October Fun!

I think this is my last catch up blog which will bring me up to date just in time for Kylie's birthday... in two days!!

We had a lot of fun during the month of October. We had great weather here in IL and we took full advantage of it. Before long we will be in the bitter cold, dark months of winter. We spent a lot of time at the forest preserves taking walks, collecting leaves, acorns or pinecones, and

even just throwing the ball for Shea.

Of course it just wouldn't be fall without a trip to the pumpkin farm to search the fields for the perfect pumpkin. That's Kylie out there.. She was on a mission.

Our local farm also has a petting zoo with not just farm animals, but zoo animals too! Feeding the giraffe was a favorite among all of us but especially Caleb who cried when we ran out of carrots.

We had our annual family Halloween party (though we missed the Glauner Family who weren't able to make it this year). Caleb even got in on the pinata.

And of course the kids went trick or treating. Caleb enjoy getting all the candy but wasn't too fond of walking from house to house. Kylie could have stayed out for hours!

Our family tradition is to carve our pumpkins halloween night. It gives us something productive to do while waiting for the trick or treaters to come to our home. Caleb wasn't too sure about the pumpkin guts, but Kylie dug right in this year. In fact she wanted to do everything herself this year; which was frightening for the control/safety freak in me. But we compromised and she let me start the carving and she would follow the lines and then pop the piece out. She did pretty good too!

Gatlingburg, TN

The final trek of our vacation was spent with a stop in Gatlinburg, TN. We wanted to take in the sights of the Smoky Mountains. The mountains were beautiful; the town was craziness! There were so many people there it was hard to do anything! Luckily, we spent most of our day driving through the mountains and taking in the sites.

This leg of our vacation, our weather luck ran out. We ended up with a very cold, rainy day. We managed to get out and do one small hike with the kids. But, most of the day was spent in the car (which made for some very antsy, car tired kids).

At least we can say we came here and saw the mountains. We may have to return again when the kids are bigger in order to really enjoy the majestic beauty of this area.

Amelia Island, FL

We made it to Amelia Island safely and were all very excited to unpack and get down to the water. We were so lucky to have beautiful weather the entire week we were there (even with a tropical depression which skated right by us but kept out to sea). We were also lucky to have great friends (Amy & Patrick) who flew in and joined us for the week. Kylie loved riding in Patrick's "vertable" (convertible) and was soaking in the extra adult attention.

Kylie loved the water and karate kicked and jumped over all the waves. Caleb was a little nervous about the waves at first and kept mostly to the sand (which he loved digging in) but by the last day we had to watch him closely as he would just walk right into the water without a care in the world.

We spent one day and drove farther south to St Augustine, FL. It is a neat little town with a huge shopping area. Amy and I were in heaven; the kids...not so much. We ate lunch down there, ran around an old fort, saw the first catholic church in the US (which was beautiful!!!) and did a little shopping. Then headed back up to the condo.

Our days were basically spent ocean side; coming in for lunch and naps then heading out again until dinner. It was a great way to spend a week unwinding!

Chattanooga, TN

I'm still working on catching up with summer/fall posts... but I'm up to September; so I'm getting closer :)

We spent some time at a family friends condo on Amelia Island during September. We decided to drive down there so we broke the drive up and made our first stop Chattanooga TN. It is a cute little town with a delicious pizza place that we ate at both nights we were there! We did the touristy stuff and went to Raccoon Mountain Caverns and Rock City.

I had never been in a cave before, so I was excited to see on. The tour we went on was a basic loop around the first large room in the cavern, but I would be interested in going on an actually climbing tour. One of the things to add to my "when the kids get bigger" list. It was neat to see these natural formations that have been there for such a long time. Our tour guide was telling us all about the "critters" that you can find in the cave.. spiders, lizards, bats and crickets. Luckily we only saw one cricket and I will say it was the biggest, ugliest cricket I have ever seen. Thank goodness we didn't see any of the spiders.. I would have ran out of there so fast!!

After the cave, we went to rock city. there were signs for it all up and down the highway while we were driving down so we thought, why not go take a peak. It was neat. Rock city is basically this huge park (that was once someones yard) that has the huge rock formations in it (which said person decided to turn into an amusement area). We walk through, under around and over rocks and took in the area sites. There is a lookout spot where it is said you can see 7 states on a clear day. I don't know about that but it was a pretty view!

