Trying to catch up...

Ok, ok, we are VERY slow to update our blog. SORRY!!! We are going to attempt to bring our blog from the past to the present and catch you up on the last five months (yes, I said 5 months...shame on us!).

To start with, here are a few misc. photos of Claire from November-December of 2007 (between ~3 and 5 months old).



Claire went to her first wedding in November. Bridget's cousin Jennie and her hubby John Paul, tied the knot in Lacey, WA (near Olympia). We had lots of fun catching up with the fam. Claire definitely wasn't hurting for attention!



Thanksgiving was spent in Ellensburg, WA at Aunt Gail and Uncle Terry's house. It was very special to have the family together. You can see the four generations of Adam's women in a few of the photos. Unfortunately this was our last Thanksgiving with Grandma Dixie and we all feel very fortunate to have had this time together.



There will be a very special post celebrating Grandma Dixie's life. She was an amazing woman and a hero of mine and she is missed every day. We love you and miss you grandma!

Family update...

Claire Marguerite August 2-3 Months

Once again we were really bad about blogging for a very long time so here is our attempt at trying to fill you in on what's been happening lately.

Claire turned 3 months old on Halloween. Neither of us can believe three months have passed already. Since our last post Claire has been freed from her harness. Her hips are now totally normal. We will have to have x-rays every few months until she's a year old but other than that she's good to go.

She has been discovering the world around her more and more lately, including her own appendages. Here is a cute picture of her in awe of her hand (we're in awe of her many rolls...we told you this girl could eat)...

She enjoys tummy-time (most of the time)...

The weather has been getting colder lately so we have to bundle her up.
This is a photo from one of our walks around the neighborhood...

She loves hanging out with grandma and grandpa Diefenbach. Grandma Carol can get her to "baby-babble" better than anyone and she loves smiling at Grandpa Dave...

Claire loves bath time too, she's quite the swimmer already. Her only issue is that she tries to drink the bath water, if you put her face close to the water she opens her mouth and sticks out her tongue.

The following slide show is a collection of cute day-to-day pictures of Claire (some repeats from above). Notable shots include dad's punk rock hair styling and seeing her and Argos sleeping in our bed while she was wearing her wiener jammies from our friends Michael and Katie.

Uncle Larry's Visit

Bridget's Uncle Larry was in town from Santa Barbara for a few days. We got to have dinner over at her parents house and catch up with him. You'll see a photo of Angie kissing herself on the television. Yes, Auntie Angie is a famous scientist and was on the news for the research she did as a grad student at WWU. Mom taped it of course, so we all got to see it. Way to go sister!

Halloween 07'

Claire's first Halloween was pretty fun. Above, she's sporting her new bib from Aunt Helen (thanks for the package!). Claire in her chicken suit was definitely some funny stuff. We took her around the neighborhood with a couple that lives across the street and their three year old who was dressed as Batman. Claire was a hit and scored plenty of Halloween candy for her mom & dad.

Columbia River Gorge & Portland Road Trip

Well we decided to take Claire on her first extended road trip. We went south to the Columbia River Gorge area which is on the Washington & Oregon border. Aside from again realizing that I should tack on an extra hour or two one-way for travel times, everything went really smooth. Whenever Claire gets upset in the car we just have to roll down the rear windows, no matter how cold it is, and say in a cheesy Arnold Schwarzenegger voice "Chill out baby..", it works great.

We went to Carson, Washington which has an old decrepit hotel that was built at the turn of the century next to some mineral hot springs. Next to the hotel they have a spa with 8-10 claw foot bathtubs, and where for 20 bucks, you can soak in the tubs, and supposedly drink, the stinky really hot (128 degree) spring water. After that a scary looking attendant wraps you mummy-like for a half hour of sweating profusely on a cot. Sounds like torture but you feel awesome afterwards.

We got to spend a couple of days wandering around Portland with her favorite Aunties, Angie and Kendra, who just settled into a new place. Most of our time was spent wandering around the city visiting bookstores, drinking espresso, and eating at nice restaurants. Kendra captured a perfect smile in Angie's arms.

Claire actually spent quite a bit of time in some of the Pacific Northwest's finest breweries on our road trip (Walking Man, Bridgeport, Full Sail, Alameda) hopefully this will help develop the olfactory skills necessary to discern the subtle differences between Cascade vs. Yakima hops. Bridget had quite possibly the best hamburger either of us have ever tasted at the Full Sail Brewery in Hood River, OR. Free-range, grain-fed, never frozen, some farmer drives the beef in from his ranch, ummm. Here's a photo of Claire cruisin' through Hood River, you gotta love that smile...

Well, there's the latest. Bridget is back to work three days a week so Claire is in daycare those days. We've found a great in-home daycare that we are loving more and more each day. Claire is the only baby, plus a couple of crawlers and a few toddlers. They all love "baby Claire" and are so sweet to her. She seems happy and likes to socialize. It was much harder on mom than baby, but it's getting better.

We are enjoying our parenting group and look forward to getting together with everyone at least once a week. The babies are all about the same age and so adorable together. We will be taking photos and someday will post those as well!

We are looking forward to the upcoming holiday season and many more "firsts" for Claire (first Thanksgiving, first Christmas, first New Year's...etc) and can't wait to share those with everyone. We hope all our friends and family, especially those we don't get to visit with very often, are doing well. Until next time...take care!

Long Overdue Blog Post...

We have had a busy couple of weeks since our last blog. Claire is growing so fast and is such a doll (as you will see!). We wanted to thank everyone for all of the cards and gifts for Baby Claire, thank you so much for thinking of us. Now here are some overdue photos, prompted by the friendly requests of family members (thanks Michelle)!


Mt. Rainier Trip

This last weekend we were pleased to have the Barson Family come for a visit. We had such a great time!!! Friday we managed to get all three kids packed up, into the cars, and up to Paradise on Mt. Rainier (in about 9 hours). Most of the adventure was just getting there and back, but while there we went on a couple of hikes with great views of the mountain. You can see the Nisqually Glacier in most of the photos, which is on the south side of the mountain. It was such a beautiful day. Claire loves riding in the Baby Bjorn with her daddy.



Diefenbach Family BBQ

Labor Day weekend we took the family over to Ellensburg for a Diefenbach family BBQ and to introduce Claire to all of her great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was great to have so many family members together. We were also able to celebrate Uncle Gary's 50th birthday, happy birthday Gary!



Claire

Here is a smattering of highlight photos of Claire from two to five weeks old, she's such a cutie! I love the photos of Claire in her new sunglasses from Aunt Marion and Uncle Jerry! Thank you! Claire loves bath time (though she probably won't appreciate the photos!) and she loves holding her head up and looking around. She also enjoys going for walks in her stroller and riding around in the Baby Bjorn or the sling, which usually puts her right to sleep. She is really following faces and voices now and is still a really good baby.

Some of you may already know but we had to take Claire to a specialist for an ultrasound on her hips. They found that one of her hips hasn't quite developed all the way so she's been in a little harness for three weeks now, you can see it in some of the photos. She looks like she's going skydiving or rock climbing! She doesn't seem to mind the contraption too much and we are so glad that they caught it now before she starts crawling and walking, etc. We go back Wednesday to see how she is progressing. Hopefully we are almost done with the treatment. We will let you all know once we have news.



In Bellingham with her Aunties Angie & Kendra

When Claire was two weeks old, Grandma Carol and I took her to see her Aunties Angie and Kendra in Bellingham. We had so much fun. The highlight was a trip to the beach at Larabee State Park.