Utah part 2

Nanny and Papa came home. It was exciting and overwhelming and there were even a few tears shed. (Which is odd only because my family is generally incapable of showing emotion)
My dad really wanted to surprise the grandkids so we lied to all of them and told them we were just getting together to celebrate all the summer birthdays in our family. No sooner had to party started than guess who walked in?!
The older girls (mostly Madi and Sage) were the cutest. Jaws dropped and then tears streaming down their cheeks. SO cute.
My kids were mostly overwhelmed. AnDee remembered my parents fairly well but Im pretty sure Pep just thought they lived in our computer (FaceTime) and Ike just had no clue. Isaac was born about a month after they left for Hong Kong so this was a special meeting for them.

They of course came bearing gifts. All the girl cousins got these awesome little Kimono dresses and the boys got a dragon t-shirt and a hat. Ike got some sweet p.j's that look like traditional Chinese clothes.

We sure missed them and we were so happy we got to stay at their house and spend some good time with them. It didn't take long for the kids to warm right up and things were back to normal.

Utah Part 1

We were super lucky to have Dave fly out to Utah with us. And by "we" I actually mean I. I was super lucky to have Dave's help. The actual plane ride was easy peasy. It was getting through security and getting everyone fed and to the bathrooms and blah blah blah that I would have REALLY struggled with without him.
The kids all did great on the flight. In fact, Dave even got to sleep for  most of the flight cause they were angels and I honestly didn't even need any help.
Yes... I bribed them with iPads. Don't judge.

Grandma Pam picked us up from the airport and after dropping our stuff off at Nana and Papa's house we headed up to Grandma Pam's for a birthday bbq for Aunt Amy and AnDee. The kids were super excited to see their cousins and all the animals they had been missing so badly.

We sure do miss our puppies.

 Wyatt's pony had a baby while we were there (not that same day but while we were in Utah). The kids (especially Pep) were in love.

Later that evening Aunt Amber, Uncle Jason and their families came to play! Being reunited with these cousins was like a dream come true!

For the first few days it was pretty quiet. I got to go running up on the canal path and play soccer a couple of times with my friends (which I had been DYING to do)

We spent a lot of time at Aunt Gayle's house and with Grandma Pam.

And got to play hide and seek with Dave (which is always a good time)

So relaxing and fun but we sure were missing Andrew badly. None of us were adjusting well to not having dad around.

La Grange Parade

This is the last post I have to catch up on before I get started on all the Utah posts I have to catch up on. Hooray??
The day after AnDee's birthday we jumped back on the train and headed over to meet some friends in La Grange for their parade.

 The kids enjoyed it for about a half an hour...

Ike definitely had the best seat in the house. The rest of us were sweating in the sun.

AnDee especially liked it when the fire truck honked its horn.. hehe

and then this happened...

This "little" girl (who was young yes.. but little? no) stood DIRECTLY in front of my children and stole every piece of candy that was thrown our way. The people to the sides of us started taking pity and offered us some of their candy since Violet Beauregarde was stealing all of ours.  When its that hot,  and you aren't getting any candy.... its just not worth it. Parades aren't that fun. So we left early and went to the ice cream shop before the crowds got there.

She's 5

Lets throw it back to about a month ago. To when this girl...

Turned 5!
 I know what you are thinking... "How did this happen?! She can't possibly be that old!"
But much to my dismay, the little lady is growing up. And much too quickly.
I would like to put in to words how much this little Buggy girl means to me but it would be beyond impossible. So in an attempt to make it a little more simple I will give you five words to describe my bff
1. Intelligent (Like scary smart)
2. Kind (Has the most tender heart and is always looking out for others, especially her brothers)
3. Forgiving (Sometimes Im not a great mom to her. I tend to be extremely hard on her and she has heard WAY to many lectures for a girl her age but she loves me anyway and never hesitates to forgive and forget)
4. Funny. (I can't believe the stuff she comes up  with and it is legitimately funny. She is witty and clever and it makes me proud)
5. Gorgeous ( I hate to make looks a priority. In reality they are not a priority at all but you can't deny beauty when you see it. She is SO unique with her different colored eyes and her freckled yet somehow tan skin. She doesn't appreciate her uniqueness now. But Im hoping that as she grows she will see how absolutely gorgeous she is and that uniqueness is something to embrace, not to be ashamed of. She has it in her head that she needs to have blond hair and blue eyes to be pretty but her beauty comes straight from her Heavenly Father and it amazes me)

Her birthday was kind of a big deal this year. Dave flew out from Utah a couple of days before so we of course had to treat him to some Lou Malniti's pizza!

