Christmas slideshow

As promised earlier, here's some of the highlights of our Christmas. We had a wonderful week. We had two Christmas's - one with Amy's side and one with Coleson's side. We also went to Jacob and Michal's wedding, which was beautiful. It's been a wonderful month and we've been blessed to share it with our family and friends. We hope everyone had a nice Christmas and we wish you a happy new year!

Wore out!

I think this about sums up how we all felt by yesterday afternoon! We had a wonderful, yet busy, Christmas week. It has been great to be home today and Ryan and I aren't planning on going anywhere at all. I'll blog soon about all the fun, but for now feel free to get a head start - my pictures and videos are up, so check out the links on the right if you'd like. Otherwise I'll post the highlights here soon!

Wrapping Presents

Ryan and I wrapped all our presents yesterday afternoon. Ryan was especially helpful with the tape; he loved it! Hard to believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve! Merry Christmas to all!!

Santa Claus

Finally! A cute picture of Ryan with Santa Claus! For whatever reason, Ryan wants nothing to do with him. He starts crying long before we even get to Santa's lap. But this Santa was a good one and he hid behind the tree while we got Ryan to sit down and play with the ornament. Ryan never knew he was there! Hooray for really good Santas that love kids and love being Santa! Merry Christmas!!

Movies

I've talked about this with a few friends, but never actually done it. So here it is. A list of all our movies. If you are interested in borrowing any, just let me know and I'll get it to you. And there's no late fees!

DVD:
Shrek
Shrek II
The Rock
The Five People you Met in Heaven
Armageddon
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers 2000
The Sixth Sense
Moulin Rouge
Top Gun
Fever Pitch
The Green Mile
Spanglish
Dreamer
The American President
Romeo and Juliet (1997 Leonardo Dicaprio)
The Thomas Crown Affair
Sweet November
Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Sweet Home Alabama
Jurassic Park
Phantom of the Opera
The Terminal
What Dreams May Come
Good Will Hunting
Big Daddy


VHS:
For Love of the Game
The Land Before Time
The Lion King
Swiss Family Robinson
The Family Man
Independence Day
Shawshank Redemption
Instinct
Cheaper By the Dozen
Cider House Rules
Dogma
Jerry Maguire
The Patriot
Happy Gilmore
Field of Dreams
A Beautiful Mind
Patch Adams
The Rookie
Awakenings
Men in Black
At First Sight
Good Morning Vietnam
Die Hard with a Vengeance
Save the Last Dance
Rain Man
The Legend of Bagger Vance
Dead Poets Society
Coyote Ugly
13 Going on 30
Ever After
Amistad
Pay it Forward
Finding Forrester
Dances with Wolves
The Fisher King

Christmas Eve

What an awesome invite card, they must have a really good marketing director at that church! Hehe.

Anyways, seriously, Christmas Eve is only eight days away, wow! It's hard to believe how fast this year is going. We're looking forward to this Christmas since Ryan is nearly 15 months old and much more into things this year. I am anxious to see what he does with all the presents and paper. And I'm also excited about spending time with family and friends - we'll have 16 people on Christmas day! And a second Christmas on the 27th! We've been very blessed and we are happy to be spending Christmas with lots of people we love.

And hey, if you're looking for something to do Christmas Eve, I'll be hanging out at Mountain Lake!

Christmas lights

Farah wrote a post a few days ago about Christmas trees and why she enjoyed them so much. I have to agree about the ornaments and the significance and history behind each one. But after thinking about it, I've decided the Christmas lights are my favorite part of December. On trees, on houses, wherever. I think it's partly from my memories of driving around with my parents on Christmas eve to see all the lights; it was our special family thing. To me the lights are so beautiful and peaceful and innocent. I'm not really sure how to best describe the feelings, but I think it's an innate and childlike wonder that we are born with. And if you don't believe me, ask Ryan...

Reindeer

Today Ryan and I went to visit the reindeer! We went with our friends, Beth and Peyton, and had a blast. At first Ryan thought the reindeer were a little scary and cried for a minute. But he calmed down and by the end I think he actually liked them. We had a fun time with the reindeer, and also spending time with our friends. We lunched at Chick-fil-a and both babies were on their best behavior and received lots of attention and compliments from the staff there (I love Chick-fil-a, they are always so nice!). We're enjoying December and we wish everyone a Merry Christmas!!

our tree!

