He Has BIG FEET! - Dec 19

Last weekend we made our traditional visit to see Santa Claus. Oddly enough, this year Chloe expressed some hesitation about going to see him. Every year so far she has been ignorantly happy to just show up and do whatever we tell her will be fun lol but now that she's almost 5 I guess she suddenly has an opinion. It's okay, we knew she would forget all about it as soon as we got through the door. We were right. =)

We also did a little preparation with her as far as what she was going to tell Santa that she wanted for Christmas(because we knew he would have no idea what she was talking about). She is really interested in the Pixar movie "Wall-E" which if you have never seen it has two main characters that are essentially robots that have very little dialogue. Chloe want's this "Eve" character that talks and moves that we found at Toys R Us a few months back. The movie was released in like 2007 so toys have long since been out of stores but for some reason they re-released some of these toys. Santa would have no idea what she means when she says "I want a talking Eve Robot!". lol. Anyway, it was cute he talked to Chloe for a long time telling her how pretty she was and how she was so much bigger than last year, etc. He must see hundreds if not thousands of kids but I do feel like he probably would remember Chloe specifically because for 5 years she has never once cried and she always wears a "fancy" dress to visit him. It's cute. HE IS SANTA. He made some comment about Chloe's shoes and he pointed out his big boots and asked her "do you know why my boots are so big??" to which she replied, "BECAUSE YOU HAVE REALLY BIG FEET!!". He said she was the first kid to say that when he asked that question and seemed genuinely surprised. LOL. Just a few more shopping days(bleh) left before Christmas. Get on it!! Have a great weekend.

Brian


















and the 5 year spread..

I Already Met You At Disneyland! - Dec 12

Last weekend we went to a birthday party for one of Chloe's classmates which we knew would be a "Frozen" themed party(surprise). What Chloe didn't know was that "Elsa" would actually be there! Well, I mean she was Elsa by the fact that she was there as Elsa..but she didn't have me fooled for one second. =)

I was telling Heather, It's so weird how Chloe (and kids in general) seem to have NO concept of people by face when it comes to charachters. Chloe was being shy when she first saw Elsa but then ten seconds later when that passed she was over chatting away. "I already met you in Disneyland!!" she says. Meanwhile, this "Elsa" looked nothing like the Disneyland Elsa except for the almost the right color dress and blonde wig. This Elsa also knew how to make balloon animals and do generic magic tricks. The kids loved it!! I was not impressed. LOL. Everybody's a critic.

We a busy week that started with Chloe being sick and essentially ends with Heather and I being sick as well. Not the first time, won't be the last. Just a few pics of the Chlo-bomb. Have a great weekend~

B

Still Freezing..er, Frozen! - Dec 5

Yes folks, it has officially been a year(and some change) since the movie "Frozen" took the world of 3 and 4 year old girls by storm last December. This week I had a board meeting for Chloe's school but it was more like a Christmas party thing and with that there was a "white elephant" gift exchange. I drew number 13 (lucky #13?) out of I believe 16 so I got to watch 12 people open gifts before I got to decide weather to steal someones gift or open a new one. I believe the 4th thing opened was this hilarious Elsa hat with a long braid attached to it which I had already seen months ago because my Mom sent me a picture of it at Bed Bath and Beyond. I knew I would need to "steal" this gift and when my turn came, you can bet I did. The gift, oddly enough, was purchased by Chloe's teacher who even said she thought of Chloe when she bought it. With that, nobody would dare steal it from me lol so now we are the proud owners of a weird hat that Chloe LOVES. She wanted to wear it to school on Thursday and show all of her friends...so I let her. LOL. I made her take it off before the class started.

