Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Jumpy Time

I tried to get some video of Ava in her jumperoo and of course the second I try to take her picture or do a video, Logan must be apart of it, so here are both of my attempts to get some video of Ava. She can get going a lot more than this usually, but she's just about done with the jumperoo so I wanted to get some video before we put it away, until next time...




Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Fun At The Park

Here are some pictures from the park by in-law's. It was hot that day so we didn't get to stay long, but Ava had some fun on the swings with her Grandma!



Monday, June 28, 2010

Cleaning Frenzy

Ahh my house is a disaster, after being gone all weekend starting Friday when I usually do a bulk of my cleaning, it's bad...

Matt is working late so he was home this morning working outside and Ava is napping away after missing a lot of sleep this weekend so I was able to clean like a crazy women all morning. Got everything put away from out diaper bags and toys bags from this weekend, and now I have to start packing for WI, not sure if we are going to leave Friday or Saturday yet, but either way it will take me until then to get ready so I must get started, plus I am the type of person that needs the house in perfect order before she leaves for vacation (who likes coming home to a messy house and then add in all the baggage from vacation and then I am overwhelmed).

So off to do more cleaning, picking up, and rearranging of furniture because it's not like I don't have enough to do all ready...

Oh and still waiting for my skates today or tomorrow they should hopefully be in, can't wait to see how they feel!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Congrats to Jon & Jacob!

We had a lovely evening tonight at Al Capone's Hideaway for Jon and Jacob's marriage celebration. They were married last month in Iowa (shame on IL for not legalizing gay marriage yet) and had the reception tonight. Food was very good and the kids did pretty well given the long weekend we had. To Jon and Jacob we wish you both all the happiness in the world, enjoy your honeymoon in Italy!

And two years ago tonight Matt and I were celebrating, as we found out we were pregnant with Peanut, this moment really sticks out in my mind because I now know it was the last time we would ever feel really excited about a pregnancy, pure excitement not met with a huge amount of fear, and we were just so very, very excited. Always in our hearts for sure, the next 10 weeks hold a lot of memories for us...

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Another Long Hot Day...

Wish we could have hit the pool this morning, but we just didn't have time oh well, fully plan on going in tomorrow since we don't have to be anywhere until 5pm.

Had a nice day with Matt's family for the most part, although I am very ready to have the kids back to regular sleep cycles. Ava did take a nice long nap today which was nice, but Logan needs his sleep since he doesn't nap anymore and I am exhausted from trying to keep my mouth shut when others try to parent my child or make comments about our parenting for the past two days and I know Matt had to keep his cool as well, it's very draining to be judged constantly, but I know we are awesome parents and I could really almost care less what other's think, but mama bear just wants to come out and it's hard to polite...

Kids are in bed and Matt and I are heading out to the pool for a night swim and to clear our heads...

Friday, June 25, 2010

Long and Hot Day...

At the in-law's it was nice to catch up and show the kids off, but I am beat. Have some video of Ava showing off her dancing moves (please excuse the misbehaving 3 year old)


Thursday, June 24, 2010

Last Day Of MDO...

Logan had his last day of Mother's Day Out for the summer, he sure is going to miss playing with his best buddy. They have each other a big hug before Logan left, it was way cute. He goes back next September on Friday's and then of course he will have preschool on Tuesday and Thursdays. I am sure going to miss having Logan at MDO for the rest of the summer, not that I don't love the kid, but it's good for both of us to have some time off from each other and Ava and I enjoy our mother and daughter time.

Getting ready to start our crazy weekend tomorrow. Matt's whole family is coming into town for his younger brother's commitment ceremony reception. Some of the family coming in we haven't seen since I was pregnant with Logan so it will be nice for them to meet both Logan and Ava.

I am not looking forward to having the kids off schedule for a whole weekend, one which ends in a formal sit down dinner, but oh well we will have to see how it plays out.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Our Day Downtown

On Saturday Matt and I went downtown to finally celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. We went to Navy Pier and rode on the big ferris wheel which was really fun for me, Matt was gripping the sides of the gonadal for his dear life, but the view from the top was really nice. We walked around Navy Pier after that and headed towards Lake Shore Drive to walk over the the Hancock Building where we were having dinner at the Signature room on the 95th floor.

It was a nice walk and when we got inside there was a line at the elevator (which was annoying because I really had to go to the restroom) but luckily because we had a reservation we got to cut in line and got right up to the restaurant (ears popping all the way up)

Our table had an amazing view, we were looking out at the new Trump Tower and the Sear's (yes i refuse to call it the Willis tower or whatever it's new name is) and the lake with a whole gaggle of sailboats out, it was really nice.

