Springishness.

 Nana and Bethany are armed and dangerous with the bunny darts! 

 Clara, on the other hand, is content to hang in the swing.
She'll spend half an hour in there if we let her.

 She's also very good at pushing up. On the bed, and sometimes on the floor, she can lift her entire body, so that only her toes and hands are touching the floor. I'm jealous. She can also sit up!

 We went to the Atlanta History Center's Sheep to Shawl program. Clara spent most of the time hanging out and watching things.

 Bethany enjoyed petting and grooming the animals in the heirloom breeds petting zoo. This is an angora goat, and there's a reason those sweaters are so soft!

 Mommy was particularly fascinated by this long-haired Scottish cow. That's a cow!

 Clara celebrated her six month birthday by eating banana. She liked it fairly well.

 She loves to feed herself.

 You can kind of see her tongue here - it's very pointy. We see a lot of it right now.
Here, she's playing on Daddy's chest. She likes any kind of game that involves bouncing.

 Here's Clara's first time in the high chair. Stokke Tripp Trapp = worth every penny. 

She loves being at the dinner table with all of us.

This is a very poor action shot, but it was supposed to show them both using spoons. Clara is eating avocado, which was also Bethany's favorite at this age. Now, she won't touch it.

Happy Easter!

We started the morning off with breakfast, and a sleeping baby sister!  Finally, it was time for Easter baskets.  This is Bethany.  {Note: She has had the doll for a while - the surprise was the new doll onesie and a carrier for the doll.  Now she can carry her doll just like Mommy and Daddy carry Clara!}

Happy girl with her new carrier.

Clara's basket was looking a little sparse, so the Easter Bunny added an old-as-mommy doll that Clara hasn't really played with yet.  Ahem.

Happy Clara on her very first Easter!

We hunted eggs at home before heading to church.  The bunny was a very good hider, which caused some confusion, but eventually we figured out the process.

Daddy and Clara at church.  The girls were a big hit.  We have recently started attending a new church, so it was nice to meet some new folks during the egg hunt.  There was also hat making (look at that bonnet!), and bunnies and chicks were there, too.  Bethany is in a super shy stage, so that was challenging.  She clung to us like a lemur, but did at least hunt some eggs.

Bethany is now all set for the next royal wedding.

Family picture in front of the flower cross.  This is a neat tradition, I think.  The sweet man who took our picture is apparently not a fan of the zoom feature.

Clara tried out the bonnet.  

After a lovely service, we came home and tried to take some sister pictures.

Some are better than others.  Don't the dresses look cute?

Clara is working hard on sitting up.  She might get there before her six month birthday this week, but I doubt it...

One funny Bethany thing at the moment:  at St. Patrick's Day, we talked about how St. Patrick used the shamrock to teach people about the Trinity.  So, she knows the words "Holy Spirit."  However, she's still a little unclear on the meaning, obviously, since any time she sees a hole in ANYTHING she calls it the "holy spirit."  Not quite ready for seminary....

Caroline!

Aunt Caroline took some time off from the crazed world of attorney-ing to visit!  We we so excited to see her.  She stayed at our neighborhood B&B, and we had an amazing time.

She will slay me for posting this picture, but I love it.

Our time together was too short, but we still packed in a great deal of fun.  There was shopping, turkey chasing (no, that's not a euphemism), wine consumption, crazed emailing, ice cream consumption, lots of talking and laughing, and gluten-free buns (also, not a euphemism).

There are really good law firms in Atlanta.  Maybe she should move here?

xoxo

Our Wedding Adventure!

In late February, we traveled to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, for my cousin Laura's wedding! This was a big day for Laura & her new husband Chris, but also for our family, since it was the first time we've all been in the same place since my cousin Jenny was married seven years ago!  

So, naturally, we wanted to go to the beach.  It's Florida, right?  Unfortunately, it was only about 60 degrees, with a very brisk wind, so it felt even colder. The girls were underwhelmed.

Bethany wouldn't even put her feet in the sand.

Clara's first trip to the beach.  Massive failure.  We ended up taking the girls back to the car after maybe six minutes.  Some of the Oregon crowd stuck it out a bit longer, since they're used to cold beaches.

