1st Birthday Party

What a fun party!!! I was so sad when it was over.

Claire sat on my lap while we opened all her gifts. She got so many nice things and LOTS of new books to read! The best part of the gifts? The tissue paper! We're still playing with all the paper and pulling it in and out of a bag.

Claire's bumble bee cake. (I drew a picture of a bee for them to put on the cake - I guess they couldn't figure out how to draw it in reverse, hence the "dead" upside down bee?!)The most photographed moment of Claire's life thus far. She ate the whole piece! Well, she ate everything but what landed on the floor, in her lap, in her bib, hair, and highchair.Look Mom, I can eat it with no hands!
Claire in her new wagon from Grammy and Papa Jim.

Here's just a little clip of us singing Happy Birthday to You! She looks a little "deer-in-headlights" probably because there were 15 people singing to her and snapping pictures like the paparazzi!

Birthday Girl!

My baby girl is officially a toddler! (She's 1 and toddling around, so I guess that means she's a toddler now right?) She looks so grown up in this picture. It's almost 10:30pm, I can't help but remember this time last year....
This afternoon, we had a birthday party for our playgroup. We finally have another girl in the group!! Here are all our little 1 year olds! (Jacob, Claire, Theo, Ellie, and Gavin from left to right)
Jackie made cupcakes for the kids....they are hesitantly checking them out....
Yum! Claire grabbed her cupcake and walked all around eating it. Didn't matter if it would fall icing-first onto the deck...she'd just pick it back up and eat some more. Notice a little cake went up the nose. It was great practice for the big party tomorrow!
More to come tomorrow when we have her family birthday party...

Tired Daddy

This is what happens when you fall asleep playing with Mommy and Claire in the playroom...

Reminiscing...

Today was my due date last year! Hard to believe it has really been a whole year.
I remember this time last year, hoping so badly that I would just go into labor and have that baby! I was ready... but all the walking and eating spicy food didn't make Claire any more "ready" to enter the world. She made me learn to be patient and trust that everything would work out ok.
It's been fun looking back at pictures and going down "memory lane" - we are so excited about Claire's 1st birthday in just a few days!

This one's for the Normans...

Go Dawgs!

Claire was excited about another win yesterday!

We're thinking about our dear friends in Georgia and we'll especially be thinking of Mr. Norman on Wednesday. I think he would have been pleased with this little "Puppy Dawg" :-)

Our Three-Generation-Family-Vacation Part II

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our Three-Generation-Family-Vacation! Part I

We're back from our vacation in Topsail and we had a wonderful time! Many many thanks to Mom and Dad for such a fantastic week. Here's a little sneak peak at our adventures from the past week. More to come...

Here's Claire getting dressed for our family portraits. This was our gift to Mom for her 60th birthday. Check out the photographer's blog if you'd like to see some of the pictures. It was the only time we didn't look like beach bums all week! Claire is wearing the dress that Madison (our godchild) wore to our wedding. It made it extra special to see her all dolled up in such a beautiful dress. Thanks Jessica!!

Yes folks, even Papa Jim made it out onto the beach. It's a rare sight, but he actually got in the ocean once!! It was wonderful for Claire to be around her grandparents for a whole week.

We brought the pool out onto the beach for Claire to play in. Mostly though she crawled around in the sand and played in the surf. I was shocked by how much she loved the beach. She showed no fear and just had a blast.

We had great weather, with the exception of a few storms that rolled through. One afternoon we were sitting at the table eating lunch, and my brother jumped up and yelled "tornado!" We all ran out to the deck to see about 5 water spouts across the ocean. It was a pretty crazy sight. Luckily they all stayed over water and by later in the afternoon, we were back on the beach in the sun!

This one's just for you Tara! Your favorite little beach creature crawled out to say hello Sunday morning when we went to check on the turtle nest.

Claire got TONS of practice "walking" around on the beach while holding my hands. She would head straight to the water. All that practice really paid off.....she took her first steps on Friday!! We got a little video the next day which I'll post in Part II!