Chloe Jo is 3 years old!!!

Today my sweet, precious baby turns 3 years old!

I can't believe it has been 3 years already!

This morning I wanted to get pictures of Chloe Jo so I bribed her with jelly beans *again*. They seem to work really well!

So what has Chloe Jo been up to lately?

She talks nonstop. We were concerned that she would never talk when she was just saying a few words at 2 years old. Now we can't get her to stop talking.

She knows her ABC's and can identify them. She can count to 10 by herself and to 20 with a little bit of help. She is finally interested in learning colors and shapes.

She is 39 inches tall (when do you start saying 3 feet 3 inches?) and is around the 85th percentile for height.

She is 30 pounds and just under the 50th percentile for weight. Tall and skinny!

Her favorite thing to do right now is jump. She jumps everywhere!

She still loves to read and loves to watch Strawberry Shortcake, Elmo and Dora. She has also started watching movies. Her favorites are Despicable Me and Ramona and Beezus.

We are so blessed to have our sweet Chloe Jo in our lives!

"For this child I prayed and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him."

1 Samuel 1:27

Holiday fun!

I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend! We had a great time celebrating except for the fact that Daddy couldn't be here with us (or maybe I should say that we couldn't be with Daddy).

I set our Chloe Jo's Easter basket before I woke her up. I was sad that I packed her Easter basket and didn't think to keep it out so she could use it so I had to buy a cheapy one for her to use. Oh well, she loved it anyway!

I know she liked the jelly beans and chocolate bunny. I had to finally hide the jelly beans because she kept getting into them after I had put them on the counter out of reach *or so I thought*.

After breakfast we got ready to go to church services.

Note to self: Always bribe with a jelly bean before pictures. :)

Love. Love. Love this picture!

After we got home from church services and lunch, I changed Chloe Jo into some play clothes while Grampy hid Easter eggs outside. It was so fun to "hide" eggs last year and watch CJ find them. It was even more fun this year! Grampy was able to really hide them (as opposed to last year when we just set the eggs in the yard in plain sight) and Chloe Jo definitely caught on quickly!

Chloe Jo loves spending time with her Grampy and G-Jo and we are so grateful they were willing to let us stay with them while we wait for our closing date!

And check and check

This picture is from Wednesday evening before Bible class. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Today has been such a busy day! My brother and his daughter came from Tennessee to pick up an entertainment cabinet my Dad made for them. They got here Friday and left before noon today. Before they left we were able to color Easter eggs!

My Aunt Suzie sent Chloe Jo an adorable pair of shoes and Chloe Jo has been wearing them a lot. She thinks they are great! I told her I wanted a picture of her with her new shoes on and this is what she gave me. Ha! Pretty cute!

I had some strawberry ribbon left over from Chloe Jo's strawberry wreath for her birthday party so I decided to make a garland for the cake table for her party. I'm so thrilled with it and I am looking forward to her birthday party next week!

I had just enough tulle left from the garland to make a few pom poms to hang over the cake table. I've never made these and am so happy with how they turned out. Her party is going to be so fun!

I need to get stuff to make the cake this week and I will be ready to decorate and put the cake together at the end of next week. I love throwing parties so I am so excited! I just can't believe she is turning 3!!!

1 dress down!

I finished up the first dress for Chloe Jo on Wednesday afternoon. I had good intentions to get the other dress done this week, but I haven't even started cutting the second pattern out. I've just had a few other things going on.

I think the dress is cute. It didn't turn out exactly how I envisioned it. The straps had to be taken up and I had to cut off several inches to make it the right length. I also thought she would be able to wear it without a shirt, but the arm holes turned out so big that she really needs the shirt.

Here is the finished product:

When I showed the dress to Chloe Jo and let her try it on she told me, "I yuv it!" Then after I had put the dress in the closet, she patted my arm and said "You're awright." HA! Where does she get that stuff!?!?

Hopefully I'll be able to get the second dress done next week.

