Well. I certainly got distracted for more than a minute there. Just looking at my last posts, I have a hard time even remembering my kids ever being that little AND not yelling and fighting with each other non-stop. Good times.

As does everyone who dusts off their old blog, I will say that I'd like to get back to this page more frequently. We are busy, busy, busy but it would be nice to look back one day and say - oh yeah! we did that! Look how cute and little Nate and Claire were. Even though they look like giants to me now, I know this too will be them when they were little and not tweens and beyond. *sighing wistfully* *cringing that they will be tweens before I blink*

Nate's 7.5 now, likes to read, is still in to all things science, and he has a passion for Bear Grylls videos, anything on youtube, Minecraft, and let's not forget LEGOs. He's handsome and funny and smart - just like I knew he would be.

Claire is 4.25 and loves singing, making funny faces, designing clothes for her babies, playing princess, coloring, making projects (which consist mainly of tape), and she is well-known in my Facebook world for her fashion sense. She is hilarious in general. She makes me laugh tons. She is tougher than her brother, she listens better too, but now she is picking up all of his bad habits like saying "I'm toooooo tiredddddd" when we ask her to do anything. One day I'll look back and not believe a damn word I said here because she's my precious baby girl who has done no wrong. At least that's what I'm hoping for.

I'm trucking along - sometimes waiting for Calgon to take me away for at least 10 uninterrupted minutes - still pet sitting and now PTA'ing. It really is what I've always wanted to do, I won't lie even if I do complain sometimes.

Mike's still trucking along too. Working and making us proud. His ideal world is that he'd have unlimited time at home and unlimited resources for working on projects and hanging out with the fam. He is working on getting our 1960's den cleared out so he can paint the wood paneling. I can't wait for that. So exciting.

I'll just leave some pictures here for documentation that we're all still kicking.

Santa 2015

Thanksgiving

Torturing his sister

Is it that time already?

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Picture Catch-Up

Bday cake

 

Posing for bday pics

My sweet, smiling boy

Our trip to Maine

1st Day of Pre-K

This is about 1/16th of what we've done in the last few months.  I've gotta start somewhere!

One Year

I can hardly believe Claire turned one year old already.  It's very cliche but it seems like it was just yesterday that she was born.  But alas, we've taken smash cake pictures, had a little celebration on her birthday,  had a big birthday party with our friends and family, and she had her 12 month check up. It must be true.  I've said it before and I'll say it again - it must be second child syndrome that I haven't kept up this blog about our lives since Claire arrived.  I'm not even always busy, but it's always something that keeps me away.

At 12 months our sweet girl is 22 pounds 13 ounces and 31" long. She is in the 85th and 94th percentile respectively. She is delightful. She walks, babbles, laughs, claps, etc.

It's even been 5 weeks since I started this already-late post.  Claire is now starting to run and she is climbing up on everything.  I believe she's got some new teeth coming in as well.  She's been up a couple nights which is torture to us because she has spoiled us with all night sleeping forever. 

I have so much to share but it seems the blog is always on the back burner.  My kids are the best and I want to share that with the world. Maybe less WWF and more quiet time here. 

Claire Bear

Before Claire was born, I didn't think I'd adopt Claire Bear as a nickname.  Now, I'm not sure I ever just call her Claire.  She's always Claire Bear or Bear Bear.  Nate mostly uses Claire Bear.  Funny how that happens.  No matter what we call her, she is just plain delectable.  See??

Doing Life - Week 4

I had a great week, thanks for asking!  I just posted about our Buddy Challenge and I have to honestly say it was exciting. I had fun pairing up with Kelli. Even though I'm 10 years older, I felt like we had a lot in common.  It's nice to have someone new to talk to about the ups and downs of not only weight loss and healthy living but about life in general.

Before this week, I'd been struggling to get my workouts in.  I would walk and do my C25K workouts while Nate was in school but that's only twice a week.  It's hard with Mike's schedule if he was working on days Nate was out of school.  This week Sallie came out to my 'hood and walked with me twice.  One day we pushed 2 strollers and it was great to get out when I normally wouldn't have been able to.  I also put a shout out to friends on FB and asked if anyone I had a double jogging stroller I could test drive.  My friends came through and I picked one up on Wednesday.  I had already worked out Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday but Nate was itching to try out the new stroller on Friday so when the weather cleared up and it got gorgeous out in the afternoon, we hit the road.  About a mile away in our neighborhood is Hoffler Creek Wildlife Preserve. I don't know why we go there so rarely.  It is beautiful.

We played. We threw 100 sticks in the water. We walked the Kids Trail three times.  It was wonderful.  The next day, Nate wanted to go to the lake again so we all went as a family.  I'm telling you the double stroller is awesome.  I worked out 5 days in a row.  I got in 4 hours and 14 minutes of exercise.  I'm so proud especially since last week I only managed 1 hour and 44 minutes.

I've also been trying to improve my plank time.  I started at a painful 50 seconds.  My new best is 1:20 seconds.  My goal by next Sunday is 1:30.  I can do it!

Saturday we had my friend Karrie take Claire's pictures.  I'll certainly post those when I get them back. To hold you over, here are a few pictures I took this week. Isn't she delectable?

She's getting so big, isn't she?  She's sitting up, eating baby food, and chatting up a storm.  I'm still in awe every day that I've been blessed with my two kiddos. What was once thought impossible has become possible and is my life.  How did I get so lucky?