Temple

The Ft. Lauderdale temple is currently being built and is only about 10 minutes from where we live. We wish it was open now! We haven't lived close to a temple in so long- and the Orlando temple is over 4 hours away! The members of our ward are so excited to have this temple coming. They've got the exterior structure up and the angel Moroni just went on last week.

Chase loves looking at the pictures of temples in the back of my scriptures. He'll come over to me whenever he sees me reading them demanding "tempo! tempo!" until I show him the pictures. I thought he'd love to see the temple in real life. Sunday after church and naps we went over to check it out. You can't get too close because of the construction fence, but already it looks beautiful! Chase was so excited to see it. He kept saying "tempo! I found it!"

As we drove away, Chase whined the whole way home, "More tempo! Chase's tempo! More tempo! Chase's tempo!" I'm not so sure why he claims ownership of the temple, but I do love his enthusiasm about it! Ben and I have always wanted to instill in our children a deep love and appreciation for the temple and it is so sweet to see his little baby excitement over it. 

Trunk-or-Treat

After repeatedly telling me that he would NOT be wearing his costume tonight, we did force him kicking and screaming into this monster costume for our ward's trunk-or-treat! Once he realized there was candy involved he was just fine with that costume! 

The weather cooperated fantastically- the hurricane that is headed our way that has brought us all kinds of wind and rain this week gave us a break from the rain, but cooled down the weather and added a healthy wind to make it feel like Halloween outside! It was still in the low 70s and it felt so nice! I handed out candy at our trunk and Ben took Chase around. He caught on quickly that he  needed to lift his bucket up for candy and to say "thank you!" after. 

 Here he is with some of his favorite people in the world- 

Streator as batman and Savanna the fairy.

They were on the island with us too and Chase asks to play with them every day.

 Sitting down to indulge in the loot!

And like any parents watching their baby trick-or-treat for the first time we took about a million pictures. I had a hard time choosing which ones to post. This little one sure makes holidays more fun!

A little Halloween

So turns out, besides torturing Chase by forcing him into his costume a few times, we haven't done much to celebrate Halloween around these parts! I think partly because everything is still green and Florida is still very much having summer weather, it hasn't felt so much like fall. Today I decided to change that! I lit my pumpkin scented candle, turned the AC up (so it felt kind of chilly inside) and made stew for dinner, which is cooking away as I write. Chase also got in on the Halloween spirit by wearing this darling shirt that was a present from his Nana. 

 He kept doing this with his hands when I tried to take pictures,

and I have no idea where it came from!

Although, it looks like something a mummy/Frankenstein monster/evil wizard

would do- so Chase is probably just practicing for his Halloween debut as a monster!

 (I think in reality he's showing me how well he's doing wearing long sleeves:)

And just because it was funny,

Chase with his post nap bedhead. Awesome.

Our friends helped us get in the Halloween spirit today by inviting us over to make these 

cute pumpkins out of rice crispy treats. 

Obviously, this picture is after Chase decided to eat the face off ours.

Conclusion: Chase is a big fan of rice crispy treats and tootsie rolls (which we used as the stem)

"I DID IT!"

The title of this post actually has little to do with it's content- other than we heard this phrase about 100 times this week. It's Chase's new thing. Every little thing he accomplishes- to climbing on the couch to turning off the TV with the "memope" (remote)- he exclaims "I did it!" And we all congratulate him and tell him how smart and wonderful he is. My favorite was a few days ago when Chase grabbed the mouse from my dad's laptop and tried to use it to change the channel on the TV from football (my dad's choice) to Mickey Mouse (Chase's preferred viewing choice). While Chase was intently pushing that mouse button at the TV, my dad changed the channel with the real remote, unbeknownst to Chase. He looked around in excitement and surprise and said "I DID IT!" He looked super proud of himself, and I think in his little head he was thinking, "Huh- that wasn't supposed to work. I know it's for the computer not the TV...I must be really awesome!"

Anyway- here is a quick recap of the last few days of my parents stay with us. Chase had a major cranky day on Wednesday in the Everglades, but turned out to be quite well behaved as we ate dinner at Macaroni Grill. He was especially thrilled that they had crayons at the table. I wrestled him into this cute Halloween shirt my mom brought for him. We discovered that Chase's real problem with his Halloween costume is how much of it there is- Chase is NOT a fan of long pants, long sleeves, anything that is more than shorts and t-shirts. This child has spent the vast majority of his life living in the tropics in a onesie. This winter in Utah might be quite the adjustment for the boy. 

 Thursday we went back to the beach! I loved this beach so much, it was just perfect. Chase, again, refused to go in the ocean, but did order my dad around and told him when he needed to go get more water in the buckets. I kind of sat back, enjoyed the beach, and let my parents help Chase build sandcastles to his heart's content. I think it was a win-win-win for all those involved.

