Claire's First Christmas-Rewind

We've been on the go for about a week now so I'm just getting around to blogging about Claire's first Christmas. When I load pictures on to Blogger they always load in reverse order. Normally I take the time to reverse them, but this time I'm not. So, here goes our Christmas week in reverse order.

After a cancellation on Sunday, we finished up our family functions Monday night with the Read side of the family. We headed back to LeRoy to celebrate Trever's & Mom's birthdays and visit with my cousin Mike who was back from California/New York (he's in the middle of a move). We didn't take any pictures that night.

Sunday Trever preached to a congregation of 10, including himself. We spent the day taking down decorations, putting aways gifts and shampooing the carpet. Claire slept a lot trying to catch up from her busy weekend.

Saturday we headed to Greg & Kathy's for brunch and gift opening. Claire got a super cool princess CD that sings her name in it. She and daddy were dancing along to it and she LOVED it!


Claire enjoyed ripping the paper and then putting it in her mouth. She got some cool clothes from Gammy & Papa.

The best part about Christmas is getting to spend time with our family. We don't get to see Caisey nearly enough, but in good Aunt fashion here is a picture of Caisey with her new undies!

Christmas day we headed to Grandma Ficklin's house. Claire REFUSED to take a nap, but she finally gave up and slept on mommy for a while.

The day started in matching outfits for the two little girls. But after a series of blow outs for both of them, we never got a picture of them all dressed up together. But here is a picture of Claire with Caisey and Maddison. Trever's aunts and uncles were having a hard time telling the girls apart!

Trever got some warm clothes from Grandma Ficklin.

And Claire got her first santa hat.

Before we headed to Onarga we unwrapped our gifts from each other. I got some beautiful earrings from Trever and Claire gave me some make-up. Every morning Claire sits and stares at me when I put my make-up on and dry my hair so her daddy thought it was appropriate gift. Trever got new clippers for the cows and a book about the history of the National Junior Angus Association. And Claire got a new toy box made especially for her by her daddy.

We went to Christmas Eve service in Onarga. We thought Claire would stay asleep in her carseat, but boy were we wrong. She was awake the entire service!

Christmas eve night we spent at Grandma Builta's house. Here is a picture of all of the family in attendance.

And a picture of our little family...

My brother gave me a new card for my camera for Christmas. I guess the pictures from mom and dad's house must be on it!

We made out like bandits like usual. But that's not the point of the Christmas season. We enjoyed the excuse to spend time with our families, but we are sure looking forward to things slowing down and getting back to normal too! Hopefully I'll have another update for you soon!

Ho Ho Ho!

Claire's first Illini Basketball game!

Last Sunday we took Claire to her first Illini basketball game. Mom & Dad are still in the field so we used their tickets. Claire seemed to enjoy the festivities and even met a little girl named Lynne in the row behind us. Here are a couple of pictures to commemorate the event!

How big is Claire?

SOoooOOOOOooo BIG!

Apparently nobody reads our blog because no one guessed how much Claire would weigh at her check-up yesterday. So, just in case there are still a few readers out there, here are her stats!

16 pounds 11 ounces

26 3/4 inches long

& shots in both legs!

She was a very good girl for Doctor A. She only cried for a second. Then Claire showed us what a good shopper she can be!

6 months!

It's hard to believe our little girl is 6 months old already! I try not to brag, but she is doing so many thing that a normal 6 month old shouldn't be doing! She's sitting up all the time, crawling all over the place, and even pulls herself up on things once in a while! Our house is becoming baby proofed very quickly!

Claire has been drooling like crazy the last few days and her face is red and chapped. EVERYTHING goes in her mouth She's had a bit of a cold and her teeth have been bothering her. She's decided it would be fun to stay up late and play with daddy and to get mom up once in a while for a midnight snack. She's tried out squash, carrots, and green beans for supper this week and had some pears and peaches with her oatmeal for breakfast. We go back Monday for her 6 month checkup!

Here are a few pictures from her 6 month mommy photo shoot!

Claire and the incredible shrinking bear!

"I'm bigger than you now! Watch out!"

Getting in to the Christmas presents..."Grandma and Grandpa B? Is it ok if I open one for you? Cuz I already did when mommy wasn't looking!"

This horse is a hand-me-down from Trever's employers. Claire LOVES it! She crawls to it and waits for daddy to pick her up to ride it. She's even started pulling herself up on it, but it usually ends up with a bump on the head!

