I've been a bad blogger since we've been back from our vacation. One reason is because I've been busy going through all this baby stuff. This was the U-Haul before Brett unloaded it all. We were fortunate that our families have had lots of babies and have all the "stuff" we'll need for Miss Emalyn. I've been going through all the clothing and sorting it by size and season to see what we'll still need. Looks like we're set for sure come spring and summer. We got so much spring and summer clothes in every size since the baby girls we got clothes from are Texans. We're just going to need winter clothes since this will definitely be a winter baby being born in November in the windy city. We've also been busy trying to figure out how to decorate the nursery/guest bedroom. Again, we were lucky that friends/family gave us their girl crib bedding so we didn't have to buy that either. I'm older and wiser and realize with this third child that there is no reason to buy all new stuff for babies because they only use the "stuff" for a short amount of time. Hopefully we'll get the room going soon and I'll post some pics.

Other than baby stuff we've been busy getting back into our lives here. The kids had VBS the week we got back and they LOVED it. We've been going to the pool, playing with friends, going to birthday parties, basically just enjoying summer. I am LOVING the nice cool summer we are having here. This picture above shows the kids playing at a park at a bday party. They love those spinning things. How do they spin so much and not get sick? The party was actually supposed to be at a spray park but it was not even 70 that day so the kids stayed out of the water and just played at the park. I would never imagine that a bday party in July would be too cool for a water park, but it happens here.

The kids and I headed to one of my favorite malls here for some shopping and ate at Rainforest Cafe.

They love those crocodiles, or are they alligators?

They are getting so big. I remember when we'd have to lift them up on the wall and hang on to them for dear life so they could see the crocodiles. While we were eating, Cade asked what the difference between a rainforest and a jungle were. I love how my kids make me feel like I know nothing because I can't answer their simple questions. Then he started asking why there were dolphins and aquariums in Rainforest Cafe but those animals are not in a rainforest. Then we were laughing how the bird above our table was the same size as the leopard on the wall behind us and the whole Rainforest Cafe experience became quite comical to all of us. Sure it's fun but it's just not an accurate depiction of a rainforest. I tell you, my kids are getting too big and smart!

The kids had some money to spend from the quarters Omie gave them on their road trip home and they found some good things to buy. Cade of course bought some Legos and Maddi bought some new earings. At Rainforest Cafe they both bought a back of rocks. I thought it was so appropriate that they bought rocks with money from Omie because she loves rocks too. They had a great time finding their favorite rocks and shoving as many in their bags as they could. On the car ride home they were showing each other their favorites and making trades with each other.


Brett and I were always a bit freakish about letting our kids get dirty when they were little (play dough is my worst nightmare) so my poor neglected children never had the opportunity to play in shaving cream. Cade heard a girl at VBS talking about it so at the ripe ages of 6 and 8 my kids finally experienced shaving cream. They had a good time with it and hopefully they won't be scarred for life because their mom is afraid of messes!

On Saturday, the kids and Brett and I headed to Six Flags Great America. The kids had free tickets from a reading program at school. Usually I go with the kids with another mom and kids during the week but this year since I can't ride any rides we went on a weekend when Brett could ride with them. It was pretty crowded, but we had fun. I spent a lot of time people watching and waiting for them to ride the rides. The kids were worried that I was not having a good time because I couldn't do anything but ride the carousel but I really had a good time watching them have fun.

Last Stop- Big D

Our last stop on our 3 week trip before heading back to Chicago was the Big D, well actually Allen and Plano. Once again, I was horrible with pictures and I am so sad to say I have no pictures at all from our visit with Grammy. I tried to get her pictures from her memory card but it was too small for my computer. Hopefully she'll send me some pics so we can have some pictures for memories. The only reason I had so many pics from San Antonio was because my mom is part Asian and takes 5 million pictures and I got her pictures from her camera. I've got to be better about taking my own pictures.

