The Flood of 2008

Though it was short lived, the city of Fenton did get flooded. Our house though was safe. My great grandparents survived the flood of '82 and '93 in this house so we new we would be safe. But the rest of Fenton is another story. We didn't get too many pictures, but I give credit to KDSK New Channel 5 For any of the pictures I have added here(I will give credit under picture). I wanted to just show you what we lived with for a long weekend. Nothing to major to cause daily life to change for Chloe and I, but Dave had horrible traffic to and from work because it limited the ways in and out of Fenton and the surrounding areas. This was on Thursday at hwy 141 and I-44. -courtesy of KSDK

Here is hwy 141 at I-44 on Friday. It was flooded until Monday morning (March 24) - courtesy of KSDK This one of our pictures. Sorry it is blurry, but the is the side parking lot of the Fenton Post Office.
This is the river road, AKA Yarnell Rd, that runs right next to the river in Fenton. It runs from Old Town Fenton to the Soccer Park by I-44. Dave and I were on this road on Thursday evening and this is what it looked like on Friday. - Courtesy of KSDK
Here is that same road on Monday (March 24) after the water was off of it. The damage is amazing. -Courtesy of KSDK
This is on the turn where you would be close to the entrance of the Soccer Park. Courtesy of KSDK

These next pictures are for my Aunt Jean and Uncle Gary. The Covered Bridge RV park you guys stay at when visiting St. Louis was completely under water. The Shell Station next to it, had water half way into the pumping stations. Springdale pool was no more, all you could see was the tip top of the building. These pictures are from a street over from the RV Park because you couldn't even access the road to get to the park.

This picture was taking on Saturday when the water had started to go down. courtesy of KSDK

So that was our life over Easter weekend. It was amazing, but in my mind I kept thinking "It's just water people." But Dave was so fascinated with it all we drove around every evening after dinner to get a look at the rising waters. On Saturday morning (about 8:45 am)the water was at it's highest and was actually in the right south bound lane of Hwy 30, near West. Watson (close to the Christian Church). But when we returned home from our running that afternoon (about 2:30 pm) the water was already reseeding and was off the road. It truly was amazing to see how fast the water came and left.

New Desgin

Just thought I would say that I added some color to the blog. My celebration of spring!!!

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had an eventful and reflective Easter. We has snow showers off and on all day so we didn't get to egg hunt outside like we wanted to this year. But Chloe had fun playing with her cousins Meagan and Drew. We need to steal Meagan from the college parties to babysit!

A Mother's right hand

Okay, my new love (using the word love when I am talking about cleaning really creeps me out) for cleaning is Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser. My walls are offically crayon free!!!! Oh and dirty hand prints and finger prints from Dave. What else will this magic tool do????

Wall Art

Okay, so Dave and I have totally been schooled by a toddler. Never assume you have anything you don't want your child to have picked up. They will prove you wrong.

So lets just say, that me being weird, I just prefer Chloe to not have crayons. We have the Color Wonder items by Crayola which are great. They don't write on anything but the special paper it comes with. Very house friendly. Well, I knew she had gotten crayons ( won't point fingers *cough from Melissa and Nick's shower cough*) and Dave and I thought we have gotten them all from her. But we didn't look at the colors to make sure. Well, Tuesday morning my aunt noticed that there was RED crayon all over the hall walls. So our assumption made us a$$es. We apparently didn't get the red crayon from her and at some point while Dave and I were not watching her she scribbled all over the walls, on the clothes shoot, and in her playroom. I know some of you are asking well did you clean it off, well not yet. I couldn't find the camera so waited until I found it to document that "joyous" event. So today I need to run and get some of those magic erasers to see if it works. Our next goal is to repaint the hall with the childproof paint (it is suppose to be the easiest paint to get markers, crayons, dirt, etc off). But I thought I would share in her wonderful art. She says they are all pictures of bicycles. *Some of them are alittle hard to see but you get the picture of what the wall looks like..lol

Stepping outside the box then back in

So the purpose of this blog is to really keep my family members that we love informed with what is going on in our lives, IE what Chloe is doing and how our little piglet is growing. Well, I am totally going to come outside my comfort zone here tonight. I just really feel the need to get this out.

