Whole Lotta Summer

I have officially become the world's worst blogger...and I still only have 2 kids!  What's going to happen when I have 3...and am working???  Yikes!!!

Yes, speaking of working, I've decided to go back to working part-time, although it should really be considered more of a "volunteer" position after I pay childcare.  But I'm very excited to get back into the classroom, and the best part is that I'm teaching at the same school the girls go to preschool so I will be right next door to them.  This is such a great thing, especially with Caitlin's speech delays, because I can "translate" if needed.  I had my first staff meeting this week (even though school doesn't start till September) and it was great to be back at work. I'm only working in the mornings, and the girls will be in school in the mornings.  On the mornings each of them doesn't have school, a lady will be picking them up at the beginning of school and dropping them back off at the end, so I will only be away from them for a little over 2 hours.  I am so excited about this upcoming school year!  As for what will happen when Baby Tres is here, we'll worry about that in December!  :)

Anyways, I've been terrible at blogging....but here's a rundown of some of the things we've been up to!

DATE NIGHTS

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Each of the girls had a special day with my parents.   My mom took Abigail to see Sleeping Beauty at the theater.  We thought Caitlin was a little young for it, so Caitlin got a date night with Grandma and Grandpa.

Caitlin the next morning after her sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa.  Gma and Gpa took Caitlin to Rainforest Cafe, but Caitlin had as much fun there as she did at the Character Meals at Disney World...which is zero!  So they got their check and headed to Red Robin for a more peaceful dinner!  :)  And they also hit the Disney Store where Caitlin picked out a new lunchbox...which she loves!!!

Abigail went to see Sleeping Beauty with Grandma. She has NOT stopped talking about everything that happened.  Her favorite part was when Sleeping Beauty waved at her personally and mouthed "I like your dress" to her.  Her least favorite part was that she had raisins on her bagel!  I've heard about both of these 100 times.  I've also heard that Grandma said they could go see Cinderella next...and this girl doesn't forget a thing!  ;)  This is how she looked after a day with Grandma that included a trip to the Disney Store and lunch at McDonalds.

This is how she left for her play!

Caitlin was so excited about her "date night" that she came down for nap wearing this!!  She found a dress and even found a purse.  It was so cute!!!!  She loved her date night!  Thanks Gma and Gpa for the special days!!!

Activities

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Both the girls have been busy with gymnastics this summer.  They really love it and want to stay with it in the fall.  So it looks like goodbye dance, hello gymnastics.  I love the studio so I'm happy with their choice!  And Caitlin got moved up a group so in the fall I won't have to do the sessions with her, even though she's not 3 yet.  Happy to watch!!!

Abigail also finished swim lessons last week.  She's a fish in the water.  Caitlin has to be 3 to do swim lessons and is very excited to "be a big girl and take swim lessons".  Both girls are good swimmers!

Graduation Party

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Last weekend we went to Tommy's Graduation Party.  As always, it was a great time. The girls love to be surrounded and loved on by family!!!

Caitlin with Nana and 2 of her "great-aunts"

Tommy throwing Abigail in the pool.  It was so sweet that he just graduated from college and had all his friends around...and spent about an hour with the girls helping them swim!

Congrats Tommy!!!!!!

Summer Concerts

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Between the heat and our busy schedules, we have only made 2 summer concerts this summer.

The whole group (with Nana and Papa) at the Buffett concert.

Caitlin was up dancing by the stage and got a lei...she was a happy girl!!!!

Swimming

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One day a few weeks ago, I took the girls to a water park.  They had a great time and did the water slide a million times!!!!!  See that big bucket in the background???  It dumps water and they did NOT like it...so we spent half the day watching the bucket! 

