James, Stephie Lynne, & Chase Purcell

You Are Now Entering A Stalker-Free Zone

2012-02-12T21:07:00.001-05:00

I'm not going to try to flatter myself and say that a lot of people are stalking this poorly kept up blog, but with what currently looks like James' job prospect of spending the next year in the criminal justice system, I figured we should probably not make it so easy for the shadier types who are less than thrilled with their verdict.

So here is the official we are going private warning. Go ahead and leave your email address in the comments or email or text it to me if you prefer.

The Grinch Who Never Posted Christmas Pictures

2012-02-09T20:52:00.000-05:00

... and I promise it isn't because my heart is 3 sizes too small. Just my brain.

Literally, the second James got out of his last final we drove to my parents' house to celebrate Christmas with them before our trip to Utah. We decorated the Christmas tree, made some darn tasty food, went to a Christmas party, and my nice siblings sat through an honorary Christmas morning for James, Chase, and me. Bad news: my camera had given up the ghost at this point so all I have are some dark and blurry images. Good news: I got a new camera for Christmas (thanks Mom and Dad!) so from that point onward, I had no excuse, with the notable exception of the brain issue that has already been referenced. So here you go, I managed to snap a picture of the Erb family Christmas tree:

Seriously- I'm taking pictures of everything next Christmas.

Now, I need to give Chase a shoutout for being the BEST airplane traveler for our trip to Utah. Really, the shoutout should go to the personal DVD player and endless stream of snacks... but he didn't make a peep the entire time. I even got to read!

We spent the first few days trying to get Christmas shopping done and trying to convince Chase that people do, in fact, sleep in Utah. He was a bit confused about that. On Christmas Eve, after a friendly game of Pass the Pigs, we exchanged our Secret Elf gifts with each other.

The Christmas morning sacrament meeting was beautiful and we spent the afternoon digging into the giant mound of presents under the Christmas tree. (When I say we, I do not include Chase. It took him 48 hours to open all of his presents... he really isn't into ripping paper or chaos. Kind of love that about him though.) Chase discovered the movie UP while we were there, and he screamed "BALLOONS!" every hour on the hour so that someone would put it on for him. So when he got this cane full of candy, this was naturally his first reaction:

Christian and Stacie's first married Christmas!

All of the girls got new scarves for Christmas:

And all of the boys got targets for gun practice. Pretty standard stuff.

There was a lot of gaming happening.

Chase's favorite gift that he got was definitely his new coloring book.

Chase's favorite gift that someone else got was definitely Grandpa's head massager. He took it upon himself to give out free head massages for the day and just about everyone lost an eye.

Stacie and I made a pretty sweet gingerbread house. Literally. We took pictures then it was gone.

We took a trip on New Year's Eve to see the UP house for Chase, since it was the last day it would be open to the public. It's a pretty amazing replica. The first thing Chase did was try to use the hose to attach the house to his back. He was a little mad there weren't any balloons. Picky, picky...

How cute is this?

There was a boy bedroom and girl bedroom inside- the girl bedroom was decked out Disney princess style, and here was the boy room. There was a massive tantrum because the doorway was blocked off.

They even had the mailbox.

Christian and Stacie hosted the first Purcell Family Winter Games (it was the real deal, we even had a torch ceremony) and we competed with Minute To Win It games.

Probably the most entertaining to watch was the "Junk In The Trunk" game where two people dance like crazy to get ping pong balls out of a tissue box on their behind.

Dad Purcell took us all back to the 70's. What a treat!

In the end, James won the gold and his parents took the silver and bronze.

We had a great time visiting family and friends! When we got back, we spent a few more days with my family, then geared up for the new (and LAST!) semester of law school. With a popcorn party.

Nobody complained.

When we finally got a little bit of snow, Chase spent an hour staring out of the window in amazement. Too bad that was pretty much the only snowstorm so far this winter.

Ready for the speed update?

In January, Chase gave up the binky. We explained to him that binkies are for babies and that he is a big boy now- then we had him cut 2 binkies. He asked for his binky for his naps and at bedtime for about 3 days- each time we reminded him that he was a big boy and that he had cut them and handed them to him. He would stick it in his mouth, make a face, and go throw it in the trash. And that was that. I need to do a post dedicated to all of the new things he is learning and doing- he is an amazing kid.

James is busier than ever with classes, being an editor on his journal, and preparing for the bar exam and life beyond. That will be getting its own post soon enough. He still comes home every night and spends hours wrestling with Chase. And he does the dishes every night, no questions. I am SO grateful for him.

I'm still working at the gym for now and also at the Church. In my precious free time, I've been reading and trying lots of new recipes. Insomnia has set in and its pretty bad, so I find that I am a walking zombie more often than not and I'm pretty proud to just be alive and conscious at the end of most days. I have great family and friends and neighbors who give me lots of help and encouragement- so thank you for that!

And thanks for caring about Christmas 2 months late.

Thinking Pink...

2012-01-26T19:42:00.000-05:00

Monday was the much-anticipated ultrasound to see the twins- I hadn't had one for 13 weeks so I was dying to see them and make sure everything was okay in there. James and my mom were both able to be there with me which really helped to calm my anxiety.
It took about an hour and a half to tour everything- I'm constantly amazed by how much can be determined and seen through sound waves and what most of the time looked to me like smeary blurs on the screen. Brains, eye sockets, lips, heartbeat, heart chambers, stomach, bladder, kidneys, arms, legs, spines, toes, fingers, umbilical cords, placentas fluid levels... not to mention measuring femur bones, head circumference, and belly circumference to check growth rates. I was grateful for an awesome ultrasound tech who explained exactly what she was doing and what she was looking for and gave lots of reassurances that everything looked perfect- she even took the time to reassure James that babies are, in fact, supposed to look like aliens on the ultrasound at this point.

Baby A was happy to display the fact that she is a girl and made it easy on us. I was breathing a lot easier after that, since I admittedly was terrified of having two boys. I can't imagine Chase in multiples! Baby B, clearly the more feisty of the 2 (B had completely commandeered half of the living space and was all stretched out while poor A was all squished up) and the one that I feel moving constantly all day was completely noncooperative in the gender department. It took some serious prodding and pushing to get her to display her lady parts. 2 girls! I was actually shocked... for some strange reason I never even considered this scenario? But James had confessed the night before that he was hoping for 2 girls so he was ecstatic!

It was so amazing to see them in there together and to think about all that has happened since they were little beans on the screen 13 weeks ago. Such a miracle. They are both currently breech and are laying diagonally with all 4 little feet right on my bladder (explains a lot...) and facing each other. For the last 10 minutes, we just watched on the screen as they wiggled around and kicked and boxed each other- the sacs that separate them were seriously doing the wave. Not quite the docile children I had in mind. Guess that just isn't in the cards.

Those sure are cute profiles for little aliens, don't you think? :)

If you will indulge me for just a moment, I'd like to take a trip down memory lane... when I was 17 weeks pregnant with Chase and convinced that I was getting huge already.

Yep, that stomach is busting right out of my shirt.

Let's compare that to 17 weeks this time around:

... And I swear this picture does not even do that bump justice. It's very comparable to pictures from about 26 weeks pregnant with Chase.

I'm going to be holy huge, batman.

At 19 weeks, I've reached the halfway point. With the exception of nausea and dizziness first thing in the morning, severe back pain if I try to exercise, and major heartburn anytime I'm not perfectly vertical, I've been feeling really energized. I'm trying to take advantage of the second trimester this time, knowing full well that discomfort, waddling, swelling, and insomnia are looming ahead. I love to feel the girls wiggling around day and night, and the occasional bout of hiccups- it reminds me that babies are a miracle and that it's all worth it.

Q & A

2011-12-12T20:41:00.001-05:00

I've been getting tons of questions about these two little munchkins I'm growing, so to save myself some time, here are some of the questions I get a lot and my answers... in case you are curious. And so that I can be lazy and refer people here in the future.

How did you find out you are having twins?

Every other month, I have a pretty wacky cycle (now you know me really well, right?) I happened to get pregnant on the wacky cycle, so the Doc sent me to get an early ultrasound to pinpoint my due date. I didn't bother dragging James along, since I knew the baby would just look like a little bean... and he would be a little bored. The ultrasound tech started the exam on my belly, and I immediately saw the little bean with a little flickering heartbeat. She told me I probably wasn't as far along as I thought I was (I thought I was 7 and a half weeks) and she just kept staring at the screen... for an awkwardly long time. Then she told me she was going to switch to a vaginal ultrasound so that she could see something better. At this point I started to freak out a little bit. What something do you need to see better, lady? As soon as she started the second exam she laughed and said, "yep, I thought so!" Then she turned the screen for me to see that the something she needed to get a better look at was baby #2. I screamed. Then I laughed. Then I burst into tears. That must be a pretty normal reaction; it didn't phase the tech a bit. I was 6 and a half weeks along. She printed a picture for me and as soon as I got home I handed it to James. He stared at it for an eternity with a confused look on his face. "It looks weird... is it supposed to look like that?" "Yes James, it's supposed to look like that when it's 2 BABIES!" After freaking out about having to buy a new car, James decided he was pretty excited too.

So when are you due?

40 weeks puts the due date at June 18th, but the Doc won't let twins go longer than 38 weeks, so June 4th is the latest they will make their grand appearance.

Were you surprised?

Yes... and at the same time no. The night before my ultrasound I dreamed about twins and even sitting in the waiting room, my mind kept replaying the dream (truthfully I was thinking about how at least twins would be ruled out now). Looking back, there were some signs. I got a really early positive pregnancy test (though I didn't know it was early at the time) and had pretty intense symptoms compared to what I experienced with Chase. Also, it turns out, there's an affinity of twins on my Mom's side of the family and some on my Dad's as well so the genes were there. Still, the surprise of seeing 2 babies on that screen comes back to me almost every morning when I wake up.

What kind of twins are they?

Wow I've learned a lot about twinning over the last few weeks. Identical twins come from one egg that splits into 2 sometime after it has been fertilized and they share the same genetic code; fraternal twins come from 2 separate fertilized eggs and are no more alike than any set of siblings. Identical twins are easy to idenitfy in utero if the twins either share both the sac and the placenta or have separate sacs but still share a placenta. If the twins have separate sacs and separate placentas (diamniotic-dichorionic) they can be either identical or fraternal. Our twins fall into this category. However, it was clear from my ultrasound that I released 2 eggs and the placement of the twins make the doctors 99% sure that the twins are fraternal. (Also, fraternal twinning can be genetic, likely my case, and identical is sort of just a random happening). If it is a boy and a girl, they are definitely fraternal, but if it is 2 boys or 2 girls we will just have to wait and see!

How are you feeling?

Emotionally- I feel fantastic. I get a little overwhelmed at the thought of 2 newborns at the same time on top of a rambunctious toddler while James is completely busy taking the bar exam, but I have wonderful support from friends and family. Last week, James and I got to hear the babies' heartbeats and that miraculous experience reminded me to be grateful for the enormous blessing we have been given. I do cry every time I see a Folger's coffee commercial and I weep at the movie Tangled. Literally. I weep.

Physically- I'm feeling a little better. I got slammed with all day morning sickness around 6 weeks and was too exhausted to do much of anything (I'm sorry to say that Chase was raised by Disney for a few weeks). They finally put me on Zofran, which has literally saved my life! My energy is coming back and so is my appetite. I still feel sick when I wake up, but after the rough lesson of throwing up in the shower numerous times, I've learned to eat something virtually as soon as my eyes open. Lately, I've been waking up at 3 or 4 am starving and I have to eat before I can sleep again. I definitely started showing a baby bump at 9 weeks, which was a little shocking. At 13 weeks I look the same as I did with Chase at 24 weeks. I will likely reach beached whale status by the time spring arrives.

Any cravings?

Why, yes. Strangely enough, the thing I crave the most is raw tomatoes. I probably eat 3 a day. It makes James gag. I also want clementines, sour candy, and BLT sandwiches a lot. Mmmmm....

Right. Where were we? Most things seem to look ok to me- the only things that send me running from a room are the smell of Cheerios (I don't get this one) and the smell of cooking pasta. Bleh. Otherwise if it is food I'm usually into it. I now have the arduous task of gaining 24 pounds by 24 weeks ahead of me. Holiday eating is guilt-free for me this year, baby!

That's all I've got.

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...And Her Nose Stuck In A Book

2011-12-08T17:38:00.000-05:00

I know I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog- we've had birthdays, Halloween, visits from family, Thanksgiving, the annual bribing of Chase to sit on Santa's lap... so I promise to do that. Soon. Whatever that means from me.

For now, I want to mention the column I've been keeping on the right side of this blog of all of the books I read during 2011. I wish I had been doing this for the past 3 years- I love looking back on the year and seeing where my reading addiction has taken me. So I thought, hey, I will provide a VERY short review of each of the books in case any of you were looking for something new to dive in to.

Snowflower and the Secret Fan- Lisa See
This book ties for my favorite work of fiction that I read this year- it is a fascinating look into the Chinese culture- particularly that of the women. With their feet bound and their futures decided by others, these women have very little say in their own lives- but their relationships with each other and expression of feelings are beautiful and this book made me completely rethink my approach to communcating with women. HIGHLY recommend this one!

The Lost Symbol- Dan Brown
If you like DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons, you will like this book and if you don't, then don't bother. This guy has such a knack for finding the most interesting theories and practically making you believe them- this one deals with the freemasons and the founders and the "real" national treasure. In the end, this one was a little far-fetched for me, but then again, so were the other two. Great read if you want a little suspense, a little intellect, and a lot of action.

The 5 Love Languages- Gary Chapman
This book opened my eyes to understanding how others (James especially) interpret and feel love and made me want to make sure to show James love in the way that is most meaningful to him- so I made him read it too so that it would be reciprocated! There's definitely value in figuring out your own and your significant other's love language. Mine is gifts, in case anyone wanted to show me some love :)

The Book Thief- Markus Zusak
Want to bawl your eyes out? Go check this one out of the library. This is a really great story from the eyes of a little girl in Nazi Germany- she's a German and her family is hiding a Jewish man in their house. It's beautifully written and, I think, a unique perspective.

Cleopatra, A Life- Stacy Shiff
I loved this biography and I'm not typically a biography girl. This woman did an insane amount of original research and worked really hard to dispell the rumors and myths that have become accepted truths about Cleopatra, who was a really smart and careful woman. I think this one is in the works for a movie, so hopefully it will be done with as much attention to detail and historical fact. (Though it has come to my attention that Angelina Jolie is playing Cleopatra, so my expectations aren't that high.)

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency- Alexander McCall Smith
I try to keep myself to 2 rereads per year (which is actually just one- you will see why in a minute) and this was one of my rereads. I hosted it for our book club and it is a smart and whimsical story about a woman detective in Africa and the cases she solves. It is a fun, relatively fast read but you can also find plenty to think about in the controversy of her character and the culture of Africa. They turned it into a miniseries on HBO that was actually really well done- check that out too if you like the book.

