Just a little milestone

This video is from April 30th, so Chase was about 11 months and a week old.  Nowadays he's cruising, and it's so nice not to be dragged around the house anymore!  He just gets there by himself, and it's so cute to watch.

BUSY MONTH!

What with my birthday, finals, and moving to Canada, I'm pretty sure I had no down time at all these past few weeks.  Not any time that I would spend blogging when I could be sleeping instead, anyway...But all's well now.  We made it to Canada!  Unscathed!  Well, almost.  Buddy got a speeding ticket in Iowa, and then I was jealous of all that attention he got, so I got one for myself in Montana.  What happened to the days when they used to just give warnings?  I've never even had a ticket before, and we weren't even speeding that much.  I guess we'll have to join the "go the exact speed that's posted" club to avoid future infractions.  Also, we were afraid our car wouldn't make it the last five hours, but with prayer and a lot of luck we did just fine.

We've been in Canada for a few weeks now, and I still haven't unpacked all of the luggage.  Why, you ask?  I couldn't say.  Must be my laziness that always seems to creep in at inappropriate times.  But I have some blog-updating to do, so here's the beginning of it:

Remember how Chase loved to stand by the dishwasher?  He's a climber now, and he loved climbing up on the door of the dishwasher.  Luckily we moved before he had a chance to fall off sometime.  Now we don't have a dishwasher, so I think Chase has forgotten all about his favorite toy.

 Chase loved "helping" me pack during the few weeks before we left.  He was the perfect size for that shelf, and he seemed to like it.

 Need any more evidence of his new climbing ability?  He got up on that stack by himself, too.  There weren't any more stacks after that.  I had to lay all of the boxes next to each other.  Lesson learned from moving:  get a babysitter while packing and moving stuff.

 Some of our group of SCO friends at the senior send-off dinner.  We'll miss seeing all of you guys!

 Me and some of the SCO wives that were there.  Such an awesome group of women!

 Look closely and you'll see the best-kept secret of the SCO Mormon guys (until this year):  Justin's ear piercings!  He had worn earrings (studs?  it sounds weird to call them earrings when a guy is wearing them...) so long in high school that the holes have never closed :)

 Last play date for Chase with Tegan, Javen, and Jackson at that same playground we went to the week before.  It was even better the second time!  We'd totally be going there every week if we were still in Memphis this summer.

 The only sight-seeing we did on our LONG drive from Memphis to Canada.  Buddy really wanted to get a picture where Chase's head was part of Mount Rushmore, but we had some difficulty getting it...

We finally gave up and just posed for a family pic.  You're lucky it's not a close-up of us, since our travel  selves isn't the prettiest sight.

Birthday/KC & JoJo visit

Yay!  We had visitors!  It was so fun to have my sister and her husband come visit us for my birthday :)  Thanks for the awesome birthday present...and the free dinner...and the delicious dessert!  Best sister of the year award goes to Kaycee!  (sorry, Julie and Jenny, there's still time to steal the award from her if you work hard enough!)

 Chase was such a big helper getting the air mattress ready for them.  I think he was a little scared of the air pump. But look, he's trying to smile!  what a brave boy!  If you're wondering, he gets that courage from me, of course ;)

 Chase with his Aunt Kaycee reading the best book ever on her iPad:  The Monster at the End of This Book.

Helping Uncle Joaquim with his work.  He loves the "delete" button the best, which makes it so fun for the rest of us to try to do anything :)

 We went to the new playground at Shelby Farms.  It's pretty big, and so unique.  I obviously loved the slide :)  Actually, I'm just being a good actress.  That slide wasn't letting me go very fast.

 Can you see all those metal arches behind them on the playground?  The idea is that they'll have climbing plants cover the metal framework and provide some shade.  Too bad we won't be around to ever see if it works.

 The next day we went to the Mud Island River Walk.  Gotta love free fun!  I'm glad I remembered to bring Chase's swimsuit this time.

 Trying to be cool like Daddy.  I think it worked.

And the best part of all:  BIRTHDAY PAVLOVA!  Oh, it's so tasty!  It's like a meringue-type base with a bunch of fruit smothered on top.  Mmmmm.  I tried to make it one time with Kaycee's recipe, but she must have left out a secret ingredient or something, 'cause mine didn't taste as wonderful.  She was probably tricksy and did it on purpose so that hers would always taste the best!  It worked!  But I'm so glad she was nice enough to make it for my birthday.  See why she gets best sister award?  Just look at that pavlova!

ps.  No, your eyes aren't tricking you-there are no candles on that pavlova.  But you can bet that if there were I'd blow them off that thing!