Projects + Santa

--Projects--
I had this idea before Claire was born, for a crib skirt + embellishments attached with velcro, so that you could use easily replace the embellishments for a boy. And I just got around to starting and finishing this project, soon after my parents left and we were all feeling healthy! I used cookie cutters as a pattern for the shapes. :) On the right is the dresser we re-stained (in the summer) so it would match the crib.

Happy birthday Mom! I got this ornament idea here.

My grandma made me a similar stocking that I used as a model to make Claire's.

--Santa-

Santa came to visit us! Front door service, it was great!

Jason, Amy, and Amy's fiance, Nate dressed up as Santa Claus and went skiing for free at The Canyons. They have this promotion every year in December. (Jason takes full credit for his Santa outfit :)) You can also see them here... they are the first three faces on the video.

And why blog without more pics of Claire...

Claire is afraid of the vacuum, so I put her on the couch. Well I wasn't thinking, because I put her little horse on the couch too. She climbed over her tub of books and amazing got safely on her horse.

(Left) Random but silly pic

Parents Visit- Thanksgiving

This one is for my parents... We are so glad that they came to visit us! Claire loved the attention. Which was great as she was recently weaned off nursing, and needed the extra lovin'. Claire loved playing with my mom's dog Olson.

And enjoyed following him around... great entertainment for her.





-- Thanksgiving Day --
(Left) Claire checking out her pumpkin pie (Right) 'The crust will do'

(Left) I love watching these two cousins play. Although they take each others toy, neither of them gets upset (so far :)). (Right) Christmas lights set up

--Visiting Christmas Lights at Temple Square--
We were geared up for cold weather, but it was only 46 degrees out!
'Yo, waz up!'




--Kisses-- We have such a sweetie

--Playing with Olson some more--

Memory Lane- Claire's first year

newborn

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

1 year!

Claire is such a huge part of our lives, its crazy that its only been one year. Yet they grow so fast!

Where did November go?

Yes, I am asking this question at the end of December. But it makes sense that December flies by- it always does. But for us, this year November was especially crazy and amazing! Let see if I can remember all that happened...

Leading up to Claire's birthday, which was on a Saturday, Jason got the flu on Tuesday (with fever and chills), but was better by Wednesday. On Thursday Lauren got the stomach flu and couldn't keep anything down. Jason made Claire's cake on Thursday, in case we had to redo it. It was this yummy pumpkin cake that smelled great, for everyone except Lauren. Then on Friday, Lauren felt great and even babysat some nephews- cute kids!

That night Lauren had a concert (with the Nebo Philharmonic). You can see one song from their concert here.

Then Saturday, Jason was not feeling too great so Lauren decorated the cake. This was her first time using cake decorating tips, and it took a LONG time but is glad that she attempted this feat. (Jason's mom helped finish up the cake by doing the outlining in black- thanks so much!) Oh yeah, and we babysat my friend's boy, while she thought she was going into labor, during Claire's birthday party. Jason end up having a 24 hour stomach flu thing. But it was all worth it- for this little sweetheart!

"He he he, I love all this attention!"

Claire loves all her presents, so thanks so much!
From there out, things slowed down. Although there were some difficult transitions for mom and Claire. Claire kept refusing her second nap, an entire week, (no matter what I tried) before I got the hint that she no longer needed two naps. So it was a difficult transition from a good morning nap to one a good afternoon nap. Surprisingly, the transition from nursing exclusively to cow's milk in a sippy cup was not as hard (as the nap transition). But it still took a while, amidst the sickness.
This was taken when she wasn't the biggest fan of milk.

What else... Claire is walking!!! (She was definitely walking alot more by Halloween, and a few weeks later completely stopped crawling.) And Claire got way too many shots, for flu booster shot, 5 one year old shots, and H1N1 shot.

Jason had his thesis prospectus approved! YAY, go babe! And as Claire and I were going to pick something up to celebrate, we got hit by another car. (No injuries or anything major to the car, but some insurance money to replace our dying camera, yay :))

Someone was crawling in the bucket of flour that mom thought was empty and...

"What's so funny mom, I don't see anything funny"