Christmas 2008

(Part 1) We had an early Christmas at home before our trip to Colorado this year. Jessica made blueberry coffee cake for breakfast which was awesome and we opened our presents from each other. Claire had a blast! She was mostly trying to eat the wrapping paper as it came off the gifts, but she certainly seemed to be having a good time doing it!

(Part 2) We've been in Colorado since the 17th of December staying at Mom and Bob's house. We've had a great vacation so far. Claire spent her first Christmas at the cabin and loved it. We had a great time too. We did some gambling in Cripple Creek, built a ginger bread house, played some games, and ate lots of great food. Christmas is always so much fun at the cabin and this year was great. We will head to Kansas to visit Jessica's friend Jessica on our way home to Texas next week. Check out the pictures. The first set is from our house, and the rest are from Colorado. We hope everyone had a great holiday!

Love,

Brett, Jess, and Claire

Thanksgiving

I realized after I posted the Christmas pictures that I forgot to post Thanksgiving pictures!! So here they are. We spent Thanksgiving in Glamis a couple hours outside San Diego riding motorcylces and ATVs in the sand. It was a blast! We stayed with Dad and Elaine at their house in SD and trailer in the dunes. Cindy and Doug were there too with Ciarra, Shyla, and her boyfriend Steven. I had not been on a motorcyle in the sand in about 15 years so I was a bit rusty. I went over the bars in the first half hour of riding. Fortunately the sand is very forgiving! Anyway, Claire had a great time on her first camping trip, and loved sitting on the quad with Mommy (parked of course!). When we got back we took a short trip north to San Clemente to meet our good friends the Becks and their kids for dinner. We had a great time visiting and got some great pictures of the kids! Check out the pics below.

Love,

Brett, Jess, and Claire

Claire says AHHHH!!!

Here's a little video we made with our new camera. I compressed it so the dowload wouldn't take too long. Let us know what your think.

Bath time fun

Claire started taking a bath in the real bathtub this week and it has been very fun! She cruises around playing with her toys and loves to splash. You can definitely tell she is a water sign! We also got a new camera this week that will do HD videos so the pictures should look better from now on and video should be forthcoming. I have to master video editing next. Here are some recent pictures.

Love,

Brett, Jess, and Claire

I took Claire to baby music class the day before Halloween and all the kids got to wear their costumes. Claire looked so cute as a ladybug! On Friday we had Halloween at our house and it was super fun! Kyle and Michelle came over along with our next door neighbors Giri and Zelinda. We set up shop on the driveway and gave out candy. Jess and Michelle took Claire out trick or treating and she knew exactly what to do! Too bad she can't eat any of that candy yet. Check out the pictures.

Love,
Brett, Jess, and Claire

Music Class and Stuff

Claire has started going to weekly baby music class and she is loving it!! Daddy went last week to get some pictures. She really had fun. Check it out!

Gruene, TX trip 9/21/08

On Sunday 9/21 we decided we needed to get out of town and headed south to Gruene, TX which is just outside of New Braunfels between Austin and San Antonio. We walked around a farmers market and checked out the local shops. We had a drink in the famous Gruene Hall (where George Strait got his start) and ate dinner at the Gristmill which overlooks the Guadalupe River. We had a great day. Here are some pictures.

Love you all,

Jess, Brett, and Claire

AZ trip September 2008

We went out to AZ in September to have Aunt Cindy clean our teeth. We rented a car a drove to Lake Havasu for two days to see the Sugamele family. We had a great time. Check out the pics.

Love you all,
Brett, Jess, and Claire

Claire - 7 months

Mom came out to Texas last week to visit us. She had so much fun with Claire. We went out to dinner at the Iguana Grill on Lake Travis and had lunch at Threadgills in Austin. Other than that we spent time at home visiting with Mom. We had a great time and wish she could have stayed longer. We love you Mom!!

Brett, Jess, and Claire

Jessica, Cheyenne, and Tyler visit

Jessica came out to visit us with Cheyenne and Tyler a few weeks back and we had a great time. Tyler was so good with Claire. He at one point told us that he was the only one who could make her happy when she cried!

Claire is getting huge! She gets bigger every day right before our eyes it seems. She can sit up by herself, and she is now eating rice cereal on a regular basis.

Here are some pictures. We hope you are all doing well.

Love,

Brett, Jess, and Claire

Daddy says "hey that's my bottle!"

Ready for 6th street

Happy to be on vacation in Texas!

