Spray.... what???

We are reunited!  After spending six nights & six days away from Chase we are back together as a family.  We spent the last week in Kona, HI and opted to leave Chasey home with my Mom & Jerry (bless their hearts)  as the trip was for Jerame's work and we figured he would be pretty high maintenance to bring along.  It was the first stroller-free-trip we have had in almost 5 years & boy was it liberating. But ohhhhh did I miss my little boyfriend of a baby. I think he grew double in size and I am not kidding you he was mad at me when we first went to pick him up. He only wanted Jerame for the first little while when we got him home. Broke this Momma's heart!!!! But now he is back to loving me thank goodness.
Ok so now for the blog post tittle.... I laugh because the picture below is the night before we left & I had just gone to get my 'spray-tan' YES...it's the best thing ever let me tell you. I don't really do sun & most certainly not tanning booths anymore  now that I am older and seeing the affects of the sun & the many hours that I baked myself in it. But the 'spray' gives the same tone that I so long for. The funny thing is though you can't really go in the pool to many times or shower with to much soap because it will come off. So you get the picture....Hawaii, with kids & Mom can't get into the pool because her spray tan will come off. I am laughing at myself right now. Ya, as you can imagine Jerame was super thrilled with me?  But, I wanted to be 'tan' for the first part of the trip at least. My 'tan' was pretty much gone by the end of the week...imagine that!
I love Hawaii though it has to be our favorite place on earth to vacation.  The twins had a blast swimming & socializing with all the other littles that came. We snorkeled, beached, whale watched, went to a Luau, played with countless other littles kiddos, the kids ate hot dogs (everyday) & drank (only) sprite & had the time of their life hanging with us...or we had the time of our life hanging with them...not sure which one?! We hired a babysitter two of the nights  and were able to sneak in some us time which was wonderful.  BUT we did feel incomplete without our littlest guy.  I think the twins missed him as much as we Jerame & I did. That will be the first & the last trip he is not invited on. Pics from Hawaii to come!

Throw'in it back

I am in the process of transferring all my photos to my new lap top. But evertime I sit down to try & orgainzie my stuff on there I just get distracted by all my pictures. This is not what I need to be doing right now as Chase just went down & I have my little window of opportunity to clean,laundry,shower...you know the drill. BUT, this is way more fun! 

Just babies! On our honeymoon circa 2005 Me: 24 Jer: 28

our first day with Bella our true first baby. She will be turning 7 in April. 

going for a ride in the double stroller for the first time 2009

not much to say about this pictures other than. LOVE love love 2009. I think Jerame was trying to cook dinner here.

little buddies

Chasey has had a built in best friend since the begining.

 Born two weeks apart, these little boys will be best buddies. 

Love them! 

Hood Canal with Karen  July  2011 

Hood Canal July 2012

Baby Jail

Before they were mobile

dude check out my exersaucer :) 

practicing sitting up last spring 

come on Leo, get down & come unload some cabinets with me

Resolutions

Blogging has obviously not been a top priority for me over the past year. I am making it a new year resolution to blog more. I love to look back at what I have written about our little lives & plan to use this as my kids baby book & actually get it printed one day.  How neat would that be? It seems like almost all my fellow bloggies have also fallen off the train as well. So get writing people & entertain me :)  We have been busy...but isn't everyone? I noticed that my blogging significantly fell off once little Chase made his enterence into our family. Having three vs. two (for me) has been quite a game changer. Although I do have to say that once Carter & Chloe turned 4 things seemed to get a lot easier with them.  3 was a hard year for us, 4 has been pretty great so far. So hang in there all you Momma's of 3 year olds there is light!
We had such a good holiday in our new house. Things just felt right & so cozy. 2012 was a year of huge transition  for us & at times things were tough. But it felt like our Christmas was one big gift at the end of a long journey. The twins were at a wonderful age for Christmas and we felt like they truly got it this year...finally :). We went to see Santa, threatened them countless times about being naughty & nice, put cookies out for him & the reindeer on Christmas Eve and enjoyed 'helping' me wrap presents as prep for Christmas. We enjoyed lots of family gatherings and I felt like C & C truly grasped how large their family actually is. There are so many people that love ours kids, which we feel extremely blessed with.
Chase is at the full on crazy age. Climbing tables, running, crashing into things, opening every single cupboard in the house, playing in the toilets, finding anything small & putting it in his mouth, opening & unloading the garbage, stair climbing.....and the list goes on & on.  He is still huge to, wearing clothes that Carter wore when he was two & his little pork chop feet don't fit into any shoes that Carter wore at this age because they are so wide. Love my little chubby baby. He is FINALLY sleeping through the night consistently. Well, it most likely helps that I  don't give him bottles at night anymore....it only took me a year & 1/2..... but hey whose counting though ;). You would think this was my first rodeo! Anyway, be on the look out for more blogging from me!  Happy New Year.

O' Christmas Tree

Ever since we went to the tree farm last year to get our tree Carter has been talking about getting our tree this year. Needless to say it was an exciting thing for our family to do together. Our trip to the farm was not without our usual craziness though. Sometimes I feel like we just need circus music following us around wherever we go because we are a zoo. Even though Jerame & I were both sweating it was such a wonderful memory to make as a family & worth every bead of sweat. The craziness is what makes it fun, right?!  I will look back on these chaotic times as the most cherished of my life, I know I will. These 3 little beautiful kiddos have made our holidays so special thus far. We are so blessed to get to share the magic of Christmas with them yet again. My Dad accompanied us to get the tree as it was one of his buddies farm. 

Walking Boy

                                                      

At 13 months old (yesterday) I think we can say Chase is an official walker. I love love love this age. I like walking so much better than crawling. I am just soaking up every little thing baby about him right now because I know it's going to be gone in a flash. He seems like so much more of a baby to me still than the twins did at One. I wonder if it is because he is our last baby? He doesn't have very much hair still & the twinnies had full heads of hair by now. He is such a little lover baby and loves to give hugs and be cuddled still. He slept through the night for one week straight back in Oct (the first time he had ever slept through the night) then he got sick and started waking up at night again. When I took him in for his 1 year apt a few weeks back the Dr. told me that I HAVE to stop feeding him bottles in the middle of the night when he wakes up because the longer I do that the longer he will wake up at night. DUH. Tell me something I don't already know DOC. I guess I just had to work up to it because at  1 year and almost 1 month later I let him cry it out. Yup...I did it! Jerame was holding me down in bed at 3am saying...don't do it...don't go get him...he is fine. It actually physically hurts my body to hear him scream and cry :(. I just picture him standing up holding onto the side of his crib waiting for me to come in & scoop him up. But the good news is, he only screamed for about 20 minutes that 1st night before going back to sleep for the rest of the night. The next night he only woke once & cried for a short time and then last night no waking at all. This is huge progress people!  I think by Christmas he is going to be running after the twins to keep up with them. They are still so good with him & really adore him. Chloe is such a little Momma to him even when he grabs a hold of her hair & rips it out in handfuls she still never gets anrgy with him. This will all change I know but it's so sweet to see the love they have for him.

meet Charlie

My parents got a new boxer puppy. He is like having another baby around....the kiddos adore him. One thing is for sure though...I am happy that he lives with my parents & not us. I think having a puppy would through me right over the edge :)