Chloe's six month birthday!

That's right, our little "pickle" as we call her, due to the fact that she can make some of the cutest sour faces, turns six months old today! We can hardly believe a half a year has passed since she miraculously entered the world! So much has happened in those six months and our baby girl is growing up. She appropriately had her six month doctors appointment this morning, complete with vaccines (ouch!) and some big show off smiles for the doctor.

Stats:
Weight: 18 pounds (90th percentile)
Height: 27.5 inches (95th percentile)
Head circumfrance: 17 inches (75th percentile)
She's growing beautifully, as the pediatrician put it, and my aching back is in agreement. It was only natural that after her appointment, Travis and I headed straight to the chiropracter!

Here we are, me and my girls, in their matching valentine dresses. That was one of the things I was very excited about when we learned we were having another girl, matching dresses! If only I could find them in my size, we'd be set!

Giggles galor! Miss Chloe Paige loves to laugh, especially at her big sister, which Emma loves. I just want to eat those chubby cheeks and sweet druely mouth! Only a parent can understand that desire.

It's a good thing miss "Biddle" has chunky thighs to cover her parts in this shot, otherwise I wouldn't have posted it. Chloe loves to be naked before and after her bath at night, she gets very frisky. Travis loves to tickle her armpits with his wiskers.

Did I say she enjoys being naked?

Our little thumb sucker. Part of the reason she's been such a great sleeper is that she's always got her trusty thumb attached to her for self soothing. We had such a hard time getting Emma to sleep through the night because she was so dependant her her pacifier. Every time she'd lose it, we had to come in and put it back in for her. I'm sure we won't think it two years from now, but there's just nothing cuter than a baby sucking their thumb. I'm sure I'll be asking for ideas for weaning her from it in a couple years though, so fire away!

Chloe is such a messy eater! But oh how she loves it! As soon as the food hits her mouth, the babbling begins and the hands go straight in her mouth. Then of course the hands proceed to goober up everyone/everything within reach for the entire feeding. But we're so glad she loves to eat! She's tried sweet potatos now for three days and just tried apples this morning. She's a bit slower to down them, it's almost as if she's savoring the new flavor. We're thinking she takes after her daddy in that respect. His favorite thing to do is savor good food, it's almost a hobby for him. It makes cooking for him fun (when I've got the energy and time to be creative in the kitchen)!

Our happy eater!

Chloe's newest discovery over the past month has been putting her feet in her mouth. She can now pull her socks off to get to those tasty little piggies!
We are counting our blessings every time we behold our happy, healthy little girls! God is good! Stay in touch, please send us pictures and updates of you and yours as well!
Love, Sarah

House pictures at last!

Okay miss anal retentive perfectionist, just get some bloomin pictures of the new house up already! That was me lecturing myself. I have finally decided, pushed by many of your requests, not to wait until my house looks like a page of Better Homes and Gardens to put pictures on my blog, so here you go.It's a 3 bedroom, two full bath ranch style home on an awesome lot! There will never be anyone to the right of the house, the way you are looking at it, and beyond an irrigation ditch is a huge farmers feild that is technically a flood plane, so no development there most likely. There will likewise never be anyone on back of us either, horray! There are tons of very old, very large trees surrounding the development, so even though it's a new neighborhood, we're in an older part of town. The development is plotted for only 40 new homes, so we're not talking mega suberbia, which we like.This picture above is the view out the back of the house (i.e. two of our bedroom windows and our master bath). I took this picture during one of our recent snow storms, notice the deer.This is the view out our side picture window and our courtyard style covered porch. This is looking south, remember the farmer's feild and irrigation ditch I mentioned? This is it. Very country feeling eh!The living/family room. Plans for paint and furniture and more wall decor are all on the hope list, but time and money will be our guide.Looking down the hall at the front door and down the stairs to the unfinished basement. We have nine foot ceilings, both on the main floor and in the basement.The kitchen and dining room. I plan to do a faux finish in the dining room. The dining room ceilings are 16 foot, that's the tower you see from the front view of the house.

Our master bedroom and bath. Excuse the clutter in the bathroom, somehow it and Chloe's room have landed at the bottom of the to do list. I'll be sure to send pictures of completed projects too. Rooms that did not appear in these pictures are the girls bathroom (it has two sinks as well), the girl's bedrooms (they are napping as I write this), and the mudroom/laundry room. I hope you've enjoyed this peek into our home, sorry it's taken me so long to share it with you. Stay in touch!
Love, Sarah

"I can do it!"

This post could also be titled, "Emma's brag box"! That's right, there have been some new accomplishments in the world of our sweet little two and a half year old, she's officially potty trained! Now when I say officially, I mean about 80%. She still has an accident here or there, but she is waking up each morning dry and using the toilet more often than not. If she doesn't make it, it's usually due to the fact that she's engrossed in one of her favorite movies, like "Little Bear's Rainy Day Tales".More exciting news, which I only forgot to mention in my previous post, is that Emma has been sleeping in her big girl bed ever since we moved in to the new house and has been doing wonderfully with it. We have a nice little routine of reading about 10 books, then lights out and a back rub, then it's off to dream land. She doesn't come out until morning, we are just so pleased!I'll be honest, as exciting as it is to see my baby girl reach these milestones, it also makes me sad to think of what's soon so come as she enters school in a couple years. I'm no fool, I know there will come a day when I will look back and long for these days when my children were at home with me all day, full of life and emagination and learning, never missing a moment, being a part of every new discovery. But that's why I don't have much guilt when the laundry piles up or the house needs cleaning and I just haven't gotten to it yet, because this time is precious and I've heard the advice of too many seasoned mom's to know that it will be over in a blink, never to be relived. I highly doubt I will look back with remorse over postponed chores, amen!