Because our apartment is so small and we share it with a 14 month old, a dog, and a cat, we decided not to try to do a tree this year. But Coleson surprised me this afternoon with the perfect artifical tree! It's three feet tall, pre-lit, and looks great on our end table (above the reach of Ryan). And we even rigged it up to the light switch, so you can flip it on as soon as you walk in the door. It only holds a few ornaments, so we picked just the favorites - Ryan's 1st Christmas ornaments and our first Christmas from the year we got married. It's super cute and I love it! Thanks Coleson! Merry Christmas!

Seven and counting

Ryan's finally getting another tooth. He has been stuck at six for probably five months now. But alas, yesterday another bottom one broke through. So now we're at seven. I still don't think he has any back molars, but it's really hard to tell. For some crazy reason he just doesn't like to open his mouth and let me look and feel around. I don't know why... :)

Thankful for our families

The whole gang at Jim and Barbara's on Thanksgiving

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Visiting with Clay and Jo-Ann on Saturday

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! We had a great time visiting with all our family (We missed you Laura, Brian, and Jennifer!). We are blessed to have so many people in our lives to share special times with. We love our family and we loved seeing everyone over the last few days.

Destin

We took a quick trip to Destin last weekend. We left Thursday after work and came back Saturday night. It was wonderful though! The weather was cold and super windy, but we had fun anyways. We did a little shopping, ate some good food (my favorite Destin dining spot is always Whataburger! yum!), walked the beach, and even saw Santa. Notice though that I didn't post any pictures of Santa - yep that's right, for the second year in a row Ryan cried when he saw him. Oh well! We love having a special place so close and thanks to Nana and Pop-Pop for letting us use the house and for watching Sampson so we could go!

Shoutout to Nana and Auntie

Yummy!! Mommy and I met Nana and Auntie Sarah for lunch the other day. While I didn't actually eat any of my Mexican, we still had a really good time! I love you guys!

Walking

I don't think I can avoid it any longer - I have to say that Ryan walks. For the longest time he could, he just wouldn't. And then he would do just a few steps before plopping down. But it's official now, he walks everywhere, and without any bribes. And he gets better everyday. He also always holds out his fists, I guess for balance. My baby's growing up!

We'll change the way you think about church

I spent the past weekend in Columbus GA with a World Care team from Mountain Lake Church. It was a neat opportunity to help Jeff and his new church plant, MyChurch. It was hard to leave Ryan, but I'm glad I went and I was also glad when we got back. It was an awesome experience to see a brand new church - the excitement and anticipation and potential was super cool. I enjoyed being a part of something bigger than me. It was great to see God working in Jeff and Christy's lives and to allow Him to use us to help them and their community.

We helped put on a fall festival in Jeff's apt complex. We grilled out, had a cotton candy machine, lots of inflatables and games, Georgia football on TV, facepainting and tattoos, and all sorts of other fun! Quite a few people turned out and I think it went very well.

Marie and I in the future home of MyChurch. They launch January 25th and we're hoping to make it back!

Our doorhanger team - Marie, Amy, Stephanie, and Mike - with Jeff outside of his new church. 4500 doorhangers between about 2o people in less than 48 hours!

What a week

This has been a crazy, but fun, week. We had a group portrait made, yep that's right, 5 babies under 15 months! It was a mess, but we have fun memories, and hey, one of the pictures came out! :) And then Ryan and I took a great trip with Nana to see Auntie Sarah, Uncle Christian, and Uncle Tyler in Greenville. We've also watched babies, helped Marie at church, and battled the winter time gunk.

And now I'm off to Columbus, GA. We'll be helping MLC's church planter, Jeff, prepare for his new church. I'm excited, but a little scared too about leaving Coleson and Ryan (not for them, but for me!). It's my first night away from Ryan.

Anyways, we've been busy so that's why there haven't been any updates this week, but I'm really hoping things will slow down a bit when I get back from Columbus!

Birthdays and Grandparents

Happy 1st Birthday Asher!! Thanks for inviting us to your party; we had a great time celebrating your special day!!

