Happy 18 months big girl!

Today, my little sister turned 18 months old, and we had a great day together to celebrate this mini milestone! I still can't believe how big she is getting and that she is 18 months old already! It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating her 1st birthday right before we went to get her and now she has been part of our family for over 5 months, in that time she has grown and changed so much. Today was an extra important day for my family because we were not able to be united with Chloe in time for her 1st birthday, so this is the first birthday celebration we've had with her. She has brought so much joy into my life, and I am already SO proud of my big 18 month old girl! I love her more than anything, she is the sunshine of my life! **click the first collage to enlarge**

After dinner tonight, Miss CM got a big pink sugar cookie with sprinkles for her special day! She was so cute with it but had a hard time figuring out what she was supposed to do with such a large cookie but finally figured out what to do with it after seeing me, mom and nana eating a cookie of our own

Celebrate

Saturday night, one of my bestest friends Mary had a little get-together to celebrate her graduating, just her family and close friends got together for food, swimming and fun! Of course me, my parents and Chloe went and had a really good time celebrating this milestone in her life. Last year my parents threw me a surprise graduation party at the same place Mary had hers (my mom's best friends house) Anyway, I was SO glad to have Chloe here to help us celebrate this year, and i think Mary was too! Im so very proud of her and this accomplishment in her life, especially after the struggle she had with Leukemia. It was certainly a day of celebration. She doesn't graduate for another 2 weeks, but you can be sure that me and CM will be there with bells on! As usual, we took pictures!!


With that said, I hope you all take a moment today to remember every person who has sacrificed his/her life by serving in our military and ensuring our freedom. Happy Memorial Day............

Charleston pics finally

Sorry its took me so long to post these, i havent been on the computer much the past couple of days. As i mentioned before, Chloe loved the beach, so now so i can remember this "first" in Chloes life a little better, im going to post a little more about our first beach trip with miss CM! When we first arrived on the beach and sat Chloe down she instantly took to the sand and played like theres no tomorrow, she really didn't budge for like 10 minutes, she just played with the little sand toys we brought. Once she got bored with that she decided it was time to introduce herself to the surrounding people on the beach, so being the social butterfly she is, she went up and said "hey" to a lot of the people close to us. The rest of the day she walked all over the beach until we went to eat lunch, which on the way back she decided to fall asleep in her stroller so we layed her down in the sunsmart tent thing we bought. The first day went so well, i was really surprised about how good she did and how she just went with the flow and didn't fuss at all! Here are some pics from the first day....

The next day we decided to stay close to our hotel, which has a very nice pool area and little sand area right behind the resort. Chloe got in the pool for a little, it was very COLD so she didn't stay in long but got to get in her new adorable ladybug float!! Here are some pics from that day and one from the night before...

I snapped this pic of CM in her cute ladybug float..hehe....Before heading home, me, Chloe and mom went shopping in downtown Chalreston and stopped by Starbucks, where CM had fun playing with a little cup and shared a huge cookie with me. She was so silly eating that cookie, probably because it was the biggest cookie she had ever seen! Here are some pics from there....
This trip was a trip i had been dreaming of for so long, since before we started the adoption process. It was such a fun trip and i cannot wait to take Chloe back!!!

Beach Bums

What a terrific weekend at the beach. Chloe had an absolute blast and enjoyed every second of her first beach trip. As for me, im a little red around the shoulders (ouch) but ready to go back..lol.We were all amazed at how well Chloe took to all the new things going on around her, like the 3 hr car ride, the sand, ocean, odd surroundings, etc and much to our surprise she seemed to go with the flow throughout the entire trip. She couldn't get enough of the sand and played until she was all played out. It was such a joy to see her taking in everything around her and just having fun being a kid. I have tons of pics and lots of stories to go along with them, but blogger is not letting me post them for some weird reason, it keeps on giving me an error message, so check back soon for beach pics and lots of fun stories!

Tagged, and Beach Bound!!

Staci tagged me, I have to write 7 things that few people know about me, or a few bloggy people know..hehe. Sounds like a good thing to do before I turn this computer off for good for the next 4 days, so here goes...

1. I started modeling when I was 5 years old. By the time I turned 12 i had been in 2 commercials, 4 dancewear catalogs, and countless fashion shows. It was my first job and yep i got paid for it too! =)

Me at age 7 doing a fashion show

2. I am terrified of octopusus. OMG scares the daylights out of me, always has. When i was little I never wanted to go in an aquarium (and still wont) i am petrified. But only of real ones, most stuffed ones are ok.

No picture for this one...EEK!

3. I LOVE rainbows. Ever since i can remember ive been facinated with them, probably because of all the colors. They make me happy! When i was little i used to collect greeting cards with rainbows on them, any card that had a rainbow on it i wanted!

So pretty!

