For Christmas my parents gave Claire an MP3 player for toddlers called a Sweet Pea. It is great and Claire loves being able to listen to music when ever she wants. One of the songs on the MP3 player is Shake Your Groove Thang by Alvin and the Chipmunks. Hope you enjoy Claire shaking her groove thang!!!
BB and Gigi got Claire a tricycle for Christmas which she loves! We decided to take her out on Christmas to ride around the back patio. She was actually on the verge (or in the middle of) a major melt down so we gave her her paci and took her out anyways for some pictures. When we came in she looked at me and said "night night Claire bear!" and walked into her room and put herself down for a nap! She was super tired from all the morning festivities!!
Christmas day was spent at our house with our family. They all arrived between 7 and 8 for cinnamon rolls and Claire seeing her Santa gifts. It was a nice relaxing time had by all - we look forward to next year hosting it again with baby Haffner here as well!!
This week we went in for our 12 week appointment. I had worked myself into a nervous wreck about hearing the baby's heartbeat. This pregnancy came very easy and I have been very anxious for the past 8 weeks! I believe God heard the cries of my heart and we heard the sweetest heartbeat on Monday afternoon!!! It was amazing!
Here are some updates on this pregnancy-
Morning sickness/ nausea- I have had nausea pretty much everyday, however if I keep something on my stomach I am usually ok. With Claire I threw up everyday 3 to 5 times a day for 23 weeks, and with this pregnancy I have only thrown up once. It was horrible and busted all the blood vessels around my eyes, making me look like I had 2 black eyes - but luckily it has only happened once!
Weight gain - with Claire I lost weight every appointment until around 30 weeks. I knew that I had not been losing weight this time around but was very pleased to see that I have not gained any weight either! ( I am not so sure I will post this portion every time...we shall see)
Maternity Clothing - well, I hate to say that what everyone says is true - that you show MUCH faster with your second child...but it's true. Most of my slacks were too small very soon after we found out we were pregnant, followed closely by my shirts being too short. So, I have started wearing some maternity clothing - and my belly band. It is much more comfortable that way.
Now for the picture...4 weeks have passed and I am pretty sure a big change has taken place. This is kind of embarrassing - but who cares - it is what it is!!
Last night we had Christmas with Michael's dad and step mom. It was nice to see everyone and hold baby Alice! She makes me want to rush through the next 6 months to hold my new baby!!! Claire was spoiled beyond belief- as always!
Claire got a horse from grandma and grandpa - Claire LOVES this horse...however she does NOT want to sit on the horse at all...ever...
She sits and talks to her horse and loves on it and pets it and laughs as it nods its head and wags its tail...but cries the moment you put her on it. We think that she thinks it is real - it does look and act kind of real!
What a day we have had today!!! It started snowing here around 8:00 and it hasn't stopped yet!!! We have a pretty good accumulation on the ground now and it is truly beautiful (and cold) outside!! We started our day out by rearranging Claire's room to get ready for her new Christmas toys! We are packing up the old toys - which makes a momma very sad - and reorganizing things she still needs. We then all showered and got dressed up for our Christmas Eve service at Bear Creek, we made it a block away from the house when Brett called to tell us it was canceled. We turned around, came home, and put on layers of clothes to head outside to play a little. Claire was having so much fun until it hit her that it was so cold that it hurt! Then the tears came so we stood in the garage until daddy could finish her oh-man (snowman). Now we are all bundled up inside waiting on the big man to arrive later tonight!!! A large portion of our family will be headed over hear tomorrow morning and we can not wait to have Christmas with them! Stay warm everyone!!
Our first fire in our fire place!
All dressed up for the Christmas Eve service
Mommy and Claire bear
Daddy and Claire bear
Sweet Claire bear
Daddy, Claire, and the oh-man! He has two button eyes, a glow stick for a nose, and wooden spoons for arms...
We took Claire to see Santa this week! You can't really tell from these pictures but she didn't mind the big guy! The one we actually paid for she is smiling really big in! She kept saying "Santa! Ho ho ho!!!"
Tonight we had the first ever Bear Creek Family Christmas! I absolutely loved every minute of it! We had a wide variety of music - our praise band, a couple of duos and trios, a large adult ensemble, our preschool choir sang, and we had a children's musical! Claire is the only kid her age that comes on Wednesday nights so she has been bumped up to the 3's and 4's for Bible study and singing. We were not going to have her sing tonight but Joy convinced me that we should let her sing with the rest of the kids...and I am so glad we did!!! I hope you enjoy - I am laughing so hard that the camera is shaking a lot - sorry!
The other day in the Cleburne "mall" Claire saw Santa! He was just walking around (they don't have a lot of customers at the Cleburne "mall" so we are guessing he wasn't busy) and he stopped to say hi to Claire. She just kept waving and staring at him. If he came closer to her she would take a step backwards! We are taking her to see him for real next week sometime!!
We finally got our house decorated for Christmas! It was a lot of fun this year with Claire. She kept saying "It's Boo-ti-ful!" I am so excited about Christmas with a toddler this year - it should be a lot of fun
Michael and Claire in the Christmas spirit with their Santa hats on!
