5 Month Picture

On December 16th Claire turned 5 months old. With all the craziness from Christmas I forgot to get her quilt picture until today! She is getting so big. It's hard to believe she is already 5 months old. She is sitting up by herself really well and grabbing for everything which in turn immediately goes into her mouth! She is a funny girl and we are truly enjoying every day with her!!

This picture of Claire reminds me of this Marilyn Monroe picture...

Stocking Stuffer

What a cute little Stocking Stuffer Claire makes!!! She seemed to like it, but as you can tell by the last picture she got a little bored and started playing with the Christmas tree and ornaments!!

Phil's in Town!

Ben's best friend, Phil, came in from Seattle for the Holidays. We are glad to have him here to visit and see Claire! Ben and Phil always have a lot of fun together and have been friends since they were little boys! They have some pretty funny stories from their "youth", most of which I'm not sure I ever want Claire to hear!!

Camo Girl

Grammy & Grandpa bought matching camo outfits for Ben & Claire. Here are a couple pictures of them! Look at those chubby legs... too cute!!

My Favorite Toy

Before Claire was born Grammy bought her a "Sophie the Giraffe" rubber toy. I had never heard of it, but it has been around since the sixties and is the most popular baby toy in Europe. It's kind of expensive at almost $20, but Grammy wanted to get it for Claire despite the cost. Well she is thrilled that Claire absolutely loves her Sophie the Giraffe toy. We don't leave home without Sophie! Claire attacks the poor thing! She really does light up when she sees the giraffe... it's so cute! Claire has two Sophie obsessions in her life, the toy and our Greyhound, Sophie! I'm not sure which one she likes better! I know she wishes she could gnaw on our dog the way she does her toy!!! Also... a couple of the pictures show the personalized shoes that Carolyn, a neighbor of Grammy's, gave Claire when she was born. They are so neat! One shoe says "Claire" and the other has her birth date "July 16, 2006". Thanks Carolyn!

Christmas Extras

Just some extra pictures from Christmas!!!

Claire & Caroline Christmas

This year it was all about the babies! It's amazing how much can change in a year. This Christmas the McDowell house had two new additions! It was so cute to see the girls together and they looked adorable in their Christmas dresses. Most of the pictures Claire is in her Christmas jammies because she was too hot in her dress and tights! They are really starting to become aware of each other now! Claire just wants to touch Caroline and try to get any part of Caroline in her mouth and Caroline smiles at Claire! I can tell they are going to be quite a little pair!

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION CONTINUED...

Here are some pictures from the Cutting celebration. Claire's favorite part was playing the wrapping paper and eating it! As you can see, Claire is sitting up on her own, although she is a bit wobbly still (as seen in the third pic!). She was so much fun to watch as she was experiencing all the Holiday excitement for the first time!

See Claire sit.

See Claire eat wrapping paper.

See Claire fall!

Ben's mom & dad had Claire's Christmas picture put in the Dayton Daily News for the "Baby's First Christmas" section! This pictures shows Claire with the page from the DDN. How neat! We had no idea they were doing that. Claire will love seeing her picture in the paper when she's a little older!

Claire is enjoying her Christmas gift from Grammy & Grandpa! It's a Jumperoo and she has a ball in it! She just jumps away and smiles!

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration! We were very busy. Christmas Eve was spent with the McDowell side of the family and Christmas day with the Cutting side. We are so fortunate to be able to spend the Holidays with both families and we had a great time. Thanks again to both of our mother's for making Christmas so special for our family. We know a lot of hard work goes into the planning and preparation and we truly appreciate it! As always there were way too may presents, but we hope everyone was able to stay focused on the true meaning of Christmas... it is so easy to get distracted, isn't it?

The pictures below are from the McDowell festivities...

A NICU Christmas!

My friends (and co-workers from the NICU) got our kids together for a Christmas party! As I've mentioned before, there was a huge baby boom in the NICU over the past year and a half or so! We try to get together often for play dates so our babies can be as good of friends as their mommies are! We always have so much fun together and it's neat to see all the babies growing! Thanks Deanna for letting us bombard your house!! Merry Christmas!

Landon, Claire and Julia playing!

Landon & Claire playing with their shoes... it's good to see Claire isn't the only one obsessed with shoes!!!

The GANG!

From left to right: Anna, Noah, Claire, Ava, Carson, Kendall, Landon & Julia!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas! May we all remember the true meaning of Christmas during the busy Holiday Season and all year long. I am so thankful for the birth of Jesus. I have a new perspective on this phenomenal miracle since recently giving birth. Ultimately Jesus was born to die. God sent His only child, Jesus, to earth to be born so He could die on the cross to pardon our sins. I can't imagine as a parent giving my child up for the sins of man. What sacrificial love. So this Christmas, enjoy your family & friends and opening up gifts, but lets not forget the amazing love God has for us that He would send His only son to be born then die for our US!

Naughty or Nice?

Today I took Miss Claire to meet Santa for the first time. She smiled non-stop and made her happy noises (more like happy screams... she is LOUD!) during her visit with Santa. I promised myself I was only going to purchase the smallest package, but as always when it comes to "Claire pictures" I bought the biggest package and the CD so I could have the images on disc! They get you hook, line and sinker! Oh well... there is nothing I would rather spend my hard earned money on! And yes, Claire was very nice this year! She doesn't have a naughty bone in her body!!!