Clara's 1st Birthday

 

Who knew 1 year could pass so swiftly? Clara has been such a joy in our lives. Though Mackenzie can be rough with her, she loves and protects her unconditionally. She is usually the first to bring a smile to my face every morning when she wakes up and says in her sweet voice, "hi" and she has successfully wrapped Keith around her little finger.

I attempted this 3 year layer cake I saw on pinterest. When I saw it a few months ago, I knew it was the cake I wanted to make for Clara because it was so soft and pretty. Her Birthday was a Sunday so I couldn't run to the store for powdered sugar when I needed more frosting so I just tried to make do with what I had. It wasn't quite what I had pictured, but it was fun to make and I think Clara would have enjoyed anything.

 Here she is cheering for herself. She wasn't shy at all, just excited for the attention from her family and a couple of her friends.

 Here's the doll we got her. My mom also sent some cute outfits which I don't have pictures of, just video. She wasn't really into opening gifts, I'm sure she'll have more fun at Christmas.

 Right before bedtime, I told Keith I wanted a photo with Clara and Kenzie photobombed it. Their faces and Kenzie's bday suit cracked me up when I went back through the pictures.

A little about Clara at one year:

• She loves bananas- she eats one every morning. When I get her in her high chair I ask if she wants a banana and she'll chant "nana!" over and over. When I give it to her, she gives me the best smile.
• She can say nana, mama, dada, uh-oh, hi. 
• She loves to take baths
• She is really gentle with books. I often find her flipping through them slowly, never tearing them.
• She doesn't really like milk but otherwise isn't picky with her food. She quit nursing just a few days shy of her birthday. She pretty much self-weaned which was really nice for me as she was never a gentle nurser.
• She has 7 teeth with 3 more (molars) breaking through. 
• Kenzie is her favorite person in the world
• She loves her binky, especially to go to sleep
• She likes soft things and sleeps with her stuffed lamb and cuddles her blankets
• Starting to hate her carseat, if she wasn't so small I would probably forward face her
• She is about 19 lbs and 29 1/2 inches
• She likes to snuggle:)
• She gives smiles to just about everybody
• She loves to be outside and is quite the climber! She's so much more adventurous than Mackenzie. She's mastered the little playground outside and will even climb the stairs and send herself down the tunnel slide either on her bum or belly while I wait to catch her at the bottom.
• We love her!

August

 That Utah post just overwhelms me so we'll keep putting it off for a bit:) August was a really fun month. We continued to play outside and sometimes ventured up to the pool. Kenz still isn't a fan of the water and failed miserably at taking lessons. Clara loved the water but it usually tired us all out so much that I gave up going regularly. Kenzie's a great helper and loves to share yogurt with Clara.

 Keith put the girls in this little red wagon and took them around for rides.

 

 We celebrated Keith's 29th birthday on the 9th with a few close friends and mud pie:

We renewed our zoo pass in the spring and received free tickets to their dinosaur exhibit. It was really cool. Kenzie was scared and Clara didn't know what to think of it.

I surprised Keith with tickets to a Journey concert at the KY state fair for his bday. He was really excited. Loverboy opened and then Pat Benatar sang for an hour. We sat in the very back of the stadium but had a great view of the crazy drunks in front of us acting out every song. It really was a blast.

These two can play so cute together:

 Clara was eating anything and everything. She loves to kick back in her chair and take control of mealtime

 Keith was a little annoyed when I came home with this yard sale purchase since we had just cleared off our patio but I knew Kenzie would love this easel. She loves to paint:

 Just threw these in cuz she's so pretty:

 I don't take enough sleeping pics.

 In my bed in the morning because she just can't seem to sleep through the night more than a week in a row

 Little smartie. Clara was being quiet in her room and I found her like this "painting" her toenails. For the record, I've painted her nails once  and it was several months ago so it surprised me she knew what to do with the little play nailpolish.

Before Utah

It seems like the month between the end of the worst semester of dental school and our month long trip to Utah in June was a complete blur. I know we played some volleyball, went for lots of walks with friends, hit up the zoo a few times, and spent a lot of time out at the park. I have no pictures any of it so you'll have to take my word for it. What I can prove...

 These two started interacting with each other a lot. Kenzie has always smothered Clara but it started to be reciprocated a bit.

The days of them sharing a room without issues completely ended! Mackenzie loves to climb into bed with Clara and she's known to wake her up as much she can. They also can't fall asleep together as they just want to stay up until midnight playing.

 Kenzie did a little tumbling class with my friend Kassie. She absolutely loved it. I can't say that she was always attentive or showed great aptitude but she did better than I expected and let Miss Kassie help her with most of the elements.

Right before we left, Elder Bradford stopped by to say goodbye. Keith's been the ward mission leader for a little over a year and Elder Bradford served in our ward for about 9 months so we knew him pretty well. We've been lucky to have several good elders lately who have finally motivated (harassed) me to finish my mormon.org profile. Keith's was done months ago of course, I just had a hard time sitting down and doing it. I'm so glad I finally took the time to finish it. It's always good to ask yourself those basic questions of "Why am I a Mormon?" and "How do I live my faith?"

Being Belle

Our friends saw this dress at a yard sale and thought of us. A phone call, a little bartering and $1 made us proud owners of a dress that retails for more than anything in my closet. Kenzie couldn't have been more excited to receive such a beautiful dress. It's deals like this that keep me out on Saturday mornings and make me grateful for friends with boys:)

Sunday Morning

 Sunday mornings can be crazy. Keith has meetings starting at 9 and then comes back for us girls with little time to spare before we need to be there for 1 PM church. This Sunday, I managed to get everyone ready with time to spare so we snapped a few pictures. Clara was the most cooperative. I'm lucky to have married a handsome man who gave me such beautiful children.

Clara at 7 Months

 Clara is always up for cuddling after a bath 

Love her blue eyes

 How can I not be obsessed with this face? This girl is so unbelievably sweet. She's very calm and loves to be held. She's great at sitting up and has no interest whatsoever in crawling which makes my life so very easy.

Clara is very social. She will stare a person down with wide eyes and an open mouth until they acknowledge her. Upon acknowledgment, she'll reward you with a big smile. Crowds make her excited and outside is her favorite place to be 

She rarely cries and when she does it's usually because Mackenzie has knocked her over, hit her on the head, squeezed her too tight, ect. She also has 5 teeth with her 6th coming through any day and that tends to disrupt her sleep and make her sad.  

In the morning, she usually wakes up around 5 AM  to nurse. I bring her into bed for it and if we're lucky, we both fall back to sleep. Many times she won't or she'll wake up an hour later and she'll wake me up by stroking my face and cooing. It's the sweetest thing and I treasure those early morning hours the most.

I painted her toenails for the first time this past week. Kenzie took the reins and painted all of her nails by herself. She was pretty proud. Clara loves Kenzie more than anyone. She gets really excited to see her in the mornings and will play with her all day as long as she's playing nice. 

Clara loves to eat! She will eat anything but  food that is green. I'm not sure her physical stats, she seems on the longish side with plenty of squishy chub to squeeze. I do know that she has a sweet pure spirit that we enjoy having in our home. I'm so grateful to be her mom!