Preschool

Kylie has started her second year of preschool. She was so excited to see her teacher and all her friends from last year! She has the same wonderful teacher as the previous year, which was a huge comfort issue for her and me too. She now goes 5 days a week for 2 1/2 hrs each day. I am loving the silence (as this falls during Caleb's nap). The first day of school, she ran to the door and forgot to even say goodbye to us. We had to call her back for a quick hug. No seperation issues there! Caleb is having a hard time with her leaving and still cries when she gets out of the car. Poor little man, we are taking his playmate away!

Camping Night

This August, we planned to take a family camping trip to Starved Rock State Park but due to the extreme heat and chance of severe storms we decided to stay home and camp in our own backyard. We had a great time setting up the tent, playing games and cooking on our fire pit. We roasted marshmellows, made smores and tried to get the kids to bed at a decent time (yeah, right) so as not to have cranky kids the next day. I was surprised by how well the kids slept in the tent. Mike and I did not fair as well and I think I was up most the night unable to get comfortable as we were sleeping on the hard ground (our air mattress started leaking after we set it up). But, like everything else, it was for the kids and they had a blast. Kylie wanted to do it again the next night and was so sad to take the tent down.

Catch up

I have been awful about blogging during th summer, so I have been playing a little catch up. Enjoy the two posts today and be on the look out for the others that are yet to come!

The North Woods

Once again in July, we made the 12 hr drive up to the Gunflint trail in MN. We had a wonderful two weeks full of hiking, biking, fishing, and swimming. There were no tvs and limited cell service. Just the vacation we needed to recharge our batteries.

Kylie fell in love with Fishing! Every night after dinner my dad would take to boat out to go fishing and Kylie always wanted to go with him. She did great with her little fishing pole. She actually ended up catching 4 fish total! Not bad when you only spend about 15 minutes fishing at a time (she fell asleep most of the times out on the lake and other times she just wanted to look around and have someone tell her stories).

We hiked around our cabin area a lot. Shea loved the exercise. We also hiked to Devil's Kettle, which is a waterfall that has two falls. One goes straight down and forms the lower falls. The other goes into a huge hole and they have NO idea where it comes out. Mike thought it would be a great idea to get a close up look of the hole and jumped across the stream to get there. I was worried I would be coming home without a husband!







We also went to Gooseberry Falls which was about 1 1/2 hrs southwest of Grand Marais (very close to Duluth). It is a huge waterfall. Too bad it had a low water flow the day we were there. The kids had fun swimming at the falls and hiking around the area there.

We hiked the Magnetic rock, let over from the glacier period and found a lot of yummy blueberries. We came back and made some blueberry cobbler after that!

We brought our bicycles and did some mountain biking on the trails around the cabin. I had a lot of fun, Erin struggled and Michael was stuck pulling the kids in the cart (100 extra lbs makes for a heavy load up hill) But we got some great pictures and lots of stories to tell.

And what's the north woods without a campfire and smores. We found out that Caleb LOVES marshmellows!

We had a great time and look forward to next year and all the new things that the kids will be able to enjoy up there!

Museum of Science & Industry

For Father's Day (yes, that long ago), we all went and spent a day at the Museum of Science and Industry. Mike is a huge weather freak and really wanted to see the severe weather exhibit. I wasn't too sure how the kids would do at this museum as it seemed a little over their heads, but I was really surprised. We had a great time. They had a kids center that Caleb loved. There was a water center, air tubes that pushed balls, magnetic tables, rainbow centers, and I'm sure I'm leaving things out. It was our first stop at the museum and it was hard to get them to leave it. We also toured the submarine exhibit, but didn't go on the inside. Kylie was amazed by how big the vessel was but how small the crew's quarters were. She said it was Kylie size... not big enough for daddy! We went to the dollhouse and Kylie fell in love with it. Caleb loved the old fire engines and the farm center was a huge hit. Both kids drove the tractor through the corn field (apparently we should call up some of the farmers in town and see if they need helpers this fall because it was hard to pull them away from that thing).

Mike loved the weather exhibit and so did the kids. It was a great day out as a family!

Bike!

