Christmas Time

We had another fun Christmas with the Coxes here in AZ. We did our 2nd annual Christmas Eve at our house complete with church service and chicken pot pies after. Christmas day was over at Tom and Carla's again and we had a wonderful meal. Claire got lots and lots of goodies from everyone in her family. We couldn't pull it off without all her "santas".

I love how serious Claire's face was during the church service. It was almost like she wanted to cry. Not sure if it was overwhelming or what. The Coxes take the whole back row up! It's so nice to be outside in case Claire wants to run around. It's super casual!
Christmas day Claire had on her pretty dress...I promise....but then she spilled an entire cup of cranberry juice on her, her dress, the couch, and the carpet. YIKES! Next thing ya know she is naked and has on her Unkie G's reading glasses. NICE!

Going to see Santa

We went to see Santa today. Stood in line 1.5 hours and then Claire decided that she in fact did NOT like Santa after all. Ah well, we actually had fun waiting in line, playing, eating candy canes, and freezing our tails off. This mall is outdoors therefore so is Santa. Brrrr! She was so excited to see Santa and she saw him walk up (to start his shift!) and her eyes were all lit up. For a brief moment she thought Santa was so cool!

Merry Christmas!

PEE PEE IN THE POTTY!!!

Claire has been "playing" with her potty seat for several months now. Nothing serious but we wanted to introduce it to her and let her sit on it here and there and see what happened. Well, nothing happened but lots of toilet paper being flushed. We weren't going to push it but this past week the signs were becoming more evident. Tonight my friends she peed in the potty for the first time. Who knew this kind of excitement could emerge from bodily functions!!! WOOHOO! We even called Grandma on webcam and Claire told her all about it. "GRANDMA, I went potty!! WOOHOO!"
Here's to hopeful new beginnings for 2010!

*nope, this is not my potty in the pic! ha! we do have this seat though.

Jingle Bell Drama

I was expecting to post the cutest video ever today and some pics of Claire's school class singing jingle bells. Sadly, all the people freaked Claire out and she ended up crying before the show even started and never stopped until it was over. The kids gathered around in their classroom while we stood and watched them sing real quick then it was off to decorate cookies. Uncle Tom and Tia even came to watch the singing. It was all just too much for Claire. She clung to me and held her arms around my neck and cried big silent tears. Even her teacher was shocked and saddened because she said Claire was the hit of the show when they practiced. They have practiced for 3 weeks. Poor little sweetie. She is only 2 and these things happen. She just wasn't feeling it today. After the singing was over we left the room for a breather and she finally came around. She just looked up at Tom, Carla, and I said..."I'M HAPPY!!!" with her arms in the air. I swear it was like she hadn't even seen them there until that point. A little switch went off and she was our happy girl giving us all hugs. We managed to decorate a cookie at least! Ah...the drama....sigh.

Random thoughts and favorites

I did a "status cloud" which takes the most used words in your Facebook statuses and makes a collage of your most used words. Pretty funny. Claire of course was my #1 most used word.

We aren't big holiday shoppers which is honestly really nice. We try to just shop for the kiddos in the family. I do stumble out to shop in the craziness once in awhile (or shop online!) and I found a few treats for mama!! =) These are my 3 favorite things right now...

A friend of mine told me about this shampoo. She claimed it smells just like Strawberry Shortcake! She was right! In. Love.

















I love love these skinny jeans from Downeast Basics and you can't beat the price!





















My soon-to-be on my feet Steve Madden boots (via UPS on Thursday!). I have been eyeballing these for several weeks and scored them for 50% off and free shipping at AMAZON! Although they aren't at that price in black anymore so I got pretty lucky. This was my "gift" from Eric. We each bought a pair of shoes for ourselves instead of buying gifts for each other.

And this is what I have to chose from...

Gotta love trying to get a good family pic of everyone with a 2 year old who won't stay still for more than a minute and has the cheesiest smile! We never do anything fancy for the Christmas card pic. Just throw up the tripod, use the self timer, and snap away in front of the tree. Deluxe!

So these are my options for our family photo because heaven help me if we have to try this again!

