My baby is TWO today! As Leo from Little Einsteins would say, "I cannot believe it!" Today we will be going to one of Chase's favorite places, the Dr. Phillips Splash Pad. We had his birthday party there last weekend and he had a ball. I will post some pictures later of the party!

Hope you all have a great day!

14 weeks and counting!
I now have a visible baby bump. On Easter, Mammaw was very excited to point it out to everyone that came over. I started to pull out my maternity clothes and will slowly start transitioning to them. I just hate this transition period. I want to wear a shirt saying "No, I'm not fat...just pregnant"!

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter this year. Chase could really get in to the egg hunting. There was a huge egg hunt in Windermere at the beautiful Camp Down on Saturday. After church on Sunday, we went to Nanna and Mammaw's house for a nice Easter dinner and some more egg hunting. Chase had a great time playing with his cousins Bella and Anthony.

I went to see my OB last week for a routine checkup. I am now 13.5 weeks and pretty much out of the first trimester. We listened for he heartbeat and got to hear it faintly for a very short period of time. I guess hte baby is more toward my back so it hard to get the heartbeat on the doppler at this stage. They assured me that this is normal and I would hear it better next month when I returned. I am getting my energy back and the food aversions have subsided. I am still down a couple pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, but I don't mind. It is fun not worrying about what I eat. I can see the changes in my body though. I am starting to have a pooch and may need to dig into the maternity clothes for work next week. It will just be more comfortable. Elastic waist bands. How beautiful!

This weekend we are celebrating Chase's 2nd birthday. My parents are coming up today for the birthday party that will happen this Saturday. I will take pics of my belly then.

Last weekend, the Brinkley's went to Boca to attend Liam's 2nd birthday party. We had a great time. It was great seeing the cousins play together. We also got to go to the Palm Beach Zoo. Chase loved it and said "HeyYo" to every animal! Before we left, we made a stop at Deerfield Beach (my old stomping grounds). You can see in the pics he was pulling his shades down to check out the chicks! So funny.

Chase has really started talking so much over the last week. It is incredible how fast it happens. He says "Tank You" to everything. Now, we are working on "Please". He is back to his old self and no longer sick. So happy about that. I was missing my sweet little boy.

Cute Chase Story:
Chase is a very picky eater, just like his Mamma! It is such a struggle to get him to eat meat, fruits, vegetables. Really the only thing he likes is carbs. Of course, the dietitian's son has to be such a struggle to feed. I've read up on it and it is the parent's job to provide healthy meals and it is up to the toddler to decide how much of it he will eat. He is trying to show his independence. It is so hard to do this because I want him to regain the weight he lost since he was sick for a few weeks. It definitely has given me a better understanding of what my patient's families go through.

Now onto the funny part:
Chase and I were eating lunch one day and he threw his apple on the floor. He knows this is not acceptable in our house and had to go in time out. After time out, he did it again! So I put him in time out AGAIN! When I got him out of time out the second time, I bent down to tell him why he was in time out again. I asked him to look at me, but he would not hold my gaze. I told him to look at mommy's eyes and pointed my finger between my eyes. He looked at me with the biggest smile and said "Nose"! It took all of my energy not to completely bust out in laughter.

Here is an adorable pic of Chase in timeout (I couldn't resist..he is just too cute).

It's Official! We had our fist ultrasound and there is a baby in there! The baby is so small and looks like a little gummy bear. Chase, Dawson and I saw and heard the heart beating at 167 beats per minute. I am now 10 weeks pregnant and my due date is 9/28/08. I will have a C-section so that means the baby will come 9/18/08. I know what you are thinking...No we are not finding out the sex! You all will have to wait. There are only a few surprises in life and waiting to find out the sex is the most special one!

I am feeling very tired these days. Most days, I take a nap when Chase does. I have many food aversions and find that later in the day, I have no appetite. I am down 4#, but know that I will make it up later. This is exactly how my pregnancy went with Chase.

Here are some recent pics. I know it is hard to tell where the baby is on the ultrasound.

