Dear Chasen:

Tonight I held you extra long before I put you to bed, and stared at you even longer.
You are growing and changing way to fast.
I wish you would slow down, although I love to watch you grow and learn.
You are so enthusiastic and smart.
I just wish you would stay a little baby for a little bit longer!
love, mom

we had a great weekend with my mom.
Went to the ped mall
Cherry Hill Pool
Played in our pool


went out to eat a couple times and grilled some amazing jalapeno poppers at home :) Both Grandmas watched Chasen on Sat. night while Ean and I went out with Brad and Abby!

Chasen is crawling really well now and we got the house baby proofed just in time! It seems like the things he will crawl for are the things he cant have.
We set out all kinds of toys for him to crawl after and he went right for the vacuum cord, my mom's camera, or Ean's shoes.
Last night after work he crawled across the entire living room to get to a bottle of sunscreen, bypassing all kinds of cool toys, and the dog, along the way.

He also also started the "I want my mom to hold me all the time" phase. It isn't as bad as it could be but he definitely will cry when I leave the room or if I sit him down. (not all the time yet just sometimes) I really don't like this phase. I did, however, like it when I got to daycare and he crawled over to me and tried to climb up my leg. Its the fact that I cant put him down once we get home with out him screaming that I dont like.
You can really see his tooth now to, and the one next to it is coming in!

my back is still broken, Im getting a deep tissue massage tomorrow. The chiro says that I over used my back muscles during the 1/2 marathon and that my muscles are really tight and overcompensating so every time he adjusts me my muscles pull me back out of allignment. So I hope the massage works!

Crusin'

He crawled.
I cried.
Kevin chewed up his doggy toy

I picked Chasen up from daycare today and they told me " he really crawled today!"

The Return of the Bunny

I'm pretty sure Chasen thinks the bunny is a person, he talks to it like he does other babies and Kevin. He was a little nicer to the bunny this time, unlike last time when he wrestled him!


He does a lot of talking in this video!



Grandma Lori will be here tomorrow through the weekend!! That means Chasen will get to come see me at work on friday:)

Went to the chiro today and I have swollen discs and while running i over extended my back because i have no abs and caused some part of my spine to be irritated and inflamed, my left leg was 1/2 inch shorter then the right.
He adjusted me and told me to ice tonight and tomorrow, no running till I come back on monday. I can walk and do plank abs and stretch. No palates like I was trying to do. lol
Its really sore right now but I think Im recovering.

He is growing so fast

This post is brought to you by:
the letter T, for teething, and the number 1, for first tooth!!
Chasen has popped his first tooth, you can't see it in pictures yet but you can feel it and see it up close. Poor little guy is in a lot of pain though and has had a rough couple days of crying, drooling and chewing.
He talks to a lot of things now. when he sees a baby at the store he starts talking and he talks to kevin the same way.
also this weekend.....

Chasen got to sit on cousin Garin's tractor


and great grandma got to hold both of her boys (notice thatchasen looks about the same size as his 2 1/2 year old cousin!! they wear the same size diapers)
Yesterday morning before work I stooped at Kmart and bought a snap up pool for chasen and I. I put it together last night and filled it with water but the water was freezing and he only sat in it for about 30sec and that's about all the longer I could stand in it. tonight it stormed so we didnt get to try it out my back has been KILLING ME!!! It all started after the 1/2 marathon (of course) then I tried to do palates to strengthen my abs...excuse me, to actually get some abs, and I hurt something, probably due to me trying to do them with chasen crawling all over me (more on crawling later) then after about 2 days it started to feel better and then this sat. we went boating and tubing with some friends and I went flying off the tube and hurt something really bad, so I'm going to the chiro tomorrow at 5:30, but I could hardly move today and had to ice it at work. OUCH!
So about the crawling, he has the sit to crawling positioning down pat, and can turn himself all around, but once he gets on all fours he goes backwards, which I think is funny because he gets all mad that he can't reach what he was going for.. (i know its mean but so funny) He is eating 2nd stage baby food 3xs a day now so we are drinking a little less formula. I still havent gotten around to making his baby food like i wanted. I might this weekend since its the first and last weekend of the summer that we have free.

Happy Fathers Day!!

