Last Year I Lost 100 pounds...link.

This is a link to a site I love, Skinny Runner. More importantly this is a cool guest post she featured. I love these kinds of stories and will buy a magazine simply to see a before and after shot. So, check out Liz who lost a 100 pounds!

13 Months

I was really thinking that I would stop these posts once Chloe hit a year. However, in the last month she's taken a giant cognitive leap forward. So in an effort to track the progress, I'll continue. I'm not sure how long. Now that I've started this, it makes sense to take it to two years but we'll see.

Chloe, it's June 28, 2011 and you are 13 months old today!

You insisted on reading to Tickle Monkey.

I think we are about to make the switch to one nap a day. I'm sure you'll still need a second nap on some days but lately you seem to be reluctantly taking very short naps. I think by switching to one nap, you may start taking a longer one. We'll have to play with your schedule and see.

You are now drinking whole cow milk. You seem to like it okay now. You drink an 8oz. glass in the morning and an 8 oz. glass for dinner. Sometimes you get about 4oz. as an afternoon snack.

You are now a toddler. You are officially walking! You still prefer to crawl but you know how to walk and will walk across the room. Sometimes you even stand up and take off on two legs without urging from me and your dad. You walk like a little zombie with your arms out in front of you...it's cute!

Your new word is 'light.' You don't say it that often and it usually takes me a while to figure out what you're talking about. That brings your vocabulary to 12 words: hi, dog, book, ball, bird, mom, dada, ouch, yeah, no, diaper and light. I think that's all of them.

You have been crawling onto the couch for over a month now but in the last week you discovered how to get down. It makes my life so much easier. For a while, you would crawl onto the couch and throw a fit to get down. As soon as I would get you down, you would go right back up. Exhausting!

You love people. Anytime we go anywhere you scream 'hi' at EVERYONE. Most people are polite about it and say hi back. Your favorite places are the gym nursery where you play with other kids and the splash pad at the park. The first time I took you there you saw the other kids and starting yelling in baby babble. You wanted down and if you had been able to run, you would have taken off to go join the other kids. haha. You are so energetic. You NEVER sit still.

We love you, happy girl!

Chloe and Kennedy -- probably scheming against Ashauntee and I.

I made her stop for a picture. She's not happy.
She looking at the boys she wanted to go play with.

Marisa and Gael. He's making sure Chloe doesn't get his animal crackers. haha.

What to Wear...you vote, please.

Mark's 10 year reunion is Saturday. I care way too much and need your help with what to wear. Are any of these outfits THE ONE? It's a cocktail hour at a local bar on the Lake Austin. So I doubt that it really matters but I want my honey to be proud of me....so what do I wear?!?!

Obviously, I will wear appropriate undergarments (not a black bra under a white shirt...see 'B') and I will be doing my hair, makeup and pairing accessories. If you don't want to vote in the comments, you can vote to the right.

One Year Portraits

These are three of my favorites and they capture (almost) all sides of her personality.

serious. determined.

happy.curious.



ornery. beautiful.



One Year Portrait *sneak peak*

I've only had time to play with one picture from today's year portrait fun with Chloe. Here is the first picture...I think we have some better ones...you know, without the cars in the background. grrrr.

An old filling station in Round Rock and a super cute baby!

It's Official - ROCK 'n' ROLL!!!

I've done a lot of thinking. I've done a lot of running. I've done a lot of talking to Mark. The conclusion of the aforementioned?

I've signed up for my first marathon!!

I've shared my desire to do a marathon with quite a few people. I'm surprised at the 'push-back' I've received. After all, I'm not asking them to run the marathon. Neither am I asking them to watch me run the marathon. I'll just chalk it up to concern for my well-being and move on. That being said, if you don't have something encouraging to say about my marathon...don't say anything at all. :) I will need all the mental, emotional and physical (if that's possible) support I can get.

