Face it...

I do NOT do a good job at keeping up with my blog...terrible job actually. I think that those that view this also see pics on my Facebook page, so maybe that's why I'm not as motivated. Maybe I should start using it to write more instead of post pics, I don't know but if I don't do something different, it's going to be non-existent here soon!

To update you, life has been good and busy in the Newell house... and full of sickness. Carson and Claire were both sick for at least 5 days each and they did not overlap so, it was basically 10+ days of NO FUN! They both handled it like champs of course, but being contained to the house to try to keep our germs to ourselves wasn't fun.

Now that we're past the sickness, we've been getting ready for Christmas and looking forward to a fun day here in Vegas just us 4. We will miss being with all our family back in INDIANA, that's for sure.

Claire is 8 and 1/2 months old and so happy and fun! Her and Carson are starting to play so much together and he is so good with her. I caught him the other day making sure she had enough toys to play with and apologizing to her when he accidently hit her in the head. Sweet boy... Carson is hilarious lately, I mean hilarious...he walked out from brushing his teeth the other night with me to the living room and looked at Daniel and said, "I love you Daddy Daniel Newell." We were laughing SOOOO hard! Where did that come from? He is so full of love and laughter...pure joy overflows from him and the only other place that I know that simply comes from is the Lord. We pray with Carson every night and he is VERY routine in his prayers and it makes us laugh EVERY night as we have to go in a certain order and sit in a certain spot, etc. We thank God every night for the blessing he gave us in our children and we pray that during this season you too will be thankful for the greatest Gift, our Lord Jesus!

SOOOOO behind

Here are pics of Claire at 5 and 6 months...I've been HORRIBLE at keeping up with this lately... life is busy, but very good! I also left my camera in Indiana and didn't have it for a few weeks so, I don't have a ton of pics of my growing little girl.

5 months with puppy and a cute polka dot dress



6 months with puppy and some others


Claire is doing amazing...her torticollis is gone, they don't see a need to monitor any longer, however a nutrition specialist came over the other day and we talked about the crazy amount of spit up that this girl has and they told me they think she is getting too much too fast so, over the past couple days I have cut down on what she eats (because like her bro was, she will just eat and eat) and it definitely has improved, it's not gone, but I'll take a little improvement. Carson is still madly in love with her. One of my favorite things that he does with her is he holds her hand everytime we are in the car going somewhere...precious! They are just a joy and I am having one of those, "so happy to be a mommy" moments! God is good!

Claire has 6 six teeth, yeah, that's right, 6! And the great thing is, they haven't bothered her a bit! :) She is on the move....she rolls EVERYwhere and is just about crawling...today I caught her totally up on her hands and toes..she has scooted a little forward but hasn't mastered it! Man, I'm not ready for this!

Here is Carson and his best bud, Jack!

Claire's 4 month update

Out little smiler is already 4 months, well, actually she's getting close to 5 by now but that's just b/c I am not so good at updating lately. She weighed 13.4 lbs. at her checkup and is in the 25-50% and she was only in the 10th for height, but I don't remember the measurement. We make short kids, that's a fact! She's doing wonderful...sleeping a ton...about 20 hours a day...can't ask for anything better than that. She is super happy when she is awake (who wouldn't be after all that sleep) and is becoming more and more social. She just laughs and smiles at her big brother all the time! She is rolling a ton from her belly to her back but can't get back to her belly again. She will be on the move soon but I'm not rushing it! Here is her 4 month pic with her puppy dog and then just some others over the past couple weeks.

If you can't tell, she has a little pony tail in the above pic! :)

I guess Carson deserves a little update as well. He is a NON STOP talker...oh man...it's so fun and brings about a lot of laughter! He has become SO independent saying "my do it, my do it" all the time but of course we try to explain to him that he doesn't ALWAYS get to do it! He is very particular and organized and has the most amazing memory. He LOVES music, especially Veggie Tales....he knows many of their songs by heart and watching him sing along is hysterical! He just ADORES his little sister...he has started to TRY to wrestle with her some but of course that's a big no no! Life is busy in our home but life is good.

