Hello, we're your neighbors!

So when you welcome someone to the neighborhood what do you do?
Introduce yourself?
Bring over a plate of cookies and chat for awhile?
Help them unpack?
Draw them a nice picture?

Well, that's what Chloe and her friend did. They drew our new neighbor a picture of some beautiful stars. But this very special neighbor didn't get it on an ordinary piece of paper. She got it on her new car. She didn't just get one star, but multiple stars, all around her car. Did she get a beautiful picture with crayons? no. paint? no, but a nice piece of bark that can really get in the clear coat to make it stay forever. What a lucky neighbor she is right?

Welcome to the neighborhood!

I'm glad this neighbor wasn't a grumpy one, she wasn't to thrilled about it, but she was glad that we told her and that the girls apologized. The total damage $100. Chloe has already dumped out her purse, wallet, piggy bank and started filling a jar to pay us back. did she have her half of $50...nope. She will be working for the rest and probably for the next little while.

I was SO sad when she finally fessed up saying that she was one who drew on the car. I honestly didn't think she would do something like that. but I guess kids will be kids, and sometimes, they just don't think things all the way through. I think she's learned her lesson though, I hope so anyway. She was pretty upset while she was dumping her money in the jar. I explained to her what vandalism is and told her that people can actually go to jail for it. No, I didn't make her think she was going, but I wanted her to know the seriousnesshe did. So...anyone need any help around the house or yard? I know a girl who doesn't' charge much. ;)

10 days later

Chloe had a Dr. appointment to get her finger checked. The Dr. said it should heal better than he thought. Me on the other hand, I'm still skeptical. I don't it looked very good. Yes, it looked better than I thought it would, I thought the whole finger from the knuckle up would be black and blue. but it was just the tip. The part right below the nail bed is the part I'm worried about. It still look smashed a bit and a pretty good chunk of skin is gone. I know skin grows back, but, I'm not to sure the concaveness <---- is that even a real word? oh well, I'm gonna make it one. =) is even gonna look normal again. It's not as bad as what it was before but who knows how much more it'll round back out. The Dr. was happy with the way it looked, but I'm still wishing that this didnt' happen =( I wasn't expecting it to look normal today but it's still kind of upsetting to see it, especially it being your own child.
She was so brave. The other day, she said: "mom, I think I know how my finger will look, I don't think the nail will be there yet, and I think it'll be black and blue, because you can see through the top part and it's really dark" I told her she was right and that it would have some of the blood dried on it because she wouldn't let them clean it. She seemed kind of freaked about the blood part, she doesn't do to well seeing her own blood. When the doctor was unwrapping her finger I could tell it hurt a little, she winced a few times and said "owey" but she didn't cry until she caught a glimpse and he wiped it little, and again I wanted to cry right along with her. =( Vince did take another picture with his phone. it's not very good, but I guess that's what you get with a camera phone. He want's to see it again in 2 weeks, so we'll see how much better it looks then.

Ever wish you could take your childs pain for yourself? I'm sure every mom out there has, and yesterday I wished that it was possible. Yesterday Chloe broke her finger. Vince snapped a couple pictures with his phone and she was not to happy about getting her picture taken.

Chloe came home from school at 3. She asked to go out and play with her friends I said no, you don't get to play with friends until I can see the floor in you bedroom. She went up stairs to clean. About 5 minutes later, there was a knock on the door, knowing it had to be a friends Chloe ran downstairs to answer the door. It was a neighbor boy asking if Vince could fix the chain on his bike since his dad wasnt' home. Vince being the bike mechanic he is ran out to grab a few tools to fix it up (and probably make it better) Chloe asked if she could watch daddy fix it, I told her yes and that she could wait outside by her friend. That's when it all happened. Vince was going out the back door while Chloe was going out the front door and because it was so windy yesterday the wind swept through the house slamming the front door right on Chloe right index finger ripping her finger nail off with it, now it just didn't slam and bounce off when it hit her hand, it slammed so hard the door was closed shut with her little finger in there! I don't think I've ever heard anyone scream like she did in my life. I threw my laptop on the floor(yes, I was wasting my time on Pinterest) ran over opened the door and saw a bloody finger that was smashed FLAT! yes, it was flat and concave from the the pressure of the door. It was the WORST SIGHT EVER!!! I thought for sure the bone in her finger was shattered. Vince's thought as he ran over was that it had been cut off thinking of a similar story that happened to a friend. I'm SO SO SO glad that wasn't the case! I ran out the door carrying Chloe and sped down main street going about 60mph with her screaming in the back seat "it hurts, it hurts so bad" and all I could say was " I know, we're almost there!" that's when I realized she was in shock. She asked, "where are we going and why does my finger hurt so bad?" I looked at her and said "do you not remember what just happened?" No she did not remember anything, she said she was out playing with friends.

