Too many projects!

I have too many projects going! I'm actually starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of scrapbooking I need to get done. I hate being behind. It just really bugs me. On top of the scrapbooking that I need to do, I have a cross-stitch started and a camo blanket that I started a few years ago. Years! I did finish a project this week and I sent Russ' graduation pictures (from 2008 *yikes*) to get developed. I'm going to finish his graduation scrapbooks (which were a present for graduation) and then start to tackle my regular scrapbook...then I need to get caught up in Chloe Jo's scrapbook. I'm only going to do special scrapbooks for her stuff for the first year then her things will go in the regular scrapbooks ... that are at least 5 years behind. Ay yi yi. This is what I get for procrastinating!

I know I'm biased...

but, seriously, can she be any cuter???

Goodbye ol' friend

I say that as if someone has passed away, but no. I'm actually referring to a certain object that has been with Chloe Jo since she was about 2 months old. Her pacifier. While I've never been a huge fan of the pacifier, I did let her have one. I really hate seeing toddlers walking around with a pacifier in their mouths (and sometimes they are wearing a teddy bear back pack with a leash held by their mothers *shudder*). I have nightmares of waking up one day and Chloe Jo is three years old and she is still taking a pacifier. Therefore, I have been slowly weaning her since the beginning of the year. Some days I just didn't want to deal with it and I let her have it, but most days I would only let her have it at nap time and bed time. Well, Monday morning that all changed. See, she doesn't actually need it to "pacify". She just wants it to play with. She only had two paci's and she lost one on Saturday giving me that push to take them away completely. I first cut a hole in the remaining paci. After giving it to her to try and her promptly spitting it back out, I just threw it away. That's right. They are gone forever!

And this has actually been working out better than I had ever thought it would. I envisioned many sleepless nights and many battles to come, but so far, so good. Monday night she fell asleep with me after crying for just a few minutes. When I took her to her own bed, though, she promptly woke up and cried for at least an hour. She wanted to sit up in bed and stand up, but every time she did I just laid her back down and told her that it was time to go to sleep. She eventually did fall asleep and only woke up once that night when we repeated the battle for about 15 minutes until she fell back to sleep and slept until the morning.

I was prepared to have another battle last night and to my surprise, it never happened. When I put her in her crib she rolled over, hugged on her lovie and went to sleep. She did wake up once at 11:00 p.m. and cried. I went in there and laid her back down and told her it is time to sleep and she went back to sleep. I just stood there for a few minutes thinking that it was too good to be true. It was true. She slept until the morning.

Chloe Jo continues to astound me. She really is well behaved and she minds very well albiet sometimes she has to have a little "persuasion." Having her in our lives is such a blessing and we thank God for giving her to us. "For this little one we prayed." (Thanks, Courtney, hope you don't mind) We are so blessed.

She's such a hit!

Chloe Jo and I went to Tuesday Ladies this morning. It is so fun to take her because the other ladies just love her! I put her in this cute outfit this morning.

All the ladies comment on how well she keeps things on her head and that she keeps her shoes on. I've been putting bows and shoes on her since she was 5 days old so she is totally used to it and she knows I don't want her to take them off.

I just love how much they love her and she made great strides today. She really loves one particular lady and she crawled up to her and reached for her! If you don't know Chloe Jo in real life, she is usually super clingy to Momma and doesn't want anyone else to touch her. She then let another lady hold her! Woot Woot to big steps! She is growing up so fast.

My cake was a hit today too. I thought it turned out a little dry, but it tasted good so I am proud of it. I think I will try a few different recipes before I decide which one to do for Chloe Jo's birthday. I don't really know why I am putting this much effort into her cake. We aren't having a huge party. I'm only inviting immediate family. I guess it's just the (insert my maiden name here) in me! We always go beyond what is necessary.

First Try

I have a vision of how I want to make Chloe Jo's first birthday cake. I am seeing three teirs covered with white fondant and different colored hearts. The only problem with this vision is that I've never used fondant on my cakes before...until tonight. I decided last week that I would do a trial run with it to see how hard it is and if I could make it halfway decent. This is the finished product:

The first thing I did was make homemade pound cake. Buddy from Cake Boss likes to use pound cake because it is easier to handle. I usually buy a box cake, but I really enjoyed making the cake myself and it turned out really yummy. I made two 8 inch rounds and filled between the two with regular icing and dirty iced the rest of it. I then rolled out my fondant and laid that over the dirty icing and smoothed it out as best I could. To give it a little decoration I rolled fondant balls and scored the top and sides. I'm very happy with my first try and I'm excited to make Chloe Jo's birthday cake now!

You know no post is complete without pictures of the cutie pie! I found these two headbands in the dollar aisle at a store tonight. Ha!

It was a good day

Chloe Jo and I had a great day yesterday!

Chloe Jo only cried when I left her and one other time in Bible class! She also sat in her chair the entire time! I'm so glad we have finally made it to this point. I decided that at 9 months she could start going to class alone and she has cried every time I left her since then. We are making great progress, though and I'm happy about that. I hate leaving her when she is crying, but I do believe that this is what is best for her.

It was sort of odd being the only two from our family there, though. Mom and Dad are at my sister's for the week to see the new baby and Russell had to go preach in another town so we were all alone.

