Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We are not quite sure why the text is not coming out correctly in the Smilebox card, but the photos are still pretty cute! Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

Love,
Kevin, Erin & Clara Michael

Getting Ready for Christmas

Clara is getting more and more confident pulling herself up on everything and getting around holding on to things. She stands and lets go of the support momentarily or will bend down to pick up a toy/blanket/pacifier. She is very proud of these accomplishments!

As Christmas get closer, we have been shopping, decorating and attending holiday events. All of which Scout seems to enjoy! The Issaquah Highlands community had a Christmas celebration complete with a living nativity. She was most impressed with the all of the lights and animals. Mommy and Daddy admit to being pretty impressed with the camel in the neighborhood too!

Conversely, Clara was not impressed when she met Santa Claus. Her first encounter with him, from her stroller at the mall went so well that we did not expect the ear piercing screech she made when we tried to set her on his lap!! It was pretty funny and the picture really doesn't do the silly situation justice. Maybe next time!

We also had a fun visit with the Bostick family where Clara was entertained by puppies Zelda and Luna, and of course her buddies Julie and Daniel! Auntie Pat spoiled her too!

Santa Baby & Mama

10 Months of Fun!!!

Over the past 10 month since Clara's arrival our first baby, a Himalayan rabbit named Vertigo, has experienced MAJOR life changes! She now has a lot less of our time and attention, plus she has had to put up with all of the new noises (mostly high pitched) that Clara creates. Now that Clara is crawling, she chases after Verti any chance she gets. Vertigo really has been a good sport about it all and we are indeed thankful.

After Thanksgiving, we purchased a new D-SLR camera that we are slowly learning how to use. While all the functions still baffle us, we immediately noticed a difference in a the photo quality and look forward to capturing more fun images of our adventure with Clara.

Below are some of my favorite shots with the new camera so far of Clara, Taylor with Grandma Elaine. They both had such a fun time with her and Grandma is tickled to be around them too. At eighty-six she has such a young heart and a loving aura!

Thanksgiving

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Busy Gal!

At 9 1/2 months, Miss Scout is on the go and learning new things every day! She is on the go so much that it is harder to catch good photos of her. Mommy & Daddy are on a quest to find a faster camera so we can get better photos of Clara.


We have encountered more problems putting her down to sleep since she has learned to pull herself up in the crib. She will often hollar out for us, just to show us what she has done! It is pretty darn cute, but we really have to curb our reactions as not to further reinforce this behavior! I guess this is the learning curve for first time parents!



Here she is playing with her UW dinosaur on Apple Cup day! We were all sad over the Husky loss, but are optimistic we'll get those Cougs next year!



Clara loves climbing and is experimenting with standing and walking behind a walker toy!





While we have installed an elaborate gate system in the family room, Clara found her way to the living room and was pretty proud of this exploration!


Such a sweetie!




Clara's play is starting to get a bit more sophisticated. She really loves to look at books and turn the pages, especially the ones that have flaps to flip over!! She likes blocks, her animal train and like most kids, loves random boxes, paper towel rolls or magazines to scrunch up!! At her play group, she is starting to interact more with the other children even if it is just to take a toy away from them!

We Survived a Tough Weekend!

This past weekend, Clara was again teething. Our normally happy and playful kid that sleeps through the night changed into a drooly, clingy, crabby baby who slept in 40 minute intervals. This combined with her new mobility made our parenting role far more challenging than it has been in quite a while.
On Sunday afternoon we distracted her (our best defense) with a trip to the park. She loved being pushed in the swing and "riding" the little trike. Daddy also took her down the slide on his lap although she was relatively unimpressed with that!

We also experienced a "poo incident" like no other - one that landed Miss Clara directly in the bathtub! Mommy & Daddy laughed hysterically and Clara thought it was pretty silly too!

A happy face...

...when most of the weekend was spent like this. It is the first time Clara has ever been too cuddly and displayed a preference for Mommy.

Clara also celebrated her first Friendsgiving and enjoyed much of the tasty dishes that everyone contributed. She's a turkey fan already!

