A few more favorites from the 9 month photo shoot...

Clara - 9 Months

Sweet Clara will be 9 months on Wednesday. I can't believe it but it is true. She's quite the speed crawler and pulls up on everything she can. She has starting waving and says bye-bye. She is also very good at saying mama, but I still can't tell if she is referring to me or just says it randomly.

Clara gets into anything she can and already just looks at me and grins when I say no. She smiles a lot but not that full face smile that Caleb always had, so a little more reserved but still has plenty of charm.

She loves chasing her big brother and I love hearing them laugh together. Time 0ut for Caleb has become less effective because Clara heads straight for him while he is sitting on the stairs and starts climbing on him and the stairs.

She's a good little eater - a little more picky than Caleb was at the same age, but she definitely likes to eat.

Now if her hair would just grow a little faster!

We are so blessed and happy to be her parents - if only we could slow down time. We'll be celebrating her first birthday before I know it and that makes me a little sad.

Here are a few of Clara's 9 month photos taken this morning. http://brookekellyphotography.blogspot.com/2010/02/clara-9-months.html

Brother and Sister

Clara playing with Caleb's toys.

Caleb playing with hers.

Together watching our little river in the back that has formed due to all the snow and rain.

Clara likes to get right up under Caleb while he eats. Sometimes Caleb thinks it is funny and other times we have to watch to make sure he doesn't try to kick her down. Here they are during our little Valentine's Day party.

Snow!

We received several inches of snow on Friday night. We mostly enjoyed a lazy day staying warm inside, but we did get the kids out for a little while. Clara wasn't very impressed.

Poor thing had to wear blue because it was the warmest thing we had for her. I did adorn it with a pink pacifier. Clara enjoyed watching her brother act silly. Caleb loved sliding down the slick slide.

Here's Caleb playing baseball with a tennis ball and golf club...

Daddy and Caleb having some fun in the snow.

Mea Mea joined us for some outside fun too! Thanks to Mea Mea for making us yummy chili for dinner!

Circus!

We took Caleb to the Big Top on Saturday night with some friends from church. We ate at Spaghetti Factory and then walked over to the Sommet Center. Here's the gang on Broadway outside an ice cream shop.

Ready for the circus! Caleb was super excited to see elephants and tigers.

My smart friend brought in juice boxes and snacks for the kids so we didn't have to buy $20 drinks and cotton candy. Caleb was partial to the blue Ring Pops.

The elephant finale! The show started at 7 and lasted for 2 hours, so Caleb was exhasted by the end of the night, but he loved every minute. Seth and I loved seeing pure joy on his face. Thanks to Meagan for keeping Clara!

Christmas in Kingsport

We traveled to Kingsport the day after Christmas for a holiday visit with the Goods.

Wonderful Christmas Chaos

The two crazy cousins - shown here decorated as dogs - enjoyed playing and fighting with each other. It is a joy to see them play, but we all felt like we needed a recording going with statements such as "No," Share," "1, 2, 3" ... well you get the idea. It was cold outside so that limited the activity options. We found solace with the television.

The cousins

Clara & Grandpa

Christmas with GranWises

We were very excited to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in our own home, and we were even more excited to have the GranWises and Mea Mea with us.