The Big Birthday Party!!

Okay blog readers..... this will be the longest post I have ever done or probably will ever do!!! This post has over 70 pictures, but I wanted all the special and sweet details of her 1st birthday party to be documented for her book, when I have all the blog posts from her first year printed into a hardback book!!!

I hope you enjoy looking through these pictures of our party as much as we enjoyed celebrating the first birthday of our angel Chloe Faith!!!

So lets get started.........

A couple days before her party, Auntie Jonie sent a whole box full of presents for her!!!

So I put her on the couch with all the gifts from them.  It was so very thoughtful for them to send presents all the way from New Jersey!!!

Now onto the big party!!!  I was so happy with the way her cake turned out!!!  I gave them the colors I wanted and didn't want included with minimal direction and boy they did an amazing job- an it tasted wonderful as well!!!

One of the big presents from Mommy and Daddy was this adorable wagon.  She loves being in it and couldn't take enough rides in it with her friends through out the whole party!!!  So here is Daddy pulling Chloe as we are waiting for all of our friend to arrive!!



Such beautiful smiles.....



This is Chloe and her great-grandma (my precious Nana), she sure loves her Nana.  My Nana prayed so long and hard for me to have a baby before she left this world, and it really warms my heart that she gets to see me as a mom finally and my baby to love her as well.

Daddy fed his baby girl a quick little bottle before all the festivities got started.....



Yeah!!!  Finally our friends began arriving....and so began the wagon rides.  It was actually cold, so all the little ones needed to have their little jackets on, to shield the wind.  Here is Chloe and her little friend Breahna taking a ride.

For the regular readers of this blog, you all know Sarah, our friend we seem to do most everything with!!!  She arrived to help us celebrate too!!

More rides........

We decided to have her party at this really neat park in our city called the Fun Forest, it has swings and slides and hideouts for kids of all ages, so I thought it would be a great place for all the little kiddies to enjoy playing since there is not too many games etc at a 1yr old's party!!!

The friends that had already arrived wanted to go check out the swings while waiting on our other guests, so swinging we went!!  Breahna and Chloe could stay here all day!!!!

and the birthday girl.....all bundled up  )

And look who is here now??!!!  It's my friend Holly and her sweet little boy named Logan!!  She started out as my realtor and has become a dear friend!!

Woooo hooooo, Sarah is getting some serious air under that swing!!!!  LOL

Taking another wagon ride, back to the party table now, to get this party started!!!!!



This was the setup, under the trees and just outside the playground, hence it's called the Fun Forest"

Look at all those presents she was showered with!!!!  Chloe is one loved little girl!!!

Silly silly Daddy, ever the comedian, I looked over and saw this.  Daddy was wearing Chloe's headband on his head,

and Chloe was looking at him and pointing like "Daddy, that goes on my head!"

So we all started to eat some healthy food, before filling them all up on sugary icing and candy..... Here is Sweet Sarah drinking her juice and eating a chip or two!!!

Logan too!!!

and little Bre was trying to figure it all out!!!

When it finally came time to sing and let her smash her cake, Chloe was not a fan of the

birthday hats!!  :)

I am so thankful my Mom thought to snap this picture of the three of us, or I wouldn't have a family picture from the whole day!!  Things get so busy, you just forget!!!

Another friend that came to celebrate with us, was our dear friend Erica and her little mini-me Serendipity, whom we have nicknamed "Seren".

We had people coming and going most of the party, but I tried to capture most everyone in this group shot, but of course my Mom was taking the picture, so she is not in this one........

But in this one we have grandma included, but somehow we lost Tonya and Sarah and Ginna and her baby Madeleine had not arrived yet!!!  And of course Chloe is not looking at the camera in any of them!!! Oh well!

 
This picture struck me as cute, the expression that Tonya was making just cracked me up!!!  Tonya you can tell me later if you remember what this discussion was all about!!!?

Finally......time to smash her cake!!!!  She was very apprehensive at first like I'm sure most babies
are at this grand moment......  but after a  little coaxing......

She decided she liked the sweet icing and she began to squish and smash it all her self.

  She wasn't too big a fan of having it all between her fingers, but

.......she is always willing to share with anyone as you can see.

This picture is one of the funniest from the whole day!!  She looks like she is

 saying "Here everybody, have some cake!!"



