On the GO!

Chloe has been trying to crawl so much lately, but she has only been able to move a step or two before falling on her belly. Well, on Tuesday afternoon she took off across the room for the first time. She hasn't stopped moving since. She is constantly in our Christmas tree and playing in the presents. She wants to play with the other little boy I watch, but he is not quite 4 months old yet and she gets a little to rough (swinging her hands and grabbing him). So, it has definitely been a game of chase and I am sure it will only get harder before it gets easier. She is a blast though so I guess it is worth it. 

Just a little update: as you may have heard me mention before, she was born with a "gill". Basically when babies are developing, they have little "gills" that help form body parts and then they seal up before birth. With Chloe, one of hers on her neck didn't seal up. When this happens it is very common for the "gill" to get infected because there is a small airway. Chloe has been lucky and hasn't had an infection, however, tomorrow she will be getting a CAT Scan to see how deep it goes and if it will cause damage. Then we will find out if she needs to have it surgically removed or not. Most likely, because there is always a chance of infection, she will need to have it removed. I know she will do great with it, but it makes me a little sad because I know in order for her to get the CAT Scan, she has to be under an anesthetic. I know she will be fine though.  

A Bit of Comfort

With the horrible tragedy that took place on Friday in Connecticut I have had a really hard time. I have had nightmares and a really hard time sleeping and getting it off my mind. On Friday I shared tears with family members and a big, long hug (that still didn't quite feel long enough) with my dad. That night we snuggled our daughter a bit more than usual and I had a hard time saying goodnight to her.

This tragic event has touched many lives. My prayers go to the families and friends of all those directly affected. I pray that they find comfort and peace in such a hard time. I pray that they may allow Christ by there side, and help them to heal.

A friend of mine shared this, and I found a lot of comfort in it. I wanted to share in hopes that it might bring some comfort to others as well.


twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38
when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.
their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.
they could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.
they were filled wit

h such joy, they didn't know what to say.
they remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.
"where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.
"this is heaven." declared a small boy. "we're spending Christmas at God's house."
when what to their wondering eyes did appear,
but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.
He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.
then He opened His arms and He called them by name.
and in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring
those children all flew into the arms of their King
and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,
one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.
and as if He could read all the questions she had
He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."
then He looked down on earth, the world far below
He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe
then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,
"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"
"may this country be delivered from the hands of fools"
"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"
then He and the children stood up without a sound.
"come now my children, let me show you around."
excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.
all displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.
and i heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,
"in the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."

Written by Cameo Smith, Mt. Wolf, PA

Christmas Pictures

Sorry it is so many pictures, but they were all just too cute!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

All I want for Christmas is...

MY TWO FRONT TEETH! 

Chloe finally has both her bottom front teeth coming in. I can't decide if I am excited about it or not. Although I know it is so good because it shows she is growing at a good pace, I am so not enjoying the bitting. She was chewing on Scott's finger the other night, and his nail has teeth marks in it. 

I really am excited about it. I love seeing the little ways she changes every single day. It is just so sad to see her in pain as they break through her gums. And to make it even worse, the second bottom one came at the same time she had a stomach bug. She was feeling so miserable.

Over this Thanksgiving break, we had a stomach bug pass throughout a lot of our family. Chloe got sick on Thanksgiving - throwing up, diarrhea, fever. They over the weekend, Scott and I got sick too. 

Thank goodness we are all finally feeling a little normal again and are able to get back to our regular schedule. 

We got our Christmas decorations up and have been listening to Christmas music. Chloe LOVES the lights. As we strung the lights on our tree she kept trying to crawl (or launch herself) to the lights and played with them. I had to keep pulling them away and keeping them out of her mouth. Once we were done, we had an extra strand of lights and decided to take some pictures.

Piles of Leaves

Yesterday we went to visit Grandma and help her clean up the leaves covering the yard. It was a beautiful day.

Chloe got to play in a big pile of leaves for the first time. It was pretty cute. 

She kept trying to eat them, but don't worry none actually got in her mouth. I did get a picture of her getting pretty close to being successful though. 

All in all, it was a good day.

Chloe's First Halloween

This Halloween was so exciting because it was Chloe's first one. She might not have been able to trick-or-treat, but that doesn't mean she couldn't dress up and still have fun. 

One Friday the 19th, Scott and I volunteered at Scream Scram, which is a charity event for the Boys and Girls Club. It was a 5k run walk and the entire event was Halloween themed. There were costume contests and everyone who participated in the event was dressed up in fun costumes. 

We dressed up too and before leaving we got a picture with the tooth fairy from Delta Dental. 

