Christine & Jim gave us another GREAT present on Christmas morning. They asked us to be Ben's Godparents!!! We are just thrilled and love their little guy so much already. We can't wait to meet him in just 6 weeks (or so)!
Thank you Christine & Jim for choosing us for this great honor - we will be the best Godparents/ Aunt & Uncle that we can:) Love you guys!
Chase is so excited to meet his new cousin too. It will be sooo much fun to have them so close in age! They will probably get in some serious mischief together:)
Here's the cute ornament we got when they asked us to be Ben's Godparents....
Chase's 1st Christmas was a great one!! We stayed in CA this year and spent Christmas with Mom, Dad, Christine & Jim. This is the first year we haven't gone to Colorado in a few years so it was a little different but we had such a great time. We really enjoy the time we get to spend with family and Chase just loves his Grandma & Grandpa and Aunt & Uncle! It is so amazing experiencing holidays with a child now - everything has a whole new meaning and excitement:) It will just get better and better as Chase really starts to get into Santa in the next few years!
The only bummer was Chase is still trying to recover from this yucky stomach bug he has had for a week so we had to deal with a lot of throwing up and "other stuff" - poor little man:( He even got Uncle Jim sick on Friday - sorry Uncle Jim! Chase was a trooper though and we still had a great Christmas. Here are some pics from all the celebrating...
Chase excited it is Christmas Eve! Chase and Grandma on Christmas Eve Family shot after Christmas Eve dinner.. annual tradition of Tutto Fresco! The whole gang after dinner on Christmas Eve Chase's hair is finally starting to come in... Ha Ha Opening a CSU football Christmas morning from Grandma & Papa Hoelting It's Elmo! More gifts from Santa Jim & Christine getting some gear for Ben to cheer on Cal Poly & CU Yum...cardboard! The boys drinking eggnog out of Moose mugs (just like Cousin Eddie and Clarke Griswald) while watching Christmas vacation:) Dad went out and bought Mario Kart for the Wii over the weekend and we had so much fun racing each other! Hours of entertainment:)
We got a chance to do our annual "girls" get-together during Christmas with my best girlfriends from high school. Chandra, Tiffany, Jessica and I met up for brunch along with Dan, Stu, Craig & Chase. It was such a blast to get a chance to spend a few hours together since we are all over the place these days! We missed Kari & Ty - who were up in No Cal. What a great time though - love you girls! Chase all dolled up to go see everyone at brunch! Chase sporting his adorable new hat from Chandra & Dan I could go on and On.... here are all our pics from Christmas...
This weekend Craig and I got a chance to have "date night" while Grandma and Grandpa babysat. We used to go to Hotel Del Coronado every year when we lived in San Diego to see their great decorations. We kept the tradition alive and used our date night to go have drinks at the Ritz Carlton in Dana Point and the St. Regis. We finished with dinner at Salt Creek Grill. Dinner was delicious and they were so awesome there! They knew we were celebrating getting a chance to be out on our own for a night so the manager came over and talked to us and gave us a free appetizer to help celebrate! So nice! Drinks at the Ritz Santa Claus came to the Ritz that night so it was packed and full of little kids...here they are sitting on pillows having books read to them and waiting for Santa! Sand Sculpture when you walk in the St Regis Craig & I at the St Regis... Sunday we had our family Christmas (meaning Craig, Chase & I) and we did our other tradition of having crab legs for dinner. Craig's family does this every Christmas Eve so we do it as our own little family as well:) We also opened a few gifts from each other and saved the rest for Christmas morning. Here's Chase opening one of his gifts.... More pics of Chase.... A Ram Onesie of course:) Family shot Chase excited for all his presents - 4 more days! PS. HAPPY 7 MONTH BIRTHDAY TODAY CHASE!!!!!
