Our Birthdays

I love that John and I have our birthdays exactly one week apart.  It is neat for me to imagine both of our mothers carrying us those 9 months and what life must have been like for them....and imagine if they'd lived near each other and have known one another...but they didn't, and they lived in vastly different regions of the country. But, I still think it is pretty neat that our lives began at about the same time.

The week after Colorado I got to celebrate my birthday by going out to dinner with two of my friends, Kathryn and Stephanie.  We had a really quaint, fun, outdoorsy appetizer/wine dinner at Veranda Restaurant at the Rancho Bernardo Inn.  It was delicious and the conversation was equally satisfying.  That is now the second time I've been there in the last 2 months, and I'm growing rather fond of it.  Minus the poor service.

Anna did a great tribute of John's life over on her blog.

A week after my birthday celebration, John and I had a night to ourselves as our dear friends the Carters kept Chase overnight.  John had had a hard week, so we just stayed local and went to dinner at a new restaurant near us and then wandered around some stores.  John loves browsing at Barnes & Noble.  I was able to poke around at Michael's and Sears.  Saturday morning was nice to wake up and not have to tend to Chase's immediate needs.  John was able to sleep in and was able to read.  I talked John into buying himself a Seaworld pass because it was such a nice day and knew that Chase would love to go there with her daddy.  When we picked her up, John told her about our fun surprise.

We had a great morning there.  The sun was shining.  We saw the Shamu show and lots of animals.  John and Chase climbed all over the Sesame Street playground and also got to ride a couple of the rides.

These are the sweet cards that the Carter girls and Chase made for John:

Another year of life gone by.  Last year was tough at times, but I can see that we have grown.  And who knows what this next year of life holds?

Our Trip to Colorado

Just after getting our bags unpacked from Christmas, and getting back to our time zone, we packed our bags and headed to Colorado for a week to see my family.  Again, Chase traveled so well and it was fun to be with her on the airplane.  As an aside, she pretty much potty trained in the 6 days we were back home, so traveling was a little different with this new concept in tact.  2 people in a corner potty on Southwest was quite challenging.  And we were in it 3 times!  We're so proud of her though, how quickly she mastered this technique!!

We arrived to about zero degrees!  Slightly colder than we are used to.  And we did not even step a foot outdoors for about the first 36 hours we were there.  

We got to visit with my Aunt Kay and Uncle Steve the first whole day we were there, and it was Kay's birthday, so we celebrated with her.  I got to see my 2 CO. cousins that night for just a few minutes, Kaycee and Andy.  My brother Zach and his girlfriend Sam also came and hung out with us for the afternoon.  It was nice to meet her and always good to see a brother.  We all had fun playing Farkel.

The next day was really fun...my roomate from my junior year at UGA now lives in South Denver with her young family.  She has a 1, 2, and 3 year old!  And her husband works full time and is planting a church on top of that! Wow, busy folks!  She graciously drove an hour up to spend the morning with us.  Chase had fun playing with her girls.  Her middle daughter was born about 2 weeks after Chase.  We were pretty sure that we had not seen each other since 1998.  She was such a delight to catch up with and see how she has matured.  I also got a massage this day.  Such a nice break!

John flew in Friday morning, I met him in Boulder and picked him up from the bus station.  We poked around in some shops and walked around Pearl Street.  That is always fun.  Then we had lunch at my favorite, The Cheesecake Factory.  So delish.  That night, my parents treated us to a dinner theatre, our first.  We saw the Will Rogers Follies.  It was a great atmosphere and yummy food.  A friend of my mother's kept Chase and she had a GREAT time.

Saturday was my 34th birthday.  I got to have a pedicure and some alone time.  While I was gone, Chase and Mimi made me a red velvet cake.  It was DIVINE!!!  My favorite I'm sure.  Then in the afternoon John and I got to have the afternoon/evening off.  We went and walked around a big mall, then had some dinner and saw the King's Speech.  For not seeing movies very often, it was a great pick!

Sunday we went to the new church that my parents have been visiting and had chinese for lunch.  Chase took a really long nap so we were able to relax for the afternoon and watch tv and read.  Then that night we celebrated Christmas with my parents.

And Monday morning, early, we were off again.  And we had forgotten when we bought those tickets that it was MLK  Day, so John had off, which turned out great because we had the afternoon to relax and unpack before the week got started.

Thank you mom and dad for the nice visit and for all of the nice "time off".  Glad you got some good time with sweet Chasey.

