Chicago 2012

As a thank-you to Josh for his work in the children's ministry for the last 8 years, the church gave us a weekend trip to Chicago.  They said to stay downtown and go see a show and a game.  We were very excited and thankful, but my mind couldn't help but immediately think about whether or not to take the kids.  Josh and I have spent many weekends in Chicago, mostly pre-kids, and for the most part, downtown Chicago activities are not kid friendly.  Long story short, although Josh nor I really wanted to leave the kids, we decided if Aunt Emily and Uncle Keith were willing to come stay at our house with them, we would all be ok... so that is what happened!  

(The view from our hotel window!)

We left for Chicago at noon on Friday (my parents took the first 8 hour shift with the kids).  We got up to our hotel which was awesome.  It was right along the river and had a fantastic view.  And, it was a great location!

(The view was even prettier at night!)

After checking out our room, we headed to Reza's for dinner.  Talk about yummy!  It took us back to our college days eating at Chad's in Lincoln.  The chef who ran Chad's actually trained the guy who runs Reza's in Chicago!  I'm still thinking about that food.... it was SO GOOD!  

After dinner, we hopped on the "L" (my first time... glad Josh knew what he was doing!) and went to see The Blue Man Group.  We really enjoyed the show.  It was musical, artistic, and funny!  I would definitely recommend it!

The next day, we got up and got back on the "L" and headed to Wrigley Field for a tour!  It was really interesting, and to me, was maybe more fun than a game!  We got to go in both locker rooms, the press box, the dugouts, and on the field.  We heard a lot of history about Wrigley which was all very cool; Josh especially enjoyed it!

 (The visitors' locker room)

 (The press box!)

 (The Cubs' locker room!)

 (The dugout!)

 (On deck, Josh Downing!)

After the tour, we had lunch at Portillo's.  We've heard a lot about it, but neither of us had been there, so we had to try it out.  I had their famous chocolate cake shake, and it was delicious!

Later that day, we were supposed to do a boat tour, but it ended up being canceled for heavy currents.  That was definitely a disappointment.  But we tried to make the best of it, and we ended up just shopping at The Water Tower and up and down Michigan Avenue.  That night, we went to The Original Gino's East for dinner.  Again, AMAZING food.  The line was out the door, and we were told our wait for a table would be an 1 hr 15 min.  We decided it was worth the wait.  We got in line and had a table in 10 minutes!

Give me my pizza, now!

It was a good thing the table was quick because it takes about an hour for the pizza to cook!  Josh got me hooked on their pizza when we were dating in high school.  We also got a big order of fried calamari-yummy; Josh and I are all about eating on vacation!  I have to say, I love how his natural frugality goes out the window when it comes to ordering food on vacation (we paid for our own food by the way, not the church!).  We had such a nice time at dinner and talked forever. 

(Our hotel is the shiny building in the middle.)

On Sunday morning, we went to The Corner Bakery for breakfast.  Then we did just a little bit of shopping and stopped by a place that had been recommended to us, The Sugar Bliss Cupcake Boutique.  I thought we could take some cupcakes home to have with the kids.  A dozen cupcakes was over $40, so we just bought 4 for $15!

We packed them up and took them home to share with the kids.  They liked them:

Josh and I had such a great time together.  This was our first time going away overnight together since Hannah was born.  It was the first time I'd left the kids for 48 hours, and Saturday was the first day of either of their lives that I didn't see them!  We got to do some things we didn't think we'd do again until our kids were older.  I know we would not have planned this on our own without the prompting of our gift.  We were both glad we went and both thought it was "worth it."  But, we're both still undecided as to whether we'll do it again... maybe in another couple of years!      

Small Group

I don't think I've ever posted about our small group, but they are a big part of our lives!  Really, this small group was an answer to our prayers.  The first several years we were back in Catlin, it seemed like there was no one "our age" at church or that we didn't have anyone to "hang out with."  That changed when our small group formed at the beginning of 2010 by a LCU student who was on his internship here.  We gathered several miscellaneous people, many of whom were new to the area!  The makeup of the group has changed a lot in just two years.  In fact, we've already lost 6 of the original members due to moving (Crostreets, Warners, Lindsey, Chris).  But we've gained as quickly as we've lost.  It's funny to think that a few years ago, I only knew 3 out of the 11 people who are currently in our group!  I guess that's only weird because Catlin is such a small town, and it's where I group up, and I pretty much know everyone my age.  And about a year ago, Josh and I were briefly the only married people in the group, and by this fall, 10 out of 11 will be married (we have some engaged couples)!  We also were the only parents until recently... but I'm sensing a baby boom in the next couple of years!  Our group has pretty much always met at our house since we go late and we have babies to get to bed.  Sometimes it is a challenge for me to have our house totally clean every Monday, and putting Hannah to bed when so many fun people are here isn't always easy either, but I also know we couldn't be a part of this group if it wasn't here, so I'm glad we get to host!

