Blueberry Picking!

Today was the first day that the blueberries were available for picking at our favorite picking farm. The girls, especially Emily, were excited to go as they love picking and fresh fruit!

The blueberries were very plentiful!

Claire did a great job picking...from my bucket!

Mommy, this is funny!

(To Claire if it is more then just fun it is funny)

Emily teaching Claire how to pick, since Emily is our pro!

"Just the big blue ones!"

The end results was just over 3lbs of blueberry goodness.

If it hadn't been so hot we might have doubled that!

Town Beach

Our town beach (what Brett refers to as an oversized sandbox) opened on June 24th and of course rained for the next four days. So when the rain cleared we made our way out for our first visit on the 30th!

Claire LOVED it once she realized it wasn't too deep, but is still a bit unsure of the "waves" which are really wakes from the boats out on the lake. ;-)

Emily is our daredevil now who takes off into the water without fear. She'll be starting swim lessons next week that will hopefully give her some skills if she finds herself out a little too far!

This is the only picture I got of both girls at the same time.

They were too busy building their sand castles!

Emily Puts On A Puppet Show

Emily decided to put on this impromptu puppet show. (Thanks Susan!)
Note: The password for the video is "nolan"

Emily Puts On A Puppet Show from Brett Nolan on Vimeo.

Emily put on this impromptu puppet show. She doesn't seem so keen about Claire joining in. ;)

Emily and Claire's new stats!

So today both Emily and Claire had their well-child appointments and both were very brave girls! Claire ended up getting one shot, and Emily not only had two shots but also had to have some blood work done. Mommy made sure to reward her with jelly beans afterwards. ;-)

Starting with our 4-year-old. Emily makes us laugh every day with her silly antics and the things that she says. Her favorite color is now purple, she loves butterflies and flowers, and she is still attached at the hip with her beloved Bear Bear. She LOVES her gymnastics class and is now showing off her independent forward rolls to anyone that will watch.

Emily's Stats:
Weight: 29lbs (6th%tile)
Height: 38.25" (20th%tile)
BMI: 14.02 (the girl is skinny! ;-) )


Moving on to our 18mo-er. Claire is the Energizer Bunny reincarnated. She is into everything and anything and just doesn't stop. Mommy and Daddy certainly have their work cut out for them with her. She is also the most loving/giving toddler around as she is constantly giving hugs and kisses. She loves to gift things to people as well, including her half chewed food. ;-) She definitely has a strong personality that should be interesting to see once she starts talking in sentences! She has also just mastered her first multi-syllable word....Cinderella!

Claire's Stats:
Weight: 20lbs 9oz (5th%tile)
Height: 30.75" (23%tile) - girl had a growth spurt of 2-in since January which now puts her in double digits for %tiles. Woohoo!

Emily's 4th Birthday Party

On Saturday Emily had her birthday party with her friends. Here are some pictures showing off the fun they had.

Emily is 4 Today!

Hard to believe our little girl is four today! Time flies! She is growing up to be such an interesting young lady! Happy Birthday to our little princess who makes us smile and laugh every day...and also pull our hair out. :-)

Emily at 4 days old...

Emily at 1 year old:

Emily at 2 years old:

Emily at 3 years old:

Emily at 4 years old!

Just a Spot of Tea

Emily & Claire have a nice cup of (pretend) tea before bed. :)

Snow, snow, lots of SNOW!

While Claire took a good long nap today, Emily and I went to play in the snow outside. Here is a short video of her having FUN!

Last Gymnastics Class!

Emily has been taking Gymnastics class this fall/winter and the last day of the session was today. They got to show off what they had learned in front of their "audience" inside the gym. (Normally we have to watch from outside the room.) Emily did AWESOME! She went first for two of the three stations! For those that know her this type of situation usually ends up in her sitting in one of our laps and not participating. It probably helped that her friend Emma was there today.

At the end of class they had a ceremony and gave them medals, and here are pictures from that. See if you can spot Claire, she was trying to join in!

Getting her Medal

When asked to put her arms up for the photo she gave Mr. Nick a hug instead.

She has a HUGE crush on Mr. Nick. ;-)

Ta Da!!!

