2011

The order on these might be a little messed up but it was a lot easier to make collages on picnik than use blogger to upload all the pictures.

We started 2011 off 6 months pregnant. We bought our first house! We had my baby shower at the house. Took some maternity pictures and then May 1st Chase Curtis arrived!!!

June was my brother-in-law's wedding. Chase got to meet one of his Great Grandpa's. Hubs celebrated his first father's day (see out of order Mother's day is in the next collage!) and we celebrated our first 4th of July as a family!

I got to have my first Mother's Day. Chase met his other Great Grandpa. We went to Tahoe and Chase got to attend his first wedding in Reno in August.

September was another wedding (yeah the horse pictures). October was the arrival of Chase's best friend and first time at a pumpkin patch. We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary!

Chase had his first Halloween, Thanksgiving, trip to Apple Hill and Christmas!!!


Man, that kid got big fast!

In 2012 some very close family members will be moving closer. I'm excited to see what is in store for us in 2012!!!

De-Christmasing

As I mentioned before, this is our first Christmas in our house. We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope that you all did as well. But, when the heck do you take the Christmas stuff down?!

The boy scouts don't come to get the tree until Saturday morning. So I'll take the tree decorations down Friday. But do I leave everything else up too?

Hubby probably won't have time to take the lights down for awhile. I was surprised the neighbors turned theirs on tonight so we did too. How long do you turn you lights on for?!

Help me! Help me!

Christmas decor

It is our first Christmas in our new house and it was so fun decorating it! Somehow we ended up with the color/theme of red, white, silver, snowflakes.
Coffee table in living room. You can't tell the candle holders are snowflakes. The friends picture is our picture coasters. The Christmas cards scrapbook is a scrapbook of our Christmas cards we send out every year. The baby book is on the shelf below the glass.

Reindeer guy and Christmas throw on loveseat.

Little tree and candle holders in our family room which has turned into "Santa's workshop".

Gotta have Christmas kitchen towels!

A couple cards we just got today. My print from Brittany and a candle.

Candles on dining room table. The dining room table needs more decor!

My janky way to hang the cards up :)

Tree skit.

Christmas countdown Santa!

Merry Christmas welcome mat!

Our tree!

This is our front porch and the tree in the window.

Our stockings.

You've got mail!

It's our Christmas card! In case you can't read it, it says "May the Christmas season fill your home with joy, your heart with love and your life with laughter."

Merry Christmas!!!!

Christmas Quiz!

I wanted to write a post today but I had no ideas until I stumbled on this little gem on Amber's blog!

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate?
HOT CHOCOLATE! I've never had eggnog it looks and sounds disgusting!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
I'm an only child so Santa didn't have to wrap presents. Now that I have my own house and kiddo Santa is going to wrap presents in special Santa wrapping paper.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
I bought white lights for the tree and Hubby thought they were boring and made me return them. Colored lights on the house and tree now.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Nope

5. When do you put your decorations up?
The day after Thanksgiving.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Fudge

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?
My memories are weird. I remember one year getting up in the middle of the night and trying to see what Santa had brought me but I couldn't see. Guess I didn't put my glasses on? I think we have pictures from one Christmas where I still have my head gear on. I'm so sexy!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
These are not things that I can remember!

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
My Dad always begs to be able to open a gift on Christmas Eve. Usually it was the gift from my Grandpa and Step Grandma. They are the worst gift givers. This year, and all the years to come, Chase is opening his jammies to wear that night!

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
Lights first, then silver balls, and then personalized ornaments.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it?
It snows like every 8 years and doesn't stick to the ground here. I love going to the snow! We have to take Chase this winter!

12. Can you ice skate?
I used to ice skate competitively. I would love to go with Hubby but I don't want to embarass him. Some moms in our mom group were talking about taking their kids in the strollers. That it just crazy to me!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
I love our video camera we got a few years ago. Love my ipod touch. But the best gift of all is a healthy family!

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you?
Spending time with family! I can't wait to read the Christmas story and Twas the night before Christmas to Chase on Christmas Eve and tuck him into bed and then sneak down the stairs and put out his presents and fill his stocking!