My marathon is November 13th in San Antonio,TX! It's an omen for several reasons. The only one I'm willing to share? It's on the 13th! My lucky day!

Running a marathon is something I've always wanted to do. I think at some point I'll do a post on why I wanted to do this and I why I chose now. But not today.

Here's the link to the race.

If anybody stumbles upon my blog and wants to join me or is already planning on being there, I would love to know!!

Chloe 1st Birthday Party

We finally got the pictures from Mark's dad's camera. There were some cute ones; although, I'm still fighting the disappointment of forgetting our camera.

Dad and Chloe

Party favors included...
Chloe's favorite things: Teddy Grahams, Goldfish, Bubbles and a beach ball.

Playing with bubbles.

Outfit Shorty made!

Grandpa (Mark's dad) and Chloe

present time.

It was too much excitement for her.

Glammy (Marks' mom) and Chloe

Looks like Mark, who was in charge of the camera, forgot to snap some shots of my parents with Chloe. But, they are in the video so we're all good!  I saved the best pictures for last...

trans fat, partially hydrogenated oil and sugary goodness!
A girls gotta live a little!



The picture I wanted! We got it!!



Our Weekend in iPhone Pictures

This weekend I forgot the camera. A lot. But we had a ton of fun! Here are some shots I snapped with the iPhone.

Saturday started with a trip to the Dell Children's Museum. It was kind a let down but we got free passes for a year so....

Sleeping in the car...before the museum.

Walking to the museum.

Playing the drums at the museum. Drums are her favorite.

Mark took us to Dick's Sporting Goods so I could get some new running shoes. Meet the new Brooks! Love them.

Sunday we went running at Townlake. When we were finished, we rode the Zilker Zephyr (train) around the park.

Hope y'all had a good weekend. Next up: Chloe's birthday pictures and maybe a surprise video!

Anthony Trial - Warning: This is nauseating.

I saw this article on Twitter today. It's an online People (as in the magazine) story about Casey Anthony breaking down during a forensic testimony. In the article, it states that "Anthony gasped and started to sob..." when they showed pictures of her deceased daughter's body which had been "chewed on by animals."

Do I believe Casey Anthony's reaction is genuine? Yes. Do I have any sympathy for the woman? I've thought about it a lot and my answer is a resounding NO.

Even if the woman had momentary psychosis (which I do not believe is the case) and doesn't remember anything she did, she's had chances to set this straight by telling the truth. She has done nothing but lie since the beginning of all of this.

If I remember anything from my childhood, it's that lying about something will often get you into more trouble than being honest from the beginning. The longer a lie goes on, the higher the consequences usually become. Sadly, this is a lesson her daughter will never learn in her childhood.

I'm trying to see this from her defense teams point of view. What I can't wrap my head around is how anybody can defend a woman like this? You can't tell me that everybody on that team believes she is innocent. These people are lying to themselves. Oh, the beauty of our legal system...protecting the innocent and liberating the guilty.

I have so many feelings about this situation. I can't begin to express them. But, I will say this: It sickens me that Caylee Anthony's mom, Casey, the one person in this world who should be expected to protect this child under ALL CIRCUMSTANCES to the best of her ability, chose to do the exact opposite. Even after Caylee's death, that mother chose to torture her daughter's memory by playing games with the authorities, media and her own family.

Nope. No Sympathy.  

Good Times Keep on Rollin'

Well, I was going to start this post out a little differently, but I have the funniest story. I just went to get Chloe out of her crib from her nap. I walked in and she was sitting in her crib in nothing but her diaper and socks.

I said, "Did you take your clothes off?" half thinking that maybe I had put her in that way and forgot. She said, "Yeah!" To my disbelief, her dress is laying on her mattress. She had indeed taken her clothes off.

Ok. Now to share some pics. Last night we went to Blues on the Green to watch Bob Schneider.

I love our city!

Mom and Chloe

Dad and Chloe

My favorite family pic so far!

