Happy Belated Father's Day!

Clearly this is way overdue. Prepping for the move takes up any free time we have!

Better late than never!

On Father's Day in addition to being a day to celebrate daddy, we also had the 5K for the NICU, and Pat and Jenna's engagement party. All of those events on top of showings for the house and packing(still!) have kept us pretty busy. I hope that all of the fathers out there had a wonderful day!

Our day started bright and early with the race. We got to see some docs and staff from the NICU, as well as lots of families with graduates from the unit. While Jenna and I did the "1 mile" fun walk, Jas and Pat ran the 5K. Jas rocked the run. In fact I almost missed his finish because I didn't think he was going to be that fast. He'd been squeezing in some training in between working on the house recently, and it really paid off. Uncle Pat had a sore toe and a bit of sunburn from golf the day prior, but he also had a great time!

Later in the day we headed to Oregon Ridge for the engagement party, and we had a blast. Chase thoroughly enjoyed crawling all over the place and his first turkey burger! It was great to finally meet the rest of Jenna's family, and we can't wait til next year's wedding:)

Going to cut this post short and let everyone know ahead of time that I might not get to post for a little while. The next few days are going to be a whirlwind, but I promise to post lots of pics, including those from the past few weeks and ones of our new house as soon as things settle down. We're not completely leaving Baltimore yet, but we'll be starting the transition back to good old Jersey:)

Wordless Wednesday

Chase's First Birthday!!

Chase had a wonderful first birthday! The day started early with a visit to the bakery and then off to the NICU so everyone could see how far he'd come. It still seems like just yesterday he decided to surprise us, and the staff were amazed to see how much he's grown. We were hoping to see some other families while at the hospital, because we'll never forget the day we met a family returning to the NICU on their daughter's first birthday. They truly brightened our day, and gave us so much hope that Chase would be fine. We vowed we'd return on his first birthday to share that experience with another family. Although we only ended up seeing the staff it is so important for Chase to continue to have all of those wonderful people in his life. We wouldn't be where we are a year later without all of their incredible efforts.

Countdown to the party! Later of course we welcomed lots of friends and family for the day's festivities:) I figured sharing lots of photos from the celebration would be best. I didn't have my camera out the entire time, so they are kind of scattered-sorry. Trying to entertain everyone this year was a little more challenging because I was also of course in "mommy mode"

Here Chase is on his new ride on Ferrari. His present from Mommy and Daddy of course. One of the later pics shows it with all the decals. The present went perfectly with the race car party theme!

I forgot to take a before shots of all of the decorations, so everything looks a bit disheveled. Oh well! Here is the road table and road course on the front porch.

Daddy's lego cars served as props. Luckily they didn't suffer too much damage from the kiddos.

I wish I had taken a better pic of the banner. It said "Chase" with race cars on either side. I found a wonderful woman on Etsy that makes personalized decorations for parties!

One of many shots of the birthday cake(s) Jaime truly did an awesome job. Unfortunately she and the family couldn't make it down. (Don't worry I shared your business card with some of the guests:) The silver car is of a Honda S2K, Jas' baby he had to sell to make room for Chase.

Balloons! Thanks MomMom, Fujisan(lol) and Aunt Zandy

The next few shots are of some of Chase's little friends. Everyone had a blast!

Mason chowing down

Fletcher and his Mama

Julia enjoying the pool

Cole was all smiles

Caden looking rather serious

James. Morgan, and Brynn racing cars

Lilly and Wil getting in some pool time

Phin, Brynn, and Lilly with the ball popper. Summer managed to destroy all of the golf balls and three plastic balls from this toy. She normally never messes with Chase's toys, but she thought everything that hit the ground was fair game during the party.

Halfway through the party Chase was ready for a nap. Here he is getting in some MomMom and PopPop time.

Jackson adores Chase. I know he doesn't look thrilled in this picture, but they are so cute when they play together at daycare.

More cake shots!

CAKE TIME!!

Mmmm, that's good stuff.

He looked like he was going to fall asleep in the cake. He soon got a second wind(perhaps from all the sugar) and was back to crawling around like a madman. We'll post video soon:)

Mommy and Daddy love you so much! Happy 1st Birthday!

Chase ended up opening his presents the next day. Well he crawled around with the balloons while Mommy and Daddy opened the presents!

With his decked out car. The decals are all meticulously aligned thanks to Uncle Adam! Check out Chase's shirt too. We had just gotten back from brunch and the soapbox derby, so he had to wear his F1 style shirt:) He loves the car, but hasn't quite figured out the dismount yet-we'll post a video soon because it sounds like he makes Vroom, Vroom noises when he's moving around!

All in all Chase's 1st birthday turned out wonderfully, and it was great to share his special day with so many wonderful people. What a loved little boy!

For Your Birthday

Dear Chase,

Today June 4, 2011 marks your first birthday. One year ago you surprised us with a very unexpected and emotional early arrival. An arrival that threw Mommy and Daddy's world into a tailspin, but brought us an incredible amount of joy. We weren't quite prepared to be parents, and we certainly weren't ready for everything your premature birth brought to our world, but we wouldn't trade this year for anything.

Chase for the past year you've taught Mommy and Daddy to cherish each moment, and take time to enjoy every day. Each morning we love being greeted with your smiling face peering over the rails of your crib, and each night that same smile reminds us of how lucky we truly are. You have always been one of the happiest babies, and after a few early bumps in the road now one of the healthiest too!

Mommy and Daddy have loved sharing in all of your "firsts" and each day you teach us something new. You're our peanut, our "Nut-Nut", and our entire world. What an unforgettable first year, and now we're ready for more.

We love you more than you'll ever know. Happy 1st Birthday Chase!

Olive Juice,

Mommy and Daddy

M.I.A.

Sorry we haven't done an update this week. Besides the week bringing a record heatwave to good ol' Bmore, it also brought us Chase's first fever, first trip to the zoo(sort of) and drum roll please........the end of the week as you all know is Chase's first birthday!!!

In between finishing up things around the house(we finally have a back door that doesn't require a skeleton key), packing, and prepping for the party, the week has kind of gotten away from us. Tomorrow is Friday and we still have a boatload to do! As of right now there will be fifteen little ones ranging in age from 3mos up to 5yrs. descending upon the Swanson household. Including all of their parents, our other great friends, and family I think we're looking at about 50 people. Yikes!! Well I said we wanted to go out with one last big party before we move. Oh yeah, in case you didn't know, or figure it out from previous posts, we're headed back to Jersey after 11 yrs. in the Baltimore area. Random thought before I go tend to the little one- Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of my unknowingly walking around an entire day at work in labor. It seems like just yesterday...