Day 13 PM

I swear, when it's not one it's the other. Last night poor Maren could not get to sleep. She was crying up a storm. I don't know what was wrong with her. She's better today, but boy was I tired this morning! Plus, Carsyn woke up at seven! Logan has been pretty good the last couple of days. See, I think thet take turns. It's much cooler today than it's been lately. But, it's supposed to be 70 this weekend. We love you!

Day 12 PM

She can walk--it's a miracle. Carsyn's knee is fine now. Logan just woke up from a super-long nap. She must be making up for a lot of missed sleep. Maren's beeing clingy and doesn't want me to put her down. Earlier today Logan was playing with an old, broken camera (but the flash and everything still works). When the UPS man came to the door she asked him if she could take his picture. How funny! We love you!

day 12 am

poor carsyn! apparently her knee is still bothering her. she's limping around and whining about it. logan got off to school just fine. she looked super-cute as usual. maren woke up way to early, but fell back asleep. the girls seem to have a slight cold. the sniffling is so annoying! it's really cloudy today and it's supposed to rain. i hope we can get our walk in. have a good day. we love you lots.

day 11

Remeber when Carsyn was born and Logan had the mystereous foot injury that prevented her from walking for three days? Well, we're re-living that but this time it's Carsyn. However, she's either really hurting or she's a much better actress than Logan was. I don't what on earth happend to her, but she's been crying and whining every couple of minutes and she'll only crawl. It's a school night so we're trying to get to bed early. Logan hasn't had a nap today so I'm about to pull my hair out. And, sweet little Maren hasn't let me put her down all day. Today's one of those days when it would really be nice if you were here. Love you.

day 10

Today was a pretty good day. We were able to sleep in a little before going to church. All three girls were very well-behaved. Carsyn was singing a lot and very loudly. Logan saw two of her teachers and several of her friends, including the "milk boy." Maren is sitting up on her own now. She stays up for quite a while before wabbling over. We went for a walk after it stopped raining, did some laundry, and just hung out. The "Suite Life" marathon continued today. I think we've seen every episode now. Only one more week until the Super Bowl. If the Bears win it will be the most awesome thing since the Dems took the House and the Senate! Thanks for calling last night--it was good to talk to you. We miss you a lot. Love you!

day 9 pm

it's raining here. it actually rained this morning, then this afternoon when we walked the sun came out and it was really warm. now it's raining again. hopefully the girls will be going to bed soon. carsyn took a late nap. we were hoping she'd just stay asleep, but no such luck. maren's been drooling like crazy. i keep checking for a tooth, but none so far. logan's just being logan! we miss you.

day 9 am

we all slept in this morning. consequently, we're off to a late start. we are getting ready for a walk now. logan and carsyn have been crazy lately--and not in a good way. logan has been on her worst behavior and carsyn feeds from that. maren has been good as usual, but she's taking notes on her sisters. we'll see in a year or two--she'll probably be just as bad as they are. today and tomorrow are going to be laundry days since i've been putting it off all week. fun stuff, huh? love you.

Day 8 PM

Just as predicted, all three girls were sleeping at the end of the walk this afternoon. It ended up being a great thing because it was such a nice day that I just pulled a chair out of the garage and sat out in the sun. I was in a tank top and shorts--the weather was terrific. This evening we went over to Visalia to pick up these pictures. We also got the girls Jamba Juice. We hadn't had it in so long--I think they were having withdraw. We're baking a pizza for dinner and watching Disney Channel. We don't have anything planned for this weekend besides laundry. We miss you so much. Wish you were here with us. Love you!

day 8 am

well, carsyn woke up before mom left for work and logan woke up shortly after. oddly enough, maren's still asleep. now whenever we go for a walk today all three will probably fall asleep--which might sound good, but it's extremely difficult to get all three inside without waking one or more of them. so far this morning logan and carsyn have been getting along great. well, as great as they can. they only have two modes: enemies or partners in crime. i don't know which is worse. what will maren be like? love you.

day 7 pm

everyone had a great night. we watched your show, "ugly betty" (it was a re-run) and "oc". now we're going to bed. we miss you. love, your girls!

Day 7 am

Carsyn got to be the only child for a little bit this morning while Logan was at school and Maren was still sleeping. She's learning a lot more letters, but we still have to keep working at it. Logan wanted to wear her new scarf to school today, but no jacket. It's supposed to be 67 degrees! Maren is as cute as ever! She's still studying her sisters--uh oh! Get some sleep. We love you and miss you!

