Wow! Freebie!

As most of you know I have neglected to blog here for some time, but let me tell you I am motivated this time. Thanks to my friend Meghan, I learned Shutterfly is giving away 50 free holiday cards to people who blog about them. As some of you know we have used Shutterfly quite a few times, including our Christmas card last year and also in 2008. And we used them for Claire's first birthday invitation.

The card last year was a flat stationary card. The quality of these cards is impeccable for the price. I definitely recommend the stationary card as it is perfect for writing notes to loved ones on the back. There are so many to choose from this year that I'm going to have quite a time narrowing it down. The one posted at the top of the page is definitely one of my favorites. Can't you just picture my sweet babies on there?

They also have photo gifts and books. I am currently putting together a photo book on their site of all the things that happened in our lives in 2010. I can't wait to finish it and see the completed product.

So go check it out and if you have a blog, blog about it and get your cards!

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Christmas 2009

OK pretty sad that the last time I posted was July but I would rather read other peoples blogs than update my own.
Lots has been going on of course in the last 5 months but I won't recap all of it. We went to NY in July, Disney in October, celebrated our little girl's 3rd birthday in November and see how quickly we are into December?
November and Decmeber has had highlights and lowlights. My mother-in-law was here for 3 weeks which was wonderful, especially since I was sick and was hosting Thanksgiving for 15 people. While she was here we tackled a reupholstering project for Frank's grandma, visited the Billy Graham Library and did some Christmas shopping. Other highlights have been decorating for Christmas (kudos to my husband who got the entire outside of my house done Thanksgiving morning), talking with Claire about the true meaning of Christmas and enjoying the performance our church gave on Sunday. What a fantastic job they did telling the birth of our savior, Jesus, through music.
The lowlights, well, my dad fell and broke his hip and is still in the hospital recovering from a full hip replacement. We are praying for no infections, speedy healing, and that he will come home soon.
Fortunately for me there hasn't been a whole lot of hustle and bustle and rushing to the store to get last minute gifts. It just seems a lot simpler this year. Thank goodness because it's nice to sit back and reflect what the season really is about.
Well, until next time and hopefully it won't be five months.
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas,
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Update in Photo Shoot

Heather Garland finally got through all the pics she took of Claire and has posted some of them to her blog. This is only a small sampling. Please go and check them out. She did an amazing job and I am so impressed with her professionalism.

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Sneak Peek

Check out this shot that was taken of Claire yesterday at a photo shoot. I can't believe how good it is. Very talented photographer, Heather Garland, is giving us an opportunity to be reps for her. Can't wait to see the rest! Follow this link:

Sneak Peak – Another “Baby” Rep Claire

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Catching Up

Clearly the only reason it is raining today is so that I could get caught up on some things. I desperately need to iron and clean my bathroom. I need to update the blogs and pay bills. So "Thank you God for the rain so I can be a responsible adult". So you wonder what we have been doing that would keep me from all my womanly duties? Well, we have been major "Pool Rats". We go to the Y everyday and go directly to the pool. It's really quite convenient. What a life! Being at the pool gives us a chance to have some great teachable moments that most kids get from having siblings and Claire also has lots of great play time. Did I mention that it totally wears her out too? I am also meeting other moms and getting better aquainted with some I already knew.

So this blog post is a recap of what we have been doing.

A couple of weeks ago my sister had a Friday off and wanted to have her nails done and I thought "How fun to have a girls day out" so we invited ourselves to come along.

Claire sat on my lap while I had a pedicure and they painted her toes in the Royal Blue she had picked out for herself. The sweet lady there also gave her some polka dots free of charge. So much fun!

Next up we decided to take Claire and Lucas to see UP! This was Claire's first movie at the theatre. She was so excited all the way there. We got our Soda and Popcorn and sat down and within 15 mins she was ready to go home. I don't think she was a very big fan of sitting in the dark. I thought it was a great movie but the subject matter was a little over their heads. We did manage to stay for the whole thing but it didn't leave a lasting memory like the other Pixar movies.

I've already talked about the pool but I'll give you a few details about what my little brown baby has been doing. As of yesterday she no longer wants to play in the kiddie pool. She swam the whole length of the pool with floaties on and finally figured out how to go up and down the ladder. She has gotten on the diving board but hasn't been brave enough to go off yet. I think it will be soon though. It's hard to get pics out there because I'm a little worried about getting our camera wet. So for now I just take pics with my phone. So these pics aren't the best quality but you can see how much she enjoys it. I'll post more soon.

No excuses.

I don't have a good excuse for not posting today. Claire is sick and all we're doing is sitting in our pajamas. So lucky for you guys. Lots has been going on our way. Projects, Projects, Projects. But I think that we have done most of what we can do by ourselves. All the other ones will require some sort of contractor. So things will slow down as far as projects go. The only fun things that have happened since the last time I posted include Frank's family comng to visit. The slideshow will show Easter pics and pics from Greenville, my new favorite place to visit. Hopefully we'll be doing some fun things when Claire recovers from her recent illness and I will be sure to post some new pics. Hope all is well with everyone!

