Echo, Bravo! - Jan 31

Well I don't know what the heck is going on lately but Chloe has been sick now twice in a row..with completely different things. I believe the same thing happened to me going from having some kind of flu with a fever, aches and all that horrible stuff and then just as that is almost over a completely different thing jumps in with a nasty cough and nose issues. Poor Chloe this week was struck with wave two. We had two back to back birthday parties last weekend for some friends kids which I can only imagine is either where it came from, or where we dropped it off with a bunch of other kids. LOL.
Anyway, unfortunately this leads to a very laid back week at home for us where Chloe and I chill on the couch and watch movies and stuff. I think we watched "Planes" 2 or 3 times(I still don't love it) but Chloe still does. As the week went on Chloe was feeling better so I waited to grab some photos of her just playing with her planes and having fun. =)
She still has a bit of a cough but she is feeling much better so hopefully it doesn't spread around our house as these things have been known to do.
Have a great weekend, folks~

Brian

I'm Not Very Good At Pictures! - Jan 24

Dear Chloe,
I must disagree.
Sincerely,
Me. =)

I had my camera out and was taking some of these random photos of Chloe and I think she has apparently completely turned the corner into fake-smiles-ville. She is fully camera aware and it's starting to become more difficult to draw out a real smile. Of course I am never looking for the "cheeze" photo but it starts with that. The smile is in the eyes..if you don't have that, well..

I pointed out to Chloe that she was not really smiling at me and to my surprise she came up with the one comment I never would have expected. Kids say the darndest things, i guess. I'd say she's doing just fine. =)
Have a great weekend, folks~

-B

I'm Having A Planes Party! - Jan 17

Last year it was "Cars". This year, Planes! Planes? Yep.

I'll explain. =)

So we have taken Chloe to the movies twice now. The first time was to go see the Disney movie "Planes". After how much she LOVED "Cars" we figured it would at least be something she would sit through. We were right and basically she never stopped talking about the movie after we watched it. Almost immediately she starting talking about wanting a "Planes" birthday party. This is a 3 year old GIRL by the way. =P Well, who are we to deny her what she wanted. LOL! We had Chloe's birthday party at the same place it has been the past 2 years at the gymnastics place she goes to(and my Mom works there). Chloe and the other kids seem to like it and it's worked out great the past few years for us. Short of going to Chuck E Cheese or similar, there is no way we could ever host a party for this many kids and adults at home..so it worked out great(again). They ran the party a bit differently this year where instead of the kids all just having a free for all, we broke them into groups and ran it like a small class which I think worked out really well. We basically just wanted a low key party and wanted Chloe and her friends to have a fun time and I think that's exactly what we got! Next year I'm sure we will find something new to do but for now you can check out a few photos from Chloe's "Planes" birthday party as we celebrate her turning 4!

Have a great weekend~


-B

Happy 4th Birthday, Chloe!! - Jan 10

FOUR YEARS!!! Chloe has been alive for 4 years. We have been parents for 4 years. I have been posting weekly blogs now for FOUR YEARS. Well, technically a bit over 4 years, but who's counting?? Just about 4 years ago we were coming home from the hospital scared out of our minds with this tiny little baby and no idea what to do. How would we ever survive?!? Well, we have managed to put our heads together and here we are. Chloe has certainly exceeded all of our wildest expectations and she continues to surprise us every day. It's not always sunshine and roses of course but that is half the challenge of being parents and trying to raise a well adjusted little human. She is the light in our lives. =)

To celebrate Chloe's 4th birthday we decided to take (another) trip to Chloe's favorite place in the world! You guessed it, DISNEYLAND! We all still have valid annual passes so we checked out a calender and away we went. We actually wanted to go in December so we could see all the Christmas holiday decor since(as far as we know) we have never seen it before and it's supposed to be really neat. As luck would have it, the last two days the decorations would be up were the two days leading up to Chloe's birthday. Perfect. Or so it would seem..
On the days leading up to our departure, I was suddenly very ill. I posted last week that I was not feeling well, I had no idea how bad it would get. We contemplated calling off the trip but after sleeping almost the entire day Friday into Saturday, I woke up feeling much better. I took some medicine, packed a bag and we were off on Sunday morning. I wasn't 100%, but I wasn't going to stop us from going! That, as it turns out, would be the least of our problems..
As it turns out, Chloe was now coming down with something which we were obviously afraid of but she seemed fine and we rolled the dice. Knowing how bad I felt for a solid day or two, if Chloe was to have what I had, our trip was going to be cut short. We got down there and Chloe was super excited to go to the park(s), but that excitement faded fast. We knew what was coming. Chloe wanted to badly to go to the parks but after a few hours we knew it was time to go back to the hotel. Anyway, we took it easy but we did still spend some time in the parks and instead of our usual nap in the stroller, we went back to the room where Chloe took in a few solid hours of sleep. Tuesday afternoon was the hardest and by then she had a fever and just wanted to go to bed. She slept basically from 730pm until 9am the next morning (and that was after a 2 hour afternoon nap). That was basically how my previous Friday was and I woke up feeling 100x better. We hoped she would wake up on her actual Birthday and want to at least be feeling well enough to go do 1 thing in the park that we planned from the beginning...

Chloe has this "Elsa dress up" from the movie "Frozen" that she loves to death and Heather & I wanted to let her wear it into the park. She was so excited and even more excited when I found out that she could MEET Elsa & Anna(the two main characters from the movie). On her birthday she was feeling much, much better so we got ready and headed into the park one last time. The plan was to take Chloe to meet Elsa & Anna then either have ice cream or some kind of treat to celebrate her birthday maybe do 1 ride and then head home. We got into the park and the line for meeting Elsa & Anna was TWO HOURS long. TWO. HOURS. LONG. To meet a character for 10 seconds and have a picture taken?? What had we done?? Luckily, we were able to bargain with Chloe to take her on a few extra rides and she was able to stick her head in the door to at least SEE them for 2 seconds..but there was no way we were waiting 2+ hours for that. I couldn't believe it! I was super bummed but luckily Chloe didn't seem to be. It was still a great birthday despite all of our setbacks and hopefully one that she was still able to have some fun.
Have a great weekend, folks and Happy Birthday CHLOE!! =)
-B&H

















































Chloe is just able to get a peek inside..which thankfully was good enough for her! =)




Then, we let her pick out her own special birthday treat. She surprised us both with her selection but she wanted "cake". LOL.







Happy Birthday, Chloe!!