Recently

Well, Scott is home and we are back to normal. Kind of. I mentioned in one of my birthday posts that Will has been sick yet again. He started running fever a few days after Scott returned home and it got up to 103.3. He was just miserable and he was having trouble turning his head (sore lymph nodes in his neck), as he has been the last several times he's been sick. We took him to the doctor and reminded her that this is the fourth time he's been in with a sore throat since May (our regular pediatrician moved this summer, so we've seen two or three different people since May). She agreed that it was tonsillitis again (his left tonsil was swollen past the midpoint of his throat) and said it was time to see an ENT.

I was able to get an appointment early the next week with an ENT in Midland. This doctor comes highly regarded and recommended. It was so nice to have him listen to us and take our concerns to heart. He examined Will's throat and asked us about his sicknesses this past year and concluded that it is time for Will to have a tonsillectomy. As I said, this doctor is highly regarded and a Christian, so I feel very comfortable putting my son in his hands for surgery.

Will's surgery takes place on August 13th (my little brother's 21st birthday!) in Midland. Please keep him in your prayers. It will probably be a tough recovery, but I am just looking forward to having my son healthy and happy after it is all over and done with. These past few months have been very difficult with him being sick every two or three weeks. Hopefully that will be put to an end!

Other news...I have changed my work schedule again. I am going to be spending Mondays and Tuesdays at home with Claire (and maybe Will--we have to iron out some things first) and she will go to Children's Day Out on Wednesdays and Fridays and stay home with Scott on his day off on Thursdays. We are hoping this will reduce my stress level and increase the level of cleanliness at our house! Also, Claire has gotten to an age where she wants to be playing, crawling (not walking yet!), etc. all the time and she just can't do that at my workplace without getting into everything and making messes of herself and lots of other things! Not that my boss wanted her to go...she is actually quite sad Claire will be leaving the office, but it will just make me a more effective employee. I'll probably be able to do as much or more in three days than I was able to do in five with Claire around.

In a couple of weeks, we are going with our youth group kiddos to Arlington for a Six Flags trip. Bonus! We also get to see the Malletts, our dear friends who left us out here in West Texas a year ago. I am excited to get to see our pals. We haven't told Will yet, but I know he will be super excited to see Ryland and Raylee too.

I'll leave you with a few cute pics from the last couple of weeks:

Claire loved playing the piano! She was even singing along as she hit the keys.

Will, wearing Claire's hat. He wanted to wear it because it was green and so were his shirt and pants. Matchy, matchy!

And finally, while I was in Katy I used my birthday money (plus a little extra) to purchase a new bedding set for our bedroom. I surprised Scott with it when he came home. I really love the colors and the curtains make our room REALLY dark which we LOVE!

There & Back Again

Finally! Pictures from our trip to Katy are here.

On our way, we stopped in Austin to see my brother Kendall (as you might remember from a previous post). Here we are with Kendall and his girlfriend, Stephanie.

Claire playing the part of a pool-side hottie :)

Will LOVES to swim. Here he is doing his thing!

On the 4th, we went to my great aunt and uncle's house in Coldspring on Lake Livingston. Here are Uncle Tom, Claire, and Aunt Ruthie.

Aunt Ruthie and Will in the "little pool" (aka hot tub).

A view of the lake house looking up from the shore.

Looking from the deck to the pier and the lake.

Claire opening birthday gifts (and Will helping).

My grandma, Mom, me and Claire.

Claire and me in my parents' pool.

Birthday Girl Pictures

My college friend Kathy lives near my parents in Houston. She is an amateur photographer (she has two adorable little boys that she can't help but take pictures of) and we asked her to come and grace us with her talents on Claire's birthday. She took some amazing photos of Claire that day while Will and her oldest boy, Patrick, played with my mom in the pool. Here are the results!

This one is my absolute favorite. My little birthday girl in her birthday suit with a great big grin on her face!

A classic Claire face. Ooo!

Yummy cupcake!

...And in the blue outfit :)

Claire's Birthday Party

Yep, I'm a bad mom. I know it's been like 3 weeks since her birthday, but we had some camera problems and sickness (AGAIN--more news on that later), so I haven't gotten caught up til now. Anyway, here's pictures from Claire's first birthday party on July 4th!

That morning, eating her blueberry muffin

Happy Birthday, Claire Bear!

Mom, Dad and Claire a few minutes after birth.

Will meets Claire for the first time.

First "family of four" photo

Claire in the hospital with an IV, two days old.

Sweet brother; Claire is about one week old.

