She's a ROCK STAR!!!

Look at our little miss!  She is the bravest kid I know!  Yesterday went amazingly well.  I'll do a more detailed post later but I wanted to post these pics and tell you all thank you SO much for your prayers!  They definitely worked.  Today she was running around acting pretty much like normal, just so amazing.  You can tell her whole body's a little swollen and her upper lip is really swollen, and that will go away I think pretty soon.  Doesn't she look wonderful? 

 

We are so thankful for this little miracle! 

Tomorrow...

this little girl is going to have her life changed.  She is having her cleft lip repaired! 

 

It is very bitter-sweet for Ryan and me.  We know that this is a great opportunity for her and is something that she needs to help her communication (and socially when she's older I'm sure!)  But we love love LOVE her smile and are SO sad that it is going to change so much tomorrow.  Honestly it's hard to wrap our brains around it.  When I actually think about it my heart sinks, so I'm trying not to think about it. 

 We're just praying that everything goes smoothly tomorrow, and in the meantime we'll try to get every last smile we can out of this girl!  We love her so much!!!

 

Prayers would be very much appreciated tomorrow-her surgery is scheduled to start at 9:30a.m.  Thank you!!!

Visit to Kansas

Over the 4th of July we went to Kansas to visit Ryan's parents.  Claire was able to meet her Aunts and Uncles for the first time! We were worried how she would react with all the new people and with sleeping at a new place but we have now realized Claire is a champ!  She really was so comfortable with everyone-still wanted to be with me at all times-but wasn't scared of meeting new people.  We were so thankful. 

 

There's this cute little park in KS where we like to play.  They have these little Wizard of Oz cut-outs and we especially liked them this year because we just finished reading The Wizard of Oz!  (Random fact- in the book Dorothy's red slippers are actually silver!!)

 

This was also especially fun because we now have Dorothy!!

 

 plus this adorable Tin Man...

 and scarecrow!!

 This was also Claire's first time on the carousal!

 We also went on a train ride!

 Of course we had to pose for a few pictures.

The kids also love to play outside at Grandma and Grandpa's.

 Fireworks are always a hit in KS!!

 We always take a family photo!

 This was a very fast trip but we were able to see a few friends while we were there.  Here's Ryan and his good friend Justin with all of the kids! 

 Claire also got to meet her Great-Grandma and Grandpa!  (Along with Great Aunt/Uncles)  Bad picture but I should have downloaded a better one-there are much better ones where you can see Claire!

 We also got to see Maya and Nolan! Too quick as usual but it was so fun to see them.

Claire actually slept fairly well the entire time which was such a relief.  I was worried about how she would do.  After this trip we were home a week and then headed up to my parents' cabin!  Busy busy summer! :)

A Little Photo-Shoot

 

It's probably been a month and a half since we took these pictures so Claire has changed so much already! 

 

She looks happy here but at first she was so scared of the grass and didn't want to get down.  Luckily she got over that quickly.

 My three cute kids!

 LOVE this dress!!  My friend made it and I think it's just so adorable.

 Claire's first time on the slide!

 Cooper is the monkey bar master.

 I don't have great pictures of Jackson but he loved this balance beam!

 Claire has this completely adorable tutu and she refused to wear it so I told Cooper to put it on instead.  :)

 Then of course Jackson had to try it!

Love these kiddos!

Good Idea In Theory

I saw on Pinteres a  fun idea to make gak.  The boys thought it looked really cool and I actually had all the ingredients on hand!

So, I must have done something wrong because look at this mess!

 It was supposed to be one big blob, not the drippy sticky mess.

 The food coloring also dyed their hands and made a huge mess ALL over!  So, we won't be making this again, but it was fun to try once.

 Claire was smart and stayed out of the mess.

 This is her new "cheese" face!

 We also tried watercolor painting with Claire for the first time.

 Much neater!  Claire loved it.

 I forget how fun it is to paint!  We'll be getting the paint out more often in the future I think!

 Claire and the boys are loving doing this!  She gets on their backs and jumps up and down.

 They are just loving each other!

Cousins and 10 Years!!!!!

Elizabeth and Ben spent the night for the first time since we've had Claire home a few weeks ago.  

 Off came the cushions of course, so I had to try to get a few photos of all the cousins!

 Elizabeth is so sweet with Claire and Claire usually lets her hold her, just not right here. :)

 We have some big bows for Claire once she's a little bit older, and Elizabeth saw them in her closet and was interested in them.  So we decided to put them on the girls and Claire LOVED it!  I tried to take it off of her and she picked it up and handed it to me to put it back on her!   They're a little big for me at this stage but it was fun for a picture! :)

 The girls painted fingernails while the boys watched a movie.

 Claire's first time getting her fingernails painted!  She didn't stay very still so it didn't look great, but it was fun to do!

 Then the next weekend Ryan and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary!  He was so sweet and arranged to have Laura come over and watch the kids for us (after Claire went to bed).  It was our first date night since we brought home Claire!  We took the chance to get a few family photos.

 Then the next day we celebrated Ryan's birthday early.  I tried to get a few photos of the four of them but they all turned out like this...

 Oh well, this is real life!