Claire is 2!!!

My Claire is 2! I can't believe it. I feel like she has grown up so fast. She is such a fun, spunky, sassy, feisty, cuddly, sweet little thing! We couldn't love her more!

We celebrated her birthday on Sunday the 9th because we were going to be busy on her actual birthday, Monday the 10th. I just kept it low key and just had my mom and dad come over for dinner, cake and cookies! I ordered these adorable Dora sugar cookies that were a huge hit!

The next three pictures are too funny. This sweet lady in our ward made heart sugar cookies for us. So naturally I let Mae and Claire have one.  This is what Claire did with hers instead of eat it.  She just rubbed the frosting side of the cookie all over her face :)! Silly girl!

Mae helped put a few decorations on Claire's cake

My mom gave Claire a Dora pillow pet which she LOVED of course! She loves Dora! She now sleeps with that pillow every night.

Claire grabbed that castle and a few princess and went and sat by Grandpa and just played and played with that castle.  It really was too cute.

The Dora cookies! They were adorable and delicioso!!

Claire got this tinker bell outfit for her birthday and the second she put it on she wouldn't stop posing for the camera!

This picture pretty much sums up the way Mae was with everything Claire opened.  Mae would stake claim on it like it was hers and was sorely disappointed when I had to keep reminding her that it was in fact Claire's birthday and these toys were Claire's.  Claire luckily shared most of the time pretty well with Mae :)

Happy Birthday sweet Claire! We love you lots and don't know what we would do without you!

Deleware!!!!!

This trip was thrown together so quickly! My brother Bryan offered his buddy pass for us to use and he found a ticket that wasn't terrible in price so I just decided to do it!! We booked the trip like 3 weeks before I left! So this trip feels like it came and went way too fast! And I only was able to do it because I have such generous and amazing family members! And the best husband to let us go! It was just very unfortunate that Claire woke up throwing up just the day before we were supposed to go, and then I get a call from mare the day I was scheduled to go telling me that Jane woke up and was throwing up all the night before.  What a terrible way to start a trip that I was soo looking forward to.  But I decided to still go and hope for the best.

I got to the airport and got through security with out any trouble and I was even able to bring Claire's car seat on the airplane with us because there were extra seats on the Airplane. It was great, I got them both strapped in and we were off.  Minus a few little screams from Claire, the Plane ride there to Delaware was pretty uneventful!

all strapped in ready for take off!

The first day (friday), Jane was still very sick so Mare had put up a baby gate in the doorway to her room so that no one could come in or out :( Poor Jane! We just hung out at Mare's house and Mae and Beckham just played and played. Meanwhile Mare was starting to not feel very good herself and was cleaning up Jane's diarrhea ..awful just awful!

Because Jane was so sick, I wanted to bathe my kids separate, so we came up with this idea! 

The next day(saturday), Mare had woken up and thrown up herself. So Ryan was a trooper and got me and the girls and Beckham out of the house for the day! It was such a fun day too! Although we did miss Mary and Jane terribly bad! First we went to the airplane museum on base. It was super fun. We got to see Air force 2, and lots of other cool airplanes! Then he took us to Rehoboth Beach. It was soooo fun! We got some lunch at Subway and we had to get some super yummy fries at a place on the boardwalk! Then we went to the beach and let the kids play and play! Beckham and Mae has sooo much fun! Claire loved the sand too! It was sunny out but not too hot. It was great!  Later, Ryan and I decided to try out some real seafood and this restaurant called Medings! I tried Crab and scallops for the first time.  It was delicious!

Claire loved the sand sooo much!

The next day(Sunday), Mary was feeling much better and Jane was better too, so we decided to drive to Matthew and Cortney's house in Maryland. It was so nice being able to see their house before they move to Cali. We went to a fun little park near their house and let all the kids play for a while! We have quite the crew of kids now, and that was not even all of the cousins :). Then we drove to Cafe Rio for dinner.  Then we headed home.  Such a fun day too!

My only picture from Monday?? What did we do that day?

On Tuesday we went to Longwood gardens. It was beautiful with all of the spring blooms!

The last day there, Thursday, we just hung out and played in the bouncy house! Mae still talks about how much fun she had in that thing!

These were on the horrendous flight home...Let me tell you a little story about the flight home.  So Mare and I get to the airport an hour before my flight. I was a little panicked that we wouldn't make it onto our flight so right when we got there I was in high gear, and didn't even give mare a hug good by :(. Then I get to the security line and it is beyond huge...my heart sinks and tears start to well up a little bit.  I just couldn't imagine what would happen if I missed my flight. So I make it through security in dang good time and head to the gate to try and see if I can bring Claire's car seat on again.  No such luck the plane was full. Tears were again welling in my eyes...So after getting settled into our seats with a man next to us and Claire on my lap, I was kind of dying inside. Not to mention that the plane was delayed. Anyway, then an airport worker comes and talks with the guy sitting right next to me telling him that his dogs can't fly on this plane because the heat isn't working under the plane. I was hearing the "hallelujah" song in my head! They were going to have to get off the plane!!! So he got up to leave and I was in the process of unbuckling my seat belt to move over and make myself right at home in the third seat when a man comes and says, "where is the extra seat?" I just sat there thinking in my head "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO" and mind you there was an extra seat in the middle seat behind me too because that was where the man with the dogs wife was sitting. But the men sitting behind me said "its right there" pointing to the seat by me because they didn't want him to sit in the middle of them.  I am still so mad about that! So long story short. I spent the entire flight wrestling with Claire on my lap who didn't want to stop moving the whole entire 5 hour flight. I was exhausted by the end! Thank goodness Mae was a complete angel!!!

Thanks Mare for letting us come and eat your food and stay at your house. It was a complete blast! Sister time really is the best! Love you!
P.S. I really struggled with the layout on this post. I could not figure out how to make it look right for the life of me!?!?!?

Easter

I was looking through my pictures and I have so many that I just couldn't pass up doing a post about Easter. I really want to do a post about my whirlwind trip to Delaware by my self with the kids...and I will...next!

Mae and I did a little Easter egg dying, she was very proud of how they turned out!

We had an awesome snow storm and couldn't resist  playing in  it!

She is a riot!

Easter day, at Grammy's house!

My Mom's cute table decorations!

EASTER EGG HUNT!

Claire had the most fun carrying around this way to big for her basket!

her loot!

Claire

Well, Claire has turned one! With only one tooth too! She is just a joy to have.

She is so sweet, happy, loving, and spunky! We just adore her.

All 3 of us!

Here are a few pictures from her very little party we had for her at my moms!

 Mae had fun helping Claire open up her presents! 

 Claire dug right into her cake, and so did Mae :)

Can't believe she is one already!

Happy b-day sweet claire!