A special dress and shoes; about one month old.

Miss Priss; about 2 mos. old.

Thanksgiving

Christmas

Springtime

One year ago today, we were blessed by the birth of our precious daughter. Claire Elise Prather was born at 10:14 am, July 8, 2007, weighing 6 lbs. and 10 oz. Her hair was light brown and she had dark blue eyes. She now weighs about 18.5 lbs. and has very blonde hair (she's been called a tow-head and a cotton-top) and striking blue eyes. Here are a few of my favorite things about Miss Claire Bear:

1. She loves to hug and kiss.

2. When I put her to sleep, she pats me.

3. She loves to sing and dance. Her favorite song right now is "The Backyardigans" theme song. She'll just start bobbing along to it with a big smile on her face when it comes on.

4. She adores her brother with all her heart. He just looks at her and she breaks into a huge grin and most times just cracks up laughing.

5. She has the best belly laugh.

6. She makes the funniest sounds...I can't even begin to describe how she does them. My favorite sound she makes is something that sounds like "deedledeedledeedle..."

7. She has no fear. She likes to hang upside down, climb, etc.

8. She said "mama" for the first time on Mother's Day.

9. Her favorite word right now is "cat." My parents have a cat and Claire is obsessed with her. However the cat is not so impressed with Claire :)

10. She is a very easy baby (when she's not sick or teething!). She is not afraid of most people and is pretty easy-going about being handed off to others.

11. She's a good eater. She'll eat just about anything and loves table food. She's going to be so much easier to transition from baby food to regular food than Will was!



Claire in Florida at 10 mos.

Happy Birthday, Little Claire Bear!

*Of course, on a special occassion such as this one, my camera card is not working. So, I can't show you any of the pictures we have taken in the past week, including Claire's birthday party on the 4th! As soon as I get it working, I'll share those...stay tuned :)

Still there?

Are you still there?? I am still here! I know...it's been almost a month since I've posted anything and you probably have every right to NOT check my blog anymore, but hey, give me a break. I've been pretty busy and therefore wiped out whenever I do have time.

So...what's been going on, you might ask? About the minute we got back from our Florida trip, Will became sick again (he had just finished a round of antibiotics). We got him well and then a few days later he was sick again. I'm beginning to think this kid may need to get his tonsils removed.

Then, last week, Claire started running fever...a pretty hot one too...about 100 to 102 degrees. She was really irritable and not eating well. She was super-restless at night. I chalked it up to teething, but by the fourth day of the fever, I was thinking maybe it was something else. Especially since I hadn't seen anything tooth-like in her mouth. I took her to the doc on Monday and he said her throat was red and prescribed Amoxicillin. Tueday, she woke up with a rash. I immediately thought, she's allergic to penicillin, because both my parents and I are. I took her back to the doctor and he said that he was pretty sure the rash would have come even if she hadn't taken the Amoxicillin because of her other symptoms. He said she had the "three-day measles" or Roseola. He did change her meds (probably just to set my mind at ease). He rash is pretty much gone now and she is eating and sleeping better. However, I have been giving her Benedryl to help with the itchiness of the rash! :)

In the meantime, Scott was busy getting ready for three back-to-back events starting on June 28th. He left last Saturday for Wilderness Trek in Colorado and will be returning on the 5th, only to turn around the VERY NEXT DAY and drive back to Wyoming for a mission trip. He will return from that on July 13th and our local VBS begins at 9:00 AM on the 14th and lasts three days. Thankfully, for the first two trips he doesn't have just a ton of responsibilities once he's there, but it is physically taxing. However, for VBS he is in charge and that comes at the very end of two physically exhausting trips. Please keep him in your prayers.

So, when not caring for sick kids and helping busy husband, I've been at work. Work has been a little nutty lately as it is full-swing wedding season and we only have one designer (we used to have three!). Since she's the only one, we've all been trying to pick up some of the slack.

Since Scott will be gone for two consecutive weeks, the kids and I have made the trip down to old H-town to stay with my parents. My mom flew in to Midland on the 1st and we drove here yesterday. On the way, we were able to visit my brother, Kendall, at his workplace, Callahan's General Store, in Austin, where he is a hat blocker. Then we ate dinner with him and his girlfriend, Stephanie. It was good to see them; it had been April when we saw them last.

The kids and I will be here until the 9th, when my dad will drive us back home. That means we will be here to celebrate Claire's first birthday! Tomorrow, we are going to my aunt's lakehouse for the Fourth and will have a little party for her there. So, I will definitely be posting again in the next few days to document that!