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We are officially snowed in for the weekend, and I couldn’t be happier! The view out of our front window is beautiful and we’ve been blessed to not experience any power outages or other inconveniences. We’re praying it stays that way!

After bundling her in multiple layers, we took Claire out to play in the snow with the other kids on our cul-de-sac. She seemed a bit shell-shocked and took quite a while to snap out of it, but eventually we got a few smiles out of her. When we came inside, she made a beeline for her dollhouse and played happily for quite a while. I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between her behavior and mine as a little girl. I never was much for outdoor play, instead preferred to play with my dolls or read.

She’s STILL asleep upstairs, going on the fourth hour now. I’m beginning to wish it snowed every day - ha! Here are my fave pics from the wintery festivities this morning. More in the updated January 2010 gallery.

She sure has changed since the last time we took her out in the snow - almost exactly a year ago! Here’s a short video clip of Claire and Daddy playing. If you listen closely, you can hear her say “snow” - we’ve been hearing it ALL morning long!

UPDATE: After Claire finally woke up, we took her back outside and she loved it! She was stomping all over the place and trying to throw snowballs (a bit difficult with this sugar-like snow). Looking forward to more winter wonderland play tomorrow! Here’s a few more pictures…

I couldn’t have picked a worse time to start skipping Claire’s monthly updates. The last post was at 17 months and since then she’s changed so much! I have heard the 18-month mark referred to as the “language explosion” age, and although I’m not quite sure that’s what I would call it, I will say that Claire definitely has no troubles getting her thoughts across these days. This is a great thing!

Each month there are times that I just hold my baby and half-way wish she’d stop growing and stay this age forever. These past two months have not been an exception by any means. I don’t ever want to take this precious time for granted - it’s just too special!

Claire hit the 19-month mark on Wednesday of this week. Here’s what she’s been up to:

• She has a small cut on her left thumb (not sure how it got there). She is obsessed with it and is constantly telling us about her “owie” or “boo-boo” and then giving it kisses. I tried to put some ointment on it and a cute band-aid, but that seemed to add fuel to the fire. She couldn’t concentrate on anything but the Cookie Monster bandage on her finger!

• On the subject of boo-boos, she likes to point out all of mine, which are actually moles. She’ll say “mole” when I correct her, but 20 minutes later they’ve reverted back to boo-boos. Ha!

Not much is sweeter than a sleeping baby!

• She loves to climb on top of mommy or daddy and bounce up and down on our tummies or chests. Daddy calls this the “Atomic Bootie Drop” and it’s one of Claire’s favorite things to do. Most of the time it’s fun for us too, but not so much at 7 in the morning!

• It no longer is feasible to make a list of new words, because she says so many and is constantly learning new ones.

• In addition to high-fives, she also is happy to give you a fist bump.

My precious blue-eyed girl doing one of her favorite things - swinging!

• If you ask her how much mommy or daddy love her, she’ll open her arms up real wide and say “tis uch!”

• She is working on learning colors. She can say several of them, including yellow, purple, blue and green, but can’t identify them yet.

• In addition to the lion, sheep and cow, she now knows what sound a dog, snake, horse and bird make. She can point out other animals, like a pig, duck, monkey or a frog, but has trouble making their specific sounds.

• She can whisper, and loves to vary her voice level (and attitude) while playing the “I’ll Say Daddy When Asked to Say Mommy” game. This one is an all-time fave.

• She received so many nice gifts for Christmas and is enjoying playing with all her new toys. The dollhouse and tea set have been great for encouraging her imaginative play, and she is crazy about building “towers” with her Mega Blocks.

• She loves to play basketball with daddy. He’s so good with her and it makes my heart happy to watch them play. We’re thinking that with her size, she’d be an awesome post player! However, she’s not a huge fan of sitting still during the Dragons’ games. She doesn’t like not being able to go sit on daddy’s lap! I spend a lot of the games following her to the bathroom where she points out all the “poppies” and asks for lots of “wa-wa” from the water fountain.

Very difficult to catch a pic of this girl with a basketball - she’s fast!

