1.09.2011

On with the new!

Five Months have flown by. Wow! It's amazing how fast. No excuses...just busy! On with the new year & the goal of blogging a little more regularly. I'd love to share what we've been up to since Chase was born, there has been quite a bit. I'll try to do it as briefly as possible! First off, I love this quote so much that I wanted to have it permanently displayed on my blog, it's "Love is how we got here", taken from my sis in law Brooke. I love it . I've felt very blessed to have such a full life, with 5 sweet kids & an amazing hubsband. My life has become what it is today because I met & fell in love with this boy.
Here we are the night we were engaged. 12/97

Love is how we got here....

Almost 13 years later--our family. Chase's blessing day.

I left off blogging right after Chase was born so I'm going to back track here and begin with a few shots in the new new newborn phase. As you'll soon see Chase isn't EVER put down much around here. :) Here he is with Allison.
Chase is adorable. He has such a sweet, mellow, smiley personality (thank goodness). He really has brought such joy into our home. All the other kids adore him and their favorite thing is to get him to giggle.

We blessed Chase in October. We were blessed to have family drive long distances just to support us. I love these men in my life. My Dad is on the right & BJ's Dad is on the left.


All the family that made it down.

I love this picture with all of them in white, just being together.

Baby Chase.


Halloween 2010


sleepy tiger


Allie & Chase. Allie loved being a witch this year and loved chanting & singing the tune, "I'm a mean old witch with my Hat...and I ride on my broom with my cat". It was hilarious.


Sleepy Mommy & sleepy Chase. Oh how I love this feeling. I can't complain though, Chase has been my best sleeper. He's sleeping through the night. Yahoo!




Crazy story. this is the edge of our yard! One morning Allison was down watching cartoons & I was resting upstairs. Chase was asleep. All of a sudden I hear a BOOM! Allison calls up to say the TV turned off because of the loud sound. I came down & glanced out my kitchen windows to see huge puffs of smoke & fire raging on the edge of my yard. Our hill was on fire. I ran in to tell BJ (who now works from home everyday... so nice), called 911, then ran out to turn on my hose. The fired dept. was already on it's way. It was a power line that blew. It was scary. I ran through my mind what we'd have to do if the fire wasn't contained. It was contained pretty quickly however. What a blessing that it wasn't at night. You just never know what life brings tomorrow.


Ahhh. My kids with my Mom. What great timing it was that my Mom's flight came in the morning I delivered Chase.


Here comes the smiles!

Sorry Chase, but this was so funny. Thank your Dad.





All the family at the Pumpkin Patch



Loren. We can't believe she'll be 12 this year!



This was a random trip to the pumpkin patch. I told the kids to put on clothes that were either orange, white or black and we walked down. It amazingly turned into a really cute, "everyone's in the mood to smile" photo shoot. I love this picture.


In Sept I got to fly out to UT with Allison & Chase to show my family the baby. It was a whirlwid trip, but so worth it to introduce the little guy to my grandparents & siblings.




Later for Thanksgiving our whole family drove out to UT & found the snow to play in of course!

Lindsey, turning 10 this year!



Jake, who turns the big one this year... 8!


Loren & Lindsey with cousin Ellie, my sister Natalie's oldest. We LOVED playing with these sweet cousins. We miss them!


My sistas! Man, I look tired.


All the cousins

Bean Museum in UT

My Sis Nat, cousin Ellie & Chase


What's Thanksgiving without the pie! The trip wasn't long enough, as always, but it was so great to be with everyone with great food, lot's of family & great memories. We miss all of you guys!



Loren & Chase.


loving the smiles!!


Christmas time. Lindsey is the winner when it comes to who wants to hold Chase. She's always the first one to run and get him out of bed or grab him from me after he's done eating.



Had to get this in for documentation. Chase is frequently caught with these two fingers in his mouth.

Ah. Don't get grossed out but in my attempt to get back into shape after baby #5 I keep getting injured! I've rolled my ankle playing wracketball (bad shoes) & now I have "Bursistis" on my knee cap. It's still there. Not as big, but it's not going away. Too much kneeling the Dr. say's :) It's not very painful but it's been a pain. It's just fluid, and UGLY. It's been almost 2 months now and it's still there. There could be worse things , right? Still, it's a pain.


Chase, getting bigger & chubbier & more personality. He's so fun!


Christmas break we went up to N. California to visit our family on BJ's side & got to go ice skating in San Francisco. For most of our kids, it was there first time & we got to play with Aunt Shannon! This was a major highlight of our trip.


On our drive back from up north the Grapevine was closed down due to snow. We had to do an extra 3 hour detour to get home. We couldn't believe the snow coming down on the drive & the kids were hoping that some stuck in our neighborhood (which really hasn't happened since the 80's). Even though it was pitch dark when we got home Jake & Lindsey got on what cold weather gear we had (most of it we had left in UT) and made a snow man. He was still there in the morning!
Although I've left out quite a bit, including basketball season, gymnastics season, Christmas pics, etc. we've had some great times & most of the camera time has been directed to our newest addition who brightens up the room with his smiles & giggles. We feel very blessed! Onto 2011!