Awesome April

No, not my Mom.  Even though she is pretty awesome.  April was a BUSY month, it flew by in what felt like just a week.  We had something going on every weekend and nearly every weeknight.  Birthday parties, trips, holidays and school events.  Mother nature had quite the April Fool's joke on us by giving us 86 degree temps one day and a massive hail storm the next.   Mom had fun trying to fool me that Spring Break was canceled due to bad ISAT scores by the entire school, but I didn't fall for it...ok, maybe for a minute. ;)   We started off Spring Break with a mid-week trip to Chicago.  Just one night, but a lot of planning went into making sure we had everything we needed for 3 kids and had some fun.  Any guilt Mom had of not doing Disney that week was quickly subsided.  Things did go better than anticipated though, but doing that for 6 days in Disney seems unthinkable.  Sam did fine in the hotel room and even though he refused to nap on the go, he was in good spirits and we were all healthy and over our colds.  The 5 of us were snuggled into a small room at the very trendy "W" on Lake Shore Drive.  The temps were cold, but we managed to stay warm at Navy Pier and even rode the Ferris Wheel as a family, Mom did NOT freak out.  That night we went to the famous Gino's East for pizza.  It was a long wait both outside and inside, but it was worth it and the coolest part was drawing on the walls and tables before we left.  The next day, Mom and I took a taxi up Michigan Ave and went a little nuts at the American Girl Place.  The plan was to only spend my report card $$ there, but Mom couldn't pass up a few outfits and paid to get Kit's ears pierced and some glasses for her too.  We checked out of the hotel and headed to Legoland in Schaumburg.  Mom took the Sammy-sitting-shift and hung out with him while Dad took us two big kids around the two story play land complete with a roller coaster, giant lego test area and cool displays.  Zach left with a nice gift and had "the best day ever"!  We hit up the Cheesecake Factory for duh...cheesecake as well.  In hindsight, we probably should have spent another night just to make all the packing worth it, but we were all kind of happy to come home.

The next weekend was Easter.  Nana came to visit for the weekend and Grandma and Grandpa D came down as well.  Turned out to be a beautiful day...can't remember eating Easter Dinner outside ever!  The Bunny was good to us all and we had fun spending the weekend with our families.  Mom and Dad even got to sneak out the night before for a couple of hours which they really appreciated.

On the last day of break, Mom took us to the local museum for a Dinosaur themed adventure.  There were crafts, dino egg hunts and a make your own Dino costume out of recycled material.  Let's just say we got RIPPED off!  Our costumes were 100% "green" and very creative but we both took honorable mentions.  Mom was probably more upset than us kids were.  No surprise since she spent 3 hours cutting cardboard and making costumes!  Some kid in a hooded bath towel with cutout ears and dinosaur jammies beat us for crying out loud!


The FOLLOWING weekend was the Girl Scout trip to St Louis.  This is noteworthy because just a month ago, Mom did not see how in the world she was going to be able to leave Sam for the night.  She even arranged to have a private hotel room, thinking he was going to come along and be and honorable Brownie for the weekend.  But lo and behold, he started reliably sleeping thru the night and she felt safe to leave him.  We kept so busy that she didn't have time to worry too much.  We did the City Museum on Saturday, swimming and dinner that night and the Gateway Arch on Sunday.  The Arch was simply amazing and if you have never done it, you really should.  The history of the construction is an incredible story.  Mom is so glad she went and I was too.  The boys did fine back home, but the only downfall was Sam decided on Monday he didn't want to nurse anymore, so he's strictly a bottle-baby now.  Mom was pretty sad, but Sam was ready so it's all for the best.  After the tears were shed, she's kind of happy to be finished up now.

Moving on...geeesh, that's only half of the month!  Dad's birthday was the next weekend.  We went up to the farm on Saturday so Zach could finally do some "plowing".  We celebrated Ben's birthday and came home that day.   On Sunday, Dad got the birthday he dreamed of...relaxing, computer games, a nice solitary 2 hour hike and then cherry chip cake, dinner at Burger Barge and presents.  Mom can't tease him too much about his age since she's right around the corner.

The following weekend was our Daddy/Daughter weekend.  We had the annual dance on Saturday night and then horseback riding with the Girl Scouts.  Plus, he spent the entire weekend helping me build my log cabin for our pioneer project at school.  It's almost done now, just some finishing touches to be put on. 

So much more for the rest of the month...Zach has a wiggly tooth (and totally freaked out about it), Sam is army crawling from here to China and back and never seems to get tired.  He can sit up now from a belly position which makes him SO much happier now.  No more running over to sit him up when he's flopping around like a fish out of water.  And he is consistently sleeping from 8:30-7:20 EVERY night, finally!!  Mom has spent a good deal of time this month bawling about how big her baby is.  Oh and Papa Miller stopped on his way back from FL last week to say hello for a bit.  We were happy to see him.  We'll be heading to WI this weekend (May 4th) for a visit while Dad goes and tries to stay out of trouble in Aurora.   This month will be even crazier with end of year programs, Pioneer Plays, Teeball practices and soccer starting up!  Should be lots of fun!

