2 1/2 years old!!!

How crazy is it that Claire is a 2 1/2 year old already! She will be 3 in 6 short months I am sure! We had a doctor's visit last week with Dr. Seitz at the Cleveland clinic and she will be having surgery on her hands October 17th. She will only be getting extenders on her thumbs so that is nice to hear that there will be less metal to deal with! Claire and I went to D.C. this past weekend to visit Uncle Bub, Aunt Dani, and Chloe with my parents. We had a great time! Claire and chloe are quite a sight to see!!! Our next visit won't be until Chloe's Birthday in November, then the visits really begin with the holidays! I can't wait!! Fall is among us, she is all over the place, and testing mommy's patience but that's what the terrible two's are all about! I start school the 19th, and I am a little bit nervous, because of the scare tactics they use with this program but I know I have the support to do well! Claire and I are trying to enjoy my time off from school, although the weather hasn't been the best since we got back. We just found out that cousin Landon will be up here with grammy for a few days!!! We are sooo excited to have some playdates with him and possibly get the other cousins to come over too! We are still working on potty training with Claire she just doesn't have the motivation yet! But hopefully soon she will, We have been working on her counting and writing and ABC's. I'm tryin to the sounds of the Alphabet vs the actual letters as my mom mentioned so we will see what this smart cookie can do!

Jamma's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jamma! What a very exciting day we had today, my grandma (jamma) turned 75 on August 2nd, and we threw a big party at my parents house. Aunt Cindy, Uncle Ron, Ian, Brad, Danielle, and Chloe came to celebrate! Claire and Chloe have been running around and playing princesses!!! They are so funny, we can't wait for Chloe and Danielle to come back on the 15th for a week! Claire and Chloe got to help Jamma blow out her candles and had their own special cupcakes to blow out too! Friday we went to the splash with my friend Rachel and her daughter Emma and Callie, and the girls all had a blast! Our summer is just flying by!!! I can't believe it will be over before we know it, and then I will be in clinicals, and going to NYC to visit Uncle Joe and Annie and then Claire will be having surgery too!

Happy Easter!!

Claire in her Easter Dress!

Emma and Claire!

Before the Egg Hunt at Fredpa's and Juju's!

Claire in her adorable Fancy Nancy Outfit from Cousin Carol!!

Claire's Easter Basket!

Easter Egg Hunt at Papaw's and nana's!

Claire's hat from Nana!

We had a wonderful Easter sunday, actually Easter weekend! Saturday Claire had an Easter Egg Hunt at Juju and Fredpa's Alotment. She had tons of fun and is really observant! After that we dyed eggs and made cut out cookies! Then we went to Emma's 3rd Birthday party!! Which was tons of fun, we got lucky that the weather was cooperating for that moment! We also were watching Ralphy Grammy Tracy and Grandpa J's dog while they were up at the lake! Then Sunday came and we got ready for church, claire almost lasted the whole mass but unfortunately had a little meltdown. Then we headed to Fredpa's and Juju's for the day, Claire had another little egg hunt, and found her basket! With some goodies!! It was a nice relaxing day, with ham and Pierogi's you can't go wrong! All in all it was a great weekend! Claire and I are loving Mitch's new job (so is Mitch) because we get to see him on the weekends!!! I can't believe my baby will be 26 months in less than 2 weeks!!! It makes me sad to think how fast time has flown by! We found out that I got into clinicals for the RN program in the fall! So we are excited for that adventure to begin and I think if we can get in Claire will start Preschool in the Fall! We are anxiously awaiting summer and it's weather to arrive! I am ready for walks with Claire, going to the park, and being able to play in the backyard, o and all the babies to get here! We have 2 cosuins for Claire coming at the end of May and middle of July and my good friend Rachel will be having her second baby around June 1st! (Emma's mom, the birthday girl from this weekend). Oh let the fun begin!

FLORIDA!

Claire and Andrea Dancing at the Reception!

Claire crashed during dinner!

Excited for the parade!!

The Castle at night! It changes colors, it's so COOL!

On the steamboat!

Claire loved her 3D glasses for the Donald Duck movie!

It's a small world after all!! She was so interested in this ride!!

Mommy, Claire, and Daddy infront of "claire's" castle!

