Aye Ya Ya!

Well, the terrible two's are amongst us! Apparently, they can start anywhere from when a child is 18 months old all the way up until they are three! And my child, or the exorcist as I like to call him, is definitely going through this awesome and joyful time! He's come to the point to where if he does not get what he wants he screams bloody murder like that from a horror movie and kicks and falls to the ground like a wet noodle. He is definitely learning to test my patience and of course this screaming is heightened when we are in public! For example, today we went to target to get some groceries (my second trip this week since he threw a tantrum mid-way through my first shopping trip). I foolishly decided to stop and look at some shoes for him. Yes, oh silly me. Well, as I proceeded to walk away from the shoes, my little angel (and I use that word very loosely) decided he wanted those shoes. He screamed as loud as he could for a good 10 minutes as I walked up and down the aisles. I have read and have been told by other moms to ignore this behavior and it will teach him that he can scream all he wants but mama will not respond. I got the most scathing look from some stock lady that worked there throughout this ordeal and I was mortified but decided not to give in. He finally got distracted and quieted down! Man, did I feel a sense of accomplishment! But believe me, I'm fully aware the worst is yet to come!! Oh the JOYS of parenting! Luckily, it's just a phase!!

Good News!

Chase is going to be a BIG Brother!! We are all thrilled! The next baby could be a Christmas or New Years baby so now we just play the waiting game! In regards to pregnancy, anyone who has ever been pregnant knows that you either love it or hate it. There is NO in-between. AND, anyone who knows me, knows I am not to fond of it. My last pregnancy with Chase, I had severe sciatic pain (I had it before I was pregnant and being pregnant made it impossible to walk at times--I had a waddle before I was showing--you can go ahead and laugh out loud!). I was so uncomfortable the whole time! However, I did not have any nausea. Not the case this time around. I have been EXTREMELY nauseated the entire first three months ALL DAY LONG! I do not know how these women who get pregnant over and over again can make it through the nausea...IT's AWFUL! I am just now starting to feel normal and have more good days than bad so I will hopefully keep everyone updated on baby #2's progress! And according to myself and everyone in passing, the running bet is this baby is a girl...I will definitely be following up with another blog the second we find out so stay tuned!

Regarding Little Chase, he does not understand that Mama is incubating a baby right now but he has grown extremely fascinated with babies. Everywhere we go, if he sees a kid smaller than him he points and says "baby". Hopefully this fascination is a good thing! He's such a sweet boy that I know he will look out for his younger sibling, boy or girl and will love them so much! Currently, we are touring several different Kindergarten prep schools so Chase can start making friends and letting some of his energy out in the best way possible! I know it will be SO much harder on me than him. I can already see myself crying thanks to all these crazy pregnancy hormones!

I can't keep up!!!

I know, I know, it's been 4 months since I wrote an entry but we have been SOOOO incredibly busy and so much has happened that the thought of sitting down and writing it all out was a little overwhelming. Sooo, I am going to make it short and sweet! We have had so many kiddie birthday parties that I am convinced my one year old's social calendar has now exceeded mine! We went to LA in March for my big 3-0 and got to be on set at our hotel (Beverly Hilton) while they were taping a show that comes out this fall with Dustin Hoffman and etc. We grabbed drinks at Chateau Marmount (so cool) then left Chase with my parents for the weekend and drove to Vegas, stopped at Inn N Out burger on the way (two new locations opened next to us last week in Frisco and Allen and believe it or not the wait --so I heard---is up to 3 hours--FOR A BURGER! Texans are CRAZY!). My mom hooked us up with a suite at the Bellagio the first night then the Wynn Tower Suites the second night. Needless to say, it was an Awesome birthday and Cory and I enjoyed the one on one time! I also had one of my friends, Sara, come and visit from Austin which was SO nice and now that we live closer, I hope to see more of you AUSTINITES! One of the best parts about being back is that we can finally take advantage and go out to Cory's parents' lakehouse! It's so relaxing and serene out there!

