Disney Playhouse Live

We surprised Clara with a special trip this afternoon to see a live Disney show with characters from several of Clara's favorite shows like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Pooh and Tigger and also Handy Manny.
We made it out to be a special date for Clara and Tom. I painted her nails and picked up a new dress for her. She found the purse and bracelets. So cute!!






They had a great time and Clara was intrigued by the characters and all the singing and dancing. On the way home, they stopped at Bass Pro Shop which is probably Clara's favorite place to go around here. It was a fun afternoon!

Just Hatched!

We have four new members of the family! Yesterday we went to the local farm store and picked up some super cute baby chicks. They were just hatched and so cute. We have two Rhode Island reds, one Plymoth Barred rock and a California White. They are really young now, only a day old. It was cool how you could see them establish their pecking order right away. The California White is the leader of the pack, while the Plymouth Barred Rock is at the bottom.

We thought about buying full grown birds, but decided against it when we couldn't find exactly what we wanted and also so that the chickens would know us and vice versa and feel really comfortable around kids. They won't start laying eggs until they are between 5 and 6 months old and will not move into their coop until the temperatures warm up - at least 4 weeks from now.

For those of you who have known me a long time, can you believe I'm doing this?? :)

Here is a picutre of the Rhode Island Red and then what she will look like full grown.


Here is the California White and a full grown hen.


Here is the Plymouth Barred Rock and a full grown hen.


Oh - one more little chick. This one is 4 months old :) Amazing how fast they grow and how cute they get!

William's Turn

William was upstairs napping while I took all those pictures outside. While Clara napped, I thought he deserved some face time with the camera.

He is now rolling quite a bit from his front to his back. He seems to really like to do this when I'm changing his diaper. I'm trying to get a good video of this - I'll post that when I do.

It's amazing how fast William has grown. My friend just had a boy about 3 weeks ago and we were all together last night. William looked enormous next to this little 8 pound baby - it's hard to remember him being that small.

We are thinking we will see new teeth anyways. Can you spot the drool in these pictures?

Chelsea update

You seldom hear about little Chelsea these days. Just wanted to give everyone an update to let you know she's doing pretty good these days...She's still very tolerant of Clara and will go lay down next to William when he's laying on the floor. She still likes to cuddle up close on the couch with us. What else...she still enjoys an occasional romp in the trash (grrrrr) and we find her drinking water off the pool cover all the time. She's still a dog after all. I took this cute picture today while she was running around outside off leash.

Let's go Fly a Kite

Clara really loves to go out and fly her kite. Unfortunately, when I ran inside to get the camera, the kite left Clara's capable hands and ended up in the tree. Oh well, these pictures turned out cute anyway.

2...Going on 16

Forget being a backseat driver, Clara must be in charge at all times.

Spring is here!

We have had some really wonderful, beautiful weather here the past few days. Even though it was still a tad chilly, I couldn't resist putting Clara in some of her new Spring clothes. I snapped these pictures out on the driveway before we left for our daily errands. Clara's really growing up, isn't she?

This is long...lots of pictures!

We have been busy over here and have lots to report. I'll try to sum up the past month or so with this post.

We recently came back from spending a few days in Arkansas with family. Now that Tom's parents, my parents and my grandparents live about 1 mile from each other, we can easily shuttle kids, dogs, and each other back and forth to spend some quality time together.

Lots of hanging out and staying inside. It's been really cold here and we are SO ready for Spring.

Lots of art projects to do...

Even with the cold days, Clara had to get outside some.

Clara has been learning the 50 states and puts this puzzle together on her own with a little help from me or Tom.

She's also playing with her legos and having us read to her quite a bit. She is loving the Berenstein Bears, Curious George and the Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer.

We are really going country over here. Recently, Tom and I had the crazy idea to buy some chickens. We bought a coop and are trying to get our little chick out of the coop so we can get some real ones in! We are going to get some laying hens soon and have fresh eggs.

William is a handsome little doll!! We love him so much and just are amazed by his sweet personality and how fast time has gone by with him. He will be 5 months old soon and you can just see him taking new things in every day and becoming so aware of everything around him. At his 4 month checkup, he was off the chart (~110%) for his height and in the 75% for his weight. He gets lots of compliments on his beautiful blue eyes.

I recently celebrated my 30th birthday (!!!!) here and received an awesome camera from Tom. I really love the sharpness of it's pictures and the speed that I can now snap pictures. My parents were also able to be here to celebrate with me which I don't think has happened since I was in high school. We had a lot of fun together plus they babysat for us so that Tom and I could go out for dinner. Good times :)

Tom and Clara made me a chocolate cherry cake that I love. Clara really enjoys helping in the kitchen, especially when there is batter to lick.

Here are my two sweet Valentines. Clara got a big heart balloon and she still plays with it today! When will that thing just deflate?!? Even after a patch job with some scotch tape it still hangs high.

William is now sleeping in his own room! He has new furniture and the room has a vintage airplane theme.


The past couple days have been so nice!! There was a hot air balloon flying over our house so we ran out and I got some cute pictures of Clara riding on Tom's shoulders in order to get the best look at the balloon. It was so funny because after the baloon went down we were walking back to the house. Clara says, "Mommy, let's go to Walmart. I want to get one of those balloons."

Clara continues to be a doting big sister...here's how I found William a few minutes after I asked Clara to give him a toy to play with.