Thomas Tent

Ian received a Thomas tent for Christmas from Ammie. Ian and Clara played in it for a really long time! Clara crawled through the tunnel after Ian, and they just laughed at each other. What a great gift!!

Almost Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Trains at North Park

For the second year in a row, we've taken Ian to see the trains at North Park Mall. He absolutely loved seeing all of the different trains! He ran from one area to the other pointing to all of the trains, tankers, boxcars, gondolas and cabooses! We also took our sweet Clara. She loved watching her big brother and the trains. We love this Christmas tradition!

Christmas a bit early

Sew fun!

Breakfast

Well, I recently found myself as the proud owner of a new Nikon D7000! Wow! So cool! My goal is to begin posting photos of our every day experiences. I want to some how make a bowl of baby food look like art! Ha! We'll see about that, right? Today I began experimenting during our breakfast time. Enjoy!

Clara and Mommy!

I just wanted to post this photo of the girl and me! I just love her so much and can't believe she is almost 7 months old!

Our Dining Area

We use our kitchen dining area everyday! We do not currently utilize our "formal" dining space. Our dining area is a pale yellow with accents of red, black and white! I love the combination and enjoy having a yellow kitchen especially when the sun shines through in the mornings! The space is cheerful and bright! I am considering changing the curtains to something with a black background, accented with a red floral pattern. I just want something a bit more dramatic. Our table has a butterfly leaf in it so we can comfortably seat up to six adults. I love that the leaf stores right inside the table top! So convenient! I bought the fleur de lis at Hobby Lobby for $10 each! The plates I bought at Michael's on clearance for $2 and just put ribbon on them to hang. I covered the chandelier chain with leopard fabric. I put up the chair rail and stenciled the pattern below. *Pardon the booster seat!! HA! My boy has to eat, right?

Our chandelier shades are red beaded shades that my mother-in-law purchased for us when we moved in our house.

Hope you enjoyed our dining area!

Yummy, yummy, yummy I've got rice cereal in my tummy!

Clara eating rice cereal at 4 months

Ian eating rice cereal at 4 months

Well, Clara has turned 4 months, and it is time to start rice cereal. I can hardly believe it! Time has flown so fast with her! Well, she seems to like the cereal pretty well. I am keeping it super thin for now so I can tell how she is handling it. She isn't gagging or anything so I think we will start thickening it up. I am hoping that this will help her reflux!

On the ferry to San Juan

I just love this picture of Ian. He is enjoying himself so much, and you can just see it in his face. He didn't want to come back inside after being out. Even though it was cold and his cheeks were pink from the wind, he wanted to stay out. I just love this little man!

A trip to Washington

Our family recently took a trip to Washington state to witness the marriage of my sister-in-law. It was the first time we had travelled with our 2 year old son and our 3 month old daughter. The thought of flying on an airplane for 4 hours simply terrified me, but God knew we would be just fine.

June 17th, my mother and father-in-law helped us load everything (including the kids) into the suburban, and we were on our way to the airport! Once at the airport, we unloaded and made our way through security! Ian did amazingly well! Clara just hung out in the carrier and surveyed the situation. We got on the airplane and within seconds of take-off, Ian was asleep! Whew!! I knew we would get at least 30minutes out of him. After he woke up, he played and watched "Little People" videos! Clara slept the whole way! We couldn't have had a more wonderful flight. When we landed in Washington, we made our way to the rental car lot, got the suburban and the vacation began.

Washington is the most beautiful place I have ever been! Ian was able to walk on the beach and see the ocean! He rode on a ferry and saw majestic mountains! My sister-in-law informed me that he thought the rocky beach looked like crumbs and the rest of the vacation Ian would ask to "walk on the crumbs!!" Too funny! He would later see his aunt get married on the beach of crumbs! The wedding was beautiful! It was ocean side and just gorgeous! What a beautiful bride and handsome groom!

We had a wonderful trip, and we made it home with everyone safe and sound. We reached an amazing milestone, and it was so worth making the trip!

Ian...2 years old next week

Well, next week Ian will be turning the big 2. It is hard to believe that he was the size Clara is right now. He is so tall and talks so much. I couldn't ask for a sweeter, more loving little boy. God has blessed us so much with Ian. He has his 2 year well-baby visit next friday. I'll post his stats then.

She's here!

Baby Clara is here!! We had a wonderful labor, delivery and post-partum experience! Clara was born on thursday, March 11 at 4:25p.m. After a rough few weeks of modified bed rest, terbutaline and going stir crazy, Clara made her arrival!

So far our sweet baby is truly sweet! Not only is she sweet, she is truly content. We feel so blessed and thankful to have a healthy baby. Matt and I are so thankful for our supportive family and friends. We have been lifted up in prayer and have experienced the awesome nature of our God.

Snow-much Fun!

Our area was hit with a TON of snow considering where we live! We had a record snow of 12.5 inches! The meteorologists had predicted that the snow would start thursday afternoon and continue through the early morning hours on friday. They said we might get 1-3inches! Boy were they WRONG!

When we went to bed on Wednesday night nothing had really happened, but when we woke up thursday there was a thick blanket of snow covering all of the grassy surfaces. The snow continued to fall from 4am thursday until 4am friday.

Matt and Ian played outside and made a snowman! Ian had so much fun he didn't want to come inside.

Baby Clara

Sweet baby girl!

Little Hand

The sweet face again.

Today was my glucose tolerance test. I went in at 9:45a.m. after fasting and drank a very sweet orange drink. It is sort of like orange soda minus the carbonation. After I drank it down, I had my ultrasound. It was so fun because Clara was super active from all of the sugar:) The sonographer showed me her kidneys, stomach, bladder, four chambers of the heart, two hemispheres of the brain, the cerebellum and her femur. At this point everything looks really good. Clara's head circumference is in in the 83rd percentile, and she weighs 3lbs 2oz. She is also 14.9inches long. Her amniotic fluid levels are doing good too. After that, I saw Dr. E and he said all looked great. Now we are on a bi-weekly visits. Hopefully all will continue to go well.