In Chase news, he is doing fabulously! He's definitely ALL BOY! He's rough and tough on the outside but my sweet little boy on the inside! He LOVES basketball! He has a hoop in every room and he's become an expert at making baskets. Everytime we drive by a house with a basketball hoop outside (and almost every home in our neighborhood has one) he yells "ball". The kid LOVES balls! He actually will sit and watch a little bit of basketball on TV and enjoys it! My girlfriend even made a comment that "most boys like balls" but my kid "Loves balls and is obsessed". To be honest, I wouldn't want him any other way! I love his determination when we go to the park and he tries to throw his basketball up to the regulation 10 foot hoop over and over again (us yelling "almost" knowing he isn't even close!). I cannot wait until the day when he actually makes it!

The Holidays Came and They Went....

Christmas time is my favorite time of the year because I LOVE decorating the house! And this year was especially fun because we got to put outside lights in our yard and etc. Living in Florida for so long, we forgot how it was to see Christmas lights on houses. The majority of people in Florida (or at least where we lived) live in Condos or Townhomes and no one really decorates outside not to mention it is warm normally so it never feels like Christmas really. Another joy of Christmas is taking Chase to see Santa Clause. To jog your memory, last year Chase slept from the moment Santa held him to the moment we placed him back in his stroller. NOT THE SAME OUTCOME THIS YEAR! Chase was not happy when we handed him over Mr. Clause. He freaked out and started screaming right off the bat as he was pushing and trying to escape from the grip of this poor jolly fat man. In conclusion, the picture (I'm sad I didn't get a digital copy) was hilarious and we loved it! It totally showed my little protesting one year old's new "my way or the highway" personality. I have my work cut out for me already!

Christmas Day was so much fun! Even though Chase did not really grasp the concept of Christmas morning yet, we did try to make it special. We walked into his room once he woke up at 8 am and he had the biggest grin seeing both of us (as opposed to the usual one of us while the other one sleeps)! We walked down the stairs trying to hype him up. We had the tree lit and the presents from Santa unwrapped under the tree for our little man. My wonderful Husband put together a talking/singing rocking horse that we got for Chase and Chase LOVED it! Well, for a second. He then was busy playing with the assortment of balls we bought him. The kiddo LOVES balls of all kind! He loves them so much that his first word is ball! Well, he says it more like "baaaah" to be exact. We preceeded to show him the wrapped from Mommy and Daddy that were still under the tree and he watched me open each one with a sense of excitment. I really cannot wait until next year when we get to actually use the "Elf on the Shelf" and hopefully he will understand how fun this time of year can be!




Another thing we did last month was try out MY GYM and join GYMBOREE. Both are just glorified mommy and me's. Lots of singing and bubbles and fun stuff like that. The only difference from these and our mommy and me in Florida is that they work on strengthening your baby's muscles in a sense. My Gym is kind of like baby gymnastics. Chase seemed to really like it but I thought the moms were a little weird. Maybe it was just the class and time we went but the vibe was all off for me. The teacher (who was wonderful) did put Chase up on a mini high bar that he held on as she helped him do a flip. He was so proud of himself (and so was I). Gymboree on the other hand is more like crawling through tunnels and learning how to go down slides and etc. And there are balls all over the classroom so you know Chase was happy! There is one thing that freaks me out about these classes, my son has a very short attention span. Both teachers said it is perfectly normal for a baby Chase's age to not want to sit and listen for a long period of time (they have several times where you all sit in a circle throughout class) and boys are less attentive than girls are. AND let me tell you, my son is ALL BOY! Now, I want you to imagine all these moms (and some dads) gathered in a circle and me holding Chase while he's kicking, screaming and throwing his head back until I put him down so he can escape and play with a ball. OH YES. It's awesome. I could see a mom of a little girl glaring at me out of the corner of my eye and I was MORTIFIED. Apparently I am raising a total Alpha Male. I am told this is just him showing his independence and trying to test me. And it's normally only me he tests! He's an angel when I leave him with the caretakers at our gym or his grandparents or anyone who is not me (haha). (On the flipside, he loves giving me hugs and kisses which I love!) I did read that children who are strong minded at a young age tend to be great leaders so hopefully that is just the case! LOL!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY CHASE!

