Jennifer + Tyler

If you haven't heard, Coleson's brother Tyler recently got engaged, so....

Congratulations Jennifer and Tyler! We are super happy for the both of you! Welcome to the family Jennifer. I am excited to have you as a new sister and I am looking forward to getting to know you even better. We love you both and can't wait for all the wonderful events and special memories to come. Enjoy this exciting time and we wish you lots of love!

Flashback: 4th of July & Vacation

So, we spent the 4th of July in Greenville with Coleson's family. Downtown Greenville is absolutely beautiful. If you've never been, I highly recommend it. There is an amazing park right in the middle of downtown with a river, a suspension bridge, waterfalls, and everything. We had a great time walking around and checking out all the food and fun. The fireworks were cool, although they didn't start until really late. Ryan did wonderful! He stayed up, wasn't too fussy, and actually watched the fireworks. We had a great time celebrating Ryan's first fourth of July with the family.

We left from there for Rocky Mount NC and on to the Outer Banks where we met up with my parents, my sister, and Brian. We spent a week in a house on the beach in Nags Head NC. It was a really nice place and we enjoyed hanging out with everyone and relaxing. The beach was great, although fairly windy (thanks hurricane Bertha). We tanned, played horseshoes, walked the beach, set up Ryan's baby pool, and did all sorts of fun beachy stuff. We also enjoyed lots of delicious meals, played fun games, saw the Wright Brothers memorial (that was the big rock in the earlier photo), climbed sand dunes, and visited a lighthouse. Thanks Mom and Dad for a super vacation!

  

If you're interested, you can see the all the vacation photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/TheFamilyChase/Vacation

We're back!!

We have internet!!!! Somehow I survived a month without being connected! It's crazy how dependent I've become on it. I've missed blogging and sharing photos and emailing and online billpay. But alas, we have service again and life is good.

So we've settled into our new place and are enjoying being near to church and work and Walmart and whatnot. Oh and of course Chick-Fil-A as well. Let's see, I think we've been there three times already, including a fun and spontaneous trip last night with two sets of Isbells and the Webbs. We've also walked to Waffle House for breakfast and wandered the outlets. And Little Peking for lunch with Chrissy (there is no good Chinese in Canton!). Oh speaking of lunch with Chrissy - funny story about Ryan. So we went to the bank and visited for a while and Ryan even let Chrissy hold him. Then we left for Little Peking and I took Ryan inside in his car seat and slid him into the booth next to me. I promise you Ryan stared Chrissy down for a good two minutes. The look on his face was hilarious - sort of like who are you, why are you still here, why didn't we leave you at the bank, why are you talking to my mom. I've never seen him do anything quite that extreme!

Anyways, lots has been going on, so I think I'm going to try to do some flashback blogs because I want to get down all the exciting stuff Ryan's been up to. He's almost crawling - still rolling and scooting everywhere. But recently, he's picked his stomach up a few times, he just hasn't combined that with moving forward. He loves to stand and will "walk" with lots of help! He also has several new teeth. He has the original two bottom ones, two top ones, and two more top ones just broke through about a week ago (which included a fever, lots of extra sleeping, and a worried me!). And he loves Cheerios! Actually, I think he just loves that he can feed himself.

Well, I'm happy to be back and connected. Be sure to check back often since I plan to blog like crazy to make up for the last month!

7 days to go!

We are still internet-less, but there is an end in sight! The dude comes on Tuesday the 29th to hook us up. I am super excited to get re-connected!

Still Alive

Yes, we are alive and doing well. However, we are still without internet and I'm beginning to feel quite a bit disconnected! (Thanks for missing us Crystal!) Ryan and I are actually in the business center of the apartment complex using their internet. Hopefully we'll be back online soon; I think Coleson was going to work on that today for me.

So we've moved in and we've been on an awesome vacation. I've got lots of pictures that I'm super eager to share, so watch for those soon. I'm also hoping to blog a little about the highlights of our trip, but I can't conquer that right now. Ryan's sitting here in his stroller and I don't think he'll last much longer! Here's a quick preview of our trip, plenty more pictures to come, but again I'm limited right now by a really slow internet and a baby!

Vacation!

