Iowa in March

At 1 p.m. on March 19th in Piper City, IL the thermometer sai 64 degrees. When I entered the state of Iowa a few hours later the thermometer on the truck read 52 degrees. By Saturday morning there was a considerable amount of snow and even some sleet.

Last weekend, Claire and I took another roadtrip. This time we headed west toward Tipton, IA to visit one of our favorite families, the Todds.

Jeremiah is my favorite 3 year old. I love playing with Jeremiah and listening to the stories that come out of his mouth. My favvorite was when he told me about his moose slippers. He said "these aren't just any slippers, their MOOSE slippers".

Claire was a good roadtripper, even if she did only sleep for 20 minutes the entire drive out.

Andrew is the baby of the group (for a few more months:). He's got an adorable little smile and his feet move a mile a minute. He's awfully stinking cute too!

Claire thought Andrew had some pretty cool toys. She did a good job being gentle with the baby...most of the time.

Not a bad picture considering the ages of the kids and the fact that there was most likely a Handy Manny episode on the tv!

Like I said, Claire was gentle...most of the time.

Saturday afternoon we took off for the indoor pool. Claire was too cute in her swimsuit. Especially when we put her stocking hat on with it!

Claire LOVED the swimming pool! She loves bathtime so I'm not surprised. She would kick her legs like crazy and giggle! It was a blast

We rushed back Sunday morning so we could make it home for Aunt Phyllis' 85th birthday party. Claire was missing Jeremiah later that afternoon and decided it would be fun to bump her head. She had her first noticeable injury after getting in a fight with the toybox.

We had a great time visiting with John, Marla, Jeremiah and Andrew! We hope we can find time to do it again soon!

Doctor Check-up

Claire went to the doctor yesterday for her 9 month check-up. She weighs 19 pounds 14 ounces and is 28 1/2 inches long. She is in the 75th percentile for those stats and her head circumfrence is in the 90th percentile!

She got to spend the rest of the afternoon at home with me and was a wonderful little girl while I spent about an hour and a half on the phone trying to get insurance figured out for her hospital stay last June. So much for an enjoyable afternoon off!

She has also been fighting naptime a lot lately. Until dinner time when she couldn't keep her eyes open! Then she took an hour long nap sometime between 6-8:30 last night! I'm pretty sure mommy and daddy were asleep long before Claire was!

9 months

Claire is 9 months old today! Only 3 more months until we need to have the garage put back together and the yard ready for her 1st BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA! They'll be lion tamers and clowns and elephant rides....just kidding!

We had our 9 month photo session this morning and it's getting harder and harder to catch Claire with the bear. But isn't her little bulldog face adorable?

Claire, Ms. Mary & Ms. Cierra have been working on walking. Claire tends to stand up in the middle of the room, run until she falls, face plant in the carpet and try it again. She'll take quite a few steps before she gives up and crawls. Here are some action pics...

Other things going on...

• Claire loves Rally!
• She gives open mouthed kisses and rubs her bottom teeth on your cheek.
• She loves to swing in the park with the kids from Ms. Mary's house.
• She DOES NOT sit still.
• She'll eat anything including a good portion of my pork burger last night.
• She goes to the doctor Monday afternoon for her 9 month check up!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

February Follow-up

I've been slow at getting updates lately so I'm going to do a photo recap since we last talked. Clarie got lots of goodies in the mail for Valentine's day. We kept putting the money in her piggy bank so she could push it in but instead she took it out! She LOVED her little game as you can tell by the huge expression on her face!

She also got this super cute little outfit from Uncle Steve and Aunt Jeanie. I had almost bought the same outfit for her the week before it came in the mail. Plus, this is just a super cute picture of my almost walking baby.

Last week we went to the Illinois Angus Futurity in Springfield. I'm afraid my little girl is going to be taking after her daddy when it comes to animal loving! She wanted right up there in the heifers face to pet her.

Trever did most of the work but I am pretty proud of myself for what little help I did! (If you didn't know already, I'm TERRIFIED of cows)

Trever is headed to the showring. They only placed the top 2 and we weren't up there but we did get Callie sold to the same family thought bought Dori last year.

Claire dressed the part of a little cowgirl. She had the vest, the bling and the boots!

Isn't she too stinkin' cute! She climbed the fence and then fell sound asleep in time to miss the heifer selling!