• She continues to love books and flash cards. Anytime the child is learning something new, she’s happy. She soaks things up like a sponge.

• She is a big help when grocery shopping. She loves to walk with mommy and put all our items into the cart that daddy is pushing.

• She talks about her friends from school (Dawson, Avery and GiGi) constantly. I would try to write how she says their names, but I’m not that good at spelling things out phonetically. Let’s just say that Eric and I understand her, but I doubt others would know what she is saying right away.

• She loves to look at her picture book of family members and say them by name. Her favorite is Poppy. She immediately turns to the page with his photo and starts laughing. It’s too cute!

The cute grin is in response to the puppy at the playground- she LOVES dogs!

• She is a BIG girl! She is off the charts when it comes to her height. All they can tell us is that she’s above the 95% for her age. She is also in the 80% for her weight and head size. That explains why her belly is close to poking out of 2T shirts and she’s wearing hats sized for 3-5 year olds! Ha! She also switched to size 5 diapers this week.

• She’s doing a much better job of using utensils while eating. She went through a stage where she would refuse to let you feed her or use a spoon/fork. That was a messy time, considering some of her favorite foods are mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, yogurt, and applesauce! Several of these we just had to put on hiatus for a while. I’m happy to report that she now eats these foods (and others) with a spoon and even eats a few other foods with a fork (like waffles).

• She’s currently a girly girl, despite her daddy’s best efforts. She loves to play with mommy’s bracelets and makeup brushes. She’s also a big fan of lotion and deodorant. She will even ask me to put a bow in her hair. I love it!

Super cheesy face!

• She gives the BEST hugs and kisses and usually isn’t stingy with them. She gives them on demand and to cheer up a friend who is sad, but also just because she feels like it.

• She still loves dancing and singing. Her new favorite is “This Little Light Of Mine.” She waves her little finger around and loves the part about Satan blowing it out.

•  Still haven’t really found a food she doesn’t like. She usually tends to favor dairy, veggies and fruits over meats, but the girl can put away some Chick-fil-A nuggets! New favorites are rice & beans, broccoli, carrots and fried popcorn shrimp.

She loved going for a ride on the carousel in the mall and was not a happy camper when she had to get off!

• She can do just about anything she’s asked to. Whether or not she chooses to do it, well, that’s another story!

• She knows the sound and motion associated with the words baby (”waa waa”), car (”beep beep”), and train (”choo choo”). I taught her these just the other day during our 10 minute drive home from daycare and she’s been saying them constantly ever since.

• She has three new teeth - all of her incisors are in. Total teeth count is 16.

• The warmer temperatures this past weekend made it possible to take Claire on a bike ride to the park. I can’t even begin to describe how excited she was! She asks for a “ride” just about every time we are in the garage getting in the car and I hate having to turn her down.

Opening her gift from Josh and Meredith. She loves it! Thanks, guys!

As always, there are plenty of more pictures in the January 2010 gallery. We’re headed to the beach this weekend for some long-awaited family time. Nan and I are spending Saturday in Myrtle Beach for our semi-annual shopping trip while the kiddos stay at home and play with GaGa, PaPa and Eric. Claire will be SO excited to see “Yash” again and I’m hoping to score her some great deals for next year!

We are so blessed to have friends who are extremely talented behind the camera. Over the past couple of months, we had two separate on-location photo shoots (you know me, I’m a sucker for photos!). I’m a bit late in sharing some of these, but they are just too cute to not post!

The first was a family shoot at Pullen Park in November with Jack and Adrienne Morton of Mortography. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, but the shadows didn’t work in our favor. However, J & A still managed to get some awesome shots - including the ADORABLE one that graced the front of our Christmas cards! Claire started off a bit shy, but Adrienne is a pro with kids and it took no time at all before she was flashing her those trademark smiles. If you live in the Raleigh area, definitely check them out. They have fantastic prices and photos, and are just plain fun to work with! Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot, the rest are in the 2009 Christmas Family Pics gallery.