Day 6 PM

When Mom got home today we decided to walk to the Post Office for our evening walk. It was a pretty long walk--about two and a half miles each way. The girls slept the whole way there, but Maren insisted on being carried all the way home. Luckily I knew this would happen and I brought the carrier too. It was very good exercise. Dinner was super-unpleasant tonight. Neither Logan nor Carsyn wanted to sit still and eat. Logan has actually been a bit on the bratty side all day. Hopefully she'll be asleep soon--hopefully they all will be. We love you!

day 6 am

Maren was the last one to wake up this morning. I don't know how she slept through Logan and Carsyn being so loud. But, everyone's awake now. We bought Maren some peaches to try this morning for breakfast. Hopefully she'll like it. The quilt rods and books we ordered finally came, so I'm not expecting anything for awhile. We'll be going for a walk after a while and later today we're going to try to get to the post office to mail you something. Love you and miss you!

day 5 pm

carsyn and maren were super-good today. however, carsyn did manage to make more of mess in the living room. logan had a really good day at school. this evening she and i went to the grocery to pick up a few things. since both logan and carsyn took a nap during our afternoon walk--neither one of them want to go to bed now. goodnight from california!

day 5 am

It was a school morning. Logan did great eating and getting ready. Here she is this morning--if you friends ask you can say that josh is the milk boy ; ) Carsyn and Maren both woke up early, they've been pretty good. We just finished watching the wiggles and are getting ready for our walk. It should be a fairly nice day--around 63 degrees. We miss you and love you.

day 4 pm

at least you don't have to watch "the suite life of zack and cody" anymore! the girls all ate their dinner and we're trying to convince them it's time for bed--it's a school night. logan has decided that she doesn't take naps anymore. it's not helping her behavior any. logan and carsyn have been tackling each other a lot lately...i think it's all the football we've been watching. maren is so very close to rolling over from her back to her belly, but doesn't really want to. however, she is moving a lot when on her tummy. she rocks back and forth and pushes off w/ her feet. i think she's going to be a good crawler. goodnight; have sweet dreams of us. love you.

day 4 am

wow! what an exciting day yesterday--right up until one minute to go in the afc championship game. oh well, this will be twice as sweet when the bears win the superbowl and the colts lose!!! logan and maren are still sleeping--i guess all the victory celebrations last night wore them out : ) carsyn is awake though. the weather is supposed to be a little warmer today. the girls have been really cooperative for walks lately, so things have been working out just fine. we make maren stay awake all morning until we leave for the walk and then she sleeps the whole time. logan, carsyn, and i play the color game, which is always a real joy : ) logan is usually really good at it and carsyn's gotten a lot better. however, about two thirds of the way home she usually says she spies something pink and there's nothing pink anywhere. then they lose interest and sing rather loudly and occasionally get the words right. it's tons of fun!!! love you!

Superbowl Shuffle!

It was definitely worth the 21 year wait! There was lots of cheering, yelling, clapping, and just going crazy here at our house this afternoon! We wish you were home with us to celebrate. We're going to have a big party in two weeks, what about you? Well, have a good day, and..."We're not here to cause no trouble; we're just here to do the Superbowl Shuffle!" Love you!

day 3 am

good morning, well guess it's afternoon now. we just got home from a walk. we're ready to watch our bears! we missed kick-off. it's still nothing to nothing--guess who's winning? : ) all your little girls have had a good morning. they're thinking of things they want to send you for valentine's day. we love you so much! have a good day. don't forget to go to mass.

day 2 pm

church grades...
maren: b-
carsyn: c
logan: f
logan was told that she needs to stop playing at church and start participating and praying. instead, she acted worse than she ever has before. the girls had were a little better at home, but it's a late night. two out of three have finally fallen asleep. which two? maren and logan. crazy carsyn is still at it. goodnight!

Day 2 (Sat.) am

Good morning,
Logan and Carsyn woke up rather early today--for a Saturday. Maren slept in a little longer. It was hard for her to sleep w/ Logan and Carsyn's singing and loud talking. We have to go to the grocery sometime today and go to church. We love and miss you.

