October Happenings

Cooper started Tiger Cubs this year.  I think he looks so cute in his uniform!

 

 happy girl

 
My good friend Bekah is having a baby (actually already had him!) and myself and another one of her friends hosted a shower for her.

Bekah is in the middle along with me and Kristen, the other hostess.

Claire has so many cute fall outfits and I'm trying to make sure I get photos of her in them!

 One day we made pumpkin muffins.  Jackson especially LOVES to cook with me.  He asks me all the time if he can help me make dinner. 

 I just loved this picture of Elizabeth! :)

 Our family friends were in town that we hadn't seen for YEARS.  It was so fun getting all our kids together!

Jackson and Claire love to play together, aren't they cute together??  This is what they do while Cooper is doing homework. 

And here's poor Cooper, slaving away at his homework.  He gets distracted by his brother and sister so we set up this super cool table in our bedroom for him to have some privacy.  He's such a hard worker, and I still can't believe he's in 1st grade!!

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!

Catching Up

Wow I have had a hard time keeping up with the blog!  Here's just a random assortment of photos from June!

Claire has really been opening up to us! She is now so comfortable with the boys.  She still definitely loves to be by me most of the time, but she will now occasionally play in the playroom with the boys when I'm not there!  Of course they are teaching her how to be a daredevil so I try to make sure I don't stay out of there for too long! :) 

We are already starting teaching her how to do housework!  (don't worry, the boys know how to do this too :))

She loves pushing around baby carriages (this is at my parents' house)

All of the monkey cousins.

Claire's first time in the pool!  ( I think??  First photos at least)  She LOVES the pool.  Loves it.

I wanted a photo to put in a little patriotic vignette I have up and so we did a little photo shoot.  Love this one!

In the beginning of June we went to an info meeting about tiger scouts and they had face painting.

Both boys loved it but we didn't have Claire try it- I think it would have scared her!

She has discovered the phone!  (we strip her to eat usually which is why she's not wearing clothes in a few pictures)

She's started giving the boys kisses!

She really doesn't have any interest in reading and so when she stopped to read a book with us I yelled for Ryan to quick get the camera!

This girl LOVES shoes!  She's started saying "shoes" and she'll go in her closet and get out pairs.  These are shoes that are too big for her but she grabbed them out of the closet for me to put on her and then clomped all around.  It was too cute.

We celebrated G and G's birthdays and mother's/father's day all at once.  This was the best picture-life with kids!

She copies everything the boys do!

Super heroes!

Claire helped me cook brownies one day!

She loves to take the cushions off of the chairs/couch and jump all over them.

This was her first time sitting on Jackson's lap!

Also her first watermelon slice!

And the cutie girl just hanging out.   We are sure having fun with her and are so blessed to have her in our lives!

Cousins

My parents celebrate their birthdays in May and June, along with Mother's Day and Father's Day.  We knew that the present they'd appreciate the most are pictures of all their grandchildren! 

 

Needless to say, it was a challenge.  A fun challenge, but a challenge.

 

 Half of the time Claire did not like it.

 But then she would turn a corner and enjoy it! 

 

This was our favorite photo!  My mom loves to read so this just turned out perfectly for her.

 

 Again, she wasn't a fan. :)

 We then just let the kids run around and play for awhile.

 The girls.

 We tried to get a cute picture of the kids walking toward us.  Look at that personality from Cooper!

 The boys.

 My first photo with all of my children!