Christmas 2010

It's so hard to believe that Chase's 2nd Christmas has come and gone (well, sort of.  Two of our family get-togethers were rescheduled to next weekend because of the snow).  Our Christmas festivities began with lunch with Matt's extended family in Henderson on Christmas Eve. 

Here's a fun play house that Chase was excited to get (as you can see from this picture below):

 Chase is loved by so many people and you could certainly tell by all the gifts that he was given.  (Thank you to everyone for all the fun toys!)

 After lunch, we headed to my mom's house to spend some time with her and Terry along with my sisters and their families.  Justice was pretty eager to show Chase how much he loved him.  (See that hug?)  :)

 After that we headed to my Nanny's house (my grandmother) to have dinner with my dad, his brother and the rest of that side of the family.  The next morning we got up, let Chase see what Santa brought him and then we headed to Hillsborough to spend time with Matt's parents and sister.  I was of course happy to see them but also REALLY excited to eat the amazing food that Betty Ann made for breakfast/brunch.  Mmmm...I think I might go to bed tonight dreaming about country ham scones, creamy grits, breakfast casserole...Whoops.  I digress.  Back to Christmas.  :)

 Here's Chase sitting in the middle of a few presents that were all for him.  :)
 Check out this cute monkey bag and Ugg boots that were in some of those wrapped packages pictured above.

At 21 months, I don't think Chase really has a clue about how many people are crazy about him.  Probably won't be long before he starts to realize that.  I have no doubt, however, that he feels that love on a daily basis.  I sure know that I'm his #1 fan and I'm pretty positive that there are several people who would fight me for that position.  :) 

Merry Christmas, everybody!!

Happy Birthday, Grandaddy!!

Serious face

We were excited to have my dad stop by for a few hours to visit on Wednesday after he flew in from TN.  Here's a few pictures I got of him and Chase in their (semi) matching sweaters.

Happy face.

Today is his birthday.  Yep, that's right.  December 24th.  We hope you have a great birthday, Grandaddy and we'll see you later today!!

Boys' toys

Growing up around nothing but girls, I was always surrounded by dolls, bows, books and all things pink.  I was (am) the girliest girl I know.  So when I found out I was pregnant with a boy I thought, "huh.  ok."  I mean, of course I was happy but I had no idea about what to do with a boy.  Well, 21 months into this and I've decided that I really like this whole boy thing.  In fact, I'd be pretty happy if our next child is a boy, too.

Wait.  Have I got everything here??

Chase is obsessed with cell phones, keys, romotes, and anything with a cord.  You can see him gathering up a few of his favorite items to take with him on his ride around our house.  :)

I'm also learning a few things about how boys' toys change with age.  We currently have a Nerf gun (complete with small suction cups on the end of each 'bullet') and a self-inflatable whoopie cushion that Matt bought for "Chase".  I think the real reason that some men get excited about having a son is that it gives them an excuse to buy cool toys. 

Oh well.  At least I'm not ever bored around here.  :)

Sweet sleeping baby

Sometimes we go in to check on Chase when he's sleeping and just stare at how peaceful and sweet he looks.  On this paticular night I had to get a picture of him all curled up like this:

I could eat him with a spoon.  :)

Thank you, Emily Corey!!

A few weeks ago we had some pictures taken by Emily Corey.  She is the same photographer who took the amazing pictures of us a year ago in Duke Gardens when Chase was about 8 months old.  Now that he's slightly more active than he was at that point I thought these pictures would be a little more interesting...And man, were they.

It all started with smiles and fun.

 Chase thought Emily was hilarious when she jumped up and down in an effort to get him to laugh.

 She caught a few sweet father/son moments with my 2 favorite boys.

And here's how it all started...Well, not exactly under a tree.  Kind of like this but in a bar on Franklin St.  :)

 She even managed to catch some sweet moments between my baby's daddy and me.

 And here's where it got a little complicated.  See this cool lawn mower ("mon moor") pictured above?  Well Chase LOVED driving it.  He loved it so much he didn't want to get off.  So, our photo session ended a little earlier than I would've liked...But oh, well.  She still managed to get a lot of great shots in a relatively short amount of time.

