took Claire to the Doctor this morning. She HATES HATES HATES the doctor. Even though there were no shots involved today, she still whined the whole time and kept telling me "mommy all done. GO GO " .

The doctor feels as though she does have Asthma. He gave us a prescription for an inhaler and mask thingy. I don't know how well this is going to go over. I have a feeling we are going to have to hold her down in order to get her to take it. This should be interesting.

We are going to go have Claire tested for Asthma on monday. Lately we have been doing a lot of park playing. Claire loves to "SIDE" (slide). After every trip to the park Claire starts wheezing and coughing. . I hate to think of her having to deal with asthma. But after today I can no longer deny the symptoms that are so clearly right in front of me. I called the pediatrician and made an appt.

I grew up with asthma, in a family of brothers and sisters plagued with asthma. I would have to say mine was mild, compared to my brothers. But I hated it. I resented having to use an inhaler. I hated having to quit playing because I couldn't breathe. I was lucky mine has become less and less prominate as I grew up. I don't even know when the last time was I needed an inhaler or even felt wheezy. My brothers asthma was much more severe. He spent a lot of time in the hospital in a plastic tent trying to get it under control. To this day he still uses inhalers and a nebulizer breathing machine. I absolutely hate the idea of my little Claire having to deal with it. I'm actually in tears just writing this. Its silly I know to be upset over something so little. As far as illnesses go this one is managable. It could be something so much worse. Yet I would do anything for her not to be sick. I am going to try to have a positive outlook and know that medicine has advanced so much. If it is asthma, hopefully we will be able to get her on a preventative medication. So it won't limit her in any of "SIDE" playing. I love that little girl

Chicken Little or Little Chicken?

I love Halloween. Last year I dressed Claire in Halloween clothes for the whole week prior to Halloween day and then made her wear her lamb costume the whole day. I have been bugging Mark about getting Claire's halloween costume before all the good ones were gone. We made her try on all the different costumes a Old Navy before we decided on the winning costume. She was such a good sport about. She buzzed when she tried on the bee. Roared when she tried on the tiger and Lion. Meowed when she put on the kitty. But something about this one just made Mark and I giggle. I think it is the orange legs. We are working on her cock a doodle doo. Right now it is just a dooodododooo. She loves it as well. She brought to me several times today. She thinks she is really cool being a chicken. She wanted to wear it all day long. I let her because every time I saw that little chicken run past it made me smile. Maybe I'll just dress her up every day the month of October. Who says you can only be a chicken on Halloween?

So....

Its been a while ( a month) since I put a new post up. I don't know why, but I have seem to have lost my enthusiasm for blogging. I know some people actually read this (Morgan :) ) so I will try to write on a more regular basis. Which will probably end up being once every two weeks.

We are now in our new home and love it. I wish I could say we were all unpacked, but we still have boxes in the garage that we are slowly going through. I still haven't decided to where to hang our pictures. Sadly they are still sitting in the corner on the floor. Mark keeps telling me we can always rearrange them after they are hung, and to just find good places for pictures. I think it is more the idea of putting holes in our new walls, that deters me.

We have been working on putting in a yard. Lynn and Faith have done most of the work. I hope after all the hard work that has been put in, that we will see some grass before the winter. It will be so nice to have a yard for Claire to play in. I know she gets tired of being in the house. I take her for walks, but it isn't the same as just letting her run around the yard. Opa and Oma were over helping with the yard. We took this pic of Claire with Oma on the hay. I love it.

Marshmallows anyone?

Tonight we burnt Claire's old crib. I decided since we were burning stuff we should roast marshmallows. Claire loved it. I tried to keep on the chair, but apparently that wasn't a good enough mallow roasting position. She was determined to sit as close to fire as she dared. Her marshmallow was covered in dirt. If you have a taste for a dirt covered mallow Claire would be happy to roast one for you.

house

since this picture they have finished all the siding and overhangs. I am not good at keeping up :)

House update

They are making progress on our home. Mark and I are growing impatient with how slow it seems to be moving along. We just have to remember that we would rather have it done right than fast. They have all the brick on the outside and the first layer of stucco, and drywall on the inside. We are now waiting for cabinets and painting to be completed. then I don't really know what they do after I guess we will have to wait and see

Sizzler

Grandpa took us to sizzler for dinner. Claire wasn't so sure about it. I gave her a bite of potato salad and she HATED it. Then she wouldn't eat anything . Papa got her an ice cream cone. She wasn't going to eat it because of the potato salad. Then we finally snuck a taste in when she opened her mouth. She ate her whole ice cream cone. Now I think she likes sizzler

