Claire Elyn -- 12.22.16

Claire Elyn Ten Clay joined us on Thursday, December 22, 2016, at 3:14 pm.

She was 8 pounds, 8 ounces, and 21 inches long!

I went to my 40 week appointment on December 21, and Dr. Greene gave me the option of choosing if and when I would want to be induced.  We decided to go for the next day in hopes that we would be home for Christmas.  We were so happy to be able to deliver Claire in Rock Valley instead of in Sioux Falls like we had to with Lydia.  

On Thursday morning, we dropped Lydia off at Grandpa & Grandma Moss', Mommy shed some tears over Lydia not being the "baby" anymore, and off we went to the hospital in Rock Valley.  I was hooked up and had Pitocin started.  Around noon, Dr. Greene came and broke my water, and I had an epidural around 1:30.  Right before 3:00, the nurses made a quick call to the clinic to tell Dr. Greene to hurry over.  After about 10 minutes of pushing, our baby girl was here!

Lydia came to meet her baby sister a few hours later and thought she was great!  

All the grandpas and grandmas think Claire's pretty great, too!

 

We headed home on Christmas Eve morning, and our lives have never been the same since!

Lydia's 3rd Birthday Party--Rainbow Style!

With everyone's crazy schedules, we are having two birthday parties for Lydia this year, one for each family side.  Lydia chose to have a rainbow theme for her first party, and it was a lot of fun!

Lydia enjoyed all of her food and presents.

She was super excited when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her, and she blew out her three candles!  Lydia liked the cupcakes just a bit, too! :-)

Happy Almost 3rd birthday to this little peanut!  She's growing up SO fast!

Kindermusik

Here's what we've been up to in Kindermusik so far this year!

The kiddos made a box town, and Lydia made a bank.  She took along some quarters and stickers to hand out to her friends!

We recently had our first celebration/party.  Daddy, Grandma Moss, & Grandma Ten Clay were all able to come see what Kindermusik is all about.  Lydia LOVES doing this with her cousin McCoy every week!

Grandma Moss even got dragged into the action!

Story time

We also had picture day awhile ago, and Miss Heidi always manages to catch some cute ones! 

This is McCoy and Lydia's favorite way to end the day...rocking together.  (It's a load for the mommies, though!)  We love Kindermusik!

Lydia - November 2016

Now that it's December, it's about time I put up Lydia's November pictures.  Somehow, I don't see me getting on top of things more in the near future ;-)  So here's our month in pictures!

We soaked up as much nice weather as we could!  We don't like this early darkness thing now!

Visiting the farm animals one last time before winter.

Just because she's cute :-)

 Lydia's highlight of the month was probably going to see Disney on Ice with her cousins and friend.  We fought some nasty roads to get there, and she had no nap that day, but Lydia LOVED every minute of the show.  Seeing her Mickey friends, Frozen characters, and the Little Mermaid made her month...she's still talking about it!  Every time some new character she recognized came on the ice, she would jump, scream, and shout "I found them!"  Definitely worth it!

Some of Lydia's other favorites this month:

Helping Great-Grandma Vermeer bake Christmas cookies, decorating Christmas cookies with Vermeer cousins, Thanksgiving gatherings with family, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, playing with friends, "helping" Mom get ready for Baby Sister's arrival, trying to sing along to every song, and decorating the Christmas tree.

Lydia also loves to talk about seeing her Ten Clay cousins, Baby Jesus, & HoHo Santa at Christmastime.  She has told the doctor, nurse, and WalMart greeter all about this already... :-)

Daddy's helper

Reliving Mommy's childhood & shooting the ducks on Nintendo.

Lydia's dislikes this month:

Anything served at Thanksgiving meals!

Putting the angel on top of the tree!

This next month will be a big one for us!  We'll be celebrating Lydia's 3rd birthday (more than once!), our new little arrival, and the birth of our Savior.  Should be a great--and very busy--month! 

My Santa baby!