The food was amazing but for the amount of money we paid, it ought to be! Probably the best thing we ate was our appetizer which was Ahi Tuna Tartare, OMG I could have just eaten a huge plate of that and been happy. It had an avocado, cucumber and some other stuff salad on top and it was just to die for. We had lobster bisque next and all I could think of was the Seinfeld episode yada yada (ya know which one I am talking about? Elaine talking about a date and yada yada over the best part according to George, and she said no I mentioned the bisque...) yea I am weird. That too was really good. For main course Matt got the duck and I got salmon and both were very yummy. We skipped on desert because we wanted to get something down at Navy Pier. All in all it was one of the best meals ever, Matt wants to do there once a year now, we shall see if that happens, but damn it was really good.

We had a nice walk down by the beach back to Navy Pier and walked around and got some yummy roasted nuts (we always have to get some when we are down there), they were having fireworks that night, but we had to head home to relieve my Mom.

It was so nice to get out together and experience something new together and after all that is what marriage is all about. Love you sweetie!








Maybe for our 10 year wedding anniversary we can go back to Maui...hey a girl can hope!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Clearly I Have Issues

Because I am now the owner of a sixth stroller in 3.5 years...

My Maclaren stroller came today, and yes I have a bunch of other strollers, but I did need want another one.

Here is my stroller saga as told on Facebook:

We have the original travel system (car seat and stroller) then I got another stroller for Matt's car. We got a cheap umbrella stroller from one of my showers and didn't like it so I keep that one at my Moms and I bought another lightweight stroller for my car so I didn't always have to pull out the full size stroller as Logan got older. So those were the "Logan" strollers. Then when I was pregnant with Ava the Grandmas all went in and got us the double stroller and I sold the stroller we kept in Matt's car and he got the original travel system stroller in his car and I had the double and the lightweight in my car. So now that Logan is older he only goes in the double when we got to places like the zoo etc. So I wanted a nicer lightweight stroller for Ava, one that reclined so she could sleep and my other one was getting really beat up and it had plastic wheels that are pretty torn up so that brings us to my newest stroller, a much higher quality stroller for when we are running errands or I just need a stroller for Ava (and it will hold up to 55lbs so Logan can use it to. It's ridiculous I know, clearly I have a problem...

So we played with the new pretty Maclaren in the house today since the kids are sick, can't wait to take it out for a real test drive!

Oh and you know me, I got this 2008 Maclaren Quest for $149.99 and free shipping, the Quests retail in the area of $225 and up. I love me some deals!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Of Course...

Logan is coming down with a cold and we have a very busy week/end coming up with Matt's brother's commitment ceremony reception and all his family in town. I so hope we don't all get sick. Ava is still a little horse sounding so they might both be going to he doctor. Right now Logan's noise is just running, but that always leads to a cough which always leads to either croup or bronchitis...ugg so don't need this right now. Matt is working late tonight which makes my day even more difficult, hopefully no bedtime wars tonight.

Ava busy at work...

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's day to the Dad's in my life! To my wonderful husband, I love you and you are an awesome Daddy, our kids are very lucky...and so am I! We love you!!


Saturday, June 19, 2010

What A Night...

We had a really bad storm rip through her yesterday afternoon and then another one later at night. It came on real fast all of a sudden I looked out the kitchen window and the huge pine tree in our backyard was doing a back bend. I lost my sun umbrella because I forgot to close it as I was getting the kids in from the pool yesterday...so annoyed I just got that one this year. Luckily my Grandma brought over some just off the stove sweet and sour pork soup so we didn't have to worry about cooking (of course they live about a mile away and had power the whole time). Since we had no lights we went out to do the last of our Father's Day shopping which took us to Menard's where I found an awesome chair (recliner) for a $149.00, JUST what we needed and I was about to order a much smaller chair from Target for $269.00 total score for me! Our lights finally came on at 1am, no power with small children is a big PINA, we really should get a generator one of these days...

We are now off to do the Father's Day rounds out in Dundee and then drop the kids at my Mom's and head downtown to finally celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary! We are going to go to Navy Pier and have dinner at the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the Hancock building, can't wait!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Pool Phase 3=Pool Fun!

Logan, Ava and myself took a nice dip in the pool on this perfectly hot day! Logan had fun swimming around and Ava loved her little bear boat, Logan and I took turns pulling her around the pool.

Then the clouds rolled in so we came inside, but we had fun, Logan would have stayed out there all day, but his blue lips say otherwise...

