She's 2!

Claire turned 2 on Saturday and we celebrated with a small family party. We went to Fun Run in Liberty, had pizza and Pinkalicious cupcakes & ice cream for the special occasion. She was a happy girl. 

Claire starts at her new "school" on Wednesday. She went in for her 2 year check up last week and she is in the 90th percentile for height/weight. She loves to read, play with the "dog" house (aka doll house @ Nana and Docs), talk about "Santa Closet", Stuart the dog, Mr. Potato Head, color and play with Play-Doh. She is a chatterbox. We love our girl so much! Here is our list of things we wanted to  do before Claire turned 2...we accomplished about half of the items:

1. Oceans of Fun. Thanks to Aunt Peggy and Uncle Roy, we have no excuse. We are going this summer.
2. MLB game. Could be a Cards game, could be a Royals game. Probably will be in the fall when it is cooler out.
3. go to a zoo.
4. go to the beach. We will cross this off in July when we go to Destin, FL. Can't wait.
5. get ice cream @ Sparky's.
6. have burgers @ Booches. 
7. take Claire to her first SEC football game.
8. go to Rock Bridge State Park.
9. go to a concert.
10. Chiefs game. Hope to make this an annual tradition.

Merry Christmas Scenes!

Claire LOVED the gingerbread houses and train exhibit at Crown Center

A quick visit with Ella in Columbia--thanks for the  Potato  Head, pumpkin pie and gifts, Ella!

This was so sweet: Nana and Claire singing Silent Night at church on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve bike assembly. Yes that is a spoon hammer.

Reading new books with Aunt Chelsie and Uncle Ben

Having fun on the new bike and playing with ALL of  the new toys thanks to Nana, Doc, Nani, G, Aunt Meredith, Aunt Chelsie & Uncle Ben, Watkins family, Aunt Gayle & Elizabeth and Grandma & Grandpa Ervin! Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are had a wonderful day with your family and friends!

Lately

We are officially KC residents! We are enjoying time in Liberty before we move to the rental in Waldo in January. Adam, Nancy and Bob (+ 4 movers) worked hard to move our stuff last week.

Our empty house in Columbia! 

  In the last week Claire has baked cookies with Nana, played ski ball at the Landing and gone on a few walks with Stuart. She LOVES to walk Stuart and then drop the leash and watch him go off on his own. Rascal.

patiently waiting for those cookies (photo credit: Nancy)

Fun at the Landing!

Life lately

...has been a bit hectic. Many great changes and new adventures are in store for our family (we are thankful) but because of all of the changes I have obviously let the blog go a bit. I hope to be back to blogging more regularly soon(ish). This is a great way for me to document our little lives and I love to look at posts from the past year. Anyway, since the last post we have sold our house in Columbia and looked a some houses in KC. We plan to rent for at least 4 months and continue looking at this point. Thanks to Nana, Doc and Aunt Mer we were able to spend two weekends in KC looking at houses sans our wiggly almost 2 year old. I don't have many pics of those weekends because we weren't around! Thanks again guys.

We just got back from NC and had a great time resting, spending time with family and eating while there. We have so much to be thankful for. We are excited to welcome a new little babe in May 2013! Thanks for checking in on us. Be back with more updates soon--probably from KC. 

playing with Nana and the cube of awesome

wearing new boots and playing with letters at the library

Claire and Nana doing work

Children's petting zoo in NC

Claire and the "Magic Tree" in Columbia. She squealed with excitement over these lights.

Weekend

Fall! Football! Fun! Aunt Lyle and Uncle Ray came to visit bright and early on Saturday morning before the 11AM Homecoming game. It was cold morning so we skipped the parade. We had fun tailgating though and the Wildcat fans went to their pre-game (pity) party. :) Mizzou finally got their first SEC win beating Kentucky 33-10. 

Claire was thrilled to find this rocking tiger at some random tailgate.

Claire and her friend Jenae at the Bass Pro Halloween party. These buddies are 3 days apart in age. Claire was a bee and Jenae was a ladybug. So cute!

