Food!

With Claire's weight gain slowing down for the last few months we held off on starting solid foods until just a few days before she was 6 months old.

She opens her mouth like a little bird!

She just can't get enough food. Next week we may move on to veggies.

Giddy up!

Claire went for a ride on Gabriel's bouncing zebra and had a lot of fun.

Fun with Grandma

Grandma has been visiting for the last few weeks and we are enjoying the help she has provided us as well as the fun she has with the kids.

Gabriel was singing and playing a song for her.

6 months old

Claire is six months old now. She is very good at rolling over and uses this ability as a way to get to toys and to get into trouble. At her doctor's appointment today she weighed 14 pounds 4 ounces and was 26 inches long. She is starting to move back up through the growth charts after a few months of being pretty small.

Gabriel snuck in to give Pooh a kiss.

Christmas Travels

Due to computer malfunction and lost hardware, we are a little late at posting our Christmas photos. We left Rochester on the morning of December 27 in hopes of making it to Illinois by supper. The road conditions called for ice around Waterloo, IA but we decided to try to overcome the conditions. In Waterloo, there was very little ice which we were thankful for. We stopped to get a snack about an hour later in Cedar Rapids and the roads still were pretty good. As soon as we got outside the Cedar Rapids city limits, there was a sheet of ice on the road. Apparently, Iowa was not very accurate at updating their road conditions. After driving for over 2 hours at 10-20mph, we pulled off at an exit that had 1 hotel and a McDonalds. After some discussion, we decided to stay in that "town" overnight.

Gabe got to share a bed with Daddy

Daddy slept well despite the fact that Gabe kept kicking him and Claire was awake several times throughout the night.

Claire was awake by 5am (that's what happens when we go to bed at 7:30) and everyone but Daddy was ready to hit the road. Daddy never gets up before the sun comes up (most of the time not even until Claire has had her first nap) and he was in no mood to drive at 5:30am. By 11am we were in Illinois unpacking our bags at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Then the marathon of Christmas celebrations began.

First we went to Grandma Bonnie's for some gift exchanging. Grandma Connie and Sam were there and later on Uncle Gary joined us.

Gabe was a little afraid of Tickle-Me-Cookie Monster

Claire wasn't so sure what to think of Uncle Gary but she didn't scream as loud as she did when Grandma Bonnie came near.

At Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's house, Gabe got the coveted role of handing out gifts to everyone. He only got a little confused when Grandpa told him to give the gift to "George" which is Grandpa's nickname for Gabe and when he was told that there was a gift for Tom (Gabe gave it to Mom).

Gabe was kind of excited when he got Diego underwear but he still doesn't want to start using the potty yet.

Santa Claire

Santa Claire came to visit our house today. She was all dolled up in red and ready to take requests for Christmas presents. Gabe didn't want to tell her what he wanted though since he was too busy trying to steal her hat. She kept motioning him to come sit on her lap but he would just grab her hat and run away.

Finishing the tree

We finally had time to finish decorating the Christmas tree tonight. Claire sat on the couch patiently waiting for us to finish.

While Gabe hung ornaments like a pro.

And here's the finished product!