Weekend in Houston

Friday night Brad, Claire and I drove to Houston to visit my parents and to go to the Tech/Houston football game. On Sat. we visited our friends Todd and Vandi at their new house in Kingwood and went to lunch with them and Cambria! It was fun to watch the girls play together. That night my Dad, Brad and I went to the game while my Mom and sister spent time with Claire. My Dad (aka Clark W. Griswold from National Lampoon's Vacation) spent all day getting ready for our tailgate. He even climbed up into the attic to get his little grill! The game didn't even start until 8:30 so we had plenty of time to cook our burgers with all the other Tech fans. My dad got his MBA at U of H years ago but he was still cheering for Tech! We got to meet up with Todd and Vandi again before the game...then into the stadium we went. I got to sit with Czarina and her family so that was fun!!! She let me borrow her "Future Red Raider on Board" t-shirt and she totally understood my love/hate for Tech football. The game was good...a close one...but we lost by one point and it wasn't over until 12:30. My ankles and feet were so swollen. Did I mention my dad went to U of H...he managed to get us lost on the way to the parking lot somehow. Oh, and I slipped and fell in some mud...good times! We got home around 1:30am and drove back Sunday. We are super tired but we had lots of fun!!! Thanks Mom and Dad and Alli!

Swine Flu

It's official...Claire has type A flu which apparently 90% of the time is swine flu. Yesterday Claire was running around the playground feeling great, then in the afternoon at a play group she suddenly became very clingy and cranky. She didn't feel warm to me but I thought we better leave just in case...I didn't want to get anyone else sick if she was coming down with something. When we got home I took her temperature and it was 103.1! I gave her some Motrin and an hour later it dropped down to 102. She slept through the night fine and in the morning I took her to the Dr. Of course by this morning she had no fever and was feeling fine, but sure enough when they tested her it came back positive. The Dr. said the symptoms would last about 3 days and all she really needs is fluids and rest. Basically this flu has been like a cold. Not really a big deal and Claire hasn't had a fever since and is eating and acting normally. If this is the swine flu then the media has totally hyped it up. The biggest surprise of the day was that she only weighs 21 pounds! Anyways, the moral of the story is get your flu shots...I got mine last week and ironically Claire was supposed to get hers next week but we pushed it back a week...she can still get the regular flu. As soon as the swine flu vaccine comes out I am getting it too. I hope no one else gets it, but it's not as scary as it sounds! Stay healthy!!!!

Britney Concert

Friday night Brad was nice enough to watch Claire while I went to the Britney Spears concert with some super fun girlfriends!!! Everyone looked so gorgeous all dresses up (I am used to seeing them at Stroller Strides first thing in the morning). We went out to a nice dinner at a sushi place in Victory Park. I was the designated driver and everyone had such a great time. We even got moved to better seats!!!! We weren't the youngest girls there but we also weren't the oldest! Britney puts on a good show and I think we all enjoyed just being out without the kiddos (who we love dearly ;) Let's do it again soon!!!

Rainy Lazy Sunday

This weekend was a wet one so we spent most of it inside. On Sunday morning I decided to pull out the dress up clothes for Claire. I think I had more fun than she did though...not interested yet. We have a blond wig that I REALLY wanted to put on her but she refused. I'll keep trying because I know it would be a hilarious picture. And I am super allergic to whatever that wig is made of because I couldn't stop sneezing after I put it on. We just drank our coffee and watched Sunday Morning and played before we finally got ready for church. Again, notice how Claire is totally not into it and brad and I are...

Labor Day Weekend

We had a nice, relaxing three day weekend. Sat. morning we went out to breakfast at Lucille's in Ft. Worth then took Claire to the zoo. She had only been once before when she was really little so we were excited to see her reaction this time. She was so excited! She loved the elephants, lions, zebras and flamingos. She also loved getting out of her stroller and running around. The rest of the weekend was mostly spent painting the kitchen, watching football, grilling out and playing rock band. I am still pretty sick...threw up everyday this weekend I think. So ready to start feeling good again!

My Favorite Things

I bought Claire these pots and pans since she is constantly pulling out mine and she loves them!

Claire loves to climb onto her toy box and read.

She loves to brush her teeth.

And take a bath.

Two funny stories this week: Notice our new white, updated kitchen cabinets in the first picture. We are finally updating the kitchen and it looks great. Well while my parents were here last week they bought Claire some crayons and colored pencils. How fun, right? I was making dinner last night (putting a frozen lasagna in the oven) and I heard pencil on wood! Oh no! I ran over and sure enough she was writing on the newly painted white walls with a red pencil. I grabbed the pencil out of her hand and yelled "Did you do this?!" She looked me in the eye and said "Yes." I tried not to laugh and said "You did this?" and again immediately she said "Yeah." Her face was priceless and all I could do was thank her for being honest with me and I told her when her Dad got home he would be very mad. Yeah right. Also let me thank my Dad for teaching her to put the crayons on her lips like lipstick...it took all of 3 seconds for her to start eating the crayons...

Story #2: I stopped at Sonic on the way home from errands and when we got home I took her out of her car seat then grabbed for my slush. I squeezed too hard and it started pouring out all over the place. I'm not going to tell you the words that were coming out of my mouth but the next thing I hear Claire say is "Oh...it's raining!" Of course I started laughing...I wish it rained Sonic slush.

Gymnastics!

Adrien eating bubbles

Liberty catching bubbles

A surprise visit from Carter!

The infamous tub of balls

Joanne is having more fun than the kids! ;)

They are all hers...

Claire is taking a class at Little Gym once a week from now until January. Our friends Liberty, and Adrien are in the class too so that makes it extra fun! She started last week and loved it! I'm so glad she has something to do that wears her out and she has so much fun at the same time. Her favorite thing by far is when the teacher dumps all of the balls out. Once Claire sees the container where the balls are stored all she wants to do is open it and get the balls out! She also enjoys walking across the balance beam, climbing anything she can and the bubbles. I love to watch her play and interact with the other kids...she is getting so big!