Stop Taking My Picture!

He's a Natural!

Santa brought Jackson a snowboard for Christmas!

Merry Christmas-Parts 2 & 3

I could have named this post, "Seriously, who needs this much stuff?"...because the kids now have more than they know what to do with! But the kids had a wonderful Christmas, and that's all that really matters!

We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's, sledding and stuffing ourselves with appetizers. It was a wonder that we didn't lose one of the kids under the massive piles of presents she had stacked around her Christmas tree! We started the day with the stockings, which gave us a 4 minute break from Trevor asking if it was time to open presents yet. Instead of giving in to his pleas, we got everyone bundled up and headed outside for some sledding. Abby slid down the hill about a dozen times on her butt and Uncle Justin became the bad guy and was pelted with snowballs. No worries, though, he can hold his own.

Then we headed inside and finally! the kids got to open their gifts. Let me explain something about opening gifts at my mom's. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to it! We pass out all of the presents to each person....the kids each had a pile taller than themselves. Then, all hell breaks loose....everyone just tears into it! It is complete chaos and the kids love love love it! I loved it as a kid too...who wouldn't? It is so much fun! No waiting. No having to watch your brother open his presents. Just tear into your own larger than you are pile. What fun!

It was so much fun that on Christmas morning, Jackson was a little disappointed with the small pile of presents from Matt and me on Christmas morning! Luckily, Santa came through for him!

The kids woke up at about 7am and we crept downstairs as Matt videotaped the kids' reactions. Abby loved her kitchen and Barbie stuff and Jackson exclaimed "I didn't even know they could make this!" about his Polar Express train. We made homemade donuts and ripped open the presents in our stockings and under the tree. The kids didn't know what to play with first...or next. We played Barbie, watched the Polar Express go round and round, cooked in Abby's new kitchen and dueled with Jackson's new swords. Abby named her new groovy girls dolls Sofia and Lila after her friends and Jackson learned about a whole new family of superheroes and bad guys. It was a perfect Christmas!

We will likely be singing Santa songs to Abby for months to come and Jackson will probably want to play with his Polar Express every day until next Christmas. Christmas just never seems to end at our house! Tonight at bedtime Jackson said,"Now, there are a lot of days until Christmas, right?" Right...363 to be exact...and we are counting down!

Nap Time Shenanigans

Nap time is supposed to be restful, right? Would someone please tell that to Jackson & Abby?

Abby has taken to sleeping with everything that she owns (I'm only exaggering a little bit!). Her little twin bed often holds about a dozen books, a good 8 stuffed animals or dolls, her play cake and cupcakes, her vase of fake flowers, her diaper basket and wipes, her piggy bank and about 12 blankets. Somewhere in the middle of all of this is my baby girl. My friends Jen & Jeff just bought her some dress up clothes for Christmas...these items have joined Abby's bedtime party. Two days ago, Matt went upstairs while Abby was supposed to be sleeping and found her in her high heels and jewelry holding her purse and parading around in circles in her bed. Perhaps she was putting on a show for all those stuffed animals and dolls in her bed! Then, yesterday she had been upstairs for a nap for about 45 minutes when I heard her screaming. I ran upstairs to find her half naked. She had peed and had decided to change her own diaper. (Don't laugh...last week she successfully did it!) But yesterday, she got stuck and wasn't very happy about it. By the time we got her dressed, it was too late for her to take a nap, so she went nap-less. (NOT a good idea!)

Jackson on the other hand, has basically given up on naps completely. Everyday as naptime (or quiet time as we often call it) approaches, he ponders, "Mom, can I have quiet time on the couch today?" Jackson's "quiet time" on the couch generally consists of him sitting quietly for all of 8 minutes until he is bored of watching Mickey Mouse. So much for getting anything done during nap time. Every once in a while I can convince him that he needs to have quiet time in his bedroom. Earlier this week, Matt and I were successful in convincing him that he should play in his room for a while for quiet time. It helped that he already has all his Christmas presents from Nana & Papa! Just a little while later, we found him asleep in his closet, where he had made himself a little bed atop a tote complete with his giant stuffed tiger (Named Frosty by the kids), two bunnies and several blankets. Here he is, snug as a bug...

Merry Christmas- Part 1

We have been celebrating Christmas all month long already with visits to Santa and too many Christmas cookies, but we had an official early Christmas on Saturday with the Olsons. Of course, there were more Christmas cookies than we could eat and a lot of Christmas cheer! The kids played & played with their new toys...A Lite Brite! A Bitty Baby! A Remote Control Batmobile! A New Doll Pram!...then took a break for some more Christmas cookies. (If you ever tasted Nana's cookies, you know they are worth breaking for!) The kids were thrilled with their new loot and had a ton of fun playing with their cousins. We are getting geared up for Christmas-Part 2 and already working on where we are going to put all of this new loot!

