9 months old!!

Clara had her 9 month doctor's appointment yesterday. We actuallly bought a special little outfit. =) Having a girl is so much fun! She is doing fantastic!! She is eating table food, her favorite is guacamole. She is 29 inches (91%), weighs 23 lbs (97%). Needless to say she is a big, beautiful, healthy baby girl. She is standing up on furniture and trying to travel around. She crawls everywhere and gets into EVERYTHING!!! She is doing a great job being a fantastic baby girl. She likes playing patty cake and enjoys clapping. She has brought so much into our world.

I finally got in my sleep caps that I ordered from Nadia. I found out about them on my adoptionhair_skincare Yahoo Group. You can also see more pics on www.snapaholics.com They stayed on!!! She does not mind it at all and it keeps her hair so nice and beautiful! The only bummer is you cannot pick out the fabric of your choice. As you can see in the last pic, Clara is standing in her crib. It is amazing to me how fast she is growing. Her next appointment is in December...She will be ONE! I cannot believe it. Life just flies by.

As you can see in most of her pictures is her new-found love for her tongue. She always has it out. I am biased, but she has got to be the cutest kid I have ever seen. Others must feel this way too because we hear it all the time from everyone!! ;)

This weekend

Thursday we had a get together with a few friends to swim together. I got out the camera a little too late as 2 families had already left. Amy and Kyle came, Sherry and Jairus and Joseph came, Amy with Josh, Andrew, Amanda, Jaiden, and Daniel came, Laura and Ethan and Isaac. It was a really nice time and we need to make time to do it more often.


We had a great weekend. We celebrated a baby shower for Cindy (sister-in-law) who is pregnant with their 2nd child and is having a baby boy!! We are so excited! I made cupcakes for her shower and really enjoyed doing it! I am finding a new love in baking and decorating. Really it is the decorating part but you have to bake something to decorate. I even had someone ask me to make cupcakes for their daughters' birthday!! I was so honored. I am hoping it will work out to be able to do it. she wants a beach theme with flip flop cupcakes and beach balls. It sounds so fun to do. It is also the same day as the wedding shower my mom and I are giving my brother and I am also doing something for it. So not sure if I will be able to make that many cupcakes/cakes in that amount of time. Hopefully the birthday party will be small b/c the will be fun to do.

Cindy's shower was fantastic and she received a lot of wonderful things to welcome Pierce David into this world!! Clara and Pierce will be just about 1 year apart. They will be great playmates!!

Here is a little video clip of Clara. We were trying to get her to copy Clay but she would not do it for the camera. Instead it was almost bedtime and she was insistant for milk. She even did the sign for milk. It was really neat to see her communicate with us in this way.

Today was the first day we tried to put Clara in the nursery at church. I know, I know, she is almost 9 months old, BUT with the two boys I am just painfully aware of how fast they grow up and Clay and I do not want to miss a minute of her!! I think Clay is even worse than I am. =) We got paged twice as she was ticked when her bottle was finished (very normal and nursery time is nap time BIG conflict). Clara LOVEs to get in HER bed. She is the only child I have had that really enjoys getting into her bed. You can just see "AWWWWEEE" reflected on her face as she cuddles in for night-night time or nap time. WE have switched churches and at our old church I was the nursery worker every week. At our new church I am not the worker anymore (which I miss). But I will enjoy sharing Bible studies with Clay in our time together. We will see how next Sunday goes. She enjoyed herself but when she wanted familiar faces she let those ladies know. That is my girl!!! I don't blame her one bit. I went for the first page and played with her on the floor a bit and left out for church again. The second page was at the end of service and Clay just brought her back to us. =) She is definitely a daddy's girl. I love it and Clay just has that joy and happiness oozing all about him as he is so proud of his girl!

Blowing Sugars

Guess who is blowing sugars.....Miss Clara! She is blowing with her fist but she knows what she is doing. It is too cute. Clay came home for lunch as usual. I had thought she had done it another time but was not 100% sure. So we tried it again. She is a daddy's girl big time!!!



She is feeling better today. Thank you for the prayers!!

A monumental day.....good and bad

Well, today Clara is sick for the first time ever!! She is hanging in there with a runny nose and she is starting to cough a bit, but she is just hanging in there. She is so fantastic even sick. She is much fussier though and lets me know when she has had enough of anything. She does NOT like her nose being wiped either.

On a great huge note, Clara is CRAWLING!!! I cannot believe my baby girl is crawling. She is no longer going backwards but put it into forward gear. Man, kids grow way too fast. I just want to freeze it for a while. Guess what, of course we have a video of Clara crawling. =)

This weekend was a very busy one. This past week the boys had been going to drama camp at the church from 9-3. Friday was production day. Here are a few pics. The last picture is of Clara and Sara (my cousin's little girl). They are exactly a week apart, Clara being the oldest.

Saturday we woke up bright and early and headed out for the boys' first triathlon. They had a great time. They are and should be very proud of themselves.