Family Pictures 2012

 These pictures were taken in July, and I realized that I haven't even posted them yet! Oh man, oh well, better late than never. The above picture is a picture of the whole family! It was taken a day or two after Seth got home from his mission in New Zealand. I was 17 weeks pregnant. Let me tell you, that is not a esteem booster, getting professional pics done when early on in my pregnancy! 

 

This is my older brother Scott's family. 

 

This is my very photogenic baby girl. She was 16ish months in this picture. 

 

We really don't look too much a like. She definitely takes after her daddy!

 

Even if we don't look a like, we sure do love each other!

 

This is how we kept her happy....lol

 

 

 Have I mentioned we love her?!?!?

 

I think she loves us too!

 

 

 

 Probably one of my all time favorite family pitures!

 

 

 

 Little Logan. He is so unbelievably adorable!

And...he is done with the pictures!

 

The parents move to town!!!!!

This is the biggest and best news, since I became pregnant with little Oliver....

 

MY PARENTS AND YOUNGER SIBLINGS MOVED 1.8 MILES AWAY FROM US!!!!!!!!!!

 

My parents and siblings are my best friends. We are very close. I just never dreamed that we would ever live so close to each other. But we do now and I am so grateful for this incredible blessing. Claire and I go over to grandma's house almost every day. She loves the family so much and they are all almost as obsessed and in love with her as Ryan and I are! It will be so nice to have them near by once Oliver comes too! Just had to share my good news!

A little Catch up, like always!

Claire is now 20 months!!! Can you believe it?? She is potty trained (she still struggles a little with the #2 but is doing great). She DISLIKES nursery unless Ryan or I are in there. She is very verbal. There is no way I could even begin to count how many words she says, because by the time I count them she is saying more! She loves to be the boss, which will make her a great big sister. She is incredibly empathetic and loving.

Claire loves to look at facebook and Pinterest with me. This is one of her favorite activites. She loves to see all the babies. She will bring me my iPad and say, "Mom, babies?" How can I say no?

Claire Bear is 100% girl! She came into the kitchen and said, "Mom, I bye,bye!" And was ver proud of herself for finding all of these "purses". Silly  Claire!

Claire loves her dad with all her little heart.  This morning when he got up to go to clinicals, Claire was instantly awake and said, "Mom, Daddy bye-bye, Daddy hug?" That interprets into, "Mom, dad is going away and I would like to give him a hug." Yesterday, she was so proud of herself because She snuck upstairs while I was cleaning and knocked on her Daddy's office. He was studying and she knows that she has to leave him alone while he is studying. She also knows that dad can't resist her sweet preciousness. So, he decided to take a break and play with her. When he brought her down she exclaimed, "Mom!!! It's Daddy!!!!" Oh my heart just melts with how much she loves him and he loves her. It definetly makes me love him even more!

I have to admit, though, Claire and I are best friends. We do just about everything together and we have way too many inside jokes. Not only do we love to spend time together but she loves to help with chores! Sometimes this makes chores a little harder, but I love how much she loves to help me. She is going to make such a great big sister!

We sure do love our little girl and we can't wait for our little boy! 7 more weeks! It feels like an eternity and yet I have and eternity x2 work to be done to get ready for him. Ahhh!

Happy Halloween!!

 

I took some fun Halloween shots of Claire. I am so obsessed with my baby, its not even funny! She is such a joy to be around.

She just turned 19 months. She is almost 100% potty trained (not my idea!). She is talking in short sentences. She is the biggest helper in the world (although it can make my work a little harder...) She LOVES puppies and kitties!

She tries sooo hard to make Ryan and I happy. She always try to choose the right. I am so proud of my little pumpkin princess! Here are some Halloween pictures. Enjoy!

For the Love of Kitties!

 Not only does Claire love Vlade, but Vlade loves her! I walked into the family room and saw them like this. They laid like this for a while. Like I have said before, this girl just has so much love in her heart she can't hold it all in!

So precious! We have been blessed with the best animals for kids! We love them!

 

 

I thought this was funny. Right as I snapped the picture Vlade yawned, it looks like he is going to bite her head off. Haha, he wouldn't ever do that, but it is a cute picture...

 

 

Here is the man, himself, Vlade. He is a sweet boy. He just loves and loves, him and Claire are perfect for each other! 

 

18 months...Oh my!

 This little girl turned 18 months!!! I can't believe it!! If it weren't for the fact that I have one on the way I think I would be getting VERY baby hungry. It seems as if over night she just grew up! She is quite the little person, and I am so humbled to be her mother!

 

At 18 months she LOVES to:

Sing and Dance (she can shake it like no other)

She talks and talks. We were at the park the other day and I was talking to a mom who is a speech therapist and she was just blown away at Claire's vocabulary

She LOVES babies. Her favorite books are the books with babies in them.

She LOVES to talk to my belly and say, "Hello, baby, I love you!" or "Hello, Oliver!" Melts my heart

She has to have a job to do. If I am cleaning, I won't get anything done until I give her a chore, then she will be content until she feels like it is finished and she needs a new chore

She LOVES parks and especially loves slides. She has learned how to go down slides all by herself. I love it because I can just sit there and watch her. She gets worn out and I get a rest! Life couldn't be better!

