When we visited the pumpkin patch for Chloe’s birthday, we picked up two little perfect Chloe-sized pumpkins.  Being a kindergarten teacher, I have a slight obsession with finger paint and feel like it should be used as often as possible!  So, we pulled it out and had a pumpkin painting party in the kitchen, and Chloe loved every minute of it!

She didn’t hesitate about getting her hands (and legs, and stomach) dirty!  This picture is about 3 seconds after I set the paint down in front of her!

She looks so serious here, as if she is truly contemplating her pumpkin masterpiece!  Maybe we have the next Monet on our hands!

“What?!  The paint is supposed to go on the pumpkin, not me?”

Looking for more paint to rub on her body!

Voila!  The Pumpkin Picasso!

When it comes to college sports, we live in enemy territory.  OU fans are passionate about their school and their football, and on most days, we cheer right along side them as we watch games with our Oklahoma friends.  However, this weekend, we drew the line and cheered for the Ags as they walloped OU.

It was actually our first overnight trip away from Chloe, and because we are oh-so-romantic, we used the weekend to go down to College Station for the Texas A&M and OU game.  An elder at our church gave us his tickets, so we sat in the OU section.  It was a little strange to be cheering and hissing opposite of everyone around us, but the Ags played well so we wore our maroon with pride!

Gig ‘em Ags!

This past Friday, our church had their annual fall festival, Wonderfall, so we dressed up, loaded up, and went out to enjoy the fun!

Family Photo:  The farmer, cow, and little pumpkin!

I would like to say that we set Chloe in the dirt and sticks to get an authentic “pumpkin patch” photo, but that would be false.  Our sweet daughter is obsessed with everything outside, and dirt, sticks, and flowers are a can’t miss situation for her!  She crawled over (ignoring the games and bounce houses), set herself in the middle of it, and went to town.

Engrossed in the flowers (and oblivious to the mini carnival in the background)!

Enjoying the bounce house!

Hungry baby gobbling up her first hot dog and loving her blue balloon puppy!

Happy (and sweet) (and adorable) little pumpkin!

It is crazy to think that this time last year we were still stressed, sleepless parents with a very sick baby on our hands!  God has been so good to bring us so far!  We are now two fairly functioning parents with a beautiful, healthy baby girl and a rambunctious little boy on the way!  Wow!

Since Chloe was so sick last year, we missed out on most of the fun fall festivities, but to make up for it, we went all out this year!  Chloe had a blast celebrating and so did we!  Here’s a little peek into one of our many adventures:  carving our first family pumpkin!  (and Jeremy was a part of this, I promise…he is just behind the camera the whole time!)

“Hey dad!  I have a stick in my hand, and I can make funny faces!”

Playing with pumpkin guts…curiosity piqued!

“Eww mom!  That was kind of gross!”

“Okay, I am ready for some more!  Where do I find the orange slime?”

“Found it!  Umm…not sure if I love this or not.”

“Mom, put the lid on!  I am done playing with this toy!”

…After a nap and outfit change…”Oops!  I knocked the pumpkin over!”

“Not sure if I should smile.  This pumpkin is kind of scaring me (that’s why I knocked him over!)!”

Finished product! (idea stolen from an oh-so-talented friend!)

We love our baby girl!

On Saturday we had Chloe’s family birthday party. She felt so loved by all! In addition to many doting grandparents and uncles, here were the main attractions:

The birthday girl! Surrounded by presents and enamored by each one! (She has begun rebelling against bows and pulling them off of her head–sad day for mom.)

The invitations! Because I am last minute and did not know what I wanted as Chloe’s birthday theme, I ended up making her invitations by hand. We (me) decided to go with owls as the theme because they are her room decor and so stinking cute!

The super cute birthday shirt! I hand embroidered the designs and had so much fun doing it! (yes, it is the same shirt she wore the day before…but I washed it! And clearly it was too cute to just be worn once! : D)


The owl birthday sugar cookies! (yes, I made these too…I am cheap, but I like cute things, so I ended up doing a lot by hand!)

The cupcakes! I wanted her to have candles on her first birthday cake, but I am told that flames and babies don’t mix…so the candles are cookie sticks and the flames are orange slices!

The birthday girl and her cupcake! She just kind of looked at us like, “What do I do with this?” Then, with some prompting, she tried a little, made a face, then promptly smashed the rest of it all over her high chair. End of cupcake!

A special thank you to our family for helping us celebrate our sweet one year old!

For those of you who don’t know, our golden retriever, Ryleigh, has a humongous head. Huge. It is a little ridiculous. And, when Ryleigh was a just a small pup, she learned that she could use said head to open/move things. So, at age 6, she still rams things like doors, gates, and Gracey (our other dog) with her massive noggin in order to get them to obey her will.

