Creation according to Abby

Ever since Sunday, Abby has been "reading" her books in the car :  "And the next day, it was soo dark."  Over and over again in her super cute Abby voice.  We know they talked about Creation at church and they are working on a memory verse from Genesis.  And we know that Abby is a parrot and if something gets stuck in her head, she'll repeat it endlessly, even if it's not exactly correct.  So I suppose this was Abby's take away from church this week.  "And the next day, it was soooo dark!" 

A new beginning

A new beginning ... to our family at least, no guarantees about my blogging life :) 

Our sweet Chloe Marie was born on August 7th at 1:21 pm!!  She weighed in at an itty-bitty [relatively speaking] 8lbs, 10ozs, and 20ins long.  She's been a great baby!  She eats well, although she much prefers a bottle over nursing, which means lots of pumping for Mommy.  But we're just happy she's gaining weight now!  She sleeps well too and is very rarely fussy. 

Ryan and Abby adore her.  Ryan loves to hold her and kiss her and help give her bottles.  Abby is always trying to pick her up and give her hugs, which is wonderful albeit stressful at times :)  They love having their picture taken with her and shoving her paci in her mouth at the first signs of a whimper.  I enjoy watching them all interact; we are so blessed with our family of five! 

 Abby can tell you that her name is "Chloe Marie Chase" yet she always refers to her as "Baby."

Betsy, the same midwife that delivered Ryan!

Happy 4th!

So as mentioned in my previous post, it's naptime and I'm exhausted :)  But I really want to post about the 4th of July before we get too far removed.  It's one of my very favorite holidays and we had a super fun one this year. 

We started the morning with an adventure down to the assisted living home that Nana is now the director of.  It was fun to visit with her for a few minutes and see where she works.  And it's near where I grew up, so it was good to see a few old sights [McDonald's for fries and cokes :)] and of course all sorts of new stuff. 

Then we joined up with Grandma for our neighborhood party.  We enjoyed some bbq and then the kids [and Grandma too!] had a blast on the huge inflatable water slide.  It sure looked awesome! 

We watched the parade and fireworks with several members of our small group.  The kids enjoyed the parade quite a bit; fortunately for them they didn't understand that just about the entire parade consisted of political candidates.  All they knew was they got a lot of candy and stickers!  And of course there were a couple police cars and swat trucks, as well as every tow truck in town. 

In between the parade and fireworks we enjoyed playing with our small group friends and eating a picnic dinner.  The highlight was the ballroom dancing studio next to where we were set up.  It's owned by a couple from our church and they let us come in for a few minutes.  Ryan and his friend Anna Wynn stole the floor.  They were soooo cute dancing and twirling and having a blast.  It was the most adorable thing to watch.  The kids also enjoyed bubbles, sidewalk chalk, Josh's cars & ramps, and lots of sweets. 

The fireworks show was really pretty good, esp given it was in Canton :)  Abby thought they were super loud and she stayed in my lap the whole time.  But she slowly got used to them and sat up a little straighter to take it all in. 

It was a great day with family and friends!  Happy 236th Birthday America! [yes, Ryan asked me how old America was and I had to do the math]. 

Happy 4th of July!

waving to the firetrucks, they were loud so Abby was in Daddy's arms :)

checking out the wagon full of goodies after the parade

the cute couple!

Loud but so pretty

I figured it out!

I realized why I can't keep this blog up anymore, even though I really want to!  Naps.

Yup, I'm 36weeks pregnant and I can't keep my eyes open.  I sleep an average of 9-10hrs a night and I nap probably every other day with Abby while Ryan watches TV.  Don't be jealous though, I don't wake up feeling refreshed.  I can't wait to feel awake and alert again, living in this exhausted fog is really getting old [and I suppose birthing a newborn who will want to nurse around the clock and won't sleep through the night for a couple months won't help.  But I figure it'll be a different kind of pain and I'm ready for that :)]. 

So I don't know the answer to my little blogging dilemma, but identifying the problem is certainly a start, right?? 

gno at cfa

Last night Abs and I went to the Girls' Night Out event at Chickfila.  What a wonderful evening!  Grandma and Nana joined us, as well as our friends Ericah & Anna Wynn and Liz & Olivia.  It was great visiting with everyone and enjoying some girl time.  Abby didn't do a full makeover or anything, but she did try on some lipstick.  And she also made herself an ice cream sundae, yumm. 

Ryan and Grandpa had some boy time eating pizza and shopping Lowe's.  And then Daddy surprised Ryan by picking him up!  He was able to get an earlier flight home from a St. Louis business trip and we were all happy to see him at about 7pm instead of midnight :) 

my Olympic diver

Earlier in the week we had a backyard swimming pool playdate with our neighbors Sam & Jack.  We always have a blast playing in the pools and spending the day outside.  Of course, who needs pools when you can just sit in the play sink?  My silly kids sat in here for a good ten minutes!

And then Ryan decided to reenact the Olympics diving trials we had watched on TV the night before.  And yes, since everyone has asked, he was fine!  Completely safe!  Mommy watched him closely and I felt he was in no danger.  And no, I wouldn't let him back the chair up.  He wanted to truly jump, but I draw the line at slipping and landing in grass.  At least the pool had water and squishy, air-filled sides :)  And yep, in the second photo he is jumping backwards.  He had a great time and it was fun to watch him having so much fun, but we will work up to doing these jumps in a real pool! 

