Happy 1st Birthday Claire!

The Saturday after Claire's birthday, we had a birthday celebration with our family and close friends! It was an organized chaos as usual where the kids all run around playing from one end of the house to the other, the adults visit, and we all watch the guest of honor enjoy their day. At the beginning, a handful of the kids participated in an animal parade..they marched through the house showing off their animal of choice and making the animal sounds for Claire!

After the kids played for awhile, it was time for cake. Claire wasn't sure what to think about everyone surrounding her and singing Happy Birthday to her. However, she had no problems digging into her special cupcake! After devouring her cupcake, it was time for a quick bath and wardrobe change. That's normal, right!

After cake and clean up, it was time for presents! Claire received lots of help from her cousins and friends opening presents...towards the end, she was finally getting the hang of what it meant when you ripped the paper off. Yes, there is a toy behind there! Thank you everyone for sharing our special day with Claire...Happy 1st Birthday Sweetie!

School Play - Roboteacher 3000

For the third year, the boys have participated in their annual school musical/play that the entire school, all 150 children, participates in. They practiced the song and the dance moves for a couple months, had a formal dress rehearsal, and then performed to a packed house at the Centre. This year's selection was "Roboteacher 3000". Connor was a Raven singing a song about reading and Brady was a Globe singing a song about geography. This was perfect for Brady since his favorite subject is geography!

I was able to attend the dress rehearsal the night before the actual performance to get a nice little preview and some video footage (in the event they didn't perform the next night). The night of the actual performance, the boys did an awesome job and their performance was witnessed by the three of us, all three sets of grandparents, and their Aunt Julie and Uncle Marx. Connor was so cute with his Raven outfit trying to act nonchalant to overcome the nervousness (so he claims). Brady was a bouncing globe with no arms, so really put the expression in his dancing and bouncing.

am so impressed at how well all the kids do with memorizing their lines, the songs, and the actual performance! Great job boys...we are really proud of you!

Oh Yeah...Claire is walking!!!

I can't believe I forgot to say that Claire is walking in my 12 month update...I guess because she has went to an occasional walker to a full-fledged, crawling is for babies, walker!! She took a couple steps when she was 9 1/2 months old and we thought she was going to beat her brothers' records (Brady walked at 10 months and Connor at 10 1/2 months). Instead she opted for a slow progression...

• She took a few more steps at 10 months old and the occasional couple steps from one person to the next.
• At 11 months and 8 days old...she was officially walking. 
• A week later she was already squatting and standing back up. 
• A week after that she was doing a downward dog move to stand up. 
• At one year old, her transition to walking is automatic and she wants to walk as fast as she can.  She has the occasional stumble...then gets right back up to keep on going.

She has been having a great time "perfecting" her walk as she chases after her brothers and comes running around corners looking for us.  She is just so darn cute...

Look who is One Year Old!!

Our baby Claire turned one year on April 13th...I can't believe she is already one year old!!! Here are some things Claire can do at 12 months:

•  She had her last bottle on her birthday and is now only drinking out of sippy cups (she is not very happy about this, but we recently realized that warmed milk seems to help)
• Says mama, dada, uh-oh (all the time), and has occasionaly said other phrases that we are still waiting for the repeats like Papa, Boys, and Nana (for Connor we believe)
• Has the cutest little giggle and smile...especially when her brothers are talking to her 
• Has a strong personality...she will let you know when she does not appreciate having something being taken away from her or being told no
•  She is VERY, VERY curious....she has explored every cabinet and drawer in our house that she can reach...she loves to rearrange the entire contents of most as well
• Waves bye-bye underhanded and gives the occasional open-mouthed kiss
• Has a great appetite and understands the baby sign for “more” and "all done" (important things to know)
• Makes yummy noises when she eats or when you ask her if something tastes good
• Has 6 teeth, 4 on top and 2 on bottom (since she was 7 months old)
• Loves to be picked up and held...especially if it is mommy or daddy!
• Sleeps from 8:30 – 6:30...takes naps at daycare regularly, but at home is a challenge just like the boys (so afraid she is going to miss something)
• Wears size 12 or 18 mos clothes and size 3-4 diapers
• Weighs 22 lbs, 10 ozs. and is in the 95% for height and 75% in weight...she has been at that weight since about 6 months old with the occasional ups and downs

She is such a joy to our family...and such a great baby! We have been so blessed having her in our lives and to see the impact on our family dynamics. We can only imagine what the coming years hold!!  Enjoy the slideshow of her one year pictures below....