Happy Fathers day Dad/papa max, we didnt get to talk to you yet today, hopefully tomorrow!!

Ean had a pretty good fathers day, we hung out in north english grilled a lot and then came home to weather out the nasty weather, which has me scared to death, I like storms actually but with chasen its kinda scary!


look at those fat legs!!

doing what dads do


trying to catch some bubbles




chasen made the hat and sign at daycare and I got ean tickets to a hawkeye game so he can take his son (and me) to his first game!

To Grandma's House We Go...err Wen't

So while we were in the sandhills running, floating and getting stuck in the mud, Chasen was at Grandma Bud's house with uncle Jackson. And Uncle Jackson, aka: uncle bubba, aka: "the godfather," taught my son how to scream, or at least he encouraged it. Now Chasen Screams when he is happy, mad, frustrated, hungry, full, tired, awake... I picked him up from daycare yesterday and the girl goes "i think Chasen is tired" as he lays in his crib and screams at himself. Its not a long scream just a short high pitched one, and then he waits for you to echo it like my brother did. here is a video for your viewing pleasure, cause I'm sure you want to hear my kid scream! this was also his 1st time using the sippy cup!



Last night we went out for our 3 year anniversary
and we took Chasen with us, he was really good too! We went to Graze at the ped mall and let Chasen play at the park for a while,


he loved watching all the big kids



and tried to pull himself up on the ladders.


We also went to Capanna for Gelato, I think its the only place in Iowa that has gelato, It's AMAZING and they have the coolest flavors, like wild berry/jalapeno, we taste tested that one and it was spicy, kinda good but I wouldn't want a whole scoop of it. Apparently they have beer flavored gelato, but didn't have any last night. Bummer!

So we follow the anniversary gift thing, and for year 3 it's leather. We mostly follow it because it forces you to be cleaver and its kind of a competition, instead of us just getting each other the "same ol' same ol'" I won this year because I got him leather sandals that have a bottle opener on the bottom. He had no idea what to get me so he got me a gag gift and it was a red leather purse that I will let my daughter (if i have one) use as a toy someday lol. He won the first year though, it was paper and he got me a HUGE poster sized, framed, picture of the bridge where he proposed! and last year we tied because we got each other the same thing!

And to think ,it all started at Cross Country Practice

6 1/2 years ago.
But we have been married for 3 years today!!

Happy Anniversary Babe!

To me it feels like a lot longer then 3 years, and not in a bad way.
We have just done so much stuff and encountered a lot of stress, both good and bad in the last 3 years.
Ean started his own business, branched out and started working for Lowes, bought and sold several rental houses. We bought an overwhelmingly big/expensive house, but it is our dream house (with lots of dreaming to be had) and its worth the sacrifices both financially and the fact that sometimes I feel like I'm living "under construction." Ean supported us financialy alone for a year while I went to nursing school. We lost our barn to a fire, lost 2 rental homes to the flood, fought through infertility and then had the most beautiful baby boy in the whole world!

I can't wait to see what the next 3 years will bring let alone the rest of our lives.
It will be quite the adventure, Im sure!

Here we are, our first summer together (2003)

The proposal Dec. 24 2004


My last XC meet (05)


Honeymoon (Cancun)

Our Anniversary last year & I was 5mo prego



I dont think we have changed to much, but Chasen is working on changing that...we are both getting gray hairs :)

fmylife(dot)com

a true life FML story
none of the events in this story have been fabricated or exaggerated.

It was a cold, cloudy, Sunday morning, in the sandhills of Valentine Nebraska
We decided we would float the river despite the fact that it was cold.
We got on the river; t-shirts and shorts on, radio blastin' -- we were the ONLY people on the river and it was fun!
Since it had rained almost 2 inches the night before the river was movin' so it only took us 3 hours to get to our drop off point, by this time the sun was out and it was nice so we decided to sit at the picnic tables and sun ourselves!
An hour in the sun and it was time to go.
We didnt really know where we were in relation to the hwy but decided to head East instead of west back up the river because Ean said it was 10min out of the way.
So East we went.
That morning on our way to our drop off point the roads were sloppy. Wet sandy roads are worse then wet mud/dirt roads. They look dry but they aren't and you slide around like crazy.
So we are headed east and not really paying attention to our surroundings because the GPS was telling us where to go and that a hwy was 25 miles East.
We stopped and talked to some cows that were in our way.
We had been driving for almost 15 miles and hadn't see a car, a house or any signs of civilization besides the cows