So now we are back home again....for a little while anyway!

Celebrating Eight Years

While away, John and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary. I am so thankful for my sweet husband and the great helpmate that he is for me.  I can't imagine going through life without him.  We got to go away for about 24 hours without Chase.  We took a drive down to Savannah and explored the city.  What a joy that we were together every single moment of every day for 2 weeks and still wanted to be together!  What a blessing!

OK, are we really that much older looking??? 

It doesn't feel like eight years is all that much until you look back at pictures and everyone around you looks like a baby!  It is funny to think of how young my brothers were at the time.  And then of course the Hitchcock bunch (they were not much of a bunch).

What a fun adventure....

with a whole lot of added fun since Chase is now a part 

of our family!

Part 3- Special Moments with Friends

Another blessing of John and I both being from Georgia originally is that when we go "home" we get to see many friends, as well as family.  This year I'd say we saw even more friends than last year, maybe due to the Hitch's not being there with us.  It was such a joy for me to see such dear friends.  And now that we are getting older, many of our friends have kids.  It was even more fun now that not only can we visit but our kids can play together and become friends.

Looking back, that Christmas tree got a work out!  The Hatchers have a beautiful home that is open and welcoming not only to us, but any and everyone we could possibly want to come and visit us.  We are thankful for all the divine appointments that came our way!  It's neat for me to look back on these friends, and think about the memories made with each of them, and how faithful the Lord has been to me with dear relationships over my years.  These are precious people to me!!

Christmas Vacation - Part Two

There isn't much to say about the following pictures.  The first ones are on Christmas Eve before going to church.  The space looks so empty without all the Hitchcocks filling up the space like last year!

The next two pictures are our attempt at Santa Claus.  Chase put out 2 fig newtons (the only Christmas cookies to be found in the Hatcher house!!) and a carrot for Santa and Rudolph.  I thought it would be fun if Rudolph left a trail.

The fun of Christmas morning.  I have quickly realized that Christmas is truly ONLY fun with little ones around!  It was fun to watch Chase process things.  She saw her stocking and noticed really only one book.  Picked it up, looked at it, didn't bother looking at the rest of the stuff.  After a while she discovered the tree, found a gift, opened it, played with it for sometime before even going to get another one.  This lasted all morning.  She didn't even open her stocking until that night!

A gorgeously decorated Southern home....

Chase and Uncle Kagey...

The whole Krider clan...minus sweet Mama Jo...a new Christmas for us all.

It was a very special day being with the Hatcher/Krider clan.  Uncle Kagey and Pop arrived around 11 from North Carolina.  They made the best time ever, just shy of 3 hours.  We had a delicious and very traditional Krider/Klutz Christmas dinner prepared wholeheartedly by Jenkie, much of the food honoring her mother and father.  After all, she did not make the oyster casserole on OUR behalf!!  We relaxed, watched football, basketball, napped, opened gifts, and then Kagey headed back to Atlanta.  Pop ended up staying 3 nights with us.  That was a special treat to have him around so long.  And we could tell he really enjoyed his time with Chase.  He said Mama Jo would be very proud of who Chase is becoming.  She was missed. I missed hearing her voice and watching her sit by the fire with a blanket on.  But, thankful that we have those memories of last Christmas to remember.  One night Pop had already gone into his bedroom and Chase was going to bed and she said to Jenkie, "have to give Pop hugs and kisses good night."  So Jenkie knocked on the door and he was sitting on his bed and Jenkie told him what Chase had said, and he felt really touched that she had thought of him.  

Atlanta got snow all day Christmas.  We got it all day the day after, and it was beautiful, but it did not stick.  You'll have to look really closely to see the snowflakes!  

Amazingly, another Christmas is behind us.  We are always amazed when it is the "holiday season" once again, but then it goes by just as quickly.  We made a lot of sweet memories.

One thing I failed to mention...one special thing that technology allowed us to do this year was feel a little closer to our far away families.  We got to webchat with the Hitchcocks before they had their Christmas dinner.  It was fun to see all the kids with their new toys.  All the kids, including Chase got a Disney stuffed animal and new jammies.  Chase's were all Beauty and the Beast characters.  Webchatting almost gives you the feeling of being right with distant family.  We also got to webchat with my whole family that was all together, minus us.  That was equally wonderful.  They were watching old family movies, so John was very happy not to be forced into that!  I have a feeling they will be waiting for us when we go to Colorado next week.