Memorial Day Weekend

Well, it was another fun weekend for the Buessing family!  Tony's Grandpa Regis turned 80 this weekend and there was a party in his honor in Axtell.  We had a great time and got to see family that we don't get to see a lot of which is always nice.  The weekend started out with a quick visit to see Grandma and Grandpa Noble in Sabetha.  They looked better than I've seen in a while, and it's always great to catch up with them. 

Later on Saturday, we went to a little pool party at the hotel where family was staying.  Clare got to go swimming for the first time.  She loved it!  She had fun splashing around with mom and dad, while watching all of her older cousins play.  And I must say, she looked darn cute in her little suit!  Here are some pictures from the fun-filled evening...check out how cute Clare and Aubrey look in the first one!  :)  The last picture in this group includes several of the cousins from the Rochel side of the family, including two sets of twins - Casey and Payton as well as Nina and Ella. 

On Sunday were all of the festivities for the birthday party.  It started with a luncheon with family and close friends, and then was followed by an open house for people in Axtell to wish Regis a happy birthday.  It was so neat to see the number of people who were there.  People traveled from all over the country to be together to celebrate.  A barbecue at the house wrapped up all of the fun for the evening.  Before we left town on Monday, we also stopped out to see Grandma and Grandpa Buessing.   Always good to see them too! 

The last thing I want to share on this post is a few of Clare's newest pictures.  Sara took these for her 6 month pics.  She always does such an amazing job photographing our little cutie.  I am so grateful that she is willing to put in the time to do it for us, so thank you, Sara!!!  It's hard for me to pick just a few, so sorry that there are so many...

Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day holiday.  Have a great week!

Family Traditions

As to many of you, to me family is everything.  Each day I wake up and think of how blessed I am to have been given (and married into) such an amazing family.  There are many family traditions that are passed along from generation to generation.  We certainly have many that circle around the holidays.  However, in today's post I am going to share a different tradition. 

Long ago, my Great Grandma Bauman bought a beautiful white dress with pink ribbon for my Grandma Noble to have her picture in.  Then many years later, my Grandma Noble put my mom in the dress for a picture.  Then once again many years later, my mom had my picture taken in this very same dress.  And believe it or not, the dress is still in very good shape (minus a few spit up stains and having the ribbon replaced).  So recently, Aunt Sara took pictures of Clare in this dress.  The picture is now is a frame, along with the other pictures, that Tony recently re-built to accommodate the 4th generation of pictures.  I wish I had a picture of the frames with all of the pictures before, but I just have the pictures that were taken of Clare.  Every time I look at the pictures, I just melt, and I think about the wonderful women in my family, whom I love very much, that started this tradition of the dress.  I only hope that one day Clare will be able to pass this same tradition on to her daughter. 

6 months, Easter, Mother's Day, and more!!!

My how time flies...I am pretty sure that I start every post now with an apology about my delayed post.  Hopefully when summer comes, I will get back to posting more than every month.  We'll see.  So, lots has been happening since the last post.  Clare turned 6 months (she is actually about to be 7 months this coming weekend) and had her 6 month check-up.  The doctor says she is growing well and is right on schedule for the developmental things she should be doing.  All good news!  She weighed in at 16 lbs., 3 oz.  So now she is more than double her birth weight, which is hard to believe.  She is really loving food now, too!  She has enjoyed every vegetable she's tried and she loves the fruit too.  Her favorite veggies seem to be the orange ones, and her favorite fruit so far is pears.  Now that she is going through so much baby food, I thought I would try to save some money by making my own vegetables.  It turns out that it isn't that hard to do.  Just boil some frozen veggies, puree them in the blender, and you are good to go.  Plus, the best part is that I did 24 containers of green beans/peas for about $4.00.  Beat that, Gerber!  :)

Something new with Clare in the last month is that she doesn't like to sleep on her back much anymore.  The doctor said that I should still be putting her down on her back until a year, but now that she can roll over it's fine if she gets into any comfortable position when she sleeps.  So here is her new favorite position...I think it is one of the cutest things about babies - the butt in the air sleeping position!  I snapped this one at a nap time.  Awwww...

Right around Easter time, Clare started sitting up pretty well on her own.  Now she is a pro at it, and is beginning to crawl.  It's just an army crawl right now, although she can get anywhere she wants.  However, I am certain that in the next two weeks she will have the real deal down and she will be moving faster than I am ready for! 

In the past month, we have also had fun meeting new friends and visiting family.  A few weeks ago my friend Jenny brought over her beautiful little girl, Natalie, who is about 4 months younger than Clare.  It was fun to see the two little cuties together! 

We also recently went to Topeka to stay with Papa Sam to celebrate his birthday.  It was a nice weekend to catch up with him and Grandma Tammy.  We had fun relaxing on the deck and playing some games of Sequence.  Apparently Clare Bear also enjoyed the shiny Bud Light can in daddy's hands because it mesmorized her for quite some time!  Haha!

For Easter, we headed up to Axtell to spend time with the Buessing side of the family.  It is a huge family (Clare is number 24 of the great-grandchildren!) so it is always a fun time catching up with everyone.  And since there are so many little children, it is fun for Clare to get to spend some time with her cousins too.  It was a great day - there was Easter egg painting, and Easter egg hunt, and even an Easter-beer hunt for the adults.  Yes, you read that right...it is a Buessing family tradition!  :)  Later in the weekend, we stopped by to visit my grandma and grandpa so they could see Clare and we could catch up.  It was great to see them, too.  We feel so blessed that Clare has gotten to spend time with six of her great-grandparents.  Here are some pics from that weekend.  The last two are in her Easter dress once we got home.  Pretty cute if we do say so ourselves! 

Last weekend was another busy weekend for us (shocking, I know).  On Friday night we went out to visit our friends Jess and Tracy at their BBQ competition.  We love to go out to their competitions to support them because we believe they make the best BBQ ever!  Even Clare is a big fan and she is looking forward to eating some of that Lazy Bacon BBQ one day.  Check out the crew in the team t-shirts! 

And I saved the best for last, so let's hope that I didn't lose you in the middle since this is so long.  Yesterday, I celebrated my first Mother's Day as a mommy.  The weekend was filled with family time - first with my mom/Nana, then with Tony's mom, sister, and the rest of the family.  I just can't help but think of how thankful we are and how truly blessed we are to have such amazing families.  And now I get to share all of that with my little girl.  There is no better gift than being a mother, and I say a little prayer each and everyday thanking God for my beautiful daughter. 

We really did have a great weekend!  It started off by Tony making it special for me.  He got me an hour massage and had the cutest card that he let Clare scribble on for her signature (so cute!!!).  He is so great!   We spent Saturday afternoon and night in Topeka with my mom.  We sat on the patio at a super yummy Mexican restaurant and enjoyed beautiful weather, great food, and margaritas.  Then on Sunday we met Tony's family out at the lake to spend some quality time together.  We fished, sat on the deck, played bean bag toss, and rode the golf cart.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that the guys did all of the cooking so we didn't have to worry about a thing.  So much fun! 

And a very pooped-out Clare Bear after a fun-filled weekend...so tired she doesn't even realize she's on her back! 

Well, that's it for tonight.  Hope you all have a wonderful week!