Has anyone noticed I don't have many girls who are my friends? Well I don't. I have been hurt way to bad by having girls close to me. And I find girls play extremely dirty. Honestly girls are evil. I know this, I am one. But I know I am one that doesn't deliberately hurt someone on purpose. I don't go out of my way to effect some one's life. I don't make low blows. I was raised, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say nothing at all. Okay, I have personally broken that rule a couple times, but only for things I am passionate about or I am defending someone who is dear to me. Not because I dislike someone. I do believe in Karma, so why would I do this to myself. So if someone is making me mad about something or doing something I don't agree with, I ignore it. So I ask you, why do girls play so dirty? I mean seriously if you don't like someone, ignore them please, including me. I won't cry, I promise.




Okay, so lets go on to Chloe's amazing evening. I was on the phone with my friend and Chloe was awfully quiet. So I go on the hunt to find her. On normal evening she is playing nicely in her toy room, well not tonight. She has been ornery, like her grandpa. Earlier in the evening I found her in my hairspray. Not fun, actually pretty stinky. Well this time, she was in the shower. And there was a turd in there too. AHHHH! I am a little confused on how it happened. It was just laying there in the shower, she had her diaper on, and there was proof she pooed in there. So I immediately thought she pulled it out. Checked her hands, nothing. All clean and actually still smelling nicely from the soap we used earlier. So the only thing I can figure is she took the diaper off and 1) pooped with the diaper off and put the diaper back on (yes she can remove and put her diaper on) or 2) she pooped in the diaper and took it off to dumb the diaper out. Either way, I see this as one step closer to being able to get on the potty training wagon!

First Swimming Class

So since February 22 we have been waiting for Chloe's swim class to start. Well the first week it was cancelled because of the snow/ice storm we got, then the next week the instructors family was exposed to 5th Disease. I had never heard of it so I had to look it up. That is why I linked it for you.

So finally last Friday we were able to start class. And Chloe had a blast. She already loves the water but I think she is really going to like learning to swim. The class first started off with introductions and safety rules. We were told for everything we do we need to prompt Chloe with 1-2-3. Then we were showed how to "properly" get in the pool (the way the teacher prefers). Chloe picked it up so fast. First you start by sitting on the edge. Then you take your eight hand and place it next to you (1), then your left hand on top your right (2), last you slide off the side of the pool while holding on (3). Dave first demonstrated then it was Chloe's turn. She did it without thinking. She was too cute. Next they worked on getting use to the water and having it in their face. The idea was for Chloe to dump the water on Dave then Dave on Chloe but it was more Chloe dumping the water on Dave. She really like the idea of getting daddy wet. She really didn't want to stop.

The next lesson was working on floating. This is something Chloe just recently started letting us help her do. I wish I had a picture of how she originally floated but pretty much she would lay on her back with her arms and legs straight up in the air. Like an inverted table. It was very funny. But she was able to float on her back with no problems. The we went to the front float. Chloe loved this as well, she seriously is a great mix of Dave and I because we are fish ourselves. She really didn't get her head to close to the water, but she will go under for you. I just love this picture though. Dave is kissing her chin.

So once every child got use to the front float we went straight to kicking while on their stomachs. This actually amazed me. We tried working on this while we were in Florida in January but she just didn't understand. I guess the 2 months really made a difference in her cognitive development ( I say that but I know what a HUGE difference 2 months can make in a child's development). So this next 2 pictures added here are fuzzy, but she is actually kicking her legs just like you or me would while swimming. I was so impressed I didn't even think about using the video mode on the camera..lol. Her right leg is actually just entering the water while her left leg is just coming out of the water. I was a proud proud mama at this moment of her swim class.

