The Adventures of Eli and Charlie

Austin/Houston pics

2012-01-23T00:17:00.003-06:00

We flew in to Houston two Fridays ago, slept at Ben's brother Caleb's house, then woke up on Saturday and drove to Austin where his brother Matt lives. His brother Paul and family had flown in to Austin a few days before, so we were trying to maximize time with everyone. The first place we went when we got to Austin was Rudy's, a yummy bbq place with tasty brisket. Eli was thrilled to see his adored cousin, Amanda. They hadn't seen each other in two years, but Eli brings up Amanda all the time, it's pretty funny. She is so sweet with him.

Rudy's is really casual. And has a very Texas vibe. It was very tasty.

Ben with Paul, Matt, and Caleb

me with my sister-in-laws JoAnn, Elizabeth, niece Amanda, and sister-in-law Becca and baby Zoe

The 10 of 24 cousins that were together that weekend!

Caleb and his daughter Sofia on the swings -

Luke and Nate - I can't believe how big these kids are now.

Sofia was really sweet playing with Charlie all weekend!

And Halle was sweet with Eli and Caleb -

Amanda and Elizabeth on the swings -

A traditional Severson activity - rock throwing -

Ben and his brothers were throwing rocks at that board out there in the water. Ben was having the least amount of success and Matt and Caleb (and JoAnn) were having fun rubbing it in :) Ben was a good sport.

Walking back to Matt and JoAnn's house -

JoAnn and Amanda -

The next day we left the kids with Amanda and Luke in charge at the house and we ventured into Austin for some quick sightseeing. We checked out Barton Springs and were impressed with the people swimming laps (it's an outdoor spring and it was maybe 60 degrees that day?).

Then we headed over to the bat bridge (Congress Ave Bridge). Apparently millions of bats emerge in the evening and it's quite the sight. They come out of the cracks in the bridge! But I'm pretty sure the bats aren't around in the winter months, so we didn't see any.

Here are all of the adults (plus baby Zoe) in front of the Texas Capitol building.

We thought it would be fun to shoot Zoe out of the cannon, but it didn't work.

Inside the one of the rooms on the first floor of the Capitol. There were pictures of former state governors, including George W. He looked a lot younger then.

Ben and Matt in the middle of some story -

The room where the House of Representatives meet. It was very plush and cushy inside.

Ben and I on the second floor - it is such a pretty building.

One thing I'm not a huge fan of in Texas is all of the tobacco - we passed lots of tobacco shops and I was amazed at the selection of chewing tobacco at a gas station that we stopped at. Gross!! It's funny to me that the sign for the Senate room mentions no smoking.

The Senate room was much less plush! I'm not sure why.

The Texas star was everywhere, even in the light fixture designs -

And in the ceiling of the Capitol -

And in the floor design too :)

Back at Matt and JoAnn's house, the little boys had fun jumping on the trampoline. Caleb was the most experienced of the bunch since they have a trampoline at home too. Charlie got a little nervous.

Ben playing double baseball with the boys.

In front of their pretty house before we left Austin. Everything is definitely bigger in Texas! They moved here six months ago from Oceanside, CA and loved being able to build a new home for a fraction of what it would have cost in California.

Back in Houston at Caleb and Elizabeth's pretty house. They have done a ton of work on the inside of their house and it turned out great!

Some adults/kids sat in their front yard and watched while the other kids rode scooters, bikes, and power wheel motorcycle and jeep around the cul-de-sac.

Eli was in heaven on this thing. So funny.

Sweet Amanda playing with Eli -

Love Zoe's beautiful eyes!

Volleyball in the street (there aren't many cul-de-sacs where we live, so my kids were kind of amazed they could really play in the street.

Both boys on the motorcycle. They were so happy!!

My boys don't discriminate... pink Barbie jeep was just as cool as the motorcycle. Charlie was hanging on for dear life with Eli's crazy driving :)

Later we walked to a nearby pond to feed the ducks.

Paul with cute Henry -

Later right before Matt and JoAnn's family left to drive back to Austin, one more pic of Eli and Amanda. That night was more quiet, so we snuck out fairly late and visited with Mike and Marci, our one success couple that we set up on a blind date back in our BYU days and they actually got married! Mike and Ben are friends from their growing up days in CA and Marci and I were friends in high school too. It was really fun seeing them again.

The next day we headed into downtown Houston to play at a fun park before grabbing some lunch.

We ate at Mambo's, a seafood place in Houston. Becca, I'm not including the pic of us because I look gross, but you and Zoe were cute :) If we weren't hugging, I would just crop me out, but that would look silly! So instead I'm showing the pics of Eli hugging some of his cousins before we left for the airport.

Isn't Sofia so beautiful?? She has the prettiest face and smile. She is really darling. And tall! They are just a month apart.

Eli and Caleb hugging while Henry stared off in the distance :) Funny kids!

It was kind of a whirlwind four days, spending time with family in two cities. I was really sad it didn't work out to see two different friends in Austin, but we had such limited time on this trip that the visits didn't happen. But I know we'll be back again, hopefully next time for a few more days so it's not so rushed!

Happy Birthday to Charlie!

2012-01-21T23:47:00.000-06:00

I have been such a lame blogger lately, but I had to post about Charlie's birthday, despite that I'm exhausted from all of the celebrating today. AND I was a terrible picture taker today (it was a little crazy around here). So I'm going to post some pictures from our trip to Texas last week when we celebrated Charlie's birthday early with the family that was there with us.

But before that, I want to mention a few things about Charlie right now -

-When we give him kisses, he is a pill and says the kiss went straight to his bottom (and points to his bum). ?????? Our thing with Eli is that we always say kisses go straight to his heart. Charlie likes to be obstinate sometimes and say ridiculous things because he knows we don't like it!! But I secretly think it's kind of funny. He has an interesting sense of humor.

-Along the silly lines, he likes to put different consonants on words, just to be funny. "Hi Rama" instead of Mama or whatever he comes up with.

-If we try to talk for his favorite stuffed puppy (named Puppy), he now says consistently, "Only I make sounds for puppy," and he means it. Charlie loves to pretend and makes up stories about his raisins or any other small object.

-Speaking of small objects, Charlie swallowed a decorative rock two weeks ago. We couldn't believe he put the rock in his mouth, because he's totally past that phase. Or so we thought!! He pooped the rock out two days later. Awesome.

-He's super snuggly at meals and likes to travel around the table, taking turns sitting in each of our laps. He gets a little frustrating as he barely touches his food (especially at dinnertime), but I don't think the habit will last forever. He goes in for his well visit at the pediatrician next week - I'm curious to see how tiny he is, especially with weight.

-When we tuck the boys in at bedtime, if Ben or I tries to snuggle next to him in his bed, he gets VERY un-snuggly and pushes us out. It makes us smile and we're happy he's a good solo sleeper.

-Today when he opened up a present of his very own set of army guys, he did a fist pump, saying, "YES! That's what I REALLY wanted!" It was darling.

Okay. Back to celebrating in Texas.

My sweet sister-in-laws Elizabeth and JoAnn were so nice and made this cute cupcakes so we could sing to Charlie. He was SO excited about them and during dinner kept walking by the counter with the cupcakes and asking, "Is that one for me? Is that one mine?" He was very excited about this huge amount of frosting on his cupcake :)

Elizabeth helping Charlie -

Sneaking a taste :)

Lit birthday candles are NOT Charlie's favorite thing. He got a little nervous having the fire on his cupcake that day, then later at preschool for his little celebration, and then today when we sang to him at home. Funny boy.

This was at Caleb and Elizabeth's house in Houston. We also spent a few days in Austin at Matt and JoAnn's house. It was mainly a trip of hanging out with family with the little cousins running around, jumping on trampolines or entertaining us with their cute antics. My boys had a blast seeing some of their cousins again (this was 10 of the 24 cousins on Ben's side), but four brothers were together this weekend, so it was half of the kids in Ben's family that got together.

Here we are all together before Matt and JoAnn drove their family back to Austin on Monday evening. Eli has this special bond with the oldest cousin Amanda (she's 13 years old) and she was SUCH a good sport - he totally peed his pants before sitting on her lap for the picture (we didn't realize until afterward) and she really didn't care. Seriously sweet girl. And SO frustrating that Eli still has accidents every day, despite being on medicine for overactive bladder, doing occupational therapy... but I digress.

I'll post more trip pics soon. There are some funny ones! Happy Birthday to my darling Charlie-boy, Chart, Chartie, Charles Benjamin... To end this extremely long post - I interviewed Charlie on his favorite things today. Here are his answers:

1. What is your favorite color? light blue
2. What is your favorite toy? cars
3. What is your favorite fruit? strawberries (sad because he's allergic! just like me :(
4. What is your favorite tv show? Umi Zoomi
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? sandwich with peanut butter and honey and jam
6. What is your favorite outfit? - toy story shirt
7. What is your favorite game? Grover on the iPad (Monster at the End of This Book)
8. What is your favorite snack? teddy bear crackers
9. What is your favorite animal? penguins that swim in the water
10. What is your favorite song? ABCs
11. What is your favorite book? Toy Story
12. Who is your best friend? Reed (a friend from Eli's sports class that they both play with- kind of random answer) and Eli
13. What is your favorite cereal? Honey Nut Cheerios
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play soccer
15. What is your favorite drink? green drink (spinach smoothie)
16. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
17. What do you like to sleep with at night? blankie and puppy and baby frog
18. What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy? just play
19. What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? make a birthday party
19. What is your favorite dinner food? crackers and chips and chicken noodle soup
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a big boy.

Park Outing in December

2011-12-31T00:43:00.000-06:00

Ben had the day after Christmas off from work, so we took advantage of the unusually warm December day and headed to the park to play and ride bikes. (All month has been pretty nice - 40-degree temps in Chicago at this time of year are a treat!!) Look at those blue skies!

First, here's Ben showing off on the playground... :)

Then Eli copying him -

Climbing Charlie:

It was high noon when we were at the park, so the sun was pretty intense and overhead, but I liked the effect on the photos.

Charlie had a nice juice mustache from indulging in cranberry juice at breakfast. We don't usually give our kids juice, but I'm okay with it on holidays/vacation/when we're not at our house.

Love these boys! They are so fun.

(I will post Christmas pictures soon!)

Hanukkah with Becca and David

2011-12-30T23:57:00.002-06:00

We had a fun evening last week sharing a Hanukkah dinner with our neighbors who were about to move (Becca, David, and their girls Ella and Hanna) and some other friends. We enjoyed latkes, chicken, applesauce and salad and got to hear them sing in Hebrew as they lit the Menorah. My kids thought the candles were cool :)

The Grinch and stories from my crazy life

2011-12-17T07:00:00.000-06:00

Just when I think life is going to slow down a little and I will get caught up, things happen and it gets crazy! Today I woke up, raced to get showered and the boys ready for the day, then ran over to take a friend to the airport, raced back, put Charlie down for a nap while my crazy house cleaners were here and took Eli out to help me with a photo shoot of a darling 3-year-old girl (note to self - he's still not that helpful for things like this, especially when it's cold outside). It was absolutely freezing with the wind and so we lasted about 30 minutes outside and then came inside to do some studio style shots.

Have I mentioned that I now own a studio setup?? I need to change my natural light photographer tagline... :) It's just too dark and cold here in Chicago in the winter time, and now we have the boys sleeping in the same room, which leaves a bedroom available to house my studio! If we have another child someday, I'll move the studio stuff down to the basement. I'll have to post some fun shots taken with the new setup sometime soon.

After the photo shoot, my Gram came over for an hour and then I had to race and pick up a babysitter so I could hurry back, finish getting ready and drive downtown to Ben's holiday party, also known as the ping pong tournament :) They play a lot of ping pong at that company! It's a good stress reliever, particularly this year with the market still being so nuts. On my way into the city, I got stuck in horrible rush-hour traffic and once I was finally down in the Loop, and had a very hard time finding parking. I finally made it to a garage that only charged $8 after 3 p.m. (miracle! so cheap.) and got up to the party.

Phew. If you've made it this far, you're either tired for/with me or just ready for something visual.

I present to you - The Grinch at our ward Christmas party. So awesome. Eli was totally impressed!

Charlie too, somewhat.

There were about 200 people at the holiday party. This picture doesn't give you the full scope of the audience, but it really was a great turnout.

Jeff Mulcock dressed up as the Grinch and acted out the story. It was hilarious.

Cindy Lou Hou (is that her name?? I'm forgetting now). Isn't her hair fabulous?? Dixie cup was the magic tool (inside the sticking up hair).

They had the kids come up and sing. I thought it was cute that they were the Whos from Who-Mette (since our church is in Wilmette).

I love the holidays! But next year, I'm simplifying things. I can't keep up with this crazy pace!

Decorating the Gingerbread House

2011-12-04T10:31:00.000-06:00

I am SO behind with all of my personal pictures because my business has been extra crazy busy lately, but I was messing around with Animoto today and put this slightly cheesy video slideshow together of our gingerbread house decorating last night. I say cheesy because the music options were a little limited and this seemed to fit the best. But the pictures are fun and it's less than two minutes, so not horribly long. :)

The boys were so excited to work on the gingerbread house and I was amazed watching Eli work on it with the small candy pieces - his fine motor skills are coming along really well (he's doing occupational therapy now twice a week and I've seen a big improvement so far).
Someday I will get caught up again! Be prepared for a random, two-months-later Halloween, Thanksgiving, and everything in between post mixed in sometime soon...

