Sore face

When I took Chase to the doctor almost a month ago, she made the comment that he had little boy legs.  A little confused at what the difference between little boy and little girl legs where, I asked what she meant.  She clarified that his legs were covered in little bruises and scratches.  (Duh!)

Well now his face matches his legs.  He took a tumble down the stairs into our apartment onto the tile floor.  This isn't the first time, or even the second time he has fallen down stairs, it isn't even the farthest he has fallen down, but it's the first one that has done any damage.  Thankfully it isn't too bad.

 

On a funnier note, Chase loves the Billy Bob teeth that Daniel won in the white elephant contest.

Santa Clause vacations in Moab.

This is the first year that Chase really has understood and gotten to know Christmas.  We went through all things about Christmas; snow, Christmas lights, Christmas tree, twinkle stars, baby Jesus and his mommy and daddy, Santa Clause, presents etc.  He is an expert at telling you what any of these things are, but he doesn't fully understand why they are significant, including Santa Clause.  He recognizes him, but didn't really make the connection that he was the Jolly guy that brought all the toys to Grandma's on Christmas Eve.



We spent Christmas in Moab this year and stayed for church on Sunday.  Chase wasn't doing very well in church so we spent some time sitting out in the foyer talking about how to be reverent.  I was pretty frustrated with him, but suddenly a man with a white beard and white mustache came walking into the foyer.  I didn't think too much of it, but Chase let out a gasp and stated excitedly "Santa Clause!"  I knew instantly that he was referring to this guy walking right in front of us, but he pointed right at him and continued to half yell and half say, "Santa Clause", over and over again.  I was laughing in between trying to convince Chase that this was not Santa, but he stuck to his story and insisted this indeed was Santa.

Some of our Christmas fun.

Playing with my camera and the Christmas tree lights- If you can't tell, they are in the shapes of two candy canes tied together.

The big hit for Chase this year were the cycles.  He got three little toy cycles; one a "suki" cycle, one a "yama-HA" cycle, and one a "k-t-M" cycle.  He has slept with at least one of his cycles every night since getting them.  He also got a couple cycle shirts and the cycle quilt I made him. 

Chase and Porter eating their popcorn and watching a movie.  This picture is about how it went.  Chase was all about the popcorn and kept coming back for refills, and Porter was all about the movie.  He didn't finish his popcorn until after there were no refills left.

The tree the Grandma and Grandpa picked out this year was completely dried out by Christmas, so the next day they took it outside and lit it on fire.  He burst into flames immediately and it only took a few minutes for the whole tree to burn.

There have been very few years that we have had a white Christmas in Moab, but this year the snow won't melt there.  We took advantage of that by sledding most the day on Saturday.

Lights at temple square.

Living in Salt Lake has given us the opportunity to make the tradition of seeing the Christmas lights at temple square, something we only got to do a handful of times growing up.  We have enjoyed doing it every years since we have been married.  It is even responsible for putting me in labor with Chase 2 years ago.

Chase did better this year than last year, as long as he was PUSHING the stroller around instead of riding in it.  (And NOT getting his picture taken).

Enjoying Christmas time...

Some of my family was up north after dropping Drew off at the MTC, so we went to the South Town Mall to find Santa.  Sitting on Santa's lap this year went only slightly better than last year.  I put him on Santa's lap and he jumped right back off. 
But he REALLY enjoyed riding the train around the mall and the carousal.


I love this picture from my mom.

You didn't think I could do it did you?

Neither did I!  But it's all pieced together and hand quilted.  The only thing left is the binding.

The most exciting part is it's a one of a kind.

What do you think?

Sadness....

I am finding more and more that this world is FILLED with sadness.  It is impossible to escape.  This past week has brought a lot of sadness and heart ache for me and I am ready to make a change.  Since I can't escape the sadness I am working on focusing on the joy.  With sadness there is a lot of joy in this world.  This is one of my moments of joy:

Clear back for Mothers Day I received a special gift.  It came in the form of a crossword puzzle and when I finished filling it all out I was supposed to read through all the words and guess what they all had in common and then I would know my gift.  Turns out I got two tickets to Wicked in Denver.  A play I have been dyeing to see and missed my opportunity to see it in Salt Lake this year.

