Welcome February

We're one more month closer to summertime, yay!  Although it's hard to complain too much this year since it's been such a mild winter.  But nonetheless Ryan and I enjoy talking about all the fun things we can do when it warms up: going outside, swimming in the pool, playing on the swingset and in the playhouse, and all sorts of other summertime favorites!

But we're making the best of winter until then.  We've had several playdates recently.  And Abby's even had a couple of her own with some of our friends in our new small group.  It's exciting having lots of little girls around, we're not used to that.  We had Olivia over last week and I loved that Abby talked about "Libya" the rest of the day!  We've also been up to Chickfila and then Lowe's for the Build and Grow workshops; I didn't realize how age-appropriate they were.  Ryan had a great time building a bug box [although he keeps his HexRobot in there] and a dinosaur.  Mommy went out to Atlanta Bread Company with Christa and Alicia for some much needed girls' time.  And Mommy and Daddy had a date night!  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Bahama Breeze and saw Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.  We've also done a few projects around the house [pictures to come eventually, I have to put the finishing touch on the family room adventure first]. 

So that's about all I can think of for now.  Happy February!

our crazy kids!

So out of the blue the other night, Abby starts doing this crazy stuff.  I've never seen her do it; we didn't prompt her or anything.  She's just spontaneous and happy and full of life!  And of course, monkey see monkey do, Ryan had to try it too :) 

[and believe it or not, Abby gets a little camera shy, she was even more into it before I started filming!]

Pizza Dinner

Last night we took the kids to pizza for dinner and to tell Ryan about the Baby in mommy's belly!  It was so much fun!  We went ahead and told him it's a girl [on the off chance it is a boy, I'd rather him be surprised  & excited, then disappointed it's a girl].  He asked if it could be a boy, but we said it wasn't up to us and that it looks like God's going to give him another little sister.  He took it in stride and moved right on.  He then started talking about all the things he's going to teach the baby to do, like walking and rolling over [hopefully not in that order :)]. 

We also gave them Big Brother/Big Sister gifts; I was in a great mood at Hobby Lobby and couldn't resist buying them something!  We gave Ryan some UGA dogtags.  I wasn't sure if he'd love or hate them, but he seems to love them, relief!  And I finally gave in and bought Abby the UGA cheerleader doll.  The last two times we've been to Hobby Lobby she's carried "baby" around the whole time.  I just couldn't say no again! 

We are so blessed with our two kids and with a third on the way!  I'm so excited that it's 'real' now and we can relax and celebrate a little! 

Baby Chase is on the way!!

Tennessee

We spent Saturday up in Chattanooga.  We have a season's pass to the TN Aquarium that's about to expire so we have to get in our money's worth!  The kids had a great time.  I loved watching Abby wave to the animals and yell "hi!" to the tanks.  And Ryan's getting so verbal and smart, that everything's fun and exciting.  We talked about spider crabs in particular for several days afterwards [I think he was s-c-a-r-e-d of them.  He wanted to know where they live, would they be at the beach or in the pool, would they bite his feet, that sort of thing]. 
After the aquarium we explored the Chattanooga Choo-Choo complex.  I thought it had a lot of potential, but it's old and not well marketed or anything.  The kids enjoyed it though and we took a trolley ride.  We had the trolley all to ourselves, so the conductor gave them special treatment including pulling the string to ring the bell. 

chasing away sugarbugs

Ryan had a dentist appointment today and he did really great [well most of the time ... positive reinforcement though!].  He has ten teeth on top and ten on bottom; twenty total!

And ... while we were there Dr. Miles took a peek at Abby's teeth too.  She's too little for the real cleaning, but he brushed them and flossed them.  She looked so little in the big chair, sitting on a sleep positioner sort of thing.  She really did do great; no fussing at all!  She has eight teeth on top and eight on bottom; sixteen total.  [I had no idea, so I was excited to know :)].   The dentist could see the two- year molars starting to erupt; they should be here within the next six months and then she'll have all her baby teeth too.

2012 Fun

So we've been in hibernation mode around here :)  Is it spring yet??  Fortunately this winter has started out much milder than last year, but the constant rain will start to mess with your mind after awhile!

