BIG DAY

No pictures today but a quick story.  So I arrive at school to pick up Hannah Claire.  I was quickly informed that she did it.  What you may ask.  She crawled for the first time today!  I'm very proud of her.  She has been very close but just not quite there.  She finally figured it out.  I did inform her that she is suppose to do things for the first time at home.  I'm very sure she understood and will save all of her firsts for the house.  I thought for sure she would show us her new skill when we got home.  Boy was I wrong.  When she got on her tummy she bumped her head on the floor and began a HUGE diva meltdown.  It was very ugly.  Keep in mind the kid was not hurt.  As soon as her Daddy stood her up she stopped crying.  We sat her back down and she cried until dinner which was about 10 minutes.  We are going to have our hands full with a very strong willed child.  I'm still waiting to snap some pictures of her crawling.  When I get some I will post for everyone to see.  More to come...

From Sickness to Pulling Up

We had a big weekend planned a couple of weekends ago.  I say big, big for us these days.  We had planned on going to Tuscaloosa for the Bama basketball game against LSU.  Well, Hannah Claire was not feeling up to it.  We have had our fair share of stuff that goes around, but HC always hangs in there.  She has had double ear infections, bronchitis and continued to play and eat well.  This time not so much.  She still ate well (no idea where she gets that!) but she didn't want to play at all.  She just snuggled.  Now as a mommy that was wonderful but not at the expense of my child feeling bad.  We got a few shots of her feeling bad.  She also will normally smile and show out for the camera.  Not this day.  

Thankfully she is much better.  We never really knew what was wrong with her.  We guess just a case of the yucks.  And yes that is the technical term :)  Hannah Claire loves her books.  She now has a favorite book.  Not for the reason you may think.  No our child prefers the mirror book.  I really don't think she is vain seeing as how she doesn't look at her self.  She licks the mirror.  It is hilarious.  Shane busted her one day.  If you look closely you can see the slobber on the mirror. 

She quickly regained her composure for the camera.  

Hannah Claire has the best sense of humor.  She definitely gets that from her Daddy.  She laughs and cuts up almost all of the time.  Daddy loves to blow on her belly when she is getting changed and ready for bed.  She thinks it is just the most hilarious thing ever.  

I have told you how she thinks she is grown already.  Well, same goes here.  HC will roll over in a second and try to get off of the changing pad.  Now keep in mind this waist high for us adults.  The kid is fearless.  She really prefers to be completely naked and rooting face down into the changing pad.  Since I am anti naked bottom pictures of my child there will not be any posted.  

This may be one of my all-time favorite pictures.  Hannah Claire is officially pulling up now.  Not on everything, but on Daddy.  She if very proud of herself when she can get those chubby little legs straight and stand up.  She did it all by herself and I grabbed the camera.  She heard me and turned.  This was the face she gave me:

Little ham!!!  After she gets up she doesn't really know what to do.  So naturally she climbs on Daddy and relaxes after all of that hard work.  

Notice the dainty hand: 

8 Months

It is really amazing how fast this year has flown by. It seems like I was just pregnant and now Hannah Claire is 8 months old. We are loving everyday of it though. She always makes our day brighter and more fun. I look forward to walking in to school and seeing that sweet smile. She is the best! She doesn't always love picture day though. Getting the red chair pictures is getting more difficult everyday. This is the look we got when we started:

Daddy always seems to get a smile out of Hannah Claire.

Even though HC can't crawl or walk that doesn't stop her. She thinks she can go and do whatever she pleases. Thankfully the camera cooperated and I was able to capture the progress of our little mover and shaker.

I don't know where she thought she was going. Daddy then came to the rescue. I'm not so sure she thought the same thing. Miss Independent!

A little mommy love, I love those chubby legs. I could just eat her up!!!

More Pictures

I have often talked about how Hannah Claire hates to be on her tummy.  She does enjoy it in one circumstance, while she is sleeping.  She is always so happy when she wakes up.  We get the sweetest looks when she wakes up.  

On this day she decided to show us that she can indeed get up on all fours.  

It didn't last long.  She plopped down and began the "I'm on my tummy please help cry".  

Hannah Claire loves to climb and try to pull up.  So far the best we have is climbing on Daddy.  Well, I guess you could say attacking Daddy.

Sometimes us ladies need to get some work done.  Giraffe too.  

