Golf Cart...

The kids got lots of wonderful gifts (thank you again to everyone, you really spoiled them!), but there was one in particular that went over really well. As many of you know Charlie comes from a golf family, they all are on different levels of playing but all love it. Well his dad got Audrey a moterized golf cart for Christmas, and my goodness was it a hit. It was complete with a golf bag with clubs and balls. She saw it and almost flipped out. She got right in and put her foot on the pedal and off she went. She wasn't scared of it at all which was awesome. The going forwards and backwards was a little tricky, but she will get the hang of it... There were a couple of classic moments with the cart. One was when she put her foot on the pedal and Charlie's dad was in front of her and she said "watch out Papa" as she ran right into him. The other was when I thought it would be cute to put Chase on the cart with her. I thought he might be scared, but he held right on for dear life and actually liked it! These pictures don't do it just justice, but it was hilarious watching the 2 of them on it. I stood next to it the entire time scared to death he was going to fall out. My first taste of Audrey driving her little brother around, if its scary now I can't imagine when it is a real car they are in...

Christmas 2009...

Well, we survived Christmas 2009. We had very uneventful travel to and from Chicago which is amazing considering the weather we had while we were there and the recent incident on the NWA flight in DTW on Christmas (so scary). We were actually 1/2 hour early going there (I know, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't been on the plane). The kids were great on both flights, which made life a whole lot easier as well.

We had a wonderful Christmas and were blessed to be able to spend it with our family. The kids were ridiculously spoiled and got tons of wonderful things. Audrey had a blast opening all of her gifts and most of Chase's. She really got into each individual gift and wanted to open each thing and play with it right away. Chase enjoyed himself too, so much that he had to take a nap 20 minutes into the gift opening. The ever popular play dough was opened at a good point in the morning, as she needed a break and played with it for a good 1/2 hour while us adults opened our stuff...

It was so great to spend time with Charlie's family and a big thank you to them for being wonderful hosts! I was lucky enough to be able to see my family as well. It was a quick trip for them and they trekked out to Chicago in a snowstorm both ways but I'm so glad they did. We don't get to see our family enough, so it is always very special when we do(especially this time, my sister is in Switerland all year and she hasn't seen the kids since Chase was 3 weeks old!). Audrey loved playing with everyone and teaching them all Audrey-ese and about her love of choc and candy. Chase enjoyed showing off his adorable smile and his mad crawling and pulling-himself-up-on-everything-and-anything skills...

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! We sure did...

Merry Christmas...

We are headed to the Chicago area tomorrow to spend Christmas with Charlie's family. We are lucky enough to be able to see almost all of our family during our quick trip which is wonderful. Chase is ready to show off his crawling skills and Audrey can't wait to see everyone, oh and get presents... We have our fingers crossed for an uneventful flight there and back. It is always dicey this time of year with the weather...

Merry Christmas to all! Safe travels, lots of love and best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday!

Let it Snow...Chase's Version...

This was Chase's 1st time really out in the snow. Just like everything else, it totally didn't phase him. I have been putting him in the baby bjorn recently since it has been cold out to walk around the neighborhood since I feel like it is warmer for him then the stroller. He seems to love it. I just keep my fingers he is warm enough... I had to plop him in the snow to get some pictures. I stood him up at first which was funny, because it is so deep he looks like he is sitting. Then I sat him in it, he is such a good sport (and I am a mean mom eh?). Anyways, bring on a white Christmas! Love it. Hopefully the roads are cleared to go to work tomorrow (or not hopefully???)....

Let it Snow...Audrey's Version...

So unless you are living under a rock, you know that the entire Northeast has been hit by this huge snow storm. It didn't make it up to us until last night, and hasn't stopped. There is nothing like waking up to everything covered in snow, especially when you don't have to go anywhere in it. I was determined to bring the kids out in the snow this morning, at the very least for a photo opt and hoping they would enjoy it. I don't know if you remember last year, but Audrey HATED the snow (I mean hate is an understatement) and refused to go anywhere near it. I was hoping that a year later she would come around and decide it was fun, like every other kid in the world. Well, no such luck. We forced her to put on her snow pants, coat, hat, mittens and boots and Charlie carried her outside. Anyways, the pictures speak for themselves... Afterwards we came in and Audrey had her 1st hot chocolate and Chase ate his 1st marshmallow (no, I didn't give it to him) so all ended well...