The last two weeks have been lazy, relaxing ones broken up by some family & friends time.  David and Kelley, a couple of our best buds from high school, moved back to the east coast and we enjoyed catching up with them a couple of times over break.  And of course lots of family around for Christmas and New Year's; we enjoyed getting to visit with both Aunt Mackenzie and Uncle Jason too.  We had one of our favorite playdates - Catch Air and Pizza Hut with Asher and Graydon [and an ever growing number of sibs :)].  We also partied with Olivia from our new small group at her second birthday party.  It's cool watching Abby make her own friends; more often than not she ends up playing with Ryan's friend's siblings, which is great, but it's fun to see her with girls her age!  She was super cute feeding Olivia goldfish.  And somewhere in there we enjoyed a nice dinner with James and Rachel and Jake and baby Lily.  We also had a family breakfast at McDonald's - family, pancakes, and the playplace, yay!

whew, maybe we haven't been as laidback as I thought; it sure sounds like a lot when you write it all down in one place!  Hope everyone's new year is off to a happy and healthy start!

Top 21??

I've seen a few of my fellow bloggers posting cool New Year's posts ... top ten stories or highlights or whatnot of 2011.  I thought it'd been fun to post my top ten favorite pictures from 2011.  Except that I originally had twenty-eight.  I narrowed it down a little, but then decided it's my blog and who says I have to limit myself to ten??  So here's the Chase family top twenty-one for 2011 ... [in no particular order, well it actually kind of, sort of uploaded chronologically, but not totally].

Love the joy and innocence in this one! [thanks to cousin Teri for the photo]

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!! I was so happy to get a great picture! A lot of bribes [usually M&Ms], deleted pictures, and begging from mommy occur in order to bring you these photos :)

 

Ryan got a new bike in the spring and loves going for rides!

 

Abby's parent/ child dedication at Watermarke church. Certainly a special day!

 

Abby turned one in April!

 

and Mommy turned 30, yikes! But thanks to great family and friends and a super fun party, it wasn't so bad. Love these ladies!

 

Awww, we's so cute :)

 

All dressed up for Easter brunch

 

We love the beach!! And seeing as this photo is hanging on the living room wall and still the background on my computer, I think it's one of the top pictures of the whole year...

 

Classic. Still can't believe I got this shot! Weeeee!

 

Ring around the rosy! This just says summertime in America to me. Love these kids!

 

One of our many crazy adventures. Yumm, free Chick fil a!

 

The beach again! This time in Nags Head with the Crouse side.

 

What a good lookin' family we are :) Hanging out on top of Stone Mountain.

 

Goo Georgia Bulldawgs!!

 

Loved the halloween costumes this year. Ryan the fireman and his dalmation puppy-dog Abby.

 

Silly Monkeys!! An awesome day hiking Sawnee Mountain.

 

Ryan feeding a cow through the car window. What more can you say to that??

 

 

Daddy and his little Donkey. I love being a preschool mommy. The Christmas programs, while crazy and chaotic, still get me all emotional :)

 

Not one of the best photos of the year, but certainly one of the best moments. Rolling in the grass on a beautiful fall day under the Washington Monument.

 

My sweet babies! hugs!

 

We hope you had a wonderful 2011 and best wishes for a happy, healthy, and blessed New Year!!

how does your garden grow?

Ryan's been working on his garden for about two weeks now and it's coming along quite well.  He painted the rocks and mushrooms to go in it [all green!].  After assembling it and planting the seeds, he's been patiently checking on it every morning.  And it's certainly growing!  The grasses and beans are very large and it's been fun seeing the progress.  Good job Buddy; you didn't get your green thumb from Mommy that's for sure :)   

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas!!  We hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  We enjoyed lots of time with family, going back and forth between Nana & Pop-Pop's and Grandma & Grandpa's.  The kids had a great time and loved all the attention and of course all the presents too.  Santa brought Ryan the "magic train that goes all by itself" that he had been hoping for.  And Abby loves the new stroller and baby that she got.  It was a special Christmas, what with Ryan understanding so much this year and being so excited.  And it helped that everyone was feeling good just in time for all the festivities thanks to some much needed antibiotics :)  Now to do something about the house; it looks like a bomb went off in a toy store ...