A Few Random Photos

Hannah Claire is not crawling.  I'm not sure she will ever crawl.  You see, she loves to stand and try to walk.  She has figured out how to push herself backwards.  In this photo she started out right beside me.  When she made it to the tree I grabbed the camera.  She usually cries the entire time.  I just love that face!

We brought some fresh pineapple home from Hawaii.  We have never given Hannah Claire anything other than baby food but we thought she deserved a little taste of Maui.  She LOVED it.  I mean she tried to grab it off of the fork and bite it with her gums (since she still has no teeth).  

We also let her try some Puffs for the first time.  She digs them.  If she has more than one she will try to grab as many as possible.  I guess she thinks Shane or I will steal them and eat them ourselves.  Although they are quite tasty, I will not be stealing food from my baby.  She is doing much better with her finger/thumb grabbing.  

We just loved this picture.  HC was just chillin with Daddy.  Tough life!

Fun Times With the Boys

We have a group of friends that are very special to us.  We all spent a summer semester of small groups together a few years ago.  We had so much fun we all still get together on a regular basis.  Usually it involves food and someone's birthday.  What started as 2 little boys has now turned into 5 boys and Hannah Claire with two more little girls on the way.  Look out boys, the girls are taking over!  One of the couples, The Greenfields, now live in Jordan.  We don't get to see them very much.  Thankfully they were home for Christmas and we got to have one last hooray before they left.  They have a little boy, Noah, who is 2 days older than Hannah Claire so it is lots of fun to see them together.   Two of the families were out of town so it was only a few of us but we had lots of fun.  

Hannah Claire's teacher at school brags on how well she shares her toys at school.  I guess she is nicer at school than at home.  She kept taking toys away from Noah.  Sweet thing, he didn't know what to do but let her have them.  Bless his sweet little heart!

Here are two of the other brothers playing.  

Noah tried his best to teach HC how to crawl.  It didn't work.  I guess you have to do something other than cry when you get on your belly.  Stubborn child!  I have no idea where she gets that.  Wink. Wink.

Getting two almost 8 month olds to pose for a picture is tough.  I thought this one was cute.

Hannah Claire was not sure if Nathan was after her cereal or not.  Either way she was keeping an eye on him.  She always keeps and eye on Nathan.  Daddy may have to keep them apart from now on.

We attempted to get a picture of all the kids together.  That didn't work so well either.  Mainly because of HC.  Look at that face.  

It only got worse.  I still think it is cute to see the "real" fun.

Please keep The Greenfields in your prayers as they spread the love of God to a dark place.

Christmas Vacation

We were very fortunate to be off of work the entire week between Christmas and New Years.  We had lots of family fun throughout the week.  Here is a brief overview of some of the fun.  Now I know that I have covered the fact that bath time is now one of Hannah Claire's favorite things in the world to do.  Because of the excessive splashing we have moved the tub from the sink in the laundry room to the big tub in our bathroom.  This allows for all of the splashing to just drain right down the pipes.  If only we didn't have to reach so far down to actually clean her.  I guess nothing is perfect.  Here are some of the pictures from the big tub bath.  They were just too cute not to share.  

You may not be able to see but HC has water eyelashes from all of her splashing.  Adorable!

We spent lots of time playing with all of Hannah Claire's new toys.  She loves her Learn and Groove Table.  There is so much to study.  She is very focused.

There is always time to stop and smile for the camera.

Hannah Claire is very independent.  She thinks that she should be feeding herself now.  If we are hanging at the house I will let her try.  She is actually pretty good.  We only get a little messy.

Notice the applesauce on the noggin:

Daddy's little Red Sox fan:

One of our favorite things to do around Christmas is to go look at Christmas lights.  Since this year was so crazy we did it after Christmas this year.  This worked out great.  There are really two places we make sure to hit.  Our builder goes overboard.  It is really quit funny to see his house.  Hello Clark Griswald!  The other is a house in our neighborhood that is unbelievable.  This man has set the lights to music that you can hear through your car radio.  It is beautiful!!!  It was the perfect night because we were the only ones looking so we had all the time we needed to take HC out of her car seat to see the lights too.  She was in awe.  

Here she is at the Jones house.  Our first stop.

At our next stop she got up front (there are about 10 songs to watch).  This turned out to be somewhat of a scene because she got distracted by playing with the steering wheel.  Then she bumped her head on it and our little drama queen had a slight meltdown. 

After a few seconds of crying, we moved her to the middle and she was able to refocus on the light show.