Where did the time go? I cannot believe that Chloe will be turning 3 years old tomorrow!
Happy Birthday to my little girl!!!
If You Let a Pregnant Woman Get Out of Bed
(Very similar to the cause and effect of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie")
A pregnant woman will toss and turn in the middle of the night. She'll be sore from sleeping on her side all night, but you better not let her out of bed. If you let a pregnant woman get out of bed, she will head straight to the bathroom.
After washing her hands with fruity soap, she will realize she is hungry. She will head to the kitchen to make herself a pre-breakfast bite to eat.
Before taking her first bite, she'll realize that she is not used to eating alone. She will sit down on the couch and turn on the TV for background noise. Soon after, she'll become annoyed/ sad/ shocked/ angry with the story running on the early morning news. She'll want to discuss the story with her husband.
At about that time, she'll realize that it is still very early in the morning and she will still have to chase after a soon-to-be 3 year old. She will clean up her plate and try to climb back into bed, but her sides will still be sore and her throat will start to tickle.
She'll get out of bed and pour a nice glass of ice water. She will start to relax again....
Until she realizes that she needs to use the bathroom.
Three Weddings and a Duckie
Over the past weekend, Jared and I had the opportunity of celebrating the marriage of three different couples. Congratulations to Craig and Shannon, Jackie (my sister) and Kendall, and Kristi (a very close friend) and Edward. We attended the ceremonies for the last two, which was a little hectic, considering they were one day and 400 miles apart. Needless to say, we crashed HARD once they were all over.
Craig and Shannon had a beautiful reception at Le Jardin on Thursday. Of course, my opinion may be tainted by the fact that they had Cold Stone catering the event. :)
Jackie and Kendall had a nice reception at the Kimball Home in the This Is the Place Heritage Park on Friday.
My sister, Michelle, and I made all the bridesmaid dresses and the flower girl dresses. She also made her boys some vests.
Then Jared and I trekked down to Las Vegas at 5 am the next day. We were lucky enough to have some willing grandparents who watched Chloe for us. (Actually, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Hansen, Chloe did not want to come home.)
Kristi had an all-out celebration at a church house near the temple. They did a buffet, games, and dancing at their reception. It was beautiful.
We decided to walk the strip after the reception. Of course, we didn't realize in this planning, that we would still be in the clothes we wore to the temple. We were probably only out for an hour, but our feet were so sore by the end, both of us had a hard time getting our casual shoes on the next day.
This was the first time that we had left Chloe alone overnight in close to 2 years. The last time was when we went to Paris while visiting my parents in Holland. We brought her back a little pink bear that said Paris on it. Well, if you know Chloe at all, you can guess what we were looking for this time. Now, granted, there is some pretty unique stuff that you can find on the strip, but apparently a Las Vegas rubber duckie is still a difficult thing to find... mind you, not impossible! :)
We were about to give up our search, when we spotted the last store on our way back to the car. It was the Sugar Factory. Their logo is... a duckie!!! Jared and I were so excited to give it to her when we returned. She, however, knowing that her parents being present meant she was most likely going home, threw a fit, and had no interest in whatever consolation prizes we had to offer her. Such is the life!
4th of July
We had a really fun Independence Day... well, that kind of depends on who you ask, actually. Jared was pretty sick this weekend, so he bowed out of the festivities. We had some family in town for my sister's baby blessing and all of us (excluding Jared) got together at their house for a BBQ and fireworks. The fire works ended up not happening because of wind and other unfortunate circumstances, but the kids had a lot of fun together.
Chloe's First Fishing Trip
We had the opportunity to take Chloe out fishing for the first time just this week. We honestly weren't sure how she was going to do. We talked it up a few days in advance. When we woke her up to get her ready (at 6:30am), she sweetly asked Jared, "Daddy, we can go fishing now?" She didn't go back to sleep after getting dressed and on the whole drive down kept asking, "We get out and go fishing now?"
We should have known that she has absolutely no fear. She kept peeking over the side of the boat, even while we were going pretty fast. She wanted to touch every fish that was caught and even started to cry when Jared set one loose before she gave it a poke. She was extremely patient during the times that we were catching nothing and really helpful when we were. She even tried to help Grandpa reel one in. Unfortunately, she did it a little too slowly and the fish got away.
It was a really fun trip. All together, we caught about 20 fish, but only kept one.
The Conspirator
Though it will come as no surprise to anyone, Jared and I are still shocked daily at how smart Chloe is getting. She knows what she wants and she knows how to get it.
Tonight she was pestering Jared for gummy bears. She asked him four times, each time getting a "no." After the 4th no, she exclaimed, "...but Mommy said 'yes' !" So, Jared led her into the kitchen where she grabbed the bag. I shot him a confused look and asked why she was getting some, knowing she already had one earlier. He told me about their conversation. I then explained to him that I had never given her permission. We both looked at Chloe and quickly tore the bag away from her.
Not more than 30 minutes later, Jared went out for a jog. Chloe came to sit by me. She asked if she could watch cartoons. I said no and she quickly jumped on me with a "...but Daddy said 'yes' !"