Another thing she LOVES to do is try to sit in things. She tries to sit inside of little buses or cars and gets so mad that she can't fit.

 The other day she had a great idea. She emptied out her block container and sat in that. If you can't tell from the picture she was incredibly proud of herself!

 

 

She was also really excited when she realized that she could fit ontop of the motorcycle. This is a decoration I bought a long time of go in honor of Ryan's love for motorcycles. Claire loves them too. When she seems them on the road she always points at the and says. "Daddy!"

 

Claire is not my little baby any more. She is growing up every day. I know that she is going to be such an incredible big sister! She was born needing responsibility and has a ton of love in her heart. I am so excited to see her grow!

Ryan turns the BIG 29!

 

 It was Ryan's birthday! He turned 29 years old! It is kind of funny that although he is 4 years older than me he constantly makes me feel young. He is one of those people who I don't think will ever get old and I love it. There is so much a I love about that man!

 

For Ryan's birthday he got a....

iphone 5!!! Well, he hasn't gottne it yet, but he will when it comes out. My parents thought that it would help with his school and career and decided to help us buy it. As you can tell, they may love Ryan a lot and he may be a little spoiled....

 

 

I made him a BSU cake for his birthday. Of course, the colors are more Easterish but it is just because I used some cheap food coloring. He loved it.

 

 

Claire had to help blow the candles out. She was a little nervous and took her job seriously.

 

 

That look on her face when she helped daddy blow out the candles...PRICELESS! There is so much I love about that girl!  

 

 

 

Oh and this is the inside of the cake. It was an idea I got from pinterest. So simple and so fun. Ryan was suprised and thout it was pretty neat. I am definitely going to be using this for many cakes to come!

4 Years and Going Strong!

This has been the best four years ever! I married my best friend. On our  wedding  day, our sealer told us that he had been married for over 48 and still had never had a fight with his wife. He encouraged us to do the same. I think both of us were floored. We had never heard of that or thought it possible, but we thought we might as well try!
So far, so good! Four years is no 48 years, but hey we have made it this far without fighting so here is to the next 44 years!!! Sure we do not always agree. I am grateful that we don't always agree but we have figured out how to disagree with love.

The ultimate best thing that has come from our marriage so far is this little bundle of joy and the half baked one in my belly! Marriage is so not about the couple. It is about the family and the good the family can do for others. I am so grateful for Ryan and his example to Claire and I! We love you big guy!

Major Catch Up Time

I am playing catch up right now because the year of 2012 has flown by in a rush of craziness. So the next bunch of posts will be from a long time ago and I will put them in order in the next little bit.
In the last 8 months let us look at the goings ons of the Lovelands:

• Ryan stopped working to focus on school.
• My older brother Scott and his family moved into our basement.
• Claire got multiple double ear infections.
• I helped get my parents house ready to sell.
• We visited family in Denver
• My younger brother Nick moved in to one of our extra bed rooms.
• I became pregnant and got very sick (not as sick as Claire's pregnancy)
• Ryan got a new job at a pediatric emergency department.
• My best friend from highschool came and lived with us for almost a month.
• Scott and his family moved out to start podiatry school.
• Nick moved out because we were too boring
• We went to Minnesota for a family vacation.
• My brother Seth came home from his mission.
• We went on a church history trip to New York and Kirkland.
• We flew out to Idaho for Ryan's Grandpa Roberts funeral.
• In between all of that I doula'd for a couple women and Ryan worked two jobs.

It just doesn't seem as much as it was. But wholy moly! it did me in. I think between lactating and gestating my enegery levels are just not what they used to be. Now, life seems to be settling down. We have a lot of work to do before the new baby comes, but we have 20 weeks, I think we can get it done! Enjoy some older pictures of Claire I can't belive how little she was!

Grandpa Love!

 Grandpa worships Claire and Claire loves him. Grandpa works a few miles from our house so he gets to stop by  and visit a lot. Claire loves it, she just hates when he leaves.

She knows he loves her :-)

Learning to Shoot

 Ryan is a very hands on dad. I love it. He loves to show Claire how to do things and then will help her work on it. His dad was very hands on and I am grateful for his example. Ryan is the best dad I could have dreamed of. Parenting issues never come up. It is pretty neat.

 

When Ryan was young and through out highschool and even college Ryan was an advid hunter. I have even heard rumors of the incredible hunter and tracker Ryan was in Idaho. I think that is a great skill to have.
 Ryan decided that because Claire is 14 months old she needed to carry on the tradition and learn how to shoot a gun. I guess leanring early is a good thing.

 She loves it! She loves anything that Daddy shows her how to do. She tries so hard to get his approval. And it is given out in abundance!

As you can tell by this picture... :) He is so proud of her and loves her so much!

Chores

Claire mimics everything we do! She loves to pick up and sweet. At times this is not helpful, but we try to encourage it, because maybe she like to clean with she's older...ha, we can dream right?

(may)

Dancing with Dad

 Claire loves her dad and she loves dancing so she love dancing with her daddy! They can really shake it in the kitchen! I love it because my dad and I used to dance in the kitchen all the time!

Daddy daughter

I love picture of Ryan and Claire! He was in his clinical outfit and she was in her tutu, how precious!