July, August, and September 2012

We celebrated with a few of our friends for the 4th of July. We had a low key BBQ at our house and visited through out the afternoon. Later that night we drove to watch some fireworks that were close by our house. We all sat on the car to watched them. Of course my kids were mesmerized by all the bright colors and the loud noises. They love fireworks!

Pretty much all of my free time from about February- July was spent preparing for girls camp. I did the crafts for our stake camp in Wisconsin again this year. We had a great turn out and the girls all seem to love the crafts. We had an amazing opportunity for our girls this year. Each ward was assigned a country and we filmed our girls for the other country to see and they filmed their girls for us. We asked the girls to answer a few questions and to bare their testimonies. It truly was amazing to hear all the responses from around the world. It was a great thing for all the girls to see that they truly are the same. Even though they don't live the same way, the youth are all experiencing similar trials in their life. Each night we would gather on a big grassy area and watch the movies under the stars. It was an awesome experience! Our ward had Zimbabwe and a woman there beaded our entire stake these cute braceltes. Such a fun memory for these girls to have. Our camp was being filmed the entire time by the church so that added a little stress for us. I was trying to stay out of the cameras way because I did not want to be filmed! They are using the footage for training purposes for future girls camp. The youth videos just released for the new curriculum for 2013 has some of our camp footage on it. 

In August my sister Andrea and her husband JC came to visit us. We had a fun weekend with them! We spent two days in Chicago shopping, eating delicious food, sitting in terrible traffic, and checking out the aquarium. This was JC's first time coming so we had a lot to show him. On that Saturday we went to the Arlington racetrack. It was a very big race, the Arlington Million. My kids love to be there and of course it's one of Christian's favorite things to do! We went out that night just the four of us to a restaurant in downtown Naperville. It was fun to walk the river walk with them and stop off at the end to get some treats at Napersweets. Probably my most favorite store here in Naperville!

My kids wait all summer for The Last Fling. We have gone very year since we have moved here and it has become a tradition. Benson was big enough to ride the rides this year so it made it extra fun.

The dragon coaster of course is still their favorite ride! Nothing makes me happier than seeing these two laughing and having fun together.  We got a delicious funnel cake and snow cone to share. It was extremely hot but my kids didn't mind at all! 

We went out on the paddle boats for the first time this year. It was really fun! I was very nervous at first not being able to strap my wild boy down. Benson did great and only climbed around a bit. Addy helped her dad paddle and steer for almost 30 min of our boat ride. It was very relaxing and fun and something I  hope we will do again next year. 

Addy started her second year of pre-school the beginning of September. Her teacher this year is Mrs. Buscher and she has 3 other kids from our ward in her class. Addy loves school and wishes she went every day like all of her older friends do.  We are excited for this school year and look forward to all the learning and things she is accomplishing! She is a very smart girl and she loves to learn new things. She is very interested in learning how to read. I am not sure how to teach her, but I am trying!

July 2011

We moved into our new place in July. Addy is still trying to adjust to having her own bedroom and being on a different level through out the day than I am. She doesn't like to go upstairs alone and came into our bedroom just about ever night in July to sleep with us. She is slowly liking this place more and more. It kinda breaks my heart when she says she misses her old house and that she wants it back. Benson has done really well here. He mastered going up and down the stairs the first day and can sleep so much better now that bedtime is not playtime with Addy anymore.

Addy chose out a new pair of scissors to practice cutting paper for school and a pair of goggles for swimming. Funny that they go hand in hand with her art project! She makes me laugh! Benson is a busy handful and loves to get into everything! I have a hard time keeping him off the dishwasher while I am doing dishes. He is my little helper!

We had a great 4th of July spent with our friends! Delicious BBQ and great company. The kids had a blast playing together and blowing bubbles. Afterwards we went to Naperville fireworks. My kids were so good and sat in awe the entire time. Benson was so excited every time a firework would go off. He would point them out to his daddy.

At the end of July, I went with my ward to girls camp as the asst. craft director. The camp was in Wisconsin on Lake Geneva at a Methodist Bible Camp. Our theme this year was " The Holy Land". We had such a great time and I had a blast getting to know the girls better.

Trishia and I were in charge of all crafts for 170 girls and decorating the craft cabin. We made big tutorials that we hung on the walls that had step by step directions and pictures of each craft. We decorated with real pictures of Jerusalem, paper lanterns, and I made six pillows for the couches. We weren't able to do much decorating, but it was all we had time for in the end.

The crafts we had for the girls were: jersey knit bracelets, necklaces, beaded scripture bookmarks, fabric rosette rings, spray painted t-shirts, friendship bracelets, and chocolate dipping.