On the Ferris Wheel at the Pier

Dad made us walk to the very end of Navy Pier

We left our mark at Gino's

Lego tarantula

Lego Star Wars

AG Store

Pretty tulips on Michigan Ave,

At the Cheesecake Factory

Easter Eve, leaving carrots out

dyeing eggs w Nana

Baby's first Easter!

Mom's silly cake

DJ T-Rex

Our AWESOME costumes!...triceratops and T rex

Getting ready to go up into the Arch

35th Birthday, Daddy style

Father Daughter Dance

Girl Scout horseback riding

10 Months Old!

Happy May Day!
Katherine

March Madness

 Actually, there wasn't too much madness around here.  We enjoyed some REALLY warm temps in the eighties and played outside a ton and even got to go on the neighbor's waterslide at the end of the month.  Zach and Sam took a trip to Chuck E Cheese with some pals.  St Patrick's Day was fun with green eggs and ham for breakfast.  Sam had his nine month pics taken and they turned out really well.  He was sleeping much better for the most part and starting to scoot around on the floor quite a bit although his biggest frustration is not being able to keep up with the big kids.  We visited with Grandma and Grandpa when they got back from their trip and celebrated Grandma's birthday with her.  Mom and Dad even got a couple date nights in this month.  I brought home straight A's on my report card and kept really busy with some fun Girl Scout activities, piano and school.  Mom got to finally help out at one of Zach's preschool parties.  They had fun doing Easter crafts and eating cupcakes with the other kids.  Nana went to Florida with a friend and got to visit Papa Miller.  He is ready to come back to WI already, he says it's really, really hot there!  Mom joined a book club and is having fun getting out of the house more now that Sam does so well without her.  That's about it that we can recall!  We're all ready for Spring and enjoying the warm weather so far.

Fabulous February

The month of February went by unusually quick.  We were so happy to have a mild winter this year, even though there was barely any snow to play in all season.  I think we only played out in the snow twice this year.  I had a Presidents' Day program at school this month.  I was assigned the role of Mrs. Helen Taft.  I had to dress like her and read a 2 minute speech on what her husband did while in office.  He definitely wasn't the most interesting guy there was, but I did a great job and didn't get nervous one bit.  Valentine's Day was fun this year, we had pink chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and Zach and I both had parties at school which led to lots and lots of candy.  Mom and Dad gave me a pretty necklace and some race cars for Zach.  Mom and Dad left us with some friends and actually went out to dinner!  They went to a new place called Salt.  If you ask me, there's really nothing too exciting about eating somewhere that's known for fancy salts.  And who puts bacon on a brownie for dessert?  Gross!  Sam turned 8 months this month.  He's sitting up really well and wants to crawl, but can't quite figure it out yet.  We also borrowed a walker and tried putting him in that but he can't make his little legs go.  He's getting a reputation for being quite the eater, he'll eat just about anything we will.  After nearly 2 months, Mom is finally able to spend most nights in her own bed and isn't sleeping on the air mattress in his room anymore.  He's not quite going through the night yet, but some nights are better than others.  Zach has been having fun and keeping busy, too.  He took a trip to Bass Pro this month with a bunch of his preschool friends and had a blast bowling and playing.  He's not too excited to talk about kindergarten just yet, he seems to think he's going to have a lot of homework!  Mom signed him up for spring T-ball, and he will have a lot of preschool friends on his team so hopefully that will make it more fun for him.

There's our little February recap, more to come soon!

Holiday Catch-Up

The Holidays seem like ages ago and here we are, smack dab in the middle of January and finally feeling like it with the cold temps. It was SO nice last week that mom was able to walk to and from preschool with Sam on a balmy, 54 degree day! Then, we got our first major snow of the season 2 days later which forced her to cancel her margarita night :( No snow days for us yet. I have had plenty of breaks already though with MLK day and "improvement" days at school.

So Christmas was a blast with the exception of Mom getting stomach flu the week before. She was laid up for 2 days but fortunately none of us got it. Sam had a great first Christmas. Nana and Papa came for Christmas eve. It was so nice we could grill steaks and open gifts with them. We headed North the next day and had fun at Grandma D's. I'd have to say my favorite gifts this year were my Squinkie accessories and things for my dollhouse. Zach got a bunch of Transformers and some train toys that he plays with a lot. Dad didn't seem too thrilled with boring car mats and an umbrella, but that's what happens when you get old, Dad! Mom mostly got stuff for the kitchen and treated herself to a few things as well. She was wishing for some Christmas sleep, but that didn't happen.

