Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Wow. Just.... Wow.

It's time to get rid of our Christmas tree. It's beyond dead. So we bought a tree disposal bag:

And it came with this disclaimer:

Ummmmm.... OK. Wow. Really? They have to put that on there? What exactly does that say about us as people?

Alamo Bowl

For Christmas I got Brian tickets to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio to see Mizzou play Northwestern last night, so we spent the night in San Antonio while my parents watched Chase (Thanks again, Mom and Dad)! It was a GREAT game. We had a blast! Mizzou beat Northwestern 30-23 in overtime and Brian was freaking out.

We did a little tailgating beforehand and I even had my face painted for the first time since I was really little:

And here's the finished product!


I think they were good luck charms myself. ;)

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas Photos

OK, I have now had a chance to somewhat organize all the photos we took Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. With three cameras it was quite the project! Here's a little recap of Chase's third Christmas.

Grandma and Grandpa K bought him his own airplane which he fell in love with the moment it came out of the box!

He loved it so much, he had to open some of his other presents while riding it:

Grandma and Grandpa W's hit gift was his railroad set, which we bought some Thomas the Trains for:

They also got him a remote control dinosaur, but it was a little scary at first...

...so the dinosaur went night night:

Chase did occupy himself with packing peanuts while we "big kids" opened our gifts:

It was a pretty sweet deal! We opened all of our gifts while he played in the "snow," and then we were able to focus fully on his stuff when we were done. Thanks, Chase!

All of our photos from the festivities are now in our Photo Album, if you are interested (though they are only kind of in order... please forgive me)!

More updates to come about the rest of our visit with my parents. We have done lots and there are TONS of pictures to go through.... Baby steps!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!

We have had a very nice holiday so far. Hey, it's almost 5:00 and I'm still in my PJ's. It doesn't get much better than this! We went to church last night and Chase enhanced the service with some commentary and one huge belch as a little boy was reading some scripture.

The photo above of us with my parents was taken after we got home from church. I'm glad we took it when we did because shortly thereafter Chase suffered another unfortunate accident. Let me back up. A few days ago he fell into a pile of dinosaurs and bruised his cheek/lip area. Then the day we went to visit Santa he was running around (trying to escape me as I frantically tried to style his hair) and ran head first into the corner of a wall. Result: a big ol' bruise/goose-egg/cut on his forehead. Last night he was excitedly chasing after the cat and ran head first into the corner of our new wooden-armed love seat. Result: a bleeding eyebrow gash, swollen eyelid and lots of tears (Mommy's included). My dad took this picture of our sorry-looking baby while he ate breakfast this morning:

I'm in the process of downloading more photos and will write more when that monumental task is complete!

Happy Holidays!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Santa!

Chase got to see Santa today and he did pretty well. He didn't want to sit on his lap but he did fine with us holding him. I can't believe I paid TWENTY DOLLARS (ridiculous!) for two 3x5's of this, but here is the photo:

He looks a little distressed, but he was actually just beginning one of those cheesy smiles of his! Too bad they didn't catch it. My parents said it was quite funny!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Wiggle Worm

Chase celebrated his 2nd birthday for a second time yesterday. We gave him a little "boom box" that is actually an mp3 player we can download his music onto. It came with 20 pre-loaded songs and he fell in love with what he calls "The Wiggle Song." He had to listen to it over and over again and we eventually incorporated the turtle Grandma and Grandpa got him. We had so much fun!



We had a cake and Chase (Mom) blew out the candles...

...and then dove right in (literally)!

Happy Birthday (again), Chase!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Proof

When you get your Christmas card from us this year, here is proof that Chase really did sign them all himself!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

He's TWO!!

I can't believe it. Our baby is 2. We had a low-key birthday tonight, as we are planning a little party once my parents get here for Christmas. We let him have his dinner of choice (he chose yogurt... lots and lots of yogurt!) and then he had a brownie dessert.

We then rolled out some of his gifts in the wagon Grandma and Grandpa W got him!

