IM BACK (with lots of pictures)

Sorry it has been soooooo long since i have updated this thing. time just seems to slip away. im planning on starting a new blg for the summer so if anyone is willing to help me out on the layout please email me at tochinaforchloe@yahoo.com. Everything is good here, Chloe is growing and talking like crazy! Here are a few pics from the past month..all were taken with my new Nikon D40 camera i got for christmas. some things about Chloe: she has taken a amazing facination with horses and is even riding! my best friend rides horses and has a pony Beauty and Chloe rides her and just loves it..she is quite the natural =] she also loves Barney as of lately and loves to sing all the songs with the children on the show.

On St Patty's Day!

With her horsie Sage

Easter 2008

Holding flowers!

Getting ready to ride!

such a sweet sweet girl!

Ready for summer (this picture was taken last week!)

Chloe's second birthday party (a little late)

I know i know im like two weeks late on posting this but you know what they say better late than never. lol. well Chloe's party was fabolous and she had an absolute blast like i knew she would. We started the week before her party telling her that she would be having a party soon and that she was going to be two so she kept going around the house saying "paryyy" and "i be two" while holding up two of her fingers, it was soooo precious =). Well we had her party at KidSenses and of course had an Elmo party since Chloe just adores him and was so excited about her "Elmo caKE!" it was one of her favorite parts i think! The cake was actually a cupcake cake shaped like elmo's head, sooo cute! Heres a picture of it...i got alot of attention walking around walmart carrying it hehe!


I wish i had taken a picture of Chloe's face when she saw her cake, it was priceless. she was so in awe of it and just kept on saying "elmo" "elmo"! She blew her candles out like such a big girl i was so proud of my big girl and just almost cried seeing the excitement in her eyes throughout the whole party. she makes me sooooo happy!!!
Those are my favorite picture of Chloe, i love her face and the joy in her face on both of them. She also looks sooo big in them.

Here are some more pictures from her party. Just click the collage to enlarge it....

And she's TWO!

Sorry for the lack of posting in the past few months...things have been crazy hectic and not in a good way and i promise i will catch up on the last few months in a couple of days and post plenty of pics but for now I want to do a special post because tomorrow my sweet asian princess turns TWO.

With this milestone comes so many mixed emotions for me. I was talking to my best friend Cady on the phone last night and I was telling her about how I wonder if Chloe's birthmother is thinking of her at this very moment and if she ever thinks about the child she gave up on this date two years ago? There is just so many unanswered questions i have that i can't even put into words that just seem to come to life on this day. I just wish I could see her birthmother and thank her for this precious child just to let her know how Chloe is loved by so many people and how much joy she has brought into my life. Its bittersweet. Cady was listening to this amazing song the other day while on the phone with me called Boats and Birds by Gregory and the Hawks. The lyrics of this song seem to speak to me and remind me of Chloe's birthmother and the emotions she might have had on that day two years ago. The feelings that I can't put into words seem to be in this song. Turn your speakers up and listen to this amazing song I promise you it will make your heart smile. here's the lyrics also in case your interested.....

Boats and Birds by Gregory and the Hawks.

If you'll be my star

I'll be your sky

you can hide underneath me and come out at night

when I turn jet black and you show off your light

I live to let you shine

I live to let you shine

but you can skyrocket away from me

and never come back if you find another galaxy

far from here with more room to fly

just leave me your stardust to remember you by

If you'll be my boat

I'll be your sea

a depth of pure blue just to probe curiosity

ebbing and flowing and pushed by a breeze

I live to make you free

I live to make you free

But you can set sail to the west if you want to

and past the horizon till I can't even see you

far from here where the beaches are wide

just leave me your wake to remember you by

If you'll be my star

I'll be your sky

you can hide underneath me and come out at night

when I turn jet black and you show off your light

I live to let you shine

I live to let you shine

But you can skyrocket away from me

and never come back if you find another galaxy

far from here with more room to fly

just leave me your stardust to remember you by

stardust to remember you by.

That song is dedicated to Chloe's birthmother on this special day. I hope somehow she finds peace in her heart.

Tomorrow Cady and I are taking Chloe some fun places for her birthday then we are having a family party later that evening. Chloe's party isin't until saturday and of course its an ELMO party so look for pictures =). For now I leave you with a few recent pictures of the birthday girl who continues to be my shining star each and every day.

Chloe's two favorite things...Elmo and a horse hehe.

Riding the golf cart on Thanksgiving =]

Long time no update

Man has it really been a month since ive updated?!?! wow. what a month! So lots of pictures to share and Chloe info to dish out. This post is probably going to be jumbled and all over the place as i have a lot of stuff to update on an information to share. Ive been super busy with school and other activities that I hardly ever get to snap pictures of miss thang anymore besides the pictures I am taking for my photography class (i will share some at the end of the sem.). Chloe is growing at lightning speed and continues to amaze me with her ability to take in information and learn new things. She can now name about 6 different animal sounds when asked and can point to her eyes, ears, nose, mouth and eyes when asked. She also LOVES to look at her books and will sit down and "read" forever if you let her. She has grown and matured so much since that day in december when she became my sister and amazes me everyday

Just a picture i snapped with my camera phone in walmart one day. is it just me or does she look soo big in it?

