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.

We LOVE our house!

We couldn't be happier to be living in a house instead of an apartment, condo, etc. We all love the big, fenced in yard (especially Norah). The family that was here last year will be renting again when they return from vicarage and left some outside toys and a swingset. The house is split level, so about half of the basement is a toy room, and it's full! We're really enjoying everything that's come with being in a house so far. I've gotten some new curtains and Tim got a grill and recliner. We all enjoy the new patio set too! And each item was on Clearance! I guess late summer is a great time to move and purchase some new things. :) Hey, let's do it again next summer!... Really, only 9 months until we find out where Tim's call will take us. But it makes me anxious and nervous, so I try not to think about it too much. I'm sure if I knew now, I'd already be planning, but I don't, so I can't! Here are a few pictures from the last couple days now that the camera is out and available again.


This is the coolest, girliest swimming pool I've ever seen. Norah can thank Grandma and Grandpa for that one. She had hours of fun too! Can't wait until the weather forecast stops calling for storms and rain so we can set it out again. By the way, much nicer to put a pool out on grass than on cement... ;)


Whose recliner? Daddy's? Nah!

Waitress or reporter? You decide. (Notice the grocery bag in the back... LOVE being back to shop at the Co-op!)

We took a trip up to Fremont to visit the outlet mall. Norah has some new, extremely cheap clothes for the Spring. I got these 17 items at The Children's Place for $36 including tax! Whoa, I was in bargain heaven. :)

Princess Norah Turns 2!

Norah's 2nd birthday was July 30th, just about a week after we moved back to Fort Wayne. We had a fantastic party for her with a lot of wonderful friends, ours and hers! I'd say about 2/3 of the roughly 50 people here were kids. It sure was a lot of fun to have everyone in our own back yard, though it was great to borrow Castens last year as our party spot for Norah's birthday. Her 1st birthday party with all the same people was a few days before we left last summer, and her 2nd just after we arrived so it was a very fitting way to "bookend" our Vicarage year.

Norah got to open a few presents early since Grammy and Papa had to go home before the actual date of her birthday. She loves her potty, and it has served us well this week. We're on our way to being completely potty trained!

How old are you, Norah? (2) Guess she didn't feel like talking! Happy birthday donut breakfast!

Norah had a princess party. I was very impressed with how many people showed up in crowns and dresses! :-D

My second little princess!



Grandma and Auntie Jessi bought a pinata for the party! Kids loved it!




Ah, the cake... it took forever, but isn't it sweet? :-D So much fun! Now, what to make for Maggie's birthday in February?

We're HOME!

Well, all of our guests are now gone and we can really get settled into our new home. The girls had a great trip. Norah ended up with her own seat both flights, which made things much more enjoyable for us all. A friend, Josh, met us at the airport in Indy and got us on our way to Fort Wayne. Then he flew to CA to help load up the trailer and drive with Tim and his dad. They made amazing time and arrived Sunday afternoon. It only took them 40 hours (only, ha!), and we had been expecting them later in the evening. Tim's parents were here to help us unpack until Thursday morning, and my mom and sister arrived in the middle of the night Monday/Tuesday. Then my dad and brother came on Friday for Norah's party. That was a great time, and there's no way I could have pulled it off just a week after I arrived if they hadn't all been around to help throughout the week. I never did count, but I think we had about 50 people here to help celebrate Norah's 2 years... and I bet 2/3 of that was kids! I'll try to get pictures up soon. For now I just wanted to let you all know that we're here, mostly unpacked, finally without house guests, and loving our new home. Oh yeah! Tim and his dad spent a couple days cleaning up the outside, trimming trees and cutting the lawn. It was pretty unruly out there. Tim is looking forward (or not) to removing some small trees from the gutters one day really soon too. It's a jungle up there! My sister also spent a day scrubbing and hosing down all the outside toys that were left here for us. I think I know where everything is in my kitchen too, how about that for progress?!