Anyway, we only had 2 full days in Plano, but we had a great time. The first day Grammy picked up the kids and took them to IHOP for breakfast and then to Smashing Times for the kids to make a mosiac. Brett and I met up with my best friend from college my freshman year that I haven't talked to in forever. We both pledged different sorrorities our sophomore year and unfortunately grew apart. Thanks to Facebook we reunited and I found out she's been living in Highland Park the whole time I was living in Dallas. Too bad we didn't know that earlier so we could have hung out. Later that afternoon all of the McDonalds met for dinner and then we went for an evening swim at Grammy's neighborhood pool.

The next morning Grammy treated all of the girls at the spa for manicures and pedicures. I know she has some great pics from that so hopefully I can get them from her one day and get them on here. Even Grace, who's 2 1/2, went and had a great time. Brett, Cade, Blond Todd and Baby Will stayed home and had some male bonding time. After getting pampmered we headed to Sam Moon for some shopping. When we got back from Sam Moon Grammy took the kids to Target to the dollar spot. When we lived in Allen, Grammy would get the kids for breakfast every Friday and then head to Target to the dollar spot and Cade remembers that very well and insisted on his time at the dollar spot. Then it was time to say goodbye to the McDonalds because we had plans that evening with Kim and Dusti and their families and we knew we'd get home just in time to get to bed and we were leaving early the next morning.

Me and my bffs, Dusti and Kim! As always, we had a great time catching up with each other while all the little ones ran around. As the kids are getting older, it's getting easier to talk since we don't have watch the kids as closely. Love those girls and it still makes me sick that Kim and I were going to be right down the road from each other. One day we'll move back to Texas and we'll be neighbors....

Dusti and Mike had their birthdays the day before we got together so Kim got cupcakes for us to celebrate their bdays. You can see the kids LOVED the cupcakes with bright icing. This is Kim's beautiful little girl Katelyn modeling the blue icing!

Cade is demonstrating how he shovels food in his mouth. No time to play around with his food. This boy just inhales!

Maddi modeling the orange icing and Dusti's precious daughter, Reese, modeling bright pink icing. Kim's son, Tanner, would not cooperate with me for a picture and Dusti's boys, Gavin and Zach, apparently don't eat so no pics of them.

Here's Maddi with cute little Reese. Maddi has a way with little kids and they all just love her and follow her around. Of course Maddi enjoys the attention and she kept talking about how cute Reese was.

We had so many other friends and family we wanted to meet up with but instead of running around trying to meet with everyone during our short time we just spent our time with family and relaxed. Unfortunately it was time to say goodbye to our friends and family and time to get back to our life in Chicago. We drove straight through (14 hours driving time) and the kids were AWESOME! Having GPS is so great because the kids would just look at the estimated arrival time and the current time on the clock and figure out how much longer we had. No more asking "are we there yet?" "how much longer?". We got home at around 1 a.m. and we were tired but it was so nice to wake up and have all of Sunday at home to unpack and get settled in. The kids were so happy to be back home and our neighbors were quite happy to see us too. They played with friends all day while Brett unloaded all the baby stuff from the Uhaul and I put things away. We had a wonderful 3 week cross country trip filled with lots of memories, but there's no place like home!

Next Stop- Omie's House

On July 4th the kids and I left summer camp and drove an hour to Omie's House! The kids were so excited to see Omie's house because it has been a long time since we've been to her house. She was living in San Antonio the last few times we visited and she is now back in her house and she has done some great updating in her kitchen.

Right after we got to Omie's we headed to the golf course for the New Braunfels fireworks with Todd and his family. The kids were excited to see each other again as you can see from Maison tackling Maddi. Very funny story about the light sticks that Blake or Case is holding. Brett's mom had bought them and sent them to summer camp for all of the kids. Maison, Maddi and I waited in line for a long time for the portable potty. It started getting quite dark so Breezy brought us a light stick so we could see what kind of nastiness we needed to avoid in the potty. Just as Maison was walking in the portable potty she tripped and the light stick flipped up and landed straight in the toilet! All I heard was Breezy yelling "Nooooooo..." telling Maison not to touch it. The light stick was on and everyone for the rest of the night had plenty of light from Maison's light stick stuck in the toilet.

Omie with (left to right)Blake, Maddi, Case, Maison and Cade.

