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Caroline Charlotte Chase Family Fun

My Snow Babies

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It is so incredibly cold lately. Tomorrow is a high of 12 degrees, low of –6 degrees. Yeeeesh! Worst thing about living in Utah. But my kids don’t think so; they like the snow! Even little Marshmallow Girl here.

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I’m glad Chase enjoys playing out there so much, since he’s the child with the most energy & needs the physical outlet! It’s fun to see what Chase comes up with when he plays in the snow. So creative. He uses all sorts of things from the garage. There are probably a bunch of rakes, pliers, & tennis rackets buried all over the yard and we don’t even know it.

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Charlotte was pretty determined to ride her bike through the snow… She enjoys collecting pretty icicles & likes to play out in the snow for a short amount of time.

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More often than not, though, the two little girls are inside the house, staying warm!

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Categories
Chase Family Fun

Date with Chase

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Pace brought home some big ol’ coins from work several months ago, & started a program involving this coin, AKA “The Manner Medallion.” Our kids earn it if they’ve been exceptionally well-behaved & used their manners all day long. They get to cash in the Manner Medallion for a date of their choice (within reason!), with a parent or the whole family. I got to take Chase on one recently to go get Slurpees, candy, & chips (I know, not nutritious). It was fun to hang out & talk with just Chase.

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Categories
Chase

Chase’s 1st Grade Thanksgiving Program

We attended Chase’s Thanksgiving program a few weeks ago as a family. I’m always impressed by how many songs & poems these kids can memorize & recite! And the kids are so cute.

Once when I went to help out in Chase’s classroom, the kids practiced the song, “We Are Children of Many Colors,” & I had to fight back the tears. I think I was moved by how bright, mature, & tolerant of others these little spirits are.

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Chase is a fun kid. He’s a great reader & his teacher says he’s always on task & obedient in class. He also helps other kids finish their work when he finishes early. I’m glad he does well in school!

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Categories
Charlotte Chase Chase Adventures

Chase’s 2012 Soccer Season (U-8)

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I didn’t take a lot of pictures this season! I didn’t want to pretend that Chase had a good ol’ time. He did play hard every time and was the best on his team, not gonna lie. But he didn’t really enjoy playing soccer this year, which was a surprise because it’s always been his favorite sport!

Perhaps he might be getting tired of sports for the time being… Gasp! What?? In his six years of life, I believe the only sports he’s done are: Gymnastics, swimming (2 sessions), ice skating (4x), soccer (3x), kickball, hockey, karate, & trampoline/tumbling. Why would he be burnt out?!?  I mean, come on. Just kidding. I think what he really wants to do is run around with friends all day! So that’s all he’s doing these days after school. And we’re okay with that!

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Some spectators, Mollie & Charlotte. Their expressions sum up their excitement about the game.

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Charlotte was looking all sweet & sentimental as she was watching Chase’s last game, so I was about to take a picture of her, when she suddenly threw on this spaz face. Silly girl.

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Categories
Caroline Charlotte Chase Family Fun

Recent Happenings

Charlotte started Joy School at the beginning of September. It was fun to do Joy School for Chase, & I wanted to do it again for Charlotte! A group of 4 moms from our ward are rotating teaching our kids (and I think 4 is the perfect number for this). Of course there are no girls anywhere near Charlotte’s age, but these cute boys will do!

We were talking about the human body this particular day, & they were figuring out how to make some letters with their bodies. Here they were making the letter H.

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This was our attempt at taking a picture of our little skeletons. We will have to try that again soon, but in the meantime, this photo is entertaining. (The next morning, we went out to breakfast while the kids were still in these pajamas, and we sat near a group of elderly men. One of the old guys pointed at Chase and shouted, “I can see your ribs!!!”)

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Warning: Photos of Pace’s masculine chest will be seen in the following photos, and feelings of jealousy may be evoked.

Our ward had a big Book of Mormon Fiesta which we really enjoyed. Here are the hams showing off their war paint.

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Scary and intimidating!

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This is not only a blurry, weird picture, but I also wanted to capture the moment when there were nine kids all playing in Chase’s little bedroom. This is exactly how Chase likes things to be!

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Chase is a master gardener & we recently picked our first pumpkin. Pumpkins are extremely invasive and take over the whole entire garden, and then some—that is what we learned this year!

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Caroline is the cutest baby!! I know, we all think that about our own babies. I love to kiss her chubby little cheeks and snuggle her sweet, thick hair. OK, enough of that. Here she was stealing Pace’s dried fruit that he was snacking on.

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Aunt Jessica (my baby sister) turned 22 a couple weeks ago. Casey did a great job throwing a big party with lots of their friends to celebrate with Jess. I think she felt very loved!