We got back Sunday, April 10th, from our great vacation to Florida. We took Fredpa with us on the trip down so he could visit with his sister Joey who lives in Tampa. From there we went to Disney World and it was amazing! We stayed at the Disney's Carribean Resort and Claire enjoyed her trip! We only went to two parks, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom! We did a lot at Magic Kingdom, it's a small world (of course!), and Donald Duck 3D movie, Peter pan ride, and the steamboat. We came back that evening for the night time parade and fireworks, which were a lot of fun. Claire didn't know what to think of the parade but she sat the 20 minutes for it! We really didn't get to do a lot at Animal Kingdom due to heat but we did the Safari! Which is a lot of fun and then we did a walk through of different animals. Claire was so exhausted from the day before we didn't want to overdue it! And boy did it wear us all out! The weather was beautiful and HOT! We stayed in Disney from Saturday to Wednesday then took a trip to Clearwater, FL to visit with Fredpa, Aunt Joey, and Uncle Jerry. We had a great visit with them and then we headed down to Naples, for the main event of our trip....Andrea's Wedding!!! Andrea is my friend from high school and Claire's Godmother. She got married on Friday April 8th, it was a beautiful ceremony on the beach. It couldn't have been more perfect, Andrea looks absolutely stunning and very happy!! We are excited for Andrea and Tim and can't wait for them to start having kids so Claire can have some play mates!!! The reception was a lot of fun, claire passed out at the table while eating, then after a 20 minute snooze was ready to party!! She danced and danced and it was sooo adorable. It was quit the grand finale to our trip! We didn't want to come home but we knew it had to end. Our trip back was a bit frustrating, we hit some traffic in Florida and Georgia so a trip that should have been 12 hours was 15!!! Plus we missed out visiting with Mitch's stepsisters and their kids because we got there late, which was a bummer, so we need to plan another trip to Knoxville soon!! Our trip home on Sunday was pretty easy going which was nice considering the day before! Our trip was amazing and we CAN'T wait to go back!! We may have to make it an annual thing! :o) I put a lot more pictures up on Facebook but I wanted to put some up here too!

and she's 2!

It's Been a rough day!

Reading Olivia!

Opening Presents!

OOOO Tea Set!

YUM!!!!

Its My Birthday@!

Claire's Adorable Cookies from Buckeye Bakery, thanks to the Buck Family!

The Amazing Cake!

I apologize I know I have not been on here in way too long! But I'm on spring break and was determined to do a blog on little Miss Claire's Birthday! On March 6th Claire turned 2! Her party was on the 5th and was a blast! The cousins and friends all played well and got sugared up! Poor Claire was ready for a nap by present time, she made it through about three gifts and was done! She got so many great things and had a ball. That following Monday we went to the Doctor's office for her 2 year check up. She is 36 1/2 inches and weights 32.2 lbs.! She is a big girl, they didn't do the guess for height or anything, but oh well! So She is singing all the time and amazing us every day with what she can do! she can string beads, she is even impressing her PT and intervention specialist! I am looking at getting her some appointments with podiatrist so that we can make sure there isn't anything else we need to do for her feet. Shoes are really becoming an issue but we are making it work, grandma Crystal is determined! Mitch and I are both on Spring Break from School, next quarter I am going at night so Claire won't be as tossed around as much and we can finally really start potty training. I was going to do it this week, but since we are going to Florida next Friday we decided to wait for that ordeal to be over!! We are very excited to be taking our baby girl to Disney!! We think she will love it, but we will see. Then we have Andrea's wedding in Naples so a very fun filled week with hopefully awesome weather! I am promising pictures from our Florida Trip!!! We are ready for spring, the zoo, and being able to play and walk outside!

Merry Christmas!

Where is Ming Ming, Lenni, and Tuck?? Claire has celery!
Happy Girl!
Opening more gifts!
Christmas!!! Opening presents!!
In her new chair that Santa brought her!
Christmas run down the hallway!
Santa was here!
Christmas Eve, oooo Puzzles
Christmas Eve at the Kell's
Joe and Claire
Annie and Claire

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!! Claire had a Great 3rd Christmas!! I should back up to December 23rd, that is when we had a mini Christmas with Uncle Joe and Annie (his girlfriend). Her mom made Claire a Pillow case and Pillow she loves! She walks around with and will lay down on it! It was nice to be spend time with both them!! Saturday was a crazy day! She got all kinds of goodies from Santa, A Dora couch that flips out like a bed, and a Tag Jr, which she loves! Books, and clothes, and coloring books! Mega Blocks and many other toys! She was a very happy and overwhelmed girl on Saturday Morning! We had a nice time opening gifts with Ju Ju, Fredpa, MiMi, and pa J. Later that day we had Dinner at Juju's and Fredpa's house and it was very nice to spend time together. JuJu and Fredpa got a Slide for their house for Chloe and Claire and Claire had a blast playing with it!!! She wore herself out and slept almost 12 hours which is not common for Little Miss Claire. We also got to skype with Aunt D, Bub, and Chloe. We found out we will be hopefully celebrating Christmas in Severville, TN next year with my mom's side of the family! This Christmas was a lot of fun and I'm sure it will just keep getting more fun as each year passes by! We are so blessed and thankful for our Family and Friends!!!

Nana and Papaw Christmas!

Claire was lucky to have her second Christmas with Nana and Papaw a week before Christmas! She was a very lucky girl,she received an Art Easel and Pillow pet!! She loves them both, and clothes of course!! And some other things of course!! It was so nice to visit with them, and we are exctied to see them again for Aunt Sarah's Wedding Jan. 8th!!! It will be here before we know it!! Mommy and Daddy got some goodies too!!! I took some pictures but of course Claire wouldn't look at the camera!!! This girl is so hard to get a good picture!! Although we did take her to get some pictures taken at a professional place in Mansfield because they had a deal for 10 bucks, and I was really impressed. I think I know where we will be going for her 2 year old pictures! Ugh That's scary she is going to be 2 in a little over 2 months! We are planning on doing another party, Dora Themed possibly! Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself!! We have some exciting times coming up, weddings and birthdays and trips to Florida!!