Baby Andrew Kip Chase

Weighing in at over 9 lbs, Baby Andrew was born on December 27th, 2009.

Congratulations Nicole and Kip. He is adorable!

Alice & Jack playing together at the hospital. They are so cute together and love to laugh and chase each other around.

Andy trying to familiarize Alice with a real baby.


Alice admiring baby Andrew

What an adorable family! Congrats Again!

Christmas Day 2009

Santa sure found his way to Alice this Christmas. . . Let's just say it was a definite challenge trying to make room for all the new toys in our small house!


This dropped jaw face was Alice's reaction to every gift she opened. She was so excited and wanted me to open all the toys right after opening.

Alice with her little people castle. Thanks Uncle Jay & Auntie Cait!

Christmas is just better with Elmo slippers. . .

Alice loves to "color paper" on her new easel she got from Grammy and Grandpa, and we have lots of new play food for her kitchen.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Love, Tara, Alice, Andy, & Baby Girl #2!

Bouncy Time

Andy was able to take the day off on Wednesday so we headed to Monkey Joe's for a little bouncing fun with Alice. Andy did all the bouncing and carrying -- I just took the photos! Alice had a blast and left saying, "fun, fun, fun, fun."





Miss Confident :)


Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Scary Santa!

When the Timme's called asking if Andy could play the role of Santa at their family gathering, he obviously couldn't resist. . .(remember the ostrich?). I brought Alice over for her last minute chance to ask Santa for something great this year, but she was a little terrified of her daddy with a beard. Poor thing! Afterwords, she was very curious saying, "Bye Santa," and "Santa Comin?" She just wanted to visit with Santa from a safe distance :)

It's a GIRL!

Alice is going to have a little sister! We are beyond excited! We took Alice to the ultrasound today and she enjoyed watching her little sister on the TV. She kept saying, "baby tummy" and looking from my stomach back to the TV screen. A couple of time she called it a "doggie" or "Gonzo" (I quickly informed her there will be NO more dogs in our house :)

We are so thankful everything is looking well with baby girl #2. She is definitely a blessing to our family.

What Alice has been up to. . .

It's hard to believe Alice will be turning 2 in about 1 month! Crazy. Lately, she's been growing up so fast. She has taken a great interest in coloring. She'll sit with her crayons and markers and create so much artwork :) Thankfully, Crayola developed the Color Wonder products which only write on the paper. This is great for church, restaurants, and coloring on the couch :)

Miss Carrie also had a Christmas party for all of Alice's daycare friends. Alice's face is so red in these pictures from running around CRAZY the entire night with her buddies. She loves all her daycare friends and calls them all by name. She especially loves "baby Teegan." Hopefully, that's a sign she's ready to be a big sister :)

Alice trying to tickle (or push) baby Teegan in the front. Let's hope it's just tickling.

And for the biggest news yet. . . . Alice is taking to potty training! It's only been a few days so I'm not expecting anything other than baby steps, but the last three nights, she's been pottying on the potty! Never thought such a thing would make me so excited :) Hopefully, over Christmas break, we'll make some more progress, but for now it's just familiarizing her with the process. It's hilarious to see how proud she is when she accomplishes the task. Her face just beems (as you can see in the picture).


Other than that, we've been reading Christmas books to learn all about Santa-- not sure how much she'll understand this Christmas, but by the looks of things already, she is going to be one spoiled child :)

Lil' Irish Dancer

Alice has been dancing to this CD since she was about 3 months old (I'm sure you can find the post if you look WAY back). Anyway, she now knows how to go to the player and turn it on. She'll then grab both of our hands and make us stand up and dance with her in the kitchen. She loves it! And what moves she has. . . . check them out!

At the Circus!

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we headed to Chicago to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Kingsley side of the family. It was wonderful having all the cousins together. On Saturday we took all the kids to the Ringling Brothers Circus. Alice was mesmerized, but mostly enjoyed the animals, especially the elephants. When the elephants left the stage, Alice would say, "Where elephants?"

Alice however did leave with two souvenirs from the circus. First, an adorable plush elephant that she now sleeps with every night, and second, an an awful facial bruise from tumbling down two sets of stairs. Yes, she slipped and went face first before I could even grab her or stop her. Other than a bruise and a few minutes of screaming, she was fine, it was me who was a mess. . . just freaked out mostly at what could have happened. Good thing children are resilient!

Playing/throwing children to pass the time before the gates opened.

Emma and Anastasia


Dragging Papa around to play with me.


Camel/Shoulder rides



Amazing Elephants

Before "the fall"

After "the fall: although the bruise continued to crawl down her cheek :(

Gotta have popcorn for the show!


Alice was being very difficult during this attempt at a Christmas photo. . . This is the best we could get :)

TrikyTeet

"TickyTeet" (as Alice pronounces it) was a lot of fun for this little giraffe! She didn't quite grasp the concept of holding out the bag for candy, but she did fully understand how delicious chocolate is saying, "more chocolate peease" over and over again. Of course, I'd open a bag and then somehow manage to finish off the rest myself. Alice decided it would only be polite to wave and say "bye, bye" to every trick or treater and then blow them a kiss from the cutest giraffe EVER! It was cute. Whenever we'd ask her, "Where's the giraffe?" she'd point to her head and outfit and say, "geaffe." The next day I asked her if she liked being a giraffe on Halloween, and she starting looking at her clothes and became very confused about where the giraffe went :)

It is nearly impossible to get her to smile at the camera these days, but she did say "cheese" long enough for me to get this shot.


A little closer incase you didn't see all her beautiful teeth :)


Alice did not want to be carried or put in her stroller. She kept insisting, "walk, walk, walk"


Ready to go!

Tiffany and baby Sadie, the lobster. It's hard to believe Alice fit into that costume last year!

Remember this lobster?????


Bye, Bye


Looks like the rest of this candy is for you and me dad!