Recent Videos - Singing with Gram and Reading Books/Ninjas

2011-11-13T22:39:00.001-06:00

I've been a total slacker with blogging lately, but here are two recent videos - the first is my Gram and Eli singing the Little Wee Man in a Little Wee House song that has cute actions. (and yes, we still have Halloween decorations up in our house, that's a paper spider garland on the wall) :)

Here are the words to the song -
Little Wee Man in a Little Wee House
[first verse]
There's a little wee man, in a little wee house,
lives over the way you see.
And he sits by the window, and we works all day,
making shoes for you and me.

[refrain]
A rap-a-tap-tap. A rap-a-tap-tap.
Hear the hammer tick-tack-tee.
A rap-a-tap-tap. A rap-a-tap-tap.
Making shoes for you and me.
[second verse]
He pulls the needle in and out, and the thread flies to and fro.
With his tiny hands he works all day. Hear the hammer steady blow!
[repeat refrain]
And finally, I snuck up on my kids last week early in the morning - Eli was reading a Curious George book to Charlie (mainly just telling the story while looking at the book) and it was really cute. It's a long video though so feel free to skip to about minute 3 1/2 when they decided to pretend to be ninjas and were jumping around being silly. This was with my laptop camera so the quality isn't super great in the low light, but that's okay. It cracks me up seeing Charlie constantly copy Eli.

WIND!!

2011-10-20T10:31:00.001-05:00

Chicago is known for its wind (political and the weather kind of wind), but yesterday's wind was nuts. 60 mph winds that caused up to 25 ft. waves at Lake Michigan... it was a crazy day that knocked out our power for a few hours (this time was the last straw... when the power went out, I threw the kids in the van and headed straight to Costco to buy a generator that we had debated about the last time our power went out... We have lost power countless times this year and it's maddening!!). Thankfully our power is back on and we are safely warm and protected in our cozy house while the wind still howls outside.

Yesterday I drove over to the lake during preschool to snap some quick pictures of the crazy waves. It was SO windy at the beach and the wind was blowing sand and freezing rain everywhere. I could barely stay standing or open my eyes because I was being pummeled by the elements. I took a video on my phone to demonstrate how nuts the wind was -

Here are some of the pictures from the lake - the waves by us weren't as big as in the city, but still more frequent and bigger than normal.

The metal lifeguard sign kept flying up in the wind.

And one hilarious video from the news showing the huge waves in Chicago knocking down stupid bikers and runners who went past the barricades (people weren't supposed to be on the bike/running path because of the wave advisory). It makes me giggle seeing them get blasted by the water. They must have been FREEZING!!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Dentist Appts and an Update

2011-10-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

Eli and Charlie had dentists appointments a few weeks ago and I snapped a few pictures since it was Eli's second time to the dentist and Charlie's first time. Eli went first and showed Charlie how fun it was :) I was happy that Charlie was fine, didn't fight having tools in his mouth and was content to watch a show on the t.v. in front of him.

Here are some random updates -

Eli:

Still has bathroom issues, pees his pants on a regular basis. It's been a loooong road and I really have to fight the urge to not get super frustrated when I realize he's had an accident. We took him to a pediatric urologist last month (who was wonderful but was running TWO hours behind that day!!). He recommended that we try the Rodgers Wireless Alarm underwear. He also ordered an x-ray and ultrasound on Eli's bladder, kidneys and spine and everything turned out fine. We just got the underwear and Eli is so excited about it, but had three accidents in one day. Boooo.

We also met with a pediatric neurologist to rule out some more extreme reasons why Eli might still be having bladder issues. Thankfully, the neurologist was on time and very thorough, kind, and helpful. His recommendation was that Eli get re-evaluated for physical therapy (for his gross motor skills) and get a new evaluation for occupational therapy (for fine motor skills). Eli did physical therapy last year, but then we took a break because his therapist said he made great progress and she didn't think it was necessary for him to continue. It will be good to check in and see if things are okay.

But the real breakthrough was when I spoke with the occupational therapist.

I seriously wanted to cry when we hung up the phone, because I think she is going to be wonderful. She brought up that the fact that Eli has low muscle tone means it's a good possibility that he has sensory issues that keep him from sensing when he needs to go to the bathroom. There is a lot more to it, but I was SO hopeful when we hung up the phone.

On a more positive note, Eli is very into building these days and his creations are more and more elaborate - with blocks, little legos, or anything else that he can find. It's so fun to watch him create and play with these tiny structures. He loves math and we talk about simple addition and substraction nonstop.

"Mom, what does nine take away seven equal?" :) or -

"Let's say I have four coins, then I give one away, but someone gives me one. How many coins do I have?" I love his inquisitive questions and that his brain is always thinking about things like that. I see a lot of Ben in Eli - they are both very analytical and methodical in what they do.

Charlie:

Is growing and changing and developing so fast. He says all kinds of stuff and a lot of his sentences make me laugh. He is a very independent child who can be feisty but also very sweet and tender. He still loves his blankie and stuffed puppy and sucks his thumb when he's holding them.

Charlie is still very into choosing his own outfits (much to my chagrin) and is very into wearing underwear now, so I guess we are potty training! I was very hesitant to start the potty training because we're still having so much difficulty with Eli, but it's been MUCH easier with Charlie. He usually does a little dance when he has to go, so I know to grab his hand and we run to the potty. He poops and pees on the potty just fine, it's just a matter of making it to the potty in time. I'm amazed at how simple this has been - he understands the concept and I'm sure it helps that he's the second child and will be three in January. But hallelujah for not having two difficult potty training children!

Both Kids:

They are becoming such good friends. It's hilarious watching them wrestle and roll around on the floor like little puppies. They are so funny together and I am constantly amazed at the fact that we have two boys that close together considering our fertility issues. We'll still hopefully have a third someday (it's now been 7 months since the miscarriage; so strange to think we would have had a baby next month), but in the meantime I feel blessed and lucky to have my darling kiddos. There is plenty of fighting and yelling between the boys, but for the most part, they get along pretty well. I love them to bits.

Ben:

It's been yet another crazy year with work and we're crossing our fingers that things will start to get better. He's been playing in an indoor soccer league with some friends and LOVES it - I'm happy he has that outlet along with his book group. He's not excited about winter coming soon, but we're hoping to travel somewhere warm in the winter. We'll see.

Me:

BUSY!!! But happy and trying to keep up with it all.

That's it - the end of my silly long post about the dentist and beyond :)

Early Morning with Eli

2011-10-17T21:30:00.000-05:00

One morning, Eli and I were up early together. Ben was already gone at work and Charlie was still sleeping, so it was just the two of us hanging out in our pjs. I love morning light and snapped some pictures of Eli making an elaborate drawing/map/story of some sort and then explaining it to me.

He loves drawing centipedes (shown below). Gross Illinois bug!

He looks so big to me in these pictures! I feel like he's grown a lot in the last few months (at least his legs seem longer to me lately).

Telling me his story -

And adding more details. Love this boy! I'll have to take some of Charlie some other morning when he's up first :)

Chilly Day at Wagner Farm

2011-10-17T16:26:00.001-05:00

Last weekend we went to Wagner Farm in Glenview for its fall festival. The sun was shining, but the wind and cooler weather made it pretty chilly to walk around outside. Ben came straight from playing soccer (and was wearing shorts), so he was extra freezing. We survived though and had a fun time together :)

Eli was a little pouty at the beginning because he wanted to go inside the main building first, but we convinced him to see the animals that were near the entrance. We thought these huge pumpkins were neat too.

Peeking in on the huge cows down below -

There were huge horses too!

Our favorite was this funny pig devouring a pumpkin -

We got to go on a ride around the farm being pulled by a tractor in the front. The tractor driver kindly took this picture :)

It definitely feels like Fall! I'm having my busiest season yet with photography and have had lots of shooting and editing photos, meeting with clients and placing orders. Business is good, but I'll be happy to have a normal sleep schedule once winter arrives and things aren't so nuts. :)

Target Practice

2011-09-28T13:40:00.003-05:00

My parents gave the boys these water squirter toys a few weeks ago, and while the weather has gotten cooler, they are still as excited as ever to find new uses for these things. Last night we played outside in the back yard and the kids had fun squirting water from up high in the playset.

Ben filled a bucket up with water and put it up with the boys so they could easily refill their squirters.

They practiced shooting water at all kinds of things.

I love Eli's look of determination here -

By the end, they mainly just shot water at the different kids' chairs set up in the grass. It was fun to watch them focus on the target.

It was the annual ward fun run again last Saturday. Charlie threw one of his gigantic fits before the kids and I left for the race and it was not a pretty sight. He wanted Ben (not me), who had left early to help set up. Charlie screamed and screamed and my blood boiled from the aggravation of it all, but we finally made it to see the end of the race. Ben ran in the 5K and once again lost to the Northwestern wrestler who is 10 years younger than Ben :) Ben had been training for the last month or so to worked on his speed, and was happy that he beat his expectations for his running time.

We had a nice rest of the day on Saturday and met my family for lunch at Portillo's. Happy Birthday to my mom (her birthday was Thursday) and to my dad (last Sunday). We met my parents, brother, gram, and some family friends there at the restaurant and had fun with gifts and food and catching up. And happy birthday to Ben's dad too, who has the same birthday as my dad!

(We brought birthday hats for my parents and the boys... my parents were sweet to put the hats on for the picture :)

Angels and Seagulls

2011-09-20T20:45:00.000-05:00

Tonight we were reading scriptures with the kids (using the iPhone app - Child Stories). We were reading about Lehi seeing an angel, and Ben asked Eli what angels look like.

Eli: "They're white! That's why you can't see them very well when they are next to seagulls."

Of course! :)

2011-09-19T13:30:00.002-05:00

This summer we spent a handful of Wednesdays attempting soccer with some neighbors who had kids the same age as ours. Most of the time we met at a park and brought the soccer goals, had a picnic dinner, and tried to give the kids a chance to work on their soccer skills.

Most of the time though, that translated into the kids running back and forth between the goals :)

At least it's exercise of some kind!

We did our soccer finale in our back yard - here are the kids that were there that day (there were a few other families who participated but weren't able to come to our finale). Of course my child is the one being silly (he has a fruit snack in between his teeth).

After I said we were done taking their group picture, the kids busted off of the bench and started dancing. It was pretty funny.

My friend Becca tried taking some pictures of the four of us, but that always goes so well when you have two boys ages 2 1/2 and 4.

Soooo well. (My hair was crazy in this first shot because Charlie kept reaching down and messing it up. I call him my little stinkpot, which he thinks is hilarious and has now made up a "stinkpot dance." It makes me smile.

Block Party

2011-09-19T12:35:00.000-05:00

Helloooo out there. I can't believe how little I've blogged lately. I'm going to start with some quick easy posts so I won't feel so overwhelmed with catching up. Last weekend was our neighborhood block party, which had activities going throughout the day on Saturday. We walked back and forth from our house to the festivities multiple times. Through the alley, around the corner...

The boys loved the bouncy house and had fun jumping with our cute neighbor Sasha. She is so sweet with them.

There were lots of fun activities for kids - a candy scramble, egg toss, water balloon toss, and the street was blocked off so kids could scooter and bike in the street, which seemed very liberating! Eli made some new friends and was so cute every time he would run back over to me and whisper, "MOM! I made a NEW FRIEND!"

I would ask what his new friend's name was, and he had no idea. Gotta love it. That forced me to go meet the little girl's mom so I could find out! There are a ton of little kids in our neighborhood, but we're around the corner from most of them so we don't run into them very often. The block party is a great way to become reacquainted.

In the middle of the day we came back so Charlie could nap and Eli could have a break. Eli wasn't too pleased that we had to go home :)

Ohh the drama, Mr. 4-year-old. The eye roll is just classic.

Fridays at the Beach

2011-08-26T21:48:00.000-05:00

We've had some fun Friday nights at the lake this summer. Tonight we went to the beach and I took a some pictures that I still need to go through, but here are some fun shots from a few weeks ago.

Don't let his somber expression fool you... this boy loves swimming in the lake and playing at the beach :)

This is unrelated to the beach, but Charlie's quote of the week as he pulled a toy car and a tomato from underneath the oven: "I found two stuffs!" He is a funny little guy.

Summertime at Lake Michigan. I love it.

Bike Riding

2011-08-17T01:17:00.004-05:00

Last week Ben came home on an earlier train and we took advantage of the pretty weather by going on a family bike ride. It was a good way to forget about the stress of that week and just enjoy time with these cute kiddos.

Except that it translated into Ben and I helping each of the boys on their bikes the entire way. :)

We had downgraded Eli to the 12" Craigslist bike (though I'm thinking he'll be fine doing the 16" again soon) after he biffed it big time on the bigger bike on his birthday. He's not super fast on either bike and it's tricky with the bumpy, uneven Chicago sidewalks.

And Charlie loves his hand-me-down balance bike (complete with pink bike bell :) But ohhh my aching back from bending over almost the entire time helping Charlie not fall over! Ben took over the Charlie balancing job on the ride home, thank goodness.

Once we got to the park, the kids just wanted to play games and run around the basketball court.

Love these boys! Summer is so great.

iPhone Kids Part 2

2011-08-14T17:01:00.000-05:00

I walked by the downstairs bathroom last week and had to quickly run and grab my camera because this was too hilarious and so typical of my boys - Eli probably had been playing a game on the iPhone, then had to go to the bathroom, so he took it in with him to continue the game. Then Charlie trailed along carrying his blankie and wanting to watch what his brother was doing.

