Research and Creative Works Conference and Claire of Course

I'm all ready to play the piano for the conference

This is what Skyler and a team have been working on all semester (Parker and Skyler)

 Our first family picture since Claire's blessing

Cute Claire Pictures:

Happy Birthday Love!

This is what big-boy birthday presents look like:

Starting at top left moving clockwise: Card, A-Team Season 2, two 50 dollar bills, Blast concert on DVD, two wishes that will come true, electric razor blade replacements, and awesome winter gloves.

Thanks to both moms for your gifts. We're glad you were born Skyler! xo

For fans of Claire...

 Claire loved playing with this hanger while I put laundry away.

 I love taking baby sleeping pictures.

Claire wore her elf-like socks yesterday. 'Tis the season!

For those in the kitchen...

I have been getting my fruits and greens lately through smoothies, so I thought I'd share them with you!

Pear-Apple
2 pear
1 apple
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups fresh baby spinach (or other leafy green)
½ cup water
(I added some ice, plain yogurt and about 1/4 sugar)
http://www.incrediblesmoothies.com/recipes/pear-smoothie-recipes-and-nutrition/

Cucumber Pear Smoothie

serves 2

ingredients:

• 1/2 medium cucumber, peeled
• 1 medium pear, cored and chopped
• 1 cup almond milk (or milk of your choice)
• 1 tablespoon creamy almond butter (or other nut butter of your choice)
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon stevia
• 6 – 7 ice cubes

(I used yogurt instead of nut butter and I didn't use chia seeds or stevia. It makes a nice cinnamony, fresh tasting smoothie. You could also put spinach in it.)

http://www.queenofquinoa.me/2012/06/cucumber-pear-smoothie/

Also, I found a winner of a dinner because of all of the positive feedback I was getting from Skyler. (yay!) It's like chili.

Picante Soup

Dump all of these ingredients in a pan and simmer/boil it for about 30 minutes. Eat with cheese, sour cream, and/or chips.

1 can chickpeas

1 can kidney beans (pinto is what I used)

1 can corn

16 oz salsa/picante sauce (I used one of the empty cans to measure some salsa out)

1 lb cooked ground beef or chicken (I used chicken)

Tell me if you try it!

Just an Announcement

Claire is crawling! Army crawling that is... She pulls herself along with her elbows and kicks her legs a lot. I'm not sure the kicking is helpful yet but we're impressed.

Another fun fact, we just discovered her second tooth coming in! I got all I want for Christmas and it's only Dec. 2nd! "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!"

We don't have any pictures or videos of her crawling (camera battery is dead) but we can show you pictures of her outfit that we took earlier today.

Pumpkin Bread

I got a little carried away making Pumpkin Bread today... It was the perfect thing to do on a rainy day :)

I think I got this recipe from Jake and April Trent when I got married.
Pumpkin Bread by Alinda Shelley
3 C sugar
1 C oil
1 1lb can pumpkin
4 eggs
3 1/2 C flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. soda
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cloves (ground)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. allspice
2/3 C water
Optional:
1 C nuts
1 C raisins
or 1 C chocolate chips
Combine sugar, oil, eggs, and pumpkin. Sift dry ingredients together. Add to pumpkin mix. Add water. Mix and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes in 2 large greased loaf pans, or 3 small pans, or different sized tin cans for round bread. (All the the bread pictured above is made from this one recipe!)

Awwww

Claire Habits

Claire Habits include:

 Sitting on her own next to the swing (when it's locked in place) and playing with her toys

 Being silly with Dad

 Sticking her arms and legs straight out while sitting in the Bumbo and rotating her hands and feet

Rolling and wiggling so that she's not on her blanket anymore (she's a true crafter-she went for my glue stick lid while I was crafting on the floor)

Making you smile back

 Making it hard to post just one picture of her doing something

fyi Claire has her first tooth on the bottom left when you're looking in her mouth-so cute!

Claire's First Music Lesson

I think she's off to a great start. 

Caught Eating an Elephant!

Happy Baby Girl

Claire likes to grab for anything she can reach. Here she's trying on mom's shoe. 

We've upgraded to her six month outfits and found this fun jacket.

When Lisa came to pick me up after school, she brought Claire in without the car-seat. Claire loved riding kangaroo style and was singing and smiling to anyone who passed by. 

Other news... Claire is now an ambiroller. She has mastered rolling from front to back and back to front. That makes things easier for us so we don't have to rescue her every time she rolls over. She also sits up by herself. She'll fall over every so often, but she can stay up for several minutes. 

I should probably warn anyone planning on seeing her for Christmas that I might be a bit of a jealous father. I've gotten into a habit of hogging her time whenever I'm home. I'll practice sharing her better so you can enjoy her too.

Sweet Dreams

Claire fought off the sleep until we turned on Pandora. One Michael Buble song, one jazz instrumental and a Jackson 5 song later she was asleep. We love that our baby loves music as much as we do!

Now the challenge is to tuck in her arms without waking her up. 

I love you I love you I loooove you!

 Who knew a man could look so handsome with a baby chewing on his finger

 Love the look on her face

 I wonder what she's thinking

Notice the upturned pinky-she's a natural lady

Laughing Bouncing Baby

For some odd reason Claire loves bouncing like this, and I love to make her laugh. Enjoy!

Half a Year Old

Happy Six Months Claire!

 Exploring a pumpkin

 Daddy feeding Claire solids, instead of Mom

 I put this blanket around her like a poncho to keep her warm and she looked so cute!

 This was a fun and busy week for the Chemistry Society on campus and I thought I'd put this up at home

 Claire has better control of her hands, and can almost always pull her hat off and play with it or chew on it

 We had our first real snow and Skyler had fun making our car look like B.A. from the A-Team! lol

 What is this Mom?! (Squash) lol

 Practicing sitting up on her own-we're still working on it

 She fell asleep in Skyler's arms; he loves that when it happens

 Good morning miss Claire

 I started giving her the bowl and spoon to play with after I feed her solids and she seems to love it. Also, the way she's smiling with her tongue curving up like that is a new thing that she's starting to do that I love!

 I had fun helping put together a little Halloween party. We enjoyed watching Coraline and playing Monopoly Deal.

Our little cupcake :)