On December 30th, Mom decided enough was enough. Dad had been sleeping in Zach's room all of break and the week before it. Zach was in my room and this teeny, tiny little baby had single-handedly managed to disrupt our entire house, making everyone cranky and longing for their own beds. So Mom bought a small air mattress and decided to camp out with Sam in his room until he slept in his crib all night. Today is January 19th and she still ends up on that mattress most nights! He's doing much better though. Instead of waking up every hour to nurse he only wakes up every 3 or so now, but he doesn't get to nurse until morning. Mom struggles with it but she figures since he eats 3 giant meals a day of solids, he should be able make it 6 hours without nursing. So there is a lot of back rubbing and music going on to calm him down at night, but none of us hear it. Some nights he'll go 4-5 hour stretches which feels like heaven, other nights it's every hour or two! One night he slept for TEN HOURS, but he was fighting off a cold. Mom is just happy to start the night in her own bed, even if she ends up in the baby's room at 3 am. More importantly, the rest of the family is rested and happy that Sam is learning how to sleep. Mom misses the cuddles so much though. Was that too much info on that topic? Probably so, but since Mom can't even remember what she had for breakfast most days, she figured it should be documented to show him someday! Sam is almost sitting up independently now, rolling both ways and really trying to figure out how to crawl. He is such a happy baby and he loves nothing more than being around us kids and watching us. He really brings us so much joy and Mom loves that there are lots of hands to help out with him :) Helping out with Sam and being a big brother has done wonders for Zach and makes him feel so special.

New Year's Eve was very quiet around here. We had fondue and watched a movie, but we all went to bed early! Maybe next year we can live it up.

I have been doing great! My last report card was all A's and one stinky B from a bad quarter of math...three digit subtraction with all zeros on top is hard stuff! I'm really advancing with my piano and Girl Scouts is the highlight of my month. I'm selling cookies again, but Dad has done the bulk of the selling since all his coworkers must really like cookies. His job is still really busy but he likes it a lot and I think he has fun being the boss at work since he's not the boss at home ;) Dad has been such a big help, taking us to movies and activities on the weekends to help Mom and letting her sleep in on the weekends. Him and Sam are best buddies now.

Zach still does tumbling and preschool. He is SO excited for his birthday at the end of the month. He's counting down the days until his Transformer Party at the pool. It's hard to believe when I was his age (2 weeks before my 5th birthday), I was starting Kindergarten already! It's probably a good thing he has a January Birthday, he still isn't excited about going to school all day yet.

Mom is finally getting back to the gym on a regular basis and determined to shape up for her "dream trip" this fall to somewhere exotic. Dad says it's a "pipe dream" whatever that is. All I know is I think Mom would leave us home alone if that's what it takes to go, she's very determined! But she's also very sleep-deprived which may be fogging her version of reality right now.

That's our little update from here. More to come after Zach's birthday!

Ciao for now.

Where's the Snow, Yo?

We were lucky to see a few inches of the white stuff while we were at Nana's last weekend. Other than that, it has been a very wet, dreary December so far. It's crazy how fast it goes by. Seems like just yesterday we were decorating the tree and now Christmas Eve is just a couple days away. We've been busy as usual. We made salt dough ornaments this year, cut out cookies and a gingerbread house. The gingerbread men will come tomorrow. Speaking of little men, Buddy the Elf came back and is up to his usual hijinx. Zach's action figures tied him up last night but we set him free in the morning. Good thing Santa emailed us a video this year and let us know we're on the nice list. Whew! We were all kind of sweating it. Zach had a program at his tumbling class this year and did great! He sang "Up on the Rooftop" and did wonderful. I had a Christmas party at school but Mom had to miss out because she had a stomach bug. Yuck. Somehow, we all managed to stay healthy, even Sam. Dad took us to see a Dinosaur show at the Civic Center earlier this month and I even got to take a friend AND have a sleepover! Speaking of sleep, that's something Sam still isn't doing much of at night, he's still waking up almost every hour. Mom feels like a zombie but he's really being so good during the day that it doesn't phase her too much. He's rolling over now and *almost* sitting up. It's fun to watch him change and grow. He LOVES being around us kids and loves being in his jumper. He started solids last month and boy can that kid put away the food!

Let's see what else we did this month...oh, we visited the new Bass Pro Shop Winter Wonderland and got to see Santa. We also had our Miller Christmas last weekend and had a fun time with all the family as usual. This weekend, Nana and Papa will come for Xmas Eve and then it's off to Grandma D's for Xmas Day. We're all SUPER excited and counting down. Dad's taking us shopping today for Mom and our cousins. He needs all the help he can get. Happy Holidays!





















Its Sammy Claus!

According to Zach...

"A pet is NOT a secret agent. Just so you know."

"I'm pretty sure the place Uncle Adam is going to has a secret lab"

"I've got good news and bad news and the bad news is that there's no good news today"

"I suppose you can try to fix it Mom, but you're just a girl"

"Mom, I think you should have another baby. A girl this time so Sam has a girlfriend"

Riders in the Sky

We went to our first CAT Holiday Show this year in the entire 12 years that Dad has worked there. We are so lucky they put on such a great performance for they employees and the cost to us is next to nothing. We chose to get balcony box seats for the privacy and wiggle room. The view isn't that great but it was nice to not have to worry about bothering anyone with the baby. Zach and Mom weren't crazy about heights though! We saw a country quartet called Riders in the Sky. They played some really neat Christmas songs and did some fun sing-a-longs. It really is starting to feel like the Holiday season now!!