He LOVED his wagon and had to open the rest of his presents while sitting inside.

We got him a Superman shirt...

...and (my personal favorite) a pair of dinosaur slippers!

He played in his wagon all night and even watched Frosty the Snowman in it. All in all he had a great 2nd birthday... with another one to follow in less than a week!

Happy Birthday to our "baby" boy!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Grocery Shopping is Fun!

Chase thought it would be fun to bury himself in our groceries today.

Gotta love him!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

My Hero!

When Grandpa W came to visit he brought one of Brian's old Superman books with him. Brian is a HUGE Superman fan, so we have been working on teaching him Superman and how to make a "whooshing" flying sound after we say it. Yesterday Chase came running up to me squealing, "Soup-man! Soup-man!" I turned around and he had the Superman book in his hand. I pointed to Superman and said, "Who's that?" His reply: "Daddy!" Brian was so proud. He then pointed to a lady Superman was saving and said, "Mommy!" Awwwww....

With all the Superman hype going on yesterday I thought, "Wait a minute.... Didn't Grandma K buy you some Superman PJ's awhile back?" Yes, she did. They were way too big when she bought them but I put them away until he was big enough. I pulled them out and sure enough, they were size 2T. Here he is showing them off, with his new cheesy smile!

And here's a shot of the removable cape:

And this next photo made me laugh. For those of you who watch Smallville (of course Brian does!), here is our little Superman on red kryptonite:

I find this all very funny because just before changing into his Superman PJ's for the night we had major bathtub drama. The Daily Planet headline would have read something like this:

SUPERMAN NO MATCH FOR BATHTUB FUZZIES

Chase is terrified of anything floating in the bathtub. I have to make sure there are no towel fuzzies left in the tub and make sure he doesn't have sock fuzzies between his toes before he gets in. If not... let the drama begin! He's in the bath and having a good time when all of a sudden he spots something floating toward him. He lets out a scream of sheer terror, jumps to his feet and starts clinging to me, trying to climb out of the tub. Getting him to calm down is NOT an easy task.

Half the time I can't even see what he is screaming about, it's so small. When I can find it I scoop it out and spend a lot of time showing him the fuzzy and letting him touch it, saying, "It's just a fuzzy. Fuzzies are our friends. We like fuzzies. They can't hurt you." Once he's face-to-face with the fuzzy he is OK, but when they start floating toward him it's the same thing all over again! And god forbid I don't see it and it's about to touch him! He tries to run around the tub as I try to get him to sit down. It is not a fun battle.

The first time he did it I will admit I laughed hysterically. I felt like such a bad mom because he was seriously TERRIFIED and I could not pull myself together. I could barely hold him I was laughing so hard.

So, anyway, when I put those Superman PJ's on after the bath last night I thought, "What a superhero!!" Ha ha!

OH, well. He'll always by my little hero, anyway.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Trimming the Tree

Chase started helping us trim the tree on Sunday...

...but then he decided it was more fun to play in the paper all the ornaments were wrapped in!

Then after Chase went to bed we decided to finally open the bottle of champagne that was meant for our 5th wedding anniversary in June! On our anniversary we were still in temporary housing and our anniversary bottle was still on the moving truck. From there we just kept putting it off and waiting for the right moment to crack it open! Feeling festive as we decorated the house, we figured it was time.

(Late) Happy Anniversary to us!

24 more days til Christmas!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Getting Ready!

We started getting ready for Christmas this weekend. We bought our Christmas tree and set up our new train set to get things started!

Yes, Brian is in shorts. I can honestly say we've never shopped for a Christmas tree in shorts before now. Anyway, back to the train.... Chase helped:

When we were looking for trains there were others that were more "Christmassy," but this train had BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) on the cars, which made us think of Chicago (I rode the Metra's BNSF line to work downtown every day for a couple years). It's a little taste of home... and now that it's up and running, Chase loves it, too!