And thanks to Grandpa and Grandma for driving up to spend the morning with us. We had lots of fun at the park, as well as at brunch and the outlets!

So very close

Ryan can just about walk. For a couple of weeks now he's been steady enough to walk, he just wouldn't. Occasionally we could bribe him (he loves popcorn!) and he would take a step or two and then plop down when he realized what he was doing. But the last two or three days he's been letting go by himself. Not all the time, but several times. And he'll go four, five, eight steps, and controlled steps at that, before he sits down. So I'm really thinking he's going to take off in the next few days and my whole world will change. I know something's going to click in his head anytime now and he'll be running all over the place and then he'll really be a big boy. How exciting and sad at the same time!

What the?!

I'm not registered to vote! I'm quite confused and upset by this. I know it's my fault, but still. I voted four years ago, so it never even crossed my mind that I couldn't vote this year. But according to the Secretary of State's website, you have to have contact with them at least every three years. This can be by voting, changing an address, whatever. So, yes, I'm a bad American and I only vote in the biggies, but I moved two years ago. I changed my address with the DMV when I moved from Mountain Ridge to Canton. I have no idea why that didn't change my address with the voter registration peoples. It changed Coleson's and he is registered to vote this year, but I'm not. And I can't register today either, I had to register by October 6th to vote today. So please, everyone go out and vote in my honor. I actually woke up this morning convicted and excited to vote. It's an important election and my first as a mother; I care about the future a lot more now!

Happy Halloween!

The Chase family had a very nice Halloween. We took the long way to my mom and dad's house on Friday afternoon so we could check out the mountains and the changing leaves. We stopped at the river and enjoyed walking around and taking in the beautiful fall scenery. Coleson and Ryan had fun down by the water; Coleson threw sticks into the water and they would watch them float down stream. Ryan tried to throw a few too, but he just doesn't have the strength yet. It was a perfect afternoon to get outside and be together. Then we spent a nice evening with my parents and Ryan wore his super cool alligator costume; we're hoping no one is superstitious and blames us for the Bulldawgs' big loss. It's just an alligator, not a Florida Gator. And I know it doesn't take much, but yes, Ryan was the cutest gator you've ever seen! Happy Halloween, Happy Fall, and go Dawgs to everyone!




I wish I hadn't...

... but it's too late now. I accidentally cut Ryan's hair. I was hoping for a short little trim that no one would even really notice, but somehow that's not quite how it worked out. He looks like a toddler with a bowl cut. He aged about six months in ten minutes and I miss my baby!! Here are a few action shots, and yes, I even saved some hair in a little bag for his babybook.

autumn awareness

Ryan and his friend Peyton playing in the grass and leaves

Ryan drinking his milk and flirting with the girls standing behind me! :)

pumpkin party

Friday night we had our annual pumpkin carving contest. Every year we get together with our old Mountain Ridge neighbors and have fun hanging out, eating chili, and carving pumpkins. And this year we actually won the contest, yay! I think it had something to do with our pumpkin involving four live goldfish...

Seaturtle Joe, the winner, laying a nest of pumpkin seed eggs while overlooking the ocean filled with four goldfish

The Andersons, Harpers, Chases, Grahams, & Lovoys

having a GOOD day!

Do you ever have those days were you just feel good? I'm having one today. Nothing huge happened, just lots of little things that have made me smile throughout the day and the more I smile the better everything else seems. Two of the several highlights of the day:

*Today I babysat kids at church and two moms came in to pick up their kids at the same time. This conversation happened as they were walking away with the kids, but still close enough that I could easily hear. To use Crystal's easy to read dialogue format:

Mom 1: Hey have you been to the Wow dinner yet. We went on Friday and I was hoping Amy would be doing childcare and she was and I was so happy!
Mom 2: No, we go on Saturday. Hopefully she'll be there then.
Mom 2 then comes back down the hallway to ask me if I'll be there.
Me: No sorry, I'm not doing Saturday night
Mom 2: Aww, man.

Maybe not those exact words because I have a terrible memory, but pretty close. Anyways, it made me feel good that moms like me and trust me with their kids. That's a big deal to me and I'm honored!

