Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Clayton's 1st Car

Clayton got to go to ToysRus for the first time last weekend. (By the way that place is a parents nigthmare) He got this car that he can push and sit on. Grandpa, please be aware that he is a new driver. He may need some behind the wheel time with you. If this is any indication of his driving, we will be paying a million dollars for car insurance! :) Not the best video, I was trying to hold Keely back. :) I will try to get a better one when daddy is around.


Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Lunch with the Ruehmers!

Me, Clayton and Katie

This weekend Justin, Clayton and I had lunch with some good friends from Galesburg. The Ruehmers were in town and we met them in old downtown St. Charles. It was wonderful to see them. We hope we have more visitors this summer!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Time to move into the basement!

WE HAVE CARPET! Ok, so we started this whole basement project back in February. If you know me, you know I have the patience of a 2 year old when it comes to home improvement projects. Once I have it in my head that we are going to be doing something it needs to be done yesterday! The wait has been worth it though. It will be wonderful to have the play space for Clayton and the extra family area too. I am going to try to restrain from making Justin move everything tonight! I am hopeful that we are drawing close to finishing all improvements we would make here. Unfortunately, I got the bright idea to replace our shower door in the master bathroom. While my dad and I were taking it off, a bunch of the tile came off too. We gutted the shower and now have to get that all redone. Remember the days when you called the apartment maintenance when something was wrong? They should have that for houses too! :)

We also have some other exciting news to share. Clayton will have a nanny or a “nanny aunt” this summer! Justin’s sister Heather will be babysitting Clayton. We love Sue-Sue and I know Clayton will miss her. We will be back to her in the fall, but I am so happy that Clayton will be home, with his aunt, get all the attention and be able to go outside on walks and stuff. Clayton’s last day of daycare will be next Friday. Aunt Anna is coming down to babysit after she is done with school for a week. Justin will actually be in Cincinnati for 2 weeks starting on Sunday, May 3. So anyway, Heather will be here from the middle of May until the end of August. I am changing my schedule at work so I will be working Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We are so excited! So, instead of putting Justin’s office downstairs, we are actually going to make it a mini apartment for Heather to stay the three nights a week.

Clayton and Keely watching for the carpet installers.

"Keely are they coming?" Says Clayton "I am watching for birds, I don't know what you are talking about" Says Keely

Clayton's finished play area, minus toys.

Standing in what will be the the bedroom area while Heather is here, looking down to the family room area.

Standing in the family area looking down towards the bed area.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

1 Year Well Visit

Clayton had his 1 year well visit this morning. He is always such a great little boy at the doctor, even when he gets his shots. The doctor thought he was doing great. He will be able to start on real milk in a month!!! Daddy and Mommy are excited about that. Holy cow, since he had breast milk for so long we had no idea how much formula costs! Cows milk is penny's in comparison.

Weight: 16 Pounds 4 Ounces

Length: 27 inches

Clayton after his shots! He is ready to go home, but still such a smiley little boy!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Easter

Since Easter was the day after Clayton's Birthday we celebrated at our house with my mom, dad, sister and David. We all went to church, ate a yummy brunch and enjoyed watching Clayton dig into his Easter basket. Anna, David, Justin and I even got some Easter treats! Clayton looked way to cute and grown up in his Easter button up and vest. He really enjoyed playing with the plastic eggs that nana and grandma B got him. We can't wait to do an Easter egg hunt next year!


Uncle David, Aunt Anna and Clayton

Grandpa, Nana and Clayton

Daddy, Mommy and Clayton
(Do you see a theme here? Everyone wanted their picture taken with Clayton)

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy 1st Birthday Clayton!

April 11th, how could it have come so fast again. We can not believe that our little guy has turned 1. Looking back this year has gone so fast. We have watched our "Miracle Man" as my mom calls him, go from a 2lb 1 ounce little boy in the hospital to a Happy and Healthy 1 year old. He has brought so much joy to Justin and I. We love watching him explore and be best buds with his sister Keely. We could not ask for a better son.

We have been so blessed to have so many people from friends to family be there for us and Clayton over the last year. From the cards, meals, babysitting so that Clayton didn't have to go to daycare until he was 5 months old, to blog comments, to emails from old friends, I could go on and on. We can't thank everyone enough.

Some of these special people were able to join us in celebrating the big birthday. We had family, friends, and even one of Clayton's NICU nurses here. Clayton's party was themed around Sandra Boynton's Birthday Monster book. His cake had the monsters on it. He of course loved the frosting and opening presents. He was especially fond of all of the balloons.

This day brought not only the joy of celebrating Clayton's birthday, but the sadness of not having his brother, Jaxson here to celebrate too. We miss him everyday and we know that he was looking down with a smile, enjoying how much fun his "little" brother had on their birthday.

I couldn't pick just a couple pics, so I put together a slide show of his birthday. Enjoy and Happy Easter!

Cardinals Opening Day


Opening day didn’t turn out too great for the Cardinals, but it was a fun day for Clayton non-the less. Daddy made sure he wore his cardinal’s outfit and they got to watch some of the game together. Hopefully their closers can get it together.

Basement Update



Well, we didn’t meet our goal of getting the basement done before Clayton’s birthday, but we can blame that on the carpet. We are pretty much all done besides having it installed. The hope is that it is in on Monday and will be installed sometime this week. We got the doors and trim up thanks to Grandpa B. We owe him many hours of time on the tractor this fall. Clayton can’t wait to start playing down there and mommy can’t wait to get the house back to being organized.