May Day

On May 1st also known as May Day Chase and I went to Jonathan's work and delivered a May Day basket full of all his favorite snacks. The basket included Jr. Mints, Slim Jims, Sour Patch Kids, Good & Plenty, Cajun Trail Mix, and Chocolate Covered Raisins. Chase enjoyed getting to see his dad at work and all of his co-workers who adore Chase. That is until he almost stabed his eye out with a dry erase marker and started screaming! Yeah, I gave him the marker so he could draw Jonathan a picture on his board and yes I know what a stupid idea that was!

Anyway I was shocked to hear that no one had heard of the tradition of May Day Baskets which I grew up with. So here it is, on May 1st you make little cups or baskets full of goodies to give to your friends. You take it to their house and set it on the doorstep. Then you ring the door bell and hurry and try to get away before your friend catches you and pinches you or in some cases kisses you. Just a little fun to kick off the warmer weather. You should try it next year if you don't do it already. Who knows maybe you can start a neighborhood trend and a family tradition all at the same time.

Sleepy Head

When Chase was younger and waking up a couple of times during the night Jonathan would randomly tell him that if he slept in until ten he would give him something special. It could range anywhere from $5 to a brand new expensive toy. It always seemed to work and he would sleep for atleast an hour longer than usual.
Well, just last night I brought up the conversation again. How nice would it be to sleep in on a Saturday morning?!?!? So I tried the trick again. I asked Jonathan what Chase would get if he slept in until ten. He told him he would take Chase to go see the kittens and puppies at the pet store. It seemed like more of a reward for Jonathan but who cares if it would really work.
It worked! Chase went to bed at 9 and woke up at 10:30. I was shocked and naturally was up at 8 but was able to go back to bed and woke up wondering what the heck happened when I saw it was 10. I was wide awake and couldn't take advantage of this great opportunity any longer. I just sat and waited until my sleepy head woke up.
Jonathan partially followed through with his promise. We went to see the cats and kittens at his favorite cat place called Purrfect Pets. Chase wasn't to enthralled so we decided not to get one out and we just played with them through the cages. They were cute and we even found some that looked just like our old cats Bevo and Ally. As much as I hated those cats I really do miss them. Not enough to get another one though. When it was time to go see the dogs and puppies at Land of Paws Jonathan wanted to bail and Chase was worn out. Maybe next Saturday we can go there if he sleeps until ten again!

NCAA Gymnastics in NE

My best friend from High School called and asked if I wanted to go to the NCAA Gymnastics Championship and I couldn't say no. For those of you who may not know I competed in gymnastics in Jr. High and High School. I can't say I was a great gymnast but I can say my heart was totally in it and still is to this day. It was a great opportunity I couldn't pass up so Chase and I headed to Lincoln for the weekend.

It was a ton of fun to watch and made me jealous that I wasn't still competing myself. I will eventually get back into coaching so I can live it up in the gym again. I am secretly hoping Chase will want to do it too, but Jonathan says he can't. He says it's for girls and his son will do martial arts. We will just have to wait and see who will win that fight!

Go Big Red!

Chase thought it was funny to watch

While we were in Lincoln we stayed with Chase's Aunt Meggie, Uncle Jessie and his cousins Lucy and Charlie. Lucy and Charlie are pretty big boxers that Chase grew to love. They were very curious and protective of Chase. They would come and check on him anytime he cried and also let him grab at their faces. Chase even figured out that if he did his fake cough they would come running. It was a game he loved to play with them. Lucy even gave Chase a ride. All in all we had a great weekend and can't wait to come back and visit.

Chase riding Lucy with Charlie, Megan, & Jessie assisting

Omaha Zoo

What is the best meeting spot for two long time friends and their kids? Answer: Omaha Zoo!

Chase and me riding the baby elephant
Chase looks right at home and I can even see a resemblance


Mandi and her girls Marley and Makenna came to hang out with Chase and me and we decided to go to the Omaha Zoo. We had perfect weather and a great time. The kids loved it and were really well behaved. We definitely got in a good workout as we hiked up and down tons of hills while carrying kids and pushing strollers. It was a good thing Aunt Meggie joined us because she was a great help.

