Fun "Firsts" in South Haven

Ahhhhhh! What a wonderful couple days! We are so glad we squeezed this little side trip into out travels. The weather has been so great. It rained last night, but that was already after munchkin was asleep, so Aaron and I were just chilling in the room. Sorry to all of you who got a gazillion blog update emails from my post lat night. The internet connection here is archaic and I kept getting errors from the site. But I guess everything was posting after all and all my attempts to "fix" it only resulted in bombarding you. Oops!

We arrived yesterday and couldn't check into the hotel until 3:00 so we just strolled around town and had lunch. Aaron enjoyed reminiscing about his days living in South Haven, I enjoyed the quaint little shops, and Clara enjoyed everything! It is just so fun watching her learn about and explore her world. After checking in we headed to the beach. It was Clara's first time to one and she loved the "pool" as she kept calling it. So cute! Hey, really, isn't a lake just a big pool in the sand? :) Lake Michigan is so beautiful! It was a little cold, but we quickly acclimated. Clara was laughing and loving the waves when they hit us. She would exclaim "Weeeeeee!" when they crashed into us. Our swim lessons really prepared her well because she wasn't bothered at all when the water splashed in her face. The sand was another story, however! When we first sat down in the wet sand to dig and play she kept holding her feet in the air and wouldn't touch it with her hands. My little sensory girl! But, it didn't take long and she was grabbing handfuls and bringing them to Daddy to share in the fun.

This morning we had planned to go back to the beach, but it was a bit cool, so we improvised and hit the park instead. We all had a lot of fun exploring the great playground, swinging, sliding, and climbing. Back to the hotel for nap time, then we headed back out for some shopping and exploring. We stocked on some much needed essentials such as toys, clothes, and a new purse for mommy! We had dinner at our favorite South Haven establishment, Clementine's. Aaron and I absolutely love their fried zucchini, and it turns out so does Clara! Actually, she liked the dill dip it comes with even more. She was eating the dip with her fork like it was soup and saying "mmmm" after nearly every bite! And Clara had her first restaurant "kids meal". Until now, we've always given her part of whatever Aaron or I were eating. But tonight, we decided to get her her own dinner. She enjoyed a gourmet grilled cheese and apple slices. She may have filled up on dip, because she didn't eat much!

After dinner we treated ourselves to ice cream! You got it, Clara's first ice cream cone! We were certain that thing was gonna fly and hit the pavement the way Clara was swinging it around as she walked. She managed to keep a death grip on it and get good and sticky! We opted for vanilla because I just couldn't bring myself to let her cover herself in chocolate. I'll need to get over that, I know!

We head to Detroit tomorrow. I know Grandma, Papa, and Auntie Keri are anxious and excited to get their hands on munchkin. And Aaron and I are going to let them dote over her while we enjoy some date nights! Looking forward to the party Saturday and hope to see many of you there!

Enjoy the slideshow of the rest of our South Haven pics! xoxoxox

Our Visit to South Bend

Aaron, Clara and I had such a great visit to South Bend. It was a quick 5 days in the Bend, but a lot of fun was had by all. Aaron's friends and I planned a surprise for him that went off wonderfully! His best friend Andy flew into South Bend to be there for his party and to spend some quality time with Aaron. It was so great to see so many of our friends. It had been quite a while since many of us were all in town at the same time. Us from Texas, Andy from Florida, Courtney from Vegas, and the rest from South Bend, made for quite a memorable weekend!

A bunch of the guys all played golf on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Aaron's party was Saturday afternoon/night. The weather was picture perfect and the turnout great. Aaron and I had a big laugh whenever people complained that it was so hot outside! It was in the low 80s!!!! The nerve! They didn't seem to understand why we were so ecstatic with the gorgeous weather. How would they know that before we left we had been dealing with over 3 straight weeks of 100+ temps.

Clara had a blast playing with Abby and Cooper. Our friends Dave and Amy are always more than generous when they allow us to invade their home each time we go to South Bend. There was lots of playing, "practicing" sharing, and less than usual sleep. I mean, who wants to sleep when there's so many other things to be doing! And, Clara spent so much time outside! "Go outside" is now one of her new favorite things to say! Poor thing is usually cooped up indoors in Texas. It's just too hot! She was loving the plush green grass, huge yard, swing set and perfect weather in South Bend and couldn't get enough of it.