Then, on the Friday before Halloween, the 26th, our ward had a Halloween party. There were costume contests, a chili cook off, pie contests, and most importantly Trunk-or-treat. We got there, all dressed up. Scott was Severus Snape and I was Tonks from Harry Potter (sorry we don't have a picture), and Chloe was her pumpkin again. We decked out the car (it was really all Scott).

It is a little hard to see, but it had fire lanterns, a cauldron (with a green potion aka dry ice and a green glow stick) and a spell book. And of course we can't forget the candy. It was a fun night. We all went home tired, especially Chloe. 

On Halloween, once Scott got home from work, we got Chloe all dressed up and went to Grandma and Grandpa's.

 She had a few little presents waiting, since she couldn't enjoy all the candy this year. They got her a toy cell phone and Aunt Kelsey had an adorable hat and bow for her. 

She loved opening her gifts, or rather, playing with the tissue paper. 

Afterwards, we went to Grammy and Poppa's to say a quick hello, and enjoy a grape lollipop. She loved it.

It was a fun Halloween. I can't wait until next year when we can actually bring her trick or treating. 

please ignore the orange around her lips, she had carrots and mama might not have done the best job cleaning her up. Oops! 

New Job

After Chloe was born, I really started to feel like I needed to find a job to help bring in some extra money. The only problem was, anything I could find hardly paid enough to pay a daycare or someone to watch Chloe. It wasn't worth it to me. So I started looking into jobs working with children and babies so I could hopefully bring her with me. I checked one day in our local newspaper and found a daycare only about 15 minutes away that was hiring. I called and was asked to come in to fill out an application and for an interview. When I went in, I was offered a job to start the next day. I accepted it but throughout the day realized there were many things that bothered me about this...

           - They didn't have an application ready for me, so I had to write everything on a blank sheet of                        paper and give them my resume (which luckily I brought with me, since they didn't ask for it)
           - The interview process included only two questions
                            1. You have never worked at a place like this before, right?
                            2. Can you start tomorrow?
No I am not kidding. They didn't ask me a single thing about myself.
           - They never asked me to take a background check. (I don't know about you, but that makes me uncomfortable. Would you leave your child with a business with people you don't know where no background check was performed? I wouldn't!)

There were lots of little things that didn't feel right, but I decided to at least give it a try. I was going to be there with Chloe, so if anything happened I would know. I was trying so hard to keep an open mind about it all.
Well, I showed up for the first day and they weren't expecting me (even though the afternoon before they had asked me to come in). And, to make it even worse, they told me they didn't have room for Chloe, so she would have to share a crib with other babies.
job
ARE YOU KIDDING?
That's ridiculous.
GOODBYE!

I obviously didn't agree to take that job after all of that.

After a few weeks later, I got lucky and found a nanny job.
Today was my first day. I am watching a baby boy named Asher Monday through Friday. He is 6 weeks old at this point and is such a cutie. I really can't even express how perfect this opportunity is. Not only is it a way I can bring in some extra money, but it's also a chance for me to be a stay at home mom, and watch and raise my own daughter.

Besides being tired, everything went great. Chloe did so good with everything. She was fascinated by this new baby boy in our home and enjoyed watching him kick and make cute little noises. She was all smiles.

Picnic

We went to a beautiful park in Highlands Ranch today for a picnic. At first it was hard to find one that wasn't crowded with football or soccer games, but we eventually found a beautiful one. It was quite and so nice outside. It was just what I needed. I just love spending time as a family.

Fall and Food

I just love that it is starting to cool down here. We had such a hot summer. I normally love the summer and the heat but it was a little too much this year. I have been anxious for fall. I love this time of year so much. I love the colors of fall. I love the facts that leafs change and the air is crisp and cool. I love the smell of fall... pumpkin pie and apple cider. And I love the clothes... sweaters, scarfs, boots! I am so glad it is finally here. I got to bundle up Chloe last night for the first time.

She is getting so big. I love it but it makes me sad at the same time. I look forward to all the different steps she will take in life and all the different stages to come, but I don't like the fact that to get to one stage she has to leave one behind. She is sitting up on her own so good right now. She gets so proud of herself too, it's pretty cute. We decided to start giving her solid foods once a day for now starting with cereal. Today was day one and it went really good. I had tried giving her a little cereal before but she wasn't quite ready yet. She would spit it out and wouldn't open her mouth at all. Today she was ready though. She loved it. She has always been so interested in watching everyone else eat or drink. She constantly reaches for the drink in my hand or the food on my plate, so I think she was happy to finally get some for herself. She was reaching for more before I could even get another spoonful ready.