Happy New Year!

2009 was a wonderful and busy year. I got a new job. We found out we were having baby girl number 2, then married shortly after. We celebrated our first daughter, Keegan's, birthday July 4th and then we welcomed our 2nd daughter to this world on September 4th! This year has been great and we are so lucky to have had so many blessings in 2009. We are looking forward to 2010 and expect great things in the next year.

Happy New Year!


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A Crazy, but Great Christmas!

Ryan and I LOVE Christmas and this year was fun, but challenging at the same time. We started our Christmas activities on Christmas Eve with Ryan's Mom (Patty) and his sister (Lauren) coming to our house to bake cookies and Chicken Pot Pie. I had to work that day, so I missed the baking, but arrived home to some great smells in our house. When arriving home I realized that Keegan was hot. She was running a fever of about 101. We gave her Tylenol and hoped it would come down before Church at 5pm. Well, when it was time for church Keegan was in no mood for church, her temperature went up to 102.5 and she was VERY grumpy. We skipped church and let both girls nap. When they woke up we got ready and went over to my Parents house to start the Fangman Christmas!

Picture of my sister Olivia with Fiona.

At the Fangman Christmas there was lots of food, presents and fun with Holiday Poppers. Keegan & Fiona got some great gifts (including the Kitchen from my parents)and so did Ryan and I. By the end of the night Keegan seemed to be a little better, but still was not herself. We went home and were off to bed!

On Christmas morning the girls slept in till 9am. This gave me the rare opportunity to get ready before they were awake and Ryan got to sleep in. That was a great present for us from our little girls! Finally, when they woke up we quickly ate breakfast and went straight to the presents. They were both too cute! Keegan unfortunately was still running a fever and Fiona was a little stopped up.

After opening presents we were quickly off to Ryan's mother's side of the Family (Parrott side). Ryan's Aunt Beth had everyone over for a Christmas brunch. This was was so fun, especially because we got some really great gifts, especially for the girls! At Aunt Beth's Keegan started to get REALLY cranky due to her fever. She was quickly becoming a Christmas handful!

We left there and stopped by my parents to try and see my grandfather and some cousins... Unfortunately we missed everyone. So we opened our stocking from our parents and were quickly on our way to Ryan's father's side of the Family.

At the Sheehan Christmas we had a nice time, but Keegan was still awake (never taking a nap) and still had a fever. Fiona was doing okay, but was also not being the angel she usually is. We had a great time with Ryan's family doing the gift exchange and watching all the kids open their presents. Once again we all got some fantastic gifts and could not be more thankful!

We called it a night at about 8pm headed home and got Keegan to finally go to sleep. She was so exhausted at this point, especially with out a nap and the fever all day. We were all worn out.

The next day we visited my Grandma Pat since we could not make it on Christmas. It was nice to see her and she LOVED the candle we gave her. She also got the girls some great stuff too!

Our Christmas festivities did not end there, my parents had an unexpected party on Saturday night with family. We all had a great time and by this time, Keegan was feeling much better and was getting back to her normal self.

We had a GREAT Christmas this year, thanks to our family. We love you all and look forward to a new year!

Check out a few video's from the Holiday's:

Check out more of our video's at www.youtube.com/clairefangman We just uploaded a lot.

New friends

Today we went to a Abby's house to have a mommy and baby play date with Abby, her two girls (Anna & Celia) and Julia and her new baby girl (Abney). It was so fun to see all the girls together. Anna and Keegan are only 6 months apart and Fiona, Celia and Abney are all within a couple months of each other. Keegan and Anna played pretty well together and both loved loving on the 3 little babies. The three little girls all laid in the floor together and surprisingly you could tell they loved to be near each other. At one point Fiona and Celia held hands for a brief moment. It was sooooo cute. I love seeing my girls interract with other children especially children of friends. We hope with all the baby girls that are being born that we will have more play dates in our future!




Abney and Fiona

I'll post more pictures from the play date when Julia and Abby send them too me.

Only 5 more days til Christmas!


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Busy weekends

This past weekend we completed most of our Christmas shopping. Ryan's mom came over early Saturday and watched Keegan while we took Fiona shopping. It was so nice to only have one of the girls while trying to quickly get our shopping done. Since we are on a strict budget this year and have a lot of people to buy for, I created a spreadsheet. Yes, a spreadsheet. I put in a budget per person and then after each stop I updated it with the actual spent amount. It has been very useful and has kept us on track.

After a long morning of shopping we dropped the girls off at my parents and were on our way to Ryan's Aunt Gail's 50th birthday party. It was an eventful Party filled with games, laughter, presents, good food & drinks and even a stripper. It was highly entertaining and a great time out with Ryan.

