Let's Talk Numbers

Hello Faithful Readers,

So sorry it's been a while. We enjoyed a great vacation for 2 weeks and it's been busy around here. I'll get some pictures up and a post about our vacation highlights this weekend. For now, I just wanted to get quick post typed up with our news... sounds ominous, I know!

Our family is growing again! Sometime early-mid July, we'll have another baby blessing our house. I guess it could be late July though if this baby is late like Maggie! That will be three little darlings under the age of 3... in barely over 4 years of marrige. Whew! Dr. appointment next week to get a more definitive due date.

And since we're moving this summer, we're looking at either a very pregnant Mommy trying to coordinate or a very sleep deprived Mommy trying to coordinate with a very very newborn baby.

Norah has decided that since she can't have her cousin Delaney, she wants a brother. For a while, she only wanted Delaney. She's also named the baby already - "Kimmy and Kommy" or sometimes it's "Timmy and Tommy." Apparently she thinks there are two babies... but I don't!

I'm feeling wonderful as usual, thinking this pregnancy is going to be another easy one. I am tired though, quite a bit more so than the normal exhaustion that comes with taking care of 5 kids ages 2 and under each day. I don't have any nausea, but am going through my typical lack of hunger stage, especially sweets. I think it's a good time of year to not be wanting cookies and candy with all the Christmas parties and festivities beginning soon. It's definitely okay with me if I lose a couple pounds before they start packing on! :)

Keep our family, me and baby in your prayers, please. All the usual things: healthy baby, smooth pregnancy, energy for Mom, patience for family, wisdom for doctors, etc. Oh, and I've met with my doctor once already and LOVE her! Hoping this time I can have 1 the whole time, and not have to change 3 times like the last pregnancy.

Ultrasound pictures may be coming next week... stay tuned!

(Part of) October in Pictures

I got some of those great foam rollers at the Co-op... you know the ones my mom used to do my hair with every holiday. Norah loves them. :)

We had a special Friday Night Party Night a couple weeks ago. Norah got to stay up after Maggie went to sleep, watch a movie (Snow White), and the three of us slept on mattresses in the living room.

Norah even got to make her very own personal pan pizza. That was a mess!

We surprised everyone in WI by showing up for Great Grandma's 80th Birthday. Maggie was a fan of the breadsticks!

Happy Birthday!

Norah and Maggie had a lot of fun playing in the leaves I raked up in the front yard, and there were plenty to go around.


Norah was a cow, and Maggie, Mommy and Daddy were farmers. We did this for Central's Trunk or Treat. It was a really fun time. And they're so cute!

:-D

This is after a little bit of wrestling on the couch. These two are couple of tough girls!

'Tis the Season...

to start crafting! This year I have several projects on my list to complete in time for Christmas. I have already finished a couple Christmas gifts for the girls. I have a super top secret project for the Grandma's planned, Christmas cards to make, a couple crochet items to work up, and Christmas photo cards to design! This year, I'm planning on ordering photo cards from Shutterfly. We've gotten photos printed up from Shutterfly before, and done some other photo crafts too. They have some of the best calendars, and the options are endless. I make a photo calendar for Tim every year for Father's Day, and you get to personalize it by adding your own dates and occasions too! I've always been pleased with their quality and quick shipping.

Here are some cards I really liked!

Photo Tree Christmas: Isn't this cute? I love that you can use a whole bunch of photos on this one. It's so hard for me to choose just one or two pictures of my darling girls. Of course, it's equally as hard to get a decent picture of both of them smiling and looking at the camera at the same time. I can see this working out great as Christmas photo outtakes! :-)

Snowflake Elegance Noir: This card is clean and classy, but fun at the same time. My girls have matching dresses this year that are black velvet on top with a red bow and red, black, and silver large polka dots on the bottom. We took Christmas pictures of them with the dresses already. I bet this card would be just precious with that photo. Maybe even black and white with just the red highlighted... a little photoshopping!

No Mistletoe Necessary: This is a folded greeting card. I love this one! I have a ton of pictures of the girls giving each other little kisses. I wish I had gotten one of them all dressed up doing that. Inside this card, you can write your own greeting and even add more photos. We write a letter every year, but if you don't have a lot to report or just want to keep it short, this would be perfect for you!

Maybe in a few weeks, you'll find one of these delightful cards in your mailbox... keep watching!

Long Time No See!

I know it's well beyond time for some updates and some photos. Here's the problem I've been having. We keep all our pictures on Tim's laptop, which was our only computer in CA and the one he now takes to the Sem. each day. I don't have access to it to put pictures on, or to upload them to the blog until the evening. And by that time there's been so much to do... anyway, here you are!

