Pictures

Great Holiday Break

No post for so long meant we were having a great break. The snow rearranged plans but it all worked out.
During break we:
Saturday we went Shannon's Dad's sister's up north of Fort Scott for their Christmas.
Sunday the kids and I went to mom and dad's to bake Christmas cookies. Callie used more sprinkles than I thought was possible.

Chase hung out with Grandpa.

Tuesday I had to work most of the day so Linda came over to help Shannon out.
Thursday we went to Iola to my Grandparents but cut it really short as the weather was rapidly declining. Church service was canceled that evening but we did venture the few miles to Shannon's parents to do Christmas.
Friday was had presents at home and then went to Shannon's grandma's (mom's mom) for their lunch since going to my parent's was out.
Sunday we all finally made it to mom and dad's house for Christmas there. We went out in the afternoon to do some sledding. It may have been delayed but it was a great, long, unhurried day. We have great memories of sledding down the hill as kids so it was fun to have our kids out there. None of mine went down the hill.....yet.
Tuesday mom and I took the kids to KC to have pictures - one year and missing both bottom teeth! We also went to the mall to get Chase fitted at stride rite for shoes (he has never had them and I am finally to the point that he has to wear them - at first he acted broken and wouldn't walk in them - quite a fit ;-) Callie got to make a build a bear for being such a trooper at pictures (Chase would not smile and gave them his stone cold stare - it is his look when he is around people) then we went to babies r us to get Callie a booster seat (she has been 4 obviously for a long time but couldn't get to the 40 lb mark - now with winter clothes we are counting that she is there).
Wednesday Callie and Shannon built a snow man. They had played out it in the week before but it wouldn't stick to make a snow man to then.
Friday we had Chase's first birthday party. I was quite proud of his cake :-)
Saturday Callie and I went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks.

It was a great break and I so enjoyed my family. I can't believe that Chase was a year old Monday.

Here is Callie cooking out of her new cook book with her new apron on - we had to go ASAP to the store to get ingredients once she received this present.

Santa brought an art table. Callie loves it.....and so does Chase (I spent a lot of time over break distracting him from it :-)

Chase loves pillows - especially Max's.

This is just one of my favorite pictures.

Keeping Up....

When I picked Callie up from preschool, I think it was last Friday, she had a loose tooth and was so excited. We couldn't pull it so it just kept wiggling in there. Last night we had tuna noodle casserole and she lost her tooth while eating it - that shows you how loose it was. The one next to it will soon follow. The tooth fairy brought a dollar last night :-) For some reason this has really hit me hard - what a big girl thing to lose a tooth - wow!

Chase is a full fledged walker - going everywhere now. He walks all around the house, wherever he wants to go. Unless he is in a hurry then he tries to run but he isn't that good yet so his body gets ahead of his feet and he falls.... and crawls from there! He must not have gotten completely over his ear infection cause it flared back up this week, so a sleepless night Monday and another round of antibiotics. He also has some rash on his leg but the Dr thought it was just irritated, so just cortisol ointment.

Mom and I took the kids with us to Joplin to get a few Christmas gifts on Saturday. It was busy but we had a good outing. Callie made a reindeer at the build a bear type place in the mall. She loves doing this and especially dressing it. She made a reindeer with a red nose dressed in a beautiful Christmas dress and named her Claire.

Then on Sunday evening Mom and I went back to Joplin to a SIDS memorial candle lighting service. It was the first one that they had tried in Joplin. Kansas has one in Wichita but this time of year it is hard to get to. The service was so nice but the turn out was very small. I hope she does it again next year to try to build it up cause it was such a nice service.

photo update

Dancing to music...




Hanging out with Grandpa.....


Doing a little Christmas shopping????


Watch week at dance class...


Aren't they cute???

Lighting the Advent Candles

Or maybe just the morning entertainment?
We were to light the advent candles last Sunday but we were running late, as is normal these days. So they had just put up the slide that said we were lighting the advent candles and my mother in law said that were hadn't made it there yet but we were actually walking thru the doors behind her. So everyone enjoyed the timing, we thru our stuff down and headed up there, Shannon starts reading (we had remembered that sheet at least) and I can't find anything to light the first candle, someone kindly gets me a lighter and we are set, Callie is holding the candle and waving to Grandma and Grandpa, Chase sees her waving and gets in on the action too, well he can't wave without clapping for himself when he is done, then Shannon hands me the paper and microphone to read the second part and I hand him Chase, Chase immediately starts screaming to come back to me, so we switch back (thanks Chase I was nervous to read it anyway)........I doubt anyone heard a thing that was read with all that going on.

Also, we have a walker, kinda

I forgot that on Wednesday Chase got up while Callie and I were still decorating. He was playing and Callie and I both saw him take about 4 steps! He has continued to take 2-6 steps all the time. It is so cute and Callie was so excited.
Then on Thursday I noticed that both the top side teeth were completely thru - 6 teeth now!

Thanksgiving

I haven't been good at taking pictures lately and don't have my camera cord right now to connect but since it has been so long, I am going to go ahead and update without photos. We went to Dadeville, MO on the Saturday before Thanksgiving to Shannon's uncle's house (dad's brother) to have Thanksgiving with that side of the family. We hadn't seen most of them since last year at this time so they had never met Chase. It was a good day - Callie drew her great aunts several pictures.
On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Callie waited not so patiently, until Chase went down for his morning nap and we put up the tree and Christmas decorations. She was so excited and said that she remembered how fun it was last year. Then when we were getting the tree up and stuff out she said that it wasn't as much fun as she remembered. Once we got going though she was happy :-) And so far Chase hasn't really bothered the tree much at all.
On Thanksgiving we went to my parents with my younger brothers family and my grandparents. It was a nice relaxing day. At bedtime, Shannon and the kids headed home and I stayed so that mom and i could get up at 3:30 to go to Olathe for some Black Friday shopping. We have always gone, not always that early, but it is just a fun time for us. We didn't get anything big. Some good bargains on toys, etc. and a lot of fun. We shopped, and ate, all day.
Saturday we went to Shannon's grandmas (mom's mom) and had Thanksgiving with them. Callie and Daddy went on a "safari hunt" after lunch down to the bridge and around. Callie thought that was great and has wanted to go out again this week. I went to the cemetery to decorate and when I got back Chase had just fallen asleep and got woken up. He was so cranky. We came home and he continued to be very upset. He started running a fever. He ran it all Sunday but we for better or worse we held out to take him to the doctor until Monday. Monday he was very uncomfortable in addition to the fever. Linda watched him while Callie was at preschool and I worked in the AM. The I took him to the doctor - double ear infection. Once we switched to motrin and got the ear drops in him he started feeling better. 10 days of antibiotics to fight with him to take! Linda stayed with him on Tuesday also but by Wednesday he went back to daycare.
We have been watching all kinds of Christmas cartoon specials and counting down the days. We went to the mall to eat after dance on Thursday but Callie wasn't sure about sitting on Santa's lap.........Chase just wanted to tear down all the fencing around him:-)