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!

Shoes

May
 I wish I was better at getting pictures. But it seems like the more active she becomes the less pictures I get!
Anyways, at 14 months Claire is obsessed with shoes. She LOVES shoes. She puts them on herself and she puts them on dolls and on Ryan and I. I think it is pretty precious.

 

This is a super cute picture. Let me explain. I was making hair bows or something with scraps and she thought they would make very pretty shoes, so she insisted I put them on. The chocolate chip cookie on her face just makes her cuter!

12 month update

•  At twelve months Claire is amazing.
• She is not walking but talking up a storm. Her family thing to do is ask "WwwhhhYYyy?" When ever I tell her anything. I don't know if she comprehends what it means but she knows that will get me to explain what we are doing and she likes that.
• She also says a whole slew of words that I can't even list.
• She has a very long attention span and will set and look at or play with something for a long time.
• She LOVES books. Book was one of her first words. She could read book after book!
• She loves animals, especially cats.
• She is still breast feeding. I always thought  I would stop around 12 months but now that we are here, it kind of seems silly to stop something that is so good for her, even if it wears me out.
• She is all girl, unless she is wrestling with her dad, then you will hear some bear growls come out :)
• We love this little girl!

11 months

Claire is growing up! She is not walking yet, but still breastfeeding like a champion! She has the funniest sense of humor, I can't get enough of it!!

Here are some pictures to more explain the life of Claire at 11 months.

 

Claire and Logan love each other. He calls her baby, and she gets so excited to see her!

 

 He loves to show her the joy of Elmo. So sweet!

 

 

 Claire learned how to crawl up the stairs this month. It makes her daddy nervous, but I guess growing up with 5 boys, its not too scary for me.

 

I love her double chin!! Oh Claire, how are you so perfectly cute!

 

 She loves music and she loves to mimic me. So she loves to mimic me playing music! It makes playing piano hard at times but I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

 

 She is a Loveland, so she loves to eat anything. She is not picky at all. It almost seems like the more stronger the flavor, the more she loves it (onions, pickles, hot sauce...) no joke!

 

 

 

 She has her own kind of swagger. I love it. She is Claire and I have never met another baby like her. I wouldn't trade her for the world! To her daddy and I she is perfect! We love you girly!

Claire's 1st Birthday! (6 months late....oops!)

Birthdays are a big deal to me. I love celebration and what better to celebrate than life? Especially my daugthers life? This year I was thinking about doing a big party but then because of the craziness of my life at the time of her birthday I just decided to have a party with the family. It was awesome.

We started the morning off with the traditional streamers on the door. Yes, they were green but it was only because St. Patricks day was around the corner and I couldn't find any other color at 11 p.m. the night before.

I am not sure who loved the streamers more, Claire or her daddy.

Yes, she is in a tutu.

Yes, she slept in it (she is a princess...)

Yes, she sleeps in our room. It works out best for all of us. Ryan and I aren't ready to let her sleep by herself. That just seems so lonely.

 

 

This was my big present to Claire. I made her a birthday dress. I was pretty impressed with how it turned out. It was super easy to do and she rocked it!

 

 

My parents got her a basketball and a basketball hoop! As you can tell by the picture above, she LOVES it! She is a balla' and Ryan and I couldn't be more proud.

 

 

Slam dunk!! Ha, the picture may be staged but it was pretty cute.

 

 

For her birthday lunch we went to a park with my family and had some pizza and played around. I didn't get any good pictures, but we had a blast.

 

Then for the finale! We went home, stripped her down and got her ready for her birthday cake. I made it. It is kind of lame. It was a bear because we always call her Claire Bear or simply "the bear"/

 

Now, before we go on, let me explain. Ever since before Ryan and I dated he would talk about how he couldn't wait to have kids so he could continue on the Loveland tradition of putting a cake just for the kid in front of the baby and let them go at it. It is messy and crazy, but pretty much the best tradition ever!

Claire wasn't sure what to do with it at first. She thinks to herself, "Am I really supposed to eat something wtih eyes?"

 

 

"Ohh...but it taste sooo good!"

 

"mmmmmm...."

 

 

"That's what I'm talking about!!!"

 

 

"Mom, your the best! You need some too because I love you sooo much." (Claire, when you read this when you are older, you need to know, you really did say that and you should still fell the same way.)

 

 

I found a way to incorporate Oreo's into the cake, Claire appreciated my ingenuitity.

 

 

"But, really? I can really do this?"

 

 

"Ohhh, yeah....Life has never been better!"

 

 

She was really insistent on sharing with us. It was really sweet of her.

 

 

Then she was so excited she had to give out some ooey gooey chocolatey love. Thanks girl!

 

 

Happy family!!

 

 

What this picture doesnt show is how much got in my hair!!

 

 

Then we ended with a quick bath in the sink and a new birthday outfit from grandma and some wonderful birthday loves. I didn't realize at this point that I still had chocolate on my face, but really whats different from any other time? I always have chocolate on my face!!