Valentine's Day 2012

Here are my little Valentine's....Claire and Grace! We had a great day and have a mantle overflowing with cards, treats from Virgina Grandparents, Kim and neighbors; cards and candy from Claire's school; and Daddy brought home balloons and matching pink crocs for his little girls and flowers for his big girl! We are spoiled all around!

I want to Go!

Grace is a mover and a shaker and she likes to "go"! She regularly crawls over and gets her jacket and tries to put it on. She hands us our shoes, and gets mad if you don't put them on. Here she is, getting a bit jealouse that her sister and Dad are outside playing without her!

Finally...SNOW!

Kansas got it's first SNOW this week that was more than a dusting. Unlike the traumatic experience last year, Claire had a blast. She wore her Daddy out with sled rides, snowball, snowmen for almost an hour of outdoor fun. The traumatic experience happened for Mike when after spending 15 minutes building and decorating a snowman Claire proceeded to push it over and it splattered!! Honestly we think she was a little spooked by it, but still got a talk about why it's not nice to push over people's snowmen!

Cuddle time

Cutting and Glue

Claire's teacher had commented to us that Claire has really become more interested in doing "art" at school. She has asked for scissors and glue at home, so once I invested in appropriate ones for her it has been a daily activity!

Laps

Grace is not walking quite yet, but she does love to do laps with her new walker from Grandma and Grandpa for her birthday. She gets excited at an open stretch of floor and giggles to herself, very cute!

Dimples and Giggles...

...that's our Gracie Girl!

Escape artist

Here is Grace (in her dress up attire) attempting to scale the play kitchen to get up the stairs, she is determined and is usually pretty successful!

Getting Married

Claire is still obsessed with weddings. The Royal Wedding still gets watched daily, she can now instruct you as to what part exactly she would like to watch that day. We recently saw a wedding rehearsal at church that she was very interested in, she likes to look at our wedding pictures and my dress and we have pretend weddings in the basement almost as regularly and it is critical to have a long dress to the floor....here she is posing for wedding pics with her Daddy.

Ritz Cracker Please

Grace loves them, she might offer it to you, but be ready she is an Indian Giver!

Grace's Hair...HELP

Those of you who have seen Grace recently know what I am talking about. I am now convinced it will be curly, but it is so thin that it usually ends up looking like this. She gets a wet comb many times a day and I have already trimmed it to help it start to curl up! This particular day was an especially good example!

Gymnastics

Claire is trying out a gymnastics class. I won't really call it gymnastics, more climbing and obstacle courses but she does enjoy it and is learning some new things, working on balance and has learned to flip over a bar with assistance. Here is her new "leotard" and skirt, she refused to take it off when it first arrived!

Matching Mom

The matching game has not gotten old, it makes Claire's day to match her sister, and many times she figures out a way to match Mom...here is one of those days!

POP Carnival

We attended our 2nd annual Prince of Peace Carnival, Claire wanted to get dressed up for the occasion, check out the shoes! They brought her extra luck and she won the cookie walk on her second try. We had a great night full of face paint, popcorn, carnival games and prizes!

Comfy blankets

My girls are bedding snobs, both of them. Here is the latest comfy blanket to get cozy with!

Claire's Half Birthday

Coming off her sister's birthday, Claire was pretty excited for her half birthday. We went out to dinner and had some cake to celebrate! I didn't catch it on camera, but after taking these pics, she dug into the whole cake with a fork! I am pretty sure she hoped to eat the whole thing until we burst her bubble that we needed to cut pieces!

Who says they don't look alike....

Uncle Brett

A big thanks to Uncle Brett for helping Claire to be brave. He has figured her out, doesn't give up and knows how to talk to her about trying new things, and then does the little things to help her feel secure, holds her hand and encourages her along the way. Claire refused to even go into this bounce house, and wouldn't even think of climbing up to go down this slide until Uncle Brett convinced her. Guess what she had a pretty good time! Claire is lucky to have him and this mom is extra appreciative!

I'm going to get you!

Grace loves to play chase, she initiates it, and keeps playing and giggling the whole time until you scoop her up, only to be put down and take off again!

Winter Walks

Warm Winter = Winter walks. It's been so nice to get out of the house a couple times a week!

Our little trouble maker....

...you name it, she gets into it. Things her older sister never came near, Grace makes it her mission to prove to us that she can and will get into anything she wants. There are the easy targets in the dog bowls, kitchen drawers, carbon monoxide detector, but she also tries to crawl through walls, gets stuck under chairs, tries to go sky diving off couches, etc. Here she is attempting to get the safety plugs out of the outlet.

Claire's "space"

Claire has turned into a traffic reporter, always reporting what Grace is doing, getting into, and most importantly not allowing her near her things. As a result there is not much playing that goes on, unless that is we create her own space or corner. She likes to be with us and won't go play in another room, but if we block off a corner, the doorway to her room or other space she will play for an extended time. Here she is in her "house" for the day!

Cousin Time

Claire and Grace are lucky to have cousins so close to their age and love spending time with them. Mikaela and Graeme came to visit in January for a weekend full of quality time. Ellen and Maggie joined the fun at Little Monkey Bizness and fun was had by all!

1 Year of Grace!

Our baby girl is 1 year old, we have had a year of firsts, fun, love and lots of memories many of which were captured on this blog. Grace is a true blessing to us, a wonderful daughter, sister and person. We can't wait to see her grow and learn even more than she already has.

Grace's Birthday Celebration

Despite waking up with a pretty good fever and being out of it most of the day our Gracie had a good birthday. She enjoyed all her gifts, visitors and a little bit of cake. Our prim and proper girl (who was a bit loopy because of motrin)really didn't dig into her cake much nor get messy. Overall it was a good day celebrating an amazing little girl!