Winter Wii-derland!

My mom invited us up to Prescott for the weekend and for once we weren't busy. I guess that means the holiday busy season is over. The gifts have been given, the celebrations celebrated, the baby's been born, and decorations are down... Oh,wait... nope, tree's still standing... Hey, I have a baby now! Stop laughing at me! At least it's a cute tree!

Anyways... We went to Prescott and had so much fun! The original plan was to go to Out of Africa in Camp Verde but it was looking kinda FREEZING and rainyish outside so we opted out and had a nice warm day in.

Winston the fat wiener...

Instead of freezing our tushies off we played with my mom's brand new Wii and Fit. I WANT ONE NOW!!! And mom (Grandma Gaye) played with Chloe. Fun all around...

Early in the morning on the 8th we woke up to SNOW. So pretty! I haven't seen snow fall in a long time. I love how you feel like you are part of the snow globe instead of the one shaking it. I kept taking breaks from the Wii after it wore me out to go stand in the snow. It fell on and off all day. Every time it would stop I would get a little depressed, but then it would start again within an hour or two and I would go back outside to stand in it.

I didn't take Chloe out in it mostly because it was pretty cold and I didn't think I could pry her from Grandma Gaye's arms. She still had fun though. I kept putting her in her car seat near the TV while we played Wii and she loved watching the little characters and the bright moving colors.

Of course Charlie came along. Here he is , with Josh, playing his favorite game: tug-o-war/fetch/keep away. He doesn't really get the concept but it's alot more fun when he's on unfamiliar tile that's unavoidable. When he starts running at top speed, he doesn't move for a bit before actually taking off. It's like the cartoon of the roadrunner... Meep-meep!

Preston's jammies (that he never changed out of that entire day) were ever so appropriate for the day. Snowflake/Christmas bottoms with his Nintendo shirt (it says "Power Up")

That night mom grilled steak and Nannie and Grandad came over for dinner (my grandparents). We (them, my mom and me) played cards while Preston, Josh and Selena played more Wii. (That thing never got a break!) Great-Grandma-Nannie got to have a bunch of Chloe time which she was more than thrilled about.

Oh and Preston and Selena showed Grandad how to bowl with a Wii. He liked that. Josh won the game having had more practice and a freshly buzzed head (see background of this picture). Yeah... he randomly just up and decided to hack it off. (He's preppin' for the Marines.)

When we finally left, the snow was beginning to stick. Selena said goodbye by writing on our car.

The next morning... I was in pain... I pushed myself to get the high score on advanced hula-hoops with the Wii Fit. That was after doing the regular version of the hula-hoops 2 or 3 times to unlock it, then trying twice to get the high score. Oh and I did the yoga, the jogging, the boxing, the balance games, the ski jump, and more stuff I can't think of right now. I loved that thing... apart from when it measured how fat I was... but it's good because it keeps track of your progress (or not) if you're trying to lose weight. So... I want one now.

Chloe being cute!

I love how after the Superbowl ended the news decided to fill time they had to analyze how the Cardinals lost. The Office was on 10 minutes late because they couldn't figure out how to sum it up in a few simple words: They lost. Now back to our regular programing...

Anyways afterwards was more fun. To me anyways. This is of Chloe hanging out with Grandma Foster. She loves Grandma! Oh and she's so cute, I love this thing she does with her hands, like she about to say a prayer. I love my baby girl!

Preston took this one after church today. It's an awful one of me but it's funny that we are laying in the same position. We were sleepy. It was a late night last night.

Oh and on the night of Monday the 26th of January, Chloe laughed for the first time. It took a while and a lot of hard work and I am realizing that when she "laughs" most of the time it's more of a "huh". It's still cute. But this one was undeniably a laugh. I love this baby!

When Fathers Eat Their Young....

Chloe had her two month check up and got her first shots today. She weighed in at 12lbs 7ozs and she is 23 1/2 inches long now. So since she was born she has gained 4lbs 6ozs and 2 inches!!! Wow, my baby definitely isn't a newborn anymore. *tear*

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Speaking of tears... I wish I could say my child took her shots like a champ. That she didn't even flinch or whimper. No. Turns out she's got my threshold for pain. None. She screamed bloody murder! I haven't heard her scream like that since she was born. Only there was a difference. That was because she had just gotten the shock of her life coming into the bright cold world, this was (apparently) mortal pain. The nice part is I can brag that I have the most easy going child ever. Like I said, I haven't heard her scream that loud (or that long) since she was born. I actually started crying because I couldn't make the pain stop. (Wow, I just had an interesting insight: I think I understand a little better how Heavenly Father feels about us.)

