Packing Up and Moving On

Clara and I are sad to leave my parents in Houston, but we travel on to Oregon tomorrow morning. We meet up with Tom in Portland and then head east towards the Columbia River Gorge. Here is our itinerary for the week:

Monday - Fly to Portland, camp near the Columbia River Gorge
Tuesday - Hiking, sleeping at the same campsite as Monday
Wednesday - Oregon Coast, camping right by the beach
Thursday - Redwood Forest - stay in a cabin
Friday - Hiking in redwood forest, drive back up to Oregon
Saturday - fly to Chicago
Sunday - Drive home

Whew! It's going to be quite a week. We do not anticipate having internet access so I won't be updating the blog. Expect lots of pictures when we get back!!

Traveling Across Country Makes for a Sleepy Baby

If you look through all my digital pictures, you won't find any of Clara sleeping, unless you count the ones of her as a tiny newborn who isn't even back up to her birth weight. We have wood floors in our house and they creak. Really loudly. Combine that with a light sleeper and I don't get to see Clara sleep very often. Since we have been on vacation, I have really enjoyed creeping into whatever room or hotel she is sleeping in and checking up on my little girl. Her cherubic face looks so sweet and peaceful...a far cry from the running and squealing she does all day long.

She has been going down so easy for her naps and at night...all the driving around Texas, visiting friends and family, and the new sights and sounds have made Clara a sleepy little girl.



Tomorrow, I will be packing up, doing laundry, and running last minute errands for our trip to Oregon. Clara and I will be meeting Tom on Monday in Portland. We have been gone for 9 days and miss him a lot!

One More Picture

We downloaded my Mom's pictures today and I love this one!

This was taken at Ann's house, sitting on her saddle. Clara had a lot of fun sitting here and would bounce up and down like she was riding a horse.

We are now in Houston at my parents house. Clara and I are doing great. We have been so busy and I have not had as much time to update the blog as I would like...here's an update on the past few days.

We left Dallas on Sunday afternoon. Here's the last picture we took with Clara, Hannah, and Jake.

On Monday afternoon, Clara and I went to visit my sister Ann at her work. We went out to a local hotspot called George's. Clara and I tried fried pickles for the first time. They were a hit! Here's a picture of Ann and my little sweetie :)

She is the director of operations for the Baylor University equestrian team so Clara had the opportunity to see some horses in person. She had a great time feeding Frenchie some carrots.


She also got to 'ride' on a horse. Clara didn't seem to scared, but when is she?!


We left Waco Tuesday morning and headed to Houston where we had lunch with some of my old friends at Citgo. Dracine, Amanda and I used to work in Tulsa together and they have both since transferred to Houston with the company. They were both instrumental in getting me to start running. Amanda and I ran the OKC marathon together a few years ago. They were a great motivation...I wish we lived as close as we used to!


We got to my parent's house and everyone took a long nap!! We needed it after the late nights, long drives, and listening to a certain little girl fuss in her car seat for a few hours. Clara quickly found the inside of the dog crate...the girl is obsessed with these things!


We have gone on a few walks, played at the park, and ran some errands around Kingwood. Other than that, Clara has been having fun playing with Beau and climbing all over the treadmill. Tomorrow we are going downtown to have lunch with my dad and visit some friends at his office.

Last but not least, here's a picture of my good friend Renee and I at the reunion.

Travel Update

Last night was my 10 year class reunion. It was way more fun than I anticipated! I came from a HUGE class - almost 1500 of us graduated back in 1998. I was thinking I probably wouldn't know or recognize many people there, but it turns out to be quite the opposite. The highlight was seeing my old band friends. We were a close knit group (aka band nerds) that spent a lot of time together in and outside of school. We had early morning sectional practices, the in-school band class, after school marching band practice, football games, after game pizza dinners at Cici's, competetions, etc. You get the picture. We picked up like we just graduated last week. It was so fun and I am hoping to keep up better contact with them in the future.

Have you heard of the tv show Ugly Betty? (I don't watch it either) One of the supporting characters is Michael Urie He went to high school with me and was there last night.

