eleven

Claire had a great party at our local gymnastics place, Tatarus.  I can't believe how old she is.  Last year she asked for Rainbow Looms (rubber bands you make bracelets out of) and this year she still wanted them.  A full year of her making amazing creations with her Rainbow Looms.  She makes up her own bracelet designs all the time and makes other great things like Frozen characters, rings, bookmarks, and much more.  She and I cleaned out her room and closet before her bday and packed up all her dolls, barbies, etc.  Then we rearranged her room and closet to make room for all her Rainbow Loom accessories.  She also is very into painting her nails right now and making designs on them.  She still doesn't care too much about clothes.  When we cleaned out her room we packed up quite a bit of clothes she had out grown.  I asked her if she felt she needed any clothes.  "no, I still have plenty" was her answer.  Maybe all that comes at 12 or 13.  I'm fine to wait.

Claire and some of her friends

one of her friends know how much she loves cheese puffs, so he gave her a whole bucket!

rainbow looms

Rainbow looms, have you heard of them?  They are the center of Claire's world right now.  She received her first "loom" for her birthday and was gifted many bags of bands for Christmas and even spent her hard earned money on a case and second loom and hook.  Since then she has been rainbow loom crazy.  All her free time is spent doing one of the following:  make a rainbow loom bracelet, watching a how-to video to learn a new pattern, or coming up with her own new pattern and making her own how-to video.  She is amazingly good at it. She has taught me a few things and I am slow and easily confused.  She gives them away to family and friends.  She has made a little money taking orders for them.  She has a drawer full of ones she just made for fun.  She also made a case for her i-touch, some head bands, rings, key chains, book marks, and pencil accessories.  

double digits

 Claire turned 10!!!  She kept saying, "double digits!"  She chose to have a girl cousin sleep-over for her party.  She wanted to play bingo with fun prizes.  I enjoyed picking out things I thought these girls would like.  Her big gift was a new bike with gears, so she can keep up with us on the hills.  She also got her ears pierced and loved all the earrings she received as gifts.  In some ways she seems older but then she comes downstairs in a princess outfit and I'm glad she is not growing up too fast.

she requested a pink cake

nervous 

but no tears

Carter left this sweet note on Claire's door for her to see when she woke up.  Priceless.

claire swims

I realized this year that Claire is a really good swimmer.  Not just in free style, but all of the strokes.  This was her third year on the swim team (her brothers did not swim this year-made me sad-also great swimmers).  This year she really figured out butterfly (I am still trying to figure it out) and does a beautiful and fast stroke.  I enjoyed watching her swim and I also enjoyed how she would meet people from the other team (as they waited to race).  "Jane said she is going to the beach next week," "who?" "oh, this girl I met from the other team."  I love Claire and her swimming and her friendliness. 

claire happenings

What's Claire been up to, you ask?

showing off her bars skills

serving pancakes at the swim team fundraiser

had a piano recital with cousins

and found some time to cuddle with Max

working girl

Claire was hired to be in a commercial that will be on the internet.  She was picked to work two days (45 minutes one day, 1 1/2 hours another day).  She got paid $100 for each day of work.  She was so excited!  Her brothers were quite jealous of her paychecks.  Here are a few photos of her "on location."

Claire's ninth

 Claire turned nine!!  She had a big bash at Pump it Up and now has enough crafts/jewelry making kits to keep a small town busy for a year.

 She got her long awaited American Doll from us and some matching clothes.

Claire at nine:  still happy as ever, still makes us laugh, still hasn't met a stranger.



piano princess

our princess has started piano



olympics 2020?

We all enjoyed staying up too late and watching the Olympics this year.  Claire especially loved the gymnastics.  After a few days of watching them, she made her own balance beam in the bonus room and did her own routines.  She even wore her leotard, but left her little skirt off because, "mom, they don't wear skirts...I wish they wore skirts, but they don't."  She announced to the family that she was going to do gymnastics in the Olympics some day...and do swimming.  

busy little bee

Claire has been a busy little bee lately. She set up a bowling alley in her room with books she inherited from her brothers that she doesn't like to read.

