Spring Has Sprung

What better way to spend a beautiful Spring day than for Daddy to teach Abigail how to ride her bike!

Easter Fun

WOW!  What a weekend!!!!  It included a pizza party, brunch with the bunny, a birthday party, backsplash installation, a sleepover at Nana and Papa's, and a baby shower!!!!!!  We were busy every hour of every day, but it was a great family weekend!!!!

On Saturday morning, we had our traditional Brunch with the Bunny.  We have gone from our first year with 3 families and 5 kids to our 4th year with 5 families and 9 kids!

Here are pictures of all the fun we had:

We had two cute girls in my favorite Easter dresses yet:

We had hamming it up for the camera: 

We had some cheese: 

We had some dancing: 

We had some bunny: 

but that was as close of a bunny picture that the Wennerstroms are going to have because we also had a lot of this from both girls: 

They do NOT like the bunny!!!!  Not one little bit!!!  (Maybe when they realize he brings them presents they will like him better).

We had some magic: 

And the cutest little bug: 

Uncle Rob had his godson: 

And mommy had her high school friends: 

We had an egg hunt: 

And pictures with mommy: 

and daddy: 

We had balloons:

And some really cute kids: 

And at the end, we had 2 tired girls: 

There was a lot to be "had" at our Easter Brunch!  It was a great morning!!!!! 

More pictures to come to roundout our weekend..and then next weekend is our March of Dimes walk and Aunt Katie's bday celebration!!!

Still Counting in Months

At the store this week, someone asked me how old Caitlin was and I had to check the date (I NEVER have a clue what the date is anymore...I'm seriously lucky if I get the year right)...and she said, "Oh, she must be under 2 if you are still counting in months!"  I LOVE counting in months because it means she's still my baby!

Today Caitlin is 17 months old!

She continues to make us laugh and pull our hair out at the same time!  I love this bug so much!  She's very independent.  She will play by herself for hours...and it's amazes us the way she plays.  She's very smart and observant.   She is also finding ways to communicate with us.  In addition to the signs we have taught her, she is starting to make up her own signs. 

My favorite thing she is doing right now is when you go to get her out of her bed, she wants EVERYTHING to come downstairs with her.  She also is so funny when she "blows her noise" on her own....anything that resembles a kleenex will be used as one!

She has been LOVING to go to Kids Korner at the park district gym.  She gets so excited to go and the teachers said she is so good (and independent) in there!  Caitlin and I are also in Mommy and Me swim lessons right now and she loves it!  (Abigail is in big girl swim lessons and loving it too..more on that soon).

All in all, life with a 3 (and almost a half) and a now 17 month old has been pretty amazing! 

I love her in her cute overalls and her ponies with ladybugs on them..my favorite outfit for Caitlin!  Caitlin is definitely more of my "overall" wearer.  Abigail...well, that's easy, she's my "tights" wearer!

A look back at Caitlin at 7 months.

And for a little comparision, here's Abigail at 17 months.  It ws also the day we announced to the blog world we were expecting again (I was 14 weeks along with Caitlin)!  People always tell me they look alike..and while I see it a little bit, they definitely don't look identical to me...but it may be their personalities that I'm focusing on!

Happy 17 Months, Bug!

(And on a random side note, we have been working on Abigail not wearing a Pull-Up.  She picked out a Belle Barbie doll and gets to play with it if she stays dry the night before...she stayed dry for 2 nights in a row.  This is very exciting and we are very proud of her!)

PLAYdoh

a lil coloring....a lil playdough....a great morning.

seven

This weekend Rob and I celebrated 7 years of marriage!  I feel so lucky to have spent the last seven years married to my best friend.  We have such a great time together.

We went out for a "memorable"dinner on Saturday night to celebrate.  It was great to spend time just the two of us.  We talked about our favorite moments together and started our "bucket list" for places we want to go and things we want to do.  It was a great night!