Sunday Ryan was helping a friend move so the girls and I were on our own. We went to my parents house to hang out and ended up doing some more shopping. Now we only have 4 presents left to get!

Today is only Tuesday and I am already wishing it was Friday. I look forward to my weekends with the girls and Ryan. That is what is most important to me.

Tomorrow Ryan's mom is coming over while we are at work and is cleaning our entire house along with doing our mass quantities of laundry. This is her Christmas present to us and I don't think I could have thought of a better one for her to give! I can't wait to come home to a super clean house full of clean clothes! Yay!

Only 10 days till Christmas!




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Giggling

If you read my last post, I said Fiona was on the verge of laughing. Well, she is officially giggling!!! Amazingly cute and just made my day! I'll try and get video of it soon!

Oh, and here is a picture of Keegan acting like Mommy carrying her baby in my peanut shell sling and wearing sunglasses. Too cute!




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The Happiest Baby in the World!

Fiona is probably the happiest baby I have ever seen. I thought Keegan was a happy baby, but Fiona has her beat! Every morning when I go and get her from her crib, she smiles and coos at me. When I change her diaper she looks like she is going to scream with delight! She cracks me up with how darn happy she is ALL of the time. Last night was particularly a happy night. I had sat Fiona in her bouncy Boppy chair, that she loves, and was putting lotion on Keegan after Ryan had given her a bath. About 5 minutes later I look over and Fiona is looking at us with the biggest open mouthed smile I have ever seen. Keegan then walks over to Fiona and starts talking to her in "baby talk", Fiona almost jumped out of her chair, let out a loud coo (almost laughter) and once again smiled bigger than I have ever seen. It is amazing to me how you can already tell that she loves Keegan so much. Keegan then began to tickle Fiona's feet... again Fiona just could not stop smiling and again almost let out a little laugh. I know she is about to laugh very soon because I kept hearing her gasp for air and it would scare me... but then I noticed that she was actually smiling when this happened and almost letting out a little laugh. I guess it is her pre-laugh laugh I can't wait to hear her let out one of those to die for belly laughs! Keegan's belly laughs still make my heart do flip flops. There is nothing better than seeing your kid's smile and hearing them laugh. It can make the worst day the best in just a second.

Santa is Scary

This Saturday we took Keegan and Fiona down to see Santa at the Galt House. The Galt House has a great Holiday display in their conservatory with a Life-sized Gingerbread house, castle and more. When we arrived Keegan was extremely interested and was doing her normal OHHHHHHHH's. As we approached Santa she held onto me very tight. We decided to let Fiona get the 1st picture since she could careless you holds her.

Then we did the family picture

Then it was Keegan's turn. As you can only imagine the second I acted like I was going to hand her over to Santa she began to scream. And did not stop screaming until we were far enough away that Santa couldn't "get her". To a 1 year old I can only imagine how scary it is for your parents to hand you to a stranger and one that is also dressed up in a weird red outfit.

We really enjoyed taking the girls downtown to see Santa and get a little more into the Christmas season. The Galt House's Santa was one of the best I have seen. I loved that he had a real beard and the clothing was even better! On top of it, It was not crowded, we didn't have to wait and they don't make you pay to see him. Enjoy some more pictures from our Saturday meeting Santa.

Thanks to my sister Olivia for taking the photos for us!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Advent Truck

Instead of an Advent Calendar we have a cute Advent Truck (thanks to my Mom).



Since today is the 1st, Ryan and Keegan got thier 1st treat out of the 1st drawer. Keegan was so delighted by the M&M's inside that she ate them all (5) extremely quick. After she ate them I went back in the kitchen and immediately hear Ryan say "KEEGAN!!!"... I go back to the living room to see Keegan has reached up on top of the bookshelf and got herself a whole mouth full of M&M's from a couple other drawers.

Lesson learned: Don't leave candy in reach of sweet toothed child!

We are excited to continue to count down to Christmas with our Advent Truck!

It's Beginning to Look a lot like CHRISTMAS!

Last night my parents picked up Keegan and took her to Light Up St. Matthews at Brown Park. While they were out Fiona was sleeping, so Ryan and I took the rare "Childless" opportunity to decorate the house for Christmas. We put up the tree and various other decorations around the house and outside too. When Keegan came home she let out a loud "OHHHHHHHHHH" and pointed to the tree which only had lights and beads on it so far. We love her overly excited reactions to everything, she gets it from her Mommy and Daddy. Of course we are concerned that she will attack the tree, pulling/breaking ornaments and even pushing the tree over, so we have a tiny little tree that we call "Keegan's Tree". This tree is bright green and shiny. This is what we are going to use to help distract her from the "big" tree. Whenever she goes near or acts like she is going to dive into the "big" tree, we tell her to play with "Keegan's tree". It has worked so far, but we will see how the rest of December goes! We also put most of the breakable ornaments out of reach. All the wooden and old hand-made ornaments from Ryan and my childhood are at the bottom for her to play with!

