IT'S FUN TO BE 1!!!!

On March 15th, we celebrated Claire's 1st birthday!! I CANNOT believe it has been an entire year since she was born. The time has flown by. She is such a sweet little girl and we love her so much.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAIRE!!!!

Claire got to open a couple of presents. She didn't really enjoy the opening part a whole lot, but she liked what was inside!

Claire expressing her opinion of opening presents. What a sweetie!

She may not have enjoyed opening presents, but she LOVED the cake!! Like mother, like daughter!

Did I mention she liked the cake? She ate 1/4 of it while we took pictures and destroyed 1/2 of it!! We were video taping the whole event and Eli was in the background screaming, "Don't let her eat all the cake...I want some cake...Claire, NO!!!". It was hilarious. He was so afraid he wouldn't get any of that birthday cake. Eli has been obsessed with birthday cakes since he 2. He loves them! Anyway, Claire loved the cake and had a great birthday!

It hardly seems like a year since this sweet baby entered this world. In this picture, her dad has her in the palm of his hand, but now I would say it is the other way around!!!!

A couple of hours before Claire was born (before I was in much pain and before the contractions had me taking swings at my nurse...ahhhh natural childbirth). We still didn't know at this time whether we were having a boy or a girl. Kyle claims he knew all along that it was girl, but I was skeptical. I was sure we had long since lost the recipe for girls!! What a surprise she was! After she was born, the doctor announced that it was a girl and I said, "It is? It's a girl? Are you sure?" I couldn't believe it. I kept asking until they let me hold her and sure enough he was right. I just knew I would have more than one daughter. We are so blessed. We had some scary times during this pregnancy and after she was born, but she is perfectly healthy now and we are over the moon about her!!

Claire in her blessing dress. She looked like an angel! It was such a special day for us. Kyle gave her a beautiful blessing and I was a mess of emotions for most of the day.

She has grown up so much in the past year. She is close to walking and she is very chatty. She loves to sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Popcorn Popping. She loves her brothers and sister and they can get her laughing like no one else. She is still a bit of a momma's girl and I love it, but she wants her daddy anytime he comes into the room. She loves baths and loves the bathroom (we have to be very careful about shutting the bathroom doors because she can sense when one is open and she will race to it as fast as she can...she loves to stand at the tub and reach for her toys). She says,"Momma, Dada, and Hi". She waves bye-bye all the time. Today, whenever anyone came in or out of Sacrament Meeting, she would wave to them. She likes to eat but is pretty particular about what she eats. She doesn't like food with texture. Her favorites are: anything her dad is eating and anything sweet. She is just growing up too darn fast!!

We are so blessed to have Claire in our family and we love her more than words can express.

CATCH UP...

Pictures from the last month of our lives.

Is that not the sweetest little mush you have ever seen? She is so sweet when she is asleep and usually when she is awake, too.

The first grade had a writing workshop for the parents to come and see what writing the students have been working on all year. Kyle was able to go and spend time with Josh and his classmates.

Ansley and some of her friends showing off on the trampoline. They thought this pose was so clever that they begged me to take their photo. L to R (bottom) Lauren, Daryl, Ansley L to R (middle) Lynae, Tahnee (top) I have no idea who that child is.

Action shot.

This is what happens when you ignore a patient one year old while she is in her highchair.

Kyle and "Tuna" went to "Career Day" at the elementary school. They spent the whole day talking to classes about their jobs. They brought weapons to show the impressionable young children and have since become minor celebrities at the school. Every time Kyle has been back to the school since, the kids get all excited and everyone wants to say "hi" to him. Funny.

Kyle explaining how tax dollars pay for these big guns that shoot bean bags so that officers can shoot inmates, but not kill them. Actually, I have no idea what sort of weapon that is or what it does...but the kids were impressed.

AHHHHHHH...power in the garage. After six months of blood, sweat, tears and a lot of money, the garage is technically DONE! We had our final inspection today and PASSED. Now, we can start moving all of the junk out of the old garage and put it in the new garage, so that we can start the project of converting the old garage into a family room. The FUN NEVER ENDS!!!

Kyle and our neighbor, Gene, went a little overboard on the outside lighting. These are just 6 of the 11 lights on the outside of the garage. I believe the garage can now be seen from space.

Josh...just being his weird self. He was all ready for school and was waiting for Nate so they could walk to the bus stop. Cute kid!!!