More Pics

The wagon was loaded down with riders on this day.

Claire is really into "snuggling" with Lauren lately.  Lauren loves it too (although you can't tell from this picture, ha!).  Everytime we put Lauren in Claire's lap, she'll smile really big and lean in to give Claire a kiss.  Melts our hearts!

Lauren started eating solid foods!  This is her first taste!

Happy girl after eating some cereal.

Daddy with his baby girl!

Celebrating Daddy's birthday.

Despite the fact that Lauren was in a Cowboys onesie, her Aunt Christine was still all smiles when holding her.  What a good sport she is.  I wonder if we'll all be able to watch a Cowboys/Redskins game in the same room this Fall?  Hmm, we shall see.

It seems as though over the last few weeks she's developed so much. 

Nana and Grandpa came to visit from Texas!  Too bad this is the only pic that I got while they were here!

Claire's hair is long enough for braids now!  When did she get so big?  It happened right before my very eyes!

Wow, I love her!

 

Happy Easter!



When you have been at church all morning and you have a hungry and tired 5 month old and 24 month old, then you get a dog's tushy in your Family Easter pictures.  Oh, well...it's given us a bunch of good laughs and it didn't stop me from printing a pic and putting it on my mantle.  :)




Again, with the dog.  Claire and Lauren with Grandma and Granddaddy.




Probably the best picture of the day.  They were waiting patiently for all of us to get ready for pictures.





This year, Nana sent some super cute buckets and plastic eggs for Claire and Lauren, from Texas.  She had a blast "finding" the eggs that we "hid" for her.  It was a new game to her.



We had such a blessed Easter this year.  Claire was old enough to "talk" to us about the real meaning of the day.  Nana sent lots of goodies from Texas including matching dresses for the girls.  (Oh, how I am soooo into matching clothes for my girls...who am I???  HA!!).  My heart was full of joy at church as I was able to truly reflect on my relationship with God and celebrate that Jesus is still Alive!!  Have you ever heard about how you can have a personal relationship with God?  This is why we joyfully celebrate Easter and why it's more than a time for us to put on pretty dresses and eat a great meal with family:

*God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
"I came so that they might have life and have it abundantly" John 10:10

*Man is sinful and seperated from God.  Therefore we cannot know and experience God's love and plan for our lives.
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23

*Jesus is God's only provision for our sin.  Through HIM, we can know and experience God's plan for our life.
"God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

*We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God's plan for us. 
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him." Revelation 3:20

Years ago, both Bradley and I made our individual decisions to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus.  And we pray that our girls will someday as well.  Have you?

Our Beautiful Girls

Here are some photos of our lives lately:


One day this week, I went to get Claire up from her nap and this is what I found...sitting up, feet under the bed rail, socks off and hair in disarray. Love this girl!


Apparently my 25 pound 22 month old can sit in the Bumbo. She is so crazy!

So excited about our 'new to us' double jogger. Before I even got pregnant with Lauren, Bradley's parents spotted this at a yard sale for $20 and I told them to get it! (I just KNEW we were gonna have another kiddo someday). We finally have a reason to use it. Claire and I took it out for a test drive earlier this week.

Her hair is getting so long now and it's just gorgeous! I couldn't help taking this snapshot of her beautiful hair.

Lauren had lunch one day with Claire and I (she just sat in her Bumbo on the table while we ate), although she doesn't look too happy about it. She was ready for a nap!

Claire loves to go 'see the horses' with Granddaddy! If you walk through the woods behind our house there is a horse farm not too far from us. There is a huge pond and horses that they love to walk to if the weather permits.

Claire wants to hold Lauren as much as possible now. She will even walk up to us when I'm feeding Lauren and put her hands on her and say, "I hold you?". Sweet girl.

Several weeks ago, a sweet family from church gave us a bundle of hand-me-downs. In it was this cute little headband. Claire calls it her 'necklace' and wears it around her neck all the time. The night this photo was taken, her Daddy put it on her like this and called her Jane Fonda. We laughed and laughed and she had a great time.

My girls L.O.V.E their Daddy! And he just ADORES them. I love this picture of the 3 loves of my life.

Jesus Book

Claire loves to read. Just this morning, during her roomtime she was sitting in the floor surrounded by all of her books, reading. I have a pile of books in Lauren's room for Claire to look at while I'm feeding Lauren. One of those books is the Bible that Bradley and I purchased her when I was still pregnant with her. She calls it her "Jesus Book". It is so sweet and everytime I hear her refer to her Bible as the Jesus Book, I just melt. (I know, I melt at a lot of things that she says & does).