Cox Christmas

I was horrible with taking pictures but I got a few. We spent 6 days together with the fam and we had a great time. Saturday night was our big family dinner and as usual Tom and Carla made a fabulous meal! Unkie G and Uncle Bill got Claire 2 basketball hoops. One for our house and one for Unkie G's house. What do you get when 2 uncles have beers and time on their hands? A taped off basketball court! I think they want me to bring over the hoop set at our house to make a full court! HA! Claire played with the train at Unkie G's house while we watched the Cardinal's game Sunday. Unlce Gordon is officially an AZ resident and it was awesome to have 3 houses to play at this weekend! We wrapped up our weekend with "Cookie Monday" at our house. Claire loved adding the kisses to the cookies! It was a wonderful Christmas with the Coxes.

Happy Birthday

Cy Douglas Welker!!

7lbs 30z
19.5 inches
1:19pm

He made it!! He is finally here. I am so excited to be an aunt again. The family is doing good. Mom is recovering. Dad sounds like he is beaming with pride. Abby is excited and wearing her big sister t-shirt! I must say though she looks a little put off with this whole baby thing already in this pic with Grandma. =) We are all thrilled to have a healthy baby in the family.

Class pics

Claire's first school pics!! The class photo is hilarious. I guess it's what I would expect from a bunch of 2 yr olds!

Oh Tannenbaum

Notice anything in the tree.... "broken" soothie (this is actually what claire calls it now...broken soothie. lol!)

Gobble Gobble

I only started one fire and it wasn't food related! It was a good day! We enjoyed our first Thanksgiving where we cooked the meal. Claire wore her super cute apron made by her Aunt Carolyn and helped me cook. I made my mom's cornbread dressing...which was a production in itself...and it was pretty darn good. Claire ate lots of cookies and junk. It was a nice afternoon. Carla's brother, Eric, came to join us. All the orphans together this year since Tom and Carla went to Seattle. The 4 of us enjoyed a meal, played outside, and even had some fire side cocktails to top off the evening.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving past

After looking at pics of our Thanksgivings since 2004, I realized a couple of things.....1.) We took significantly less and less pictures over the years that give you any impression of what holiday it is! 2.) How much has changed.

2004. Yup, that's me with the dark hair. Our first Turkey Day together! My bro and sis n law (at the time we weren't even engaged yet!) and Eric's dad came to visit us.

2005. Our 2nd Thanksgiving with my mom at her house in Houston. Eric and I had just gotten married the month before.

2006. Our first Thanksgiving in Phoenix!! I sadly can't find any pics of this day together except for this one with my brother in law Tom. Must have been having too much fun drinking cocktails! This was right before I got pregnant.

2007. Second AZ Thanksgiving! Can't you tell? Doesn't everybody swim on Thanksgiving or is just us desert folks!

 2007. Claire was 7 weeks old.

2008. Last year's Thanksgiving. Yes, this is Claire running around in her Halloween costume. We were making her play dress up. Again, showing you just how warm it is during the holidays.

Sick happens

That's the scoop around here. Sickie ickies. No pics, not much fun, and nothing to really write about. It feels like we have been living in a cave. Claire is getting better and the hives even seem to be gone finally but she has a lingering cough. I hope to have some pics to post soon and I hope we can get back to some kind of normal activity this week.

I am currently keeping myself occupied by reading the first book in the Twilight series. I thought I would NEVER read these books but here I am enjoying every page. It's thrilling and I haven't been this engrossed in a book in a long time. I went and got a pedicure today and felt the need to have blood red toes! Teehee! =) I have never taken a book with me to get a pedi. I love reading magazines too much but I found myself dragging the book along with me and barely even noticed my surroundings.

Sharing

And when I say "sharing", I mean what I share with Claire. My drinks, my meals, my chair, my candy, and as you can see here....my bathroom and all of it's contents! I love sharing with my little girl but sometimes I laugh at how nothing is yours alone anymore as a parent. She was wearing my necklace today at the park. Right off my own neck! She kept asking the people around us if they liked it. Maybe she should work for Stella and Dot!

I wonder if her head is going to lose circulation with all those tight headbands though?! Notice the container she got the headbands out of? It was purchased to keep her out of my stuff but she just pops the sides off and digs in. Such a hoot. Mismatched jammies and all!

Weekend

We decided to enjoy our Halloween day as much as possible even though Claire was still super hived up. She was so uncomfortable and still has them today (they are getting better though). Saturday morning we went to a pumpkin patch to get her mind of the itchies. She had a great time but was a little sneezy after being around all that hay and dust. Nice job Mom and Dad! So, we didn't end up hanging with our friends Saturday night but we still enjoyed playing at home and trick or treating in the neighborhood. Claire got the hang of the whole doorbell thing after the kids started coming to our house. It was a fun "first" real Halloween!

