Claire's First Christmas

From 20071225

Claire's first Christmas was a great one. She visited both sets of grandparents and four cousins. She went sledding and practiced her crawling. She had a white Christmas in both towns. Mom and Dad had a good time as well, visiting books stores and clearance sales. Click the picture for a whole bunch of photos, including my first smoked and brined turkey.

Just in time for Christmas

Claire is crawling! Click for more pictures.

Oh How She Has Grown

Here is Claire with Rick and Rick Jr. Click the picture for more. Click this link to see a before and after of the last Rick Picture.

Finally some more pictures

Lot's of stuff going on. I have a new job teaching third grade in Woodburn. Valerie will be working day shift. Claire has a tooth. Mary the cat had surgery. Click the picture for more.

Ukulele, yogurt, cousins, geocaching and etc.

I am running out of captions at the moment. There are some great pictures here. Claire is growing fast and doing all sorts of fun things. Click each picture for two different sets of pictures. There is also a video of Claire playing the Ukulele that can be viewed by clicking here.

Lots of Pictures

Here are some pictures of Claire. This little creme outfit is one Valerie picked out to give to someone else before we were even married. She decided it was so cute she wanted to save it for a future child. Then came Claire.

There also some pictures of the finished high chair. We used it to early and Claire's metal spoon scratched it up but not badly. I may spray the tray again or just let it dry to see how hard it gets. It turned out nice given how it looked before.

Click the pictures for more. The first two pictures take you to one album, the third another.

Claire Eats Solid Food

We fed Claire solid foods. This is a picture of her very first bite. She loves rice cereal. We have some video that I am in the process of uploading. Click the picture for more. Click play to watch the videos.

Another Mini Vacation

We went to the Seaside Spell's house this week for an over-nighter. I recommend having a brother live by the ocean. We took some pictures of Claire in their back yard in full farmer regalia. She is pretty cute. We went crabbing and then in the morning, LJ watched Claire while Valerie and I went to the beach. LJ and Claire tried out our new $5 yard sale Kelty Kid Backpack. A good time was had by all. If you click on the picture you will see more. There are some pictures from the beach and home. You can see the "Before" picture of the vintage '70s high chair we are restoring. Thanks again, Shane and Laura Jane, for letting us crash there. It is fun to see our kids playing together.

Claire's Piggy Tail

Click for more.

Mini Beach Vacation

We went to the beach for a night. Bob and Colleen Batty let us stay at their wonderful beach house. First rate hospitality and lodging. Mom and Dad were there, the Battys are their good friends. It was very nice and relaxing. We hiked down to the beach and had a good time. We all got wet. My kite got wet. The sneaker waves would get you from a long way off. Claire loves the ocean because it is made of water. It was one of those rare occasions when a vacation actually ends up being relaxing. Click either picture for more from the beach and some cute pictures from home.

Claire's New Skills

Claire is getting busier and busier. She learned 2 skills today. She is able to push buttons to make her noisy toys work. She can also use a straw. That one we discovered by accident. She also got her first taste of Diet Coke, also an accident.

Little Swimmer

Claire took a short little swim today. As you can see, she sits up on her own (with Mommy sitting real close). Don't look to closely at the water, Claire may have given new meaning to the phrase, "Don't go swimming after eating."

Claire has a fan club at the Coffee Cottage. Every time she shows up, the girls behind the counter come out and talk to her. We are officially no longer individual people. We are Claire's mom and dad. "Here comes Claire, and those other two." :-) Click the picture.

More Claire

Isn't she sweet. She sleeps in her own room now but will sometimes take a little snooze in Mommy and Daddy's bed. Note all the hair that she is getting. She is sitting up on her own, for a short time at least.

Colby's New Project

http://jcolbyspell.googlepages.com/fattofood

Some New Pictures

Click the picture for the latest batch. There is a video of Claire having some Lemonade that might take a while to download. Enjoy.

Steam Up

Here are some cute pictures from, mostly from the Brooks Steam Up. We could not resist the John Deere hat. There is also a picture of an old man driving an old tractor. We could not figure out which was older, the man or the tractor. Claire loved the event because there was so much noise and things to see. We also used our new stroller that came courtesy of Claire's great aunt Mary's generous contribution. Click for more pictures.

Happy Birthday Grandma Beth

Love Claire.

Claire Swimming Video

Here is Claire at the baby pool in John Day. Her diaper got huge but she had lots of fun.

John Day

The last batch of pictures from our trip to Eastern Oregon. Lots of great pictures from the swim meet. This picture really catches Claire in a typical pose. Click the picture for more.

La Grande

Here are some pictures from La Grande. Click the picture.

Carlee and Claire

Cousin Carlee came for a visit. Here are some pictures. This is near my Geocache "Dad's Happening". There were blackberries and we ended up with enough for a pie. Carlee and I made one and it was yummy. I have a lot more pictures coming from our visit to LaGrande and John Day. Keep checking. It may take me a while. There are 200 pictures to sort through. Here is a picture of Claire swimming to hold you over. Click on either picture for some more.

Claire as a Simpson

This is how Claire is supposed to look if she was on the Simpsons. For the new movie they have a website where you can Simpsonize yourself. This is what they came up for Claire. Not as cute as the real thing but kind of fun.

Seaside Trip

The family plus Carlee headed to Seaside to visit the Spell cousins in their new digs. The kids had a great time and everyone is very tired.

Back to Front Rollover

Claire just seconds ago rolled over from her back to front. We both saw it. No pictures but it was pretty exciting.

