Our Silly Chloe Baby

First ponytail

I can not get over how funny this girl is and how much I love her! She is always doing something to make me laugh! She's always making hilarious faces, raising her cute little eyebrows at me, clenching her fists and yelling at the top of her lungs until she's red in the face! I love it when she crinkles her nose and breathes in and out really fast, smiling and kicking her legs while she's sitting up. She LOVES her binky so much and the other night I caught her blindly searching for it in her sleep and finally finding her mouth and inserting her binky! She's so good at entertaining herself-I can usually leaver her on the floor with a bunch of toys for up to 20 minutes and then I just switch her to her high chair or her walker. She's an incredible little sleeper too! She sleeps through the night and takes multiple naps a day! (Sorry...this is turning into a total brag post...) She rolls all over the place and got up on her knees for the first time last Wednesday. She's clapper her hands a couple of times and was waving at everyone the other night! I love watching her develop and reach little milestones! Life is not without trials, but I sure love being this little girl's Mommy!

Happy Fathers Day...a Month Too Late...

I was about to post about the Fourth of July, but then I thought I'd better not skip out on documenting Ronnie's first Father's Day! We had a wonderful day together and I was able to show Ronnie in a small way how much I appreciate him-I made him breakfast-with a special D pancake(!), and fooled him into thinking that I hadn't gotten him the gift he really wanted by giving him the boring socks/tie present first...and then...BAM! Dremmel Tool! He'd been saying for weeks how he wanted one SO bad and how much it would help him with his airplanes, so I pulled a Ronnie and just kept saying, "we don't have the money right now....sorry sweetie". He was so excited, but I think he secretly was expecting it the whole time. Oh well :)

Ronnie is such a sweet, loving and SUPER fun Daddy! He's always playing with Chloe, taking her to get the mail with him and giving her lots of kisses and love. He'll do anything to make her smile, including his hilarious old man dance, which cracks her up every time. As my Grandpa says, I've got him "trained", but really he's just a wonderful husband and caring Father who is willing to change stinky diapers (he usually takes all day Sunday diaper duty since I'm in a dress), gives baths, sings her to sleep, feeds her and is just such a great partner in raising our little girl! Thanks so much Ronnie! We love you!!!

Chloe's First Time Swimming

Chloe went swimming for the first time a couple of weeks ago...and she wasn't too sure how much she liked it. I think it was a bad combination of really cold water and a super tired baby, because she's like it ever since then. It took her a while to splash and play around, but now she's a pro! The floaty we got her is awesome because there's a place for me in it so I can laze around too! The top picture is of her falling asleep in her floaty...poor baby...she was so tired! She would just lean her face against the plastic and lick it! Silly baby :)

Memorial Day

My Chloe bug and me at the Encampment Mall

Julie LOVES Chloe and wants so badly to be her Mommy :)

Grandma Bonnie and Chloe

Grandpa Larry telling about all of our amazing ancestors

Ronnie at the grave of Israel Ivins and family (some of his ancestors)

My ancestors, William Mangum and Sarah Delight Potter, that helped settle the cotton mission

This little gravestone about had me in tears. On the front it says "Our Babies" and on the remaining three sides it had the name of each baby and how long they lived: the first I saw said "died in a few minutes", the next "lived only an hour" and the last had a birth and death date that were only a few days apart. I mourned so much in my heart for those parents who had to endure that in this life, but rejoiced that they can be together in the life after this. Graveyards are always so special to me-I have a love/hate relationship when it comes to reading the headstones because they show you a small snippit into the lives of those buried there, which can be devastatingly sad or wonderfully happy; a husband and wife, buried side by side who died within a few short years of each other, after a long marriage or in contrast, the infant headstone that I wrote about.

Memorial Day was a lot more emotional for me this year as I enjoyed the rich blessings of family in my life and mourned for the lives that could have been-whether lost in infancy, on the battle grounds for our country or by some other means. Knowing that I enjoy these gifts, while others never reached that part of their lives hurts, even though I truly know that they "went to a better place". We attended the Heritage Choir Memorial Day concert and I was in tears almost the entire time in gratitude and awe of the inspiring people that have served our country. I imagined their lives and the things they had to leave behind (and those that presently do) in order to protect our families and our freedom-something they felt was worth sacrificing their lives for.

Thank you to all Veterans and to those that presently serve our country. Words can not express the gratitude that I feel for you and for your families.

We had an awesome day off and enjoyed bbqs with both of our families :)

Uncle Andy's House

Every May we go to my Uncle Andy's house (my Dad's brother) in Fayette and help him plant his garden and remember my Opa, who's birthday was May 31st. We weren't able to go last year because I was in school, but decided last minute to go this year and had a blast! This years special entertainment can be seen in the very bottom picture, an event I have titled "The Great Sheep Migration". Apparently it's pretty normal around town, but for us city slickers it was a pretty big deal. In fact, the whole family rushed to the front of the house as soon as we heard about it. Among the other pictures you'll find Ronnie living out his dream to have his hot wife ride behind him on a motorcylce, me putting my Mom in a headlock because it's fun, us stopping for a photo op while planting the garden and me not realizing my butt is in Ronnie's face, and Grandma Millie forcing Steph to be social.