*I'm going to Columbus Georgia in November with Mountain Lake. Our church planting intern is launching his new church in December and we'll be there helping promote it. While I'm a little sad and nervous since I'm leaving Coleson and Ryan (not nervous that they won't be okay, nervous that I won't be!), I'm excited because it's my first world care trip. So anyways, I got my first support check in the mail today with a wonderful and encouraging note! Thank you God for this opportunity not only to help out in Columbus, but to grow and stretch myself and get out of my comfort zone even if only for two days. Baby steps!

Weekend Review

Another great weekend... except for the cold! While I'm trying to convince myself that I like fall, this whole cold weather thing is sure making it an uphill battle for me. Oh well!

*Friday we had lunch at Five Guys with our high schools buds, David and Kelley. They were in town from Tucson. It was great to see them and hang out for a few hours. And Keven even showed up for a bit, crazy!

*Saturday morning Coleson pulled out another winning tennis match (maybe someday he will win in a mere two sets, but I doubt it!)

*Saturday afternoon we watched Georgia beat Vandy, go Dawgs!

*Ryan set a record for the longest continuous spit by a baby. No kidding, he spat for a good 30 minutes and he thought he was the coolest dude ever. Check out a video clip on my youtube.

*Saturday night we hung out with 10th graders and made the most amazing 3-1/2 minute commercial you'll ever see.

*Sunday we celebrated the cold with chili, yum!

I'm smart and I know it!

Ryan is not one to practice or slowly figure something out. He waits until he can do it and then it just clicks and he's off. For example, he never practiced sitting up. There was no period of time where he was wobbly. Nope, he just didn't sit up at all until about 9 months and then he was good. And pulling himself up. One day he did it and literally walked all around his furniture and he hasn't stopped since. I think he simply watches, takes it all in, and then just does it. For example, his newest trick... Something clicked and he can stack all his rings now. And not only that, but he knows he's doing it right and he shouts "yay!" and claps in between rings. This literally started all at once yesterday afternoon. He'd never even clapped before then. It's hilarious and so much fun. I was so happy and we had such a great time playing and clapping. And he showed off for his Daddy when he got home from work and then for Grandpa and Grandma when they came over for dinner. Yes he's cute, and yes he's smart, and yes you'd better believe he knows it!! If you're interested there are two new videos that you can watch on the link over there on the right.

PS, you may have noticed on the video that he flips the top ring around so that the ball side was face up. That's not a fluke! I've tried and I can't get him to put the ring red side up. No matter which way I hand it to him, he flips it ball side up. And if I put it on for him with the red side up, he flips it back over. I think he's going to be a perfectionist...

New look...

Okay, what do ya'll think? Do you like it? I really like the picture of us as the new header, but not sure I'm sold on the layout of the posts. I'm sure I'll keep playing around, but I think it's getting better and I've already spent way too much time on it for one day! :)

Pumpkins!

Friday we took Ryan to Burt's Farm! Since Ryan was so little this time last year, we weren't able to enjoy all the fun of the season. So this was Ryan's first time to the pumpkin patch. We all had a great time. He 'walked' all through the pumpkins which was really cute and we took a hayride. He loved the hayride - we were at the front so he was able to stand up and watch the tractor that was pulling us. He thought that John Deere was pretty spiffy. We had a picnic lunch by the little creek (Ryan had his first cheeto!) and then we picked out a few little pumpkins to take home with us - a blue one and white one! It was super fun. There are more pictures in our photo albums - click on the link to the right.

Focusing on Fall

I really do love fall. I know that may surprise some people, since I don't usually act like it. This time of year, I tend to start my downward spiral into the wintertime blues. While fall is actually a nice time of the year, I rarely enjoy it because I am dwelling on the coming cold. I associate fall with winter and winter with cold, nasty, dead grass and trees and no color, way too much darkness, being sick, stuck indoors, and all sorts of other negative things. But, not this year. This year I am not going to worry about winter and I am instead going to focus on fall and it's positives and take it one day at a time.

