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! 

Wow - So, once again it has been so long since my last post I am not even sure where to begin.  I think I will start with our vacation and then move onto the topic that people are really interested in...Clare Bear! 

Ahhh, vacation.  How I wish that we were still in a tropical place with turquoise blue waters and white, fine sand.  Our trip to the Dominican Republic was absolutely wonderful!  We were there for 5 nights and 6 days and really enjoyed ourselves.  It was hard to leave Clare, of course.  And we missed her like crazy.  But we did have an amazing time!  We went with Sara and Nate which made it that much more fun.  The resort we stayed at had everything.  We played swam in the ocean, laid by the pool, danced at the disco, went horseback riding, played sand volleyball, played ping pong, and of course enjoyed our fill of the all-inclusive food and drink.  There were so many restaurants on site that one night we ate two dinners just to try to get them all and still never ate at one of them.  One word to describe it all was FANTASTIC!  It was the perfect way to celebrate turning 30 and a good stress-reliever for Tony and me with everything we have going on. 

When we got back from vacation, we spent all the time we could with Clare before it was back to work.  Unfortunately, this wasn't very long since I went back to school on that Monday and Tony started his new job then too.  While we were gone Clare turned 5 months old, and she seemed even more grown up when we got back.  While at Mema and Papa's. Clare started to play in her walker.  She loves it and hasn't looked back since.  She really enjoys it when one of her cousins pushes her around in it...like Aubrey loves to do! 

When we came back from vacation it was also March Madness time, which is very popular in our house.  And as you know, we are a house divided so Clare had to support both of the Kansas schools that were in the tournament...the Wildcats one day, and the Jayhawks the next.  We thought she looked pretty darn cute in her two outfits!

Clare is at a great age right now where she is learning to do new things all of the time.  She is rolling all over the place, and we are working on sitting up (not quite there yet).  She is also very into playing with her feet and trying to put her toes in her mouth as well as making any noise possible she can with her mouth.  Sometimes it is gurgling, sometimes more like puffing air, and often times she is squealing or giggling loudly.  She just cracks me up so much of the time! 

A couple of weeks ago we went to a baby shower for our cousin and dear friend Morgan.  It was such a fun event!  While there, Clare got to meet her cousin Reed for the first time.  He is a little bit older than Clare and quite a bit bigger.  Even still, they had a great time playing together.  They won't get to see each other often because Reed lives in Chicago, but I know when they do they will make the most of it! 

Recently, we have been doing quite a bit of work at our house.  We've been doing some painting and some outside clean up to hopefully get it sold more quickly.  Clare thought it was pretty fun stuff.  She helped me paint the back door to the deck and then she had some good quality time with daddy while he enjoyed an ice cold beer after a long days work.  Gotta love it!

 

Our baby girl is just getting so big that it is hard for me to believe it!  Recently she started eating vegetables and eating in her big girl high chair.  Awww!  So far she has had green beans and peas and she seems to really like them both.  She certainly has a healthy appetite for just about anything you put in front of her! 

One last thing and then it's bedtime around this house.  Last weekend we went up to a First Communion in Nebraska for Tony's godson Jace.  It was a great family affair - fun to see everyone.  AND I actually got Tony to take a photo when we were all dressed up, so here is our most recent family photo of the three of us and a pic of Clare in the adorable dress that was borrowed from her adorable cousin Aubrey! 

Well, that's it for tonight.  I hope you enjoyed this super long post!  Oh, and for those of you who are wondering about my 30 by 30 challenge...it didn't happen!  Bummer - but I figure there are worse things in life.  Have a great week and be safe!