We are especially excited for this Holiday season because Keegan is a little older and will understand a little more than last year when she was only 6 months old. We can't wait for her to see all the presents and tear off the wrapping paper. Fiona will only be about 4 months when Christmas arrives, so she will not be as excited, but we know how much fun the girls have in store for future Christmas's.

Oh, and the visit to Santa... This could be interesting. Since Keegan is terrified of my Santa Nutcracker and Santa "doll", I am not so sure Santa will go over so well. I can only imagine the scream she will let out when we try to sit her on a large stranger's lap who is dressed in a red suit, has a large white beard and jolly loud laugh! I will make sure to post pictures and video of that one! HA!

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was very eventful!

We started our Thanksgiving on Thursday at home with the girls. They were being very good in the morning and actually seemed to be playing with each other. See the video of Keegan talking to and rocking Fiona. Too Cute!

After our nice morning at home we went to Grandmother Laura's (aka: Gigi) House for the Parrott Thanksgiving at 1pm. The girls we dressed so cute in the holiday dresses that Laura made them.

After a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Parrott side of Ryan's family we headed to My parents house for the Fangman Th

anksgiving at 4pm. There we stuffed ourselves even more and were able to interact with my mother's cousins Woody and Letha. It was a real treat to have them at our Thanksgiving along with my grandfather, George.

On Friday, I had to work Downtown at the Galt House. All I wanted to do was spend time with the girls, but I have to do what I have to do. At least when I got to my parents house, where Ryan was hanging out watching the game with my father, the girls were still up. I treasure every moment I get with them!

Thanksgiving was not over yet! Saturday we went to the Sheehan side Thanskgiving! Again we ate a ton and visited with Family. Keegan had a blast with all of her cousins at Fred and Doris' house. She was running around outside, playing with a football and of course playing with her Daddy. She totally wore herself out at the Sheehan's and surprisingly played very well with all the kiddo's.

Now it is Sunday morning and we have one more event this Thanksgiving weekend. A party for one of my favorite Aunt's, Nancy. We are celebrating her birthday with the Fangman (my dad's side) side of the family.

Now we are ready to prepare for CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Sisters are the Best!

Friday's are always so nice... I come home from work knowing that we get to spend all weekend together! This Friday was especially nice because Keegan and Fiona were extra cute with each other. Keegan was watching daddy feed Fiona a bottle and kept trying to help. When she couldn't really get it right and kept getting milk all over Fiona she got really frustrated and started to cry. That is when I remembered that the baby doll that someone gave us for her birthday came with a mini bottle. I quickly got the bottle and gave Keegan her baby doll and bottle and told her to feed her baby. She did it right away and could not have been happier. She loves mimicing us with Fiona. On top of it, she still points to her belly and says "baby". Too funny.

It is funny that we can already tell that the girls love each other so much. Keegan always gives Fiona kisses and Fiona smiles at Keegan, even if Keegan is actually being a little mean. Keegan likes to sit in Fiona's little Boppy chair and today I let her hold Fiona while sitting in the Boppy. It just melted my heart. How can I love 2 little girls so much??? I am not sure, but I do and could not be happier!

Happy Friday to everyone! Love you all!

HELLO - 1st blog post

Well, I guess I will give you a little background in this first blog post. My family started with Ryan and I (Claire) as a couple. We knew right away that we wanted to be together forever and have lots of babies! In December 2007, we found out we were pregnant with our 1st baby. On the 4th of July in 2008 we welcomed our 1st daughter, Keegan Elizabeth. She has amazed us everyday of her life. In March of 2009 Ryan and I got married. We decided at the last minute to get married while visiting Ryan's grandmother Laura (Gigi) in Sebastian, FL. It was a beautiful, VERY small wedding, but perfect in so many ways! Around that same time we found out we were going to welcome a 2nd baby into our family. Fiona Rose was born September 4th 2009, making our girls exactly 14 months apart. Fiona is so fun already and we are so happy to be a family of 4! We are so blessed and so lucky in mnay different ways. We have great support from friends and family.

This Blog is to replace our old website that has become a little too hard to keep up with. We hope you enjoy keeping up with us through our blog. Thanks for visiting and we hope to see you back here often!

Love you all, CLAIRE, RYAN, KEEGAN and FIONA!