  They restaurant even had a pic of Dave on the menu!! (Which is sideways cause Im too lazy to turn it)

For months before her birthday came around she was telling us how she wanted to go to the big ferris wheel in Chicago and so... we ventured in to the city on her birthday (By train of course)

We walked from Union Station to Navy Pier so we (of course) had to stop and do some of the touristy stuff along the way. Our first stop was Willis Tower. Which AnDee loved... and it didn't scare me at all to stand on the glass floor that had just cracked the day before.
I had to take a picture of Dave taking a selfie so he could see how ridiculous he looked. All the Asian people had selfie sticks (weird stick things that you can hook your phone on the end of)  that they carried with them. It made taking selfies SO much cooler :)

  See!! She LOVED it!!!

  and again... not scared at all. Look at how happy I am!

Next stop was the fountains and then the bean!

and then we trekked the rest of the way to Navy Pier and FINALLY reached the ferris wheel that AnDee had been waiting months and months to ride!
Our family pictures are always a joy to look at...

 After we were all partied out and got some food in our tummies we caught a cab, (our very first) smashed our family in the back and headed back to the train station.  It really was such fun day and we always enjoy the city. 

As always the birthday was a bitter sweet one for me. Cant she just stay little? Im seriously so proud of who she is becoming though and so eternally grateful that she is mine. Happy Birthday Miss AnDee Lew!!! WE LOVE YOU!

Medieval Times

We splurged a while back and took the kids to Midieval Times. It was super fun and entertaining. I remember going there as a kid and LOVING it. As an adult its not quite as magical but it is impressive on a different level. There really is a lot of skill that goes into it and the horses are absolutely incredible. Plus... who doesn't like watching a bunch of grown men play dress up and sword fight?!

 AnDee was super excited. Our knight was the red knight. He was pretty good but in the end he fell to the green knight. It was a sad moment. But before that happened he had a chance to present a flower to AnDee and impress us by winning the jousting competition.

We ate good food with our hands and we cheered and just had a good time. Ike mostly just chilled and drank a whole lotta watered down apple juice. He wasn't quite as excited about the whole deal as the other two were but he didn't complain.

When they did the jousting competition they dropped nets down in front of the audience because they actually do joust with wooden jousts that splinter and break and the wood goes flying everywhere. When the nets came down Pep panicked a little. He looked up at his dad with concern "Dad!? why are we trapped?!!!"

Runnin

Andrew and I did a 3.5 mile race in downtown Chicago a few weeks back. It was super fun cause we got to do it with some friends from work AND they fed us some awesome BBQ after! When we signed up for the race we had to put in a goal time for what we thought we could do the race in. Andrew put us both in for an 8 min mile. I thought he was totally crazy. Running an 8 minute mile has never been a problem for me as long as we keep it at that. ONE MILE. Not three and a half! But I decided I was gonna give it my best and just before the race I was finally running 3.5 miles at an 8 min mile average. However... There were thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of people running this race. Trying to dodge everyone was a joke. Poor Andrew about killed himself trying to make the time. About a week before the race one of the discs in his back slipped, then he had to jump on a plane to Houston for a few days and he arrived in Illinois approximately 1 1/2 hours before the race was to start. Thanks to traffic and parking he arrived at the race exactly 5 minutes before starting time. He hurried and changed and we were off. And by about a mile in... he was hurting. He is a champ though and pushed through it. I came in about an 8.10 minute mile and Andrew was right behind me. Being my first race I had no idea how hard it was going to be to try to weave through that many people. That being said.. it made it way more entertaining! I pretty much hate running so dodging and sprinting and trying not to get trampled made the race go by super fast! Im glad we did it AND we ranked at the top for our corporation! Good times!

Summer

Im here again.. you know, that place where you have SO much stuff to blog about that you don't even wanna start? But Im feeling the need to start digging out of my hole. So bear with me as I take this one tiny baby step at a time...

Summer finally arrived! Things started heating up and we needed some cooling down. It started with a mixing bowl, a hose and a couple of squirt guns...

Which really was a lot of fun. But I broke down and purchased a $10 kiddie pool from walmart and we pretty much became the coolest kids in the neighborhood.

Plus, Ike looks like a duck whenever he plays in it which is pretty much a win in my book.

In other news... Buggy decided that an ink pad could double as eye shadow.

Isn't it lovely? The first pic is of her reaction to me telling her that it might not come off. Luckily it did wash off fairly easily.