Love,
Ali

Take Me out to the Ballgame! Chase's first Braves game!

We were so excited to bring Chase to his first spring training game. He loves all sports and we expected him to be so excited to see the game up close. We were nervous about how he was going to handle it since it was so close to his nap time. Well it was pretty much a disaster. It was so hot and our seats were in the blazing sun right behind home plate. Great seats if it were not so hot! Chase just kinda whimpered most of the time. We moved to a shady place, and then in the grassy area. He just would not calm down and he seems miserable. We left and he immediately fell asleep in the car. He napped at home for over 3 hours. I woke him up and he was burning up. The poor thing had a fever of 103.6! Poor baby was sick! So you can see that the pictures of him look pretty pathetic. I feel so bad!

Cute hat though!

Here is a digital layout I did of our trip to Holden Beach with all our friends. This one highlights all the kids. I still have more to do and will post them as I do them. I have been really into the digi scrapping in hopes of being able to pack up my craft room. That room will becomes Chase's big boy room when the new little one comes.

Sorry for no recent posts. The Brinkley house has been pretty sick. It started with Chase getting sick at his Nanna's house on Valentines Day. Dawson and I were at a Van Halen concert. Chase started throwing up that night so I picked him up the following morning. Unfortunately, he got Nanna and Mammaw sick too. This is the sickest Chase has ever been. I called the docs many times and they feel that it was the flu even though he got the flu shot. The poor boy was pathetic and miserable for several days. He lost at least a pound and he did not have that much to lose. He was sick for a whole week. Dawson had to stay home with him last Wednesday so that I could go to work. Well, I guess Chase was still contagious because Dawson started throwing up Thursday night. He is back to work, but still not 100%. Fortunately, it appears that I have escaped the illness this time. Phew.

BALL!!!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! This year Christmas was very special for us. Chase was very into the season and enjoyed all the festivities! Whenever we turned on the Christmas lights on our tree, he would OOOHHH and AHHHH! This year he was able to open some of the presents by himself. One of his favorite Christmas movies is Frostie the Snowman, just like his mom! He is growing up so quickly!

My parents came to visit us for Christmas so that we could celebrate Christmas with Dawson's family as well. It was so nice to be with family on Christmas Day! Mammaw (a young 92 years old) made 2 pots of her famous Chicken and Dumplins! Alex (Dawson's cousin) and Nick were in town from Virginia. They got married while in town and Chase was the ring bearer!

I hope you enjoy the pics in the slideshow above. As you can see, we have a little Dave Matthews fan like his parents. We put onthe DMB DVD from Piedmont Park (concert I went to with Steph earlier this year) and Chase was mesmerized. He grabbed his guitar so he could be like Dave. When Carter would have a drum solo, Chase grabbed his drum sticks and beat on his drum. After each song, he clapped with the audience. I love it!!!

Who is Mr. 2 Bits???
I realize I have a mixed bag of friends and family... So here is an explanation for all you Seminoles, Wildcats, Volunteers, Dawgs, Cocks and Darn War Eagles!!!

Happy Halloween!

This year was so much fun dressing up Chase for Halloween. I was a little nervous about how he would react to seeing me with paint on my face. He is going through that stranger anxiety phase and gets uncomfortable with unfamiliar faces. Fortunately, he loved it. He would get the biggest smile on his face when he looked at me and would ROAR! It was hilarious!

Chase really suprised me by the way he would just walk up to people and dig right into the candy bowl. I think he was just excited to see so many little people his size running around in funny outfits. We even braved the very scary house down the street and Chase did fine (even when the monster ran out with the chainsaw)!

At the end of the night, Chase ran to the front door every time the doorbell rang. He pulled the blinds aside to look out the window and squealed with delight when he saw the trick or treaters on our doorstep. Dawson had to hold Chase back when I passed out the candy. A few times, Chase ran out the front door after the other kids. He did not want the night to end!

Hope you all had a great Halloween this year. I want to see come pictures of you all dressed up!

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Happy Dave Matthews Day!

