2011 and 2012

He loves Leggos

Laughing at her Big brother... (She calls him Bubba)

Cheese!

Pigtails again!

Loving on her doll Grammie made!

The group minus Jack and Eli

So Happy at Great Wolf Lodge

Getting her height

Daddy and his babies

My favorite little ones

Cupcakes!

Rockstar

Friends

Just Chillin

One of my favorite people

Sarah and Sadie and Jack and Me

Little Guy after Church

Diva

Strike a Pose

Gottcha

My Angel

Loves to pose

Claire putting her baby on the potty with a book....all her doin

Cooking Christmas Day (Using potholders)

So proud with her stroller from Mimi and Gramps!Loving his Trainset

Thanks for the bike Gambi! Loves her helmet and stopping to wash off a cucumber

Santas Cookies make by Jack and Claire

So excited!

At Christmas Eve Service

Putting out reindeer food

He loves this baby girl!

Making Santas cookies at Myra's House

Claire on the bounce house slide

Claire the week of Christmas

She loved this outfit sent with love!

Yes Claire the 1 yr old was driving Grace and Jack the 3 yr olds around

They colored their noses with permanent marker at this restaurant to look like Rudolph

I came back from paying and found these two looking like this.

Both loved Santa

Just a cute pic

Silly gir

Definitely a Daddy thing

She fell asleep

Little Man still loves his B!

Midnight stroll

Happy to be alive

Daddy of the year

Mommy and Jack

Graham/Schmidt Thanksgiving

Its been quite awhile since I have posted so I will try and post a few highlights... We spent Thanksgiving with the Schmidt family. It was fantastic and everyone had a great time. We are so lucky to have such great friends in North Carolina that open their home to us on Holidays since our family is so far away. Many of of friends here have become family to us and The Schmidts definitely have a love in all of our hearts. We had Christmas at our house and it was perfect! The excitement on Jack and Claires faces was priceless. I was worried Claire would not understand things but she always plays off of Jacks emotions so she was super excited doing every activity and so happy on Christmas Day to get down the stairs and see what Santa had left. New Years was spent at our house. We had a few people over and let the kids play while the adults enjoyed some martinis. We played games and even stayed up past midnight! :) Claire decided to wake up and join us for the new year so she stole a kiss from one of her boyfriends named Issac which was so cute. We celebrated Claire's 2nd birthday a few times around our household. She got to celebrate with her friends that I watch at our house and we also went to Great Wolf Lodge as a family. She loved her birthday! She probably has not gone a day since without talking about her birthday and her next birthday or singing happy birthday to herself or all of her family members. Great Wolf Lodge was so much fun! Claire loved the toddler area and played both days in the water. Jack loved the water slides and they both had so much fun with their magic wands the got there as well. My friend Sarah from TX came with her daughter Sadie to visit in January. The kids had so much fun together and Sarah and I love catching up whenever we get the chance. A few updates on the kids or cute sayings-

Claire is battling ear infections again this winter and may end up getting tubes. We go see a few specialists this next week so please keep her in your prayers. She loves Monkeys! She has some monkey PJ's and she wants them washed every day to wear every night. She calls monkeys "Oooh Ooooh eeeees" to be funny and she points monkeys out everywhere. Her favorite person right now is Mommy. But she gets so excited when Daddy comes home! She loves to do whatever Jack is doing at all times. She will play with him for hours and they giggle and hug. She gives him hugs and kisses and tells him she loves him on her own all the time. It melts my heart. She loves Birthdays and wants to talk about her birthday every day! She also loves candy and sweets. (which we try and limit although I seemed to have done a much better job with Jack when he was little.) She can count a few items and she can count to ten when she wants to. She loves having her toenails painted and even though Daddy doesn't like it she begs to have her nails painted too. She loves pineapple juice! She loves playing catch and can catch and throw the ball better than most 4 year olds. She also loves to facetime on the iphone and she can flip through the iphone playing games and finding them like a pro. Sadly she loves going to the Dr. and sometimes I wonder if she tells me her ear hurts and Dr just so she can go and get a lollypop. Claire can rip a childlock off of a door in 2 seconds flat and she has gotten hard to keep in her room lately. She has been potty trained since October which she amazingly did all on her own. She decided oneday she wanted to be like Jack. All I had to do was help her get her pants up and down and she would always let me know. Now she does it all on her own and even though this is too much info she fights us because she also wants to wipe herself! She wants to do everything on her own and always screams "I DO IT!!!!!" She will not listen and she doesn't care about time out. She also doesn't care about getting spankings. The only way you can get her to do things is by bribing her with candy. (I know I am awful!) LOl I don't care! Judge me! I could really care less! I love my baby just the way she is and I am doing the best I can. She still loves her pacis and I am going to have to have some serious training on her in this area. Whew! The paci is still her favorite item along with her blanket. She says "Oh my gosh!" often which is so funny and she calls Jack her Bubba. She will tell you she loves you and them tell you she loves you more. She loves to go outside and loves being active. She can do a front roll and dances around the house often. She refuses to pay attention long enough to learn her colors and it drives me crazy! Jack knew his colors at 18 months and Claire knows blue and orange. She will say pink and red when she feels like it and get them right but other times she just laughs and says a different color. She is going to be my comedian child with a mind of her own but dang it she is cute and she knows it! She will work her charm and Greg never is able to tell her no. TROUBLE! :) She is one of the lights in my life and I tell God every day how thankful I am for her. She is also a little cuddler and I love it!

Jack Man is growing also. He tells me crazy stories that sound like I am talking to a teen sometimes. Today he told me he wants to be a doctor oneday. He said I should beone with him and we can have offices near each other. Then we will call each other and see if the other is "available" if we are he said I will go to his office for some "adult talk". LOL He makes me laugh daily. He has been really worried about growing old lately. He doesn't want to get older for a number of reasons but to name a few he is said he never wants to get old and go to college because he always wants to live with me. :) He also said he doesn't want to be old he wants to live on earth forever but stay young so when he goes to heaven he can play with all the cool toys there. He chatted with me all about the toys they probably have in heaven and laughed when I assured him if he wanted to play with toys as an "Old" person there he would be able to. He likes to talk about the world and creation. His teacher said he always likes to keep her in line and if she ever forgets something he lets her know. He stresses out when things are not just as planned but he easily gets over it. He told me the other day that I looked beautiful in my skirt and with my hair the way it was even though my freckles make my face look dirty. LOL He often compliments me which I think is so thoughtful. He has a few crushes on girls at school and when I ask why he likes them he says " They have the prettiest clothes and shoes" and "She has the best pigtails". He takes up for Claire and won't let anything happen to her. he even gets mad at me when I punish her. (He is allowed to pester her but not anyone else.) He loves Pirates! He is starting TBall and very excited. He loves to practice and catch with his glove on. Jack loves a challenege and loves to learn. I hope that never goes away! He is also a blessing and love of my life! (Not sure how the pic below got lost from the rest!)