Weekend

 Brrrrr...we had a nice football weekend. Mames, Stuart and a friend came in from St. Louis to cheer on the Tigers. The game itself was pretty disappointing but we still had a great time! Alabama rolls into town next weekend. It could be pretty ugly. Maybe Mizzou will get their fist SEC win against UK for Homecoming?? We can only hope! See you in a few weeks, Aunt Lyle and Uncle Ray.

the boys

the girl. Thanks again for the hat, Holly and Luke! She loves it and
received several compliments on it.

MIZ-ZOU

Weekend

My date for the weekend:

Adam's date for the weekend:

HAHA! And we all had fun. I spent the weekend in NYC with Ella. We enjoyed amazing meals, walked the entire High Line, went to the DUMBO Art Festival, hung out with Duke Murphy, shopped and danced. Adam and Claire enjoyed going to parks, reading and watching football. Good weekend all around. I'm excited to take Claire to New York someday.

Duke Murphy--isn't he adorable?

Bye bye, New York. Hope to see you again soon.

Weekend

First weekend of fall and it was a glorious one! I spent the weekend at the Lake catching up, laughing and reminiscing with college friends. As usual I failed to take pictures. The one pic below is courtesy of Erin :) and it is missing Keri and Patty!! Thanks for hosting, Keri. I had a great time!

Meanwhile, back at home, Claire and Adam were busy. On Friday night they went on a little date to a local Mexican restaurant. They walked in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation walk on Saturday morning and watched Mizzou fall to South Carolina in the afternoon. Bummer. On Sunday morning they walked to get doughnuts and play at the park. Everyone had a good weekend! Next up: I'm heading to NYC to see Ella. Can't wait!!!!!

mmmm...chips and salsa

really fascinated by this girls tutu and face paint

really hungry after the walk

doughnuts are yummy! mom should go out of town again next weekend...

Weekend

A few pics from our fun weekend w/ the Trouts. Claire loved breakfast and bouncing on the trampoline w/ Uncle Ben and Aunt Chelsie. I've added their blog to our links section below because they are going to build a teardrop trailer and tell us all about it. Looking forward to following along in this fun endeavor. After a big morning of jumping we spent the afternoon with Aunt Gayle and the evening tailgating before the MU v. Arizona State game. We watched the game from the Deuce. Tigers won! 

Claire, CJ, Uncle Ben and Aunt Chelsie

Raaawwwwrrrr, tiger.

hangin at the Deuce

the little cheerleader refereeing our bags game

Weekend

Fun weekend in St. Louis! 

Love this pic and all 8 people in it. No, my addition isn't off . So happy
for the Bruegs (soon to be 5)!

Claire really enjoyed clapping and cheering at the game.
Unfortunately the Cards lost 3-6. We stayed through the 5th inning.

Maybe she was super excited about the free Beltran pennant?

No pics but we spent Sunday morning with Aunt Lyle and Uncle Ray. That afternoon we spent celebrating Brooklyn and Sam's 1st birthday (and their big announcement) and then hung out with the McKowns for a bit before heading back home. 

An update from our list of Things to Do Before 2:

1. Oceans of Fun. Thanks to Aunt Peggy and Uncle Roy, we have no excuse. We are going this summer.
2. MLB game. Could be a Cards game, could be a Royals game. Probably will be in the fall when it is cooler out.
3. go to a zoo.
4. go to the beach. We will cross this off in July when we go to Destin, FL. Can't wait.
5. get ice cream @ Sparky's.
6. have burgers @ Booches. 
7. take Claire to her first SEC football game.
8. go to Rock Bridge State Park.
9. go to a concert.
10. Chiefs game. Hope to make this an annual tradition.

We better get busy! 109 days left as a 1 year old.

Weekend

Our nice, long Labor Day weekend according to my phone pictures:

Thanks to Hurricane Isaac, it finally rained here!!  We played in the much needed rain on Friday evening.

At the park w/ Nana and Doc. Our girl likes to hang!

Admiring baby Hudson. Claire thought he was pretty cool as long as I wasn't holding him. He is SUCH a good baby. Can't wait to meet Traci and Scott's baby girl in 2013! And Holly and Luke's baby boy in December!

Our last evening with the Larson girls for a while...we will miss them!! So happy for their new
chapter in St. Louis. We will have to come visit soon.

Some of the other fun things we did, not pictured: hanging out with Aunt Meredith & Grandma and Grandpa E, cheering on Mizzou and swimming. Hope you enjoyed your long weekend too!