Only 20.5 years to go!



Dinner at the Oasis

Claire says "Look at this face"

The funky bunch.

The Jessicas....back in action!

Tyler loves Claire

Whatchoo talkin bout Willis?

One Happy Camper!

Extra Extra...Claire eats with a spoon!

She didn't like it though as you can see by the pictures! We kept saying "it's just milk and rice, it has barely any flavor!" She was making the funniest faces though. We'll try again next week.

"No more....please"

Road Trip!

We took a road trip on Saturday to a little town about 40 miles west of Austin called Johnson City. We had a great time. We checked out Pedernales Falls state park, stopped in some hill country wineries and bought some wine, and had dinner. Claire was so good the whole trip. She really seems to like the outdoors! Here are some pics.

In front of Pedernales Falls (not much water at the moment!)

Claire rockin her beanie

Excellent wine here

Winery

Claire got a new outfit!

Bull at the Benelli sculpture ranch

July 4th and stuff

Happy 4th of July everyone! Claire had plenty of firsts since our last post. She went to her first baseball game. The Round Rock Express are the farm team for the Houston Astros and their park is about 4 miles from our house. Our next door neighbors gave us some excellent tickets right behind the backstop in the 5th row. Claire had a lot of fun and was the center of attention for the people around us.

Claire can do something new just about every day as it seems. She can now hold herself up with her arms when lying on her stomach, she can now roll from her front to her back, and she talks in her baby language constantly. We took her in for her 4 month shots a couple weeks ago and she is in the 95th percentile for height! Weight and head circumference were perfectly average. The doctor said she looks perfect which we pretty much already knew!

For the 4th of July and our 8th wedding anniversary we had our friends Kyle and Michelle over and we went out to the local park to toss the frisbee around and watch the fireworks. Then we came home and I put on a short display of my own. We had a great time. We hope you all had a great 4th. We love you all.

Brett, Jess, and Claire

Check out the pictures below.

Waiting for fireworks

In the front yard

Party on the patio

The SoCo cafe for lunch

Holding her own bottle!

Round Rock Express game

Claire likes baseball!

She is soooo strong!


Always with her hands in her mouth


Claire's new highchair. She digs it.

Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day today. Jess made an awesome breakfast for us. Then since it was 100 degrees here in central Texas I decided I wanted to stay inside and watch racing for most of the day which is exactly what I did! It was nice to have some relaxing time with my girls too! We went out to dinner and then came home and got on the web cam with Mom and Bob. It was a great day! Here are some recent pics. Happy Father's Day!!

Love,

Brett, Jess, and Claire

Mommy and Claire in the backyard

Shoulder ride!

Airplane ride! (she's very strong!)

Play hard, sleep hard

Chillin with Dad.

Summer's here!

So it's been a couple of weeks since I've posted any new pictures of the baby. She is getting so big it's crazy. Everyone tells you how they grow up so fast, but it doesn't really hit you until you're right smack in the middle of it! We are having so much fun though. We've had other parents tell us about keeping their babies inside the house for the first 3 months of their lives, but we have the opposite philosophy. Claire has already taken 4 airplane rides, has been in 3 different states, and now with her new floaty she hangs out in the pool with us. She has already figured out how to roll over onto her stomach all by herself, and she can roll up on both sides freely. She is a total rockstar. If you happen to be having a rough day, the first picture is for you. That sweet little face can only make you smile! We love you all.

Brett, Jess, and Claire

Look at this face!!!

Mommy, Daddy, and Claire at Zilker park botanical gardens

Mommy, Daddy, Claire, and Auntie Brooke

She is soooo big!!

A little puppy love...

Check out my Jumperoo!!

My turtle floaty!!

Mother's Day Weekend

On Saturday we went to our neighborhood pool to cool off a bit as it was about 95 degrees out! Our friends Kyle and Michelle met us there and we had a great time. We even got Claire into the pool! I think she's going to love the water just as much as Mommy and Daddy. Today we celebrated Jessica's first Mother's Day and went down to the Zilker park botanical gardens in Austin. We walked around and took some pictures then went to the park and had a picnic. As always the pictures are below.

Love,
Brett, Jess, and Claire

Jessica at the botanical gardens

Jess and Claire on our Mother's Day picnic

That's me coming down the slide at our neighborhood pool

Claire in her bikini!!

Mommy and Claire in the pool!

Super cute!

In Mommy's arms...the best place to be.