Taste of Park Ridge

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Rob and I have one major thing in common...we both HATE the Taste of Chicago.  Nothing worse that the heat and the crowds.  So this summer we opted for a much better option.  We hit the taste of Park Ridge.  It was family day and all the rides were free!  The girls had a great time...and were very busy!  And I hit some major sidewalk sales...I even scored Xmas ornaments for this year (hope no one notices they say 2009 on them, I didn't till I got home..but oh well, in 20 years no one will know!)

They loved the slide.

This was a day they were best friends.  It's much better than their fighting days..which is more and more this summer!!!!

They were so cute in line, it was melting my heart.  They had to hold hands the whole time!

Abigail showing off her crown she made.

So that's just a taste of our busy summer!  Last weekend we had Bass Lake Days which I'll post about soon....hopefully!  ;)

Baby Tres, 19 Weeks

19 Weeks????  How did that happen????

I think Baby Tres is due for a post!  Obviously, we are 19 weeks along!  It's gone super fast..I can't believe I'm half way there (our goal is 36 weeks again).  I know some people are going to hate me, but I never had 1 day of morning sickness or extreme tiredness like I did with the first 2 girls...this baby is already my favorite!  Kidding...sort, of!  ;)

The second trimester has actually been a little bit harder than the first, which was unexpected, with some headaches and tiredness.  But really I think it's just the extreme heat that has been wearing me out.  Anyways, NO complaints from me here!

The pics below are from my 17 week ultrasound with the high risk doctor.  I am obviously followed a little more closely due to my first 2 trying to make an early entrance (and 1 succeeding).  At 17 weeks, there were absolutely no concerns.  I still start weekly shots of progesterone this week to help make sure Baby Tres stays put till at least November. 

I've had lots of ultrasounds, including the 13 week NT scan for markers of concern...and everything has looked great.

Now for the big question...gender!!!!  YES, we are going to find out this time.  We didn't find out with either of the girls.  The first time it really didn't matter at all.  And the second time, it really didn't matter either.  This time, of course it doesn't matter again....but as everyone assumes, it would be super fun to have a boy.  I really don't care either way at all, just healthy, but we decided to find out just to do something different this time.  And YES, they (drs and nurses) know the gender.  And NO, we haven't found out yet.  I know people think we are crazy that we could know, and we don't.  But I like holding on to this surprise a few more weeks....I'm sure by August we'll find out!  And we'll share...but not our names...which by the way this was the easiest of names. 

We have our girl's name for sure...and are fairly set on our boys.  We didn't pick Abigail's name till the day she was born (we were between Abigail and Lily...and had NO middle name even thought of...but we thought we still had 2 months).  With Caitlin, we sort of had her first name but were literally asking the delivery nurses how they thought we should spell it, although we were asking about other names too...but we did have her middle name.  This baby was easy to name...and I LOVE both our names so much and want to use both, but we NEVER EVER EVER will...but I'm happy to use either of them!  ;)

So, Baby Tres is doing great!  We are very excited to meet him/her and have our family here and complete.  The girls are very excited too.  They always refer to the baby as "your baby" when they are talking to me, so we are working on it being "our baby"...but they are excited.  Abigail will probalby have a fairly easy transition because she's done this before.  Caitlin will probably have a harder transition, but she's also my "baby" and I know I treat her a little more like a baby than I should because of this.  But she's be busy with her first year of preschool and all the fun that comes with that, which I think will help her transition.  And she's got Abigail to pal around with too!  I think they will both be great helpers!!!!

So, here are 2 latest pics of Baby Tres at 17 weeks:

Growing Baby

Waving hi!

And believe it or not, I haven't taken one pregnancy picture yet...but I'm a little bit smaller this time than in the past so I haven't really had a picture to take.  But I'll try to get one for the next post!

Happy Friday!!!!!

1 year

We lost one of the most important people in our lives 1 year ago today....

and I have hundreds and hundreds of pictures...but I wish I took more.

Today I'm having a happy day full of great memories (as opposed to a sad day cause we AREN'T doing that today....)