Clara and I are now in Waco, Texas visiting my sister, Ann and her hubby Jared. I have to say Clara is exhausted. She didn't take a nap at all today. I take that back, she slept about 15 minutes in the car. The poor girl is so tired which ironically, will probably make for a bad night tonight. She already has woke up crying twice since being put down to bed at 7:45 tonight. Hopefully she will be back to her normal schedule tomorrow.

I'll post some pictures soon. We are happy to be visiting Ann and Jared. Their house looks great - so nicely decorated and homey feeling. More updates to follow tomorrow...

Clara and I spent last night at Renee and Jacob's house. Renee is my really good friend from middle and high school. She recently bought a house in the Lakewood area of Dallas. It's very nice and new with the biggest kitchen island I have ever seen! Clara has been getting acquainted with Indy, the resident miniature dachshund. He isn't too sure if he's ready for a baby around here or not, but he sure likes to sniff Clara.

Soon after we arrived at Renee's house, Clara found the dog crate. Here's where we found her.


Renee and Clara get to know each other.

Then we went to eat Mexican food last night which was so good. Clara had fun playing peek-a-boo with her napkin.




This morning we got up and Jacob made chocolate pancakes for us.


Clara bonded with Jacob, while remembering to pet Indy at the same time. He will be a good dad one day!


We had a lot of fun hanging out together. Later on tonight is my 10 year high school reunion at the City Club in downtown Dallas. Will post pictures later!

Lovin' Cousins :)

Clara and I made it to Texas! We had a really good flight to Dallas - it was direct and even arrived early. Brent picked me up and our luggage arrived successfully. Melissa made us a great dinner and then Hannah, Jake, and Clara played together. It was great seeing them interact and love on each other. Jake is a little sweety! He gave Clara several hugs and kisses and even gave me a kiss! Hannah is a helpful big sister and enjoyed showing me her gymnastics moves and her 'horsies'.

Clara in the airport, waiting on our flight


Clara - Obviously born in Illinois...she wouldn't put down the corn cob.


Jake and Clara playing with the John Deer tractor. We kept telling Jake 'Gentle, gentle' because he tended to get carried away pushing the tractor into things.

Clara and Jake giving hugs.

Jake and Hannah loving on each other

Travel Plans

Hello friends and family!

Clara and I have been busy the past few days getting ready for our big trip to Texas! I am really excited because I get to see my brother, sister-in-law and their kids in Dallas, my sister and brother-in-law in Waco and then my parents in Houston. My 10 year high school reunion is in Dallas this weekend so I will also get to reconnect with a lot of friends from Plano too. Have you heard of the online community called Facebook? It has been an awesome way to get in touch with old friends - my best friend from elementary school and I have been emailing back and forth and I'm going to meet up with her in Dallas too. I'm also hoping to catch up with some old co-workers from my time at Citgo in Houston. Lots of pictures to come!!

After our trip to Texas, Clara and I will be meeting up with Tom for a vacation in Oregon. Neither Tom nor I have ever been there, but we have been inspired by my college sorority sister Catrina to do some camping, hiking, and road tripping through Oregon. Catrina lives there and has a terrific blog called Sipping Chardonnay which she frequently updates with breathtaking pictures of her hiking experiences and her adorable kidds, Wyatt and Avery. Interesting tidbit - Catrina and I had the exact same due dates, and Clara and Avery were born one day apart.

I plan on taking lots of pictures and am hoping to update the blog as much as possible. If you don't see any updates for a few days, know that we are staying busy and visiting friends and family!!

Here's a picture from Clara's first airplane ride when she was 6 weeks old - The other guy is the pilot :)

Spice It Up!

There's been a new addition to the bedtime routine. After Clara's bath (still do that in the portable bath in the kitchen sink) we dry her off on the countertop and then TRY to get her dressed. I say 'try' because she does not like laying down - not even for even a minute or two to get a diaper change in.

So lately, in desperation, I have been giving her a couple spice bottles to pacify her in hopes that I can get a diaper on her before she rolls over and stands up. Arrrrggghh!!

