Santa photo

Every year we take a cousin photo with Santa--here is the picture from this year, taken a few weeks ago. Both Chloe and Ella started crying as soon as they saw Santa, but we decided to be mean mommies and make them sit on Santa's lap anyway. I love the contrast in this picture of Chloe and Ella crying and Eben, Devin, and Shae all standing and smiling like little angels. Chloe and Ella both refused to go to bed that night until close to 10:00 pm. They were also both afraid of figurines of Santa, as well as books about him. I think we traumatized them!! They are a bit better now, and can at least see pictures of Santa without running away or crying!!!

We have this picture printed and on our refrigerator. Chloe points at it and says, "Chloe, Ella sad. Eben, Devin, Shae Shae happy." Too cute!!

Christmas cards

I saw a post recently where a friend posted a picture of all their Christmas cards, so I thought I would do the same! We made a collage on the wall of Chloe's playroom with all our cards, and it was fun for all of us to look at them! Chloe would point at all the babies, and say "Baby Chloe," and point to pictures of toddler girls and say "Chloe!" Pretty vain kid, I guess, if she thinks all pictures are of her!!

Big Sister!

I posted the following picture on my facebook page to announce that we are expecting another baby! My due date is June 8, 2010, and despite a little scare in the beginning, I have been having a pretty easy pregnancy. We are super excited to be adding to our family! (Thanks to my friend Ade who made this shirt for Chloe.)

Chloe's all bundled up to go outside...

Happy Halloween!!!

For Halloween this year, Chloe dressed up as an A's cheerleader. There is a fun story behind the costume. When I was pregnant with Chloe, some friends of mine who are Giants fans (like me) gave me a ton of Giants gear for Chloe--pacifier, bib, onesies, booties. Andrew's sister Kristen is an A's fan like Andrew, and decided that this kid needed some A's wear also. So she bought Chloe this cheerleader outfit that was a 2T and it fits her perfectly now! So, we decided it would make for a fun Halloween costume. Chloe did not mind wearing it, and even learned to say "Go A's" as the evening went on. She was not a big fan of the pom-poms, however!Both of these pictures were taken on my cell phone, so they are not the best quality, but I though they were cute, and some of the best I have!Our church, Christ Community, was having a Harvest Carnival on Halloween night, with trunk-or-treating and carnival games. There were also bounce houses, but Chloe was too young for those.
Here she is fishing for a prize--she got a big purple ring! Notice the green bag on her left arm--her candy bag dragged on the ground most of the night, but she loved it!!

eating a lollipop

A's fans!!

Giants fan!!!

Pumpkin Carving

Chloe was fascinated by pumpkin carving! She was also super excited to be wearing this fancy outfit (she really loves the matching shoes for the outfit). This was not her Halloween costume, but we figured it would be a fun day for her to wear it.

First Pony Ride!

We went to Apple Hill with Andrew's family to celebrate Peter's birthday and decided that Chloe would have her first pony ride. We were not sure how she would react, but she did great! I think it helped that all her big cousins were also riding.

Big girl on a pony! She was so cute because she just had her hands lightly resting on the saddle horn, not holding on tight like we though she would!
When Chloe would come around to us, we would wave and say "Hi" and she was so excited! When we told her to pet the pony, she reached out and touched the mane. So cute!

Clear Lake

In September, we went away for a weekend with Andrew's parents to Clear Lake. I had called the chamber of commerce before we went to find out about the algae levels in different areas of the lake, and was told that the town of Nice was clear. We had a lovely house on the water, but the shoreline was coated with algae. So, we weren't able to swim or play in the water, but it was still a pretty view from our deck.....

Chloe with her infamous smile
out geocaching
strong girl breaking a stick

Chloe loved feeding the ducks with Grandma