Words

Claire has really starting talking A LOT lately. She listens to everything we say, and picks up on so much now.
We love how she says some of her new words, it is so sweet to hear how excited she gets when she says certain things. You can tell she is very proud of herself!

Some of our favorites...
banana - Claire: ma-man-a (pretty close to "Amanda" if you ask me)
yummy - Claire: yuu-ee!
barney - Claire: marney!
good morning - Claire: goood mar-ning
peek a boo - Claire: bee boo!
binkie - Claire: winkie

Her other favorites are spelling her name (C-L-A-I-R-EEEEE! CAIRE!) and yelling out airplane! every time she hears one... even if we are in the house. It is fun watching her grow and learn everyday!

We've tried to break out the video camera to catch some of this but she has gotten pretty smart about stopping whatever she is doing as soon as she hears it beep. Then she just stops & stares at the camera! As soon as we catch some stuff we will post it though!

A Day at the Museum...

Well, more like a morning at the museum! Over the summer we decided to become members of the Museum of Science & History (MOSH). I took Claire there twice over the summer and we really liked it. There are lots of fun exhibits and it is definitely somewhere she can run around and learn neat stuff.
Today was the first time Clay had been there. He loved it too! We had lots of fun walking around and looking at some neat stuff...

Claire & Daddy looking at the fish!

Claire brushing for fossils...

Claire & Daddy learning how the stomach works!

We are so blessed to have quality time together as a family!

Savannah!

As I said just a few minutes ago, Clay and I got to spend a couple nights in Savannah! Claire stayed with her Ce-Ce. We had a wonderful time, and are so thankful that we have so much family around to babysit! We enjoyed catching up on time together since we have been pretty busy since Clay got home.
We did SO much walking. There is so many neat things to see in Savannah! Luckily our hotel was really close to everything. We did some shopping & ate some extremely delicious food!
Our favorite thing we did was a haunted pub crawl. We met the tour guide and as a group walked from bar to bar while hearing spooky stories about how the different bars are haunted. It was so much fun! Luckily neither one of us felt too bad on the drive back Sunday.
Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Birthday Clay!

Today Clay turned 36. I can't say he had a very exciting birthday day... but we did have an awesome pre-celebration in Savannah this past weekend!

Clay decided he wanted to eat Thai food for his birthday dinner, so I picked up take out for him :) I did at least make him his dessert of choice - chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips. Here he is celebrating with Claire. She thought the cookies were YU-EE! (Claire speak for yummy)

Ocala

Last weekend we took a family trip to Ocala. And by family, I mean even Zoey! Luckily Ocala is a fairly quick drive from Jax.

We had a wonderful time, and Claire loved playing with Grandma. Mean old mommy thought the water would be too cold for Claire to go in the pool, so I didn't bring her bathing suit. As you will see from the pictures, that did not stop Claire!

Busy!

The Waddill's have been quite busy since Clay came home! Clay has been spending much needed quality time with his girls. We are having so much fun since he has time off of work for a few weeks.

I am going to update a few posts in a row to try and catch everyone up!

Claire has already become a daddy's girl all over again. She loves playing and singing with daddy all the time. She is talking up a storm, she pretty much just copies everything we say! (yes, we have to be careful what comes out of our mouths!) Her favorite things to say are "good morning!" and a phrase she picked up from Clay, "alright!"

Clay is so happy to have some time off so he has been spending some daddy-daughter time with Claire while Mommy runs and works out. Did I mention I'm training for a half-marathon? Yikes! Anyway, he took Claire to Auntie Annes in Town Center for some pretzel-making! Claire wasn't really in the mood to do the work, so Clay rolled her pretzel while she watched. But she was very happy to eat it afterwards! Oh, and that reminds me of her other favorite thing to say. "Thanks!" She says it every time you hand her something, or every time she hands you something. It is pretty fun to see the personality come out now that she is hitting the full-on toddler stage!

Family, continued

Our official Welcome Home family picture. Thank you Ryan for taking it!

Family

Today, September 11, 2011.
It has been a day of prayer & reflection. It is just so sad to hear the stories of everyone affected by that tragic day 10 years ago. It definitely makes me appreciate all of the blessings I have in my life, especially that I have my husband home and my family back together again after another deployment.
It is easy to get caught up in the "woe is me" mentality as you are living day-to-day life. But really, when you stop and reflect, is it really that bad?
I know I am blessed with a supportive husband, beautiful daughter, loving family & wonderful friends. What more could a girl need?


My Happiness...

Last Flight

On Sunday Clay had his last flight as a member of the VP-45 Pelicans. True to Pelican form, it was a flight that briefed at 5am! He is really excited to come home, as are Claire and I. I think even Zoey knows something is up (maybe it's all of the cleaning I'm doing... I mean... that I always do...) I can't wait to update the blog with Welcome Home pictures! One more day and a half.

And on another homecoming note, an observation that I made earlier today. I have had a new dress for Claire to wear for Clay's homecoming for 2 months now. Today I decided I'm just going to throw on something I already have. My how things have changed!

Pictures!

We had a wonderful time in Tennessee last week. Claire and I got to spend time with the Morenos and with Aunt Amanda. Claire absolutely loved running around with her cousins and followed them everywhere. I tried to narrow down the pictures but there were just too many good ones! Enjoy.

Little Gym

Uncle Ryan was nice enough to join us at Little Gym class a couple weeks ago to take some pictures. Claire really likes going once a week, and these pictures are from her last class of the summer. We decided to join again for the Fall since we had so much fun! Enjoy.