This was an incredible day! Dawson and I left Chase with my parents and went to West Palm to our hotel room. Immediately, we went to city Place to find a bar to watch the Gators. We were so happy to see the Gators DOMINATE over the Vols (ha ha Uncle Ed)! Then, we were off to the Dave Matthews concert! We had the best time. We danced our butts off and had the time of our lives. We got seats dead center on the 19th row and sweat down to our underwear! I love a good concert and that definately goes to the top of my list of best times!!!

Holden Beach Helicopter Weekend 2007!

Well, we just got back from an amazing vacation in Holden Beach, NC! This was the first trip we took Chase with us and it was so much fun! Chase was able to experience his first plane ride and for the most part did great.

JP's mom was so generous to let us all (Celones', Schwiegerath's, Brinkley's and McLaughlin's) stay at her beach house. All the kids were there and it was so cool seeing them play together. The older boys had a secret club with a hidden fort. Later, we found that they hoarded a bunch of junk food in their secret fort where they would snack all day. No wonder they were never hungry for their meals!

Speaking of meals, we were all spoiled because JP cooked most of our amazing meals! I am talking omelets, strawberry pancakes, T-bone steak, chicken that falls off the bone, and baked spaghetti. It was incredible! I must not forget to also mention that Ben smoked a pork butt and brought that for us on the first night. It was so good! He brought a "special sauce" to go on it that was incredible. I may need him to send me some since I cannot find anything like it in Publix!

Our days were filled with fun at the beach. Chase would squeal with excitement when we put his feet in the sand. Then, he would take off like a bullet running for the ocean. Fortunately, there was a lot of beach before the shoreline so we had time to catch him. He really enjoyed riding the big waves in the sea. I can't wait til he can swim on his own so that I don't have to hold him the whole time.

Jason and JP tried to catch some fish for dinner, but only came up with two sharks! Scary! Even scarier is that the guys were on a sandbar when they caught the baby sharks. Fortunately, momma shark did not come to rescue her babies.

I look forward to this becoming an annual thing. It was so nice to catch up with old friends and see the children develop lasting friendships. I hope that those of you who could not attend this year will make in the future. Thank you so much JP, Michelle, Karen and Jim for making this trip a reality! We have been talking about this for so long and I am so happy we finally did it!

First Boat Ride

This [ast Saturday, the Brinkley crew stayed with the Massey's in Vero. We enjoyed an amazing day on their boat. Thank you guys so much for taking us out! It was Chase's first boat ride and he absolutely loved it. He especially liked the shrimp bucket. He kept trying to reach in and pull out the shrimp. At one point, he got so excited and his paci fell out of his mouth and into the bucket. fortunately, we grabbed it before he could put it back into his mouth. The kids played hard all day and finally crashed mid afternoon. Check out Marley and Chase taking their afternoon nap on the boat.

Cooper plays so well with Chase and Marley. It is so cute watching them all interact! In the morning, Chase crawled into Marley's baby stroller and Cooper pushed Chase all over the house. Marley was trying to get Chase to kiss her baby. It is just too darn cute!!!!

The following day, Chase and I drove to Boca to visit my family. We had a blast hanging out with Liam at a little kids waterpark. Mimi even got her hair wet! Chase loves playing with the dogs and they really miss him when he is gone!

Digi Scrapping!

I know it is summer and I am just getting around to doing my Christmas pics. It is hard with a toddler running around. I am trying to learn how to do this digi scrapping, but there is a huge learning curve. This was made with a template from atomic cupcake.

Monkey Joe's!

Over the weekend, the Brinkley family joined the McLaughlin's and Ragan's at Monkey Joes. Monkey Joe's is a huge warehouse full of Bounce Houses (Moon Walk) and

blow up slides, etc. It was packed since it was the weekend and quite overwhelming. He had a great time playing with Chase on all the fun slides. It was so funny watching him try to walk in the Bounce House.

I love the picture above of Chase getting ready to go down the slide. This is totally his "very excited" face. Now, doesn't that make you smile!

