Claire's 18 Month Check-Up

Claire had her 18 month check-up today, even though she is almost 20 months! She knew exactly what was going to happen as soon as we walked into the room. She started saying "No!" and tried to get the door open. When the nurse came in she said "No, no, no." It was pretty funny. She didn't want the nurse to get her measurements or weigh her, but then she got a Dora sticker & that made her happy for a minute. When Dr. Gould came in the room she just clung to me. She would not let me pry her off! Dr. Gould said to just keep holding her until he was ready to check her. The nurse came back in to give her the immunizations. She started screaming & was very unhappy. As soon as she was done I had a package of fruit snacks to give her & that made it all better! She's doing great. Here's her stats:

Height: 33 1/2" (75%)

Weight: 26 lb. 1 oz. (60%)

Head: 19"

She's continued to be in the same percentile for a while now, so she's still growing great!

Binky!

Claire LOVES her binkys. When she goes to sleep she has 2 of them, one in her hand & one in her mouth!

Discovery Museum

We went to the Discovery Museum with Kathy, Owen, Kaylee & Lauren Jensen today. We went last week with Kristen & kids too & now feel like we got our moneys worth from the membership that we bought. It expires tomorrow, so we made just in the knick of time!

The kids really had a fun time & I'm glad that we got to experience the hands-on fun!

I think the favorite place for the kids to play was the diner. They loved giving us the menus & we got to choose what we wanted to eat. Then they would fill up the plates with our food. So much fun!! The exhibits this year have been "The Bone Zone". We had fun in the dentist & doctor area as well. They are changing up the exhibits in August & I am curious as to what they will be. Maybe we'll be back......

Claire sitting in the car at the drive-up window of the diner. She loved this car!
"Would you like some corn on the cob?"

Carter & Owen serving up our food

Paging Dr. Carter. Dr. Carter you're wanted on the 3rd floor.....

Look at the size of that tooth brush!

Carter is explaining how to keep my teeth clean

Carter dressed up in his bone costume to put on a show for us!

Homework

I picked up one of those big Kindergarten workbooks for Carter at Costco last week. He loves to work in it & does really well. The only thing he needs help with is reading the instructions. Throughout the day he will tell me that he needs to work on his homework. This evening Claire wanted to join in and color with him. She will sit for quite some time with a coloring crayon & a piece of paper!

Calling Dr. Claire......

Nothing Like A Nice New Haircut

Fudgesicles Are Good......

and messy!

Family Pictures 2009

Back in April I was wanting to get our family pictures taken. I really wanted to do them outside, so I was looking around, trying to find a photographer. I asked my friend Carrie for a recommendation and she said that her friend had recently hired Emily Heizer to take their family pictures. I took a look at her portfolio & really liked her work so we booked April 24 to meet in Old Sacramento to take pictures. It had been really warm that week but the morning we were to take pictures I looked out the window & it was raining!!! WHAT!!??!! I could not believe it. As were driving to Old Sac I was just praying that it was stop. As we got to the downtown area the clouds just disappeared & the sun came out. Yippee!! It was quite cold that morning also. I had planned for the kids to wear shorts & short sleeve shirts so I was worried that they would be freezing.

Emily likes to shoot as early as possible in the day, so you don't have the glaring sun out. Lots of times for engagement pictures she meets her clients at 6am!!! There is no way we could do that. 8am was pushing it for little Claire!!

We had her for 2 hours to just walk around & take pics. It was fun, but after an hour or so, Claire was pretty much done! We ended up in one of the candy shops to buy a BIG lollipop to keep her happy! Emily took over 800 pictures of us!! She would edit some & then upload them all to a Shutterfly account where we would have access to print what we wanted! It was supposed to take 8 weeks to get the pictures on Shutterfly & I thought those 8 weeks would never come!!! Well a few weeks into it Emily's monitor fell off her laptop & that pushed it back a few more weeks. Last night as I was up with sick Carter I looked at my email & there was the email from Emily letting me know that the pictures were done. Hallelujah!!! After looking at them it was definitely worth the wait! She did an awesome job!!

There are a total of 723 negatives and 145 that have been edited! In the middle of the night I went on to Costco.com and had a bunch of pictures printed & I picked them up this morning. They look great! I am going to have a hard time choosing which ones to enlarge to put on the wall!

So here is the link to Shutterfly which has both the edited & all of the negatives:

http://coryandalyson.shutterfly.com/

Here's Emily's blog where she posted her favorites. If you don;t mind waiting a few months for your pictures I would totally recommend Emily to take your family pictures!