I wish now that the picture showed it from a side angle so you could see how flat and concave it looked, but picture taking was the last thing on my mind at that moment.

We walk into the office with her screaming (and I do not blame her at all) I sign her in, and they take up back into their little ER look-a-like room. I laid her on the bed and she said over and over "I wish this didn't' have to happen" That broke my heart! I felt so bad! The Dr comes in and looks at it and says "we need to take an X-Ray. They take us into another room and we sit Chloe down and it took the nurse and Vince to hold Chloe's finger down flat. She did not want to relax it or set it down on anything. Once we got that over with the Dr. looked at it and said "her growth plate it broken, I'm recommending you take her to this specialist"

You can see in this picture that she wouldn't lay her finger flat for anything.

We get to Dr. Larson (the specialist) and by this time her finger was completley black and blue and swollen. Dr. Larson was nice and did a very good job with her but did not look like a Dr. at all, but only in Idaho will a Dr walk in wearing wranglers, a big belt buckle and cowboy boots, the only thing he was missing was his hat. (which was probably in his office) he looked at the xray and said, with the way it moved it was all still aligned and would be okay and surgery will most likely not be needed. He wrapped pink splint around her finger prescribed Tylenol with codeine set an appt for 10 days and sent us on our way.

I always thought with how wild and crazy and daring Brayden is that he would have been the first to break a bone, but Chloe beat him to it by walking out the front door. Poor girl! She is doing much better today, she said it's still sore but not as bad as yesterday!

1st day of Kindergarten!

Well today was the day, Chloe started kindergarten!! She was SO excited this morning that she was dressed before she even came out of her room. After she was all ready and ate, she kept asking "is it time to go yet?" When we got to school we were standing outside of the door waiting for her teacher to come the kids kept trying to open the door and look inside they were all pretty excited. Her teacher, Mrs. Milner finally came and she was So sweet! She asked all the names right there in the hallway, which I think was an evil plan made with her and the principal (just kidding) because the principal started talking about an important meeting tonight and the next thing I knew all the kids were gone inside the class. I was kinda sad, I wanted to say goodbye atleast and get a few pictures of her in the class, oh well, atleast I got some before school.



Once I got home I anxiously watched the time waiting for her to get home to hear all about her first day. at 2:35 I was out with a few other mom's waiting for the bus to arrive. 3 buses passed and they finally showed up. Chloe was so cute, she was sitting right next to the window in good view with a HUGE smile on her face!! (I wish I would have gotten a picture of that but I waved back instead) She jumped right off the bus and ran up to me with a big hug! She loved it!! I asked her if she knew any kids in the class besides the neighbors and she said "no, and there's not even any mean boys like there were in preschool!" well that's good!! ;) She loved her teacher! I'm SO happy she loves school! Hopefully she'll keep up with this attitude.

