WINTER GET AWAY AT THE DELLS

As the Chicago winter continues on and on and on, we decided to have a winter vacation and surprise the kids with a trip to the Wisconsin Dells- a town full of indoor water parks. It is the Chicago thing to do in the winter.

We packed the car the night before, and told the kids the next morning we were going on a picnic. Jaden said to Jill as we got in the car, we are going to a waterpark. Mike and I looked at each other surprised and wondered how he knew. We still said we were just going on a picnic. He said.. why is the swimming stuff in the back then? Oops, I guess we did not pack good enough. He's too smart for us now. We told him OK we are going to a hotel with a simming pool. He then said, does it have a slid? Are we going to the Wisconsin Dells. Well the gig is up. We still did not give any details.

We stayed at the Chula Vista Hotel that had a Mayan themed water park. It was so much fun! I of course had as much fun as the kids or more. We enjoyed two full days at the park and all was well and happy. Tate slept, ate and played a little in the water. Tyler went under the water at least four times, but all was well. Jaden was fearless and went on all the slides that were at least 70 feet tall. Jill couldn't get enough of swimming and got a few slides in. We all had a great vacation.

My friend Karrie King and her family were at the Dells also, so we met for Pizza. It was a great break from the snow.

Enjoy the show......

XOXOXOXO HUGS & KISSES XOXOXOXO

Happy Valentines Day!

Hugs & Kisses

Puppy Love !

RED PUNCH!

Today as Jill put it.... this was the most Awesomeist Day of my life! She and Jaden had their Valentines Day parties at school and were so excited to take their Valentines. For me it did not start out so great. I was in charge of the punch for Jill's preschool snack. I decided to make my own at home, instead of taking all three kids into the store for one item. As I was making it I had this thought and vision of red punch spilling all over my floor. Unfortunately, I did not give heed all the way to that thought. I did try to secure the piture of punch with my coat behind it, and then I forgot it was there. As I turned the corner it tipped forward and the whole gallon of RED PUNCH spilled all over the van! Brilliant wouldn't you say. I said, Oh No, Daddy is going to be mad. He wouldn't really be, but Jill was so worried that he would be. I had to reasure her it would be all right. She wanted to say a prayer. I almost told her it was not neccesary, but thought why not. She prayed that it would be alright and that the punch would come out, so we could still keep our car. It was so cute. I told her the carpet would be fine. I then turned around and cleaned up as much of it as I could with towels and then got Jill off to her party. I have yet to fully clean it out as the day has been so busy, so we'll see how it is in the morning.

Attitude is Everything.... I am glad we really all had an Awesomiest Day!

(I was not real upset, but I wish I would have listened to the prompting.)

WRITING, WRITING AND MORE WRITING

Jaden is a very cleaver boy.... and does not like writers workshop at school. He will only write one sentence. Coming up with the idea, I think, is very overwhelming, as he writes very well. We are trying to work with him to write a whole page, and to come up with ideas. It has been very frustrating for him and his parents. But even after our many inspiring talks ha, ha, he brought this paper home....

I laughed, after he left the room from my lecture of course. Like I said, he is very creative and cleaver. He has great one liners..

He did inform me that we had not done any resoulutions. Which was true, we never talked with the children about resolutions this year. But the work had to be finished. It took him four hours to finish both sides, mainly because he cried about it for 3 hours, and then realized we were not changing our minds. Once he gets over the worry he is fine. My question out there is.... how do you help inspire children to do the things they find hard. We are stuck. He won't budge as of yet.

Our Little Musicians

The kids love to play the piano. They have made up there own music. Jaden has his piece memorized. It sounds the same everytime he plays it. He also taught Jill how to play chopsticks. Here is there debut.

GIRLS DAY OUT!

Jill and I had a fun Girls Day Out with my friend Kaylin and Sofi. We went to Disney on Ice, World's of Fantasy. We had some much fun. I enjoyed it almost as much as Jill.

However, she is a lot more vocal than me.

She loves Ariel and Tinkerbell, and would scream her exuberant excitement every time she saw them.

She is always so joyful you can't help but smile around Jill.

Everything was AWESOME!

That is her new favorite word, which she says all the time.

The show was full of fun music, and beautiful

colors and skating.

Disney is the Greatest Place to Be!

TWO MONTHS AND GROWING!

Hey Look at me.... I am two months old!

I Love looking around, cuddling with mom,

and I Love Milk!

I am weighing in at 10 lbs. 6 oz. and so tall at 21 1/2 in.

I am the biggest baby in my family.

I've even made it on the charts at the 50% mark.

My brothers and sister have still not made it there.

Watch out, Here I come.

There will be no teasing me.

I know I am Adorable, but I want to take this Hat Off!


My sweet friend Amy sent Tate this outfit, so I wanted some pictures to send to her. Tate was not happy by the end.

FRIDAY FAMILY FUN NIGHT!

Jaden had a real hard week at school, and we have not had much time with the kids since the baby was born, so we surprised the kids with pizza, and camping!



News Flash.... The Thomas Pizzeria has the Yummiest Pizza in town.

"CHEESE"

Mike set up the tent in the basement, and then we took the kids on a flashlight walk through the house to the tent and surprised the kids with a camp out. We had so much fun. We even went star gazing in Jaden's room at the constellations he and his Grandpa had put up. This is the way to camp! Indoors and not in the -30 below weather that it was.

We played card games, read stories, and heard spooky stories from Dad.

Good Night, Sweet Dreams on this bitter cold Chicago night.

BUNDLED UP!

I am so warm and cozy!

I can sit here all day.

Tate is ready for the negative 35 degree weather!

Baby Tate 3 days Old

Tate 2 weeks old