Thanksgiving in Michigan

Clare is a true traveler and has been seriously inducted! We left last Tuesday at 2pm and drove til 12:45am, making great time and only stopping twice. We did with only watching 40 minutes of our favorite show "Yo Gabba Gabba", which I thought was pretty incredible. The last few times we have traveled Clare has struggled sleeping in a new place, which has made our trip tiring for everyone..but not this time..she is a big girl!

We went straight to Reading, MI, LD's parents house and I was so excited there was no snow. I think it is the first time since we moved that there was no snow during Thanksgiving and I was thrilled. We did get a little on the ground, but not even enough to count by my standards. LD's parents set up a crib and high chair so we were ready to camp out. Everyone came to see us so we literally did not leave the house in two days which was wonderful! Clare's favorite toy at her grandparents house was glass bells that Grandma let her walk around the house with. Every time they knocked together we all closed our eyes, but they stayed in one piece throughout our little stay.

Then we headed over to my parents house and made a pit stop along the way to visit some friends who just had a new baby. They have a cat named Grady and Clare, though a little timid, really loved the cat. She would just watch him until he pounced at her and then turn around and run. At my parents house Auntie V was also in from Vegas so the whole family was together. Friday night my mom decided to have a photog come and take pics of the entire family (ALL 25 of us). They moved all the furniture, set up a backdrop and lights..it was insanity. Clare decided she was not going to participate and we now have pictures with her finger up her nose, pulling Auntie V's hair, screaming and sucking her thumb. I was not happy about any of it, but we all survived, even though I am quite red faced in the pictures I'm sure from man handling my daughter while LD told me to just relax. Needless to say it was not the highlight of my trip...I'm just glad Grammie got her pictures!

The rest of the weekend was very fun and my mom pulled out our old kitchen set and Clare had so much fun, practicing saying "hello" into the phone over and over. My nephew Jayden turned 1 and we were able to go to his first birthday, a few of my high school friends came over to visit and my sister and I had a date night!

It seemed way to fast to pack up and come home, but it is so hard to believe we will be headed back on that ridiculous 12 hour drive in 3 short weeks. Clare did well on the way home and as soon as we got out of the car she had jello legs and fell on the driveway, landing a big raspberry on her chin....we will not be doing Christmas pics!

Hope your Thanksgiving was fun and filled with family and memories!

On the mend....

Whew what a rough few weeks we have had. Clare's little body has been fighting something fierce and after an allergic reaction to an antibiotic (see lovely pics of our spotted girl below), ridiculous amounts of testing, lots of crying (on both mommy and Clare's part), I think we are coming out of the funk! We have spent two very long weeks mostly at home (which is why we have been doing activities like folding laundry together!), had 4 trips to the doctor, one trip to the hospital for chest xrays, a major "Food strike" on Clare's part, and a few sleepless nights. I have learned that both getting a urine sample from a baby and giving a baby a chest xray are two things I never want to be a part of again in my life, and I'm pretty sure Clare would agree.

I have also been reminded very clearly that my role as Clare's mother is to surround her in prayer, lay my requests for her life at Christ's feet and walk away allowing Him control, which is incredibly hard. As I look back at my life I know I have felt the power of prayer surrounding me in a lot of situations and I know my parents were always praying for me. I desire that same protection over Clare and it is mine and LD's responsibilities to ensure that happens. We are still waiting on some test results to come back, but I am confident that her elevated white blood count is nothing to worry about...its in God's hands.

I'm so thankful today that Clare played happily today without asking to go "night night" and actually ate a half a piece of bread and a small helping of mac and cheese...more than she has eaten in 4 days. So as always God is seeing us through the small things which at the time seem like mountains! Thank you so much to those of you who have surrounded us and our sweet baby girl in prayers!

A night in the Mountains

We were invited at the beginning of the week by one of our pastors and great friends at church to go along with them and two other staff families to a "cabin" in Boone, NC. We were so excited for the chance to get away as a family, have some fun with friends and see the mountains in the fall....all very exciting things. It's always a challenge to pack for a baby/toddler because even if you are only going one night you need all the things you would need if you were going for 10 nights. But we did it and we left at about 3pm on Friday afternoon. The drive is about 2 1/2 hours and as I have said before Clare doesn't LOVE car rides...she's not bad, she just doesn't sleep or relax. We had a pretty good trip and when we got there it was just getting dark. I was the last one to get out of the car, I got Clare and she looked at me and threw up everywhere...didn't we just do this last week?!?!?! I have no doubt it was a mixture of the long car ride, the altitude and the winding road that created this little problem.

Another couple that was with us has a little boy and it was so fun to watch Clare and Caleb play together. He's about 10 months older than her and they had some very funny conversations. The cabin was absolutely beautiful and of course so was the view. We had dinner together sat by the fire played games and just had a great time. I am so proud to announce for the first time since she was a newborn we slept in the same room as Clare and all was well. She slept til about 7:15 the next morning and we were feeling like the trip was a great success! The weather was beautiful and we are so thankful that God provides us these great little blessings in the middle of life!

Haloween fun..and not so fun!

Halloween weekend started out great, but didn't end so well. Friday Clare and I went to the pumpkin patch and had a very fun time! There were animals and a hay ride and not many people, so Clare just got to roam and get muddy - two things she loves. We all had dinner at our favorite restaurant, Mac's BBQ and then headed home. Around midnight Clare woke up vomiting and it was her very first little "bug" other than a cold. The funniest part was me asking LD if he wanted the vomit covered bed or his vomit covered daughter and after inspecting both very carefully decided to take the bed.

Luckily Clare didn't have any more stomach sickness, but she had a bad cough, runny nose and has been on food strike. Her cough she has had on and off all fall and even after being at the doctors many times, it hasn't seemed to go away. So Saturday we put on her costume for pictures, even though she was not thrilled with any part of it. Then of course the rain came right at 6:30 and we decided to scratch the whole thing. We watched a Halloween episode of Yo Gabba Gabba, passed out candy to our two trick or treaters and called it a night!

Sunday was much the same way, with a fussy and unhappy little girl. Today the doctor diagnosed her with an ear infection and treated her for pneumonia more for prevention since her cough has lingered so long. After two very sleepless nights we are calling Halloween a wash for this year and are hoping for a healthy little girl in 24 hours!