Pictures in Roswell

Last weekend we took Claire to the grounds of a historic home in Roswell to take some pictures.  She is at an active stage, and it's hard to catch her, but here are some of our favorites!

Five Year Anniversary

Today is our five year anniversary.  Matt planned a wonderful night out for us last night, and our friends Jonathan and Amy watched Claire for us.  Matt used the traditional five year anniversary theme of wood, and we had dinner at the Woodfire Grill.  It's a restaurant that specializes in a seasonal menu.  They printed special menus for us that said "Happy Anniversary, Amanda and Matthew!"  We enjoyed a fancy four course meal that included several interesting flavors.  We dined on peekytoe crab salad, garlic soup, pumpkin risotto, berkshire pork terrine, duck breast, beef striploin, and more.  It was absolutely delicious!

After dinner, we went to see the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at the Woodruff Arts Center.  It was a wonderful performance featuring works of Wagner and Beethoven. 

We are celebrating five wonderful years with many more to come!

We were so young...  ;) 

Running

Claire seems to enjoy running around outside.  The other day, she took me on several laps around the house.  Here is a video of her running excitedly and then stopping to explore a bit.

A Few Funnies

When Claire works on her puzzles, she intentionally moves the pieces over the wrong spots and says "no..."

Claire will proudly say "Neigh!" as she points to the tiny Polo logo on Matt's shirt.

I returned a pair of shoes that I bought for her but decided I didn't like.  When the lady at the cash register took them out of the box, Claire said "shoes" over and over and started crying when I didn't get them for her.  She didn't mind the outfits I was also returning...she just wanted her shoes!

Name brands and shoes?  We just might have to start saving for her teenage years now!  

32 Weeks

Baby Boy is now only a few short weeks from making his debut!  He's just shy of four pounds and almost seventeen inches long.

Claire has learned to climb into the chairs at our kitchen table.  Here are a few pictures of her after church this afternoon.

This is her current face for when I ask her to frown

And this is the current face for when she doesn't want to take any more pictures! 

At the Playground

We are so thankful for the cooler weather we've had lately!  Here are some pictures from a family trip to the playground.  Thankfully I don't have to pay per picture because I have a hard time narrowing them down sometimes!

Toddler Talk

I've been catching myself using Claire-speak even when the little cutie isn't around; mostly to Amanda and not at work... at least not yet. While Claire's vocabulary expands, mine has equally grown to include new synonyms such as tewey, mic, gook, hicha, uck, and peez. Also, "I know" and "I do" have now become superior responses to "I love you".

What's even harder is to avoid repeating Claire's interpretation of the word back to her. Of course we want to ask "what color is your gook?" because, let's face it, it's way more fun to have a new word for something as mundane as a fork. The problem is the following: to this very day I can't remember what the word is for a satin lining around a blanket. Wait...it's "binding"...I just looked it up on google (for those who otherwise know, this simple thing has been a "gaygee" for my entire life).

Now I'm not under any silly impression that we're going to have a 16 year old Claire who wants to stay up late watching the "Tewey". But I'm confident that there's going to be one word that sticks, and we're all going to use it, and it'll be funny... until one day I'm still going to end up being the one who forgets what the real word is.

Seventeen Months

Of the three of us, Claire has been the quickest to bounce back from this cold.  We've had a week of staying home and trying to rest.  We are looking forward to feeling better and getting back into our normal routine. Claire had some special treatment while sick.  She got some new toys--a set of Duplo Legos (she can't put them together yet, but enjoys taking them apart) and Play-Doh.  She was also allowed to watch some TV.  She is surprisingly uninterested in cartoons or Sesame Street but loves to watch her Cedarmont Kids DVDs that have kids singing different children's and Bible songs.  Claire now points to the TV and says "tewey tewey tewey" when she wants to watch it.

A new favorite song for Claire is "The Wheels on the Bus."  She can do motions for several different verses and begins to request the next one before we are finished singing the current one!  Claire's favorite books right now are a set of nine small books that include "My Colors," "My House," and "My Sounds."  Favorite foods include cheese, bread, graham crackers, fruit, peas, corn, and chicken nuggets.

Claire is enjoying coloring more these days.  The most fun part is still taking the crayons in and out of the box and naming the colors.  I'm attending a new Bible study this year and Claire has her own little class to attend where she gets to hear Bible stories.  Each week she gets a coloring sheet to bring home so we can further discuss the story she heard.  We then hang the sheet on the refrigerator with a sheep-shaped magnet that has her memory verses for the year.  It's a little ambitious, but I have a feeling she understands more than we realize!

Wearing her Clemson shirt for the first game

She's not too sure what to think about the Play-Doh.  She does know one thing--it looks like something she should try eating!

Watching "tewey"

She discovered the one light switch in the house that she can reach on her own

Sick days mean some extra snuggle time with Daddy

Concentrating on her puzzle

So happy to be feeling better!

Jump! Jump!

Here is a video of some of Claire's latest dance moves.  We love how she thinks she's jumping!

The sick Huysers

It started last week Saturday with Mommy's stuffy nose. Then Claire got the sniffles. Then Daddy went away on a work emergency and spent the second night coughing 'til morning. This weekend we're just one pathetically sick little family... I even think Brooks has an upset tummy.

I thought about how funny a family portrait of this would be: the three of us in our PJ's, cuddling on the couch, wrapped up in blankets, and both the table and floor covered in wadded-up tissues.