10 Years

10 years ago today, Brian and I had our first date. Can you believe it? It's amazing to think back on that night in college at ECU when we met at Chili's for dinner, and then went to Ham's afterward for drinks. All those little butterflies about not having enough to talk about went away almost instantly and we talked non-stop all evening. Now look at us, 10 years later... married with kids, in a beautiful home with real careers.... It's amazing to think that all of this sparked from one little evening at Chili's.

I love you, Baby!

Nature Attacks

Here are just a couple deer photos to show you just how close they get to our house! This, combined with the cardinals that keep attacking (literally) our windows, makes us feel like we're under attack by nature at times!

This one was taken from the car, after we pulled up to the edge of the driveway:

(Yes, there are five of them.... And they aren't going anywhere!). This next one was taken from the back porch:

Brian took this one because the deer was seriously pounding its hooves on the ground and grunting at the house!

Definitely a Girl!

Brian, Chase and I had a 3D ultrasound done on "Baby Two" this weekend, and got confirmation that Chase is definitely getting a little sister. Now I can paint with confidence! It was a pretty cool experience. Chase was a bit high maintenance, which made it hard for Brian to be able to enjoy the experience, as he was constantly entertaining him. But we walked out with a CD of pictures and a DVD of the whole thing, so we will have another screening at home... probably when Chase goes down for a nap!

Chase, when he was paying attention, thought it was pretty cool. He was not a fan of the blue goop they put on my belly, however. He climbed up in the bed with me for a little while... until he got a bit of goo on his arm and quickly decided that was not the spot for him.

Here are a couple photos of our little girl. She was squished up against my belly, which made it hard for them to get a good picture.

Sucking on her fingers:

A big yawn:

Sleeping peacefully:

More 3D photos are on their way to our Photo Album if you're interested!

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

2nd post of the day!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day today. I got to go out to eat and Chase helped me with my dessert (He IS my son.... I think he ate more than I did)! I got some wonderful gifts, but what really made me cry were my cards. Check this out:

Chase LOVES to write "M's" (more on that another time), and he can also write "O's." Those two letters are his specialty. So Brian helped him piece them together into "MOM." So sweet. My baby is growing up!

Conversations With a 3-Year-Old: Getting Serious

Chase makes us laugh all the time, but a lot of times I think, "It's hilarious to us right now in this moment, but will it translate to funny on the blog?" This may be one of those "You had to be there" conversations, but I'm going to post it anyway.

We have to get creative sometimes to get Chase to eat. Today he didn't want his mac & cheese. He has been obsessed with babies lately, so I tried this approach:

Me: Chase, do you know what baby birds eat?

Chase: What?

Me: WORMS!

Chase: Ew!

Me: Your mac & cheese looks like worms. Can you be a baby bird and eat them? (Yes, I know this kind of sounds like a scene in "A Christmas Story.")

Chase: (takes a bite of his mac & cheese)

Me: EW! I can't believe you ate those worms! You better not do it again!

Chase: (in a completely serious tone) Uh oh, Daddy.... Look. This is getting SERIOUS.

Air Show

We took Chase to the air show in Temple again this year and he had so much fun. His favorite part was the bombs (from the war reenactment).

When Chase saw this plane he said, "Grandpa's gonna fly that one!" I thought it was cute so I had to take a picture of it:

At the end they had an F16 fly by and it was LOUD...

...but very cool!

I'll post more photos to our Photo Album soon!

Conversations with a 3-Year-Old: Eye for an Eye

So I picked Chase up from daycare yesterday and he was just standing there, crying. I asked him what happened and after he finally calmed down he told me another kid hit him. I said, "Chase, you need to go over there and tell that kid he can't hit you, that it's not nice and you don't like it." He wouldn't do it so I just got him calmed down and we walked out to the car. I have been working so hard to get him to be assertive with his words, so when we got in the car I said, "OK, Chase. So what do you do if someone hits you?" His response:

"Jimmy says I should hit them back and then they won't hurt me anymore."

My jaw just dropped. At three years old he's already learning that it's OK to hit someone if they hit you first. Ummmmm.... NO! So we spent a lot of time in the car on the way home talking about how we don't ever hit back, yadda yadda yadda.

Now I know there are opposing views on this subject out there, but I struggle daily with my middle school students, trying to convince them not to fight. I mean, in the world it doesn't matter who hits who first. Did you hit someone? You're in trouble. In school: You're suspended. In the workplace: You're fired. In life: You're going to jail. My principal gave me this amazing quote that I will never forget:

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. -Ghandi

I didn't realize I was going to have to start teaching Chase this lesson so early in his life!