Clara is such a girly-girl!

Okay, so we are just getting a kick out of Clara and some of her sweet little quirks, specifically her girly-girl tendencies. She is fascinated with purses and shoes. She uses the stacking rings for bracelets and likes putting coats on because she associates them with going "bye bye". Admittedly, I have pushed the hair bows, mainly because she looks so much like Kevin and has been mistaken for a boy on several occasions, but the other stuff is all her! Grandma & Grandpa Swanson gave her a purse for her birthday and that is really one of her favorite toys, but given the chance to get in our closet, she always finds this little green bag and toddles around with it over her shoulder. I keep telling her she is a little young for Kate Spade!!

Kelsey Creek Farm - Sheep Shearing Event

Last weekend, our friends Maya, Kfir, Ori & Itai invited us to join then at the Kelsey Creek Farm annual Sheep Shearing Day. It was a great opportunity to get together and a blast for Clara to see all the farm animals.

One of the sheep getting sheared.

Excited over seeing the cow - when we first showed the cow to her she said "MMMMMMM" which is as close to "MOO" as she gets.

Checking out the pretty flowers in the garden

Clara & Daddy watching the sheep dog herding demonstration.

Take your Child to Work Day

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Enjoying SPRING!!!

Clara LOVES being outside and since we are getting some wonderful weather, we have been taking walks and trips to the park every day. I am working on trying to get her comfortable wearing sunglasses again. Last year, she wore hats and glasses so well and this year it is a constant struggle, but I do feel like we are making progress with the shades.

With the nice weather, we are able to wear more of her adorable spring outfits too!

Snackin' Scout! - Our girl is such a good eater at meals and yet still would love to snack all day long too. At playgroup, she has even been known to be a snack stealer!

Daddy and Clara on a wagon ride

Clara's 2nd Easter

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Dahlia Park Easter Egg Hunt

We are so lucky to live in such a fun and friendly neighborhood. We love living in the Issaquah Highlands, but our neighborhood within The Highlands, Dahlia Park, is such a great place for a growing family. There are lots of little ones Clara's age and enthusiastic neighbors willing to participate in events like the Easter egg hunt that we held last weekend. We had homemade refreshments, sugar cookies for the kids (using Grandma Elaine's fantastic recipe) and a visit from our pal, the Easter Bunny. Even the weather was perfect!!

Miss Clara ended up with 2 eggs from the hunt. Kevin had her practicing the night before at home and was quite impressed with how quickly she caught on. At the actual hunt, she wasn't quite fast enough, but loved watching all of the other happy children run around the park.

Scout wasn't too sure what she thought about the Easter Bunny but the reaction was not as dramatic as her LOUD response to Santa!

Scout had fun collecting all sorts of things in her basket: bark, rocks, leaves. This being one of the few nice weekends since she has been walking Clara is still figuring out how to walk on the varying terrain. She is so determined and loved exploring in the park.

Happy Easter from The Michaels!

Miss Clara at 14 months

The teething continues...

A cute shot of Clara in her apple hat. Scout used to wear hats all of the time when she was younger, but now it is a completely different story. It was all we could do was to get a shot like this (taking it off). Little Scout is "talking" all the time now. She says "ya" to almost all questions and babbles all of the time. She will mimic things that she hears, but still is fairly limited in her use of words. The sign language, gestures and noises help her to communicate pretty effectively with us. This past week she has latched on to a new book full of photographs of different objects. She loves to sit on our lap and have us name the different objects that she points to - we are so delighted with this adorable zest for knowledge!

This past weekend, we had a fun visit from Uncle Den, Auntie Mikki, and cousins Braeden and Kennedy. Clara had so much fun playing with them and cousin Tay, of course! Our family gathered at Grandma Elaine's place and had a nice time together.

Grandma Jan stayed with us a few days since while on her spring break. Clara has so much fun with Grandma and we kept really busy during her visit, shopping and meeting up with Auntie Pat and cousins Julie and Daniel.

Despite all the fun, our girl has had another tough week teething. Two of her new teeth have cut though, but she still seems to be uncomfortable, drooling all over with a runny nose. She also is really clingy and is not sleeping well at night. Poor little gal! Hopefully this phase will end soon. Since being a walker, she has become such an explorer! We have our family room child-proofed and gated off while our living room and dining room are not. It is a treat for Clara to roam around and check out all of the interesting new things in those rooms.

Above she checks out a decorator ball with Daddy and below a wood box with Mommy.