This week Claire decided it was time to jump out of the crib and after doing it once she seemed to want to do it again so I had to take off the railing and turn it into a bed.  Luckily we bought the Jaxx Foam Bean Bag chair for her room a couple of weeks ago so we just lay that down next to her bed at night.  She has rolled onto the Jaxx multiple times already so without it she would have fallen out of bed onto the floor.


Claire's personality can be summed up like this: she is sweet like Jen most of the time but has her moments when she is fiesty and she doesn't shy away from taking risks.  We wouldn't have it any other way.  This weekend Jen went into her room to remind her that it was nap time and she answered by hanging onto the corner of her crib with her feet in the air and made a monkey sound while smiling.  I wish I would have been there for that.

On Sunday we went to watch the light show at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  Jen got nervous while driving on the banked part of the track.  You wouldn't know if from watching on TV but it is a decent grade.

Claire had her first overnight babysitter on Friday night and she did great.  We celebrated Clarke's birthday by going to dinner and then going out dancing downtown.  We thought it would be a good opportunity to spend the evening in a hotel downtown so we could sleep in.


Claire is getting excited for Santa to come.  We have a house down the street from us that has 55 santas lit up in his yard.  Claire asks for Santa every day when we get in the car so we always stop by to see it.  She's been communicating very well with us as of late and is quite the little helper.  She now feeds Budinski each day and helps to clean up after Parker is done with his water.  She also helps play fetch with him. 


We have been going around viewing the different Christmas lights in the area because Claire finds them fascinating.  On Sunday we made our way over to McAdenville and walked through the exhibit.

Yet again I didn't go a good job of taking photos and don't remember much else from this week.

Claire's fascination with chocolate began on December 1st when we pulled out the advent calendar.  From then on, every morning she would wake up and say "Chocolate" and sometimes she would say "Chocolate, Mouth" and point to her mouth.  We then had to remind her that we only have the chocolate before reading books at bed time.

We tried on the snow suit that Melissa gave us in preparation for our trip back to the Midwest in late December.  Surprisingly, it still fit Claire.  She was sweating bullets when we took it off.

I haven't done a great job of taking photos lately.  I've also fallen a few weeks behind on the blog and have forgotten what we did during this week.  I've started playing quite a bit of basketball lately and have really been enjoying that.  The addition of Parker has been great but it is also quite a bit of work in the early stages.  He's a great dog though.

On Thanksgiving we visited three of our different friends' houses.  We first stopped off at Norm & Shirley's place and then went to Brooke & Anne's place and ended off the night with Steve & Amanda.  It was great to see everyone and enjoy some great food together.  Claire got to play with various dogs and kids so she had a great day as well.


Claire's hair is starting to get pretty long.


Supporting Marquette basketball wearing her MU t-shirt.


Playing kickball in the front yard.


We went to Monkey Joe's on Sunday afternoon.  Every time we drive near the Park Road Shopping Center she says "Monkey Joe's".  That blur on the slide is us.


Claire is quite the helper.  When Parker is done eating and she sees water in his crate she asks for a paper towel and cleans it up.


We got our tree on Sunday and Claire was telling me where to hang all of the ornaments.  She loves looking at the lights.

Claire is a funny little girl.  We do a lot of laughing together.  She loves reading and learning new words as well as playing.....hard.  She is not afraid of getting in the mix with the other kids and often gravitates towards older kids to play with.  She loves all of her classmates and really enjoys going to school to see them every day.


Thanksgiving family photo at Freedom Park.  I staged the camera and put it on the 10 second timer which gave Parker and me just enough time to get into position.  Missing in the photo is Budinski.


Claire had a bit of a meltdown and decided to flop on the floor.  She is the sweetest little girl most of the time but every so often when she is hungry or tired she'll let us know about it.  I think it's good to have a little fiest in you but we try to avoid it as much as possible.


I've been doing a lot of studying on dog training and we're making good progress.  We first worked on pack structure and have also started working on marker training to teach him the different commands in a fun manner.  We'll slowly add distractions when the time comes.  As of right now he will consistently do SIT, DOWN, TOUCH (follow the hand), STAY, and will go to his bed on the PLACE command when there aren't any distractions.  I'm slowly adding distractions and he's doing pretty good.  He's very food driven which makes the training easier since he stays engaged with me during our training sessions.  He's also building his endurance while running and his longest run so far is 4 miles.  I think he prefers the 1.25 mile run at 5:30 pace over the slower 4 mile run though.

Every time we go to the farmer's market Claire gets a free apple.  It's funny to watch her eat such a big apple.


It was pajama day at school.


My life has gotten a little more hectic since we've added Parker to our family.  My morning now starts at 5:30am to take him out to the bathroom.  Then we do some marker training.  Then we go for a run to tire him out for the day.  I then feed him and go get ready for work before Claire wakes up.  Once Claire wakes up I get her ready for school and try to eat breakfast at the same time.  A bit hectic but I'm starting to get used to it.  We couldn't have asked for a better dog though.


Until we've got our house rules and pack structure in order Parker will stay on leash while in the house and he sleeps in his crate.  He doesn't seem to mind his crate at all.  Once he knows all the rules and is following them he'll get more freedom in the house.  He's pretty darn good so I don't think it will take too long but don't want to rush it.


Budinski has been hissing at Parker quite a bit but Parker doesn't seem to be a threat for him.  After 13 years I don't think he likes having another man in the house.

