Happy Birthday Claire!!!

We celebrated Claire's birthday twice. These are from her actual birthday. The kids really enjoyed watching her dig in!!!!!


























We celebrated with the extended family the following weekend. A shot of the presents and cake.























Claire refused to stand on her own before this and has really gotten with it now that she has something to push!!!












Girly cake for a Girly Girl!!!

I ran the Roots N Blues N Bbq Festival half marathon this last weekend with my good friends Jane and Kari. I had a lot of pre-race jitters!!! All I could think about was if I had trained well enough. I had been training for twelve weeks, but still wondered if I really had 13.1 miles in me.






I hit my first wall at 6.5 miles and Jane
chanted "right, left, right, left. . . " along with me. At almost every mile marker we passed, Jane pointed out that that was the best time I had ever run that distance. I felt on top of the world until the massive hill in the eleventh mile. I ran up it; though not very fast!!! The thirteenth mile was my slowest ever, but I gave it all that I had!!!! I left everything out there and sprinted to the finish for a time of 2:16:15.








After some great bbq we posed for a picture next to the finish line. Every muscle in my body was exhausted but I was so pleased with myself and grateful for the opportunity to be able to culminate my road to health and weight loss with such great friends. Jane could have run this much faster, could have slept in every Saturday, could have focused on her own fitness goals, but instead, she chose to be my support and companion through the entire training process. For that I will always be grateful!!!! Kari has been such a cheerleader for me as I've lost weight and pursued running. Thanks so much to the both of YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Big!!!

This is just one of Claire's new tricks.

Almost the ER

Ryan fell off of the top of the van tonight and landed face first on the concrete. It gave us quite the scare to say the least, we called the doctor and he gave us a list of things to watch out for, but so far it seems like he's okay. Not including his poor face though.

Claire Kay Housewright

Claire was born on October 4, 2009 at 12:34 am. She was 8 lbs. 6 oz. and was 21 in. long.


Abby, Nick, and Ryan loved her at first sight and Ryan immediately marked his territory, "My Baby!!!"

Claire is such a joy in our lives! She is such a sweet and happy girl! We're so excited to finally show a few early pictures of our beautiful girl.

We all look at Claire and see a finished Masterpiece and Ryan sees a blank canvas and gets right to work with the markers!!!!

One of the most common reasons our kids fight is over who's turn it is to hold Claire.

Josh and I can't get over how fast the last six months have gone. We love this special Daughter of God and feel so blessed that she's part of our family!!!!

This is a classic Claire face. She has such a contagious smile!!!

Everyone says that she looks just like her Mom. I'm beaming with pride!!!!