Chloe, who loves our dogs and desperately wants to be part of the pack, has picked up on this hidden talent of Ryleigh’s and accordingly has started to try and butt things with her head. Chloe’s head is not as large as Ryleigh’s, nor as hard, so most of the time Chloe just ends up yelling because it hurts. The whole ordeal is 3 parts sad and 1 part funny…is it bad that I laugh at my child in pain? Currently, Chloe’s little forehead has 3 small bruises inflicted upon it from where she tried to ram something out of the way and the thing won. Hopefully, this is just a small phase, and she will quickly learn that her hands are more adept at moving things than her head. What a special girl we have!!

…melt my heart.




are you a puddle now too?

Originally, I had wanted to use cloth diapers with our wee little babe, but Jeremy was a little more than unsure about my green ideas. Then, when Chloe was two months old, some of the people in my hometown of Borger, Texas threw us a diaper shower and blessed us with an abundance of disposables. (she is now ten months along, and we have yet to buy diapers–thank you for your generosity!) Once we had the diaper shower, the debate became a moot point, and we trucked merrily along using Pampers. But, like they say, all good things must come to an end, and we are down to our last few boxes of disposable diapers.

Once our supply began to dwindle, I got back on the cloth diaper track, because honestly, I am cheap, and so are cloth diapers. We are like a match made in heaven. But, once again, my husband was unsure. So, we decided to compromise and buy a “trial run” supply of cloth diapers. I was immediately sold! Jeremy is slowly coming along. But as of this week, Chloe is officially a cloth diaper baby…at least when she is with me. When she is with dad , disposable diapers are still being used…until we run out or he gets comfortable with the idea!

Because I love cloth diapers, I feel like you should too! I know they are intimidating, but maybe if I introduce you, you can become friends and live happily ever after in your cheap heaven as well. So, without further adieu, here we go:

The covers. We are using the flip diaper system, and it is fantastic. The covers come in an amazing array of fun colors, and they are all snaps–no hassling with velcro and super easy to adjust.

The soakers. Sounds intimidating, but these are super easy. You just fold one of these suckers (on the clearly spelled out lines), and slap it in your cover. You can tuck in under the flaps in the cover or you can just lay it in…depends on your mood or availability of time. They are extra absorbent, and the soft suede-like top wicks all the moisture away from your sweet baby’s behind.

The liners. These are an optional feature for cloth diapers, but I believe they are mandatory. It catches all of the “solids” your little one produces. You lay it on top of the soaker when it is about that time of day; then, when stink appears, you can just yank it out and flush it down the toilet. Heavenly…and much less stinky.

The baby bum. (my favorite part) These diapers are a little more bulky than your average disposable, but Chloe is kind of small, so I like that it beefs her up some! All in all, the diaper fits nicely in all of her clothes and gives her a cute little J-Lo booty.

The finished product. You can barely see the diaper peeking out through the edges of her little onsie.

End result=Happy baby!

Let me start by saying that Chloe is in love with animals. IN LOVE. She loves our dogs. She grabs whatever part of them she can whenever they are in her reach, and she smiles from ear to ear each time they enter the room. In the cabin that we shacked up at in Beaver’s Bend, there was a GIANT elk head hanging on the wall (translation: creepy), and she loved it. She waved to it every time we passed it (apx 50 times a day), and she crooned her head to find it as often as possible. There was also a small bear-shaped table that was disturbingly life-like and about the size of a dog in our cabin. When she first saw it, Chloe giggled and clapped with delight. She was very disappointed to find out that it was not as responsive as our two puppies at home.

Since our baby has so much love for animals, we decided to take her to the OKC zoo! It is around 100 million degrees here in Oklahoma right now, so we just took an abbreviated tour to the petting zoo and the aquarium. They just redid the childrens’ zoo, and it combines two of Chloe’s favorite things: small, furry animals and water. It was a massive success.

We started off the morning by chasing around some goats, petting a rabbit, and laughing at the donkey.

Then we played in the splash park until we were sufficiently soaked.

After that, we visited the Lorikeets. If you get a chance to go, DO–it is very entertaining. The birds land right on you, so we had a chance to feed them, and Chloe had a chance to get bit by one (don’t worry–she wasn’t hurt, and it took about 3 bites from the bird for her to finally figure out that she should stop sticking her little fingers in its beak).

We finished up our zoo adventure with a tour of the aquarium. At this point, the small one was pretty tuckered out and was angry that she couldn’t pet the fish like the goats and rabbit…consequently, we have no pictures. But, all in all, it was a wonderful time!