Colorado

This last week we flew to Colorado Springs for my little brother's graduation, and to see my family. It was sort of a trial run for us, to see how Chase did on the airplane, before our trip to Florida next month. Flying with Chase was actually not too bad. He got a little squirmy sitting on our laps, and a little fussy since both ways we flew during his nap time, but overall it was ok. Tim carried him through the airport in the chest carrier, and it was cold so he had his jacket zipped up over him, and it was pretty much my favorite thing ever. It was so cute. I will try to get a picture of it on here. We had fun at Dan's grad and then we went to Famous Daves (the boys favorite) and had a mint chocolate ice cream cake which was awesome. We spent the week playing and reading and watching Lost, and Chase was so in love with all the attention he got. Everyone in Colorado commented that Chase looks so much like Tim, which is funny because until this week everyone said he didn't look like either one of us. He didn't sleep very well in Colorado, I think because he had a stuffy nose (mom- i finally figured this out last night!) so even though Colorado was great, we were happy to get home. Chase sleeps so much better in his own crib. Plus our house is a pleasant 77 degrees, instead of 52! So we got in last night and sleeping in our own bed was amazing!! I forgot how much I love our bed. The weather is so much warmer here than it is in Colorado too, so that was nice to come home to also. And the little girls downstairs told tim the pool is open, so we are excited to take Chase (especially since he showed off his stunning swimming skills in CO).

Mom, Dad & Dan, thanks for a great time and for giving me a break from Chase. It is so nice to always have someone wanting to hold him and play with him! What an awesome vacation.

Thank you Joel for checking that our lions didn't tear our house up! (Also for checking on tim's fish, because we all know the real reason tim asked you to come over was to make sure 125 gallons hadn't broken all over our living room floor :) )

-Katie

Happy Mother's Day

I had to jump on and say Happy Mother's day to my mom, and Tim's mom. We love you so much and we are so grateful for everything you do for us!! You are so great! When we called our moms earlier tonight, I was laughing because my mom and I were talking about how your kids don't really ever truly appreciate Mother's day until they are mothers themselves. How true! I am so much more thankful and grateful for my mom now that I am a mother myself and am beginning to see everything she's done for me and put up with. I was also quite a handful so I am pretty proud of my mom helping me turn out so well ;)

I also have to say I love love love being a mother! It is the greatest blessing. Some days I love it more than others... but every day I get to see my sweet baby's face and watch him grow and learn and it is so amazing. I love how his face lights up when he sees me. I love how he always laughs at my jokes even when they are dumb. I love how happy and excited he is about everything. I love his hugs. I love the light that he brings into our home. I can't even describe how much I love him. It has been really interesting for me to watch my capacity to love just grow and grow, to a greater extent than I had ever imagined.

To every mother that was, is, or will be-

Happy Mother's Day

-Katie

4 Month Well-Baby

Chase had his 4 month well-baby today. Has it really been 4 months? The pediatrician said everything looked great. He's up to 14 pounds 6 ounces! They want babies to double their birthweight by 4 months, so I was expecting him to be about 17 pounds. He's not there yet, but the doctor said he looks just fine. He told us that we could start solids now, or wait until 6 months. There's a lot of controversy out there about starting solids too early, but I think he's ready (this morning his shoved his fist in my cereal bowl trying to get at it) and the pediatrician gave the go-ahead so we gave him some rice cereal tonight. Here it is, on video.

Chase also rolled over two days ago. He's been rolling on his side for a long time, but he finally made it all the way from his back to his tummy, and luckily his daddy was home, so we both got to see it! He was laying in his gym facing away from the TV because I am pretty hardcore about the "No TV until 2 rule" having worked with so many kids with Attention Deficit. Unfortunately, Chase loves the TV and is always trying to sneak and watch it without me noticing. Apparently the TV was enough motivation to get him to roll over, just so he could see the screen. It was really really cute.

Chase also has developed a fake cough, which is adorable. He has discovered he gets loads of attention when he does it, and he does it all the time now. We have tried incessantly to get it on video but apparently he's camera shy.

I am not looking forward to his second round of immunizations. The first time the nurse wouldn't let me give him a bottle, and he screamed bloody murder. I felt so bad. I am hoping this time I get another nurse who will let me give him a bottle, and that things will go a little more smoothly.

Finally, I have to praise our pediatrician. I have not had good experiences with doctors. I love love love love LOVE this doctor. He is so great. He answers all our questions, and always spends tons of time talking to us and checking up on things. Chase has turned into such a happy baby. He is always laughing and smiling. When he was born I thought he was going to be a very serious child because he always seemed to have a concerned look on his face, but now he is all smiles! We got him one of those Johnny Jump-up things, or whatever, and he is in heaven. He loves people watching him bounce.

-Katie

The Zoo

We took Chase to the zoo this last week and it was a lot of fun. It was about 74 degrees, and just beautiful. It was also the middle of the week and it was practically deserted. We were interested to see if Chase even acknowledged the animals, and we found that pretty much he paid attention to the animals that were moving. The animals that were asleep, I don't think he even realized were alive (obviously, right). When we went in the giraffe house he just stared up at the huge giraffe, his eyes were huge, it was so adorable. He also stared at the tiger because he was up walking around right by the glass. They have redone the whole Hogle Zoo and it is much better than last time I was there. All the new exhibits are made so that you are practically glass-to-glass with the animals. They don't have a huge variety at this zoo but the things you get to see you get to see really close. They also have a white alligator right now which was really cool. Tim was happy because he got to see rhinos, and I was sad because they don't have hippos :( Here is a really random video of clips we took while at the zoo.

