The Windy City

Mother's day weekend, I had the opportunity to go to Chicago for ANOTHER great kid-free getaway. (I love my kids, but traveling is so much easier without them). After a short 5 hour drive we arrived at our destination.

Our first stop was Pizzeria Uno for some Chicago style deep dish pizza. It did not disappoint.

This is one of the only pics I got of the whole crew; Kelly, Shauni, Becca, Mandy, Melanie and Chrissy- what a fun group of girls!

Next, we headed to Michigan Avenue to do some shopping. We hit Crate & Barrel, H & M, Mimi Maternity (not for me), The Disney Store, The Lego store and the American girl store (just to name a few).

The American Girl store was unreal, you could have your dolls hair done, take her to the hospital, have lunch with her, or just look around and gawk like we did.

We rode to the top of the John Hancock Observatory to check out the Chicago skyline at night. (notice the black area on the left? That's Lake Michigan).

I loved the Chicago skyline, it was so BIG and UNIQUE.

I also loved the reflective "bean" in Memorial Park.

We spent one afternoon at the Chicago Institute of Art. Being a group of Iowan girls, we had to see American Gothic (which was inspired by a farm house in Iowa).

Another one of the amazing Chicago skyline.

Another highlight was lunch at Ed Debeviks, and our waiter dancing on the table.

Our last stop on the way out of town was Wrigley Field. We weren't able to go to a Cubs game, but we did successfully look like tourists by taking two dozen pictures of the stadium from McDonald's parking lot.

Thanks girls for the fun-filled weekend and a big MWWAHH to Colby for watching the kids, again, so I could have a little getaway.

Abbi "singing"

Although Abbi is not quite eighteen months old, she has been coming to nursery with me for the past couple of months. Abbi LOVES nursery, especially the nursery songs. She will often come to me and say, "woh, woh, woh" for row, row, row your boat or "bubu,bubu, bubu" when she wants to sing the Tiny Tim turtle song. When we brush her teeth we hear, "ch, ch, ch, ch..... ch,ch,ch,ch,ch," etc, etc. I have yet to capture any of this on video, but this one is the closet I've gotten.

Drama Queen

We knew that having a little girl would add a new dynamic to our family, but I would have never guessed that she would be so different from the boys from so early on. At seventeen months, Abbi has already perfected the art of dramatics like only a girl can. It doesn't take much to turn her little smile into full blown HYSTERICS. Plus, I am a really mean mom so it happens A LOT. I make her sit in her high chair when she eats, I tell her "no" when she throws the silverware in the garbage and I don't even let her play in the toilet. Not that it even takes that much though, if I even look at her wrong she goes from this:

to this:

in a matter of seconds. Her crying then escalates to something like this:

It is actually quite entertaining to watch. (I told you I am a mean mom).

Inevitably the little stinker gives me this look, whimpers a little and says something like, "mama, ma, ma, maaaa..." (and how do you say no to that?) and I pick her up and snuggle her. Amazingly enough, she can turn the crying off as fast as she turned it on and she is immediately okay.

Oh how we love this little drama queen!

Saturday is for Soccer

Lately we have been spending our Saturday mornings at the soccer fields watching our boys "get their kick on." It has been so fun to have Colby here this season and we have had beautiful weather. I hate to brag, but Saturday our boys were on fire! (so I must brag a little :))

Ammon was actually engaged in the game,

and he was hustling his skinny little legs off.

He even scored a goal!

Later, at Cart's game, he discovered that cleats are also great for climbing chain link fences.

Abbers was a great cheerleader, and was happy as can be to just be outside all morning.

Carter stole the show at his game, we were so proud of him!

When he wasn't scoring goals, he was stealing the ball or assisting goals.

He ended up scoring FIVE goals!

Good game Cart, good game!

We are so proud of these two boys!

Celebrate Spring

Birthdays

We have had a lot of birthday celebrations around our house lately. Last week, we celebrated my 31st. Thirty-one was a lot easier to swallow than 30! Colby got a cute little cake and I had a great time opening gifts from my boys.

Taking pictures

What would be a funner way to enjoy the nice, warm, Spring weather than to head outside for a photo shoot. Right? Wrong!! I spent Easter morning trying to capture my kiddos (who were not thrilled about the idea) on my new fancy camera (which I only know how to use on the Auto setting.) I have a new appreciation for child photographers, it is harder than it looks.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

What can I say? That Carter has personality!

I did have a little more luck after bribing them with chocolate Easter eggs.

Still not great, but with a little more practice, maybe some photo shop and a lot more chocolate Easter eggs I could have potential...

Easter Morning

I have to give credit to Colby for the fact that my kids even had Easter baskets to find this year. Saturday night I was all geared up to go to bed and Colb said, "don't we need to put out Easter baskets?" Yup. Definitely not up for mother of the year any time soon. But no worries, the little rugrats got plenty of treats. So many that Abbi looked like this most of the day...

and they had no idea that the "Easter bunny" almost forgot to come.

Easter Dinner

We couldn't celebrate Easter without having a ham, some funeral potatoes and homemade rolls. Our friends the Campbells and Fluhmans came over to celebrate with us. We had a great time and are already thinking about next year when we can celebrate together in Texas. We are so excited that we will be living within a couple of miles of these fun families for the next three years.

Abbi and Carter hunting eggs.

Abbi, Spencer and Logan.

Aren't these three little blond babies the cutest thing?

Happy Easter everyone!

How do you celebrate Spring?

Home Sweet Texas!

This week Colby and I went to warm, sunny, Texas to do some house hunting. After a 13 hour drive, a full day of viewing homes and a lot of stressful paperwork, we bought a house.

An actual, real house with a backyard and a fence and a garage that is attached and walls that are not attached to all the neighbors walls. We are thrilled. It is new construction that is supposed to be completed by the end of April, in plenty of time for us to close and move in the first part of June.

I can't wait to have more kitchen cabinet space. Maybe I can finally get my seasonal dishes out of the garage...

We are hoping when we move in that this flooring will actually be in the house. I think Colby was a little hesitant to "sign his life away" on a house that didn't have carpet in it.

Our backyard.

The playroom.

We were very grateful to Grandma Frost and Aunt Crystal for coming to Iowa to stay with the kiddos while we went on our trip.

We wish we had more time to hang out with them, but we did enjoy a day of shopping and a birthday dinner at the Machine Shed.

The kids had so much fun with Grandma while she was here. They colored Easter eggs, went out for ice cream and ate "willy good dinnows."

Abbi and Grandma.

The highlight of the trip for Abbi was being able to spend time with her little cousin Hazel. These two little blondies are only four months apart and they had a great time together. No, I did not use camera tricks, Abbi really is twice as big as Hazel. And no, the girls were not thrilled to be shopping.

Aren't they the cutest little things?

I think we may have convinced Crystal to buy a mini-van while she was here. You just can't beat all the space for car seats.

Grandma got the girls these cute matching rompers, not the best picture but it's pretty tough to get two one year olds to sit still and smile long enough to take a good picture of them.

Thanks again to Grandma and Crystal for helping with the kids. And thank you to the great state of Texas for your affordable houses and fabulous cost of living. I guess now it's time to start thinking about packing...