I love fall!
I love college football!
I love marching bands!
I love the beautiful colors of the changing leaves!
I love carving pumpkins!
I love the cool mornings and nights and open windows!
I love being a mother and sharing all sorts of new experiences with my son!
I love that we are taking Ryan to a pumpkin patch tomorrow and we're going on a hayride!
I love people watching at the Cumming Fair!
I love thinking about Halloween and trying to come up with the best costume ever for Ryan!
I love spending time with my family!
I love hot chocolate!
I love real wood burning fireplaces!
I love s'mores!
I love my slippers and my XL Mickey Mouse sweatshirt (even though I do have some pride and I'll never leave the house in it!).

One year checkup

Ryan went for his one year checkup on Friday. He's still skinny, but doing great!

19lbs, 6 oz (7th percentile!)
30 inches tall (57%)
head circumference 19 inches (92%, lots of brains!)

He got four shots :( but did pretty good with them. I'm going to start weaning him and he can drink whole milk now. He can eat just about anything except nuts and shellfish.
He'll go for the next checkup at 15 months.

Down Home Country Fun

I love being a Mom! Last night we took Ryan to the Cumming Country Fair. I really love taking him to new places and watching him experience new things. I loved Ryan as a baby of course, but being one is wonderful. He's showing his personality and interacting and living life and it's so much fun. He had a great time people watching and eating a few bites of funnel cake. And he enjoyed the high dive show; it was so neat to watch his eyes as he tracked the divers climbing up and then jumping down. And of course he points and waves.

I also love being part of a community. We went to the fair with the Isbells and that was great fun. And then we ran into probably eight more families we knew. I just love that small town feel and doing life together (mlc catch phrase!). It was a great night!

Amy's Picks

Check out my current favorite book and movie!




Click on watch trailer and you can see it right here on my blog, isn't that cool? I'm amused. :)

Happy 1st Birthday Ryan!!

One year ago today... :) Wow, I sound like my parents do on my birthday! It's so hard to believe it's already been a year! We've loved every bit of it and we had a wonderful weekend celebrating.

Friday night we headed to Canton to get ready for the party. We had dinner with Nana and Pop-Pop and Uncle Tyler and Jennifer before heading off to do some errands. Saturday morning Coleson played a wonderful and winning tennis match. It was great to watch, esp since he and Tom pulled it out in the 3rd set.

Saturday afternoon - Party!! We had such a great time and we are so thankful to those of you who joined us. It was super special to have Ryan's aunts and uncles in town! We also had several close friends who braved the gas crisis and long drive to join us and we certainly appreciated it! Ryan loved his party and really loved his cupcake. Be sure to check out the online photo album for all the fun. After Ryan's party we got to continue celebrating with Auntie Sarah and Jennifer who also have birthdays.

Saturday night we watched a very frustrating Georgia game. Yes, Alabama played well the whole game, but my goodness we played terrible, esp the first half! If we had played an 1/8 as well as we did against Arizona State, we could have had ourselves a little game. But oh well, we still love our Dawgs!

Sunday we enjoyed brunch with Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Lolly, and Brian. Then we drove around like fools with Nana and Auntie Sarah trying to find the RiverFest fair only to realize it ended at five and we had to pay for admission - not really worth it since it was already 3:00. Oh well!!

Anyways, we've had such a wonderful weekend and it's only just now Ryan's actual birthday! More fun to come I'm sure. :)

our big boy!

Ryan's a big boy now! He has his new forward facing car seat! He's only been in it three short rides, but so far I think he likes it. I know I do! I love that I can see him and that he can get the ac better. He loves holding the arm rests and chillin' and looking out the window. And when I come around to take him out he waves at me. I think it will be much nicer and easier for all our travels to have him facing us.

Only five more days until the big one!

the park

Yesterday Ryan and I went to the park and met up with some of our buddies. I managed to get Ryan's wagon down the stairs and into the explorer while holding Ryan and the diaper bag. And it was so worth it; he looked super cute riding in the wagon! Noah even sat with him for a little while. Notice how chill Ryan is - he sat back with his foot up the whole ride, not a care in the world! He had a great time at the park and was so happy and calm.

Love ya partner

So today I have to play a tennis match without my partner. That's right, Mom's not available the rest of the season thanks to a broken wrist. While practicing yesterday she went for an overhead and landed on her left wrist and head. After x-rays and a cat scan, she's home with lots of meds and a cast. While it's going to be a rough six weeks for her, I'm thankful it wasn't worse. It's scary seeing your mom go down like that and not bounce back up. I love you mom, and I hope you have a quick and painless recovery. And I'm looking forward to your hard cast; I've got my sharpie ready!

