Claire is now 3. This is big news. This means that my 365 Project is complete. A photo a day from her 2nd birthday to her 3rd birthday. I've had a week to reflect on my project and here are my thoughts.

-It was a labor of love. It was definitely a difficult task but for the vast majority of days, I was excited to take, edit, and post my picture and for the most part, I was proud of each days' end product. And on a similar note, I am truly surprised at how not-annoying it was to do this. I went into this assuming that there would be days that I would want to drop-kick my camera and curse the day I ever took on this project but that really never was the case.

-My photography has changed a lot over the last year. Since wrapping this up, I've gone through the whole album a few times and I'm struck by how clearly I was going through different editing style phases. I'm thinking that I found my style by the end but I suppose I thought I had found my style midway through...so time will tell.

-My child has changed over the last year. She started this in diapers. Seriously, diapers. I can't even remember her being in diapers now. Physically, it's fun to watch her hair get longer, her curls get springier and watch her start out so petite (I still can't get myself to say skinny) and end up with some meat on her bones.

-Most importantly our lives are happy, fun, and full of love. There is something worth remembering from every single one of our days.

In honor the end of my 365 Project, I thought would be fun to pick some favorites.

First, here are my top 10 favorite photos in chronological order (don't count too closely, choosing 10 out of 365 was basically impossible).

Since Grandma Pam was just as obsessed with this project as I was, I thought it would be fun to have her pick out her favorite 10 photos (again, don't count).

Grandma Pam's Favorites:

And just for fun, here is a list of the 10 photos that had the most "likes" on Facebook.

Facebook's Favorites (in order of fewest to most likes):

For months, Claire has been telling anyone who would listen (grocery store clerks, her doctor, grandpa's poker buddies) that when she turned three, she was going to start ballet. Well the anticipation finally came to an end since Claire had her first official ballet class this morning. We've always taken her to a variety of activities but now that she's three, activities suddenly go from parent/child participation to Claire riding solo. It's a totally bizarre concept for me but she took it in stride. As soon as her ballet teacher introduced herself, Claire follow suite and lined up with the other little ballerinas and flashed me a confident thumbs up before walking into the studio. Parents wait in the hallway while class is being held but before the doors were closed, I watched her raise her hand when the teacher called her name and got one more cool-as-a-cucumber-thumbs-up shot my way. She told me that her favorite part was "dancing" and doing "tip-toes". To top it all off, she gets to be in the Spring recital. Get ready for that cuteness.

I didn't get any shots of class since the doors were closed but luckily I took some "first day of class" pics before we went in.

For Valentines Day, Kyle printed out my blog posts from the beginning of my blog until Holden's birth, dubbing it "Sparkles to Spare, The First Years". Not only was it an amazing gift (I didn't even realize this could be done!) but it was also an excellent reminder of why I blog and why I need to start doing more of it again.

With this in mind, I remembered that I had taken quite a few pictures on the snow day that we had several weeks ago and realized that if I didn't put them here, I likely wouldn't do anything with them...and that would obviously be a shame. So here it goes.

This year, we had one day of significant snow. Luckily, our snow day happened on a Saturday evening when we were already holed up at Grandma and Grandpa's house for the weekend. Not only do they have way more room to roam but they also tend to get a lot more snow than we do so it turned out to be perfect timing. Aunt Jin was visiting when it began to fall and by the time we realized that this was some legit snow, it was too late for her to get her little car up the hill to her parent's house. This was fine by us though since it turned into a old school slumber party at my parents house.

We started out just enjoying the snow as it fell (and eating it of course) and when it had accumulated a bit, we went back outside for some nighttime frolicking (the only time I frolic is when it snows). We had a great time that included snowball fights, a snow ramp, an igloo and lots of hot chocolate. The snow day has solidified a theory that I've been developing over months of observing that my daughter prefers to be naked (even in the winter months) and refuses to sleep with any blankets. I think I've discovered a redhead genetic mutation that makes her run hot all the time...or not feel cold. Another reason why readheads will eventually take over (she recently told me "I want to take over everyday."...believe her.

I have no idea what this face is but I like it. 

The little guy was obviously too little of a guy to participate but he sure looked cute in his snow suit. Unfortunately it was too bright for him to open his eyes so I don't think the actually saw any snow.

Holden wasn't big on the snowball fight this year but he was all about a sink bath that day.

Since we weren't home during the snow day and missed the neighborhood fun, our neighbors left us a little (big) surprise.

Claire wasn't so sure about it. First she gave it a good kick.

Then she stared it down.

And when that didn't have the effect she was hoping for, she went for her standby...the curtsey.

Here's hoping we get another great snow day next year.

We have weathered the storm of having a newborn. Our sweet little guy is two months old and in my book, that's no longer newborn. I'll be the first to admit that our "newborn storm" was a bit stormier than most. We had a scary birth, I had a slower than anticipated recovery, our little guy spent several nights in the hospital with RSV, and subsequently we had to quarantine ourselves against cold/flu season until baby boy was 2 months old and had built up a little more resilience. Oh yeah, and our dog has cancer. Seriously, a tough season for our family.

That said, we are cruising along. I suspect that our resilience is based on the that fact that anything seems doable when you are faced with extra scary possibilities early on. Plus we are head over heals in love with our sweet boy. Through all of the tough stuff, he puts a smile on our faces with his big bright eyes and goofy grin. He's seriously the nicest baby ever. That's really the only way I can describe his little spirit. He's nice. It's a totally lame descriptor (as opposed to a mean baby?) but it's completely true. He loves to be held and cuddled but doesn't fight it when I lay him down. He adores his sister and doesn't protest in the least when she gives him her extra special hugs and kisses (think Elmyra from Looney Tunes). He wakes up a lot still (every two hours for the first 8 weeks-now we get a 4 hour stretch and then a 3) but when he wakes up, he almost never cries and just makes little noises, which I interpret as a baby's version of saying "Excuse me, I hate to wake you but I could really use some milk." When I get up and peek into his crib, all I see is two giant dark eyes staring up at me and I feel a little ache of love that I never knew existed before babies. When his eyes land on mine, 3 out of 4 times, he cracks a sweet little smile and I wonder how there was ever a time that we didn't have him. Like I said, nice.

So, two months. We are out of full-blown quarantine and we are finally able let the rest of the world meet our special boy. One by one, he's been meeting friends and family and I've discovered that not only is he a total charmer, he's also a bit of a flirt...and it doesn't hurt that he might be one of the most handsome boys in the history of boys.

One of the highlights of ending our quarantine was our Sunday at Grandma Susie and Papa's house. The girls were ridiculously excited to see each other and were more than happy to pose for some pictures. Jack was a little less enthusiastic about pictures but just as adorable.

I love that the girls are holding hands in this one.

Yes, they are posing on an Oly Beer crate...that's how we roll.

Like I said, they missed each other.

One of my new favorite pictures...

Then the girls did some egg gathering. Have to earn your keep at Grandma Susie's farm!