Claire is also learning more and more words each day. She is repeating just about everything that we say in hopes to learn how to say the words. It is precious! Some words that are in her daily vocabulary are:

~"hibbits"...i.e. hiccups. Both Claire & Lauren had the "hibbits" yesterday.


~dog, cat, monkey, hippo, lion, frog, sheep, duck, bird, walrus, bear, bunny...etc. All animals that you can think of. She loves animals and the sounds they make.


~All family member's names: Nannie (Nana), Gampa (Grandpa), Gamma (Grandma), Gee (Granddaddy), Ashee (Ashley), Titeen (Christine), Tia (Tara), Teton (Steven), Angy (easy to say, I guess), Don (John), Char-Jake (refers to both Charlie AND Jake together), Adeeya (Adaya), Ellio (Elliot). She even knows the family dogs names: Cletus, Duke, Sam, Laddie, Rosie, Baxter.



It is a JOY to be the mom of this precious girl. I love teaching her new things. I love the look on her face when she learns something new. I love the look on her face when she knows that she has obeyed me and I'm happy about that. That precious smile. I love the excitement that she gets when she hears her daddy's truck pulling into the driveway after a day at work. I love that she enjoys going to wake up Lauren from her naps with me. I love that she enjoys the outdoors like her daddy does. I love that she calls her Bible her "Jesus Book". I just love this precious girl.

Catching Up...

There came a point in time that so much time had passed since I'd updated the blog, that I kept on getting more and more overwhelmed with the task. Finally, today, I just decided to put some recent pics up (of the last 3 months) and pick up from there.


Our little cutie's hair is now long enough for a pony tail!.


We went camping over Memorial Day weekend and were able to "test drive" our new to us bike trailer that we purchased at a recent garage sale. Claire loved it!


She wasn't quite sure what we were doing, but after riding around for a while in the campground, she warmed up to it.

That same weekend that we went camping, we also went to the NC Zoo in Asheboro. The zoo is so big and it was so hot that day that we only made it through half of the zoo! But, we had a blast. We also cracked up at Claire...she called every animal that she saw a dog!

This gorilla was so funny. If you look closely you can see his grey hair on his chin. He was just sitting by the glass watching all of the people like we were the exhibit...not him. Hilarious!

Claire totally called the elephant a "dog". No honey, that's an elephant...not a dog. :)

We often find Claire sitting in the floor "reading" a book. She just loved to look through books!

Claire and her best buddy, Papa.

Claire and Papa spending a little time together.

Around the 1st of July we got some corn from some local farmers. We decided this year that we wanted to freeze corn for use all winter long. Farm fresh corn...yum! Claire was helping Grandma.

What a cute little helper!

All of a sudden our little girl has become a little girl! She loves to walk on her tip-toes and she is constantly putting these teething rings around her wrists like they're her bracelets. A day doesn't go by that she doesn't have those "bracelets" on. And the funny thing is, that no one taught her that...she just did it all on her own!

Over the 4th, we went to the beach with the Tomlinson family. It was Claire's first time to really "play" at the beach. She's not much of a fan, but after a few days, she warmed up to it.

Bradley went fishing every day that we were there. Our set up was perfect, because we had a house right on the water, so all he had to do was carry a chair, rod and reel down to the water, just feet from our back door! He went fishing morning, noon and night!

Several mornings, Claire and I met Bradley down at the water to hang out. The sunrise over the ocean was beautiful!

My dad and bro-in-law also went fishing a ton while we were there. This is a pic of their set up one morning.

One day we went to the NC Aquarium. It was a nice break from the beach and a fun family outing. The boys especially had a good time!

Bradley and I planted a few tomato plants this year and these are a few of the tomatoes that we got. There were so many at one time that I decided to make a spaghetti sauce out of them...

Here's my spaghetti sauce that went into my...

Homemade lasagna! It was delish!

Claire loved it too!

My sister and I hanging out on the deck overlooking the beach one night.

A little evening fishing...it was so relaxing to just hang out with Bradley while he fished.

Fresh from a bath...what a pretty little smile!

Claire loved to "stomp" on the hard, packed sand.

The boys got some pirate gear while we were down there and guess who always wanted to play with it. What a cute little pirate!

Doesn't everyone wear "bracelets" and a beach hat while eating their morning waffles?

Silly girl, making silly faces.

Charlie, Claire and Jake stopped goofing off long enough for us to get a picture.

Not only have we started putting Claire's hair in a pony tail lately, but just in the last week or so, we have been able to do pig tails too. She looks like such a big girl!

This is what the hair looks like when we take the pig tails out. Crazy hair!!

Ready for the pool!

Playing in the pool that Nana and Grandpa gave her for her birthday.