We also spent some time last weekend putting up our Christmas tree. Chloe absolutely LOVES decorating for the holidays. What kid wouldn't? One of these weekends we'll work on our annual visit to see Santa but for now we are rapidly running out of shopping days and before we know it Christmas, New Years, Chloe's birthday BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. =)

Have a great weekend.
-B

I'm A Flag Girl! - Nov 28

Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving when everyone goes out shopping for good deals and cheap stuff. Everyone, except me.
Yesterday was Thanksgiving but I'm sure I didn't have to tell you that. Chloe got dressed in the morning and was so proud of her outfit but when she came to show me the first thing out of my mouth was "hey you look like an American flag!" LOL. So all day long she was telling people she was dressed as a "flag girl". It took a minute to compute but everyone seemed to agree. =)

Being Thanksgiving we of course had the round to make. Last year we ate with my family and in years past we have eaten twice. I think the goal these days is to trade off every year but who knows what the future has in store. We are lucky to have two families to share Thanksgiving with and Chloe is always likes to be the star of the show..or at least she makes a point to be the center of attention, lol. As her little cousin, Peyton, gets older I have a feeling they are going to have to share the title and perhaps Peyton has already started to share that spotlight. We spent a few hours at my parents house with my brother and his family then we went and had Thanksgiving dinner with Heather's family not to far away. Everybody ate to much(I'm sure) and today we will work on getting down our Christmas decorations. Chloe is literally asking me every 5 minutes to get the Christmas tree down...so that's my next move. Happy Thanksgiving!

What A Wonderful World - Nov 21

With just under a week before thanksgiving, it's time to start freaking out if you have not started Christmas shopping yet. "Black Friday" is just a week away where lots of insane people go shopping at midnight trying to buy cheap stuff and save money. PASS. What that also means is Thanksgiving is coming up so at Chloe's preschool they have been hard at work preparing things for their annual Thanksgiving feast. The kids have spent the past few weeks making decorations for the school as well as practicing a few special songs they would sing to the parents one of which would be Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World". The kids would all sing as well as sign the song(I'm not sure why but it was cute) then we would eat a Thanksgiving feast which was basically a pot luck situation. I kid you not (and I hope it was a joke) someone literally brought a little lunch meat container of turkey. LOL. There was real turkey. I made stuffing from scratch and by scratch I mean from a box. =)

Have a great weekend, folks.

Brian

(Little) Lady In Red - Nov 14

The time of year has arrived where the leaves change color, the temperature gets colder, and this year if we are lucky some rain. With any luck, it won't rain on the weekends because thats's when everybody wants me to take their picture with all this fall beauty. LOL. The other day Chloe decided she wanted nothing more than to wear this red dress even though it was a little on the chilly side. Temperature can effect kids but they seem to be able to overcome hot or cold depending on what it is they insist on wearing that day. Tuesday was Veterans day so Chloe didn't have school. We spent the day running some errands and when we returned home I noticed out little tree at the end of the block was in nice light and thought maybe to grab some photos of Chloe. It was cold and it was windy but that didn't stop her from just playing in the leaves and letting me snap a few photos.
Have a great weekend!
Brian

Elsa-Ween - Nov 7

Yeah, Ok I get it. The first picture is misleading because (I'll be honest with you) we didn't carve our pumpkin until the day after Halloween. So sue me. LOL. It's a good dang thing too because it has only been one week and that thing turned into a moldy death bomb and now resides in my trash can. I also understand now why pumpkin seeds are so expensive boy what a pain in the butt. Home made seeds are so much better than the stupid store ones, though, so I guess it's worth it. =)

Of course last Friday was Halloween and all week leading up to it the brilliant weather people were telling us it was going to be raining for trick or treating. I'm happy to report that they were absolutely wrong and it did not rain even for one minute for our Halloween activities. We have made a tradition of meeting up with some friends and letting all the kids trick or treat and with every passing year the kids get a little bigger and want to go a little further. That, of course, translates into MORE CANDY. Chloe is so good about candy and "junk food" it's really amazing. She truly does not care about any of the candy she has but she does have one apparent weakness: Suckers. Ring pops, dum-dums, stuff like that she wants to eat but she still is perfectly satisfied to just be able to have it for a minute or a couple of licks and put it back in the wrapper. Not in a million years would I have expected a kid that doesn't constantly ask us for candy or worse yet just get into the bag and go to town. Just me, then?? LOL.

Of course we already know that Chloe would go as "Queen Elsa" but I figured I would include some pictures of her in all her glory. What started out as a costume dress-up became an extremely complete Halloween costume that I'll admit I'm pretty proud of for essentially being pieced together over the course of the year, lol. I even found (at the very last minute) some legit shoes(on sale) and when I tell you I have never seen a happier child in costume I am not kidding. Chloe had an absolute blast and it was fun to watch.

Have a great weekend!
Brian