Some finds

Yesterday, I decided Chloe really needed some new sandles. She's been wearing stinking ones and too small ones. So yesterday we happened upon a little store called The Chldren's Place. You may have heard of it. They had great deals and adorable finds. We even managed to get out of the store with some stuff for the little man and not just more colorful skirts for the Chloers. I got 11 things for 48 bones. Nice! Tomorrow I think I finally need to buy some maternity clothes. Grrrr...but yeah at the same time. 

B-rad just found out that he has a saint of a doctor who told him that "the other docs will surely run you ragged these next 2 years so I am just gonna give you Fridays off. So, today is officially Friday and tomorrow starts the weekend. We love it when he's home.

Incase you were wondering...we moved!

So, we moved to Illinois last week. It is safe to say that again, we moved on the hottest and most humid day of the year. Luckily, we left Kvill at 9am and arrived at our new home in the afternoon so we were all unloaded by that night. We had some nice men from the ward come help lift boxes and Brad's parents were there to help as well. This is a picture of us and my cute neighbors. I will really, really miss them, especially the lady on the left (Christine) She loved Starsky like he was her own dog and she just adored little chloe. She was everything a neighbor could be. They brought over gifts boxes for us and a present for the new baby.

After we unpacked for a day and tried to, uh, get used to our new house and it's quirks (to say the least) we headed up to Chicago with Steve and Nancy. We stayed in a super nice hotel, right downtown and just loved seeing the sights of Chicago. Chicago is the coolest city. We really liked it there. I just loved the feeling of it. The first day we just walked around and looked at the huge buildings. Chloe was in awe (as were all of us to be honest) at the sheer size of the buildings. This is Chloe in front of the "bean" at Millenium park. we finally found it after quite a long, picturesque walk. I think Chloe looks so cute in this picture. We were shocked to see the open water of Lake Michigan. Here we are walking on this Lake Shore path where people run and bike and then right off the path (no rail) is this water and people are swimming in it. Brad and I have always looked for the perfect spot to be able to train for an open water swim, have a lifeguard on duty, and be able to get out whenever you want. This is it. I think you can swim from one end to the other end in a mile. It was a cool site but kindof a little scary walking right on the edge. I get this sick feeling in my stomach when I am on the edge of things like I am going to be sucked off.

A must do in Chicago is an Architecture cruise. You take a boat along the Chicago river and they tell you all about the history of the city and it's buildings. Quite a lot of depth to their history considering the whole city burned down in the late 1800's and this is the rebuild. Chloe is at the stage of saying "cheese" for the pictures and this is what we get. She is sassy as ever.

The next picture is us at the famous pizza place Giordanos. We put out name in and found the wait was about an hour but the cool thing is they left you order your pizza while you are outside waiting, so by the time we got in and sat the pizza came right out. I'm told it was very excellent pizza. As typical to Melanie's life I got a really bad cold the day we moved in and bad colds turn into sinus pressure and mess for weeks on end and for extra fun I lose my sense of taste and smell. I am going on the 14th day and still can't taste. Luckily I have a doc appt today. But I decided if my fate is to lose my sense of smell that I would become a totaly texture freak and I so I based my opinion of this on the texture and lusciousness of this pizza and it was pretty good. I gave it a 10 and so did Brad. So there you have it. This was Father's Day!

More of the "bean".

We took a bus ride to the aquarium. Chloe loved both experiences. She thought she was so big sitting in her own seat on the bus. Our last day there we wandered the streets and did some souvenier shopping. We found this famous sign. I became really pregant looking this week. Here I am in all my glory.

Look at Chloe in the above picture. She fell fast asleep, mouth open, at 5pm. It made it nice for us to wander in the stores. She was such a trooper on the trip and the move. She loved having Grandma and Grandpa there to keep her smiling.And we certainly couldn't have managed without them as well. It was so great to see them and we thank them for their gifts to us. When we went to church yesterday she met 5 little girls all her age.

And since we have been back from Chicago we have been unpacking and discovering our new town. There are so many parks and walking trails. This was a park we saw this morning. we turned around and this whole pack of geese were walking across the path. Everything is so magical through a toddler's eyes. Finally today the heat subsided and it's a cool 78 with a breeze. We have all the windows open and eyes toward heaven asking for more of this, atleast until September when it will get cool because it has to.

Speaking of...Chloe has started to say things like "not quite yet" when it's time to go to bed. She'll tell us "that's enough" and somehow she heard the phrase "50 dollars". Doing anything for her is a chore now. She runs away or screams "no". Oh boy. we are in battle mode for the next few months I think.

And Brad...well he has certainly impressed me with all of his "man" skills these past weeks. He's set up lots of furniture, carried heavy boxes in hot heat, set up all the phone and cable and internet stuff that I would just hide my head in the sand from. He even has became quite perceptive. We like to read Where the Wild things are and if any of you know the author of it off the top of your head you get a prize. Well we got a new book that we have now been reading called Mickey and the Goodnight cake. So we are in the middle of reading it and Brad gets up and walks out of the room and comes back in the with Where the Wild things are and says, I thought so. Somehow he perceived the pictures of the two books as being similar and determined the author must be the same. Seriously, Brad. I know you may not be impressed by that story but I am still shocked that he would notice such details. He's a cute, cute guy and the best dad and husband and friend in the whole world.

And...we're having a boy!

Done. Sad. Excited. Relieved.Hot. Anxious. Ready.