Grandma trying to help her out a little more before
we clean up and start opening presents!!!

Before we open presents, we found another friends who came to our party!!!  Ginna and her sweet little Madeline arrived to play!!!  Ginna is one of my sweet friends that I met through the Operation Hope group I am a part of, and I blogged about the group several months ago. 

Daddy had to take a peak at the damage as well.....

Yep, I think she pretty well took care of that smash cake!!!  She really enjoyed it!

So as I was helping Chloe open her presents, my Mom and Aunt were helping to cut her beautiful cake and serving cake and ice cream to everyone!!!  I loooooved this cake, I really hated to even cut it,
but that is what it was bought for--- to eat!!!

Friends making new friends..... Madeline and Seren were having a little "chat"  LOL

Let the present opening begin!!!!  Our sweet friend Sarah gave Chloe her very

own Graco baby doll stroller and her first soft baby doll!!!  She loved them!!!

Next up, she received a really fun book called "Tickle Monster!"  It is written in all rhyming words and the person reading can play with the baby and tickle all their parts being discussed in the pages.  Such a neat gift and we already loooove it!!!  Thanks Ginna and Madeline!!!

I love this picture, because it looks like Chloe

 is actually modeling the book for the camera!!  Ha!

She received new Gymboree outfits from Grandma!!! 

Makes Mommy happy, Chloe....not so much  :)

Auntie Joanie sent tons of little alphabet wooden blocks......  these are being put up right now,

but in about 6 months she will be all over these!!!  Soooo fun!!

New bath squirters for fun bubble baths that she is now old enough to enjoy!!!  YEAH!!

As I said earlier, she is no fan of clothes.....  I must try to change this in her....

Remember Chloe girls LOVE to shop... Love to shop!!!!!  She received a beautiful white

fur dress coat and pink fur lined boots from Aunt Betty!  Thanks!!

More fun toys.....  this is a cool remote controlled techno light up car from Robin and Breahna!!!  She loves this thing, it goes and goes and goes and......yeah!

Her first vanity case, complete with its own humongous lipstick  LOL- can you see it just to the left of Chloe's hand?  Its a big square red bottom and a pink plastic tip!!!  It sings and we get such a laugh out of it sometimes..

Then Mommy and Daddy gave her her second present from us, other than her wagon, we gave her this FisherPrice activity table!  She loooooved it!

Not only did Chloe love it, Sarah came over and wanted to check it out as well!!

I love it when the girls start babbling away with each other like they really are carrying on a whole conversation!! 

 then Madeleine decided she wanted to play too!!!  Hey the more the merrier!!  Because the girls were getting so into it, I took it partially out of the box, without putting the legs on it,

so everyone could play together!

and I really REALLY love this picture!! 

My girl and all her sweet little friends playing around together!

Well that was basically the party!!  So after all that fun, we were cleaning up all the trash and gathering up the presents and packing up food etc.  When I noticed that my Mom's present of this sweet little baby stroller toy had not been given to Chloe yet.  So I grabbed it, put it on the ground in front of her, and began to show her how to push it.......  Well let's just say we got the surprise of our lives!!!

She began to walk all over the place, like she had been doing this for ever!!!  I was jumping up and down and yelling as she was cruising all over the place!!

She had so much fun.......she was doing all by herself....

for the very first time!!!  She is so sweet, and so adorably cute while pushing this tiny little stroller with a special pink penguin in it, my Mom could not have picked anything more perfect for her!!

She was having so much fun!!!  And i was just snapping picture after picture!!!

Not long after that we loaded up and headed on home.  Chloe was asleep in her car seat before we even got onto the main road from the park grounds.  She literally wore herself out!

As we carried all her presents and stuff into our house, I thought I would take a few pictures of all her gifts together, so one day when she looks back at this, she can see how much she is loved!!!

One very blessed little girl!!!

and one very tired Daddy!!!

Sometimes I wonder if somewhere within me during those very hard days, when the thought of never being a mom washed over me like a grey cloud, there was a small part of me that knew;

a part of me that knew somehow I was being prepared for the 

miraculously beautiful journey Sweetness and I would soon be on.

This journey has been extraordinary.

This journey has been painful.

This journey of infertility, adoption and now parenthood has been divinely directed every step of the way.  We had no idea that the little girl that made me a Momma would be born with a complicated genetic disease that would bring me to the brink of my faith and back. 

