Thanksgiving 2007: Round 2

Here are pictures from our day with the McDowell side of the fam! It's always quite an adventure when you get all of us together. It's very loud with a ton of activity when you get a ten, nine, six and 2 one year olds in the same house!! We had so much fun though. Shawn & Kristen drove in from Illinois that morning and then spent the night at my parents house. They'll be back for a week at Christmas! Thanks again to our parents for always making the Holidays so special for our family. We really appreciate all your hard work!!

Claire & Caroline are both VERY busy. Claire quickly found my mom's stash of Tupperware and lids and other fun cooking stuff! She and Caroline played for a long time with the bowls. We actually had to end the fun fest!

This picture of Uncle Shawn holding Claire was at the end of the night. She NEVER lets anyone hold her like a baby so I was surprised when Shawn held her like this for quite some time. She must've been extremely tired!

Claire getting kisses from Aunt Kristen!

Claire and "Nana" as she calls her! She is just starting to try to say her name! It's pretty cute!!!


Claire turning up the volume so she can dance to cousin Lauren's Hillary Duff Christmas CD!!

Claire & Caroline in their PJ's. I wish I had gotten more pictures of them in their adorable Thanksgiving outfits.

Claire absolutely LOVES her cousin Connor right now. He was able to make her belly laugh harder than I have ever heard her laugh! Connor definitely has a way with the ladies!

Thanksgiving 2007: Round 1

This year we spent Thanksgiving day with the Cutting side and the day after Thanksgiving with the McDowell side. It was kind of nice to hang out with both sides of our family all day without having to rush from one place to another. Plus, we were able to enjoy two delicious meals without making ourselves completely sick trying to eat both in one day!!
For some reason I didn't get a ton of pictures, but we had a lot of fun and appreciate all the hard work our mom's (and dad's!) put into preparing the house and food. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Ben & I are truly thankful that we have a healthy, happy family and that we live in a country where we can freely give thanks to our Lord for all he has done and given us. We are blessed way beyond what we deserve!

Grammy made Claire her very own little pumpkin pie!

Claire had her first "beater" experience!! She definitely enjoyed licking the homemade whip cream off that beater!

Claire also finger painted for the first time. Grammy has been waiting a long time to let her do this activity and Claire surprised all of us with how well she did. There were only a few attempts to eat the paint and she didn't make near the mess we expected!

Our little artist! Grammy has one of her masterpieces hanging in her house!!

"Hey... that's Uncle Brad!"

Brad drove in from Atlanta and spent a week here for Thanksgiving. Ben and Brad had fun going to the range to shoot and they also went with Grandpa to go Pheasant hunting. It was nice for Claire to see her Uncle Brad. He last saw her in early July. He was surprised at how much she had changed since then! She warmed up very quickly and loved playing with him!

Thanksgiving Surprise!

On Thanksgiving Day we spent the day with Grammy, Grandpa, Uncle Brad and Aunt Beth. We had a great time and they even surprised me with a baby shower for Anna. I was completely shocked and did not expect a shower for my second baby, but it was so kind and thoughtful. We really appreciate all the time that Grammy put into the shower to make it special for us!! We got some really great gifts for our new girl, too!! THANK YOU!

Story Time

Today Grammy took Claire to the library for story time. It is actually the same library that Grammy took Ben to for story time when he was a little boy! Claire really enjoyed her time there. She was able to color, play on the kids computer, pet "Ginger" the Guinea Pig, read, sing, and listen to a story. Grammy said she sat very well for the craft and the story! I know both Grammy & Claire look forward to many, many more library trips!!!

Claire is enthralled with computers. She really likes pounding on the keyboard and playing with the mouse!

Taking a stroll through the kids books!

Looking at Ginger!! She loves all creatures!

Grammy & Claire at the library!

Claire is obsessed with babies right now and books with babies in them are her favorite... especially if the baby is sleeping. She says "baby night-night". I'm sure the book she is looking at in the picture was a hit because it shows a baby sleeping.

Claire during craft time! She colored a very pretty scarecrow!

Just Claire looking cute!

Ohio State ROCKS the Big House!

We are so proud of our Buckeyes... especially my cousin #63, starting offensive lineman, Ben Person! This is the 4th consecutive year we have beaten the team up north! YEAH!!!!!!!! Here are some cute pictures of Claire in her pink OSU outfit!

Claire intently watching the game!



Claire LOVES playing at her OSU table. She also enjoys stacking her blocks. She has been able to stack up to 6 blocks at a time. In the picture below she has 5 stacked!!
My cousin Ben on the Game Day program cover. He is the one squatting at the bottom of the pic!

OSU... Big Ten Champs!

Rose Bowl bound!! Pasadena here we come!

GO BUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Play Date

Today Claire and I met our friends Deanna, Landon, Brittney and Anna at the mall to play and have lunch! The kids really enjoyed playing in the activity area. Claire especially liked going down the slide and crawling through the tunnel. It was a nice change of pace and scenery! Deanna, Brittney and I are all pregnant so it was fun talking about our pregnancies and what to expect with a second baby! So much for all of us to look forward to!

Anna & Claire going down the slide!

What a goof!!

She must've gone down the slide a hundred times!

Our little play group... Landon, Anna & Claire.

Claire giving Landon the cold shoulder when he was trying to hug her.

She quickly changed her mind and gave Landon a BIG hug! Girls are so fickle, aren't they!!

Claire, Anna & Landon having fun on the big cell phone!

Playing in the tunnel!

More Fall Pictures

I've had several people ask me why I haven't posted in a while. Well... there really isn't anything very exciting going on here so I don't have much to blog. Here are some more pictures of Claire outside playing in the leaves! This is definitely her favorite activity right now! She is almost 16 months old. WOW! Everyday she says a new word and has quite the vocabulary. I am amazed at how much she is able to say. She mimics almost everything and it is so cute. I love her little high pitched voice. It's so girly!

She also just started doing somersaults and I mean full fledged somersaults. This is an activity I didn't expect for quite a while and when she started doing them it scared me, but she is so good at it. I told Ben I am going to get her in a tumbling class soon. I think we have a natural here. As always she keeps me busy, but she is so much fun and learning all the time!

Yes... she is eating a stick!

Claire loves the pine cones, unfortunately Sophie likes chewing them. There is always a war over the pine cones. Who knew???

I love this picture! She has learned to pose for the camera. Probably to speed up the whole picture taking process!

What a silly girl!

(Notice Sophie eyeing the pine cone in Claire's hand. Moments after I took this picture Sophie grabbed the pine cone and ran away with it. Like I said, who knew pine cones could be so popular?)

Fall Fun!

Grammy took these adorable pictures of Claire the other day while she was babysitting! I thought they were just too cute not share! Claire absolutely loves to be outdoors (something she didn't necessarily inherit from her mother!). She will just walk around outside and play with the mulch, rocks, sticks, pine cones and now leaves. She especially enjoys running through the leaves to hear the rustling sound under her feet! When she wants to play outside she will stand at the backdoor and say "bye-bye" and grab my keys. She also tries to turn the door knob. This little girl definitely knows what she wants (that may be a little more like her mamma! :-)