I promise this is not a regular occurrence, nor do I let my kids play on the phone all day long. And I clean my phone on a regular basis. :)

iPhone Kids Part 1

2011-08-14T16:49:00.000-05:00

My Blackberry was dying a slow death a few weeks ago and finally got to the point where I could barely hear the person on the other end of the line and the speakerphone was dead. I had been trying to wait to replace my phone when the next iPhone comes out this fall, but the phone guy at Best Buy convinced me that the next one isn't going to be that different from the current one, and I should just do it.

So I did. So silly how it takes some goofy 19-year-old store employee to finally convince me to take the plunge. But I love it!! And so do the boys. There are so many great games and educational apps out there for them. Here are some fun shots of them playing on the iPhone together.

Rainstorm!

2011-08-14T16:42:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in other posts, we've had a TON of rain this year. So we've embraced the rain (when it isn't thunder/lightning/hailing) and not care if we get soaking wet playing outside.

Summer Swimming

2011-08-14T16:26:00.000-05:00

We've enjoyed going to the outdoor pool off and on over the last few months (when it hasn't been raining... we've had record amounts of rain this summer). I still have my hands full with these two because Eli thinks he's invincible and swims too deep while Charlie doesn't want to be as deep and goes off in another direction. The city pools don't allow you to use flotation devices, so I really have to be careful and try to keep an eye on both kids. Next year will be easier when they are both swimming more independently.

They love pool toys like these dive sticks and we've managed not to lose them all (at least so far).

Lincoln Park Zoo with Cousins

2011-08-14T16:17:00.003-05:00

Last weekend my Uncle Marshall, Aunt Alice and cousins Abby and Natalie came to town from Cincinnati for a visit, so we met up with them and my family at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Eli and Abby in an underground ant hole -

I didn't bring a good zoom lens for taking animal pictures, which I was regretting once we got there. It would have been fun to get a nicer shot of this zebra - Eli was especially excited to find the zebras. They are such beautiful animals!

It was the an extremely humid day (88% humidity and hot!) and not a whole lot of wind. We stuck with it though and were rewarded with a tiny bit of wind at one part of the zoo that was closer to the lake. Ahhhh, relief!

Cute sisters -

Sour brothers... (sorry boys, but you were not cooperating :)

fun second cousins :)

You can see how hazy it was that day - the clouds were so low that the top of the Hancock Tower is mostly covered up. Hot and sticky, my favorite.

It was fun seeing family from out of town despite the sticky weather! Thanks for making the trek over here and for a fun day at the zoo :)

Busy Nutty Week and Swimming Lessons

2011-08-11T23:57:00.007-05:00

I feel like life has ramped up about ten notches than its usual pace! The thought of uploading a bajillion vacation pictures and writing about them is still giving me anxiety, so I'm starting small with catching up on blog posts. I feel like a broken record.

This week's highlights included:

-Playing super spies with Eli and Charlie. Eli is so into pretending and imaginative play and it's hilarious watching Charlie play along with him.

-Listening to Charlie's vocabulary improve. It's amazing the things he understands and communicates now. He is even getting to the point of reasoning - the other day he was crying about something and I said, "Charlie, if you keep crying I am going to put you up in your crib. I'm going to count to three, and if I get to three and you're still crying, we're going upstairs. One, two..." and immediately he stopped crying and snapped out of his tantrum. I felt like angels were singing, it was such a glorious moment. He gets it.

-Three newborn photography sessions this week and getting positive feedback from a recent extended family session that I worked very hard on (it's so rewarding once it's all done to know that the family is really happy with it - it had been a super sunny session so the light was tricky and the editing took longer than usual).

-Photographing another birth, this time at the hospital in the middle of the night. (Boy am I sleep deprived now - I basically slept for two hours last night).

-Tutoring session today with a client who wanted to learn how to get stop using the auto setting on her DSLR camera and learn manual settings. It was so fun and I think I'll try to do more of this. The best part is that once the tutoring session is over, it's OVER! I'm up to my eyeballs in photo editing and this added some nice variety.

This week's lowlight has definitely been work stress on Ben's end. The ups and downs of the stock market have made the last week extremely stressful. We're praying for things to calm down a little. Ugh.

The second lowlight is not having time to run to the grocery store because things have been so busy. I've had to get creative with what we've had for dinner since our fridge is almost completely empty. I will admit to personally eating peanut butter puffins cereal for dinner two nights this week. I am vowing to make balanced, nutritious, delicious meals next week. And to get more sleep. And catch up and not feeling like a crazy woman. To find balance. And no, I'm not pregnant. Didn't want to give you any ideas with my weird eating or spacey brain in the next lowlight.

-The last lowlight was completely spacing that the boys had swimming lessons on Monday and not realizing it until that night when I looked at my calendar to get ready for the next day. We used to do lessons on Fridays and I'm still adjusting to the different schedule. I was so mad at my silly head for forgetting something like that, especially since we're paying for both kids in that class.

Here are some pictures from swimming lessons two weeks ago when I actually remembered their lesson. :) The kids in the class range from 2 1/2 to 5 years old, but their teacher Angie handles it really well. I have to laugh at how tiny Charlie looks standing there with the other kids.

So we are finally to the point where I don't have to go in the water with Charlie during lessons (now he's less crazy/better about following directions), so it's a treat to be able to sit on the side and watch (and take pictures!). We had one scary moment though last week when he was holding on to the side and his hands slipped, so he dipped under water, and in that split second when I realized what was happening and jumped out of my chair to go grab him (and my heart sank), he somehow got his face up enough and reached up for the wall. I was so proud of him and feel like this is why we do lessons - he understands to reach for the wall!

There is nothing cuter than watching your two-year-old learn how to swim backstroke. He's not really close to doing it on his own, but he's learning the steps and getting the hang of floating on his back.

Charlie always swims with the green goggles, and Eli has these blue goggles. He's getting better about floating and swimming on his own for short distances, which is great!

Back to Charlie again. Love these cute little swimmers :)

Home Birth

2011-08-08T01:56:00.003-05:00

I'm completely, utterly behind and I'm sorry for being a slacker with posts lately. But I just finished editing and posting the pictures from the home birth that I photographed on my photography blog and thought it would be fun to share. Here are a few pictures from this happy day for Bethany and Andy and their girls. Bethany is amazing because she made a home birth look like a piece of cake. :)

Whirlwind End of July

2011-07-30T10:57:00.004-05:00

I'm really tired. It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks and I'm trying to catch up - some highlights (and lowlights) include:

Highlight: Going to Ben's family reunion in Felt, ID (about an hour from Jackson Hole, WY) - we stayed at a cabin his uncle recently purchased. There were 30 of us total, 14 adults, 16 kids. Eight of those kids were under 5, eight were over 5. Not everyone was able to come (we were missing three of Ben's siblings/families) but it was really fun to see those who were there. My boys loved being around so many cousins and getting fishing time with Ben.

Highlight: Seeing two friends super fast before we flew back home. I of course forgot to bring out the camera with the first visit, but we saw friends that we had been great couple friends with back in the day when we were all DINKS (Double Income No Kids).

And then these friends below just moved last month. Our kids get along so well together and we were excited to get to see them one more time before they move on to California for a new job.

Below: Eli, Charlie and Kai playing in Kai's grandparents' awesome lego room under the basement stairs.

Being silly outside in their pjs :) Do you see Eli's (Ben's) vintage family reunion t-shirt from 1984? :)

A really awesome self-timer shot :) (our husbands went for a quick hike)

Lowlight: The flight home to O'Hare was delayed (I swear we're delayed almost every time we fly in/out of that airport).

Highlight: Seeing old friends on the flight back who now live in the western suburbs (not so close to us).

Highlight: Coming home and feeling relieved that our basement didn't flood while we were away (Chicago had 7 inches of rain in one night that weekend that we flew back and tons of people flooded). This is the year of extreme weather here!!

Lowlight: Realizing our roof in the family room has a small leak during one of the many crazy thunderstorms this last week.

Lowlight: Collecting quotes from roofers on fixing the problems from the tree disaster two weeks ago. It's time consuming and a little depressing when they say things like, "You should replace the entire roof over the family room, not patch it."

Highlight: We heard back from Allstate and we are getting some money to cover the repairs, which help somewhat. But not covering replacing the entire roof.

Highlight: Using a Groupon for a professional organizer to help me get our kitchen in order. We took EVERYTHING out of the kitchen cupboards and I am so happy with the end result. I wish I could hire her for helping with the whole house, but that's not happening.

Lowlight: Realizing how much JUNK we had in that kitchen that we never use. I threw or gave away quite a few bags of stuff. It does feel good to purge.

Highlight: Photographing a home birth!!!! More to come on that.

Lowlight: Feeling totally behind with my photo sessions from right before our trip and needing to finish them, staying up all night on Monday night to get some things done and feeling like death on Tuesday. Why do I do this to myself??

Highlight: Finally posting some of those recent sessions on my photography blog (I still have three more to finish editing, including the home birth).

Highlight: Listening to my boys play together in a mostly positive way. I love it.

Highlight: Bought a macro lens on craigslist and am SO excited for my next newborn session!!

Highlight: We're off to the pool! I'll try to do a few big posts on our family reunion pictures this weekend. Happy Saturday everyone!

A Tree Landed on My Roof

2011-07-15T23:45:00.003-05:00

This week I learned what it sounds like when 75 mph winds cause a tree to fall on your house.

BOOM. At first I thought it was really close lightning (it was a crazy storm).

But it was louder than lightning. Poor Charlie woke up and started calling out nervously, "Mamaaaa??? Mommy???" Eli slept right through it. Ben was already at work, so he missed all the fun. :) My neighbor called a few minutes later and said, "Sarah, I don't want to alarm you, but a tree just fell on your house."

Nope. Not alarmed!

I'm so, so glad she warned me though because I would have completely lost it if I had gone downstairs and noticed the massive tree hanging over the family room roof.

It was a huge mess and the tree brought down a power line with it. The tree was removed two days later, but we had three days with a power line dangling off of our house and into the grass. So lovely. The fire department came initially and told me to leave right away because of the risk of fire (from the power line touching the house), but later we figured out that it wasn't a live wire anymore since it wasn't connected to a pole, just to the house next door.

We lost power for one day, but our poor neighbors went for days without it because of that power line in our yard. Stinky ComEd was swamped with 850,000 customers who lost power in the storm. That's right - 850,000 homes or apartments without power. It was nuts. Some people finally got their power back today, five days later. FIVE DAYS.

Looking on the bright side, we were all safe, the tree didn't crash through the roof into our house, and this mess in the picture above is all cleaned up now. For the most part.

We still have to get the roof/gutters fixed in some places and fix the pergola on the deck. But all things considered, we were pretty lucky. There were trees down on almost every block in our city and all around Chicago. It looked like a tornado came through, except there were no funnel clouds. Huge old gigantic trees were uprooted, leaving huge holes behind.

Our insurance agent said he has worked here for 27 years and has never seen anything like this in our area. That destructive storm didn't even last that long!! Maybe 30 minutes?

It's craziness. I'm ready for life to get back to normal!!

Ben's Backpacking Trip at Picture Rocks

2011-07-10T23:30:00.002-05:00

Ben just got back from a backpacking trip at Picture Rocks National Lakeshore, up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula on Lake Superior. He had a blast as one of the chaperones for our church's scout high adventure trip. There were three leaders, six teenage boys, crystal clear (and cold!) water, 500 ft. sand dunes, fishing, beautiful cliffs and beaches...

Here are some of the pictures from his phone from the trip. The majority are from the day they spent kayaking around these cool caves, bluffs, and waterfalls.

Aren't the rocks beautiful??

Ben said the mosquitos were the worst he's ever experienced - they put on 100% deet repellant and they were still getting eaten alive by the crazy mosquitos, so he wore long sleeves/pants that helped somewhat. Here's one of the many waterfalls seen on the trip -

These are tree roots. Yes, tree roots, stretching across an area that eroded below and the roots remain in tact.

Pretty mist at an area where they did some cliff jumping. Ben said the water was in the 50s and absolutely freezing. They would jump in and immediately swim back as fast as possible. He couldn't get over how pretty and clear the water was.

I'm so glad Ben had the chance to enjoy nature and have fun exploring a new area (this was about seven hours away). He is such an outdoorsy guy and Chicago can be a little limiting in that regard.

I held down the fort with the kids for four days with zero contact with Ben (he didn't get any cell reception because the area is pretty remote). When he pulled in really late Saturday night, I was soooo happy to have him back. It's hard going that long without even hearing that he's alive and fine!

The boys missed him like crazy, but the funny thing was that Charlie didn't quite understand that Ben was on a trip - when we finally talked to Ben on the phone on Saturday when they were driving back, Charlie asked him if he won a ping pong game, which is what Eli always asks when Ben comes home from work (there is a ping pong table there at the office). Their faces just lit up when they woke up this morning and saw their dad home again.

The Perils of Learning to Ride a Bike

2011-07-08T10:00:00.001-05:00

We got Eli a great 16" bike for his birthday a few months ago, but after a major crash (with training wheels on), he was totally traumatized and didn't want to ride the bike again. We kept trying with that bike, but eventually decided to get a cheap 12" bike on craigslist to help Eli get comfortable with steering and not have as large of a distance to fall. I don't feel like it's a total waste since Charlie can use the 12" bike soon. We have our friends' old balance bike too, but neither child has gotten the hang of it yet.

Last week we took the boys over to the nearby elementary school to have a bigger space to practice with their bikes. It went well for a little while before Eli twisted the handlebars and fell once again. It's a sad reminder that he may still need physical therapy for the gross motor functions... but for now we will just keep practicing.

We brought Charlie's trike along and he rode for a little bit, but was more excited about climbing on the school playground.

After Eli biffed it on the pavement, he opted for climbing on the playground too. I was secretly glad the boys kept their helmets on because everything was higher than they are used to.

