barbie

The other day I walked into the living room and this is what I found....

Claire playing with the Barbie that Matt used when he proposed to me.

I thought it was quite funny. Barbie got shoved in the bottom drawer of the coffee table before we moved and Claire found her! I'm pretty sure she's plotting to cut her hair...isn't that what every girl does to Barbie?? I know I did! :)

She's not as innocent as she looks, people!!

So, I guess she'll be getting Barbies for her first birthday!! just kidding!!!

bath and jammies

When Claire was taking her bath yesterday I had to pull out the camera because she reminded me of Blake. I KNOW I blogged about it, but can't find the pic to prove it. Anyway, Blake went through a phase of sucking on the washcloth when he would take a bath and now Claire has started doing it. I promise the girl can drink from a cup. Don't know what it is with the nasty bath water that she likes!!

Andrew saw me taking a pic of Claire and wanted in on the action. Little did he know that Blake was behind him. This just made me laugh.

It's been as low as 48 the last couple of nights and we've pulled our the footed jammies. So, I had to take some pics of the kiddos...

and Claire was being a spaz when I was trying to take her pic!
Tonight is warmer, but the boys insisted on wear their footed jammies. Not sure why Andrew likes them so much. He's really getting too big for them.

10 months

Miss Claire is a big 10 months old today!!

These days she....

• can stand up from a sitting position


• can stand longer by herself


• fusses at me when it's time to get out of the bathtub


• loves baby goldfish


• LOVES to be right where her brothers are


• loves attention from her daddy


• loves going on walks and being outside


• doesn't want to be held...would rather be doing her own thing


• loves to play pat-a-cake


• loves to bounce


• is finally taking a liking to finger foods


• only has two teeth, but her top ones are about to breaking through


• LOVES to look through books

I finally found a doctor here and just got Claire in 2 days ago for her 9 month appointment. She was in the 65% for weight and height! She definitely is growing up too fast!!

Omaha Zoo

Labor Day Matt was off so we decided we'd go to the zoo. For our housewarming gift our realtor got us a membership and we've been dying to check it out!

I was definitely overwhelmed! The place is huge and since we went on Labor Day, it was pretty busy. Andrew is off a day this week and we'll probably go back since we didn't even see a fourth of what the zoo had to offer.

If you know Andrew at all you know he LOVES fish. He was definitely enjoying the aquarium.

The coolest part was the tunnel.

You had all kinds of fish swimming around you. The boys loved the sharks the best!!

And the cute sea turtle.

We also saw some cute penguins.

Andrew wanted to know why these guys were in time out! :)

MY favorite was the polar bear!!
Then we went to the desert. It was pretty neat, but long. The boys were ready to get out of there. And Claire did go with us. Not sure what she is doing....
We saw a lot of other animals, but I won't bore you with those pics. I did ride a sky lift looking thing with the boys and was a nervous wreck. You're supposed to enjoy it and look at all the animals in the zoo. I was more worried that Blake was going to fall out!!!

So, that's all from Omaha!!

big day!!

Today was Blake's big day!!

He started preschool...or pre-stool as he calls it! He has been DYING to go to school ever since Andrew started last year. I remember dropping Andrew off last year and I had to leave with Blake crying. Everyone thought he was just going to miss his big brother, but he just wanted to go to school! :)Anyway, he's been so excited about going to school and counting down the days!! When it came time to leave this morning, he was a little nervous. He had a blast tho and can't stop talking about his friends and his teachers.

I can't wait to see how he'll grow and change this year.

omaha or bust!

Well, we've made it to Omaha!!

Here's all our stuff...except you can't really see it because Matt's truck is in the way. We are VERY thankful Matt's truck was able to go on the truck. Our packers were AWESOME! They were SO good with the kids and did a great job packing! We didn't have one thing broken!

Before we left I took a picture of each kid in their room. :(

Kinda makes me miss my house looking at these pics.

Moving is such a pain! I'm SO ready for my house to have everything in order!! I'm almost there tho.

The next day we headed up to Kansas to see the Sears'. They were kind enough to host us for a night. The kids all did really well playing together.

So, now we are here and just getting settled in. I didn't realize how much stuff we had until we moved! I'm really enjoying our new house. I don't have everything in order and maybe once I do I'll post pics...or maybe I'll post pics little by little. We'll see.

Anyway, we no more than got here and Andrew started Kindergarten!! He was SO excited!! I wish I could say I was sad, but nothing has really hit me yet...him starting school or us moving!

