Holidays

Our holidays were wonderful. Filled with family and lots of food! I baked folks. I actually baked lots of goodies.

On XMas Eve we went to my sister's. Nice and close by ;)
I was determined to get one picture before we left. I got two. :)

Not sure what I thought was so funny.

 Christmas we hosted.

Digging to make sure no presents are left behind in the Santa bag.

Yes I make everyone sit to take a picture.

Michael was just in a daze. He was so exhausted

New Year's Eve at a local kid party place. We enjoyed some laser tag, bouncy castles, rides, a magician, live karaoke, a balloon drop, all before 8pm. Kids went to bed and Ry and I enjoyed a quiet evening at home watching some sad TV. Seriously they need to step it up a notch on the entertainment.

Now back to reality. Happy 2014! Snowmageddon is here in Chi town.

Baby it's cold outside

All of us are sick. I'm the most sick. Of All!!
My head is ready to combust and in the midst of feeling like a total mess I had to battle with food shopping at 3 different stores today. Of course the moment I walked in Michael woke up from his 2 20 minute nap. He is a little sick and has molars coming through so he has been a joy. :(

On Friday, Daniel, Ryan and I watched The Polar Express and Daniel loved it. His favorite part?....why when the kids says "All I got for Christmas was stupid underwear" of course. Well he thought that was just hilarious. Even in bed right when I thought he was sleeping he would start laughing about it. Naturally, I had to have our Elf on the shelf (Luke) steal Daniel's underwear and display them for the whole house to see.
It gave me a great idea for our stockings, everyone is getting new underwear. It might be a tradition from now on. 
Anyway, I loved watching the movie with him, even with 100 questions asking what will happen next and popcorn spilling all over the couch, it really is a magical time. Not just the time of the year but the age, 5 years old. I love this age. It comes with challenges but the wonder and curiosity of a 5 year old makes me love this time of year even more.
Saturday, Ryan and I had a much deserved date with oh I don't know like 15 couples. We went to see It's a Wonderful Life at the Oil Lamp Theater in Glenview. If you haven't heard of it, it's worth going!! The play was amazing and the atmosphere was super cool.  You can bring your own bottle of wine, there is free hot chocolate, home made cookies and a train that goes around the bar. The place is small but I felt like I traveled back in time. We will go again for sure.
Sunday, well I talked about that already. Food shopping, cooking, cleaning and carrying a crabby baby on my hip.
Here is to 17 days till Christmas. Yes, we are counting.
I need to address my XMas cards. They are all done.
Can you believe this was them a year ago?
I can't share this year's photo until everyone receives it.

It was memorable



If you think Michael is floating in the air by Santa, look close and you will notice a hand under him holding him for dear life. I also sported a red blanket to try to deceive the camera in hopes that I could be cropped and my squirmy one year old would magically look like he was sitting on Santa's lap. Photoshop doesn't work miracles in 2013...maybe my grandkids have a chance. HA!



Happy Halloween!

Car Museum

We went to Volo again this weekend. Last time we were there was for Daniel's 3rd birthday. They really made things even nicer for kids. It was a bit chilly and we had an hour and a half before closing. We still saw it all.

Batmobile

Busy

Just a bit busy caring for a very active baby

Who has food in his hair daily and hence a daily bath is a must

Who wants to do everything his big and also active brother does

Who is stinkin' adorable and I would rather hug on him than b on a computer

Sight words and reading...oh my

Handling a picky appetite on a nightly basis

....and working full time. It's been that kind of a week...month oh hell...the last year!

This is how we roll...

Celebrating 9 years together with pizza and 2 littles that changed us forever

alive

Blogger has been giving me nothing but problems lately with my posts. My frustration led to just giving up. That combined with a crazy work schedule and I totally put picture taking and memory treasuring on the back burner. It will be another crazy week before I feel like things may get back to semi-normal.
Helping a kindergartner with lower case letters, reading and manoeuvring his new friends and teachers has taken up some time. Oh yes a mobile little one doesn't help things either. 2 kids really does change things a hell of a lot more than going from zero to 1. It's a whole different ball game people. The house is never clean, laundry is never caught up, the mommy guilt is just insane. For example, Michael has been refusing to fall asleep at night without a full blown hour of crying and rocking, crying and rocking. Meanwhile my sweet 5 year old just watches episode after episode of Calliou. Not that he's complaining but I just feel guilty when I come out of the nursery and all I want to do is have a glass of wine and collapse. Which I can't because....
dishes need to be washed
clothes need to be laid out
laundry folded
folders checked for school
snack packed for school
papers signed
sight words practiced
dinners planned
kitchen cleaned up
etc.
etc.
etc.
Oh yeah that 5 year old continues to watch TV as I run around like a nut. Thank God he's into superhero stuff now and daddy is the expert. It's a rat race every evening. Now with the weather turning and it's getting darker I feel the walls caving in on us at 6:45 where I watch the clock and count down the minutes to giving them a bath.
So, with no new pictures to share I thought I would post some oldies but goodies. In the days of one child and 2 parents.

2008 Daniel

2009 Daniel

2010 Daniel

2011 Daniel

2012 Daniel

Michael, has so many less pictures! Sweet baby!

One crazy family