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! :-)

To Grammy's...

Claire went trick-or-treating to Grammy's house and a couple of her neighbors. Once again Claire enjoyed getting outside and walking around more than getting treats! I think next year she'll understand the candy aspect of Halloween!

Grammy & Grandpa's favorite trick-or-treater!

Grammy, Daddy, Claire, Mommy & Sophie with two of Grammy's neighbor girls.

Grammy & Claire

Our family from the front and behind!!

Trick-or-Treat!

This year we dressed Claire up as a Care Bear since she is so affectionately known as Claire Bear! She wasn't very happy wearing a costume last year, but this year she tolerated it! I wasn't sure what she would think of trick-or-treating, but she enjoyed walking around outside and it was such a pretty evening. She didn't quite get the whole candy thing. She was more interested in trying to get inside everyone's house when they opened the door. I guess she just assumed we were stopping by for a visit! It was pretty humorous! We only went to the houses in our court and then headed to Grammy & Grandpa's for a quick visit so they could see her in her costume!

Our Claire Bear!

Pumpkin Carving

Just some cute pics of Ben and Claire while he was carving our pumpkin! Sophie actually enjoyed eating the pumpkin pieces. I should've gotten some pictures of that! It was funny to see her beg for raw pumpkin!

NICU Halloween Party

All my friends that I work with got our kids together for the 2nd Annual NICU Halloween party! We all met at Maranda's house for the get together and we had a great time talking and letting all the kids play! Many of us are "with child" and on round two. It's kind of funny that many of us are having our second child so close just like we had our firsts! It so much fun and I am so fortunate to work with people that I can truly call friends and not just co-workers!

Claire playing with Anna and Tessa

Left to Right: Claire, Eli, Addison, Tessa, Landon, Anna, Julia, and Jayda.

The pumpkins didn't make it in the group picture. Above Noah and below an unhappy pumpkin Arilyn. Also, I didn't get a picture of Ava and Carson... sorry guys!

Sam the Giraffe

The highlight of our trip was Sam! We LOVED seeing Sam the Giraffe up close and personal. That is something you do not get to do at the zoo. We actually were very disappointed when we recently went to the Columbus Zoo and they had no giraffe. Well, we definitely got our fill of Giraffe yesterday. We spent a lot of time feeding, petting and just admiring this amazing creature. They are so strange, yet so neat looking. I'd never been so close to such a large animal and it was quite an experience. I am so glad Claire was able to have this experience at such a young age!

Isn't he beautiful! An amazing creation by God!

Look how close we are to him!

Claire feeding Sam!

Claire was able to touch Sam several times! She was very interested in this enormous creature!

I think I had more fun at the ranch than Claire! Everyone knows I am a sucker for animals!

I love this picture of Claire and Sam! You can just see the excitement on her face!

Feeding Sam hay! This is actually on the hayride!

Animal Ranch Fun

Yesterday evening we made a trip to Troy to go to an animal ranch/sanctuary that Grammy heard about. We'd been trying to get there for awhile and finally made it before they closed for the winter. This weekend they had a Fall festival with lots of activities. It was such a beautiful Fall day and we had so much fun seeing all the animals and going on a hayride. Claire loved feeding and petting the animals. In the next post I will post all the Giraffe pictures because Sam the Giraffe was definitely the main attraction and we took a ton of pictures of him!

Claire in the Pumpkin Patch!

All of us on a hayride! Claire loved throwing the hay and playing in it. I was kind of surprised she liked it as much as she did!

They had a moon walk inflatable like we had at Claire's birthday party! She loved jumping in it!

Claire pointing at the goat!

Claire was fascinated by the miniature horse. I think because it was her size!

The pretty horsey!

Grammy & Claire

Claire got to go on a pony ride! I don't think she quite knew what to think about it, but it was so cute to watch!

A group shot... Mommy, Grammy, Claire, Grandpa, Daddy, Aunt Beth and Steven.

A Family Halloween

Tonight we celebrated Halloween with my family because Shawn, Kristen and the kids are in town. Every year my mom has Halloween and all the kids get dressed at her house (she usually makes the costumes). She always makes chili and lots of other good food and we all hang out there for awhile before trick-or-treat. Well this year is a little different because Connor, Lauren & Jillian will be in Illinois. It's kind of sad, but at least we were able to get together, even if it was a little early! It was a pretty Fall evening and we had fun just being together. We even made a little bonfire and roasted marshmallows! Happy Halloween!

Our cutie-patooties! I know I am biased, but they have to be two of the cutest one year olds around!!

I had to get a shot of the back of Claire's Care Bear costume!

Claire: Cheer Bear, Lauren: Super Women, Caroline: Friendly Ghost, Jillian: Nice Witch. NOTE: Connor was at a friends house tonight. He is going to be Darth Vader!

My mom is a pianist and as you can see her grandgirls hope to follow in her footsteps! I think this is such a cute picture!! How cute are they?!?!