It's Gone!

Clara has lost her first tooth! Barely five years old and her two front bottom teeth have been loose for about a week, with the new ones pushing up behind them already. We noticed the missing tooth this morning. Unfortunately, we have no idea where it is! Odds are it was swallowed either during her morning apple or in her sleep last night. Clara was pretty upset when a search of the house and her room turned up nothing. She has been assured the Tooth Fairy will know her tooth is gone and will still visit tonight. She's bound and determined to keep track of the other loose tooth when it comes out!

Later in the day...Clara was so impatient for the next tooth to come out and, I think, desperate to have something to leave for the Tooth Fairy, she convinced Aaron to pull it. After some wiggling and tugging, out it came!

Two teeth, gone, in the same day!

Update! Today, the day after the missing tooth incident, we have found the tooth! While getting up from the family room floor following an intense game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos, I was poked in the hand by something sharp. That something sharp was Clara's tooth! It must have fallen out yesterday morning, unbeknownst to her, and camouflaged by the beige carpet, remained undiscovered during our search of that same floor. She and I were both quite excited to have found it! It is now waiting safely under her pillow, in the little yellow tooth pillow that used to be mine, for the Tooth Fairy to collect.

Sunflowers: Week 2

They're growing! Such a change in just one week. Clara has one less tooth and all the pots have big sprouts in them.

May 5, 2013, Week 2: A toothless smile on sis with all the sprouts!

May 5, 2013, Week 2: So many sprouts!

Sunflowers: Week 1

This is our fourth year planting sunflower seeds, but, I am always just as excited as the kids when we find that first sprout! It only took five days this year.

April 26, 2013, Day 5: Our first sprout!

 

Once that first sprout appears, it not too long before the rest of them catch up. Sure enough, just a couple days later, and we have nine pots with at least one sprout in them. Our neighbors haven't seen them yet; Clara and Colton can't wait to show them off!

April 28, 2013, Week 1: 9 out of 15 have sprouts!

We can see the dirt being pushed up in a few more, so it won't be long before we can add more pots to our list of sprouted ones. They're sure to take off from here and we'll be planting them in the yard before we know it.

April 28, 2013, Week 1: Posing blue-eyed blondies!

They're Back!!

It's Sunflower Time at the Barrett house! We've got a new house, which means a new yard, and that means finding a new place to plant our sunflowers. We have a few weeks to decide for sure. This year, we recruited the help of three of our neighbors to help with the planting. Everyone is so excited to see how quickly they will grow. We have 15 pots and will be watching those babies sprout before we know it!

April 21, 2013,  "Planting Day"

Nutcracker, 2012

Clara with "Clara" , "Franz", and a Snow Fairy

My little girl and I made our second annual trip to the Nutcracker yesterday. I love live theater and I am thoroughly enjoying fostering this love in Clara. The community theater in Elizabethtown is the perfect place to start. The Nutcracker performed by local dance groups and "Clara's Tea Party" just before the show are a highlight of our holiday season.

Clara just loves the tea party. She can meet and talk to the dancers and take pictures with them. There was such a difference  in her personality from last year. Last year she wouldn't approach any of the dancers on her own, but desperately wanted to take pictures with them like the other girls were. This year, she could have cared less about eating; she only wanted to go talk to all the dancers and take picture, after picture, after picture, with them all! She confidently approached them, introduced herself, asked questions, and posed beautifully. I was so proud of her.

Me and my girl

As I expected, she was enthralled with the performance. I loved watching her sitting on the edge of her seat with an ear to ear smile on her face. I absolutely love taking her to shows. Now that she's getting bigger and understanding that she needs to be quiet and sit still, we'll start finding more shows to go to together. It will be fun to explore the local theaters in North Carolina when we move there.

Christmas Cookies with Cousins

The yummy, over-decorated delicious
cookies of childhood

One of my favorite family traditions since we've been in Kentucky has been Christmas cookie baking with the Sandersons. Knowing that this is our last year doing it makes me pretty sad. It has been wonderful having family so close. The memories and time spent together these past three years have been great. Whether we were having sleepovers, watching each other's sick kids, babysitting for a date night, having dinner together, hanging out, or baking cookies, I have loved every minute of it. Michelle was there to help me adjust to baby number two and cope with deployment number two. She was always there and I knew I could count on her, no matter what. I'm gonna miss her so much. Well, back to the baking...

Nick, Colton, Scott, Clara, & Hailey cutting out cookies

Colton, Hailey, Michelle, Clara & Nick hard a work decorating

Colton, Daddy, & Clara icing the cookies