Favorite Foto Friday - Addy Turns Two

Addy turned 2 on Wednesday and Auntie Sandy planned some fun activities to celebrate. She invited Grammy, Andy, Aidan & I along for the adventure.

First, we all put on our mandatory party hats:

Then we boarded the Metra train (it was the kids' 1st time!) and rode a few towns over:

Andy was thrilled to sit by the window:

After exiting the train, we walked to an ice cream parlor and had a special 10 am ice cream treat (b/c after all, you only turn 2 once!):

In lieu of birthday candles, we made wishes on birthday dimes and threw them into a fountain:

While we waited to board the train again, we stood in the station windows and watched a freight train pass by:

After a few hours, it was time to take Winnie the Pooh home for a nap:

Happy Birthday Addy-cakes!!!!

Brad Paisley, You Read My Mind

To Chris on Our 7th Anniversary:

I remember trying not to stare the night that I first met you
You had me mesmorized
And 3 weeks later, in the front porch light
taking forty-five minutes to kiss goodnight
I hadn't told you yet
but I thought I loved you then

I never thought the random cute boy I met at an over-crowded dorm party freshman year would turn out to be my husband. Thinking back on that night, its not that it was “love at first sight”. I wasn’t overcome with the feeling that Fate had brought us together. It was just that I really, really liked you. And as we got to know each other – over more noisy parties and many late night walks around campus – the more I liked you. By the time we started dating a few months later, I was completely head over heels…

I can’t believe that was 12 years ago! Our 4 years at Notre Dame were definitely some of our best times. Every once in awhile I flip through our photo albums from those days and remember the friendships and the parties and the study sessions and I feel so lucky that we share all those memories. I can’t wait until the kids are older and we can bore them with stories from our “Glory Days”…

The dances
The football games
And the wild and crazy nights we'll never tell the kids about :)

And i remember, taking you back to right where I first met you,
You were so surprised
There were people around, but I didn't care
Got down on one knee right there once again,
I thought I loved you then

I will never forget that freezing cold night you took me out to dinner and then dragged me outside to our bench in front of the library, the one we used to sit on and talk for hours. I will never forget how peaceful campus looked covered in snow or how when you got down on one knee I thought you’d slipped and fallen on the ice. I will never forget how Leslie and Lily screamed and cried when we told them or how your roommates toasted us w/champagne poured into coffee cups and cereal bowls. Most of all, I will never forget how excited I was to begin our life together as husband and wife.

We've come so far since that day
And I thought I loved you then

It is truly unbelievable to me that we were married 7 years ago today.

When people ask me if I ever regret getting married so young, I always say that I’m so glad we got married at 23. I love that we truly began our lives together…starting our 1st real jobs, living in our tiny city apartment w/no air conditioning and no dish washer, deciding we’d had enough of city life and buying our 1st house…it was exciting and overwhelming and so much better b/c we did it together.

Those 1st few years were not always easy. There were the disagreements that are envitable as two people learn to juggle each other’s families and jobs and holiday traditions. There were long days in the office when we barely had time to squeeze in a phone call saying “don’t wait up…”. There were the heartbreaking moments of infertility treatments and a miscarriage. Definitely not always easy; but those struggles made us stronger and made the good times all that much sweeter…

There was the excitement of our 1st Christmas together.

There was the amazing Carribbean cruise paid for by all those late nights in the office.
There was the excitement of deciding to adopt and the life-changing moment we held Andy for the 1st time.

There was the joy of bringing Aidan home and becoming a family of four.

now you're my whole life
now you're my whole world
I just can't believe the way I feel about you
We'll look back someday, at this moment that we're in
And I'll look at you and say
And I thought I loved you then

Life still isn’t easy. We still have to juggle work and families and busy schedules. There are errands to run, bills to pay and messes to clean. There is too little sleep and too many dirty diapers. Definitely not easy; but I can honestly say, there’s no one else I’d rather share this chaos with than you. We’ve gone from college kids to newlyweds to suburbanites to “Mom & Dad” together and I feel so lucky you have been the person standing beside me through it all.

And I could just see you, when your hair is turning gray
What I can't see is how I'm ever gonna love you more
But I've said that before

My greatest hope is that 50 years from now, you are still the person standing beside me. What more can I ask for from life than the blessing of getting to share it all with you?

FFF - SICK!

We'll I knew it was going to be a long week when Kristen was sick last Sunday. It got even longer as Andy got sick on Tuesday. The above picture is the only photograph taken during the week. As of writing this blog, Andy woke up for the second time and is now cozied up on Mommy's lap...both are coughing in unison.

FFF - Funny Faces & Extreme Closeups

Have a digital camera and a willingness to look ridiculous? If so, you have everything you need to play our latest "its raining outside" game - taking silly pictures of ourselves and then looking at them.

Enjoy!!!

Perfect Day

I just sent the boys up to bed & am basking in the wonderful, warm afterglow of a perfect day...

We made our 1st summer visit to Brookfield this morning w/Aunt Sandy, Addy & Aunt Jen. Even though the drive there took forever, even though the place was mobbed w/school kids on field trips, even though I vastly underestimated the amount of juice I needed to bring w/me, we somehow managed to have an amazing time.

Everyone stayed awake the whole way home, a special treat meaning Mommy still got an hour and half of nap time to recharge, something that almost never happens when little boys have the chance to doze on the 45 min. drive home.

After nap time,we didn't have the usual long stretch of "free time" to fill before Daddy gets home b/c we had a playdate w/our favorite neighbor friends, Joseph and Nora. In fact, the afternoon flew by and it wasn't until Andy started asking for dinner that I realized it was 5 o'clock and time to head home. While we waited for Daddy to arrive, we sang and danced to "alligator, alligator eat 'em up, eat 'em" until we fell down laughing and gasping for air and then Andy leaned over, pressed his forehead against mine and sighed "I happy Mommy".

Then, in a rare moment of total spontaneity, I scraped the usual pajamas-stroller walk-songs-books-bed routine and suggested we go out for a special family ice cream treat in our jammies. The boys could not have been more thrilled, Andy exclaiming "I LIKE IT!" w/every bite and Aidan shrieking his most excited baby shriek.

After a quick walk in the stroller, they both went happily off to bed, Aidan calmly sucking his thumb, Andy dragging his blanket behind him. I thought to myself that I wish I could bottle this day up and open it from time to time, like in the middle of a boring winter day, when both the kids are crabby and sick of playing inside or 10 years from now, when the kids idea of a perfect day is all about friends and I can no longer remember all the words to the "alligator song" or why exactly it made us laugh so hard.

Since I know of no such Perfect Day Bottling Device, I decided I had to sit down right away and try to write down why this day was so special b/c I want the kids to know that in between the bad days and the busy days and the up-and-down days and the just plain dull days, we had some special days too, when the magic of simply being little boys was enough to make an entire day perfect.