Christmas 2009

What a wonderful Christmas this year was, despite the "Blizzard of 2009"!! I thought it was nice to have Chase's first Christmas be a white Christmas... The only down side was that I missed seeing a lot of my aunts and uncles for the holiday, hopefully we will all be able to find another time to get together soon!!!

My parents normally have my brother and his family, my family, and Nanny and Poppy on Christmas eve, which is also my sister in law Jill's birthday, so every year we go to their house and my mom makes yummy enchiladas and we have our Christmas celebration. This year we had the celebration on the 23rd so we could avoid the snow storm that was predicted, and we were glad because it sure dumped late in the day on Christmas eve!!!
Here is Chase opening his presents!!!





He's so excited...





Chase with DeeDee and Bobo



Happy Birthday Jill!!!!



What a fun evening it was!!!

Christmas eve, when Chase woke up, I found him doing something new... standing up in his crib. Since his new discovery, nothing is safe, as soon as he is on the floor at home, he crawls directly for anything that he could pull up on. He is growing up so fast!!! I don't mind that he is already pulling up, I just wish he would figure out how to sit back down. Before if he woke in the middle of the night, he would whine and go back to sleep, now he whines and cries because he is standing up and doesn't know how to get back down. I was spying on him today, he was standing there and decided to just let go, and he falls over like a tree, banging his head on the side of the crib. He didn't seem to mind, got right back up and did the same thing again. I tried to show him how to go from standing to sitting, but I don't know if he got it... ANYWAY, back to my Christmas story...

So I woke up Christmas eve morning to find this...



Chase and I got up and started putting the toys together that he had gotten the night before from DeeDee and Bobo and from Aunt Jill and Uncle David...





We played with the new toys all afternoon, I cooked a large ham that my work had given me, and Danny and I had a nice ham dinner on Christmas eve while Chase took a late afternoon nap. When Chase woke up the sleet was coming down and the snowflakes were soon to follow.

It was sooooo much fun setting the toys up that Santa brought, stuffing the stocking, and putting out cookies and milk!!! I can only imagine how much more fun it will get when Chase actually knows what's going on!!!
This is what Santa brought...



Chase had fun even if he didn't know who Santa was...



Daddy wanted to show Chase all the snow we got and let him feel it... BRRRR that's cold!!!



The day after Christmas we went to Aunt Linda's for the Hartman family Christmas. I was a little nervous to get out on the roads, but I have always been a white knuckle driver in any kind of precipitation. Danny got us there safely and we had a great time. I heard a few redneck jokes that afternoon and caught a few pictures....

You may be a redneck if you try to fit two people in one snuggie...



Some enjoyed the warmth of the snuggie, but would never admit they actually wore a snuggie...



The usual quarter game took place...



There was also a belated birthday celebration... Now Mike, did you really think you could turn 50 and no one notice???



He got a lot of good stuff, denture cream, laxatives, ect... but my favorite was the pooping deer...



It was a lot of fun, and a lot of excitement for little Chase!!! He made it a few hours before he had to pass out and take a break from it all...



And a few random pictures from the day....





Chris and Sara and their black tounges from the frosting on Uncle Mike's old man cookie cake...



Mason's was pretty black too, he just didn't want to admit it...



Chase loves his Aunt Linda!!!!!



Sunday morning we all met at the Golden Corral for the Hartman Christmas breakfast... it was yummy!!!



Danny and I and Chase had a great Christmas this year!!! Thanks everyone!!!

Visit with Santa

Chase met Santa for the first time today at the Montereau where Nanny and Poppy live. We have told Chase all about Santa, and Chase is no fool, he knows a fake when he sees one, and he was sure to let Santa know....


Luckily Daddy stayed nearby to help Santa so all the kids that were there didn't notice his beard being pulled from his face! I think Santa was thinking "take this picture and get this kid off me!"



Ella, Devon, and Leah were also there to visit with Santa...

Dancing Nanny and Cross Dressing Poppy

This afternoon I got to go see my grandparents perform in a very wonderful, original to say the least, performance at the Montereau where they live. You can tell that they have put a lot of time in preparing for this, although I don't know where they find the time, they stay so busy with all the other activities there!!!