Trimming O' Christmas Tree...

I love decorating a Christmas tree. Charlie helps put it in the tree stand, but is done after that (unless I guilt him into helping). I'm kind of particular about where things go (surprise right?) so I don't mind decorating it myself. But I love the tradition of the whole thing, and have been waiting for Audrey to be excited about helping. Last year was a total bust, she wanted nothing to do with it. This year she was actually into it for a brief period of time, which was awesome! I got a ton of non-breakable ornaments this year, so I didn't have to worry about her breaking anything. Chase got into the whole things too as you can see. He was covered in glitter after we were done (as were we all come to think of it), but that is ok right? I love how fascinated they are with the tree at his age. The lights make his whole face light up when he sees them. He of course is trying to take everything down on the tree, so there is a bare area on the bottom, but no matter... As long as he doesn't pull it down on himself I think we are all good...

O' Christmas Tree...

We got our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving, yeah, a couple of weeks ago... It was actually the earliest we have ever gotten a tree, but I have enjoyed having it up this whole time. We scrapped the cutting one down for another year, and kept with our yearly tradition of going down the street where they sell them. It was a sunny day which was a little weird (don't you want snow in your Christmas tree pictures? I do...). We found the perfect tree very quickly, there was a great selection going so early...

Chase and his Girlfriend...

Is he a stud or what? Katelyn doesn't know what she is in for...

Are they too cute??

Santa...

Well, we finally made it to see Santa today. The mall is seriously less then 5 minutes from our house so we really have no excuse other then we have been ridiculously busy this month (like everyone else, I know). Anyways, we are getting a crazy snow storm tomorrow so we figured we should go today. I was a little worried since I figured the entire world would be at the mall today. But we were in luck, we found a parking spot right away and the line for Santa was less then 15 minutes, score... I wasn't sure how the kids were going to react this year. We have a picture from Audrey's 1st Christmas, but she is definitely not smiling. Last year, we have no picture as she wouldn't even get close to him. This year was better then I expected. She stood in line just fine and seemed fine with the whole Santa thing. We got both of them on his lap, and the picture lady managed to snap one before Audrey completely melted down...


I kind of wanted the one of her screaming, but I figure this is good enough black mail for when she is older...

We've Got Movement...

So Chase crawled for the 1st time last night which is pretty exciting! Like I said in previous posts, he has been really close for a couple of weeks, but last night the light must have gone off and he figured it out. He was on all fours and started pawing at the air (like a dog, kind of funny) and all of the sudden he went forward. Charlie was downstairs, so he ran up and we made him repeat his performance... For video of course:) My favorite part is how proud he was of himself, it was awesome. We were clapping and saying "yeah Chase" and he just sat there beaming and waving his arms like mad, too cute... He crawled several times last night and again this morning so here we go. I can already tell he is going to be all over the place, he has no desire to be in one spot. He already is into putting everything in his mouth he can find (and there is plenty to find let me tell you) so I need to get better about not leaving small things around... Its more about going around after Audrey really, as he already ate a Goldfish cracker that she left on the ground, nice...

Update... These are actually from Friday (a couple days after he crawled), but they show his mad skill pretty well...

Seven Months...

Chase turned 7 months this past week and I have to say I am having trouble telling people he is "7 months". Hard to believe, but oh so true... I have to say I love this age where they are so interactive finally and so curious about the world around them. He hit one milestone this month and is ridiculously close to hitting another. He got his 1st 2 teeth (you can see them in at least one of these pix). He has not been sleeping well at night, because of the teething though. I was excited when the 1st tooth poked thru finally (maybe he would sleep the nite!), then the 2nd one came a week later, and I have to say I am convinced there is another one coming here soon. Audrey did the same thing, I swear all of her teeth came within a month, and what miserable month that was...