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Pool Is Ready!

We finished filling it up the last little bit his morning (it would have been done filling last night, but Logan knocked the hose out of the pool and did bother to tell anyone so a good portion of the day we were filling the backyard and not the pool...), filter is on and working and we are go for summer fun in the pool! I would have liked to go in today but after I picked up Logan from school we had some errands to run and by the time we got home I had to feed and get Ava down for a nap, plus it's freezing as it's newly filled so I have a feeling it would have been a quick dip anyway.

We are all ready for tomorrow though, I keep hearing 90 degrees for tomorrow and when it's that hot it doesn't matter how cold the water is! We do have a solar cover on there so it should be getting better as long as we have some warm sunny days. I will have to get a picture of the finished pool project tomorrow, it looks much nicer back there now, thanks to hubby for all his hard work!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today was my Dad's birthday we did a low key celebration after dinner with cake (that Logan dipped into ahead of time by tracing the words on the cake with his finger and licking the icing off his finger...) My Dad and his sister are a year and a day apart (talk about timing) and with Father's Day and two other June birthday's on my Dad's side we always have a big get together with everyone usually on Father's Day, which we will be doing this year. My Grandparents came over for cake as well, so it was nice to do something on his actual birthday. With everything my Dad has gone through and the state of his health I always feel like birthday's are a big deal. So Happy Birthday Dad, here is to many more!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

We Have A Wave & A Fat Lip

While I was at the gym for Logan's gymnastics class this afternoon, I was feeding Ava some squash in her stroller and all of a sudden she looked down at her hand and started doing the backwards wave thing, and she got the biggest smile on her face. So I waved at her and she started waving again so I think she gets what she is doing. Mark off another milestone...

Logan did awesome at gymnastics today, I only had to walk him out and stay on the floor while he warmed up (at least I wasn't the only Mom out there this week).

And yes another milestone to mark off is Ava's first fat/bloody lip. She was sitting in the kitchen and big brother came up from behind her and gave her a big bear hug which resulted in her taking a face-plant on the floor. It did bleed to much, just swelled up some. I gave her an ice cube in one of our mesh feeders (love those things) so we at least got some ice on it.

Lot's of excitement over here today!

Monday, June 14, 2010

More Flowers!

A wonderful friend of mine from college (we went to Germany together and she was one of my bridesmaids) sent Matt and I beautiful flowers for our 5 year anniversary. Thank you so much Kimmi, you are always so sweet and thoughtful! Logan had a grand ol' time with the box they came in as well...


Sunday, June 13, 2010

Pool Phase Two...

After we got back from Matt's aunt and uncles 50th anniversary party (which was very nice, big buffet of yummy food, and it was nice to see that side of Matt's family again, I don't any of them have seen Ava in person yet) Matt got to work on finishing the pool leveling project (in the rain God bless him) Logan got to help Daddy pound some nails in, and then Matt filled the frame with the pea gravel, he thinks he did about 30 trips back and forth, needless to say he is exhausted now. He got the pool up, we just have to clean up the bottom a little and get the filter out and attached and we can start filling it, probably tomorrow night depending on the weather. Logan of course wants to go swimming RIGHT NOW.

Mid filling stage

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Flowers!

I planted this flower two summers ago (I forgot what it's called), and it promptly lost it's flower after I planted it and then did nothing for the rest of the summer. Last summer nadda. I go outside today and there it is, two beautiful, fully bloomed flowers. I wonder if it will come up next year?

Here are the flowers that bloomed



And a look at how Mrs. Pots is doing


Friday, June 11, 2010

Pool Phase One...

We decided before we put up the pool this year, that we were going to build a frame and fill it with pea gravel to even out the area we put the pool and we wanted to cut down one of the trees in that area so we get more sun on the pool. Since Matt was off today he worked all day on clearing the rest of the tree out that he had cut down last weekend, then it was off to Home Depot to get the timbers to make the frame and on the way home from there we stopped at the place to get the gravel order in and they are going to deliver it tomorrow. Matt has to work tomorrow so hopefully he can get the frame down after work. We have to go to Matt's aunt and uncle's 50th anniversary party on Sunday so I am doubting whether the pool will be filling Sunday night, but one can hope. I think this is the latest we ever have gotten it up,but we have been so busy the last few weekends we couldn't do it.

Logan keeps asking when the big pool is going to be up, so hopefully by the next time the weather cooperates we can take a dip!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Ava Hearts Cabinets



Ava discovered how to open Grandma's cabinet's this past weekend, she had a blast playing with all the fun stuff she found!