I was having so much fun that I forgot to take too many pictures, but here are a couple of cuties....

Questions of the Day

Here are a couple of interesting questions that Jackson & Abby asked me today:

-Does Spiderman have a vagina?
-Is everyone in the world going to die?


It's a good thing that my semester is over, so I have time to address these pressing questions!

O Christmas Tree-Part 2

...and we decorated it!

O Christmas Tree

Yesterday we trekked out to a Christmas Tree Farm in Woodstock, IL to find a few Christmas tress...one for my mom, one for my brother & Sara and one for us (Because the 3 we already have set up at the house just didn't seem enough!) The day was perfect. We took a horse drawn wagon ride out to the field of trees and hiked around until we each had a perfect tree. We threw snowballs, sled down hills and played hide-n-seek amongt the trees. When we were tired and cold, and absolutely sure we had the right ones, we (Jeff, Justin & Matt) cut down the trees and headed back to the barn for some hot chocolate and snacks. Our newest tree looks perfect already, even though we haven't put a single light or decoration on it!

Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving!

Every year we get to celebrate Thanksgiving two times! Hurray! This year we celebrated a week early at our house with my family and then spent Thanksgiving with Matt's family in Cincinnati. Two days completely devoted to eating....we are so lucky!


Thanksgiving Superheroes!


After a long game of Ghost in the graveyard, I made everyone pose for a family photo on our front porch! We were happy that my half brothers Chad & Mason could join us this year for our Thanksgiving celebration!

Overheard...

I'm in the kitchen making breakfast. The kids are upstairs playing....

Jackson: Abby, do you want to play Geotraks with me?
Abby: No.
Jackson: Abby, please play Geotraks with me.
Abby: I said I don't want to.
Jackson: Abby, that's not nice.
Abby: Sorry. I'll play for a little, ok?

Happy Halloween!

We love Halloween at our house. We might not have quite the elaborate Halloween decorations that many of our new neighbors have, we did have 10 carved Jack-O-lanterns on our porch! Next year we are going to be ready with giant spiders and smoke machines, talking skeletons and spider webs, glowing eyes and hanging witches...or maybe we'll just carve another 10 pumpkins, we'll see. Don't let our lack of outdoor Halloween decorations make you think that we don't in fact love Halloween. I think you can tell from our costumes and our cupcakes that we do!

Hanging out in the woods

A couple of weekends ago we drove up to the Skokie Lagoon to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and the have a picnic. The day was perfect! The kids were in good moods, the sun was shining, the weather was warm and we spent the whole day together just hanging out. We explored the woods, had a picnic and searched for cool bugs. If only every day could be this easy breezy...

But not the pink paci...

On Saturday, I hosted a baby shower for my friend Patsy. She actually already had her baby, Grayson Otto, who was at the shower with her. (adorable btw!)

Matt had the kids out for most of the day while we celebrated Grayson's homecoming. Matt came home after lunch and put Abby down for a nap immediately. When she woke up, she was very interested in seeing the new baby, who had been the topic of conversation at our house all week as I prepared for the shower.

Abby decided after meeting Grayson that he should have her beloved blue paci. (with a little coaxing from me!) We went upstairs to retrieve it and she brought it back downstairs to give to Grayson. I waited to see what was going to happen....would she really allow her favorite paci to be taken away at the end of the party?

Side note: Up until Saturday, we only had 3 pacis in the house left from when Abby was a baby: one blue, one pink & one green. The pink and green ones have been sitting in the drawer of Abby's dresser day after day, week after week, month after month. She will only use the blue one. If she loses it in the middle of the night and is crying for it, Matt or I have to crawl under her bed in search for the blue one. We have torn apart her bed in search for it. She will not take the pink or green one...it has to be the blue one!

Back to the shower....yes, Abby was willing to let Grayson take home her beloved paci. (ok, I stashed it in a drawer just in case, but she didn't know that!) Was it really going to be that easy to move Abby away from using a paci? Last year we transitioned to only allowing her to have it at bedtime, and have been talking about phasing it out completey. I never imagined that she would voluntarily give up her paci habit.

Abby actually went to bed on Saturday night without a paci, no problem. Wow! Again, I never imagined that she would voluntarily give it up....and I was right. She woke up in the middle of the night crying for her....pink paci!

She no longer mentions her former favorite blue paci. If you ask her about it, she says that she gave the blue one to the baby...but not the pink paci! Guess what Matt and I are searching for in the middle of the night now?....the pink paci!

Coming Home

I'm in Ohio for an education conference this week. Last night my phone rang and it was Jackson, telling me about the 2 picnics that he had yesterday and the bike ride that he went on with his Daddy and Abby. When Abby got on the phone she immediately said, "Mommy, you coming home tomorrow?" Stupid education conferences...from now on, I'm staying home with my babies.

Some Random Cute Pictures

Happy Columbus Day Weekend!

I know that we really shouldn't celebrate a man who didn't discover much of anything and was responsible for killing and enslaving the natives, but who doesn't want a nice long weekend? So, the heck with Columbus....and hooray for 3-day weekends! We had a great one!

We celebrated my mom's birthday this weekend with my entire family sleeping over. It was great! Jackson was thrilled to show his cousins the el, being the el-taking veteran that he is! We headed down to Millennium Park for Country Music Festival. Not because we love country music, but because we love Millennium Park! The kids were awed by the bean, ran in the Crown Fountain and danced to the country music. It was great. The kids spent hours giggling in their beds and stayed up way too late, but we didn't care. They were having fun!

Waiting for the el....

...Having some splash time in the Crown Fountains...

...and dancing to the music with Daddy!


Sunday morning we headed to the farmer's market, snacking on smoothies and honey sticks. The kids played at the park and threw the football around. It was the perfect ending to the birthday celebration!

Luckily for us, the weekend wasn't over yet! Sunday afternoon we went to see the Midnight Circus at Portage Park where clowns, dogs and acrobats thrilled the kids with their silly acts. And today, we headed up north to Apple Holler for some Apple Picking. Apparently we weren't the only ones who thought Apple Holler was a good way to spend the holiday. We fought the crowds to get our tickets, take a wagon ride, pick some apples and eat more than our fair share of apples and apple cider donut holes! It was busy, and a little crazy, but the kids had fun. Isn't that what really matters?

It was a really great long weekend, even it was Columbus Day!

Too cute not to share

Last night we were playing Ghost in the Graveyard, a fantastic game from my own childhood that Jackson is now obsessed with. I was standing on base (a tree) counting with my brother Justin, my friend Lizzie and Abby while Jackson (the ghost) was off hiding (in the graveyard). In the middle of our count Abby looks up at me and says, "I really really like you!"

That's all...that's the whole story. I just thought it was too cute not to share!

Big Brothers & Little Sisters

Today I am wondering: Are big brothers naturally wired with the genes to annoy their little sisters? I may have also wondered this just about every day in the late 1970s and 1980s, but that's another story....Today, I'm thinking about Jackson, not my big brother Jeff who did seem to have a natural talent to annoy me.

Every morning during breakfast Jackson works out different strategies to make Abby scream. It doesn't help that she is an easy target, so he probably wouldn't have to work that hard, but he does. He really does. Sometimes, if one little song isn't annoying her enough, he starts to sing louder, or moves closer to her in an effort to get a rise out of her.

Well, this morning was no different. As they sat across the table from one another eating their breakfast, he began to sing silly songs (the topic of which are generally poop, something poopy, or include the word pooper). At first Abby ignored him. Not one to be ignored, he crawled across the table so he could sing the songs directly into her face. As you can imagine, Abby began screaming, "I don't like that! I don't like that!" Then, I scream at Jackson...he responds with, "But I wasn't doing anything!"...and on it goes.

But this morning, Abby got smart. She got up from her chair at our dining room table, carefully crawled down from her booster chair and carried her bowl of cereal and poptart over to the little table so she could sit by herself, away from her tormenter! Jackson was besides himself. When he tried to follow her, I wouldn't let him and explained that when you annoy someone that they generally won't want to sit by you or spend anymore time with you. "But I want to sit with Abby!" (in a whine) Well, then perhaps you should have thought twice about annoying her. Now, I told him, she doesn't want to sit with you and you will have to sit and eat breakfast all by yourself.

Abby: 1
Jackson: 0
Let's hear it for little sisters! :)

Bubbleheads

You can tell this is an old picture because it was taken at our old house on Aberdeen Street and we haven't lived there since the end of June.
But who care? It is a cute picture!

Pool Time

This summer Jackson and Abby might have spent more time in the water than out! Jackson learned to swim, can now do a pretty impressive cannonball and may have logged over 100 jumps into the pool. Abby has no fear of the water and will happily join her brother in jumping in the pool. She goes underwater without a thought and does the fiercest doggy paddle in an attempt to keep up with Jackson.




Abby even pitched in and helped clean the pool!

Tractor Pull

Back in the City Again

We have moved into our new house!(sort of)

We are currently residing at 4020 N Springfield Avenue, but only on the top floor while the construction continues downstairs. Every morning we wake to the sound of contractors, plumbers, electrians and painters working away on our soon to be new house! It is great to be back in the city despite the noise and dust and it is even more fun to watch the progress of the new place as it gets really close to being done. Jackson and Abby are having fun in their new bedrooms, their new backyard and their new neighborhood.

We can't wait to be officially moved in!

Moving Out...Moving On

On Sunday, June 27th we officially moved out of 462 N Aberdeen St. Later that day we moved into our "new home" in Elgin, also known as Nana & Papa's house! While the commute back into the city isn't so great, there are definitely some perks to staying here. For one, Jackson and Abby love it. Who wouldn't love having their Nana and Papa around every day? We have also been benefiting from Dennis & Mary Ann's design expertise as we work on designing our new kitchen (for the house that we will move into sometime in August). Then there is of course the homecooked meals and the clean laundry that just appears in our room. Oh, and did I mention the pool in the backyard? Jackson and Abby have been swimming every day and are sure to improve their swimming skills by the time we move into our new house.

The kids have asked a couple of times if we are going home, and Jackson asks nearly everyday if we are having another sleepover tonight at Nana & Papa's. When Abby spots something of ours from home she asks, "We packed it?". I think they might be a little confused, but seem to be enjoying the uprooting nonetheless. We are looking forward to moving into our new home (at 4020 N Springfield Avenue, by the way) sometime in August. In the meantime, we will be by the pool!

The little things...

Celebrating the little things.....Today, we made it all the way from breakfast until lunch without snacking! I don't know if anyone realizes what an accomplishment this is at our house!

First Beach Day of the Summer!

Yea! It's summer! We headed out the to beach Saturday morning for our first beach outing of the year. It was great. The weather was perfect and the sand was ready for digging. The water wasn't freezing cold and lots of friends came to join us for the day! Jackson said his favorite part was making goo (they mixed sand and water in a big bucket). Abby's said her favorite part was splashing in the water. It was such a perfect day I'd be hard pressed to pick one favorite part! I can't wait to go back!


You can't go to the beach and not eat ice cream!

How many meltdowns?

It is 9:02 am and here is a list of the meltdowns that we have had this morning. Try to guess who had each one...

1. I didn't make pancakes.

2. I toasted the waffles.

3. We didn't have any juice.

4. I cleaned up the markers.

5. The lights were turned out.

6. Someone was in the bathroom while I changed a diaper, so he missed seeing the poop.

7. The books fell off the shelf.

8. The cereal spilt on the chair.

9. They had to share a chair.

10. Cookie Monster video or Elmo video?

11. I had to comb their hair.

12. No fruit snacks right now.

13. But I wanted a bagel too!

Um...I think that is all, but there is a good chance that I have missed one or two. It's going to be a great day!

Rain Rain Go Away...Or Not

We should really stop relying on weather.com to plan our activities. Despite their hour-by-hour details, they are rarely correct, and we inevitably get caught in the rain....just like we did on Saturday night when we ventured out to Bluesfest at Grant Park for a picnic and some fun. However, it didn't really matter...the kids had just as much fun in the rain, maybe even more!

House Rules

Jackson has this new thing where he says, "I have a new rule..." and then goes on to tell us the new rule that he has come up with. Here is a sample of some of our new house rules:

1. Everyday when we cross the street, Jackson has to hold hands with Mommy and Abby has to hold hands with Daddy.

2. No crocs in the pool.

3. Any time that Jackson gets hurt, Abby has to make him feel better. Any time that Abby get hurt, Jackson has to make her feel better. It's their job!

4. Every night at bedtime, we will read "Go Dog Go".

5. Every morning we will watch Chuggington, but not in the afternoon or nighttime, because it is a morning show.

6. Whenever we watch TV, Jackson will hold the remote control. It is his job to turn the volume up or down.

7. When we are out for a tricycle ride and Jackson rings his bell, that means that we all have to go really really fast!

Saturday T-Ball

This Saturday we got to play T-Ball outside! Yea! We have been playing all Spring in the gym, but not this weekend....we got to play outside in the dirt! The kids loved it! They were all filthy before they started playing, but it didn't matter, they were all having fun! Summer must be right around the corner, I can feel it!

Here are some pictures of our teams all-stars!