Claire's 10th Birthday Interview

Every year on their birthday, I ask Parker and Claire to answer the same set of questions. I love looking back through the years at how their answers change and sometimes stay the same. Here is Claire's interview on her 10th birthday:





1. What is your favorite color? light cyan
2. Who is your best friend? Olivia
3. What is your favorite thing to do? go outside and play with friends
4. What is your favorite food? Kraft macaroni and cheese
5. What do you like to do with your family? watch movies
6. What is your favorite toy? Easy Bake Oven
7. What do you want to be when you grow up? Broadway actress
8. What makes you happy? when I make other people happy, money, acting
9. What makes you sad? when I'm embarrassed
10. What is your favorite show to watch? Victorious
11. What is your favorite book? Charlotte's Web
12. What do you love to learn about? Social Studies
13. Where do you like to go? New York City
14. What do you think about before you fall asleep? acting
15. If you could meet someone famous who would it be? Ariana Grande
16. What is something you are really good at? acting and singing
17. What is something new you'd like to try? horseback riding
18. What is your favorite song to sing? Focus, Les Mis songs
19. What is your favorite movie? Les Mis
20. What game do you like to play? basketball, Episode

Claire's 10th Birthday

Our beautiful girl turned ten on October 10th! She celebrated with a swim party with several friends. We are so thankful for her life. She is such a blessing to our family, and I'm so grateful to be her mama.

1st birthday & 10th birthday

Same birthday bow every year!



With our family birthday plate!

101 Dalmatians Play

Our little performer has been at it again! Claire took another musical theater class this semester. They performed the play 101 Dalmatians at the end of the class. Claire played the part of "Lucky". She was absolutely thrilled because she had several lines PLUS she got to "solo bark" (ha!) and bite someone. The play was really cute, and all of the actors were fabulous.

We are looking forward to seeing Claire perform on stage for many years to come. She is a true star!

BB: Before the Break

We are just coming back from a week off of school enjoying Spring Break. Lots of pictures are headed your way including Easter and a big ol' crazy trip we took during the break. Today, I'm just catching up on pictures from before the break.

Claire and I went to see Cinderella with some of the girls in our family. We all enjoyed it (except Claire thought it was a wee bit boring at times).

 Claire and I had some extended girl time because the boys were camping.

 This fellow spent some time relaxing.

 St. Patrick's Day came around so we ate some green pesto pasta in honor of the holiday.

 Our family helped serve with the IHN ministry in our community.

 Rita's had their usual free ice on the first day of spring. Mama likes free, so we took ourselves on up there.

 Claire went to a birthday party for a friend where she got to ride horses. Oh. my. goodness. She fell in love. When she was in Pre-K, she rode a horse and loved it back then too. This time, she was begging (BEGGING!) to take lessons by the time we left. She's still working on her daddy about that little request. (Public Service Announcement: Horse back riding is an expensive hobby. In case you didn't know. Ha!)

 She's definitely a natural!

Giddy-up!

Catching Up From Christmas

I realize it's January. I am so behind. Very, very behind.

So I decided to just dump all of the December pictures into this one post and call it done. I'm very sure they will be out of order, but let's just pretend that doesn't matter to my slightly OCD self. 

We enjoyed our Christmas tree all month.

 Sheldon and Shelby joined us on December 1 and left on Christmas Eve. We enjoy having them around, but sometimes they wear me out.

 Parker had the flu. Bless his little heart. Fortunately, we caught it fast, and he didn't feel too badly for very long.

 This is what you do when your brother has the flu. Model every item of clothing in your room.

 Claire played Vixen the Reindeer in her school play. She was supposed to be extra sassy, and she nailed it!

 Claire's Christmas party

 Guess who else got the flu? Thankfully, she didn't get very sick either. Somehow, Brian and I have escaped it so far.

 We had Elf Night at our house where we watched Elf the movie and did some elf related things. It was fun!

 We had fun watching the play A Christmas Story in Jonesborough. This was after the play in the photo booth.

 We drank a lot of Russian tea.

 Our Christmas service at church is one of my favorite traditions.

 The kids and I went to see the movie Annie. It was really cute!

 We did a Christmas lights scavenger hunt. Max the Furry Murray even went along and enjoyed the ride.

 Christmas Eve with my side of the family is always fun. Here are the ladies:

 And the men:

 Christmas Eve

 Our cookies and milk for Santa

 Looks like he stopped by and ate them!

 Our birthday cake for Jesus

 Waiting on Christmas morning to come down the stairs

 Parker and Claire loved all of their presents.

 Our special Christmas breakfast

 We spent Christmas afternoon with the other side of our family. I didn't get a lot of pictures unfortunately!

 We also went bowling one day during Christmas break.

 Starbucks!

 Girl's Night Out was fun for Claire and me while Parker was at a Christmas party.

 Another movie ~ Night at the Museum 3

 New Year's Eve!

 Skating was interesting since they are both still learning. I was very proud of them for trying so hard.

Celebrating straight A's! Way to go Parker and Claire!

We had lots of good family time, and also loved just being home to rest and relax before heading back to school. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas!