Happy Birthday Claire Bear!

5 incredible years ago, today, my life was changed forever. Madeline Claire Paty entered the world at 3:51 am after 19 hours of excruciating labor...and I haven't been the same since. She has been the most tremendous blessing and the most amazing little girl. I am honored to be her Mama!
Cody likes to give me a hard time about being the "birthday princess" because I like for the celebration to begin a little early and drag it out a few days. Apparently, Miss Claire has inherited this innate quality. We began our princess' celebration on Friday evening with a "girls night out" while her brother and Daddy went on a church campout. Meredith went to my parents house in Abilene, and Claire and I hit the salon for some manicures. She was quite a hit with all the ladies! We then headed to get her ears pierced. I was so proud of how well she did when the ladies (there were two of them, per my request, to do the job at the same time) pierced her ears. A few BIG tears rolled out of those big brown eyes, but after a couple of minutes, she was fine.
*****Disclaimer****
This is where I tell you that I took a total of 12 PICTURES of these two special events, and the camara from &%^# ate them....again. So just like our vacation pictures that I grieved over for a week and then they re-appeared, I'm counting on the manicures and ear piercing extravaganza to do the same. So basically, a couple of months from now when I'm lacking in posts, I'll post these pictures. Stay tuned! But for the record....she was the cutest thing on the planet.

Her birthday party was Saturday night upon return of brother and daddy. We headed to the gymnastics sports center where she takes lessons, and 16 of her little friends joined us for cake and fun. She received her first pieces of Brighton jewelry (sigh...it has begun) and quite possibly every Webkinz/Barbie/My Little Pony toy/accessory possible. It looks like the Wal-Mart toy aisle threw up in my living room. I just like the fact that girl toys are somewhat quiet. When Gregory's birthday rolls around, it seems like all of my friends purposefully purchase the LOUDEST possible toys...tractors, cars, dinosaurs that roar, etc. I may eat those words of saying that girls toys are quiet after I listen to the 5 second snippits of songs that Barbie and the Diamond Castle sings for the 1000th time in one day......thank you very much Grandad...love ya like a coldsore.

Ok, Blogger isn't letting me use the pictues that I DO have, so it just wasn't meant to be tonight. I'll try again tomorrow! But until then, just know that my baby turned 5 today and it has been a precious weekend celebrating all that she is to this family. She is pure sunshine.