We have read lots of good (and some bad) books together.  Our group would definitely say the favorite has been Radical by David Platt.  It was very challenging.  It was partially an inspiration for a project we did last night.  After reading the book, our group discussed doing some sort of a fundraiser for a world mission, but we didn't have any great ideas.  Then, our small group attended a Trivia Night for a school one of our group members works at, and we had SO MUCH FUN, we decided we wanted to put one on for our church.  Then, we connected the dots to a girl from our church who is going on The World Race, which is a mission trip to 11 countries in 11 months!  We decided to do a fundraiser and share the profits between her and our church's roof campaign.  It turned out to be a lot of fun and pretty easy to pull off, and we made a quick $800!  We were really happy with the way it went, and everyone said it was lots of fun!

I love this group and the people that God has brought into our lives through it.  I know that friendships have been formed that would not have otherwise.  Many people in this group are at a crossroads in life, so it will be interesting to see where God takes this group over the years.  

Our Easter in Pictures

Our family on Easter Day!  What a great day at church!!!

 We attended the Easter program at the library for the first time this year.  We had a snack, story time, and an Easter Egg Hunt!

 Hannah and I dyed Easter eggs for the first time this year too!  We used Kool-Aid, and it worked great!

 We went to the Easter Egg Hunt at the church.  This was the first year in many years that we weren't in charge.  Yay!

 Jacob did surprisingly well!

 The kids were very excited about doughnuts!

 Pretty Easter clothes from Grandma Jody!

Hannah got a new swimsuit in her Easter basket from Grandma Jody.  She LOVED it! 

More!

My little guy is hungry ALL THE TIME!  I do not remember Hannah being like this.  I do remember her drinking her weight in milk.  That must be the difference.  Jacob drags me to the pantry/fridge 800 times a day to get "more."  I constantly run out of ideas of things for him to eat.  One day when we were desperate for groceries, I ended up making him a big bowl of chocolate pudding late in the morning (yes, I was desperate!), and that seemed to satisfy him for a little bit... This kid likes to eat!  You'd think he'd be off the charts.... but nope, he's still my scrawny little guy...  Advice is welcome!

New Swingset!

You may remember that we purchased a swingset with all the kids' piggy bank money at Christmas time.  Well, the time finally came for us to put it together!  We knew that these could be a nightmare; we have heard the stories!  Despite what all the reviews and stories said, I was hopeful we could get it put together in a weekend.  It ended up taking a full week, in between taking care of a one and three year old and other regular life activities.  I started by sorting all 1300 pieces into stages across our garage floor.  I sorted all of the hardware into baggies by phase (there were 38 phases).  This was a great move; it helped so much!  

We ran into plenty of problems along the way, most of which were my fault.  I read the instructions wrong or they weren't clear.  We made some time costly mistakes for sure.  By the end of the weekend, we weren't even through half of the phases.  It certainly didn't help that my parents were going to watch the kids but ended up being busy.  So, when Josh went back to work on Monday, I just decided I was going to do it myself!  By the time he gets home from work and eats dinner, it is basically dark, so I knew it would take forever to have enough free weekend days, and I didn't want to wait that long.  So, with lots of mistakes and some frustrations, I built much of this all on my own!  I was already pretty good with a power drill, but I had to google how to use a socket wrench, yes I did.  I had never used one.  I'm a pro now!  I'm hopeful that we'll have lot of fun and memories on this over the next 10 years!

Hearts at Home 2012

Last weekend, I got to attend Hearts at Home for the second time with some dear friends of mine.  It was a great day of learning.  I definitely feel refreshed and inspired to be a better wife and mom.  I was planning on heading over on Saturday morning, but on Friday night, our plans changed, and I started getting really excited to see Jennifer and Kristina, so I asked Josh if I could go ahead and go, and he said go for it!  I put Jacob to bed and then drove to Bloomington to meet up with the girls.  We stayed at Kristina's friend's sister-in-law's house.  I was glad I got to go and spend some time talking with the girls since the next day was mostly about listening!

The keynote speakers this year were Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.  I was SO EXCITED to see them.  I have read both of their books and watched many of their shows.  I am a big fan.  They told their life story, which I already pretty much knew from their books, but I still really enjoyed hearing them tell it.  I also was reminded of a few things along the way.  I also chose to attend their workshop, which I really liked.  I attended three other workshops: the FlyLady spoke on living a life of CHAOS, Raising Grateful Kids in a Culture of Consumerism, and 50 Ways to Improve Your Relationship With Your Husband.

I stayed for part of the closing session, but I started missing Jacob (and Josh and Hannah :) a whole lot, so I jumped in the car and raced home.  I was gone almost 24 hours, which is by far the longest I had been away from Jacob, and I really couldn't stand it anymore.  I'm very thankful that I got to attend this conference and will no doubt be back in the future!