 I love his little lips in this picture.  A lot of his words start and end with his lips looking like this at this stage of language development.  I think it's pretty cute.

I like this picture a little bit, too.  Remember how I said that it's important for our marriage to come before our child?  (see "I am thankful" posting on Thanksgiving if you don't remember)  Well I'm really glad that Emily asked if we wanted a few shots with just US.  With Chase pitching a FIT to go back to the "mon moor" it was easy to get lost in the chaos of parenting.  But I'm really glad we ended this way.  I love this guy.  :)

Jump!

It seems like every day Chase is growing more and more into his personality, becoming more of a little person. Everyday there seems to be something funny that he does or a funny expression that he makes. I know every parent feels like this...like their child is the funniest, most perfect child on earth. I seriously feel like ours sure is. :) Here's a short video of his current talents. (Ha ha)

Mesmorizing

This past weekend while we were doing some Christmas shopping, we stumbled upon this live music going on in the middle of the mall.  Chase was MESMERIZED.  It was really cute.  He slowly walked up to the side of the stage, without taking his eyes off the band members and didn't stop until he was touching the stage.  See??

 

 He stood REALLY still...And just watched...Eyes glued to the 3 people on stage.

 I swear.  He NEVER stands that still.  EVER.  Always running, everywhere we go.  In fact it's started getting to the point where it's scary when you take him out in public and let him go because he will just take off, full speed ahead.  But not last Saturday while this was going on:

We need to get around more live music again soon.  I gotta see that again.  :)

Need to do some Christmas shopping???

Remember my mother-in-law's really cute, very affordable products that I blogged about a few weeks ago??  Well, she'll be selling all her amazing items this Saturday, 12/11 from 9am-3pm at the Junior League Holiday Market at the Durham Marriott Convention Center.  If you need a little something (http://www.ineedalittlesomething.com/ ) for your child's teacher, coworkers, friends or family she's got a lot to choose from at a very low cost.  See the information below about the Holiday Market:

Obviously I'm a big fan of Betty Ann's stuff.  However, there are a lot of other venders who will also be selling their stuff at Holiday Market.  There will be lots of jewelry, Christmas items, baby gifts, and much more.  I'll be there so I hope you will too!  :)

It's SNOWING!!

I  vaguely remember hearing someone at work (or maybe it was on the radio?) mention yesterday that there was a slight possibility of snow flurries today.  I thought nothing of it.  Which made it that much more exciting today when I completely did not expect to see snow.  And it continued to snow for several hours here in Durham (about 4 hours to be exact).  No accumulation on the roads luckily but it looked really cool sticking to cars, houses and the ground.  See our house?

It was especially cool to experience the snowy day before Christmas.  I can't remember it ever snowing this early in the season here.

I'm not sure that Chase really knew what to think.  But he was pretty cute in his little hat vest.  :)

What is this?

What a sweet boy.  And a sweet picture.  God, I love this child.

Mall

I have mentioned several times before that since we live so close to Southpoint we spend quite a bit of time there on the weekends (ok.  and sometimes even on the weeknights as well when we don't want to cook).  From the time Chase was a newborn he's loved the sounds, the lights, and the people.  On this particular trip to the mall he was having a blast on Matt's shoulders.  I had to get a picture.  Look at my 2 silly boys:

The other funny thing about the mall is that recently Chase has really started talking more.  A week or so ago (maybe longer.  I can't remember) he started noticing things that we would pass while driving.  When we pass the 2 churches (one that we've been attending lately), he points and says, "CHURSSSHHH".  When we pass the mall he says, "MAWW".  Pretty cute.

Lawn mower

I was bad about taking pictures over Thanksgiving but I managed to get a couple while we were with Matt's family.  Chase rides on the lawn mower (or "Mon-moor", as Chase says) with Pops whenever he's over there...Not to mow the grass of course, but just to ride.  Chase LOVES it.  He's such a boy and loves driving anything with a steering wheel.  I've been wanting to get some pictures of this for a while and managed to do that last weekend.  See the big smiles?

Not sure who was having more fun- Pops or Chase.  :)