Big Boy Bed

The past couple of days Chase has been climbing out of his crib. We weren't going to get him a toddler bed till his birthday next month, but figured it is time now. I don't want to risk having him hurt himself trying to get out of his crib. We were going to get a Disney Cars themed bed, but saw this one and thought it would be a little bit more sturdy. Plus it was the same price, you can't beat that. A wooded bed for a metal one... We also got him this regular size Cars blanket. He doesn't have many big blankets, most of them are the little baby ones. They all still cover him, but we thought he is getting a big boy bed, he should get a big boy blanket.
Chase loves to climb on our or Kiera's bed and jump on them. He also loves to pretend like his is going "nigh-nigh". He will lay down on a pillow anywhere and say "nigh-nigh" and pull the covers up and lay there smiling.

Last night was his first night on his big boy bed. Now Mark and I switch off whose night it is to put Chase to bed and put him back to bed if he wakes in the middle of the night. Chase hasn't sleep through the night for atleast a week. Anywho, last night was Mark's night, but Chase would not let Mark hold him or cuddle him. He would just try and jump out of Mark's arms and just scream. So I had to take care of Chase most of the night. He would not lay down in his bed, of course he wanted to go run around and play. He does have a bedtime routine, but the last few nights he has not wanted to follow it, however hard we try.

We ended up having to rock him close to sleep and try to lay him down, if he fought, then continue rocking him. He got up 3 times and the final time, Mark just let him lay in bed with us.

We really hope he adjusts to this easily and won't be waking every night after the baby is born, that won't be fun for us both being up in the middle of the night with two different kids. We do know that if it does happen, we can handle it, otherwise the Lord wouldn't have given us this blessing. We also hope to have him fully potty trained by Christmas, so we don't have to buy two sizes of diapers each month.

Memorial Day & Kiera Graduation

We spent our Memorial Day Weekend in Cedar City. We rented a van('08 Toyota Sienna) from Enterprise. I loved having that van and did not want to take it back, but I did. They let us pick it up a day early free of charge, so we could beat the rush. I had taken two home preggo tests and they both had a faint answer, so I went into my doctors on Wednesday and did a blood test. Right before we left on Thursday to go pick up my father-in-law, brother and sister-in-law and nephew my nurse called with the results. I"M PREGNANT!!! We are so excited! We have been trying for a couple months now, but knew our time would come when the time was right. We are so excited that Chase is going to be a Big Brother! We have even taught him that there is a Baby is in Momma's belly.
So when we picked up Mark's family we told them. Our sister-in-law is one month farther along than I am. We headed out Thursday after noon. When we got to Cedar, we gave Mark's mom her Mother's Day/Birthday Gift(both dates are so close together so we just combine them). We had all gone in together and got her a Mother's Ring. On the card I had signed our names and TBA. When she read that she gasped and then started screaming after I confirmed that I was.

Kiera graduated from high school on Friday night. It was a great program. They had a graduating class of 58. She went to Parowan High, so it's a small town. The class did the program themselves. Several different students spoke and the entire class sang a few songs.

We stayed with them till Sunday night. We had taken the boys to the park, visited Mark's grandma's grave, and hung out at Mark's moms. We had left on Sunday because Mark's brother had some things to do before they went to a concert they were taking Kiera to Monday night.

We spent Memorial Day helping my parents in their yard, doing yard work. Kiera stayed up here in Salt Lake till this afternoon. We enjoyed having her and she will be moving in with us in July.

Mother's Day

I totally forgot to write about Mother's Day!!!

I had to be to church early on Mother's Day to practice two musical numbers with our Ward Choir. Douglas had spent the night at our house so he came to church with us. Sacrament meeting had three wonderful talks and then a lot of musical numbers, from the primary, ward choir, a solo, a duet, and a trio of cello's along with the piano. Our ward passed out little book marks that talked about Love with a Heart pin that said Love on it. Sunday School was amazing, and in Relief Society our teacher did a wonderful job and passed out cookies to all of us. Chase made a beautiful picture in nursery for me. Mark had gotten me flowers a few days prior.

After our ward we went over to my mom's house and then went to church with her. Chase had fallen asleep in the car from our ward to my mom's. He stayed asleep as we carried him inside her house, and as we carried him back out to the car and into her church. When he finally woke up and saw Grandma and Grandpa he climbed out of my arms and hopped along the bench to her and gave her the biggest hug ever. It was adorable. Her ward gave all the mother's a potted flower. Douglas brought one over for me as well. Right after Sacrament Mark and Douglas went home. My dad took Chase into Nursery and then helped my mom set up the new tv in the library. As oon as he was done, we went home. I hung out with them in there. In her ward the men take over the primary and nursery so all the women can go to Relief Soceity. My mom and I went to Relief Soceity. I had already had the lesson, but was able to answer questions etc. After church we went back to my parents for dinner. They made BBQ ribs and Funeral Potatoes. My brother Dan and his family joined us bringing biscquets and corn. Chase was being a pain in butt and would not eat. He had only had breakfast( he was asleep between wards so we couldn't give him lunch). We ended up leaving right after dinner due to Chase's behavior.