While we were still in Arkansas, we had the pleasure of working with our good friend, Jonna, of Red House Photography. The weather this time was the complete opposite from before and was ridiculously cold. So we stayed indoors, and while the scenery was a bit limited, Jonna still caught some super cute pics of our little munchkin. She’s located in Northwest Arkansas, and if you’re around that area, I highly recommend her. Her energy and talent are amazing and she will have your little one feeling at ease in a heartbeat!

This session was actually part of a barter agreement between Jonna and I. I set her up with an awesome (if I do say so myself) blog in return for the photo shoot and couldn’t have been happier with the results! Anyone else out there interested in bartering???

You can view them all in the Photo Shoot with Jonna gallery, but here are my personal faves…

Note: If you are reading this in email or on Facebook, you’ll need to visit our website, www.ericandcolleen.com to view the videos. If you’re already here, welcome!

The day after Christmas, we braved the roads (which, thankfully, were no longer dangerously icy) and headed north to spend some time with Eric’s family. We made it to Little Grandma’s house just in time for a delicious lunch, complete with her famous homemade applesauce - YUM!

After lunch was the annual tradition of bushing - an easy game to play where the three loosers are in charge of washing all the dishes. This was my SEVENTH year to play and I’ve yet to wash a single dish (and yes, I know I’m asking for it next year by publicly gloating)!

Next up was Claire’s favorite part of the day - opening presents. Poor thing didn’t seem to get that each person got just one gift, including her. Luckily for her, everyone was super sweet and let her “help” unwrap their gifts. She also enjoyed playing with Rowan, who did an awesome job of sharing his new toys!

Cheesy cheese with GaGa - love this!

Claire, Eric and Little Grandma

Sharing toys with Rowan

Letting Uncle Joe know that she wanted the Elmo slippers she gave him back!

Group picture at Little Grandma’s house

Loving a “ride” from Uncle Michael

Claire was pretty worn out after the day’s activities and conked out in our hotel room before 8:00 pm. Eric and I ate Arby’s in the dark and then watched “The Ugly Truth” on our portable DVD player with dual earphones. It was actually a lot of fun and we joked that it was our “no talking” date night!

We joined Grandpa and the rest of the family at church the next morning. Claire sat through some of the service, but ended up going to the nursery (and having to be drug out she was having so much fun). Eric and I took Claire back to the hotel after church for a short nap. The two of them rested while I ran some errands, then we headed over to Grandpa’s house for lunch and presents. Again it was fun to watch Claire and Rowan play so well together.

Group picture after church - I love Rowan in this one!

Rowan and Claire playing with the cool new toy he gave her

Our family with Grandpa

Claire loved pointing out all of Uncle Ryan’s body parts - especially his “hair”!

That evening we headed over to Big Grandma’s house to visit and let Claire open even more presents. We hated that we weren’t there for the “official” celebration Christmas evening, especially since we missed Eric’s cousin’s family from Virginia….and nobody saved us a piece of Grandma’s chocolate pie!

Claire received lots of nice gifts, most of them with the ever-popular Elmo theme. She also had an especially good time playing with Grandma’s very overweight tootsie roll of a dog.

Family picture with Big Grandma

Opening presents at Big Grandma’s house

There! I’m done with the 2009 Christmas posting - whew! There are gobs, and I do mean gobs, of photos in the December 2009 photo gallery - I had a hard time picking which ones to post because there were so many good ones! Next up is a run down of what Claire is up to at 18 1/2 months….or 19 months…whichever it happens to be when I finally get around to getting the post up.

Getting to Arkansas was a bit of a headache this year. We arrived at the Raleigh airport at 4:30 Tuesday morning, only to find that our 6:30 a.m. flight to Memphis had been canceled. After close to an hour of pleading with the Delta agent, we finally were given a new itinerary. We’d leave Raleigh around 9:00 a.m., spend about 4 hours in Detroit, then fly to Memphis and stay for another 2 hours, then finally arrive in Fort Smith. When it was all said and done, I think our total trip time was close to 16 hours, which happens to be the approximate driving time from Raleigh to Arkansas. But, truth be told, the day really wasn’t that bad. Claire loved the hustle and bustle of the airports and thought walking sidewalks, escalators, and the tunnel of lights in the Detroit airport were all her personal play toys. She watched a bit more Elmo than usual on her portable DVD player and slept for a bit on two out of the three flights.