I am still not sure where she has gotten this approach, but she is sure working it hard.
Duckies!
Chloe's biggest love is duckies! Her Easter basket was duckie themed and she gets so excited to wear her big girl duckie panties (I still can't believe I was able to find those by the way, and on sale too :) ). This is her current duckie collection. It, of course, does not include her stuffed duckies, foam duckies, or duckie bedding.
She has a hawk-eye for duckies. In a pile of toys, she can find the duckies in 30 seconds or less, which does make it hard to pass up at a store, hence the small farm of duckies we have here. It could be worse. At least rubber duckies are fairly inexpensive.
Antelope Island
Jared attempted to surprise our family with a trip out to Antelope Island with our friends Mark and Chelsey on Saturday. I mention attempted because he told me it would be something fun that we have not done before and it would be a bit of a drive. Since there is not much to do up north that does not require extra gear, Chloe and I figured it out fairly quickly.
It was a cool experience. We got to see several bison up close. One lady got a little too close, and two free roaming bison charged at her. Not to worry, she is fine, but hopefully she knows now to give them some space.
The odd experience of the day was Chloe's reaction to sand. Many of you have seen in person, or on photos, how she freely roamed the California beaches, picking up sand and rocks. Well, not so this time. Maybe she didn't like the feeling of it between her toes (she normally has shoes on in CA because we often visit in the winter), or maybe she's not used to any ground surface being hot (in which case she'll be a lot of fun this summer). Either way, she refused to walk any where, requiring carrying every step of the way.
Family Pampering
For our birthdays, we got a certificate from my mom to use on pedicures and manicures for all three of us. It took us a while to find the time to do it together, but it was a lot of fun. Chloe was so patient getting her nails done, though she didn't quite get that they would still be wet. Needless to say, hers were redone a few times!
Chloe's new favorite color is blue. We let her pick her polish and that's what she chose for both her fingers and toes.
We asked her to show off her new nails. :)
Potty Training: Successes and Failures
We decided to start training Chloe last week... well, to be fair, Chloe decided it was time. I was getting her ready for bath time and I asked her if she was ready to hop in. She said, "No, I wanna pee on the potty." I told her she could. She usually takes off her bottoms, sits on her little potty (does absolutely nothing) then exclaims "All done!" and puts her pants back on, or runs away pants-less, laughing. So imagine my shock when I actually heard a tinkle this time! I thought it might be a fluke, so I continued to get the bath ready, when she told me she was going to use the potty again. Sure enough, she went a second time!
We realized that she was ready, and we needed to jump on this opportunity. The first day, she wet her pants nine times, the second day only twice. She had no trouble sitting on the potty, and didn't fight it at all.
So I thought I was doing great, but that was about as good as it was going to get.
She still has at least 2 accidents each day. I need to ask her to go, she wont initiate it yet. Also, I am doing more Lysol-ing, Spot-Shot-ing, and laundry in the past few days than I feel like I ever have in my whole life.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel...
Jared took her out today to run some errands. He tried to get her into some training pants (we wont even attempt underwear when leaving the house) and she threw a fit. She exclaimed "No, Daddy, I wanna wear my big girl panties!"
I guess she's not my little baby anymore!
Tulip Festival and Dutch Days
A few years ago, Jared and I purchased Dutch costumes. Somehow, each year that the Thanksgiving Point Gardens host the Dutch Days, we attend not knowing it to be the Dutch Days. This is disappointing because the Old Dutch Store does a costume contest each year. After seeing the contestants for the past 2 years, we know we would win by a landslide. Anyway, we had a wonderful time. If you have a property membership, I recommend going more than once, with about a week in between visits. Something new blooms or wilts each week. OH! We also had some croquetten, stroopwafels, and cassis. It was delicious, but made me miss the real things!
Easter
We were fortunate enough to have both sets of grandparents in town for Easter weekend. That meant that Chloe got 2 Easter egg hunts... lucky girl... not so lucky parents of a sugar-rushed 2 year old! All in all it was a fun, yet relaxing weekend with the family.
Chloe had a duckie-themed Easter basket. She got a chocolate duck (above) instead of a bunny, a duckie Pez dispenser, 5 new rubber duckies, a few activity books, and some bubbles.
She did a great job finding her purple eggs, though admittedly, she did better with finding her cousin Jacob's eggs.
Rockband Baby
Chloe loves to play Rockband with Jared. Most times he plays the drums and she takes any and all other instruments. Usually, for no reason at all, she is pants-less as she plays. 
My Favorite episode was from last year. We were playing at Mark and Chelsey's house, and Chloe was going crazy. I just love this, because you can imagine her in a little, tiny, toddler mosh pit! Of course this time she was shirt-less, rather than pants-less.
Jared's Bithday
March 12, 2010
Jared took the day off work to relax and enjoy being with our family. We had breakfast at Hagermann's- endless french toast and sugar cookies. We played together the rest of the day. That night, Jared and I went out to the SkyBox to watch the Jazz game and have dinner. Of course they offered a brownie dessert that Jared just couldn't resist.
Thanks everyone for the great birthday cards, messages, and other great wishes that truly brightened his day!