We've been doing a lot of "projects" together. Norah loves it, and it's great to have some special time with her.
S'mores!
I've been doing a lot of canning lately. The Co-op has a lot of produce right now! I've done applesauce, raspberry applesauce, apple-pear sauce, pears, and green beans so far. I have half a bushel of apples left and plan to make apple pie filling with that.
Maggie's new face... it's hilarious! :-D
It's so sweet when Norah plays with Maggie. :) Maggie just loves Norah so much, and Norah thinks Maggie is the funniest thing!
Another project with Mommy. Norah now knows how to run the mini chopper by herself. ;-)
Norah and Maggie's first parade, at Grabill Country Fest. Fun time, even though it rained at the end. Norah picked up on waving to get candy really quickly!
Haha! Tim couldn't resist. Norah laughed for EVER about this one!
I've had time to crochet a little lately.
Here's another hat I made for Norah. Maggie has a purple one too, but doesn't like to keep it on for long... so no pictures of that one yet!
Maggie's gotten so independent. She can scoot her way around pretty well now and LOVES to play with all her toys.
Maggie and Dylan are my little jail birds! Dylan is one of my little daycare boys. I have two now and may be getting a little girl too. It's helping financially and it's good for the girls to have other kids to play with. I sure needed things to keep me busy too, right? :)

Norah calls this her "bible study," and loves to sing and read it. :)
Safe from her sister, for a minute at least...
We had a lot of fun picking apples. Norah made quite a mess chomping away on this apple too!
This is my other daycare boy. Norah's learning how to share with Sam... that's our big project.
Maggie scoots her way around really well. I found her under her crib after I brushed Norah's teeth this morning.

Strides of Hope 2010

Hello Readers,

Next Saturday, our family will be participating in the Strides of Hope 2010 Walkathon to benefit A Hope Center. From the website: A Hope Center exists to provide life affirming pregnancy related services to women and their families. You can check it out yourselves if you want more information. http://www.ahcfriends.org/default.asp

We are looking for some wonderful, giving folks to sponsor us. If you'd like to help A Hope Center in this way, please let me know. Feel free to call or email. (260) 246-2145 jana.chase@gmail.com

If you are unable to donate to this cause, please pray for A Hope Center and this event. Thank you!!!

Vacation!

Three weeks after we moved in to our new home in Fort Wayne, we set off on vacation to visit our family in WI and MN. We haven't taken any of the pictures off our camera yet, but here are a few that Mom Chase sent us by email. We had 6 of the 9 cousins together at the Como Zoo yesterday. It was just wonderful to see how they all interacted together, playing and having fun. I'm not sure I saw too many of the animals, I just wanted to watch all the kiddos together. In fact, I think they all enjoyed our little picnic lunch more than the animals. Norah really enjoyed having some cousins to play Ring Around the Rosie with her, and Maggie and Delaney were sweet together too. All 9 cousins will be here together on Sunday, and in January Dan and Marsha's baby GIRL will join the mix. Go TEAM PINK! They just found that out yesterday and called to tell us while we were at the zoo. :) More pictures to follow of the rest of our adventures when we get home and get our pictures on the computer.


Kissin' Cousins

"Ashes, ashes, they all fall DOWN!"


Oldest to Youngest: Colin, Andrew, Norah, Matthew, Delaney, and Maggie

Delaney and Maggie were interested in each other, kind of. Delaney liked pulling Maggie's hair and Maggie was trying to eat the butterflies off Delaney's shirt... when she wasn't trying to eat the fuzz she kept pulling out of the blanket anyway.

Norah was in her element here, with a baby on each side of her. Delaney was quite interested in the patterns on Norah's shirt and Norah found that just hilarious!

My sweet, happy babe just chilling in her stroller while we ate our lunch.

The Chases Visit Dr. Brennan

Today the girls had doctor appointments. Norah didn't do very well last time (in CA) so I've been prepping her for a couple days about how she'd get to visit the doctor and nurses and tell them all about how she goes potty on the big girl toilet, etc. She also loves to weigh herself (um, yikes?) so I used that as an incentive too. She did much better today. No crying, and only a little bit of shy behavior.

Norah weighs 26.6 lbs. and is 35.5 inches tall. It was a sweet moment for me to see her get weighed on a normal scale and use the measuring thing they have on the wall instead of the baby scale and laying down measurement. She's growing up so fast! Norah's height is still 90th-95th percentile and her weight has gone up to almost 50th percentile. She hasn't been at that percentile since around 6 months! Dr. Brennan (or Dr. Wenneeen as Norah says) was impressed that Norah is potty trained already. Unfortunately she wouldn't say too much for him, but he took our word for it that she as an extensive and advanced vocabulary. I was pretty surprised to hear that doctors look for kids to say 2-3 word phrases at 2 years. Norah's been doing that since she was 15 months old! No shots for Norah, so overall it was a great experience for her.

Maggie weighed in at 17 lbs. today and was 27.5 inches. I was surprised by her weight since I weighed her last night at home using the extremely accurate mom and baby minus mom weighing method and she was 17.6 pounds. Oh well.... Maggie is at the 90-95th percentile mark for height also and has now dropped to about 70-75th for weight. Didn't see that coming. She sure is a chunky little thing. Maggie got three shots and one oral vaccine today. I told the nurse that she always throws up the oral one, fair warning! She did a little "trick" and Maggie actually swallowed it all and didn't throw it back up! Boy did she scream when she had the other three shots though. Maggie doesn't do well with vaccines and has been really cranky since. Her poor leg is all red and hot, and if you even look at it wrong she screams.

Both girls are doing great and we were told to "keep doing what you're doing." Thanks for the affirmation, Dr. Brennan. :)

2 year and 6 month Portraits

We went to get the girls' pictures taken at Penney's today. They did a great job (girls and photog.)! We can't print the pictures from our computer, but you can at least view them in low res.