Chase turns 1 on Wednesday (November 10th) and we threw him a bash at our house on Saturday with 30+ of our friends and all their kiddos! We got tons of food, tons of wine and beer (no liquor with the kids in sight because some in this crew can get out of HAND!), an adorable Brobee cake (apparently Chase does not like cake), and character cupcakes (I attempted to make some but was overwhelmed with all I had to do so I made 7 character ones and the rest just had m&ms on them but the kids seemed to like it). We had a chocolate fountain for the kids with yummy marshmellows and fruit to dip, a bounce house with a slide in it and little obstacles, ladder golf for the dads (um yah which was AWESOME b/c I could not get Cory to do anything one he started playing), and etc. It was so nice to get to see all our friends together and all the kids were so much fun and surprisingly all well behaved! We cannot wait until we get an excuse to throw another party!!

Chase’s birthday is so special to us and it really did mean a lot to get to celebrate it! Not only is it the anniversary of his birth but it’s also a reminder that we made it through the first year! WHOO HOO! One day when Chase gets older and he reads this blog, we would want him to know that we are so blessed to have him in our lives and we cannot even imagine what life was like before we had him!! We love you dearly baby Chase!!!

PS-I am also attaching a picture of Chase in his Halloween Costume. He was a monster and he wore his costume for a whopping 5 minutes and freaked out! HAHA!

We made it!

I know, I know, its been a while since I updated the blog but it's been hectic! One word of advice when moving across the country with a 9 month old, a cat, and a dog, DON'T DO IT! I recommend anyone traveling with this type of group to either fly or do not move at all lol. The worst part was the minimal amount of hotels from Florida to Texas that allow pets (mostly motel types). Sneaking in a cat and a dog that tends to bark at the sound of a pin dropping is not ideal when you have a little baby as well. I was hoping this trip would be like a fun road trip but we could not really leave the pets at the hotel in fear of them getting caught and it was too much to sight-see with all three of them. There's not very many places to go with pets and a baby if you are not familiar with a city. This being said, we ended up only making two of our three scheduled stops and got into Dallas a day early.

We love our new home in Frisco and love the area. EVERYTHING is within 10 minutes from us. Not to mention everything really is bigger in Texas. Our grocery store is so big it even sells furniture and decorative stuff!!

Well, that's it for now. I am posting some pics until I blog again......

Ode to Florida-The Good, the Bad, AND the Ugly

ITS MOVING DAY!!! Today the movers (consisting of three guys), Rob, Loren (who spent the night and woke up with Chase--she was so excited), and KP came to help move all our stuff out. Since we were pretty neurotic (or I should say I AM neurotic since everytime I have moved stuff, something has gotten ruined) and pre-packed/moved everything down to the first floor and already had majority of the stuff wrapped that needed to be, it took about 2 1/2 - 3 hours for 6 guys to move everything out of our house. They were so fast and that truck was packed to the roof!! It was so weird to see our three story townhome empty but it was so exciting to drive away from it finally considering we have wanted to move forever! Tomorrow is our last day in Florida and then we make our journey back to Texas (first family road trip---we will see how Chase handles that!)...our itenerary is as follows: First stop Tallahassee, then New Orleans and finally Shreveport! WHOO HOOO!!! I will post another entry once the EAGLE has landed!! Stay tuned...

I did have some final words about the place we have called home over the past 6 years:

OH Florida, I won't miss your extremely humid weather.
I won't miss your insanely rude people...most of which aren't even from south florida.
I won't miss people in the service industry (including all restaurant servers, people who work in retail, etc.) whom think anything they do is going out of there way. Most of which don't even say "hi, how are you, can I help you, or thank you"
I won't miss the totally awful drivers. I don't think anyone takes drivers ed. No one knows anything about right of way and when an ambulance comes, its literally like ants scattering around!
I won't miss the lack of zoning and the super inflated home prices. Hence, our townhome.
I won't miss the unhealthy food choices. Moving to Florida definitely makes you gain your freshman 15!

What I will miss is being able to go to the beach at the drop of a hat. Nothing is more relaxing than going to the beach or eating lunch or dinner whenever you feel like it. Its like your on Vacation 24-7.
I will miss South Beach and West Palm Beach. It was fun whenever we ventured out that way.
I will miss all the fun outdoor stuff to do. There's all kinds of neat things to see.
And lastly, I will miss all the wonderful friends we have made, some from Texas, one from Tennessee (and she knows who she is), some from the Northeast, and a Virginian (our mountain man) and not to mention those native floridians (there's not very many of them here--they are like Dinosaurs).