Dad telling Chloe about the dogs in front of us.

Chloe insisting that she needs to go see the dogs.
(The dogs were the center of Chloe's attention.)

The picture below is real life. This is how my living room looks on a daily basis. It's clean (scrubbed, vacuumed, dusted, etc.) but terribly messy.

My parents (Shorty and Pop) gave Chloe a swing set for her 1st birthday. It just dawned on my that I hadn't posted pictures. So here they are:

I promise she does enjoy the swing...she's just being aloof.

 This swing set took two days to put together! I was telling Mark that we should start a business putting together stuff like this for people that don't want to do it themselves. I then realized that we had put a bar on upside down and had to take half the swing apart and redo it! So if you need help putting a swing together, do not call us. We are not for hire. (I may be able to offer advice on what NOT to do for a small fee.)

Pepper babysitting Chloe.

See how Pepper is watching her? I was watering the plants and I looked over to see Pepper laying underneath Chloe  making sure she was ok (or getting some shade). She's such a good dog!

Interesting Blog

Just wanted to share a link with you. This guy doing this is one of my brother's buddies. It's an interesting social experiment to say the least.

He's decided to go 'homeless' for a month in Lubbock, TX and you can read all about it.

http://homelessforamonth.blogspot.com/

Sunday: Pool Fun

We have a pool at our health club. Chloe likes it because it has a graduated slope so she can crawl around in the water. This past Sunday, we went as a family for the first time....then we went again Tuesday night after Mark got home from work. haha.

12 Months (or 1 Year)

Chloe, it's May 28, 2011 and you are one year old today!

You weigh 21 pounds 8 oz (60th percentile) and you are 30.5 inches tall (90th percentile).

You are sleeping from 8:30 to 7ish with two naps a day. Some days you don't want a second nap. I don't mind but I hate guessing.

You are switching to whole milk this week. You're not a big fan but the doctor says that's ok. She wants you to drink less milk anyway.

You're not walking yet. You are very close. You make sure you have hold of someone or something before you take any steps. You just need some confidence.
Your vocabulary is impressive. The doctor was shocked today when you said, 'Hi!' as she walked in the room. She asked what else you say. The answer: ball, dog, yeah, hi, mama, dada, bird, book and you have a variation of 'What's that?' You leave off the end of the word so ball becomes 'ba' and bird is 'bir' but the doctor said it counts as long as you know what you are talking about...and you do.

You love to play games. Some of your favorites are: climb on the couch, race mom/dad up the stairs, climb over mom/dad and fall down. Fall down is really cute. You'll be crawling along and you'll throw yourself on to your belly with your arms and legs out and say, 'ouch' or 'ohhh'. Not sure where or how you learned it. It's pretty obvious you love attention and you feed off someone's reaction to get a laugh.

I can't believe it's been a whole year since we met you face to face. Your dad and I are having a blast. We hope you are, too!
We love you!


Here is Chloe eating her smash cake at her party. It gets good at 3:30.

Beach Baby

I realize I haven't done several things on here: Chloe's 12 month post, share her birthday or update anyone in general. I have been very busy running our social media campaigns at borrowed sugar (my employer), helping Mark with a few projects and raising miss Chloe. As my mom's answering machine so famously stated: "Due to general chaos and mass confusion we can't get to the" blog "right now"..."we'll be happy to" get back to you as soon as a ceasefire has been negotiated."

So I will be getting her birthday posts up someday but you'll have to settle for my beach baby for now. Chloe and I went to League City for a few days to give Shorty and Pop some quality time with their favorite daughter granddaughter. Mom and I took Chloe to Galveston on Wednesday to let her play in the surf a little. It was her first trip to a beach. I couldn't decide on which pictures were my favorites so I put a slideshow together with all of them.

Playing Puppy

Shorty helping Chloe walk



Kissing Pop's knee



That's a strange way to eat your bread, Chloe.