They worked on a few more skills like stretching the arms in the motion of swiming, jumping in the pool, and blowing bubbles. It was alot of fun and Dave and I were able to pick up alot of hints on how to help her when we take her swimming at the pool by our house. So hopefully buy the end of summer Chloe will be swimming like a pro, well close to a pro. (I added some more picture just for your enjoyment)

Dunking Daddy

Kick, kick, kick

Look A Like

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Vintage photos - Family search

Apparently Chloe doesn't look as much like me as I thought according to this fun little thing I found online. But atleast she looks more like me!

Sorry Mandy.. and others

Okay, Just an FYI to you STLWed girls, this blog was set up for OOT Family, and I refuse to clog it up with tags and surveys, sorry I am the party pooper. But I did want to announce this just so you know that I was not ignoring you. I just want to keep this as family related as possible.

Thanks for your time...Tease away!!!

Favorite Picture from Yesterday

Another Snow Day!

So of course most of you saw the weather and St. Louis got another wonderful bunch of snow. I think the last offical measureut at our house was about 10 inches. But I think we have alittle over a foot. Dave actually came home early because of the snow, but his work actually closed at 3 pm anyway. Which is amazing that they closed. Trust me this is truely am amazing feat for Plaza BMW. Unfortunatly Dave did have to be there today. But we were able to enjoy the snow together yesterday.

Chloe loves snow. She new it was coming down and kept talking about it all morning. She was very excited. And we of course got to use the wonderful snowsuit Great Aunt Lisa and Jen bought her. We even got her sled out for yesterday. The snow came up to about Chloe's mid thigh so she could not really walk in it, nor stand for that matter. When we placed her in the yard she just sat right down. But she did enjoy riding in her sled. The snow this time, unlike last, was wetter and softer. So sledding was alittle harder cause it needed to be packed down. But once it was packed it was great. One of these winters we will actually need to buy Dave a sled so he can pack the snow with the sled instead of us walking on the snow. Maybe we should get a intertube that might work really good too.

But we had so much fun outside. Chloe played in the sled, then picked the snow up to throw it. Unsucessfully a few times. She actually hit herself a few times with the snow. And I am pretty sure at one point while trying to walk in the yard she feel face first in the snow. I am not 100% convinced she actually got her face in the snow because when I noticed her her hands were holding herself up. We went out two different times. The first time while it was still snowing (you can see the flakes in the pictures) and then again after it finally stopped snowing. That is when Dave shoveled the driveway. We need to go steal my dad's snowblower since he doesn't use it..lol.

All in all the snow was alot of fun and Chloe really enjoys being out in the snow. Maybe next winter we can show her how to make snow angles. Right now all she wants to make is a snowman. We haven't this time yet because we kept getting cold even though Chloe wanted to stay outside. But we knew it was time, her cheeks were red. (Note the miss matched glves, we could not find a matching pair. I think Chloe hid them from us.)

More on her Birthday

Here is a slide show if the pictures we took at when she got her bike on her birthday and at her party.

Go Chloe, it's your birthday!

So as I already announced, Chloe turned 2 on February 28th. Time flies to freaking fast people. We had her party on March 1, which happened to be my Grandma Parkin's 79th birthday birthday (last year we also had Chloe's birthday on March 1). We did an Elmo themed party and it turned out great. We invited 25 people and all 25 showed up (yes this was mostly family with the exception of the Lorenzes and the Nortons). Chloe had a great time. She was surrounded by her family and her friends (yes she has friends, Samantha, Emily and Conner). She played with everyone and did a great job with having all the people in the house. I was worried she would be alittle scared.

The party started a noon and we served lunch first, then we opened her presents, then last but not least we had cake. We once again got the cake from Pat at Sugaree. When Dave went to pick the cake up, she told him we are the only wedding couple (she did our wedding cake) that she does birthday cakes for, no one else, just us. I feel so blessed and could not imagine going anywhere else for our cakes. They are divine.

Chloe recieved a clock, an Elmo doll, blocks, an Elmo movie, and so much more. She also got a tone of clothes and some money for her savings account. My parents got her a chair for her play room so she has something to sit and watch her movies in while Dave and I bought her a bike and a helmet. She is too cute riding the bike. Of course her leg muscles need lots of strengthening and of course practice, but she loves to ride her bike.