Merry Christmas!

We had so much fun celebrating Christmas this year! Last year, Claire was just 1 month old, hooked up to her oxygen and monitor, and oblivious to all that was going on around her. This year, on the other hand, she was very much into everything!!

We got to spend some time with my parents and also celebrated on Christmas Day with Justin's brothers, their families, and his parents. It was great to be together!

Claire all decked out in her Christmas outfit

Our family

Showing off her standing skills with her beloved new ball.

New Christmas jammies!!

Playing with Grampy

Opening presents... she really got into it!

Kisses for her new stuffed puppy

Reading her new book with Daddy

Happy girl!

Cousins in matching jammies

Showing her cousin a little love

The neverending project

... is finally done!! Justin turned our wall with a closet (that we couldn't use since our TV sat in front of it) into beautiful, built-in shelves! Check it out....

Finally done!!

Visit with Gpa & Gma Shoe

We had a fun visit to northwest Iowa with Claire's grandparents! Despite the frigid temps (7 below zero!!), we enjoyed our time together touring around the area. Highlights of the trip included watching Claire watch Max, Gma and Gpa's dog. She was eye level with him and he's a big dog, so I thought she might be scared, but she just squealed with delight! This girl loves dogs!

The other highlight of our trip was that Claire took 3-5 steps several times in a row. She did it at least 10 times!! She would take the steps with a big smile on her face, waiting for claps of approval before she would fall over. So cute!! I think we're going to have a walker on our hands before too long!

Thanks for a fun visit!!!

Fun in the SNOW!!

We're in the middle of a winter wonderland here! Although I'm the first to say how much I despise cold and snow, I must admit, all this talk about the big storm has me excited! We took advantage of the snow, Justin's "time off", and our neighbor's sleds and had fun introducing Claire to snow. She was hesitant at first, but eventually LOVED it after seeing the other kids playing.

Dear friends

You know those friends that are just sooo dear to you? I got to get together with two of these special friends today. Amy & Sarah... I love them! Amy and I have been friends since... well, birth really. Our parents have been friends forever and Amy was just an automatic, built in friend from the beginning. And I became friends with Sarah in third grade Sunday school. The cool thing about these women is that we went to three different high schools and three different colleges and have lived in three different places since then, but that doesn't really matter. They are the kind of friends that are safe, comfortable, and easy to be with. I love these girls!

And who doesn't love to reminisce?! Here's our picture from today and then I thought I should throw in a few oldies to look back on! :)

The reason Justin has the day off for his Bday

It's been an interesting few days around these parts. I know someday I might regret it if I didn't record all of the details, since my memory can be selective at times, so here goes...

About a month ago, Justin was told that his company would be doing a realignment and laying off 30% of their sales force on December 1. Since then, we've been anxiously awaiting and praying about this day. Here's how it all went down...

November 30: Justin (and all of the sales reps) are told to stay home from work the following day and to expect a phone call sometime between 9 am and 1 pm.

December 1: Justin's phone rings at 9:10 am. His manager is on the other line and tells him that he "hasn't been placed." AKA - his job is no more. The crazy thing is that it is effective immediately and he had unknowingly already worked his last day on the job. By 5 pm, his work email account has already been completely deleted.

December 2: Happy Birthday to Justin! Someone comes to our house at 9 am and collects all of his work belongings - laptop, samples, ipaq, etc...

Tomorrow we have to give back his beloved Jeep (we wanted to buy it but that is a no go!)and we become a one car family. He has now joined the ranks of the unemployed.

My husband is so amazing though... he wrote on his Facebook status yesterday.. "I managed to get the day off for my birthday tomorrow... well actually, I have every day off until I find another job." Isn't it great that he can find humor in a situation like this? :)

It's been fun spending the day together on his birthday, but weird knowing that we have no idea when he'll be going to work again.

We are praying about options and resting in the fact that we serve a good God who we KNOW will take care of us.

Happy Birthday, Justin!

Today we are happy to be celebrating Justin's birthday! Here's the birthday boy with his little girl...

And here they are last year on his birthday, the day Claire came home from the NICU.

Birthday kisses for Daddy

12 month stats

Claire had her 12 month appointment with her pediatrician yesterday. Here are the stats:

• 24 1/2 lbs (94th percentile)


• 30 inches long (85th percentile)

Dr. Shaw was pleased to see that Claire was crawling all over, pulling up to stand, and cruising around the furniture. We were also pleased to report to the doc that Claire now has 2 teeth! (at her 9 month appt, she still didn't have any!)

Aside from the 5 shots and 1 finger prick, the appointment went well. Dr. Shaw did notice the lack of improvement in Claire regarding her cough and congestion, so she prescribed an oral steroid to hopefully help with that.

Claire has started to have meaning behind her babbles! She definitely says 'Dada' for her daddy and 'Mama' for her mommy! She also says 'nana' for bananas and calls Sadie 'dada'. Yesterday she stood without holding on to anything for several seconds. She did it several times throughout the day. That was exciting!

She has developed a love for music and "dances" whenever she hears it. Super cute!

She loves her whole milk and drinks about two sippy cups a day. No more bottles for this girl! She goes to bed easily after we read her a couple books. She definitely still loves that paci though!

Can't wait to see how she changes during this second year of life!

More Party Pics

My sis-in-law has a great camera and got some fabulous pics from the party that I just had to share. Thanks, Rox!

1st Birthday Party

Claire had a very special birthday party to celebrate her first year yesterday. All of her 6 grandparents, 4 aunts, 4 uncles, and 9 cousins were in attendance! What a special day it was!!

Here's the birthday girl in her ADORABLE birthday get-up, compliments of her Aunt Jorie!

Claire with all 9 of her cousins.

My mom helped me create this fun cake for the birthday girl!

Claire loved the attention she got when everyone sang her happy birthday. It didn't take her long to polish off most of her cake!

She even shared some with her daddy!

Our family! :)

We had a great time celebrating with our family and are so thankful that everyone made the time to come out for it. Thanks, fam! We love you!!