I snapped this picture of Chloe in her pj's on our nana and pop's porch last week and yes it got chilly last week so thats why shes wearing the jacket =]

Now onto halloween. Oh am i ever psyched about that and can't wait to take Chloe trick-or-treating, ive been dreaming about this for years! So Chloe does have a costume and im sure everyone wants to know what our sweet girl is going to be. Of course we HADD to dress her as a ladybug to continue the China good luck charm tradition alive. heh. So check out our little ladybug (she will have little sparkly shoes and cute makeup and accessories by 10/31)

She just adores this outfit and wants to put it on daily saying "abug"!

Like i mentioned briefly in the last post, Chloe is infatuated with my new bff Cady and just loves it when she comes and spends the night which is a lot as Cady is practically a member of the family. Cady is so good with her and we have such fun playing and acting crazy together, and did i mention she has lots of horses with is one of Chloe's favorite animals?! I take Chloe at least once a week to see the "orseys" and to watch Cady ride them and she loves loves loves playing outside with all the horses it just makes her day! I am still amazed at the bond Chloe has formed with Cady and it just warms my heart to see Chloe smile when Cady comes over. Chloe has a little pegboard in her room with pictures of family and of course Cady, she goes up to it everyday and points to the picture and says "ca-ey" over and over =]

♥ my two loves ♥

Love it!

Heres a video of Chloe talking to Cady's picture on the computer. i love her little voice it makes me happy =]

Last but not least we celebrated nine wonderful months with Chloe on the 18th and so here is the monthly chair picture along with the others...

I'll update again in a few weeks, i hope everyone is well =]

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**

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!!

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!

Better late than never

Sorry its took me soooo long to post this but between going to the beach, trying to get all of my computer files back in order and so on i just now got the pics put together. I promise this month i will get it together and post it sooner. So here it is finally, our 5 month since Chloe Day monthly collage!

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!!!

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 =)

Withdrawals

First off, today is Chloe's 17 month birthday AND 4 months since we returned home with Chloe...what a big girl she is becoming, and how far she has come since we've had her home!! I love her so very much

Ok so this not having my laptop for two weeks is really starting to get to me, i have found myself totally wandering around my room aimlessly each night trying to find something to fill the void in my life, and thus far i have watched about 10+ episodes of Law & Order:SVU and exactly 2 episodes of the Tyra Banks show each night for the past 10 days just trying to ease the no laptop pain =( NOT EASY! Seriously, after having a laptop with wireless internet for over a year now i honestly do not think i could live long without it, after the two weeks is up im probably going to be seeking some CAA meetings (Computer Addicts Anon.) to help me with this obsession, many hours of therapy WILL be needed. Ok just needed to vent a little...now as soon as i get my laptop back (im on my aunts now) I will probably be posting numerious times a day so look forward to that hopefully by the end of this week. Now on to pics of miss Chloe!

"Driving Miss Booty" (her nickname..hehe)

Eating a doughnut!!

P.S- I am only on this computer long enough to check my email and post this, so if you have left me comments and i have not responded, this is why..lol..sorry!

Pretty Girl

Just a quick post...im on my nana's computer and couldn't stand not to post a little update since it feels like forever since i've posted!! Miss Chloe is doing great as usual, totally LOVING this warm weather we have been having lately. We are outside a lot of the day now, just basking in the beautiful spring weather. Enjoy the pics!

We were out by our friends pool on Sunday and Mary snapped this picture on her cell phone, and i just LOVE it..Chloe looks SO happy!!

Our pretty girl in her new outfit!!

Good Friends, A New Ride, & Piggytails!

I'm playing catch up since im a little behind on blogging...well last saturday night, we went to eat with the Newsome family, who was in our travel group and who also live very close to us AND whose daughter, Madison Mei was Chloe Madison's orphanage sister in Maonan SWI, so with everything we have in common we couldn't stand not seeing each other and have decided to get together at least once a month so the girls can continue to see each other grow. Anyways during the trip to China we grew very close to every family in our group and consider everyone lifelong friends of ours who share this amazing bond that no one can break! After a great meal and much laughter we decided to get someone to take a picture of our families...and it turned out quite well i think!

So after that, Me, mom, dad and Chloe went to Target to do a little shopping and decided to buy Chloe a new "ride" to celebrate our one month since returning from China...when we got home and put it together she was so excited and just LOVES to ride it..its so adorable!

Also earlier that week i was babysitting Chloe while mom went and got her hair done, so I decided to just try and put her hair in little piggytails for the first time and to my surprise she actually didn't mind me putting them in and kept both in for at least 30 minutes!! She looked darling and i cannot wait until this summer when she has a little more hair to put more piggytails in...hehe =).....