Chloe making herself beautiful

She sees me putting on my makeup every morning so I guess this is where she got the idea...

Oh how I love watching her grow!

My little fairy

My old neighbor Raquelle dropped off these really pretty wings that she found for Chloe and my mom got her the skirt. Who knew that these would create such a wonderful outfit? (well I guess I did when I put it on her)

Her hair is also long enough to put into two really little pig tails, so for the past 3 days, this is how she has been wearing her hair. It lasts for a few hours which I am totally amazed and loving!

More fun to be had.

Just a group shot of Annie, Dax, Caleb, Chloe and Annie's dog Magoo. (Chloe really likes Magoo)

We had some more fun in the ball pit at Scandia.

This is a picture of Annie and her son Dax. They are our neighbors and Chloe really likes Dax. She will walk around the house just calling out his name. I guess he wakes up in the morning asking for "Co-e". We joke about them being boyfriend and girlfriend.

We always have a snack bar for the kids. They seem to hang out here more than they do in the tubes and balls. Oh well.

We finally decided it was ok to let the kids start riding the rides on the way out to the car. Now we have to do it every time we go, but hey, these are some cheap rides and the kids love them.

Such a big helper

I keep forgetting that Chloe is growing up, and fast. The other day I was in a hurry and was trying to get the kitchen cleaned up. (don't know why now) Anyways, like usual, when I am in a hurry, something usually goes wrong. This time I had knocked over a cup of coffee, a full cup of coffee and it went all over the kitchen table, down two of our chairs, and onto the floor in a nice splatter pattern. Oh boy, so much for getting stuff done in a hurry. Chloe saw me make this mess and immediately ran to the puddle that was still forming and started to "pat" it. Of course this made the mess even bigger. Now it was on my 1 1/2 year old toddler who puts her hands on EVERYTHING!

So now I was in a hurry to get the mess cleaned up before she could make an even bigger mess. I went into the laundry room which is right off my kitchen and grabbed some towels. Of course, Chloe had to do what I was doing, so she grabbed some towels of her own. However, she grabbed all of the towels and brought them over in the laundry basket. Such a wonderful little helper. And she started to help me clean up.

She was so cute. She kept running back into the laundry room to grab more towels, even though they were no longer needed.

Then she proceeded to do some deep cleaning for me.

She got out one of my travel tooth brushes from my bathroom and started to scrub the floor. I guess she thought that I made a really really big mess.

Then she, like mommy, put her dirty towels ( and her personal wash cloths for bath time) on top of the washing machine to be washed.

What we have been up to lately

Who knew you could keep not one, but 2 girls occupied with a left over orange box? These have become one of their more favorite hang out spots.

They even read books in them. The girls spent a good 1/2 hour in here.

This is just a picture of her curls. Yup, these are them. All 3 of them.

Since the kids are getting to be much more active now a days, we are taking them to bigger and "better" play sites. These photos were taken at a place called Scandia. It is a big place with miniature golf, batting cages, go carts, an arcade, and an area called the playhouse. It is a sectioned off area that only kids under 2 are allowed into. It has I think 5 ball pits, 4 fun slides and hamster tubes (for the kids but I can get through them). The kids have such a blast there. It is totally secured and the kids have no way of getting out without an adult, and their adult (you have a matching wrist band and they check when you leave that they match up) so you don't have to be totally on top of the kids. They get to have some freedom. I love how places are becoming more secure for us families.

We are still taking the kids to the park every week. This park only had two baby swings, and one of them is usually occupied. Since both London and Chloe wanted to swing, we compromised. They got to share the swing. At first they liked it, but after a few minutes they were not so pleased, but when we offered to take them out, they refused. Oh well.

So I hope you enjoyed my little update of what we have been doing these past few weeks.

It is official

Brett found out on Friday that he got into the Long Beach hospital rotation. So this means that we get to pack up and move to southern California. His rotations start on June 22nd, so we will probably be moving in the first part of June. Wish us luck on finding an affordable place to live down there. I guess it is fairly expensive. YIKES!


I will update you as we get more information.

I haven't cried this hard in a while...

(Please bare with me, I am somewhat rambling on. It may not all sound well thought out, but I had to say something)

I don't know if any of you follow the TV show Private Practice, but tonight's episode really got to me. It touched me as a mother and as a child. I don't want to give it all away because it is so much more emotional when you don't know what is going to happen in the episode, but boy did it make me miss my parents and my sister and make me want to hold on to my daughter so tight and to never let her go.

For some reason I had this rush of emotions come over me and I was just bawling on the couch. I am glad that I was all by myself because I probably looked like a blubbering fool.

After the show, I went in to the office where Brett was studying and I told him that we HAVE TO move back to Washington. There was no option. He of course looked at me with streaks of mascara smeared down my cheeks and asked what was wrong. I told him about the show and he, being the loving husband that he is, assured me that in time we would be going back, but it may take a few years. Not the answer that I wanted, but I guess it will have to do. I don't really have a say in the matter...yet.

To my parents- I miss you both so much. You mean the world to me and I love you. I wish that we were able to be up there 100% of the time so you can watch Chloe grow up into the wonderful woman that she is going to become with your own eyes and not through the computer. I want to be there for you through everything. Know what Dr. appointments you are going to and if there was anything I could do to help. Trust me, when the first opportunity comes around, we will be there.

To my sister- I love you and miss you so much it hurts at times. (A lot to be exact) I wish that we lived closer to each other so our kids could grow up together and be the best of friends. I just wish that I could see you more often, to be able to hug you and to go out for lunch and movie dates while mom and dad watch our kids.

I wish that the world worked like this:

You grow up, meet the boy (or girl) next door, fall in love, get married, find a well paying job in the town you live in, the old couple that live in the same neighborhood that you and your spouse grew up in, moved out and you are able to move into their place just in time for you to bring your family into the world. Both sets of grandparents will be retired and will be able to play with the grand kids on a regular basis, cousins would be playing in the streets ( no cars of course ) and we would all be living happily ever after.

Oh how I wish. But reality is nothing close to that. We grow up, move away for various reasons, and every once in a while visit home. We do make the phone calls on a regular basis, but it never seems like it is enough.

To those who are able to see their family members whenever they choose to- enjoy it as much as you can, because one day you may not have this luxury and you will beat yourself up for not taking advantage of the time you could have spent with your family.

Sorry for this emotional post, but the show really got to me tonight.

To everyone who means anything to me- I love you and thank you for being in my life.

OK it is now 2:05 and I MUST go to bed. I have responsibilities.


to watch this episode, go to:
www.abc.com
click on free episodes
click on Private Practice
choose episode 12 "Homeward bound" from season 2

Grab some tissues and enjoy it!