Day 1 pm

Hi Josh,
Glad you wer able to call. We miss you. Logan is already asking for Daddy's special popcorn. Carsyn is working on her letters on the 'fridge. Maren is entertaining herself for the moment. She just had some sweetpotatoes. Hope you have a good night. We are always thinking about you. We love you!!!

Day 1

Hi Daddy,
We hope you're okay. We are just watching a little Disney Channel and getting ready to eat breakfast. We're being good girls. We love you so much. Please be careful and come home to us soon.
Love,
Logan, Carsyn, & Maren

Goodbye, Daddy!

Our Dad is leaving for a seven month deployment tomorrow : ( We are going to miss him so much. We went our for a farewell dinner tonight because he will have to leave before we even wake up. It's going to be a long, rough road--but hopefully the time will go by quickly.

We're going to Disneyland...

Disneyland was still decorated for Christmas...

After we left Pasadena, we drove down to Anaheim for a couple of days. The girls love Disneyland. It was nice because we seemed to miss the Holiday crowds. Of course Daddy was a little upset about missing Notre Dame play in the Sugar Bowl game, but they lost anyway--big time! We all wore our Irish gear though, to show our team spirit. We did our usual stuff: spent most of the day in Fantasyland, relaxed at Big Thunder Ranch (the girls visited with Mr. and Mrs. Claus,) rode "Pirates" and "Buzz Lightyear." We also learned about the "Junior Cheff" activity at the Plaza Inn. Carsyn was too young, but Logan got to help make chocolate chip cookies. It was fun for her and fun for us to watch, plus we got free cookies afterward--yum! Maren did great. She still loves the carousel, but is a little iffy on the characters yet. We also ate at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. This is a huge favorite of the girls. We try to make it there every time we go.

Santa in his "Ranch attire"...

Maybe Pluto isn't so bad...

Secrets...

Carsyn in Fantasyland...literally

Logan at the Rainforest Cafe...

118th Rose Parade...

For New Year's we went down to Pasadena. We stayed in a hotel on Colorado Blvd.--right on the route for the anual Tournament of Roses Parade. We were so shocked to see how early people start camping out on the street to get good seats for the parade. People were there from about nine o'clock a.m. the day before, and slept outside all night. Crazy! But, it was a very cool thing. It was almost like being on Georgetown Rd. the night before the race. The girls were awake for midnight Eastern time, but couldn't all make it to midnight our time. The next morning we had to get up pretty early for the parade. The girls were woke up to the sound of a stealth bomber doing the flyover--they were terrified (you'd think they'd be used to it.) We sat up on the wall around the pool of our hotel to watch the parade. It was amazing. We even saw George Lucas because he was the Grand Marshall. The only dissappointing thing was that Notre Dame didn't get invited to the Rose Bowl Game. The next day we went over to the city park where all the floats were on display. It was so cool to see them all up close. Every bit of each float is made of only all natural materials i.e. seeds, grass, nuts, wood, flowers, and of course roses!

A view from our seats...

Float viewing...

Maren's Baptism...

Sweet Maren...

We flew back to Indy to have Maren baptized at St. Chris. Actually, we flew into Chicago Midway and drove down to Indy. It was so nice to see friends and family and go to mass at St. Chris. Thank you to Father Mike for having us and performing the baptism. Afterward we went out to lunch at Buca's downtown. It was great. Poor Carsyn slept through the whole thing. A big thanks to all who attended. Hope to see you all again soon. Have a Merry Christmas!

Our Godfamily...

Chad, Evan, Dan, Marce, Jill, Megan, Kathy, John, Barry, Maren, Lauren, Logan, & Carsyn (not pictured, Madison)

Fall Festival!

Logan's school had it's annual Fall Festival today. It hadn't rained once since we moved out here, but today when we had something outdoors planned--it did. Oh well, it was fun anyway. Daddy's gone, but the girls had fun. Of course we were all excited for the Bears game tonight!

She's here...

Maren Chase was born at 2:27 P.M. on Thursday, August 17th. She weighed 6 pounds and 10 ounces, and was 19 inches long. Maren has tons of very dark hair. She's so tiny, but absolutely gorgeous! Both Mommy and baby are doing great. Logan and Carsyn are super-excited to have a new baby sister.

Maren, just a few hours old...

Maren's hospital picture...

Maren all ready to go home...

Maren's Room...

Poor Maren--she'll have to share her first room with her Mommy and Daddy. Oh well, it's still very cute.