Photos by Chase

Chase has taken an interest in taking pictures with our camera so I thought I'd take a moment to feature some of what he's captured through his photography.


This was a typical weeknight for us. It's interesting to see that he managed to capture our crazy cat lounging on the sidewalk, his new big-boy bike, Matt swinging a golf club and me....well, I'm not sure what I was doing.


Our grass is a little embarrassing. My stud of a husband is working on that, though. :)

And then this one was from last Saturday morning.

Funny to see the world through the eyes of a 3-year-old.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Chase's new ride

Santa brought Chase this jeep for Christmas. He hasn't driven it at all because he was scared of it.


We brought it out of the garage and made another attempt to get him used to it. I can fit in it (barely) so I drove it around the driveway with him in my lap (we definitely should have gotten a picture of THAT) to get him comfortable and then he insisted that he could do it himself.


He even wanted to drive it around the neighborhood:


One of our neighbors was walking by and Chase even gave him a ride. :)


I'm glad that he's finally warmed up to it so that Santa didn't waste such a cool toy on us. Now if we could just find the charger...

Mr. Personality

Here are a few pictures of our silly boy from Easter.

Can I just say that I love this child's personality??? I mean, I know all moms are supposed to probably say that but still. He makes me laugh. everyday. all the time.


I love how social he is. Yesterday, we were in the front yard and as a couple of people walked by our house, he would loudly say, "Hey!" They would look around, trying to find that little voice and then he would start telling them about how he was helping me. That little boy is NOT shy.


I love how he's sweet, too. He says many things that I want to always remember. But one thing in particular: "Mommy? Daddy and I are sick. Will you take care of your boys?" (I mean, really. Make a mama melt, why don't you.)

He's just becoming such a little boy. Not so much a toddler anymore. (sniff, sniff)

But a charming little boy, that is FOR SURE. :)

spring family photo session

Yesterday afternoon Matt, Chase and I ventured to Northgate park to have some pictures taken. Brett Fox took some amazing newborn shots of Chase's babysitter, Leslie's baby and their family a few months ago. He and his wife Sarah were great to work with and very patient with Chase's constant change in plans. They would suggest something, we'd say ok, turn to Chase to tell him what we were doing and he would say 'no'. Ugh. We then would just have to be creative about how we suggested things so that we had a little more control over things. Chase was luckily pretty happy, very energetic and loved running from the little kids play area to the big kids play area, to the bridge, etc. He just had many opinions about what our plan was. :)

Check out the first few pictures that Brett posted on his blog. http://brettfoxphotography.com/dickerson-family-durham-portrait-photography-northgate-park/

More to follow...

Rainy day Easter Egg hunt

This past Saturday, Lauren and I took Chase to the Easter Egg hunt that was organized by the Junior League. It was raining but the event was just moved inside.

This was us before we left (I promise we didn't dress alike on purpose):


Chase had a great time decorating a bucket with his name on it, decorating cookies and coloring pictures before the hunt started.


He even got some quality one-on-one time with the Easter bunny himself. (Chase got so comfortable, curled up beside the bunny, that we actually had to remind him that the other boys and girls need some time with him...)

Wes and Chase waited patiently for the Easter Egg hunt to get started...

...and talked a little about their game plan.

Here's Chase's face as they're explaining the 'rules'. He looks a little nervous. :)


I guess Chase's quality time with Mr. Bunny paid off so he helped Chase out a little with finding an egg that was hidden.


The pictures aren't quite as pretty without having that nice, green grass in the background but it ended up being really fun.

Before leaving the Hill House, Chase managed to get some piano time in. :)

Boy toys

This weekend we took a trip to Lowe's to get some much-needed weed-killer for our yard. (It looked like a jungle. seriously) While Matt browsed the weed-killer aisle, this is what Chase and I did. I'm not gonna lie, I kind of didn't mind. Chase clearly had fun, too. :)

Three

I can't believe that this little boy turns 3 today...

He turns 3 today and on his third birthday, I want to talk a little bit about Chase's unique personality.

Our little boy is helpful. He loves to help with any and everything that you're doing. He wants you to give him a chance to 'do it himself'.

He is such a social little boy. I remember him trying to make eye contact with strangers at the mall (or wherever we were at the time), even when he was a baby. He loves people. At age 3, he loves playing with other kids. Particularly older kids.

He's so much fun. He loves playing games (hide and seek is big for him right now. he's always wanting you to come find him). It's another way that he's so good at connecting with people.

He makes me laugh. all the time. In fact, on those occasions where I'm stressed or frustrated, he'll look up at me and say, "Smile, Mommy!" And who could resist following such a sweet request? :)

On my sweet little boy's third birthday, I am more in love with him that I ever thought possible. His charming, lovable personality becomes more evident everyday.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Chase!!! We love you so much!!!

Chase's 3rd birthday party

Chase's actual birthday is tomorrow but we had his party yesterday, at The Little Gym in Durham. They did an amazing job and it was so great to be able to let someone else take charge of planning the activities. We literally showed up with cupcakes and they did the rest.

Here's a blurry picture of the birthday boy. It was hard to get a picture of him sitting still. As you can see from his pink cheeks, he was hot from all the running around.

It was really cool to see how much fun he had. When we first got there he was running, squealing, and literally shaking with excitement. I think a large padded room was probably the best place for him to be. :)

The teachers were amazing and I even got to participate. :)

He was so full of energy.

This was one happy birthday boy. That is for sure.

Pose

This is Chase trying on sunglasses in the men's section of Nordstrom Rack. He was running around like a wild animal the whole time we were there but this serious expression cracks me up. As soon as I told him to stand still so I could take a picture, that's what he looked like. :)

Warm fuzzies

Remember how I was saying that the butterflies that I used to feel 12 years ago when I first fell head-over-heels, madly in love with Matt have changed over the years?


Well, I felt that fluttery feeling last night when I saw this:


It was such a sweet, sweet sight to see. Both my boys curled up on Chase's bed, reading "How Things Work".


Parenthood and marriage bring about so many different emotions at various stages of life. Right then at, at that moment it brought about some warm fuzzies for me. :)