Merge

Tailgate merge! Cool design, eh? :)

great fun, check it out

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Only two weeks...

Only two weeks until Ryan's 1st birthday! It's so hard to believe how fast this first year has gone! At first I was a little sad about my baby growing up, but I realize how lucky we are to have him in our life and what a great 12 months its been. Sure, it was hard at times and Ryan was quite fussy for six months straight, but in the grand scheme of things, it was all still great and I wouldn't change a thing (okay, maybe I wish he had slept through the night sooner!). So with that perspective, I'm looking forward to a great birthday weekend and spending time with family and friends and celebrating the wonderful baby that God has blessed us with!

Gameday pictures

GO DAWGS!! Check out Ryan's super cool red overalls! He had a great time sitting in Daddy's lap watching his Bulldogs beat South Carolina.

Alright, so I know this was actually last week against Central Michigan, but this was an amazing run by Knowshon Moreno and worthy of being included in gameday photos!

Lake Lanier

As many of you probably know, Coleson and I used to have a boat. This was back before a hefty mortage payment, tuition for a master's degree, and a baby :) We kept the boat in our garage and would put it in at War Hill Park, I'd say an average of once a week. It was a wonderful summer and I have lots of great memories of our boat (and of course bad ones too, like Coleson yelling at me when I'd try to drive the boat up on to the trailer; Coleson likes to say if we hadn't sold the boat, we'd probably be divored by now.) Anyways.

So yesterday afternoon, Ryan and I decided to get out for a walk and some fresh air. I headed up to War Hill Park, which I hadn't been to in probably two years. Now, like everyone else in Georgia, I know Lake Lanier is way down. But I didn't really know it until I saw it firsthand. And saw it somewhere where I have clear memories of the old days, thus allowing me to really put it all in perspective. I was totally caught off guard. The boat ramps are of course closed; there'd be no way to get a boat into the water. Then there's the metal dock where we used to swing back around to and pick up our passengers once we were in the water. Yea, that dock is dry and sits probably 30 feet from the new waterline. It was just crazy.

I think what really got me though was how deserted the whole place was. I'll give you that it was a Wednesday afternoon, but still there was no other signs of life anywhere. I really felt like the world could have ended. There were no cars, no boats on the water, nothing. And get this, I actually walked to what used to be an island; I had driven a boat across where I was walking. Kinda hard to believe. It was all very humbling.

I felt sad at first, that we had allowed this to happen. That we had ruined something so beautiful. But then I remembered that Lake Lanier is man-made, so I'm not really sure what to make of that. We created it, but then we destroyed it. Not sure how that fits into the big picture and being good stewards and all that, way over my head. All I know is, what was once a beautiful and fun-filled lake is now, for all practical purposes, gone. Yes, they advertise that 70% of the lake is still there on those feel-good boating commercials, but I don't know that I would go out on it. There are trees sticking up out of the middle of the water. It's a totally different lake than it used to be and I'm not willing to risk my marriage by driving a boat across a newly forming island. :)

Monday morning highlights

We had a great time in Destin this past week. Only one day of slightly bad weather thanks to Gustav, other than that it was beautiful. We enjoyed spending time with family and bonding and playing games and eating good food. Barbara and Sarah even made me try yoga by the sea (it's as goofy as you'd think it be!). And of course the beach and pool and long walks and shopping. It was also nice to spend some time with Tyler and Jennifer as they are working through the wedding plans. There's a good chance it will be in Destin so we had a fun time driving around and checking out resorts and restaurants and whatnot.

Other weekend highlights included:

- Game day Saturday! Go Dawgs! We watched the Dawgs beat up on Central Michigan with Kevin, Colleen, and Baby Lucas

-Sunday morning nap time, going in to pick up Ryan and seeing him standing in the crib waiting on me!

-Renewing our vows at MLC as part of the marriage project series

-Ryan eating pancakes with Grandpa Sunday morning

- Mom and I playing a great, but unfortunately losing, tennis match