Some of my favorites:

I'm so happy she got to meet 2 of my kids, and I had years of staying at home which meant weekly visits with her to sing-alongs, bingo, and horse racing.  I'm happy that I worked for 6 years at a school just a mile from her house so I got to pop in and have dinner with her, usuallly Subway where hse always got my order right...and stay over if the weather was bad, even if it meant sharing a bed! :)  I'm happy that I have great memories like her calling Abigail "Abbi" even though no one else does, and her teaching Abigail and then Caitlin to walk with her walker, and Halloween visits, and watching Golden Girls with her, and picking her up from the airport after her Vegas trip, and her calling when she won big at the casino, and trips to the fruit market where she was so excited about the good deals on fruit (I get that from her), and the way she laughed at my kids and made "bug eyes" with them, and how she picked out the BEST outfits for us for Xmas because she always bought the WHOLE outfit in the front window of Limited, and her chicken dumplings, and her drawers of jewelry and her classic Barbies I used to play with, and how she set up a grocery store in her basement of her house for us to play with, and how she loved her job as the greeter at the senior citizen place she ate lunch (where she always told us she got a meat, a potato, a vegetable, a fruit, coffee, juice and dessert for like $2.25), and her trips to the corner restaurant where she'd say "that's too much" and have them bag up half her dinner before she even ate,  unless it was strawberry waffles...cause she'd got to town on those....and our trips to Arby where she always had coffee with her roast beef even though I thought it was weird, and our trips to the HIP to go Xmas shopping, and how she made the best scrambled eggs which I try but can never recreate...

I could really go on, but today I'm celebrating all the great memories!!!!! So I'm making what is sort of sad day into a happy day!!!!  I'm happy she had 97 great years, and I got 33 of them with her!  That's pretty lucky!!!!!  Love ya, Grandma!  Miss you!

Writing Fun!

Who doesn't LOVE the $1 section of Target?????  Every time I'm at Target, I have to run through it.  I almost always find something fun to add some excitement to our week.  This week, I found fun dry erase strips and markers.  One of my goals with Abigail this summer was to get her writing her name with lowercase letters. 

Looking Good, Kid!!!!

With Caitlin, we have definitely focused less on her letters than I did with Abigail because we are working so much on her speech.  However, this summer, I wanted to make an effort to focus more on her letters.  Her speech teacher is also adding this to her list of things to work on so it's more consistant.  We've been playing lots of Alphabet Bingo and doing lots of alphabet puzzles. She's also obsessed with Sesame Street (if she watches tv, which isn't much...) so that's a good influence. 

Two of my goals with Caitlin this summer (in addition to her letters) are:  Drawing a smiley face (beginning of a person) and Writing her 1st letter, C. 

Her "too cute for words" smiley face next to mine!

Her C's!  They are more like lines, but we are just starting!!!!!

Just a random fun activity we did one morning before breakfast!  A glance into a day at our house in the summer.  WE LOVE SUMMER!  It's so laid back and relaxing!!!!!

Fourth Fun

This year's 4th of July was....HOT!!!  Usually I wouldn't even notice, or care...but apparently Baby Tres doesn't like heat.  After almost 16 weeks of feeling great, last week was a ROUGH one for me!  So unfortunately, we didn't do as much as we normally do for the 4th of July.  Because of the heat, our local parade and fireworks were cancelled.  But we went down to Julie and Joe's new house (which is beautiful...Congrats Blandfords!!!!) and spent a great day!

The girls did a lot of swimming and playing together!  And the Daddy's were VERY helpful by going to get us dinner...and coming home 3 hours later after a few stops at a few bars! 

Here are a few pics from our fun 4th!

The weekend prior to the 4th, I went away with my friends for a Girl's Weekend Away...and the girl's spent a great weekend with Daddy!  However, it was a hot weekend.  There were terrible storms at the cabin in Indiana so they were without power for 24 hours.  And then, when we got home on Sunday, we were without power due to terrible local storms!