WHEN......



we came around a corner and got stuck in a really big mud puddle.
Ean and Alyssa pushed while I tried to steer us out.
NO LUCK
Ean put some sticks under the tires to try and get us some traction
NO LUCK
I decided I would call the place that we rented the tubes from and see if they could come get us out.
This is where it starts to get scary...kind of like the movie The Hills Have Eyes or any other scary movie.
I get out my phone, which is flashing because its almost dead. And it says
NO SERVICE.
Ean's phone is always dead and Alyssa's didn't have any reception either.
Ean starts to look on the GPS to see where we are and all, ALLLLLL of the roads around us are unnamed roads, unnamed???? WTF.
So we decided that we would start walking and hope and pray that we saw someone.
Now, my sister, she isn't athletic at all, so any sort of walk for her is a big deal, so she complained a lot and Ean and I decided that if worst came to worse we would eat her 1st ;)
Ean and I had just ran a 1/2 marathon the day before and could hardly move so walking was quite painful for all of us.
Alyssa was barefoot because she lost her shoes in the river and i only had flip flops on and ean had on water sandals.
I taught everyone how to do CPR just in case.
So we walked about 2 miles and we came to a cross section and we couldn't remember which way we came from so we randomly decided to go straight and in the ditch we saw a sign that said Lee ranch 12.5 miles with an arrow, but we had no idea which way the arrow was supposed to be pointing because it had fallen down in the ditch.
It was just a grim reminder of how far we were from people.
At this point it started to thunder and sprinkle.
About a mile later(we knew how far we were going because we had the GPS) we saw a mail box. We walked up their half mile drive way and they were home.
I on the way up armed myself with a sharp rock that I put in my pocket. I was sure we were going to die, but I really didn't want to walk 10 more miles.
The nice couple gave us a ride to our car and pulled us out!
They gave us better directions and we made it back to my moms in about 4 hours.
All three of us were covered in mud up to our knees and Alyssa had mud in her hair.
Next time we will get directions before we start tubing.
ahhh, always a lesson learned.

Cowboys, Sandhills, Blisters, Buffalo

We did it!
I finished in 2 hours 40 minutes and it was the most painful experience of my life, I would give birth again!
Ean GOT FIRST PLACE!!! and finished in 1 hour 33 minutes!! He set the new course time!
It was a really good race in the midst of all the rolling sand hills on a one lane road that lead to the town of Brownlee, but it was completely flat!
We started in the early morning


and there was still dew on the grass, it smelled great, and it was beautiful out.
I didnt see any snakes but heard a couple.
I forgot how different it is out here.


There are tons of Ranches out here


and along the highway there are signs with how many miles it is to the next ranch my great grandparents used to live out here and there last name was Nutt so there was a sign that Said 5 miles to the Nutt farm lol.




I wore my tye dye sports bra over my cornell one because I told myself that if I ever ran a half or full marathon I would wear it. I retired the sports bra after my first college race. as you can see it is falling apart. I got it in Spokane Washington at my first National Track meet when I was 13(?) and wore it at every meet since, didn't wash it and it has no elastic and tons of holes.



Here I am starting my first 1/2
not sure if ill do it again.
My feet went numb for about 6 miles, I took my socks off, that helped, then I got a blister, put the socks back on and then mile 9 to 11 hurt SOOOOO bad,I tried to stop and walk and almost fell over because my knee and lower back started to cramp so bad, it was like stoping made my whole body stop so I had no choice but to finish.
It was weired when I finished I wasnt out of breat or tired just in extreem pain.
















Ean and I with some cows before the start. They did start the race with a cowboy shooting off a shot gun!


With our engraved Horse Shoes

Ean receiving his 1st place prize... A Cowboy on a Horse!


