Brent and Patti

Today we said goodbye to one of our dearest friends - Brent. He is leaving tomorrow to head to Scotland where he will be going to school. He and his wife Patti have felt the call of the Lord on their hearts to serve the people of Scotland for sometime now. We are so happy that the Lord has blessed them beyond belief and given them the desires of their hearts. We are sad that we are having to say goodbye to two of the best friends we have. Please join us as we pray for them and the mission that God is sending them on. Also pray for Patti as she will not be joining Brent in Scotland until the end of the school year.

Brent and Patti LOVE Claire - these are some pictures from Halloween - and are some of my favorite of the 3 of them!

Claire gets a new friend!

Claire LOVES Elmo! Everytime we pass by an Elmo Live at the store she goes crazy! Claire had some birthday money so while Michael and I were out on our date we swung by Wal-Mart to pick her up her very own Elmo Live. As you can see in the video she is a little star struck! But she loves her Elmo!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ball Pit!

My sister bought Claire a ball pit for her birthday...and before she left our house we made her blow it up - it was pretty funny to watch so I snapped some pictures :)

Jamie and Megan

She loves to crawl in and out of her ball pit as many times as she can. It's pretty funny.

Playing outside!

The weather around here has been beautiful (except for the past couple of days). We have been out back a lot letting Claire play with some of her new outdoor toys! She loves being outside and playing!!

Teaching daddy how to play in the sand and water table.

A nice action shot!

She took the watering can and poured water down her front

Such a funny girl

She loves to plant her flowers in the sand!

Storms in Texas!

We have some storms coming through Texas right now - and I quickly took this picture from outside my classroom window! Aren't those clouds crazy?!?!?

New Stats!

Claire went to the doctor today for her one year check up! She now weighs 22 lbs and 15 oz and is 31 1/2 inches tall! She is in the 95% for height and 70% for weight! While at the doctor we discovered that she had an ear infection - she has not run a fever or been cranky (except yesterday at church - but I think she wanted to hear the Kingry's talk about Israel) she has been pulling at her left ear but the infection is in her right ear! Crazy! She had 4 shots today - there were several shots that I was very worried about. I was worried about all the risks involved in them and things that these shots could cause. I brought these worries up to our pedi and she took me so seriously and sat down and talked to me about it for a good 30 minutes. She never thought I was silly for worrying about them and she helped me weigh the pros and cons of getting the shots. Needless to say by the end of our chat Claire got all 4 of her shots*. I love that our pedi is very well educated - I love that she looks at both sides of a situation and presents both sides. I also love that she explains things to me in a way that I totally understand and feel confident in choices I am making and she never talks down to me!!

*I know that several people out there that read our blog totally disagree with vacines and I am totally fine with your choices - but this is the best choice for our family and our sweet little Claire.

Claire's Birthday Party!

What an amazing and LONG day!!! We had so much fun celebrating our little Claire bear's first birthday!!! We had around 45 people here - and we are so thankful that the weather was PERFECT so that we could all be outside!!! Claire was in a great mood all day and really put on a show for everyone! She had to have 3 baths today!!! She got so many gifts and is having so much fun playing with them all. The pictures are all out of order but if you start at the bottom of this post and go up they make sense!!

Big bite!
Clapping for herself

Oh yum!

I get to eat this???!!!

Elmo plane! She has drug this around the house with her tonight
A beautiful quilt my great grandma made me!

A sand and water table!!! (which she LOVES)

Looking at the card Mimi gave her

I got 2 new pair of sunglasses!!!

Opening gifts!!

Princess in her princess chair!

A bounce house!!!

My new Tinker Bell cup

Playing

This was her birthday outfit! We tried to keep it very clean for her 1 year photos next week

Her cakes!!!

It pays to have a Gigi that owns a bakery!!

They were EXACTLY what I envisioned mom - thanks!!!

We did a pink and green theme - it was very spring like and some of the decorations we found said "little princess" which is something we call her a lot!The back yard

More backyard

We knew we were going to have several little ones at her party so we set up a little play area for them.

Oh goodness

I just want to apologize for none of the comments showing up lately!!! I changed some settings on my blog and didn't realize that it wasn't sending me e-mails when they came up!!! So anyways keep'em coming!!!

Birthday Zoo Visit!

What a perfect day for a trip to the zoo!! Michael heard on the news yesterday that the zoo was VERY crowded and that roads leading to and from the zoo were backed up for miles! So, Michael and I decided that we would leave here by 9 get there by 9:30 and be ready for when the gates opened! It was PeRfEcT! We beat ALL the crowds!!! It was NOT hot!!! and All the animals were out playing and in a good mood!! When we left at noon there were TONS of people coming in and they were having to park in overflow parking a walk a ways to get in! We parked at the front entrance!
Claire loved the zoo. People kept telling us that she was too young and that she wouldn't be interested in the animals - well she was! She would squeal and clap for the animals and point to them! She really loved every moment of our trip! She missed her morning nap so we thought she might be a little fussy but she never cried!! What a big one year old we have!!!

I am too cute for words!
Birthday Girl!!

Birthday girl with mom

Birthday girl with dad

BIG!

Give me a kiss!

What are they doing? One of the Orangutans was playing peek-a-boo under a wet sheet! Claire laughed a lot!

Look at those weird animals!
Mom are you going to take my picture all day??

Look at that monkey!

So big

Silly Meerkat! I want to pet you!

Timone!
Daddy is telling me all about it!

baby giraffe

Look daddy!

Look at those silly elephants!

Me and daddy in front of the elephants
I'm sitting on an elephant!

Here kitty kitty kitty!

I want to pet you!

That is big!

Look at all the birds!!I can almost touch that one!

Kangaroo

She LOVED the penguins

Hey come over here penguin!

bluebonnets

Here little foxy!

People keep saying I am too cute! and asking mommy how she gets me to keep my sunglasses on! Easy - I don't like the sun in my eyes so I keep them on!!!

My birthday present from mom and dad - a White Tiger!!! I love him so much!