We have a new program called The Agape Program and it is made so that we are able to know one another better and give support and do things for each other more. The congregation is divided up into four different groups and each group meets for lunch one Sunday per month. This week was our groups lunch and we had a fantastic time. I am much more outgoing and talkative when I don't have my family with me for some reason. I'm not as friendly as I should be at all times and can actually be a little shy in certain situations. When I am at a function alone, though, I am able to chat more and be more outgoing. I'm so strange!

It was nice to get to go out to eat, just the three of us, last night. We don't get to do that very often because we always go with my parents and Russell is always at work during the week. We went to one of my favorite places and it was yummy!

I heart taking pictures!

My New Niece

I am so excited to have a new, healthy, gorgeous niece. Brianna was born yesterday at 5:15 p.m. She is 7 pounds 7 ounces and 21 inches long.

Hope you all had a happy Valentine's Day

So Excited!

I seriously love the Olympics and I am so excited to see the opening ceremonies tonight! They are airing on NBC at 7:30/6:30c. I have always enjoyed watching the Olympics and it happens to be the only sports competition I get into on TV. It holds even more meaning to me now because in 2008, on August 8th (which happened to be the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympic games) I found out I was pregnant with Chloe Jo. While I'm not going to find out I'm pregnant today, it still is a good memory and even more special that I can share this with her (not that she's going to care). I picked up some pizza's and breadsticks and am going to bake a cake and I invited my parents over to watch the opening ceremonies with me tonight. I can't wait! (Play Olympic theme music here)

10 Months!

Chloe Jo turned 10 months old yesterday. How did that come so fast? I really can't believe how fast time goes anymore. Her first birthday (shouldn't it be her second since her actual birth day was a birthday?) is right around the corner and I've already made plans on how to make her cake and on inviting the family to come celebrate with us.
I just switched her up to 12 month clothes. She's such a little thing, though that she does still wear some of her 6-9 month clothes. I weighed her yesterday and my scale says she is 17 1/2 pounds and I measured her and she is 27 1/2 inches. She is still on her curve, but is small. She is eating more non-baby things, too. She loves ravioli, mac-n-cheese, french toast and yogurt. She also will eat refried beans and rice at Mexican restaurants. She doesn't like quesadillas, grilled cheese or most breads. She even will turn her head against cookies at times! And best of all, she LOVES chocolate ice cream. She'll eat other flavors, but she likes chocolate the best. Eating ice cream is a special treat that she gets when she sees Grampy (which really is at least 2 times a week, usually more). Grampy has been feeding her ice cream since she was a tiny little thing and it has been her favorite.

She is such a sweetie. As long as you are giving her attention, she is happy. She doesn't like it if she wants attention and you are doing other things! She wants full, undivided attention. On the other hand, she does play very well by herself. She has recently discovered the sliding glass door and loves to look outside. She also likes to lick the glass (ew). She never did start crawling normally. I guess the popped up leg is her normal. She pulls up on everything and is super curious. She is standing more and more every day and I am just waiting for her to take a step.
She is starting to look much more toddler-like than baby like lately. She absolutely loves bath time in the big tub now. I bought her a container of bath toys for Valentine's Day which I know she will love. She loves to give me kisses and she said Momma for the first time last Saturday. She looked at me when she said it so I know she has associated me with it.

Chloe Jo is such a joy in our lives. We love her so much and we love being able to be her parents. She is one of the greatest blessings we have ever recieved and we thank God every day for her.

Wordless Wednesday

My Procees Proncees

I heart presents

I know I've said this before...my dear hubby just can't keep a present secret! He is awful at keeping a present until the event day (in this case Valentine's Day) unless he gets the present the day of. Of course, I can't really complain because I'm the one getting the presents. *grin* I love presents. Especially shiny ones. Or glittery. Or flashy.
So tonight, Russell comes home from work with....flowers! So sweet and pretty. They immediately filled the whole room with heavenly aroma. Then he pulled out a little. Tiny. Box. A jewelry box. This is what I found inside:
I don't know where the stroke of genius came from. Usually he is dismal at picking out jewelry by himself. This is exactly my style and I L.O.V.E. it! Gawgeous dawling. Seemplee gawgeous.

She's getting closer...

to walking. Any day now I expect Chloe Jo to venture out on her own with a step.

In the bow-making business

Yesterday I went out to my Mom and Dad's house for the evening. Mom is in the process of making a thousand Valentine's Day cards (seriously, she makes tons) so I brought my ribbon and hot glue gun and made a few bows. I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. Maybe I'll go into business and sell them on Etsy! Ok, I doubt it, but they are cute.And I had to try them on Chloe Jo. I didn't have a headband with me and her front hair is not long enough to put bows in, but she had tons of back hair.
Too cute! I do need to make her another bow holder if I'm going to keep this up.

I know not everything has to be fair...

but really? This is just going too far!

Girl With No Vagina Gives Birth

Any other infertiles out there that hate Murphy's Stinking Law as much as I do?

Home Tour

Ok, so my video skills are seriously lacking and I must have had the camera set wrong because it's blurry, but this is the second take and Chloe Jo was done with it so this will have to do. I hope you all enjoy!

Wonky Crawls

I don't know if that is considered crawling or ape-ing. At least she gets to where she's going.

Lil' Sweetie