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!
"Okay, I give up on the lamp... what else is around."
"I ...CAN....A-L-M-O-S-T...REACH...IT!!!"
"Seriously, I can almost reach it!"
"I am so proud of myself.... now what else can I get into?"
These were taken over the span of about one minute. Multiply that by a lot, and you can see what a typical day with Chloe is like :) Wonderful :)
Andrew made a play house out of an Amazon box. Chloe sure likes it!!
I think it is the cutest thing ever that he did that for her!
She seems to like it too!
I lust love her so much! It is great to be home. 
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 :)
