Caterpillar

When we were playing outside a couple days ago, Claire found a bright yellow Caterpillar crawling on our patio. She is going through this phase where she is terrified of insects. I really mean terrified. She starts to shake and even sometimes cry when bugs get too close to her. I had an ant climb up my leg and I thought she was going to have a panic attack. It upset her so much. So needless to say, I was shocked when she showed interest in the caterpillar. She definitely kept her distance, but she didn't have a meltdown so hopefully we are making progress with her insect phobia!

We watched this thing for almost an hour!!

Pointing out the caterpillar to me!

Just in case I didn't see it the first time...

...or the second time!! She pointed to it the entire time!!

COSI

Aunt Kristen, Aunt Heather & I took the girls (minus Lauren... she was at camp & Anna was with Grammy) to COSI! We had a great time and the girls really seemed to have fun together. Claire & Caroline are a little young to enjoy all that COSI has to offer, but they had a nice area for young kids. We just had a nice time hanging out with our family!!

A group shot!

Jillian & Claire. Claire loves her older cousins and they are wonderful with her!

One of Claire's favorite things was playing in the water. She was soaked and I was thankful I had an extra outfit to change her into!

Cousin Love!!

So sweet... Claire, Jillian and Caroline holding hands

What a cutie!!

Such a good teacher! Jilli is trying to show the little girls how to use a hula hoop!

Aunt Kristen, Jillian & Claire

By far, Claire was the most interested in this area where there are holes that blow out air which makes the balls float.

Claire & Caroline pretending to drive! I know that'll be here before we know it!

Claire washing her hands!

I thought this was such a sweet picture of Claire & Aunt Heather nose-to-nose and such cute smile on Caroline!!

Young's

A while back Grammy & Papa took Claire to Young's Dairy. She had fun seeing all the animals and of course eating ice cream! Claire always enjoys her adventures with Grammy & Papa!!

I think this is the funniest picture!!

Feeding the goats with Grammy!

10th Anniversary

On July 25th, Ben & I celebrated 10 years of marriage! It's been a DECADE! Oh my goodness!! That just sounds like a long time, which in turn makes me feel old (in a good way though!).
Last year we went to Fleming's for dinner to celebrate our anniversary and it was so good Ben made reservations again, but we were both feeling a little under the weather so we are postponing our dinner to Fleming's for a day when we feel better. So instead, Grammy & Papa watched the girls and we went to the Greene to see a movie, walk around and we got a sandwich and soup! It was nice and laid back! Since diamonds represent the ten year anniversary, Ben surprised me with diamond earrings to match the necklace he gave me when Anna was born. It was so nice and completely unexpected! Thanks babe... I LOVE them!

We have now been together half of our lives! I don't remember my life without Ben. We have literally grown up together and I am so thankful I met him at such a young age. I can't wait too see what the next 10 years bring for us!!

Grammy & Papa got us an anniversary cake!

Claire is really into celebrations right now since we just celebrated her birthday!

This is a blurry picture of the cake, but I thought it was so funny because you can see Claire sneaking some icing!!

Anna's New Outfit!

My friend from high school, Jeni, gave us this adorable outfit with matching shoes for Anna. She embroidered the initial "A" on it. She sells the cutest stuff on her website and she will monogram the item to add that personal touch. I love anything personalized and it kind of got started when I found such cute, handmade items on eBay and now I love Etsy as well. It's just so much fun and is so darn cute!! I had to post these pictures of Anna in her outfit! Thanks Jeni!!

Jeni has a website as I mentioned and sells on Etsy. Here are the links...

http://carabellas.net/catalog.php?category=16

and...

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5157828&order=&section_id=&page=1

Anna is on the move! She can sit up from a lying position and she's even crawled a bit. It's amazing how quickly they develop at this age! I also forgot to post her 6 month well check results. She is 16 lbs 10 oz (50th percentile), 28.25 inches long (95th percentile) and her head is in the 50th percentile. She is our string bean!! She is healthy and happy and we love her to death! She has added such a fun dimension to our family. Such a sweet, sweet girl!

Claire's Birthday Dress

On Sunday, Claire wore her second birthday dress to church! She got lots of birthday wishes from our church members. She was proud to tell anyone who asked that she is "two"! She would say to me "pretty dress mommy" and twirl around in her dress. It was so sweet!! I asked her if she was a princess and she said "no mommy, I Claire". You forget how concrete their thoughts are at this age! I love it and I love this little girl!!

Claire insisted on playing with her birthday balloons when she woke up Sunday morning. She cried when I tried to take them away so I could take her pictures before church. To keep her from crying, I tied the balloons to her wrist and that made her very happy. I am so glad it worked out that way because I think the balloons look so cute in the pictures. I guess I can thank Claire's meltdown for that!!! She is definitely two!

I knew she would want to swing. Sometimes she gets grease on her from the swing so I was holding my breath that no grease would get on her dress. Thankfully we got off unscathed!

I just never knew how much I would fall in love with this sweet girl! It's such an intensely deep and amazing love. She makes me want to be a better person, a better mother... to live life to its fullest!

Our 'Lil Cupcake Turns Two!!

On Saturday we celebrated Claire's second birthday. We had our family and some friends over for a little party. It ended up being a pretty nice day out so we were able to have fun outside with the inflatable, water table, swing set and other toys. The kids really seemed to enjoy themselves and Claire LOVED every second of it. She is old enough to kind of understand the party was just for her and that there were presents involved! When she saw me decorating that morning she got so excited. She loved all the balloons and banners. It was so cute to see her excitement! We had a "cupcake" theme this year. Her invitations, plates, napkins and balloons had cupcakes on them and instead of a birthday cake we had cupcakes. Ben also had the fun idea to have the kids decorate their own cupcake and that turned out to be a success with the kids. They iced the cupcake and put candies and sprinkles on them! Overall, it was a great day celebrating our lil' cupcake!!

It's hard to believe Claire is two! She looks like a two year old. She is in the 90th percentile for weight (32 lbs), height (35.5 inches, almost 3 feet) and head circumference . Her doctor said she is just a big girl. That she is!

I had a cupcake outfit & bows made for her for her party!

Aunt Beth playing with Claire & Landon at the water table. This was perfect to cool the kids off!

Connor hanging out!

Deanna & Olivia! Olivia was great... she even took a nap in Anna's crib for awhile!

I LOVE the way the cupcake display turned out. My mom decorated the cupcakes with crystal sprinkles and pink bows. It was so sweet!

One of the party favors was a "Bow Pop". It looked like a sucker,but it was a hair bow clipped on a sucker stick. The bow was made of cupcake ribbon to go with the cupcake theme!

You can see Heather's baby bump in this picture. She is all baby. We can't wait to meet our newest member of the fam!

The kids enjoying the inflatable!

Aunt Kristen holding Anna!!