And the best part of our anniversary was our "gifts" to each other!  We bought a new screen door and backsplash for our kitchen.  Exciting, I know!  But to us, it really really is.  These are things we have wanted to do for 3 years, so we finally went out and did it!  Rob and I installed the screen door all by ourselves yesterday, that was quite an accomplishment.  We are having someone come help do our backsplash in the next few weeks. Then, Rob and I have chair rail to install and our 2011 winter projects are complete!!!

As nice as our time was together this weekend, the highlight of our weekend was definitely our family time with Lucy!  Lucy (and Aunt Katie) slept over on Friday night and we had a great night.  Then Saturday, we headed to Brookfield Zoo.  It was so much fun! 

Our "attempt" at a cousin picture:

Lucy Lulu: 

Abigail, our big helper: 

Caitlin is still in her "cheese" phase: 

Lucy playing with all the toys: 

Aunt Katie and Caitlin having a great night together: 

Daddy bonding with his goddaughter: 

Another cousin picture "attempt": 

Caitlin and Aunt Julie at the dolphins: 

Weekends sure don't get much better than this!!!!!!!!

Go Cubs Go!

Go Cubs Go!

Go Cubs Go!

Hey Chicago, what do you say?

Cubs are going to WIN today!

*No Children were harmed in the making of this blog post, although these girly girls may tell you different...apparently hats are "not cute!"

Lil Beans

We are on spring break this week, which doesn't sound like much since Abigail's only in school two mornings a week and I only watch my other two peanuts 2 afternoons a week, but it really has been a great week...much more relaxing than I anticipated.  We have been able to move a little slower in the morning, get to the gym more, and actually nap at our house more! 

We've had a bunch of visits to great-grandma this week because grandma and grandpa are in Arizona rooting on the Cubs (and although I'm not a psychic, my prediction is the girls will have some new cubs gear by this weekend).

We had some fun playdates with friends we haven't seen since Christmas (Thanks Nicole for having us over yesterday!).

Today we are going to do a BUNCH of errands!!!!

Our highlight of the week so far was Monday when the girls got to meet Gwen!  Gwen is my bestie's daughter (ha ha, I love the word "bestie"...it's so ridiculous for a 33 year old woman to use it..makes me laugh).  Abigail has been talking about "Aunt Katie with the belly" (as opposed to my sister "Aunt Katie who lives on the train"...because she takes the train in to visit us) and was a little confused at first since Aunt-Katie-with-the-belly has no belly anymore.

We met at Lil Beans Cafe in the city, which is a playhouse and coffee house.  Katie and I are able to include coffee into ANYTHING we do, sometimes 2 coffees (and yes, there have been a few 3 coffee days in our lives...mostly Vegas or Xmas shopping).  The playhouse is really cute.  It has lots of different houses.  It also had lots of shopping carts, strollers, baby dolls, and plastic cars, which of course meant the girls were in heaven.

We had so much fun catching up and meeting Gwen.  The girls were having a little too much fun playing to play with Gwen, but there is plenty of time for that in the next 18 years!

The Wennerstrom/O'Connor girls!!!!  So much fun having another girl in our mix!  How many years will we all get matching running shoes and start running together????

Abigail with Gwen

Caitlin with Gwen

Mommy with Gwen...she's adorable..and really loves me!  :)

Gwen was sporting her "Mommy Needs a Latte" onsie, which both my girls also wore when they were this age thanks to Aunt Katie!

Abigail in the construction area (don't worry, she was in here cause there was a phone...not cause she likes construction.  I mean, look at her.  She's in a "tights" phase which is driving me crazy!  I just asked her "Abigail, want to wear jeans today?"  Her response:  "No, tights and a skirt".  I can't wait for summer to get here so she can just wear sundresses and we can all be happy. Sorry, off topic.)

Caitlin is in her "no picture" phase.  She loves anything that involves taking care of a baby doll.  She also loves the red plastic car that every kid has (including her)...and was a little possessive of it...there were a couple screams when another kid got in "her" car...we are working on sharing!

It was a fun day and the girls finally got to meet Gwen!  And mommy got much needed catching-up time with Katie!!!!!  Great seeing you girls...can't wait for our next coffee playdate!