Well, the other night we had a very funny situation. I gave Clara a bottle of sage to play with. Tom and I are tag teaming Clara, trying to quickly get the diaper on and her pajamas on and buttoned up. She's really into the Sage bottle...the next thing - I look at Clara and she is COVERED in sage!! I cannot see Clara's skin - just green, smelly flecks covering her entire cute little face. She must have opened the bottle or the lid wasn't on very tight. Clara didn't move - she had the most shocked look on her face! It really was funny. Tom and I just picked her up and put her back in the sink - pajamas on and everything. We sprayed her down and cleaned off the countertops because there was sage all over the place. Even though it was in Clara's eyes, she never was too bothered by it all.

So here are some pictures from the next night. I still let her play with the spices because this really does work well. However, I now make sure the lid is on TIGHT before giving it to her!


Most of the time I put on Clara's pajamas while she stands up and plays with all the bottles.


One nice, clean baby ready for bed!

Movie Monday - Clara's Moves

One of Clara's favorite toys at the moment is this magnetic farm animal matching game. It also plays a selection of country songs which Clara likes to listen to every time she passes the fridge. The clicking you hear in the video is her pushing the button to get different songs. Here is Clara - 'moo'ving to the music!

The park can be a dangerous place

Clara and I took a trip to a local park today where we met up with a few other friends. Unfortunately, Clara took a little spill into the cedar bark chips and received some nice little strawberries on her face. She also had an altercation with her stroller this morning. It really was a rough day for my little girl.



Make a funny face!


Rough day...

We had a fun day yesterday...Clara had a play date at Michael's house...which turned out to be more like a play 'date' if you know what I mean.

Of course, before going over to Michael's, Clara had to make the all important decision about which shoes to wear. She chose these:


So, at first, Clara and Michael were a little shy around each other. They did their own thing.





But then...they started to warm up and have some fun.



Michael and Clara swapped a few stories about the all nighters they have pulled.




THEN, Michael started to move in a little closer...


We had to step in once we saw this! :) (On a side note, how many kids have their first kiss caught on camera?!?)


Michael apologized and felt bad about his actions...


He said 'Hold me Clara!'. Being the little love bug that she is, Clara was more than happy to oblige.


All was well between the two toddlers. The date was soon over, and being the ripe old age of one, each kid needed their nap. We had a great time...but Clara may not have another 'date' for um...18 years or so!

Dance, Dance Revolution

I have a new hobby...and it actually involves some exercise. Something my body hasn't seen in a loooonnnnggg time! It's actually a video game. You may ask - how can a video game be exercise? Well, the game I'm playing is called Dance, Dance, Revolution. It involves a special mat which hooks up to the playstation 2 system. The video game is set to music and tells me where to step on the mat. It's a lot of fun and really hard, especially for a klutzy, not-really-all-that-coordinated person like myself. Clara has been doing great. She is just scooting around the house faster and faster every day. Her favorite word is still 'Hi!' and she exclaims this to just about anyone who makes eye contact with her :) She is going through some separation anxiety lately. We leave her in the church nursery on Sunday mornings and on Tuesday mornings when I go to a bible study. She is so NOT happy in there...and I get paged to come get her. All the other kids seem to do fine, but Clara really wants her mommy. However, this past Sunday, she was able to stay in there the whole time and even seemed to have a good time! I'm really encouraged by this.

Here is a cute little video I took today. Nothing too exciting, but shows a little of Clara's personality. I know...Clara looks like a little boy in this airplane sleeper outfit. This is a hand-me-down and oh so soft so she wears it quite often for bed! Please ignore the boyish outfit and notice the curls on the back of her head. They are coming in so cute!

A little housekeeping

There are some new features with my blog. If you want an automated email when I write a new post, please let me know. You can leave me a comment on this post and I'll add your email address. Also, I made leaving a comment a lot easier. Anyone can leave a comment - no need to log in or decipher a weird code. If you don't have a login, then choose 'anonymous' when you post. Be sure to let me know who you are in the comment :) Try it out!!

One other cool thing - if you want to email a particular post to someone, just click on the little envelope at the end of the post. This will bring up a new page where you can fill out the email address and allow you to leave a message. Pretty cool! This blogger stuff is fun.

Thanks for reading!