My Nana tap dances with a group called the "toe tappers" and the average age of these ladies is 82! They really did a wonderful job, I was SO impressed!!!! They did three different dances, I got video of the first two, but unfortunately the battery in my camera ran out for the third dance. (Which was such a good one I am mad at my camera!!!)







And now for my Papa... this is a side I have never seen. I mean, he has always been an original, he makes the whole family laugh all the time, but in the form of a woman--this probably tops it. Papa found his own dress and accessories, and I almost think he enjoyed looking for just the right outfit! Not only was this performance entertaining, it was quite interesting. Papa and his buddies up at the Montereau perform in a group called the "Stouthearted Men" and I hate to say it, but they all performed pretty well as women...



I am so proud to be the granddaughter of these two characters, even with Papa dressed like a woman. They have so much fun with life and stay so active, they are some of the coolest grandparents ever made.

Christmas Train

The Christmas Train in Dry Gulch is AWESOME!!!!! This was Danny and I's first time to go out there, although I have heard of it for many years. We have decided to make it a family tradition. Chase was just beside himself the whole night, screaming and laughing, and looking around. He had soooo much fun. Dry Gulch is kind of like a mini, mini, Silver Dollar City, minus the rides. People are dressed up in old time attire, their were carolers, and lots of lights...



It was pretty chilly out, so we had to bundle up good. This was Chase's first experience with mittens. He was SO MAD for the first few minutes, he didn't know what was on his hands!!! But he quickly calmed down and seemed to love that his fingers were being kept warm and toasty...





We had dinner in the barbecue place and Chase was a TOTAL maniac there. This video is pretty dark for some reason, but you can hear him squealing if you really listen. He pretty much squealed with delight and kicked his legs while in the stroller the whole night, but here he is, jumping and squealing.



They had little fire pits everywhere that people could warm up next to. Chase liked that! Then mom had to take a self portrait...





After warming up by the fire, we went to the train depot to ride the Christmas train. It was really really awesome. They didn't allow flash photography so I couldn't take pictures, but that just means you will have to go see for yourself!! The train took you through some wooded areas and told the story of Jesus through beautiful artwork and a few live scenes. It really was so much fun.







Getting ready to get on the train!!! Chase was so excited!!!





After the train we looked through a few more shops before heading home. Chase was too funny with his coat, he kept trying to lick his zipper!!!

Chips and Juice and Crawling around

Chase is such a big boy now, he drinks from a sippy cup and he is eating some finger foods. The chips he has now are kind of like Cheetos puffs, they melt once all his slobber soaks them, he loves them. The only problem is that he doesn't know how to get the whole thing in his mouth, once the part that is out of his fingers is gone, he just licks his hand trying to figure out how to get the rest of the chip that he is hiding in his palm....







Chase really loves his apple juice, and his sippy cup!!!





I would say Chase is an official crawler. The army crawl comes out every now and again, but for the most part, he is crawling normal EVERYWHERE. There is definitely no leaving him alone on the floor anymore.



And lastly, the other day, Chase was waking up from his nap and I could hear him playing. He seemed really happy, I went to go peak and this is what I found...

Christmas pictures and a few others....

We went to have our pictures taken by my favorite Sears photographer Bernice! And as usual, she did a great job. This was our Christmas/Chase 6 month pictures. I can't believe he is already half of a year old!!!! Time is going by so fast. Chase is really in to everything and is developing quite the personality, he definitely has started making his own mind up on what he wants to do and what he does NOT want to do. Pictures of his good and bad decisions to come.....

Christmas Pics









6 month pics







Chase drove us out to the Castle in Muskogee the other night. If you have never been it's pretty cool. You drive through a sea of Christmas inflatables, Christmas music is playing, you go through the woods and a village, and the end is at the Castle where you can get out if you want. They have hot cocoa, and TONS of CHEAP cool Christmas decorations. It's definitely worth checking out at least once... also the park where they have the azalea festival is right down the road and they have it all decked out with lights as well. Makes for a nice evening.... here a few pictures of our adventure...







And some phone mini pictures... for whatever reason my phone took way better pictures of the inflatables than my camera did!!!







And inside the Castle...