Eventually they got tired of the helmets and let loose :)

You Do What You Have to Do...

2011-07-07T15:30:00.000-05:00

Sometimes the kids' constant fighting over one darn baseball bat makes you so crazy that you go out, buy two of the same exact cheap bat from Target and do this:

Ben took turns pitching to each kid every other time. Happy kids, happy parents.

I don't think we'll win any parenting awards for this one. Buying two of everything isn't possible in every scenario, but when it comes to a $4 bat, sometimes it's worth saving our sanity. :)

4th of July Parade

2011-07-05T22:57:00.004-05:00

Are you ready to be bombarded by parade pictures and commentary? I think they're fun and I hope you do too :)

First - Eli and Katelyn introduced us to this crazy turkey -

Eli loved the drums in the marching band.

No clue who these girls were, I think it was a spoof on Lady Ga Ga? (their sign says Lady Gone Gone)

I loved the library group - (with the Jessie White tumbler practicing in front of us/them)

Did I mention that the Jessie White Tumblers were parked RIGHT in front of where we were sitting?? The view was pretty limited, so I asked the iGo car people parked behind the tumblers if they wouldn't mind moving about 10 feet back and then got the Tumblers' van to move back too. Much better. The hilarious thing was the iGo car people had the hardest time moving their tiny Prius backward without going over the curb 10 times. I swear the lady driving was shooting daggers at me the entire time.

A guy from a hair salon sporting huge scissors :) All of the stylists from that salon were dressed in superhero costumes.

How on earth does this guy do that??

More tumblers - their van moved over but they were still practicing in front of us, which was fun.

I had to laugh at the Lake Michigan High E.Coli sign on this float - we've had a few no swim days so far at some beaches due to high e.coli counts in the water. Mmmmm doesn't it make you want to swim there the next day? (We try not to think about that too much, I love Lake Michigan.)

Ricky Recycle had a whole chant/cheer thing going. We were happy to participate with him :) "I like to recycle! I like to recycle!"

Can't ignore the fabulous Cubs trolley! Go Cubs.

There's nothing like a fun parade with some cute 2-4-year-olds watching from one step. Eli had a huge tootsie roll pop in his mouth almost the entire time.

And Charlie was a mini beach ball hoarder :) My boys were so excited about every silly thing being passed out from the parade floats.

I'm sorry for waking you up from your nap early Charlie so we could go to the parade. You're a good sport.

Charlie in awe of the crazy floats -

Love these boys.

This one is my favorite -

But this one really made me smile - perfect depiction of their relationship (Eli making Charlie giggle):

Okay - these girls had craaaazy eye shadow going on with sparkly red, white and blue layers. It was a good look with their very shiny silver outfits.

After the parade, getting final wiggles out by jumping on Grant and Evy's trampoline.

What could be more fun than jumping off of an unstable kids' table onto the trampoline? My kids thought it was very exciting.

Finally, sliding the mini frisbee from the parade back and forth to each other.

It was such a perfect weather day! We lucked out this year. We opted not to do fireworks again... one night was plenty.

3rd of July Fireworks

2011-07-05T10:15:00.001-05:00

Eli is doing much better now. His stitches were removed on Friday and he now has two steri-strips continuing to hold his wound together while it heals. He was super excited about "our country's birthday" and we read the Stars and Stripes: The Story of the American Flag book about the American flag every night for a week per Eli's request as we prepared for the big day.

On the third of July, we walked over to Gilson Park to watch Wilmette's fireworks. There are always friends from our ward there, so we found the group and the boys had fun playing with the kids there and being crazy with their light sabers.

Here we are schlepping over with our chairs, blanket, light sabers, food, etc to Gilson Park.....

It's not ideal to start the evening off with a tired, not so happy 2-year-old... Charlie was pretty mellow that night.

Cute Jane excited about her mom blowing bubbles :)

Making an X with the light sabers...

The boys really enjoyed playing before the fireworks... then Eli loved the firework show and Charlie sat on my dad's lap totally freaked out and kept saying, "I don't like it" over and over again. We were pretty close to the fireworks so the booms were really loud. I'm sure he felt like the fireworks were falling on us too, poor guy!

The best part about our kids staying up late to watch the fireworks? The next morning Charlie slept until 9 a.m. and Eli until 9:30 a.m. I was pooped that night and went to bed at a reasonable hour and actually got nine hours of sleep for once! It felt great. More to come from the actual 4th of July.

Power Outage and Eli's First Stitches

2011-06-27T00:23:00.002-05:00

Ohhhhh what a week! I don't even know where to begin. I guess it all started with a huge storm that passed through on Tuesday evening. We had hurricane-strength winds blow through here (70 mph winds) as well as tornado sirens and thunderstorm watches... it was quite the experience. When Ben and I heard the tornado sirens go off at 9 p.m., we stood frozen at the top of the stairs, trying to decide if it was really necessary to wake up our kids and run to the basement. About two minutes later, the power went off and Charlie woke right up since the sound machine turned off abruptly. Eli somehow slept through his sound machine turning off (I know, it's silly that they both have them, but Ben leaves so early in the morning that this is how we keep them sleeping later... it's my sanity saver!).

We pulled Charlie out of bed since he was awake and stood in the dark at the window watching the huge trees around our house sway and bend in the crazy wind. I ran downstairs to get some flashlights and Charlie had the best time running around in the low-lit family room. (We decided it wasn't likely there would be a tornado here based on what the weather.com info was saying about the path of the storm). Thirty minutes later, we managed to get him into bed and went to bed ourselves in our very dark house.

On Wednesday morning, we woke up to the power still being out. I was feeling semi-hopeful at that point that it would come on any minute... but as the morning went on, I got more anxious as I read a news article that said 400,000 people lose power during the storm, and more than 220,000 were still without power in the Chicago area. The electric company (ComEd) was estimating that power would be fully restored by Friday. There were tons of trees and branches down around our area and the towns north of us and it was slow going to restore power.

I loaded up the more expensive frozen foods (mainly meat) into a cooler and brought them over to a friend's house, and tried not to be too stressed that I had so much photography work to get done and no power to help me do it. Not to mention that I was supposed to teach the lesson in Relief Society on Sunday and needed my internet/computer to work on it.

By Thursday morning, I was SO frazzled about not having electricity for a second day. Our laundry was piling up, the dishwasher was full, and it was a pain to go in and out of the garage since I had to open and close it manually each time. I went over to friends' houses to charge my phone and computer, but I was so frustrated with the situation that I had a hard time focusing. Eli could sense that I was out of sorts and asked me on multiple occasions if I was doing okay. He is such a sweet, sensitive little guy.

When the power finally came back on Thursday at 2:15 p.m., Charlie was napping and Eli and I were hanging out in the family room building block towers. All of the sudden the lights flipped on and we got SO excited!! I am so appreciative of everything we can do when our electricity works.

Moving on to the drama from today... I was scrambling to finish my RS lesson this morning and Ben took the boys with him to visit an older couple in our ward before church. Ben called me at 12:25 and said they got to church early and Eli was running in the foyer, excited to be first in the chapel when he tripped (he only wears these shoes on Sunday, so I feel like he's a little more clumsy in them) and hit his head either on a table or corner of the door, and got this lovely gash on his forehead.

I think Ben handled it all really well and also had help from some nice people who saw what happened and rushed to get him paper towels to help stop the bleeding and a first aid kit. He managed to get both boys into the van and I met them over at the emergency room with Eli's favorite froggy and blankie for a little comfort. Here's his sad gash (the nurse covered him up with this "cape" to keep him dry when she rinsed and cleaned the wound):

After the cleaning, the boys hung out on the hospital bed while the cotton ball taped to Eli's head numbed the area to prepare it for the stitches. You can see Ben's iPhone on Eli's knee - the boys were entertained by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Backyardigan's episodes. It was such a great distraction.

Eli did such a great job holding still during the stitches. A nurse stood behind and held his head and I held his hands. I couldn't handle watching them put the stitches in.

Oh Eli. Your first stitches!! You are such a trooper.

We got home at 2:30 and then I pulled my things together and ran over to the church to teach the RS lesson at 3:10. I am so tired from this crazy week and am looking forward to a quieter, more predictable week coming up! You can see some pictures of one of my recent photography sessions here. I have lots more to post on my photography blog that I'll hopefully have time to put together this week.

*These pictures were taken with Ben's iPhone (first two images) and my Blackberry (the last one). The iPhone definitely won with better picture quality :)

Enter to Win a Clickin' Moms Lifetime Membership!

2011-06-20T12:34:00.000-05:00

I love contests. I love entering them, winning them, but hosting them is also a favorite! I'm so happy to have a contest for YOU!

Hey all of you DSLR owners or anyone who is looking to learn more about photography - I am giving away Clickin' Moms Lifetime Membership ($195 value) on my photography blog! I have been a member for about a year and a half and have gleaned so much great technical information from the forums as well as inspiration for discovering my own sense of style when it comes to photography. There is a plethora of information on that site! The majority of members are professional photographers, but there are plenty of hobbyists as well - so come join us! The contest ends June 30th, so come on over for details on how to win.

Sarah Severson Photography Blog

Father's Day and Fresh Corn-Rice Salad

2011-06-19T23:04:00.002-05:00

This first picture is for Stacy, who originally blogged this idea of her son having fun stacking with plastic cups. I showed it to Eli and he got excited to try it out. Now he stacks cups at least once a day into new patterns and pyramids.
And Happy Father's Day! I'm glad we have a holiday that celebrates great people like my dad and my husband and father-in-law. They have all been great examples to me in how they parent and interact with their kids. Yesterday we went up to my parents' house for an early Father's Day dinner and walked around the golf course behind their house for a little bit. Eli and Charlie had fun with the rakes at each hole.

After a little while, some golfers showed up and we had to book it off the course to get out of the way.

We stopped to look at some bugs on the big rocks along the path -

Eli making a very typical Eli face when he's thinking or questioning something -

Eli found some treasures to share with his dad (pine cone and rock):

Charlie had fun stuffing sticks down the gutter holes.

Back inside, we opened presents and the boys were a little wild/overtired...

Before heading home for the night, we put the boys in their pjs and they read a book with my parents.

As for today, we had a fun morning at home. The boys and I made a yummy breakfast for Ben and gave him cards and some presents. I love these pictures of sleepy Ben, content Charlie, and excited Eli.

Finally, here is a tasty recipe to share - I made it as part of our Father's Day dinner tonight and served it with grilled salmon and fruit. I used jasmine rice tonight, but we thought it would be good next time to mix the jasmine rice with wild rice, or use brown rice/wild rice to make it a little heartier. Happy Father's Day!

4 ears fresh corn

1 1/2 C. cooked rice, cooled

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

1 C. fresh arugula or spinach

1 small red onion, cut in thin wedges

1 jalapeno, thinly sliced

2 Tbs rice vinegar or red wine vinegar

2 Tbs olive oil

Directions

1.Husk corn and remove silk with a stiff brush; rinse. Cook corn in boiling, lightly salted water for 3 minutes. Remove corn; let cool. Cut corn off the cob in planks (see note).

2.Combine cooked rice, tomatoes, arugula, onion and jalapeño pepper. Transfer to serving bowl; top with corn.

3.Drizzle with vinegar and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature. Makes 10 to 12 servings.

Note: To cut planks, place an ear on its side on a cutting board. Holding the corn firmly with fingers away from the blade, cut off a side of the corn. Rotate and repeat until all sides are removed. Use a spatula to gently move planks to salad.

Source: BHG

Lastly - I'm trying to catch up on editing from some recent photo shoots. Check out this link to see the most recent session blogged of a family with two handsome boys!

Chicago Botanic Garden's Tulips

2011-06-09T11:00:00.002-05:00

We have had the craziest weather in the last few months (including this week when it was SO hot - in the mid-90s and super humid, stifling....bleh! And today it's dropped 30 degrees thank goodness. How do my southern friends/family handle the heat?? I wanted to kiss my air conditioner when it worked hard all day/night, going full blast to try to keep our house cool).

The upside of having a ton of cold, rainy, or hot and steamy days, is that on the nicer weather days, we've scrambled to go outside and take advantage of the more mild temps. We went to the Chicago Botanic Garden in May when the tulips were blooming and they were gorgeous! I love walking around this place.

We picked up some delicious Ravinia BBQ and brought it in to the garden area to have a picnic. Sort of. The boys had more fun running off and playing near/in/around the fountains. It was around 5:30 on a Friday evening and the gardens were really empty, surprisingly. But the boys loved having so much space to run around and smell all of the pretty flowers.

Toddler Quirks

2011-06-08T23:00:00.000-05:00

Charlie has the funniest toddler ways. He recently went through a phase where he wanted to wear his helmet everywhere. Inside, outside, in the car, it didn't matter. He was VERY insistent on this and screamed his crazy fits when we attempted to take the helmet off when it wasn't on his terms.

He loves helping me empty and load the dishwasher too. I'm not a fan of the shoes in the dishwasher, but I think that was a struggle too (getting the shoes off).

He also loves washing things in the sink and helping me make the boys' daily peanut butter & honey sandwiches. Charlie will see me making something in the kitchen, run to grab a chair and push it over to where I'm standing and nudge his way in so I can't not let him help. :)

Charlie and Eli Stats

2011-06-03T23:15:00.001-05:00

Charlie is a tiny spitfire, but also a sweet, lovable, spunky little 2-year-old. He will say or repeat almost anything now, most of it makes sense, but sometimes I have to repeat different things back about 10 times before I get it right. I'm always amazed when we read books together and he can finish each sentence. He can count to twenty in his cute little voice and has strong opinions about what he wears each day. That kid has such cute clothes in his drawers but prefers about five shirts, the rest he yells, "NO!" and throws them across the room when I pull them out in the morning. Eli is the opposite and usually really easygoing about what I set out for him to wear.