And a "few" of my favorites are below:

Happy 60th Judy!!!

Tonight we went to a surprise birthday party for Judy Maddox. We met at Chevy's for a delicious dinner. All of her friends and family arrived early and when she walked in with Clyde we all yelled "SURPRISE!!!!" She was definitely surprised!!! It was so fun! A few months ago Lori Anne had mailed cards to all of Judy's family & friends asking for us to write a memory about Judy & why she is special in our lives. We were also to send pictures & Lori Anne made it into a scrapbook. It was the most perfect gift she could have given Judy!! She just cried & cried as she looked at pictures from friends in high school to current friends & family. It was priceless!

Judy is such a special friends, she makes everyone that walks in her door feel like you have known her forever. We are so lucky to have her in our lives.

During dinner we could not get Claire to eat her food. We tried & tried & she just did not want to eat. She was acting up, throwing everything we gave her on the ground, from her fork to her binky to her food. It was very frustrating. After most of us had finished eating she starting coughing and then threw up all over! It just kept coming and coming! Aggghhh! We had to get the waiter to come & mop it up. She felt so much better after that & spent the rest of the evening dancing all around the restaurant.

I guess it wasn't the cantaloupe!!!

Clyde, Mackenzie, Judy & Will
The birthday bash. I think there were about 30 of us. I'm sure the waiters at the restaurant were happy to see us leave!

Maddox & Carter-not sure why he's squinting his eyes!

A Yucky Night

During the middle of the night, I believe around 12:30am, I heard Carter downstairs crying. I got up & he was standing at the bottom of the the stairs just crying & crying. I asked him why he was just standing there & realized when I got to the bottom that he had thrown up all over the floor. Luckily it was on the tile & not the carpet! It was all over his face & arms. Yuck!!

I got him to the bathroom & cleaned him up & asked if he had thrown up in his bed. He said no, but as soon as I walked in his room I saw it ALL OVER HIS BED! I got him a new pillow, pajamas & blanket & out him out on the couch. I started cleaning up his bed when I heard him crying again & could hear him about to get sick. I ran in the family room & used the new blanket I had just given him to catch the barf. We went to the bathroom again to get cleaned up & put him back on the couch. A couple minutes later he had to go again! Luckily this was the last time & then he fell asleep until the morning. I slept in the family room with him so I could make sure that he was ok. Such a gross story!!!

He was feeling so much better in the morning. The first thing he asked was "What are we doing today?"

Kristen called me in the morning & said that Haley & Drew threw up during the night as well. The only thing we could think of was that they all ate cantaloupe for dinner last night. It may have started going bad & they just got sick from it. Sydney didn't have any & she did not get sick. Who knows? I'm just glad they are all feeling better. They all swam at Grandma & Grandpa's this afternoon, so I think they are fine!!!

Look At That Tan Line........

Yes, Carter got a bit red today, but his tan is just going to get better! He's says it doesn't hurt, so hopefully tomorrow when he wakes up it still won't hurt. Carter ended up staying at the lake with his cousins until 4:45pm today. So they spent almost 6 hours there. He was lathered with sunscreen many times, but it was really hot out there. He had so much fun & is now fast asleep in his room.
His cheeks got a little rosy also.

Cameron Park Lake

This morning we went to Cameron Park Lake with Kristen & her kids. It's just about 5 minutes from their house. She had gone a couple of days ago & they spent 3 & 1/2 hours there. The kids had so much fun & wanted to go again, so we joined them. It was a really nice lake, with a good area for the kids to swim in. The water was refreshing, not too cold & not too hot. Carter had so much fun swimming around & building things in the sand. Claire didn't enjoy it as much. She's not much of a water girl, so she didn't want to get in. But after a little while she went in with me & had some fun.

Carter & Drew did so well swimming without their life vests. I was a bit nervous watching him without it on, but he did extremely well. I think he was pretty confident since he could touch the ground easily.

We ate lunch there & Claire was getting cranky & ready for her nap. Carter did not want to leave, he was having too much fun. So Kristen was so nice to keep him there & let him play with his cousins longer & I will go back up the hill tonight to pick him up.

We will definitely be going back to the lake really soon to play again!

They also have paddle boats that you can rent on the lake. We'll have to do that sometime as well!

It's ok to drink the lake water, right?

Carter & Drew swimming so well!