After months of trying I FINALLY got Chloe into the last session of swimming lessons!!! YAY! I was nervous she wasn't going to get into anything this year! Today was her last day and boy was she sad! She LOVED it this year, she liked it last year to but was alot more confidant this year. She has this thing about getting her face wet, she HATES it!!! On the first day of lessons, she was asking for a rainbow colored sno cone, I made her a deal....If she put her face in the water everyday and jumped off the diving board by herself on the last day then I would buy her a rainbow colored sno-cone. Well after 2 weeks of getting her face wet, jumping in from the side of the pool, and then the diving board we still haven't gotten her a sno-cone, we were in line, but it was SO slow and Brayden was hungry and tired so we promised her after his nap we'd take her to the one here in Rexburg.
I was SO SO SO proud of her, she passed the class this year and she was to the point of dunking her head in the water and coming up with a smile on her face! she had a GREAT teacher! Here are the videos of last year and the huge difference of this year! **funny story...After the diving board last year she told me she couldn't jump in because she was a mermaid and couldn't stand on her fins that's why they had to drop her in. hee hee her imagination makes me laugh.

I felt so bad that she was up there screaming and yelling "I want my mommy" I was laughing and probably the only mom crying watching her up there.



This year, she walked right out there...I noticed her teacher wasn't in the middle yet waiting for her, I had to tell her to wait or she probably would have jumped off without her. =)

Our Olympian Chloe...

Chloe has been in Gymnastics since the end of January. On the 11th of this month she participated in the Spring Olympics!!! it was so cute!! They started out with all the different teams walking into the gym to music and a poster with their team name on it, Chloe's team was called "The Olympians" then they went around to all the different equipment to show off their stuff. Chloe did so good, but since everybody was standing around her watching and cheering her on, I could tell she was a little bit nervous so she looked really stiff on the balance beams which she loves!! but she did awesome an everything!! At the end they had their team stand on the #1 block and they got medals and a treat!





She's been loving this beautiful weather! As soon as she wakes up she's asking to go outside and look for friends, if nobody's out she'll start knocking on doors (sorry neighbors). These past few days we've been having picnics outside and running in the sprinklers!!

(the inflatable water slide)

And at the young age of 3 she's already been spoken for...sorry boys. Dylan, her current "boyfriend" has announced many times (in church) that he is going to marry Chloe. While Vince was home teaching their family a few months ago, Dylan asks..."Vince, can I marry Chloe?" Vince said "we'll have to see about that" he didn't like that answer, it had to be a yes! Also the other day they were at a birthday party, they were waiting in line at the giant inflatable slide and he had his arm around her, after the party he walked her up to our door, grabbed her hand and kissed it!! then they hugged!! I couldn't believe it! it was so cute, but hopefully something that wont go any farther then that!!

(Chloe and Dylan)

She's been such a good big sister to Brayden making sure that he only eats what is age appropriate, and double checking with me if it's ok to give him something off her plate. The other day in the car, Brayden had pulled a receipt out of the diaper bag and started to eat it, Chloe took it away and told me that Brayden couldn't eat paper yet...yet?? when can he eat it?? she's so funny. She's always giving him hugs and kisses and making him laugh, he loves he so much and is always interested in the things that she is doing.

She'll be turning 4 on Sunday...crazy! I can't believe she's getting so big!!

Well 2 weeks have gone by and it has gone so fast! the recovery with this c-section was alot better this time,not that the first was bad but I feel like I can do more than before, which is good cause with another kid you kinda have to. Brayden is doing good, we've been to the doctor a few times now, we have to keep getting his weight checked every week cause he lost just over a pound in a week, but slowly he's gaining it back. Chloe is still loving being a big sister, she just doens't like it when he cries, she'll say "shhhhh Brayden I can't hear anything, be queit!" he'll keep crying of course and she'll say " arg, mom he won't stop crying, maybe you should change is diaper/feed him" she'll switch back and forth about what he needs,it's cute. I don't have any pictures to post right now I'm at Apex with Vince watching the UFC fight, Chloe is coloring on the white boards and Brayden is sleeping so I thought I'd write a quick update. I'll post some picutes if I get a chance tomorrow.