Sleepy Baby

Mommy at work and Daddy in charge. Claire starts squawking like she is hungry. Daddy goes to get a bottle warmed up. Evidently he took to long. Claire is sound asleep. There are no pictures but you can click on the picture anyway.

Look at all the pictures

I guess that my last three posts were kind of confusing. There are 3 sets of pictures, one for each post. So if you are interested, make sure to click on all three pictures. Also, if you had not had a chance to sign the guest book, it is on the left hand side of this page. We will make sure to keep posting. We have a trip to Eastern Oregon coming up so keep checking in.

Claire at Twin Rocks Friends Camp

Valerie was camp nurse at Twin Rocks this week. Colby was Mr. Mom and he and Claire put several hundred miles on the old stroller. Claire and Colby had a great time. It was a little bit of a camp nurse disaster for Valerie. Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. It was still a lot of fun and we had a good time with the staff and kids. Click the picture for about 40 more.

Claire First Beach Fun

Sure Claire has been to the beach before but this is the first time she got out of the car seat and had some fun. This picture is Claire's first tootsy dip into the Mighty Pacific. A good day to be a dad. Click the picture for a ton of pictures.

Cousin Kara's Birthday Party

A good time was had by all! More pictures are a click away!

In the Pool

We got Claire a little wading pool. She was not to excited about it but we will try again when the water is warmer. She sure is cute though. Please click for more pictures and make sure to sign our guest book if you have not had the chance.

New Guestbook

I just changed the guest book. Hopefully this one is easier to use. Please sign the book and let us know who is reading this blog. The guest book is to your left.

3 Month Stats / 4th of July

Claire is growing fast. She is now sitting up on her own, sort of, for a few seconds. She weighs 12 pounds and is 25 inches long (50th and 95th percentiles, respectively). For her first Independence Day, we had a picnic in the front yard. Then her daddy lit some ground blooming flowers in the street. The neighbors were shooting of some very illegal fire works. Claire was very interested in them and did not seem scared at all. She was disappointed to go back in the house. She is smiling a lot and starting to laugh.

Cute Pictures

Valerie took a whole bunch of really cute pictures this morning. I took some with the Ukulele but the ones that Valerie took captured a whole bunch of great expressions. Claire is starting to be quite a character.

Claire's Stats

11 pounds 7 ounces. 23 3/4 inches.

Firsts

These are some pictures of my first Father's Day as dad and Claire's first trip to the beach. Oh, and some cute things like Claire's Yoda chair and mouse shoes. Click the picture.

La Grande

Here are some pictures from Claire's trip to La Grande. Bowa and Bopa had a good time with Claire because her tummy is not bothering her as much. Claire is still a pretty good traveler.

Silliness

Silliness created by Uncle Shane and Cousin Summer. Click the pink thing on the bottom left with your speakers on.

Lost Pictures

I found these pictures on the little memory card that came with my camera. Click for more.

Bath Time

Claire loves the water. Click the picture for more.

Family Tree

OK. The family tree site is not working correctly. I need to figure out how to give you all permission to view and edit. I don't want to make it public because there is info like maiden names, places of birth and birthdays that could be used for nefarious purposes. I will let you know when I have it working.

Claire's Ancestry

A friend showed me this website and I have been entering some data that Uncle Dan provided years ago. I have gone back to James I of Scotland. I will be entering more info as I have time. You may want to sign up and edit yourselves. Click the picture. Then click the "My Tree" Tab.

Claire Rolls Over

High Speed


Dialup

Claire's Favorite Toy

$12 of Grandma's money well spent. She loves this little play gym. She is in a much better mood today not that she is less sore from her shots. Click for more pictures.

Happy and Sad Faces

It was Claire's 2 month appointment today. She weighs 9 pounds 13 ounces and is 22 3/4 inches. 25% for weight and 60th for height. She also had her shots. You can see the Snoopy Band-Aids in the "sad" picture. She did pretty well but is a little sore and we keep forgetting about not grabbing her by the legs. She is rolling over from front to back. She is not supposed to do that till 4 months. All that fussing has made her muscles really strong. Make sure you sign in to the guest book. Click the pictures to see more.

Guest Book

There is now a guest book at the bottom of this page. Let us know who is visiting. Thanks.

Baby Wrestling

Here are few pictures from our trip to Eastern Oregon to see all the Grandparents. Claire is an awesome little traveler. She is a little grumpy the next day after driving but she sleeps almost the whole way. She is getting less and less cranky each day. She is smiling and turning over from her belly to her back. As always, click the picture for more photos.

New Pictures

These are some pictures taken at the Mother's Day bash at Uncle Shane's house. I have made a new album so you do not have to wait so long to see the new pictures. I will eventually break the 400 pictures into smaller albums to make it easier to view them. Especially you dial-up folks.
Click the picture.

Cute Picture

Claire, Rick the Raccoon and Rick Jr. Rick Sr., was Valerie's well loved friend growing up. Rick Jr., was made for Claire by her Grandma Cindy on the advice of her Aunty Trista. I think that we can all agree that Claire is the cutest of the three in this picture. Click the picture for more on the web album.

Daddy's Girl

She often is lulled to sleep by Johnny's last album. Click the picture for the web album.

Claire and her cousins

Claire's cousins on her Mother's side. Click the picture to see the new pictures on the web album.

New Pictures 4/21

New pictures

Click the picture

First Easter

And 84 more pictures on the web album.

A lot of pictures

Here is a link to a web album of the pictures we have taken. Click on the picture.

Claire