The Mother In Me- Kathryn Lynn Soper
My sweet mother-in-law gave me this book for Mother's Day a year or so ago and I pulled it out during Chase's rough tantrum phase. It's a collection of stories from mothers and is a nice reminder that you aren't the only one dealing with the daily challenges and that there are blessings and beauty hidden in even the worst of those days.

Three Cups of Tea- Greg Mortenson
To me, this book is a definite must-read. This book sparked a really strong interest for me in the customs traditional to Afghanistan and Pakistan and Islam in general. This book reminds you of how truly blessed we are in the United States to have the school systems we do, crippled as they may be. In spite of the controversy surrounding this guy and his less than awesome accounting practices, I feel like I gained a lot of insight into the source of a lot of the problems in the Middle East and the lack of education and therefore opportunity. It drags a little in the middle, but I promise it picks up again.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog- Muriel Barbery
This book is a real toughie- you have to be willing to devote 99% of your brainpower to it. It's an at times dark story about a suicidal young girl who believes that adults are all only in pursuit of vanity and the woman concierge of the Parisian apartments where she lives who hides her very high-level intelligence to fit a stereotype. There is a lot of philosophy, and artwork, and music, and literature and class struggle woven into this story about how they try to rescue each other. If you don't mind the struggle I think it's worth it- but seriously, be prepared to look a lot of stuff up.

Gospel Scholar Series- the Collected Works of M. Catherine Thomas
This is by far the absolute best collection of essays on sometimes difficult to grasp gospel concepts that I have ever read. I am this woman's biggest fan. She writes beautifully and accessibly and backs everything she says up with scripture and prophetic word. I learned VOLUMES from this little book and recommend it to everyone I know. It's fabulous!

Anna Karenina- Leo Tolstoy
[Reminder to self that I promised to keep this one short] I reread this book every single year. This was my 7th time through (YES I am aware that you think I'm a nerd and that this proves it) but I learn something new from this book every time I read it. This book has the most realistic and relatable characters, the most beautifully tragic story, and the best lessons to possibly be pulled from a work of fiction. This book teaches you how to have happiness in family life, how to forgive family members who have offended you and to continue on with your life, and how to find beauty and faith in God in the world around you. The movie is coming out in 2012 so hurry up and read it first! I beg you! (Come on book club- pleeeeaaaaase?)

Matched- Ally Condie
Hunger Games meets Twilight meets The Giver. This book has some really interesting ideas about futuristic utopian society and has the potential to turn into something pretty good (it's the first in a trilogy) but I am a little bummed by yet another bumbling, unintentional teenage girl who accidentally starts a major revolution and can never pick which guy she likes better. Still, this is another quick, easy, and entertaining read if you are in the market.

1776- David McCullough
Yet another must-read. This book will be considered a classic someday, if it isn't already. I'm a little bit of a sucker for Revolutionary America though. This book chronicles the events that lead up to the Revolution, mostly the events around Washington, but you get some perspective from Britain and other key players. It's more military focused than political, but makes history fun! We all need that, right?

A Thousand Splendid Suns- Khaled Hosseini
This is the other tie for my favorite work of fiction read this year. Remember my sparked interest in the culture of Islam? I wanted to read the Kite Runner (by the same author) but came across this one first and absolutely love this story. It's another book to be emotionally prepared for- women in Afghanstan have incredibly difficult lives and it can be tough to read, I had to put it down a couple of times. The women in this book are beautiful examples and struggle against the society that tells them they have no value. I should be specific here and mention that this is not the view of Islam, but part of the Afghan law. Absolutely recommend this one- put it on your list.

That just about does it. Great year for books. I am now reading The Kite Runner, but I haven't finished it yet so I don't want to jump the gun with a premature review.

Oh wait... here's one more book I just finished:

This one is particularly useful as our family is being blessed with a set of twins, due at the beginning of June!

(As a result, I probably won't have as many books on my annual review next year. Feel free to pretend you are disappointed.)

Between None and Nine

2011-10-22T15:22:00.000-04:00

Today my sweet little man is 2 years old. I hate to sound like a broken record, but seriously, where has the time gone?!?

Looking back over the last 2 years, and the last year especially, I am simply amazed by how much he has learned and by the enormous personality he has developed. We are so grateful to have him in our family- he lights up our lives every day. Being his mother has been challenging beyond what I ever imagined and rewarding beyond what I had ever hoped.

October 22, 2009- October 22, 2011

Some things to remember about Chase at 2:

Every morning when he wakes up, I hear some rustling on the monitor and then a little voice starts yelling, "A JUICE! A JUICE!" Once his thirst is properly quenched, the next question inevitably is, "Where Dad?" Once he searches the whole apartment to make certain I am telling the truth that Dad is in fact at school, he asks for bananas and pancakes for breakfast. Every day.
He absolutely loves to go for walks, especially now with all the leaves on the ground. He is extremely observant and stops to examine every leaf, stick, and sidewalk crack we see, smell every flower, and then say, "Bye guys!" to it all. It takes us roughly an hour to do our 2 block circuit.
He could play with a ball all day. He loves to throw it to you and yell, "Catch, catch!" And he spends lots of time shooting baskets, clapping for himself every time he makes it (this kid has incredible self-confidence) and yelling, "I MISSED!" when he doesn't.
He loves to sing any song with hand motions and will come up to me and wiggle his fingers in my face until we sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider, or pound his little fists together until we sing the Wise Man song.
He has 12 teeth, which is pretty good considering they all have come through in the last 8 months. He loves to brush them, not very efficiently, but it's a start.
He says so many words now- his vocabulary literally exploded about 3 weeks ago. Some of his favorite new things to say are pumpkin, Nemo (any fish he sees), meow (any cat he sees), I don't know, all better, snack, mmmm good, please (and it actually sounds like please now), it's stuck (this never leads to anything good), and his very favorite- I GO!
If you ask him how old he is, he will proudly yell "TWO" and stick 2 fingers in your face. If you ask him to count, he will say "None, two, NINE!" (hence the title) ...A little room for improvement there...
His eating habits are slightly improved- he still loves fruits and vegetables more than anything else, but he has been eating chicken and eggs. His current favorites are oranges, bananas, apples, green beans, carrots, yogurt, quesadillas, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and buttered pasta. Pretty standard 2 year old stuff.
He is still the skinniest little guy... he never stops moving from the moment he wakes up. To make up for his slow growth on the weight chart, his hair growth is literally off the charts. We've finally decided to let him rock the long hair for a while.
He is slowly starting to become cuddly and has big hugs and kisses for anyone who will play with him, especially for his grandparents and aunts and uncles.
He inherited his Dad's OCD about cleanliness, which we are going to go ahead and label as awesome. If I tell him we are going to leave the house, he immediately starts singing the cleanup song and puts his toys away.
He eats and colors with his left hand, but throws balls and plays dominantly with his right so the verdict is still out on that.

Tantrum frequency is down to about one a day, which is a huge improvement from 12. It happens every morning when I try to dress him. I guess he just loves pajamas.

Happy Second Birthday, Chase!

Summer Part Two

2011-09-04T15:54:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the picture dump of the second half of our summer! We were pretty busy working, but we tried to make some time for fun.

We took Chase to the zoo on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year. Not smart. All of the animals were pretty much passed out cold, which explains Chase's excitement over this statue of a leopard.

This next picture is my personal favorite, because it doesn't really look like there is glass between Chase and the real leopard. There was, but it wouldn't have mattered- the statue was more lively than the real one.

The elephants were the first animals we found that were doing something besides playing dead...

Chase and Dad eating lunch...

Chase and Mom eating lunch...

Then we thought, hey, let's take a picture of the 3 of us together! I let James take the picture and check it. He told me it was great. I trusted him.

Classy.

The aquarium was much cooler and the animals were almost all moving. Chase kept trying to dive into the ray pool. Apparently he doesn't know how the Crocodile Hunter met his tragic end.

The heat was almost unbearable this summer, but thanks to some of our friends we found this great splash park in Troy Hill that's free. It saved us from sweating to death more than once.

Before James headed back to school, we decided to take a trip up to Presque Isle State Park on Lake Erie to get some beach time in. We were pleasantly surprised at how nice the beach and the water were.

We spent 6 straight hours digging in the sand, playing in the water, chasing seagulls, and soaking up the sun and even then we had to drag Chase off of the beach- he would have stayed for another 4 days.

Before we left, we rented 2 bikes and did the 7 mile loop around the whole park- it was beautiful weather and really amazing to see so much of the lake- in most places you couldn't see any land on the other side.

Chase was a little annoyed that I delayed our bike ride to take pictures...

Oh, excuse me. That I delayed his nap.

We will definitely be heading back there again.

Otherwise, we just spent time relaxing and enjoying time with each other and with my family.

And lots of quality time with Dad.

The thing I don't have pictures of is my time on the set of Batman, Dark Knight Rises, which was filmed in Pittsburgh for about 6 weeks this summer. (James had to walk through fake snow multiple times on his way to the courthouse downtown and I may or may not have snooped around the sweeeeet trailers parked in Oakland). I got called as an extra and had to show up at the football field at 4:30 am, on an insanely muggy Saturday in August, in winter attire. After signing in, I was sent through wardrobe, hair, and makeup with the rest of the paid extras (which was not nearly as glamorous as it sounds/I thought it would be). We then were given props of food and foam fingers and were filed into the stadium where we spent the next 12 hours. We filmed the same 3 scenes about 20 times each and moved all over the stadium to give the impression that it was full. Best parts? We got to watch some insane pyrotechnics, I stood about 10 feet from a bunch of the Steelers players who were portraying football players on the Gotham City Rogues, got to see Tom Hardy who is playing Bane, and got to meet Christopher Nolan (the director- he directed the other 2 Batman movies and Inception as well) who ate lunch with all of us. And getting paid for it. Worst parts? Wearing a hoodie, jeans, gloves, and winter boots in 90 degree heat, a 16 hour day, NOT seeing Christian Bale, and having no clue where to look for myself in the movie when it comes out because we moved so many times. Still, it was so interesting to see all of the effects used to make a movie on that scale and I can't wait to it on the big screen.

So James is back in school, I'm back to some semblance of a schedule, and Chase is back to everything he isn't supposed to be doing. Happy Fall!

Intermission

2011-08-09T12:04:00.000-04:00

While we were in Utah, my sister-in-law, Stephanie Cami, who is an aspiring photographer, generously agreed to take some pictures of Chase for me. She did an amazing job- taking pictures of this kid (and any almost 2 year old for that matter) is next to impossible, considering he didn't stand still for longer than a few seconds at a time... and she still managed to capture quite a few priceless moments. These were all taken at Gardner Village- there were so many cute ones, so I had to just pick a few to share.

Chase spent 90% of his time trying to open all of the doors...

...unsuccessfully.

He also started to boogie down when the music came on the loudspeaker. Here is his dance sequence:

Not bad, huh?

This next one made me laugh so hard... this is his "I just did something bad but there's no way I'm taking the blame" face.

We tried to take some pictures of Chase and I, but he wasn't really into the whole posing for the camera with Mom thing. At least he was giving out hugs and kisses.

I saved my favorite for the end:

What a face!

Pretty good, huh? Thank you Steph!

Summer, Part One

2011-07-26T23:24:00.000-04:00

The blog is back from its 3 month hiatus! Let's just call it a summer vacation.

Since James didn't start his internship until July 5th, we decided to spend the first 5 weeks of summer in Utah with his family. James' youngest sister, Stacie, got married on July 1st and we felt so blessed to be able to be there to help prepare for the wedding and spend time with friends and family.

Pictures of the wedding will be forthcoming... but here are some pictures from the rest of our trip. A lot of these pictures are borrowed, since I can't ever remember to bring my camera anywhere and when I do I forget to use it. Yay for people who love photography more than I do :)

James' parents have a chicken coop in their backyard and had just bought 4 brand new chicks before we got there. Chase would go look at them in their incubator every day. He kissed them goodbye when we moved them to the coop. We thought it was cute, but it ended up being fortuitous since 3 of the chicks met an untimely death within a week.

Poor little chickens.
Chase beat the heat by filling up his little pool (literally- this kid loves manual labor) in the backyard. We have learned that Chase is happiest when he is outside. He loved having access to a yard and spent hours outside every day. We felt so sorry to bring him back to our apartment in the city...

Mowing the lawn with James (I feel like I have to insert a disclaimer here that he was very carefully supervised for the 30 seconds that he would actually be still enough to sit on the mower).

Last summer, James' Dad, brother Michael, sister Stacie, and James & I hiked up Y Mountain and had the brilliant idea to put messages to ourselves in a water bottle. We buried our time capsule under some bushes and created an intricate map with some rocks. One year later, we wanted to find out if it was still there so we (Stacie's husband Christian too!) hiked back up the mountain.

Sweet success! We wrote new messages and buried it even better. Go ahead, try to find it. I dare you.

Our sister in law Steph Cami, James' Aunt Janet, and I threw a bridal shower for Stacie with all of the family and soon-to-be family. It was a pretty sweet party, if I do say so myself. Here are the Purcell sisters:

Stephanie, Stacie, Stephanie, Stephanie
(a Stephanie sandwich... with a side of Stephanie?!?)
The whole group:

We also attended the Purcell family reunion- it was so nice to see family members we hadn't seen in a long time!

We felt so blessed to be able to be with Stacie as she went through the temple for the first time.

We decided to do a little Independence Day celebration the day before we left and set off some fireworks (I think everyone was grateful I didn't make them watch "A More Perfect Union" again this year...)

Chase and James lighting the fireworks

Chase trying desperately to get a firework to explode again

Chase was loving the fireworks until we pulled out some bigger, louder ones. Ones that almost set my leg on fire. Sorry, no pictures of that.

The audience! (James' mom, Stephanie, me & Chase, Steph Cami, Matt, and James)

Chase, as usual, was spoiled rotten with attention. He loved spending time with his Aunts and Uncles.

Hanging with Uncle Matt

Reading with Aunt Stacie

Digging in with Aunt Stephanie

James' wonderful family watched Chase while we took a trip to Bear Lake, one of our favorite places to visit. Unfortunately, lots of spring rain meant almost all of the beaches were under water. We finally found some dry sand, but you had to hike through some grassy swamp to get to the water. Totally worth it. We got a full serving of relaxation with a side of sunburn.

Hmm. At the time this picture seemed to make sense. Let's blame it on the sunburn, ok?

James, looking manly with my purse...

We ate really well while we were there. And by well I certainly don't mean healthily. We snacked on giant chocolate-covered raspberries all day, then ate cheesy tots and raspberry shakes for dinner. Why yes, those are containers full of fry sauce for dipping the cheesy tots in, lined up so nicely.

It's a darn good thing I work at a gym.

Love it.

