Claranna and the Dude and Diva

Here's a little baby face with many expressions...

Last Thursday we visited a local hair salon just for kids called Dudes and Divas--they make hair cuts fun for kids. James and Ella both got new do's comeplete with hair color after their haircuts. Here are the end results:

Okay...James wasn't so wild. If you look close, you can see the blue hue on the top of his head. I think the color brings out his blue eyes. And, don't worry Grandpa Jim, the color washed right out!!!

Isabella Writes About Claranna

I am still trying to get caught up around here. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be all caught up... Probably not, but here's an attempt. Soon after Claranna was born, Isabella came home from school with some really neat writing projects. Not only were we so proud of Ella's writing at the end of Kindergarten, but we were so happy to see how excited she was about the birth of her sister. Here is what she came home with on April 28, two days after Claranna's birth:
If you can't read it or decipher her phonetic spelling, it says: "I had a baby on Sunday. It was beautiful and I love it. But it cried a lot."

This one date May 1st says, "I love my baby. She is my sister Claranna. I give my mommy a flower. She loves it."

Ella continues to do a lot of writing on her own, especially during her rest time in the afternoons. We love getting little notes from her!

Megan's Wedding

On the weekend after Memorial Day we were excited to attend my friend Megan's wedding. It was our first big trip with Claranna. The wedding was about two hours away and we planned to stay overnight in a hotel. Of course, we made these plans before baby arrived... But, the trip actually went really well. Both Mark and I were surprised. The kids didn't wake up during the night any of the four times Claranna was awake at night. Mark and I didn't get much sleep, but at that point, we weren't getting much sleep at home either. The wedding was outdoors and was simply beautiful. It was great to have a chance to hangout with friends and the kids loved the wedding dance. Congrats Megan & Beer Guy!!! Here are a few pics from the wedding weekend.

Family of five all dressed up

An attempt at the three kids together...

Cute sisters!

Daddy and his baby girl!

James waiting for a kiss from Julia

Julia with Ella and James

Shawna's mom offered to babysit a bit.

Megan and me

Laura, me, Megan, Polly & Shawna--so fun to all be together again!

Mark dancing with the kiddos

Little Dancers

Dancing with the stars practice?

Swimming the next day.

Hiking down to the Mississippi with Jeff and Shawna. Claranna, Ella and I didn't make it all the way down to the river.

On our way home, we were able to stop by so Great Grandpa O. could meet his newest grandchild.

Claranna's First Laughs!

Claranna may be tiny, but she has a big laugh! I guess she is putting all of her growing energy toward finding her voice. At lunch time today she was laughing and laughing and since Mark was home for lunch, he was pretty quick to grab the video camera. What word set her off and made her giggle so much? It was the mention of "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" Guess Claranna already knows that her daddy is a pretty funny guy. We think her laugh sounds just like James' giggle as as a baby. Here we proudly present Claranna's first big laughs... Enjoy the show!

Garden Supper

We just finished our first big garden dinner. Mark visited the garden right after work tonight and picked peas and broccoli, pulled some onions and dug some potatoes. I cooked it all up for supper along with some chicken on the grill and it was quite a feast. Everything seems extra good when it is nice and fresh and I don't think it really gets any fresher then in the garden at 5:30 and on the table at 6:30! It will be a few weeks before we have tomatoes, I think. In a few days we'll have some summer squash and zucchini. We've been enjoying onions and lettuce for a few weeks.

Claranna has been a little out of sorts. I called the nurse on Monday and she promptly scheduled us a doctors appointment. She was seen on Monday afternoon because she was having some major spit up issues. She is scheduled to go back to be evaluated again tomorrow. She's been a little fussier, but still manages to grace us with many beautiful smiles.

On another note... Ella and James were told that they could earn $1 if they could clean up the table and dishes all by themselves tonight. Ella was totally game as she is into earning money lately. She was paid $10 today by a neighbor who hired Ella to water her flowers while they were on vacation for eleven days. Ella was eager to earn another dollar. James, on the other hand, was excited to help for about two seconds and then promptly announced to us, "I don't want a dollar. I already have too much moneys." Wish I had that problem!

Wouldn't you like to go on a long car ride with us?

Here's a video clip from our trip to a cabin near Wilmar, MN in the middle of June. As you can see, the kids are quite entertaining when we are on the go and Mark loves it that they share his taste in music. James held back with his performance once I pulled out the camera, but Ella kept right on rockin!

Ouch!

Claranna went to the doctor one week ago for her two month visit and I finally have time to post her stats. She is now weighing in at 8 lbs. and 12 ounces and is 21.5 inches long. She is just a peanut, well over a pound smaller than Ella was at this age...and we all thought Ella was small! Claranna is doing a little better with her sleeping these days and will often sleep a long stretch from midnight to 5 a.m. But, after 5 a.m. she wants to nurse frequently--guess she is trying to grow!

The poor little thing had to have three shots at her two month appointment and one oral vaccine. Claranna was not a happy camper, but after a little comforting and an extra fussy day, she was okay.

Hal, Kevin & a little Cheesefest!

It was time for Hal and Kevin's annual fishing trip and we were honored to get to spend a little time with them while they were in MN. Hal and Kevin stopped in as Claranna's baptism celebration was winding down. Here's Hal as he was getting to know little Claranna.


Cousin Kevin took some time to play trains with James...

...and to hold his newest cousin!

On a drizzling Friday night we ventured out to have some fried cheese curds at the Pine Island Cheesefest. It doesn't feel like summer with out a little greasy food and a parade! Ella gave Hal a little extra exercise.

Claranna hung out in the Sprout Pouch all snug inside my coat...thank goodness she is so tiny!

On Sunday, Hal and Kevin were flying back to California while we enjoyed a parade with family. Here's Great Uncle Tom holding his great grand niece, Claranna, and Sara and Kory with their twins Emmaleigh and Derek.

James spent most of the parade running around and eating candy, but when the tractors came by, he sat down so he could concentrate on them!

Claranna enjoyed her first parade napping in the shade with daddy!

Nearby the twins were doing the same... so sweet!

The End of an Era for James

June 9th was an important day for both Ella and James. Ella had her last day of school on that day and James chose that same day to trade in his beloved sucker (that's our household word for pacifier...Ella came up with that name long ago and it stuck). James had been a bedtime and naptime sucker user, but it was time for him to give it up. We didn't want to forcefully take it away, but instead talked about him not needing it anymore quite often. We also told him he could trade it in for a car to add to his Cars movie car collection. So on that morning when it was his idea to hand it over and open up a new car, we took him up on his offer. We took a few final pictures with his sucker to mark the occasion and that was that.

He played with his new car all morning and took a great nap in the afternoon. Bedtime was a different story. I was away at a meeting, but Mark told me that James tried to trade his car back in so he could have his sucker back. We held firm that all deals were final and made it through a rough week of naps and bedtimes. Now our little boy doesn't seem to miss his sucker at all and never asks for it anymore. He tells us that only babies use suckers...and now we only have one baby in our house...