I do have one question for you all. I am seriously thinking about opening up my Etsy shop again. Would you all buy dresses like this? I've been thinking I would sell dresses, blankets and bows. I haven't decided for sure because the last time I tried this it flopped and I won't be doing it until later this year. So what do you all think?

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Yep, folks!

It's the middle of the week and that means it is time for:

I have lots of things I'm loving today so here goes!

I'm loving that Chloe Jo's birthday is next week! How can she be turning 3 already!?!? We are having a birthday party for her next Saturday and I'm looking forward to making her cake and decorating!

I'm loving that I've been getting some sewing done lately. I don't have pictures right now of the dress for CJ I am working on, but they'll come soon. I'm hoping to get one dress done today and get the pattern cut out for a second dress.

I'm loving that we are counting down to our closing date for the house! I can't wait to move in and make this house our home (if all goes well)!

I'm loving that Chloe Jo and I went to story time at the library yesterday! The library where we lived in South Carolina did not have story time so we have really missed it. We both had a great time and will definitely be going again next week!

I'm loving how much we have been able to play outside lately! It's been hot, but not unbearable so we have taken advantage of it. Of course, it helps when Grampy is outside to play with!

I'm loving getting to shop for decorations and things for our new home! I'm trying to get most of the small things we need while I'm here in Missouri so we will have it when we move in. I have picked out fabric for curtains for the dining room, but will not get it until we get window measurements after we move in. I'm excited to decorate the space! Here are the things I bought this week:

Happy Wednesday, ya'll!

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Waiting Game

Chloe Jo and I are settled at my parents house and Russ is in Oklahoma right now. We are just playing the waiting game until closing on our house. Chloe Jo and I were able to go to Oklahoma yesterday to worship with the church there. I am thankful we are close enough to go on Sunday. I think everything went well and we are really looking forward to being able to live there and work with the congregation full time. Soon. Very soon.

I was thrilled to get to hang out with my sister and her family Sunday afternoon. I wanted a picture with Chloe Jo, Brianna and Brenson. This is the best we could do.
Humph. I hope they won't all look like this! And yeah, Chloe Jo opted not to have her picture taken. Can you believe Brenson is only 7 weeks old!?!? He is such a little hoss!

I actually feel like I accomplished a few things today. I took up several pairs of short and a couple of skirts for Chloe Jo. She is so skinny and tall that it is next to impossible for me to find any bottoms that fit correctly. I do love the adjustable waistbands in jeans! Less work for me!
CJ and I also took a trip to Hobby Lobby after going to lunch with Grampy and bought a couple of pieces of fabric. I'm going to sew her 2 summer dresses. I got it all prewashed and I cut the pattern out so tomorrow I will pin the pattern on the fabric and cut it out. After that we will have to see what else I can get done.

Mom, CJ and I took a trip to Big Lots this evening and I found these light blue dishes for our kitchen and a vase for our living room. They are the first decorative things I have bought for our house and I'm so excited about them! They are going to look great in our new house!
One more random thing: our ex-landlord decided to give us back our deposit!!! I am still in shock that I received the check in the mail today. Now I can go buy rugs and towels for our new place. Yay!

XOXO!

Temporary

It's been a while since I've been able to blog. We've had a lot going on. After housing option A fell through, we just didn't find anything else that made sense to us so Chloe Jo and I are going to stay with my parents in Missouri and Russ is going to stay in Oklahoma during the week at a hotel and come up to Missouri on his days off. This is not what we had planned, but it will work for the short time we need. Sometimes you get a plan and it just doesn't go like you want it to. That's just the way it is. I'm trying to stay positive and count my blessings.

Our last Sunday in South Carolina was last week. It was an emotional day for us. We are going to miss the congregation. We made lifelong friends there and it is going to be hard to know we may never see them again during this life. They gave us a potluck after morning services. They did a great job of keeping it quiet because we had no idea! It was nice to know that we will be missed and I hope they know that the feeling is mutual.