Both kids were super cute watching the diving on TV.  Ryan asked a bunch of questions about it and has been talking about it most of the week.  I loved Abby's reactions to the dives: "Wow. Oh. My. Gosh." She was that deliberate and excited about it, so cute.  They both want to be divers when they grow up!  [That or work at a bank, that's what Ryan has mentioned several times recently.]

Where to begin?!

Wow, I really don't know how that happened!!  I was doing so well there for a bit keeping this up-to-date; and not only that, but I was really enjoying posting.  And all of a sudden it's been almost six weeks since my last post.  I don't know that I can really blog successfully and thoroughly about the last six weeks and I think if I try, I'd give up and it'd be another six weeks til I posted again :)  So be sure to check out my picasa pictures, that's one thing I've always managed to keep current and here's a quick catch-up:

So here we are almost done with June already.  Six weeks until Chloe's arrival [but who's counting :)].  Our amazingly awesome week-long beach trip to Destin has come and gone, boo!  Ryan spent a week in SC with cousin Maxim at VBS.  We've had lots of playdates and been swimming several times.  We celebrated Nana's 60th birthday at the Renn Fest with the family.  Abby finished her third and last Music Class, sad!  She'll go to preschool two days a week in the fall.  Coleson and I celebrated our 9th anniversary with an after-bedtime-dinner-for-two and then went to the concert on the lawn a week later.  We had a wonderful playdate with about half of Ryan's preschool class at Burger King, who knew they had such an awesome playplace??  Abby's first pedicure, not a real one, just at home with Mommy.  Our final appt with the specialist, Chloe still has two completely functioning kidneys, yay!!  Backyard swimming pools and watermelon, lots of watermelon.  Watching old man tennis on a beautiful summer evening.  Working on the finishing touches for Abby and Chloe's new room.  Poor Ryan hanging out with four two-year old girls at one of Abby's playdates.  Welcome to Moe's a couple of times with Grandma and Grandpa.  We hosted Ryan' end of the season soccer party in our backyard, what a fun night and a great group of kids!  [he's officially registered for t-ball in the fall, woo-hoo].

Speaking of t-ball in the fall, a conversation worth remembering:
* Ryan and I were talking about his t-ball season starting in the fall.  He was very excited and asking about who was going to come watch [will Grandma and Grandpa come?  will Nana and Pop-Pop come?, etc].  I had a realization and said hey Buddy, do you know who else will be at your games?  Chloe!  His whole face lit up and he clapped once or twice, he was so excited.  She'll come to all my games?  She'll watch me play?  He's already a great big brother, but he's certainly going to be a great big brother to Chloe too.

Does that cover it all?  Who knows?  But that's all this baby-brained, pregnant, full-time momma of a two and four year can remember at this time :)  If I left out something super fun we did together, I apologize!  Here's to keeping current once again!

one of the top Mommy moments

I am twenty-eight weeks pregnant today.  I've been feeling Chloe move for a good ten weeks or so [it gets earlier every time; I guess I know what to expect by now!].  Coleson couldn't feel her right away, but he has for awhile now too.  And there have even been a couple of times where I've been able to see her move; those are wonderful!  But today was by far the best.  Ryan and Chloe and I finally timed it right and Ryan felt his baby sister kick him!!  It was absolutely amazing and he was very excited!  "I felt her!!" And it was a good reminder that this miserable thing called pregnancy is one-hundred percent worth it!!  I love all three of my babies!

Dismissed!

Ryan is officially done with speech therapy!  He's been doing great, had caught up to his peers, and has actually been working on articulations at an eight-year-old's level.  I think he just got stuck in the system [it is government after all :)] and I've been ready for him to be done!  If he still needed it, that'd be one thing, but I just don't think  he's been getting nearly as much out of it recently.  So I am very excited and proud to say that as of yesterday, he is out of the program and we are free!  He had a great teacher this past year, Ms. Holt, and we appreciate all her hard work.  He also made a friend named Colin, although Colin must have been dismissed as well - he disappeared a couple months ago and we haven't seen him since. 

End of the year

Hard to believe, but Ryan is done with preschool for the year!!  His last day was this past Thursday.  We had a celebration complete with a performance and a party.  It was an American theme and they sang several patriotic songs, including Yankee Doodle.  Ryan loved that one best and practiced at home several times and always said what a silly song it was.  They also recited numbers and colors in Spanish during their performance.  I always love these events, they are so sweet and emotional and yet chaotic too :) 

After the singing, we headed back to his room for a few snacks and goodbyes to all his friends and teachers.  He had such a great year and we will really miss everyone.  His two favorite preschool friends, Hudson and Brooks, will not be returning in the fall, sad!  His teachers, Ms. Kathy and Ms. Marlene, have been wonderful.  Ryan even told me later in the afternoon: "I miss Marlene, she's a good teacher."  And Ms. Kathy took time to tell us how wonderful Ryan is before we left and that's always a good feeling.  She said he's always very respectful and friendly and she hopes we realize how smart he is too.  Wow, yay Ryan! 

After preschool, we went out to Wendy's with Daddy before he had to go back to work.  Ryan LOVES Wendy's!  While I am sad another year has come and gone already, I'm also excited for summer break. [yes, I know, I'm that crazy mom that actually likes having her kids around :)].  We've had a couple of lazy days which have been wonderful.  We look forward to lots of fun stuff this break including a week in Destin and of course Chloe's arrival a little later in the summer!

Ryan, Eli, and John walking in for the performance

 

snacks with Hudson and Brooks

Ms. Kathy and Ms. Marlene