11th Anniversary!

11 years ago Brett and I said "I do." I had just turned 23, that sounds so young now! We have always celebrated our anniversaries by going out with just the two of us but this year we made it a family affair. We finally had a free day so we decided to head to the city. To be honest, one of the main reasons we did the city is because my pregnant belly was telling me it wanted Rosebud, which is a great Italian restaurant here. The one we usually eat at in Naperville changed to a Rosebud Hamburgers so we trekked to the city to satisfy my craving. I have also been wanting Garrett's popcorn so we got some of that too. It was a beautiful day and the kids were actually pretty excited to be included in our anniversary celebration. We have had 11 great years together and have been so blessed in so many ways. I never in a million years thought I'd be pregnant on my 11th anniversary, but it just reminds me that I'm not the one making the plans here. I love you Brettley and I look forward to many more anniversaries together!

Of course while we were in the city Cade had to make a trip to the Lego store. He has been saving his allowance and tooth fairy money for about two weeks, which is very long for Cade, so it was burning a hole in his pocket.

While we were walking along Michigan Avenue the kids noticed people were eating ice cream. We saw that they were giving away ice cream to promote some new movie. The lady warned us that it was very cold because it was packed in dry ice, but it was colder than we thought. Poor Maddi's tongue got stuck to the orange creamcicle when she tried to lick it. It was so sad but hilarious at the same time. Then the same thing happened to Cade. They were frightened to eat it after that but eventually got over their fear and enjoyed it.

We weren't very good about taking pictures today, but at least we have a few to remember our 11th Anniversary.

Playing Catch Up

I have been a bad blogger lately. We have been very busy lately with our normal day to day activities, end of school year stuff and field trips! I went with Cade's 1st grade class to the zoo on Monday, I substitute taught and went with 3rd grade to a play on Wednesday, I subbed for a kinder class and went to Blackberry Farm Thursday and then went with Maddi's 2nd grade to the zoo on Friday. I have had enough bus rides in the last week to last me for a long while! Here is Cade with Maverick and Landon who were in my group at the zoo. It was nice that I only had 3 kids and they were so good about staying with me. The little boy Landon was somewhat nervous because he had never been to that zoo before so he stuck to me like glue. I hear he's usually a handful and can get wild so that was good that he was staying close by. The boys were very into their maps and wanted to make sure we saw as much of the zoo as possible in our short time there.

This polar bear behind Cade was really funny. It was like it was dancing walking forward and backwards over and over. The bears that day were very active and so cute!

This is my group of girls at the zoo on Friday. Maddi, her friend Maddie and Julia. Omie, my mom, was in town and got to go with us on Friday. It was fun to have Omie with us. The girls were not into their maps like the boys I had Monday and they weren't so into seeing every animal possible. They had to do research projects on an animal they chose so that took most of our time finding the penguins, sea lions, and zebras and writing information about those animals.

This is Maddi and Maddie on the bus ride home. The kids were having a blast taking pictures of each other with their parents cameras. I have all kinds of random pictures of kids on my camera. It was so funny to watch them interact with each other. They were like very immature teenagers.

Saturday Maddi had a dance competition. There was this huge Paul Bunyon statue at the University where she was dancing. Look closely and you'll see Maddi and Cade by the feet. I have no idea why they had a Paul Bunyon statue. Is he from Illinois? I don't know....Maddi had two dances that day so we had the rest of the day to hang out. Maddi had a bday party and then we went to the pool.

Sunday Maddi had her solo and tap dance. Poor Maddi girl had a freak out moment during her solo and about 2/3 of the way through she forgot her dance and ran off stage. My heart broke for her. The judges saw enough of the dance to score her and she still got a high gold, which is very good, but she wasn't eligible to be in the top 5. She went back on stage and did the dance again and remembered it all but she wasn't judged again, it was just for performance sake. I love this picture of Daddy comforting his little girl.


Omie with her wind blown hair and Cade outside at the dance competition.

An attempt at a family pic.

Omie with her Maddi girl after her solo. The good thing about Maddi's forgetting her dance and doing it twice is that Omie got to see her dance twice instead of only once. We teased Maddi that she did it on purpose so Omie could see her on stage more. We didn't take any other pictures with Omie during her trip and I wish we would have. We had a great visit with her and as always we were sad to see her go. We will see her again soon in Texas when we visit this summer.

Teeth and Soccer

Cade keeps losing teeth. He lost a top front tooth at school Friday. Sunday morning he lost a bottom tooth and now he looks like a toothless wonder! I think corn on the cob and apples are out of his diet for a while. His gums are looking a little strange. I think a tooth on the top is about to come in so that part of his gum is bulging and the other gums are more recessed. I can't wait to see which tooth is coming in because it's kind of between his front and side teeth on the top, not really where a tooth should be coming in. He had that crazy shark tooth pulled on top so I don't know if this is his real front tooth coming in or the side one. I really don't want to experience anymore crazy teeth and I pray it's a normal tooth growing in it's normal space. The more I see other kids the same ages of Maddi and Cade I realize there are some really funky teeth out there. I see why so many kids start getting braces so young these days. I'm expecting my kids will need braces but hopefully just to make them nice and straight not because they have snaggley teeth all over the place!

