Before and After.

This post is a little late, but I thought it worth documenting.

For basically her whole life Ms. Chase has been wanting long flowing locks, so naturally we grew her hair out. Nice and long.  Then one day, out of the blue, she decided she wanted to chop her hair. 

I waited a few weeks to make sure she didn't change her mind, and when she kept insisting, we went ahead and chopped it.

Before

After.

Miss her long hair, but she looks darn cute with short hair to:)

(Thanks to hairdresser extraordinaire Chelsea)

When Cohen And A Tree Collide.

Our back yard is perfect for sledding...

that is unless your sled runs into the pear tree and you fly off face first into said tree :(

Thats what happened to Cohen. Poor child. Scared the crap out of Jamison and I.  Luckily it didn't knock him out, he just screamed bloody murder. I ran him to instacare, and it turned out everything was a-ok. Just lots of bumps and bruises.  

The bump on his forehead has healed nicely, but he still has a shiner on that eye, and some scrapes on his nose and mouth.

I asked him today again how he got that black eye, and the story has changed to "I punched my own eyeball". 

Crazy kid:)

Chase Emma turns 5.

Back in January my Chase girl turned 5 yrs old. 

We had a little princess party for her and some of her closest friends. 

We did a family party as well the next weekend.

Of course I took very few pictures.

She is amazing that Chase girl. I have a hard time coming to terms with how fast time goes by, and how much she is growing up. I think I say that on every birthday post...but it is what it is. 

 Playing "dead man dead man come alive" on our tramp with her friends. I had never even heard of this game before I went out side and heard them playing it. Hilarious.Jamison and I were getting such a kick out of watching the girls play.

 BAM!.  Look at the beautiful 5 year old face!

IluvitIluvitIluvit!

That day that it snowed like the dickens.

There was one day in November when we woke up to a winter wonderland. It hasn't snowed like that since, so I am glad I got all these fun in the snow pics. 

I love days like these.

Those dimples.....

 Jamison and Chase mid snow ball fight.

 Cohen's attempt at making a snowball.

Back at it.

I have not blogged in a month. Mainly because my life has been crazy. Crazy in a way that is not blog worthy. I have been working full time (just for the month of December, and I am wondering why I agreed to do that in the first place. January can not get here fast enough. I do love my job, even though I feel like I live there). That was the longest parenthesis ever.

Anyways, such is life. December is insane. We did get a dog, which if you are friends with me on facebook you are most likely sick of hearing about. We love him. His name is Sarge. We did not choose his name, and it has taken us a while to get used to the name. I couldn't change it for some weird reason. I felt like I would somehow be betraying the dog if I changed his name. Lame, I know.
We started out with another dog, and we loved her, but one very eventful evening when I was walking her she attempted to kill another dog. It was traumatizing for me to say the least. Annnnnd, after that little incident she was off to a single gentleman who could handle her attitude with other dogs. Then, 2 days later we had Sarge. We all love him. All of us that is except Cohen. For whatever reason Cohen has decided to bully the dog at every possible moment he can. It confuses me because the dog is huge (he is a malamute/lab mix, all 109 lbs of him), and I feel that Cohen is really pushing his luck....but that is what Cohen does. The kid loves pushing his luck. If you listen closely you can hear him whisper things to Sarge such as "I will punch your face", "I will cut you", "Stupid dog" (he learned the word "stupid" from the movie The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Its just fantastic).He does punch the dog with his little 2 yr old fist. Those are not empty threats. I have gotten so used to saying "NO!" to Sarge and Cohen, that their names have now become interchangeable. Who knows who I will call what when one of them is doing something they shouldn't. Bless there hearts.

In other news, thanksgiving was lovely. My husband is the best. I have finally gotten over my fear of skinny jeans and find myself enjoying wearing them.

To the 2 people that might read this, that is all.

3 cheers for blogging after a month long hiatus!

Goodbye lovely October.

Let me introduce Spiderman and Super girl.

 Spiderman didn't last to long trick-or-treating on Halloween. He fell asleep after about 7 houses.

 Hailey, Chase, Cohen at This Is The Place Heritage Park for the halloween festivities. And just an FYI, this was so much fun last year....this year it sucked.

Carving pumpkins with friends. Always a good time:)

  My superheroes. Also,I love Cohen's spiderman moon boots. Moon boots =WINNING!

 Chase's preschool halloween party.

 Chase and her cousin Jack. I guess, if you want to get all technical, they are 2nd cousins. His Mom is my cousin....so that would make them 2nd cousins right? They are in the same preschool class.

Chase's preschool teacher emailed this pic to all the parents. I love it.

And on a completely different note, today marks the one year anniversary of losing Jamison's Mom Marilee. We miss her. Even though it has been a year, it still doesn't seem 100% real. 

Picture taken by Jamison in Hawaii about 9 months before she passed away.

My Chase girl

Today she asked me "Mom, do you think I am lovely or silly?". 

I told her she is a little of both and thats why I love her so much.

As I watch her grow up, I am amazed.  The other day at the park I sat back and watched her get mad at a whole group of little kids who were laughing at another little girl.

I could tell she really felt it was her duty to stand up for this little girl, and I was so proud. It was all I could do to not gush to her and go on and on about how happy I was to see her stand up for someone who was being treated unkindly like that....but I know my Chasey girl. She doesn't like lots of attention in certain situations. To much attention in certain situations makes her uncomfortable. So I just let it be. She glanced at me after the whole thing was over with and I gave her a thumbs up, and she beamed. That was all she needed. 

Her dimples, her sharp elbows (that she likes to get her Dad and I with), the way she tells stories and sings made up songs when she thinks no one is listening, the way she stands up for her little brother when he is in trouble, the way she giggles and giggles when I talk to her in my valley girl voice, the way she is always asking her Dad to snuggle her,.....the list goes on.

So many things that make up this little person who is so much a part of me, this girl I love more than there are words to explain. Sometimes I wish I could stop time. I ask her everyday if we can all be best friends forever (me, her, her Dad, and Cohen) and she always says yes, but I'm no dummy. I know that in 10 or so years that tune may change just a little:). There will come a day when she won't think its the coolest thing ever to blast Thriller and dance and sing in the car with her Mom...but I am just enjoying the here and now. Watching those everyday things that that make up who she is and who she will grow up to be. I love every minute of it. 

I wasn't entirely convinced summer was over until this last weekend.

Because we have a few family birthdays in October, we headed up to Midway this weekend to celebrate all the October birthdays in one shot. Jamison's big sister and her husband live up there. Since our new house is so close to the entrance of Big Cottonwood Canyon, we decided that we would take the Guardsmans Pass way to get there, instead of the freeway. The drive was insanely beautiful.  This is the best time of year to do that drive because all the leaves are changing and are so vibrant.  If you have a free afternoon in the next few weeks drive up Big Cottonwood through Guardsmans Pass, stop at the Homestead and get some delicious fudge, and then walk around the scare crow festival going on on the front lawn of the Homestead. I mean, can you think of a better way to spend an October day?

 The yellow was SO bright.

 Picking Aunt Beckies crab apples so I can use some in a center piece on my table:)

nephews Andrew and Gage brought up their skateboards and longboard.

 Cohen was loving standing on the front of the longboard.

 Gage and Chase have a race.

 This is the view coming out of the canyon into Midway. Gorgeous.

 Wahoo!