Happy Birthday Adeline!

Well, I'm glad to say that the reason I haven't posted in so long is because we've been enjoying this warm weather as well as the festivities that surrounded our "baby" girl's second birthday!

Addy's birthday was last Friday. I spent the week before talking to her about birthdays and reading her a book about a birthday party in an attempt to prepare her. We woke her up singing Happy Birthday! and she was grinning. Then, we threw out the smoothies and oatmeal breakfast we normally have for chocolate chip Mickey Mouse pancakes with bacon on our "You are Special Today" plate!

I love Mickey Mouse almost as much as I love chocolate chip pancakes!



That night we went with my parents to a nearby restaurant called Tyler's Tender. The whole restaurant was a train theme and since Addy loves trains she was in heaven!!

They have a detailed Thomas the Train track with buildings and lights set up on one side of the restaurant. Both Adeline and John Michael were mesmerized!










Let me in!



They also have a little train you can ride for 50 cents. The ride is pretty short but Addy loved playing on it.






She wasn't nearly as crazy about John Michael getting on with her though.



But she quickly got over it!



But, the highlight of the restaurant was a child sized train that you could ride for $1. It only goes around three times but she didn't care! She loved sitting in the front car and pulling the bell.



choo choo!



The only downfall was that she had so much fun she had a hard time eating... so I fed her on the way home! Overall though it was a raging success. We'll look forward to going there again soon - and know to bring plenty of cash for the endless train ride requests!



Coming next, Addy's birthday party!

A date with Julia

Julia, aka Joo-Joo and "the bun" came over this past week and I got a small taste of what its like to have three kids under 2 years old! It was eventful but fun.... how could you not adore having this brown eyed beauty around!?



Her and Adeline enjoyed playing outside for a little while until it got to cold to stay out.

Beep Beep!



Loading up the trunk with sidewalk chalk. Addy & Julia made some beautiful pictures. If it wasn't for the rain later that day I may have been able to get some money for them. :)



Backing up (which happens to be all she can do)



Here's Julia exploring her new surroundings. (She's little miss curiosity)



I like this car!!



But I'm not so crazy about my hood.



Hey, why's she getting all the attention Mom???



Note.... these two were hysterical vying for my attention. If I catered to much to one child the other one would let me know... and Julia, the compassionate one, would just break down crying if one of the other two was crying (She's gonna have a soft heart I think!).... which meant I went to care for her.... which meant Addy was throwing a tantrum. I felt like I was 8 years old at Celebration Station trying to smash the gopher heads before they went back in their hole. Odd analogy but its all I could come up with!

Addy remembered just where we kept her bubbles last summer and took me right to them so that she could play with them. But, when I tried teaching her to blow the bubbles herself she couldn't quite figure out that she couldn't be three feet away when she started blowing....

a bit closer sweetie...



there ya go



I've got some more pictures of Julia playing with John Michael - look for them soon!

We miss you Julia - come back soon!

King John Michael

John Michael is growing so quickly.... and like Abi he is totally a mommy's boy!! He loves me to hold him and snuggle with him and he'd sit on my hip all day long without a nap if he could! He's a big boy too... wearing 12-18 month clothes already. He can still wear 6-12's but some of them are getting to short on him. He's not that chunky but he has some tree trunk legs and a long body.

Here he is on Fat Tuesday. We were at the Bull's game and they passed out free masks and necklaces.



He's a happy little guy for the most part. As long as you aren't trying to get him to sleep or keeping him from his mommy he's quick to smile.





I think I might start calling him Dr. Drooler.... he has a seemingly constant flow of saliva flowing from that gaping mouth of his! We also like to call him "Oral Fixation Boy" since absolutely everything he gets his hands on ends up in his mouth. That is one of the many ways he is different from Addy as a baby. She rarely chewed on things and when she did it was always the same couple of toys.



He loves to read books.



I can't believe he's almost 8 months old! He's still not crawling but he wiggles his way around quite a bit. He scoots backwards easily and spins in circles but I don't think it'll be long before he learns how to move forward. He gets on his hands and knees and bounces like Addy did shortly before she started crawling. So, he's taking his time with crawling and also with teeth. There are no signs of any pearly whites and since Addy almost made it to her first birthday without a little tooth I'm not holding my breath!

He loved going outside when the weather was warm earlier this week (pictures soon) but I'm sad to say that we're back indoors for this thirty degree weather (it SNOWED yesterday!). But we're keeping warm!!



(note Oral Fixation boy doing a coat tasting below)



More soon!

A date with the Swarts & Tsukayamas

Those of you who know me well know that I love hanging out with people.... and have a terrible time leaving my house! For whatever reason it is really hard for me to get out of the house and go to other people's houses... but I love spending time with them so, its always a blast when people come over here!

In the last couple of weeks the Tsukayamas, the Swarts and the Dananays were over! Its been so nice having my friends and their kids over. You can learn so much on a blog but nothing compares to seeing their little personalities live.

Elizabeth's baby Israel is getting so chunky! He reminds me of Addy with those cheeks. John Michael is solid but he never had cheeks like this little guy!



Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of Joshua & Dominique because they were busy playing with Addy! Having five kids running and crawling around makes it a little harder to take pictures.

Connor & Abi were here for a bit longer. Addy and Connor were thrilled to see each other and hammed it up for the camera like pros.




Addy was mesmorized by Connor's every move. You can see she was worried she might miss one of Connor's antics if she took her eyes off of him for a second!



And it didn't matter what he said or did she would die laughing at him.



So they played together, laughed together and were silly together. Hopefully next time they can stay longer!



For those of you who don't see Abi much let me tell you - this girl LOVES her mommy! If she isn't attaced to her hip she's looking for her everywhere. I have no doubt she'll be close with Kath her whole life!



She and John Michael weren't sure what to think of each other....



But with a little time I'm sure they'll be as good of buddies as their brother and sister.



After all, who couldn't love this cutie??





Julie is scheduled to come back tomorrow
so I'll be sure to take some pictures to post! Right now we're just ENJOYING this temporary warm weather!

too busy to blog!

I'm not exactly sure what has been keeping me so busy but I know I've been meaning to post a new entry and just haven't gotten around to it!

Here are the much anticipated pictures of our time with Auntie Les.

We decided to attempt to hike out to Chicago's Art Institute with both kids. Here's Addy chillin out on the way there while she watched Veggie Tales... or maybe Elmo.



Neither Leslie or I had been to the Art Institute or had read up on it. So, we were both a little surprised at the famous paintings we came across.

Deep Thoughts with Renoir



"Okay, yah, her hat is red. Lets move on."




Um, yah, this painting is much bigger in real life than I thought it would be.




We were both shocked and amazed to find that we had been unkowingly chosen
as models for some of the famous artwork we saw. I'm sure you'll see the resemblance.

Twins.





Addy did a phenomenal job of.... well showing us just what a 2-year olds tantrum looks like. She decided it was time to be disobedient right smack in the middle of this huge marble atrium... so her show was echoed for all to hear. It was another reminder of how you can train and train and train.... and pray and pray and pray.... but you're children are sinful and more than determined to go their own way!! Leslie was "kind" enough to capture part of her tantrum on film.

"NO MOMMY! I DO NOT WANT TO PUT MY COAT ON!"



Further evidence that you can't reason with a two year old.



I love you Adeline.... but you will not win.



But you're sure making a scene trying!



Ahh... for those of you who don't know Addy this really is a rarity. I realize, however, that at this age her desire for independence escalates and we're entering a whole new world of training and teaching. Thanks to some helpful advice from my Knoxville friends Alison and Laura I'm full of faith that God can help us to teach Adeline that ultimately she is not in charge of herself! We love this little girl like crazy and we're looking forward to seeing her grow up into a beautiful woman. :)

Onto the BEAN!

Everyone who comes to Chicago just has to stop and see the bean. Its one of the things they put up in the Millenium Park and you can see Chicago's entire skyline in it. Here are some picutres of Les at the bean. I tried to get the skyline but the positioning was a bit awkward.


Les at the bean with a still screaming Addy....



Handling it like a champ.




Cute, isn't she?



I'm thinking this should be her facebook picture.



I know I already mentioned it but having Les come to town was like a fresh of breath air! There are few people in this world who know me as well as she does and still love me! Thanks again for coming Les. We love you!