Chase finally started feeling better today, but after almost a week of getting whatever his little heart desired he wasn't too thrilled to be back in the "real world" where the world doesn't revolve around him.... So we spent a good part of today like this:

Brian's dad leaves early in the morning and we feel so terrible that he spent his entire Thanksgiving vacation cooped up inside, either being thrown up on or screamed at. Here's to hoping that our next Grandpa visit is a healthy one so he can really spend some quality time with his grandson!

And please wish us luck as we work on re-introducing Chase to the real world this week! This should be fun....

P.S. Photos of Grandpa W's time in Texas are now in our Photo Album. He took every single one of them (Thanks for letting me steal them, Elmer)!

P.P.S. 26 days til Christmas!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

Are you stuffed? We are! Brian's dad has been in town since Thursday night so here's a little recap of what we have done leading up to our Thanksgiving.

Grandpa brought a lot of Brian's old books with him, so Chase is in book heaven!

On Saturday Brian had to teach all day so Grandpa, Chase and I went to the park for a bit... and it was a little chilly!

Sunday we did a little shopping so Grandpa could buy Chase's birthday and Christmas gifts while he was down here. Then on Monday Chase woke up sick and we spent the next few days like this:

It's Deja Vous! Remember how our last Thanksgiving went? It is tough to see him like this (do you see that caved in tummy?)! He has another bad ear infection so we have decided to go ahead and put the tubes in. In addition to that he has been throwing up and, well... I'll spare you the details but now we're working out of the other end. Today he acted much more alive but he is still not at 100%. Poor baby! He is hanging in there, though. What a trooper!

We had an excellent Thanksgiving dinner. Brian made ham, Texas potatoes and corn bread. Elmer made green beans and I made my famous "top-secret" pumpkin cheesecake (found here). It was our first meal in our dining room, which we just furnished about a week and a half ago. Good timing, huh? We have lots of leftovers so we are going to be eating well for quite awhile!

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for a lot of things.... Family, friends, our health.... I am also thankful for our new careers, which seem to fit both of us so well. I am thankful for Chase every day. It's amazing to watch him grow and change, and he is constantly pulling little comedy bits out of his back pocket to keep us entertained. Our life has definitely been hectic this year, but only because it is jam-packed full of wonderful things. Who can complain about that?

Oh, and I'm sure you have noticed my lazy way of counting down til Christmas this year (above). 28 more days!

Monday, November 17, 2008

New Haircut and New Smiles!

Chase got his hair cut yesterday (he was way overdue)! Well, they cut off more hair than we had anticipated but it's a lot easier to style now!

Chase also knows now to smile for the camera... and wouldn't you know it? He's a ham! Here he is, posing for the camera:

I know.... YIKES, right?!?

P.S. I just added an update to my previous post. Check it out!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Scorpions?!?

I just saw my first Texas scorpion...

...in my house.

It was hiding under one of Chase's puzzles! I picked it up to put a puzzle piece away and it scurried out. It could have killed my baby!!!!

OK, OK.... I'm being dramatic (which is so unlike me, I know). It was very small and we were told by our builder that the small ones are not uncommon around here and that they are too little to do damage to us. STILL....

There was a scorpion in my house!!!! Brian killed it and now I owe him a back scratch.

Update 11/17: I just found this information about Texas scorpions online:
It makes me feel a little better but I still don't want Chase to get stung by one! And next time I guess I won't let Brian kill it with a kleenex, either....

Thursday, November 13, 2008

"Art"

Chase brings home art projects from his daycare a couple times a week. Many times they are super cute artsy-fartsy projects that could not possibly have been done by a 23-month-old. And then there are the times we wonder if the teacher just said, "Oh, crap.... I have to do art with the kids today. What do I have laying around?" Today's art project takes the cake:

It's a pile of pasta and shells soaked in glitter and glue... on a sheet of wax paper.

I know as a mother I'm supposed to keep all this stuff... but I just can't do it.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Blast from the Past

One big perk of being a middle school teacher is that I get to do spirit weeks all over again... but this time I can go ALL out, because it's expected of the drama teacher to go a little nuts. And I don't have to worry if I don't look cool because, hey.... I'm a middle school teacher! That alone makes me a dork no matter what I do!