We had a blast in Utah, and were sad to say goodbye to everyone. As soon as we got back, James began working as a clerk for the 3rd Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, which is an awesome opportunity for him! I began working a second job as the Pittsburgh Seminaries & Institutes Support Specialist at our church. It has been challenging to juggle so many things, but I love my new job- its perfect for me right now. We are enjoying spending some time in Pittsburgh this summer... and are trying to figure out a way to sneak onto the set of Batman. If you have ideas, please feel free to share :)

Stay tuned, Summer Part 2 is on its way.

The Chase Is On

2011-05-20T16:47:00.001-04:00

Our Chase man is 18 months old!

It is hard to believe that our little baby is a full-blown toddler... and that isn't even a very accurate statement since he hasn't been toddling at all. When we told our families that if we had a boy we would name him Chase, they warned us that would probably end up being what we would spend our time doing. Why are parents always right?

Is it kosher to count following him around all day as my cardio exercise?

He is curious, energetic, expressive, independent, and opinionated.

It is amazing for me to look back at his baby journal and see how much he has learned since his first birthday! Here are some fun facts to remember about 18 month old Chase:

He is a little over 32 inches tall (50th percentile) weighs in at a whopping 21.5 pounds (5th percentile) and his head is 47 cm around (50th percentile). Still our skinny little man!
Now has 10 teeth, which is pretty amazing, considering that is over a 3 month period (starting to understand some of those tantrums?)
Would eat only fruits and vegetables and dairy all day every day if he could (and now you understand his skinnyness). We have to push the carbs and the proteins on him. His favorite foods are bananas, apples, watermelon, blueberries, carrots, green beans, craisins (or baby crack, as we more commonly refer to it), yogurt, and spaghetti.
He sleeps about 11 hours every night and takes a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon- he's a fantastic sleeper! (Thanks for those genes, James)
His favorite things are playing basketball, going down slides, taking baths, blowing bubbles, wrestling with Dad, reading all of his books at least twice a day, vacuuming and sweeping, and watching Toy Story (if I haven't put Toy Story on for him by early afternoon, I can expect to be beat upon with the DVD case).
He can tell you what sounds dogs, cats, cows, lions, birds, and owls make. He absolutely adores dogs and starts to pant and bark when he sees a dog which is pretty hilarious.
The number of words he understands is way too high to document. We still spell out a lot of things in our house to avoid tantrums.
His own vocabulary is growing too- he recently added bubble, fish, moon, car, amen (if you are anywhere near us in church, you've heard him yell A-MEN with appreciable enthusiasm- it's the reverent part we have to work on still), poo-poo (hey whatever, this one is very useful for me) and credible attempts at juice, binky, balloon, Buzz, puppy, and I love you.
He can point out his eyes, nose, ears, teeth, tongue, hair, belly, knees, elbows, fingers and toes.
Whenever he hears music, he still drops whatever he is doing and starts boogeying down. Again, very entertaining to be near us in church and see Chase doing a slow grind to the hymns.
His independence is astounding- for example he insists on feeding himself (and has respectable skills with a fork and spoon), going down and up all stairs on his own, and getting in and out of the car.
Has been weaned from the binky except for when he is sleeping.
He can throw, kick, and bounce a ball. He sets up bowling pins, then takes a bowling ball and swings it around until all of the pins have gone flying and he has put at least one dent in a piece of furniture. He gives high fives, "pounds it," gives great hugs and VERY open-mouth kisses.
He has the most experessive face and makes us laugh every day with some pretty intense reactions when he is surprised or excited.
He still throws some pretty violent tantrums and shows no sign of letting up on those anytime soon. But thanks to the giant pile of parenting books in my room, this no longer keeps me up at night.

He has loved spending more time with Uncle Kevin who is home for the summer!

He loves to color! Unfortunately that has meant a blue mural on our bathroom cupboard and a green crayon permanently jammed into our VCR.

Physical evidence of his love of blueberries.

There was a children's festival in Schenley Park last week, and we happened upon a petting zoo.

Chase's version of heaven.

He loved the baby goats, but when he stumbled upon this pygmy pony, "love" just doesn't cut it.

There is something hilarious about watching a baby feed a baby...

We were fairly impressed that Chase was so good at being gentle with the animals.

Oh so cute!

Almost makes me want to live on a farm!

Nah.

But we are looking forward to more fun times outdoors this summer, chasing Chase.

It's The Final Meltdown

2011-04-02T22:51:00.000-04:00

...we'll get to that all in good time. First you must scroll through the month in review. The first week of March found James on spring break, which still takes us by surprise (thanks, BYU) so we decided to take a day trip to DC to attend the temple and do some quick sightseeing.

In spite of the weather we had a beautiful morning and decided to take the metro into the city and check out the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

The Hope Diamond. I want one.

So then we walked over to the Washington Monument. Those of you who frequent DC will find this part boring... but for those of you in the west, from the Washington Monument you can see:

The Capitol.

The World War II Memorial, what would be the reflection pond at a more scenic time of year, and the Lincoln Memorial.

The White House.

The Smithsonians.

We had a great time and wished we had even more time to explore. Over the next 2 weeks, we got lucky and had a few warm days so we finally got to take Chase to the park.

He did a lot of running...

Probably ran a 5k.

Went down every slide at least 10 times.

And went up every slide at least 10 times.

Pretty much since birth, Chase has despised swinging (I envy all those parents who can use swings interchangeably with sedatives). We were hesitant about the park swings but when he saw all the big kids doing it he was eager to get in and we finally had sweet swing success.

I made 50 red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for a birthday party. This picture does not even come close to doing justice to how good they looked, not to mention how delicious they were. Thank you, Paula Deen. And butter.

Last weekend, my sister came to Pittsburgh and we hit up a fashion show in the Ross Park Mall and were totally excited to get to see and hear fashion guru, Tim Gunn!

Now, on to the reason for the title. From about the time Chase turned one, he began to throw tantrums. But they were nothing compared to what we experience now.

Oh, please- don't even bother looking surprised, Chase.

Answer: Grocery stores, malls, restaurants, parking lots.

Question: Where has Chase had very public, horrifically embarrassing meltdowns?

At his last Dr. appointment, I described one of his typical tantrums. The Dr. raised his eyebrows and remarked on how early he is throwing high level tantrums. Great... just the thing I was hoping my baby would be advanced in.

Let me give you an example. James and I took Chase to the mall on a rainy Friday evening. He was in his stroller when he spotted the play area and began doing Matrix-like maneuvers to get out of the stroller. We gave in and let him out to play. A half hour later, we were ready to move on. I told him we were going bye bye. He shook his head no. I tried to take him by the hand and lead him out. He yelled and hit my arm. So James picked him up. He began to scream and cry and slap. Fearing he looked like a child predator, James put him back down. We tried to bribe him with a package of fruit snacks, which he threw across the floor. He then started to roll around on the ground and kick his legs, while his screams climbed up an octave. At this point, we had amassed a sizeable audience. Since we had lost the opportunity to pretend we didn't know who this out of control child was, our only option was to scoop the now hysterical child off the floor and continue our walk of shame all the way out to the car.

I used to ignorantly believe that parents whose children acted out in public just didn't know how to be in control of their kids. I certainly can't claim any kind of parenting expertise, but I can tell you that I have talked to a LOT of parents of short-tempered kids like mine and some of them are the best parents I know. Chase is curious, observant, independent, impatient, and overflowing with energy. He's the most talented opportunist I've ever seen. He has enough personality for 3 kids. At this phase in life, that spells frequent and violent meltdowns. But with the right nurturing and a couple of years under his belt, that spells incredible potential for success. We love the wonderfully unique personality he has and can't wait to watch how it develops.

Here's to hoping a one year old tantrum thrower equals a two year old angel.

Jackpot

2011-02-23T23:40:00.000-05:00

We've been walking with a little more swank in our step the past few weeks in the Purcell house. And why not? We've had a little bit of luck and a lot of fun. And a few days of unseasonably warm weather to brighten up the month of February.

This lucky little man added a few new toys to his already ubelievably huge collection. But these toys in particular have made him a happy camper.

A toy vaccuum cleaner... that actually works?!? It lights up and blows fake balls around, but it also sucks up dirt! It's brilliant. Put those kids to work!

Every little boy probably needs a red wagon. This one is supposed to hold toys, not little boys, but Chase didn't read the rules. When James and I went out one night, my sister wore treadmarks in the floor pulling him around because it makes him so darn happy. (Not an enabler, huh Lindsay?)

The Big News. After 11 months of teething- no joke, ask his Doctor- Chase finally broke his first tooth at 15 months old. The second followed within a week. One on top and one on the bottom, both on the left side. It's a little goofy. When I ask Chase to show me his teeth, this is what he does... I realize you can't actually see the teeth. But they are there. Sing praises, they are THERE!

James and I bought Chase a basketball hoop for Christmas, but he was so enraptured by his piano and the sleighful of presents he received that we kind of forgot about it. So Happy Valentine's Day Chase! He's a natural and dunks with authority. A little short for the NBA still, but it's never too early to practice.

My Mom babysat Chase while James and I went out for a really nice dinner and to the movies the weekend before Valentine's Day. Before we had Chase, James and I used to go to the movies once a week and we really miss that, so we had a really great time. And James surprised me with a pedicure, so I was feeling pretty spoiled. I had to work on Valentine's Day and since we had already celebrated, I came home fully expecting to rummage the fridge for leftovers. But James had a beautiful dinner laid out (carryout, but good stuff!) and a bouquet of Burt's Bees chapsticks. SO much better than flowers. For the next couple of days I kept thinking how spoiled I was when he called me from school on Wednesday night to tell me we were going on a surprise trip the next morning to an indoor waterpark a few hours away in Erie. Graduation to spoiled rotten, right?

Sorry to those of you who are readers of the Johnson's blog (thanks for the awesome idea, Amanda!) because you may be bored with the same old details again. But this place was a seriously good time.

There are about 8 waterslides, a couple of whirlpools, a couple of swimming pools, a lazy river, and a ton of places for kids to play.

We took turns playing with Chase in the kid's pool and riding slides. On one of the slides, you pick up a ton of speed and shoot out into a "toilet bowl" where you go round and round until you fall out of a hole in the bottom. Best slide ever. Being flushed wouldn't be a bad way to go after all. (It's eased my conscience, thinking of the 50 stink bugs I've given this pleasurable sendoff to...)

Chase had a BALL. There is so much to do and he is such a water baby.

These fountains pop out of the ground in various places and Chase made sure to get a drink from every single one. Yummy.

His favorite thing to do was go down the slides with Dad... they must have done that slide 30 times.

We spent the night in a hotel that was connected to the park, and did it all again the next day. They were running a special where you could turn your locker deposit into money in the arcade and it would be doubled, so right before we left we wandered in.

A little background information is required here. James and I are the unluckiest people alive when it comes to winning prizes, unless we verbally state to each other that the prize to be won is of absolutely no interest to us. Trip to Hawaii? No way. New car? Better luck next time. Free spa treatment? Not even close. But if its a painfully awful thriller movie starring Vin Diesel? Of course. An obnoxious picture frame with a cat on it? You bet. A giant quilt with someone else's name embroidered on it? Oh yeah.

Back to present. So as we enter the arcade, I scan the wall of prizes and say to James that there isn't even anything worth our locker deposit in here. You see where this is going, right? I spot this giant wheel, and as a Price Is Right enthusiast, I can't resist. I throw a token in and pull the handle. All of a sudden this obnoxious siren goes off and tickets start shooting out at a rapid rate. Of course I hit the jackpot.

At this point, we were thinking that if I could just hit the jakcpot 3 more times, we would win ourselves a nice little flatscreen TV. Of course, showing interest in prizes meant we failed miserably at every other thing we tried. So we went home with 10 candy bars. I ate 9 of them. (Whatever, I'm the one who hit the jackpot, right?)

So now we are back to relatively normal life this week. Chase has added spinning around, jumping, pointing to all of his facial features when named, cleaning up when asked(selectively, of course), and washing his own hands to his resume of accomplishments. After those 9 candybars, I'm trying to add a week without sweets to mine. James has added best spoiler of wife in the world to his.

February: Big bucks, no whammies for the Purcell family.

Ketchup

2011-01-31T00:03:00.001-05:00

I think it is safe to say that when it comes to regular blogging, I fail miserably. So here is a little picture "ketchup" for you, of all the things I never got around to blogging about:

James' mom came to visit us at the end of October, and we had such a blast taking her to our favorite places (read: restaurants and bakeries) and just hanging out.

Then my sister Lindsay and I headed to the Patriots vs. Steelers game... in the front row. It was unbelievable. Unbelievable how much more I could like football that close to the action. Unbelievable how many people booed my sister and her Patriots attire (this may or may not include me). Unbelievable how cold it can get at Heinz Field. Unbelievable how much the Steelers lost to the Patriots by.

James went to the Steelers vs. Raiders game a few weeks later. Here he is with his buddy Wallis. Love that facepaint! (I need to state here that I have finally turned James into a Steelers fan and we are crazy excited for the Superbowl. We listen to Black and Yellow at least 10 times a day around here.)

Then Lindsay and I went on our cruise to Key West and the Bahamas...

And had pretty much the most relaxing and fun week ever. Serioiusly, from frozen key lime pie on a stick to the most intense waterslides ever, we had a blast and now we have approximately 900 new inside jokes to annoy the rest of the family with. It was horrible to fly home from 78 degrees in Miami to 26 degrees in Pittsburgh.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve... this is Chase's new favorite face to make. Every time I see it I can't stop laughing.

He had a good time (surprise surprise) unloading the cupboards.

And was well behaved during our Christmas Eve program once we caved and let him suck on a candy cane.

After Christmas, we flew to Utah to spend some time with friends and family.

Chase's winter coat is basically a pillow with armholes. He can't put his arms down or up- sort of a baby straightjacket. But a cute, non-creepy one.

We aren't really sure why, but he kept kissing the space heater. I guess he's as grateful for a warm home as we are.

And here we are, back in Pittsburgh, braving the cold and snow. Here's a little update on what we are up to now:

James- back to school. He's been busy writing a paper for the journal he's on and has been interviewing for summer internships. He still teaches the Sunbeams, and is now assistant ward clerk over finances as well.

Stephanie- working at Urban Active Fitness Center's daycare a couple days a week. I can take Chase with me and I get a free gym membership. Win win win. So I've been exercising a lot and reading a ton.

Chase- within a few weeks of Christmas went from walking, to running, to climbing. He loves to imitate just about everything we do. He does all of the motions to pattycake, and even looks in the mirror and "puts makeup on" with me. We've also had to enter that phase of life where James and I have to spell things to each other because Chase understands so many things now. If we don't spell I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M in the evening, we either have a full-on tantrum or a sugar high to deal with.

Completely exhausted after church.

We put Chase's Pillow Pal in his crib, thinking it would be a good way to work a pillow into his sleep habits. Now we are just going to have to steer clear of firm mattresses.

Chase loves to watch Toy Story, and he always sits on his car to do it.

Chase has developed a sort of obsession with vacuuming. He loves to use the dustbuster and the Swiffer Sweeper. It's not effective for cleaning in any way, but its effective for entertaining.

This face says it all. Literally- all we have to do is say the word "bath" and Chase takes off for the bathroom, yanking on his shirt.

Loading, or more frequently, unloading the dishwasher is one of Chase's self-appointed jobs. He takes it very seriously. Another example of how I can be learning from my 15 month old.

Happy 2011!

And Just Because It's Christmas...

2010-12-25T21:44:00.000-05:00

Chase decided to walk for the first time (more than just a couple of steps) while we were filming him playing with his new toys.

Thanks for such a great Christmas present, Chase.

A Christmas Carol

2010-12-23T21:14:00.000-05:00

Christmas Past

Christmas Present

We don't know what Christmas Future will look like, but hopefully something like this:

This guy is literally obsessed with the piano. From the moment we walk into my parents' house, he dashes over to the piano and entertains himself forever playing music, singing along, and even dancing. We have a keyboard in our apartment and it is the first thing he points to in the morning and the thing we pry him away from for bed. It's pretty adorable and we are pretty sure we will have to sign him up for lessons early. I just wish we could bottle up the determination he has right now and feed it to him when he whines about practicing later in life.

Chase's second favorite thing to do is unload stuff. His toy box, the fridge, my purse, the purse of the lady who sits behind us in church... it's all fair game. Things got a little too quiet this evening around my parents' house, which is never a good sign. I ran into the kitchen to find Chase unloading Hershey Kisses, unwrapping them, and gorging himself.

Dark chocolate. We're glad he is cultivating great taste at such a young age.

He then proceeded to unload all of the drawers of all their goodies.

No, there are no Hershey Kisses in his cheeks. I have had people in the grocery store inform me that he has something in his mouth. Nope. That's what real cheeks look like.

Together 4-Ever

2010-11-25T23:08:00.000-05:00

I love that every once in a while, November 25th falls on Thanksgiving. Every once in a while, I get to spend an entire day being thankful that on November 25, 2006, I married James Purcell.

From the day he asked me to be his...

...To the day I was.

James and I met in a class at BYU, became study buddies, then best friends. Love sort of crept up on us while neither of us were looking for it. As far as I can tell, that's the best way.

4 years ago today was the best day of my life... I think you can tell by my face.

James and I love to just be together. Whether we are just hanging out...

...Or dressed up with somewhere to go.

Whether we are doing something important...

...Or just vacationing.

(Love this hair?)

It's just better with him. Love you, James. Happy 4 Years.

Family Pictures

2010-11-13T18:05:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, my talented friend McCall agreed to give up part of her Saturday to take some pictures for us. We were impressed with how many turned out because Chase was really mad that we wouldn't let him crawl around on the busy bridge or lean over the edge to look in the water (I know, meanest parents ever). Here are just a few of them!

(Isn't Pittsburgh so amazing?)

Look Who's One!

2010-10-25T15:33:00.000-04:00

(DISCLAIMER: This post is from my phone, so all the pictures are frontloaded and there is nothing I can do about it. So insert whatever witty captions you want after each picture)

We can't believe that an entire year has passed since Chase joined our family. And I can't believe I lived 24 years without this guy in my life! We love him so much and we can't wait to see what adventures this next year will bring.

My parents and sister came to Pittsburgh for his party- and brought 5 birthdays worth of presents... many which were as big as Chase! At first he was just interested in the wrapping paper, but once he got the hang of ripping there was no mercy. His favorite presents were 2 stuffed puppies... he kept hugging them and rolling on the floor with them. Cutest thing I've ever seen! We sang to him and James blew out his candle right before he stuck his finger in the flame... guess we will have to work on fire safety later. He downed the cupcake pretty fast without making too much of a mess. And then someone decided to start playing peekaboo with him, and he just can't resist... After that, there was cake everywhere... I cleaned it out of his ears. And then came the moment James had been waiting for all year. Chase finally did the Dew. And drank half the bottle. And had a serious sugar crash.

It has been amazing to watch Chase grow and see a big personality come out of such a little guy!

Some things to remember at age 1:
-He weighs in at 20 pounds almost exactly. We are pretty sure that 5 of the pounds are his cheeks.
-His hair is so thick and grows at an incredible rate just like his dad's. He has already had 3 haircuts and is just about ready for another one.
-He eats left-handed but alternates the dominant hand when he is playing so we aren't sure yet which he will use.
-Anytime you ask him a question he nods. I ask him like 8 times a day if he loves me.
-He loves to play peekaboo and does it all the time with anyone who will join in.
-He takes tentative steps between furniture pieces but still hasn't walked out in the open yet.
-When he smiles, you see nothing but gums. Still no teeth!
-He will eat literally anything and everything. I've never seen a baby eat an entire slice of pizza before Chase. He loves all food and we are so glad he is such an amazing eater.
-He sleeps from 8 pm to 7:30 am and takes 2 naps every day.
-Has already reached the terrible two's. Is that even possible? I don't know but he throws temper tantrums already and hits objects and people if they don't obey him. I hope this means he will be an angel at 2.
-Chatters all the time. He says dada and mama and yeah and what we think is Chase but sounds like "Tess." The rest of his babble is adorable and incoherent.
-He loves to read and will drag a book over and back right up into your lap. We probably read at least 10 books a day.
-Is decidedly a daddy's boy. When James comes home from school he crawls as fast as he can to the door and doesn't leave his side until he goes to bed. They are best buddies.
-He still loves music and bounces and claps to hymns and nursery rhymes and hip hop and everything in between.

We have really been enjoying the fall- going for lots of walks and playing in the leaves and just having a great time. Happy birthday, Chase! We love you so much and are so glad to have you in our little family.

(Thanks Linds for the pictures!)

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Love and Worst-Case Scenarios

2010-09-22T16:01:00.001-04:00

James and I have always had a day by day calendar in our kitchen. One year it was quotes from The Office, another it was Sudoku puzzles (I may or may not have finished the year off by May). This year we have a Worst-Case Scenario calendar. Every day we learn how to get out of life threatening situations. Sometimes they seem useful, like how to survive a night in the woods (sorry calendar, Bear Gryls already taught us that) or how to survive if you fall out of a raft into whitewater rapids. Others I hope we never have to use, like how to escape from a charging rhino or how to protect your mind during an alien invasion. Today, when I ripped off yesterday's instructions on how to climb out of a well, I was baffled to find this:

How To Stop A Wedding

I realize that there can be dire situations in which these instructions would be useful, I just can't imagine that I will ever use them. Which is a real shame, since I'm sure I will never forget them.

1. Make your feelings known before the service. (duh)
2. If you cannot stop the ceremony beforehand, wait until the ceremony. Stand up and say "I do" when the officiant asks for objections. (It may be useful to note that you want to be particularly careful about your timing, as yelling "I do" at the wrong point could be very embarrassing)
3. Ask the officiant if you can present your concerns in private. (This way you don't have to feel awkward about showing up at the reception)
4. If you do not have the courage to speak up during the ceremony, feign illness or a seizure. (I'm not sure what to say here, except you may want to practice this)
5. If you cannot fake illness, pull the fire alarm. (Note that it doesn't instruct you to actually light a fire...)
6. If the ceremony has been completed, prevent the signing of the wedding license. (Now seems like the right time to start a fire- with the wedding license)
7. If the license has been signed, try to prevent the marriage from being consummated. (I feel like this step warrants a whole new worst-case scenario)

If my sister is ever captured and forced into a formal wedding by an intolerable and fascist warlord, you better believe I will be all over it.

On another note, my best friend out in Utah, Janeene, sent me this picture of Chase and her daughter, Koree who is a year older, from this past summer. Apparently Chase is into older women and open-mouth kissing.

That is one future wedding I definitely wouldn't try to stop.

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Guess Who's Back?

2010-08-30T13:41:00.000-04:00

Not only are we back in Pittsburgh, but finally back to updating the blog which I neglected for a long time. Instead of starting back where I left off, I will just update on our happenings since returning to Pittsburgh. I'll try to catch up on Utah posts later.

When we left in May, Chase could roll over and sit up unsupported. Pretty easy to track. From the moment we returned, all he has wanted to do is crawl and climb. It became immediately apparent that our apartment was a dangerous place for a curious baby with fingers that have some kind of magnetic attraction to electronic devices. So after a quick revamp and only minimal damage to our already small collection of breakable things, destructo-baby is much safer.

And may I add... cuter!

We got to spend a couple of days with my family, and had a rare couple of hours when we were all together on my Mom's birthday.

The whole fam-damily minus James, the iillusive photographer. Happy Birthday, Mom!

Back to Pittsburgh for James to begin his first day of school.

I get a lot more excited about the first day of school than James does... brand new notebooks and pens and planners do crazy things to me!

And this little naked guy tried to sneak off to school with his dad. I guess being home with me all day does crazy things to him!

My family came up to Pittsburgh the weekend before school started to go to a Pirates game. They are really terrible at baseball, which is a shame. But it's a beautiful park and can you beat this view?

Exactly. We had a great time even though the game got rained out. Maybe a good thing, since the Mets were already up by 5 when it ended...

Go Pirates! Yeah, James wasn't wearing the wrong hat. It was African Heritage night or something, so they gave out free hats from the old days where black players had their own team. Crawford, I think?

We've been experiencing uncommonly sunshiney weather so this past weekend, we decided to take Chase to the zoo for the first time. We only live about a mile from the zoo, and will definitely take him more often now that he can sort of appreciate it.

My boys.

Chase loved all of the animals that weren't sleeping. He even tried to climb into their areas. How do you teach a 10 month old that polar bears aren't as cuddly as they look?

For those of you who aren't aware, James has a dream to someday be a zookeeper. Not just any zookeeper- a giraffe specialist zookeeper. (Forget law school, right?) He has this special hand motion that he insists is some kind of secret way to call to giraffes. Naturally he had to teach it to Chase.

Chase's favorite thing by far was the aquarium. He would pound on the glass every time he saw a fish, which basically translates into a constant earthquake for the poor fish the entire time we were in there.

On our way out, this poor guy just wiped out in his stroller.

So now we are back in the swing of things. Chase is so much more challenging all day, but so much more fun! He waves when he hears "Hi" and "Bye," claps when he hears "Yay," bounces anytime he hears music or even a beat (apparently our dishwasher is just another stereo) and even answers the phone. He chatters all the time, and must be awfully close to saying his first word, beyond "dada" anytime he's happy, and "mama" anytime he isn't.

Look out, year two of law school. The Purcells are back.

A Little of Everything

2010-07-12T14:42:00.000-04:00

The summer is flying right by us and we only have 4 and a half weeks left in Utah. Chase has grown so much and is getting huge! Since we got to Utah 6 weeks ago he has gained 3 pounds! Probably thanks to the many hands that are always willing to feed him. He waves, feeds himself, pulls himself up to standing, babbles all the time (usually in the middle of church) and gets into the crawling position. The crawling forward part hasn't worked out too well so far, but he has the basics down. James finished his internship with the judge and is now at the law firm full time. Stacie and I continue to work on our cupcakes and have come up with some original ideas for flavors... but I will save that for a future post.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from the last month:

Stacie and I with the sunflower cupcakes- you can't beat an Oreo on cake.

Chase taking his bath and trying to figure out how the faucet works.

We spent a lot of time shelling peas from the garden and Chase tried so hard to help out... mostly by eating the peas out of the pods.

Chase's hair is getting thicker and lighter every day... and the cheeks are getting plumper too.

A little hard to see, but those eyes are still a gray-blue.

Chase preparing to pull himself up...

You can do it, buddy!

Go for it!

Success.

Wow, this one may need an explanation. We had a big yard sale and Stacie sold her giant tiger stuffed animal. But not after Chase took a long ride on it... while wearing a sweatband. I hope he doesn't hate me when he sees these pictures someday.

Chase's favorite thing in the world is being outside. He loves to be in his stroller or in the backpack while Daddy rides a bike.

Happy 4th! These cupcakes are not in any way gourmet... we just had a good time with the red, white and blue.

James, Chase and I at the Freedom Festival in Provo.

Picture Overload: Volume 2

2010-06-21T18:40:00.000-04:00

This post was supposed to be videos of Chase waving, climbing out of the bathtub, and stealing food out of people's mouths. Since the computer cord for our video camera is sitting, lonely on the computer desk, in our bedroom in Pittsburgh, you get some pictures instead.

Chase sitting in the park... being delicious.

Chase is the proud new owner of a Johnny Jump Up. He really hated it at first, but once he figured out that it bounced, he decided it wasn't out to get him. This is his "one more picture and I will scream, Mom" face. Sorry for interrupting your fun, baby.

Who needs toys when you have a giant Cheerios box? Every morning, Chase sits down by this box (which doubles as a toy box) and pulls all of his toys out, then keeps playing with the box.

Baby feet!

Chase and I hanging out on the couch.

The following pictures are some I have been saving for Father's Day. James is the best dad in the world (aside from my own, of course!)- Chase is his best little buddy and they are always laughing and wrestling and getting into trouble. Happy First Father's Day, James!

Playing together on the floor.

BYU Boys!

Poor Chase can't go 10 minutes without being kissed on those chubby cheeks.

You've already seen this one, but I had to repost it- it's my favorite.

Taking a break at the mall.

Purcells out.

Get A Hobby!

2010-06-21T17:50:00.000-04:00

Now that Chase has decided his second daily nap is optional, combined with plenty more company every day, I haven't made any progress on my book this summer. So James' sister Stacie and I decided to take up a new hobby to fill those few hours when Chase isn't the center of our attention. Something that involves food (naturally)...

Have you guessed yet?

Cupcake decorating! These were the experimental cupcakes to figure out how to use decorating tools. Not so good with the freehand drawing. So we decided to try something else. (shout out to the amazing book Hello, Cupcake)

Not bad, right? (Sorry... I tried really hard to flip this picture. It said no.)

We were pretty excited about these butterfly cupcakes. The butterflies are made completely out of chocolate. Yum! Feeling really ambitious at this point, we decided to do a little "Father's Day Dinner" for James and his dad and uncle.

TV Dinners! Drumsticks, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots, and pudding.

All sweet and all edible.

James and his "dinner."

Yeah! I always thought I wasn't very artistic... but I guess when food is involved I can step it up a notch or two.

Also currently stepping Zumba up a notch or two to counteract our new hobby.

There's A First Time For Everything

2010-06-01T16:23:00.000-04:00

We've had a busy few weeks- James finished finals and his first year of law school (woot woot!), and he and his dad drove across our car across the country loaded up with all of our stuff. He is busy at work in both of his internships. Chase and I spent some time with my family and then flew out to Utah. Not the best baby on the airplane... but also not the worst. Definitely the cutest- so that helped to appease the people located in our immediate vicinity.

Chase has been spending the last few weeks expanding his repertoire. He loves to bounce up and down on his feet, on his bum, on his belly- wherever he is, you can bet he is bouncing. He can also pick food up with his fingers and feed himself. This new skill was pretty exciting until he learned that he could also spit his food back out and use his fingers to smear it around. He still rolls to get places, but we know it won't be long before he starts crawling around.

He has had a lot of "firsts" over the past few weeks:

"Get me out of here!" This was the sight I saw when I went in to get him from his afternoon nap. First time pulling himself up in the crib.

First time riding like a big boy in the shopping cart.
First time eating watermelon... when Dad decides to share!
First time eating a pickle. We all gathered around to see the sour face he made... and it never happened. He loves anything that is tart.

First time... hanging on the couch? We've been working in the garden a lot and he likes to just hang out and watch.

First bath in a red tub. That big toe is his signature move... we assume it's his way of giving us all the thumbs up. Check out those skinny legs! Wait a minute... is that a medicine bottle he is chewing on? Bad parenting alert! Don't worry- this was done under adult supervision. He really likes that rubber top and is getting some teeth ready to come in any day now.

Right before his first haircut. This was a big deal- he had some crazy long hair on the top of his head that was dark and always sticking out. We decided it was time for his first haircut, and that way I could save what was left of his black baby hair.

The after shot! Now he is undeniably blond and undeniably cuter.
First time walking on the moon! On Memorial Day, the whole family took a trip to the Planetarium.

First time falling asleep in his high chair. With so many aunts and uncles around, Chase has been playing hard every day. Everyone was just sitting around the table and all of a sudden Chase's head dropped- he was out for the count. Another time he fell asleep in the middle of a spoonful of his nighttime cereal. Poor guy!

Lots of firsts... but we promise you haven't seen the last of this little man.

Let's Try This Again...

2010-05-16T17:06:00.000-04:00

Remember that time James and I planned a cruise to Mexico to commemorate his graduation from BYU and this kid ruined all our plans?

#$*@ swine flu. So this awesome sister of mine...

...who may or may not kill me for putting up this picture, had the brilliant idea that we should start a Girls Getaway tradition. Count me in! So, what better place to start than on one of these...
...cruising to the beautiful Bahamas...

...in November! We are pretty excited. The only downside? Finding a way to say goodbye to this face...
...for 5 days. So please, friends. Don't lick any pigs.

Where's Mom Now That I Need Her?

2010-05-09T21:54:00.000-04:00

When I left for college, my Mom gave me this book, probably half joking half serious:

It tells you everything from how to get a fruit juice stain out of your clothes (lemon juice people!) to how to choose every kind of produce you can imagine, to which symptoms mean you should get to a doctor stat.

It's a great resource- but only a fraction as useful as my Mom. Brag alert! My Mom is the most generous and caring woman you will ever meet. She is resourceful, wise, patient, and caring- the perfect example of what a mom should be. I aspire to be like her. Since leaving home and then getting married, I started to realize a tiny fraction of how much work she does... and how hard that work can be sometimes! Only since becoming a mother myself have I started to understand the sacrifice and struggle required to earn the title of Mom.
Happy Mother's Day Mom! Thank you for sacrificing so much for me and for your family. You have been indispensable to me since Chase was born- I wouldn't have made it through the last few months without your wisdom, guidance, and help. And thanks for being such a great Grandma to Chase. We love you!

When You Really Weigh It...

2010-04-27T10:32:00.000-04:00

The past few days were full of wonderful things... and not so wonderful things. Did we come out on top?

Pro: My sweet little baby turned 6 months old last week! He is healthy, tall (27 inches), and SKINNY (13 pounds).

Con: Chase got a nasty fever from his immunizations and woke up 50 times that night.

Pro: I didn't find this out until the morning. Feeling under the weather, I took Ny-Quil that night and apparently was completely unconscious and couldn't be roused. So James got his share of late night fun with a baby.

Pro: Chase started eating baby food and so far loves carrots, green beans, and squash.

Con: Carrot, green bean, and squash poop.

Con: Thursday, I finally gave in and dragged myself to the Dr.'s when my 5 day sore throat turned into tonsils the size of golf balls covered in pus and my fever hit 103. Diagnosis- BAD case of Strep Throat.

Pro: The Dr. declared that had I come in any later, he would have had to stick long needles into my tonsils to drain them. Mercifully, all I needed was a round of penicillin.

Pro: Time Out for Women began on Friday evening, which I had the privelege of working at and attending with my mom- a fabulous event and a spiritual shot in the arm.

Con: I had to give the opening prayer in front of 1000 people with my face blown up 90 times its normal size on a screen.

Pro: I didn't trip, stutter, or pray for a blessing on non-existent food.

Con: In church on Sunday, the Sunday School/Relief Society room was a sauna and my sweaty baby was miserable for 2 straight hours; therefore, I was miserable.

Pro: It is socially acceptable, even desirable, for a baby to be stripped down to a diaper anywhere. The last 5 minutes of church were perfect.

Con: It rained all day yesterday.

Pro: My Dad had a meeting in Pittsburgh and took the 3 of us out for dinner last night and we had a great time- rain and all.

Pro: Today is James' LAST DAY OF CLASS.

Con: The next 2 1/2 weeks, I will probably see James for a total of 6 hours.

Pro: Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

10 pros, 7 cons.
Life is good, after all.

Prepare Yourself...

2010-04-15T14:34:00.000-04:00

...for picture overload! This little man of ours gets cuter all the time and has the most adorable little personality. So here we go!

Food:

Chase started to eat baby cereal at the end of March and to say that he loves it is a major understatement. He yells at the spoon if it is too slow getting to his mouth and eats a larger bowl of cereal than I do.

Not really food... but every time Chase gets in the bathtub he puts a washcloth in his mouth and plays with other toys while he sucks away.

Hats:

Not real hats. Just things that end up on Chase's head. He is notorious for rolling across entire rooms. I put him on a giant quilt and 2 minutes later he has found his way off. This time he decided to take the blanket with him!

A few weeks ago, James was changing Chase into his pajamas. He didn't realize that the shirt had snaps near the neck, and couldn't get Chase's shirt off because of it. Props to James for turning a stuck shirt into a baby turban.

Tongue:

For about a week, Chase had his tongue out on a permanent basis. It was cute... but I'm glad it wasn't permanent.

Just Sweet:

There is no theme to the rest of the pictures. They are just sweet.

Me and the Chaser Man in his Sunday attire- what a stud!
I love me some rosy-cheeked sleepin' baby!

Mmmm- the best part about spring is the appearance of those chubby legs!

These last few pictures are a little misleading since his hair is in the sun- but this kid is turning BLOND! I guess I can still love him.

That's it- you made it! Picture overload complete.

Easter

2010-04-05T21:46:00.000-04:00

This year, our Easter celebration was dimmed by sad news. James' sweet and wonderful aunt Michelle Purcell, who had been battling breast cancer for some time, passed away. She was an incredibly generous and vibrant woman and leaves behind 4 of the most adorable kids you will ever meet. James and I felt heartbroken at the news. We were so glad that we had the chance to spend time with her at Christmas, but still sad that we didn't get the opportunity to say goodbye to her, being so far away.

We are so grateful for the knowledge we have that our Savior Jesus Christ conquered death on that Easter morning so many years ago. We know that He Lives and that, because of Him, we can all live again. We know that we will see Michelle again. We also know that the family unit is eternal and that families can be together forever. When the trials of life seem unfair, we take comfort in the knowledge that we have a loving Father in Heaven who is aware of us and our sorrows and that He has a grand purpose. He will guide us through this life, especially the hard times, if we put our trust in Him.

This picture is from my bridal shower, back in 2006. James' mom, me, Michelle, James' sister Stacie, and Michelle's sweet daughter Ariel.

We love you so much Michelle and will miss you until we meet again.

The Hazards of Being the Horse

2010-03-24T17:18:00.000-04:00

As soon as James gets home from school at night, he wants to play with Chase. They disappear into a back room and all I hear is laughter from both of them.

A few nights ago, I heard James galloping around in our bedroom and baby giggles. All of a sudden, there was silence. James appeared in a few moments with Chase on his shoulders and a look of disgust on his face. Chase either has motion sickness or doesn't approve of James' hairdo.

Either way, I've never seen two boys look so cute covered in barf.

Thou Shalt Not Neglect Thy Blog

2010-03-22T18:02:00.000-04:00

Thanks to my sister Lindsay for rebuking me about this 11th commandment. Here are the updates on the 3 of us:

James

Continues to show law school who is boss. He is arguing a case as the defense against another law student as the prosecution in front of local lawyers who will be acting as judges next week in a mock courtroom and I get to go watch him in action.
Scored TWO amazing summer internships- one with a district judge where he will get to help write opinions and one with a great law firm.

Stephanie

Dropped the screenplay for a while and is instead writing a book. A much more massive undertaking than I thought and I'm only through maybe one chapter. But I love it and feel inspired and look forward to Chase's second daily nap which is my writing time.
Finally returned to my pre-pregnancy weight- thanks to an amazing workout system called Zumba. I LOVE IT. It's not for everyone, but if you have a dance background it is fantastic. Check it out here.

Chase

Is 5 months old today! He rolls wherever he wants to go, jabbers nonstop, thinks pretty much everything is hysterical, and is losing all of his thick black hair to fuzzy blond hair. He has also paired my face with food and comfort in his brain, and tearfully reaches back for me anytime someone else is holding him. When I get him back he just cuddles up and strokes my hair. It is both sweet and exhausting.
After 4 painful nights, is successfully ferberized. He puts himself to sleep without rocking or swaddling and it is a beautiful thing. He has started to wake up during the night to eat again, so he received the go-ahead today to start rice cereal. I'm sure a post will follow soon with pictures of the first run-in with a spoon.

And now the big update. James' 2 summer internships will be taking us back to (drumroll please...) Utah! We are sad to leave our friends and family here in Pennsylvania, but we are excited to be back in Utah for 10 the summer and for the amazing opportunity James has been given.

Note: Anyone who wants to ship Sheetz hot chocolote to me for 10 weeks will be on my elite A List.

Repressed Cannibalism

2010-02-22T10:14:00.000-05:00

Whoa- the senseless eating of other humans? Come on now! No one is interested in that.... or are they?

I have been approached by numerous people (husband included) who have expressed interest in munching on our child. And I can't exclude myself from this group. Choruses of "Couldn't you just eat him up?" and "I just want to bite those cheeks!" tend to follow Chase around. Why is it that adults, when in close proximity to babies and their glorious chub, have to repress a desire to chew on those squishy cheeks and thighs? When did adorable become a synonym for delicious?

Sometimes, when Chase looks so cute and we can't stand it any longer, James and I will discuss our contingency plan for what we will tell people after we gobble him up. Mostly these stories involve him running away to join the circus or become a Spartan warrior. Hopefully restraint will prevail and it won't come to that.

For those of you convinced that you have evolved above "munchkin munching," perhaps this video will bring you back to the cold, hard reality: babies are yummy.

From Inside the Snowglobe

2010-02-12T17:06:00.000-05:00

For the past week, we have felt like we have been trapped inside a snowglobe in the hands of an overactive 5 year old. We headed to my parents' house around noon last Friday and pulled into town just as the snow was starting to accumulate. We woke up Saturday morning to this:

It isn't the greatest picture, but this was the snow piled up outside the patio door. We were snowed in big time! So we spent the weekend...

Cleaning pounds of snow off our cars and driveway...

Attempting to make snow angels (not really- we just were pushing each other down)...

Making yummy food for the Superbowl... like this pizza pretzel.

Poor Chase- he didn't get to enjoy the snow since it was taller than him and way too cold outside. So what does one do when they are stuck inside?

Take a bath...

And a nap or two.

This baby requires about 2 hours of intense labor to get to sleep at night with stories, songs, rocking, pacifiers, and an unbelievable amount of patience. But in the middle of the day he falls asleep while playing without even a yawn. I left him in his bouncer to make our bed. Two minutes... and this is how I found him.

Guess I should start buckling him in.

We returned from my parents' house on Sunday night and were about to go to bed when we turned on the news. Good thing- the University was closed for the next day! I didn't even know universities could take a snow day. Turns out they can take 3. It was so much fun to have James home until Wednesday and just hang out in our pajamas all day.

Forecast for pretty much the rest of February: Snow.

Thank heavens for food storage.

Tabula Rasa

2010-01-28T13:38:00.000-05:00

James and I were getting reacquainted with LOST in preparation for the last season and one of the episodes was entitled "Tabula Rasa." Thanks to high school Latin, which, surprisingly, hasn't fallen out of my brain, I know it translates to "Clean Slate." I keep thinking about that. I love a new year- what a good excuse to make the changes you want to make and wipe your slate clean. So here's to 2010 being a year of new and better things!

Here's a quick update on the 3 of us.

James

Dominated law school last semester. He is in the top 25% of his class and we are thrilled that all of his hard work is paying off. He's back into the 12 hour school days again.
Got promoted... from Nursery worker to Sunbeam teacher. He was excited to move up with the 3 year olds into Primary- they were his favorites anyway. He gets to color and have a snack every Sunday. Not a bad deal when the kids aren't biting or kicking.
Is looking for a summer job with a law firm or a judge... preferably one that pays.
Gets better looking every day. Seriously.

Stephanie

Loves spending all day with Chase... who also gets cuter every day.
Made a resolution to get 100 pages done on her screenplay this year,which is turning out to be a much bigger project than she anticipated. But she would like to win her Academy Award while she is still young enough to enjoy it.
Has 10 pregnancy pounds left to lose. She's testing a new exercise regimen and will share it with you if it works.
Is volunteering with Time Out for Women in Pittsburgh, an awesome program that Deseret Book puts on for LDS women across the country. The event is in April- so let me know if you are interested!

Chase

Is already rolling over- from his back to his stomach. He is such a champ! I have a book that says what he should be doing each week and the kid is always at least 3 weeks ahead.
Is now consistently sleeping through the night. He eats at 9:30, is asleep by 10:30, and doesn't wake up until 6. This is a BIG DEAL. I no longer feel like I've been hit by a train. And I can finally understand how people can want more than one kid.
May have a drooling problem. We are talking gallons. An hour of sitting up and he is soaked to the waist. I have nightmares of him wearing a bib as a teenager- but we have a couple of years to work on it.
Is such a little person. James and I discovered that if we pick him up and both start laughing really hard, he starts laughing just as hard... which makes us laugh harder. He just wants to be involved in everything.

The source of the drooling problem... Chase's fingers are apparently delicious.

Chase sits up so well now and finally has control over that noggin! We love this little man and are so grateful every day that he is a part of our family.

Bring us a figgy pudding

2010-01-07T20:15:00.000-05:00

The title has nothing whatsoever to do with this post; figgy pudding sounds downright nasty. I just wanted to give a shout out to the most aggressive of Christmas carols. James and I find this hilarious- just a couple of nice carolers wishing you a merry Christmas... turns into demands for food and scary threats. "We won't go until we get some, so bring some out here!" Really puts you in the mood, doesn't it?

Our festivities began in Hollidaysburg with my family and an insane Nor'easter. For all you Westies... that's slang for a junkload of snow dumping the entire way up the east coast. We earned our keep shoveling the driveway over and over and over.

James taking advantage of the ridiculous slope that is my parent's front yard.

We had a tough time getting my whole family together for a celebration before James, Chase and I left for Utah- Kevin got home from BYU two days before we left and Lindsay was on call at work the entire time and couldn't come to the Burg, so we headed to Johnstown to party at her apartment.

The children. Aren't you proud, Mom and Dad? We had a fun dinner party and exchanged gifts. Lindsay gave me some dark chocolate lumps of coal before she gave me her real gift. Made me want to misbehave next year too!
Lindsay with Chase... what an aunt!

We got lots of wonderful presents, but I won't bore you with a list. We took off for Salt Lake with much fear and trepidation in our hearts to fly with an infant. We should have known that Chase, who is a champ at everything he undertakes, was a perfect angel and slept the entire way. It was so much fun to see James' family (minus his Mom and Stacie) meet Chase for the first time.

Crazy awesome decorations that James' sister Stephanie made for all the family members of their favorite food. Ours is the one on the bottom right... a bucket of delicious seafood from Joe's Crab Shack. These are made of clay. Seriously! Skills.
My Christmas boys. Chase had 4 Christmas outfits he had to rotate through. I wish I had 4 Christmas outfits I had to rotate through.

Christmas morning with James' parents. We had another wonderful Christmas celebration in South Jordan and then ANOTHER in Provo.

Chase got plenty of aunts for Christmas! The boy didn't get put down once for the duration of our trip... we are trying to slowly wean him back into the tough world of having to sit on his own from time to time.

We had an amazing trip- saw Sherlock Holmes and Avatar (read: Pocahontas meets Fern Gully meets Dances with Wolves meets the Smurfs), played miniature golf, shopped, ate an absurd amount of food, and saw all of the people we love!

I couldn't resist putting up this picture of James' cute little cousin Courtney with Chase. So adorable!

While we were there, James had the opportunity to give Chase a name and a blessing. In our chruch, we believe that babies are born without any sin and therefore do not need to be baptized as a baby. Instead, they receive a blessing where their name is announced and they are blessed with character traits and certain things to accomplish in their lives. Among many other things, Chase was blessed to be an example to his future siblings and to have a special love and care for his mother. It was such a precious experience for us and we are so glad that so many family and friends were there to witness and participate.

Chase wore the same outfit that James wore to be blessed in 26 years ago! I don't think they even make sweater pants anymore.

James' friends (from left to right): Aaron, Rhett, James and Chase, Rylee, Adam Gene, and Trent.

All of our family who was there for the blessing.

Chase with his Uncle Kevin... look out ladies!

We returned home and are now gearing up for semester 2 of law school. Chase went to the doctor for his 2 month appointment today- he weighs 11 1/2 lbs. and is 23 1/2 inches long! He also had to have 3 shots into his chubby little legs... it was traumatic. Probably for Chase too.

While we were in Utah, Chase started to giggle. Here is the first video we have been able to capture of it- apologies that it is a little dark. The cuteness factor will make up for it though, I promise.

Happy New Year!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

2009-12-18T20:03:00.000-05:00

James is FINALLY DONE with his first semester of law school and there is much rejoicing in the Purcell household. I love having the grown-up company during the day and James, who was suffering from recurring nightmares over his contracts exam, is loving the multiplied hours of restful sleep. We are spending the next few days with my family and are getting ready to head to Utah for Christmas and the New Year! Setting aside our angst over being the people with the screaming baby on a long flight that we used to judge, we are so excited to see our friends and family there.

Chase becomes more fun every day. He smiles all the time and will chatter in the cutest and drooliest (is that even a word?) baby garble. (Disclaimer: I am fully aware of the fact that James and I sound like idiots on this video... we will do just about anything to make our little man talk!)

This cute little man weighed 10 pounds and was 22 1/2 inches tall at 6 weeks old. We are pretty sure the weight has been evenly distributed between his cheeks and his thighs.

This year, Chase and I had the honor of playing Mary and Jesus in a nativity scene. Once I got past the initial fear of Chase having a total meltdown and ruining the Christmas scene for everyone forever, I had some time during the scene to ponder the humble beginnings of our Savior. Chase was just quietly watching me and I began to think about how Mary must have felt. I don't think it was very different from what I was feeling. Chase is a perfect and innocent little baby, just like Jesus was as an infant and then throughout His life. She must have felt some sense of the great responsibility of teaching her sweet baby, helping him to grow and learn and interact with the world around him. Every day I feel that same weight of responsibility. And she certainly felt the same incredible and instant love and adoration for her new little one. I am so thankful, especially this year, for Mary's obedient willingness and celebrate, with even more appreciation, the glorious birth of Jesus Christ.

Santa Baby

2009-12-12T22:19:00.001-05:00

A million thanks to my beautiful and talented friend Jess, who took these gorgeous pictures of our sweet baby Chase. He was such an angel the whole time! Enjoy :)

3 Years

2009-11-25T12:49:00.001-05:00

Happy Anniversary, my love.

Three blissful years down...

Forever to go.

Bathing, Napping, and Remaining Neutral

2009-11-21T10:44:00.000-05:00

The much-anticipated day finally arrived last week when we could give Chase his first real bath [Shout out to Matt and Steph for the awesome whale tub!] He gets so excited when he is in the water and does some serious splashing- legs and arms in all directions. It cracks us up so much- we just let him sit in the water and have a ball as long as he wants.

The cutest part is that he sings while he is in the tub.He also tries to lick the side of the tub pretty much the whole time.

Well, we are inching closer to the end of James' first semester in law school. I'm really proud of him- he is working so hard. He leaves the apartment around 7 in the morning and I don't see him again until around 7 at night. It makes for long days for me at home with the baby, but I know it is paying off- he got a 97 on his first law school exam! What a smarty pants. Such hard work during the week makes for sleepy weekends...

And this is how my boys spend their Sunday afternoons.

Now you might be saying to yourself, so Chase takes baths and James takes exams and naps... what does Stephanie do? Well I took my first real break yesterday and left Chase with my mom while Lindsay and I went to see New Moon! We decided that we wanted to wear something special and both of us, after having reread New Moon, decided that we are big fat fence sitters when it comes to the ultimate question- Team Edward or Team Jacob?

What up Team Switzerland. Unfortunately, no one at our showing understood our shirts and probably just thought we had come from volunteering at the Red Cross. I won't post my opinion of the movie here out of respect for those of you who aren't crazy enough to go on opening day and brave the screaming adolescent girls. But give me a call... we'll talk about it.

The First 2 Weeks

2009-11-08T11:42:00.000-05:00

Chase is now 17 days old and I can hardly believe it has been that long already! We are absolutely in love with this little bug- he is perfect in every way. He has already grown and changed so much- I am constantly torn between pride that he is so strong and healthy and despair that he won't be my sweet little newborn for very long. Here are some pictures from his adventures so far.

Chase loves to sleep. He smiles all the time in his sleep and makes the funniest faces- my books all say that they can't smile this early and that if you think they are smiling it is probably just gas. Could be- but I think he just has funny dreams.
He is also constantly playing the air guitar. James thinks this is a sign we should buy Rock Band. Nice try, babe :)

I think the thing Chase loves the most is hanging out with his dad. They have a really special bond and it is so cute to watch them together.

This is my favorite picture of my boys. Chase is so attentive when James talks to him- let's hope that characteristic stays for a couple more years.
The one thing this boy doesn't like is bathing- let's hope this characteristic dies off soon.

James' mom and sister Stacie came to visit us and we had some beautiful fall weather (LOVE being in the east for the fall!) so we got to go out with the baby.

Chase with his Aunt StacieTHe birthdays in our family coordinate wonderfully- Chase's birthday is exactly one week after mine, and James' birthday is exactly two weeks after Chase's. Here are my boys at our birthday party :)

Chase's first Halloween- how cute is this little pumpkin butt?

Halloween outfit #2- and Chase giving me his best stink eye

Note on Chase's hair- no matter how we try to style this baby's 'do, it sticks straight up on top and goes into a fauxhawk. We love it and can't keep our hands out of it!

Really though... I have to kiss this baby's cheeks almost every time I see him.

Thanks for an exhausting, instructive, and memorable 2 weeks baby Chase!

A Labor of Love

2009-11-08T09:33:00.001-05:00

I realize that this post is a couple weeks late... but who doesn't love to read a labor story? On Thursday, October 22nd, the hospital called me at about 9 am and told me to come in at 10:30 that morning to be induced. James, with an ability to focus on the task at hand way above my own, had gone to class that morning. Luckily the law school is only a couple blocks from the hospital, so I packed up the car, picked James up, and we headed in. Right as we got there, so did two other very pregnant women, both of whom were already in labor. This meant that we had to sit around in the waiting area for about an hour until they cleared up a labor and delivery room for me. My parents arrived in the meantime and around 11:30 they admitted me.

By noon I was hooked up to the pitocin and when my doctor checked me around 1, I was already 5 cm dilated. The nurses had to keep coming in every 10 minutes to readjust the belt that was monitoring the baby's heartrate- every time they got a strong signal he would just wiggle away and they had to find it again. My sister Lindsay showed up and it was so nice to have so much company while we waited. I could feel the contractions, but they weren't too uncomfortable. At about 2:30 my doctor decided to break my water... and by 3 I was REALLY feeling those contractions. I wanted to get the epidural before it would be too hard for me to sit still, so the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural. I really didn't feel anything- they did a good job (James freaked out a little because he saw the size of the needle going into my back but was kind enough to pretend he didn't).

Me right after the epidural with the trusty button that allows you to give yourself a dosing anytime you please. Pretty exciting stuff. Well the epidural works with gravity, so you are supposed to switch from lying on your left to lying on your right from time to time to keep things even. I started out lying on my left side and was told to roll to my right side when the left went tingly. Oddly enough, over the next 2 hours, my right side went completely numb and I could still feel everything on the left side. The nurses called the anesthesiologist back in and they had to readjust my epidural because it had gone in a little to the right. In order to get things corrected, they gave me another full dose and this time both sides of me went completely numb from the waist down. As in I was pretty much paralyzed- I couldn't move or feel either of my legs and I definitely wasn't feeling any contractions.

I was a 7 at this point and progressing right along. The nurses finally got sick of readjusting the heartrate belt and put an internal monitor on the baby's head instead. About this same time the contractions started coming much closer together and with some serious intensity (or so the monitor said... I was still only half a person). Chase's heartrate started to drop pretty low every time I had a contraction, and they decided to put me in an oxygen mask to help him out. The situation started to get worse- his heart rate was dropping dangerously low and the doctor thought maybe the cord was wrapped around his neck. I was dilated to a 9, so the doctor stayed close by. That last hour before I was fully dilated was absolutely terrifying- we watched his monitor constantly and prayed that he was strong enough to pull through.

After what seemed like an eternity, my doctor declared me fully dilated at 9 pm and everyone but James filed out to wait. I could feel things pretty well at this point, but I wanted to be able to feel when to push, so I didn't push the epidural button anymore. Ouch- that was a minor mistake. As I was pushing, Chase's heartrate continued to dip really low and they called in a pediatric unit just in case. Poor James looked absolutely terrified and I think he was squeezing my hand more than I was squeezing his. There were about 20 people in the room while I was pushing and a bunch of random people kept yelling, "Come on Stephanie- you can do it!" This was the first time during labor that I felt like cursing and screaming... who were these people and how the heck did they know I could do it?!? Finally, at 9:35 pm, I pushed one last time and watched in a giant mirror as a beautiful, dark-haired baby was born.

As soon as they cleared his mouth and nose he started to yell and it was the most reassuring sound I have ever heard. The pediatric team examined him and found that he was a perfectly healthy newborn. The cord wasn't wrapped around his neck at all- it turned out he just didn't appreciate being forced out.
Here is the first picture we have of our sweet baby boy.James holding his son. Seeing my two boys together for the first time was, aside from being sealed to James on our wedding day, the happiest moment of my life.

In order to get Chase out faster, they used a vacuum and even though I had an episiotomy, I still acquired quite the tear. (Apologies if that is TMI.) It took my doctor almost an hour to get me sewn up. It is hard to put into words the amount of love that swept over me the first time I finally got to hold Chase in my arms. I couldn't believe that he was finally here and so perfect.

The next 2 days in the hospital went by in such a blur and on Saturday we brought our adorable baby home for the first time. He is such an alert and cuddly little guy! We can't help but to kiss those pudgy cheeks every couple of minutes. Being a mom is exhausting work, but so rewarding. I am so thankful to have Chase as part of our eternal family.

Chase Christopher Purcell

2009-10-26T20:36:00.000-04:00

Chase Christopher Purcell

October 22, 2009

9:35 pm

7 pounds 3 ounces, 21 inches

Heaven on earth.

Almost There

2009-10-16T16:42:00.000-04:00

Actually, there. And... passed. It's really frustrating to be overdue, even if it is only by a day. So far. Here's the latest.

I went to the doctor's last week and they've been telling me that I was measuring small for the past few weeks. My doctor wanted to do an ultrasound just to make sure everything was okay. The tech showed me all his healthy little body parts and said he was thriving in there. He had his face covered with his hands (obviously wanting to maintain some sort of mystery) and all we could see of his head was one chubby cheek and a whole chunk of hair. After she ran his sizes, she confirmed that I am measuring small but that the baby weighed 7 pounds and 7 ounces. Say what?! I was prepared to hear that he would be a shrimp boat. Nope. This kid is deceptively big and hides his weight well.

So since the baby is healthy and doing well, my doctor decided to let me go and see what happened. I had an appointment today and her first reaction when she checked me was, "How are you not in labor yet?" Awesome. I've been wondering that myself. She called the hospital to schedule an induction, but couldn't get me in until Thursday. My doctor said she would bet 50 bucks that I go into labor before Thursday... but if I don't, this baby will be here by October 22nd!

It's nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And to know that I will no longer feel that my very life depends upon the immediate consumption of double beef burritos, cheesy puffs, onion rings, and fish sticks. Gross. I'm determined to crave vegetables next time.

Hopefully the next time I update, it will be with glad tidings of a chubby-cheeked, pudgy little baby boy.

Dear Baby,

2009-09-29T11:29:00.000-04:00

You've now been growing inside me for almost 38 weeks and your father and I, after a lengthy discussion, have decided that you have been in there long enough. Time to come out! We can't wait to meet you and see what you look like! The doctor says you are now a little over six pounds and growing. In spite of her reassurances that you cannot actually kick through my stomach, I think you better come out the right way before you get strong enough to prove her wrong.

Below are some reasons that we hope will entice you out:

1) Your Daddy cannot wait to have a little man in the house to play with. He is so excited to teach you everything he knows. Some information (like facts about dinosaurs, football, and X-Men) Mommy approves of and some (like how tasty Mountain Dew is) Mommy does not. But we can sort that out later. And look- you have the same shoes as Daddy!

2) Your room is so close to being finished! Remember when it looked like this?

Now you have an adorable crib to sleep in with lots more room to stretch out in...

A mobile that will go around and play music as much as your heart desires...

Lots of toys, books, and stuff to make you smell good! Not to mention a serioius collection of awesome shoes...

A dresser completely stuffed full of clothes (90% from Aunt Lindsay, who also votes for you to come out on the stipulation that you will come on a day that she is not on call)....

Your very own corner for bouncing...

And a corner for sitting! Mommy will rock you and sing to you anytime you want and when you are ready, you can sit in your very own chair...

We even have a place to change you and lots of blankets to keep you warm and towels for your bathtime!

So wouldn't you like to get out of that cramped space you live in now so that you can play in your room and hang out with your Daddy? If you're not entirely convinced yet, take a look at this next reason.

3) When you were about 14 weeks old, Daddy took this picture of Mommy because she had the tiniest little bump on her belly. You were a cute little 4 inches long and weighed about an ounce. You were so easy to carry around then!

So Mommy thought it might be fun to take a picture in the same outfit at 37 weeks to see how much you've grown. Skirt... check (elastic-what a pal). Shirt... not happening. This was as close as we could get.

WHOA! A little paler and a LOT pudgier! Not quite as cute, huh? So if you aren't sold on the lessons with Dad or the room, take pity on your poor Mother waddling around the house in agony.

The hospital bag is packed and we are ready to roll! We've been looking forward to having you in our family for a long time and can't wait to bring you into our home.

All our love,

Mom and Dad

Smashing Boxes

2009-08-31T13:01:00.000-04:00

Our apartment is finally starting to resemble... well, an apartment, which is pretty exciting. With one notable exception. The baby's room is currently the "I didn't know we had this!" room, the "Where the heck are we going to put THIS?" room, and the "HOW IN THE WORLD DO 2 PEOPLE HAVE THIS MUCH JUNK!!!" room. Also, our bedroom isn't quite finished, so it will not be included on the following tour.

That being said, welcome to the new home of the Pennsylvania Purcells.
The entryway. The closet on the left is the largest closet in the house and currently serves as both a storage room and a pantry.

The living room- left view. Those of you familiar with the Provo version of our apartment are probably wondering when we plan on redecorating. The answer, of course, is when a J.D. follows James' name. Or whenever you would like to sponsor it.

The living room, right view. Here is our TV that currently gets 5 channels (one of which is a very lively Bible channel) and our "dining area." (Note to our table: we solemnly swear that our next apartment will feature a room just for you).

The kitchen. This picture, plus the refrigerator you can see in the above picture, plus a window complete this cozy space. The counter space you see is the only counter space we have, so please don't ask me to cook Thanksgiving dinner here. It's just not happening. (Hey Janeene, Kristina, and Marian- note the finished product of our craft night!)

Moving along... this is our long hallway back to the 2 bedrooms and bathroom. I can't put anything on the left wall- solid concrete. Major bummer. But please do note the gorgeous hardwood floors- we love 'em.

The last stop on our tour is the bathroom. Also smaller than life. The toilet is hiding on the left with some handy shelving around it (explained best by the complete absence of counterspace). There is a window in the shower, which is a first for me. Don't get too excited- it's frosted.

Okay, this is really the last stop on the tour- the parking lot- and our new car! It's definitely no BMW (hands over your hearts), but we love it. Still looking for a suitable name, if you would like to make suggestions. It is definitely a girl though.

James on the first day of law school! (I think half the smile comes from this being the first day of school in 5 years that he hasn't had to shave the summer goatee for) He had a great first week and is already hitting the books like crazy.

So far we are loving Pittsburgh and all its quirks. It didn't even take that long to get used to the fact that they put french fries on everything here. Literally, everything. We miss all of our Utah friends and family and have our fingers crossed that you will find your way out here to visit us in the next 3 years. There is no shortage of things to do and see here!

Nebraska is a dirty word

2009-08-24T10:57:00.000-04:00

Hello to all from Pittsburgh! We finally made it here and it has been some journey. Let's start at the beginning...

On Saturday, August 8th, with the help of James' amazing family and friends, we packed our little apartment that was our first home together and said goodbye to Provo.

We then spent the rest of the weekend and the first part of the next week with James' family, playing and enjoying the last bit of our summer.

Let me introduce our big yellow Penske truck. This thing drove like a tank, but was actually pretty nice inside and had plenty of room to stretch our legs in. Here we are, bright and early on Wednesday morning, getting ready to take off. On the top of the dashboard you can spot Polly, our mildly temperamental GPS who is singlehandedly responsible for us not being lost somewhere in the midwest.

We rolled easily through Utah and Wyoming that morning, loaded up for the drive with food, drinks, and Crime and Punishment on CD... a 16 disc undertaking. We cruised past this sign in the afternoon on our first day of driving.

I have a few things to say about this sign.

1) We saw no semblance of anything good in Nebraska.

2) The sign should read, "Nebraska... thou art a cruel and heartless mistress."

3) Home of Arbor Day? More like home of completely pointless road construction that goes on for 100 miles at a time and forces you to drive at speeds so slow that you become dangerous to yourself.

Nebraska took almost an entire day of driving to get through because of construction, a ridiculous hail storm, and its obnoxious width. I might or might not have cried when we passed into Iowa.

The next few states were easy to get through and there was plenty more to look at. With the exception of an accidental detour into the ghetto of Chicago (Polly was in one of her moods), the rest of our trip went smoothly. Negatives of the trip: Nebraska, a very sore bum, and baby that apparently hates road trips and who at one point (probably in Nebraska) tried to escape through my belly button. Ouch. Positives of the trip? Very minimal swelling to my ankles, Ohio rest stops (you gotta see these things), and this sign:

Ahhhhhh. I loved watching the landscape transform over our trip from dusty Wyoming to brown and flat Nebraska to cornfielded Iowa and Illinois to green and rolling Indiana and Ohio to woodsy Pennsylvania. We arrived in Pennsylvania around 1:30 pm on Friday and came right up into Pittsburgh about an hour later:

This was our first glimpse of the city and we nearly rolled the moving truck in our excitement! My family and good friend Nick were there to help us unload and get settled into our new apartment, about 3 miles from downtown and from campus. We unpacked, bought a car, and are trying to get used to navigating city life. Our grocery store is immense, and has a parking garage instead of a parking lot, which should be pretty useful in the snow. Our closest mall has a Coach, Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors, Kate Spade, and a Tiffany's to boot. Crappy time to be poor students.

We have an awesome new ward who made us feel really welcome and I have an amazing new group of doctors and will get to deliver at the 7th best obstetric hospital in the country. Not bad!

Stay tuned... pictures of the car, apartment, and law school to come soon!

Fare Thee Well, Provo

2009-08-06T17:08:00.000-04:00

This summer has literally flown by for us, and we can't believe we are packing up the first apartment we ever had together and moving 2200 miles across the country in less than a week! The last month has been a blur of trying to pack the impossible amount of stuff we have collected over the years, see all of our wonderful friends one more time, and do all the things in Utah we have been wanting to do. On the 24th of July, we visited the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake.

The bald eagle looks a little bit like he wants to hurt James...

Apparently it isn't a trip to the Hogle Zoo unless you stick your head in the lion's mouth.

James decided that if law school doesn't work out, he wants to be a zoo keeper. He had this thing for the giraffes and invented some kind of hand signal to call them to him, which they unfortunately didn't feel obligated to obey. He'll have to try carrots next time.

Last weekend, James took a boating/fishing trip with his 2 brothers, dad, and uncle to Henry's Lake in Idaho to do, you know, manly stuff.

Matt, Michael, and James with the huge trout they caught

Michael and James on the jet skis

We've hiked the Y, eaten at all of our favorite restaurants again (not sure how I will live without you, Bombay House), walked our familiar campus routes, and done our fair share of reminiscing over the last 5 years we have both spent in Provo.

Tomorrow is my last day of work at Clyde Companies, and it is going to be hard to leave it! I've met so many wonderful people there and had such a great experience.

Next Wednesday we begin our 3 day excursion across the country in a moving van. I've decided to document the unavoidable evolution of my ankles into cankles so... something to look forward

to.

We had a little scare with my glucose levels being high when they tested me 2 weeks ago- so I spent 4 hours in the hospital yesterday being poked and prodded. I was sure that if I didn't have gestational diabetes before, I would develop it after chugging the absolutely horrid and sugary coma-inducing drink that was forced upon me. Luckily, my results came back normal and nightmares of 10 weeks without any chocolate have been forgotten.

I realize this post is all over the place, but that is pretty much how I've been operating this last week. On a lighter note, my awesome sister, who was born to be an aunt, purchased a bumbo chair for our little guy. She was too eager to wait for the baby to come along to try it out.

Poor Hershey.

We are so excited to begin a new chapter of our lives in Pittsburgh, though we will dearly miss our friends and family here in Utah.

Until we meet again.

July Showers Bring... October Babies!

2009-07-17T13:00:00.000-04:00

Thanks to some seriously amazing family and friends, I have had two perfect baby showers.

Shower #1

The first was a shower for all of James' family on the 4th of July at his Grandma Palmer's house.

The Purcell/Palmer clan!

We played a game where I had to practice my multitasking. I had to hold a crying baby, talk on the phone, and do a lot of household chores. Here I am making a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. I guess I need to work on my coordination, since using your knees in generally not an acceptable practice in culinary circles.

A mildly successful attempt at folding laundry.

James' cute little cousins, Ariel and Courtney, brought my presents to me.

An amazing blanket with tugboats that my cute sister-in-law Cami made for me!

The damage

I left with lots of great gifts for our little man and some useful little factoids, for example: the largest baby ever born on record weighed 23 pounds. Ouch.

Shower #2

My awesome friend Janeene from work put together a baby shower for my friends the next weekend at Kristi's house, with the help of some other great girls.

Janeene with her cute little Koree!

My friends Tanya, Kristi, and Ashley with Kristi's new little baby girl.

Emily (cute and pregnant herself!) and I trying desperately to match celebrities to their crazy baby names. Ashley, who is extremely savvy in pop culture, won this one by a landslide.

(One of them actually named their baby Moxie Crimefighter... what?)

A little game of "can you remember what's in the box." A big no for me, but I got to keep all this cute stuff anyway!

Tanya made me matching burp cloths and a sweet little stuffed elephant.

Janeene made me a gorgeous rag quilt which, from the look on my face, obviously surprised the heck out of me.

Trying a new onesie out on my stomach... I think this kid still has some growing to do.

Thanks to all the friends and family for the wonderful support you have given me!

3rd Trimester

Well, here we go. I have now entered the 3rd trimester, which is bittersweet for me. The second trimester, with the exception of some unrelenting heartburn, was perfect. I had tons of energy and felt great. I have loved feeling my little man wiggle around during the day and get the hiccups. Even though I am excited that each week I get closer to holding our little one, thoughts of swollen ankles and screaming labor pain keep my excitement slightly in check.

With only 3 1/2 weeks left in Utah, James and I have begun the mad dash to finish doing everything on our list that we want to do before leaving Utah. We definitely want to make sure to see all of our friends and family before we leave- so come play with us!

The Littlest Gamer

2009-07-08T10:18:00.000-04:00

So we are pretty sure this baby is going to come out as a mini version of James- he already loves to play games. The game entitled, "Let's give mom heartburn every time she tries to eat something" is not my favorite, but both baby and I can agree on a game that we discovered on Sunday night and have been playing every night since. I push on my tummy in a random spot and within about 20 seconds, he gives me a good hard kick right in that spot. Then I push on a different spot and he kicks me there. That maybe doesn't sound like the most exciting game, but it makes James and I laugh every time to see my stomach shifting all around. Sometimes if I don't push on him for a while, he starts to wiggle around to remind me that it is still playtime. I just can't wait for this little guy to come out so that I can really play with him!

James' mom and sister Stacie threw me an amazing baby shower on Saturday for all of James' family- I'll post pictures soon!

Dads, Drizzle, and Domesticity

2009-06-22T18:29:00.000-04:00

This alliteration pretty much describes my weekend. James' family just put in a new firepit and we planned a lovely maiden voyage for it. As soon as that baby was lit, the heavens opened and it poured. We each ate a soggy S'more and were back inside in about 2 minutes.

On Saturday, James and I went to his Grandma's house and picked about 5 pounds of the most beautiful and delicious cherries... ever. After eating about 3 pounds of them that same day, I decided it might be more useful to do something with them- like take away all of their health value and put them into a pie. After 4 hours in the kitchen and at least 2 explosions of flour onto the walls, out came a beautiful pie that I'm pretty sure could win something at a county fair. It tasted even better.

Sunday was Father's Day, so here is my belated post:

Dad

I was pretty much born a "daddy's girl" and been that way ever since- we get along pretty perfectly. He has always been supportive of me and given me everything I need to accomplish my goals while pushing me to do a little better all the time. It's no surprise to me that James does so many things that remind me of my Dad. He's definitely one of my heroes.

James

I'm so excited to watch James as a father. He is loving, playful, and forgiving all the time and I know he will be a great dad. He loves to talk to the baby every day (aka yell into my tummy) about coming out of there so they can play and wrestle together. He has been so sweet and gentle with me while I've been all emotional and pregnant and I know he will be amazing with our little guy.

2 months and counting!

2009-06-11T16:22:00.000-04:00

James and I got back Monday from a long weekend in Pennsylvania. The trip had a two-fold mission- exploring Pittsburgh to check out the law school and find an apartment, and to attend my little brother's high school graduation. On both sides, it was a success! They let Kevin graduate and in the fall he is heading out to BYU on an Army ROTC scholarship. We spent one REALLY long day in Pittsburgh touring the law school and finally found an apartment. Unfortunately, we don't have pictures of the apartment because there were still people living there, but I will be sure to post plenty whence we move.

Happy Birthday last Thursday to Dad, who is a great sport about our age wisecracks.

Jack Bauer receiving his diploma

Lindsay, James, me, Kev, and Dan

James and I with Kevin after seminary graduation- we found him this awesome "Primary Alumni" t-shirt.

One of baby's first outfits, inspired by his camo-loving uncle

Baby's other first outfit, inspired by his Republican grandpa

James in front of the entrance to law school

The buildings on Pitt's campus are really interesting. This is a picture of the Cathedral of Learning, which is over 50 stories tall and is filled with classrooms and study areas and tons of historic artifacts, all wrapped up in the gothic style. I went there many times on school field trips, but it still blows me away every time. James is pretty pumped to explore this place.

The awesome skyline of Pittsburgh (including Heinz Stadium, of course!)

Two months from today is our last day in Utah, then it's off to the east coast via a 3-day drive in a U-Haul. Probably not going to be good for my already swollen ankles. The magazine The Economist just voted Pittsburgh the "most livable city in the United States" for the 5th year in a row, which we think is pretty exciting. I've always wanted to live in a city and I think this one will be perfect for us.

It's A...

2009-05-29T13:46:00.000-04:00

Yesterday James and I went to our ultrasound and our baby had it's first photo shoot!The baby was just relaxing the whole time, sitting cross-legged with its hands behind its head (the white circles on either side of its body are its elbows). Clearly it's cozy in there!Cute little baby foot :)

When the technician finally got the baby to move its legs, it stuck its feet right up by its head... quite the contortionist!

For a week or two before the ultrasound, I had been praying that our baby wouldn't be too modest because we wanted to know if it is a boy or a girl. Turns out, modesty may be an issue in the future with our little...

BOY!!! And let me tell you, he is VERY proud to be boy. The technician was trying to get some good pictures of his brain, and this little guy just wanted to show us his manhood. I have plenty of pictures of that, but I won't post them. Let's just say that if he turns out to be anything like he already is in the womb, we may have an exhibitionist on our hands.

We are so excited for our little boy to join our family and feel so blessed already. It was amazing to watch that little heart beating at 155 beats per minute! Everything looked really healthy and his growth is right on track for putting me at the halfway mark- 20 weeks and counting!

The Big Move

2009-05-22T10:43:00.000-04:00

After lots of deliberation, prayers, and thought... James has decided to attend the University of Pittsburgh for law school. We are so excited! It's a really great school and they offerred James a scholarship, which is hard to pass up when your brain starts to reflect on the debt you will be incurring over the next 3 years. Also, we will only be about 2 hours away from my parents, which will be a pretty big blessing when the baby comes!

We plan on moving east August 12th. Much as we are looking forward to the change, it will be really hard to leave Utah and all of our friends and family here. I'm also sad to leave my awesome job behind... I doubt I will ever find one that is quite as amazing as this one has been.

Well enough of the sad stuff! Let's talk about why I can't WAIT to get back to Pennsylvania!

1) Trees. I am a sucker for trees- this is why fall is by far my favorite time of year. I have really missed this sight every fall when it looks like the mountains are on fire with all the color. Sure, I'll miss the giant snow-capped mountains that I look at every day here, but I think it's a fair trade.

2) Tastykakes. Boy did I take these pieces of heaven wrapped in plastic for granted for my entire adolescence. For those of you who have not yet experienced all of the joys of Tastykakes, they are like Hostess times 345,621. Approximately.

3) Sheetz. I realize that food is becoming a major theme here, but this gas station/fresh food convenience store is maybe one of the best ideas this century- and proud that it came out of my hometown. I will consider moving back west when Sheetz makes it past the east coast- and it will.

4) Really good sports! We all know how I feel about the Steelers... and those feelings are similar to my feelings for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Pirates. I'm hoping we will get to go to at least a couple games. I will be sad to not be close to an NBA team- but I'll worry about that when the season starts.

5) This good looking family right here! Let me just tell you about my great family. B-Rooster (my Dad- soon to be known as B-Grampster) is a very proud Republican who likes to socialize more than anyone I know. Mom is just the picture of what a mom should be and I want to be just like her. Dan (my older brother) is brilliant and working on his doctorate in math at Cornell. Lindsay (best sister in the world) is the most hysterical person I know who unfortunately suffers from a deep and disturbing fear of whales. Kev, the baby of the family, better known as Jack Bauer in the neighborhood, is rarely found without camo and some sort of weapon on his person. I can't wait to live closer to them and get to see them more often.

Look out Pittsburgh! Here we come!

Viva Las Vegas!

2009-05-18T12:27:00.000-04:00

For those of you who have not yet heard our sad vacation story, please prepare to take pity upon us. At Christmas, James and I decided it would be fun to buy a vacation instead of gifts for each other since we love going on trips. We found a great deal on weeklong cruise to the Mexican Riviera and really cheap flights to Los Angeles, where we would sail from. For 5 months, we counted down the days and weeks until our vacation in paradise. Little did we know...

This cute little one was creating problems for us somewhere in Mexico. About one week before our cruise, we were sent a notification by the cruiseline that, due to the swine flu, our cruise had "exciting new ports of call!" These turned out to be ports in Canada and Oregon. Exciting if you are a polar bear.

After some haggling with the airline and the cruise line, we were able to get a full refund on our trip... but we were still pretty bummed that we wouldn't be going anywhere. So we decided to head to St. George and Vegas for a few days to get a little sun and change of scenery.

We drove to St. George on Monday and just walked around town and relaxed in the hotel- it was a beautiful 98 degrees.

On Tuesday we woke up early and drove the rest of the way into Vegas. We parked and walked the strip. James wouldn't let go of my hand when we walked past all the designer stores... (I'm still not sure why I couldn't buy the $900 Marc Jacobs bag :)

We checked into our hotel, Mandalay Bay early in the afternoon and were excited to find that we had been upgraded to a nicer room with a strip view! Pretty amazing...

We made a beeline for the beach and wavepool and camped out there all afternoon. If I squeezed my eyes really tight and wiggled my toes in the sand... I could almost imagine I was Mexico instead. It was about this moment James realized he had been swimming around in the wave pool with his phone in his pocket. Oops.

That night we headed off to see the Cirque Du Soleil production of "Mystere." I had a hard time convincing James this was the show he wanted to see (he was dead set on seeing a medieval jousting tournament)... but he was as completely blown away as I was by the insane amount of strength and balance these people have. It was sick! (Note: the theater people were camera nazis, so this picture is stolen from the internet).

On Wednesday, we went to the Shark Reef in Mandalay Bay where we got to pet some sting rays (super slimy) and look at some pretty creepy sharks. Our favorite part happened to be the ginormous komodo dragon, which we learned can run up to 14 miles per hour and eats deer. Much scarier than the sharks.

Not Mexico... but a great getaway just the same :)

The Bump

2009-04-30T10:28:00.000-04:00

Well, there's no denying it now. The little bump that has taken residence inside my tummy is just getting bigger.

Luckily, the second trimester is turning out to be great. With the notable exceptions of the emotional trauma I endure every morning when none of my pants fit and the ravenous hunger that attacks me every 12 minutes, I am feeling really good.

My next Dr.'s appointment is next Thursday. My last appointment was quite the ordeal. At my 8 week appointment, the nurse wrote my weight down 10 pounds heavier than I was (thanks, lady), and so at my 12 week appointment they were convinced that I had lost 7 pounds. Kind of a difficult feat when you eat everything within arm's reach and exercise... minimally. I got a really nice lecture on how this isn't a good time to diet. Yeah duh.

A really legitimate quiz online told me I have a 72% chance of having a boy. We aren't really sure- what do you think?

Grajewashun!

2009-04-28T11:05:00.000-04:00

My brilliant James graduated from BYU on Friday with a B.A. in History. He worked really hard and we are so proud of him!

The ceremony was awesome- Matt Holland gave a great speech, which was a fitting end to James and my time at BYU since we both know and love him as a teacher and mentor.

There were tons of graduates in his college, but he finally made his way across the stage and became an official graduate! Pending the passing of his classes, of course :)

My handsome graduate!

The proud parents :)

The proud wife and (I'm guessing) proud baby

The family- Stacie, Mom, James, Me, Steph Cami, Matt, Michael, and Dad

Bring on the summer :)

Jazz Playoff Game

2009-04-28T10:22:00.000-04:00

In honor of James' brilliance in graduating from BYU and survival of his finals, I conjured a pretty good celebration.

On Thursday night, we got to go to the first home playoff game of the Jazz vs. the Lakers. We scored my company tickets, which are perfect seats 15 rows behind the Jazz bench.

The Jazz warming up (okay, mostly Boozer warming up)

You may start to notice a pattern...

Love it :)

We went with our friends Janeene and McKell- Janeene and I showed up to work dressed identically that morning, and thought it would only be fair if we tricked our husbands into dressing alike as well. Needless to say, once they discovered our plot, they refused to walk within 10 feet of each other.

We also got to have an awesome dinner with the VIPs on the bottom level of the arena before the game and a complete dessert buffet at halftime (thanks Jeremy!) Mark Eaton and John Stockton were there, and we were so excited to see them up close! We got some pretty official looking badges to wear- James was feeling quite important.

On our way back up from halftime, we were a little late so the players were already standing around their chairs. We got to walk right past them and there I stood: 2 feet away from Carlos Boozer. I would have taken a picture if I had been able to function properly at the moment, but I had to focus my energy on not hyperventilating and keeping my hands to myself :)

It was an amazing game to be there for (the only game the Jazz won against the Lakers in the playoffs, consequently) and we both completely lost our voices. Totally worth it!

Oh Baby!

2009-04-07T15:11:00.000-04:00

Those of you who have seen me over the past few weeks may have had fleeting thoughts about how many donuts I consume on a daily basis or how to politely suggest a more stringent ab workout. Though I do love donuts and have, admittedly, eased off the crunches quite a bit, my popped out belly actually comes from the little person growing inside me :)

James and I are so thrilled to have a little one joining our family this year! Baby Purcell is due on my birthday, October 15th, which is just about the best present I could ask for! Our baby will be the first grandchild for James' and my parents and the first niece/nephew for most of our siblings. We'll have to take extra care to make sure he/she isn't spoiled rotten :)

Today we went to my 12 week appointment and got to listen to the baby's heartbeat- what an amazing sound! Even though it is still 27 weeks and some odd days away, we can't wait until we get to meet our little miracle :)

Jumping Jacks... Or Something Like It

2009-03-25T18:03:00.000-04:00

I know I promised to be a better blogger, but I have just been waiting for something more exciting to blog about! In the meantime, I thought I would share this video that I have watched just about every day at work for the past month... it cracks me up every time. Supposedly, it is a video of American soldiers trying to teach Iraqi soldiers jumping jacks...

My favorites are the man 3rd from the right who does some lovely ballet exercises and the man 6th from the left who is just getting down with the beat.

Enjoy :)

Ah, Sports

2009-02-12T11:50:00.000-05:00

After a mildly disappointing BYU Cougar football season, I considered writing sports viewing off for a while. But several great games this month have restored my hope in athletics.

The Steelers

The Steelers are my one Pennsylvania team. I grew up cheering for them and haven't found anyone I like better. I think they are the one decently consistent sports team I cheer for. I was very excited when they won the playoff game and got to play in the Superbowl. We had a really fun party at Matt and Stephanie's place (sorry there aren't any pictures- see the last post) with lots of yummy food. Unfortunately, I was the only Steeler's fan (thanks a lot James!) and I had to cheer on my own. I was so proud when they won! My boss called me from his vacation the next morning to congratulate me on the Steelers victory and promised me he would have a special present for me when he returned...

Since I am pretty much the only Steelers fan at Clyde Companies- I am proud to now be the sole resident of the corner parking spot.

The Jazz

I love Jazz basketball. It's tough love sometimes but it's worth it! As a fan of Carlos Boozer, it was just pure luck that he ended up in Utah, where I am, to play for the Jazz- that was what originally got me hooked. James and I love to go to Jazz games and watch them play. We also had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to meet the team and have them all autograph a basketball for us. They banned all cameras or I would definitely have some pictures from that event! Let's just say that James left liking Matt Harpring even less :)

Last night was the Jazz vs. Lakers game. My amazing little sister gave James and I tickets to the game for Christmas. We were sitting next to a lot of really drunk Lakers fans... they kept forgetting which row they were sitting in- it was great. We both lost our voices- totally worth it.

James and I at the game- Go Jazz!

The teams warming up... but where is Boozer?!?

Found him. Sitting on the bench. We'll have to save my feelings on that for a new post. But can we possibly beat the Lakers without Boozer?

Oh yeah!

Thanks again, Lindsay, for the amazing tickets. We owe you big time. And here's to a great month of sports :)

What?!? A New Blog Post?!?

2009-02-12T11:23:00.000-05:00

Hello my loyal blog-reading friends! I will give you all a moment to pick your jaws up off your keyboards. It has been 5 months and 9 days since I last posted... is that punishable by death in blog-land?

Okay-I will address the offenses laid against me in hopes that I will receive a lighter sentence. Here are my reasonings for not posting, pitiful as they may be.

1) Probably one of my biggest pet peeves is when people blog/facebook every single detail of their lives- it's usually not that interesting and tends to be an outlet for the "Me Monster," (See Brian Regan for a definition). Therefore, in fear of becoming like unto the blogaholics, I have completely abstained.

2) I don't want to live my blog! I want to enjoy what I am doing and the people I am with instead of thinking about how I will blog about it or how I need to take a picture of it for my blog. (Obvioiusly this hasn't been a problem for me yet).

3) I actually forgot about the blog for 3 months.

All of these things taken into account- I am still just a crappy blogger. Apologies! I will try harder, really. A real post is on its way :)

Our Story

2008-09-03T19:58:00.000-04:00

James and I met on September 1st, 2005. Two days before, the very first day of the semester, I was sitting in political science 110, minding my own business. The professor was droning on about the syllabus and how qualified he was to be teaching, when someone behind me whispered a comment to his friend and they both burst into laughter. I turned around and saw the most handsome man in the world. No kidding, it kicked the breath right out of me. Figuring that he must already be dating some gorgeous girl, I turned back around and resisted the urge to peek one more time. The next time I came to class was 2 days later, and as I was opening my notebook, Mr. Gorgeous appeared in the seat right next to me with his friend. He casually began a conversation, and the 3 of us decided to study together. (I agreed to this knowing full well that my brain would probably not function correctly around him).

A couple of weeks later, we learned that President Hinckley was coming to give a devotional at BYU the next week. James informed me that, although he would like to go, he had an "appointment" right before and wouldn't be able to get a seat (This turned out to be an appointment with the back of his eyelids, sleeping in). I told him I would go early and save him a seat, so we exchanged phone numbers. We sat through the devotional together, then he thanked me and took off for class. I took off for the library, and was there trying to study 15 minutes later when James sent me a text. "Thanks for saving me a seat- I am going to lunch at 1 if you want to come. If not, see you tomorrow in class." FINALLY! Of course I said yes, and we went on our first date :)

Exactly one year later, September 1st, 2006, after more than our share of study sessions at Grandma's, movies, crab legs, plays at Hale Center, trips to Idaho and Washington D.C., milkshakes, jogging all over campus for an A, dead economists, 24, laser tag, Lagoon, unsuccessful attempts at matchmaking our roommates, corn mazes, trips down the Provo River in our trusty boat Sunburn, saying hello and goodbye to missionaries, otter pops, impromptu songs about pigs, and drives all over Utah in the little red Honda, James asked me to be his wife.

We were married for eternity in the Salt Lake City Temple on November 25, 2006. We went to the Bahamas for our honeymoon and haven't been able to appreciate snow ever since. We still live in our first apartment :)

Finally!

2008-08-19T20:54:00.000-04:00

Here it is- the long-awaited and much-anticipated blog of James and me! I will try to be a good little blogger and update it regularly. We are sad to have to say goodbye to the summer, but we are looking forward to some fun and new things coming up in our lives :) James is getting ready to begin his last year as an undergraduate student- next year we are off to law school, wherever that may take us. I am loving my job at Clyde Companies and will soon move from Human Resources to executive assistant to the CEO. James and I have been married now for almost 2 years and best friends for 3. We are excited to share a piece of our life here with you!