Two baby bumps in one house!

We have had so many visitors this month and have been loving it. For the last four days mine and LD's neice Kristyl and her boyfriend Jaap came to visit. Jaap is from the Netherlands and they are expecting a little boy in December. He is just in the US for a few weeks, so it was such a treat they spent some time with us. It was so fun for Kristyl and I to spend time together while being pregnant and also very fun to get to know Jaap.

When they first got to our house Monday night Clare was SO incredibly shy, which is unusual, but was upset when either of them would even look at her. It didn't last long. By the next morning Clare was snuggling in Jaap's lap to watch Barney and giving them both kisses and hugs. Kristyl and Jaap watched Clare for me while I went to the doctors on Tuesday (because I am on the every other week doctor visits now), and Clare told them that they could color "all day" her new favorite phrase. While Clare napped and went to bed at night we played card games and board games and just hung out. I learned a ton about the Netherlands and Dutch culture as Jaap was always telling us about new things. We also took them to our fav Charlotte restaurant, Mac's Speedshop for some BBQ and LD took them on a little tour of the city.

Wednesday we spent the morning at Monkey Joe's with friends and it was a great time to be there because Jaap (who is 6'5") climbed in all the slides and jumpers with Clare while Kristyl and I relaxed a little. He definetely had a hard time fitting in some of the tunnels! By time we got home everyone was ready for an afternoon nap!

By the end of their visit Clare was calling Jaap "honey"...not sure where she picked that up, and had almost mastered Kristyl's name, which is really hard for an almost 2 year old. It was such a fun week and we are so blessed to have family who desires to make the long haul from Michigan to come visit us!! Thanks for a great week Kristyl and Jaap! Love you both!

Clare loves Barney and Jesus

My sweet daughter has an obsession with Barney. Before one year Clare didn't watch any television, then for most of her second year of life she was allowed 30 minutes a day. As she's approaching 2 she usually watches an hour. Our goal of this was just to limit her tv intake so she would have more focus on playing. Anyway..all that to say we thought it would help with her obsesson with tv. I'm telling you that girl has fallen head first off a chair, thrown up, and had bloody knees and if you ask her if she wants to watch Barney, the tears miraculously stop...instantly!!

Every night at dinner Clare says a simple prayer, usually like this "Dear Jesus, thank you for our food. Thank you for mommy, daddy, Clare and sister. Amen" Just this last week she started adding some new things...a friends name, chicken, etc. Well last night she prayed only for Clare, Barney, Baby Bop and BJ. And a few nights ago when I put her to bed she asked to sing Jesus Loves Me and I asked her if she loved Jesus and she said "yes, and Barney."

So.....yes, I am raising a very serious Barney lover! This is a little video of her this week singing her favorite Barney song. The funniest part is that she is doing the movements that the kids do in her video. The other funny thing is you can't tell in the video but she is doing her dancing facing the oven so she can watch her reflection. Yup..she's my daughter and I love it!

Sorry for the naked girl....she just started performing so we didn't worry about clothes!

Happy 6 year anniversary!

We came home from Michigan just in time to celebrate our six year anniversary! My mom was here so we were even more excited for a free date night, a rare occurrance for us!! LD made reservations the same place we went last year, a super great place in Charlotte called Barrington's. It is so cute and little and is a treat to be able to eat there. We couldn't get in til 9pm, which is a very late dinner for us, but we were so excited about it we got there very hungry! We both oohed and ahhed over our entrees and had an amazing pudding cake dessert with homemade ice cream. I mean how many restaurants make their own ice cream for dessert?!? The whole way home LD wouldn't even talk about food and he went straight to bed. I think we overdid it a little, but it was worth the indulgence ;)

Happy 6th Anniversary love!!

Summer trip to Michigan

Just mommy and Clare flew to Michigan last Monday for some time with family! This could turn into a very long post because of all we did and who we saw, but I'll try very hard to keep it to the basics. Clare did great on the plane ride and all of my prayers were answered with the flight being on time and no complications. It was difficult for my preggo belly and Clare to fit into the same seat, but we managed!

Monday evening we went to the church I grew up in just to say hi to a few people since it was VBS and Clare ended up playing in the 2 year old class and having a ton of fun! She would have gone every evening if we had time. Tuesday we spent the day at my parents and friends came over throughout the day to visit, which was so nice. I loved that most of our trip was spent in one place and people came to see us. It really helped on not feeling overwhelmed. Tuesday evening we celebrated my neice, Kristen's 17th birthday and it was fun to be with her to celebrate! Clare also got to play with her cousin Jayden who is 2 months younger than her. They are SO cute together and I love seeing them play!

Wednesday my mom, Clare and I drove to Reading to spend the day with LD's parents, sisters and our neices and nephew. By this point in the trip Clare had gotten very clingy and only wanting mommy, which is very unusual for her. She finally got out of her little funk and hung out with everyone. It was nice to have a day to spend with them, celebrate my neice Kara's 16th birthday and also celebrate my neice Kristyl who is preggo as well! From there we drove to Dundee for me to have dinner with my college roomie and also went to the church my dad is now the pastor of. It was a long day, but so worth it to spend time with so many people we love!

Thursday was another day at my parents with more friends coming to visit! In the evening we headed to my aunt's house to celebrate my cousin Kevin's birthday (are you noticing a trend here??). Clare had more birthday cake than she's ever had in her life!! There were lots more cousins to play with there so she was wore out by the end of the day. I ended Thursday evening with 3 great high school friends, which was a perfect end to my trip.

Friday mornng my mom, Clare and I headed back to Charlotte. We did incredibly well making the trip in 12 hours! Clare watched only 3 hours of Barney, which was very impressive I thought with no major meltdowns. It was a fun trip, but as you see in the pics, at 29 1/2 weeks I am pretty pregnant and am happy to be home and back to normal. We are so glad to have my mom with us for a few days as well.

Here are some pics from the trip!