4. My Great Grandpa owned a zoo. My Nana grew up in a zoo (literally), her dad owned a county zoo and i used to go there a lot when i was little to feed the deer and all other animals. he had all kinds of animals from bears to tigers, llamas (my fav!), peacocks, and everything else imaginable! I think i was around 8 when he sold all his animals but I still remember a lot about it.

Me feeding a baby deer on Halloween when i was 2

5. I hate the taste of anything with grape artificial flavoring. YUCK! Its weird because I like grapes/ most grape juice and my favorite color is purple but theres somthing about grape suckers that remind me of cough syrup *gag*. I used to tell people i was allergic to it just so they wouldnt give me a grape lollipop or candy.

Negative!

6. My absolute favorite song is Beauty in the Breakdown by The Scene Aesthetic. If you haven't ever listened to it, you need to! I just love it and I love their music also.

Great CD!!

7. I love Chloe Madison Xian more than anything in this world. She is everything to me, and has taught me the real meaning of true love. I cant imagine life without her. I feel like shes saved me somehow. Shes my little love bunny and I thank God everyday for her!

Now I tag anyone who wants to join in the fun!

Finally, this will be the last post until Tuesday. I will definetly have LOTS of pics to share with you all about Chloe's first beach trip and since tomorrow is 5 months since Chloe day, I will take her picture before we head out and will post it first thing when I get settled back home. I hope you all have a good weekend.

BEACH BOUND!!!!

Chloe's first professional pictures...

Chloe got her picture taken almost a month ago and they turned out great! She wore 2 outfits, a chinese outfit we bought in Guangzhou and a dress from Gymboree. We wanted to do a more classic close up one with her chinese outfit on and it is our favorite! Enjoy!

This one is so elegant to me, I love the way the photographer captured her gazing off to the distant with a little smirk on her face..hehe.

Here are the other 2 more casual ones, I just love love her smile in this one, she looks so happy!

This one shows her personality the best! I love her body language in this one, its like shes thinking "dahling im fabulous"!

Shes came such a long way since her referral pictures, its like looking at a different child. Im thinking about doing a collage of pictures starting with her referral pictures to show everyone just how far she has come. Im also going to be redesigning my blog again using these pictures as a header probably, so be on the look out for that!

Weekends

We had a great weekend, spent with family and good friends. I am so ready for this Friday though, because we are FINALLY headed to tha beach of Charleston! Yay, yay, YAY! This friday also marks our 5th month together with Miss Chloe...WOW, i cant believe its been almost 5 months since that day, its been the best 5 months of my life. I might not be bringing my laptop with me, so if i dont get a chance to post the monthly picture then look for it tuesday! Here is some pics from this weekend...

Friday......

Saturday......

Sunday.......

Happy Mother's Day!

Due to activities this weekend, I may not get a chance to post before Sunday, so if not, I hope you all have a great Mothers Day with your family. Im headed off to a mother/daughter lunchon in the morning with my mom and nana, Chloe's too young to attend (you have to be 10) so my dad will be taking care of her for a couple of hours =) Anywho, heres a little Mothers Day greeting from Chloe for all you mom's out there, especially Colleen who finally recieved Miss Hannah's referral, what a extra special mothers day it is for her!!

**Notice Chloes shirt says "Mom's social butterfly!"**

Umm Wrong Bed!

Funny story! Ok so we have a dog, Cookie, who Chloe just loves to pieces! She will follow Cookie all over the house sometimes trying to pet her, the poor dog, can't get a moments peace in this house! anywho Cookie has a little bed in the corner of our kitchen and the other day my mom said she turned around and Chloe was sitting IN Cookie's bed!! Side note: To remind you, this is our dog.....She is a 10 lb white pomeranian whos bed is pretty small, VERY small for a toddler who obviously took the time and energy to squeeze herself in it..hehe...Now almost everyday we catch Chloe sitting in it at least once during the day! I think she does it for attention though because she knows we will start cracking up when we see her in it.

My mom captured our silly girl this morning and I still giggle when I see the pics..lol

Catching Up

Im back and will be catching up for a couple of days on recent Chloe activities/events that have happened in the past few weeks. Since i never got a chance to post the monthly Chloe day picture here ya go!!

Last week I decided to take Chloe outside and take a few pics of her sitting on the front steps of our house since it was a beautiful day, and she did great! she even "posed" for me (the top pic)! it was so funny and adorable at the same time. Looks like shes gonna be like her big sissy and love to have her picture taken =)

tomorrow?!

Hopefully i will be getting my laptop back tomorrow and will be back to posting like normally but i will mostly be playing catch up for a few days. I can not wait to get my computer back, I have sooooo many Chloe pics to share, a few professional pics from a few weeks ago when we took miss Chloe to get her first professional pics taken and they turned out SO good!! Next weekend me, my mom and Chloe will be going to Charleston with my moms friend and her 10 yr old daughter, Carlie for a girls weekend retreat from thursday to sunday..YEAH!! this will be Chloes first beach trip and i will definetly be picture crazy!!

Strollin with sissy on a BEAUTIFUL afternoon last week