But this journey has unearthed hidden treasure within me.  I feel it.  I like it. 

I love it.  I love being a mother.  I love being her everything (along with Daddy of course).

She makes me want to be a better person, she makes me try harder, and love deeper.

I am the most blessed woman in the world....Chloe Faith you are everything my heart dreamed of

and a whole lot more than I ever could allow myself to imagine.

This first year is only the beginning of our lifetime of love.  

You were not flesh of my flesh,

nor bone of my bone;

but still miraculously, MY OWN.

Never forget Chloe, for a single minute,

that you didn't grow under my heart,  but in it.

We love you so much!!! 

Love, Mommy & Daddy

Happy Birthday Angel !!!!

Happy Birthday my sweet precious girl!!!

Today is Chloe's 1st birthday and I can not express the emotions that are running through me at this moment when I see how FAR we have come!!!

One year ago today this angelic tiny baby was placed in my arms, to love for life and to raise to know and know the Lord!  She is more then the daughter I dreamed of having,,,,she is so unbelievable sweet, spunky, outgoing, loving and of course beautiful!

We celebrated her birthday with a big party last Saturday, and I will blog about that in the next post, but today, I just want to say how incredibly grateful I am that a young girl that thought she made a mistake, chose LIFE, and chose to be her birth mom.  I am more thankful that she chose US, little ole Sean and Heather, whom she really didn't know that well, but yet felt a  strong connection to, to raise her baby daughter.

After so many years of tears, fears, thousands of shots and loosing 11 babies of our own, we were truly at our lowest.  We thought our dream of parenthood was over, and just at the darkest night, came a phone call...... that changed the destiny of our lives forever!!!

That day when I held you for the first time, a year ago today, seems so long ago, with all we have been through together, but yet it still seems like just last week.  You have made our lives so full, so happy, so busy, and so.......amazing!!!  Chloe you were so wanted by your Mommy and Daddy.  We prayed untold prayers begging the Lord to let us have a little girl to love, a little girl just like YOU!!!  God made you and formed you in His womb, he made you the beautiful sweet perfect little baby so that Mommy could be your Mommy forever.

I love you more than life itself.  Sometimes while at work I sit and wonder what you are doing while playing with your little friends?  I wonder if you feel the love we have for you deep down inside?  I wonder will you embrace your story of your birth?  I wonder will you grow up to love your Mum and Dad, and understand how much we wanted you and loved you before you were even born?

So today as we celebrate YOU, we celebrate one whole year of loving you and watching you grow into this incredibly inquisitive little toddler.  We celebrate all the years to come and all the ways we will show you the world and impart God's incredible love to you.  It's hard to believe anyone could love you more than me and Daddy, but I know God does. He after all gave you to us. 

Always remember that God loves you and Mommy, Daddy and Grammy love you.  You are the sweetest and most beautiful little girl, and the answer to our prayers......

Happy Birthday angel!!!!!

Love, Mommy

IT'S FINALLY HER BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!

Well we finally arrived at this most exciting week!!!  The week that my miracle baby will turn 1 year old!!!  I think in my counting of weeks this would be week number 53, but I may have miscounted? But anyway, we have arrived finally, ready to celerbate the sweet little girl Chloe Faith!!!

 This past Saturday, day before last, we celebrated Chloe's 1st birthday with a beautiful party in the park called the Fun Forest!!   I will load all those amazing pictures into a post later this week.  However this post will be our last "weekly" post documenting her age week by week.  I will probably move to documenting age in pictures to monthly at this point.

 My goal was to document her life week by week the first year and I have done just that- and I have absolutely loved doing it!!!  She has changed so much, from a tiny little 6 lb. babe placed in my arms 1 year ago tomorrow to the 21 lb. spunky little girl asleep in the next room.

 She is the missing piece in my heart that is now so full- I am complete.  I have the most amazing husband and daughter, how could I ask for anything more?

 Chloe, I hope one day when you go back and read through all these posts I have lovingly documented about you amazing first year, I hope you can sense what an angel baby you are, and how very much we wanted you and love you.  You are truly the sweetest little girl and you love everyone around you!

