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**

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!

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.

*click to enlarge*

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!

*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!

*click to enlarge*

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!

**click to enlarge**

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!

*click to enlarge*

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.

*Click both collages to enlarge*

A Pink Duck!

Chloe had such a great day today! We ( just me and the kidlet)hung out for a while at the house then went to wally world to pick up a couple of things for mom then came back to play for a while. While at w-mart we went by the outdoor toy department and found the cutest little watering can's for kids, all different colors with different animals on them, so cool! Anyway I wanted to get a pink one (of course) and they only had 2 left, one of which was a duck, which is so totally awesome since one of Chloe's new things to do is say "quack" when you ask her what a duck says. So I was psyched about finding it but Chloe seemed confused when I showed it to her and said "look it's a duck" and it wasn't yellow, heh! So when we got home with the pink duck I was extra excited because we bought Chloe a water table yesterday and I thought it would be the perfect time to put it together but the weather thought otherwise =(. For the 4th day in a row huge clouds were rolling in and we were expected to get a thunderstorm *sigh* i was so bummed, but we did have time to go for a little nature walk around our house to "water" the flowers and grass, and i got a chance to take some great pics of our sweet girl with her new watering can!
Side note: Chloe has just started to smile for the camera and get's so excited when i tell her "say cheese!" She goes "cheeeee" and gets the biggest grin on her face, perfect for a good shot!!

**click to enlarge**

Fun in the sun!

Chloe has had a fun filled week so far, slam packed in pure summer joys. I've watched her all day for the past 2 days so we've had a bunch of sissy time together. Monday after Chloe had a yummy lunch of green beans, sweet potatos and cantaloupe we headed out to my friends house for a while where Chloe got to play outside with my friend's 2 1/2 year old daughter and 6 year old brother. While the older kids got in the pool, Miss Chloe got to play with the water table and had so much fun splashing and laughing. She had never played with a water table before and had such fun that we are headed out right now to go buy her a table of her own. Later that evening we stayed for dinner where Chloe had a delicious plate of baked spaghetti with her first cup of grape juice and loved it! She was so tired when we got home after having a full day with her big sissy!

Yesterday I decided to take Chloe swimming at our friends house and i'm so glad I did. She had such fun playing in her little pool with a little cup that she filled up with water then dumped it out on herself and laughed so hard that she could barely keep herself balanced! She didn't really like getting in her ladybug float in the big pool though, so she mainly stayed on the steps with her little cup! She thought it was hilerious when some of the other kids there played chicken and fell into the water and laughed so hard she nearly lost her breath, it was so cute! I am enjoying summertime even more since Miss Chloe is here and can't wait to see what the rest of the summer holds for us!

*Click collages to enlarge*

Seventeen

Yesterday me and Chloe were playing in my room when she picked up my Seventeen Magazine from my couch and started flipping through it like she knew what she was doing, it was hilerious! She would concentrate so hard on looking at it and everytime she would flip a page shed go "oohh" and start waving at the people on the pages and would even give them kisses sometimes. On one page theres a picture of Rihannas Pomeranian puppy that looks just like our dog Cookie so when Chloe saw that dog her eyes lit up and she started pointing and saying "dooo" which is what she calls our dog. Also this month's Seventeen magazine was one where you have to flip the magazine around to read the special insert about Americas Next Top Model and Chloe knew that the pictures were upside down and would flip it the right way when she got to that page, smart girl that one! She surprised me by sitting and "reading" that magazine for at least 10 mintues and only stopped because I took it from her when she decided that it would be fun to rip the pages into little tiny shreads. If nothing else, at least the kid has a great taste in magazines, heh, she learns from the best i suppose!

Fun at the lake!

Yesterday we ( me, mom, dad and Chloe) went to Lake Bowen where some friends of ours have a lake house and had fun with some close friends. It was Chloe's first time on the lake and also her first boat ride! She really had fun playing with the kids there and got to get in the water and splash around for a bit in her brand new swimsuit, and really enjoyed herself. As usual she was the center of attention as she was the youngest there and the only kid under the age of 10 so it was pretty much all eyes on her. She loved being outside especially since she hasn't been allowed to go outside and play for almost a week now and didn't want to leave. I'm so glad she got to feeling better and we were able to go yesterday, she definetly deserved to go outside and play after the bad week she had!

Look who's feeling better!

Look at that smiling face! Thanks to a little "Elmo therapy" together with the nice doctor and great medicine to help her foot, miss Chloe is feeling a lot better and is slowly getting back to her old self! There are a couple of precautions we are taking to make sure Chloe gets better as quick as possible, such as limiting the amount of time she stays out in the sun, because one of the medications shes on recommends that. We are also trying to let her go barefoot as much as we can so her foot can breathe and aren't letting her play outside execpt for strolling in her little red car.

Weekend Recap

This weekend was pretty busy. Friday night me, mom, and Chloe decided to go out to eat and shopping for a bit, just us girls! We had a blast and Miss Chloe decided when we went out to eat that she wanted to be a "greeter" and wave to every single person who came in, it was sooo funny! Where we went to eat, Steak and Ale, they have this really nice little sitting area outside that Chloe just loved and I just HAD to take pics of because it was just really nice and Chloe had on one of my personal favorite dresses!

Saturday and sunday i decided to take a little break from taking pics because I always seem to miss a lot by constantly taking pics of our girl! Saturday we had a family reunion to go to and Chloe got to meet (& greet!) a lot of relatives, many of which hadnt seen Chloe yet. Chloe seemed to charm every single person there and got a lot of attention (of course). She is the only Chinese/Asian family member and I was so grateful to see how taken everybody was with her and just so very welcoming to her, which meant a lot to me. Later that day we went to a little birthday party for a little boy who we are really close to, and Chloe had a blast! Sunday after church we spent a lot of the afternoon with R&R then while I watched a little Top Model marathon, mom took Chloe over to my nana & pops house. When they got back, one of my friends and her sister came over to see our girl and Chloe got to spend some time with "the big girls" and just had a blast hanging out with us, laughing and carrying on, it was great! Now that the weekend's over, COME ON REFERRALS!!!!!!

Elbow!

It was bound to happen sooner or later, yep im talking about the four letter word E-L-M-O and our Chloe is officially obsessed with him! She LOVES anything Elmo, or "Elbow" as she calls him and will actually sit still and watch him as long as he's on the tv. So as you probably guessed, we have of course bought her a few Elmo goods including 2 of his videos, this one and this one. It's sorta odd because most kids start by watching Elmo on tv but my mom bought a little stuffed Elmo and thats what Chloe fell in love with but didn't know he came on tv. The first time she saw him on the big screen she flipped out yelling ELBOW! ELBOW! ELBOW! over and over again running in circles it was SO adorable. Me and mom knew that since CM is so in love with this red creature we HAD to buy her a Elmo outfit and we came across this adorable overall set with a big Elmo on the front and little cherry laces on the bottom and shirt which would make it Chloe's first pair of overalls ever!!Thats all it took for us to buy it! So today Miss CM wore it and OMG it is by far one of my personal fav's of her many (and i mean MANY) outfits which meant photoshoot time!! Check out some pics of Miss Chloe stylin with her ELBOW on!!


I also shot a very short video of Chloe lovin on Elmo and if you listen really really closely she says ELBOW kinda quietly, SO SO cute! Enjoy!

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

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!"**