Jump, Jiggle & Jive

The BV school district hosted Jump, Jiggle & Jive tonight for toddlers at one of the elementary schools. Claire had so much fun playing in ball pits, shooting baskets,and much more. The trampoline was her favorite. Here are a few pics!

Nose

Claire's rugburn has evolved into a full scab on her nose....pretty funny!

February Photos on Snapfish

Here's the link to copy and paste into your browser for our February Photos on Snapfish! http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2203425017/a=8197441_8197441/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

The Mouse

On one of her recent visits, our Parents as Teacher home educator, Sharon, gave us an idea to ask Claire to find the tiny mouse on each of the full room pages in the Goodnight Moon book. We had never noticed this or thought to do it, but once Mike and I were able to find them all (it's not easy) we started asking Claire where the mouse is each time there is a page with the full room. Our smart little girl not only finds all of these every night is less than 5 seconds, but we swear she now has them memorized based on the order of the book...crazy!! She has started to show off a bit and as soon as she finds it, she claps for herself and then turns the page even before we are done reading, almost to signal...."that's easy, whats next?"

"The Corner"

Claire is starting to have to visit "the corner" more often these days. Usually for standing on furniture, splashing in Cali's bowls and not listening...all things that she knows better. It usually goes something like this.... Claire stands on the chair and waits for you to notice, we say "Claire sit down", she continues to stare at us, we say " Claire do you want to go sit in the corner", she says no and shakes her head then sits down. 10 seconds later, repeat all of the above except she doesn't sit down, to the corner she goes.....

A snowy Saturday...

We did a lot of "nothing much" today. Went to the mall this morning to run a few errands and the play area only had a few people in it so we let Claire play, usually we avoid it!! She was having lots of fun climbing and sliding until her boot stopped her on the slide and she face planted onto the carpet...Ouch!! She was a trooper and is now sporting a rug burn on her nose! Mike and Claire went to story time at Barnes & Noble while I got 20 minutes of uninterrupted shopping which was very nice! Once we had determined that no one in all of Oak Park Mall makes khaki pants that are up to Mike's standards (the correct shade of khaki, not to stiff or thick of cotton, fit just right, etc... ) we headed home for lunch. Let's just hope some company comes to their senses soon enough, as Mike only has 1 pair of work pants left! : ) Jeannie, if you are reading this I am going to send him out to shop for pants with you, I give up! I have attached some clips I combined of Claire just being Claire today....

Germs

Germs have made themselves comfy at our house for the last week. Claire and I have had colds last week, then Claire and Mike have had a stomach bug, and now I am home to today not feeling well at all! I really can't complain we have been very healthy (with the exception of the month of November). I am so ready for spring, it can't come soon enough!

Ice Skating and 8 years ago...

So what I intended to write for today was that 8 years ago today Mike proposed in Jackson Hole. When i was posting the pics of C earlier today, I had to get off quickly so I forgot! This is a special day for us, I even dug out the scrapbook with the intention of scanning our photos, but couldn't get the scanner to work. You will just have to trust me about HOW YOUNG we looked that night. Eight years later we are still love eachother more and more each day and now have someone else to love too! Wouldn't trade it for the world! Now onto the ice skating....Claire is obsessed! Claire is not a TV watcher, and trust me some days I just wish she would sit down for 20 minutes and watch something, but is usually last no longer than 2 minutes. Well tonight we had the olympics on while we were playing before bed and she LOVED the ice skating so much we backed up the DVR and played more for her. Might have been the pretty dress or the flying through the air but she just stared at the TV, smiled, pointed and oooohhhhed... Unfortunately after 1 couple they switched back to luge and then it was bedtime.

Valentine's Day

We had a good Valentine's day today! Cards and Candy, Church, the mall and hanging out at home. Claire wore a new dress to church today so we had a photoshoot at home! I attached a few of my favorite! Hope everyone had a happy day!

Hallmark

Hallmark was featured on Nightline last night...the most "real" story I have ever seen on our company that accurately reflects us! It is 7 minutes long but a glimpse into my work day. I work closely with several of those interviewed, and gives you an idea of what a great guy Don Hall is. Hallmark celebrated it's 100th birthday last month! Here is the link to copy and paste: http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/hallmark-100-years-greeting-cards/story?id=9797710

Claire's Valentines' Day Chair

Mike is in charge of Valentine's Day for Claire and this is what he picked out for her this year! She loves loungin' in it!

A year ago...RSV

Socks

The battles have begun...... Every morning I sit on the ottoman in Claire's room with her standing in front of me while "we" pick out what she is going to wear that day. She usually grabs pants or a shirt and I grab something that matches and that is it, until yesterday. The last two mornings Claire has expressed a strong opinion about her lack of approval for the socks that I have grabbed out of the drawer....tears and all. Yesterday she had an obsession with pink on pink striped fuzzy socks, I don't blame her. Today was a little harder to understand, I had brown socks with fun polka dots, had one on her foot when it became obvious she did not approve. She opened the drawer took out white sport socks and handed them to me. So off to daycare she went in white ankle socks and brown mary jane shoes.

"THE" Video

Here it is, the video that made me start blogging. This just sums up Claire's sugar and spice personality....her famous "serious" face, chasing Cali around with a toy and laughing and screaming. Enjoy!

I can't believe I am doing this....

So blogging is not something I thought I would ever do, and just to manage expectations I don't think I will be very good at it! Really the motivation behind this is simple....Claire. Mike and I have started to enjoy looking back on the very few videos we have taken of Claire over her first 18 months. Last night we captured her being her funny self on video and laughed no matter how many times we watched it. We so wanted to share it, but when trying to email it was too large...not really wanting to post it on facebook I didn't know what my other options were. So then I realized several of my friends blog and post videos there. So there you have it, I am now a blogger. ps....I am a horrible speller, so that is something you are going to have to put up with unless I find an easy spell check function.