Taking a break

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, classes started last friday & im enrolled full time so ive been busy with all that not so fun stuff . Ive decided to take a bit of a blogger break again, im not sure how long it will be but i just really haven't had the time/energy to blog. The only thing ive been doing on here besides school stuff is myspace haha.

Heres a quick update....Chloe is doing great and is getting more and more comfortable with going to other people. we've had a really hard time getting her to let other people hold her besides our really close family that she sees everyday. Last week i had a friend spend the night almost every night so Chloe got used to seeing a new person and getting comfortable with her and will now reach out for my friend to hold her when shes around. Chloe even reached out for her today while i was holding her and it made me happy to see her trust build.

heres a picture of Chloe with a smily face balloon today!

i might pop in once a week and post a picture or two but im not making any promises and i really dont know when i will be back to regular posting.

My Glamour Girl

Chloe loves putting on sunglasses and walking around with them on, no matter whos sunglasses they are! This poor kid doesn't even have much of a nose so she has to balance them with her hands to keep them on which makes it more adorable if you ask me =). Sometimes she will tilt her head back to keep them from falling and i joke with her about being a gangsta because she looks like shes trying to be "cool", lol. She does have a pair of her own, little pink ones that we've had for a while but she prefers the over-sized ones like the ones i wear which are big (because we all know that big sunglasses are in) the bigger the sunglasses the cuter they look on her with her tiny nose =). I call her my little glamour girl a lot when she wears them because she looks SO glamourous!!

**as always, click to enlarge**

8 months a family!!!

Sorry for the lack in posting lately, classes started friday so ive been busy getting my schedule fixed, getting school supplies, etc.
Yesterday we celebrated 8 months since Chloe day! Its hard to believe its been 8 whole months since Chloe was handed to us, 8 months of amazing fun filled days with this precious child! I know i say this alot but its truly amazing the strides Chloe has made since day 1, just having the ability to trust us to supply her needs never ceases to amaze me. This has been the most amazing journey and i am forever grateful to have the opportunity to love this sweet girl.
I love comparing each month's picture to the previous ones just to see how much Chloe has grown so this month i added one of the referral pictures we recieved to this slide show.

Here are a few more pictures from our little 8 month photoshoot....

My Brown Eyed Girl (and bubbles!)

You probably know where im going with this post just by the title...so after seeing dozens of websites with this adorable shirt on them i finally broke down and bought Miss Chloe THE shirt everyone talks about, because everyone does love a brown eyed girl!

We have this pig bubble maker that spits out bubbles when you press the handle on the back that Chloe LOVES. We've had it for a while but Chloe was scared of it for the longest time and wouldn't even get near the thing yet seems to have grown to love it. Its so adorable the way she says "bubbles!" with such excitement, oh how I love this girl!

Lastly I wanted to post a cute collage of Chloe from yesterday after we got home from a day of shopping! Aren't her little Cr0c$ just to die for?

**as always, click to enlarge**

Chloe's first haircut and weekend ramblings!

Lately we have been noticing that Miss Chloe's hair has been getting way long in the front and was even touching her nose and the back had started to look uneven so we decided that it was time for her to get her first haircut (not counting the fact that her head was shaved in China). We really weren't sure how she would react to it but she did great and was a champ through the whole thing. All she really got was a little trim on the front and also on the back to cut all the dead ends she had so her hair can grow faster and thicker now! Her hair looks alot healther now and is sooo easy to do, I personally think it makes her look a lot older!

before (see how long her hair was in the front?! We were constantly struggling to keep it out of her eyes!)

after (i think she likes it)!!

Just some pics taken while she was getting it cut!

Taken saturday, looking pretty for the social worker =)!

Saturday after our social worker came to do the 1st placement visit me and Chloe were playing around in our family room where she was acting like a little ham doing the funnest things and making the funniest faces. She would do her "drama queen" act and come running towards me with her arms out in front of her going "aahhhhh" pretending to be screaming coming towards me to "knock" me down, it was priceless (I SO need to video it, might do that soon!) So i grabbed my camera (of course) and shot this picture which we (my parents and I) think is hilerious!

I LOVE that face!

Saturday night I took Chloe over to our cousin's house so she could play with her cousin Mason who will be 3 in october and it was so funny watching them together! Of course it took Chloe a while to warm up to them especially with a hyper little boy running circles around her, but once she did they started to play and laugh together. So Mason's mom and I decided to load them up in her car and take them to play at Mason's grandparents house which Chloe enjoyed alot! I thought they looked so cute in the car on the way that i had to take a picture (imagine that, lol).

Don't they look cute together? =)

Tomorrow me, mom and Chloe are going shopping for a few early fall clothes. YES!! Gymboree here I come!!! I am sooo excited about their new princess line which just happens to be PURPLE, my favorite color =)

Beach pictures at last (and lots of 'em!)

Sorry it has taken me sooo long to post the beach pics but it's taken me forever to do the collages, probably because I took so many pictures during our beach trip! I LOVE Charleston and The Isle of Palms and cannot wait to go back (hopefully during Labor Day!). I think it would be an understatement to say that Chloe enjoyed the beach, she had the time of her life and charmed every single person she came in contact with!
Tomorrow afternoon our social worker is coming to do the post placement visit so Chloe will have on one of my personal favorite outfits for the occasion ( so i will be taking lots of pics) and even got her very first haircut today to go along with it (pics of that to come!) So this is pretty much it for playing catch up from my hiatus, so next time you see pics of Miss Chloe she will be sporting her new hairdo!!!

*The Isle of Palms beach!*

*Swimmin at the hotel pool!*

*Check out them piggytails!*

*I LOVE that dress, btw don't her new Crocs look cute?! heh!*

*A lot of random pics i wanted to share!*

As always **click to enlarge**

Beautiful pictures of my girl!

Im almost done doing collages of the beach pictures but wanted to post these pictures that Melanie over at Blossom Memories did for me of my sweet Chloe. I think they turned out great and i love the way she did them. Thanks Melanie for doing these for me i will definetely be contacting you to do more soon!

Getting back in the groove of things

Hi all! We're back from the beach, got back friday night after a great week of relaxing. We all had a wonderful time and again Chloe just adored the beach and being on vacation but was a little confused at first about why she wasn't at home and was having to sleep with me. I of course took tons of pictures each day and will post them in the next few days. For a little pre beach recap...like i mentioned in the last post we went to a reunion with our China travel group and it went great. It was so nice to see all the girls again and see how much they have grown in 7 months and just spend time with the people we spent the two weeks in China with. Every family except for one were able to come (the other family lives in California but we were able to talk to them on the phone for a little bit so that was nice) and we took a "not so red couch" picture like the one taken back in december and they did a little better with this one than the last one as most of them weren't screaming their heads off this time!

Left to right: Jasmine, Madison, Chloe, Emily, Emily's sister Holly, Sarah Tate, Toby Ann

Im still working on getting all the beach pictures downloaded on my computer so once i do that and try to make a few collages i will post the beach pictures!!