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?
Fudge, we went over this.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
All of them! Looking at lights, spending time with family...

17. What tops your tree?
Just got it this year its a light up star. I LOVE it!

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving?
I'm bummed this year I don't feel like I got anything exciting for Hubby. I love some of the presents we got for the grandparents!

19. Candy canes: yuck or yum?
Yum! I need one of those see's cherry ones!

20. Favorite Christmas show?
It's Hubby's family's tradition to watch A Christmas story. I love how much they all love it. We watched Four Christmases and wrapped presents this year. Since I don't like Chase watching much tv and once he is in bed I am exhausted that might be all we watch this year.

21. Saddest Christmas song?
Last Christmas?

22. What’s your favorite Christmas song?
My new fave is all I want for Christmas is a hippopotamus. Have you heard it? It's amazing!

Can you see it in our eyes?

When I went browsing through my 2010 photo album on facebook looking for our Christmas pic from last year most of my memories related to where we were in our baby making journey.

Some of you know that Hubs and I dated for 6 years before he proposed. The funny thing was he was ready for kids before he was ready to get married. I didn't want my father to shoot him so we compromised by saying we would not wait too long after we got married to start trying to have a baby. We got married October 2009 and on our honeymoon discussed when we would start trying. I had just been hired by Hubby's company at the end of August 2009 so we wanted to wait a little while.

I am trying to remember now why my friend T and I were emailing about when we would start trying, but I can't. She was getting married the summer of 2010 and we were also emailing about dresses. I forwarded an email to my mom so she could see the pictures of the dress. Well sneaky mom read the whole email history and found out Curtis and I were talking about trying.

This is a picture from her visit to San Diego in February 2010. She told me on this trip that she had read those emails and I think she was going to tell us to wait awhile but I told her I had already stopped taking birth control.

Hubs and I had planned not to tell anyone that we were trying. I didn't want people calling every month to find out if we were pregnant or not. Even though my mom was sneaky I am so glad she knew we were trying. She helped me out a lot through the next few months.

This is a picture from a trip we made to LA in April. I didn't drink on this trip because I thought I might be pregnant. I wasn't.

This picture is from my brother-in-law's graduation from SF state. Again I didn't drink on this trip because I thought I might be pregnant. My mother-in-law made some comments about us making a grandchild for her but she was telling people I was due in June before we got married. She did the math if we got pregnant on our honeymoon. I wasn't due in June and I wasn't pregnant on this trip.

This picture is from this little guy's birthday in July. I will never forget the conversation I had with a friend at this party. No one knew we were trying but it came up that it had taken my friend 6 months to get pregnant. Since we were going on 5 or 6 months at this point I just remember thinking maybe there wasn't something wrong with me.



This is a picture from our anniversary trip in October. I didn't drink this trip because I was PREGNANT! Do we look different? I think I tried to hide my tiny bump under the table but I can't remember. When I look at this picture I feel like we have this amazing and wonderful secret!

Another picture from our anniversary trip. Am I glowing? Do my boobs look bigger? This night when we went back to our hotel after going to the melting pot the elevator lady said something about me being pregnant. She was the first person to comment on my bump. I think it was a food bump from the melting pot, but still.

This post was fun! I love looking back on 2010 and I'm sure I'll always look back on 2011 very fondly since it is the year my baby arrived!

Last Christmas

This is our picture from our Christmas card last year. I'm probably 5 or 5 1/2 months pregnant in this picture. I remember thinking I was so huge at Christmas. Ha!

Let's talk about Glee!

To get Rubber Duckie out of my head last night I tried to remember what songs they sang on Glee this week. Man in the mirror was stuck in my head all night. How great was Man in the mirror?!

I have to admit I was crying at the end. Glad the girls are back!

What did you think of Lindsay from the Glee project's appearance this week? I had been thinking geez Damian has gotten to be on the show a lot and then up pops Lindsay.

I loved the Glee project but I do not love seeing the contestants on the show! Is that weird? Anyone else with me? I think because we got to know them on a reality show it's hard to believe them on the show. Or maybe they aren't great actors like Stephen Colletti. Don't you forget he was on Laguna Beach when you are watching OTH?!