The rest of the Friendsgiving group: Tyson, Brooke, Adam, Elaine, Scott and Kevin.

Clara Crawls!!!

And she's off...

Growing Up So Fast!

The baby stage is on its way out and the kid stage is arriving! Clara has already become independent with getting around, exploring her environment and feeding herself. She was completely weened a few weeks back after loosing interest in Mommy. This week she has just begun to crawl and absolutely loves riding on this little car around the house! At her nine month check up she weighed 18 lbs. 13 oz. and is 29 inches long. We are thankful for the blog, because sometimes it is hard to remember how little she was just a few months ago.

WHEEE!!

She loves standing and pulling herself up on things.

NEW SHOES! She loved them!

She has become a great little patty-cake player and frequently claps with delight!

Just learning to crawl. We have begun to get everything baby proofed and are waiting on a gate system that we ordered since our house is a nightmare for a baby on the go!


Clara attended Itai's first birthday party and had a lot of fun watching and interacting with other kids. This was a popular toy for the group and sharing is a developmental milestone they have yet to master! Too cute though!

Scout's first Halloween!

Clara's first Halloween was a fun day for us all! In preparation, we decorated the house and carved pumpkins for the front porch. Some of our good friends came over to celebrate with us. Clara liked sitting by the door when the trick-or-treaters arrived and would squeal, bounce and wave her arms with delight at seeing them all. She also LOVED having all her pals to play with at once, especially Ori & Itai.

Above, Wendy and Clara are practicing walky-walky!

Michele brought back this little outfit for Clara from Texas and it worked out great as her costume! Michele also gave Scout the adorable Halloween bib - she just spoils her rotten!


Clara and Daddy checking one another out in their cool hats!

COWGIRLS!

Our little family making fun memories!

Clara is now 9 months old and while she is not yet crawling she employs several different methods of getting around (rolling, scooting, pivoting, etc) quite effectively! She likes to stand up a lot and is now preferring holding on the the outside of the exersaucer instead of being in it. Miss Clara has grown a lot in the past month and growing out of some 9 month clothes ALREADY!! She also feeds herself small bites of foods, and this past week has quickly learned to LOVE Cheerios! She babbles a lot, but refuses to say "Mama". She has babbled it in the past and now when we try to get her to say it, she replies with "Dada"! We are pretty sure she thinks its a joke because we laughed when she first did it and now she laughs too!

Harvest Family Fun in Quincy

This past weekend we were in Quincy to visit with Kevin's side of the family. His parents were just finishing up harvest. We were able to glean apples and pears and enjoy the beautiful autumn atmosphere. Clara thought it was all a big kick! She liked playing with the apples, touching the trees, "riding" on the tractor, and most of all being around her cousins and second cousins!

Clara found the perfect sized apple for her!

Playing in a bin of fruit right before it was taken to the packing house.

Getting Loves from Grandpa Murray and Grandma Carol

Of all the kids, Hailey was the most excited to see Clara. She kept asking if she could keep her! She really was a great little helper and we agreed that maybe she could help babysit sometime.

Carol & Murray with all of the grandkids: Hailey, Taylor, Ashley, Zane, Jason and little Clara

We all made a family trip to the corn maze, had a pizza dinner and then carved pumpkins at Aunt Amy's house. A lot of fun for us all! The kids did a fantastic job on the pumpkins too!

Pumpkin Patch

Clara & Mommy

Sweet little sunflower
Daddy had the idea to go to the pumpkin patch for a family outing. We had beautiful weather and the place he selected in Redmond was a great facility. There was a petting zoo, corn maze, hay ride and of course, LOTS of pumpkins! Clara seemed to enjoy the chaos of all the other children most. The adorable Halloween hair bow and Jack-O-Lantern socks were gifts from Grandma Jan.

She liked being in the wheel barrow

Daddy's girl

Such a curious little gal, she loves exploring all of the new things. Unfortunately, after touching she typically wants to put things in her mouth!