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Charlotte Chase Family Fun

A New Source of Food for Thought

Our city has a new library! The old one was tiny and falling apart and, frankly, disgusting. I didn’t really love taking my kids there for Story Time because it was so crowded & brown water was dripping through the ceilings (besides the fact that people would bring their green snotty-nosed, coughing kids to Story Time, even though they were clearly sick). But I do have fond memories of practically tearing that place apart, with kids in tow, to finally find the coveted city Medallion which ended up scoring us some great prizes last summer. So, I guess the old library was alright!

The first thing Chase & Charlotte wanted to do when we visited our new library was play in the manmade water feature out front. It has steps up to it that kids can easily climb, so I think it was okay for them to splash in the water & slide down the edges of the little waterfall. With things like this, I just let the kids go for it & wait for someone to come out & yell at us if it’s not OK.

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Charlotte didn’t even mind her bum getting wet as she slid down, that’s how much fun she was having.

Side note: Charlotte doesn’t like to get dressed in the morning. I let her choose what she wants to wear, but lately, she gets mad about her long sleeves or tights having “bumps” in them. On this particular morning she was bawling her eyes out about this red shirt having “bumps” in the sleeves. When she looked down & saw that tears had dripped on the front of her shirt, she started to cry even harder, saying, "Now we need to change my shirt because it has my cries on it!” I didn’t understand what she said so I asked, “What??” and she said pointing to her wet cheeks, “My wittle tears got on my shirt so we need to change it.” I laughed (despite my frustration with her) and reassured her that the tears on her shirt would dry soon, especially if she stopped crying!

Inside the library, we checked out the children’s section where they have cute little shelves & chairs & computers. The kids pored over some literature for a while (actually, they were Batman comic books).

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We climbed to the top floor so we could look out at the creek and the city.

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I lugged Caroline around in the car seat the whole time so she would stay asleep (shoulda brought the stroller for her)!

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Right after this, we had to go pick up Chase’s carpool friend & take them to kindergarten. When we got to the friend’s house, I told Chase I’d go up to the door to get him so Chase wouldn’t have to get out & do it. But Chase responded, “No, that’s OK. You have to carry the baby around all the time, so I can do it.” And with that, he hopped out of the car to go get his friend. WoW! Sometimes Chase can be so considerate & helpful.

Categories
Family Fun

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

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Halloween is my favorite holiday. Pace thinks that is weird. What can I say? I’m a Terribilini girl, therefore I LOVE candy! And I love everything else about Halloween, too.

The photo above is from last Saturday. We invited the Fears to go with us to Central Utah Gardens for some free family fun. We dressed up in costumes not only to be festive, but also to get free Krispy Kreme donuts like last year… But the donuts this year were not Krispy Kremes after all. AND I spent all but 5 minutes feeding & changing Caroline in the car & taking Charlotte to the bathroom. Oh, well. This is my time & season for taking care of children!

Chase wanted to carve pumpkins. I agreed, but made him do most of the dirty work (for which he insisted on wearing rubber gloves). Charlotte’s face says it all!

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After a few minutes of using an awkwardly huge, sharp knife, I borrowed one of those carving kits from my neighbor, Emily. In the past I’d figured that those kits were a waste of money, but it made the carving sooo much easier, and it was fun to do a cool design on the pumpkin. Next year, we’ll be buying a carving kit!

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On the big night, Pace wore his authentic military sniper Ghillie suit. (When he has the whole thing on, he just looks like a big bush.) He hid in our yard and scared people who came trick-or-treating at our place. People loved it (after the initial shock), and some even remembered that he’d hidden & scared people year before last also! It was SOOOO entertaining. I hope he posts some of the funny videos that Jim caught on camera.

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One unsuspecting pre-teen kid used Pace as a step-stool to get up to our porch! He was startled when he realized that the “pile of grass” was a person! When he & his friends were leaving our house, his fellow pre-teen friend apologized, “Sorry, Grass Pile.”

I was surprised by how many big kids & teens went out trick-or-treating. I remember one Halloween when I was about 13, my best friend Jamie & were bored & really wanted some candy. So we put a big sheet over us and went out trick-or-treating as ghosts. Whenever we’d knock on the door, we’d duck down so we’d look shorter (Jamie didn’t need to duck too much). When people would answer the door, we’d exclaim, “Trick or treat!’” using our best high, youthful voices. Most of the time, people were annoyed and disgusted that such OLD kids would go around trick-or-treating. Some people were even angry about it. Lame. But around here, it’s the norm for older kids to go out on Halloween! Go figure.

