Happy Holidays

We recently had our pictures made for christmas cards and for Claire's 1.5 year pics. Here are a few of our favorites. We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

BOO!

Halloween has never really been my cup of tea. But now that I have a sweet little girl to dress up and show off, I think I will enjoy it much more! We decided to dress Claire up as a cat this year. 2 reasons...it didn't require any head accessories and she is obsessed with her Nonni's cats, so it only seemed appropriate. She's a little confused though, every time we ask her what sound a cat makes, she barks like a dog :) We also taught her to say BOO, so cute! Here are some pics of her at the pumpkin patch.

Songbird

It is not often that I have a funny story, that I feel is funny enough to actually share. However, I do this week! Some of our friends had been bugging me for the last several months to go kareoking (this was after I spilled the beans that I really like to do this sometimes).

So Last Friday everything fell into place and the stars were all in alignment. The 5 of us(Mark wasn't feeling good)went to dinner at Mi Cocina and happened to be right down the street from my all time favorite piano bar, Bent Tree Grill. This isn't any piano bar though, this is a special little hole in the wall, old person piano bar. I warned my friends but promised it would be a good time. Sure enough it was.

Luckily, Skip(the head piano guy) was playing that night, and he gladly let me get up and sing my 2 favorite songs. Crazy and Dream. While I was singing, I apparently gained a lifelong fan. David, an older gentleman walked over to my friends and told them I was a "songbird" and that he wanted to buy us all a round of drinks. They of course, gladly excepted this offer. After I walked off stage David preceded to tell me that I was a songbird as well, and that he would like to sing me a song and then dance with me. I politely thanked him for the drinks and quickly made my way back over to our table. We all had a good laugh, and decided the name of my practice should definitely be Songbird Chiropractic!

Unfortunately, I think that my lack luster response to David, really pissed him off! The rest of the night he would walk by our table and spout off ridiculous comments:

"That song I sang...that's a gem. You guys should show some respect." (What??!!)

"Oh yeah, I'm just an old drunk guy, what do I know?"

David?? Where did we go wrong? I thought we were friends. Remember me Songbird?? I guess I should have danced with him :)

We didn't let David get us down though. There were PLENTY of other people there to keep us entertained.

Another funny old man was dancing by himself, and would actually dance with a candle when the song was really good. He eventually made his way over to us and asked us all to dance. Being that he was from Terrell, TX Stephanie's hometown she decided to humor him.


Mistake! The entire time they danced, he commented on how nice her girls were! Seriously! Naughty old man!

That pretty much concluded our night at the piano bar, but we will definitely be making another appearance. Mark was pissed he missed out on all the fun!


Steph, me and Lisia

Another photo shoot with the little princess. She is now saying "I know, I know", "Clock", "Guys", "Right Now" (while shaking her finger), "Who is it" and "Hello".

Mother's Day Out

So, we decided to enroll Claire in Mother's Day Out. I would like to say that this was thoroughly planned out, and that we had been on the waiting list at First Baptist Church Plano for the last 6 months. I actually had the brilliant idea about 2weeks ago! Luckily, they had room and there were no problems in getting her started. It was an awesome idea because she ABSOLUTELY LOVES going. She is a totally different baby on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She has so much energy, and is just so much happier throughout the day. It makes us so happy to see her so happy. Here is the pretty girl on her first day :)

15 MONTHS

I have seriously been slacking on the updates lately. So here goes... Claire is ALL over the place. She started walking about a month ago, and has been making up for lost time ever since. She has been eating much better too. Her favorites are banana, peas and ezekiel bread. She has lots of new tricks as well! Let's see, she's a MASTER winker...that's her tride and true trick. She knows how to bark like a dog and meow like a kitty when we ask her what sounds they make. She can say HI now, and says it all the time. Her favorite words are Daddin (daddy) and Doggin (Doggy). Cindy thinks she might be German because of this (oh yeah, she really is....Stanga is German). She also graduated at church from the Crawlers room to the big girl room! I just can't believe how fast time is flying.

On a different note, please be praying for me as I take my next round of boards in 2 weeks :( Also, I have officially been excepted into the training program in Florida I was trying to get into. Now we have to start deciding WHERE to open up my practice in the next year or so. It's looking like Dallas is full, and they are encouraging us to look at other areas. Please pray that God will reveal his plan for us, and that we will be open to hearing it!

Holding Tight... 1st Anniversary

"Marriage is intended to bring joy. The married life is meant to be the happiest, fullest, purest, richest life. It is God's own ideal of completeness."

1 year ago today, at exactly this time, I married my Mark.

It makes me well up with those same tears, l year later just thinking about it.

In 1 year we have already made a lifetime worth of memories.

We have welcomed a beautiful daughter into the world. Loved each other through the postpartum blues, the stresses of being in school and at work while raising a child, career losses and career gains. We've held each other tight through the joys of being first time parents as well as the fears. We've been through 3 moves, and 4 cars AND many many Stars, Mavs and Texas games :)

Laughed. Cried. Loved. Lived Life.

We have both watched our marriage grow as we have grown in Christ, and I thank God every day for bringing you to me. You are my best friend, my partner, and the guy that makes my heart go pitter patter.

It's true, the 1st anniversary might not be quite as impressive as the 5th or the 10th. But, it is the anniversary of the day our life together began - the day that makes all these days after it so incredibly remarkable!


Happy anniversary, baby!

Updates...

It seems like every day now Claire is learning something new. I literally can't wait to get home everyday to see what she's learned. She's definitely a little ham, and after she successfully completes any new trick, she will clap for herself and won't stop until we start clapping and praising her as well. She recently learned how to wink, and I actually caught her winking and giggling at a little boy today in the Dr.'s office(not a good sign). She bobs her head to music and ooohs and aaahs whenever music is playing. She even barks like a dog sometimes...I can't imagine why :) Here are some new pics in a cute new summer outfit...

Great Great Grandmother

Very few people can say that they've ever met there great-grandmother, much less there great-great-grandmother. Claire has done both now. My great-grandmother actually turned 100 years old the weekend before Claire turned one, pretty amazing! We unfortunately were not able to make it to the party so we decided to pack up this weekend and head to Amarillo to let Claire meet grandmother Sis. Words just can't express how happy it made me, to make my great-grandmother so happy. She thanked me over and over for bringing Claire up to visit, and I am so thankful to one day be able to show Claire pictures of her with her great-great grandmother.

Claire's Big Day

So, the big day finally arrived. We spent all morning preparing for her party...and by we I mean Lane. Man, I'm sure glad we have someone in the family that is crafty and creative! Lane managed to help us pull everything together with all of the little finishing touches that she added. My favorite, being the pictures of Claire that we hung from the chandelier with decorative ribbon...too cute! She was also our cake lady and made an adorable cupcake cake as well as a smash cake for Claire.


Despite the morning stress of preparing for the party, the day turned out great. Claire had so much fun with her little friends, and we got to hang out with some of our favorite people :)

Children and Subluxation

If you have children, or if you have spine for that matter...than this is a must see. I do have some pictures of Claire Bear's birthday party that I'll post later :)

Children and Subluxation from Ben Lerner on Vimeo.

1 year old

Here are some of the pictures we took in Claire's Birthday outfit. I can't wait for her to wear it on her big day! We got the pictures taken at this pretty little canal in Irving, by the wife of one of my classmates. She did an awesome job, considering Claire was in a miserable mood that day because she was teething. I think they turned out super cute!