Sunday, July 29, 2007

Gigi's Birthday

I will start by saying that Cort and I had such a nice time away on Saturday. We ended up staying in a hotel closer to home to save money, but it had a hot tub and pool and that is what I was really hoping for. We had a great dinner at PF Changs, went walking around Oakbrook, got ice cream for dessert from McDonalds, went swimming, watched a movie, slept without having to get up early, and even got to eat a hot breakfast topped off with a trip to Caribou. Plus Mia had a good time with my mom, and Grandma had a good time with Mia! What more could we ask for???

Today when we got back we celebrated Gigi's birthday. It was a nice relaxing afternoon (except when we tried to eat of course-back to reality) and after eating dinner, we took a walk. Speaking of birthdays, Mia received an early birthday gift from Sarah and Ian. She got a little red push car that she loves riding in!

Mia in her car
Mia and Ava in matching cars
Gigi and Papa pushing the girls
Mia swinging with Gigi at the park
This is what happens when you get Dairy Queen and try to eat it on the floor near two hungry girls who didn't want to eat dinner at dinner time (see above comments). Poor Sarah got swarmed. Look at these too clamoring to get a taste of her icecream. I will say this ended with Mia screaming when I cut her off from any more ice cream. She was then carried home and put to bed. :)



We've Been Busy!

We have been very busy lately, so some of these pictures are from a couple days ago. Jen and Jeff have decided to move back from Texas, so they were back up in the area where we met up with them at Mike and Nic's house. Here are a couple pictures from the day. It's crazy to see how old the kids are getting.

Patrick
Steph and Mia (Mia was enjoying the attention-I promise!)
Stephanie
Rachel
Mia also went and watched one of daddy's softball games on Friday since it was an early game. Actually, Mia hug out at the park with all of daddy's friend's kids. :)
Mia swinging
With Gigi

Pretty as a Flower

I haven't taken any "formal" pictures of Mia lately, but we had a good opportunity with Cort's mom's birthday coming up. Sarah and I had both purchased cute headbands at a little baby boutique in Naperville, The Unique Boutique. They have a little loop on them that you can interchange the bows on them. Then we found these cool flowers at Michael's with clips on them. Sarah had the idea to take pictures of the girls with the flowers on their headbands in flowerpots. Aidan would get his picture with a shovel. We were going to try and take a picture of the 3 kids together, but then reality set in and we figured we would be better off doing 3 separate pictures. The first one is my favorite of Mia. There is another one too, so that the backgrounds would be the same for the ones we framed for Gigi. Here they are...

Mia Ava
Mia again
Aidan
Ava and Mia

Friday, July 27, 2007

Happy 5-Year Anniversary!

I cannot believe it, but today is our 5-year anniversary. Time sure flies. In the time we've been married, we have lived in 2 different houses, earned 2 Master's Degrees between us, been in multiple school districts (Berwyn, West Aurora, Naperville), and of course, had a beautiful baby girl. :) Tomorrow we will head out for dinner and staying in a hotel in the city with no baby to wake up to in the morning-grandma will be watching her! Here is a flahsback to 5 years ago, courtesy of Jen who took this photo:

And now (our last family picture)

Monday, July 23, 2007

Bolingbrook Mall and More

On Saturday Mia and I joined my mom, Jen, and Noah at the new mall in Bolingbrook. It was the perfect day to be outside! Here are a couple of pictures (sorry the color is off in a lot these today).

Mia and Noah playing with the train set at Barnes and Noble

Mom with Mia by the outside water area Mia and me

Later that afternoon we headed to the arboretum with Sarah, Ian, Aidan and Ava and had a little dinner picnic.

Cort with Mia

And here's one more just because I think it's cute.