Last Sunday I spent most of the day getting in the holiday spirit by baking up a storm! I love making cookies so I was in heaven:) Chase watched me from his walker and Daddy helped by tasting them all:)
We took a trip up to The Grove in LA to have Chase meet Santa and to do some Christmas shopping. The shopping wasn't all that great but the outdoor mall is beautiful and fun to walk around! Craig actually even enjoyed it - Mr. I hate shopping:) Chase did a great job meeting Santa - I was definitely afraid he would lose it with him but he totally smiled and was mesmerized by him! We only had to wait in line about 20 minutes because the weather was a little rainy so I think it kept people away. The Grove has a great little Santa's workshop set up that you go in the take the picture. Chase went right to Santa and smiled! (These are sort of off to the side but you get the idea!) Checking Santa out a little closer... Outside the workshop afterwards..... Craig & Chase while shopping
We went and got Chase's Christmas photos taken today for our Christmas cards... he was such a little ham! He did such a great job and we got some great photos!
Here's our little "Santa"...
We also got Chase's 6 month pictures done today...
Saturday we got to celebrate the arrival of Baby Frisbee! My mom and I planned the shower at our friend Lisa's house in San Marcos so that it would be a convenient location for everyone (thanks again Lisa!) We had a yummy bellini bar and good food. Everyone signed a onesie and a frame for Baby Frizz and also guessed the date of his arrival. Christine received lots of great gifts from everyone! Thanks to everyone for coming to help celebrate - we had a great day!
We can't wait to meet you little nephew!!!!!
There were too many good photos so I put them all on here:)
Chase started sitting up on his own! We discovered this while playing with him this past Monday night and it is like a whole new world - no more laying down all the time! He has so much fun sitting up and playing:) Chase started going to a new baby-sitter Monday (who we absolutely love already) and he started this trick after her first day - Craig joked and said "wow - look what she taught him already!" Here's a good video of Chase laughing that we finally caught on film:)
We had a great Thanksgiving in Tucson spending time with Aunt Kathy, Uncle Jon, Jonathan, Brad & Lindsay! Chase had never made the trip out and he was quite the trooper. The trip there was easy enough - we left at 4:30am to miss the traffic and got there in about 6 1/2 hours. It rained a lot of the drive there and we had to stop a little more often than we normally would - but I guess we better get used to that with a kid:) Here's Chase & Craig keeping warm during a stop at a rest stop to stretch our legs! Chase was very excited for his 1st Thanksgiving - and of course he had a special outfit to celebrate the day! Aunt Kathy bought a cooler for the backyard and the guys were laughing about it until they saw how much beer this thing could hold. After that they couldn't get enough pictures with it! Check out the wig Dad found in the costume room at the theatre.... Lindsay with Chase Chase helping us make Thanksgiving dinner:) Snuggling outside in the cold rain.... Chase & "Great" Aunt Kathy with their aprons on! Our attempt at a few family pics before Thanksgiving dinner... Group picture at dinner We got a chance to see Matt Hathorn again - he is still stationed in Tucson with the Air Force. He tried to get Chase excited about Notre Dame but Chase had already been dressed in full U of A gear by Aunt Kathy & Lindsay! A picture of all the kids Craig, Dad & Uncle Jon got a chance to play golf 2 different mornings - Craig took the camera but forgot to take any pics but I guess they were beautiful courses!
Sunday we started the journey home and ended up in HORRIBLE traffic! It took us 12 hours to get home - aaahhhh! It took us 3 hours to go 30 miles in Palm Springs - poor Chase was so frustrated sitting in his carseat that I finally took him out for awhile (don't worry we weren't moving!) Mom & Dad got home about 4 hours before us - guess the 8 is better than the 10! It was worth it though - we had a great time! We are excited for next year when Chase can help us eat some of that turkey!!!
Santa Claus came to the Ritz that night so it was packed and full of little kids...here they are sitting on pillows having books read to them and waiting for Santa! 
Sand Sculpture when you walk in the St Regis 
Craig & I at the St Regis... 
Sunday we had our family Christmas (meaning Craig, Chase & I) and we did our other tradition of having crab legs for dinner. Craig's family does this every Christmas Eve so we do it as our own little family as well:) We also opened a few gifts from each other and saved the rest for Christmas morning. Here's Chase opening one of his gifts....
A Ram Onesie of course:) 
Family shot 
Chase excited for all his presents - 4 more days! 
PS. HAPPY 7 MONTH BIRTHDAY TODAY CHASE!!!!!
Here's a good video of Chase laughing that we finally caught on film:)
