Bella and I

I was thinking today - Bella is almost 3 months old - it's about time to work on short walks on the leash. I needed to deliver a book 4 blocks to a friend and decided this was a job for Bella and I!! So off we went, book in hand and leash in the other. We had not even hardly gone a block when she decided to start bucking a bit. She did not want to go on, and she was making that very clear. We went another block, against her insistence, and that was it. She plunked down in the road and refused to budge. But I am quite the dog owner - I figure we are almost half way there - we can't give up now - so what do I do!?!?!? I pick Bella up and carry her!! Yep, carried her half the way there and half the way home - it didn't get any better on the way back either!

Oh well, maybe next month!!

Chloe-isms

Just so that you can live in the mind of a 3-yr. old for a few minutes:

When Chloe woke up yesterday morning she told me, "Mom, I need to tell you about my dream - I had curly hair and Caleb was eating noodles." Hmmmmm......

No meal is complete without playing "The Animal Game" - Chloe made this up. Each person has to make an animal sound and the others have to guess which animal they are. Oh yes, just in case you ever join us for a meal, Chloe always offers to go first and it's ALWAYS a horse!!

Chloe prays at night before bed and asks Jesus each time, "And be with my second Grandpa - he might be lonely without me." She talks often, remembering her great grandpa that passed away earlier this year. She calls him her "second Grandpa". She is sure he misses her - even though he's in Heaven!

She told Aaron the other day that God died on the cross. Aaron, of course, told her, "No, Jesus died on the cross." Pretty soon, I have Chloe come to me and she asks, "Mom, are God and Jesus the same?" (I must say I was impressed - her theology is astounding!!) So I told her, that yes, they were. Ok, here's my favorite part, she goes back to Aaron and says, "Aaron, God died on the cross." I think he gave up arguing at this point - but I was smiling in the other room!!

She refers to our boys collectively - to Chloe, they will always be "MY Boys". As in "Mom, let's go see MY Boys." I love it!!

Favorite Photo Friday

While in San Francisco - we got to see Joe's aunt Lois - she was our "tour guide" in downtown - we had such a fun time seeing her - it had been WAY TOO long!!!

5th Grade Band Concert

I am telling you - our city is quite proud of it's band. SO - when our son was one of SIX fifth graders that was chosen to play Sax - we were thrilled for him! However, he was given a Tenor Sax - that is almost taller than he is!!! It is just a hoot to see him carry the case! But after almost a full semester playing - we are quite proud - he is quite the sax player!! Go Caleb! How fun to see his first band concert - I could hear that Tenor Sax out of all those other instruments - I am sure it was his! (Does that sound like a proud Mom, or what!?!?)

WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE WE???

Yes - Joe and I took off and left our kiddies! We hardly ever go off together so this was quite a treat! We asked ourselves - where would we like to go?? And we chose San Francisco. We had such a great time, and are back home now - I must say - there was a lot of me that just wanted to stay there - what a wonderful trip! But I'm not sure our kids were ready for us to come home yet either, to be honest, they had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma!!

Don't worry though, we did miss our annual Tulip Festival - but we felt right at home in San Fran. - look at what we saw on our first day there!!

I will have to post more pics of our trip this week - I am ready to go back!

Tulip Time

Yep, it's that time again - so we took our "Lil Dutch Girl" out for some pics!

My Special Mother

My Special Mother

My mother is the most wonderful mom in the whole world.
She's as pretty as a mommy.
She weighs gigantic pounds and she's 10 feet tall.
Her favorite food is broccoli.

In the good old days when mom was little, she used to be a baby.
I think mom looks funny when she laughs.
I wish mom would play a game with me everyday.

I wouldn't trade my mom for broccoli.

(a friend sent this to us and we thought we'd try it on Chloe - she had to fill in all the italic words - kind of like a Mad Lib. Can you tell what her favorite thing is??!!)

Happy Mother's Day to you all!

Doggy Ambulance Needed

I wasn't even going to admit this story, but a friend said - "Oh, that is blog material." So here goes. We are getting ready to go to bed last night - about 10:30 and we thought we'd take Bella out one more time before tucking her into her kennel for the night. She wasn't outside long before she started jumping around - she just wouldn't leave whatever it was alone and pretty soon we heard loud cries coming from her. Joe went over to check it out and by this time Bella could hardly walk - Joe went and got the flashlight and we saw a very large bumblebee laying on the ground. Yep, Bella got stung. We had to carry her inside and proceeded to check her over. She just kept crying and crying - and that's when the raspy breathing started. So yes, we hit Google to figure out what to do (exactly what we do with sick kids!!!) Her breathing was getting worse so we decided to call our vet - in the off chance that there would be a number to call for questions - and what did we get?? Our poor vet up out of bed!!! But he was so helpful though and told us to give her Benadryl and stay up about an hour with her to watch her. (Ok, if you would have told us that we would be giving our pet Benadryl, we would have said you were lying - but if you would have told us we'd be staying up until midnight to sit with a dog with a bee sting - we'd have laughed at you!!) But that is exactly what we did - administered the Benadryl AND stayed up to monitor the breathing! Pathetic, isn't it!?!? We are happy to report that all is well today - she is walking normally and breathing fine - BUT WE are tired!!!!

Blogoversary

It's "And Chloe Makes 6's" Second Anniversary today!!! I know, I don't expect presents or cards, but I did think it would be fun to point it out! I started blogging two years ago - I hadn't really planned to do it, but after we got back from China, so many people would email and tell us that they would miss our "daily updates" so it got me thinking that a blog might be a fun way to chronicle our daily happenings. The posts aren't always exciting - and lately, I haven't done a great job of updating regularly, but I do enjoy reading your comments when you leave them. So I'm glad I entered the blog world - I have met some great people and I enjoy keeping in touch with family and friends.

Newest Bilby

Call it a weak moment - I don't know what else to call it - but darn it - we said we'll never get a dog - Joe wanted a cocker spaniel - I wanted a poodle - and we figured, never the twain shall meet. But alas, we found a Cockapoo. Who would've thought!?!?!?

We brought her home - and Chloe looked out of the window and said, "Am I dreaming or is there a puppy in our yard??" Too funny - the boys ran outside and asked whose it was - we just started laughing and they said to each other, "Don't get too attached - we probably have to give her back to someone."

So we introduce our just over six - week old puppy, Bella. Now - just encourage us that we WILL get her trained!!! She is wonderful about going potty outside - you just take her out and she immediately does her business, but she also thinks it's ok to do her business inside too - ugh!!! But already we are enjoying our pup - she is a lover and she is usually in someone's lap!