 Chase loves having two extra adults around who a) think he's adorable no matter what he does and b) will do anything to make him happy.

 My son, who would burst into tears if the tiniest wave washed on his feet, thought it was absolutely delightful when Grandpa would pour buckets full of ocean water right on his head. Chase would squeal with delight. Shortly after this Chase rolled all over in the sand, giggling like crazy and covering every inch of his body in beach!

 After a quick lunch my dad took Chase to get a donut. This boy LOVES donuts (and so does Grandpa). Chase was so intent on eating this donut when I tried to get him to look at me and smile, he just said "Cheese" while he kept going at it. I'd say Chase can get anything he wants from his grandparents.

 And after a long day at the beach, here are Chase and Grandpa putting their feet up. Chase was trying to do exactly what Grandpa did. They've bonded.

Friday we planned to go back to the beach. About 5 minutes after we got there it started raining- so we grabbed some lunch waiting for the rain to stop. It wasn't really letting up, so we went up to the hotel room for Chase's nap and afterwards went to the pool. Chase loved the pool, and didn't want to get out even when it started raining again. Nana coaxed him out with the promise of ice cream- which of course worked instantly. After ice cream we headed back to Miramar to pick up Ben and go out to dinner, at Cheesecake Factory again, at my request. Even though it was a rainy day, it was still fabulous!

My parents flight left early this morning to head back to Utah- the week went by far too quickly! I enjoyed every second of it, I felt like I was on vacation too! So many fun adventures, so much help with my energetic little boy, other interesting adults around to talk to, lots of good food- it was all wonderful! I'm sure Chase will be a delight the next few days as we adjust back to our normal boring life- but we are sure glad they came!

More Fun with the Grandparents

We have had so much fun with my parents these last few days! Tuesday we spent the day up in Fort Lauderdale. My parents have this amazing beach right at their hotel. We spent a really wonderful morning there playing in the sand and ocean (for the adults- Chase was clearly a "sand only" participant- his choice, not mine). This top picture cracks me up- Chase loved it when my dad helped him make sand castles and then Chase would destroy them. I promise, Chase is barely outside the shot of this picture and my dad is actually working on sandcastles to delight his grandson, not because it's his favorite beach activity.

 I don't think I've had this much fun at the beach in a long time! It really was fabulous. The ocean felt amazing as well. Chase also loved it when my mom took him venturing down the beach where he kept trying to pet a "duck" (seagull). The other thing that was amazing about being at this beach was that when we got tired and hungry we just went to the hotel, had lunch and put Chase down for a nap! It was a perfect day!

 And this pic just cracks me up- Chase declined any type of dinner at Cheesecake Factory Monday night, but was of course all over eating his own piece of cheesecake. (I promise, we didn't let him eat the whole thing) I thought he could just share a few bites with me, but was quickly over-ruled by his doting grandparents and daddy.

Today we went to tour the Everglades! We went on this amazing airboat ride where alligators swim right up next to the boat! It was incredible! Chase really, really hated it at first, as shown below. But after a little bit he warmed up to it and was definitely happy to see alligators!

 This gator was literally 2 feet from my mom!

This is a male alligator that's about 12 feet long and apparently his only enemy is humans.

 And little Chase just completely conked out at the end! 

This has been the best week! We've had such a blast!

Miami Seaquarium

My parents are in town! I LOVE LOVE LOVE having them here! Chase is loving it too. He's loving all the extra attention and extra adventures (that I'm not brave enough to do just the two of us). They flew in Saturday morning, after flying all night long (they didn't want to miss out on any possible vacation time with Chase), and we had a quiet Saturday here at our house. We went into Ft. Lauderdale that night to my parents hotel and had a delicious dinner at a restaurant right on the beach. Chase declined any type of food, but did enjoy playing peek-a-boo with the couple seated behind us.

Sunday they came to church and got to wrestle with Chase while Ben and I spoke in sacrament meeting. Ben and I joked about how calm sacrament was for us, even though we were the speakers, realizing just how much work our little Chase is. He did great with them. Whenever they aren't around he constantly talks about Nana and Papa.

Today we went on a fun little adventure to the Miami Seaquarium which was such a blast! It's just like SeaWorld, but smaller and perfect for my little guy. He was so intrigued watching the dolphins swim in their tank (from the under water view) and all the other fish. He mostly liked watching all the shows- the dolphins, sea lions and killer whales, although he wasn't quite as impressed as I thought he should be watching these animals spin and flip. Then I realized that in Chase's little world of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Octonauts, animals usually dance and sing and do all kinds of things wild animals don't. He'd get over excited with the music and entertainment and could not sit still and contain himself at all. My dad spent a lot of those shows chasing him around.

