Eggs EVERYWHERE

Claire is completely Eastered out. After 3 days of cousins, 4 easter egg hunts and more candy than you can shake a stick at, this girl woke up with a nasty cough this morning. I think she's had enough! But she sure was cute doing it all!

Claire spent Wednesday & Thursday with Grandma and Papa Wayne. Thursday night we picked up a very special visitor. Claire talked about Caisey the whole trip, but as soon as we picked her up, her tune changed. She gave Caisey the stink eye for a while. But, come Friday morning, she was excited to "wake saysey up".

Friday afternoon Claire went with the kids from Mary's to the Piper City nursing home for an Easter egg hunt. They hunted inside because of the weather, but she brougth home candy nonetheless.

Saturday we joined Maddison & Gammy for the Onarga Woman's Club Easter Egg hunt. It was a quick hunt but the girls came out with lots of gum and chocolate! They had fun running around and Gammy & Daddy let their true competitive colors show. The apple must not fall too far from the tree because Claire was picking up two eggs at ta time.

Daddy helped her open them and find all the candy!

Claire spent the rest of Saturday at Gammy and Papa's house with her cousins. We went back over around supper time so we could hang out with this super cute little guy!

He doesn't get much attention with all the girls around, but Kempton was really posing for Aunt Krista during the egg hunt.

The big kids and the little girls each had an egg hunt and everyone came home with some pretty good loot!

And I took lots of pictures.

Sunday we got up early and headed to church. Trever and his Sunday school kids put on a nice Sunrise Service. We had breakfast and then headed to Onarga for another church service. Then we tried really hard to get a picture of 4 kids all looking at the same camera at the same time. A smile on 4 faces would have been nice but that was asking a lot.

Claire looks a little sad in this picture, but I think it's a super cute picture with her cousin Caisey!

This is what happens when you put a 14 year old, 2 year old, almost 2 year old and a 3+ month old together in one picture.

Then you try something different.

When you take out the toddlers the quality of the pictures improves! Isn't my niece pretty!?! We finally made it home so Claire could see what the Easter bunny left at her house! She got so many goodies that the Easter bunny could have forgotten to stop at home and she wouldn't have missed him. After chores, mommy cracked out some new jammies that have been waiting for Claire to grow in to them. I think I almost waited to long, but aren't the adorable!

Where have we been?

It's been a while since I've posted and I haven't taken very many pictures lately. Here are a few to get you up to date. Claire LOVES her kitty and LOVES her Elmo Jammies. What she doesn't love is when Congo fights back. The poor girl deserves every bite and scratch she gets, and she sure has a lot of them. Claire got her first bandaid last week (that wasn't for a shot). I'm not really sure what happened but she had a cut by her toe nail that wouldn't stop bleeding (probably from Congo). She didn't think much of the bandaid either. She really likes to CHEESE for the camera and then have mommy show it to her. Frida night we celebrated my 30th birthday at Jupiters. Joey took a few pictures and if anyone else has some, I'd love a copy! This was at the end of the night with my wonderful husband! Claire spent all night with Miss Mary so mommy and daddy didn't have to be responsible! Today we celebrated Easter with the Builtas and Reads. Papa Wayne even hid some eggs for Claire. Mommy tried to take some good pictures in one of her 3 pretty Easter dresses. These are the best I got!

Free to a good home....

The night started just fine...with presents from Great Aunt Carol.

And she almost smiled for pictures.


And then, mommy made cheesy noodles (aka tortellini) for dinner. And this is what happened.

And it lasted for a LONG time....

So mommy did this....

And everyone was happy again.

Ok...so Claire didn't drink that, but I'm pretty sure the above smile is the only one I've seen all night. Except maybe when she saw her daddy walk in the door. She even cried for daddy tonight. Now she's bringing daddy her chore boots and she thinks she's going to see the cows at 8:36 p.m. We'll see how that goes.

Meet Kempton

Yesterday we had a little meet and great for our nephew Kempton. Kyla and the kids came back for the weekend so what better time to introduce the little guy to everyone!

Great Papa was the first one there. He and Kempton got along great!
Kempton was giving out lots of smiles! He seemed pretty content in Cousin Kent's arms!

Claire wanted to hold the baby, but that doesn't last very long. When she's done, she's DONE!

Tonight when I got the camera out, Claire thought she needed her picture taken, so here she is!

Trever's Vegas/Utah 2011

A few weeks ago, I learned that I had won a trip to Vegas through work. It was a working vacation, but it was a blast.

Last Saturday, Krista and Claire drove me to Chenoa, where I carpooled with a coworker to Midway airport. After an early Sunday morning flight, we were picked up by a limo and taken to The Paris Hotel. We had an amazing lunch, and were off to see the sights on the strip. That evening we had appitizers in the hotel suite, and went to the Peppermill lounge for drinks.

On Monday we were in meetings until about 1 pm, and had more free time that afternoon. Monday night we ate at Todd English's Olives, one of the premier restaruants in Vegas overlooking the Bellagio Fountains.

Tuesday morning we had another brief meeting, and continued to check out all the various shops, casinos, and shows around the city. That night, we had tickets Human Nature. They were an unbelivable Motown group and put on a great show.

After the show, we hopped in a cab and went to the VooDoo Lounge at the Rio. It is a rooftop nightclub 50 stories up. From here you can see the entire city, and it is quite a site.

Wednesday morning we got our rental cars and drove to Cedar City, UT to meet up with our agents from the western states. The drive was beautiful, and We were surrounded by 360 degrees of mountains while we worked the rest of the week.

Sunday morning, we drove back to Vegas and caught our flights back home. It was an amazing trip, but I was so excited to see my girls when I got home. I hope to take them with me next time!

Claire's 1st Haircut

Yesterday, February 23rd, we took Claire to On Stage in Onarga for her very first haircut. Here is the before picture...
Claire did really well, with a little help from daddy. She made herself right at home until Ms. Heather tried to get her up in the chair. She wasn't too sure what to think but kept the whining to a minimum during the whole process.

She liked to look at herself in the mirror and watched as Ms. Gwen cut another ladies hair.

She didn't get much cut off, but she looks a lot more even now. She still has a mullet because she's apparently inherited Uncle Kirky's "reclining" hair line. Hopefully things will start to even out soon.

It's not much of an after picture, but she was sure proud of herself!

Daddy's story is that this morning when Ms. Cierra asked Claire about her haircut, Claire whipped her hat off and shook her head like a super model!

A Saturday at Home

This weekend we had zero plans except for church on Sunday. That meant Claire had to help daddy do chores.

She got to play in the snow.

Daddy taught her how to slide down a snow drift.

She helped mommy bake cookies, and licked the beaters.

She put her Valentine's day money from Aunt Jeanie & Uncle Steve in her piggy bank. This is one of her all time favorite activities (although the look on her face doesn't prove it)

And she checked on her cookies!