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!!!

More from a Family Christmas...

Here are a some more pictures. Heather and I both agreed we may have some strong willed, feisty little girls on our hands! They definitley have a flare for the dramatic already. Watch out!!

Caroline, are you thinking what I'm thinking? Oh yeah... we can't walk yet can we???

This is TORTURE!

Okay... life is good again! I feel better now that my clothes are off. I'm sorry Caroline... maybe your mommy can take your dress off, too! It's much more comfortable!!

I'm not exactly sure why my mommy feels the need to put matching hats on me all the time???

Grandpa McDowell with his girls!! Note the pen in grandpa's pocket. It's a dead give away that he's a teacher! Who else keeps an ink pen in their front pocket even outside of school? I guess you never know when you're going to need a pen!

A Family Christmas

On Saturday evening Ben's mom had the McDowell side of the family over after our church's Christmas program. Last year we did the same thing and that was when we told both of our families that I was pregnant! Everyone was hoping for another announcement from us this year, but they were disappointed when the only "announcement" from us was that I WAS NOT pregnant! Anyway... we had a great time and of course Heather and I had to get more Claire & Caroline pictures. After a long day that was the last thing they wanted to do. They were not happy at all, but they were so cute, both decked out in their Christmas dresses and berets! Hopefully they'll catch on soon that their mommy's aren't going to stop taking pictures of them!!!

Uncle Shawn holding Claire as her older cousins watch on!!

Claire was enthralled with the lighted Christmas package!

Grammy holding the book I gave both Grandma's last year when we broke the good news! It's called The Gifts of being Grand. I wrapped it up and told them I had an early Christmas gift for them to open. Inside I had a picture of Claire's first ultrasound. Needless to say, everyone was ecstatic!

Here the girls were just on edge... the unhappiness has only just begun!

All in the Family

I love this picture of me and Scott, my younger brother by 11 months (can you imagine?). We are both holding our daughters. Claire and Caroline are just 11 weeks apart. I think it's only fitting that Scott and I have children that are so close in age! I know they are going to be such close cousins and the best of friends!

Claire the Fairy Princess

I found this adorable fairy princess outfit and had to try it on Claire. I am going to use it for some of her 6 month pictures in January. I also have another tutu and matching headband that are even cuter. I'll post pictures of that outfit later. As you can tell by the pictures Claire wasn't too thrilled with the fairy dress up session. She isn't a big fan of costumes as you may remember from my Halloween posts. One day she'll beg to dress up in this kind of stuff, but she's not quite there yet!

Daddy's Girl

Tonight Ben was holding Claire while he was working on the computer. She had been a little fussy so he was bouncing her on his knee and I guess she must've liked that because she fell asleep while he was bouncing away! So sweet....

Santa's Little Helper!

We are so excited about Claire's FIRST Christmas! She is old enough to really enjoy looking at lights and all the Christmas decorations. She is mesmerized by our Christmas tree. It is so cute to watch her as she is experiencing all the Holiday excitement for the very first time!

She is getting so active. At four and a half months she is already rolling from her back to her stomach and her stomach to her back. She is a rolling maniac! She also is so intrigued by people's faces. She is constantly reaching out to touch your face (and Sophie's face, too... poor Sophie!). She isn't always so gentle. It's more like a grab or a scratch, rather than a touch, but it's so sweet! She has already given us the BEST Christmas gift we could ever hope for or want!

"I'm liking the Christmas slippers".

"Where did everyone go?"