Baby room pictures

So the crib bumper I was making is finally done!!!! Thanks to my good friend Melinda who is a sewing genius, she came over a few nights ago and helped me finish it. I just have a few finishing touches to do in the room like curtains and I'm gonna put a corner shelf above the changing table for the jungle looking sticks that are sitting on the table right now. I'm also waiting to find out what name we'll be using and his name will be up there too painted in a baby blue. I was going to paint the walls, but I'm just to tired now to do it, Vince hates painting just as much as I do so I won't make him do it so they'll just stay white, oh well though, I really don't care that much. And I need to find something to put above the rocker, if I find something. other than that I'm calling it done. Only 15 more days till he comes!!!!!

The other night we were getting Chloe ready for bed, she was in her bathroom brushing her teeth and after I heard the water turn off it got quiet and she never came out, well I went to go see what she was doing and this is what I found.... she had plugged the sink and filled it to the top with soapy water and was up to her shoulders playing in it, then I see her little toothbrush pop out of the water, she said that it needed to be washed. She's so funny!

she's got her head in the clouds...

My daughter is the craziest little girl with the biggest imagination ever!! so when it's late and we're driving home, she'll always have a conversation with her "lumpy" the heffalump from Winnie the Pooh. (thank you Becky for that, she can't sleep without it) she'll say "lumpy, I'm coming, don't sleep with out me!!" and she'll say it over and over again until me or Vince say something back for lumpy, after we say something like "ok I won't" she'll have a conversation with him the whole way home with us talking for lumpy. Well last night that changed, she didn't talk to lumpy, she started talking to the clouds in the sky. :) funny huh? she said " hi clouds" and of course I had to talk for them... here's the conversation...

Chloe: cloud, are you a dinosaur? you look like a dinosaur.
Cloud: yep, I'm a dinosaur.
Chloe: You have your hand sticking out, can I give you a high-five?
Cloud: yeah..

then she gave the cloud a high five, then we turned and that one was gone, but she found a "little baby cloud" here was that conversation...

Chloe: why are you not by your daddy? are you lost?
Baby Cloud: no, I'm going to sleep all by myself
Chloe: oh ok goodnight

It was so funny. It's really cute when she has conversations with everything. I just hope she doesn't do that her entire life, then people will think she's really crazy ;)

potty training...CHECK!!!

So Chloe is now officially potty trained!!!! wahoo!!! it took FOREVER!! and it was alot more expensive then I thought it would be. First I thought i'll need to buy a stool, a couple potty seats, stickers and treats for rewards. Well, when the stickers and treats weren't working, we got desperate and told her when she filled up all her boxes on the chart we made she could get anything she wanted, she picked a wagon... did you guys know wagons are over 100 bucks?!?! well I guess the red metal ones aren't but those are really shallow and she probably wouldn't fit in it very well, I want to get her one of those plastic ones she can actually sit in. so anyway...she did good for like 2 days maybe, then she stopped going! she refused to poop in the toilet!! it was so frustrating we tried so many things and it didn't work, we told her it was ok to have accidents like everybody tell you to say to the kids, but then she'd go and say "but it's ok, we'll just clean up and keep playing" well after about a week of her saying that is was ok to go in her underwear I told her that it was NOT ok anymore and I started to throw the underwear in the garbage with her watching, and told her when they were gone she was back in diapers at first she was sad cause her princess panties were going in the garbage but soon that changed to "goodbye princess panties!!" and she'd walk off not even caring about it.
I heard the worst thing to do was to put them back in diapers...so I thought ok, I'll just keep her in underwear, she's got the peeing part down... so for a while we wouldn't say anything to her about any accidents, jsut clean her up and go about the activity we were doing. about a month of that and I'd had it. So this is how it was finally achieved... TV!! yes I know it's sounds weird it wasn't a movie or anything it was a commercial for this thing called a light sketcher, she thought is was the coolest thing in the world and wanted to have it!! I told her if she could go 1 week without any accidents she could get one... it totally worked!!! she got the $30.00 light sketcher and she loves it! she still talks about getting the wagon when her boxes are filled so we'll probably get that to since we did tell her she could get one, and for some reason she thinks she gets "crayola", it's 3d sidewalk chalk from crayola she saw that on a commercial too, (No she doesn't always watch tv) I don't know why she thinks she's getting it, but she's not, I'll just have to tell her the store doesn't have anymore and hope she never see's it there! So after 2 weeks accident free I say we're done!!! :)