Needless to say, when LeLe and Poppy met us at the airport, poor Claire was plum exhausted! Too bad…she missed out on the delicious steaks that were waiting on us. We spent three full days in VB - here are a few of the highlights:

• We had a White Christmas! It was absolutely beautiful, but the subsequent road conditions kept us in VB a day longer than planned. While we enjoyed more time with my family, we were sad to miss out on the festivities and out of town family at Big Grandma’s house.
• Claire racked up with gifts, yet again. LeLe and Poppy gave her Elmo Live (which was a BIG hit) and a couple of books. She got a cute outfit from Uncle Reag and a sweet book and Visa gift card from Grandma Carole. Auntie Bonnie and Uncle Jimmy gave her a Veggie Tales DVD, Disney Princess stickers, Elmo slippers and an Elmo backpack. The last of which she wore around the house for the rest of the day!
• We had a fantastic prime rib dinner with the Headquist family on Christmas Day.
• Claire was obsessed with our golden retriever, Max. She walked around saying “puppy” and “ruff” for three days straight! Max is such a good dog, he didn’t seem to mind her sometimes-not-so-gentle patting.
• We met up with the Childers clan twice and enjoyed watching Claire and Caleigh play and seeing their newest addition, Delainey. They also gave Claire an Elmo book set.
• Claire joined me for the annual Christmas Eve lunch with my girlfriends at TGI Friday’s, where Jill became her new best friend. Not only because she brought her a TON of Elmo-themed gifts, but because she had the waitress bring Claire two extra bowls of shredded cheddar cheese. My girl loves her some cheese!
• Grandma Carole was a big hit with Claire as well. She loved going through Grandma’s makeup bag!
• We also got a chance to visit with Claire’s other great-grandma, my Nanny, for just a bit Wednesday evening. Claire took to her right away and loved playing with Nanny’s stuffed animal collection! We had hoped to see Nanny again, but the snow kept us from getting to her on Christmas.

It’s hard to write about three fun days of new experiences for Claire, people to see and presents to open - but hopefully I got the main points in there. And if not, here’s plenty of pictures to say a thousand words for me! Note that there’s not a single one of Uncle Jimmy and Claire. Apparently her fear of men with beards doesn’t exclude family! Of course, about the time we were ready to leave, she warmed up to him but a camera was nowhere to be found.

I love this picture of Claire with her LeLe and Poppy!

Four generations of the Angus clan

Our attempt to get a pic of all three girls (Caleigh, Delainey and Claire)

Claire giving her Great Nanny some sweet kisses

Claire had a good time with her Uncle Reag

Playing in LeLe and Poppy’s jacuzzi tub - super fun!

Snuggling with her Auntie Bonnie

Angus family annual Christmas photo

Playing with her Auntie Bonnie in the jacuzzi tub

Saying “Cheese!!” with Grandma Carole and LeLe

Loving on Max, the “puppy”

Poppy is SO funny!

Claire, Jill and the infamous cheese bribe

Santa made a special early trip to our home this year, since he knew we would be out of town on Christmas day. We spent our own version of “Christmas Eve” listening to holiday-themed music, making and eating an enchilada dinner (yum!), and baking chocolate chip cookies for Santa. Claire absolutely loves to bake/cook and cracking eggs into the bowl is her favorite task, so this mommy/daughter event was right up her alley. We also made a breakfast casserole for the next morning’s breakfast. This involved cracking EIGHT eggs. You can imagine the excitement.

We tucked the little munchkin into bed and promptly got to work assembling the trampoline we had purchased off Craiglist a month or so ago. Not an easy task, but somehow we managed. And when I say “we”,  I mostly mean “Eric.”

