Im back...but not for long!

Just a quick post to let you all know everything is going good here, just been takin it easy this week and swimming almost everyday! We are getting ready to head out for a 7 month reunion with our China travel buddies, everyone but one family is coming so it should be a lot of fun to see all the girls again! Monday we are going on our yearly family vacation to Charleston so im so stoaked about that and am not bringing my laptop. Chloe is doing great and just loves being ouside enjoying the summer weather. I will be back in about a week or two and will be posting a bunch of photos taken during my hiatus so look for that and enjoy the rest of your summer! Of course I can't end this post without a few pics to give you a "Chloe fix" heh. Enjoy!

Happy 7 months! (will do a collage when i get back, i just wanted to post this months pic)

Playing by the pool

I just love my princess hair dryer!

Still finding a smile while drinking her juice in T@rget

Night night sweet girl!

Hiatus

Perfect

Today was such a lovely day. We went to our friends house swimming and laying around the pool this afternoon and Chloe just loved it. There were 3 little boys there who were 2, 5 and 6 so Chloe would watch everything they did and usually copied it so it was a pefect learning experience for her! She thoroughly enjoys spending time outside and near the water. She is getting more and more comfortable in the water and even started splashing her feet in it today, we think probably because she saw the boys doing it and wanted to be just like them! I love the picture below, I took it right before we left to go home, when i put her little swimsuit cover-up on, so thats why she has a hood on! I love it because her face just looks so precious and it shows her profile so great, my sweet baby girl.

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VBS day 5- family fun night

Yesterday we had our last day of VBS with a family fun night and miss Chloe had a blast! Her favorite thing was the huge inflatable slide that she made me go on at least a dozen times which gets tiring because i have to carry her up it (and its really high up) and also help some of the little kids get up it at the same time, but she enjoyed it so thats really all that matters anyway lol. She really liked seeing all the people and would walk up to them waving then she would give them hugs it was SOOOO sweet! It really was a perfect day for it because it wasen't too hot and it didn't rain so it went great. Tomorrow morning we have bible school commencement and that will offically be the end of vbs. So enjoy the pics!

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VBS day 4

Tired.tired.tired. Thats me! So extra quick post. Im going to explain the middle picture right quick....every year I dress up as a character and dance for the kids, being like a life size bible school mascot. This year im a penguin and Chloe LOVES it, so i took her to see the penguin before church today and picked up the head and she loved on it forever, so thats why you can see a big eye and beak in the middle picture, LOL.

Ok so its time to play lets laugh at Lindsey! Here is me in all my glory dancing (or acting a fool!) as J.P the Penguin at church this week....

*you know the drill..click to enlarge*

VBS day 3- Chloe's monkmee outfit

Well we are halfway through bible school and I am sooo glad, lol, nah you just gotta keep in mind that we have been working on it for 3 months so I will be glad in a way when its over. I am so stoaked about friday though because its Family Fun Night, a night where we wrap up VBS week in an all out extravaganza with huge inflatable slides, moonwalks, etc. It is such fun and the kids love it! We even have cotton candy and lemonade stands...what kid doesn't love sugary fun!!! Anyway back to tonight, Chloe wore her little Gymboree monkey outfit where she learned to say "monkey". I asked her what was on her shirt and she said "Monkmee" it was soooo adorable, she had never said it like that before, heh! Well I was going to write more but im beat and not in the mood to type anymore so enjoy the pics!

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VBS day 2-Chloes first Icee!

I'm so exhausted tonight so this post is going to be extra quick. I took a lot of pictures tonight so there is two collages of Chloe, one is just a few pictures from today and the other one is of Chloe eating her very first icee at VBS tonight! She LOVED it and kept on going "mmmmm" over and over, so cute! She did manage to get a little in her mouth i think, heh. Enjoy the pics!

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VBS day 1

Ive decided to take a little time each night this week to post a picture of Chloe at her first VBS. I think its an important thing to do for Chloe to document something like this and have it to look back on years to come. This year's theme is called Take The Plunge, its all about water and having fun in the SON! Im not going to write much its really just going to be a picture (or two maybe) per post. Like i mentioned in the post before its going to be a crazy week and i wont be online much, just long enough to download the pictures and make a quick collage of our sweet girl. So heres tonight's!

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Chloe's first Build A Bear!

This will probably be my last post for about a week because we have VBS at my church next week and my parents and I are over it so I will be pretty busy.

Yesterday me, mom and Chloe went shopping and took Chloe to Build A Bear for the first time so she could make her own stuffed animal. I think she was pretty confused by it all and made it clear that she did not like the animals that were not stuffed yet. They had so many to choose from but we went with the bear that is like "baby's first bear", its super soft and has its eyes sewn in so we don't have to worry about them coming off and Chloe eating them. heh. Anyway she had such a blast "making" her bear which we named "Xing Xing" because that was Chloe's nickname at MaoNan (her orphanage). We even put a little Hello Kitty shirt on her (the bear) and bought a little pink stroller so Chloe could stroll Xing Xing everywhere, which she did! She LOVES that stroller and strolled her bear all over the mall, it was so funny and adorable.

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4th highlights

Wow, we had a great day yesterday just relaxing by the pool with family and friends all day then having a awesome cookout later that evening. It was the perfect day all together. Chloe never slowed down the whole day and went from 2:00 to 10:00 straight, walking and playing, swimming, eating, the works! She had such fun and charmed everyone there with that sweet disposition that we all love so very much. Well im watching Chloe for my mom and it sounds like she just woke up from her nap so enjoy the pics, im off to watch Elmo with my girl!

Her I YAmerica Outfit and a little flag she carried around all morning....

Just some snapshots of her in the adorable stars & stripes swimsuit...

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Fireworks!

Quick post. Chloe had a great day today, she got to feed the ducks for the first time and got to see her first fireworks which she loved. She ooh'ed and ahh'ed throughout the whole thing and went "woah!" when it was a big bang part while she pointed up to the sky, so cute! She really enjoyed it i think and at the finale she started jumping up and down with big bright eyes and clapped so hard at the end. It was a great day overall. Tomorrow to celebrate the 4th we are off to a friend's house to swim and relax all day and have a cookout with some fireworks later that night. Im so excited to celebrate this holiday with Chloe, the holiday all about America's freedom. After taking a child from a country with no freedom to this great country all about freedom just warms my heart. We plan on going all out this year and sharing our love for this country with Chloe, we even bought her a little American Flag bikini & cute outfit with a shirt that says I YAmerica with jean capris, sooo adorable! I will obviously be taking tons of pictures of our sweet girl tomorrow so look for some collages in the next few days. I hope you fellow American's have a great 4th and spend it with family and friends reflecting on the meaning of Independence Day.

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9Teen Months Old

Friday our sweet girl turned 19 months old and we had a great day starting with a little photoshoot outside. It was so humid out so I did it quick and Chloe did great, she pushed her little corn popper around the whole time and looked adorable in her ladybug dress. Some notes of interest about Chloe at 19 months old:
~weighs 22 lbs (in 10th percentile weight on American chart but 50th percentile Chinese chart)
~wears 12 month clothes, 6-12 months in Gymboree
~wears size 4 shoe
~likes green beans, cantaloupe, tomatos, corn on cob, salads, ketchup, etc
~some favorite things: Elmo, her stuffed dog, blowing kisses, piggyface, likes to brush hair and do her "makeup"

Later that afternoon I put together her water table then me, mom and Chloe went outside where she got to play with it for the first time! She really enjoyed it and stayed out for a while splashing and just having fun!

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