Breezy, Todd and I waiting for the fireworks. We were all impressed with the fireworks. Great way to spend the 4th except it was so stinking hot. It was 100 degress when we were driving home after 10:00 pm.

Maison spent the night at Omie's with us while Todd, Breezy and the boys stayed at the farm house. Maddi, Cade and Maison had a great time taking a bath with the bubbles in Omie's whirlpool tub.

Maison was being a little stinker here and refused to smile. We have a few pictures of every kid in their lifetime showing off their grumpy face so I had to add Maison's to the mix. She is such a funny little girl and can be so sweet and fun and then the next minute she is showing her attitude and stubborness. It's quite funny. Love that girl.

Later that day we headed over to the farm and Cade got to hang with Uncle Todd and go on the four wheeler.

After the farm we headed to a yummy mexican restaurant for some delicious cheese enchiladas. Case, Cade, and Blake had fun entertaining each other at lunch.

Later that night we had even more yummy Mexican food at Alamo Cafe with Matt Hansen and his family. Matt has twins boys named Cade and Wyatt and a little girl named Maddox. It was fun to see them all.

That night after dinner we did a few sparklers. You can see from Maddi's face that she is not a fan of fireworks. Poor girl is such a safety girl like her daddy. Cade is more of a piro-maniac like his mommy and he loved the sparklers.

The next day we went to Landa Park. Omie again with her little rascals after feeding the ducks. Luckily it was only in the upper 80s with 90-100% humidity instead of the 100s that morning.

After the ducks was the train ride. The twins are obsessed with trains and this was a highlight of the park for them for sure. They gave their tickets to the train conductor and he gave them half of the ticket back. About half an hour later on the playground Case came over and handed me his ticket and asked me to hold it. That boy held on to the ticket stub that whole time!

Everyone in the driver seat after the train ride.

Cade man on the train. My grandparents used to take us to Landa Park and to ride the train many years ago. It's so fun to be able to take my kids with their grandma to ride the same train.

After the train ride we headed to the park. I was pretty upset to see that the old fashioned playground was replaced with state of the art playgrounds. Every kid should have their legs burned going down the metal slides like we did back in the day. The kids certainly didn't mind that the playground was changed. Maddi and one of the boys on the see saw. It's impossible to tell the boys apart when they have the same outfit and hats on.

Cade was taking a break from playing for a bit. His asthma started flaring and he was in pretty bad shape this day. The boy could hardly breathe but he was a trooper. After we got back to Chicago we found out he has/had walking pneumonia.

Landa Park made everyone very hungry so we headed to Rudy's for some good old bbq. My mom thought my lunch looked like a weird pregnancy craving but it's actually the way I always eat it. Bread with turkey, beans, corn, pickles and lots of bbq sauce. I eat weird combos all the time, not just when I'm prego.

The next day was very fun since we headed to Schlitterbahn. It was all of the kids first times there and they all had a blast. Maddi and Omie stayed about 3 hours longer than the rest of us since the little ones needed some rest and Cade was worn out from his asthma. Thanks Omie, for a fun day at Schlitterbahn!

After Omie and Maddi got back from Schlitterbahn it was time for more sparklers. Everyone loved them except for Maddi girl. Blake is looking like w.t. hanging out in his underwear!

More sparklers...

While we were doing sparklers one of my mom's neighbors dogs ran over and then the kids were more interested in the lost dog than the sparklers. Maddi was quite concerned about the dog and went in and got her cell phone to call the owners to let them know we had their dog. What a sweet girl!

Everyone was sad to say good bye since we left the next day. Cade was especially sad to say bye to his little cousins. Once again we had a fun visit with Omie and the Stanley family. We headed north on 35 to Plano to visit with Brett's mom for a few days before heading back home. Pics from the Dallas visit to come soon...

Grandma's Summer Camp

After leaving Florida we drove to the Woodlands for a night. We were lucky to be able to meet up with the Thelens for dinner at Wings and More and the park while we were there. This is Caleb, their oldest son, and Cade. Brett flew home the next morning to go back to work while the kids and I visited in Texas.

Here's Maddi and Todd's son Blake.

