Happy Easter!

Spring on the way, Easter Egg hunts, new clothes, and the beautiful gift of our Savior. What a great day!

Yes, I made our families' ensemble. Two matching dresses, tie, hairbows, and necklace. Yep, I know, I'm one of 'those' kinds of moms. Total cheese bucket!

I also have some of the CUTEST pictures of Claire that I decided needed their own separate post tomorrow - check back soon!

Look Who's Getting Big...

Not Claire, that's for sure! We just had her 1 year check-up and we have such a little peanut here. She's gonna be small for probably the rest of her life - just like her parents. Here are her growing stats:

Weight: 17.6 lbs. .... 4%
Height: 27.4 in. ..... 8%
Head: 38%

Claire has maintained her little "spot" on the growth charts and is always within the same 3 numbers. This means that we won't be switching to a new car seat anytime and that she gets to pack in the calories and fat. Though I'm not sure what good that will do her - even when I was expecting her I had a hard time gaining weight. Must run in the family.

She did so good considering how long everything took and how many times they had to poke her! Seriously, I think that all the waiting at the doctor's office is completely pointless. Kelland has a friend in Med School and when he "Job Shadowed" a family practice the staff spent 5 minutes with each family and then 15 minutes checking email and facebook in between. Tacky! I don't mind waiting in the foyer. Of course, I do make an appointment to get in at a certain time, but it is what it is. And I don't mind waiting for the actual doctor - I'm sure they're fairly busy. But I HATE waiting for the nurse after the doctor leaves to give my child a shot. Seriously, we waited for 25 minutes for her to do a proceedure that took 2.

We were at the doctors for 2 hours and we were the second appointment of the day. Way too long for a child who is healthy!

As a side note, today the kids in the musical sang to Claire for her birthday. She hasn't been to rehearsal for the last couple of days, so they had to delay her "party". They sang, had cookies, and even had a gift for her to open. We are the luckiest family ever and our little one is so

Happy Birthday Claire!

My baby is a one year old! One. Where has the time gone? I've been doing this "Mom" thing for an entire year, and sometimes I still don't know what I'm doing ;)

I went from having a baby who looks like this:

To a little girl who looks like this:

Today during her nap time when dad was at meetings and I was home alone, I browsed through pictures of the last year, feeling slightly weepy that time is going by so fast. What an awesome ride this year has been! Claire is getting so big and hilarious - she's gonna be just like her dad and make people laugh.

On a sentimental note: I can't believe how much I LOVE my little chica! Seriously, she's awesome. I try to think back on the person I used to be, and I was nothing compared to the wonderful experiences that she has given me. She's increased my happiness level. You parents know exactly what I'm talking about. When you're single you think you're happy. Then you get married and think, 'Now I'm REALLY happy!'. Then you have a kid. That's happiness dude. Something you don't understand until you experience it.

To celebrate our monkey's special day we decided to have a "Bathtime Birthday!" Party. Kind of a random theme. When she's 3 we will throw her an awesome Princess Birthday party, But right now, the thing that she loves the most is bath time, and since the party is for her, what better way to celebrate?

We had two different families parties and transported the games and cake back and forth.
Game #1 - Water Search n' Find. We put Claire's bath toys in a bucket of water and blind folded the kids. They had to find certain objects in a certain amount of time to win a prize.

Game #2 - A Rubber Duck Walk - 20 laminated duck cards with numbers that the kids hopped, skipped, and jumped around until the "Bathtime" music stopped. If they were on the right # - they won a prize.

Game #3 - Don't Take my Bubbles! - Exactly like 'Don't Eat Pete!' but played with different pictures of Claire in the Bathtub.

Bubbles were handed out to each of the kids to enjoy after the party

Birthday Cake:

Birthday Tutu from Aunt Brook - fit the bathtime theme!

Opening Presents:

Claire's first doll with pajamas and cute blankets from Aunt Brook. In this picture Claire is showing us how she knows where the eyes and mouth are.

Hooded Bath Towel from Grandma Valerie

Breakfast Cake:
In my family growing up it was a tradition to have this cake served the morning of someone's birthday, and we've carried that same tradition into our family.

Opening her first birthday card from Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt with her first dollar.

More Presents!

We celebrated with both sides of the family and had a fun-filled birthday weekend!

Happy Birthday Claire - thanks for helping us realize what REAL happiness is!

It's Tongue Time!

Over the last 2 months Claire has become obsessed with her tongue! Everyone keeps telling me that it's just a stage and that she has "discovered" her tongue, but I don't think so. I think that my daughter will perpetually and unconsciously stick out her tongue for the rest of her life. You've seen those romantic comedies where the girls sticks out her tongue in thought and the male lead finds it really attractive? That's going to be my daughter. Attractive to all men ;)

She sticks it out mainly when she is in deep concentration, in a playful mood, and even when she smiles. And only on the left side. That's my little girl - growing up and developing her own little quirks.

False Alarm

No teeth here yet. Me and dad must have been crazy! Either it disappeared, went into hiding, or it was never there to begin with. Don't worry Claire, you'll have teeth soon enough and then you'll be able to eat all the yummy things Dad and I eat.

Like Mother, Like Daugther!

I secretly LOVE to sew! I like 'finishing' a project and having something to show for it. Now, don't misunderstand me. I like to sew, but that doesn't mean that I'm great at it. Don't look too close:) And now that I have a daughter who doesn't speak yet to voice her own opinion, I can make her anything that I want! I have to monopolize on this time before she starts thinking I'm uncool and refuses to wear anything homemade.

I bought fabric to make pillows to match my living room, only to come home and wonder what I was thinking. You'll know why when you see the fabric. Don't judge. Great for a spring dress, but not for a subtle living room. With all of this left-over fabric I decided to make matching dresses for me and Claire to wear. That's right, I'm one of those kinds of moms. It was quite an undertaking, having to start my dress over 3 times. I should be much better at reading patterns from now on. And I made Claire's dress without a pattern - which I think turned out rather well!

Next on the menu is making a birthday dress for Claire and Easter outfits for the whole family. We'll see if I can get Kelland to wear a tie that matches us :)

Can you tell that it's just about bedtime?

Also - notice how good our dog is with Claire

Also - here's view of some of our St. Patrick's Day decoration. I seem to fit the same theme...

BookWorm!

Guess who is finally starting to understand how awesome and entertaining books are? That's right, my daughter. When she was younger, sure she would sit still and look at the pictures but she wouldn't last very long. Now, when we pull out books she starts giggling and settles down to listen. Her favorite books are the ones where she gets to interact with the pictures. Lifting the flap to show a hidden animal or pull out a pop-up page. I used to get so nervous that she would ruin all of our interactive books before she could even talk, but she is so gentle with them! She treats them like they are made of gold. And to her, they might as well be :)