Carson and friends playing.

Family Movie night (Claire didn't last long).

Watching it rain in Vegas...a rare occasion.

Silly boys...

Need a smile?

I'm WAY behind on blogging but...this will make you SMILE!

Happy Girl!

July 4th

Here are some more pics from our trip to Madison.

All the Newells..
Sweet polka dot Claire
Carson had SO much fun with his cousins ( I was just making sure he didn't fall in the fish pond).
Daniel's mom celebrated her 60th birthday on the 4th of July. Here is a blanket from the grandkids, it brought tears to her eyes.
Carson enjoying the pool...
And a lollipop!

Claire is Three Months

I can't believe our little peanut is 3 months old ALREADY! She is such a wonderful little thing. She's sleeping 11+ hours now at night and naps amazingly throughout the day. She's already on a 4 hour eating schedule and I can't express how amazing that is for this nursing mama!



Here is a video of her having some tummy time...

A visit to Madison

We headed back to Madison, IN, our hometown for a visit to see family and to celebrate Nancy's (Daniel's mom) 60th birthday! Here are some pics from our trip (more to come later when I get them from other family members since I forgot my camera).

Claire meets her great gramma...
Carson and Landon enjoyed many tractor rides with my dad...

Proud grandpaThey were teaching grandpa that it's cool to suck your fingers :)

Art project

I needed an outline of a little kid for an activity in our preschool classroom for church so, Carson's little body was perfect....


Then it turned into a fun coloring project including his best friends, Larry and Elmo :)

The completed project :) (Daniel enjoyed helping along with this)

Torticollis

We noticed a few days ago that Claire favors turning her head to look to the right....we had her 2 month well check a week ago but neither us or the Dr. noticed anything. A couple days later we saw that she was looking to the right way more than the left and when you tried to force her the other way, she faught it. I started to worry that she had torticollis (which means twisted neck) or that she couldn't hear me on that side. Well, I decided to play it safe and took her to the pediatrician. So glad I did b/c he said she does have a little torticollis. This just means that her neck muscles on one side are tight and need to be stretched out. So, we will start physical therapy with her soon to work on this. The good thing is, she has a really strong neck and holds her head up well and does go to the left, just not as much.. AND, she sleeps on her belly and she doesn't just sleep on the side that she turns too, she does both so that is great. Just keep her and us in your prayers as we work toward getting this healed.

Here are some recent pics of the kiddos to enjoy :)

While one kid is posing for the camera, the other is saying FEED ME!!!

Hanging out outside enjoying the Vegas sun!

Smiles for everyone...

Claire at Two Months

2 Months Old

Our little girl is growing so fast! We had her two month checkup today and she gained another 2 lbs. in a month. So, she is 4 lbs bigger than at birth (currently 11.2). She's starting to smile a lot and follow us with her eyes. She's sleeping great during the day AND at night. She doesn't fight her naps like Carson did at this age so it's nice to just put her down and not hear much from her. She's done up to 10 hours at night, but is steady around 8 :) I'm loving that! She has rolled over already from her tummy to her back which is way sooner than Carson did, might be b/c her head is MUCH smaller than his :) Carson is still so in love wants to be where she is, especially if someone is holding her.

Carson even shares his favorite stuffed animal with her...now that's LOVE...

Claire at One Month

I'm a little late on this post (b/c now she's almost 2 months) but here is a picture of Claire at ONE month old. We did this with Carson where we took a picture of him with his puppy stuffed animal each month and it was so neat to see him grow bigger and bigger! Now we're doing it with Claire.
She is doing great! Sleeping well at night and napping amazingly during the day! We are so blessed to have such a precious little girl. Here are a few more pics to enjoy! Carson is still in love...

It's love...