New Post Coming Soon! I Promise!

Sweet Girl!

I had to post this picture. I took this and I don't take good pictures. Frank usually is the one that takes the better ones. So sorry for not being so humble but she's just so darn cute!

The Price You Pay for Beauty!

It has been quite sometime that Claire has been obsessed with earrings. It started last summer with her pulling mine out of my ears and then we moved on to sticker earrings. Lately it has been daily requests for "get my ears pierced Daddy".

So I talked to the manager at Claire's(no my child is not named after a made in China jewelry store), and she said that it would be best if they did both of them at the same time and suggested what time of day would be best.

Yesterday Frank and I were painting the playroom and Claire woke up before we finished so we decided that I would take her to get her ears pierced while Frank finished up. We had explained to her that it would be like getting a shot in her ears and it would hurt but she was so excited and didn't care about that. She was a little chatterbox all the way there.

Then we got there and she was still excited. sat in the chair and then they said "We're going to draw on your ear". Ok so let's rewind, she just had somebody "draw" on her back about 30 times and then proceed to torture her in her mind. So this is what she thinks is getting ready to happen. The manager at Claire's was trying to convince her that she wasn't the doctor and even let Claire draw on her face to show her that it didn't hurt. This was the most traumatic part. After they actually pierced her ears she cried for a second and then she was over it. Ecstatic that she had earrings and then I let her pick something out in the store. We left with a Beauty and the Beast bracelet and two mini bottles of nail polish. She checked herself out in every mirror and told everybody in the store that she got hers ears pierced. Such a diva. Oh but the story doesn't end here.

When it was time for her to go to bed last night she couldn't get comfortable and had a mini meltdown and said she didn't want to sleep in her earrings. I then proceeded to tell her that she couldn't take them out and she laid down and went right to sleep.

What next you say? Well she asked Frank for a bra last night after dinner.

Allergy Testing

So many of you have asked me about the allergy testing so I have decided to post a pic of what it looks like. Claire endured about 30 scratches and I must say it was not fun for any of us. She pretty much thought it was the end of the world and well, I promised her just about anything she wanted to make it all better.

It turns out that Cashews are the culprit but she must avoid all tree nuts and fresh mango until further testing later this year.

So life will be slightly different for us. Chinese food probably won't be an option anymore and fancy ice cream places won't be a destination for us. That's ok though. She loves McDonald's sundaes and I'm pretty sure they don't have any other nuts on their menu besides peanuts (and peanuts are ok).

So, no banana bread, no walnut squares and no pecan pie. Maybe we'll lose some weight!!

Toodles for now!

Progress!

Well, there has been a lot going on at our house. Actually the work never stopped to be honest with you, it's just that now it has moved outside.

We had some brush removed and some dead limbs cut from our trees. That wasn't a lot of work for us.

Then we had the fence guys come in and put up a fence. We had to do some work for that. Raking mostly. So that the fence guys would have a clear path for the fence. It's just along the back of our property to disguise our backdoor neighbor's old car and swimming pool.

Then Frank decided that since the weather was nice, he would start doing the much needed repairs on the deck. Here is where the work is coming in. He tore down the top half of the deck and stained what was left. Now the plan is to add new rails and extend the deck to make it double the size. He's got other ideas too but we'll see what happens. We found out that we need a permit from the city to do the construction so I have the privelege of going down there tomorrow with a drawing of what we have planned. Yay for me!

Anyway, I have posted a new slideshow of what has been going on here and there are some pics of our little resident squirrels. They will do anything to get into the bird seed. Although we don't make it very hard for them.

Potty Training!

(I actually wrote this post a couple of weeks ago and forgot to attach the picture and post it to the blog. I know, I'm slack.)

Well, we have successfully made the journey through potty training. It was a tough couple of days and it is still a work in progress but Claire is almost completely trained. Yay! We celebrated this milestone by going to Build-A-Bear and picking out a special little critter. She went through the whole process of picking out a sound, stuffing her kitty, and kissing the little heart that they put inside. She brushed her and picked out a dress and hairbows. She was so excited!

So we have a new addition to our family, her name is Maddy the kitty. I kind of like her myself since she doesn't shed or use a litter box. The perfect pet!

So here's a pic. I didn't take the camera to the mall so the pic is of Claire and Maddy at home. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe Christmas is over. It seems to go by faster and faster every year as I get older.

We saw a lot of family in the span of two days and I don't even have pictures of everyone. Some don't like to have their pictures taken, I was too busy making Christmas dinner to get pics of that and the rest of our family wasn't here for Christmas so they are not in the pics either. Sooo... the pics I got are in a new slideshow to the right.

Christmas Eve, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Couch's house to drop off gifts. Then on to my Paw Paw's house after that. We ate lots of fattening food and all the Great Grandkids got to open gifts. They had a lot of fun playing with each other and I got a pretty funny video of them. The head count there was 31 or 33. I can't remember exactly but it makes my grandfather so proud that he has such a huge bunch.

