A Vision in Violet--16 Months

 For Christmas, my Aunt Janet and Uncle Tom gave Clara the cuuuutest little purple outfit.   Thought I'd post a few pictures so they can see her as a 'vision in violet'.  :)

 This little peanut is 16 months already!  And finally starting to say words here in there; 'hat', 'hot', 'cup', and 'more' are a few.  When Mark gets home at the end of the day she's simply the sweetest, whispering 'dadadada'.

 Clara loves being outside and giggles when it's windy.  She loves hearing dogs bark, too!  It gets her sooo excited!

I've caught both of my kiddos doing this--sticking their tongue out when they're working hard at something.  It's pretty cute!  Clara felt pretty cool charging down the sidewalk on her own!

Boredom Busters & "Cabin Fever"

 This entire past week we were around home....a lot.  More than we had been for months.  In some ways it was nice.  In others, it was tough.  Clara really did have a fever and cold most of the week, so although the weather cleared up and warmed a little, we were still a little confined to the house until Thursday.  So we got crafty.

 I'd seen this idea online and thought we'd give it a try....especially since we have an abundance of toilet paper tubes headed to the recycling bin each week.  Make 'stamps' out of tubes and stamp away!  James thought it was pretty cool!

 Don't get too impressed yet...Clara shoved the brush in her mouth immediately after I snapped the picture.  And I was the one who made most of the red smudges on her paper.

 Then we broke out the pipe cleaners (also found the idea online) and a colander. James made quite the creation in the end.

 Later I cut pipe cleaners in thirds and gave Clara an empty spice jar (with the shaker topper on still).  She loved poking them into the holes on top.  I was surprised she had the fine motor skills for that!

 When all else fails, we head downstairs and build a "fort".  This cheeseball was pretending to be asleep.

 Throwing this one in for fun...Clara wearing James' Spiderman sunglasses.  She thought she was SUPER cool and was just marching around with her legs spread apart.

Valentine's Morning

 Pancakes (referred to by James as "Pancanks") with sprinkles are becoming a Valentine's morning tradition around here....

 And he wouldn't have it any other way.  James wolfed down three of them before we knew what happened.  They have whole wheat in them...so that's a good thing, right?

 Clara has NOT been feeling well this week, suffering from a runny nose and other cold symptoms.  Poor little Clara!

 James picked out a candle for me for V-day.  So sweet!  Mark also got me chocolate and a few new cds--love them!

Keepin' it real....no time for makeup (or a shower) before our 7am breakfast!

Valentine

Kicking off 'blogging in 2012' with Valentine pictures.  It's been months since I've updated here but really want to do a better job.  Rather than attempting to catch up on everything since October, we'll just pick up here in February

I actually took these pics a few weeks ago.  The day before had been so nice and warm at this park, I thought we'd give it another go, all dolled up, the following day.  Well about two seconds in, I realized it was wayyyy too cold and windy to be putting my babies through this.  So I snapped a few and called it good.

A Valentine's Day!