Our Little Beauty!

We are so lucky to have Allison take pictures for us! She is so good at capturing Claire's sweet personality. These are her 2 year old pictures. I posted several of our favorites. 

Thanks again Allison! 

http://allisonbillsphotography.blogspot.com/

This girl loves her bubbles! 

Apparently when you smell a flower the next thing to do is eat it. Haha! We sure LOVE this sweet girl! 

Wayne County Fair

The Wayne County fair is HUGE here! The local school districts even give the kids a day off of school and a free ticket to go. We decided to join the crowd and check it out.  

 

 Shaun's boss passed along this shirt so Claire could be authentic. Claire was thrilled that she had a horse on her shirt.

 The little ponies were a big hit because we could actually see their faces and Claire got to pet them. :)

 Checking out the sheep

What would the fair be without spending a ridiculous amount of money on a box of popcorn. Claire was thrilled and chowed down.

We lasted about two hours and I was beat. We didn't venture onto the rides, but checked out all of the animals, wining jars of canned peaches and crafts. It was so so so humid we should've taken a before and after picture. Haha! But we had a great time!

Two Birthday Girls

It was a very busy week with two birthdays girls here but we had a great time celebrating. 

Shaun made me yummy homemade Cafe Rio for dinner since the nearest one is a plane ride away. This is me over 6 months pregnant. Definitely getting bigger...

 And Shaun made this delicious homemade carrot cake with carrots from our garden. Yum yum! 

 Don't worry we shared the extra cake with the missionaries. It was three layers. 

 Sneaking a taste of the sprinkles. ;) 

 This is Claire's GF cake. It actually turned out pretty good. I'm not a professional cake artist but Claire was thrilled it had the number two on top. 

 Here is our little display I set up. A friend from the ward brought us the balloons and they were the perfect addition. 

Originally we were going to have a little party for her on Saturday but there were just too many other things going on. The county fair started, we had a ward service project, Shaun had to do lab work all morning and then fix the broken kitchen lights in the rental property we manage across the street...etc, so we moved it to her actual birthday (Sunday) and kept it low key. We invited a few families from the ward over for cake and ice cream. 

 I just can't believe she is two! She has grown and matured so much this last year. She is saying all kinds of phrases now like, "yes, I do." She is also still such a sweet, loving girl. She is always giving hugs and kisses and still wants to cuddle with me and sing songs before bed. She loves to see "big trucks," school buses, green lights, and cows when we are driving around town. Our town is small so when I take her VT with me we always see lots of cows. Haha 

 She shares all of her toys and snacks without hesitation and will often say please and thank you. She can tell me the letters of the alphabet and count to 10. Lately, her favorite thing to do is watch videos of herself that I have recorded with my phone. She will say, "pictures, please, pictures." 

Also, Claire is doing really great with eating. She still has lots of things she won't eat but slowly we are getting her to try and like new foods. I have always found making meals to be somewhat of a chore so it is definitely stretching me to make meals that all of us can eat and will eat that are healthy. 

She seems to have a great understanding for things we talk about with her. When we explain a situation she picks up on it quickly and doesn't make too much of a fuss. For example, after our trip to Utah she was waking up at night again wanting milk. After a few days of getting back in the time zone I just explained to her that 

"she is a big girl now and doesn't need milk at night. Just like mommy and daddy don't need milk at night." Since then I have been consistent with no milk at night and she is starting to do a little better about sleeping. If she does wake up screaming she reminds herself, "milk in the morning."  

Opening presents! She kept ripping little pieces of wrapping paper off and then holding it out saying, "trash." :) 

I have wanted to make a new fall wreath for awhile and decided that on my birthday I was going to do something for me and that I enjoyed so I put together this wreath for around $6. It makes me so happy to drive up to our house and see it on the front door. Home Sweet home.