We went to the doctor today for Eli's 4-year checkup, but also for a weight check for Charlie, who is up to 24 pounds (he gained 2 pounds in 5 months, whoo hoo) and is consistently following the third percentile for weight. His doc says three percent is fine and he's just happy to see Charlie following the same growth curve. He's just a skinny little guy.

Eli measured in at 40.2 inches (he's gone up from 25% to 50%) and 33 pounds (25%). As Dr. Andy put it, "He'll be taller than you!"

I would hope so :) He has 20.4 inches to go.

These shots of Charlie were from tonight before bedtime. Eli's legs were sore from his vaccinations, so he went inside early and got his Angry Birds fix since he stayed dry all day. So Charlie had free reign of the yard and both parents to play with him.

And finally, here's my favorite shot of Ben and Charlie from a few weeks ago:

Love.

Eli's 4-Year-Old Faces

2011-06-02T17:06:00.002-05:00

I took these pictures on our front porch after Eli's birthday party a few weeks ago in the evening when he was already in his pjs and almost ready for bed. I love his fun personality and creative spirit! This kid makes me smile every day with his funny phrases and comments about everything.

"Mom, this is SO awesome!"

"Mom, I have a special marble and the other marbles can't fly."

"Mom, this is SO impressive."

"Well, do you want to see this? Watch me."

"Look mom! Are you looking?"

"I used Eli power."

"Does Charlie get a timeout? He totally hit me."

"Can you get a spoon? I want to make something awesome. And then I'll make something cool."

"I always love light blue."

"Do you want to see how hard I can jump on the ground? It goes KABOOM! But I may need a helmet."

"No problem."

He talks and talks and talks and I am eating up this cute stage of his life. He's curious and coming up with new stories and ideas all the time.

Eli the 4-Year-Old

2011-05-25T01:15:00.002-05:00

Last Friday my oldest child turned four. FOUR! How can Eli be four already?? We celebrated by taking the world's longest scooter ride for a four-year-old and a two-year-old - from our house to our favorite cupcake place, 1.3 miles each way. The boys were tough and at the beginning, Eli exclaimed, "This is the BEST birthday ever!"

Then after we had been going for a while, he said in a discouraged tone, "This is the WORST day ever." :)

But he perked right up when we finally made it to the cupcake place, which has a bucket full of little animals that the boys love to play with every time we go there. Charlie was funny and refused to take his helmet and sunglasses off when we were inside.

On the way back, we scootered past our friend's house and her son spotted us from the front window (shown in bottom left picture below). The kids were home with their dad at the time so we didn't go inside, but a few minutes later, Krista called and said she was running behind us down the sidewalk (she had been on her way home and saw us walking). She snapped this picture of me with the boys. It was a warm, humid morning, don't mind my frizzies and lovely exercise clothes. Looking at this picture makes me think about a neighbor that I met earlier this week who thought I was the babysitter because I looked so young. Hmmm. I should probably try to dress my age? But what does that look like, anyway?

When we were nearing the end of the scooter ride, the boys spotted some tiny bugs on the sidewalk and stopped to take a closer look. I'll post more pictures soon from Eli's birthday weekend, but here are some fun things about my birthday boy:

1. He secretly is the third parent in our house. Or third adult. Tonight Eli and Charlie were upstairs, and all of the sudden Eli started crying. I called up to ask what was wrong, and he said Charlie pushed him (keep in mind they were up past their bedtime and Eli was super tired/oversensitive). I said I was sorry that he did that, and Eli responded, "It's not your fault mom. It's Charlie's," in a very serious, mature voice.

2. Eli is constantly building towers or other creations with blocks, legos, whatever he can find. He calls the creations up in his room on his table his "Batmobile," which is ever-changing and evolving. He is very possessive of this Batmobile and does everything he can to keep Charlie away from it.

3. His favorite tv shows are Jake and the Neverland Pirates (on Disney) and Word World (PBS).

4. He is my child who likes to be on time. I may or may not have given him a complex when we're always racing to get to swimming lessons on time... when I say we're running late and need to hurry, he'll say, "It would be better if we were on time, Mom..." Why is it so hard to get to those darn swimming lessons on time, anyway??

5. He has a vivid imagination and loves telling stories about whatever he's playing with.

6. He's obsessed with Angry Birds on Ben's iphone and loves playing in the evening if he stayed dry all day (meaning he made it to the bathroom every time).

7. He's a sweet big brother to Charlie and always calls him, "Little Buddy" when he's helping him with something.

I love my Eli! He is a sweet, snuggly, little guy who is obedient and bright. He is a wonderful kid and I am excited to see how he grows and changes in this next year.

Scooter Kids on Mother's Day

2011-05-14T08:00:00.013-05:00

I had a wonderful Mother's Day this year! Especially when I think back to last year when Ben accidentally gave me some expired bacon as a part of my breakfast in bed, which made me so sick. It's pretty comical but I'm glad this year was more normal.

Ben, Eli and Charlie were so sweet to me. They brought me breakfast in bed and sang some cute songs... later I ran over to the Mother's Day Housewalk put on by the historical society and enjoyed seeing some beautiful homes, one of which is the house where I had nannied at, so that was extra fun. I'll post pictures sometime soon.

After church, my family came over for dinner and the boys had fun showing off their scooter skills. Here is a video with some funny clips of the boys scootering and some pictures from that afternoon. Eli was in a bad mood at the beginning, but his mood improved as he scooted along.

And just for fun - here are the recaps of previous Mother's Days: 2010 (halfway down the post), 2009, 2008.

One of these days I'll actually get caught up on blogging...

Eli's Imaginary Animals

2011-05-13T15:13:00.008-05:00

Today I sat down with Eli and asked him questions about the growing number of dogs/friends that he mentions on a regular basis. Here are my notes from our conversation. He has a very vivid imagination and the best part is that the details are always the same - Jeanie the Dog is always as big as Clifford and Eli the Dog is blue with blue spots. He is such a funny kid and I love him to pieces.

Chocolate Milk Dog: Doesn't need to buy milk from the grocery store because he makes milk out of his tummy and then pours it into his cereal every morning. He makes it in his tummy, then opens his tummy up, then he pours it out into a cup. I've got one more new dog, but he is a really great at playing basketball... guess who he is?

Basketball Dog! He loves to play basketball. And he pours basketball milk into his cereal. He can play any basketball game.

Eli Dog: He likes to play with me. He's blue with blue spots. He loves to build towers with me.

Jeanie the Dog: Dog that is as big as Clifford and red and yellow. Jeanie likes to dig really deep holes.

Jack the Dog: He is orange - he's about a foot big. He likes to race and loves to chase cats.

Super Dog: He doesn't do much stuff. He can play video games on his computer. (Sarah's note - Super Dog appears with us quite a bit though and Eli really loves Super Dog)

Bad Dog: I won't tell you about him because he's not my dog. He does bad things. He's not nice to people. He steals beds, so people can't sleep. But he usually does that at nighttime. He just swipes the bed away and hurries and gets out the door. But he can never know which door will lead to my room. So he thinks, "Hey! Maybe I could go into the middle one. And he only found Charlie's crib. He said, "What? That's not a bed, that's a crib. I'm going to throw myself on the ground." If he sees a crib, he will say that.

Stripe Dog: He's a really new dog. He has stripes on him - orange and light blue. His tail is striped (Eli smiles). Do you know he has armor on him so if a guy bammed into him, it would bounce right off. The armour is striped. Sooooo. Do you know I got a little friend that's a mouse?

Gice the Mouse (name rhymes with Mice). He's gray like usually mice are. He likes to play hide and seek. He's really good at hiding because he's little.

I know the best new dog. Ever. He's even gooder than striped dog. He is... Hmmm I need to see what title he's on, what his name is. Kachow! I got two video games now. Let's get rid of this video game. There, that's better. His name is...

Pirate Dog. Arrrrr. Instead of saying Arrr, he says Rahhhhh! He lives on a pirate ship. He's a mean pirate because he is mean too. But he's nice to me. But he's mean to Bad Dog. We make a good team. There's Pirate Dog right now. Rahhhhh. Pirate Dog come back! He's just swinging around. Now he landed on the bed. So what's your plan today? Okay, gotcha. His plan is when we go outside, we're supposed to fight Bad Dog with our good shiny swords. I've got one in my treasure chest. Pirate Dog has a flat curved sword. I've got an oval one. But Pirate Dog has the same one that is just like Jake's except it has the word, "Pirate Dog" on it.

Crocodile Dog: You need to be realllly careful with him. He might run faster and faster to get you. But he never gets me or froggy.

Robot Dog: He's too AWESOME! He can do anything. He can wash the dishes without getting rusty. He can clean up his room all by himself. He can play Go Fish with only one robot dog.

Muddy, Rainy, Sometimes Sunny Spring

2011-05-08T00:51:00.001-05:00

It's been such a rainy and cold Spring.

We've gotten lots of mileage out of those frog rain boots.

Sometimes though, the rain just makes you want to yell :)

Thankfully we've had some sunshine peeking through too.

At playgroup a few weeks ago - we had a great turnout because everyone was so stir crazy after days and days of rain.....

And last week after my mom's piano students' recital, the boys had fun running around outside and smelling the flowers -

Happy Mother's Day Mom! She's a fabulous piano teacher - we had a great time listening to her students' pieces and it's fun to see the kids' progress from last year. My boys are lucky they will be able to take lessons from her when they are a little older.

Senior Shoot

2011-05-04T22:58:00.003-05:00

I have lots of personal pictures to post soon but have been busy editing a recent photo shoot of beautiful high school senior Mikaela and her family. You can see more on my photography blog.

Robin Eggs, Blogger Issues and Rain Rain Rain

2011-04-27T20:45:00.003-05:00

I am so in love with these beautiful blue robin eggs that we found in a nest on our back porch. I had to climb up high on the railing to try to capture this shot when the mother bird was away from her nest.

I'm feeling rather fed up with Blogger. As I've mentioned before, when I upload pictures directly to my blog (rather than uploading to flickr first and copying the code over), the images often look pixelated and poor quality. My blog header is pixelated, which drives me crazy. And sometimes I get a "server rejected the image" error that doesn't let me upload pics to begin with. I've googled the problem and lots of people are dealing with this but there is no easy answer from blogger. My current fix is uploading to flickr. But that's one more step and definitely not as fast and easy.

My latest issue is that the sidebar on the right is showing up funny for at least one person - can you do me a favor and tell me if you can see the sidebar in its entirety or if the pictures/words on the right side are being cut off? I spent a lot of time last week updating the content in the sidebar, getting rid of the old stuff that was outdated and unnecessary, so it's all cleaned up. But it's aggravating to hear the sidebar is having troubles... boo.

We've now had rain 19 of the 27 days of this month. My house feels perpetually dark because the sun is hiding outside. Eli is oblivious to the fact that it's chilly outside and opted to wear shorts this afternoon after he didn't make it to the bathroom fast enough and had to change his clothes. I didn't fight him on it, the poor guy has been sick so we've mostly stayed inside.

On Sunday night, he was up from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. crying every 30 minutes because his stomach hurt. We had friends visiting from out of town with us for Easter weekend, so I didn't get to bed before 1 a.m. and majorly paid for it when I couldn't fully go to sleep until 5 a.m. I was in a fog the next day and convinced Eli to take a nap with me late in the afternoon - I know he's sick when he actually agrees AND falls asleep because napping for that child is pretty rare. Now his stomach seems fine but he has allergies coming on full throttle... I'm hoping he'll be okay once his meds have been in his system for a little while.

Charlie has been in a great mood all week and has this funny throaty giggle now when he's being silly with his brother - it's deeper and almost mischievous. This gray weather makes me sleepy but also in the mood to get our house organized since we have been so cooped up... this means I've attempted to go through our storage rooms in the basement and get rid of things we're not using, but all at a very slooooow pace. :)

Here is a picture from this morning - occasionally I watch a set of twins early in the morning and then they take the bus to school. I walked them, their friends who are our neighbors and my kids over to the bus stop today in the rain and snapped this picture of the happy crew. My boys had fun stomping around in the rain and watching the older kids get on the bus.

Wedding Pictures

2011-04-27T01:27:00.003-05:00

I just updated my photography blog with pictures from Heather and Patrick's wedding day a little while ago - here are a few from their photo session (you can view more here). We hadn't met before their wedding as they were from Milwaukee, but I felt like we became friends after a few hours running around downtown Evanston together taking pictures. These two were such a beautiful couple - it was fun capturing their happiness that day.

Boys Playing Together

2011-04-26T23:30:00.000-05:00

This is a classic video taken a while back showing the funny interactions between the boys. Eli telling Charlie what to do, Charlie mostly ignoring it and doing what he wants and having fun.

Racing Frogs (April 2011 - Eli and Charlie) from Sarah on Vimeo.

And this is a clip of Eli reading a book to himself early in the morning a few weeks ago (I heard him reading when I came down the stairs and grabbed my camera to quietly capture it). He had gotten up before me, eaten breakfast, played with blocks (and made a big mess), then snuggled under a blanket on the couch and started reading this book out loud to himself.

Eli Reading a Book to Himself Early in the Morning (April 2011) from Sarah on Vimeo.