He is so freaking close to crawling it isn't even funny. This week he has been getting up on all fours, rocking and then either moving his hands or moving his feet, but can't quite get that they both need to move at the same time. I know he will get it soon. He gets around just fine not crawling, he scoots backwards, forwards and every which way to get to toys or anything else he wants to put in his mouth.

He also is moving along with his food. I gave him a Ritz cracker one day just to try and then turned around a second later and it was gone! So now we are doing real solids after that, crackers, bread, pizza crust, you name it. He has gotten very good at getting small things in his mouth, Cheerios, puffs, etc. I'm actually impressed at how quickly he picked that skill up.

Now if I could get him to not wake up at 3 am this kid would be the perfect baby... All in due time I guess... His smile more then makes up for it...

Giving thanks...

We celebrated Chase's 1st Thanksgiving this year and had a wonderful day. We headed out to the Berkshires to spend the day at my cousin's house for an Italian feast (multiple courses, lots of yummy food). There was a full house, around 20 people in all, and it was great to be surrounded by family. It was the 1st time some had met Chase, and for others they hadn't seen him since he was 3 weeks old. He's grown just a little bit, and showed off his smile and cheeks and charmed everyone. We failed to really document his 1st Thanksgiving unfortunately, I just forgot to take pictures. But Friday was a different story. On Friday I cooked a Thanksgiving meal for just the 4 of us (who am I kidding, for Charlie and I) because we had a turkey that has been frozen since last year and figured why not. So I roasted a turkey and make all the fixings and it was delicious if I do say so. I had to get a picture of Chase with the turkey and he was thrilled let me tell you.


Anyways, hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! I have so much to be thankful for, even more this year then ever before. I have beautiful healthy kids, a wonderful husband, a job and a home and some pretty fabulous friends. Couldn't ask for much more... And now, bring on Christmas baby...

Disney...

We did make a trip to Disney while in Orlando (I mean how can you not when you are right there?), though it wasn't quite what I had envisioned. We knew going down there that Audrey was young to go and we had pretty low expectations for her being excited to actually go to Disney. We decided to go to Animal Kingdom (ok I decided) because I thought she would be able to relate the best to the stuff there. She isn't into the princess thing yet so Magic Kingdom seemed silly. Anyways, we got Parkhopper passes for free from my BIL's friends mom (random but so awesome, thanks again Paula!) which was great. We spent a couple of hours at Animal Kingdom. We started with the must do Kilimanjaro Safari which was pretty cool. Audrey was scared almost the entire time on it, didn't cry but asked to go home about 2 minutes into it (see picture below). We then headed to see Mickey, which she actually enjoyed. Last time we were there and she saw a character she totally freaked out, but this time she gave him a hug and yelled "hi Mickey". We then went to the Lion King show, which I LOVED btw. Audrey started out strong, clapping and yelling. By the end, she had proceeded to curl up on Charlie's lap and pass out. Chase was asleep on my lap so it was quit the scene (it is REALLY loud in there for those of you that haven't been). We made the executive decision to go home at this point. We meant to go back after naps but gave Audrey the choice to see Micky or go to the pool and she quickly picked the pool so that was that. Maybe next year...

Audrey's favorite part was the map, she was very excited to follow the map, you know, like Dora...

This pretty much sums up what she thought about the safari ride...

Loved the drums... I did not...

Orlando...

We headed down to Orlando last week to see Charlie's SIL & BIL that live there (thats for you Vinnie:) and to meet up with his parents. It was a perfect little vacation, the weather was awesome (80's everyday) and we got to relax about as much as you can relax with 2 kids... We stayed at an awesome hotel, the one that Karen and Vinnie got married at actually. We basically hung out at the pool the entire time we were there which I am pretty sure was fine with everyone involved (it certainly was fine with me!). It was a pleasant surprise seeing as I wasn't sure if it would be warm enough down there to do that for even 1 day let alone 3. Audrey had a total blast at the pool and at the hotel running everywhere.

Anyways, a big thanks to Karen and Vinnie for hosting us and everything you did to make our trip great! We had a wonderful time and can't wait to see you guys at Christmas!