Catching Up

I just realized that it has been so long since I updated our blog that I forgot what it was called. Time to get back on track.

We have had a busy semester and are glad it is over. Wayne has taken school off for the summer so we can have more family time and play time with friends. Claire loves having him home more often. She lights up when she sees him come through the door from work. He is working full time and on the side, and playing lots and lots and having fun helping others do summer projects. We need to start on our own now though. We hope to plant a garden this year, and start up a business, which has been an interesting experience trying to learn all this savvy new stuff.

Tiffanee Graduated with Honors with a bachelors, and is excited to focus more on Claire and learning new things. She has started a few sewing projects and is learning a little about website design.

Claire is a whirlwind of energy. She loves to move around and get into things. She can pull herself up now is standing a little on her own and crawling all over the place. She loves to smile for the camera in fact sometimes she shakes with excitement when we bring it out, which is so cute and makes for some blurry pictures, but that's alright.

Two Months old

Three Months old

Four Months old

At four and a half months Claire was sitting up on her own with no support. Tiffanee would find her in her bed just sitting there waiting for someone to come get her.

She also started to walk with help for her mom and dad. She loves to stand and smile and laugh lots.

Five Months old. 

She started to crawl, but would much rather walk with the help of mom and dad of course. She had her first solid food yams. It was the only one that Tiff was brave enough to try with her. Claire has a milk allergy and Tiff was afraid to introduce too much too soon. 

Six months old

It was almost impossible to get a good six month picture of her every time we sat her down she would lean forward and start to crawl. Most of her pictures at this age are blurry because she does not hold still for a second, so this is her a week before she was six months old. She is crawling all over the place and follows Tiff wherever she goes around the house. She also started to stand on her own this month without support. 

First Christmas

First Valentine's Day

Claire got Valentines for all of her cousins, but because of weather we couldn't get out and deliver all of them. 

 Claire and her Jumper

She absolutely loved her jumper until she started to get so excited that she hit her head on the wall. We decided to was time to put it away. 

She has now moved onto what we call her spaceship.

First Easter

She went to Nana and Papa's house for her very first Easter egg hunt with all of her cousins. This is her eating her Dad's Easter treat from Grandpa and Grandma Smiley. 

Super Happy faces

Wanting to be Big

Our little girl is almost three months old!  However, she wants to be much older.  She is becoming very dexterous; she is very good at grabbing Mom's hair, especially when it's wet, she even grabbed Dad's hair today too!  She has discovered the awesome world of shiny things, such as rings, glasses, and cell phones.  Claire isn't very happy when she's laying on her back, she much prefers to be sitting or standing up.  Sometimes when she stands up she'll even march her feet a couple of times, probably because she sees us walking all the time.  Perhaps we'll have to start crawling so she can know that that's what she is supposed to do. 

She's finally starting to eat more, usually about 4 ounces per feeding, so she's falling straight into our ploy of fattening her up!  She is also becoming self-aware.  Last night after Dad came home from work he started talking to Claire and called her by name.  She immediately turned towards Dad when her name was called!  She is becoming quite a little chatterbox herself, she is trying super hard to mimic her parents when they talk to her (Dad is still hoping that her first words will be in French). 

She is a super nosy little girl when she eats her head turns every which way so that she can see what is going on around her. When there are new people around she wants to see them. She even likes to check up on her dad to see what he is doing.

Children

The father speaking here.

Aside from studying up on children because I knew that I was going to be a father this semester, I've recently reflected on my childhood and the important things that I learned and experienced growing up.  Most importantly, I learned that I am a child of God, and that He loves me.  I learned that I had many privileges and opportunities, troubles and hardships, spiritual experiences and personal accomplishments.  I have often looked back and thought that life was unfair or difficult, but as of late I've had the joy of realizing how much I was loved, and how I may have taken it for granted.  I grew up in a family that was whole: a father, mother, brothers, a sister, Jesus Christ, tough love and burnt food.  We had (and still have) the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We had a home, food, clothing, everything that we needed to survive.  I was blessed to learn from the hands of a man that had gone through some tough spots, but was determined to be a good person in whatever capacities were given him.  I learned that weeding the garden and raking leaves and doing the dishes yesterday were good things, but it was more important that I do something today.  I learned that speaking with a kind voice was far more effective than yelling, and that even for a guy, it's alright to be sensitive and caring.  I'm grateful that my parents raised me the way that they did, and hope that I can raise up children that will love their grandparents as much as I love them.

One of my favorite conference talks has been on my mind recently and I just wanted to share a portion of it.  I enjoy this thought because it shows how pure and loving children can be, and how they can be such good examples to everyone else.
"I remember when I was young, there was an older boy who was physically and mentally disabled.  He had a speech impediment and walked with difficulty.  The boys used to make fun of him.  They teased and taunted him until sometimes he would cry.
I can still hear his voice: "You're not kind to me," he said.  And still they would ridicule him, push him, and make jokes about him.
One day I could bear it no longer.  Although I was only seven years old, the Lord gave me the courage to stand up to my friends.  "Don't touch him," I said to them.  "Stop teasing him.  Be kind.  He is a child of God!"(Concern for the One, Ensign May 2008)

I hope that I can be a good enough example to my daughter (and eventually other children) that she will be the one defending others and being kind to all.  I know that her mother is a good enough example for the both of us, but I've got to pull my own weight too.