Today is our last official day living in Kirksville, MO. We will miss this little town. We have thoroughly enjoyed our experience here and the people we have met. I will miss being able to walk everywhere, having a built in exercise group everyday of the week, free swimming (though ironically the whole month of June was rainy so we only got to go swimming 3 times. We managed to squeeze one more swim time in the day we packed all our stuff in the truck), the library with the kids section complete with train and stuffed horses, the many parks enabling us to choose a "different park mama" if Chloe so pleases, Kirksville 1st ward, the Taco Bell (this one has THE best Nacho Supreme and Big Taste Taco's-our usual), SAA, all the free stuff around town, and more.
This is random, but this is my lamp I took from shabby to lovely in minutes. Finished product.

We are the proud owners of a scooter. I posted on this website here that we were looking for a scooter and Wala...we had two scooter offers within the hour and we had bought this bad boy within the week. Brad loves it and grandma's, don't worry, Chloe doesn't ride it-that often.

And...my Brad. He's officially done with 2nd year of med school. Close those books and turn off the desk lamp, Brad. It's time for him to get out in to the "real medical world" and start doing his "thang!" I am SOOOOO proud of him. He had a successful two years and I just can't say enough about how impressed I am with him. Love that guy.

Oh, and P.S. In the past week I found a tick on my (whisper) bumb, then Brad found one on himself, and then we found one on Chloe the next day. I found another one on myself (another B unmentionable body part)and I am DONE with ticks and ants.

So, we're moving. Glad Chloe said to me..."mama new friends...new friends and new mommies!" We are all very excited to get the show on the road.

Up!

Go see the new Disney movie UP! It was our first movie outing with Chloe and she thought it was very very cool, though she didn't wear the 3D glasses. She ate the popcorn and loved being a big girl at the movies, plus the movie was super cute and such a sweet story. Loved it.
Here is our big girl on her bike. Luckily we have shown her a good example, I guess, with the helmet because when our friends gave us this bike she said she had to "wear helmet" when she rode. Yay! She loves this little bike.
One afternoon, there was all this free stuff set up for the kids, including a helicopter they could go in, a fire truck, a little train that drove us around, and free hotdogs and chips.

The school does a garage sale every year so the outgoing students can get rid of some stuff. The sale had 50 families. The locals came and bought. The sale didn't start till 8 but Brad said most of our stuff was gone by 8 and we were tired of the sale by 930 even though it didn't end til noon. We packe up and were gone by 1030. We sold quite a bit of stuff and made enough cash to buy the new baby a swing and hopefully a glider for me!

B-rad loves LOVES his bike and all things related to bikes. He encourages several of his friends here to buy bikes and has just loved having a little posse' of guys to ride with. He also designed an ATSU jersy for the bike enthusiasts. Here he is with his friend Trenton.

Here I am with my friend who does everything I like to do. I will truly miss her when we move.

Here are some of the great friends Brad has made while he has been here. Brad (moving to Illionis) Tyler (staying in Kirksville) Scott (moving to Arizona) and Trenton (moving to Utah) We are so glad we crossed paths with these guys and their families.

I actually spent money on these...

I wouldn't say I crave things. Probably because of years of having to have eaten certain foods at certain times of day, but since I have been pregnant I did actually buy these two items (I think only Twinkies can compete with the shelf life and foreigness of the ingredients) Not so much because I was craving them but because I could buy them and I did and I ate them while saying outloud, "I am seriously eating this junk and enjoying it!"

What I truly truly want is this. You can only get these round circle of maroonish/chocolaty colored goodness in Utah at the gas stations or Dan's. My mom used to buy the "cripples" from Salt Lake Donut and that was a happy day when you'd see the familiar brown box on the counter.

Terrific tales of a Tuesday...

Had to wake Chloe at 7:20. She usually is up before 7 but not today when we had some plans!!
Filled her tummy with milk and a bowl of cereal to munch on as we drove.
Drove past tornado devastation and wondered, again, how some were spared and others were hit.
Saw a sign for Milan (not Italy)
Passed through Lancaster (not Pennsylvania)
Passed through Memphis (not Tennessee)
Pulled over quick so I could catch Chloe's throw up in my hand and a diaper. Poor thing got car sick. And who wouldn't on these windy, hilly, curvy roads.
Kept going, though.
Saw many signs of planting time on the numerous farms.
Still driving in Missouri after 1 hour.
Enter Iowa for 5 minutes.
Enter Illinois. Conquered 3 states in 2 hours.
Made it to the temple with moments to spare (it's always like that right? or am I the only one?)
Started the drive home.
Saw a billboard that said something or other about Jesus and hope.
Got excited once again about the Mule Festival on September!
Had to go around more than a few cars that were going about 10 under the speed limit.
Drove behind a moving truck that had to be going atleast 15 over the speed limit at some points.
Had to slow down about 4 different times to pass through a little town with a charming name like Wayland or Ashton and see their run down stores but without fair a blazing yellow DollarGeneral sign and a flaming red PizzaHut roof.
Saw another billboard that had a picture of the bottom half of a man and it said "Flys spread diseases...keep yours zipped! Yuck!
Still driving, listening to gross Phil Collins and others that I could catch on the breezy fm station.
Gorgeous sun to help me sing with delight and hum with happiness.
Arrived home at 5pm.
Dined on grocery store pizza.

2 things are 2!

These are a few more of Chloe Blue's 2 year old photoshoot.

This was when she was not her happies self but still so cute to see her cry in that little dress.

Happy Girl...happy to be 2. She loves Dragon Tales, grapefruits like her mom, suckers, being outside, playing with "friends", being in the car, Shrek, "teebee", Max and where the Wild Things Are, butter (peanutbutter) and jam, cuddling starsky and her mom and dad, and talking.

And...the other thing that is 2 is the number of kids in our family. Yes...we are having another baby in November. Pretty excited about this 2nd miracle.