Happy 1st Birthday to our dear Clara Grace! What joy you have added to our family – your smiles and giggles and sparkling eyes. We love you and are delighted God gave us you!

Clara is now a running…she’s pretty fast on her feet. She’s always trying to climb up on things. She blows kisses and makes use of a few baby sign language words. She doesn’t say many words – chicken (also a early word for Anna), banana, mango, she can say mama and dada – but only when prompted, and maybe she says Becca, Isaiah, and Anna, but this is yet to be determined. She still only has one tooth (see in picture below).

For Clara’s birthday we had our neighborhood kids over and tied it in with continuing the Christmas story (The Three Wise Men) that we’d promised we tell them after our Christmas party. Clara’s party consisted of a Bible story with flannel-graph, cake, and water balloons. Afterwards a water fight broke out, no one was spared not even Clara or me.

Monday we had another small family party for Clara. We gave her a tiny stuffed panda. She was not pleased with the candle. This might have had to do with the fact that minutes before we saw a guy’s pants catch on fire at the mechanic’s shop across the street.

All our kids love Clara. And Clara always wants to be a part of the big kids play. I’m always surprised that how kind Anna is to her. Anna even shares her special panda bear (not pictured) with her.

Closing with a picture comparison of all our children at age one. Love these smiling faces!