Père Smiley out.  

Watch Me Grow

So I decided it would be fun to track Claire's growth by pictures and making her a onesie with her age on it. The first one was way harder than it needed to be. I decided to sew the word one and an owl that I made to the front of her shirt. After going through a major hassle with my sewing machine I realized a better way to do this would be with iron on interfacing then I don't even need to mess with my machine. So here is month one for Claire. It is a little late because I didn't think to track her growth this way until she was 5 weeks old.

And here she is One month old!

Cameron was a champ helping me to calm her down for pictures

Her cute little toes. Love them!

One Month Old Yesterday!!

Our Little Claire turned a month old. I can't believe it has already been a month. She is really starting to grow. I am not sure how much she weighs right now but her little face is filling out more; however, I don't think she is any longer than she was at her 2 week doctors appointment. All of her little newborn onsies and sleepers still fit her the same length wise. Her dad loves that her little thighs are getting a little meat on them.

Lately she has been getting really bad baby acne. My sister was looking at it over Thanksgiving and said she was pretty sure that it looked more like an allergic reaction more so than baby acne. She was saying that her daughter had a similar reaction to any sort of perfume. I also did some reading on my own and found that it could be a peanut allergy. One of the symptoms to a peanut allergy in babies is wheezing. This is what made me read more about it. Since the first day we brought Claire home she has been wheezing a lot. Her doctor said it was normal in babies and would go away soon. It wasn't so when I read about a Mother's diet when nursing I realized her wheezing could be from an allergy. I eat a lot of peanut butter it makes for an easy and fast lunch. I decided  to stay away from anything with peanuts in it and Cameron has stopped wearing his cologne. It is amazing her skin is clearing up nicely, and she has stopped wheezing. However, now we don't know if it was the peanut butter or the cologne. I rather be safe than sorry, so no more peanut butter for me for a while.

 It is hard to tell in the pictures but even her one eye was starting to swell. Poor little thing.

 We took her to church for the first time last week and she did really well. I was afraid that a lot of people were going to ask to hold her, but no one did they just would look at her from a distance. We are excited for her upcoming blessing. We were thinking about having her blessed around Christmas time. I just realized there are only four more Sundays in December so we better make that decision soon. I love Sundays around our house. It is the only day out of the week that we get to have dad home all day. Well, almost all day sometimes he has church responsibilities that pull him away from time to time. Claire loves her daddy and they have lots of fun together. Cameron was trying to get her to reach out for her little doll. I love watching them together. These are some of my favorite pictures of them together so far.

I love seeing her in her cute little church outfits. 

He cuddles with her on Sunday Mornings so I can get ready for church. She curls right up into him.

She has her daddy's pout. 

Our Beautiful Little One

She is here! Our Beautiful Claire

Born: November 1, 2013

I can't get over how perfect she is. We were super surprised at all of her blonde hair. We thought for sure it would be brown, but I love it. It is amazing how fast time goes by. She will be a month old soon and I still feel like she is brand new. She is even growing a little. Daddy was saying just the other day that it seems like her little hands are getting bigger.
The transition to Motherhood has come naturally I feel. There are still days, however where I feel completely overwhelmed and inadequate, but I always receive a quiet reassurance that things will work out and that I am doing just fine.

Some of our babies milestones:

She is more alert and looking around quite a bit. She loves it when her dad is home she knows his voice and tries to look for him.

My mom got us a fun little gym for her and right now she loves the mirror that hangs from it. She will gaze into it and study herself through it.

She is sleeping a little better at night some nights are better then others.

I feel I have finally got the hang of how to help her to sleep. I finally bought her some little snuggies from Target. They have been a life saver for us. I wrapped her up in them and rock her to sleep after she nurses and she seems to be going to bed easier. If this doesn't work I will give her little feet a massage with lavender soothing lotion.

She is a super strong baby and will lift her head a lot to try and look around. She also tries to sit up sometimes. She already wants to be a big girl.

With the baby coming we figured it would be fun to share with everyone our excitement for our new little addition. We are super excited and are getting even closer to our big day of when she will be here with us!

As of this weekend I will be 30 weeks pregnant!! I will post belly pictures soon. There has been a lot more discomfort this week then there has been lately. The biggest challenge has been sleeping at night, every two hours or so I get up to go pee, little baby is sitting right on my bladder. It is ridiculous how often I use the restroom. On the bright side I am still able to work and stay relatively active, which is nice. I go crazy when I can't more around and be active.

Exciting event this week:

My sister and I went to Target to get a few things and of course we wondered into the baby section. There are soooo many cute things I would love to buy, but I try to budget as well. My cute sister ended up getting a lot of the things I pointed out as being absolutely adorable! She spoiled us. I love her, she has been a huge support through out my pregnancy and I always go to her with a lot of my questions.

My mom was online and pointed out some of the car seats she likes for the baby and I think we finally decided on one that is perfect. She also found a stroller that I love that she wants to get us as well. Yes, Nana is already spoiling this little one. It is starting to seem even more real with getting everything ready for little baby.