Chase the Magic Trick-Boy!

ok, it's not a magic trick, but this is Chase's big trick that he learned two weeks ago (January 28th, to be exact :)).  There's no stopping him now!

Christmas with the Hulets (aka "Tradition...who cares?")

I wanted to document our time in Pennsylvania this past Christmas.  Our families don't live close to each other (almost at opposite coasts), so we take turns between the Beazers and Hulets every year for Christmas.  This year was the year of the Hulets!  All of us came home this year (except for my li'l brudder, who is serving a mission in Birmingham, England), and with our spouses and kids there were 15 of us in one house!  Our house isn't that big, so it was quite a feat :)  And there's nothing like driving 14 hours to get there!  The drive actually wasn't too bad.  Buddy drove the whole way, and I alternated between entertaining Chase and entertaining Buddy.  It's hard work, believe me :)  Chase was awesome the whole trip, though I felt bad that he had to be strapped in the whole time we were driving.  We did the drive all in one day, but we stopped for every meal so that we wouldn't all go crazy in the car.  We were the first ones to get home, so it was nice to settle in while things were still a bit quiet.  It wasn't quiet for long, but I love that about my family :)  We spent Christmas vacation playing games (both the board and the wii variety), going skeet shooting, playing volleyball, soccer/chair soccer, eating delicious food, singing/playing the piano, doing puzzles (or was it just a puzzle?), watching movies, taking our hairy little sister on walks, playing with babies/kids,

 skyping with our little brother who's on his mission (so fun!  Usually they are just supposed to call on the phone, but his mission president allowed skype calls in one area at the bishop's house),

and just hanging out together.  It's been a joke in our family for the past few years that we don't keep any traditions anymore, and it's kind of true.  But there are a few traditions we DID keep:  skeet shooting,

Santa coming to visit on Christmas Eve,

 pjs to open Christmas Eve (only for the grandkids this time), and watching Muppet Christmas Carol (best Christmas carol movie, ever!).  It's fun to have traditions, but it's also fun to try new things!  Like eating dinner hosted by an Amish Family at their house (they do it to earn some extra money, and their food is pretty delicious!  mmmm...),

and we tried a new way of exchanging gifts this year.  A lot of us were either poor or were spending a lot of money just to get to PA for Christmas (or both), so we decided to draw names and wrap random objects from around the house  for each other.  Kind of like white elephant (or I've heard some people down here call it "Dirty Santa"), but this idea stems from something we tease our mom for doing:  one Christmas she was giving my two older sisters professional teeth whitening as a present, and she felt that since their expensive present couldn't be wrapped, they would feel bad that it seemed like the other kids had more presents to open.  So she wrapped things that already belonged to them so they could "have something to open."  We love you, mom!  It was pretty funny when they opened their presents and were like "umm...mom, this is the gift my best friend bought me while she was on a trip." :) The end result of our Hulet gift exchange 2010 was pretty funny, and I have to say that my oldest brother wins the prize for funniest present.  He drew Buddy's name, and Buddy opened his gift to find an empty glass jar that he promptly opened:

Then Buddy showed us all what was written on the top of the jar:

I can't believe he smelled it!  And of course my mom didn't actually toot in the jar, but my brother did!  Gross, right?  But funny :)  I don't know why Buddy and I both got bathroom-related presents, but my little sister wrapped up this huge body pillow that we have over the years lovingly called "cuddle poop" or "poop log" (when my mom bought it she insisted it was a "cuddle log").  And what goes best with the biggest log ever?  A plunger, of course!  Sorry the picture has a weird smudge on it.

 This is my bro-in-law with his "Hulet exchange 2010" present.  And this is my sis-in-law with her REAL ipod docking speakers.  Both awesome presents :)

We had such a fun time at home with my family, and we can't wait for Beazer Christmas 2011 coming up this year!

Oh, and to wrap up this post, here's a picture I found on my camera as I was uploading photos.  Obviously taken by herself :)  That's what you get for pranking my camera, Droolie!  Bam!

Chase: 7-8 months

It's so crazy that Chase is 8 months old already!  In the past two months, he's learned a lot of new tricks, and he actually gained some weight!  Since I didn't have a separate 7 month post, I'll try to split up what he's learned/done between 7 and 8 months from memory:

7 months (before December 21st):  Chase sits up pretty well, and is getting pretty good at leaning forward onto his hands from the sitting position.  He is drooling like crazy still, and he eats his solids really well.  Nursing is not fun because he gets distracted so easily and he never seems to be hungry.  He stays pretty content during the day, and we are trying to get him to only wake up once to eat at night (sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't).

8 months:  Chase seems like he's so close to crawling, but he gets really frustrated by it.  He is really good at going from being on his tummy to getting to the seated position, and it seems like he is always moving!  Gone are the days that he would sit still.  It's so hard to change his diaper now, and I've finally given up on nursing him.  It was getting way too frustrating, and it seemed like it was always a struggle to get him to nurse.  I still nurse him at night, though, when he's half-asleep, so I haven't stopped altogether yet.  He takes a bottle well, but he still doesn't eat as much as the dr said he should be eating.  It's not like I can force him to eat, so I just hope he's getting what he needs.  He's started to get his first little injuries now that he's always moving.  It seems he is always pitching forward into things, and he pulled a chair onto himself the other week.  I think he was trying to use it to lift himself up--I didn't expect that he would be that strong!  He likes jumping in the jumperoo, but he looks like a riverdance member when he does--jumping on his little tiptoes :)  And just this past week we noticed his two bottom teeth coming in!  Finally!  We're excited that he's finally getting teeth, but with that and being congested, all his sleeping progress had gone out of the window.  He was getting consistent at only waking up once at night, but now he's back to waking up 3-4 times.  I guess it's not as bad as other teething stories I've heard.  Also, I'm wondering if he'll just skip crawling, because it seems like all he wants to do is be walked around the house.  He especially loves walking to the entertainment center so he can open and close the bottom doors--over and over again--and then pull out all of the DVDs.  Good thing he's so stinkin' cute!  Here's proof:

(It snowed in Memphis!  Buddy's school was closed for the snow day, and we played outside for...five minutes!)

(Chase playing with his older girlfriend (by two months))

(Chase and his bigger twin Isaac.  Apparently Chase has darker skin than most white babies, since our camera makes the other kids look like they're glowing in comparison :))

(Chase and his first tooth pictures!  Really, it's his first teeth though, since both bottom ones are coming in at the same time.)

(He's almost as good at winking as I am:)

(Also, we love our root beer around here...)