Claire's Blessing

Claire's Blessing was yesterday. It was a really nice day. We had a lot of family and friends at the blessing and then we had a brunch afterwards with everyone. it was a really nice day. We were trying to get a quick family picture with Violet and Claire. It didn't work out. Claire was yelling because she was hungry, so now we have a bunch of pics of the bottle and Violet was grumpy because she wanted to go play with Noah, so she is trying to escape in all our pictures. It was pretty funny and I think is a realistic representation of life with two little girls.

We had fun trying to get a good picture and we gave everyone a good laugh.

Claire: "I just want to eat and sleep and your making me wear this dress and pose for pictures!!"
The Blessing circle minus Brad and a few special people that were there in spirit.

Diana came to the blessing even though she didn't get home from work till 2 AM and she had to go home and take a nap before getting up to get ready for work that night. I'm glad she could come.

Claire all snuggled up and happy before her big day. Claire is our screamer baby, this is one of her more peaceful moments. If you get a close up of Peter and I you will see puffy tired eyes, but we are happy and she is a pretty good baby overall. We are pretty lucky to have such good babies.

Violet in the swing, she doesn't seem to care that she's too big for it and she spends more time swinging in it than Claire does. She climbs over the back of it and slides right into the seat and then uses the bars to get herself swinging, she can rock the whole frame! She loves it.

Violet talks in her sleep

Last night I went into check on Violet after I got up with Claire and after I tucked her back in and gave her a kiss she sort of stirred and started to babble a little. I smiled and left, but in the hall I heard her giggle and say "oh Wesley". I think she really misses Wesley. The other day we got online with the Woods and I said to Violet "let's go see Wesley" she lined up our shoes at the door and waited for me, and was really upset when I told her we were going upstairs and not out to the car, but she was really glad to see that Wesley was on the Computer.

Violet is starting to acknowledge Claire's existence. She runs in to check her out when Claire starts to cry and is always quick to give her back her binky when she drops it. This morning Claire was sleeping on the couch and Violet went up to her and Said "hey! Wake up!" She doesn't understand why Claire sleeps so much, when there is so much fun to be had. It will be great when Claire is old enough to play.

Violet likes to hold Claire but loses interest quickly so I have to hold Claire up for her.

Claire is a snuggler, It is strange to have a baby sleep with us again, but hopefully she'll be like Violet and make the move to sleeping more in her crib in a few months. Violet has made the move to the big twin bed in her room, I think I'll store her stuffed animals on her pink bed until Claire is ready to use it.
I pulled out my shoes this week. I've been living in Flip Flops for the duration of my pregnancy (they are the only shoes that fit) My feet are still to wide for my heels so I'm not wearing them yet but Violet likes to walk around in them and she's pretty good at it since she wears her dress up shoes all day everyday (she'll be better in heels than I am soon).

What a fun weekend

We had such a busy/fun weekend! I am exhausted... well I think we all are. Violet has been sleeping the weekend off today and is now starting to wake up (it's 10 pm... oh well). Friday Diana, Peter and I took the girls to the zoo. I love the zoo and Violet does too, we let her just run around and it was great because our zoo is kind of small so you can see it all in about an hour and V was totally worn out by the end of our trip. I think her favorite part is the aquarium, she loves fish, and ran from tank to tank shouting look! Fish! It was adorable.

Here are V and her cousin Olivia playing with Peter on Sunday. We were at Ann and Larry's house for Grandpa's b-day dinner. The girls love to play together and we are planning a trip to the farm on Friday.
Olivia with her Grandma Ann
Grandpa Cecil and Grandma Shirley holding Claire. Happy Birthday Grandpa! We had Grandpa's favorite cake- Tomato soup cake.... it is actually really good!

Saturday my Mom and I took the girls down to Montesano, WA to visit my Uncle David's family. My Uncle Jeff (in the picture with my Mom) was visiting for the week and they had gone fishing everyday. We had an excellent dinner of Salmon (that had been swimming that morning). It was such a great night. I haven't seen Jeff in about 5 or 6 years.

My parent's are redoing their entire front yard this year. They had to take out about 12 trees after last winter's snow storm, so they are starting from scratch basically. My Dad has been building a stone wall all weekend and it is starting to look really beautiful. It should be finished soon, and then they will start planting more grass and putting in a stone pillar fountain. I'm excited to see it finished.

Friday we went to my Grandparents house for a dinner and visit with my Aunt Katherine and her family. It was great to see them, I haven't seen any of them since they came up for my wedding. Katherine's youngest boy is 3 and he and Violet had a great time running around and laughing. It's fun to have cousin's visit.

This is the beautiful Sunset from my grandparent's yard. I love to watch the view in this yard, it is very special to me, because it is where my and Peter's wedding reception was.

These are obviously all out of order but this is V at the zoo and she is backing up as this shark is coming right at her, it was pretty funny. She looked up at me for reassurance that the Shark would stay on the other side of the glass, luckily it did.

V all dressed up in her fancy shoes with her keys and ready to head out on the town.... oh wait I guess it's too cold to go out in a diaper and heels. V can walk all over the house, up and down stairs in her dress up heels. Impressive.

Claire turned 3 weeks old this weekend and we just love her. She is getting so cute. We took her to the Dr last week and she was 7 lbs 11 oz and 20 inches long. She is perfectly proportionate 20% for weight and 25th for height. Violet was always 25 for weight and 95% for height.

Claire is starting to spend more time awake and she really likes to just stare at us, we of course love to stare back. She is a really quiet baby, except when it comes to food. On Saturday I had just finished telling my aunt Lisa what a quiet baby Claire was, when Lisa took the bottle out of Claire's mouth and she let out the loudest wail I had ever heard! It made everyone in the house turn and look. It was so funny! She was immediately happy as soon as the bottle was back in her mouth and she could eat eat eat!

eat a dessert day! Horray!

So Wesley is doing a preschool with 3 other kids from our ward. The themes are based from a website "holidays for everyday" http://www.holidaysforeveryday.com/ Yesterday was National Wilderness Day and Wesley came home with a nicely painted forest. Today is "Eat A Dessert Day" I think we will be observing that one. . . and not feel bad because, hey, it's "eat a dessert day" let's celebrate!! Things have been good around here. Not too much to report. Jonathan and I both got new callings. Jonathan works with the Wolf Scouts as an assistant and I am a CTR 7 teacher. We are both really enjoying our new callings

I always like to see pictures on the blog. I do not know where our most recent ones are, but here are some from the summer.

Sam loves to stand on this box and watch TV with Wesley. He also enjoys jumping over the couch via the box.

Sam likes to paint with his food. I think he gets more on the table, floor, and himself than actually in his mouth. You are only little once, live it up!

Our camera does some special effects. I was trying some out with Violet. She doesn't see too impressed, or maybe she is mesmorized. . . I can't tell. But she is very darling!

Wesley is just a great guy and a lot of fun. He is learning a lot and we have had some good discussions about life and different things.

That's all. When I find those pictures from our trip I will post a few. . .

emily