Girls camp was a lot of work to prepare for, but so worth it!

Addy gave here very first talk in primary on Temples. It was such a sweet talk. She was so excited that she had just been to the Hawaii temple. We asked her why she liked it so much there and she said " because it has beautiful flowers and fun bumpity bumps". Haha! Christian cruised her around on the speed bumps in the parking lot and it really made a lasting impression I guess. She has been announcing to anyone that will listen that she will be marrying her friend Jackson in the Hawaii temple. I better start saving now! Addy loves primary so much! She has a hard time waiting through the week to go again. She really enjoys singing time and learning in class. I can't believe she is growing up so fast!

4th of July

We had a simple but enjoyable 4Th of July this year. We weren't able to go to any parades or firework shows but we did have fun with some friends. Sat morning 17 girls from our ward went and saw Eclipse and had lunch at Panera Bread. That evening we had a few friends and their families over for a BBQ. The kids ran wild through the house while all the adults chatted and ate dinner. Here are a few pics of us from that evening.

We planned on going to see fire works after the BBQ, but the time got away from us and all the kids were getting cranky and needed to go to bed. So we decided to just go outside and let Addy and her friend Jackson do a couple boxes of sparklers and snaps.

Erin gave the kids a glowing necklace. Addy loved hers so much she even slept with it next to her! Christian showed Addy how to spell her name with her sparkler. She definitely enjoyed what little fireworks we had.

Sunday we went to another BBQ with some friends in our ward. Christian tried some alligator hot off the grill. Gross!

Christian had Monday off work so we went swimming with Erin, Nate, and Ella. The girls had a blast splashing and swimming with their dads. This was Benson's first time swimming. He was very mellow and just relaxed in his floatie. Addy on the other hand wanted to be in the water swimming like a dolphin and splashing like crazy.

4th of July

This year we celebrated the 4th of July with a BBQ at my house. Lucky for us my sister and Rookie were still in Chicago and Erin, Nate, and Ella were able to join us. We ate lots of yummy food but unfortunately it rained all day so we didn't get to go to any fireworks. It was still a very fun evening. We will have to try and see fireworks again on the 24th.

We were all busy eating and chatting that none of us took any pictures.
We snapped a few at the end of the night of everyone. Thanks for the pictures Erin!

I have lots of updating to do from our vacation. Between 3 of us we took around 1200 pictures.
Holy crap that is a lot! I will try and only post a highlight of each of our stops.
We had a great time and I enjoyed learning more about the history of The LDS Church.

Overload Update

July has been a crazy month for our family. I have been in Chicago the last 2 weeks looking for a place to live. We have to be out of our house by the end of July. It's coming so fast! Now that it's down to the end I really don't want to leave. We have such great family and friends here. We love you all so much!!

Hopefully some of you will come visit! There is a ton to do in Chicago. Dirty Dancing starts on Broadway the end of Sep. I can't wait. The shopping is fabulous! My mother in law came last week for 4 days to help me with Jellybean. We hit some good sales! It's so fun because you can walk around for a couple miles and the stores never end!

I have walked so much the last 2 weeks. We rode the trains and walked everywhere we went. My aching feet! It has been so hot and humid there. I don't have hair that works with any of that!

We still are not sure where exactly we are going to live. We want to move out to the suburbs but we haven't found the right house. It is really hard not knowing the areas. It's a big culture shock for us and I want to feel safe. We had a Realtor show us around and that was super helpful.

Hopefully when Chris goes back this next week he will find something.

Here are a couple pictures of us waiting for and riding the train in down town Chicago.

I sold my living room furniture and decided to bring in the patio set. I know it's crazy but what else are we going to sit on? The swing is great indoors. I love to swing and watch t.v.

Who needs a rocking chair when you have this?

This is a picture of the guys hauling away the love seat. That was the first set of furniture
Christian and I purchased together.

I also sold our office furniture. Thanks for your help Alice and Rookie!

We have played many hours of Rock Band at my parents house. I love this game!

Fireworks

We spent the fourth of July with Alice and Rookie. We got some take out from Cafe Rio and headed to watch fireworks. Jellybean was more interested in playing with the grass than anything else. She would pick a handful of grass and then pull each blade one by one. Right before fireworks started the sprinklers turned on. Luckily only the corner of the blanket got wet.

Jellybean and I went swimming with Charlotte & Texi. It has been so hot so we loved cooling off in the water. We also went another time with Shanda, MaLia and Daddy. It was so much fun to see how much Jellybean loves the pool. She would scream and splash and scream some more.

Hope everyone is having a fun summer!