Silly girl

Chloe likes chatting back and forth in the car and we caught a bit of it on camera.

Memorial Day

 Today was a nice day off.  The weather was warm and the sun was shining.  This morning we met up with our friends, Kathleen, Josh and their son, Jacob, to watch the parade in town.  It was nice to walk from our house and enjoy the morning.

 Jacob and Chloe

 She loved when the band walked by and had fun clapping and waving at everyone in the parade.

 The rest of the day, Paul spent time working on stripping, and power washing our deck and deck furniture.  Chloe and I spent some time playing and splashing around in water.

I'm looking forward to getting to do a lot more of this in a week!

living room is painted

Paul and I finally decided on a color!  After many samples we went with "Contemplation".  It is a lighter blue, green, gray color.  We picked the color because it was bright and made us happy to look at.  Here is a shot of the room before. (April of last year.)

Here are some shots of the room after.  We love it and think it ties the dining room and living room together.  It was worth every penny we spent on the samples.  :)

Giggle button

Chloe wasn't feeling so good yesterday, but during a time of great goofiness she went through a streak of the giggles

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Mama caught on tape

Chloe was caught on tape saying mama.  We broke her stubbornness with a PopTart.  What a rascal.

indecision about paint color

So two weeks ago we put up the handrail and painted the stairway an olive green color and LOVE it!  Last weekend Paul started painting the living room and then not so much love.  At night and in artificial light it looked more like split pea soup and I was not as excited about it.  Seeing as we spend most of our time in the living room at night, I knew we had to pick a new color for the living room.  So the process began, we tried a lovely lighter shade of green, no, then we moved on to blue shades.  Six shades of blue, green, gray later we have two winners. Many of the colors we tried looked darker on the card but when we put it on the wall it looked like a nursery.  So check out the colors on the walls.  Our living room looks funny with samples all over the room...maybe we should just leave it like that?!?!  We might start a new trend.  :)

 Colors at night.

 All the samples...better than buying the whole gallon, right?!!?

 Colors in morning sun.

Top two our the favorites.  Both colors look great with the blue colors in the dining room.  We think we like one in particular.  Left is contemplation and and right is smokey slate.  Obviously they look different in person but you get the idea.  Both similar in color just one is the darker version. 

Which do you like?

~eleven months~

 Today Chloe is eleven months.  It is seems unreal that I am thinking about and planning her 1st birthday party.  This month Chloe has found new freedom and independence.  She is determined to do what she wants, when she wants, how she wants.  She is into everything and still thinks it is funny when we tell her no.  Her favorite thing is to crawl to the media stand, wave at her reflection and then bite on the handles.  She has definitely won this battle.  We no longer tell her “no” when it comes to the media stand.  Chloe has also shown independence by weaning herself off nursing :( This past week she refused to nurse at night and then again in the morning.  I’d be lying if I said it didn’t break a piece of my heart.  I had planned to have her pretty much weaned at a year but Chloe decided she wanted to stop while it was still her idea.  I have tried a few other times but she just arches her back, turns away and cries.  So now I deal with a few painful days until my body adjusts.  The little rascal had bitten me a few times too, so I guess I knew the end was near.

Chloe is doing a lot of baby talk but still no “mom”.  I thought maybe for Mother’s Day or my birthday but nope.  She loves to play in her crib and chatter away and when you come in she usually squeals with excitement.  She is still cruising the furniture and is still a little timid when it comes to letting go and walking.  You can tell she is thinking about it but then decides it is safer to get down on her knees and crawl where she needs to go.  She just recently has let go of furniture and will stand unassisted.  She is still a bouncer and a dancer and wiggles her body when she hears music.

Chloe has definitely continued to be a great eater.  We call her a little goat because we are pretty sure she will eat just about anything.  She is always very interested in what others are eating and will flash you a smile or grunt to get a bite.  She also loves to feed herself.

Some cute things Chloe does are giving big, wet, open mouthed kisses, standing in her crib right after you lay her down, even if she is exhausted, and she will stand up smile and open her mouth for a kiss.  She will giggle and continue this process over and over.  This might be my favorite thing.  She also loves gripping her fingers together and trying to pull on my eyelashes.  She seems to be interested in playing with her baby doll and giving and taking away the pacifier.  When Paul and I pretend hold the baby and talk to the baby Chloe seems interested and will crawl into your lap for a little attention too.  At dinner when we say prayer, Chloe will look at us looking confused and fake laugh at us.  Chloe can have a little sass too.  When she does not want something she will bat it away and make noises letting us know she is finished.  She is also willing to share with us too.  She likes to feed us cheerios and will giggle after she puts it in our mouth.  She loves to make noises with her tongue and her mouth.  Lastly, she seems to enjoy being fed like a baby cow.  She will start eating lying in our arms but then will usually sit up and just bend her neck back and eat the rest of the bottle like that.  She is funny!

All that said, C is the cutest little love bug!  Only a few more weeks and we’ll be on summer vacation together!

spring is here...ish

We had a wonderful Easter weekend spent with a lot of family.  It was great to spend time with everyone that was in town and surely missed all that we didn't see.  Unfortunately we forgot our camera so not too many snapshots of the fun weekend.  Looking forward to this coming Mother's Day weekend when we get to see Little Miss Mira!  We can't wait to see J, M and m.

 One of our favorite pictures.

Cousin Grayson

Vincent Cousins

The Vincent Family

This weekend we spent time at home catching up on house projects.  Paul painted and put up a new handrail and we started painting the stair walls a new olive green color.  Painting the trim and living room is next on our list.

One of her favorite things to do, crawl to the front door and look out.

New hand rail and paint on the walls.

Finally feeling better.  Thanks to all the extra love Gramma gave her this week!  :)