Did any of you not watch Glee project? Do you know which people are from Glee project? Do they bug you too?

Gotta say I really don't think I'll be watching once Finnchel leave!

This isn't funny anymore. I do not have a 7 month old.

What Chase has been up to during his 6th month of life:



Chase got to eat food! We started with avocado. He gagged. We tried homemade green beans. He gagged. We tried gerber green beans and he was a happy boy. He got used to the homemade stuff. He has now had green beans, sweet potatoes, peas, pears, and prunes.




We went to his cousin Luke's 4th birthday spiderman party. The party favor was a golf club and now one of Chase's favorite toys.




We also went to Apple Hill.


We took our first professional pictures as a family and they turned out super cute!

Chase had his first Thanksgiving!

Chase got to drink from a sippy cup for the first time! We probably don't need to go into the details of why he needed juice :)

He started sucking his left thumb a lot. Then he stopped doing it as much. The other day I put him in his crib and he cried a little and then sucked his thumb. Surprised me but made me happy!

In the last few days Chase has really started babbling. We took him Christmas shopping at Target and the whole time he was going, "bababa".

Chase got his first tooth!! I think the second one is in or will be soon.

Chase watched us decorate our house for Christmas. So special that we will be spending our first Christmas as a family for the first time in this house. Does that make sense? It's all new here.

Chase got to go with us to a restaurant and was such a good big boy in his high chair!

He started reaching for me when I go to pick him up! It's my favorite!

He started getting up on his knees and rocking. I thought he would start crawling this month but he does a couple scoots and belly flops.





Chase's aunt let us borrow his cousin's walker. It took him a little while to figure out how to go forward but he is fast now! I have to run to keep up with him! We also play a little walker bowling for fun.





I'm pretty sure he knows his name now. He definitely looks at you when you say Chase.

If you are holding him and he is tired he puts his arms up underneath himself like he does when he sleeps.

I love when he plays with my wedding ring.

I love his giggles.

Spiderman!

Ah Monday! How was everyone's weekend? We had a pretty fun weekend here.

Friday I made homemade macaroni and cheese since it was rainy and cold out. Hubs and I were both exhausted that night. I think we were in bed by 9 or 9:30.

Saturday we got the guest room ready for my brother in law. He's going to be staying with us for a month or so. We also did some other chores around the house. Then my parents came over and Hubs and I got to have a date night!

I figured it would be nice to reconnect before his brother moves in. It is always nice to have a date night without the baby. Obviously we love and adore Chase but by the time he is in bed I'm pretty much half asleep myself.

Of course we ended up talking about work. I had an epiphany this week while playing with Chase. I was giving him kisses and making him giggle and I thought to myself that this is my job. No one else should be doing this. I know there are a lot of moms that aren't as lucky as I am to have the opportunity to stay home with their babies. I just can't imagine not being the one taking care of him right now. It was nice to hear Hubs agree that he doesn't understand how people can put their children in daycare at such a young age.

Having to put our future children in daycare right away is something I worry about. I just pray that I am able to have the time I have had with Chase with all of our children.

Sunday we had a birthday party to go to! Hub's cousin's son turned four this week! He and his brother were going to wear their spiderman costumes so she said the kids could wear whatever superhero costumes they had. Chase didn't have any but I found a spiderman shirt on clearance at Target!

My little man ready for the party!

Chase had so much fun at the party! He ate his gerber green beans. I was excited he ate with all the people around. Remember the party was on Sunday so Hubs was planted on the couch watching football. Chase got to watch some too while I was eating.

They had a friend from church come and sing songs for the kids. It was so fun! He had drums and shakers for all the kids and I couldn't believe Chase tolerated the kids banging away on the drums. He normally gets scared by loud noises. He played the sweetest song that he called the cuddle song and I had to not listen to the words so I didn't cry!

We are really close with the birthday boy but I don't think he knew we were there until we said good bye to him! He was so busy playing with his friends. He of course wanted to open our present first because it had pez on it. I don't think he knows about the awesomeness that is the web shooter that we got him. I'm hoping we can go over Friday and play.