We also had a nice visit with Aaron's grandpa and his wife, Margaret. For this visit, the surprise was on us, Sharon, Aaron's mom, was there when we showed up. It was really nice to visit with all of them. Naturally, Clara was the star of the show as everyone enjoyed watching her play and be so adorable.

There are too many good pictures from the trip to show them individually, so here's a slideshow of them, instead. FYI, you'll have to view the slide show from the actual blog site if you're reading this update in an email.



We came to South Haven, MI this morning. We went strolled around town and went to the beach this afternoon. We'll be sure to post more pics from our time in South Haven and trips to the beach later this week.

A "Poopy" stay in Missouri

She's just a poop machine! I know, I know, every parent has a poop story and I'm sure that this will not be the last, nor is it the best, but, it's just too ridiculous not to share.

We are traveling to South Bend for the first part of our vacation up north. We left last night at around 9:00 pm. Clara fell asleep about one hour into the ride (having woke the precious thing from a sound sleep so she'd be sleepy for the drive). But, our dear girl was so good. Except for waking briefly when we stopped for gas, she slept the rest of the way until 6:00 this morning. She waited patiently for us to stop in Sikeston, Missouri. We checked into a Holiday Inn Express for the day/night and will continue the rest of the drive to South Bend tomorrow morning. We'll be taking our time, stopping at rest stops for "play breaks", lunch, and hopefully make it to SB in the evening.

Anyway, to the poop! We had just gotten back to our room after eating dinner at Ruby Tuesday. Cleaned the bathtub, filled it up, added the toys, removed a poopy diaper, and plopped miss munchkin in the tub. Less than a minute later.....floaties, and I don't mean the kind that help you swim! Get munchkin out. Aaron comes in to help clean the tub when we see more poop on Clara's leg! Clean the bum and legs, again. Still cleaning the tub, Clara is hanging out waiting patiently for bath time, and pooping again on the floor! Oh my gosh! Aaron's still cleaning the tub, I'm cleaning the bathroom floor, Clara wanders in to the room, to poop on the carpet! Are you kidding me! By this time I finally decide it's a good idea to put a diaper on her, since she is clearly enjoying this too much. By the time everything is cleaned up Clara had apparently decided she was done; there couldn't possibly have been anymore left in her after all that, anyway. We had a successful bath and now she's all tucked in. It occurred to me that she had 2% milk for breakfast this morning at the hotel. Maybe it upset her tummy. Who knows? :)

Until later
xoxoxoxox

Goofy little gal!

Here are some short videos of Clara having fun crashing and rolling on pillows. With the heat outside we don't get many chances to go the the playground to play or take walks so we don't get much time to burn off energy. Instead, we put some of the couch cushions and pillows on the floor and Clara entertains herself for quite a while!

Miss Clara goofing around on the pillows; her favorite passtime!

Kisses for the camera

If you are trying to see the videos from an email sent by the blog/us, it won't work. You need to go to the actual blog site to view the videos.

Splish splash, Clara taking a bath!

Our little munchkin is so much fun! Have we mentioned that lately? :) And it's so fun to see her learning so much. She can touch her eyes, nose, mouth, hair, ears, belly button, face, and arms when you ask her. We had some fun in the bathtub tonight and let her show off as she helped "wash up" and gave us some great shots for the photo album!

"I'm all ready for bath time, Daddy"

Signing "bath"

Tea party with bath water, yummy!
Washing her face,...
...her hair,...
...her arms,...
...and her buddah belly!
And finished off with a fun game of peek-a-boo with the shower curtain!

Such a cutie pie! There are some extra pics at the bottom of the blog in the slide show. Enjoy! We certainly do.

