Christmas 2010

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. It is so much fun to watch a 2 1/2 year old! Claire did surprisingly well opening presents pretty slowly and not tearing through everything in a matter of minutes. She is just the sweetest little girl. We are continuously amazed and thankful for her kind heart and gentle spirit. She is going to be such a great big sister :) Here are a few pictures to document Christmas 2010. I hope everyone has had as blessed of a Christmas as we have had, and here's to an exciting New Year!!!

This was the sunrise Christmas Eve morning. It was so pretty

A couple of Christmas Eve pictures of the 3 of us. People say Claire's looking more and more like her daddy and I have to agree!

 

She loves, LOVES her new dress up stuff!!

 She got a v.reader from her Nana and Papa and it's great! She's really going to love playing with it.

 And Santa brought her a new kitchen! Can't cook in her new kitchen without her apron on...

 Claire with her awesome Uncle Griff and Aunt Lauren. They love her so much, she's one lucky little girl :)

I've been a terrible blogger, but here's a little update

We have had such a wonderful, busy last few months.  We got to visit Cannon Beach for a week and had an amazing time! Brandon has been busy at work and still really enjoys his job. We are getting ready to introduce a new baby to the world in 3 short months and cannot wait! Claire is SO excited to be a big sister and we can't wait to see her in that roll. The gender is a surprise and I really have no feeling at all either way on that :) We've been having a blast in the snow and getting all ready for Christmas too! I'll try to update more recently next time!!!  Here's some recent (or semi-recent) pictures of our family

Kisses for Daddy!! They have such a special relationship

Baby #2 profile at 20 weeks! Any guesses on the gender???

 Claire at the Portland Zoo

The Zoo was amazing. Claire loved every minute of it! We did too :)

 Haystack rock. We had so much fun staying in Cannon Beach. We had beautiful weather and got to really enjoy each other. Claire was in Heaven digging in the sand and looking for seashells :) We definitely plan on making this a family tradition!

 Enjoying an evening campfire on the beach

 

 Claire's pumpkin 2010. She loved this thing, I mean heartfelt LOVED. Kissed it good night and good morning everyday until we had to get rid of it

 Claire is currently taking swim lessons with Daddy and loves it! She's doing so great and really does well in the water. She is one talented little girl!

This has been the theme for the past couple of weeks. SNOW!!! And I'm SO glad I went out and got her snow stuff early this year because we have definitely used it!

We headed down to River Park Square to see Santa make his debut and it was great! She was so excited to see him and his elves :)

where did summer go?

On our way to Silverwood!

4th of July at Bayview

Griff and Lauren's Bachellor parties. Tootsie roll?

Sporting piggy tails at the lake

Going on the elephants with Daddy

Milk bubbles = fun

Running laps at the track!

wow, it's been a while!

Blogging has clearly not been at the top of my priority list these days... But here's a quick update with some current pics of our little crazy woman :) That's what she's been saying these days, "mommy! I'm going crazy!!" lol. Really though, she is so fun, funny, witty, cute, athletic, smart (I am not biased...) and we are so proud of her! And Brandon and I are great too. He's kicking butt at his job and loving it at the same time, still working out and is an amazing daddy. The last few months I've taken up running again and am loving it. It's me, Claire, and Gracie bonding time :) Yay for sun, finally, and Happy Summer!!!

April update

Well April has come and all but gone already! Claire will be 2 next month and we can't believe it. She is so smart and funny and affectionate and we are beyond blessed. Here are some current pictures of our almost-2-year-old girl!k

Easter 2010

Well we had a great Easter in our neck of the woods. The Easter bunny brought Claire a basket full of Caillou books (which she LOVES) and and summer time fun toys. He also hid eggs at both Grandma Kari's house and Nana and Papa Garske's yard. Here are some long overdue pictures of Claire and a few of her cousins too.

Claire, Maddie and Elsa

Cousins James, Maddie, Elsa and Claire

Claire's Easter basket before she got her mits on it:)

Dumping it out

Claire and Maddie

Hunting for eggs

Help from Papa

Love this one:)

Griff and Lauren and Claire

Yes, she is just wearing this apron and her shoes:)

Loves her Gramps

She's even a good leg workout

Playing with Daddy