Look at the cool party favor we got! Chase is a little confused on how to golf. Love that little stinker!

Going to this party has me thinking about Chase's 1st bday. There weren't very many people at this party I think 23 rsvped yes and it was kind of crazy. I also need to come up with a cool party favor like this one! Chase's party is going to be sports themed.

Discouraged

Some of my readers my not know this, but I have wanted to be a teacher since I was 12 years old. I had two amazing teachers in 6th grade that inspired me to pursue teaching as a career. Around this age I started babysitting kids in the neighborhood and thought it was good that I loved kids.

I spent 2 summers volunteering my time helping at a summer day camp. At age 15 I was hired to work as a day camp counselor. I decided in high school I wanted to attend the college where some of the best teachers I know went. I declared my major when I applied. Finished my BA in 4 years and was accepted to the teaching credential program.

Now I'm getting teary eyed. Thinking about how hard I worked. How many tears I shed.

In the state of California, after you work your ASS off getting your teaching credential, they hand you a lovely "preliminary credential". You have 5 years to get a teaching job to do another program to get a "clear credential".

May 2012 is 5 years from when I graduated. I have been a substitute teacher most of the time since I graduated, but the economy sucks right now and there aren't very many jobs. I've also moved 500 miles twice and had a baby.

I don't regret the choices I have made. I could have not moved to San Diego with Hubs and would probably have a teaching job now. I wouldn't have been happy without Hubs. I could have waited to get pregnant but I wouldn't have Chase. We all know he is the best thing I have ever done. I knew when I made these decisions that my dream of becoming a teacher might not come true.

Today I found out there is nothing I can do besides get a job to get a "clear credential". I was hoping to become an online teacher so I could have the best of both worlds. Be with Chase and teach. The online school doesn't offer the program to clear my credential.

I'm feeling pretty discouraged.

Hair

My child loves to grab anything and everything. Especially hair. One time in college I chopped several inches off my hair as a surprise to now hubs and he was not amused. So I was in search of a shorter hair style that hubs approved.

The hair before. Perfect length for Chase to get all tangled in.


The cut Hubs approved and was used for inspiration for current hair.

I am not so good at the hair doing. I got the cut but couldn't figure out how to make it look like the picture. I was going to straighten my hair for our family pictures. Then Chase had a bad night the night before our pictures. I woke up, took a shower, and got back in bed. My hair has natural wave to it if I let it air dry or get back in bed after a shower. So I ended up trying to recreate the picture. I was actually happy with my hair for the pictures and I think I did a pretty good job recreating it.

Can you believe not very many people even noticed I cut my hair? Probably because it is usually in a pony tail!

The best candid picture from our photo shoot

Might have to get the biggest canvas they make of this picture. I am obsessed with it! Look at my baby sticking his tongue out at mommy and daddy! Love him!!!!

6 month check up

Chase had his 6 month check up today. He is 28.5 inches long 96th percentile. They predict he will be 6'2"! He weighs 20 pounds 5.5 ounces 89th percentile.

We got the go ahead to start feeding him solids. Since the rice cereal has slowed his poop down we are only going to do cereal once a day. We of course have to wait 3-4 days in between introducing new things. Once he's eating a few different things his doctor suggested doing two things like a cereal and fruit and then fruit and veggie. We will start out feeding him twice a day. His doctor and I would love to get him sleeping 8 hours a night!!! I feel like Chase puts himself to sleep, but I'm going to work on putting him in his crib drowsy just to make sure. He wakes up a lot, like usually 3 times a night, and he's getting too old for it.

His doctor was happy that we are trying to do 2 2 hour naps. Which is what she told us and a friend of mine he should be doing at 6 months. She said as long as he gets about 3 hours of napping in a day that's fine. She said don't wake him up after 2.5 hours, let him go 3 hours and realize that his 2nd nap will probably only be about 30 minutes.

Besides that stuff everything was great! Poor little man had to get 4 shots!

Tomorrow is our Christmas card photoshoot! Help me pick my shoes!

