December 23

So if any of you have been wondering why I am so behind in blog posts. I have a good reason.. This morning we went to a lovely Christmas coffee at our friend's house. Kids came home and took a nap. Mia had just woken up and was eating lunch when all of a sudden I hear the sound of rushing water. This was not in a Tyler just woke up and flushed the toilet kind of way so I am trying to figure out what is going on when I look in the family room and see water coming down from the ceiling all over my new chair, new flat screen, Bose stereo system, etc. So I am just panicking and in my panic thought, "I need help." So literally I leave Mia sitting in her highchair and run across the street to my neighbor who is a builder and he runs over, shuts the water off and realize we had a pipe freeze and burst. This has been a bit of a disaster as you can see from this picture of my family room. The wood floors in the adjacent room buckled and will need ripped out and replaced. Two days before Christmas and my house was literally wrecked from ripping out drywall and trying to dry out the water. From the time the pipe burst to the time we got the water shut off was only 5 minutes. If this had happened an hour later, I would have been out shopping and I wouldn't have a family room anymore so that is the only blessing in all of this. Our homeowners insurance will cover it and I am fighting with the builder as to why I have a new home with a burst pipe but it still stinks. So please learn from my mistake and learn where your water shutoff is. I was actually shown at one point when we moved in but I have post-baby brain and knew it would take me more time to find it than it would to go get help.

December 20 - Church

We went to the Christmas service at Willow Creek this evening. First, I have to say, my kids have been having to get dressed up a lot in the last two weeks and they have been troopers but Mia was just not in the mood to wear her fancy dress and bow this evening so she looks sort of waif-like (my Grandpa's term for Mia when she is giving her best I-don't-want-my-picture-taken look.) Tyler got to stay with us during the service this year as it was very much more like a Christmas show than a sermon. Mia went to childcare and cried the entire time. Afterwards we went out to dinner with Mike's mom and the kids got ice-cream sundaes - a huge treat, to make up for this dress-up torture.

December 20 - Breakfast with Baby Jesus

This morning we went to Breakfast with Baby Jesus for the second year. Each table had a manger with a Baby Jesus doll in it which quickly became Mia's Baby Jesus. As you can see in this picture, Mia's obsession with jewlery is not diminishing and to fight her about wearing gaudy gold beads to church is too much work. Tyler's interest in seeing baby Jesus this time because there was so man goodies to eat, we could barely tear him away from the food table.

December 19

We were snowed in today so we spent a little time baking a little time tasting. Let me just assure you that if you received cookies from us, I made them during nap time. The other treats were consumed by the bakers..

December 17

Today was Tyler's Preschool Program. Mike, his parents and sister all came hoping for a repeat performance but of course this time he sang like a little angel. The little girl standing next to him is his first preschool crush.

December 14

Today was Tyler's Sunday School Program. It was kind of interesting to say the least. We almost didn't go because we missed church and I didn't think Tyler knew his songs. But as always my children suprise me and Tyler stole the show - literally. The first song you could barely hear any singing and then all of a sudden Tyler began to scream the songs. The little girls next to him were just staring in disbelief and a packed church with maybe 200 people was laughing hysterically. Apparently Tyler did know his songs and his teachers must have known he would sing loudly because they put him center stage. It was so funny we didn't even get any pictures because we were just staring with our mouths hanging open but we do have a hysterical video that I need to post. People were coming up to us saying, "I think he is going to be on American Idol." Oh my sweet Tyler..

December 13

We visited Santa today. There was no way Mia was having anything to do the jolly old elf but Tyler wasted no time in telling Santa that he only wanted two things - a robot dinosaur and a pirate ship.

Beautiful Bows

I had someone new on etsy make me some bows and clippies for Mia. Or as Mike likes to lovingly call her, "jungle baby" in reference to her out of control hair. She did a beautiful job and has incredible prices. I sent her a picture of Mia's Christmas dress and she actually made 3 samples for me, sent me pictures and dimensions and then shipped out the bow I chose the next day! Oh and did I mention, she only charged me $5.00!! Check her out.

Purse of Hope

I have started doing some work for a non-profit organization called Purse of Hope. When I finish their website I will post the link. They are dedicated to rescue young girls of forced prostitution and rehabilitating them. This necklace was given to me by the founder, my friend Kristen. She got this necklace in Uganda from the woman that is making beads for purses Kristen sells. This woman is HIV positive and lost her husband in the ongoing civil war. She contracted HIV after being raped by 4 soldiers. She has 4 children and when Kristen asked her how much she needed to get by each month including the HIV medication that she can sporadically get. The answer was $28 a month. Blows your mind, huh? Anyway, the necklace is just beautiful and there is a definite opportunity to make a serious impact. I told Mike last night, "Oh I hope God doesn't ask me to go to Uganda now." I have to pray about what he wants my involvement to be and of course I have two small children who come first always but there is definitely a reason this has come into my life and I am excited to see where it leads.

Taking a Bath

As you can see, Mia's jewelry is a permanent fixture. She won't even take it off for a bath. And of course, the more gaudy, sparkly, and shiny the better. Speak of sparkly, Mia's eyes sparkle in the way that only certain blue eyes sparkle. My grandfather Collins' eyes always sparkled and Mike can never lie to me because his eyes give it away. Mia's eyes sparkle when she laughs or know she is being mischievous.