Snow + 2 Crazy Boys = Enduring Neverending Winter

2011-04-19T06:30:00.014-05:00

We woke up to record-breaking snow yesterday. It's been cold and rainy for the last week, and now it snows. Booooo. Six months of winter is rough. I try to be positive about our crazy weather that lingers and lingers and lingers since Ben is usually complaining from about January on and I resist joining in because I'm the main reason we live in this cold place, but now we're both so tired of it.

I keep dreaming about warm Lake Michigan beach days in our future and how much fun we're going to have this summer just playing outside and enjoying the sunshine. But those dreams were pushed aside by the white stuff on the ground yesterday. Thankfully it melted by the middle of the day so we didn't have to look at it anymore. But it was still freezing outside!! Brrrrr.

This week Charlie is like a new little guy (remember the screaming tantrum from a little bit ago??) He still throws tantrums, but they aren't as often and he's sleeping better through the night. I am totally blaming those difficult weeks on his molars coming in. He's still two years old and has plenty of fight in him, but I'm continually learning what he wants and needs or thinks he needs. I think it's hilarious to hear him tell me he wants a "grown-up spoon" with his breakfast. No kids utensils for Charlie.

He has had a word explosion and says all kinds of hilarious stuff. I love hearing my sweet little boy talk and interact with people, especially when it's with Eli. He really looks up to his big brother and he is always very concerned if someone gets hurt. Today Eli kept poking me in the back with his elbow and I was saying, "Ouch!!" and Charlie looked over with big blue eyes and asked quietly, "You okay Mama?"

Eli continues to seem so old to me lately. He was the reverence child at the beginning of primary on Sunday and it was so fun to watch him up there. He stood up in front of the chaotic, full junior primary with his arms folded and a shy smile on his face. He quietly looked around the room, then glanced back at me standing in the back. I kept giving him big smiles and thought it was so cute that he took it seriously and was being so reverent. After we came home from church, we walked into the family room... it was pretty messy from the morning and Eli commented on how he had dumped his bucket of army guys out when he was frustrated with something Charlie did.

"It was a mistake, right?" he said very seriously.

I told him yes, it was a mistake to act like that and there are other ways we can express our frustration, rather than throwing or dumping toys out...

"Did you know Heavenly Father and Jesus still love us even when we make mistakes?" Eli asked.

I'm so grateful for the teachers at church who help my 3-year-old understand basic but important aspects of the gospel. I'm guessing they talked about mistakes and repentance at church and he recognized how it applied to him that day.

Sure love those cute little guys.

Something Tangible to do for Japan

2011-04-13T00:21:00.001-05:00

We've donated to the Red Cross and our church's humanitarian fund for Japan's relief efforts, but sometimes it's nice to feel like you are doing something really hands-on for people in need. Now here's your chance.

A blogger (who I have no personal connection with) has been in contact with a school teacher in Ishinomaki, Japan, that was hit hard by the earthquake. She has expressed the kids and adults in that community are in need of various items, many of which are in our own homes already and would be easy to share.

I learned about this opportunity from my sister-in-law Emily - check out this link for more info and to contact Nicole for the address of where to send a box, which will go to a Buddhist monk there in the village who will distribute the items coming in these boxes. So far the site shows that 379 boxes have been shipped so far.

I'm pasting some excerpts of her blog post below so you can see what they are looking for -

"I’m calling out to you, my readers, to send one box. That is all. One box filled with most of the things you already have sitting in your cupboards.

What Sachiko says the children need:

socks

shoes

erasers/ pencils/crayons

paper and supplies

special things like candy, something fun that brings a smile

shippable foods

Besides what is on the list, I confirmed that things that are gently used, like children’s clothing, dried fruit, granola bars, and such would be wonderful as well."

and later in the post:

"If you are serious about sending a box, email me personally in the contact me section on my blog and I will email you right back with the address. Her parents are presently housing 15 adults who have lost their homes.

Their needs are:

paper products (toilet paper, paper towels)

feminine products (pads, tampons)

baby wipes (currently used for bathing there, if they have them)

antibacterial gel (there is a sickness like the flu passing through rapidly)

food (plain noodles, dried fruit, other things that ship easily)

gently used clothes, socks, shoes

disposable gloves and lotion–for sorting through the rubble

If your family chooses to get involved and send one package, have your children help by creating cards for the children. Sachiko says the children need some happiness. I can’t even imagine their feelings, longings for familiarity, and sorrows. Put some fun things in their box, too.

Let’s do this together, please. If you can commit one box to Japan, share it with us in the comments. My goal is that this blog, through you generous people, can send
20
400 boxes to Ishinomaki, Japan. This town has been devastated. We have a real, hands-on way to give of our bounty. Please. Pass this on as well- through Facebook, friends, etc. Can you imagine the out pouring of boxes to this school, to this generous Buddhist monk and the people he’s caring for?"

I think it's such a great idea - I've contacted Nicole for the address and am planning to send a box in the next few days.

Charlie's Behavior and More Gems

2011-04-11T01:09:00.008-05:00

Here's a random list of thoughts from this week:

1. Charlie has been really difficult lately. Throwing CRAZY fits that almost put me in tears because it is so sad and extreme for such a normally sweet little guy. Here's a clip of what he is like when he goes into these monster tantrums. It's a little hard for me to watch because he's so upset, but it shows his stamina with how worked up he can be and how long he goes for (often he screams for 20 to 30 minutes - now we put him in his crib when he goes berserk to keep him more safe--we tell him we'll come back when he stops screaming). I think in the video, he was mad about us changing his poopy diaper and starting to get him ready for bed. He kept grabbing the new diaper and trying to rip it off (please excuse my messy bedroom and laundry that needed to be put away... and I don't know why the video is formatted so weird, it was taken with Ben's phone):

Screaming 2-year-old Charlie from Sarah on Vimeo.

2. Today Charlie continued his naughty streak by throwing a fit toward the end of Sacrament Meeting in church. We have church at 1 p.m., which is a horrible time for a 2-year-old who still naps. He was worn out and getting restless and wanted nothing to do with the snacks or activities that I had brought for him. Instead, he opted to roll around under our bench, fussing and kicking the woman sitting next to us. I didn't have an easy escape route because I was in the middle of the long middle row and instead I was crouching down (in my skirt), trying to quietly get Charlie to get him off of the floor or at least move Charlie's legs in a different direction... but every time I did this, he would promptly move them back and kick her some more.

Of course this person's kids are grown and she was there at church by herself, minding her own business, trying to listen to the meeting. And my stinker child was kicking her ankles. Afterward I apologized about 10 times and she told me it's okay, her 2 1/2-year-old grandson is quite the pill right now too. Wonderful. Yes Charlie, you were being a total pill. But I did feel a little victorious that we got Charlie to wear his nicer clothes to church (nicer as in khaki pants and a polo shirt). So I'd say the score was even today.

3. On a more positive note, I've noticed my boys getting along better, especially when we're out of the house (at home they fight a LOT). When we're at a friend's house or playgroup, they tend to stick near each other and Eli can be really protective of his little brother. At the park this weekend, they were being really cute, running around the playground and playing little games. There is a bridge at a park that we like, and they took turns pretending to be the troll in the Three Billy Goats Gruff story. Eli and Charlie have some great troll voices.

But that's only sometimes. They have real troubles when we're in the gym after church and Eli is chasing Charlie trying to grab the bottom of his shirt and pull him down, which of course makes Charlie upset. I know, it's probably not optimal that we let our kids run in the gym after church. I honestly don't care anymore. They are so wiggly after three hours of church that I don't blame them for needing to move their legs a little. Today Ben was busy after church counting tithing, so I was on my own and had no desire to rush home and deal with their tired little emotional selves there. Ben got home two hours after church was over. Sundays are MUCH easier now that we have two cars.

4. It was 85 degrees here today. Yesterday it was cold outside. Today it was humid and stiflingly hot inside our house. Right now my thermostat inside says it's 79 degrees and it's midnight. I can't bring myself to turn on the a/c in April!! We're supposed to drop back down to 55 tomorrow, so it's short-lived. Phew. I'm excited for summer, but a little in-between spring weather is always nice.

5. I had dental x-rays yesterday because I haven't had them done in forever and had some pain with one tooth. Of course it turned out I had a cavity - the x-ray showed a small crack toward the bottom of a lower molar. I had to get THREE shots of novacaine to not be in major pain as the dentist was drilling. I was miserable for the rest of the day and Ben said I looked totally wiped out. In his words, I looked like I "needed a Red Bull." I don't drink Red Bull, but I definitely was hurting and low on energy on Saturday afternoon/evening. It took a long time for the anesthetic to wear off, and my jaw was pretty sore. Dental work is the WORST and that was my second cavity. So sad - I was happy to just have one problem tooth, now I have two.

6. I love the blog, Miss Minimalist. I am by no means a minimalist, but I am trying to be a little more streamlined in my life. I loved her very comprehensive post on where to donate your stuff and 100 ways to simplify your life. Amen to all of that. And when I'm not being a minimalist, I loved Cardigan Empire's list of store markdown schedules. You know I love a good deal. :)

7. My kids used to be awesome sleepers, but aren't so much right now. I don't know what is going on, but Charlie wakes up crying almost every night now, often just a few hours after he goes to bed. It's really hard to know what to do - sometimes we let him cry it out, other times he is up there just screaming and screaming for a long time (30 minutes) and doesn't calm down until we go in. I'm pretty sure he's getting some molars, but who knows. Eli isn't much better - for example, he just came downstairs and said he couldn't find the spider in his bed that had pincers. I went upstairs, checked his bed, proclaimed it clear of spiders and put him back to bed. I have no idea why he is waking up randomly in the night too.

8. I need to get back on the exercising bandwagon. I've been a bum for a few months now and it's time to get ready for summer clothes after hibernating all winter. That means I should go to bed earlier so I have more energy, but going to bed on time is an ongoing struggle and one of my New Year's resolutions that I've totally failed at. Lame. I can do better.

9. We've watched a range of Netflix movies this weekend. I liked 127 Hours, even though it was a little hard to watch at various parts and had too much swearing (we usually don't watch rated R movies, but make exceptions sometimes). I thought James Franco was great and the movie was written in a way that didn't make the 127 hours feel like forever. We also watched Ping Pong Playa and I wouldn't say that it's a must-see, but definitely funny at times and more interesting to Ben since his office has a ping pong table and they play just about every day after the market closes.

10. I'm still addicted to peanut m&ms, despite that I have acid reflux and should avoid chocolate and that I'm trying to eat more healthy foods. Yet another New Year's resolution that I have totally failed at. My new resolution is to make more realistic resolutions next year. :)

PHEW. I'll post less word and fun pictures next time!

Garfield Park Conservatory

2011-04-08T13:30:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday we went to the Garfield Park Conservatory with friends. It was such a beautiful place to let the kids roam and run and to take in the abundant plants and vibrant flowers, especially when we are dying for nicer weather that is taking its sweet time to arrive. This was a great pick-me-up and fun outing for spring break. I was surprised that it wasn't more crowded - we often had rooms to ourselves, which was pretty nice.

After a few hours inside, our kids got super sweaty from running around - it was pretty warm in some of the rooms and were sporting bright red cheeks, with the exception of little Anderson who was just cozy in his car seat.

Botanic Gardens

2011-04-07T23:27:00.001-05:00

On Sunday we were a little stir crazy from being inside all weekend long... so in between conference sessions we went out for a quick escape to the Botanic Gardens. The boys had fun stretching their legs, visiting the ducks, geese and swans at the pond, and Charlie refused to wear his coat or red hoodie. Who knows how this child can handle the cold weather when he only weighs 22 pounds and is such a skinny little guy. I personally think he's freezing but just likes to exert his 2-year-old independence. :)

We ran into some friends from the ward there at the gardens who took a picture for us in one of the greenhouses -

And for some fun news, we bought a second car last week! (yes, in the middle of my sickness and miscarrying... it was quite the week. Ben basically took care of it all) We have wanted to get a second car for a long time, but kept putting it off because it wasn't absolutely necessary and we wanted to save money as long as we could before taking the plunge.

We finally planned to buy a minivan in June before we drive to Idaho for a family reunion later this summer, but got nervous after the earthquake in Japan - there were news stories that new cars may be in shorter supply in a few months because the factories in Japan that make the car parts have been closed, which is messing up the supply chain so stock may be more limited this summer... one thing led to another and it was the last day of the month, end of the first quarter of the year, and Al, our Russian car dealer with the extremely thick accent gave us a fabulous deal on our beautiful new minivan :) I love having so much space and the kids call it their pirate ship. Eli loves having the back folded partially down and has fun "walking the plank."

Here are a few other pictures of Eli having fun with the van after I unloaded groceries from Costco this week -

I know some people aren't huge fans of minivans, but this is glorious!! I am loving it. Eli does too :)

Thanks for so many kind, caring comments on my blog post earlier this week. I'm doing okay - physically still pretty worn out (I think having that stomach bug and then the miscarriage did a number on me) and emotionally mostly fine, though I've realized I've been less patient and more irritable than my usual self this week. It's easy to get to a grumpy place, to be frustrated with all of the dumb things that have no significance but can easily get you down. For example, we brought the minivan home last weekend and realized that while it fits in our ancient garage (we had measured ahead of time to be sure), the ceiling at the opening of the garage is too short to open the trunk without needing to be really careful not to bang it on the garage door. Boooo.

Next week I'll just do my best to be grateful we even have a garage. And a car to go inside it. I really do love it.

More Conference Weekend

2011-04-07T22:30:00.001-05:00

Please excuse the messy family room, there were toys everywhere and we were folding the millions of loads of laundry during conference. Eli was busy working on his core muscles while coloring :) In the last few months he's been really funny about doing little exercises that he learned in gymnastics or physical therapy.