Claire's favorite meal is avacado, black beans, shredded cheese, and tomatoes.  She also loves eating with her frog bib (food catcher) on.  When it's time to eat she says "froggy".


We went trick or treating with the Hudziks on Monday.  Eli was a teenage mutant ninja turtle and Avery was a dog.  Their new house that they custom built is simply amazing.


Claire continued to share her treats with her friends.


On Sunday Claire went to a birthday party at My Gym put on by three of her classmates (Abby, Max, and Simon) who all have birthdays around the same time.  It was a good chance for us to get to know the other parents better.


Claire had a lot of fun getting buried in the tank of balls.


Claire doesn't mind a bit of rough housing.  She may be small but she can hold her own with the big dogs.


Speaking of dogs.....we got a dog on Sunday!  He's nearly one year old and his name is Parker.  We got him at a rescue shelter and he is just great.  He's a black lab and beagle mix and is almost fully grown at 30 lbs.  I've been studying up on dog training and he's a very fast learner.

The only other thing to note is that Brad (our friend living next door for a month) made some killer ribs on Saturday night.  We had some dinner, had a couple gimlets, and watched the LSU vs. Alabama game (which was everything it was hyped up to be).  Aside from that, I've been playing basketball nearly every day and am digging it.  I play full court at the Dowd on Tue/Thu and half court at uptown on Mon/Wed/Fri at lunch time.  The shot comes back quickly but ball handling takes some time.

On Thursday Claire's school had a "Trunk or Treat" event in their parking lot and all the kids got to dress up and trick or treat in a safe manner.  Jen volunteered to use our trunk and supply some treats.  I walked Claire around while Jen played "witch" and handed out treats to the kids.  Claire was a fairy and she played the role well.


Claire had her first sucker on Thursday and enjoyed it immensely.


Here is Claire and her friend Caden looting the candy jar.  She likes all of her nine other classmates and really loves going to school and learning such a wide variety of things.  Nearly every day I ask her teachers how her day went and the answer is almost always "she had a great day".  Then I ask her when we get in the car if she had a good day and she says "yes".  Then I ask who she played with and she lists off one or two of her friends but not typically the same ones each day.


Claire gave most of her candy to her friends.  Caden was dressed up as a postal worker.


Another nice shot of Claire as a fairy for Halloween.


Claire didn't seem to recognize Jen with her witch hat on.  I thought the witch looked pretty good.


Brooke, Anne, and their dog Kadie came over for dinner on Saturday night.  We also had Norm & Shirley over on Sunday for an early dinner.


The hammock is hung and is getting used frequently.  Now that the fence project is over it's time to take a short break and relax for a little while.

We spent the first part of this week at the beach and headed home on Wednesday.  Here's Claire with her beach hat on.


Claire had her bucket in hand and was determined to fill it up with shells.


There wasn't a lot of competition out there for finding the good ones.


Claire and I were playing hide and seek and she looked for me in the cabinet.  She was pretty good at finding me and got a kick out of it every time she did.  She didn't quite grasp the hiding part so we typically had me hide and she would try to find me.


Running to find me.


One last time chasing the birds before we head home.


Finally got some decent waves to play in before heading home.  One of them put me in a pretty good spin cycle.


We were back in Charlotte and headed to Mellow Mushroom on Friday for dinner. 

Our friend Brad is closing on his house in November and is in between places for a month so he's living next door for the time being.  It's nice to have friends around.  We watched the Clemson game on the projection TV on Saturday and came up with a landscaping game plan on Sunday.  On Saturday night we had dinner and watched the Alabama game at Clarke and Katie's place.  I've been sick since Thursday so the margaritas mainly made me tired but they were still very tasty.  Claire got another chance to chase Bailey around and that was exciting for her as usual.

We headed to the beach on Friday for a six day retreat.  We met up with Eric, Laurie, Piper, and Laurie's dad Jim.  Claire and Piper had a great time together as usual.  We picked up this bike at a flea market off of Hwy 74 on the way down for $8.  I modified the pedals with dish sponges and duct tape to give Claire a better reach.  She hasn't gotten the pedaling thing down quite yet though.


We went to the oyster festival on Sunday and Claire got to ride a pony.  She was excited to ride the pony but when the time came to get on I thought she was going to bail.  We moved her to another pony and she did great and seemed to enjoy it.


Checking out the ducks, turtles and birds from the balcony.  At one point there were 15 turtles down there.


Family photo on the beach.  The lighting is a little off but we tried.


Jen ran a 10K on Sunday morning and took 3rd (and won $50).  Her goal was just to post a time for entry into a half marathon in February.


Claire did a great job of cheering for Jen but wasn't feeling well.  She was sick during the whole vacation but was still in pretty good spirits.  Sunday morning she was limping and didn't want to put pressure on her right leg.  We were very concerned because of her previous bone infection that they told us to watch but after her nap she woke up walking around just fine.  Maybe she stepped on a spur since I found some on my socks.


Any time Claire wants to ride on my shoulders she says "hat".  It's because it's like I'm wearing her as a hat.  She loves getting on my shoulders and chasing birds on the beach.  She also really enjoyed picking up shells.  She wasn't a huge fan of the water or the sand for that matter.


Now that's what I call a corn dog!  I felt a bit disgusting after eating it and helped to seal my decision to start living healthier when I got back from the beach.


I finished the fence last week and didn't post photos.  Here's the final product.  I'm pretty happy how it turned out.  My projects for the winter will be putting a circle drive and landscaping the front yard along with building an outdoor fireplace and landscaping the back yard.