Monday, September 5, 2011

Dear long-neglected blog readers

In spite of my best wishes, my "I'll blog when the kids are asleep" hopes became "I need some 'sanity' time for myself."

...I'm sorry...

To spare you the details, let's just say that the year has been intense. I am so thankful our first year here is in the past and I'm looking forward to a great year on the North Shore of Chicago.

Here are some of the highlights...

Christmas was quiet. We let family come to us and it was wonderful.


February came and we got 18" of snow in 24 hours. Loyola, as well as the rest of Chicago, actually closed everything down for a whole day - something that hasn't happened in a LONG time!


At 6 months old, Gray was the happiest, chubbiest little baby you've ever seen.

March came and we traveled! It was still freezing cold in Chicago, so we needed to get away. First the kids and I went to the east coast to see family while Paul went on his spring break trip. Then we all flew to Florida to be with Paul's parents for a week in Orlando. It was the perfect time to get away from Chicago.

Standing proud with Daddy after touching the sting rays at Sea World.

This was the only picture that we got of all of us, right before the amazing dolphin show. Of course Gray was asleep through the whole thing.

In April, Ilana turned 3! She threw up the whole night before her birthday, and there were 2" of snow on the ground (yes, in mid-APRIL!! I live in the arctic tundra now, you know.), so we just laid low all day, while she held tight to her purple butterfly balloon...all day.



In May Paul and I celebrated 8 years of marriage with our first date since Gray had been born. We went kayaking on the Skokie Lagoons. It was a blast!

Yes, my kids are wild.

June hit and we could finally wear shorts every day again and do things like this...

The summer was a blast!




In August we celebrated Gray's first birthday. We had a quiet celebration with a couple other families on our block. We figured we'd celebrate with those people who have carried me through this past year, our neighbors. I couldn't have done it without them. We have the best neighbors.

This pretty much sums up the cake.

Yeah, he's a sweet little boy, most of the time. (Yeah, he's spoiled and he knows it.)

And she's the sweetest little girl...when she wants to be. (Completely spoiled too!)

I'm finally feeling like I'm back into "my groove" again. I actually have the time and motivation to make bread again.

And although the house looks like this by 9:00 every morning, it's still a blessing to be here, loving on my crazy family (and our sweet, big puppy).

I am actually hoping and planning on blogging more often. But you know how that goes... :)

3 comments:

Laura said...

it should look like that at 9:00 - that means you have children who are learning and living at your house! :) Glad to see you back on blogger - it's fun to see pictures!!

Tiffany said...

Yeah! Can I add you to my blog list? ;)

Molly M. said...

Love it! My house is always a mess...I clean up multiple times a day AND the kids are old enough to help...but it's still a mess. This is just the stage of life we're in right now...