I am now in my THIRD trimester! Can you believe it? This pregnancy has gone by so quickly. We had our second ultrasound yesterday and everything was perfect with the baby. The baby was looking right at us as you can see in the picture. The baby now weighs approximately 2 pounds and it's heart rate was in the 130's. The sonographer said that the baby was sleeping at the time. I should have eaten some candy right beforehand to give it a sugar rush. Then we would have seen some good movement. I am getting bigger and starting to move slower. I forgot how much your body starts to ache in the last part of pregnancy. I still manage to get to spin class at least weekly.

Dawson and I have been working really hard to get Chase's big boy room ready for him. It is a long process putting together furniture and clearing out my craft supplies. We still have a way to go, but I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel. I hope to have him in his own room by the week after my birthday. I know that will be somewhat of an adjustment for him and will possibly have some sleepless nights. Chase needs to move rooms long enough before the baby is born so that he does does not feel like he is getting shoved aside.

Yesterday, we also went to Chase's first swim class. He was definitely the most advanced in the class. The teacher would give us some one on one time since he was obviously very comfortable with the water. We will have to go to class every other day for the next 2-3 weeks.

Chase continues to surprise us everyday with his emerging personality. He is such a fun kid to be around.

After 12 years, I got to meet up with my old roommate from college. Wendi Dearsman (now Davenport) and I lived together my sophomore and Junior years. Within the last year, we got in touch thanks to the powers of google. She was in town from Cali visiting her sister who lives in the Orlando area. It was like no time had passed. She looked exactly the same!
Wendi is a breast cancer survivor. Yeah, I know she is my age!!! Scary! She is 2 + in the clear, but it was incredible hearing about her experience. The most surprising thing to me was that she would go to spin class after chemo! I am talking the same day! PICC line and all! She would even change the dressing all by herself after each class. That is super human! Now, when I am struggling to get through a class, I just think of her for inspiration! WOW!
I look forward to getting to see her more often since her sister lives in central Florida.

Here is another layout of our awesome week at the beach! Unfortunately, Chase brought back a little present with him. I brought him to the doctors today and he has a terrible ear infection. It is not contagious, but he will be on Augmentin for the next 10 days and they also gave me ear numbing drops. Even though he is not feeling his best, he still doesn't complain much! This morning he was tugging on his ear and said "ouchy ear". That is really the only reason why I brought him into the doctor. I am glad I did. Now I know he has a high threshold for pain. This is the first time he has been on antibiotics in his life. That breastmilk has kept him well for the last 26 months. :)












Chase continues to surprise us everyday with the new things he learns. The other day while in the pool, Chase counted to 10! I couldn't believe it! He even, moved his fingers like he was using them to count! So cute!

My cousin Sarah sent me a link to her new blog on shutterly. It looks like a much better set up than this blog format. I love how you can have access to all your photoalbums on the blog. that way if family or friends want to order any prints, they can directly from the blog. So I am going to investigate it a little more and decide what to do. I may be making the switch. We will see.

Last week, we were lucky to spend the week with great friends at the annual Holden Beach vacation. We had so much fun watching the little ones run around on the beach and playing together. The adults were outnumbered by kids. That made it a little exhausting at times, but well worth it. Special thanks to the McLaughlin's, Karen and Jim for generously sharing their huge beach house with all of us. This is something the kids will always look back at with fond memories. More pictures to come!

Click here to view this photo book.

I can't believe I finally finished this album. My first digital album. I cannot wait to get it in the mail so I can thumb through it! Enjoy!

Doing a little catch up on my digi scrapping. I am trying to complete my 2007 album before this baby is born. I am going to have it printed as a 12 x 12 book from Shutterfly. Here is my layout on my summer tour with Dave Matthews :)

Click on the image to get a larger view of the journaling.

Chase and I met up with friends at the Caribbean Beach Resort. Tracey (Turner) Cassidy and Emily (Withers) Edwards came to Orlando to go to Disney with their boys. Chase loves hanging out with the older kids and he really liked Pace, Emily's oldest. It was so cute watching them run around laughing at each other!

Pictured: Roan and Caleb Cassidy, Dash and Pace Edwards and Chase. I love this picture! What good boys posing for the camera!

OK I am a little biased, but don't you think this is the cutest kid! I entered him in the Parents.com cover model contest. Click here to vote for Chase!
Choose 5 stars and the Recommended link.

20 weeks - The half way mark!

It is hard for me to believe that I will have a baby in my arms in just 4 months and 1 week. Time sure flies the second time around. Chase does keep my mind off things and keeps me busy. I have been feeling the little one move a little bit now. My belly is expanding and I am definitely low on energy. Fortunately, I can sneak a nap in the afternoon if I need it.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you (especially first time mom's Kelly and Tracy). We had a wonderful Mother's Day at the new Wyndham Resort in Panama City Beach. We were able to stay for 4 nights. Chase really loves the beach! You should see him running toward the beach squealing "Beach, Beach!" He is fearless and runs right into the waves. Chase also learned to hold his breath underwater in the pool during our trip. He got a kick out of looking at his mommy and daddy underwater. Hopefully, this will make his swim lessons later this summer a little easier.

Cute Chase Story:
Throughout the day, Chase will often call out for his dad. You can tell he really loves playing with dad and misses him when he is at work. Well this morning, I was leaving for work and Chase did not want me to go. He wrapped his arms around my leg and whined for me to stay. So sad to see and made my heart melt.

After work, I noticed my sleep shirt was sitting on the floor near the front door. I asked Dawson about it and he told me that after I left this morning Chase continued to throw a fit. Chase then went in our room, got my sleep shirt and carried it around like it was his blankie. He dragged it to the front window and looked for me.

SO SWEET! Made me feel so loved!!!!

Here I am at 19 weeks. Almost half way done!!!!

Girls Weekend in Atlanta 2008!
Well, this year I made it to my UF girls weekend! No hospitals for me this time. We all met up in Atlanta this year. Friday, we traveled to Chateau Elan Resort and Spa for the night and treated ourselves to massages. It has been so long since the 5 of us have been together (almost 2 years). We spent most of the time catching up and swapping stories. We even got to meet Steph's new beau (don't want to call him boyfriend yet...might freak her out). It was a wonderful weekend and I am already looking forward to next year when we get together. I wonder where it will be next year!

I am now 18 weeks prego and have a clearly visible baby bump. A few days ago, I started feeling a little tapping in my belly. Very exciting. My last doctors appt was last Tuesday and I am up to my prepregnancy weight. I should start steadily gaining now. At least that is what happened when I was pregnant with Chase. Chase and I got to hear the heartbeat (140's). I will get some belly shots soon and post them.

In a week, Dawson and I will be celebrating our 7 year anniversary. WOW!

The Brinkley's went to the Orange and Blue game!

Chase's Birthday Party!

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!

h