After the zoo I wanted to take Tim up to this restaurant called Ruth's Diner. My mom took me there when Tim and I were dating and I've been trying to get him there ever since. They have amazing french toast, unfortunately we weren't there for breakfast. When we got there the Food Network was filming for their show "Diners, Drive-In's and Dives" (or something like that). I ordered the Raspberry chicken, which is what they were featuring apparently because they wanted to come interview me about it. I am incredibly shy and I really didn't want to do it, but I felt bad, so I had Tim try my food so he could do it instead. They ended up interviewing both of us, although they'll probably cut everything I said because I was nervous and I was just blabbering! We had to sign a release form for Chase and everything so it was kind of a funny experience. So if you're watching the Food Network come fall, and you think you see us- it really is us :) And we weren't lying on camera- the Raspberry chicken is incredible! I have never had chicken that melts in your mouth like this. It is definitely worth the trip and it is only about 5 or 10 minutes up the canyon from the zoo.

-Katie

LOST

For the last 6 months or so, everyone has been trying to get us to watch Lost. We thought maybe we'd give it a try sometime even though neither of us really has time for one more obsession. While my mom was here last week, Tim went out and bought the first season and we decided to give it a shot. On Friday night we watched 5 episodes and we were pretty interested. On Saturday, 16 episodes later, and at 5 am. Sunday morning, we were all pretty sure we were hooked.

Needless to say, we now have a new obsession with Lost. We are about halfway through the second season now, and it's not as good as the first, but we are still enjoying it. It's really fun for me to watch because it was filmed in Oahu, where I lived when I was at BYUH.

We've toned it down a little since our 11 episode marathon, because we were both starting to dream about Lost, and I was having nightmares... We decided maybe we were spending a little too much time watching Lost so now we try to only watch a couple episodes a night. If you want to borrow the seasons from us, let us know, but be aware there may be a waiting list- we have now joined the group of people whose mission it is to recruit addicts to the Lost phenomena...

-Katie

Dear Bobbie

If you want to hear a really sweet song, go down to the bottom of our blog to the big pink box and click on "Dear Bobbie" by Yellowcard. I love love LOVE this song! I think it is so sweet! I hope when I'm like ninety, Tim will sing me this song :)

Or tonight... Either one. (*hint hint honey*)

-Katie

Grandma Hemingway

Unfortunately, last Tuesday Tim's Grandma Hemingway passed away. She had been ill for awhile and we got a chance to visit her a few days before she died. We also were lucky enough to get some pictures of Chase with her before she passed. We attended the funeral on Saturday and as the speakers got up and spoke, the only thing I kept thinking was "What an amazing woman". I knew Grandma Hemingway for only a short time but she made a strong impact on me as someone who is always positive, who shares her love with everyone, who is always purposefully working towards some good. The amount of genealogy work she did is astounding. She served multiple missions. She was also a teacher which makes her close to my heart.

I was grateful that the funeral was conducted in a spirit of celebration of her life. Tim's cousins Lisa and Levi gave great talks of 'celebration', and his sister Jannifer did as well. I think it was great for the family to remember all of the wonderful things about their grandmother and to be able to laugh at things she had said or done. I will share one quick story from the funeral that Levi told.

Grandma Hemingway has always bottled her own peaches, pears, cucumbers, tomatoes, and all sorts of other fruits and vegetables and stored them in her house. One day Levi was eating lunch at his grandparents and he heard an explosion from the laundry room. He got up to go see what had happened and saw liquid on the floor, so he thought the washer was leaking. He thought, "I better call Uncle Mike to fix it, and my mom to clean it up!" (This is how things work in the Hemingway family- Tim's dad fixes everything, and Aunt Flora cleans everything up). So he put some towels on the liquid and went back to lunch. When he was done he went back to check, and saw even more liquid on the floor. He started looking around and in the food storage he happened to find a can of peaches that was bulging. So he found Grandma Hemingway and he said, "Grandma I think this can of peaches has gone bad" to which she responded, "I can't imagine why it would do that now, it has been in there for years!"

The funeral was a good experience as we celebrated the life of an amazing woman, and were able to say goodbye to her for awhile. The funeral started out with more tears than probably Tim would care to admit, (Why was Becky the only one to bring tissues? Smart girl. We love you Becky!) however, by the end, we left with a feeling of peace and contentment knowing that in another place many people were rejoicing to have Grandma Hemingway back with them.

Here is a link to Grandma Hemingway's obituary if you would like to read it.
http://www.legacy.com/DeseretNews/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=108239902

We love you Grandma Hemingway!!!

-Tim & Katie

Deseret Towers- a pile of rubble...

I lived in DT as a freshman, and last year they decided to knock the towers down and build something newer (aka built in the last 100 years). My friends and I were some of the last ones to live in DT. My dad drove by DT the other day and took this picture. U hall, my hall, and the last hall, is finally down. Here is what remains of my freshman housing... It is a sad day indeed. Here is a tribute to DT, the crappiest but loveliest dorms that were.



-Katie