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...