Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for Miss Claire Alden Lieser! It is hard to believe that 3 years ago I was holding her for the first time. I was in love with her the moment I found out I was pregnant and that love keeps growing just as fast as she is. She has taught me so much about myself, life, love, patience, joy...I could go on and on. She is independent, loving, beautiful, caring, entertaining, funny, and so smart. She makes me so proud everyday and I am so blessed and lucky to be called mommy by her. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for her life. She has grown so much this past year and though it makes me a little sad to see her growing up it also is exciting to see what what will happen next with her. Here are a few of her favorite things.

Claire loves dresses and skirts. She is not a fan of long sleeves, posing a problem now that it is cold outside, or blankets while she sleeps. She loves to sing and dance and knows all the words to the theme songs of her favorite TV shows and movies. She has to have a skirt and shoes on so she can dance to those songs. If she doesn't we have to pause the show and wait for her to get "ready" then she will sing. She makes up songs constantly. They are pretty cute and often funny. She loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Curious George, VegiTales, Signing Time, Umi Zumi, and Backyardigans. She can quote the movie lines of VegiTales Princess and the Pop star while it is playing. Scary. She loves to play Legos, pretend with her kitchen and baby, and race with Quinn. (They run around the house and she calls it racing) She loves to be outside and even though she is a clean and neat child she loves to play in the dirt. She likes to fill up buckets with dirt and make roads for her matchbox cars. She can now pedal her tricycle all by herself. That was a big accomplishment for her this summer. She can count to 20 and recently has been wanting us to help her count to 100. She can draw and recognize her shapes and has started to show interest in learning to write her name. She can write the C-L-A-I and the E. The R is a little tricky. Thanks to Rachel, Alex, Leah & Hopkins of the show Signing Time Claire has learned sign language. She can count to 10 in signs and can spell her name and knows the alphabet as well. She gets stuck on a few. She knows signs for all kinds of words. If she doesn't know the sign for something she will ask me...unfortunately I do not know any so she gets disappointed sometimes. She recently told me she knows her right from her left. I have no idea where she learned that from so whoever taught her, thank you. This summer she became potty trained and is doing awesome. We have seen every public bathroom in every store and restaurant and once we tried to potty on the side of the road on a road trip. That did not go so well but I guess that is just part of it. She loves going to church and to MOPS. Those are things we all look forward to. Her favorite thing about church is singing time and craft time(I teach her craft class). Ok, I may have added that about my class...I am sure she loves it though. :) She also loves her friends at church and her teachers. My favorite thing about Claire is that she loves her baby sister. There are times when they argue and fight over toys but Claire has always, always taken care of Quinn. She will not do anything or get anything without asking and making sure Quinn is included. Claire loves on Quinn when she is sad (pats her back) and gets sad when Quinn is sad. She is the best big sister!

I honestly could brag about Claire all day she is a wonderful and sweet little girl and I am very THANKFUL on this Thanksgiving day that she is my daughter!

(note:written 2 hours before Thursday...we are going to be pretty busy with family and I wanted to make sure I wrote this. Happy Thanksgiving!)

Thankful Thursday (Monday)

Ok, so I am a few days behind. I am not quite sure where the time goes. 

Right now I am thankful for music. The girls and I sing together while rocking in the rocking chair before their naps and before bed at night. The three of us squeeze in the chair and then the girls get to pick a couple of songs a piece and we just sing at the top of our lungs. It is such a special time. The girls love to dance and sing and it warms my heart. I remember growing up and my parents always singing and our family all singing like crazy people as loud as we could in the car driving down the road. One vivid memory I have for some reason is being in the car and dad singing to the radio the song Uptown Girl by Billy Joel. Not sure why but I will always remember that. I still love that song to this day.When my family moved we always loaded up the car and sang Great Adventure by Stephen Curtis Chapman. What great memories!!! I am so happy that we sing all the time in our household. We rarely get in the car and not have music playing to sing to. Claire will even make up words to melodies she knows. She gets that from me...not sure if that is good or bad. For instance, while she is getting dressed she will sing about putting on her shirt and putting on her skirt and shoes. It is so cute! Quinn sings so loud! She just belts it out and goes for it. I love it!!!

Here is a list of our favorite songs right now.

#5 Sing, Sing, Sing  (PandaMania VBS cd)

#7 God is watching over you or jump in the air song (PandaMania VBS cd)

Jesus Loves Me

Sunshine (You are my sunshine)

Tinkle Tinkle (Twinkle little star)

ABC's

Children (Jesus loves the little children)

I love Claire and Quinn (My made up song to Frère Jacques)

The B.I.B.L.E

Silent Night

Away in a manger

Go tell it on the mountain (The Favorite!!!)

I hope the girls look back on this time with fondness and I pray their love and appreciation for music only grows.

Thankful Thursday

 Today I am thankful for my family. I am thankful for my parents, brothers and sister, grandparents,aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, in-laws, husband and daughters. The Lord has given me a wonderful family and a wonderful second family with the Liesers. I am thankful that the Lord placed Jared and I in christian families and that we were able to grow up knowing that Jesus loves us and the importance of having a relationship with him. I am thankful that God brought Jared and my families together and that the girls will be brought up as we were.  I am so thankful the girls will grow up knowing how important family and the love of a family is.

I am thankful for sisters. I am thankful for my sister and know that if I ever needed anything she would be there for me. Claire and Quinn love each other so much and they are such good friends. They take care of one another and will look out for the other. I am thankful for their friendship and their love towards one another even this young. I am thankful that they are sisters and that they will always have each other.

I am thankful for friends. I must admit I don't have many but the ones I do have I truly treasure. I especially cherish the ones that have lasted over the years and even though we only talk once a year I know that nothing has changed and that we could pick up where we left off. I am thankful for godly friends that give me godly advice and  encouragement. Amazing!

Family Movie Night

This last Friday we had our first Family Movie Night. We were all getting over having the stomach bug so it was nice to lay around and relax. The girls were excited because we had blankets and pillows and POPCORN! I will give you one guess as to what our very first movie choice was...Cinderella, of course!  

                                                                               

Oklahoma Earthquakes 2011

On November 5th at 2:12 am the girls slept through their first ever earthquake in Tulsa, OK. It was registered at a 4.7. It woke Jared, the dog, and I up...Jared told me it was probably a very strong wind and we went back to sleep only to hear the next morning it was a quake. We had no idea since we had never been through an earthquake. Tonight, still November 5th, at 10:53 p.m. the girls slept through their second earthquake. (after shock?) Jared and I were awake for this one that registered at 5.6. The after shocks have been going on all day we just couldn't feel them. I have to admit I was a little freaked out by the last one. It lasted a minute or so which felt like forever and I wasn't sure what to do. Who knew that we would experience this in Oklahoma. Girls you will never remember it but it's true.

Thankful Thursday

One of my friends did this on her blog last year for the month of November and I loved it. Thanks Desiree for the idea, I am now stealing it from you. :)

As I write this I am getting over being sick with a horrible stomach bug so I am first off thankful for Jared.  He didn't go to work yesterday or this morning to take care of the girls and myself. I know I couldn't have made it without him. I honestly don't know how single moms or moms that have  husbands that can't get off work do it. Claire was also sick yesterday and he took really good care of her. He cleaned the house and made all the meals. He even went to the store to buy me sprite. I have it good I tell you. The best part is that the girls saw their daddy taking care of me and loving me.I am thankful that he is there for me for better or for worse and that he is a good example to our girls.

"The greatest thing a father can do for his daughter is to love her mother". Elaine S. Dalton