never too late to be thankful.

our Thanksgiving weekend was awesome! it was filled with lots of family, friends, some black friday shopping, YUMMY food, relaxing, and even more food!
we have sooo much to be thankful for this holiday season...

(in no particular order)

1- our house. yes the BIGGEST headache ever...but it feels so amazing to say this little piece of work is ours :)

2- c. our beautiful, healthy, entertaining, creative, smart...(I could keep going) baby girl!! she is the best. she makes us laugh all the time and is learning new things everyday. we can't wait to experience Christmas this year with her...one of the most hilarious things dan said about her the other night (as she was shaking her groove thing) was "I'm so glad we don't have one of those 'boring' kids" haha

3-(since I'm writing this) d. the BEST, most supportive, FUN-loving husband I could ever ask for. seriously why does he put up with us 2 girls...we can give him a run for his money sometimes!! I LOVE YOU D!

3a-(abbie doesn't know I am adding this one. *shhhh) Abbie. she puts up with me. my dumb comments, my annoying habits, and so much more stuff. she is an amazing mother to clare, keeps us in line, and somehow manages to make everything that much better because she is part of it. I love YOU ab!

4- family and friends. we couldn't do life without you guys!

5- playhouse disney. b/c sometimes a mommy just needs a break.

6- free-lance work. d's passion has always been "geeky," (I say that with the utmost respect) comeputer, web stuff...and as of recently he has run into quite a few clients!! for fathers day this last year c and I got dan 'danstever.com' ...haha and he has recently started a blog that will be connected with that. http://theblog.danstever.com/ I can't tell you how often people ask d for his opinion on techy stuff...so yea check it out.

7- weeds/glee/top chef. probably the only 3 shows d and I can agree on and LOVE!!

8- coupons. I love getting a deal. and we refuse to pay full price for anything. coupons are one of the main reasons I get to stay home everyday with c!!

I'm sure there are many more...but for now that should do it!

Happy Holidays!

our skinny-mini...

I never thought I would say those words!

I can't believe clare is 15 months old...I know I say that every time the 17th roles around. however I will say she has been showing signs of a teenager-she can throw a fit with the best of them and the word "no" is one of her very favorites! yes-we have our hands full :)

yesterday morning we went for her 15 month well baby check.
I'm always excited to see how much she has grown.
I knew she was going to be getting a lot of shots but they never seem to bother her as much as when they have to check her ears?! who knows
she is 30 1/2 inches tall (50th%)
and she weighs 20 lbs (10th%)
...the doctor is a little concerned about her weight b/c she is so tall.
c is just going to be a tall-skinny volleyball/basketball player :)
she eats all the time so we aren't too concerned!
we also found out she is cutting 2 more teeth and a molar...thanks to the dr. for checking out her mouth.

15 months old.

not the greatest pic...but she LOVES her winter coat.
she wants to wear it around the house all day.
how cute is she!!

LOVE HER!!

the weekend that was...

we have never been THAT into halloween but for some reason this year (I think it had a lot to do with mommy and daddy getting LOTS of candy) we jumped on the band wagon. on sat. we borrowed my parents wagon...loaded up 2 of the cutest girls I know and headed off to collect some treats.

a kangaroo and a peacock.

trick or treat.

she had the easiest job of the night.

our family.

this is from trunk or treat at our church...
it wasn't as chilly that night.
clare enjoyed her first bubblegum sucker!


then later sat. night d and I decided to dress up like burrito people to get a free burrito from chipotle. it was a yummy success.

burrito man!

here's to 31 MORE.

happy anniversary grandma and grandpa!!
we love you guys.

BOO(k).

I have mentioned this multiple times before but clare would give up just about anything in her life for books...any toy-any food. she LOVES books. so we have been meaning to take her to the library forever but life has just gotta crazy...so this week we finally made it!! and let me tell you-it was awesome! it was like me walking into a store of just sharpies...clare was in 'awwwww.' she just starred for like 10 minutes till she realized she could pull them down and look at whatever she wanted.

we will def. make it a more regular occurrence.
she was in heaven...and we even found a handy manny board book and of course a mickey mouse clubhouse movie :)

in other news...we are having family pics this weekend by my amazingly talented friend Emily. so christie and the fam are coming for the w/e.
I was stumbling through websites a while back and found these-

and knew I MUST try my hand at them. knowing that isaac (who loves bats and halloween stuff) was coming made it even more perfect.

pre-frosting.

I recruited some helpers.
man did we get that kitchen messy!!

the final product.
they took forever.
the ghosts are my favorite!!

have an awesome weekend*

gust brothers with a bow.

a couple weekends ago, on a gorgeous sat. afternoon we headed to "Gust Brothers," a local little farm and pumpkin patch. we found it last fall and have decided its a def. keeper!!

notice the cute accessory she allowed us to put in her hair!!

the piglets.

what is wrong with the mama pigs ear??

picking her pumpkin.

we also went home for a visit with Grandma Jill last week and baby Isabella came over.
she is Clare's 2nd cousin and 5 weeks old.
we discovered they both had pumpkin hats and had to capture the moment!!
of course neither of them wanted to participate...

cue the ER theme song.

clare woke up at 445 am Thursday morning with a high fever and from then on it was up and down. on Sat. afternoon when she got up from her nap, her fever was back and she was visibly uncomfortable with her head/throat/ears. of course it was 130 and our dr. office had closed at noon...so it was off to our first official ER trip as parents. as always-clare seemed to perk up as soon as we got there. and her tylenol had kicked in so no fever. grrrrr we finally got into our "own" room, where the REAL waiting began.

we were at Toledo Hospital...and they have there own kids ER.
as soon as we got in there...they brought clare a popcicle and turned on the cartoons!

she wanted nothing to do with her popcicle...but she did enjoy some goldfish.
doesn't she look so tiny!!

still waiting...she cleaned out the diaper bag and found an older pacie and some medicine dispenser?!
she got her ears and throat checked TWICE and then had to get a cathadar.
but she showed them...and pee'ed all over both nurses and daddy!!
that incident def. made all of us laugh a little bit after a stressful couple minutes.
all in all they sent us home after 4 hours-telling us it was viral and there is nothing we could do except push fluids and give her tylenol and motrin.
at least we got the piece of mind knowing that it was nothing too serious!

a happier pic from when she was at yaya and papa's.