Playdate

Back on December 6th my friend Lisa and her daughter Gabriella watched Claire for the day. Gabriella is the perfect friend for Claire, she is full of energy and is always up to something so Claire has plenty to watch and be entertained by. As you can see from the pictures they read books, dressed up and had a tea party.

Blessings

I took a sick day today because I went home from work yesterday with a splitting head ache and throwing up. As I was slowly driving home I had the realization that I wouldn't be able to pick Claire up from daycare. I had to stop several times to throw up. Plus with my head ache her adorable laughs not to mention crying would not set well with my head that felt like it was going to explode. Lucky for me and Claire Jon's dad was able to pick her up and take her home with him until Jon could come and get her. What a blessing that I knew she was taken care of and I could just be sick.

I feel much better now and plan to go to work tomorrow. Hopefully Claire does not get this as it is the sickest I have been in a long time. It's times like this that it is wonderful to have Jon's parents next door-we're really lucky.

Isn't she cute?!

For being so cute, Claire sure doesn't photograph very well yet.

Baptism

Today Claire was baptized. When we picked the date we didn't think of the time change and the effect it would have on Claire's schedule. She didn't agree that the time changed so at 8:30 she was demanding her 9:30 feeding. Of course this was right during the baptism portion of mass.

Grandpa & Grandma Moeller, Jon, Michele and Claire and Grandma & Grandpa Hand

With Godparents Aunt Kristy and Uncle Anthony
(Dad's sister and Mom's Brother)

All of the kids. Its amazing we were able to get this good of a shot.
Claire (2months), Ethan (5 months), Jacob (3 1/2 yrs.), Brooklyn (15 months), Lilly (5months)

Halloween

Claire was a teddy bear for Halloween. She looked very cute, but was not a fan of being dressed up.

Happenings

Claire likes her bumbo!

Jon at the baptism of his godson Ethan.

One of my former students stopped by to see Claire. Addie also brought Claire this giant dog!

Naya's Birth

Welcome Naya!!! Claire can't wait to play with you!

Pictures

Sleep

We knew sleep would become precious....but last night our little one let us sleep from 10:30ish to 4am. This is the longest we have gone at night without her needing to be fed or cuddled. Hopefully this will become the nightly norm.

Papparazzi

We wanted to put up a more recent photo of Claire, but we didn't really have any, so we tried to take some. I have to say that she just isn't very photogenic right now. She has some really neat expressions, but they are so far elusive from the camera. But, we'll keep trying. Dad's warm belly is an amazing cause for a nap. Her neck is incredibly strong, and she holds her head up to look around quite a bit. Her stamina is growing.

Baby Pictures

As any of you with children know, there are many important things to do in your first child's first week after birth. We figured that it was important to take pictures, but we have been a little slow at sharing. Here are some from the hospital:

Claire, soon after she was born

Claire with her cousin Brooke and Aunt Kristy (Dad's sister)

Claire with her cousin Lily and Uncle Anthony (Mom's brother)

Claire with her Aunt Laura (Dad's other sister)

Claire in one of her favorite spots to be

And finally a better closeup.

She's here!!!!!!!!!!

Claire Ana Hand was born
Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 12:29 AM
7 lb, 13.5 oz
21" long
with a full head of dark hair at least 1" long.

Pictures coming soon....

Outside Views

Finally, some photos of the mostly finished house. We still need to extend a few retaining walls and put in some flower gardens, but hey, how much fun is a completed project anyway? These photos are: view from our driveway at the road, walking towards the main door we use, and the back side.

We hope to have photos to share of a very important person soon, but she hasn't arrived yet to be photographed.

35 weeks....and counting

This morning we had a doctor's appointment. As usual the baby's heartbeat was all over the place. It seems like every time they check for her heartbeat she starts to kick and move around much more than normal. For the first time today my blood pressure was up. I think it was because they actually called be back at my scheduled time and it was the one time Jon was late! They checked again before I left the office and it was back to normal. We will now be starting weekly appointments.

Before I left Ames I stopped by school to see if my student tables and chairs have arrived. They haven't...maybe the janitor is right and the kids will be doing their work picnic style for the first few days of school (the kids come on the 19th and I start workdays on the 16th). The bright side of stopping in was my laminating was done so I was able to grab it to cut out at home.

