Claire's First Christmas

Claire had a fantastic first Christmas.  Our first holiday event was Christmas Eve dinner at John and Mary Kay's house.  With 35 Turners, there was a lot going, but she was a trooper and eventually went to bed (and let Mom and Dad enjoy an amazing dinner) with some help from Aunt Jamie.  The next day, she was up at her usual 6:30 and after breakfast we headed down to the Main House to open presents and stockings with the whole clan (Bma, Grandpa, Aunt Jamie, Uncle Matt, Aunt Laura, Uncle John, John Harold, Grace, Riggs, Bodie, and Lucy).  Next, it was back to our house to open her presents and stocking there (think she's a little spoiled?)  After a quick nap, we Facetimed with Gamma, GDad, Uncle Doug, Uncle Greg, and Aunt Abigail in South Carolina to say "Merry Christmas".  Around 4:00, we returned to the main house for a delicious Christmas dinner and some caroling around the fire - complete with guitars!!!   By the end, we were all exhausted - but boy, did we make the most of those 24 hours!

My Christmas Eve outfit 

Daddy carrying me to see what Santa brought (this crazy 'do is pretty much what my hair looks like every morning).

Some cute shots. Do you like my special Rudolph pjs?

Let's GO!!!!!  I SEE PRESENTS!!!!

My first horse.

Tastes good.

It seems to me that Grandmas and Santa have an awful lot in common. 

 

YEAH!  Christmas is awesome!!!

(How cute are my Christmas leg warmers, by the way?)

"You the man, Santa!"

My new activity table.  Hours and hours of fun!

I figured out where the balls go in and come out.  

I'm such a smarty.  Mom and Dad were very proud.

What do you think of my adorable Christmas evening outfit?  

Yes, I sported not 1, not 2, but 3 different outfits on Christmas.  

Ain't it the truth?

Ho! Ho! Ho!

 

A long day, everyone's pooped!

Eleven Months Old

Crazy that soon we won't be measuring The Peanut's age in months - but in years.  This officially marks the end of my "___ Months Old" signs.  Kind of makes me relieved (it was getting more and more challenging to take those pictures) and sad (I still remember the "One Month Old" shoot... sigh).  In milestones for month 11: Claire has sprouted 4 new teeth making the grand total 8, says "Mama", "Dada", "dog", and "cat" pretty accurately (with an occasional "all done" thrown in there).  She "crusies" along  furniture, animals, boxes, and toys constantly, and seems to be getting pretty close to walking.  Stay tuned....

 Me looking at my Daddy.  I love him so much!

Cute iPhone pictures courtesy of Nanny Caroline.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

For Claire's first Christmas we had not one, but two trees!  This was not on purpose, nor did we have them simultaneously, but the first tree we decorated (the one pictured here), promptly died 4 days after we put it up.  No joke.  Enter tree #2.  The silver lining... I think going forward we will only be cutting down our own trees in the forest.

Anyways, Peanut had lots of fun helping us trim the tree, mainly trying to eat ornaments.  When we  brought Tree #1 into the house she was initially afraid of it, but that quickly faded.  We consider it a success that we made it through the holiday without her pulling it down on top of herself.  There's always next year....

Ten Months Old

Ok, this month kind of got away from me, so I'm just going to post the pictures from her photo shoot since I'm not 100% sure what was happening with us - besides getting ready for Claire's first Christmas and a whole lot of crawling.

As you can see, getting these "__ Month Old" pictures is now next to impossible. 

Oh yes, and here are some adorable pictures of her in a cute outfit from Aunt Deedee.  She looked so precious we just had to take a few quick shots.  (I remember when we got this outfit right after she was born I didn't think she'd ever be big enough to fit in it)

Santa's Little Helper

Seriously, this outfit is so cute it merited its own post.  OMG, I can't stand how adorable she is.  She loves the oven because she can stand up with the help of the bar and look at herself in the shiny part.  Good times.

Claire found this phone in the trash.  It used to be one of the ranch intercoms, but it was extra and she kept pulling it down on top of herself, so we got rid of it - or so we thought.  She finds it amazing!  She chews on all the different parts and just bangs in around (I keep teaching her my cell phone number but it's not taking, for some reason).  Needless to say, it is trash no more, it has been added to "Claire's Mountain of Things She Occasionally Likes to Play With"  (yes, this is a real place in the house)