finally sunny

It is finally nice up here in Alaska. We have had temps in the high 50's low 60's here the last week or so and we are loving it! The last of the snow has melted from the yard, and there are little bits of green cropping up here and there. We have been out biking, walking and lounging on the deck/yard clean up. What a difference a little warm weather makes!

Enough about the beautiful weather on to the headline!!!! Chloe's first steps! These are the first on camera steps!! She only started taking steps a few days ago. So far the farthest she has gotten is about 3 feet, but that equals like 10 steps for her!!

It is really exciting for us to see all of these huge changes day to day, and she is doing so many new things every day it is hard to catch it all!

For instance I can tell she has a little bit of my brother in her as she has been trying to eat the dog food. (Alex liked to eat the cat's food when he was younger; my parents had to put it up on the counter so he couldn't get to it!!! I think I recall a story about us looking all over for Alex and finally finding him in the hall closet inside a giant bag of cat food happily munching away). Well much like her uncle Alex, Chloe goes straight for the dog bowls, dives into the water and sticks the food into her mouth. This all happens in the course of a few seconds. I do not have any pics of this because I am always in a mad dash to drag her away from the food as she kicks and screams in protest. Andrew always asks why the dog bowls are up on the counter when he gets home. Now you know Andrew!! We have one seriously speedy baby on our hands!

Painting

We had a FANTASTIC time painting this week!! Chloe just loves to paint! It does get pretty messy, but we just throw down a drop cloth and then stick her in the bath afterward! Here is a photo of the aftermath :)

a pretty adorable mess if you ask me!

the fruits of my labor!

This was my first really official knitting project. Because it was my first time this hat took me way too long--I had to start over 4 or 5 times, and made countless calls to Amber to clarify the ambiguous (to me) instructions......but it was really fun, and in the end was a "quick" knit. If I did it again at least it would be quick! I love how it turned out and Chloe seems to like it too! It is a bit big, but since summer is fast approaching I guess that is just right. Summer is fast and furious up here and winter will be back before we know it.

Thanks for all the help Amber!!

Yay it is the weekend!!!! It has been another fun week, but thank goodness for Saturday! We did a lot of things this week: Our in-home babysitter stopped returning our calls so Chloe went to daycare for the first time (I could hear her crying all the way outside, it was all I could do not to go back in and get her), we ate lots of strawberries, went on walks, wore shorts for the first time this year, had a date night for the second time in a whole year(thank you Jim and Donna), played at a toy store, moved Andrew out of his office (he is starting a new job on Monday), finished knitting a hat, swept the deck, went to the slush cup in Girdwood, and made some interesting dinners with our glacier valley farm CSA vegetables.

And of course we did a few photo shoots :) Andrew bought this dress for Chloe, isn't he a great Dad?!

We also finally bought the new Chariott for Chloe's riding pleasure. Seriously how can baby stuff be that expensive? Answer- people like us will still buy it. It is pretty awesome, and is made for two kids so currently Chloe has lots of room to spread out and share with her stuffed animal friends. We got this because it has a great bike attachment, and in the winter the wheels come off and it can be mounted on skis! Another bonus is the mesh covering, which will be essential for avoiding mosquito bites this summer. Chloe is still getting used to it, and we hope she will love it, because we want to get out there and enjoy the outdoors again! In the words of my husband, "Yum giraffe meat"!

Okay so here is the part of the post where I solicit your feedback!!!! Please help us! I am ready for a change downstairs, and change is going to come in the form of new paint. We ordered and just assembled our new rug made from Flor carpet squares. We LOVE LOVE LOVE it, but the problem is that is clashes with the wall color, as anticipated. I was thinking of going for a light mocha or latte color in there, what are your suggestions? Also, I am definitely going to need to make new pillows, and accessories....what color? I don't want too much red, but with a rug like that I think I have some other good options.
I also plan to make new dog bed covers out of some sort of ikea home decor fabric. I have a meeting down in Seattle next month and hope to pick up then. The dogs deserve to be trendy too!