Check back early next week for Claire's 6 month stats! Any guesses on what she might weigh?

Gettin' in the spirit...

Sunday was a big day for Claire. We packed up and headed for LeRoy while daddy was at Sunday school. We went to the craft show, Christmas tree walk and had lunch with Grandma and Great Grandma Builta. Then we took lunch to the field for Aunt Kathi, Uncle Kenneht and Grandpa.

When we got home, Claire got to try some babyfood for the first time. She's been eating cereal for a couple of months. We let her try stuff off of our plate anytime we have a baby friendly food. But this was her first taste of greenbeans! This morning she tried some pears for breakfast.

After dinner we headed to watch Gammy perform in the Night of Carols that the Onarga United Methodist Choir puts on. Claire was the star of the show sitting on Gammy's lap while she sung.


Today we were suppose to leave for a roadtrip to Iowa. But we decided to stay home since there is a Blizzard warning for the area that we were headed to. Hopefully Claire's friends Jeremiah & Andrew stay warm and get to build a BIG snowman!

BFFs

Today was the last home football game for our alma mater but only a very small portion of our group braved the temperatures to see it in person! The rest of us hung out at the Rademaker's to crawl around, snuggle, and enjoy the company. The best part was that we got to meet the newest member of our "family"!

Jeremiah, Claire & Andrew hanging out on the floor! Jeremiah was a big help and gave lots of kisses to Claire and his little brother. Claire thought it was cool that she wasn't the little baby and tried to touch his face and head a little too much!

It was great to meet Andrew and hang out with everyone this afternoon. We've got to get together again soon!

Turkey & dressing on the table!

Sweet pumpkin pie is mighty fine! Brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. Thanksgiving is a family time!

Yes, my niece was tickled by the fact that I knew a Thanksgiving song. But, anyone who took part in the Bellflower Thanksgiving Feast knew there were Thanksgiving songs! Thanks to facebook, there are a few of us that have reminisced about the Thanksgiving Feasts at Bellflower Elementary. I remember the gym FULL of people, pictures of either me or Kirk dressed up like Indians, and watching ET in the band room the afternoon before Thankgiving break.

Anyhow, the moral of the story is, we got to take part in all of the things that the song mentioned this past week!

We started the festivities Wednesday evening when Kevin and Nicole came over for dinner on their way toward Gilman to visit their family. We had fajitas and margaritas and Claire worked on training "Uncle" Kevin and "Aunt" Nikki on how much fun babies can be!

Thursday morning we got to sleep in just a little before we headed to Greg & Kathy's for lunch with Trever's side of the family. We hung out with Caisey and Maddi until all of the others got there. This was the first Thanksgiving meal we got to spend with the Kuipers/Ficklin side and it was nice to be a part of it.

Of course when there are such adorable girls involved, the camera comes out. Check out these super cute cousins! Can you believe Caisey will be 13 in just 3 short days!

And a group shot of the DeOrnellas family! You'll have to wait for Christmas cards until you see our family shot!

We left Greg & Kathy's and headed toward LeRoy. We made a pit stop to introduce Claire to "Aunt" Barb, "Uncle" Lary and Jessie as well as a handful of other Swigarts hanging out at their house for the holiday.

After out pit stop we headed to the Builta Thanksgiving. This year we celebrated Turkey Day since Kirk celebrated his GOLDEN birthday on Thanksgiving. Claire wasn't sure what to think about the fire in front of them!

Friday Claire and I had the day off and we were lucky enough to have some special visitors. Ria, Graysen & Graham came and hung out with us while I cooked and baked. It was so much more fun to have company than to do it by myself! Plus, I had someone to help entertain Claire while I made a mess of the kitchen!

Friday night we headed back to Greg & Kathy's to bake Christmas cookies. And, of course we had to have a photo shoot or two to go with the cookies.

Claire & Santa....Maddison was long gone.

Gammy and her little girls. I'm working really hard to get Caisey to wear a matching outfit with Claire & Maddison but she refused!

Someone also thought it would be fun for the girls to try on their Christmas dresses and have a photo shoot. I think this pictures shows how successful it was!

And Claire finally got an opportunity to pick on the bigger cousin!
Saturday we headed to our traditional post Thanksgiving cattle sale and then did a little Christmas shopping. Sunday, Trever did more Christmas shopping and we added Reese (Trueline Queen 822) to our cow herd. She's suppose to have a baby in February. Then we headed to Champaign for one final Thanksgiving with the Reads. It sure was rough going back to work on Monday!