The Name

Well, we seem to have decided on Claire Elizabeth, but we might make it Claire Elise. Although, Tom said that if she talks too fast people will think her name is "Clerikson". :) Thank you all for putting in your votes. It's hard to choose one beautiful name for a beautiful baby when there really are so many nice ones to be had. It's been especially hard for us this time, for some reason. We figure that Claire will stick unless Tom gets some kind of strong inspiration to call her something totally different when she is blessed. We'll see!

She's Here!

Yes, making her premiere appearance here on earth is...well, we're not quite settled on the name. If you'd like to make your vote in the comments section after reading the blog, feel free...just don't be offended when we choose whatever we want anyway. :)

Our beautiful baby girl arrived at 6:15pm on June 12, 2008. She was 7 lbs, 3 oz and 19 inches long. She has bright, alert eyes when she opens them and a head full of brown hair. She's a good little baby. We're so blessed to have her here.

I went in for my weekly appointment Thursday morning and had the midwife (that's Certified Nurse Midwife, not lay-midwife) check to see if I was even close to dialating, just in case. Here's how it went:

Rachel: Oh, my gosh...

Char: What?

R: Oh, my gosh!...

C: What?!

R: I think you're at a 4 or 5 (she means centimeters dialated--10 cm is complete for those who don't know)!

C: You're crapping me...

R: No, I really think you are!

So, that's my cue...when I am that far, the baby comes that day. And...she did. Labor and delivery went well. She had a bit of trouble breathing for a little bit because she swallowed a bunch of fluid on the way out and must have inhaled a little bit, too. She got it out and pinked up well. Today the doc came to check her over and said, "Well, I think she's just perfect... I want to take her home with me!" That's pretty good since I think he has 5 young children of his own! Anway, she really is cute, and we have some cute little photos as well. Check out the pictures first, and then check out the name options.

Disclaimer: We're not taking a poll on pulling out new names, but we are interested as to which one of these name choices you like best for this cute little person. Thank you for being interested in our family. We love you all.

Name choices shown as first name with meaning and middle name with meaning:

A: Claire (clear, bright)Elizabeth (oath of God)

B: Nissa (friendly elf) Munay-said like moon-eye (to love)

C: Naomi (pleasant) Elise (French form of Elizabeth)

D: A different combination of Claire, Elizabeth, Nissa, Munay, Naomi or Elise

It IS June, right?

Caitlin called it...yesterday it was windy and cold a lot of the day. It rained the night before and got down to around 35 degrees during that night. Last night, while the sun was still up, Caitlin went outside for a minute and then came back in and exclaimed, "It's gonna snow; it feels like snow!" I thought she was being a bit dramatic because it got cold suddenly. No, she was right. Between 9 and 10am today, it started snowing. It didn't stay on the ground, it pretty much melted immediately. However, it doesn't change the fact: it was snowing on June 11. It's been overcast all day. I still have to say, I love it here...despite the strange weather from time to time. People in Houston say that they have weird weather. Well, if there was a weird weather contest, we totally won that round!

Catching Up

I've been negligent about blogging. So, we'll try and review the last month or so. In May, Peter had a "dance recital" of sorts. He was in a peewee ballroom dance group. It was really cute! His group did the 'cha-cha' to the Flintstones theme song done by the B-52's. The girls were dressed like Wilma and the boys like Fred. I will try to get a video of it up soon.









A duckling wandered into our garage from the Nature Park nearby. It got a bit attached to Thomas. When Caitlin took it back to the Nature Park, she purposefully wore a sweater that had large, defined markings on it so she could see if the little duck would remember her when she went back. It worked! The next time she went, the little duck started quacking from all the way across the lake and came right up to her.






I got to go help out with Kindergarten Field Day and snapped a few shots at the end of Peter and his friends doing the parachute games. I never did anything like that in school...unfair. :) He also had his Kindgergarten Graduation. I will also try to get a video up of him doing a particular song for us that I really thought was cute. My boy's growing up! I painted that cool spider on his face. :)










The crops are all in now, and I'm getting closer to delivery now and feeling like anytime now would be a good time. About 3 weeks to go. We'll see how she (meaning me) ends up!

Turning 4

She woke up and said, "Mom, I'm four today!" She's very pleased at adding a number to her age...she's feeling very grown up. I can't say exactly how I'm feeling, because it's bittersweet and all that, having a child grow up. She's a beautiful little girl with a big personality. She's very excited to have the title "Big Girl Helper" now and for when the new baby comes. She had a good time today, and she got lots of presents. Peter said, "Only four presents?" I told him that four is a lot for one person. She got a virtual coloring book that plugs into the t.v., two books, clothes, playstuff like bubbles and playdough, and an emergency pack--fully loaded--like Peter's 72 hr kit. She's almost the most excited about her 72 hr kit, except that she can't use the stuff in it except for emergencies. Now, I just have to write names on the bags.

Confession: I feel like a bad mom because when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner, she said fruit, salad, and potatoes. I convinced her to choose a meat to have also, and she chose chicken. She also requested chocolate cake. However, I was having problems getting going and making things happen today, so she didn't exactly get all that. It was almost dinnertime and I still hadn't been to the grocery store. So, we were out of lettuce, fruit, and chocolate cake mix. I realized that I didn't really have my act together enough to make a chocolate cake from scratch, so I took her to the storage room and let her choose from lemon, yellow, carrot and spice cake. She chose yellow with chocolate frosting. Then I asked her with much animation, "Andrea, do you want to have pizza and carrots?" She said, "Yeah!" So, I lucked out again. I don't expect to be so lucky next year. I had just better be on top of things. She's easy going and a good girl. She's my little sweet girl.

First Run

He took it out on the first legal run today, helmet and all. The white flecks in the picture is snow. We have strange Springs here. Don't worry, it wasn't sticking and he was just taking it to his parent's place and back. He just walked back in the door with a big grin on his face and said, "I tell you what, that was fun...I shoulda got one of those years ago!"

Who Knew?

So, Thomas is happy. I'm okay, too. :) We are now the proud owners of a '77 Honda GoldWing. Nice, eh? (Never mind the state of the garage--Thomas is building in our house, and the garage is part of the construction zone.) This thing is older than he is! Still, it kinda makes you feel cool or something...