I'm done I can't move, somebody get me an orange.

after the race I iced for a long time, took a nap, went to the hot tub, ate an AMAZING Steak dinner with a tall bud light! Then we drove out in the wildlife park and saw buffalo,
elk and found the spot where we will ford the river tomorrow for our 4 hours tubing excursion!
Now we are back at the hotel watching the lightning roll over the hills...its breath taking.
good night.

{pouty face}

Chasen's morning conversation:

Ean: (taking chasen's hand pointing at chasen and pointing at himself) saying: "Chasey, Dada. Chasey, Dada"

Chasen: (all smiles) "DADA"

Ean: "Honey come here Chasen said Dada"

Me: {raised eye brows}

Ean: "chasey, dada"

Chasen: "dada" smile, giggle, smile.

Ean: (takes chasens hands petting Kevin) saying: "Kev Kev, Chasey. Kev Kev, Chasey."

Chasen: "geh geh" "dada"

Ean: (takes Chasnes hands and points to me. "mama, mama"

Chasen: .....blank stare.....
chirp, chirp, chirp,chirp, chirp,chirp, chirp,chirp, chirp
chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp,chirp, chirp

Ean: {evil laugh}

Me: {pouty face} after all I've done and all the times I've said mama!?!!

He doesn't even know what he's saying anyway he is just repeating sounds, as soon as he knows what he's saying I'm sure his first word will be mama... ;)

here he is grillin' out with his mama on the porch!

Tomorrow we leave for our 1/2 marathon.
I think I'm ready!
I mean it really isn't that far if you use "runners math" (all my runner friends will know what I'm talking about and if you read MommyMD then have already heard about this "math")
here is how i see it:
The first 6 miles I'm pretty much on auto pilot running a consistent 10min mile pace comfortably (this I know I can do)taking in the scenery and enjoying The Fray and many others on my MP3 player, stopping once or twice for water and to walk a few steps to walk out my hip pain.
Miles 7, 8, and 9 will hurt and be hard to push through but around mile 8 I will do a goo shot and by mile 10 I'll have a little more energy, and then I only have 2 miles left because mile 13 is the bonus and EVERYONE knows the bonus doesn't count!
So really I'm only running 3 maybe 4 miles at best :)

So bring it on MR. Half Marathon, all I have to say to you is, "Bitch Make me a Sandwich!"

Girls Nite! +1

Tonight I got to go out with the girls and Chasen. My friend Erin was passing through town and everyone decided to go out, we went to Graze in the ped mall.
As Chasne and I were walking through the ped mall I had instant flash backs to many-a crazy nights down there. I think it was the smell of the grilled cheese and gyro stand which we went to every night we went out downtown. Best post bar food ever!!
As we were walking around I realized that I had never been down there during the day, Its really pretty down there and there are some really cool places to shop.

Chasen was really good for girls nite and only cried once, and flirted A LOT.

I actually forgot we were having girls night (surprise!) so I had to Macguiver a diaper bag for chasen from random stuff in the car (see, I knew having a messy car would pay off) I found wipes, a bib, several toys and a diaper, I called daycare and they had a "to go" bottle ready for us!
But the whole forgetting thing is really getting bad, so bad that I took a pregnancy test just to make sure.
NEGITIVE (phew!)
I forgot to do a procedure on someone at work today and felt horrible.
Its crazy, if I have to do something out of my normal routine and I don't put a sticky note on my comp. screen, you can pretty much guarantee that it wont get done.
I also forgot where I parked my car in the parking garage tonight, that was scary, I almost started to cry but then I saw it!
I know I'm gonna get shit for this one at work (yes, my boss and co-workers read the blog... hi Jeff, Brittany, Shelly)

So I have no idea what is going on, I think I'm just multi tasking to much or I just have so much more on my mind then before.
Well I guess I should go to bed, maybe more sleep will help my memory.....or maybe I should take that pill ginkaba---something...I can't remember....