Grandpa Claire

Claire loves grandpa's cowboy hat and cane. She always takes the cane away from grandpa. Sometimes she needs to use two at a time. Good thing grandpa has 3

I'm a slacker, house update

Okay I know. I've been slacking on posting these things on my blog. I've had to make 3 posts tonight to catch up on all the things I was planning on putting on here. I don't have an excuse. I haven't been overly busy or anything. I just haven't wanted to sit down and blog. I think with this post I will be all caught up on pics I took to post on here.

Our House is looking more and more like a house. I am so excited to have it be finished and to have our own home again. I think it will be like christmas getting all our stuff out of storage. We'll have forgotten what it all looked like. They put the insulation in our home this last week and should start sheet rocking this week. We talked to our realtor last week and they are estimating about 6 more weeks till we are finished. Keep your fingers crossed.

4th of July

We had a great 4th. We went swimming with my family. (Claire thinks she is a fish) Then we had a BBQ. We wanted Claire to go to the fireworks with us. Since it is way past her bedtime we made her nap late and stay up for them. She was mesmerized by them. She kept saying "WOW WOW WOW" and "Whats that?" During the finale she was a little nervous. She sunk into Mark's lap and grabbed his arm. She looked a little frightened. I guess it was just too much noise. It was a fun evening. Today was a little difficult, because Claire was grumpy from lack of sleep. Here is a pic of Claire in her 4th of July jammies I sewed for her. She was playing with the Glow bracelets Grandma and Grandpa Robins got for her. She loved those. I think she stole all the other babies braclets, because we ended up with a lot more than the 12 that came in her package.

Just like Dada

Claire is becoming more and more of a Daddy's girl. She just loves her Dada. First thing she asks in the morning is "Where Dada?" I tell her he is at work, but this is just not a good enough answer. I spend the rest of the day explaining that Dada is at work and will be home soon. From the moment he walks in the door she wants to go everywhere he goes and do everything he does. Mark has been playing his trumpet a lot lately. Something Claire loves. The second she hears the trumpet she is drawn to it, like a moth to light. She just can't stay away. She'll then proceed to hover around Mark. Pulling down his sheet music, dancing to the tunes, and grabbing at his pant leg. All in an effort to be allowed to blow into the trumpet. She doesn't make any sound, but she thinks it is the coolest thing ever. Well in an attempt to allow Mark to play uninterrupted we bought her a Kazoo. She thinks it is awesome. When Mark starts playing his trumpet, she will go get her "baby trumpet" and play as well. Then she will proceed to squeal and stomp her feet in delight. I hope some day she loves me as much as she loves Dada.

Skirt

I saw this skirt and loved it. I wanted to get one for Claire. I didn't want to spend $35 on it though. I decided to try to make one. I took a trip to JoAnn's fabrics today. I was so excited to find the exact material and it was on sale. I think I did a pretty good job considering I had no pattern to follow. I didn't attempt the pockets. Maybe I'll add them later. I did learn a lot from making this one. I will definately make more. I was so excited that I dressed Claire up in it and did a little photo shoot with her. She didn't really enjoy the photoshoot. Most of the time she just kept running away.

Photoshop

I've been playing with photoshop. Here is one of the pics I edited.

Before

After


I still need some more practice, but since you asked Heather I posted one for you. :)

Back to a crib

I posted last week about Claire's new toddler bed. Well things didn't go so well with it. She did well for the first two nights. On the third night we were woken up around 11:30 to her crying. At first it was just a little whining. But it got more and more hysterical. I went in to see what was going on. I found her standing in front of her bed with the blanket over her head. She was completely hysterical. I pulled the blanket off her head, and so DOVE into my arms. She was almost choking me. It took me half an hour to get her to calm down. I checked to see if she was hurt, or poopy. I just couldn't figure out what was wrong. I thought it might have been a bad dream. I rocked her till she was asleep and laid her back in her bed. As soon as she touched the bed she became hysterical again. I laid next to her, well kinda I don't really fit on her bed, till she calmed down and went to sleep. I went back to bed hoping that she would sleep the rest of the night. About an hour later she came into our room upset again and climbed into bed with us. I held her till she was calm and tried to put her back into her bed. Again she became hysterical. After repeating this a couple of times. I began to wonder if it was her bed she was afraid of. I decided to put her in the pack and play to see if it was her bed. I got it out and set it up. Then I put her in. Not a peep. She just cuddled up and went to sleep. I wonder if she fell out of the bed and it scared her to death. We put the other side on her crib and she has been sleeping peacefully in it since. I guess she just wasn't ready for a toddler bed. We will try again in a couple months. Until then I can pretend she is still just my tiny baby.