The McDonald, Stanley and Thelen kids playing in the water at the park. This was our first taste of the Texas heat. Cade actually threw up that night before bed and I think it's because he was overheated. We are now wimpy Chicagoans who can't handle the blazing Texas heat.

Blake and Case are very into their trains and they enjoyed playing with their big cousin Cade. It's so fun to watch the kids interact with each other. Even though they don't see each other too often they have such a strong bond and just love each other so much.

We only stayed in the Woodlands for one night and then the next day after lunch we were on the road to Austin for Grandma's Summer Camp. On our drive to Austin we stopped at the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory and took the tour. The kids decided they want to work there when they grew up because of their motto "we eat all we can...and we sell the rest" because it's actually true and the employees do get as much free ice cream as they want while at work. The end of the tour we got a scoop of ice cream and we all decided Blue Bell is the best ice cream in the country! Too bad we can't get Blue Bell in our neck of the woods.

This year summer camp was at a house in Austin. It was a nice place with a pool but it also was on a ranch and had goats and chickens. The kids enjoyed their time with Texas Grammy and Grampa (who are living in Doha), Alex and Zoe (live in Balitmore), Aunt Sara and Uncle Joel, Grace and Will, Blond Todd and Aunt Becca. Cade brought his remote control boat and all the kids had a blast driving it.

Zoe, Grace and Maddi chillin on the swing.

Time to feed the goats!

The kids loved the goats and checking for eggs in the chicken house.

Maddi and cousin Will. He was such a cutie. Maddi is such a natural with kids and I always love to see her interact with little ones. She is going to be such a wonderful sister to Emalyn.

Texas Grammy always plans fun snacks for the kids at summer camp. The snack on this day was candy burgers. They used Nilla wafers for the buns, mint patty for the meat, green coconut for the lettuce, jelly bellies for tomatoes, onions, and pickles and yellow icing for mustard.

An interesting combination but the kids sure thought they were tastey!

Serious chef here making sure there's enough sugar in his burger.

Another big hit of summer camp was the airplane contest. Cade took it very seriously and looked forward to it all week. We flew the planes off the balcony and Grampa and Texas Grammy were the judges for fanciest, longest flight, furthest flight, most creative, etc. I was going to get Texas Grammy's pictures from her so I'd have more to document our time together but never got a chance. I'm really bummed that I never got a picture of the kids with Grampa and Texas Grammy or the rest of the family.

After 5 nights of camp we were off to New Braunfels to continue our Texas Tour.

Panama City Beach

Whew. We finally made it back from our 3 week trip to Florida and Texas. We had a great time but we were ready to leave the heat and get back home. I was really bad about taking pictures but here are a few. This turtle picture was taken at one of our favorite outdoor shopping places in Panama City. Cade jumped right up on the turtle and Brett and I were cracking up when he grabbed the turtles mouth b/c it looked just like he was peeing. He had no idea why we were laughing so hard but he was cracking up too when we finally told him.

Maddi couldn't wait to get her hair wrapped once the dance competition was over. Our hotel had a beautiful pool and unfortunately this is one of the only times I took pictures of it.

Our first day we got to the hotel they had parrots (I think those are parrots?) and Maddi was so excited to hold it.

We went to Panama City for the National dance competition. Maddi did so well with all of her dances. This picture was right after her solo. She did amazing, the best she has done, but she didn't get in the top 5. Her other dances placed 7th for tap, 4th for lyrical and 2nd for jazz.

The solo competition lasted until late in the night and Cade fell asleep waiting for the awards ceremony.

A few minutes later Brett was sleeping along with Cade. Those boys are such troopers supporting Maddi and her dancing.

Here's Maddi girl in her crown after the awards. She's our little princess!

One day we took a trip to Shell Island with the other dance families. It was a fun day. Cade was trying out his snorkeling gear and found out it doesn't work so well in the waves. We walked over later to the calm waters and found lots of shells. None of the shells were as big as we were hoping to find but we found a ton of pretty smaller ones.

Bad picture, but had to get a picture of Maddi in the water. Panama City Beach was absolutely beautiful and we had a really great vacation. We had lots of free time and Maddi did a great job with her dance.