I love first grade!

My younger brother Brad, has such a sweet-hearted girlfriend, Amanda, who I love dearly. She is a first grade teacher in Frisco, and she asked for Chloe to come visit her classroom. I know one thing, she is definitely doing her calling. She is AMAZING, with her kids. Her room is so cute all decorated in lady bugs and bees. She has so many chants and cheers she does with her kids, it was so cool to see her interact with them. I can definitely say my elementary teachers were not like that, Amanda makes first grade AWESOME!
Chloe couldnt wait to get there, I dressed her in a ladybug outfit to match the room. She went to all the kids and asked "Hey, whats your name?" She had a great time, and is still talking about Amanda being a teacher!

Chloe and Miss Roof

Walking to Class

She packed her own backpack...12 pacifiers, blood pressure guage, doodle pad...everything a first grader needs i guess :)

Her own desk

Thought this class poll was funny!

this is where the kids sat "knee to knee and eye to eye", talking and talked about Chloe's day

She answered a question right and received a smelly on her hand

She got to point out the words with the pointer

Coloring johnny Appleseed

Giving miss Roof her present

Her award :)

her book the class made for her :)

Thanks Amanda for letting Chloe come visit! The kids were precious, and Im so proud of the everyday impact your making on those sweet little kiddos! Love you!

New Best Friends..

Okay, if you do not like spiders, i will go ahead and tell you to not read this post....you may fReAk OuT. Chloe LOVES spiders, and in our backyard we have had three move in and Chloe loves to go talk to them.
 THEY.ARE.HUGE!!! They are only garden spiders, so they are actually the good ones that eat mosquitos so i decided it was okay to just keep them .... especially since Chloe was now on a name-based relationship. So I thought I would introduce them to you....

MEET JEFF

THIS IS ANGIE

AND.....JASON

Chloe telling Jason about her day.....

I know! Crazy huh? The names Jeff and Jason came from the twin boys from Caillou. Angie is from Shark Tales. My best friend Christy came over last weekend, and Chloe wanted to show her friends off. Well Christy had a full out panic attack and said she would not ever come over again unless they were gone. I cant do without Christy so we had to remove them :( RIP Jeff, Jason, and Angie, you will all be missed.

Chuckie~

We went to celebrate a birthday at Chuck-e-cheese a had a fabulous time! I havent seen my friend Cricket in soooo long and i have missed her sooooo much! Cant wait to catch up with her again real soon! Im counting down the days!

Awwww!

Bryley Mikel spent the night with her Aunt Lee Lee Saturday night, what fun we had! Chloe was a tad bit jealous so I only got to hold her after she went to bed. Here's her first little modeling session, I have 1000's more to go through, but here's a sneek peak...

stay tuned more to come of this little sweetie :)

Ethiopia

Check out Stacy's blog right here  for a FUN FUN FUN raffle and help them in their adoption process!

Here's a little peek of what you could win:

My precious niece is here.

Bryley made her debut at 8:13 pm on July 30th, weighing in at 7lbs 12 ounces :) It was a very long day. Chad took off and was going to stay with Chloe,but he wanted to be part of the day so he tagged along. We brought Chloe because of Chad's crazy working schedule any moment he has off he wants to be with her. They miss each other so much. The hospital has a huge playland so Chloe was occupied there. Chad and I also took her to the mall to ride the carousel, play at the playground there, and to get her a pillow pet. She was exhausted and actually took a two hour nap. Which are very rare these days.

Back to Bryley.. Ashley went in at 5:30, they started pitocin at 9:00, and she progressed throughout the day. At around 7 she began pushing. We waited and waited and waited, and finally got a picture text from Bryan with the baby. At 9:00 we finally got to go back to see her. Ashley's epidural ran out 30 minutes before she delivered so the last bit of it was very rough for her and they knocked Ashley out with medicine as soon as Bryley was born.

Bryley is gorgeous, she looks just like Bryan, and has dark skin like Ashley. She is a calm baby and never fusses unless she is hungry. Because of the whole virus thing that happened at my house, my mom didnt stay with them. Let me tell you, they are rockstar parents. they have had no help and have done such a great job. They are so in love with their baby girl. Bryan was so emotional at the hospital, I love seeing him as a dad, it is amazing and makes my heart melt seeing it. Im looking forward to the girls being cousins and able to grow up together.

YUCK.