Her new thing is to wave to everyone she sees, and let me tell you this draws people to her like a magnet!!   She just flips her hand at her wrist, not a whole arm wave, but it sure is cute......we couldn't even get through Target yesterday for her waving at everyone, and of course everyone responds to a little baby waving at you!!!  The Lord has just blessed her with such a sweet little spirit!!!  I pray she keeps it her whole life through.

 When she awakens in the morning, it will be a full day of celebration.  A day to rejoice in the day her life began, the day our new lives as parents began, the day our prayers were answered.......

Her Grandma and I are going to her nursery school at 1:30pm tomorrow (her actual birthday) to have cupcakes and sing with all her sweet little friends (imagine a gaggle of about 9--almost 1yr olds).  I think it is going to be so so cute!!  And you know of  course I will have pictures to share!!

What a year it has been, and what a year we have coming up!!  Stay tuned for pictures of all her birthday celebrations!!!  Until tomorrow-----sleep well my angel.

The Great Pumpkin Patch of 2012

This past Saturday we did something that I have always wanted to do with my future child...... we visited a pumpkin patch!!!  It really was fun- pretty much all that I envisioned it to be.

We went to a local farm in the area called Brookdale Farms where they grow tons of pumpkins and corn and other vegetables all year.  My friend Tonya and her hubby went here last year and loved it so we decided to go with them this year and check it out!!  And as a bonus, my sweet friend Tara was in town visiting from Pennsylvania, so she hung out with us as well!!!

So this was the beginning of our journey, I took a picture of most of our group as we were searching for the perfect pumpkin!!! My Sweetness here in black and Tonya's hubby Greg were hilarious as they were on the "hunt" for that pumpkin!  Tara was wheeling the wheelbarrow and before we knew it, the guys had piled like 6 pumpkins in the wheelbarrow!! LOL  So we had to trim it down to the perfect one for both of us...... but I think the men conquered the quest- true to their male makeup-  search and conquer!!

Tonya brought their Red Flyer wagon you can see in this picture for the girls to ride in through the patch.  It was a total hit!!  I love how it has sun shades for both of them, and they each had seat belts and everything!  Sarah and Chloe are 3 months apart but they are still working on their social skills and learning how to share..... but I love to see how little ones learn to communicate with others their age- it's fascinating!!!

I love this shot- it looks so countryish (is that a word???lol) and serene and peaceful!  The silos in the back just take me to a place mentally free of the hustle and bustle of the everyday grind.  And of course our 2 sweeties sitting in the wagon just adds to the awesomeness of this picture for me :)

So let me emphasize how blasted HOT it was outside!!!!  It was certainly NOT fall weather- it was 90 degrees people- yes 90 degrees in mid October!!!  So poor Chloe and Sarah were sweating terribly which of course makes for cranky babies- and not to mention a cranky Momma too!!! 

Finally after we purchased our pumpkins, we also purchased tickets for the horse wagon hay ride that they had at the farm.  As we waited for the ride to circle back around, we decided to take some haystack pics of out families and the girls in their matching shirts!  Did I mention it was hot outside that day?  This pic literally shows the punishing heat we were trying to ignore all day  Ha!

This seems to a familiar picture whenever we get the girls together!!!  :)  Chloe is always trying to have some of whatever Sarah is eating.  Chloe is not a real "snacker" yet, but Sarah is older and she carries her little snacks around, and Chloe wants to be a part of that--- Sarah does not really want her to though!!!  But Chloe managed to sneak one of her goldfish that had fallen on her lap before we moved Sarah onto the right side of the haystack!!

Chloe and her first Pumpkin......  "What do I do with this thing Momma?"

She wasn't quite sure what to do with it either!!!  LOL

We decided to grab a family shot at the pumpkin patch- by this time I had my hair pulled back in a rubber band and wishing I could disrobe- but I saved the public from that display--Haha- It was brutal out there!!!

......and of course kisses from the Momma and Daddy!!!

While still waiting for the horses to bring around the wagon...... I decided to take a few snap shots of Tara and Chloe!  Man I love this picture!  It shows pure joy and happiness from both of them!  :)

Finally we were on our horse drawn hay ride around the farm, and it was so much fun!!!  But did I mention it was scorching hot???  Hence my child that is always dressed to a tee, has no shirt on!  She loved the hay ride, she was so fascinated by the horses because we were sitting right up front by the farmer holding the reigns of his horses.

