Random Chloe & pregnancy progression

The other day Chloe wanted to take her baby to see Dr. "Kenna" (though most of you know it is McKenna, but she typically leaves the "mc" off). She wanted her wallet and keys in her purse, and we even packed a diaper bag (on the other side of the stroller) filled with a blanket, toy, and some food. We "rode" the bus to his office and then we got off to go see him! It was really cute! By the time we made it to the "office," she had lost interest and started giving puzzle pieces to her baby :-)
Here she is concentrating on giving her puzzle pieces to the baby. I know I say this all the time (and I see her all the time so you'd think I'd get used to it), but look at all those gold locks! Too beautiful :-)

This picture was sort of taken against my will, though I was willing because I wish I had tracked my progression better with Chloe (I took only a couple of pictures toward the end). I feel like several family members have asked about my "bump" and if it's growing, so I thought this would take care of it for everyone! I apologize that I have on a light colored top and have a white background; this is the unfortunate part of renting... Anyway, this is me at 23 1/2 weeks. I am growing, and I think I've finally got to put away my largest pair of jeans (which I'm wearing in the picture) because I have the biggest mark on my stomach from them and the baby tends to kick right along the waistband like it's squishing her!

More birthday fun!

Here is a small view of the MANY cookies we made for Chloe's party. We each did half of the decorating. It was a lot of work, but they turned out super cute!
After her party, Chloe opened gifts with us and my parents via webchat. She loves the number & shape stickers for the bathtub :-)

She got tons of fun things from my parents, and then she had some to open from my grandparents. Here she is with her new stackers (she loves figuring out the biggest to smallest)!

And here's Chloe opening her new ballerina dress-up puzzle! She loves to "take clothes off" of the ballerina!

Chloe modeling some of the cute clothes she got! Thanks so much Grandma & Grandpa Fredericks and Great Gram & Grandpa Damerell for all the fun toys and cute clothes! Chloe also got several super cute birthday cards (which she calls "little books"). Thanks to all of you who sent gifts & cards-- she loves getting things in the mail :-)

All in all, Chloe had a fabulous day! I can't even believe that she's 2-- my baby's growing up so fast. It's even harder to believe that she's going to be a big sister in just a few months, but I know she'll be a terrific one!!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Chloe!

Despite the look on her face, she was quite enthusiastic for her birthday and her party! Ugh, I just can't get over how much hair this girlie has-- love it!
Once all of Chad's family got to our house and settled in, Chloe opened gifts! She got a lot of wonderful things from everyone-- thank you!

Voila! Here is the pink and purple tutu I made for Chloe. It turned out so cute!

We really should video tape her running in it-- it's so cute to watch it bounce up and down on her cute little bum :-) She was so excited wearing it; she said, "Balernina, Mommy!" Nope, that's not a typo. It's simply how she says it :-) I made her some felt donuts, too, but I still need to take pictures of them (she accidentally found them before her birthday, so they weren't really a gift)!

My wonderful husband has to take the credit for decorating this large cookie for Chloe. The frosting around the candles looks a little shady in this pic, but that's because Chad didn't realize I hadn't taken a picture of it before he took the candles off :-)

Drum roll please! And the baby is a...

GIRL! We couldn't be more excited to have another little girl join our family :-) Here she is in the fetal position-- arm up by her head and leg (toward the bottom right) pushed up against her little belly!
Despite the ultrasound tech's great attempts, she was unable to capture a head on shot of this baby! Here is a slight profile on the left. You can sort of make out a nose and eyes. The picture on the right looks all tangled and that's because she was! She had arms and legs all over the place like a contortionist!

On the left is a picture of her little legs crossed! So cute, and just like Chloe & I! On the right are the goods that make her a female! We knew it was a girl as the tech was telling us because we'd seen this before :-)

Here's another of the goods on the left, though it looks a little different because it's not the 3-d. And on the right is a Saw mask looking face because she had her little fist up by her face and flailing it, thus making a sort of strange picture, but still cute to us!

Showing off Christmas gifts!

Too cute! Here's Chloe trying on her chef hat from Mike & Emily!
Even though she's in the same pj's, Chloe is clearly at our house in this picture! Gram got Chloe these awesome train cars that fit on her track, and she's been asking me what it looked like. So, here ya go! We even got a smile, sort of, out of her for the pose!

This was just too funny! As I was gathering some laundry together, I heard Chloe saying, "Having a birthday party. Cake, too!" So I went in to see what she was doing. She was throwing a birthday party for one of her little people!

Here's a close-up of the party! She gathered all the little people around to sing and enjoy a yummy birthday cake! It was so adorable :-) Check out Chloe putting the sheep on the jetski-- too funny!!

As I've said a MILLION times, Chloe loves to build with blocks. In fact, she loves it so much that in under 2 years of life she's accumulated 142 wooden blocks, plus some soft blocks and lego-like blocks! CRAZY! Anyway, here's a tall tower she built. It was hilarious because when she put the hippo head on top she said, "Hi Daddy!" Not sure what she meant by that, but it was super funny!

Christmas @ Grandma & Grandpa Fredericks'

One of the first presents Chloe opened was a set of 4 plates, cups, and silverware. She obviously thought this knife looked like a toothbrush... haha! Good thing they're only plastic :-)
Chloe is digging deep in her stocking to see what goodies are inside...

... she found 3 pairs of socks, but had difficulty trying to get one pair on. So she asked for help from grandma!

Together they succeeded with the socks, and Chloe dug some more to find some cute little kitchen utensils for her new kitchen :-)

Yes, this is a 100 cookie cutter set! And yes, it is Chloe's, in part. Mom got us the set because I wanted Chloe to have some cute playdough cutters, but this set was cheaper than the set of 20 or so that I found online. This way Chloe can play with her dough and I can make TONS of cute cookies too :-)

Christmas at Great Grandma & Grandpa's

Chloe had Christmas at Great Grandma & Grandpa Damerell's the day after we flew in to visit my family. Here's Chloe enjoying her new wooden blocks! Building is one of her favorite things :-)
What a gorgeous smile! She was prancing around pulling her cute new backpack/suitcase when she gave us this gorgeous smile :-) She really loves this!!

Reading one of her new books with Great Grandma; she's smiling/laughing because she was making all the animal noises from the book!