We dropped Chase off in Moab (again- I'm SUCH a great daughter, dropping my son off to my parents all the time), and drove to Denver.  It was a quick trip.  We went to the play, ate dinner, slept, and went and saw the temple in the morning and headed back home, but it brought a lot of joy to me.  We didn't take many pictures or I probably would have posted something about it earlier.  These are the only pictures from that trip.

New bed

This is Chase's new bed.  It's actually his crib with one of the side taken off.  We have been testing him to see if he is ready to move up to a bed so the new baby can have the crib and it's gone MUCH better than I thought.    I thought we would be back to the crib after one day.

-Saturday night we took it off.  We put him to bed and he never got out.  I opened his door to check on him before we went to bed and woke him up.  He ended up falling asleep in bed with us before we put him back down.
-Sunday at nap time I put him down and he got back up and played in his room for 45 minutes.  I went back in and took him into my bed and took a nap with him.
-Sunday night we put him down and left the door open a crack so I could check on him.  He got right up and walked right out of his bedroom holding DeeDee and Ray and giving us a look like, hey it's not bedtime yet.  We put him back down and closed the door and he stayed.
-Monday nap time I put him down and he got back up.  I went in after 1/2 hour and laid on the floor next to him for 20 minutes and he fell asleep.
-Monday night we put him down and he never got up.

We are learning and it's going better.  I think we may be confirmed in buying him a new bed and passing the crib down to the next little guy.

One things for sure, he loves feeling like a big boy in his new big bed.

Go shine your sink

I thought I would pass this website on in case it might interest someone else.  The FLY Lady.  This website is about helping you get organized in your house cleaning.  I'm sure that most of you already have a good system down, but I don't.  Some of the things I like about this lady's system.

-You work in small steps.  She never has you spend a whole day cleaning.  It's all about what you can do in an hour here or an hour there, but since you have a system down and you do it everyday you don't have to spend a whole day cleaning.
-She's about forgetting perfection.  Her theory is that as women we want perfection so much that we struggle doing some things if we can't get it done perfect.  She has you do what you can, when you can.
-Once you get her system down, she helps you write your own system that fits your house and your life better.
-She gets you into a routine so you don't have to wonder what to do or where to start.
-Step #1 was to go shine my sink.  It may be the only clean thing in my house right now, but by golly it's sparkling in there.

FLY is an acronym for:  For Loving Yourself.  It's all to avoid CHAOS: Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. 

Her website is hard to navigate and this probably isn't for everyone (especially if you are the one who already has this figured out on your own).

Give it a try, Go shine your sink.

We will miss you Debbie-

Today my aunt Debbie passed away after 51 years of living with cerebral palsy.  This picture comes from a book I made for him to practice learned names.  It has since become a book he loves to read and refers to as "Debbie".  For one reason or another he grew really attached to this image of Debbie and looks for it as soon as he sees the book.  When he wants to find the book he asks where "Debbie" is.

I feel sadness when I think of the fact that Chase probably won't remember her, and our next little guy won't have even met her.  I do, however, take great comfort in the knowledge that she is in a better place with loved ones who have already gone on. 

We will miss you Debbie!

....and this makes 5!

little grandsons for my parents. No granddaughters. We are thrilled (except when I realize that I will now have TWO overly energetic little guys running circles around me :).

The ultrasound went well. They had us a little scared. After the Ultrasound tech had finished the ultrasound, a doctor came in and explained that some things didn't show up as clearly as they would have liked. He began looking at the baby's heart from all angles for about 20 minutes. In all the ultrasounds I have had, they have never taken 20 minutes just looking at the heart so I started panicking.

I gave Daniel a look that said " are you as worried as I am?" and the doctor answered for me. He apologized and said that he wasn't seeing anything wrong but was unable to get a picture of the 4- chambers of the heart. With great relief, everything looked good.
Don't ask me what exactly you are looking at here, but somewhere in there are little boy parts.