Good Times !!!!

Quick pic of the family....

So this is Bill and Ed. That is truly the horse's names!! These horses listen to no one except him (the farmer), and it is amazing what they can do, he would tell them to "pick it up a bit now" and they would start to trot, he'd say "Bill and Ed, Geee" and they would both turn to the right, he would say "Bill and Ed,  Haawwllllll" and they would both turn to the left!!!

This was our view for the ride, and I asked the farmer a million questions about the horses, I just find them so fascinating!!! He takes excellent care of them, they are like his babies. Bill and Ed are Belgian quarter horses and are 12 and 13 years old respectively.

And finally a head picture of our new friends..... they were just beautiful!!!

A great time was had by all!!!  We were soaked with sweat, and by the time we were leaving Chloe was down to just a diaper!!!  Haha!!  And as we were getting in the car, a lady next to us had a 12week old black lab puppy.  Chloe LOVES dogs because we have two and she wants to play with them.  I thought she looked so cute with this sweet little puppy!!

So there you have it folks......The Pumpkin Patch of 2012!!!  I think this is the last thing that I had yet to do for the first time with Chloe since she turns a year old in one week from yesterday!!!  I just can not believe it has gone by sooooooo fast!!!

 

I am feverishly getting things together for her 1st birthday party this Saturday----its only in 2 days, and I am freaking out!!!  I have so much to do, and not a lot of money to spend on a 1 year old's party that will be just happy to get her fingers in that cake and get messy- the harder I try to keep her clean.  Hahahaha!!

 

But we are still getting several proofs of our amazing photo shoot we had as a family this past Saturday.  I have only gotten about 8 of the over 400 pictures she took, but you will not believe how beautiful these pics turned out!!!!  My gracious- I just love it when things turn out like you envisioned!!!  I am going to include just one here so you can get a taste of the beautiful images I will be sharing with you real soon, as soon as she sends me the CD!!!

 

Here ya go.........

BE STILL MY HEART..........

52 weeks!!!! Yipee!!!

Well we finally arrived at 52 weeks old!!!  I know there are 52 weeks in a year, and her birthday is not until next Tuesday, so I don't know why this is the 52nd week??  My mom says I miscounted but I will have to go back and check and count the weeks I guess......  but we have been counting these weeks for as long as i can remember!!!

But anyway, she is more precious each and every day!!!  We got her 1year pictures taken Saturday and she did so wonderful!!!  She smiled and clapped and was just a baby doll!!!

We also had our first professional family portraits done while we were at it!!!  We all wore black tops and dark jeans and I received 4 previews last night and I must say there is not one picture in the bunch that I don't like!!!  As soon as I get the finished CD of them, I will be sure to show you!!!

So this will be such a busy busy week ahead!!!  I have so much last minute things to do for her party this weekend!!!    My mom is helping me so much and I would be lost without her!!!  She said last night that we were going to love the present she got for Chloe, so I cant wait to see what she got for her birthday!!!

Mommy and Daddy bought her a leap frog table that has all sorts of light up and singing things on the top of the table.  I like it because she has to stand up to play with it- and I hope that keeps her standing longer to build those leg muscles so she will walk sometime before Christmas!!!  LOL

I just can not believe how big my little angel has gotten in just one year!!!  She is soooo full of personality and just loves life!!!  She plays so hard all day- she never wants to stop and take a nap, she loves her Daddy more than anything and gives the sweetest kisses to her Momma!!!  How could I ask for more??

She is always just a clapping.....  and being such a happy girl!!

This picture cracks me up!!  She looks as as if she is saying "Ta Da!"

And this is her Ms. America wave--- Daddy says we are starting her early- and I say absolutely no to the pageant arena!! I know Chloe would win them all she is so beautiful, but I do not want her to base her self worth on whether she wins this competition or that one.  She is of worth because she is a child of the King!

Also this past weekend we went to the pumpkin patch with some of our friends and took tons of pictures.  I will blog about that next.  But all in all this week is going to be so fun and so busy.  We have lots of people coming to her party- more than I even thought- but that's great!!  the more the merrier!!  And you know I will have TONS of pictures of that great milestone event!!

Until tomorrow or Wednesday- I will be working on the Pumpkin patch post!!

Have a blessed week!