Christmas morning we opened our gifts. I got a Zune, Frank got a basketball goal and Claire got a babydoll bed and lots of other various things. A little later Mom, Dad, Jen, Saunders and Lucas came over for Breakfast pizza and the kids got to open more gifts. That was fun but that wasn't the end of it. They all went home and came back again for Christmas dinner along with my aunt Brenda, cousin Rhonda and MawMaw Perkins.
The kids opened more gifts while everyone was waiting to eat. We waited for about an hour as I haven't quite mastered the task of preparing a huge meal on time, but I had prepared enough cheese and crackers to satisfy everybody until the food was done.
It was a rather mild day so after we were finished with dinner, we took the kids for a ride in the wagon down to the playground and let them burn off some energy. I even tried out all the slides in hope to burn some calories. Claire thought that was pretty funny.

Overall we had a great Christmas and now we are here at a New Year. I hope everyone has plenty to be thankful for as they reflect on 2008 and tons to look forward to in 2009.

Happy New Year!

Well it's Christmas time and we are starting to get our projects wrapped up around the house. We have a few more rooms to paint and lights to switch around but there's no rush. I really just wanted to blog this time so you can see a picture of my tree before Claire totally rearranges it. I have been finding little piles of ornaments in obscure places around the house. I discovered the other day that Barbie also no longer has a foot and there is a star with some beads missing. For some reason she still puts everything in her mouth.
I will be posting some more pics soon of the other Christmas decor that we put up but it's not quite finished yet. Merry Christmas!

The Move.

Well we are moved. Moved but not settled. It will be two weeks tomorrow and we have succeeded at getting 4 rooms painted, the shutters and front doors painted, a few lighting fixtures changed, curtains hung in 4 rooms and the lawn seeded and fertilized. This doesn't sound like a lot but it feels like we have been working non-stop. We have also managed to get half of our stuff unpacked and the rest will come soon. It's not fun living out of boxes. Poor Claire asked to go home for about a week and I think she finally grasped that the new house is our home. As tempted as I have been to drive by the old house I think that it would thoroughly confuse her.
I have to say it is still a little surreal to me. We had been praying for so long that we would sell our house and when it seemed like the worst time to have a house on the market, our prayer was answered. God truly is amazing.
For those of you that have helped us in whatever way to get here and get our stuff here "Thank you!" We couldn't ask for better friends and family.

Can you say PUMPKIN WHOOPIE PIES?

With the fall weather finally showing up, my love for pumpkin stuff was starting to fill my brain. So I just couldn't help myself. I made a pumpkin pie on Thursday and by the time that was gone I had an idea for Pumpkin whoopie pies. I have all this pumpkin that I need to use up before we move so I'm sure I will be baking more stuff soon. Will I post picture of it, probably not because nothing looks as good as whoopie pies.

Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to the pumpkin patch with Aunt Sarah before she left. Claire enjoyed all the things they had for kids to play on and the hayride we took around the farm. This was the first hayride for Claire and she was mesmerized. I wish we could have gotten a picture of her face when the tractor started pulling the wagon. She was sooo excited. Then they dropped us at the "pumpkin patch" to pick out our pumpkins. Claire again, totally excited, could not focus on one pumpkin.

So we finally got one for each of us and headed back to the stand where I enjoyed a Berry Cider slushie( yes slushie, it was 80 here today) and Claire had a white chocolate sucker shaped like a candy corn and Sarah got a caramel apple and a slushie. It has been a lot of fun introducing Claire to all the things that come with Fall. She gets so excited about every new thing. I can't wait until Christmas rolls around.

Disney on Ice

We took Claire and Lucas to see Disney on Ice this weekend. It consisted of Cars, , The Little Mermaid, Lion King and Tinkerbell. Tinkerbell is her newest obsession so she was excited. We parked at the South Blvd. light rail station and rode the train into town. I don't think I have ever seen Claire this excited. She couldn't sit still. Then we watched the show which was about 2 hours long and she sat still almost the entire time. She was so entertained. Then we took the train back. Again very excited but at this point they were pretty tired and so were we. I bought Claire a souvenier but she didn't know it until we got to the car. (I couldn't keep up with a kid, diaper bag, purse, and a souvenier all at the same time.) So you'll see Tinkerbell shoes in some of the pics after we got home. That was the souvenier and she loves them. She's been guarding them and putting them in a special place at night.

Long time no blog.....

I know it has been forever since I blogged. We have been on three trips, sold our house, and will be moving next week. Pretty crazy. I will put up some new slideshows of our trips and post on our newest adventures. Thanks for being patient.

First Haircut

I decided that it was time for Claire to have her first haircut. It has been so hot here and her hair has been growing so fast and I thought it would be good to shorten it up a bit. My sister is an amateur barber ( she cuts my dad's and Lucas' hair) so we asked if she would cut Claire's hair and of course she said yes. So we were armed with a new Veggietales DVD and a bag full of DumDums. She did great and my sister did a great job too. Even Frank's parents got to watch on the web cam and I think they really enjoyed sharing that experience. So now she looks like a big girl and she is constantly saying "sucker?" just to see if we'll give in and hand over the DumDums.