We have cable that doesn't come with the BYU channel, so we improvised and connected Ben's laptop to the tv. It works fairly well and Eli thought it was entertaining to see conference on two different screens. The kids liked watching when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was singing and called the women "the singing mamas" and the men "the daddy's." It was pretty funny.

Gram's 86th Birthday Lunch

2011-04-06T23:00:00.004-05:00

We got together for my Gram's 86th Birthday a few weeks ago (and I'm catching up). I think she looks pretty fabulous for 86 years of age. She and my dad spent a lot of time reading to the boys while Ben, my mom and I finished getting the birthday lunch ready.

Eli had fun helping Gram blow out the candles on her coconut cupcake and open presents.

After dessert, Ben, my dad and Eli spent a lot of time studying Ben's Michigan Gazeteer. We're taking a weekend trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula soon and Ben has been studying the streams and lakes with hopes of finding optimal fishing. He is so excited for our outdoor adventures and Eli is too. Eli had fun looking at the symbols on the map - images like a figure hiking, or a tent to indicate a campground, etc. My dad loves maps too and was teaching Eli about the various places on there.

Love you Gram! Happy Birthday :)

Dealing with Loss and Moving On

2011-04-03T23:44:00.007-05:00

I've debated all weekend about whether I wanted to share this on my blog or not because it is so personal and painful, but it is such a common experience and I know many of you can relate to what I just went through.

Last week was the start of two weeks of preschool spring break for my boys. I was originally planning to drive with my friend Stephanie and our five collective kids to visit our friend Wendy and the cherry blossoms in Washington DC. We would have driven about 13 hours each way and it was going to be a really fun road trip. But a few weeks ago, Steph realized it wasn't going to work for her to go, so that was the end of that. I am SO glad we didn't end up going because last week would have been even harder if I had been out of town.

The week began with a horrible stomach bug that lasted for a few days. I thought I was going to die on Tuesday - not really, but that is how it felt. I had a fever of 102, nausea, throwing up, chills, the works. I barely carried Charlie up the stairs when it was time to put him down for his nap that day. I was so dizzy and weak and could barely function.

On Wednesday, I was still feeling lousy from the stomach problems, but started bleeding unexpectedly, which was very stressful because I was pregnant and not very far along. I went in for an ultrasound, which showed the baby's heart was beating, but it was positioned low in the uterus, which wasn't a good sign. Two days later, I miscarried at home at my 7 weeks mark. Eli was still sleeping when it happened, but Charlie was running in and out of the bathroom singing "Jingle Bells" of all songs in his happy way, totally oblivious to what was going on. After it happened, I stood there with tears streaming down my face, trying to gather the courage to flush the toilet. I called Ben at work and cried and cried.

I went back in to the doctor's office for another ultrasound, which confirmed the baby was out and my body was being very efficient with the whole process. I am so grateful for my kind OB (Dr. Jeremy Miller) who knew exactly what to say and made me feel better about everything that had transpired.

My dad came over one day to help with the boys, and on other days friends watched my kids, brought meals and cheery flowers that brightened the sad days. Eli was such a trooper (in the pictures above he's wearing this silly bird hat that he made in his library class and was pretending to be a bird to make me laugh). Charlie was his usual sweet self with some very aggravating moments mixed in. He wore the same clothes/pjs shown in the pictures above for two days in a row because I couldn't for the life of me get him to change his clothes without him heading into a MAJOR tantrum (I have a video of one of his tantrums tonight that is completely out of control - I'll share it soon). I just didn't have energy to deal with his 2-year-old craziness.

Today I started feeling like myself again. Last week I didn't eat more than a few crackers or almonds from about Monday afternoon until Friday afternoon because I was so sick. I'm happy to have my appetite back. We didn't do laundry for a week or go grocery shopping and the mail piled up, so now we're catching up. We spent the weekend mainly at home, watching our church's bi-annual General Conference, feeling strengthened and buoyed up by the inspired words of our prophet and other church leaders.

Overall I'm doing okay, obviously still a little up and down. I go from crying to being absolutely fine. Ben is okay, just concerned for me and glad I'm not so deathly ill like I was before. I know he felt a little helpless at times when I was in so much physical pain that I was hunched over or lying on the ground, trying to get comfortable and make the pain go away.

There is no mistaking that miscarriage is a lonely, disappointing, and difficult thing to experience. It's so strange to be pregnant one day, excited for a November baby, then bleeding and threatening miscarriage the next. But I feel surrounded by supportive, caring people who have been there for me in different ways, and tonight I feel peace and hope for whatever is in our future. I have a caring husband and two adorable boys that bring me so much happiness. I am lucky to have them and I know everything will be okay.

Gymnastics

2011-03-27T14:33:00.003-05:00

We just finished a session of gymnastics classes for both boys this last week. It was nice for Eli to transition for physical therapy once/week to another activity that is active and uses muscles he doesn't normally use at home. He was in the 3-year-old class and Charlie was in the Mom/Tot class, which meant I get to follow Charlie around the gym while he played. I think I'll wait to sign the boys up for gymnastics again until next winter when Charlie is 3 and Eli is 4 so I can enjoy watching their classes through the glass window :) It would have been more fun if we had signed up with someone else who had a child in the mom/tot class... the other moms in there were nice but not super friendly. Most of them knew at least one other person there already.

When I was a nanny back in the day, I used to take Drew and Caroline here for gymnastics classes years ago and they had the same teachers back then (Drew is turning nine at the end of this year - I was with them from the time he was a newborn until I had Eli).

Most of the teachers did a double take when I walked in with my own kids on the first week because they recognized me from before, which was kind of fun. They are great teachers, kind of no-nonsense but not too harsh - just enough to get them to stay on task and work hard (especially for Eli). Charlie's class is more free-form and the kids can wander around and play on whatever equipment is out there.

Charlie tends to be a quiet observer in places like this though, so there were lots of moments where he would just stand there, staring at the other kids climbing or running around. He also loved seeing Eli and would run over to Eli's class and try to join in with him.

Also, note to self - we were signed up for the 9:15-10 a.m. class... we were late EVERY single week. It was pathetic. There was always some reason (usually Eli taking forever to go to the bathroom or put his shoes on or we would all sleep late and then rush to get there), but I just need to be realistic and not sign us up for a class that is 10 minutes away at 9:15 a.m.

We're just not that fast that early in the morning. (I know, it's really not that early... but it is at this stage when my kids don't have to get to school super early)

Remembering that it was Warmer this Month...

2011-03-27T14:17:00.001-05:00

We're having an unseasonably cold end of March. (Are you tired of me complaining about the weather?? When you live in Chicago, that's just what we do at this time of year! It's in the 30s and we may have snow this week... boooooo) Here are some pictures from St. Patrick's Day when it actually broke 50 degrees that day and we weren't bundled up in coats outside.

Pretty Baby

2011-03-24T00:15:00.009-05:00

To Spring:

It's the end of March. 30-degree temps, really?? I miss you sun. It's cold and damp here and we're all sick of it. The ground is a soggy, soggy mess, which equals dirty shoes when the kids sprint from the garage to the house by roundabout way of the yard. We're ready to play outside, but not when we're sinking deep into the mud.

And something happier to end on - baby Lydia, pictures taken at one week old. Isn't she so sweet?? I love her dark hair with light highlights.

Tube Down my Throat, Chartie, Super Dog, and Other Bits from the Week

2011-03-22T00:17:00.002-05:00

I'm going to start with today and go backwards over the last week or so. Pictures will come soon.

Today I had an appointment with an ENT (ear nose throat doctor). I brought my kids along because I knew the appointment wouldn't be very long, and to my great relief, they were really well behaved and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on my iPod while sitting together on one chair. I've had a feeling that I needed to see an ENT for a while now, but I put it off because I was worried it would be uncomfortable or invasive.

Well... it was! But I survived and it really wasn't that big of a deal. The doctor's assistant threaded a small tube with a camera up through one side of my nose and down my throat to get a good look at my throat. It was very uncomfortable and a tiny bit painful, but it didn't last very long, which was the upside. The doctor kept telling me to breathe through my mouth. And at one point I had to say, "Eeeeee" so they could see how my throat looked when I talked - try doing that with a tube in your throat!! Sure enough, it's red and inflamed and my symptoms point to acid reflux. I'll go on prevacid and also do a nasal steroid spray. Doesn't this all sound fun?? :) The biggest bummer is that the caffeine in chocolate is an acid reflux trigger, so I'm supposed to go easy on the chocolate. Which is great for my health, but sad for me! I'm also not supposed to eat late at night, which shouldn't be a big deal.

The boys have been so funny lately. Eli started calling Charlie, "Chart" or "Chartie" and we think it's a really cute nickname. They are still very up and down with how they play with each other and interact, but there are definitely lots of sweet moments when Eli isn't screaming at Charlie for taking his toys or knocking down his towers. :) I love hearing them laugh and be crazy together.

Eli is fully immersed in being creative and imaginative, and often has a running dialogue or story about how whatever we're doing relates to Super Dog and his adventures. We were in Costco this morning and Eli talked the entire time. No joke. Super Dog was mentioned throughout the shopping trip. "Super Dog loves granola bar samples and uses them for energy to fly and save people." "Super Dog was fighting Bad Dog and..."

Charlie is very specific about which parent he prefers, but it depends on whether it's a weekday or weekend. I am the weekday parent and Charlie will glare at Ben if he tries to help get him out of his seat at dinner or basically do anything for him. Charlie gets excited when Ben comes home from work, but really prefers me to help him or read stories or whatever. But on the weekends when Ben is around more, it totally switches and Ben is the preferred parent. It's really funny to watch him do this throughout the week.

Charlie is also very into reading books right now and prefers to do this while snuggled up in my lap. He is the coziest little child and backs right up into my lap and sits down with a book in his hand. There are times of the day where we will sit together and read book after book after book. Eli recently checked a book out from the library called, "Snow Dude" and both kids really love it for some reason. I am getting a little tired of reading Snow Dude. :)

It's been about a full year since we first started potty training Eli. This process has been pretty frustrating and while Eli is doing pretty well now, he still has an accident a few times a week and it drives me and Ben crazy. He has all sorts of incentives for staying dry (his current fave is that he gets to play a few rounds of Angry Birds when Ben comes home if he stays dry in the day). But he still has plenty of times when he just doesn't go to the bathroom on time and pees in his pants.

My Gram turns 86 on Wednesday and we had a birthday lunch for her at our place over the weekend. I am so proud of her for reaching this birthday and for being cancer-free. She is a remarkable woman and my boys love her so so much.

I had a newborn photo shoot and a wedding session about a week ago - hence why none of my personal pictures are loaded onto my computer yet! I'm still editing pics from those sessions and will be caught up soon. Life is flying by and I'm constantly working to have a balance with spending time with Ben and the kids and making time for my business. It's all a lot of fun and I'm enjoying the process!

Finally... here's a video, "Teach Me How to Jimmer" that Ben showed the kids over the weekend and they love the "Teach me how to Jimmer" voice. It's funny hearing Eli and Charlie talk about Jimmer, their favorite basketball guy. Way to go BYU basketball!!!! Jimmer Fredette really is amazing as is the whole team. We have some friends who just booked flights and got tickets to go to the game in New Orleans this Thursday. Ben was tempted, but isn't going down with them. We'll be rooting for the team here in Chicago!

Early St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-13T23:50:00.001-05:00

On Saturday we went downtown with friends to see Chicago's St. Patrick's Day festivities. It had been five years since Ben and I went down (pre-Eli) to see the river turn neon green, and our kids are at decent ages now to attempt the crowds with them. We decked them out in green and tagged along with John and Krista and their kids. John's brother lives near Millenium Park with a great view of the river and Lake Michigan, so we were lucky enough to go hang out at his place for the first little while.

Seriously, watching the river turn green, 30 floors high in the sky in a warm, comfortable place beats standing at the freezing, windy bridge any day. Our kids were spoiled and loved looking out the floor-length windows with their friends.

The river starting to turn...

That was interesting for little bits of time, so the boys entertained themselves with other things around Bobby's place. They loved these glass miniature chess pieces and board.

Charlie loves the LeBarons, if you can't tell... :)

Eli was having time with Ben...

After a while, we ventured outside and braved the bitter wind and cold to see some of the parade. Our kids were happy for about 15 minutes maybe??

Maybe not even that long. Here's Eli's grumpy face :)

Back to happy.

Eli got upset when his green hat kept flying off. We chased it a few times and he finally resorted to just holding it because the wind was too fierce.

Now this guy. What even to say about him?? Other than that he called himself St. Patrick and was HILARIOUS. And friendly.

Those last pictures of the river are courtesy of Krista. My kids were melting fast and we had to get out of there before they totally fell apart, so I didn't get close-up shots of the river, but I loved these that she took. It was a fun morning with lots of great people watching. The masses of people who are already drinking by 10 a.m. is pretty crazy. And the outfits, the green hair, the accessories... always over the top but lots of fun. It was a great morning. But SPRING - where the heck are you??? We're cold over here. The highlight of this upcoming week's forecast is it's supposed to hit 60 on Thursday. Whoo hoo!

Snowy Start to March

2011-03-05T23:00:00.018-06:00

It snowed all day today--light fluffy flakes that started to accumulate by the afternoon (Spring in Chicago is always so cruel!! We get fluke warm days and then it snows again).

It's Stake Conference this weekend and Ben was gone at a meeting from 4-6 p.m. The kids and I spent the time coloring on huge pieces of paper, made forts, and set up blockades around the main floor of the house (blockades were not my idea, I was going with Eli's plans).

