Brrr...it is cold in Texas!

We know our family and friends in Minnesota will have no sympathy for us, but we have to complain a bit. It has been record setting cold down here for a few days now. We have gotten as low as 15 degrees! I know that must sound like a heat wave with the temps y'all in MN are living with right now. We had to take a picture of the ice hanging off the waterfall of our pool. We hope this is the only time ever that we will be able to say we had ice on our pool.

Claire is such an amazing blessing to us. We are having so much fun with her. She still insists on rolling to get everywhere, even though we are trying to get her to crawl. She has gotten to be very fast at rolling. I can set her down, run into the bedroom to grab something, and by the time I get back to her, she is already on the other side of the living room. I guess the days of letting her sit and play while I fold clothes in the other room are over!

As you can see from the pictures, Claire is a very good eater! She has taken pretty well to every food we have given her so far. She has even begun to take green beans easily. Today we are going to try broccoli...we will fill you in on how that goes in the next blog entry. We have introduced the sippy cup to Claire and she is getting the hang of using it pretty well. She is able to hold it and get the cup to her mouth and suck. She is slowly grasping the concept of having to tip it some to get the water out. Sometimes the water comes too fast and she gets a little surprise, but no choking episodes yet! We have also let her suck from a straw. This is more of a challenge and she tends to get too much too fast. It is so fun watching her growing interest in the things that we are doing and using.

Claire sleeps pretty well through the night. We are so lucky to have such a happy, easy baby. She goes to bed around 8 or 9pm and usually only gets up once between 3 and 4am to eat, then goes back to sleep until 7:30 or 8am. I have no complaints with that schedule!

Yesterday we went to our friends birthday party. The twin girls we hang out with, Marley and Ava, turned 1 year old. We had lots of fun watching them dig into their little cakes! Claire and I try to get together with the girls once a week. It is getting to be so much fun because they are starting to play more together now. I have a feeling soon Claire will start getting frustrated because the girls can walk around and she is not able to yet. It is so neat to watch them grow up together and we hope they will all remain friends forever.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Nanny and Papa the beginning of February. We miss them so much and are so excited to spend time with them. It is hard being so far away and knowing they are missing so much of Claire's life. At least they can do Skype now from home so we can see them as often as we are all home. We hope you enjoy the pictures.