Cooking in the kitchen

 Claire's favorite food to cook in her new pink kitchen is eggs in the microwave.  

 She's a little short and has to stand on her tippy toes, but it doesn't seem to bother Claire at all. 

   She's a good little mommy and always makes sure her baby is fed too.  

Sleep, what's that???

 Since Christmas eve Claire has decided that it is a good idea for her to be awake from about 1am until about 4am EVERY night.  I took her to the doctor this morning and she is in great health, it could be reflux though, so we are going to try medicine for that.  

Claire has gained some weight and is now a big 18lbs 8oz .   

 Claire loves giving her new Bubble Puppy kisses and snuggling with her Dora doll from Nana and Pop Bowlby.  

Pee Pee in the Potty

 Friday night before bath time we sat Claire on the potty and all of a sudden she popped up with a big smile on her face.  I was about to tell her to sit back down until she proudly pointed at the potty to she me she had actually filled it up.  We tried again a couple times yesterday with no success, but hey at least it is a start.  

 These are Claire's after bath pictures.  She tried to smile but was too busy eating her cheese crackers.  

Christmas friends

 Our wonderful friends joined us for dessert Christmas afternoon.  Casey is pregnant too and couldn't travel ( our babies are due only a couple weeks apart).

 I made a yummy chocolate cake for Baby Jesus and Casey made delicious lemon squares.  

 Claire had fun playing with her friend Grayson.  

 Claire was tired after they left and as you know, has no trouble getting nice and comfy.  

Christmas day picture

 This was our attempt at a mommy daughter Christmas picture. . . .

 yes, Claire wanted to do somersaults instead of sitting with her mommy.  

 I finally corralled her, but she was NOT happy.  

Our Christmas dinner was DELICIOUS.  We had brown sugar ham, homemade stuffing, Twice baked cream cheese potatoes, rolls and cranberry sauce.  Out of all of this yummy food what do yo think Claire ate. . . yep just the rolls and lots of messy handfuls of cranberry sauce.

Merry Christmas

 We hope your day was as wonderful as ours!  

Granddad and his girls

 It is very hard to get a good picture of Claire with any other adults because as soon as she sees me, she starts whining and trying to get to me.  I'm glad I was able to snap these pictures while Claire wasn't looking.

 I love how much Claire loves me, but I am hoping at some point she will be just as happy to let others hold her, especially with Baby Charlotte on the way.  I'm not sure how it is going to go when I am in the hospital having the baby. . .

Cookies for Santa. . . well sort of

 We tried to teach Claire the tradition of leaving cookies and milk for Santa.  

 Of course she had to sample them.  

 Then Claire did the cutest thing. . . I told her to leave the rest of the cookies on the plate because they were for Santa.  Claire picked up the cookies and ran to the garage door.  She was ready for us to take them to Santa :)  Oh and Claire thinks Santa is a cow.  Whenever I talk about Santa she runs to the refrigerator door and points to the picture of her and the Chick fil a Cow dressed as Santa.  

Convience

Thanks to my parents we now have a wonderful modern convenience back in our lives.  Our microwave broke about 4 months ago and we haven't had the money to replace it.  I think my parents picked the perfect present for us.  Now Troy doesn't have to eat cold dinner on the nights that Claire and I eat earlier in the evening.  

The stage is set

 I think Troy is happy Christmas only comes once a year.  I promised him that Claire isn't getting anything for her birthday that needs put together.  

 Jack didn't help much, but stayed out of the way.  

 The funny thing is the Princess castle (to the left of Troy) that my wonderful friend Devon sent to Claire, actually took the most time to put together.  

Thanks to the Bowlby Grandparents for the slide and the Rice Grandparents for the kitchen.  Claire is certainly one LUCKY little girl to have sooo many people that love her.  

 I can't wait to see the look on Claire's face when she sees all of this.  I hope she won't expect all of this every morning, ha ha.  Our budget can only take this hit once a year.  

Cuddling Cousins

We really wish Claire would see all of her cousins this Christmas season, but  I am too far along in this pregnancy to travel, so we couldn't make it to the big Indiana Bowlby Christmas celebration :(  

Isabella thought Jack would like to wear the purse.