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Birthday Buddies (September 7th & 8th)

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Caroline is at a fun age. She likes to rearrange the pantry for me. Whatever it takes to safely entertain her while I prepare meals is alright with me!

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This picture reminds me of one of myself around the same age, caught in the act of proudly pulling every single towel out of a kitchen drawer. Remember that one, Mom & Dad?

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Categories
Charlotte Chase Chase Adventures Family Fun

Chase The First Grader

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Yes, he’s big now. Yes, he’s gone all day now. It’s exciting! Every day he whines about having to go to school, but I think he kind of likes it anyway. He has a great teacher (Ms. Chatterley), who has been teaching for 28 years.

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I get to have girl time with these cuties! We’re also doing Joy School at home with Charlotte & friends. (Weird that when she starts kindergarten, Chase will be starting 3rd grade)!

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Categories
Charlotte Chase Family Fun

Our Little Fishies

I should blog about our California trip… but first I have to backtrack to right before that trip. Chase & Charlotte took a few weeks of gymnastics classes, which they really enjoyed. I never took any pictures, boo!

They also took 5 days of swimming lessons in someone’s awesome, very warm backyard pool.

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Chase did wonderfully with the swimming lessons! He is a completely confident little fish in the water now, a great swimmer, & he & I both don’t have to worry about him drowning.

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Charlotte, on the other hand, hated “getting water in her ears” & really wanted nothing to do with putting her face in the water. She would cry whenever the teacher asked her to blow bubbles in the water. She did alright, but I probably should have waited till she’s 4 to put her in lessons. You never know how they’re going to do!

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Categories
Chase Family Fun McVideos

Mutton Bustin!

We visited the Santa Rosa County Fair, there were lots of fun things and I’m sure Joy might talk about all of them later. The most important thing was a Mutton Busters group had setup camp on one end of the fair. After watching the noon show Chase said he wanted to try his hand at Mutton Busting.

For those not familiar, kids between the age of 4-7 weighing less than 60lbs get put on a sheep who’s been separated from the flock. When the door opens the sheep runs to the other end of the ring where the rest of the flock is. The kid holds on to the wool as long as possible. Whichever kid who holds on the longest wins. In the noon show the winner was on about 5 seconds and most rides last less then that.

Chase was up against two other kids, the first one didn’t last long enough to get a score, and the second kid was on about 5 seconds and scored 85. So Chase needed 86 or higher to win. Check out the video to see what happened

Categories
Chase

The Proud Parents of a Graduate

Yes, it’s true. Chase made it through kindergarten, & will be moving on to first grade in less than three months. I have a first grader?! I still remember a lot about my first grade year. Time flies.

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Chase had a great year in Mrs. Miner’s class. He has often talked about Camrie Snapp, the petite, smiley girl that has a crush on him. But HE DOESN’T have a crush on her. Camrie informed him one day that she’s going to marry him someday, even if he doesn’t love her back. She asked to have a picture taken with him on their graduation day, but he refused, whispering to me that he had a tummy ache & wanted to go home.

He’s also told us about the three bullies in his class. One day, he came home with a cut on his lip from one of them being egged on by the other to punch Chase in the lip when the teacher wasn’t looking. You’d better believe I was in there the next day, discussing this with the teacher. I can’t believe he already has to deal with this sort of thing!

On a lighter note, Mrs. Miner said that Chase was an excellent student, she never had any problems with him, he was always on task, & even helping others with their work. It’s been fun to see how far he’s progressed in his reading & writing this year.

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And just a few minutes after we got home from his Kindergarten Graduation Program, he lost his first tooth. I couldn’t believe it! Such a big day for Chase!

Categories
Chase Family Fun

Chase’s LEGO Party

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IMG_0006 Chase’s 6th birthday party was a blast! I had him take care of the planning and ideas this year. As you can imagine, he loved being in charge! He told me his ideas & even drew some diagrams. It was perfect, because this way, I didn’t have to research a bunch of ideas online, and I also wasn’t putting effort into things that he didn’t even care about (like over-the-top decorations, little name cards for each place setting, or serving an elaborate, LEGO-themed meal).

This was the order of events he wanted for the party: 1. Eat cake!! 2. Open presents. 3. Play games. 4. Free play time. …Yup, easy enough!

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“Throw Ninja Stars at Bad Lego Guy” Game = Big hit with boys (+ Charlotte)!

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We did have some decorations. I had Pace print out a bunch of these little LEGO guys & we hung them up all over the place. I drew a LEGO guy head for the front door, & Chase hung up the pretty streamers. Smile

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Some things that I liked in addition to having Chase plan what he wanted to do for the party: Having the party in the afternoon so we had all morning to prepare, not doing lots of decorations, & not serving a meal. That really simplified things & plus, little boys don’t want to sit & eat—they want to PLAY!!!

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Family Pics MINUS napping Caroline!

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