22 and 21

This week marks Claire's 22 months on earth and baby's 21 weeks in utero. 

And if you are wondering how we get such a great picture of the 3 of us... 

 It's with having 75 outtakes:)   

Once Claire discovered the self-remote in my hand (you can see it above), it was over. She had to push it the whole time, which gave us some funny pictures:

  (there are 15 of us trying to get her to come back)

Anyway... always a hoot.  And this girl is 22 months old! Only 2 more months and we'll have a 2 year old?? Seriously? 

We can't put into words how much we love this little girl. She is the sweetest thing in the world. She cuddles with me, lays on my chest, hugs my neck, and kisses me whenever I ask her.  She is always happy and bright. She is always friendly and fun.  She loves people and people love her.  (We even had a friend in the ward tell us they'd trade their girl for ours any day).  

I love the games she and I play lately. We'll put our foreheads together and fake laugh until it turns into actual hysterical laughter.  I love to hear her play pretend with her baby and her toys.  I love when she wants to tell me something and looks so intently in my face talking nonsense, but to her it's meaning something. I love watching her jump fearlessly off the diving board all by herself and come up with a giant smile on her face.  I feel so blessed to be her mother; so blessed to have her in our lives.  She has made our love and hearts grow beyond imagination. Love you, Claire-bear!

Engagement!

We couldn't be more happy or excited for my little sister Raquel! She got engaged to the wonderful Brad Spencer and is getting married July 12th, 2012! 

He was so cute and set up a dinner on the top of the pool house where we are staying. He did all the decorating and planning himself, with only a little help from us:

He made this "Will You Marry Me" sign too! 

Raquel knew he had the ring and just kept waiting every day to see if he would propose.  She ruled out Tuesday evening because they had his cousin's reception to be to until late. Little did she know...

When they got back around 8:30pm, Ben and I pretended we had a "squirrel" problem in the pool house (which we ironically have had before, read HERE) and that he needed both of their help on the roof, hence the ladder being out.  So Ben yelled to them (while they were dropping off some of their things inside) that he would be up there waiting and then he ran in to join me peek out our bathroom window. He videoed while I took pictures.

Here she is with her first view of what was really going on:

She was SO surprised and just kept laughing and giggling (typical Raquel:) ) 

YAY!!

We love Brad and are so excited to have him in the family. We couldn't have picked a better match for her and have never seen her so happy.  

Side note on how much Claire loves Brad: She only says about 3 or 4 names: Daddy, Mommy, Grandpa, and Brooke.  When she met Brad, she immediately latched on to him and started calling him, "BOBBY!!" She gets so excited when she sees him pass outside the window and loves to flirt, kiss, hug, show off, and just play with him. It is the cutest. 

July 12th, baby! YAY!

Baby #2 Journal

I loved the journal I did when I was pregnant with Claire, but this time I wanted it to be a little different this time (i.e. less stressful and less pictures of just ME :) )

 I got this idea from Hanna Mac's blog and am excited to do it! 

{click pictures to enlarge}

Up until week 20, I did once a month but now I will be *trying* something every week until the baby comes!

** Updated: Here are all of the rest! **