Fun with Family!

Last Saturday my parents and nephew, Connor, came over for a little visit. We hadn't seen Connor in a couple weeks and he wanted to see the girls, so my parents brought him over. Both Claire & Anna LOVE Connor and he always gets them belly laughing. It's so sweet to watch them interact! Connor was born when I was still living at home and I helped baby sit and take care of him, so we have a really neat bond! I just remember being so in love with this little boy (still am)! He is, without a doubt, my favorite young man in the world!!

Connor is so good with ALL of his girl cousins! Poor boy...



Playing Pat-A-Cake with Nuna!

They had a great time playing and rolling around on the ground!

So sweet!!

Anna getting a kiss from Papa!

Nuna, Connor & Claire

An Eternal Perspective

I hate to make people feel like they have to vote a certain way in a presidential election (politics don't always mix well with friends and family!!), but I feel obligated to say that as a Christian, I don't feel there is an option on which man I will vote for next Tuesday. John McCain has my support solely based on the moral issues. Although, I don't agree with his platform 100%, on the matters that are most important me, I am in agreement with him.

I am attaching a link to a blog called "The Eternal Perspectives" blog by author Randy Alcorn. If you have a little bit of time to read this I think you will be challenged, as I was, to get the word out about voting on the eternal issues in this election.

I've worked in a Neonatal Intensive Care setting for over a decade now. In that time I have witnessed and taken care of infants that were born almost 5 months early and weigh under a pound. These babies do LIVE and they become beautiful children. Senator Obama has stated, with his voting record, that it is okay to kill babies even into the third trimester. He has voted numerous times to lift a ban in Illinois on late term abortions. How can we, in good conscious, vote for a man that thinks this is okay. We HAVE to be the voice for the voiceless babies. We have to protect the unborn. It isn't an option...

How can God bless our nation if we elect a man that has no value for the unborn, that supports the legalized murder of innocent babies???

Don't forget to be their voice with your vote on Tuesday, November 4th.

The link to Randy Alcorns blog...

http://randyalcorn.blogspot.com/2008/10/im-not-voting-for-man-im-voting-for.html

Painting Pumpkins

Ben and I are both amazed at how much Claire likes to paint, color, draw, anything artsy! Neither one of us are artistic at all. We were just commenting on her love for painting and we wonder where that came from?? We want to get in her in some painting classes when she is a little older. Anyway... just some cute pictures of her painting pumpkins!!

Painting away!! She is so intent when she paints or draws!

Miss Claire painting her hand. When I asked her what she was doing she said "painting my hand for handprints, Mommy." Well, of course, what was I thinking?

Look Mamma!! Let's do handprints now!

This little girl is so much fun. Full of life!!!

Hayride!

Last week a bunch of my friends got all of our kids together for a hayride at the Windmill Farm Market in Centerville. Claire was so excited about the hayride and both Claire and Anna really seemed to enjoy the fun Fall activity. It was a perfectly cool, crisp Fall day and we had a great time hanging out with our friends and enjoying the festivities!

Claire playing on the play ground area for the kids!

Trying (key word) to get a group picture at the pumpkin patch!

L to R: Belle, Joshua, Landon, Olivia, Claire, Anna C., Anna L., and Grant.

Anna loved the pumpkin patch. She tried to eat the pumpkins and the stems... yuck!

When we got to the pumpkin patch Claire had this adorable look of wonderment on her face (click on to the picture to get a better look!). It was cute. She was overwhelmed with all the pumpkins!!

The Anna's! Anna Cutting and Anna LeHoty! They must know they have the same name because they are drawn to each other!

Claire and Anna both had a ball throwing the hay up in the air!

My hayride lovin' girls!!

Miss Deanna, Olivia, Landon and Claire on the hayride!

Noah and Claire playing on the tractor!

Noah's little brother, Benjamin! He is only 3 weeks old! Isn't he adorable!?!