We finally got Kylie a bicycle. Up until now she just had a big wheels. After searching many different stores, Kylie chose a snow white princess bicycle and is in love with it. Any day that the weather is nice, she begs to go out on her bike. She does a great job and has even mastered standing up to pedal up hills. We are, however, still working on using our brakes to slow us down while going downhill. We have, so far, been lucky that we have only had one minor scrap on a fall. Otherwise, she will jump off her bike as she starts to fall. I feel like we blink and she just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

Time flies

Last month Caleb turned ONE! It is hard to believe that it has already been that long since we brought him home from the hospital and relearned how to parent all over (managing tow kids definitely threw us for a huge loop). We celebrated his special day with a construction themed party (firefighter seemed to obvious) and a 'construct your own' taco bar. We had a great time and like always our child was spoiled rotten by adoring relatives and friends. I was sad that Caleb didn't dig into his cake like Kylie did on her first birthday. He is such a neat and clean boy and doesn't really like sticky things on his hands. I guess it helped make clean up that much easier though!

Here are some facts on Caleb at 1 year old

* He weighs 20 lbs 1 oz and is 26 in tall

*He eats what the rest of the family eats. No more baby food for CJ! He also loves to hold (and can use) a fork while eating. Also, he is not a picky eater. He will eat anything we give him.

*He can say Mama and Dada and Wawa (water) and is at the pointing and grunting stage. He also signs more, eat, banana, shoes, fish, and cracker.

*As of a week after his birthday... he is a walker; with the bumps and bruises to prove it.

*He has his two bottom teeth

* He is sleeping through the night...finally.... with a 5 am wake up time

*He loves the cats and will chase them around the house to try to pet them.

* He enjoys playing with cars and will say vroom as he moves them around.

*He loves to laugh and Kylie can make him laugh the hardest!

Caleb brings so much joy to our life and we can't imagine our life without him in it. Even Kylie adores him and still wants to sit with him, snuggle him, feed him, or help him. Such a wonderfully sweet big sister she is.

Operation Motorcycle Retrieval

I have been very bad about blogging lately; but there hasn't been too much going on around here lately. We are kind of in that after winter/ waiting for spring (it's coming... I can feel it) lull and it seems as if every day is a repeat of the day before. Just a constant state of controlled chaos. But, in the middle of March we spent a few days outside the ordinary and made a road trip to South Dakota.

Mike has been itching to get a new motorcycle since his old one left our home a year and a half ago. He got rid of it because he kept having feelings that something might happen to him while he was riding. This came after his brother broke his wrist and wrecked his bike and after a near miss accident while driving home in his truck (which he said had he been on the bike, it wouldn't have been a miss). But, even though it was gone he still missed it. And this year he really wanted to try it again. He contemplated his riding and realized that he was a safe rider and mostly used the bike to take short relaxing rides out in the country instead of in a lot of high traffic areas. Even though you are only as safe as the other drivers that are around you, he wanted to get another bike.

After lots of research he found one that he liked at a local dealer but after hearing the price tag (not to mention the additional price of the modifications he would want) we scratched that idea. So Mike went to his next favorite location...EBAY! Now, I am very skeptical of ebay as I feel that you never know what the sellers true intentions are and whether or not they are legit. But Mike found an amazing bike that had everything he wanted and more plus was a great price. So after contacting the seller and getting a good feeling he went for it and ended up the winning bidder. Only one minor issue; the bike was in Rapid City SD (14 hours away!)

Two weeks later we embarked on our quest to retrieve the motorcycle. We decided to make it a family trip and go see the sights. The first night we drove 6 hours to Minnesota and stayed in a holiday in that had a small indoor water park. The kids had a blast playing in the water and Kylie loved the water tube slide.

After a waterlogged day we were ready to tackle the next leg of the drive. We were making the drive during the day figuring we would stop as the kids needed a break and find something to do to pass the time. We had no idea how desolate South Dakota was and we quickly found that stopping would not be as easy as we originally thought. In fact when we were low on gas we found ourselves stuck with 15 miles to an empty tank and 10 miles from the nearest gas station. Dinner was had at a small town bar as it was the only place that served food within 30 miles. We were very thankful when we rolled in to Rapid City at 9pm!

We spent our day in Rapid City going to see Mt. Rushmore. How could we be that close and not stop. we were amazed by it; especially thinking that it was created out of nothing in the 1930's

using precision dynamite. We also visited the town of keystone but were disappointed to find only three stores open as it is more of a summer town.

We stayed at another water park that night and it was pretty neat. They had a small kids area with kid size water slides and a jungle gym and there was also two tube slides and a body slide for big kids (adults too). It was very crowded in there, so I never did bring my camera down and get pictures. Mike took some on his phone and if I ever figure out how to upload them I will get them posted.

