A Half Birthday

our Chloe Elizabeth is 6 months!

she's crawling, laughing, babbling, and loving all her toys

weight - 14.2

height - 25 in

25th percentile all around

we got nothin' but love for this little girl.

We went to the Circus!

We saw clowns, dogs, horses, tigers, llamas, elephants, motorcycle riders, trapeze-ists?, jugglers, and all sorts of dancing and singing. For both Mike and myself, our favorite was these motorcycle riders that get into this ball and ride all around and upside down within inches of each other, it was CRAZY! Riley cannot stop talking about the pretty horses. And the elephants were pretty good too, mainly because they were pooping EVERYWHERE- every 5 seconds. funny stuff.

They let you come an hour early to see the animals and all the circus people close up, and let you try on the clothes and get on some of the clown cars.

...and to top it all off - Riley got her first taste of cotton candy, no surprise she devoured it.

We had a BLAST!!




*big thanks to Kathi for taking Chloe for the night, we loved our big night out with just Riley!!

A Drive-in "Date" Night

Mike and I were longing for a date night!
Many of our friends would go to the drive in while their kids slept in the back. We thought we'd try it, although we almost turned back a number of times, as our girls acted up. Chloe cried right up until 5 minutes before the movie, and Riley fell asleep 1/4 of the way through, and finally we just got to sit, hold hands, and enjoy The Mummy.
Good Times!

A Beall Day at the Beach

This was our first time to the beach this summer with Daddy! I had been with Riley and Chloe, but we set out a Saturday to go and have a relaxing day in the beach - although with a 2 yr old and a newborn, that doesn't always pan out. Hey at least we gave Riley a few fun memories!

Riley loved playing chase with the waves, they were pretty strong today, as you can tell it was a little colder than we would have liked, but thats what you get with Santa Cruz - FOG!

We barbequed hot dogs, ate chips, fruit and cookies - and Riley was enjoying trying to "help"

We built sandcastles, but it seems that Riley had more fun knocking them over instead of building them. Chloe was so sweet, she was just looking around while Mike & I traded off with her.

Sometimes making these trips is more work than actual fun for Mom & Dad, but I am so glad we could just spend the day together. I just love my family to pieces.

Baby Chloe

just doing her thing: chewing and drooling on anything she can get her hands on

Nothing better than lickin' the brownie spoon

Not a single drop left. Thats my girl!

I'm going spiritual on ya

Today my lesson in primary was on Helaman 5. Last night, I was reading the chapter out loud to Mike, and I began to feel the spirit so strong, that I had to fight back tears, Mike says, its OK Jaime, don't be embarrassed, just cry. So I did.

I don't often have these experiences or feelings in my weekly lesson prep. But I just know it was testifying to me that those words were true. . . and not only that they are true, but that they were written for me.

I think we all need these little experiences, just to give us a little reminder of how important this gospel is, and that it really is the center of our existence. I am so thankful for who I am, where I am, and mostly for a Heavenly Father who believes in me.

"Peace, peace be unto you, because of your faith in my Well Beloved, who was from the foundation of the world." Helaman 5:47

20 MINUTES OF PANIC

Riley got lost today.
They had to send out a search team
Scary stuff, it could've been worse, I guess. Here's the story:

We go to the discovery museum (which we have season passes to, so she's been there plenty of times before) and we first go to the new Alice in Wonderland exhibit.They have this dark tunnel when you first walk in, she climbs right in, so I go to the other side to wait for her. . . I'm waiting, I'm waiting . . . she never comes through! I go back and look and she is nowhere to be found. I ask the workers if they saw little girl in a yellow dress go out of the room, they say no.
I walk out of the room and STILL don't see her, they ask me if I want help, YES!! I'm racing- with Chloe in the bjorn - through the bottom floor, some guy with a walkie-talkie is following me, doing who knows what?- I was about to yell at him to go somewhere else to look, and get off my back - but decided to keep my cool, she had to be somewhere!

The manager comes up to me and asks me to wait in the front while their search team does their job, so that they don't lose me, then she sends about 15 workers out to search the entire place.
I'm waiting for about 10 minutes (which seemed like an eternity) and I can't stop thinking
"I'm gonna be on the news"

Headline:
2 year old kidnapped!
2 year old ran over as she runs out of museum and into the street!
2 year old gets caught in the elevator and suffocates!
2 year old falls down stairs and dies in museum!
(sometimes I hate the thoughts that run through my head)

And while this is going on, I think "How could we ever live without our little Riley?"
Just then, the manager comes to me and says, WE FOUND HER, she's upstairs.

I walk into the "Under 4" play area and she's just chillin' on the bench, shoes off, sitting by some workers, with a big grin on her face, completely clueless as to what just happened. I wasn't sure if I should scoop her up and hug & kiss her - or put her in TIME OUT

It scares the crap out of me, that she would walk that far away from me, without a blink of an eye. I'm glad we were indoors and that there were workers to help. Knowing Riley, this won't be the last time this happens

I'm glad that 20 minutes is over.

Here's the tunnel "aka rabbit hole"

Potty Training

We tried for a week and gave up. . .

Any suggestions?

Look - a - Likes

Everyone says that my 2 girls look exactly alike - I beg to differ! What do you think? They are both 2 months in these pictures.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook