An Airport All-Star

This year, we are spending Christmas in Arizona.  I have been looking forward to this trip for awhile!  :)  Marcus was kind enough to help Chase and me get to the airport with all our stuff, but then he had to stay in New York for another week of work.  (He'll be flying down on Friday for the following week.)  

Of course I was really nervous about flying with a 12 week old baby.  Who knows how that will play out...  But I guess I should have realized that we seriously have the best behaved baby ever who's always seemed to enjoy hearing airplanes.  

Here's Chase all ready for security:

The scariest part for me was going through security by myself.  With my carry-on, Chase, and his stuff, it was quite the balancing act.  Luckily it was all downhill from there.  He didn't even make a sound waiting in the terminal.  And when we boarded the plane, we were surprised (and relieved) when no one was seated right next to us!  yay :)  And the lady by the window was really nice and said to take as much room as we needed.

Chase was a little squirmy before the plane took off, but that's because he was getting hungry.  He had a bottle during take-off and quickly fell asleep.  He woke up almost half way through the flight and slept until landing.  Pretty impressive for a flight that was over five hours long!  All the flight attendants loved him-- probably mostly because he didn't scream :)

While we were waiting to get off the plane, I set Chase down on the empty seat.  

It's nice he can't really roll yet :)

It was a long flight. ...I usually sleep the whole way, and this time I was too afraid of dropping Chase (or leaning into the aisle when someone walked by and hitting his head), so I watched a lot of Chopped on the JetBlue TV.  But thankfully it wasn't a bad flight.

Some of our welcoming committee:

Brian

My dad and Jonne

Jonne was really excited to see us :)

Welcome to Arizona :)

Chase smiling at Uncle Brian

...Expect many more pictures in Arizona :)

The Roll-Over

So we got it!  On tape!  Well, on a cell phone camera.  Our little man rolled over!  And Marcus saw this time :)  Chase actually did it twice tonight almost back-to-back.  No pun intended.  After the first one, we quickly grabbed a phone to see if he'd do it again.  It wasn't as quick or fluid as the first time, but he did it.  His first official time was on Thanksgiving in Virginia with Ken and Missy.  Now we can say he can really do it-- it wasn't just a fluke :) And I was reading on babycenter, and it says usually babies don't roll from their backs to their stomachs until about four months.  I would be super excited, but this could mean that baby proofing the apartment will come sooner than expected...

Here's a cute video of Chase on his tummy from this morning where he considered rolling over

And here's tonight's video

(if you want to skip to the major event, go to 1:40)

Yes, we call our little superstar Bubs.

Christmas Time

Now that Thanksgiving is officially over, it's Christmastime!  Yay!  I'm really excited to see New York turn into the best Christmas city ever.  Sunnyside is already getting festive with lights and decorations, so it was our turn.

Chase watched as Marcus helped with the ornaments.

Chicago observed too.

Our tree!  And it helps hide some of our mess :)

Marcus wanted to watch The Grinch :)

Chicago loves another new nap spot.

(Actually Chase enjoys naps in his chair near the tree too!)

I'm hopeful of more NYC Christmas pictures this season.  Stay tuned :)

Virginia and Beyond

We had a great time visiting with Ken and Missy in Virginia.  Since Chase has only been in a car seat one time, I was nervous about a five hour drive, but he was great.  Plus now he's been to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C.!  It's convenient how they're all so close :)  And we all had a blast!  On Thanksgiving, Chase actually rolled over by himself!  He's a pro!  Ken, Missy, and I all saw it!  Anyway, here are the pictures I took (and some I stole from Missy).  I'll just narrate through them...

These are all of the drive to Virginia:

And Chase was super happy to meet his Great Aunt Missy

We took the metro in to D.C. on Saturday

Marcus requested a stop at the Air and Space Museum

Marcus even dressed Chase for the visit

And we also went to the Library of Congress.  Ken and Missy got library cards to do some serious research at some point :)

And we took pictures outside the Capitol

We had issues with pictures :)

It was a great trip.  We were so glad we were able to get out of New York and spend a few days with Ken and Missy.  We all had a lot of fun exploring Virginia, wandering around D.C., relaxing at their apartment, and celebrating Thanksgiving.  Hopefully we can do that again! 

Thanksgiving

Living out east definitely has its pros and cons.  We really like it out here, but it's always a little sad around holidays since our families all live west.  Luckily my aunt and uncle recently moved to Virginia, so we had family to visit!  We were really looking forward to spending time with Ken and Missy and getting out of New York City for a few days-- and it was a blast!  My cousin Kelsey is on an internship in D.C. this semester, so she came for Thanksgiving too.  We had a great little group.  Here are the pictures from Thanksgiving.  I'll post again about our trip.  :)

Chase has a super cute turkey bib, so we had to get a picture.

It took a few tries...

The best one :)

Ken and Missy were so nice to host us.  But we wanted to contribute.  Missy wanted another appetizer.  And Kelsey likes cheese balls.  So we made Marcus' family's cheese ball.  And all were happy :)

Ken taught Kelsey and Marcus how to make rolls.

Kelsey wanted to show off the shiny butter on her hand

It was a great lesson-- and the rolls were perfect!

Snacks before dinner

Just about ready for dinner

Yum!

Potatoes and yams!  My favorite.  

 Then Missy desperately tried to get a picture of the group.  It was a very entertaining process, which means I have to post several awkward pictures because they are so crazy.

The final one-- a panoramic that has a few very rough spots as it chopped the pictures together.  Yep, it blew me out of proportion.  But it was fun trying to take the picture :)

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  Only a month until Christmas!!! :)