Loving time with G Ma!

So many things to be thankful for this year! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my mom here.

 It is so fun to watch Claire and G Ma tease each other and laugh! I love the relationship they are

building!

 A good relative of ours sent us a family tradition that she has passed on from her mother. 

We had a fun time making Christmas ornaments out of beads and will plan to continue this

tradition in our family from this year forward. Thank you Elaine for getting us started on this

very neat tradition!

Just a girl and her dog

Claire so badly wanted a dog who would sleep with her and be "her" dog. Well, she got what she wanted!

Emma has definitely gravitated to Claire and loves to snuggle with her in bed. Claire is soaking it up!

Weekend with my cousins

We got to spend last weekend with most of our family. My mom, my sister and her daughter, and my brother and his two boys flew down for a long weekend. They came in on Thursday night at midnight and we managed to keep it a surprise for Claire. We all showed up at her school for lunch and she was very surprised! We had such a great weekend and I laughed more than I have in a long time! Dad would have been very proud to see us all together having a great time. God sure has blessed us with an amazing family!

Weekend swim meet

Claire was blessed to have many special people come to her swim meet this weekend. Grandma Rachel is here for some of the winter and spent the weekend with us along with MamaLu and Papado. She had a big weekend of doing a couple 100's and her very first 200 freestyle! I was nervous for her and just prayed that she could finish it. She blew us away by pacing herself and staying strong throughout the entire race. She earned 62 points for her team this weekend! We are so very proud of how hard she worked!

We have an addition to the family

Claire has so badly wanted a dog that would be "her" dog since Belle is more Sheila's dog. We had to go to two different shelters but Claire finally found the perfect dog. Welcome to the family Emma!

 So far, Emma is definitely attached to Claire. Hope it stays that way!

Claire's 3rd grade Field Day at school

Jeff and I both got to attend Claire's field day at school this year. It was so fun watching her work hard at each event, almost always with a smile on her face!

Here she had to jump over ropes, go around a cone and run back.

 Toss the floppy chicken and then go get it...

 it didn't take long for the kids to realize that if they just toss it instead of throw it hard, they didn't have to run as much!

 Next she had to carry a rubber pig on her lap while pushing a scooter to the other end, go around the cone, and get back to start without dropping the pig.

 Kick the bloated pig was tough because it didn't roll the way you wanted it to.

 How long can you spin the frisbee on your finger? As you can see, Claire was concentrating hard (the tongue sticking out is a clear give away!).

 Finally, Claire was one of two girls who ran the fastest when tested for the relay so she got to be in the final relay race. I guess all that muscle she has built up with swimming 4 nights a week has paid off in other areas as well! Go Claire!