We weren't been able to come up with any boy names that we agree on so we were kinda hoping for a girl to make it easy on us, but we finally have a couple boy names that we like, so I am feeling relieved about that as well.

Happy Birthday Mom.

I'm a little slim pickins' on the pictures I have available to me right now, but happy Birthday to the most wonderful example of being a mother that I have. I wish I could be there in person to wish you Happy Birthday, but I guess a call will have to do this year.

My little guy turns 2.

It was two years ago from tomorrow, just 4 days after Thanksgiving 2007, that I called my mom at about 10:00 a.m. I had been having steady painful contractions for 9 hours and they were down to 5 minutes apart. Since it's almost impossible to sleep when it feels like someone is jabbing a knife into your back every couple minutes, I stayed up that night, cleaned, put Chase's crib together, wrote a paper for school that was due the next day, and did all the things I should have done weeks before.

My mom asked if I couldn't just stretch it out so the baby would be born the next day (her birthday). I insincerely apologized and told her that I was going to get that baby out of there as soon as I possibly could if it would stop the pain.

I had called to tell her that we were going to drop my paper off at school and then head over to the hospital to see if this was the real thing. I was hopeful, yet I had heard so many stories of false labor or people being sent home while they were actually in labor, so I didn't get my hopes up.

It turned out to be the real thing and just shortly after 7:00 p.m. my little Chase was born.

That was hands down the most excitement filled day I have ever had, and things haven't settled down a whole lot since that day.

So for Thanksgiving this year, I am remembering how thankful I am for this sweet little two year old that talks to me and plays with me all day every day. My life certainly wouldn't be the same without him.

Some of his recent quirks:

~He is very polite and says "Excuse you" if someone burps, and "bless you" when someone sneezes, but my favorite is if he burps or farts he says "Excuse YOU" and gives you a funny look like you did it.

~He loves Winnie the Pooh, Cars, 101 Dalmations, The Polar Express and Mickey Mouse. He thinks all ducks are named Donald now.

~ He can name all the characters of Winnie the Pooh, and we quiz him everyday on them just to hear him say them. Our favorites are Pig-o-wet, and Christopher Robin (which basically sound like he is speaking Chinese jibberish).

~He knows most of the colors and loves to show that off. When he picks up a toy, he usually names the color and the toy.

~Knows how to count to three, and can specify if he has one or two of something.

~Is starting to speak in short sentences.

~If you ask his where Drew is going on his mission, he answers " Peur-to RIC-o" (really drawn out.)

~Is still a daddy's boy. The first thing he usually asks me in the morning is: "Daddy at work??"

~Loves to talk. There isn't a word he won't attempt to repeat you say. I often end up with a parrot wherever I go. As I passed his nursery leader in the hall on Sunday she said, "Holy Cow!! Chase has A LOT to say". I agreed.

~Says prayers with our help. Lately it has turned into "Bless Fresson (Preston)" after everything that Daniel and I say. The prayers end abruptly when he is finished with Amen, while we are in the middle.

~ LOVES Preston, Brennan, and Drew. When he talks on the phone he is usually pretending to talk to them.

~ Loves stuffed animals particularly Ray, Bear, Neil, Donald, and Dee Dee (his blanket). He feeds them, gives them drinks, gives them baths, and even puts them on the potty so they can use the bathroom.

~ Is as picky an eater as I am. Daniel says it's pay back for what I put my mom through, but don't think it's fair. I already have to put up with trying to find myself something to eat.

~ LOVES, LOVES cycles of any variety. His tricycle, motorcycles driving down the freeway, dirt bikes he gets ride on with with dad or papa, the sound of Motorcycles driving around somewhere, anything cycles he loves! He is so excited about this quilt I am making and everyday points at it saying, " (gasp) CYCLES!! See 'em, see 'em!" Then continues to name the colors of all the cycles on the quilt.

~Loves the snow. He will watch it out the window until it's time to eat or do something else. When we go outside to play in it, he will not come inside without kicking and screaming. No matter the bribe, and no matter how long he had been out there playing.

I did it again...

but this is the first time I think it will stick. I finally found a short hair style that I like better than long hair (at least for now).