Spring has arrived...

What a beautiful day today! While the original forecast predicted a skip and a hop past spring right into summer, it ended up being a great day of sunshine and perfect temps. After spending the afternoon at the Fun Fair, we had our first cookout of the season. Our friends, the Johnsons, came over for a visit. The kids all played on the playset and chased each other around and the adults even had the rare occasion to visit amongst themselves.

This was a great opportunity to introduce Claire to her swing...which she absolutely loved! She giggled and laughed! She was having so much fun...you know, she is one of the big kids now with her first birthday fast approaching!


Enjoy the picture and the video below...

Fun Fair

We decided to venture out in this beautiful weather today and take the kids to Holly House's 3rd annual Fun Fair. This is a community event to bring awareness to their cause and they do such a good job of providing a fun afternoon. The boys played a few toss games to win some prizes and spent some time in the bouncy house obstacle courses. Brady decided he wanted to get his face painted like a lion, while Connor watched a Martial Arts demonstration. Connor was amazed at their ability to fight like that and was most impressed with the boards and cement block breaking. At the end, the boys tried the Bungee Run where you run as fast as you can to see if you got further than your partner before being sprung back by the bungee. It was fun to watch them and was a fun afternoon outing!

Pile on Mommy....

Love it...Connor curled up with me first, then Claire tugged at my legs until she could join in and then of course, Brady needed to pile on. I'll take it while I can...and while they are still small enough!!

Claire's First Haircut

With the scheduled picture appointment coming up, I decided to have Claire join me at my hair appointment for a quick trim. She doesn't have much hair, but she had some bangs that were starting to fall in her eyes so I had my hair dresser do a quick little trim. The back of her hair was off limits as it is starting to curl up into cute little curls. Claire sat there like a perfect angel....below is a picture of her getting her first hair cut!!

Bike playdate

On a beautiful March afternoon, I took the boys for an afternoon play date with some classmates from school and fellow co-workers kids (6 boys, 1 tomboy)! Brady was the youngest of the group, but was the biggest bully among them talking smack to the other kids.  "My bike may be small, but I bet I can go faster than you"

They started out the afternoon riding bikes in the parking lots and open buildings. There were some occasional breakdowns over hurt feelings and injuries...no surprise there!  At one point, our daredevil kids ventured over to a large parking lot with a 45 degree incline or better. After a few scary "flights" down the hill (mostly from the moms' perspectives), we talked the kids into spending the remainder of the afternoon at the playground. After a fun afternoon of sunshine and fun, we then took the kids for some dinner before parting ways. It turned out to be a great afternoon!!

Connor is in love!!

At Connor's annual eye visit, I was sitting with Connor and Brady in the consultation room waiting for the eye doctor to come in. We talked about their day, school, friends, and more. During the conversation, Connor announced "I'm in love! I know who I am going to marry when I am older!".

We proceeded to discuss who this person was, how she is an older girl at 6 1/2, and how she is so much fun! About a month ago, Connor had announced that he was trying to decide which girl of three was going to be his girlfriend. One of the girls was not making the cut since she left for India for 3 months (and Connor must have moved on). He had then narrowed it down to two remaining choices. We now know who won based on his announcement today!

Later that night, I asked him to tell daddy about her and he proceeded to describe her hair color, hair length, eye color, height, and how they play together at school. Young love....so sweet!!

Date Night

Chris and I managed to score a date night out for Valentine's Day weekend...a free date night at that! We had a kid-free dinner at Biaggi's and then attended the Really Big Show and the Curtain-Call Reception after the show! I had a blast at the silent auction...love spending money for a good cause!

While we were out enjoying time together, the kids had a nice night with Mimi & Papa! Thanks for watching the kids, so we could enjoy an evening out!

Claire's 9 Month Pictures