15 and 16 months notes for the sake of journaling

Here are the notes I took for months 15 and 16. Claire is growing SO fast. She is now almost 22 months? I think? Time is going way to fast but I am loving how much Claire is learning and growing. She is SO much fun! I will do a post on her life now pretty soon.

15 months

-runs

-spins in circles

-loves her books, listens to us read, chooses her favorites, sits down and jabbers while she reads to herself

-loves Yo Gabba Gabba, copies what they do

-dances

-understands more of what we say "bring me ____" "no" "peek a boo" "close it" "good job" "yay" 

-says "wow" "hi" "mama" "no" "dada" "hi dad"

-making funny sounds "nya nya nya"

-wants things and tell us by whimpering like a puppy

-falls asleep on the floor in a pile of blankets

-uses phone, unlocks, uses home button, volume button, can use different apps

-tries to feed herself, takes bites of big food instead of trying to eat the whole thing

-folds her arms during prayers

16 months

- she starts a peek a boo game and waits for us to say "where's Claire?"

- says "ball" and knows what it is

- says cracker by saying "ca ca ca"

- says "oh wow" all the time

- knows what a cat, pig, and cow says

- she says cat but it sounds like she is clearing her throat instead of "cat"

- she give nice hugs and kisses but her kisses are really long and usually open mouth

- she's getting better at using a fork to spear things

- climbs up stairs really well but still thinks she can walk down then two at a time ... Doesn't work

- is growing teeth and it's hard for her this time

- knows where her nose is

- every time we get to the dancing page of "good dog Carl" Claire dances

A surprise trip to Washington!

If I think about how behind I am, I don't blog. So I'm just going to start with where we are in life now. Maybe I will catch up, maybe I won't.

Pictures will be added after I put them on the computer....they are pretty funny, too!

A few weeks ago we were Skyping with my parents and they were talking about how they missed Claire. I said, "Why don't we come up for Fall Break?"Then we decided that it would just be fun to drive up and surprise everyone. Once we even said something like that to Moe and Bapa Jackson they weren't going to not let us come.

After Brent and I had decided to go, I invited Morgan along with us. She first said she wouldn't be able to do it because she had the Praxis to take, but her mom was so nice to pay the fee to move her test so she could come! Yippee!

Thursday
We picked up Morgan just after 6 Thursday morning (waaaaay to early for Morgan) and hit the road. We had a pretty uneventful drive and Claire did really well.

There was one exciting detour we took - Morgan said she wanted mashed potatoes so Brent said he would find a KFC. Well, he gave us directions to one that was closed. He found another one and it had turned into some Mexican fast food restaurant. He found a third one and it was finally successful! And it was full of old people. Also it wasn't yummy enough to try 3 different locations until we found one. Ha!

We arrived at the bank that Hilary works at and when we were sitting outside Brent said, "Did Hilary move banks? Now that we are sitting here, I think she moved banks." hahaha, good one, Brent! So I called her and told her we were outside but that we were outside the wrong bank. We drove to meet her just for a second, Claire was done with sitting in the car and we still had an hour and a half to go.

We got to Moses Lake around 8:30 and had dinner with my parents. My mom called Heather and made up some reason she wanted Heather to come over but Heather was taking sooooo long. It was 11:00 before Heather decided to drive over. When she got to the driveway she realized that it was our car outside and came in really excited to see Claire. Next time my mom tells Heather to come over I'm guessing that she will be on her way really quickly.

Friday
Friday morning we got ready and headed to Eden Salon to surprise Jam. When we got to the salon, Cindy asked if we wanted her to get Jeannie but we told her it was a surprise. Brent let Claire walk back to the hair washing sinks and someone said, "Jeannie?" She looked up and had this really confused look on her face and then she got the biggest smile! It was so awesome. She was sooo surprised and wasn't expecting us at all. She came to visit us in Provo at the end of September and so she was shocked to see us again so quickly.

We went to lunch with Heather after the salon and then Morgan and I went shopping with my Mama. We got some new shirts and shoes. Yay!

Friday afternoon we headed out to the farm to see Mark and Mimi. When Kelly found out we were there she came home for a few minutes to see us, too! Sadly Bampa was working all day and so we didn't get to see him. Anyway.... I walked to the door and knocked. Mark opened it and said, "hi" and then just waited for me to say something. It took him about a minute to realize that I wasn't supposed to just be knocking on the door. When he realized I wasn't supposed to be there, he started saying "What in the world?! What in heaven's name?" I walked away and he followed me and saw Brent, Claire and Morgan. It was pretty funny. When we went into the house to see Mimi Mark said, "Look what FedEx brought over." She was very happy to see Claire. Claire was most happy to see a big empty room to run circles in. :)

Friday night my dad waited at Chico's for forrrever to get some pizza for Brent. Brent was so happy about the pizza. My dad is pretty awesome.