I stole this picture from my cousin Beth.  Notice that my cousin Meridith is in a parka.  She was the smart one.

Suddenly, it was wedding time!  Lindsey and I deserve a medal for managing to get everyone there on time when we ended up in a serious time crunch.  Thank goodness for way too many years of ballet, because I ended up using the three bobby pins I could find in my makeup bag to put my wet hair up in about 87 seconds.  It didn't look great, but it was at least presentable.

Bethany made it down the aisle in her first wedding.  She and I have now been in the same number of weddings.  Kudos to my cousin Amy for luring her down the aisle with some carefully concealed M&Ms.  She wore her flowers on her wrist like a champ, and actually stood at the front for a little while.  Then, she sat with Mommy and looked through the missal before falling soundly asleep.  

Laura, Chris, and Uncle Bob.

The beautiful bride!

Flower girls.

This was a serious responsibility.

Laura's whole family.  We're on the far left at the top.

Nana and Clara waiting on the pictures to finish.

The wedding party.  Where's Bethany?  Oh, that's right.  She's the one passed out on cousin Stephanie's shoulder.

Stephanie, woman of steel, held Bethany's dead weight FOREVER during the pictures after the ceremony.

The happy couple.  So sweet. xoxo

Uncle Andrew and Jenn!  (She gets credit for most of these photos - awesome job!)

Then, we went to an amazing reception.  By this point, things were chilly, so keeping Bethany happy during the resulting pictures was tricky.  Also, Clara had had enough.  We enjoyed the great food (including chocolate chip cookies and ice cream in baby skillets) and fantastic band, but had to bow out pretty early.  The dancing went on and on, we hear.  For actual reception pictures, visit my cousin Beth's post about their trip.

The day after the wedding, my Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary Beth hosted a brunch at their house, so we stopped by to say goodbye before hitting the road back home.

Uncle Andrew and Jenn.

Jenny & Mike.

Clara and Steph.

The odds board, created by my dad, on future family weddings.  Obviously, these needed updating.  If you look closely, you can see these have been in progress since 2004.

We're thinking it might be less than seven years before the next wedding...

Our trip was great, but way too short.  I wanted lots more time to talk to everyone, and as I did this post, I realized that we missed a number of photo ops, like Clara meeting her Great-Grandmother, who will be 90 in August!  Just means we have to get together again soon.  :)

Christmas 2011

Clara's first Christmas was lovely.  

Bethany and Clara enjoyed themselves and the season.  You can see the side of our new, tiny, pathetic tree.  The big, fancy tree had a disaster in the attic, so now we have a tiny replacement Target tree that looks like an isosceles triangle.  

On Christmas Eve, Granny came to visit.  Bethany demonstrated how mama yaks carry their babies, as we learned in Music Class. It was hysterical.

Bethany and Clara enjoyed their new gifts!

Bethany enjoyed showing things to Clara.  Ignore Lindsey's nasty sock.

At Christmastime, we were still in the process of finding a new church, so we were a bit at loose ends.  We did go to church with some friends, which was nice.  Since this was the mildest winter I can remember, the girls' snowflake dresses were more than a little out of place.  (Bethany's cheeks are pink because she was hot.)

Clara was underwhelmed by the photo session.

We worked hard on celebrating Advent this year, with some neat activities and an advent calendar.  Bethany did an excellent job of reminding Mommy to do the calendar every day.

On Christmas morning, Santa brought Bethany (and Daddy) a small train set.  She and Daddy have had LOTS of fun with it.

Clara's stocking (thanks, Granny!).

Bethany's stocking.  (What, you didn't get IKEA funnels in your stocking?)

Clara helped open a gift or two!

Later, we went to Macon to celebrate with Grandpa B., Nana, and Uncle Andrew.  Here is rousing game of Shake, Shake, Shake Your Baby.

Grandpa and Bethany enjoyed playing with her new dump truck.  

Bethany helped Nana open her gifts.

And Bethany turned Clara into a present.

A little belated Christmas cheer for everyone.  :)