His teacher seems really nice and I'm really hoping he has a great year. It was funny because while we were at school a lady asked Andrew if he was excited to start Kindergarten and he said, "yes, ma'am." She immediately turned to me and asked if we were from the South. :)

Blake will start PreK this week. He's SO excited! He's been DYING to go to school since last year. He just thinks he's such a big boy. It will be good for him, I hope!

Claire turned 9 months when we got up here. I can't believe she'll be one before we know it! This year has gone by too fast with this move that I don't feel like we've really been able to enjoy the baby phase. Her latest trick (aside from pulling up on EVERYTHING) is giving kisses!! So cute!!

I think everyone is really doing well adjusting to the move. The poor kids (well, Blake and Claire) have been couped up in the house since we've been here. Today I got the basement storage in order so we are ALMOST set! Won't be long and our lives will be crazy busy with play dates and such...but for now, I'm enjoying getting settled in and not knowing many people. :)

We bought the boys this Gator when we got here. They had wanted one in Houston because our neighbor had one. Here...they actually have room to drive it around!!

Well, there's your update!!

a week in pics...

Andrew got a hold of the camera and decided to take a picture of himself with his little animals. And...

a picture of Blake playing the Wii.

I figure there will be lots of Wii playing come November!!

Claire played with Mr. Duck in the tub...

and watched Daddy take the fort apart!! (yes, those legs are chunky!)

Yesterday, I took the kids by the Disney Store since we don't have one in NE and they LOVE that place. Andrew had some birthday money to spend and has been DYING for this turtle....

I tried to talk Blake into getting a stuffed animal (not sure what came over me because I'm not a huge fan of stuffed animals) because they were on sale when you buy two.

Blake got two cars instead, but would only pose with one...

So, I decided to get Claire a Minnie Mouse and save it for her when she gets older...
but the girl would NOT give it back to me!

She CRIED when I took it away to pay for it! So much for giving it to her when she's older! Well, someone is stinking up the joint!...

don't even know where to start...

I've been such a slacker on blogging that I don't even know where to begin.

Guess I'll start with the kids...

Claire is 8 1/2 months now. Here's what she's up to...

She is a happy baby, but is really happy when she's with her mama! She gets nervous around strangers.Words she's babbled lately...nigh-nigh...bye-bye...dada...mama...no no.

Right before 8 months she started crawling and she's all over the place. She loves to crawl down the hallway and sneak into her brothers' rooms!!

She has also started to pull up on things.

I wish I could say I've done great filling in her journal for her and have her scrapbook caught up, but I haven't.

Blakers is just as mess these days.

He's all excited about starting school in a few weeks. He'll go 2 days a week for 2 hours. I was hoping for more of a break, but we really liked this school...so we'll see. I hope to be able to do more "school" with him at home. I started doing that with Andrew when he was 2, but poor Blake has gotten the shaft. We've just been too busy.

He's also enjoyed swim lessons this summer. We just finished today. He isn't swimming, but he's definitely come a long way.

These days he can be found doing whatever his big brother is doing. :)

Andrew will be a big Kindergartner in a few weeks. I really can't believe it. We keep planning family vacations and forget we can't just up and leave in the middle of the year because Andrew will be in school.

He's all about fish these days. LOVES FISH! Tonight at dinner we had fish and Matt slipped and told him it was fish. During Andrew's prayer at dinner he prayed for no more fish to die so people can't eat them. :)

He's getting an attitude and we are working on it. Some days we definitely butt heads. What can I say?...the boy can wear me out! He does mean well and tries his best to please us. I can't wait to see how he will do in Kindergarten!

And as a family we've all been busy. We are trying to do things in Houston one last time. Last week, I think, we went to the zoo to see the dinosaur exhibit!!

And we couldn't leave without riding the train. It was HOT!

We are also trying to spend time with friends before we leave. Mandy came in last week. We sure enjoyed our visit...and I didn't get ONE picture! Jenn Mas came over with the girls when Mandy was here. I'm pretty sure Mandy will never have children after her visit. :) I know all the kiddos enjoyed Miss Mandy's attention!! Thanks for coming to see us, Mandy. (And you too, Jenn!)

We've sold our house!! Matt and I were talking last night about how we can't really question if we are doing the right thing by moving (of course I probably will be my first snowfall!) because everything has just fallen into place. We definitely know this is God's plan for us. It's pretty neat to see His hand in this whole process. It's gone smoothly, but has been stressful and tiring! We leave next Tuesday or Wednesday and I think we're all ready to start our adventure in life!!

Well, that's it for now. This post has taken me ALL day! I'm tired and can barely see straight!

I promise to update when things slow down....