We made it 2 hours at that place. By the time we left, Dawson and I were sweating bullets. It was so nice to visit with Nicki, Skip, Aidan and Izzy. Thanks for stopping by on your way to Sarasota!

The Beach!!!

Last Friday, Chase and I joined some friends at Cocoa Beach. There were 7 adults and 15 kids...I know, crazy! It completely wore Chase and me out!

I brought a toddler raft for Chase to ride the waves. He absolutely loved it! He had no fear of the water and really enjoyed playing at the shoreline. His swimmy diaper started getting really heavy (from all the sand and water) and it would make him off balance. I wish you could have seen him stumbling all over the place.

Next time, Daddy will need to join us. Hopefully, we will be able to make it over to the beach for his birthday.

This is a cute clip from Chase's bath last night. He was a root a toot tooting! make sure you let it buffer before watching it.

Here is a cute picture of Chase's new haircut. We cut off a little more this time and he looks like a little man (sniff sniff). He also has a bit of a wave to his hair now that it is shorter on top. So cute!!!

Last week, Dawson and I celebrated for 6 days in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. We were celebrating our anniversary (late) and his BIG PROMOTION to Finance Director. Finally, he is reaping the rewards for all his hard work. We found out the day before we left for vacation! What a way to go!

The Dominican Republic is beautiful, but a very poor third world country. Where we stayed it is known as the "kite surfing capital of the world". They were actually having a kite surfing championship the week after we left (right on the beach of our resort)! We didn't see the signs for free lessons until it was too late (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Besides, there were about 50 kite surfer and 50 windsurfers out there at any given time. I was nervous that I would get caught up in someone elses line. I have tried windsurfing once and it was so hard.

We went on an amazing waterfall tour. We were told that we had to walk through the water to get to the waterfalls. Therefore, we had to wear a lifevest, swim shoes, and a helmet. We both thought that we would be able to wade in the water and see the waterfalls. Nooooo...we actually climbed up all seven waterfalls. At times, I did not know how we would be able to do it. It just seemed impossible, but our tourguides made it all possible. Seriously, we climbed on top of our guides ande they also pulled us up to the next level. It was exhillerating looking up at the beautiful rock formations and water rushing down. Once we finally reached the top, we slid down 5 of the falls and then got to jump down the last two. It definately got our hearts pumping! I wish we had pictures to show you. It was an amazing an amazing experience that I would do again and again!!!

Chase stayed with his Nanna and Mammaw. It was very hard being away from him for so long, but definately a much needed vacation. He loves being over there and kept them busy.

My mom still has the pins in her arms, but is able to do so much more now. She will have surgery to remove the pins in 2 weeks. Then rehab.

Happy Father's Day!

We had a wonderful day celebrating the men in our life. Sheryl had the family over for a wonderful lasagna dinner. Chase had a great time running all over Sheryls house and sharing his toys with Max (the dog). Chase also got to experience stairs for the first time. He was so proud of himself when he reached the top. I am glad we don't have stairs at our house. It sure would be exhausting following him up and down the stairs all day.

Dawson and I are going on a much needed vacation for a week. Nanna, Mammaw and Sheryl will be watching Chase for us. I am feeling a bit sad about leaving him for that long, but we really need the time away.

It has been 2 weeks since my mom's surgery. She is doing a lot better than she was the first week after the surgery. She can now do more things with her hands and has gotten out of the house quite a bit. She will have the pins in for another month and then rehab.

Chase (14 months) and Liam (15 months)

Things are better at the Brinkley household. I am so glad May is over! The swelling in my hand has gone down and hopefully soon will have my normal full range of motion back.

My mom ended up needing surgery on both wrists and this was done last Monday. She has pins in both arms and has been in excruciating pain. She needs help doing everything. Chase and I went down to Boca on Sunday for a few days to help out my parents. It lifted my moms spirits seeing Chase and Liam together. The boys are walking/running all over the place.

Everyday, my mom's pain seems to improve. She will have the pins in for 6 weeks and then will need to have therapy. Amanda has been a huge help by going over there everyday to help my mom do the most basic things. Please pray for her pain to subside and a speedy recovery.