The real highlight of the whole experience for Chase was in fact, the Manatees. He's still talking about "Mantees!" and loves looking at pictures of them. He loved watching them and kept saying, "Woah! Big!" When we'd see other animals he kept asking for more Manatees. There was so much for him to see that he had a really hard time even looking at the camera for pictures!

 This is my dad trying to convince Chase to take a picture by this dolphin (Chase loved dolphins).

Chase absolutely would not go closer than this picture.

Both at the aquarium, and when we took him to the zoo in August,

he REFUSES to have his picture taken by fake animals.

Thanks for all the fun adventures Nana and Papa! 

We can't wait to see what the rest of the week brings!

Chase the Manipulative

I just can't help but try to document every adorable thing this little boy does! Even on the most frustrating days (and we have many of those) he makes me laugh at least 5 times during the day. Lately he's had some strong opinions about food. He loves yogurt, bananas, apples and applesauce, peanut butter, cheese, bread and anything that is sweet. I cannot get him to eat a vegetable these days for anything! He doesn't want to try new things, unless it is dessert, and I don't know how he can even tell! It took us three weeks of encouraging before he'd try a grape, but the first time he saw a donut he was immediately asking for some and then couldn't get enough.
A few weeks ago on a particularly rough morning (I was still suffering from the cold of death and Chase was anxious to get out of the house) Ben took Chase out to get donuts as a special treat, which of course Chase loved. About a week later, Ben took Chase on an errand to office max. Here is the text I got from Ben about 30 minutes after they left:
"For some reason Chase thinks we left to get donuts. As soon as he was in his carseat he started talking about donuts and did the whole way to office max."
And then the next day, Ben took Chase with him to the grocery store. As soon as they said good-bye to me and shut the door behind them, Chase turned to Ben and said so sweetly and innocently
"Donuts?"
He tried the same thing two days ago when Ben took him outside to play. As soon as the door shut behind him, he was hitting Ben up for "pizza? pizza!"
He's definitely got a little plan going in his head. If he can just get dad out of the house, away from mom, then the boys can go eat all the unhealthy, yummy stuff. Chase is definitely right that his dad has a major Chase-shaped soft spot in his heart.

Scariest Halloween costume EVER

I love all the fall and winter holidays coming up, and I plan for them well in advance. About a month ago I started getting excited about getting a Halloween costume for Chase. I looked at oldnavy.com to be pleasantly surprised by how cute and cheap their costumes were. I debated on which to get for this little guy- there was a pretty adorable monkey, a hamburger that we thought would be funny, and this cute little monster costume. I showed the options to Chase, who immediately got really excited about "MONSTER!" As I ordered it, Chase kept pointing to the picture of the costume and exclaiming "monster! monster!" I was sure he'd be delighted when the costume did finally come. 

Fast forward a week and it arrived. He thought it was super cool, until I offered to put it on him. "Nope!" he said as he ran away. A few more attempts resulted in the same answer. I finally got him in it and he fought me the whole time to take it off. So for the next few weeks I left the costume sitting out where he could see it, we talked a lot about it, he watched some of his little friends try it on, and still he refused to wear it. This morning we tried again- I think the pictures Ben snapped pretty much tell you how he felt about it:

 Then we got a little smarter and bribed him. We offered him chocolate chips (the kid LOVES "chocate") and he was sold. As long as Ben's hand was offering him chocolate chips at all times, he was okay with keeping the costume on. Once his hand was empty, Chase immediately started pulling at the costume trying to get it off.

My guess is that we'll keep practicing up until Halloween. I really can't get over how adorable he looks in this costume. There might be a lot of chocolate chips in Chase's near future as we adjust to the idea. 

Embrace and Cherish

After a particularly frustrating and disappointing day yesterday, I was really looking forward to hearing the talks and words and wisdom from the brethern in General Conference today. I was especially touched by the words of Pres. Uchtdorf (I always feel like his message is meant right for me). He said something to the effect of "There is something in every day to embrace and cherish and be grateful for." So true. And this is mine:

 This is Chase trying to put on his own shorts this morning-

over his pajama shorts, with both legs in one side. He was proud of himself.

 He wanted to wear his Utah State shirt today, despite their loss

last night to the "tougies" (as Chase calls them)

 And the little sweetheart was more than willing to be entertained by 

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (or Mickey's house as Chase calls it) while I watched

conference on my laptop.

He's the sweetest little boy I know.

Even though somedays are hard, and somedays are really hard,

I wouldn't trade being his mom for anything.

No matter what else is going on in our lives,

Ben and I sure are grateful that we can call this little one ours.