Playing on Christmas

Please look past the fact that there are toys everywhere & that my floor is unclean-- this is what Christmas with a toddler brings! Anyway, Chad wanted to take a picture that would show exactly what Lakeshore's best buy food assortment included. All of that scatter is it: a full pizza, pretzels, hot dogs, hamburgers, sandwiches & chips, watermelon, pie, cake, rolls, veggies, and the list goes on!
Chloe is sprawled out in front of her kitchen with nearly every drawer open. She was putting pancakes from the food bucket in every place possible :-)

"Santa" brought Chloe a set of 8 dress-up masks- an elephant (shown here), mouse, tiger, dog, chicken, duck, bunny, & cow! She has had so much fun with them so far :-)

All in all, we had a great Christmas! It was such a joy watching Chloe open gifts and get so excited about them :-)

More Ho, Ho, Ho

Here's Chloe tasting a piece of the full pizza that came in the food bucket from Great Grandma & Grandpa Damerell!
Such a cute toaster! You push the slices down just like a real toaster, then push a button to make the pieces pop up!

A doctor set from "Santa." She REALLY needs this-- she despises the doctor's office, and we're hoping this will help her become more comfortable with the procedures that occur there!

Figuring out the jumbo nuts & bolts-- she loved these, and we know she'll have so much fun with them!

Yep, she opened her stocking last. Everything else was too overwhelming to slow down long enough for stockings! She got some candy, animals, and a little tractor :-)

Merry Christmas!

Chloe woke up this morning at her usual 7:00. After snuggling and relaxing in our bed for a minute, we walked Chloe out to the kitchen to show her that Santa had come, eaten the cookies and consumed the milk we had set out for him the night before. Then we followed her into the front room and she ran right for the tree! It was so cute because she ran and grabbed a wrapped present first-- she didn't even notice that there were large, unwrapped presents all around! She was so happy that Christmas had finally come :-)
She finally discovered the kitchen from Grandma & Grandpa Fredericks! Her first comment was, "Buttons turn, Mommy!" She's played with the kitchen all day long!

After a few minutes of playing with the kitchen, we led her toward the horse on a stick-- she had a cookie in her hand and dropped it, saying, "Don't want it now!" She rode off on the horse for probably 7 minutes! Afterward, she played with her stroller and baby gear (though we didn't have any great pictures of that) and started to open her presents...

She was unwrapping a box and we asked her what she thought was inside, to which she replied, "Toys!" She wasn't very impressed with this shirt-- she acted excited at first, then quickly threw it to the side and grabbed another one to open!

Next she opened the bucket FULL of food. She liked it, and has played a ton with it, but as you can see, she was still tired from all of the excitement from Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve

We didn't take hardly any pictures at Christmas Eve at Chad's parents'. But, here are the few that we did that were cute! First, here's Wyatt-- he was wanting to open his gifts, but he had to wait his turn!
Chloe passed the time by playing with some of the other kids' toys while she waited her turn...

Everyone sort of decided that we would do cheap, silly gag-type gifts to set out and have everyone choose one. Then we all had a chance to exchange with someone, make two other people change gifts, or keep the gift they chose. Here's a Jesus fish t-shirt that Brian got. The date on it said 2004, so it was pretty wrinkly to say the least!

After we got home & Chloe went to bed, we got everything ready for Christmas morning. We assembled Chloe's kitchen from my parents (it took us almost 2 hours), put her baby stroller, swing, and accessories together, put bows/ribbon on the gifts, and placed them all under the tree! It was a fun, but late night :-)

Snow days

Chloe was happy to be out playing in the snow, though she was a little unsure at first!
Adding some snow to the Daddy snowman :-)

Check out her huge snowball! She liked throwing snow at both of us. Notice how crooked her mittens are at this point-- you wouldn't believe how nearly impossible it is to get gloves with fingers that fit toddler hands!

Too cute!

So, I asked Chloe what she thought a snowman says, to which she replied, "Meow." When I asked her if she really thought that's what he said, she said, "Rawr!!" Haha :-)

Cowgirl Chloe

Where's Chloe?! Oh, she's hiding under that big cowboy hat :-) Bear in mind that she was riding her elk at the time and saying, "Giddy up, elk!"
There she is-- so cute!

What a silly pose! She has the fullest lips- so beautiful :-)

Chad vs. the "big hill, that one over there"

Chad probably had the most fun of all of us! He wanted to go down a different hill and Chloe suggested the "big hill, that one over there." And so he began his descent...
Here he is at the bottom, picking up the most speed! Check out the snow spray...

... and this is the product of that powdery snow spray! HILARIOUS! I was laughing so hard, it's truly a miracle I even got a clear picture!

I made him look up so that I could take one of his face. Look at how the snow stuck to his eyebrows and goatee-- classic!

Sledding

We finally have snow! While we were out and about today, we decided to buy an inexpensive sled to take Chloe in. She was pretty excited, though she kept saying, "Go skateboarding!" Here's Chloe and Chad at the top of a small hill getting ready for her first sled ride! And they're off! Chloe enjoyed it, though she was still a little nevous and nowhere near ready to ride by herself!

So, she took a small ride with me :-)

Here we are on our way down!! Chloe was really excited this time. She's got a huge smile, though the picture is a bit blurry since we were in motion and heading toward Chad!

Chloe, Chloe, Chloe

Chloe was being a goof, rolling around on the floor eating pretzels-- that's just like her!
Ok, do you love these boots or what?! She's so stinking cute in these stylish little boots! She wore them for the first time today, and she really enjoyed them :-) She looks like a little adult, and I LOVE it! The picture itself isn't that great-- Chad only got two in before she ran away, and this was the better of them. Her facial expression reflects the statement she made prior to taking the picture: "Don't want it!"

So, we have a plexiglass easel that Chloe loves. She typically uses window crayons on it, though we also hang paper on it to paint/marker/etc. For whatever reason, she decided it would be a novel idea to try tasting the crayon. It left her with an empty stomach and blue all over. She wanted to wear her duck hat, though she doesn't look especially pleased to have her picture taken!

There's a smile-- so beautiful!

Here she is chewing on the cap of the window crayon with the evidence all over her face!

New, but not new for long, family picture

We finally got a more updated family picture on Thanksgiving. It's not ideal, but it will work for now. At least we have one where Chloe actually looks like she does now instead of her 6-month-old self!

Friends

Chloe is playing with Mom's old cell phone here. She and our neighbor Tomi were going through all of Chloe's pretend play things.

Here's Tomi showing me her ring. Chloe is hilarious, it's as if she's wondering what the heck Tomi is doing!

This is Ally, Tomi's sister. She put my Roxy clutch on her head just like Chloe used to-- too cute!

Taya is trying out Chloe's bebePOD and Mel reports that she loves it! This was her first run while she was visiting one day. Chloe's smiling at her cause she was so excited that Taya was sitting up!

Check out those big, gorgeous eyes and that chubby chin! She's such a sweet little babe. We're friends, to say the least :-)

Randoms

Thinking... This picture was taken at the first of November. Oh how I wish it was still warm enough to go outside without freezing!!
Sporting her shades

Laughing cause she's silly wearing her sunglasses!

Chloe decided to try the cake batter... (on a side note, I'm not really sure why there is glass cleaner on the table, though I can say that it is totally unrelated to the fact that we were baking a cake!)

... and the verdict is YUMMY! It was the day after Thanksgiving, and she decided that it was time to start wearing her Santa jammies :-)