Cade his last soccer game of the season Sunday. It was a makeup for one that was rained out. The game Saturday was soooo cold and windy. Sunday it was still a little chilly, but without the wind. They only had 6 kids at the game so he got lots of playing time and the poor little guy was warn out. I think I need to take him running on a daily basis to build up his stamina! It was a fun soccer season and now baseball starts Monday.

Here is Maddi saying "why are you taking my picture?" all wrapped in a blanket at the soccer game. I had to get a picture of her in there somewhere.

Cade was complaining that he was hot and tired at the game so Brett gave him his sunglasses and hat to give him some shade and cool off.

Little Aggie watching the game taking a break.

3 for Thursday

Three random things on Thursday:

1. I have been reading this girls blog for a week or two and she takes the most amazing pictures. I'm totally not into photography and don't really know anything about what to look for in a picture, but her pictures just blow me away. Check out her blog here.

2. Kids make everything special. I just have to say that having little kids have made my Mother's Day and Bday so special. Of course they made adorable cards, books, and crafts at school for Mom's Day. They were so excited when they were making them, they would whisper to each other about what they were doing each day after school. I'm always impressed with how well they know me. They get everything right about how tall I am or how much I weigh and my favorite things. I love their contageous excitement!

3. Now that I wrote these two things I can't remember the third thing I was going to write. Like I've said before, my kids sucked my brain from me and I'm afraid this pregnancy is going to be detrimental to my brain cells. I can feel the sucking as we speak....

Babies surround us

We are expecting 9 new babies at our house. 7 of the 9 have hatched. There are 4 baby robbins in a nest at our front door. Today after school Maddi noticed 2 of the baby robbins on their playset have hatched. The third egg had a crack in it and the kids and neighbors watched it for about 20 minutes and saw it come out of it's egg. Well, Maddi and I missed it because she had to go to dance but Cade stayed back with our neighbors and he got to watch it. I wanted to move the nest from the playset and we never did and now I'm glad we didn't. It has been so fun for the kids to watch the life cycle and to even see a baby being born. Luckily the mama of the babies in the back is not crazy like the one in the front yard. That mama robbin will atack anyone near it's babies. The 4th baby should hatch tonight or tomorrow. That leaves just one more baby to arrive and that one won't be here until November! I have an ultrasound Friday so hopefully we'll be able to find out what the sex of the baby is and I'll post some pictures of the little one. Like Maddi said, hopefully this time the baby has arms and legs and looks like a real baby. I think she was disappointed to see it was just a blob at 8 weeks.

Catching Up

A few weeks ago we went to the Minor League baseball game because the kids earned a free ticket for a reading incentive program at school. It was our third year to go and the kids had just as much fun this year as the past years. They love getting autographs from the players but I think they have even more fun getting their friends to sign their shirts.

It had been raining most of the weekend but the sun came out and it was warmer than it had been in a while and a great day for a ball game. The kids payed attention to the game pretty well this time. There were several homeruns, a grand slam, a broken bat, an injured player, and lots of foul balls to keep them interested.

Apparently our house is preparing for lots of babies. Not only are we having a baby, but soon there will be 8 baby robbins. There is a nest with four eggs in the window above our front door. There is another nest with four eggs on the kids playset in the backyard. Cade took this picture of the one egg one morning to prove to me that there really was an egg in the nest. (It was cold and yucky and I was in my pjs so I didn't want to go outside.) By the next afternoon there were four eggs in the nest! The kids are very excited about the new baby robbins. I, however, am very jealous of the mommy robbin. All she has to do is lay her eggs and then lay on her nest and then fly away and then lay on her nest some more and whal-a, she'll have babies. She doesn't have to feel sick for weeks on end and get big and fat and have a baby punching her ribs while she tries to sleep, etc. As you can tell, I'm still not feeling wonderful yet in my pregnancy!

Spring has finally sprung in Chicago! We are having some warmer weather and it's time to get some yard work done. Brett spent a whole day pulling weeds. The next day he and our neighbor shared a pile of mulch and spent the day spreading mulch. The kids were having a blast playing/helping. Unfortunately, the little guys weren't much help but maybe in a few years they will be.

I know Cade has a great outfit on. Let me explain...he thought it was warm enough to go in the sprinklers so he got his swim suit on. Then when he wanted to play in the mulch he had to put old shoes on. He grabbed some of Brett's socks from the laundry room and his football cleats. It's quite a look! Now let me explain Brett's garb. The day Brett pulled weeds he got fried on his neck and ears and a few inch section on his back above his waist where his shirt was coming up as he bent over pulling the weeds. So Sunday he was fully sunscreened and wore his hat that would shade him from getting more sun!

The kids participated in the Awana's program at church this year. It was a great program that the kids really enjoyed and they learned so much. They had the end of the year awards Sunday night followed by an ice cream party. Not the best pictures, but something for us to remember it by. Both kids got an award for finishing the whole book.