Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we made the long, arduous trek to my parents house...the whole 30 minutes. I still can't get over the fact that we live to close to them! What a blessing!

We had a really great time! The food was great. I may or may not have made eight...yest EIGHT pies. My sisters also made pies. I think our pie count added up to around 12 pies...So YES, it was a GREAT Thanksgiving...hehe

What are we grateful for? Well, the first thing is our Savior, Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and atonement that was made for us. There are just no words to express the gratitude we have for his perfect love.

Next we are grateful for eternal families and the restored gospel that makes it possible to be together for ever!

Next we are grateful for...you guessed it! CLAIRE!! She is so perfect! We love her so much!

This is Claire and Levi. She loves her uncles! On Sunday during the sacrement she starts laughing, kicking and flapping her legs (the combination of movements that means she is incredibly happy) when she sees the deacons passing the sacrament. I think that is because she thinks the boys are her uncles. She is so silly!

Claire is definitely grateful for her silly grandpa. She has him wrapped all around her little fingers!

She really loves him and grandma, too. She knows she was born to be loved. I am grateful for my parents. They are such incredible examples to me. It makes parenting a lot easier when all I have to do is just think, "What would mom and dad do in this situation?"

I admit it. I am addicted to dressing her up! I can't.stop.! It's just too fun! My mom got her this outfit at a yard sale and I made the head band.

The picture above is soooo Claire! Ha, what a silly little girl!


This picture is even more Claire. Everyone who knows her, when they see this pictures, automatically mimics the noise that would accompany such a face.


*Purely Precious*






Oh on a side note~ Claire is sooo close to crawling! It is sad and happy at the same time. She loves to stand (holding on to things) and can scoot forward if she is sitting, but not crawling yet. She definitely says 'mama' when talking to me or wanting to eat. She loves people even more than last time I posted. She could stay at a store all day because of the attention she gets. It takes me 3 times longer to go anywhere with her because so many people stop and talk to her and she feels it is only polite to talk back. Silly girl. She is definitely a mama's girl though. She loves to talk to others only if I am the one holding her. I kind of love it :-)

Ryan is doing great! He is getting so close to finishing his first semester of school! He is so smart and doing great in all of his classes. He is an amazing dad. Claire just adores him. He is so sweet with her. Most mornings I go to the gym early and come back to Claire and Ryan all snuggled together. Melts my heart every time! He is just amazing.

We are so happy and so grateful for everything we have!

8 months and Dynamic!

8 MONTHS....
What?!?!?!
How did 8 months go by so quickly? Ahh...It's scary. She is just growing and changing so fast I can't believe it!
She is just perfect!
I get stopped in the store often by someone telling me what a doll baby I have. The other day someone came up to me and said, 'Your baby is Dynamic.' It took me a second, but then it clicked, that is exactly it! I couldn't agree more ;) Now when I am at a loss of words on how to describe her, I just say, 'Man, she's DYNAMIC!"
She has cut through her top two teeth now. That was crazy. For a couple days she wasn't as happy as normal and had a little runny nose then...Wa La!! She had to little teeth popping through. She did fuss or cry with these or with her bottom teeth. My theory is she experienced a lot of pain with the colic :( and so teething is no biggie for her.
She has been saying words like 'mamamama', dadadada, abadbabada, gRRooOwl (heheh) for a while now, but it seems like she understands who "mama" is and who dada is.
She has been mimicking sounds for a couple weeks. I don't know if she realizes what she is doing but if I repeat a word over and over she will usually try to say it.
She isn't crawling yet, but unfortunately it seems like it will start soon. My life will never be the same!
She is sooo happy all of the time! She LOVES people. She LOVES to shop because there are people at stores. She will greet people with sometime of growl or shout and it sure get's their attention.
People LOVE her. She can make anyone smile...especially Ryan and I.
Did I mention that she loves to match with me? hehe


I am proud of this outfit...The clothes are all thrifted and the headband is made!


I am proud of this girl:D


The picture above you can totally see her two top teeth. I started to cry when I saw them. She is growing up too fast!


Love is too weak of a word when it comes to how I feel about her.


The daddy is hooked!


The mama too!

Claire Bear, when you are older and reading this I just want you to know what a special person you are! I am so blessed to have you in my life! I love you!

Daddy Love

I thought I loved Ryan before we had Claire, and I did. The thing is, is that the love I have for him now is so much deeper and fuller and richer and just more real. There are many reasons for this that I won't go into now, but one of the main reasons is I just can't describe how much my heart melts when I see him love and play with her. It is just the most complete feeling in the world!
Way before I was pregnant with Claire, Ryan confided in me in hushed, embarrassed tones, that he actually wanted to have a baby girl first... He wasn't sure why but he just really wanted a daughter. He didn't want anyone to know that because he thought it would make him seem like a sissy. I told him that just made him even more attractive to me! I think he wanted a daughter first because both him and I could feel her precious spirit and a part of us could remember her from the pre-existence and we knew that we loved her desperately.
Well, we got what he wanted and he is not embarrassed at all about loving on his little girl!

While Ryan was studying one day I saw a deer right outside our back yard fence. I showed Ryan and he immediately grabbed Claire and ran out to show her the deer. She didn't see the deer but loved the time with Ryan!



If you look close in this picture you can see the deer. I saw it and thought, aww how cute! Ryan, on the other hand was telling Claire how they could turn our upstairs bath room into a "tree stand" so he could bow hunt from inside....I'm glad Claire didn't understand.


Ryan loves seeing Claire dressed up and deck out in pink. He just gets all soft and gooey for her.


And then he has to get all dressed up in pink to match...Oh Ryan.
What do you think? He may just be a perfect dad for a little girl :-)


I think those are two of the most beautiful people in the world! I just love those kissable faces! I am so blessed!


Clearly you can see that Ryan isn't biased and she is just too incredibly lovable!
I love what a proud Daddy Ry-guy is. He is just amazing and would do anything to see that Claire is happy and healthy. He is working so hard and school right now so that she can have a good life and have a dad who can be around and not working those awful nursing hours.
Thanks, Ryan for being amazing. We love you!