Megan and Mandi my two BFF's


Chase's favorite part was the aquarium. He loved the jellyfish tank and tried grabbing at them through the glass and he also liked the tank that he could lay on and look at all of the fish.

Chase grabbing the jellyfish
Chase looking at the Nemo fish

Marley loved everything we saw and was a good sport about taking pictures with Chase. Makenna on the other hand mainly stayed in the stroller and snacked. She did get out for a few pictures here and there but I never managed to get one of her. Sorry Kenna, we do love you though!

Marley and Chase with a Gorilla in the backgroundChase and Marley at the butterfly exibit

Easter

We celebrated Chase's first Easter in Southlake with Jonathan's family. We had an Easter egg hunt, a wonderful meal, gifts from the Easter bunny, went to church and had a great lesson from Papa Scott, and lots of family bonding.

Hunting for Eggs and Easter PJ's

Although my favorite part of all was playing dress up with Chase! He and his dad looked very handsome in their coordinating outfits. It may be a bit lame to have the whole family matching, but it made for some really great pictures! So great I plan on entering one of the pictures into a cutest baby contest. Who knows we might just have one of the cutest babies!

Contest Picture

Family Easter Picture

Another cute one

Little Traveler

Our little man has traveled many places in his life thus far. He has been on several airplanes and taken many road trips and was well behaved through it all. By the time he was 8 weeks old he had been in 6 different states.

States Visited:

Iowa
Kansas
Missouri
Nebraska
Texas
Utah

His two favorite places, the ones he shows the most spirit for, are NE for his mommy and TX for his daddy. However, he loves traveling anywhere and visiting all of his close family and friends. If we haven't made it to see you yet we will hopefully soon. We are excited for our upcoming trips. First off to Dallas for Easter, then Lincoln for the NCAA Gymnastics tournament and to see all of my high school friends, and lastly to the Omaha Zoo with Mandi and her girls!

First For Everything

Life for the Hoyt family couldn't get any better. Jonathan and I are loving watching Chase, our first child, grow and discover new things. His little personality is getting stronger every day and I believe he is well on his way to taking after me in that field. It looks like we will have a Hoyt appearance with a Crandell personality. Scary I know!
Since I am a little behind I wanted to update everyone on all of the firsts in Chase's life and development. He was born on Nov. 6, 2008 at 3:30 pm weighing in at an even 7 lbs and stretching to an even 19 inches. He lost his umbilical cord on Nov. 14 and his plastibell (plastic ring from circumcision) on Nov. 16. Since we had plenty of help with Grandma Ree and Aunt Emmy in town we took on our first bath on Nov.16 which was scary and exciting all at the same time.

Chase was blessed on Nov. 30 in Midway, UT at my in laws home. It was a special moment for both the Hoyt and Crandell family. Needless to say his first month on earth was a whirlwind.

Chase in his blessing outfit.

Those who were in his circle for the blessing.

The Crandell family.

The Hoyt family.

Daddy changed his first poopy diaper on Jan. 1, 2009. For anyone who knows Jonathan, changing a poop diaper was something I felt would never happen. After only eight weeks he bravely took on the task and did a great job! Since we are on the subject of diapers I found it very interesting that in the first 24 hours of Chase's life no one from his family changed his diaper. Horrible I know, but I had great nurses who took care of that and the lactation specialist and Dr. Brunner even took one for the team.
When it comes to sleeping we have been very blessed. When he was born he would sleep for about 3 hours at a time. Then in late Dec. he started sleeping for 6 hours a night. This progressed to 8 and 9 hours a night in mid Jan. Around a month later he was sleeping for 10 hours and is now up to 12 hours a night and has been doing that since mid March.
In early February he started having mini conversations with us using his cute little baby noises. It was fun to hear his tiny little voice and how he learned to love his high pitches. He soon became our little squealer.
On Feb. 27 he rolled from his belly to his back and on Apr. 1 he began rolling from his back to his belly. Once he figured out both of those moves he would constantly roll in circles. I would leave him on his play mat and come back a few minutes later only to find that he was in a completely different spot. He has just recently started pulling his legs in underneath him when he's on his belly and I feel that crawling will be just around the corner! We will continue to keep you all posted on Chase's development.