Here is a before. I have always loved long hair, but I can only get it to look good about once a year. No wait- I only fix it once a year.

And here's after. Won't make much of a ponytail, but that's ok. It takes about as long to fix as a pony tail would.


What do you think?

The project....

I decided to make Chase a quilt for Christmas. This is crazy for a couple reasons. I don't quilt. I still have a box full of fabric that my mom bought me back in high school to make my FIRST quilt. The fabric is still in the box with only a few pieces cut up. I also couldn't find a pattern for a motorcycle quilt. If you have spent any time around Chase, you know that "Cycles" are his thing. He loves them: riding them, hearing them, watching them on the T.V.

So.... I designed a pattern from a picture, watched a youtube video on how to applique, and I'm off. Hopefully it turns out like I have pictured in my head...


The good news is that I think Chase will like it no matter what. I made up a practice square to see how it would turn out and he has been carrying that around for 3 days saying that it's "Chase's cycle".

Fess you Mama!

I love the stage that Chase is at now. Minus the occasional tantrums and craziness, it's just fun! He gets more and more of a personality every day and learns at least one new word a day (if not ten!).

Chase and I were walking through Joanne fabrics yesterday and I sneezed. Chase immediately stated "Fess you Mama! (Bless you Mama!)" so I thanked him and continued walking when he repeated "Fess you mama!". "Thank you Chase", I again replied. This continued all the way to the checkout line and by the time we got there the checker was just laughing almost in tears. When we got up to her she went on about how cute he was.

It occurred to me that he might not always be so courteous and he won't always pronounce bless as fess, and won't always talk with such excitement in his voice. It made me appreciate the moment a little more.

I can't wait to show you the new project I've come up with that led me to Joannes in the first place. My moms going to laugh..... after she slowly shakes her head in disbelief.

Family pictures

We took advantage of an opportunity we had to get family pictures taken by a photography I admire. (yeah, the one that jipped me out of a spot in the workshop, but he still takes nice pictures.) After a month of anxiously waiting, we finally got to see the results. Daniel and I were both a little hesitant when he wanted to take pictures of us separately, but even those turned out kinda nice.

By the way, I am purposefully withholding my very favorites so our Christmas card isn't ruined, and these are only a handful out of the 60 we got back.

If you missed our big announcement- you may want to scroll down to the next post. For those who were wondering- my due date is April 29th.


I got tired of documenting our Boston trip and I'm sure you got tired of reading it so here are just the last few pictures from our trip.

After the second unsuccessful Whale watching tour (again 5 foot waves and a lady broke her knee), we had a couple spare hours before we had to be to the airport. Since we hadn't planned on this time we had already done all the things in downtown Boston that we wanted so we headed back to Boston Gardens to relax.




This was a neat little monument the had set up for the War on Iraq. These dog tags represent those fighting for us over there.
This is THE Old North Church- yes you heard me right. The Old North Church where the lanterns were hung to signal the route of the British troupes. Remember: One by land, two by sea. Pretty neat sight to see and actually go inside.
This building marks the area of the Boston Massacre.

This is the USS Constitution or "Old Iron Sides". The oldest war ship still afloat. It's not a revolutionary war ship, but comes from the time period shortly after that. If history interests you, look up the USS Constitution. It has some amazing stories with it.

Battle of Bunker hill monument- which is actually located on Breed's Hill. Refresh your history books if you care to know why.


I forced Daniel into one very important promise before we got married. It was pretty much: make the promise or take the ring back off my finger so he promised :). He promised to take me to every temple in the United States and as many outside the country as we can. That way I get my dream of traveling and get to see all the temples. We didn't get to go in the Boston temple and I didn't get a chance to see it in the daylight, but here it is all light up in the middle of the night.


I saved this picture because it is very indicative of how we felt at the end of this trip. It was a blast, we finally got a chance to be alone again after 2 years of taking Chase everywhere, and I would do it again in a heartbeat- but it was LONG, it was extremely tiring, and we were WORN OUT!! (Not to mention this was shortly after the failed whale watching).