So I've been trying to come up with something new to post, I have nothing...no trips unlike some people ;), or new baby news or anything special, so i'll just kinda ramble I guess cause I'm bored and Vince is working till midnight. Everything is good with the baby, everythings good with Chloe, although one very annoying thing she has started is the "why" question...ahh it's driving me crazy everything I say is followed with her asking why... it was funny the other night we were driving home from my brothers High School graduation it was like 11 at night (I know it was waaay past bedtime) I was trying to keep her awake so I wouldn't wake her up getting her out of the car so I was pointing out everything to her...here is one converstation that I had to laugh at...

ME: "Chloe look out your window we're gonna pass Cannon and Brinley's house"
Chloe: " but why are they in Rigby?" (she knew that cause she just asked where we were)
ME: "cause that's where their house is"
Chloe: "why?"
Me: "because that's where their mommy and daddy bought their house"
Chloe: "why"
Me: "I don't know"
ok so with most kids I've said that to just leave it at that...not Chloe she asks...
Chloe: "why do you not know why mommy?"

I just started laughing I had no idea what to say to her, but next time I'll know not to laugh, she got sad because she thought I was laughing at her, poor girl was having a serious conversation with me and thought I was laughing at her, I felt so bad, she didn't talk much after that, but she still asks why all the time.

So yeah like I said before my little 12 year old brother (ok so he's 18) just graduated High School, it's weird he's so old, ok not old, old, just that it seems like he should still be 12 or 13 but yet he's 6'5" and has a girlfriend and a job and is going to BYUI this fall, and planning on his mission, it's just so weird. I was sitting there in the gym during one of the speakers and guess who walked in the doors...the pizza delivery guy...yeah one of the students ordered a bunch of pizza for the entire class and was passing it around it was so funny! my mom was saying how bored everyone always looks and she said all the pictures of me at graduation I was turned around talking to people...ha ha! yeah I was pretty bored, the only things I remember at graduation was getting in trouble by a teacher for switching seats with someone to sit by my friends, walking down the ramp(without tripping), throwing our caps in the air and the all nighter, but that's all that's important anyway right? :)

I did something the other day that I'd never in my life thought I would do while pregnant...I bought a swim suit!! Vince took Chloe swimming at the pool in the clubhouse last week, I just put my feet in and watched, I totally wanted to get in though, then they went again without me, so I decided I'd just get one, who cares if I look fat, I'm supossed to, I'm pregnant!! and so I got one, we went last night and it felt so good! I could go all day but I'll just stick to the times that no one is there so nobody has to look at me but Vince and Chloe. :)

My baby girl is 3!!!

I can't believe Chloe is already 3! her birthday was on Saturday, She's getting to be so big, way to fast!! We had a little birthday party with her friends on Friday night and she had a blast, she loved all her presents and they had fun hitting the pinata.


On Saturday, it was 1/2 off day at Bear World so we took her there, she loved seeing all the bears, they were so cute especially the little baby cubs they had, I wish I was able to hold one, maybe it's a good thing I didnt' cause then I'd run home with it ;)




Anyway, so after you go through the park they have a petting zoo(it was like chickens and pigs, and a couple deer) and they had a few rides for the kids....Chloe said she wanted to go on the rides, they were free so why not, they only had 2 workders for the 5 rides they had, the little roller coaster was getting ready to start so we ran over there, Vince and Chloe were both on and she was all excited about it, but after about 1 time around decided it wasn't so much fun and came off the ride crying, I felt so bad. The next ride starting was the cars, it looked like it just went around in circles, they got on that one, Chloe wasn't to sure about it but wanted to anyway, well, it rose up on the air and started shaking up and down as it was going around in circles, they stopped the ride so she and one other kid could get off, she came out and said "I jsut want to go bowling" She didn't trust anything else cause she wouldn't even get on the train that I know just went around in circles...she just wanted to watch a few times then we took her bowling.



