Sunday, September 13, 2009

September 13th, 2009

We are back into the school routine and things are going great. Chase still goes to an in home daycare until next year when he will attend preschool. He is in charge of setting the table everyday and seems to take pride in his job. He reports who was put in timeout and for what every night at the dinner table. I am happy to say he listens pretty well and very rarely gets in trouble.

This coming Saturday he will start playing soccer and he is so excited. They play 4 on 4 and it should be quite a learning experience. Craig is coaching the team(after a phone call from the YMCA begging for coaches) and he has started making Chase call him Coach Christiansen......I am starting to think that Craig is more excited for the soccer season than Chase. I will try to take pictures of both boys in action and post them later.

Craig is extremely busy right now with bathroom remodels and tile jobs. Between working and helping me cart Chase places he stays pretty busy.

I am finishing one of my last classes as we speak. It is an online Educational Reserach class(doesn't that sound fun) with a lot of busy work. I take my last one at WIU in October and then the celebration will be starting. Currently I have about 85 hours in for internship and hope to have about twice that by the end of October. I have a couple of job shadowing dates set up and school board meetings that I will be attending to collect hours.

As for baby number two, it is kicking and growing like crazy. Chase tries to catch it kicking but has not managed to feel it yet. When people ask him how his brother or sister are doing, he responds by saying, "Fine, but it's not out of my mom's belly yet!" We had a contest the other night to see who has the biggest belly in the house...... guess who won?!?!? No, not me... Craig still takes the gold on that one! (Chase loves to try to make his belly as big as possible)

Monday, August 3, 2009

August 3rd, 2009

Well, summer is about over and we continue to sleep in and set no alarms...... I have yet to figure out who will have a harder time transitioning back into school mode, Chase or I?!?!?! I have had the last couple of weeks off from internship, as my principal took some vacation time and our building is under massive cleaning. Can't say I am too disappointed. I have about 75 hours clocked and need to reach 300 hours. Getting the hours won't be hard, but the difficult part will be completing all the tasks to meet the standards.

We have also begun to share our exciting news...... Chase is going to be a big brother. We are all excited to welcome our new addition in February. I have been feeling pretty well..... very tired at night, but am getting over that. Chase is having a hard time understanding that the baby won't be here for awhile. He frequently asks when "his baby" will be coming to play with him? He can't decide if he wants a brother or sister. Most days it is a brother..... but that is after a lot of coaxing from his dad.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

July 8th,2009

We had a great fourth of July, which we spent in Bellevue. The parade was a little wet, but that did not stop Chase from getting a bag full of candy. Clayton stood and waved to all the tractors and Chase picked up the candy. Pretty good deal for Chase. Later that evening we attending a Lumberking game and watched fireworks at the stadium.

The next evening Craig, Chase and Donnie went fishing, and I am told that Chase caught all the big fish, and Papa caught the small fish (that is according to Chase!)

I do have to say we are all enjoying summer. Chase sleeps till about 8 or 9 (it's awesome) He plays hard all day, naps extremely well, and is a lot of fun to take places. He went with me to a softball game yesterday, and all I had to give him was a bucket of wiffle balls, a tee, and a bat and the kid was entertained for hours. He would hit the whole bucket off of the tee, pick them all up, and do it again. I did notice that when coaching third base one of the balls soared over the fence into the outfield...... he had really gotten ahold of one! Good thing the umpires are pretty laid back.... they just laughed.

We continue to work on manners and what is great about this is that Craig is learning his manners as well. I never thought that would happen. The newest thing is that you must ask to be excused from the dinner table. We incorporated this because Chase was always wanting to get up from the table and run around. He now sits, cleans his plate and then asks, "May I be excused from the table please?" Because he loves to be in charge, he now sits at the table to longest, making sure that Craig and I have to ask him to be excused from the table. Whatever works!

Monday, June 29, 2009

June 29th, 2009



Chase turned three in May. We had a party which was sports themed and he had a blast. Family, friends, and neighbors all helped us celebrate.

Chase is now a big helper. He dresses himself, vacuums the stairs, cleans the windows, and feeds Debo. I sure hope he never out grows this!