Our photographer just had a cancellation for tomorrow morning so it is go time! I am really hoping it doesn't rain! So this is the last decision I need help with. What shoes should I wear? Hubs will be wearing his nice black shoes and since big foot has no shoes he will be in white socks.

#1 Brown boots


#2 Black boots with skinny jeans



#3 Black boots with boot cut jeans

Thanks for all the fashion advice! Can't wait to see the pictures!!! Hopefully Chase does better than today!

Hold me! My baby is 6 months old!!!!

Well, Chase is half a year old! It has gone by so fast!

This month he started eating rice cereal. We went to a pumpkin patch. He finally started sleeping without a swaddle. He celebrated his first Halloween as a tiger!

We had a Halloween party for his baby friends. All the boys except for Chase were skeletons. Isn't that funny! This month Chase not only started sleeping without his swaddle, he started sleeping on his tummy. Well, actually, his face! Scares me but what can you do? On the 2nd his bff arrived.

Chase started waking up 3 times at night this month. I think he's ready to be eating more solids. We will discuss with doctor on the 7th and probably start on the 8th! I couldn't believe Chase was the only one of his friends that hasn't started eating anything besides cereal. Chase has mastered rolling from belly to back this month. He is a rolling machine! He's also sitting up unassisted for several minutes. He drags objects toward himself. He's starting to get his knees up underneath him. I think most of his friends are saying dada. Chase makes more h and g noises. I think he's passing objects from hand to hand, but its kind of hard to tell. No teeth. I guess my mom and I were late with teeth. I really hope that doesn't mean he is going to need braces like me! I'm totally ok with teeth being late. I hear being bit is no fun!

He learned a lot in his 5th month and it was a really fun month! Can't wait for all that is up ahead!

So, just kidding about the earlier outfit choices!

Thank you all SO much for helping me out with this Christmas card photo shoot stuff! I know I'm being crazy! So, after I did the post with the white t-shirt and gray sweater I found out white is not so good for photographing. My tweeps decided they liked this beige sweater I have. My stylist AP, decided she need to see pics of the under shirt options before she could decide. So now white or gray?

What I'm Loving!

-I'm loving that my husband gives Chase a kiss every morning before he goes to work.

-I'm loving that our dvr is full because baby giggles and snuggles are way better than any tv show.

-I'm loving that I am no longer sleeping with Chase in the guest room!

-I'm loving that when he wakes up he blows raspberries. Silly boy!

-I'm loving how proud Hubby is of Chase. He says stuff like, "He's so strong!" "He's practically crawling!"

-I'm loving when Hubby compliments Chase. He says things like, "Chase, I like your hair." "Chase, I like your pants."

Christmas card photo shoot: sweater or no sweater

Ok I need your help with another decision regarding the christmas card photo shoot. Sweater or no sweater? If you need a reminder of what the boys are wearing you can look here.


I apologize for the pony and no make up. All we are doing today is going to the dollar tree so... Oh, and I am going to wear spanx for the photo shoot. Next up shoes!

Christmas card photo shoot outfits

I went to Macy's today and found a necklace for me and a shirt for Chase to wear for our Christmas card photo shoot.

Let's talk bottoms. Should we all wear jeans? I would have to buy a pair for Chase. I don't think Hub's gray shirt would look good with khakis, do you?



I put my khakis with my top. What do you think? I also added my gray sweater since the boys have long sleeves. I'll take pictures with my outfit options soon.

I'm kind of obsessed!

I actually did something I saw on Pinterest!

I saw this on pinterest. It is from this blog.

Supplies you need for our version:

black canvas from Michaels

white paint

white ribbon

double sided tape

a black, orange, and silver sharpie

We decided to trace Chase's socked feet with a silver sharpie instead of painting his feet. Easier on his skin and for clean up. We drew eyes with the silver sharpie and then painted the ghost white. I wrote on the white ribbon with black and orange sharpie. Then we used the double sided tape to tape the ribbon to the canvas. Easy peasy!!!

My mom and I traced our feet for this one but our feet were bigger than the 9x12 canvas so we cheated a little. My foot is way bigger than my mom's. It's not to scale, oh well!