Anyways, I was bragging... She is almost never fussy and when she is it's because she's hungry, has a dirty diaper, uncomfortable or just wants to be held. We can put her in the swing, lay her on the bed or in the car seat and she will happily sit there till she needs something. She just chills. I love it!!! Oh AND she sleeps through the night almost every night! Have I mentioned I love this kid? I should probably quit having kids here while I'm ahead, huh? I could never do that though!

Anyways... You are probably wondering "What's with the title???," right? Well I was taking pictures of her band aids for her scrapbook and posterity, and a little later Preston was holding her and I was thinking how I don't have very many pictures of them together. If you know Preston then you know you have to take about 10 before you can get him to settle down and stop making faces between the click and the flash. This turned out to be our favorite:

This is what I was after:

I love the look on her face here:

What are you lookin' at?

This pictures just gave me the giggles.
Her shirt says "Milk Enthusiast"

Bestest Buds

I have a funny story and a few cute pictures. Funny story first:

Charlie loves to play fetch! When he wants to play he will go find his toy and bring it to us. If we ignore him he will try to prompt us to play with him by growling, barking, whining, standing on our feet, getting in our laps and consequently our face, or (my favorite) putting the soggy toy directly into our hand (if he can get to it of course).

Preston had been playing with Charlie and started having a conversation with a visitor we had at the time, so he stopped. Charlie wasn't ready to be done and came to me with the toy. I noticed but as I was talking with our visitor I didn't stoop to pick up the toy either. He had already tried the visitor so that was out. At this point I must add that we had just recently returned home and Chloe was in her car seat being all cute as always and the car seat had been placed on the floor.

Charlie out of desperation for a playmate recognized that Chloe was not talking to anyone and at a level he could reach. So he walked over to her and plopped the toy into her car seat at her feet and gave her the "Come on throw it!" look, tail wagging and everything. He was so proud of himself for finding someone available to play with him.

Poor little dog. Preston and I took the hint and gave him some love and threw the toy around for a while after that. It took us a while to stop laughing though.

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This was taken a few hours after the story above took place. Charlie seems to like her more everyday. Though he seems to get jealous that Chloe goes with me every time I leave and he has to stay at home. We do try to take him with us when we can so he doesn't start his own type of sibling rivalry.

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Aww, look! They're both smiling!

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My little bed hogs... actually I consider Charlie the foot warmer and Chloe the alarm clock, ha ha!

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The pacifier is the snooze button, it'll buy me about 8 more minutes of sleep.

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My cozy little foot warmer, the only downside is this one hops out of the bed when I move too much and has a tendency to make his way in between Preston and me where it's warmer.

New Year with a new baby

I took this picture of Preston and Chloe and it made me laugh. It also made everyone I showed it to laugh too! I'm going to title it: Dad's Idea of Babysitting. I should learn how to paint and recreate it. It's almost a modern Norman Rockwell, right? Can't you see it hanging on my wall? I love it!

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Chloe has been smiling alot lately. Grins but no giggles. We're still waiting on that one. She'll make little noises that I think are laughs but she's never smiling when she does it. Though she has found her voice and she loves to coo and talk to us. I think she has the prettiest little voice and I love the sound of it. I think she is so pretty! Every time I see her I just want to squeeze her and whenever I talk to her I call her Pretty Girl. That and Chubba-lubba. Or Chubby Cheeks.

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I love how her eyes are all squinty in this one. She's so cute!!! I took it today and it's already the wall paper on my computer. Her shirt is open because I had just finished changing her diaper and she started smiling at me AND I had the camera right there on my nightstand.

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I took this when we got home from her baby blessing on Sunday. Grandma Gaye (my mom) made the dress and the headband. Grandma Foster (Preston's mom) made the little crochet booties that you couldn't see under the dress because it was about three feet long from the waist. I about peed my pants in delight when she smiled for the camera! Especially while she was wearing her pretty dress. And then she kept smiling for it! This one is my favorite!

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Our little family. I should have grabbed Charlie and put him in it too. Darn it! Oh well, I'll be sure to get one of those later.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm 23 today! The sad part is that I had to do the math to figure that out. Or maybe that's a good thing? I don't know really.

So far today I've gotten a full night of sleep and the happiest grin I've ever seen on Chloe's face when she saw me coming to get her to change her diaper. A great big toothless one! Like this one:She's been in a good mood today.

Sorry it's been so long since my last blog. I've been busy with my little Chloe Lynn. It's really hard to type and hold a baby at the same time. I promise I'm still here!