Aaron is officially on block leave as of Friday afternoon - 30 whole days! Yay! I'm working Monday and Tuesday and then we head north for our vacation. We're going to attempt leaving at night with the hope that Clara will sleep for the majority of the drive. Me, too, for that matter. We hope to be in South Bend sometime Thursday evening. We'll be sure to post pics and entries of our adventures over the two and a half weeks.

xoxoxox

2-2 Battalion Ball

All dressed up and somewhere to go! I had really been looking forward to Aaron's Battalion Ball, despite him saying it was just going to be some silly, formal, Army thing. What girl doesn't like getting all dressed and having an evening out with her husband? :) All in all, we had a nice evening. Clara was a really good girl for the babysitter. My friends son, Joey, came stayed at the house. She was so good for him and didn't give him too bad a time when he had to do the bedtime routine. I was anxious about that part of the night!

Miss Clara, taking a stroll in Mommy's shoes

(she walks better in them than I do!)

All dressed up for the Ball

Aaron's Platoon

Woo Hoo! Fun at Wazoos!

Hey there folks! Not much going on this past weekend. Just the same old fun. Work for Aaron and I and fun at Mrs. Jackie's for Clara.

Munchkin and Daddy having fun on the bed

This weekend was busy, busy, busy. Friday Aaron and I caught the new Transformers movie. AWESOME! Highly recommend it. Clara and I had fun at our swim class. She wasn't cranky at all this time. The last two weeks she had been fussy the first 15 or so minutes. She's getting so comfortable in the water. Even let me put her face under the water during our little "swoosh" game in the pool. And when she sits on the edge of the pool she's leap in toward me after I say "ready, set, go". She's also trying to jump in to me when she stands up on the edge after we practice climbing out. Bummer next week is the last session.

Clara's "My Daddy Rocks" t-shirt that he got her on a stopover in Ireland

Saturday found us with lots of house work (so nice that I can "share" that with Aaron now!) No kidding, really, he is so great about helping out with everything around the house. We also made a trip to the mall to shop. Aaron and I are going to his Battalion Summer Ball this Thursday. We get to get all dressed up and have a nice night out. Aaron will be all handsome in his Class A's and I in the new dress we bought Saturday.

Today was the really fun day! After church and the normal nap/lunch routine we took Clara to Wazoo's. It's an inflatable fun land here in Killeen. They have a toddler area and a parent to accompany them on the bigger things. Clara had so much fun! She was running around having a blast. Aaron and I were a little trigger happy with the camera, though. We took 116 pictures! I have filtered out a handful of the best. Make sure to check the slideshow at the bottom of the blog for some extras!

Have a good week. I'll make sure we get the babysitter to click some pictures of Aaron and I all dressed up for everyone :) xoxoxox

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy July Fourth! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday. We certainly did. Nothing too crazy, just had a few friends over for a cookout.

We went out Saturday morning to pick up our new grill. The old one, back from the days on Leitch Rd. in Ferndale, had seen some better days. Our new Weber grill sure is shiny! Aaron and his buddies had some fun putting it all together. We grilled steaks, sausages, hot dogs and hamburgers on it to christen it. I guess it truly is a testament that I'm "just a girl" because as long as it cooks the meat I'm happy! But, Aaron seems to be pretty pleased with it.

Chad, Aaron, Chad, & Adam assembling the new grill.

It was a scorcher outside on Saturday. But then again, everyday seems to be ridiculously hot. Clara and I found some relief from the heat playing in her pool and running through the sprinkler. I had forgotten how much fun playing in the sprinkler can be! We had a blast and will definitely be doing it again!

Love that smirk on her face! It's all "Daddy"!

Kim & Clara having fun in the sprinkler.

As always, Clara seems to have a "new" thing every time we turn around. Now it's "giving five". It's not something I have done much with her. But at swim class Friday, our instructor, Dusty, gave Clara "five" when she "reached and pulled" in the water all by herself. Clara thought it was great! She's been doing it all weekend. She is doing very well with her baby sign, too. She's saying "please" in this one because she wants to get down from the chair....even though she just asked to get up into the chair 1.5 seconds before!

Our pretty girl asking pretty please

Our goofy girl got her hands on Daddy's hat and was running around the kitchen in her pj's.

Well, that was our holiday weekend. We hope you all had a great long weekend. Take care and lots of love. xoxoxox