My sweet friend Nicole has always been incredibly generous in photographing our family (I have the kids and Kyle generally covered but she makes sure that I exist in our family's history too!). After Holden's birth she not only took pictures at the hospital but also did some mom and baby shots once we were home. I hardly remember this time in our lives and it was only 3 months ago. Such a whirlwind. It's crazy how much he's already changed...especially in the cheek department :)

Since my kids don't believe in sleep (philosophical disagreement) Holden was awake the majority of the time...hence the nursing pictures. When it comes to newborn photos you just have to work with what your baby gives you! 

 Dear Aunt Tara and Uncle Phil,

Thank you for my birthday present. I've been wearing it on and off since I got it yelling "I'm late! I'm late! I'm really really late!". It's from the movie but it's also kind of true since my mom takes a long time to get ready to go places. I also asked my mom if this was the dress I'm wearing when I throw flowers at you at your wedding. She says no but I think that really should be your call. Let me know.

Here are some pictures of me in my present:

In this one, I'm striking my standard pose.

In this one, I'm doing a jig because...well, why wouldn't I?

And in this one, I'm channeling my inner Queen of Hearts.

If you get a chance, can you text my mom and tell her that Alice doesn't wear pants under her dress? She thinks she has me convinced, but I know better.

Love you and miss you,
Claire Champion Chicken Little

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.