A New Kind Of Hair Gel.........

BANANAS!!!!!!!!!
It definitely makes your hair stick together!

There's Nothing Much Cuter Than This....

Ouch!!

Carter got his first bee sting on the bottom of his foot today. He was swimming at Grandma & Grandpa's house & he was walking bare foot by the pool & stepped on a bee. I was at home with Claire while she took her nap so Kristen got the stinger out for him. He seemed to be doing pretty well until this evening when he started complaining about it hurting again.

Right before dinner Haley came in crying; she had stepped on a bee also!!

I know exactly how they feel! I am allergic to bees & hate when I get stung.

Fruit Snacks

The kids LOVE fruit snacks. Today Claire took her pack along with her drink & went to sit on the stairs. Carter soon followed her. They looked so cute sitting together.

Happy 32nd Birthday Cory!!!

Today Cory turns the big 32!

We celebrated last night with a big party at our new house. It was nice having room for everyone and we had a lot of fun with our family. The only bummer.....I didn't take pictures; except for the cake. Since Debbie & kids are still in town we celebrated Ethan & Debbie's birthdays as well.

On the menu:

homemade guacamole with chips, Mini Smoky Bacon Wraps, Spinach Artichoke Dip, grilled zucchini, asparagus, red, yellow & green peppers, hot links, tri tip & hot dogs.

Kristen brought a yummy green salad, Mom brought Orange Julius & watermelon & Lisa brought pasta salad. Oh yeah, there was also a mini root beer keg. Did I miss anything?

It makes me hungry writing about it!

In attendance:

Grandma & Grandpa Altop, Mom & Dad, Erin & Courtney, Holli & Faith, Lisa & Todd & family, Jeff & Kristen & family, Debbie & boys with cute little Rachel.

The kids loved playing in the backyard. And it was so random, we got a little bit of rain......in July. So weird! Drew ran around saying "We're in Washington, it's raining!"

I made Laine's 4 Layer Ganache & Raspberry Cream Cheese Cake. It was delish!
Ethan blowing out the candles

Jump Sky High

Today we went with all the cousins to Jump Sky High. We haven't been back since I took Carter over a year ago with Lisa & Kimberly. We had a lot of fun again. We had so many people in our group that we were able to get a group rate & we got a trampoline to ourselves.

Claire jumping with Aunt Lisa

Cousins having fun!

Carter airborne

Our whole group! (Took this from Kristen's blog!)

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!

We finally have the internet again....and a home phone.....and T.V.

Hallelujah!!!

Now I just need to finish unpacking!

We Love The 4th of July!!

(I stole this pic from Kristen's blog. I missed taking pictures of the splash competition this year. Jeff is mid air after jumping from the waterfall. Cory is in the middle of the pool.)

We had a wonderful 4th of July this year! It's one of my favorite holidays!

Carter & I spent the morning at the annual pancake breakfast. Claire was still asleep so Cory stayed home with her. After the breakfast I went back home & picked Claire up & we went to the Rancho Cordova Parade. The little ones did pretty well sitting for most of it, but then they had enough so we left before it was over.

Claire, Faith & Carter watching the parade

Cute Claire wearing Faith's sunglasses



After lunch it was time for Claire to take a nap, so Cory was so kind to stay home with her again while Carter & I went over to Clyde & Judy's for some more fun. We always have a great time at their 4th of July festivities!! This year there were fewer people but it was still a fun afternoon!

Carter & I swam for a bit & then I went to eat but Carter continued to swim for HOURS!



The kids were in the spa & Judy threw strawberries in to them. They went through 2 lbs. worth!!!

Maddox & Carter enjoying the goods!

Carter has no fear jumping in!

Judy & Maddox watching the fun!

Delicious popsicles enjoyed,

by one & all!

Also fresh, popped popcorn from Judy's old fashioned popcorn machine!

Hammock fun!

Spending time with Dad!

And pinata fun!

At dinner time we left Judy's & went to my parents house for our annual bbq. I think this was the biggest crowd yet; we had 70 people come!! Lots of out of town cousins were here this year. It made for a lot of fun & lots of fireworks!! I unfortunately didn't get my camera out until the end of the night when we did fireworks. We had a great bbq, and the world's best sno cones from Grandpa Altop.

Carter enjoying his sparklers...

and Claire too!!

Cory tried out some different settings on our camera & got some cool pics!

The guys setting off the firework display in the dead end at Mom & Dad's.