That night grandma and grandpa took us out to Godfathers pizza, yum! they have really good pizza, anyway they have a horse there that Chloe likes to ride, she knows she has to eat her pizza first then she gets to ride, when she went to get on it, there was a bunch of older kids on it, they were like 17 or 18 she turned and looked at me and laughed saying that they were to big.

so organized...

So a few months back I converted the closet under the stairs to a "toy room" for Chloe, it's not huge but for a little girl it works for now, hopefully someday when we get into a bigger house we can be able to have an actual room for toys, but she loves going in there and cooking in her kitchen, turning off the light and using her flashlight to go "camping", and just playing. Well every night before bed I have her help clean up her toys, she usually just throws her toys in there and calls it good, but when she throws them in she's atleast able to walk over them until we put them back where they go, but this is what it looked like after she cleaned up tonight.




isn't it lovely? this is coming from a girl who washes her hands 100 times a day, 5 times in one washing, loves to help vacuum, dust, sweep and wash walls. but yet she just can't put stuff away nicely, it's so funny. I guess this is the next thing we have to work on....organization! :)

Sick

but this time it's not me...it's Chloe. it all started yesterday afternoon, she told me she had a headache, I gave her some tylenol. Then she crawled up on the couch and cuddled with me (which is not her usual thing to do) she leaned her head on my face and she felt so hot! so I went and got the thermometer, sure enough she had a high fever of 103 about 4 hours later it was still pretty high so I gave her motrin, it brought it down a little but enough. She started to tell me she hurt all over, her head, her toes and her neck(throat) the weird thing was is she was acting completely normal other than her cuddling with me. We watched her temp. the rest of the day and just before bed it was down to 100 so we thought she might just get better. When she woke up it was back up to 103 gave her more meds and it brought it down but still not enough. we were hoping to wait till tomorrow to bring her to the doctor but after her nap it was 104 with meds still in her, plus she threw up, her face was so red and so was her tummy, so we just decided to take her in. poor thing has strep throat. :( she did really good during the strep test, I told her they were gonna tickle the back of her throat so she wouldn't freak out and it seemed to do the trick, she did so good. Hopefully she'll be lots better soon!

She's gonna be a great big sister!!

So I told Chloe to go upstairs and pick out some books for bedtime, I walk in the room and I see her feeding her baby the bottle, she said "I need to put the baby to sleep before I pick out books." Once the milk was gone, she said "she's not asleep yet" and started to rock her to sleep, so cute! she kept telling me to "shhh" She's gonna be a big helper! :)

Happy Easter!

Yesterday we had such a fun and busy day! Chloe had fun going on her easter egg hunt around the house, she loved her easter basket, wanted to eat nothing but candy all day, and was very grumpy at the end of the day because she didnt' have a nap. That afternoon we went to my grandma's house for lunch, Chloe got another basket of candy. Then we went to my Mom's and of course another egg hunt and a basket of candy. So we now have 3 easter baskets full of Candy! ( great, next year with 2 kids, we'll probably end up with 6) But now that chocolate is starting to taste good to me again I can totally help get rid of it ;)
I wish I would have taken pictures, but I only did a video, I was kinda mad at myself for not doing both. ( maybe we'll do a 2nd egg hunt later today) the video is kinda long so I probably wont post it, but I'll have to take a picture of her with all the things she got.

Egg decorating

We decorated eggs today, Chloe had so much fun! I was not so sure I really wanted to do it yet, I really didn't want a huge mess or a spill, but she did so good, just a little spot on her shirt!
When I started to boil the eggs she asked what I was doing, when I told her she got so excited and started to jump around asking if they were done yet over and over. When the eggs were finally done and cooled, I put them on the table and started doing the dye, which took alot longer than I thought, she got ancy again and kept asking if it was done yet! next time I'll do the dye while I'm still boiling the eggs.