She made some items to sell in her shop. When I asked her why she didn't have any necklaces, bracelets, or tiaras she said she didn't know why. The influence of brothers I guess.

And she made this at school. I thought her answers were cute and wanted to remember them. Her dream for the world: for the world not to smoke. For my country: to be nice. For my community: to not litter.

adoption

Today is Claire's adoption day. On the way to school I asked her if she was going to tell her teacher that it was her adoption day today. She said, "mom, I don't know if she knows that I am adopted, but I will tell her." This put a big smile on my face. Jared gave me a funny look and when Claire was out of the car he said to me, "of course her teacher knows, Claire looks different than us, she is Chinese!" I tried to explain to him how great this moment was...that even though Claire knows she is Chinese and looks different than us...at that moment she wasn't thinking about it...and that tells me she doesn't think about it much...which means we are doing a good job...which makes me so happy.

make-overs

Claire loves to do "make-overs". She has a stash of play make-up in my bathroom. This time she did her cousin Sydney's make-up (notice the great lip stick application) and Sydney did Claire's. You can't see in this picture, but they have glitter all over their faces. When do girls start wearing make-up for real?? It can't come soon enough for Claire.

clean up

How do you get your messy daughter to keep her newly de-junked, re-organized room clean? Promise her these press-on nails if she can go 2 weeks straight with a clean room. Worked like magic.

tangled

After watching the movie Tangled about a million times, Claire figured out a way to relive the movie. She found Carter's old karate belts and tied them together. She walks around the house with her long hair. The best part is letting it drape down the stairwell.

Claire's words

Claire came home from church this past Sunday and wrote this down:

Hi, I'm Claire. I just want to tell you about Jesus. Jesus is real. He is our brother. He loves us. That is why he died for us. I know that he is real. That is why we have Sunday. I want to be like Jesus. I love him. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I am one proud mom.

brave

I think I have mentioned how it took us awhile to get use to having a girl. A girl that seemed to cry over everything. Everything. Well, we found something she doesn't cry about. Having her dad pull her teeth. She has lost 6 now, and every one she has let Allen pull. And they didn't come easy. We don't know why she is so brave about this, but we are quite proud of her.

Side note...her brothers are just about done with baby teeth and they have never let Allen pull their teeth. A fact we make sure to let her know everytime she is so brave.

on a walk and furniture

Yesterday I found princess Claire walking her pillow pet

when I took her picture it reminded me that I never posted pictures of our finally furnished great room. So...here is the long awaited couch. Sorry you had to sit in kitchen chairs while you were here, Brad and Susan. We love having a sectional; the whole family can lounge together. The coffee table is made from the planks of a WWII Liberty ship-I love how it turned out.
Our kitchen table is huge, just how I wanted it. It is made from 100 year old barn wood. We also got all our curtains up in both rooms, which turned out great. We had been in our house about 3 months before we had furniture in our great room, but now I can say it was worth the wait.

the dress

Claire finally got the dress she has been dreaming about. She had explained it in great detail: "touching the floor so you can't see my feet, puffy so it always looks like I am spinning." It was at the top of her birthday list. Well, Grammy and Mimi did not disappoint. And now Claire is in heaven and doesn't mind having to pick up her dresses a little as she walks up stairs and loves to sit in a muffin and tell everyone to come look how big it is, so big she can rest her head on it.

Can you say future beauty queen? Scary, I know.

Her second favorite gift came from mom and dad. She enjoys giving her brothers a ride down to the lake. Unfortunately, her dresses are too puffy to fit in the car.

gotcha

Six years ago this princess came into our lives. We spent the weekend celebrating her and remembering when she joined our family. We looked back at journal entries and laughed at some memories we forgot. Like when she was almost two and would cry when the doorbell rang because she thought it was a babysitter. I would have to explain to the FedEx guy that she wasn't scared of him, she just didn't want him to babysit her. And how she would say things like "I don't want it....nite nite", "I don't want it...doctor". And how when she was stressed, like there was too much noise, she would scratch all over her little bald head, and it would seem to help.

We love you Claire, our little princess.