Chicago Botanic Gardens

Yesterday we had the blessing of going to the Chicago Botanic Gardens for FREE! We have a close friend who has a membership. So Emmalee and her sweet boys, along with me and my crazies toddled our way around outside for a good 4 hours.

It was pure nourishment for my soul. They have a huge fruit and vegetable garden, where we spent most of our time. We saw a lot of things growing.

One of the walkways was covered with grapevine upon grapevine overhead. I can only imagine what they must've looked like covered in clusters of grapes. There were only a few left, but still beautiful.

Gray-man was fascinated with these flowers. We stayed here for a good 10 minutes at least. Maybe he'll be a gardener when he grows up.

He's growing up before my eyes.

Ilana insisted on using her magnifying glass as a camera all day and took pictures of everything, just like her Momma. :) Maybe she'll be a photographer when she grows up.

A couple of sweet ladies (grade school teachers, we found out later) passed us and asked if we wanted a group picture. I think this is the best one. Yeah, it was a bit like herding cats, and we were thankful for the eyes in the back of our heads because both little men decided the rotten apples on the ground were good to eat.

In high school I was in a singing ensemble whose signature piece was "Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree." The whole time we were in the apple orchard (which was a good 45 minutes), I couldn't get this song out of my mind. I was getting all nostalgic remembering seemingly simpler days of study, uniforms, singing, friends, Jesus and structure (I'm a sucker for structure).

Then the older ones started acting up, so I was jolted back to my "today" reality of having two little ones at home, and I found myself thankful for my past and the foundation it gave to me. Who could be mad at these little ones too long, anyways:

On our way out, I found my favorite flowers.

Hope you're enjoying your today reality, whatever it may be! I've got to go change a poopy diaper have a wrestling match with my son. :)

From her point of view

I just registered for a "Turkey Trot" on Thanksgiving morning - a 10K. I have to give up my life-long tradition of the Thanksgiving Day Parade with cinnamon buns. Oh well, hopefully this'll get me moving.

In other news, somehow Ilana got the camera the other night and here are the little photographer's pictures:

Daddy cleaning up from dinner, reminding her to move her finger.

I've been looking for that shoe! Thanks, Ilana.

Yes, I need to move the tree that is now behind the dresser, thanks for the reminder.

And yes, it's time to get rid of the air conditioner, and its cord, so that Gray won't try to "play" with it.

Her recent favorite: purple poodle purse!!

And here she is today at the Chicago Botanic Gardens (more on that tomorrow), using her magnifying glass "camera" to take pictures.

Life sure looks big from her point of view. It's been a long time since I was her size. She is small, but loved with a big love. I hope I can show her just how much she is loved as the years go by and life becomes smaller.

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... :)

It's been awhile...

Gosh! I can't seem to get online and post pictures! Hopefully one of these weeks life will click in again. Well, here are some pictures from the past few weeks. They've been a bit crazy.

Ilana, being...her crazy 2-year old self:

I don't know why, but this is one of my all-time favorites of Ilana. You have to look at it sideways, though. Kind of artsy, in a subtle way. Maybe I'm just weird. That's possible too.

We celebrated Thanksgiving Day just the 4 of us. We watched the parade...

Paul made home-made cinnamon buns for breakfast (DELICIOUS!!!)...

we got to just sit and be a family...

we ate an amazing meal - again, Paul made everything...

even the pumpkin cheesecake!!

A few days later Paul had quite an intense photo session with Gray...

and got some great shots...

and some hilarious ones too... :)

(Yes, we set up our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.) Look at that double chin!!

Ilana has really become "Mommy's little helper." As you can see, clearly Gray needed ALL of his toys, and Paul needed some help stretching his legs. Thanks, Ilana!!

He was either stunned into disbelief or actually enjoyed this for about 20 minutes.

We had one day of flurries, a break, then our first real snow storm hit. We don't expect the snow to be leaving anytime soon. The highs have been in the low to mid-20's. Yeah, it's COLD!

Of course we all went outside, and of course Ilana absolutely LOVED it!

Gray has a good cold. He's been congested off and on since Thanksgiving, but now his congestion is constant. Poor little guy. You wouldn't know it, though. He's still pretty happy most of the time.

Here we're checking our angle and lighting for our family Christmas picture. As you can see, sleep is not happening much these days, but we're still smiling through it all...or at least trying to.

-H