Group photo. Always fun to get a group of 3-5 year olds to pose and not fight over placement. Emily got a spot center in the back.

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Close up of her showing her medal off at home

When it's -7 degrees outside we like to paint!

With frigid temperatures outside, the girls and I have decided to have a fun inside day. Starting out by finger-painting at 8:30am! Emily doesn't like to get "dirty" so she did it with a paint brush. Claire had never finger painted before (with paint) so once we established the paint wasn't food we were good to go. :-)

Emily's First Haircut!

Today Emily went to have her first haircut! They had her sit on a big booster seat on top of the chair and she wasn't so sure about that. However, she was very brave and sat like a big girl for the hairdresser. She is so happy and excited to show off her new do! Mommy is recovering nicely. ;-)

Pudding Fun!

Today the girls played with pudding! Emily started out by "finger painting" with it and quickly remembered she didn't like getting messy and switched to cookie cutters and spoons.

Claire on the other hand only thought it was food! :-)

Halloween Fun

Carving the pumpkins and trick-or-treating were part of our fun this year. Here are some photos of the girls getting ready for the big day! :-)

Claire's 1 year stats...

DING! DING!

CLAIRE MARIE NOLAN

Weighing in at: 17lbs 13oz (6%tile)
Towering in at: 26.75in (8%tile)
Head butting in at: 18in (70%tile)

She's lean, she's mean, she's a fighting machine! That's our girl. Little, but solid and a big head. ;-) Her height/weight ratio puts her in at 60% so she's at least pretty proportionate.

She is pulling herself up to standing on anything, everything, and anybody. The last day or so has started to slowly cruise on furniture a bit. I predict walking in the next month or two. She cracks us up with her antics and "evil" smile when she's up to no good. When she wants something she doesn't STOP...ever. LOL She is saying "dadda, mamma, yesssssss, buh bye, and buh buh (bottle)". She now claps when she is really happy about something (which is typically listening to music) and has started singing along.

It's hard to believe our little one is...well...ONE! But it is so exciting to see her grow!

Claire is ONE!

Wow, this year has definitely flown by! Our little Claire is now one year old today! On Sunday we had a party with family to celebrate and here is the slide show of the highlights. Her well-baby appointment is on Wednesday and we'll be sure to share stats then.

Emily's day out with Mommy...

Today Mommy and I went into Boston with some friends to play at the Boston Children's Museum. I had so much fun playing in the various rooms and can't wait to go back soon. Mommy took so many pictures that she is including a slideshow for you to visit of it. You can also see some pictures with my friends Brody and Joel. Enjoy!

Puddle Jumping!

Nothing like spontaneously going out and puddle jumping in a Summer storm!

Ready? Set? GO!!!

SPLOOSH!!!

This is fun Mommy!!! Come join me! :-)

Claire is 9mo!

Hard to believe our little one is growing up so fast! She is now crawling around the house EVERYWHERE and trying to play with all her big sister's toys which doesn't make Emily happy. ;-) She's eating solid foods and can feed herself finger food. She LOVES blueberries as you can see in the picture. :-)

She had her 9mo appt today and here are the stats:

HEIGHT: 26.5in (14%tile)

WEIGHT: 15lbs 5oz (3%tile)

HEAD: 17.5in (64%tile)

So still small and skinny with a big head. LOL

We thought she popped her first tooth yesterday (first time I felt anything) but the little bugger kept thrusting her tongue out to thwart any successful attempts at confirmation. When I mentioned it to the doctor he said he'd take a look for me and COULDN'T for the same reason. LOL He complimented me on her strong tongue. ;-) We did get confirmation, however, after her shot today when she started screaming. It pulled the tongue back and I could see TWO teeth (the bottom two center) had poked through the gum. So we've got teeth!!!

Happy Meal Hat

Those Burger King crowns have nothing on McDonalds' happy meal hat!

Emily Sees Her First Movie At The Theater

Emily went to see her first movie in a movie theater today...Toy Story 3. When the PIXAR logo came on the screen she said (rather loudly) "the lamp is going to jump on the 'i' Daddy...see it squished it!". Needless to say, the entire theater laughed! (I guess she's seen a few PIXAR films.)