The next day, we met the guy who sold us the bike and were very excited to see the motorcycle was everything he said it was. I was also very thankful for his and his family hospitality. Kylie and his nine year old daughter played together while I talked with his wife and the guys loaded the motorcycle up into our truck. It took a lot longer than expected and the family was so sweet to allow us to take up their time and invade their home.

After packing up we drove 14 hours straight home arriving at 6 am the next morning with a very excited Michael :)

Caleb @ 9 months

I completely forgot to write Caleb's 9 months post and only just realized it yesterday when we were at the doctor for his checkup. I swear the days are just flying by here and he is growing up so much faster than I remember Kylie doing.

Caleb now weighs 18 lbs 2 oz. making him in the 10th percentile. He is 28 in tall. The doctor says he is doing great, probably getting ready for a growth spurt and he's just going to be a skinny guy like his sister.

He is very mobile now. He crawls on all fours and also will walk across the room holding onto anything he can for balance. He can independently stand for a few seconds but now walking quite yet. Reflux is still an issue for him but not as bad as it once was. We have decreased the amount of medicine he takes daily and he is doing good. He has finally master sleeping in his crib at night. He sleeps from 7ish to 6ish (only waking up once in a few days). Naps are another story but we'll get there. The other night, he awoke at 1 am and cried. Kylie heard him and got up, went into his room and gave him his pacifier and turned on his music for him and went back into bed. I was chuckling when I watched it on the monitor.

Well he is still eating the pureed food, we are beginning the transition to table food. He is so interested in what we are eating and most days would rather have that than his own food. He is not a picky eater at all and even has begun to love his veggies. Yeah! He drinks great from his sippy cup but still hates bottles. Making date days/nights very far and few between.

We have been working on some sign language and he can sign more, all done, change me, and wave bye. He can also clap his hands together. He jabbers all day long but so far we haven't noticed any repeated syllables. Kylie said dada first and I am determined to make sure he says mama; I'm working on it :)

He is much more independent than I remember Kylie to be and will crawl off on his own to play in the playroom or explore. He also loves to do whatever Kylie is doing and will crawl at hyper speed to get over to here and 'help' her play. Annoying his big sister very much. Oh well, it's part of have a little brother :)

We have lots of fun with Caleb and just continue to count our blessings everyday that we have such a wonderful, happy, and healthy family.

Finger painting

This winter weather has been leaving me feeling very unmotivated and lazy. I decided that I need to try to get over the hump and start getting creative in doing things with the kids. Today, while Mike was working, I decided to try to do a homemade craft. I let Kylie choose between making playdough or finger paints. Surprise, surprise, she choose the paints. It was actually very easy and after I got past my need to control the mess, very fun. I posted the recipe below!

I decided to take the paints up to the shower tub, in order to control some of the mess. So Kylie put on her suit and I set Caleb in his diaper and they both enjoyed it. Once they were done, it was easy to rinse clean both of them and the mess! The great thing is that if it goes into the mouth (as Caleb tried) there is no harm, just a colored tongue :)

Homemade Finger Paint:

3 Tbs Sugar

1/2 C Cornstarch

2 C cold water

Mix sugar and cornstarch in a a saucepan, add water and mix until incorporated. Heat over medium heat constantly stirring until mixture thickens (To a pudding like consistency). Take off heat and let cool. Add coloring if desired and have fun!

Sledding and Skating

We have been getting a lot of snow this winter. Recently that has been accompanied with a bitter cold, but before it got too cold we were able to get out and enjoy that wonderful white snow. We took Kylie down the street to our neighborhood park where they have a monster hill to sled on. Now, it's not as big as the one I grew up going too, but for a three year old, she was amazed. Some kids had built a jump at the bottom and no matter how hard I tried, I kept hitting it and flying through the air with Kylie. She loved it! Mike tried to hit it and was unsuccessful, we are thinking weight proportion and curvature, but Kylie was so mad at him! It was a wonderful trip and it reminded me of being a kid.

Kylie has been asking for a over a month now to go ice skating. I have no idea where she got it from because we have never talked about or seen anyone else ice skate. Mike and I found that there is an ice rink not too far from our house so we drove over to check it out. We took Kylie to open skate a few times and she is a natural. The first time she was nervous and I had to hold onto her (while she was holding the ice walker)... the second time, she wanted nothing to do with any help and proceeded to skate with the walker for a good 30 min. on her own! She has been continuously asking to go again, so we signed her up for lessons and she starts Friday. I am excited to see how she does.