So that is where we are at. Chloe is napping and I am going to quick like a bunny clean up after breakfast, paint a few baby canvases with bright base coats for Chloe to "paint"on this afternoon, and maybe do a load of laundry. I would say take a shower, but I pretty much have no hope of getting all that done during one nap. Especially when I spent half of it blogging :)

First Grass

We felt pretty lucky that while we were visiting Oregon we got to enjoy the sunshine!! Chloe got to experience grass for the first time (newborns don't really get out much those first few months). It was funny to see her carefully touch it, at first it was a bit prickly to her, but soon she was loving it!off she goes!Getting silly with Grandma Peters All smiles with Mom.

After all that fun in the sun we took a few sick days, then pulled ourselves together for some playtime with Tuesday (and her Mom Amber and the Grandma Julies too)

Tuesday's Parents are super amazing parents, and even installed a swing in their basement. Chloe seemed to love helping push Tuesday in the swing just as much as riding in it herself!

3 generationsWhile the girls were together we took the opportunity to give them a bath together. It was so funny to watch two super excited girls play in the water together! This may have been the highlight of Chloe's trip!

This picture captures it all. Chloe hysterically squealing and splashing Tuesday, who put up with her craziness and toy "borrowing".

Isn't Tuesday adorable??? Thanks for sharing your bath toys!

We had a great time, but we were happy to get back home to our cribs and warm beds :) We were pooped after all that traveling!

Back in Alaska

Okay, sorry to all of you avid readers of our blog.....we are back in Alaska (for almost 2 weeks now), and doing well! All three of us came down with something after we got back but we are all feeling great now (FINALLY)!

So a recap- we went to Seattle for work then tagged on a quick trip down to see Chloe's grandparents in Oregon. It turned into a super quick trip after we all were put down cold with food poisoning right after we got there. Only Chloe was spared- as she was the only one who didn't devour the deceptively delicious Thai food take out. We had so much we wanted to do and so many people we wanted to see, it was a real bummer to get sick. On a positive note, it may be the only vacation I have taken where I actually lost weight :)

Seattle pics:
Chloe's first ball from Punk:

Excited to meet her "sort of" cousin Farrah--

Hugs all around!Easter brunch with Jodi, who refused to be photographed, but took this great family photo of us and Chloe's bread!

Chloe in our hotel room

Playing with the fun camera lens cover...

Enjoying the other hotel amenities. She also loved swimming in the pool, but somehow we didn't get a photo of that!

I have been feeling really guilty that I haven't had time to sit down and put any photos up, but last night was the first night since we got back that Chloe has slept any longer than 2 hours at a time during the night. It has been R-O-U-G-H. She definitely had a cold, and we are still pretty sure she is teething although no teeth have made an appearance yet. Here's hoping she is on the mend, and better sleep is in our future!

More to come!

We made it!

We made it to Seattle safe and sound. The plane ride was pretty uneventful. We tried our hardest to entertain her and to get her to sleep the whole flight down, and of course she didn't fall asleep until the plane landed.....come on really??!!! We came down for work, so that filled up most of the week but Andrew and Chloe had all sorts of adventures with her new backpack. She loves that thing!! She pretty much giggles and squeals with excitement the whole time she is in there. Andrew said she passed out in there too. So it is fun and also induces sleep.....we should have got one sooner!! Chloe has been exploring the culinary world with us, and is now able to have some foods. We went out to an awesome pizza spot in Seattle, and Chloe got some pizza crust and cheerios. Yum. We tried every pizza on the menu except one (it was happy hour) and LOVED every bite!! I think my favorite was the yukon gold potato, rosemary and pectorino pizza. Andrew's favorite was the yellowfoot mushroom and truffle cheese pizza. Seriously it was hard to choose a favorite. The pizza was amazing (even better than mooses tooth).

We also discovered that Chloe is a true northwestern baby. She LOVES the wind. It was blowing hard in Seattle, so hard that it was difficult to get forward motion against the wind. She freaked out- in a good way. We couldn't stop laughing at her laughing. She squealed louder than we had ever heard....kicked her legs and laughed continuously whenever we were outside, and especially if there was a wind gust. She loves it here!

Chloe is napping now, so I have a minute to post some i-phone photos. More to come when she wakes up, the camera cord is down in her room :)