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Caroline sporting the hot pink onesie that Amber gave us! It says “Wickedly Cute.” Perfect for Halloween!

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Charlotte was a dainty ballerina. She knew all year that she wanted to be a ballerina because in the Berenstain Bears Trick-or-Treat book, Sister Bear is a ballerina for Halloween. The great thing is, if she decides to take ballet lessons, she can wear this same leotard!

Categories
Caroline

Fresh Baby, Anyone?

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I took a few photos right after Caroline’s bath yesterday. She really just wanted me to swaddle her and rock her to sleep rather than make her endure a photo shoot…

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But I just can’t get enough of her chubs, her yummy scent, and her sweet disposition. She smiles at us (first “real” smile at 4 weeks), but they’re so fleeting, I haven’t captured a smile on camera yet. It will happen sometime!

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She’s busy growing. She wears her 3-6 month clothes now. We love this baby!

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Categories
Caroline Family Fun

Caroline’s Blessing Day

9/25/11

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We had Caroline’s baby blessing at church when she was 2 weeks old (Sept. 25th). Yes, it was early, and I was a little bleary-eyed. But it was wonderful to have some of our family and friends around for this special occasion. (Thanks so much to the Fernstens for these photos. And sorry about all the backtracking on the blog.)

Pace gave a wonderful priesthood blessing to Caroline at our 9am church meeting. He wasn’t a fan of her blessing dress because it was big, poufy, & slippery. He said she was sliding out of his hands during the blessing & he almost dropped her. But he didn’t! We came home & had lunch & hung out at our place. It was a gorgeous Sunday.

Daddy + Mommy + Caroline

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Family Photo! Charlotte is holding her pink purse for the photo, of course.

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The one below is more typical of our everyday life…

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Nathan & Rachel Fernsten. We’re SO glad whenever we get to see them!

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This is my little Grandma! She’s my dad’s mom. We love her. (Caroline does, too. Can you see that hint of a grin on her face?)

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The men in attendance. (Jason McGowan was at the blessing, too.) Yancy Zimmerman was in town & surprised us by coming, along with his wife Leah & son Jeshua (the little redhead)!

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The women (minus Becky Stoddard & Whitney McGowan). It was a nice surprise that Stephanie Zundel came, too! Love her!

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Lookalikes: Rachel & Charlotte

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Us with my parents & grandma in a washed-out photo (are these starting to seem like wedding pictures??)

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Us with Pace’s parents

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Categories
Caroline

Caroline: 6 Weeks

(Rachel, this is mainly for you since you asked me several days ago to post some photos of Caroline!)

These are the only ones I’ve taken lately!! She’s 6 weeks old now. Looks the same as when she was born, except chubbier! Still sweet & not fussy!

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Not a great pic of me at all, but I wanted to show Caroline’s size. Chase was getting over the flu & Pace was sick with it. Rough weekend. I was paranoid—I’d leap out of bed whenever I heard anyone make a sound in the night! SOOOO glad no one else in the family got it!

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Categories
Charlotte

Here’s Charlotte.

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She’s a happy, endearing girl. She often surprises me with the observations she makes about things & the new vocabulary she uses (like “complicated”, “testimony”, & “fantastic”). And she makes us laugh! I remembered to jot down a few things that Charlotte recently said…

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– She was bawling about something as she walked into the kitchen. As I hugged her, she glanced at the pantry & bawled, “I think I just need some fruit snacks or somethiiiiiing!”

– Last night I was calling to Pace from outside, but he couldn’t hear me. So Charlotte screamed out in a loud, wild voice, “PAAACE!!!” and then turned to me and asked sweetly, “Don’t I have a beautiful voice?”

– Gretchen (Pace’s mom) was trying to get her to go to the bathroom. GG challenged Charlotte, “Come on, I’m going to beat you to the bathroom!” and Charlotte responded nonchalantly, “No, I don’t want to beat you.”

– She was climbing on the space heater in Caroline’s room. When I told her not to because it could tip over, she told me, “But I’m here. To protect it.

– Pace was telling me some things about his day, when Charlotte came up, threw her hands up in the air, & asked him incredulously, “Are you kidding me?!?” And he just kept telling his story until she’d interrupt again with, “Are you really kidding me?!” This happened a few more times & just cracked me up.