This past weekend Corey and Heather were married and all three of us were in the wedding. Chase was extremely excited to wear a monkey suit and he did a great job walking down the aisle. He danced his little heart away (so did his Dad) I saw moves from both of my boys that I have never seen before.

Summer days are spent playing with neighbors. There are about ten kids that live in our sub-division and Chase has become pretty good friends with all of them. He is especially fond of the Ferguson girls who are 10,8, and 4.... the oldest one is just starting to babysit and we are hoping we can take advantage of that. Craig too thinks very highly of the girls and he often jokes how the Ferguson girls are more responsible than he is. Obviously that does not take much.... but says a lot about the girls!

I have started my internship, which entails 300 hours of administrative level work including: scheduling, hiring, budgeting and all the other exciting things that come with a principal's position. I am hoping to have all my internship hours done by November so that I can enjoy the holidays free of anymore grad work.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

March 29, 2009

Sitting in class, Craig and Chase are playing, sleeping, hoping they are cleaning! Ya right! I have decided that housekeeping and laundry are completely overrated. I am dropping the hint to Craig about hiring me a maid..... it doesn't seem to be working. Why am I not surprised.

I am finishing another class and will be done with everything by Christmas. I am completely in survival mode...... some days I feel like I am gasping for air. The professor I currently have is very good, but very demanding. I don't think she sleeps at night..... she is that intense.

Chase is hitting the testy three's already. He questions me all the time, which is good, but yet bad. He is excited about his upcoming birthday in May. When I ask him who he wants to invite, he names all the kids at the babysitter and Cindy (his babysitter) It make me laugh!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

March 1st, 2009

It has been forever since I have posted and honestly I don't have a real good excuse. My graduate classes are back in full swing and I just finished another one today. Yah! I have one more this semester and three this summer and classes are over. Then the focus will be to complete my internship and officially done!

Chase has been very busy the last month entertaining everyone he comes in contact with. He now sings his ABC's only missing the letter J. This came about after listening to his leap frog game sing the ABC's about 50 million times in one night. I was completely annoyed that night, but decided that I would not take the toy from him because it was educational. I just dealt with the constant singing. The next night Chase was in the bathtub and when I went in to get him out, he was singing his ABC's just like his leap frog was the night before. We then proceeded to call everyone we knew and Chase claimed he was ready for Kindergarten and then he would sing his ABC's for them. This is defnitely a study technique I will have to remember when he is in school!

Have you ever seen a 2 year old all tatooed up? Well, I left Chase alone with his father for 5 minutes and that is exactly what happened. Chase wanted a tatoo (Halloween one's he found in his room) Craig agreed and then the two of them together decided that they would just tatoo the whole sheet on his belly. So when you asked Chase to see his tatoo he simply lifted his shirt and showed you how he was all tatooed up! We are now to the stage where the tatoos are rubbing off and it looks like we don't bathe our child.

Thankfully Craig has stayed fairly busy the past couple of months and we hope it will continue into the summer. He is currently tiling the bathroom at a local bar that is about the re-open. He also has a few night and weekend jobs going on..... just enough to keep him out of trouble.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Disney on Ice

Yesterday, Grandma Patti, Chase and I went to the 11:00 Disney on Ice show at the I-Wireless Center. It was great. This is the second show that Chase and I have gone to, we went to Playhouse Disney Live back in October. Ever since then Chase has been sold on going to shows. When we would see the advertisement on T.V. he would ask "Mommy, can we go to that show?" the only part of the show that Chase struggled with was when Tinkerbell cried in the corner. He was so upset and could not understand why she was crying.

Everything else has been great. This past week we had three snow/cold days and therefore Chase and I have been sleeping in again. Monday will be difficult to get back into the routine once again.

Chase continues to grow and be Mr. Independent. He just got a knew tooth brush (a Spongebob tooth brush) and he loves it. We brush our teeth a lot and he always makes sure I smell his breath when he is finished. Needless to say my bathroom always has toothepaste and water all over when he finishes. I guess it is the price you pay for letting them learn on thier own.


Go Hawks!!!!

Go Hawks!!!!






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