Trunk-or-Treat...and the Great Reveal!

 Claire was a Fairy Princess Ballerina this year for Halloween. I think Mommy had as much fun dressing her up as Claire did! Here we are, getting ready. These are the shoes I showed last night that I sewed.

 Claire in all her Fairy Princess Ballerina glory.

 I would have loved it if she would have let me keep this bow clip in her hair...it matched just perfectly! Alas, it was not to be. :) Oh well.

 Such a happy girl! It's amazing how much difference one year can make. A pea in the pod last year...now a walking (running, really) little ballerina girl.

 Fairy wings! :)

 Daddy and his little girl. :)

 Austin was a pirate again this year. This was our spiffy trunk! :) Austin stayed and handed out the candy...

 while Mommy and Claire walked around and trunk-or-treated! Here we are...matching! :) (Well, sort of.)

Mostly Mommy had to carry Claire. But here is proof that she walked around in her costume at least at first! :) We had a great Halloween trunk-or-treat. Happy Halloween, everyone!

Pumpkins!

 We carved pumpkins this afternoon after visiting with Aunt Shelly, who we are very sad is leaving tonight. Happy Halloween!

 Claire was (slightly) more involved in the pumpkin carving this year.

 She thought it was all very interesting...

 She wasn't quite sure about it...

 And I couldn't honestly say that she really liked the "pumpkin guts." Too bad. That is MY favorite part! Pumpkin mask, here I come!

 Austin's pumpkin.

 Claire's pumpkin.

 Family pumpkins!

All lit up!We were all set for our trunk-or-treat tonight. We are so excited for our own family Halloween!

Trick or Treat...Preview!

Our ward Halloween trunk or treat is tomorrow night. This is a preview of part of Claire's costume that I made tonight. (The ribbon will be trimmed to size tomorrow when I try them on Claire.) What do you think our cute little girl will be this year? :)

Family Time

Austin's family was just here visiting this past week, and it was so wonderful to get to see them! They arrived on Wednesday, and stayed until Sunday. While they were here, we showed off our new house--and Austin and his dad worked on the back shower! :) All the tiles are up now...it is a miracle! :) They worked long and hard on it all day Saturday, when Austin was off from work. It was so nice getting to see almost everyone--we were just missing Denya, Wade & Kimberlea, and Landon & Megan. And they brought the nice weather along with them when they came from Colorado! I'm so glad for family time. :)

Harvest!

 My garden. The far left is the green beans...nothing yet. The middle is the basil that has gone wild!

 Basil close-up.

 Behind the basil by the fence is my favorite--lemon balm! :)

This is about half of the carrots I harvested from our garden yesterday evening. The bigger carrots went into the homemade chicken noodle soup Austin made...it was delicious! We also left the tiniest carrots outside for the little bunnies that live out in our backyard. Happy Harvest! :)

Claire Turned the Big 1!

 My sweet baby Claire turned 1 year old yesterday! Wow, the time sure has flown by! Here we are the night before...we had just bought the balloons home for her party. Claire absolutely LOVED these balloons, and was so gentle and loving with them. Happy birthday, baby girl!

 I have watched as Claire got bigger...and bigger...and bigger...and bigger. She is still very little, but now I can teach her to hold up her pointer finger for one year old!

 Claire can walk (run, but you only notice if you're the one chasing after her, haha!), and she has started feeding herself with a spoon. She can say "mama" and "brmm", but I know she understands a lot more. She especially understands the words "no" (that one gets practiced a lot when she is trying to get into electrical outlets and such!), as well as the word "shoes" and "bellybutton" (she just recently learned about where her bellybutton is). She also learned to blow kisses and has been waving "bye-bye" for a few months now.

 Claire's birthday party was a success! Claire was still asleep when everyone arrived in the afternoon, so she was a bit surprised when she woke up and saw a bunch of cousins there to celebrate her birthday! Overall, she was a bit overwhelmed, but was very happy. :) We had some snack food and punch at the party, and then played a couple of games--pin the candle on the cupcake, and the standard, good ol' penny toss. Next we opened presents, and then came the cake! Above was Claire's reaction to the cake. She really wanted to touch it, but we were trying to keep it nice for everyone else.

 Happy birthday, Claire!

 Claire was NOT sure about the cake. We cut her a little piece, put it on a princess plate, and gave it to her...and she threw it on the ground! I think it was more a reaction to everyone watching her, since we gave her a piece today and she loved it. :) Less pressure, I guess. :)

 "I think I will just watch everyone else eat cake. I don't wanna eat it..." says Claire.

 "This cake looks prettier on the floor, don't you think? I don't really have to eat it, do I?"

 "No thanks!"

 "I'd much rather eat this carrot than eat that cake," says Claire. What a silly girl! :)

 This picture was taken this afternoon after we got back from church. Claire loves this big toy from Uncle Michael and Aunt Heather, and we both really love this sweet, pink dress from Aunt Kristie and Uncle Barth!!! :)

 Claire, I hope you feel like the birthday princess, because you are the princess in this house! :)

 And what a wonderful birthday princess she is.

 I love that cheesy smile, baby girl. I have loved every minute of your first year (those dirty diapers don't count, right?). :) I am so blessed to be your mother.

My silly girl. One year older and wiser too, happy birthday to you!

Claire Can Walk!

Claire took her first real steps today all on her own! She was standing up, and took 5 or 6 steps towards Austin a little while after he got home from work. I'm so proud of my big girl. :)