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!!

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.

*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 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!

*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*

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.

**click to enlarge**

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...

*click both 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*

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!

*click both to enlarge*