Thursday, July 19, 2007

11 Months Old

I can't believe it, but Mia is one month shy of her first birthday. This is such a fun time full of changes and Mia has been like a little sponge lately. She continues to babble up a storm and ARMY crawl all over the place. I think Mia has chosen not to crawl regularly, and I doubt she will. She is so fast with her army crawl that I don't think she feels the need to raise up on her arms. I know she can do it (I've seen her do it in the grass when she was trying to avoid her arms touching the grass-ha! ha!), but she just doesn't want to. She has also almost fully transitioned from her bottles to her sippy cup. She has about one bottle a day and we give her formula the other times in her sippy. She actually seems to like the sippy better because she gets the formula faster. She is standing a ton, and has started to cruise a little here and there around the furniture when there is something she wants. She has learned a couple of signs-milk and more, and has been using them somewhat regularly. Her newest "tricks" are "So big," giving a high-five, and playing peek-a-boo. When you ask her "How big is Mia?" She lifts her arms. But instead of lifting them straight up, she puts them on top of her head. It is too funny. For high fives, she puts her hand out and lets you hit it, but then sometimes she just keeps holding it up. :) For peek-a-boo, she will hold a burp cloth in front of her face and then pull it down fast. She seriously cracks herself up doing this. She has been doing better with her table foods lately. Her favorite seems to be grilled chesse, which I consumed lots of when I was pregnant. She has also been trying out noodles, chicken, dried fruit, fig newtons, green beans, cheese, etc. Dinner time is much messier these days and Mia does not like being cleaned off afterwards! Mia also has really formed a bond with her little stuffed lion that she got from my mom and dad several months back. She now sleeps and snuggles him at night and likes to cuddle him when she is feeling tired. Here is a picture of her from this morning after she woke up(sorry for the bad quality). She was still waking up, head on her lion, maraca in hand.

I am really excited for Mia's bithday party. We are going to do a rubber ducky theme. Here is a picture of her invite, although I cropped out personal information. Mary from Paper & Ink Studio designed these and she is awesome. Her website is http://www.paperandinkstudio.com/ if you are ever looking for invites.


Well, that's enough babbling for now. I guess I am just making up for lost time since I haven't added anything new the last couple of days. :)

Shedd Aquarium

Since it is Cort's last free week for awhile (he is going to do some subbing for summer school), we decided to take a trip down to the Shedd. It was the perfect day to do it since it was so dreary and we would have just sat around home anyway. It is also nice because teachers get in for free. :) Gotta love that! Mia enjoyed seeing all the fishies, although it was a little rough carrying her around in the Baby Bjorn. She is heavy these days! Unfortunately, she couldn't see a lot of the exhibits just sitting in her stroller.

Watching a turtle
With Daddy
A typical tourist shot
Some of Mia's new friends

Visit with the Kendall Girls

Yesterday Jen and Jackie came over with their girls to have a little playdate (Dayna couldn't make it). We had planned on going to the Arboretum, but the weather didn't cooperate. It was fun to see how big all the girls are getting. Here are some pictures...
This is the best I could do-it's not easy with 3 moving children!!
A flashback to about 3 months ago-what a difference a couple of months makes!Elise

Lindsay

Friday, July 13, 2007

Waterpark

Today was a busy Friday! This morning we had our Parent-Infant class and then we headed straight over to Cypress Cove Waterpark to meet up with the ISU girls-Rebecca, Kelly, Pam, and Melissa and her boys. Despite not having much sleep this morning, Mia hung in there and seemed to have a good time. She even tried out the sandbox for the very first time with Mikey and Joey. She seemed a little unsure, but liked it more than the grass. She was so tired afterwards and crashed hard in the car and slept good when we got home-yeah!!
Mikey, Mia and Joey
Mia
Mia and Joey
Mikey and Mia
First time in the sand


Monday, July 9, 2007

More Erica

Today Pam, Cort and I stopped by Venessa and Jimmy's to bring them lunch, and of course see Baby Erica. She is soooo cute! Here are some pictures from today.

Venessa and Erica (I love this picture!)

Venessa, Jimmy, and Erica

Erica



Pam and Erica
Mia checking out Erica
Jimmy and Erica
Mia loving on Ellie
Me with Erica
A couple in black and white