Other than Chase's behavior at my parent's it was a really nice day.

Our New Place

Hey, I know it's been a long time since I really posted something about what's happening in our life, so here I go! I will try and not make it super long.
We are loving our new place. I love being able to do laundry whenever and not give up our entire Saturday to do it at my parents. I love having the dishwasher, it makes life so much easier! We have lots of space for Chase to run around and are so close to a couple parks that he can go play at. He loves to "go wee"(sit on the swings)!
We've had a few parties since we moved it. On May 1st we had our "House Warming/Game Night" We had 13 adults and about 5 kids running around. It was a lot of fun! We only played one game of Scene It, Movies. It was the easiest thing to play with 13 people rather than have several games going or all trying to crowd around our table. On May 9th we had a Batman Movie Marathon. We watched all the Batman Movies from the Adam West movie all the way through to The Dark Knight. It was really fun. We had people come and go all day. We made personal pizzas with our Skookies for lunch and walked over to Subway for dinner. After watching all 7 in a row, Mark and I agree that The Dark Knight is the best of them all!
I have a lot more adult interaction here. One of our good friends from high school lives in the building next to us. She is also a Stay-at-home mom, so we spend almost everyday together and go on walks together almost everyday.
We are getting ready to head down to Cedar City this Memorial Day Weekend for Kiera's Graduation! We are so excited to go spend time with Mark's family! We will be renting a van(his brother and his family, and their dad will be riding down with us) on Thursday. Our plan is to head out as soon as Mark's dad gets off work on Thursday, Kiera's graduation is Friday, and we will come home sometime on Monday.
Chase is so smart and such a big boy! He is learning new words quick! He knows quite a few animals. We are trying to teach him his colors. Potty training has sort of come to a halt. He doesn't like sitting on the potty anymore. He will ask to go in there and just look into the bath tub or will sit on the potty and then get right back up again. We are going to give him a bit more time then start trying again.
Mark and I just received some callings in our ward. Mark is co-teaching the 11 year old boys and is the assistant scout master. I am the Coordinator for the Boy's Faith In God program. It will be fun. We look forward to getting to know the boys and hope to help them out.

Chase's Great Achievement!!!

***CAUTION I WILL BE GOING INTO SOME DIRTY DETAILS ABOUT THE POTTY!***
***YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED READ ON IF YOU DON'T MIND DETAILS***







A couple months back we decided to get Chase a Training Potty. He had been taking his pants and diapers off and running around and even went pee on the floor a few times. So we started trying to get him to go on the potty. He loves to just go and sit on it. Once we were getting ready to move things weren't progressing at all and we just kind stopped motivating him. If he wanted to sit on the potty we would let him. There was one time that I let him sit on the potty and I left the room real quick. He got up and shut the door. When I came back, there was a wet spot on the floor. We were so close! Anyways when we had moved. We kept the same routine, letting him sit on it whenever he asked and maybe a few other times like before a bath we would make him sit on it.
Two days ago I told Mark we needed to start putting Chase on the potty first thing in the morning. So we have been doing that. Yesterday Mark had Chase on the potty and after a while was asking him if he was all done and Chase would say no. During this time he was kind of holding himself, or covering himself up. A minute later of asking if he was all done, Chase said all done and got off. Mark never heard anything and didn't really check. Last night before giving Chase a bath Mark noticed some yellow liquid in the potty and brought it to me asking if I'd put anything in there or if I had put Chase on the potty. I hadn't. So we believe Chase went that morning while Mark kept asking him if he was all done. We can't come up with any other answer. Mark does feel bad that he didn't notice in the morning and we weren't able to give Chase the praise he deserved.

(***here come some of the nasty details***)

Chase has had a history of acidic poopie diapers. We recently discovered that it may come from pear juice. So I tested it today and it is the juice. When I had taken him to change his diaper he asked to sit on the potty. He had already had the acidic poop, so I cleaned off his bum and put him on the potty. I could smell the acidic poop, but figured it was just from his diaper. After a little bit he said he was all done so I put took him off and we left the bathroom. I went to grab some aloe for my burn and went back into the bathroom. I could still smell the acidic poop, so I looked in Chase's potty and there was some in there!(this stuff is really watery and when it's in his diaper, the diaper is just yellow instead of white and there is somtimes small chunks in it) I cleaned out his potty and went to Chase and gave him praise and got all excited. He just gave me a look like I was crazy. It was cute!
My little bug is starting to grow up! I'm so excited for him! He is getting smarter everyday! He is such a sweetheart and I feel so blessed to be able to spend every day with him and not have to work.
If you're still with me, thanks for reading about Chase's big moment!

Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter Weekend. We went to Mark's grandparents for their Easter Egg Hunt and Lunch on Saturday. The food was great. Chase wouldn't really eat, he'd rather run around playing. He did ask for part of my orange. I kept trying to get him to take a bite, but he just wanted the whole thing. So I gave him a small piece and he threw the whole thing in his mouth. Peel and all! I hadn't thought to take the peel off. He ate it all! He ran off while he ate it, so we didn't watch him, but did make sure he didn't spit it out anywhere. I'm amazed he was able to chew through the peel with only 6 teeth in front and 2 molars, both on top. It was Chase's first Egg Hunt. He did really well! They hide eggs all over the yard, and then one of Mark's aunts hid eggs for the"young adults". We had a blast as well.

After the Easter Egg Hunt we went and picked up our new washer and dryer(sorry no pic). We got it from a really nice guy off of craigslist.com. My brother helped us get it. We wanted to start a load that night, but one of the hoses leaked a little and we had the wrong type of outlet for the plug on the dryer. After Chase went to bed Mark and I dyed eggs.

One of them said "Eggsellent", and other said "Hoppy Easter", and the last one said, "Cuddle Bug"(our nickname for Chase). We had forgot to get some vinager so some of the colors didn't work right. Those hot pink ones where actually the red tablet...

This is what Chase got from the Easter Bunny...minus the chair, that was a Christmas Gift. With the Monkey we were able to name a star for Chase.

Here he is in his new Easter outfit hugging his monkey, Cookie. He did choose the name. We had church bright and early at 9 AM in our new ward. We live so close to the church building and it was a beautiful day so we walked to church. It was our first time in this ward. They were all very welcoming. I know several people in the ward, as I had grew up in this stake.

Right after church Chase and I dropped Mark off at my parents so he and my dad could go get the new hose and plug for our washer and dryer. While Chase and I joined my mom and brother at their ward. A friend of mine in their ward(the ward I grew up in) was giving his farwell talk. It was really nice. After their sacrament I left Chase with my mom while I went back to their house to finish painting Chase's dresser that a friend gave us(sorry again forgot to get a pic). Then we went home and relaxed for awhile and had dinner. Then my parents brought out Chase's dresser after it dried and I gave them the tour so they could see how the apartment looked now that it is basically all put together. We spent the night doing laundry and enjoying family time!

Moving Day and 5 Days Later

We had our big move on the 4th. We got up really early and packed the last minute things. While I went to pick up our friend Darren and breakfast, Mark picked up the U-Haul. Just before 8, Mark and Darren started loading the truck. Within the next hour we had 6 guys from the Harmony Park ward come and help(thanks guys we really appreciated your help and will miss you all!) We had the truck loaded within 2 hours! I went to my parents to try and watch General Conference while Mark and Darren went to the new apartment to start unloading. Ryan and Stephanie came to help unload about an hour before my parents and I showed up. My mom watched the kids, Steph and I made room for furniture and boxes and organized a bit. This is Darren inside the truck.

Mark hauling some boxes up the stairs. Ours is the one with the door open on the deck.

Our living room, Steph and I were moving the bookshelf.

Dinning room and Hall, you can see my mom sitting in the hall outside Chase's room.

My niece Elysia, Chase and Jocelynn(Steph's daughter) playing in Chase's room.

We were again done within 2 hours! The guys took the U-Haul back while my mom, Steph and I put the kitchen together a bit. When the guys got back we ordered pizza and relaxed. We three girls then continued to organize and put some stuff away, calling the guys help every once and a while.

Sunday we cleaned the old apartment and again didn't really get to listen or watch General Conference. So I am looking forward to next month's Ensign and when the session become avaliable on ON DEMAND, so I can catch up. While Mark watched the Jazz game at my parents that night I went home alone and did some more unpacking and organizing.

Monday I had our kitchen and living room complete, pictures and all! The bedrooms and bathrooms still needed some work.

Tuesday I went shopping for some storage helps we needed and got the bathroom and Chase's room finished.

Wednesday I finished the master bathroom and bedroom. Kiera's room is still full of boxes, but just the random stuff we had in closets and under beds at the old place. Nothing that we need everyday.

Our living room, 5 days after move. Chase is sleeping on the couch.

Dinning room and hall way.

Chase's room

The boxes in Kiera's room.

It took Chase 3 nights to get comfortable and adjusted to our new home and be able to sleep through the night. Today, I am just going to take it easy and relax a bit. We are enjoying our new place and looking forward to using the pool and playground when the weather gets warmer.