Typical Morning

Tyler is a morning person. Come 5:30 am, he is ready to roll. Mia, not so much. She would probably sleep until after 7:00 if it wasn't for Tyler talking so loud or turning on every light in the house but many mornings she ends up waking up at 6:00 or 6:30 and she will not even look at you until you she has sat and had her bottle. So most mornings, while I am getting ready, Mia and Tyler lay in my bedroom watching Franklin. And usually, Tyler's pjamas match. Mike must have gotten him dressed last night.

Incredible Christmas Lights

We have a house near us that has the most incredible Christmas lights display you have ever seen. It says they have 250,000 lights and when you get there, they have a sign that tells you to turn your radio to a specific station and the lights are synchronized with the music. It is just unbelievable. They must leave them up year round. I can't even imagine their electric bills. These pictures don't do them justice. Tyler's only comment besides "WOW!", "I bet those lights are REALLY tired!"

December 6

We have a wonderful local library and today they had a FREE make your own gingerbread house class. I took Tyler and we had a blast although our house didn't hold up so well on the car ride home. You can see the utter focus and concentration he has in these photos. He didn't even eat the candy which was my biggest fear. I think it was because he was one of the youngest kids and he wanted to be like the big kids. Whatever the reason, I was very proud of him.

A funny Tyler moment. He was setting up his animals in the family room and Godzilla, as we like to call her, was knocking them down and Tyler says to her, "Mia you are doing that on purpose. You get to time out right now or you are in big trouble!!!!" Hmm. I wonder who he heard that from..

December 4

Today they celebrated Tyler's 3.5 year birthday at school. We brought in cupcakes, Mike surprised Tyler and was the "Mystery Storyteller" and Mia and I hung out for his entire class and helped out. Well I helped out and Miss Mia, who thinks she is a preschooler, caused mischief. She had to be doing everything they were doing especially when it meant sitting at the table eating a cupcake and drinking juice from a cup. Tyler was so sweet and well-behaved. He got to wear a birthday crown and everyone sang him happy birthday. It was really neat to meet everyone in his class and see what they do every Tuesday and Thursday. I am in awe of his teacher and how those kids listen. She says, "time to clean up" and literally it looks like 14 elves scurrying around the room cleaning up as fast they can and with a good attitude.

If you look to the left of Tyler at the table, you will see little Mia.

December 3

We had our first real snowfall today. Actually, I guess it has snowed a couple of times so I should say today was the first day it was a bearable temperature. Since Mia and Ty napped so poorly today we had plenty of time to play outside in the snow. Mia looks so darn cute in her snowsuit - my little Eskimo baby. The funniest part was when Tyler says to me, "Mommy, Mia is walking around in her sock." Her boot got stuck in the snow but there was no way she was going to tell me and face having to go inside so she was simply hobbling around in one boot and one sock - outside in the freezing cold snow.

Tyler knows all the Christmas carols this year. His favorites - Jingle Bells, O Christmas Tree, Rudolph, Guess Who's Coming to Town. We can drive around for hours looking at lights and listening to Christmas music. It's actually not a bad way to spend 4-5pm.

November 29

Today was Mike and my 6 year anniversary! We couldn't even figure out it was number 6, our brains are like mush after having the two kids. We decided just to stay home and have surf and turf after the kids went to sleep so to give Mike a little break because that's what good wives do on anniversaries. I took the kids to McDonalds for dinner and to an electric parade. If you don't know what an electric parade is don't feel bad. We didn't either. It's a parade after dark and all the floats and cars are lit up with thousands of lights. It was relatively warm but I still had to bundles them up which in Mia's case means the dreaded snowsuit and aquaphor all over their faces to prevent windburn (the joys of living in Chicago). The parade was great but it was crowded and hard to see and it's hard to hold two kids that are like giant cotton balls while trying to take pictures, carry a purse, watch the stroller and make sure Mia's mittens and boots don't fall off in the dark. Thus the absence of any pictures of the actual parade.

After we put the kids to sleep, Mike and I had a wonderful dinner. There are few people as blessed as we are. Getting to spend your life with your soulmate and best friend and having two healthy kids is more than either of us every dreamed of. Happy anniversary sweetie!

November 28

Mia is starting to get into crafts so after Tyler and I braved the Black Friday madness (with just a little bit of bribery - a donut and remote control car), to score some new winter coats for ME, we made some Christmas trees complete with garland, glitter and shiny ornaments.

November 27

We had a splendid Thanksgiving. Way too much food as always but so relaxing and fun. It started off with blueberry martinis tmy sister in law made that were out of this world. This was the first Thanksgiving that I didn't scarf down my food with a restless child on my lap. Now that is not to say that Tyler and Mia sat patiently through dinner. They ate for about 5 minutes and then I plopped them down in the family room to watch Dora Saves the Snow Princess and they sat there like little angels. It's great how well Chase and Carly take care of the kids. It's definitely advantageous that they are older than Tyler and Mia. Tyler and Mia were quite the dancers to Guitar Hero which is good since Mike purchased an electric guitar this week. This is his new hobby or mid-life crisis. We are not sure yet. But there will definitely be a lot of opportunites for dancing while daddy "jams". When asked what he is was thankful my sweet Tyler answered, "my mommy, my daddy and my Mia." I am thankful for my beautiful, healthy and happy kids and my wonderful husband. Below is a picture of Mia with some of Carly's "bling" on. Mia adores all "big-girl" stuff especially shiny jewelry that she can drape around her neck. The dog is Wyatt. The sweetest "Scooby" you will ever meet. My SIL and BIL rescued him less than a year ago. He was living in a forest preserve and was so skinny. He is most laid back lovable dog you will ever meet.