Saturday
On Saturday we went to Leavenworth! We even went to Skipper's before Leavenworth. Hmmm, I think my parents really like Brent. They give him everything he wants.... In Leavenworth it was Octoberfest and it was crazy busy. But there were lots of people in strange outfits (like a guy wearing tight yellow underwear and nothing else?) to watch. We loved looking through the little shops. Morgan even tried some hot sauce. She was so mad at me! For about 20 minutes. And she was mad at my mom for running down the street with her ice cream when she had a burning mouth. Good thing she got over it and she still likes us! :) Right, Morgan?

Saturday night we went over to Jam and Peanut Butter's house for dinner. Heather, Hilary, and Lance were also there. It was fun to see everyone and have super yummy dinner. Claire loves to have lots of people telling her how cute she is all of the time.

Sunday
We came home. That was pretty much it. We had a great time in Washington and we were lucky to be able to go for a quick trip. And we were so glad Morgan could come with us. Hopefully she still likes us after spending 4 straight days with us.

Update!

I have made a few updates. Since there were so many to do most of them are pictures and captions. Oh well. At least the pictures are cute. :) Here they are for your convenience. 15, 16, and 17 month updates are going to be posted shortly.

Claire's First Christmas

Playing in the Snow

Bath Time

Lemons!

Disney on Ice

March trip to the Zoo

Grandma and Grandpa visit

Easter

April trip to the Zoo

First Haircut

Puddles

Wedding

Wedding Time = Family Time

Chris and Chelsea got married on May 17 in Seattle. We got to drive up for a quick weekend to be at their sealing and to spend time with family. We had a great, busy, time.

Henry and Claire liked to sit on this chair and Stacey would spin them around and play peek-a-boo. There were lots of baby laughs because of this silly game. 

There was a lot of cousin love with a little cousin fighting.  

Claire was watching some fishes. 

My mom found this children's museum in Seattle that we went to the night before the wedding. The kids had lots of fun running around playing with all sorts of toys.

Starting at the top of the slide.... 

And they made it to the bottom!! 

Grandpa PB taught Claire all about duck calls. 

She loved blowing in them and making lots of noise. 

Congratulations to Chris and Chelsea! We are so happy for them. It was great to be able to be in the temple with them and see lots of people that love them. Hooray for another sister!!

A little family picture outside of the temple. I love how green everything in Seattle is.

Pete, Grandpa, Claire 

This is how the long ride home went. We made the drive in one day so we were all a little stir-crazy by the end of it. Thankfully Claire is such a good traveler.

Playing in the Puddle

Claire was so happy to have found a puddle outside to play in! 

From a party in the back to a stacked a-line

Claire had a major mullet. And it was time. Time to cut her hair. She haaaated it. Brent and I think the reason she hated it was because of the cape. If she didn't have a cape on we think she would have done so much better. Her hair was adorable after the cut. The lady stacked it up in the back and turned it into a little a-line. She looked so much older!

Look at that mullet! 

What's happening to meeeee?! 

Huuuuge tear from a sad baby.

10!

Claire has 10 teeth! She is getting 2 back ones on the top. This tooth growing is hard work this time. Poor baby.

The big number 9!

This beautiful baby of mine is growing her 9th tooth. Slow down!

the zoo in April

Easter

We gave Claire Cow for Easter. She looooves snuggling him. 

Claire was collecting Easter eggs. She wanted to hold them all in her hands but she could only manage to hold 2, maybe 3, at a time. 

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

My mom and dad came to Utah in March to come to a Mariners Game. The Mariners played their last Spring Training game in the Bees Stadium in SLC.

Claire thought that the bed we made up for Grandma and Grandpa was the perfect size for her. 

Claire did great at the game! She looked darling in her M's outfit, too. 

We went to Cabella's on our way back from the game. We watched the bass get fed. Claire loved it. 

The fish were so interesting.

When we were at the mall, Claire wanted to hold both of our hands. When we would pass a store with music playing she stopped in her tracks to shake her bum and dance. It was so adorable.

Zoooooooo!

We decided to become zoo members. If we go to the zoo 4 times it will have paid for itself. (It is the end of June. We have been enough times to pay for our membership!)

Claire and the Gorilla were checking each other out. 

This gorilla was chilling inside and Claire was watching. It came over right in front of the window and sat down to look at Claire. She got scared of him and started to cry. It was hilarious. 

This tiger was pacing back and forth as we were walking up the hill to go to the car. We are pretty sure it was dinner time and he smelled a yummy baby named Claire. 

Claire was all tuckered out after her trip to the zoo.