Eli and Charlie were so cute playing together--it makes a huge difference if I'm playing right there with them (compared to when I'm trying to make dinner or something and expecting/willing them to play peacefully together :). I love those moments when you can just play and be crazy with your favorite little guys.

Ben came home and I went to the adult session tonight. The main roads weren't too bad from the snow, but when I went up and over the train tracks (a tiny hill) and realized my car was not stopping like I thought it would because the road was so slick and I was sliding downhill.

There was a split second where I panicked because I saw cars coming and I wasn't sure my car would stop in time. I slammed hard on the brakes (ABS kicked in thank goodness) and turned the wheel slightly. The car skidded but didn't slide into the main street as cars zoomed by. I was still shaking by the time I got to church. Who's ready for summer????

On a different note, I really liked this column in the Chicago Tribune on BYU's principles related to the suspension of Brandon Davies. It's quite the contrast from the news this week of a Northwestern professor allowing a sex toy demonstration to his students after class. Seriously Northwestern???

Rising Earlier and Other Random Thoughts

2011-03-04T00:01:00.062-06:00

Some thoughts from the week...

Charlie has been full of attitude this week and is back to waking up at 7 or 7:15 a.m. I know, I can't complain because LOTS of babies and toddlers wake up at a dreadful hour before that time (Eli and Charlie did for a long time). I'm blaming it on the fact that the sun has actually appeared early in the morning (rather than hiding behind our usual winter clouds). I need to adjust my sleeping habits so I'm more coherent when I get up with the dear child at 7 a.m. But I love nighttime so much...it's hard to change.

Lately when Charlie wakes up in the morning or from a nap, he is quite grouchy and pretty strong-willed. It takes forever to get him to let me pull him out of his crib without major fits, but he's not happy if I walk out of his room either. This afternoon it took a full hour of me and Eli hanging out upstairs, in and out of Charlie's room, before Charlie would somewhat happily come out of his crib. In that hour, he would roll around in his crib, squeeze his blankie and suck his thumb, and made a grumpy noise at me if I made eye contact and smiled. Oh that child.

The only chance I have of getting Charlie dressed in the morning before we head downstairs is if I relinquish control in what he wears - he doesn't like swishy athletic pants or wearing multiple layers and prefers to wear his Spiderman shirt when it's clean and in his drawer. I usually ask him to go pick out a diaper and he stands there for a minute, deliberating in his head about which diaper to choose (they're all the same :). Charlie is also fighting me pretty much every time I try to buckle him into his car seat. I try to get him to help me do the buckles (when he's lurching out of it and going ballistic for no obvious reason), but that doesn't work all the time.

This makes me nervous about an upcoming 12-hour road trip that I'm taking with a friend and our kids... we'll see how it goes. There is also a chance Ben and I and the kids may drive out west this summer to meet up with Ben's family for a reunion, but it would be a long, long drive (like 25+ hours each way). Flights are crazy expensive, which is fueling this new driving plan... oh what to do??

Tonight I made Chinese chicken salad for dinner. Charlie put a piece of purple cabbage in his mouth and it almost immediately popped right back out. "I don't like it, give it to Eli?" he said firmly.

Eli is actually getting better about eating different foods (finally!) and bounces back and forth between wanting to help Charlie be happy and crying about every little thing that Charlie does to drive Eli crazy :) Eli is super loving and sweet with me and Ben and gives me hugs constantly. I absolutely love his hugs, his high fives with a thumbs up at the end, and his high five, dolphin dive.

Eli talks constantly these days and is full of stories and games and creations. I constantly find him balancing one of his army guys in some precarious place around the house. Tonight Eli told us his friend Jane said her dad went on a rocket ship to outer space but is home now (to my knowledge, her dad hasn't been to outer space). Eli loves his gymnastics class and is very into showing me "tricks" that usually involve attempting a handstand or moving in some funny way. He has a hard time sitting still at the kitchen table and loves to hop off of his chair and do a trick in between bites. We're working on keeping him at the table until he's actually done eating...

If you need a good cry, visit this blog of a friend of a photography friend whose husband passed away from cancer a few weeks ago - http://www.beinthemomentphoto.com/blog. It gets harder to read the more you scroll down, believe me.

If you need a good laugh, check out the blog, You Are Not a Photographer. This post is my FAVORITE!! Hilarious and I love the commentary.

There is a box elder bug flying around me because I'm sitting near a lamp and it's dark in the rest of the house. I know spring is almost here when bugs reappear!!! (Okay, maybe not for another month but I can wish, right?? :) Too bad it's still pretty cold outside. Melt snow, melt!! It's almost gone.

And to add to our home repairs this month... the dryer door latch broke today. Luckily it's a really inexpensive part to replace, but in the meantime I have two wet loads of laundry. So fun.

Enough rambling and I'm off to bed :)

Retrieving My Wallet

2011-03-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I was going through my purse and realized my wallet was gone. My heart dropped and my mind scrambled to remember where I had seen it last. I ran out and checked the car, but found nothing. I had lunch at Portillo's with a friend earlier in the day, so I called the restaurant and sure enough, someone had turned in my wallet!

I was so, so grateful and raced to Portillo's to pick up my wallet before anything happened to it. Much to my surprise, the manager said he had one question for me.

"What church do you belong to?"

At first I looked at him blankly, wondering why in the world he was asking me about my church of all things. Not asking my address, or about what cards might be in my wallet to prove it was mine.

But I realized he must have really gone through my wallet, because my temple recommend card with the church's name is tucked behind my driver's license.

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," I said.

The manager smiled and handed me the wallet.

Note to self - put my phone number inside my wallet in case I lose it again...

Charlie the Dinosaur

2011-03-01T21:21:00.004-06:00

Charlie has been roaring like a dinosaur a lot lately, and of course right before I grabbed my camera, he was roaring super loud in a really funny way (Eli was behind the door reacting to the roaring in his super strong way - their interactions are always full of emotion, happy or grumpy...).

But once I was pointing the camera at Charlie, he toned down his roar quite a bit. The roaring drives Eli crazy, who at this point was finishing up in the bathroom. I think the video epitomizes Charlie's little 2-year-old attitude ("I'm not," he says very succinctly at the beginning after the first roar - later he asks, "What are you doing, Eli?"). Ben likes to call him Charliesoar.

Charlie Roaring Like a Dinosaur (March 2011) from Sarah on Vimeo.

Tonight we were out running some errands before bedtime, and the kids were taking turns playing Angry Birds on Ben's phone. Charlie kept saying, "I want the iPhone - angry birds" when it wasn't his turn. I love hearing Charlie put sentences together and communicate what he wants, even if it's to play a silly iPhone game.

Bubble Wrap Racing

2011-02-25T08:30:00.002-06:00

We had some bubble wrap in the house this week and thought it would be fun to do bubble wrap racing. Eli and Charlie had so much fun running back and forth over the bubbles and making them pop. Eli was very serious about lining the pieces up every couple of races since they would get shifted and twisted with each run back and forth (and I have no idea why he was making crazy dinosaur noises). There's a quick video below the images and you can hear Charlie's happy giggle as he follows Eli over the bubbles.

Bubble Wrap Racing - Feb 2011 from Sarah on Vimeo.

*I'm trying different things with my image uploading, so you may see some variations with upcoming posts.

Puddle Jumpers

2011-02-21T09:00:00.006-06:00

Toward the end of last week, we enjoyed some warmer temps (hooray for 50s!) and the massive snow piles started to melt. This meant there were major puddles everywhere as the ground couldn't keep up with all of this moisture. Eli and Charlie had fun jumping in the puddles!

Charlie loves putting his hands in his pockets when it's a little chilly outside. I love these puddle jumpers. (Despite that they gave me their yucky colds and my head feels like it's going to explode...)

And did I mention our tub/bathroom sink are totally clogged? It's officially unintentional home improvement week at our house. First the boiler problems and now this. We initially tried to get a plumber to come out this weekend (this all started on Friday night when Ben tried using a snake to improve our slow-flowing tub drain... somehow it stopped draining completely and none of the conventional methods are working to fix the darn thing), but decided we would just wait until Monday because the emergency plumber fees were crazy expensive. $250 for the first half hour, anyone??? It's not that big of an emergency. We showered at my gym yesterday and at our nice neighbor's house on Sunday. I'm hoping I can actually shower in my own tub today and life can get back to normal.

The Good, the Bad, and the Sweet

2011-02-19T14:56:00.001-06:00

The Good:

Last weekend I had the chance to fly out to meet up with my friend Sarah and have a full-day mentorship with a photographer that we both really admire. It was a wonderful weekend and the time zipped by as we focused all weekend on photography. On Sunday, Sarah helped me hone my Photoshop skills and I showed her how to use Lightroom (which I love). It was a really fast trip and I flew back on Sunday night... but my flight was delayed two hours (I sat on the plane that whole time; it was delayed because a part on the plane was broken... I was so glad not to have my kids with me on this trip with all of the delays - I had been delayed on the way there too). For once weather in Chicago was actually decent and I was STILL delayed!

The Bad:

A friend stayed at our house w/ our sleeping kids so Ben could come pick me up from the airport... when we got home, our house felt very hot inside. The thermostat was set to 67, but it was 75 degrees and the heat was blasting out of the radiators. We thought it was odd and turned the thermostat off, but we woke up at 3 a.m. to Charlie crying (because it was sooooo hot) and the temp upstairs was 84 degrees!! It was SO HOT. I don't think I can emphasize that enough :) We opened windows and tried to cool the house down and Ben ended up shutting the gas off completely. Neither one of us slept very well the rest of that night because it was so uncomfortably hot.

On Monday morning, I called the Salvation Army to see what time they were picking up the items we had arranged to donate. Keep in mind that we originally had an appointment for the truck to come on Thursday, but the guy never showed. On Friday, I called and they said they don't do same-day pickups, so they would put me down for Monday. It had taken me a LONG time to haul all of our junk that we had been storing in the garage up to the front steps of our house (slipping and sliding down the alley, climbing over big piles of snow, back and forth multiple times). So we just left the junk out on our front porch. By Monday I was really embarrassed that this was the fifth day of our junk on the porch and was really ready to have it picked up.

But there was no record of us having a pickup for Monday.

I was TICKED. Of course they don't do same-day pickup (not sure why??), so the guy promised me that a truck would arrive on Tuesday, but it was yet another thing that wasn't going right. I was steaming up in our hot house and bugged that the truck wasn't coming when they said it would.

In the meantime, I also flew back to sick kids. Eli and Charlie had yucky colds and took turns crying and throwing fits allllll day long. Charlie is definitely two because he has refined his tantrums - they can last up to about 20 minutes, with him rolling around, kicking, screaming, etc. on the floor. He had about five tantrums that day. Eli was Mr. Emotional and was crying over any little thing. In the afternoon he kept saying his ear hurt, so I set up a doctor's appointment for the late afternoon to get both kids checked out.

When it was time to go, both kids were crying and moaning about not wanting to leave the house. I was out of patience by that hour. Earlier, we had a heating guy come look at the boiler, and he charged us $140 for the visit and ultimately said he couldn't find what was wrong and it seemed to be working fine (but it was hard for him to see the problem since the gas had been off). So the heat was turned back on and we were hoping for the best. But it was like one thing after the other was NOT going well.

I finally got both kids out to the car and made it to the doctor's office. Charlie didn't have an ear infection and just seemed to have a viral thing going on. While the doctor checked Eli, Charlie threw another fit and was rolling around on the floor under the chairs, sliding them around and crying for no apparent reason. The doctor just smiled (he was one of the older guys in the practice and didn't seem to be phased by much) and continued to examine Eli, who did end up having an ear infection.

Eli was very happy and sweet to the doctor, but then when we got out to the waiting room to get our coats and leave, he turned into a little monster again and was screaming at me, saying he wanted to zip his coat and I couldn't help him. Which is fine if he could do it, but it's hard for him. I offered to get it started and he went ballistic. Screaming in the waiting area. He refused to leave and after about 10 minutes of trying to convince him to come, I grabbed Charlie and started walking out. Which made Eli cry harder and he ran out following me, then tripped on the sidewalk outside and fell down. More tears from Eli and funny looks from everyone inside the waiting room that could see us out of the big glass windows.

Once we got to the car, Eli was still in his crazy emotional mood and wasn't letting me buckle his seatbelt. He kicked and screamed and I was taking lots of deep breaths... :) So I opened up google chat on my phone and vented to Ben, who was still at work. I stood there for 20 minutes while Eli cried and tried to get the seatbelt buckled without much luck. I finally got him to let me do the buckle with him, and we drove home.

You would think the fits were done, but no! We pulled into the garage and Eli started crying again because he didn't want to get out of the car. I almost ran down the alley screaming, but pulled myself together, called a friend and followed Charlie around outside while Eli sat in the car and cried and cried. He was so miserable that day.

Enough of that though :) I was more than ecstatic when Ben walked in the door that night. I think I can safely say that was the worst Valentine's Day I have ever had. Ben brought home my favorite chocolates on Friday and my gift to him was to pick up his iPhone last week (finally, Verizon!!). So we were low key that night and had takeout and vegged on the couch. I was pretty spent.

The Sweet:

The next morning, the heat was going full-blast again and having similar problems as Sunday night/Monday. I was roasting and called the heating company and thankfully they came back and realized the relay between the thermostat and the boiler was stuck, so they replaced that and didn't charge for labor since I had paid for no improvement the day before. That was a bright spot.

My Gram stopped by and hung out at our place for a little while that day, so here are some sweet pictures of her and Eli building a block village together (Charlie was napping). Love you Gram! Eli had lots of fun with you.