The week of Halloween was our spirit week. We had "twin day," where I twinned up with a student of mine. We had "college jersey day," where I suited up Mizzou-style (of course!). Then we then had "role reversal" day (teacher/student)... and I went all out. I observed my students closely, took notes of "must-have's" and headed to Wal-Mart. I showed up that day with black nails, a black and red "goth" shirt, a black hoodie that had light-up "do-hickeys" that glowed red when I moved. I wore big earrings, rope bracelets, and spray painted streaks of red in my hair. As a finishing touch I wrote all over my hands and arms. Brian got top billing with "CW+BW" in a big heart, followed by his phone number (867-5309). I was, to quote my students, the "bomb diggidy." Waddup. I had planned on taking pictures, but (shame on me) I never got to it. I know, I know. I'm kicking myself in the butt for that, too.

But my favorite day was Flashback Friday. Of course I flashed back to the '80s/early '90s. Here is a photo of me in front of my classroom:

If you can't see it all in the picture I'll give you the gory details: I crimped my entire head of hair, put a half-pony tail on the top of my head, curled and sprayed my bangs like crazy (though I never did get them to go half as high as I used to be able to!), wore lots of blue eyeshadow and big red hoop earrings and bangle bracelets, tight rolled my jeans, scrunched my socks (though you can't see that in the picture, unfortunately) and... did you see my shirt?? Here, let me help you take a closer look:

Yes, that is a New Kids on the Block T-shirt. This is THE concert T-shirt my "friends" Holly and Carrie bought me at the New Kids concert they went to without me (but I'm not bitter... ha!) in the 8TH GRADE. It smelled a little musty but I was just thrilled it fit! What made it extra hilarious was that my kids actually knew who the New Kids were (because of their comeback) and I had to point out how YOUNG they looked on my shirt before they realized how old it was.

My students could not believe we actually used to dress like this. And they all thought I was from the '70s. *sigh* When I said I dressed like this in the '80s they said, "You were ALIVE in the '80s?!?"

This job is so funny.

Oh, I must also point out that this was on Friday.... Halloween. I took Chase Trick-or-Treating dressed like this. It was funny carrying on conversations with neighbors I hadn't met before and watching them try to figure out if I REALLY dressed like that or if I was just dressed up for Halloween. They didn't want to say anything... just in case. Ha ha!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

"Wilderness" Living

Mom and Dad, this post is for you.

We are introducing Chase to wildlife down here. Here are a couple photos Brian took (from inside the house) while he and Chase were having breakfast yesterday morning (it was my day to sleep in so I missed it). The iron bars you see on the bottom of the photos are our back porch.


Monday, November 3, 2008

Our Little Monster

I know, I know.... It has taken me longer than I would have liked to post Chase's Halloween costume photos. Chase LOVED his costume. After we bought it he wanted to wear it all the time! We finally hid it so he wouldn't wear it out it before Halloween. Here is a decent full-body shot:

We went trick-or-treating to a few houses and it turns out it was a good way for Mom to meet the neighbors! We stopped and chatted at every house we stopped at, which explains why it took us over an hour to go to 3 houses! At the last house Chase just popped a squat on the curb while I chatted away. What a sport!

Chase did say "Trick or Treat" a couple times and loved waiting for people to come to the door after we rang the bell. And he was such a polite boy.... After each person gave him candy he said, "Thank you! Bye Bye!" (with prompting, of course). That's our sweet little monster!

More photos have been posted in our Photo Album if you're interested!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

All Decked Out

Brian has dreamed of the day he could spread his holiday decor out into the yard and with this being our first big holiday in our new house we started what is sure to be a yearly tradition that will keep on growing! In addition to our jack-o-lantern carving, which we do every year (can you guess which one is mine?)....

...we also got some cool "ring-around-the-rosie" ghosts that dance around our tiny little tree in the front yard.

We are so ready for trick-or-treaters this year! Bring 'em on!

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