Monday, December 7, 2009

It's a Texas Turkey Day!!

The last week in November, Bradley, Claire and I went to TX to spend Thanksgiving with my family. While we were there we spent lots of time with her Nana & Grandpa, Uncle John & Aunt Angy, and Cousins Jake & Charlie. We all had a blast.














Claire is spending some quality time with her Nana.














Jake loves pushing Claire in the swing. It's hard to believe that when my parents bought this swing, Charlie was using this infant swing. Now he's about to be 4 years old! A lot has changed since then!!














Claire's just enjoying the ride.

















We all had a good time on the swings.














Claire spent lots of time playing at her Nana & Grandpa's house!













Jake is showing Claire how to play with the cash register. She looks so precious looking up at him.













Silly Cousins! The boys had so much fun with Claire and she LOVED them. She'd smile and kick her legs when they'd come close and she'd keep an eye on them at all times. I'm so, so happy that she loves them as much as Bradley and I do.












Claire got to spend lots of quality time with her Aunt Angy!














Having some fun with Charlie. It's so cute how older kids will play with baby toys when there is a baby around. Charlie and Jake played with toys that were made for babies just so that they could interact with her. It was so sweet.













Claire was just beginning to pull up on things and loves to pull up on someone that is sitting in the floor with her. Doesn't it look like they're communicating somehow...in a little kid way? So, so sweet.















I love this beautiful face. What an angel.


Here she is...pulling up on Charlie. Right after we took this picture, he told us that she was pulling his shirt off. Ha ha ha...we just had to explain to him that she was trying to stand up. Then he was okay with it.


The Grassmicks came over to play one day that we were there. We really, really had so much fun and only wish that we could've spent more time with them. After they left I asked Jake and Charlie if they had fun. Jake said, "YES, SO much fun" and Charlie said, "I had the BEST day". It really WAS a fun day!!

Johnny Grassmick playing on the rings.


We also were able to see Aunt Tara's mom and dad...Charlene and Gordon! All 5 of us had a great time catching up and laughing about all of the stories that Aunt Tara and Uncle Steven tell us about Claire's cousins Adaya and Elliot. They brought Claire a couple of books for Christmas too. Thanks SO much Gordon and Charlene! We had a wonderful dinner and Claire LOVES the books. We've read them everyday since we've been home.


Nana and Aunt Angy picked out some new tennis shoes for Claire one day. They're a little big, but we put them on her anyway. She looked adorable! Here she is, posing with her daddy!!


I'm so glad that we went to see my Grandma while in TX. She just loves to see Claire and wants to touch her the whole time we see her. What a special time it is for me to not only spend time with my Grandma, but also to see her with my precious baby girl. It's been a long, long time since she's had a baby girl in her arms. In fact, my younger sister turned 30 this year. :)


4 Generations of women...Pete Moon, Paula Moon Tomlinson, Ember Tomlinson Wilkie and Claire Wilkie


Spending some time with her Grandpa. When we went to TX in October, for some reason, Claire would get upset if she looked at him, let alone, was being held by him. But, this time around, she loved him!! She's smile at him as he walked by, she'd crawl to him as she was playing, she'd let him hold her hands and practice "walking" and she loved to be held by him. It was like she's known him and been around him her whole life. So sweet.


We saw the Sipps while in town too. We had a short dinner with them, but it was still so worth it! I'm so glad that we got to introduce Claire to our dear, dear friends. We kept her up very late that night but she was a trooper!


Laura & Kevin Sipp with Claire!!


Kevin's a natural...:)


My parents built the house that they live in 9 1/2 years ago. And for the last 9 1/2 years my dad has been building up a brush pile (or should I say mini-mountain) in the field by their house. He's talked for YEARS about burning this pile and we could never agree to a time to doing it, OR it would be raining or something. FINALLY, we were able to get together on Thanksgiving Day to burn it. When we left for the airport the following morning, it was still smoldering. It was a lot of fun!


My dad and Bradley stuffing newspaper in the burn pile. I don't know if they even needed it, the pile caught on fire so easily!


Bradley's watching the pile burn. So are the longhorns in the next pasture over. They were pretty curious about what was going on that morning.


Still watching.


Bradley and John watching. They couldn't get much closer than this because the heat was so intense!


Huge, massive fire. It was pretty cool.


Thanksgiving morning, the Crane's stopped by for a few minutes on their way to Andy's grandparents house. We were so happy to see them. We couldn't believe how big Tabitha was!! We saw them last December and Tabitha was about Claire's size. I guess this time next year, Claire will be about the size of Tabitha. It's hard to imagine.


On the way over, Lisa and Andy said that Tabitha kept on saying, "Baby Claire" over and over again. I love that children love other children. It is just so, so sweet.


Andy's getting some time in with Claire.


The Crane's and the Wilkie's. Andy and Bradley...did you ever think 9 years ago, when you were overseas, that you'd both have little girls less than a year apart from each other? I'll bet you never imagined. :)

Getting some sugar from Aunt Angy!!

Auntie Em may be a mommy now, but she still can reach out really fast and tickle you!! Watch out!!


Claire is getting some quality time in with mom and Aunt Angy.

1 comment:

Charlene & Gordon said...

Awesome "Texas" post and we feel like celebrities being included! We loved having dinner with you and meeting sweet Claire - she is precious! Hope to see you all again soon.