Monday, July 26, 2010

It's been a while.

Hey Blogger Buddies! Since I haven't been around much the last three weeks, this is going to be a long post with lots of pictures.

Before I start talking about what we've been up to, I wanted to post these three pictures.

Is it just me or is Chloe Jo looking more and more like a little girl and less and less like a baby? Where did the time go? I say that way too much!

Since she turned 15 months old this month, we went for a check-up on the 13th. What was really nice about this one is that she didn't have to have any shots because I had them do 5 at her 12 month appointment. Although, she still howled at the doctor even though she sat on my lap the entire time. Everything looks good and she is right where she needs to be developmentally. The only thing she isn't doing that the doctor asked about is climbing. She's never been a climber and I'm really hoping she won't become one. It's nice not to have to worry about her getting hurt in that way.
Chloe Jo is now measuring in at 30 1/2 inches and is in the 50th percentile for height. That is up from the 25th percentile from the last appointment so she had a good growth spurt. She was in the 50th percentile until her 6 month appointment where she dropped to the 25th so she caught back up to where she was percentile-wise before.
She is weighing in at 21 pounds 9 3/4 ounces which is still in the 25th percentile, though in the upper 25th now instead of the lower. It's all the goldfish she's been eating. Or maybe it's all the meat. That could be. I've never seen a 1 year old who likes meat as much as she does.
Her head is also in the 25th percentile.
At the end of June and the beginning of this month my brother and his family came to stay with my parents for two weeks while my brother taught a summer counseling course at the Bible Institute here.
My sis came up to see them and stayed a few days also.
Here are the cousins together.
Chloe Jo, Kaylee, Jordan (who has always gone by J.T. but I've never called him that for some reason) and Brianna
The cousins had a great time together and it was really nice to see my brother before our big move.
While they were staying, my sis, Kaylee and I made some wall art for her bedroom. We made a ginormous (yes, that's a word) glittery purse and a large letter K out of foam core board and fabric. They turned out so good, but I some how didn't get the picture we took of the three of us and our finished product and my sis accidentally deleted the pictures on her camera so you will just have to imagine what they looked like. They turned out really good and we had a great time making them.
It was really nice to have the whole family (excluding one brother and his family who we don't see very often) together for a few days.
After my brother and his family left, my sis and Brianna stayed for a couple of days more. Chloe Jo really loves her little cousin now. I thought this picture was so cute!
Chloe Jo is such a big helper with Brianna! And hey, if she wants to clean up spit up, who are we to argue with that!?!?
Brianna brought her blow-up pool to G-Jo and Grampy's and her daddy set it up for the girls to play in. Chloe Jo thought it was G-R-R-R-R-R-E-A-T!
We may need to invest in one of these for our place!
I think her favorite part was that she was allowed to stand and walk around in the pool. She can't do that in our pool at the apartment because it is too deep and I don't allow her to do stand in the bathtub for safety reasons.
Brianna also loves her pool and is definitely a water baby. The girls come by that naturally. Their Grampy is part fish.
We had a fun Independence Day this year. I made this little outfit for Chloe Jo to wear to Sunday evening church services and then to a party that Russell and I threw afterwards.
I'm so excited that I got such a good picture and that the outfit turned out so cute! Two other girls showed up at church services with their own little 4th of July tutus! They were so cute, but I didn't get a picture. I really wish I had since the other girls are 4 and 5 and it would have been such a cute scrapbook page.
Chelley and Chris (my sis and brother-in-law) were able to stay for that party. As you can see, the girls were very excited about going to the park with everyone.

Here are the girls and their G-Jo and Grampy. Grampy and Chloe Jo are BFF's and they are really going to miss each other when we move. I'm going to have to figure out how to Skype so Chloe Jo can talk to Grampy and G-Jo!
I even let Chloe Jo play with a sparkler (with a lot of supervision) and she loved it. I didn't know how she would react since she could go either way.
My sis took these pictures with the night setting and I think they are so fun!
This post is really getting long, but I still have a few more things to talk about. This will teach me to not blog for three weeks!
During the week after the 4th, Chloe Jo and I went to my sister's house so we could take a road trip to see my Granny Tiger and Pappy.
We had such a good time with them and I think they loved having us (at least I hope so!).
The girls especially liked when Granny Tiger and Pappy would read books to them. I think this picture is priceless! I may have to frame it for Chloe Jo's room. While we were there we also got to visit with many of our extended family who also lives in the area. It was fun to see a couple of our cousins and their children. We don't get to see my Mom's side all together very much any more since there are so many of us. My Granny Tiger and Pappy had five children and once they got married, the family just grew and it hasn't stopped. There are 14 cousins and 12 of us are married (the other 2 aren't old enough yet) and between all of us Granny Tiger and Pappy have 20 (if I counted right) great-grandchildren and 2 more on the way. Anyway, all that was to say that we don't get together with everyone much anymore because we all do holidays mostly with our immediate families. I'm so glad that we were able to take that trip and I had such a good time seeing my grandparents!
I just had to put these pictures in here.
Chloe Jo has decided that she is big enough to get her very own ice cream cone now. Some fast food restaurants have the mini-cones and they are just the perfect size for a little girl and it is so stinking cute to watch Chloe Jo with ice cream!
It is totally worth the mess at the end!
I am basically finished with packing. I just have to take some screws and nails out of the walls and spackle the holes and we will be ready to pack the truck on Wednesday. Wednesday evening the church here is throwing us a farwell party after services so we will get to say goodbye to everyone and then head out on Thursday. We are going to drive about 7 hours on Thursday and Friday and the remaining 2 1/2 hours on Saturday morning. Then we will officially be eastcoasters! We are excited, anxious, nervous, thrilled, apprehensive, all of the above about our move. I'm so ready to start this new chapter of our life!!! The next time I blog will probably be from South Carolina!

Sunday, July 4, 2010