What a crazy week! I suspected last Sunday that Chloe either ate something bad or was getting virus because her tummy just wasnt right. She was still very playful and acted like nothing was wrong with her. She drank a glass of milk (not sure why I gave her that) and went to bed. At about 2 am I heard some gurgling and she had thrown up all over the bed, and is choking on more. SCARED.ME.TO.DEATH.  I quickly raised her up and swooped her mouth, and the projectile began. I seriously have no idea how a toddler can throw up so much. It is insane. It was all over, me, her and the thousands of towels Chad was bringing in. This whole process wasnt even phasing Chloe, she would puke and just stare at the TV. Thank goodness it didnt last too long, soon she was asking for her pat (pacifier) and was snoozing. As we did about three loads of laundry...pillows, sheets, towels, mattress pads. YUK! Then rolls around Monday night, I make a mad dash to the bathroom and Im puking, Chad comes in to assist, because he knows after 11 years together, this is the worst thing that can happen to me. I can honestly say I HATE to throw up, I will fight it for hours, and ball and squal though every heave. This came on so fast that i didnt have time to "prepare" my normal puking regimen. I like to be in the bathtub, a glass of water with ice, and a trash bag. I feel like the water on blocks the sound of it and i feel like Im staying clean at the same time. I know....go ahead and call me weird. So here I am standing at the toilet, I can not for the life of me put my head to the toilet, never have been, never will be. It makes it even worse because all I can think about is what normally goes in there. So chad is trying to put my head in, Im jerking in out and pretty much walls and floors are being painted. I would much rather clean it up afterwards than have to look into a toilet bowl. Tuesday morning comes, and I hear Chad in the bathroom...puking. He is more of a sport though. So I call my mom to come get Chloe, and Chad and I lay in bed with chills and fever most of the day. We think everything is all over with and my mom calls me Wednesday and says she is puking. Finbally we are all in the clear by Thursday morning. that evening Im playing with Chloe and notice her having chills, and feeling very clammy. I get my thermometer and her temp is at 102. gave her ice chips and motrin and went to bed and continued to check her all night. It shot back up Thursday morning around five, then she acted normal most of the day. I thought it may been something left from the virus. I noticed her eyes looked weak so I decided to take her on in to Acute Kids. Hec checked her all out and didnt see anything wrong but a tiny hint of a red throat, so he decided to do a strep test and surprisingly it came back positive. He also said her tubes had fell out and he actually dug one of them out.  The other should fall out since it wasnt stuck. It was about time, she has had those things in since she was nine months old :(  Im praying and hoping that her ears are healed from any future infections. I stared her on a liquid vitamin and probiotic last december and this is the first time she has been sick since then. So here we are now, Im pretty sure we are on the upside of things now!!! Im am so very thankful that I have a healthy baby girl. things could always be worse.

Chloe & Chad

My girl is brave.very brave. She is afraid of nothing, seriously. When we swim she likes to show us how she doggie paddles and she sinks, we bring her up while she is choking on what she swallowed, as soon as she gets her breath back, she does it again. Its a cycle and it scares.me.to.death ! Chad and I taught swim lessons for years, so we have been working with her this summer. She is much stronger and is much better than the beginning of summer. This fall/winter we will be enrolling her with a private instructor for her to improve even more. I just think she will listen better with someone else showing her besides us. Plus i want to be the annoying parent that takes 1000 pictures that used to drive me nuts back in the day, my how things have changed ;)
She also loves to talk about monsters, and hide in the pitch dark. She let me know that monsters were in the fireplace today and she was going ot go fight them! Chloe also wears "monster gloves" that are "super powered" and wards off monsters (they are her zebra leggings that she now wears on her arms). Im pretty sure all this talk comes from Monster Inc. and the episode of Caillou with Monsters. Thankfully she is not afraid of them and only chases after them with her arm leggings :)

Here's a few pictures of her swimming, running from monsters, and her fashion show :) Oh yeah and the last picture of her and Chad dancing to Michael Jackson... I sure hope Chloe gets Chad's rhythm.... he is such a good dancer. It's not very often you can find a white boy that can dance, but I sure snagged one up!!! lol!

Bryley!!! Get.Here.Now

Bryleys' nursery is finally finished!!! We custom ordered her bedding from etsy.com and the lady kept postponing the delivery time, but yesterday it arrived! I just love girlie nurseries!!!We immediatley went to Ashley's and put it all together. It.is.adorable!!! I cant wait to see Miss Bryley with her coal black hair laying in that bed. She is going to be precious! On her last sonogram the doctor said her hair was just floating in the fluid, and that their was TONS...i believe it, her momma's got TONS of hair!!! Any day now...im just waiting by the phone for the call. I.AM.SO.IMPATIENT!!! eeeeek!

The bag for the hospital :)

Bryan practicing diaper changes :)

Just for fun...Chloe's nursery :) I keep one Christmas tree up year round :) Right now it's in Chloe's room, not the same one, a hot pink one :)

Chloe's toddler room :) She had a daybed, but I found the below bed at the flea market for 20.00, couldnt pass it up, so I refurnished it black....I love it! I have also snagged a french provencial dresser and night stand to revamp from craigslist, but im still trying to decide exactly how i want to complete them. Im just ready to completely take the wicker out... That was a fun room to paint and decorate :) Wanna know how many times she has slept in her fabulous room???? Zero :) That's right! My baby is a good cuddler!!!