Hey to my friends and blog-readers! Just wanted to let ya'll know we are still alive and doing well, we're just haven't been blogging. We've moved and we don't have our cable / internet set up yet, so I've been disconnected from the world. And now we are on vacation, hooray! We left this morning and are currently in South Carolina visiting Coleson's siblings. We're off to see fireworks shortly. Then we head on to North Carolina for a night at my sister's, followed by a week on the beach with my parents and my sister and Brian. (speaking of beaches, Coleson and I got engaged on the beach, as did Sarah and Christian... ) So anyways, you won't hear from us again for a while. We'll be tan and relaxed the next time we blog! Love ya'll and we'll be back in touch in a week!

Ryan's check-up

In the midst of all the crazy stuff going on, Ryan had his 9 month checkup on Friday. He's doing great! He weighed in at 17lbs 2 oz and is 28.5 inches - long and lean like his daddy. He did have to get one shot on his leg and a finger prick to test his iron levels which were normal. He even got Snoopy bandaids! We'll go back for the next visit in three months when he's a year old.

Quick Update

Well, we're moving! Our stuff is mostly in our new place up in Dawsonville, although it's not put away or clean at this point. And we've still got a decent bit here at the old place. But we techincally have until Friday morning to be out. We just needed to get as much as possible done the past two days since Coleson is back at work now. And we leave on the morning off the 4th for vacation! hooray!
So a huge thank you to everyone who got tricked into helping us pack on Friday. I really feel badly we never made it to the pool. Sorry! But thanks, thanks, thanks! And thank you to the guys who met us on the other end to unload yesterday. Ya'll are great! Thanks also to Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, and Pop-pop for helping out and watching Ryan for a few hours yesterday. I know he enjoyed seeing each of you and it was helpful to be able to focus on signing our lease and getting the stuff of the truck. I sure did miss him though for the short time he was gone!

Crazy Stuff

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged and this one has to be real short too (Coleson would probably kill me if he knew I was even on the computer at all instead of packing!). I'll blog more next week and fill ya'll in on the details, but long story short we are moving. Today. Crazy! We came full circle and decided last week that renting was really the best option. It's a great financial move for us and it allows us to see what it's like living back in Dawsonville before we commit and buy anything. And we still own our house here, so we have the option to come back in nine months like nothing ever happened if we chose to do that. So Monday I get a call that someone wants to see the house. By Monday night we have a lease drawn up, Tuesday morning they verbally accept it, and on Wednesday we had signatures. We signed a lease of our own at lunch on Wednesday and off we go! We're super excited about this opportunity and are looking forward to seeing what God has planned for the next nine months!

the bucket list

So last night we watched The Bucket List with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. It was a pretty good movie, worth seeing. However, I really thought I would absolutely love it and Coleson was worried that after watching it I would be inspired to create my own list and want to see the world. However, it had sort of the opposite effect on me. About halfway through, I was worried I wasn't even going to like the movie. The two main characters, who suffer from terminal illnesses, are given six months to live and they set off to see the world - skydiving, the Great Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, that type of thing. And that's all fine and dandy, but what really got me was that Morgan Freeman leaves his wife and family behind to do it. So that's why I didn't think I was even going to like it. I was worried they were going to be so busy doing and seeing "stuff" that they missed out on the really important things like relationships. But of course the writers are smarter then me and they brought the plot around full circle and it was a great movie and all the characters made up with their loved ones before it was too late.

Instead of stirring in me the desire to see the world, it really made me value my family. If I was given six months to live, I would want to spend it with Coleson and Ryan, not in Hong Kong with a stranger. Yes, I'd love to travel and see the world, but would I rather skydive or have a big family dinner at the end of the day? And yes, I know in the movie it took doing all that crazy stuff in order for the men to realize that's not what's important and I get the point of the movie. But in real life I want to live like that now. I am terribly afraid of getting so caught up in all the little stuff and the daily living, that I forget to live. We only have a tiny precious amount of time here on Earth and at the end of the day, it's God and family and love and friendships that matter. I think that's why I no longer care about having this big beautiful house; all I really need is a roof over my head. Coleson and I love to have discussions about the future and our favorite conversation was always "where do we see ourselves in five years?" More and more the answer to that question is I have no idea. We used to love to talk and plan and be in control, but the last few months something's changing in me. Right now I have no idea where we'll be in five years, or even one, but that's really exciting and freeing. I can't wait to see what God has in plan - I know He has a much better future for us then we could ever plan or imagine. And it seems no matter what path we try to take, He pulls us back around anyways. So right now, I'm letting going and enjoying the ride!