Jump Jump Jump

Claire loves jumping on the trampoline. Well she doesn't jump, but she stomps and does a high kick run. It is fun to watch her. She was jumping with Dada on saturday and her hair got super crazy. I decided I had to have some pics of it
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Home progress

We now have a complete foundation. HOORAY! They will start framing tomorrow. The guy said he would have it completely framed in one week. It gives me hope that we will be in our in house in August. Keep your fingers crossed.

Sleeping Claire

Claire's crib was recalled. We had to send all the hardware from her old crib back to the company to get a voucher for a new crib. For the past 3 weeks she has been sleeping in the pack and play. Today we picked up her new crib. It is suppose to be a lifetime crib. Which means is converts from a crib to a toddler bed, then into a head board and foot board for a twin bed. We decided we would let her try out a toddler bed. We were a little nervous that she would either get out of bed, or roll off the bed. We took her in, and kneeled at her bed for family prayer. She couldn't wait for the prayer to be done before climbing on her bed. We kissed her goodnight and left her in bed. I went to check on her 10 min later, she was laying in bed talking to foxy. We went back about a half hour later to find her sleeping with her head covered and hanging off the bed. Doesn't seem like the most comfortable way to sleep, but then again I have never tried it.
Claire only fell out of the bed twice that I know about. Around 3 am last night I heard a thud. I knew it had to be her, so I went in to pick her up and put her back in the bed. When I got in there she was already climbing back into bed. She looked at me like " what are you doing here? I'm sleeping." laid her head down and pulled her blanket around her and back to sleep she went
She stayed in bed this morning until I went to get her. I thought for sure she would take advantage of the new freedom and get out of bed as soon as she woke up. I think she likes her new bed.

Swinging Baby

We took Claire to the park today. We took her last year and tried to get her to swing. She hated it. We decided to try again. As you can see from the pic she loved it, until we pushed her to high. Then panic set in and she quickly gave us the all done sign. Love that baby girl!

Pudding anyone?

For the last couple of days, any time the fridge is opened Claire would go over and pull our a pudding cup. I would tell her she could have one after dinner and put it back in the fridge. I would then forget all about the pudding cup and telling her she could have one. Well this continued for a couple of days. I guess she got tired of me forgeting. Yesterday she waited until Mark was home and then got a pudding cup out and took it to him saying "YUM". I made him tell her the same thing that she could have it after dinner. Unlike me, he didn't forget. After she had eaten dinner Dada went and got her a pudding out of the fridge. As you can see from the picture she enjoyed it. As did her highchair, and pants. Needless to say she went straight into the tub after the pudding.

Our Hole/Home!

This was our beautiful weed filled lot! Doesn't it just scream "Welcome Home"? It doesn't look like that anymore. They officially started the building process today. They are digging today and putting the footings in tomorrow. I'm not exactly sure what footings are but I am excited for them to be put in. HOORAY!!

Claire and the hose

Yesterday we were out in the working in the yard. It was so hot. Little Claire's cheeks were super rosy. Mark decided to turn on a sprinkler for us to run through. I helped Claire run through it a couple of times, but she didn't like it. So I decided to take the sprinkler head off the the hose. I thought she might like just being able to stick her toes in the water. She wasn't so sure about that either so we let her hold the hose. She loved it! She kept sticking her fingers in the water so it would splash and laughing. Then she realized she could spray down Mama. I was soaking wet. She chased me all over spraying me and laughing like crazy. I don't know why she didn't spray down Dada. It was so much fun. She is our little water baby.
laughing as she tries to spray Mama.

WATCH OUT HERE SHE COMES!!!

Cookie dough thief

Claire is now tall enough to reach things on the counter if they are left too close to the edge. Something I will need to get use to. The other day I was making cookies. When I heard Claire saying "MMMMMMM!" in a very dramatic way. I looked over to see her sitting on the fireplace with the beater, sucking the leftover cookie dough off of it. It was so cute I took pictures. I am going to have to remember to slide everything away from the edge of the counter.