Claire slept in till around 8:00 am (amazing feat for her) and woke up with a big grin on her face. After spending some quality family time in bed while she drank her morning milk, we moved to the living room to start the festivities. Claire immediately ran to the trampoline Santa had brought her and was jumping and pushing the musical buttons before we knew it. Eric and I had big grins on our faces, knowing we picked out a gift she loved. She would say “off”, climb off, then climb right back on and start jumping again.

We then opened our stockings - which Claire thought was the best thing ever. A what-seems-to-be-never-ending container of goodies just for her! She pulled out several books, chapstick, spinning tops, an Elmo toothbrush and toothpaste, stickers and bubbles. Each thing seemed to be even more exciting than the next!

After stockings, Claire unwrapped all of the presents under the tree. Mommy and Daddy gave her a Leap Frog Tag Jr. system and book, a baby doll, a Sesame Street book, a guitar Elmo, and Elmo slippers. She loved them all, but I’d say the book and slippers were the top faves. She really got into the whole present concept. At one point, she was even 1/2 way underneath the tree, looking for more!

Mommy and Daddy weren’t forgotten either. Eric’s stocking had a “Spaceballs” DVD, a “Dave Matthews Band” CD, gym shorts (it was a big stocking!), gum and an Almond Joy candy bar. He also got a new laptop battery, which he desperately needed.

And my wonderful hubby bought me the best present I think I’ve ever received - a new iPhone! Complete with a pink case, it was perfect and exactly what I had been wanting.  He got a great deal on it during Black Friday, but didn’t fail to remind me that this was the present that would keep on giving (referring to our now higher monthly cellular bill).

We spent the rest of our “Christmas” eating breakfast casserole, relaxing around the home, and going for a neighborhood drive to see all the lights. It was an absolutely fantastic day and we felt so blessed to be able to celebrate the holiday as a family of three in our new home.

To all our friends whom we didn’t have addresses for, here’s our Christmas card from this year. We hope each and everyone of you had a safe holiday and are praying you have a blessed 2010!

Christmas is officially over and we’re waiting to ring in the New Year (which will most likely consist of us watching the ball drop on TV while Claire sleeps upstairs). We had FIVE Christmas celebrations this year (would have been six, but we missed one - more on that later).

Celebration #1 was held a couple of weekends ago at the beach. We got together with Eric’s immediate family and enjoyed a delicious steak dinner (seriously, it was fantastic!), then settled down in the living room to watch the kids open presents. This year the adults broke tradition and didn’t exchange gifts. Claire and Cash benefited from this decision greatly, as there were TONS of presents for each of them to open.

Claire really racked in the goods and couldn’t have been happier. She received Elmo Tickle Hands, Mega Blocks, Doodle Pro, LeapFrog Fridge Phonics and an Elmo bath toy from Aunt Nana, Uncle Jay and Cousin Cash. Her GaGa and PaPa spoiled her rotten with a super cute rocking chair, My First Dollhouse, Little People Farm Playset, Laugh & Learn Tea Set,  Dusty the Vacuum Cleaner and a personalized ornament.

After presents we changed the kiddos into their matching “Chillin’ With My Homies” snowman pajamas - SO cute! They had a good time jumping around on the couch and being just downright goofy. Claire LOVES her Cousin Cash and not one day has gone by that she hasn’t asked for “Dash” since we’ve gotten home!

As always, we took lots of photos….here’s a few of the best. More to come in a gallery soon.

Our little family of three - Claire has changed a lot since
last year’s photo!

The Stafford family

Claire with her GaGa and PaPa

Claire and Cash focused intently on unwrapping gifts

Kisses from GaGa!

Yay! My first dollhouse - thanks GaGa and PaPa!

Claire loved her rocking chair from her grandparents

Claire and Cash posing in their matching “Chillin’ With My Homies” pjs

Ha! It looks like Cash is about to eat Claire’s big belly!

Silly kiddos playing on the couch

Before we left for Arkansas, I took Claire to Planet Child, a children’s museum right around the corner from our home. There were lots of fun exhibits to explore, and Claire loved running around and trying out all the new activities. She especially liked the trains, aquarium (fish!), and grocery areas.  Here are a few of my favorite pics from our outing: