Omie and snow

Here is the rest of Omie's visit for Thanksgiving. Wednesday morning we drove to the city and checked into our hotel. We got some photos for our Christmas card. I keep thinking it will get easier each year with the kids getting older, but so far it's not easy. Thankfully candy bribes still work and get them to cooperate for a little while. The hotel and the whole city was all decked out for Christmas. It's so pretty and really gets you in the Christmas spirit.



After the photo shoot we were off to explore. Cade has always loved Nutcrackers and was happy to see his favorite big Nutcracker was back at our hotel again this year.

We went to Macy's on State Street to see the windows. I didn't get any pictures so I guess they weren't that great. Or at least they weren't as good as last years Nutcracker theme. We also went to see Santa. We waited in line for somewhere around 45 minutes and finally gave up. The kids REALLY wanted to wait in line and see him but once they realized we were going nowhere they decided they'd see him somewhere else another day. Here they are playing DS. Cade's playing DS and Maddi is being a bit grumpy :(

From there we went to get some Garrett's popcorn. While mom and I waited in line for popcorn Brett took the kids to play on the Picasso sculpture in the Daley Plaza. They were interviewed for TV about what they are thankful for. Maddi was thankful for the world and Cade was thankful for Thanksgiving. Funny stuff. Of course we had to stop by the bean and Millenium Park. Look closely and you'll see ice skating in the background. The kids wanted to ice skate, but we didn't have time. We headed back to the hotel to change for dinner.

Here we are at Harry Carray's Italian Steakhouse with the "holy cow!" It's a very touristy place but we had to give it a try. It happened that it was the date of my parents wedding and it would have been their 37th anniversary if my dad was still living. I know my dad would have loved this place so I'm sure he was there with us in spirit.

Omie and Maddi with Harry himself. The kids were laughing at how big his glasses were. They can't imagine that was the style back then.

My mom's bday is in December so we got tickets for her and I to see Dirty Dancing. That is one of her favorite movies and when I saw they were coming to Chicago before they get to Broadway I had to get tickets. While we went to the theater Brett and the kids went back to the hotel for some swimming. They had a blast swimming and my mom and I had a blast at Dirty Dancing. It was AMAZING and I'm so glad I got to see it with my momma.

Thanksgiving morning we were awoken at 6:30 a.m. by bands warming up playing Jingle Bell Rock right outside our hotel window. We weren't on the parade route but we were in the staging area so the kids got to see all of the bands, balloons, floats, etc. that were going to be in the parade.

We got all bundled up and headed out to State Street a few blocks up to watch the McDonald's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Cade was an eager beaver and ready for the parade to start.

Maddi was woken up too early by the band and she was less than eager to be awake and bundled up and certainly didn't want her picture taken. She is just not a morning person. I can remember even as a baby she woke up every day crying in her crib. Cade rarely ever cried in his crib and woke up early and cooed and giggled and talked to himself for a long time before we'd go get him. After a while she was happy and ready to enjoy the parade.

Omie was showing the kids the hand and feet warmers she brought for everyone. Love those warmers.

What's a turkey day parade without a turkey?

Ronald McDonald himself...creepy if you ask me....

Some crazy Barefoot Hawaiin fire jugglers.

Bozo the clown!!! Love that clown. I spent many a morning watching the Bozo show before school. I always wanted to come to Chicago so I could go to the show and play the grand...prize...game!!! Now I live here and the show is no longer on. Bummer!

The jolly bearded man. We didn't stay for the whole parade but we saw Santa right behind our hotel in the staging area as we were walking back. It was a fun parade but nothing fantastic. I think we spoiled it a bit since we saw most of the acts out our hotel window in the staging area. The cast of Dirty Dancing was supposed to be in the parade and we never saw them and I was really hoping to see them. Oh well.

After the parade we checked out of the hotel and headed over the Museum of Science and Industry. It was open and it was free general admission. I thought it would be dead, but it was actually really crowded. They had the Christmas Around the World exhibit open so that was fun to see and we even got snowed on by fake foamy snow in this picture.

Rock climbing burning off some energy!

Playing in the Idea Factory. We had a fancy Thanksgiving meal in the food court of the museum. Not really. It was regular museum food court fare but we had a turkey, mashed potatoes, etc. on Friday instead. We stayed for a few hours before heading home. It was a different way to spend turkey day and it was lots of fun.

While in the city Maddi bought some craft sets from American Girl. Omie and Maddi designed and created a cute tote bag for Kit and her dog Grace. Friday we hung out and ran errands. The kids had to say goodbye to Omie Friday night because she had an early flight Saturday morning. There were lots of tears from both kids and Cade even told me he doesn't love me anymore, he only loves Omie. Thanks Cade, I appreciate that....Kids are so funny with their honesty and raw emotions. We had a wonderful visit and we can't wait for Omie to come back in 3 weeks for Christmas!

Cocoa is such a good dog and so patient. Maddi was pushing her around in the "wheelchair" and Cocoa just hangs out and seems to enjoy it. Maddi put a sign on the back that said "Wheelchair coming through. Watch out."

Sunday we got a nice sticking snow. It was very wet and the kids were rolling around making snow angels that's why Maddi has wet hair. She took her hat off. Nice. What was I thinking getting her a white coat?!? It's a down North Face brand and I thought..how warm and cute. Can't wait to see how attractive it is after a long winter of abuse and many washings. I'm getting her a new coat for her snow pants and the white one is just to wear in the cold to look cute. Ugh.

We got our tree up and lights outside Saturday. Good thing because this was our yard Sunday by 4:30. Notice it is already dark at 4:30 p.m. I love the first snows of winter with Christmas lights and a fresh blanket of snow. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I just hope there's some white stuff around for the Stanley family when they all come here for a white Christmas!

This video is of Cocoa trying our her snow shoes in the snow for the first time. She hasn't learned to like them yet and they didn't stay on long. I need to put them on tighter, I guess.

Omie's Here!

Brett and I went to see Four Christmasses while the kids were at a birthday party tonight. I had way too much caffeine late too late in the day so I'm wide awake and thought I'd try to catch up on some posts from Omie's visit. She came in the Saturday before Thanksgiving and we had so much fun with her. Maddi got the Little Loveables Factory for her birthday and she was waiting to make bears with Omie so this was the first thing they did after Omie got here. It's like Build a Bear at home. Cade, Maddi and Omie each made a bear so they can all sleep with their bears and think of each other.

Later that day Cade had a basketball game and it was a treat for Omie to get to watch him play. He was making sure she was watching the whole game and of course she was watching. Mommy is the one who forgets to watch the game, but he doesn't seem to pay attention to whether I'm watching or not. They won again (even though they don't keep score).

While Cade had a basketball game Maddi had a roller skating birthday party. She's only roller skated one other time last summer so she wasn't so sure about it at first. She ended up getting the hang of it and had a blast. She was holding hands with one of the little boys in her class as they skated around. So cute.

One of them would wobble then the other would wobble. One would crash to the ground and then the other would crash to the ground. She was a little sore the next day from so many falls!

We bought a gingerbread house kit. I didn't exactly follow the directions and let it set as long as it said so the walls were crashing down. It was driving my mom crazy that it wasn't perfect but she got to practice her patience and work on her perfectionism and accept that things are not perfect when I'm involved. It just gave Omie and the kids more of a challenge to make it look pretty to cover the flaws of my construction!

They spent a lot of time making it look just right. Way more time than I would have spent on it and mine would not have looked half as nice. They had a blast but the kids were a little dissappointed that they didn't get to eat the gingerbread or candy.

Omie and Cade put on the finishing touches of the gingerbread house while Maddi was at another birthday party. Nice work guys!

Cade had more one on one time with Omie while Maddi was at dance. They played games and did crafts. Here they are making Indian hats with feathers. Omie made one for Maddi so she wouldn't be jealous that she missed out on a craft opportunity.

Cade was loving his time with Omie and next they made a dinosaur out of tinfoil. School has been so good for him because now he enjoys arts and crafts and working on his fine motor skills.

Omie brought some goofy birds, the "happy drinking birds" is what she called them, I think. They demonstrate some chemistry and physics laws/theories but basically they drink water all day every day. The kids were loving watching them and Brett was loving trying to figure them out.

While Maddi was at yet another birthday party me, Omie and Cade went to play glow in the dark putt putt golf. We had a blast and I'm not sure who had more fun the grandma or the boy!

Omie also read to both kids classes, we did some Christmas shopping, we played lots of games and did lots of arts and crafts. She also did some cooking for us which made my Brettley very happy. We all love when mom comes to visit. That wraps up Saturday to Tuesday. Wednesday to Saturday coming soon.....

Our little Pilgrim

Cade had his 1st grade Thanksgiving Play today. He was a Pilgrim. Isn't he cute? He has been so excited about this for a few weeks. They each had a line in the play and then they sang songs. He's enjoyed the practicing for it but I think the real reason he was so excited was because they had a feast afterwards. Well, not a whole feast, but apple and pumpkin pies, cookies, popcorn and juiceboxes. The best part of all was they had all of the sweets before lunch!

Brett was able to come to the play too. Cade was happy Daddy was there. They are having a Book Fair at school too so we got to school a little early and took Maddi to the Book Fair. She was at lunch recess so they called her in to the office and she was so releived to find we were there to take her to the Book Fair and that she wasn't in trouble. Like my Maddi would ever be in trouble and have to go to the office. Silly girl!

You can see Maddi at her play last year by clicking here. Blogging friends, tell me how you put the word "here" and it takes you to an older post. I'm not that fancy yet so I have to put the whole link.

Here are some videos of Cade and his class at the Thanksgiving celebration. We are very thankful for many things. Cade and Maddi are two things we are most thankful for.

Funny Stuff

Since I'm using this blog as a scrapbook/baby album I have to document some funny things that I'll want to remember down the road. Speaking of which, I know there are sights where you can have your blog printed out and I did a quick google search but didn't find much. Any of my blogging friends who know of a good site that will print blogs, please let me know. So on to the funny things...

Last week my sweet sleep walking Maddi girl was at it again. We heard noises upstairs and Cade had been coughing so Brett went to check on Cade to see if he was up and looking for us to do his inhaler. As Brett left and walked through the foyer to go upstairs Maddi came down the stairs and through the dining room to see me in the living room. I couldn't quite tell if Maddi was awake or not. Sometimes she takes a while to fall asleep so I was thinking she was coming down to tell us her music was off and she can't fall asleep and ask us to start the music and pat her so she could fall asleep. I asked her what she was doing and her reply was "just doin". I still wasn't quite sure what she said and if she was awake or not so I asked again what she was doing and I clearly heard "just doin" followed by a big yawn and she snuggled up on my lap. I then knew she was sleep walking and couldn't wait for Brett to come back down and find her sitting on my lap. Brett and I were cracking up at our little sleep walker who was "just doin" and laughing at how they didn't cross paths as he went up the stairs and she came down. Living with a sleep walker is always fun!
One of the worst parts of winter and snow is the fact that Cocoa gets covered in snow and we have to blow dry her to melt the snow and then blow dry her to dry her hair so she isn't freezing. After dealing with it for 2 winters now I picked up some doggy snow shoes at Petco. I tried them on her front paws and she wasn't thrilled with them. There is a video at the bottom of her trying to run in her new shoes. I'm hoping she'll learn to like them so we can keep some of the snow off of her. She used to not like her coat on until we moved here. Now she sees her coat and stays very still so we can put it on her because she's realized life is much better when she can stay warm. I have been looking for a snow suit too so we can avoid blow drying around the clock.

Meet Buddy the 5th or 6th (we've lost count). 3 years ago when Maddi got Cocoa we got Cade a fish. Supposedly Beta fish are very hardy and live forever. They do not live long in our house. Cade talks about his fish Buddy all the time and acts like he is very attached to him yet he never feeds him or talks to him or pays any attention to him. When the first Buddy died we replaced it without telling Cade. Buddy #2 went to fishy heaven so we decided it was ok to tell Cade and that he'd probably care less. The poor boy was CRUSHED. So each time "Buddy" makes a visit to fish heaven we just replace him without anyone knowing. In fact, when we were moving to Chicago we were going to leave Buddy to live with Grammy. Cade was heart broken that Buddy wasn't coming with us so Grammy "mailed" Buddy to us after we moved. (read between the lines) A few weeks ago when Brett was in China, we forgot to feed Buddy. In fact we totally forgot about Buddy at all. When Brett got home he went to check on him and found him belly up. I felt horrible...how long had he been that way? So we didn't tell Cade and we also didn't replace him. It's been 5 weeks since Buddy visited the porcelain throne and Cade has not EVEN noticed. Cade still talks about Buddy and even told me last night to put the game back on the shelf where Buddy is. Hello...Buddy isn't there! It's just a tank with water Cade. Pay attention to your poor little fishy!

I wanted to wait and see how long it takes for Cade to notice but Brett (nice dad that he is) is afraid Cade will be devistated so tonight Buddy rose again! Funny thing is that Maddi knows Buddy is in fish heaven but we told her not to tell Cade. Now I wonder how long it will take Cade or Maddi to realize that Buddy might look a little different than he did when they last saw him. The things parents do to keep their kids spirits up!

Here is the video of Cocoa trying to run in her snow shoes. Funny stuff!

They love winter!

Winter has arrived to Chicago and the kids are saying "I love winter!" We've had the cold for a few weeks but now we have some snow to go with it, and the kids get all excited when it snows. We haven't really had a sticking snow yet, but lots of flakes for the kids to try and catch on their tongues. Maddi was sitting at the table doing homework when we looked out the window and saw the flakes coming down. She jumped up and ran out to play in the snow. I like the snow too, especially this time of year. Really gets you in the holiday spirit. Now talk to us in May when we still have snow and I don't think we'll still love winter and snow.

Right Foot Red

There has been a whole lot of twisting going on in our house lately playing TWISTER! I have been the spinner for so many games of twister that I have right foot blue, left hand yellow, etc. going through my head. It's getting to be that time of year when the kids don't go outside much so we are playing lots of games and twister is the big hit right now. They also like a game called Rush Hour where you have to get the ice cream truck out of traffic jams. Cute game if you're looking for Christmas gifts. Here are some twisted moments from Saturday...

A few more games of twister after bath and before bed time.

Cade somehow cracked the crown of his head open Thursday at school. He was on the playground and bumped it on a bar. It busted open even with wearing a winter hat. Pretty hard head that boy has.....wonder where he got that hard head???? He's ok and we didn't take him for stitches. It's so cute that Maddi is more worried about his head than Cade is. She reminds him anything that he does to watch out for his head. She even reminded his friend to be gentle with him today while playing twister so he doesn't fall and crack it open again.

Maddi had a friend sleepover Friday night. Cade's friend had a rough day at school and wasn't allowed to sleep over so he came over early Saturday morning to play and have breakfast like they had slept over. This afternoon Cade had a bday party, a basketball game and then we went to lunch and did some shopping for jeans for Brett. I have gone and gotten jeans for him twice this week and they didn't fit so I drug him to the mall and made him try some on. We got three pair, so he should be good for a while. The mall is all decked out for Christmas and it's cold, even snowing today, so it really got us in the Christmas mood. Santa is at the mall and I was bombarded with questions from the kids...is he the real Santa? does he ever die? does his wife ever die? does the Easter Bunny die? how do you get to be Santa's helper? and on and on.

Happenings

The cold has set in and it's time again to enjoy our fireplace. No matter how cold it is Cade still likes to sleep in his boxers, so he's all ready for bed cuddling in a blanket in front of the fire for some connect four with mom before bed.

The weekend was full of parties. Maddi had a bday party and sleepover Friday night. She had another bday party Saturday. Cade had basketball pictures and a game on Saturday too. Sunday Cade had his end of year football party. Here he is getting his trophy and orange crush from his head coach. The coach gave each kid a nick-name and talked about each child when giving out trophies. He said during the season they realized Cade isn't just the value size meal, he's the real "Big Mac" and nick-named him Cade Big Mac McDonald.

Here is "Big Mac" with is trophy, orange crush, and football cup prize. They drew two names to win the football cup and of course Cade, the lucky kid, got his name pulled. The coaches couldn't believe he won again since our family already won the raffle twice this year.

After pizza and the awards the kids went to play in the arcade and Cade played lazer tag with most of his team mates. They had a great time and it was a fun way to end the year.

Halloween Weekend

Here in the midwest they announce trick or treat times, which is still strange to me....this year it was from 3:30-8:00. We went next door to get some pics with the kids and go trick or treating around 4:00. The kids weren't really into getting pics, so we got a few but not any that are good. Oh well. Here is Maddi who is Gabriella from High School Musical and Cocoa, the pumpkin. Here is Jack as a pirate, and Cade as Indiana Jones.

Our neighbors from across the street who just moved to another suburb came to trick or treat with us to visit their old neighbors and 'hood. Grace was supergirl, Nolan was a fireman and his little brother, Chase, was his dalmation. So cute. Andrew was a cute little monkey but he wouldn't stay in the picture.

The kids had a blast and got tons of candy. Apparently is was the nicest weather for Halloween in 43 years. When the sun went down it got cool, but not cold. While trick or treating, Maddi was eating candy. She decided she was ready to go home b/c she had a tummyache and didn't need anymore candy. Maddi and I sat on the front porch and handed out candy while Brett and Cade hit up a few more houses. We actually ran out of candy because there are SO many kids in our neighborhood so we started handing out Maddi's candy (it was her idea b/c she said she'd had enough and didn't want another tummy ache).

When Brett and Cade got back we headed next door to hang with the neighbors for a bit, then we went to a friends for a Halloween party with lots of food, drinks, kids, and fun. Around 9:30 Cade and I headed home to get to bed while Brett and Maddi headed over to some of our other friends for another Halloween party. They stayed out until 11:00 and then called it a night.

Saturday Cade had his first basketball game of the season. Here he is warming up before the game. They don't keep score, but Maddi kept the score, and Cade's team won! It's amazing what a difference a year makes for those boys. I'm glad we're back to an inside sport so it doesn't matter if it's raining, cold, hot, whatever...we're inside and comfortable!

Later Saturday afternoon we went to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Maddi's bday (she chose to go there). We got filled up on rolls and cinnamon butter and had a fun time. Sunday Brett went to the Bears game with a friend and the kids and I hung around and enjoyed what will probably be our last weekend of nice weather before the cold sets in.

The most exciting part of the last few days for me is.........Cade's front tooth came out!!! He was finally wiggling it and working on getting that crazy tooth out of his mouth. I convinced him to let me pull it Monday night. He didn't cry and freak out. There was no blood and it came out with hardly a pull. Tried to take a picture of his toothless smile but it didn't turn out well. Hopefully the toothfairy will remember to visit this evening and we'll have a happy boy tomorrow.