The weekend following the 4th, we also went up to the cabin.  Again, it was hot (like 103 hot)...so the girls spent 2 days in the lake swimming!  The lake itself was hot (like 90 degrees, it was like a hot tub)...very crazy!!!  And for 2 days, I didn't take one picture!!!  The heat really got the best of me again!

It's cooler this week so we are going to take advantage of it and get out and enjoy it!!!!!  Pics to come!!!!  Also, I have pics of Baby Tres to come!!!!!

Hodge Podge of Summer

We have definitely been staying busy this summer...yet it's been a great, relaxing summer!!!  We have had a lot of relaxing days at home or all the pool.  It's been nice downtime, and we are relaxing all we can before September gets here, because the first few months are guaranteed to be crazy!!!!

So here's a little hodge podge of our summer:

Abigail went to VBS (Vacation Bible School) again this summer and loved it!  She's excited that Caitlin gets to go next summer!

How Caitlin fell asleep after Patrick's Baptism...dress and all.  So Dainty!

Both the girls started gymnastics last week. I don't have any pictures of Caitlin because I was with her the whole time, but here's one of Abigail on the beam.  However, I have to say, Caitlin is very coordinated and talented.  I have to laugh because they said they may recommend Caitlin to move into the "elite" group...and I laugh cause she's 2...how in the world can they know this???  I was telling my sisters how INSANE elite gymnastics could be.  The 4 year old elites practice for 4.5 HOURS, 2 times a week, and another 3 hours a week, and an hour of strength training.  Can you imagine???  I think we'll just stay with the regular class!  ;)

Sister Country Concert!  We went to see Brad Paisley at Wrigley Field.  Joe and Rob were there too...they were just busy playing drinking games somewhere!  ;)

Random trip to the zoo...they baby goats were just born and Abigail got to feed one with a bottle.  So cute!

We have literally LIVED at the pool.  It's been so much fun because both the girls are very independent.  Abigail learned how to swim underwater, no thanks to her swim lessons which I signed her up for in June and still haven't receieved an instructor for her.  GRRR...

We have also got our money's worth out of our water table!!!!!

There was a random dance performance at the library...and they called kids up to dance with the dancers.  Caitlin was up there alone and was dancing...it was adorable.  Then she realized how big everyone else was, and she ran to me crying!  Also very cute!  ;)

That's a hodge podge of our summer...we live for summers and I'm thankful that I choose a career that I'll always have my summers off!!!!  :)

Oh, Baby Tres is doing good.  We haven't really had much to do for Baby #3, so other than buying big sisters shirts, it's been pretty quiet around here.  I do have a big ultrasound on Thursday and am hoping to find out if we will keep our pink or get to go shopping for blue...watch out T.arget if it's a boy!!!!!!!  But healthy is perfect!  I'll be starting my weekly progesterone shots next week, which I think is the reason Caitlin made it to 37 weeks so I'm happy to start those!  Other than that, not too much in baby land. I have felt the first few kicks which is such a highlight for me!  So, next up is find out gender!  :) 

God Bless Patrick William!

I know I have a lot to update...we've been busy with swimming, Vacation Bible School, and most imporantly, Baby Tres....but this weekend we had a very special event!

On Sunday, Rob's Godson Patrick was baptised.  It was a great, beautiful day!!!!

Patrick taking in this whole "church" thing!!!  Check out his shamrock shoes...how cute are they????  Patrick really is one of the cutest babies in the world!!!!

This is probably the part where he was so excited, he pooped himself!!!!  ;)

The BIG moment!!!!

Abigail, Caitlin, and a little neighbor of B and Mo enjoying the show with snacks!!!!

The Glure-stroms!

Godfathers and Godchildren

Yesterday was a very special day for our family...but especially for Rob.  There is no greater honor in our eyes than being a Godparent and we take that serious!!!!  Rob has lots of plans for fishing, golf, and other things that only "boys" can do for him and Patrick in the future!