Blessings

We were so excited to be a part of Jon and Jaclyn blessing their baby Andrew here in Utah. Such a special day! 

 Slippers Nan knit for Andrew (Alex and Jace were also blessed in some gray ones she knit)

Their due dates were only 2 weeks apart, but Andrew was born at 33 weeks so they are 2 months apart. Such cuties!

Nan and Pa's 4 great-grandchildren:

And then the very next day, we blessed Jace. It was another great day filled with love & support from both families! 

Look-a-like

When she was born, I thought for sure she was a Kendell {see here}. Now at 5 months, I'm thinking she looks identical to Ben. 

All I know is she's drop dead gorgeous.

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Can I get an amen?

All you baby boys out there, watch out. She's gonna be a heart-breaker.

3 months

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Her stats:
23.5 inches (50th percentile)
12 lbs 3 oz (55th percentile)

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She and her cousin Reese love their Bumbos:


She loves swimming! Here she is her 3rd time:






After her shots on Friday :( She had 5 of them! Yuck. It was not fun, but she's a tough girl and did great.


New this month:

She loves her hands & fingers. They're always in her mouth. When you take them out, she's ferocious to get them back in. Man that girl is strong!

She's drooling like crazy. If you hold her above your head in the air, it's just a constant stream falling out of her mouth.

She smiles like crazy. It's the cutest thing.

She's cooing and gooing and YELLING. She just lays there and yells. She definitely got her daddy's voice!

She's practicing that hand/eye coordination all the time. She will swat at toys and then when she really focuses, she'll slowly (missing a few times) get her hands where she can grasp the toy. Then it goes straight to her mouth. She doesn't know yet how to get the actual toy in her mouth, her hand is usually in the way and that's what she sucks on.

We got her a Baby Einstein DVD and she loves it.

She hasn't been swaddled in 2 months. She just loves to sleep with her hands tucked behind her head. It's so cute to see those little elbows by her head. Her elbows are one of my favorite things about her little body.

Nights... well, we're working on those. I'm still getting up every 3 hours with her. She did really good for a month or so, only waking up around 2am and 6am, but now she's doing 12am, 3am, 6am. Not fun, but I'm working on keeping her up longer, especially from 5pm till bedtime.

She has lots of friends. The boys are already starting to line up for her.

Her shirt says it all:

Yesterday at church. She just looked too cute:

Lots of you have asked where her bow is from, they're my favorite. Paislee Lane makes them on Etsy.

Ben's mom taught me to crochet while we were in Tahoe and I am LOVING it! I am making flowers and beanies all over the place. Here's one I just finished:

Love this baby girl. She's growing so much and we are loving every new stage. 

Thanks for cleaning my poop, Mom

(viewer discretion is advised)

Hi Mom,

I'm sorry that my poop doesn't stay in my diapers. I'm not sure what we can do about this. We both didn't think they were too small (I mean, they say up to 14lbs and I'm only 12lbs), but maybe you shouldn't do them up so tight, or we should just try moving up a size. I know you don't want to do that though because it means I'm growing up.

I just hate to do this to you so much.

I know I'm in my really cute brand new onesie, but you're so good at getting my poop out of my clothes now so I won't worry about it.

You gotta admit Mom, that I look really cute in this picture. And I don't mind the baths you give me after my blowouts (I promise I don't do them on purpose just to get a bath like you might think).

Thanks for being patient with me, Mom. I'll try to keep it in next time. Thanks for cleaning up my poop.

Love,

Claire

2 months

Some cute pics this week:

My sister Brooke took these next two:

Gesundheit.

Yes. I'm going to keep doing these journal entries to document her growing. I'm going to do them each month until she's one and then maybe once a year, and then make a big book for her. Something like that.

(idea from young house love blog)

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Well, we're on our way home. We had an amazing time in Utah with family and friends and are very sad to leave. We were so blessed with Ben's work to have been able to take off so much time. We are definitely thinking of moving back permanently. It's just too much fun to be by family with Claire. We're in Tahoe for a few days with Ben's family, and Claire finally met her Uncle Jon and Aunt Jaclyn today. She loves them.







And of course, she had her second blowout on her great-grandpa!

Here's just a fun video of how strong she's getting:

Camping in the Uintahs

My family loves camping and wanted to get one more trip in before school started. We originally thought we would just go up for the day, but then decided to brave it out and try staying overnight. My parents have a tent-trailer, in between being in a nice trailer and a cold tent. We happened the choose the coldest night of the weekend to join them, it got down to 40 degrees outside and about 50 inside.

Here is Claire all bundled up in 3 outfits, swaddled, and this super thick pink 6 month old coat thing. She looked adorable. 

Amazingly, she slept all night. I, on the other hand, didn't sleep a wink. I was sooo cold and just kept worrying about Claire. I didn't need to though--she was a champ!

In the morning:

Her long tongue finally caught!

Our poor girl is going bald. Her hair is like 2 inches long all around back and top but nothign on top! She looks like a little old man. An adorable old man though.

It's so amazing up there.

That's me, my mom, and James:

See the big bull moose through the trees?

He hung around our lake all weekend.

We hiked around Provo River Falls:

And had fun in the trailer playing games and taking care of Claire:

Ben, James and Brooke hiked up to Baldy. It's 11,000 ft in elevation and a pretty intense hike.

Taking a snooze:

That night we made croissants and s'mores around the campfire. This time we bundled Claire in this little outfit that we kids used to wear when we were little. My mom saved everything!

It was super fun and we're so glad we went. I have the best memories growing up camping with my family and I'm excited to keep the tradition with our own family.