Christmas, Wedding, and other stuff

For the holidays we went down to California and visted my parents and stayed there for Christmas. Both Cody and Rose, and Nick and Carrie were able to come down also. So it was really fun having the siblings and their families around for that time.

We took a lot of pictures, and I will post some here after the blog.


Paige and Claire did pretty well on the 14 hour drive down. Actually Paige did REALLY well. She read and colored almost the whole way down and had a couple short naps. Claire was okay. The elevation changes made her fussy most of the time. The passes were fine, and there was only one tricky spot south of Portland where out of a 3-lane highway, one of the lanes still had snow and ice on it. But it didn't last long and we had an uneventful drive.

The girls did really well at my parent's house, and they love everyone! Paige loved coloring with my sister and Mom, and then after Christmas when she got Playdoh, she loved playing with that as much as possible. She was really excited to get presents and open them. She had asked the next day (after Christmas) if we could open more presents, haha!


Claire did okay. We discovered that she was right on the cusp of getting molars in, so she was pretty needy and fussy. By the end, she did get two of them (on the top) poked through. When we got home, she was okay for 3 days or so, but then she went right back into fussy teething. She has really sore, swollen gums on the bottom now! That must be a doosy...getting 4 molars all in a row!

After Christmas we came home just in time to help and get ready for Betsy's wedding. Paige was the flower girl along with a family friend Maddy Wicks and then the ring bearer Isaac Wicks. The wedding was beautiful and Paige did pretty well standing up in front of everyone. Claire did well also, and got passed around a lot during the ceremony and reception (which is so nice and helpful!).

Now we're just in re-coup mode. I still haven't gotten things organized from when we got back from California (lots of toys and clothes to reorganize!) and it's a little overwhelming. Sometimes I wish I could just sweep out the house and start over!

Recently (in the past month since I've written) Claire has been pulling herself up on everything, ALL the time. She's been practicing crusing (or as I like to call, "scaling") where she'll pull up and stand and try to walk along it (the couch, coffee table, anything else). She's getting pretty good. She also always stands up in her crib, which drives us nuts, because that usually means she's yelling and screaming and crying. That little girl has gotten QUITE the attitude lately. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that she's been teething molars for a month. She will yell A LOT and actually scream really loudly if she doesn't get her way. WOW, can I say. I have set up a barrier system in our living room so I can keep a better eye on her (and know that there is nothing that's too small for her) while I go around the house doing things, but she HATES it. That's mostly when she screams and yells. She gets very frustrated when she can't do what she wants to do, when she wants to do it.

Sometimes Claire makes me feel like I haven't ever dealt with a baby before...Paige was not like this at all!

So...needless to say, life is a little challenging lately, but hopefully it will calm down a bit soon. But I know it wont, haha. Because the next step is walking. And that's a whole nutha' world to deal with!

Claire also has become really picky about what foods she will eat. She refuses any baby food now (any stage of baby food...even the 3rd stage) and mostly wants Cheerios. Although she just recently will accept cooked peas and carrots, and small peices of canned fruit. She also loves cheese. But most of the time, she just wants Cheerios.

After getting back from California, I resolved to have the girls in the same room again (sleeping). So far, it's working. There are occasional bad nights (Claire screams, standing up in her crib for an hour, off and on; Paige can't sleep because Claire is screaming and crying), but for the most part it's been nice. We just need to have a 3 bedroom house. This house is driving me nuts in so many ways!

What else? I guess not much else than that. But I'll pose pictures from the past 4 weeks, after this one...