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Charlotte has been a pretty good sport lately, even as I’ve been spending a lot of time nursing & diapering Caroline. But we multitask… We have a lot of tea parties, we read books, we chat, & we play games. I’m glad she’s content to just hang out with me at home a lot! She carries around her purses filled with jewelry, buttons, play money, & lots of random little objects.

And Charlotte still really loves books! She can usually be found with a book or 5 in hand. Takes after her Grandma T.

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She loves her GG!

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I just realized that she’s wearing that same dress in every single picture of this post. Yes, my kids are quite opinionated about their clothing. Chase & Charlotte each have their favorite outfit (which is NOT my favorite outfit) & that is what they want to wear, every day! Oh well, life’s short, so I’m TRYING not to sweat the small stuff!

Categories
Family Fun

Yes please

Yes Chase and I want this for Christmas.

Categories
Chase Chase Adventures

Our Big Boy

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Chase recently finished a great soccer season with his team, The Tigers.

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Chase has definitely found “his sport!” He LOVES playing soccer, it’s a great outlet for him, and he’s good at it too. I’m bragging, yes. We were proud to watch him do his thing out there. If only the soccer season were longer than 1 stinkin’ month! (next few photos courtesy of Rachel)

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In other news, Chase recently carved a zucchini guy that sat on our porch for a few days to greet visitors.

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I definitely let all our zucchini get out-of-control large. I thought it was kinda cool, until my Mom said that you’re supposed to pick zucchini when it’s small so it will taste good, & so the plant can put its energy into making more zucchini rather than sustaining the big ones. Lesson learned! (But at least we’ve enjoyed tons of zucchini, delicious tomatoes, and even some bell peppers, mint, & thyme from our garden.)

Below are just a couple pics of Chase from when we were at the Museum of Ancient Life (with GG & Charlotte). He looks like such a little angel. Haha!

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Categories
Caroline

Caroline at 2 Weeks Old

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Caroline is now 5 weeks old, but here are some sweet pictures that Rachel & Nathan took when Caroline was 2 weeks old (they were in town for the baby blessing). There are a lot of pictures, but I really selected just a few! I’m so glad they caught these tender moments for us with their fancy camera. Smile

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Categories
Caroline Family Fun

Baby Caroline at 1 month old

This is what our sweet baby looks like right now.

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Yes, she still sleeps all the time! It is amazing to me. When she’s awake, she calmly looks around and I just love gazing at her. But really, she’s the sleepiest newborn I’ve ever had. And the easiest newborn I’ve ever had. Not that I think newborns are easy… But really, Caroline has been fussy like maybe once so far. And she doesn’t spit up. Well, she DID have a few random projectile episodes at first. Once, she projectile vomited all over Charlotte from head to toe which made Big Sister start to cry… But that hasn’t happened in a couple weeks now.

Caroline weighed 9 lbs. at her 2-week appointment, so she’s doing well in her weight gain.

Look how tiny this bundle looks in her crib. Before we know it, she’ll be as long as this crib! I don’t remember what my other 2 newborns were REALLY like. That might be a good thing. But it just goes by too quickly and I know it! I wish I could bottle up all the (good) newborn memories so I could really remember it all a few years from now.

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My mom had to leave a week ago. It was hard to say goodbye. It was crucial to have my mom here to help ease us into the newborn lifestyle. She hung out with us, spoiled us, folded laundry, did our dishes, & helped tremendously with Caroline. I especially appreciated sharing the “load” when it came to the diaper changes! haha, get it??

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Charlotte is great with her little sister. She likes to get really close to Caroline’s face and talk in a high-pitched voice. Charlotte HAS been more defiant/opinionated & crying more lately, but she’s been doing alright overall. I try to make time to spend with just her.

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Chase is very tender and helpful with his baby sister, also. He goes & gets things when I ask him to. I still have to remind him not to carry Caroline around. He doesn’t seem as affected by this whole situation as Charlotte, maybe because he’s older & more independent.

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Here’s my little family, all holding each other on their laps!

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Pace has been great, too. He has been patient with me having baby gifts everywhere, dinner NOT ready when he gets home, & my boxes of regular clothes all over the bedroom as I transition to my normal clothes. I am grateful for my wonderful husband. Even if he’s a little crazy (see picture below).

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That pic was taken after a bath time. Caroline really loves her baths! And I love when she’s all fresh & clean & snuggly.