Claire's 2nd Birthday

What a fun day Claire had today. We spent the morning outside and at the pool, and then had a great family birthday dinner and party. Claire was in her element and loved all the attention, showing off more than just a bit! Here are some pics from the day!

Curly Hair Cousins

Dave, Kathy and Mikaela just left for the airport and we had such a fun weekend. We took the girls to Wonderscope, Fritzs where a train delivered our lunch and just had fun playing at home, in the new playhouse that Nana and Granddad gave Claire for her birthday and in the pool. While Claire had a few rough moments sharing her things, the girls had a great time. They held hands, gave hugs and kisses and made each other hysterical laughing together. Here are a few pics and video.

Feeling Better

When Claire gets sick, she REALLY gets sick. After a short bout with pneumonia, she is back being her silly self again! We had a great weekend, and made a trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa, a short stop at the farmstead and a little bit of fun in the sun in her our backyard inflatable pool and overall just got caught up on our rest and sleep. Here is a slide show of photos that I put together of Claire being silly with a spoon on Saturday. As you can tell she is feeling better!

It's been awhile...

WOW! It's been awhile! My excuses are many, but I won't go there. Lots has been happening in the life of the Hochbergs, but tonight I am going to take the advice of one of my mentors at Hallmark who told me last week when life throws you curve balls focus on the little things and live in the moment. So here's what I've got... Bugs Claire is obsessed with bugs. It started one day a couple of weeks ago with her squatting so low to the patio that her nose was practically on the ground watching a little gnat crawl across the patio. It has gone downhill from there. Today we couldn't stay outside because there was a worm (struggling to stay alive after the rain) on the patio. She immediately needed to be held and was practically in tears. We couldnt' just leave the patio and go swing, we had to leave the entire back yard. She then continued to check on it and point out the "bug" from inside the back door the rest of the evening. Paci's There have been many moments that I have been proud of Claire. This past weekend was the first time I was proud of Claire for her strength and character. Sounds wierd to say about a 2 year old I know. Friday afternoon we packed up all the pacifiers into a ziplock and delivered them to Baby Brady (my cousin's 6 month old). Not only did Claire put all of them into the ziplock, she carried the ziplock into their house and then unzipped it and handed Brady (6 months old and not sure what to do) each and individual pacifier. Megan was a great help, telling Claire thank you so much for giving those to Brady and for being such a big girl. Although it has been harder for Claire to fall asleep than usual and she has woken up more at night, she has not thrown a fit, she barely cried and is very clear that she knows where the paci's are and that she is OK with it. I am so proud of her for overcoming this, she LOVED those paci's so much. RED, WHITE and BLUE It is very common for Claire to come home from Kim's with a new pedicure, always fun colors and she is always so proud. Well last week topped them all. Claire came home with Flags on her toes to celebrate the 4th of July, I included a pic below. SO CUTE! One of a million things we are going to miss about taking Claire to Kim's house. How blessed we have been to find such a loving woman and family to spend their days with Claire. Mike What would I do without him? I am not shy when talking about how blessed I am to have Mike in my life. He balances me so well and takes care of Claire and I in so many ways. Well as I have continued to feel gross through this pregnancy (yes I have told work so it's okay to talk about), he has been doing EVEN MORE than he already does for our family to allow me some rest and keep me from puking! Just when I thought he couldn't take any better care of us, he over delivers. Here is a pic of Mike and Claire on Father's Day. He is showing off the hat Claire made for him at Kim's with her footprint on it.