Claire eating her pumpkin cookie after the hayride!

Costume Party

Over the weekend we went to our friends house for a little costume party for the kids. Greg & Jenny hosted the party and it was a reunion of some of our friends from Ben's Arthur Andersen days. We've stayed friends with several couples and try to get our families together a couple times a year. It's funny to see how much all of our lives have changed in a decade. We've all gone from couples with no real responsibility in life to PARENTS! Wow... how times have changed!

I didn't want to get Claire & Anna's costumes that they are wearing this year dirty so Claire wore her Care Bear costume from last year and Anna was a pumpkin I got for a dollar on clearance at Wal-Mart!


Jenny had several games for the kids and this was "Pin the nose on Jack"!


Greg was excellent with Anna! He has two little boys so he had fun holding a girl! (Greg & Jenny dressed up like Danny & Sandy from Grease.... just to explain his white shirt and black leather jacket!!).


Team Arthur Andersen (notice the B-Ball hoop in the middle of them!!). This is the old Arthur Andersen group. Boy... did we have some really fun times together!
L to R: Ben, Jenny, Rob and Janelle


Tyler giving Claire & Katie a ride in the wagon!


Claire inside Rusty the Visla's crate! Everyone got a good laugh out of this!



Claire eating a Halloween cupcake with black icing! What a mess!



Another fun activity for the kids... painting pumpkins!

Katie, Claire, Tyler, Ethan and Joey


Anna enjoyed playing in the ball pit!

Claire & Owen playing with the wagon!

Claire's Random Acts of CUTENESS!

Just some cute pictures of Claire over the last several weeks that I never posted. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed at trying to blog all the things we do and all the cute pictures I have. So here is sort of a quick preview of some of the fun & funny times in our life!

Claire enjoying her favorite food... BURRITO BOWL from Chipotle! Ben and I both laugh that our two year old likes Mexican food so much. She licks salsa off the tortilla chip. Is that normal?

Grammy & Papa took Claire apple picking a few weeks back. The next several pictures are from that adventure!


Since Claire picked apples she asks for an apple all the time. She loves to just eat an unsliced, unpeeled apple now! I'm realizing that so far... all these pictures have to do with Claire and food! My girl likes to eat!

This is so funny because Claire specifically asked me to take a picture of her with her "stuffed aminal". She is really cheesing it, isn't she!?!?

Another instance of Claire asking me to get the camera out so I can take her picture with her pretty dress on (it's actually a tutu).

Tonight before we put Claire to bed, we let her watch a little bit of "Dancing with the Stars". She ran and got two of her tutu's and put them on and started dancing with the people on TV. Ben and I got quite a good laugh at her antics. I just LOVE this age. She talks in complete sentences and you can really understand her so well. It's like I'm talking to an adult when I talk with Claire. She always brings a smile to our face. I just love, love, love this silly little girl!

Worn out from all her dancing!

Claire's 1st Haircut!

Well... Claire had her first official haircut today! I've whacked at her bangs and her hair a couple times, but she definitely needed a good haircut! When her hair was wet, it went past the middle of her back. She has some body in her hair, so when it's dry it doesn't look as long. I talked it up for a couple days and she was actually excited about it! I don't usually use bribery with Claire, but I told her if she sat still she could have some of my gum and candy. She did really well and about half way through she got a sucker to distract her. I took her to Whitney, the stylist who has done my hair for several years. Whitney has a three year old daughter so she was excellent with Claire. She did an amazing job, too! She spent over a half hour on her cut and it is so cute. It's an inverted bob cut. It really makes Claire look so much older to me. My baby is getting so big!

A "before" picture of Claire's long hair!

Claire and Miss Whitney before the fun began!

Claire sat so well during her haircut!

Claire showing off her red sucker! Whitney let her pick the color she wanted!

A picture from behind of her new "doo"!

Aren't these the cutest pictures of Claire & Whitney!!

She looks so much older!