Kevin Says:

"It's about time I get some Face Time on this dam blog, Biotch!"
(he's pretty ghetto)

We went to Bark in the Park today with our friends Mel and Matt who have 2 black labs, it was perfect weather and everyone had a good time! Herky was a little grouchy, but I think everyone had fun!
Chasen enjoyed his first snow cone (cotton candy flavor)
and when I said he was done with it he got pretty pissed and kept crying.
This is something new just in the past 2 days. It used to be that when he couldn't reach a toy or was hungry he would kinda whine and then cry and if you let him cry for a while he would get pretty mad. But now, HE SCREAMS!!! And at first it scared me and I thought something was wrong, but there was nothing that could be wrong, once I gave him the toy he wanted or let him touch the computer or my phone he would stop. He wants everything he can't have.
It was getting really frustrating for me today, the I paused for a moment and watch him throw his fit and I started to laugh, because I realized that I act the exact same way, maybe I don't scream anymore...well not all the time, but I'm rather impulsive and say what comes to mind, like "dam it give me the phone" I'm pretty sure that's what Chasen was saying to me today, but he just doesn't have the words yet. This is the NUMBER ONE reason I don't want to raise a daughter, I think raising a boy with my temperament will be easier then raising a girl with my temperament.
Ean, I'm waiting for some of your genes to shine through!!

In other news our half marathon is THIS FRIDAY... holy sh!t.
Tonight I ran 7.5 miles in 1 hour and 20min and was pretty happy with it, I hurt right now but the run went by fast and felt relatively good, I'm pretty sure I can go another 6 miles.... ugh! I hope.
On my run I almost got attacked my neighbors dog and the owner says to me, oh don't worry he wont hurt you!
the 'F' he wont, he tore a hole in my shirt a year ago when he attacked me on a run, and this past spring killed two of my goats, which we wrote you a letter about to formally warn you that we would call animal control so don't tell me that your dog wont hurt me.
What a PEN15. I hate my neighbor.

Off to bed to listen to the thunder, actually I think I might go enjoy the thunder on the porch!

I love my (furry, 4 legged) Brother!!

Chasen wanted me to post this video of him "loving" on his brother! sorry its sideways :/





Yesterday we installed the new big boy car seat, and I got a little teary :( my little boy is growing up Not to mention he turned 7 months on Thursday.....where does the time go!?






It is such a rainy dreary day, but I can't really complain, spring has been pretty warm and un-spring like this year.
Needless to say I have accomplished NOTHING today and I'm okay with that. .... for now. Later tonight I will be kicking my own ass for not doing a single domestic duty, but for now I will live in the moment and read my ever growing stack of Parenting, Glamour, Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens, and Victoria's secret magazines while Chasen is taking his 2 hours afternoon nap!


also on my list of things to do is watch every video at this site http://www.momversation.com/
I think its great! and really appreciated the video on young moms.

A couple more crawling videos

He is getting really close!
We will be child proofing the house this weekend, and yes, it will take a WHOLE DAY I'm sure.

A Rant

So did anyone watch that Earth 2100 show on ABC last night? I did. and at first I was freaking out and scared to death, didn't want to have any more kids, ready to quit my job and live life one day at a time because the world is going to be in shambles in 100 years. Then I paused and thought about it, and who was funding the show. People who want my tax dollars to go toward EXPENSIVE government owned renewable energy sources. and in order to get your vote for this stuff they want to scare the pants off of you first. Now I'm not against renewable energy, and going green, and I don't disagree with some of the points of the show, although I do think it was exaggerated to scare us. It is a scary issue and Ean and I recycle, have a high efficiency washer and dryer, use those special light bulbs, and drive a diesel car that gets 50mpg. But what pisses me off is that Ean looked into getting a small version of those windmills for our farm, they are so expensive we could never afford it, solar panels are pretty expensive too. We can't afford a new hybrid, or electric car and I don't think Ean and I are far from the norm when it comes to our income. Sure all the stars and rich people can afford this stuff but they only make up a small percent of the population, what good will that do if the rest of us aren't able to afford to "live green" So rather then freaking out and I'm going to do what I can do within my own means and pray that the government figures out a way to make renewable energy affordable and easily accessable for the average Joe like me!

More Kids and On the move

No, we aren't pregnant and we aren't moving... Ean went outside this morning to the goat shed and found 4 baby goats!!! and Tiny Tina, one of the mini cows, is due to have a calf any day now! and Chasen....well, he is ON THE MOVE check out the video of him with the bunny is is HILARIOUS!! He shows off all of his personality, his head shaking in frustration and his grunting, and once he gets the bunny you can see how happy and proud he is of himself!