After school I headed over to the Teske's. Jon had picked them some sweet corn last night. It's funny to see three kids get so excited about corn! When I was there the baby started kicking so I had Gabriella come and feel it. It was fun to see her 2 year old amazement at what she was experiencing, I think that is when she really understood that there was a baby in there. While I was there Lisa also gave me two tubs of clothes for Baby Girl Hand to be and a tub of toys. We also talked about getting the crib and car seat (a job for our husbands). It is wonderful to have such amazing friends!

Behind....

For some reason we thought we'd get a lot done this summer. But as I realized yesterday I have less than a month left before I go back to school officially. Plus baby's arrival is quickly coming! So here's a quick look at our summer, what we wanted to do, what we actually did and maybe some things we'll still get to...

*Build a retaining wall around the garage. Jon has most of this complete just some more backfilling.
*Build retaining wall extensions and flower bed by the house (the hope is this will happen before winter...)
*Landscape around the house-East and 1/2 of north side are done! Thanks Aron and Myra for letting us recycle your plants! Keeping this weeded has been an ongoing project all summer.
*Trying not to kill our trees...this spring we planted 14 evergreens, 2 oaks and 6 fruit trees. So far 4 of the evergreens look like they won't make it-Jon is convinced the mole in our yard has something to do with at least on of these. The deer have discovered the two oak trees and we've discovered that deer like young oak trees.
*We had planned to take a vacation-just a long weekend. Somewhere a long the way we've run out of time. We discovered on the last trip down to my parents (2 1/2 hours) that we had missed our window on a trip, the car ride was much to long for being pregnant.
*Jon is currently working on his parents' roof. It started as just replacing the cedar shingles and soffit on the south side. Then we had a bad storm and the garage roof needs to be done also-luckily they're going to use metal on that so it should go faster. Jon has been working evenings and weekends around everything else (already scheduled things, work and the weather) trying to get this done. He really needs more help and a pregnant lady can only do so much!
*We had hoped to pour a concrete pad in front of the garage and a sidewalk to the house but it's looking like that will get pushed to the fall or next year.
*Prepare for baby:
-As of right now we have most of the things for the baby that we'll need right away, thanks to baby showers and the wonderful Teske family! We still have to pick up the crib, arrange the room (which involved dealing with those last few boxes we didn't know what to do with), and buy those last few things.
*Get ready for school, I plan to go back for the first two weeks then start my maternity leave. Since I'm going back to first I have to unpack all my first grade stuff not just the normal classroom set up that I normally do late in summer. I'm also trying to be realistic and have my first two weeks planned so I can leave right at the end of the day or be ready for a sub in case baby comes early. I have a great long term sub for my students so I'm not worried about leaving my students with her-I just have the room and plans ready for her.
*We've started the search for day care for when I go back to work...
*We hope to have some down time to relax and just do some things fun things for us but as Jon as been saying lately "we don't know how to slow down"

Spring Break

Yes, it has been a while since we lasted posted. Life has been busy. As most know we are pregnant. 15 weeks along and hopefully the puking is behind us. We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to check on little Hand to be. Anyway.....back to my original topic.

I have had this past week off for Spring Break. It is wonderful to have time off. I have spent the week doing various things. On Monday I was lazy, it was great. Tuesday I took on the Teske trio so mom and dad could get some moving tasks done. It was a fun day but I was exhausted. The highlight of the day, well for Gabriella at least was going to see the cows. She loved it! After we got back she kept wanting to go back. We finally told her the cows were asleep and we couldn't wake them up. Yesterday and today I have been enjoying the sunshine. I spent some quality time in the yard aka dirt. I picked up many hand fulls of nails and construction debris. I also attempted to rake rocks back onto the driveway. It's not really obvious the amount of time I spent working but it was great to be out in the sunshine.

Home

We are slowly getting our stuff unpacked and making our house lived in. Sunday Jon finished putting the last of the window blinds up. It is wonderful having a home again. One of the things we are enjoying the most...sitting and doing nothing!