18 Months

Can you believe it? My baby is going to be 18 months on Monday. Where, I ask you, did the time go?? She goes to nursery this Sunday. It's a happy day in the Calaway household. I remember when she turned a year old, I kept thinking about how nursery was only 6 months away and I just couldn't fathom putting her in there. It was like I was going to be abandoning my baby! Well, after 6 months of wrestling her through sacrament meeting and Dallin wrestling with her through Sunday School and Priesthood, we are so ready to put her in. I just hope she doesn't beat up the other kids in the class. She gets kind of possessive with the toys she's playing with... It could be that she doesn't have anyone else to share her toys with. I'm sure you're all thinking, "well, she could have someone to share her toys with if you guys had another kid sometime soon", to which I would reply, "yes, someday there will be another one, but not yet. Give it time, Kevin." (Dominoes commercial reference).

Back to the topic. Claire isn't so keen on sharing, even with her stuffed animals. Dallin just delights in teasing our poor daughter (as well as me) and puts her shoes on her stuffed animals feet. Apparently that doesn't fly in Claire's book, so she immediately rips them off the unsuspecting feet of the poor Tigger, Polar Bear or Cabbage Patch Monkey. I'm trying to teach her to share, but Dallin seems to be thwarting my efforts by teasing relentlessly. Oh well, teasing makes her stronger, right? That or I am going to have to find a shrink in a few years to discuss her unstable mental health due to excessive teasing by her father. (Kidding. He's not THAT bad.)

Claire has recently taken a liking to My Little Pony, which just makes my heart happy. I was a My Little Pony girl growing up and though the newer version of the show is a little more Anime than I remember, it's still annoyingly cute. (Dallin thinks it's annoying, I think it's cute.) The other day, as we were watching, Claire yelled out, "APPLEJACK!" and I about fainted. It was clear as day. I think I might be getting her an Applejack pony for Easter...

Other words that have entered Claire's ever expanding vocabulary are, "go", "don't", "no", "mom", "dad", "hi dad", "what", "all done", "wow", "oh", and she sings all day. I've already contacted various recording studios telling them we have a budding star in our home. Strangely, we keep getting hung up on. (Kidding. Again. About the recording studio, I mean.)

Claire has recently gone from walking to running. Nothing can ever be done at a walking pace now. It's just running. And she's a pretty fast little lady too. I wish I could say my running to keep up with her has resulted in weight loss for me, but alas, my waistline remains unchanged. Ah well, that's the price of motherhood, I guess. Or the Daynight Donuts we got on Monday night for FHE...

All in all, the last 18 months of our lives have been just amazing. Full of ups and downs, love and laughter, tears and frustration and all other wonderful things. We love our baby girl (who looks more toddler now than baby) and love where we are.

And now, the moment you have all been waiting for... Or the place you have all just scrolled down to, in order to skip my weird antics above. The pictures! These are just a mish mash of pictures over the last month. Enjoy them all!

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home!

Dallin came home from mutual last night bearing gifts for Claire in the form of Glow Sticks. It was better than Christmas morning, let me tell ya! She played with them for the next 45 minutes until we pried them from her grasp before she went to bed. I will be making a trip down to the Dollar Tree to purchase some glow sticks for any future rainy days.

Not quite sure what's going on in this picture, but I thought it was funny!

Playing Catch Up!

Sorry about the lack of posting and pictures lately. I haven't been able to use my Photoshop until just recently, so now we are back in the saddle! This is going to be a major picture dump post, so enjoy!

JANUARY

We had some snow in January (which melted and caused all the flooding that I posted about) and this was Claire's get up. Hat is compliments of Hillary, coat from Grandma Calaway and the boots were a Christmas gift that she never used once while we were in Washington :)

Claire's going through this "kitchen towel phase", where she has to constantly be taking the towel off the oven door where it hangs and deposit it somewhere in the apartment. One night she just would NOT let go of it at bedtime, so I let her sleep with it. The next morning, I found her still clinging to it. Funny girl!

Another phase- sticking objects in her mouth and walking around the house. I'm not sure why the Little People Farmer was the lucky guy, but he was the favorite for a while.

One morning before church I was getting Claire ready but didn't want to put her dress on until after I fed her lunch and so she was wandering around like this. I thought it was quite comical :)

She loves her daddy!

In January she learned how to give kisses and she decided to give kisses to that baby in the mirror. She's now starting to figure out that it's her in the mirror and will stand in front of it "preening" at various times during the day... I know, we've got a long road of girly-ness ahead of us!

After all the flooding in January we hadn't moved our DVD's back in their spot in the entertainment center, so Claire would climb in there and play with whatever junk happened to be there at the time.


This was the DVD they gave me as I left the hospital after having Claire. Can I just tell you that it is the WORST movie to ever show a brand new, post-partum mother?! It basically just tells you that your baby will be crying non stop for the next 2 months and not to shake them. What new mom, who is exhausted, wants to hear that her baby is going to be crying non stop for the next 2 months?! Ok, rant over.

Showing off her pretty dress up necklace

Out of all the Christmas gifts that Claire got, I think this is her favorite. Calvin and Jessica gave her a little dress up jewelry and she wears it all. the. time. She is 100% girl.

Giving Momma kisses!

I don't know why she didn't have a shirt on, but Dallin started scratching her back, and if you can't tell by the look in her eyes, she totally started spacing out. She loves getting her back scratched.

FEBRUARY

Dallin was the mastermind behind this particular get-up. She kept it on for quite a while, too!

The front view. I don't know why, but for some reason, I think she looks like a little ninja in this picture!

On our way home from a very brief trip to Pasco for Clayton's endowment in the Temple.

Don't judge. We had an empty 2-Liter bottle and she just kept playing with it, eventually using it as a pillow.


A photo I snapped of the Temple while we were home for Clayton's endowment.


We normally travel on the Washington side when we go to and from Pasco, crossing over at Biggs, but as we were going along, we were stopped at Paterson and told that a gas tanker had exploded like 40 miles ahead of us, so we had to turn around and go on the Oregon side instead. This was what we saw from across the river! Not the best pictures, sorry!




Normally, I don't get a Valentine's Day celebration because Dallin will be snowmobiling at Yellowstone with his Dad and brothers, but this year I didn't get one because he had a test to study for. So, this is me and Claire celebrating on Valentines Day, 2012!


Claire's aftermath from the Valentine celebrations.



Our Valentine grub. Pink snickerdoodles, popcorn and soda. I know, super healthy!



My parents came down for a BYU Basketball game one weekend in February and we decided to hike Silver Falls. It was pretty cold that day, but it was beautiful! This was the lower falls.



The group, minus me.



The whole group!



We got that carrier last year for Christmas from Dallin's parents and we really hadn't had any opportunities to use it until that hike. Dallin said it was awesome and we were so happy we had it!


Marker and Ash at the lower falls.



Some weird, orange mold (I'm guessing) that had accumulated in some stagnant water.



My mom and dad at Silver Falls



Mom and Dad at the lower Falls



Marcus and Ash at Silver Falls



Silver Falls

MARCH

These last two pictures were actually just taken on Sunday. Claire loves ice cream and she knows her daddy will always give her a bite. :)

So, that has been life for us, in a nut shell! I promise I won't stay away so long, now that I have my beloved Photoshop again!