Heeby Jeebies

Claire has a case of the heebie jeebies otherwise known as hives! We went to the doc on Friday and I took some pics of her on the way their and in the room. Such a happy girl even when she's so itchy. The doc ruled out the antibiotics she had been taking as the cause so it must have been her sunshine costume and new t-shirt she wore to school Thursday. Poor Sweetie.

Halloween Kickoff

Today we kicked off Halloween with our first party of the week. We had such a great time. Claire chose to be the ladybug today. She also has a sunshine costume that may see the light of day if she's in the mood! Claire liked getting her face painted. Such a cute idea. No so cute for my white sweater I was wearing but it was super fun! Lots of cookies and sugar. Claire told me on the way home...
" Mommy. I am sooo tired." That's a great party!

Stories

I have no pictures lately. Blogging without photos just seems boring to me but I am going to give it a try. I have a few stories to share though! In no particular order....

1.) Sleep. Precious sleep. Where have you gone? Is it because she has no soothie anymore? Is because she has a cold? Is it those pesky 2 year molars? Where ever you went sleep, please. come. back. We miss you. While you are at, could you bring back the little girl who used to go to sleep without screaming like mad?

2.) Diapers. Oh why do you fail me diapers? Are you too small? Too full? I bought the next size up in the "active baby" style. Hopefully that will help. Claire seems to be in this place where she wants to be potty trained and just doesn't care yet. She gets mad about diaper changes but refuses to be changed when she's pooped. She tells me she'd rather be dirty. Awesome. The other day I am upstairs changing the sheets on her bed (for the 100th time lately. she's constantly wetting everything it seems!) and I hear Claire yelling from downstairs...."NASTY POOP ON RED TOES!! NASSSTTYYY POOP ON RED TOESSSS!!". I am sure I am not hearing what I am hearing but indeed as I come downstairs her diaper is hanging on her like a sumo wrestler. The tabs are still stuck together around her waist but the rest of the diaper is hanging down the back of her legs and poop is on her feet. Yes, there was nasty poop on her red toenails. I QUIT!

3.) Wind. When your weather forecast says "WINDY" put the breaks on your stroller when outdoors. Note to self for the future anyways. The park yesterday started off normal. Feed the ducks. Watch the kids play. Weather felt great with a slight breeze. So much for the breeze. A full gust blew threw while my stroller was parked on the sidewalk near the water and off it went. My friend Rachel's son, Colin, found a puddle of water which ended up being more of a hole. He accidentally fell in and it totally scared him. He was covered in muddy water and crying his little eyes out. About that time, Claire took off towards to carousal to see the horses so I had to run and get her before she got too far. I look back and see my stroller going at break neck speed into the lake. It got away so fast and was speeding off into the water. We couldn't grab it from the side so I had to jump in the nastiest lake ever and get the darn stroller. I saved my diaper bag for the most part but lost my cell phone, blanket, wipes case, and worst of all....my VENTI iced chai latte from Starbucks. It's like losing your beer while tubing down the river. Party fowl! Rachel and I were in so much shock that we just started laughing so hard. Funniest thing I have seen in a long time. I purchased a new cell phone that will be here in a few days!

So that is what's going on in my life. Just running around like a crazy woman being a mom! I can't complain at all. Life is good but it certainly is full of funny stories. Living with a 2 year is always entertaining.

Sedona

This wasn't our usual Sedona getaway full of nice dinners and evenings out but we had good time being together as a family. Some moments were train wrecks and others were simple and sweet. Traveling with a rambunctious 2 year old is always interesting. Lots of tantrums and to-go boxes! Thank goodness for a full kitchen in the condo and plenty of wine!

One place we always visit in Sedona is the Chapel of the Holy Cross. It's so pretty and has an amazing view of the red rock mountains. I have been there 6 times and I love going every time. I have to light a candle at the alter. We let Claire light one too and she was so excited that she yelled at the top of her lungs while throwing her arms in the air, "I GOT IT!! WOOOHOOOO!". Yep, that was our cue to leave! Never mind the fact that the church is set up on a mountain with rocky slopes on each side. She ran out of the church with us chasing behind her in full panic mode.

We did manage to take a few pics while out and about. Claire loved this horse! We also went to Montezuma Castle National Monument outside of Sedona on the way home and had a nice walk around the park. My highlight of the trip was going to the Hilton Spa for a massage. It was awesome and super relaxing.