Monday was a total fiasco! We were going to pick up the U-Haul at 9:00. Russ went up to the place and the guy who does the U-Haul stuff wasn't there. The employee that was there told Russ to come back at 10:00 because that is when the guy was supposed to be there. We went back up to the place at 10:15 and the guy still wasn't there. We had a few little odds and ends to do so we went back home and finished up all the stuff that needed to be done there. We went back up to the U-Haul place at 11:00 and finally the guy was there. BUT they didn't have the furniture pads we had ordered and no one else in town had them! Talk about being frustrated! We were so irritated. So Russ and our friend, Ken, had to go to a town 45 minutes away to get furniture pads to protect our furniture. We finally got started loading the truck at noon. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. It was just getting the truck that was the fiasco.

Since our week before moving was so crazy, Russ and I took Chloe for a walk and to the park on Saturday evening. It was a great way to destress during all the craziness of moving!

The flowers in South Carolina are gorgeous right now so we had to pick a few.
We always have to have swing time when we go to the park.
And Daddy helped Chloe Jo practice her gymnastics skills.
She is such a bright little soul in our lives. She is so precious to us!

We got to Oklahoma on Thursday and Russ and Dad unloaded the U-Haul into a storage building and then came on to Missouri. Last night we all headed out to the park for some play time. Chloe Jo loved the park here and I'm glad to know where it is. We will be making many a trip to the park in the coming weeks!

And then today we had a little accident. Word from the wise: even if you are only 30 pounds of skinny little girl, a towel rod will not hold you if you hang on it.
Um...whoops! This was after I had already told her not to mess with the rod.
And this was after the rod was pulled out of the wall and Mommy persuaded Chloe Jo to never hang on it again.
I think I got through to her. :) For real, though...we had been at my parents house for 2 days and already Chloe Jo is being naughty and ruining stuff. Sigh. Grampy has a soft spot for his little Chloe Jo so he wasn't too upset about it.

Here's to hoping the next 6 weeks go by quickly and Chloe Jo doesn't rip anything else out of the walls!

Sometimes moving doesn't go as smoothly as you had hoped.

I thought we were all set with a month to month rental.

Today (TODAY!) I got a call from the owner and they said that it was a no-go for us. They sold the house and are closing in the middle of April.

Back to square one.

And we pull out on Monday.

Monday.

I think I'm going to go vomit.

What I'm Loving Wednesday and Oh, How Pinteresting!

Is it the middle of the week already?!?!? How did that happen!?!?

I'm loving that we are moving in less than a week! I'm ready to get back to the midwest and be able to see my family more!

I'm loving dreaming of decorating our *hopefully going to be if everything works out* new house! I can't wait to get my hands on this living room!

I'm loving that I almost got everything done that I had planned to do yesterday. I finished packing up the bedrooms, the hall closet and the living room except for the media cabinet. The thing I didn't do was finish the laundry. I always start out good in the morning, but wimp out by the evening.

I'm loving that Chloe Jo has slept late yesterday and today. It's 10:30 and she is still in bed. Of course, she has had some very rough nights waking up so she needs this sleep!

Today I am going to show you some of the pins that I am using as inspiration for our new living room!

First, I need throw pillows for our sectional. Using the same throw pillows your couch came with is a designing sin!

I'm envisioning big, fluffy ones like this:

Source: bhg.com via Lisa on Pinterest

I may need to make just one with our initial. I like this pillow except for the font. I think it needs to be a little more grown up for a living room.

Source: blog.jenwoodhouse.com via Lisa on Pinterest

This fabric would be perfect for a couple of the pillows.

Source: potterybarn.com via Lisa on Pinterest

The walls in the living room, dining room and kitchen are the green in the picture above. I do not want to paint it so we are going to leave it. I am wanting to use light blue accent pieces in the rooms. Here are a couple of my inspiration pins.

Source: southernliving.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: decorpad.com via Lisa on Pinterest

And just because I think these are super cool, I am going to hopefully put a terrarium somewhere in my living space.

Source: brittanyanddylan.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: westelm.com via Lisa on Pinterest

I hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday!

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