Meeting Sweet Baby Logan

On Friday, May 9, 2014, Alex and I started a weekend of fun. We dropped the babes off at Mom's house early in the morning and we got on the road. We were heading up to downtown Chicago for the weekend. We had plans just the two of us for Friday night and plans with his coworkers (and our friends) on Saturday night.

 

We started early and headed to Burbank to meet Mr. Logan. Tammy had had Logan on April 29th. I was so excited to see his perfect little face! Logan was such a big baby but Tammy is champ and has done so awesome with him since he's arrived.

 

I brought my camera to take a few pictures of this sweet boy. Sleeping is already not something he likes to do very often. Anytime I could grab a quick picture with his eye closed and his hands not in his mouth, I would.

This is my favorite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a few hours with Tammy, Chris, Logan, and Nicholas just hanging out. Nicholas loved having Alex there to play with him. Chris and Alex tried to kill a snake that was in the dog's pen. Tam and I just talked and admire how perfect Logan is. Tammy is such a great mom. She doesn't get stressed. She doesn't get overwhelmed. She just deals with whatever is going on in the moment. She is so laid back and just does what she needs to to make her babies happy.

 

Congratulations on your perfect babe, Tammy and Chris.

 

We had such a great time just hanging out with them. Everytime I get to just sit and chill with my friends, it makes me wish that we lived in the suburbs and got to do this all of the time.

Farm Park Time!!!

We have been waiting patiently for the Farm Park to open in East Peoria. We love our trips here. Animals everywhere and plenty of fun stuff to do!

We met our fabulous friends, the Becks, at the park on May 8.

Charlotte and Kaedence were so excited!

Anytime Charlotte sees "baby" anything, she is IN LOVE.

Baby ducks.

They have a big cow with "udders" that squire "milk". So, clearly the kids LOVE practicing "milking" the cow.

She is a natural.

This is a big deal. Charlotte isn't a fan of feeding the animals. Even though she wants to be an "animal doctor" when she grows up, she is still scared to let the animals eat out of her hands. She's getting REAL close here!

The three older kids and some random girl trying to be part of our group. Sorry, blue dress girl, members only.

He LOVES the animals :)

 

 

I LOVE this one.

Kaedence loves horses. In fact, she will randomly tell you "I LOVE horses." This place is awesome to her. And these horses are like her favorite part.

Giddy up!!

Look at this walker!!! She toddled all around the farm park....trying to keep up with the big kids, and trying to run away from mommy the entire time.

Here is our crew!

Maegen came prepared with candy.

She is becoming quite the daredevil at playgrounds.

 

These two crack me up. Charlotte having attitude. Normal. Kaedence with a horse. Normal.

 

It's always a blast :)

Kaedence talking to the pony :)

The two babes milked the cow.....or played in the gross liquid that comes out of it.

 

 

 

We had so much fun playing at the farm park. We took a picnic lunch. Everyone got full then we headed home for naps. It was finally perfect weather and the day couldn't have been more perfect....

Callie and Diane In Illinois!

We were so excited to have some Charleston visitors in the great state of Illinois!!!

Diane and Callie flew in from Charleston on Thursday May 1 in the afternoon. They flew from Myrtle Beach to Chicago. Diane's brother-in-law picked them up from the airport and we all met in Naperville (a Southwest suburb) for some delicious deep dish pizza....Chicago style. It was so good seeing them!!!! AHHHH!!! I was so excited I wanted to jump out of my skin!

 

We enjoyed pizza and the company of Diane's amazing sister and her beautiful family. We then loaded into the car and drove the two hours back home. By the time we got home that night it was 10 pm. We put the babes to bed, caught up with Alex and had some girl talk then we all went to sleep.

 

They came dressed for chilly Charleston but not dressed for Spring Illinois :) It was still a bit too cold for them :) No worries, I had plenty of fleeces and sweatshirts to go around. On Friday morning, I gave them a riding tour of town and the area. We had lunch down by the river. Naturally, the babies were in tow with us. We did a bit of shopping and headed back home.

We had big plans to go out Friday night. We were going to hit the townie bars but all three of us were just wanting to veg out, watch a movie, and have girl talk. So we popped a chick flick in and just relaxed. It was perfect!

 

On Saturday morning, we headed uptown to hang out and let the kids run around outside. I showed them the beauty of the Metamora square. They went and looked at antiques for a bit and we froze our booties off watching the kids burn some energy off.

Naturally we had to get a picture with Abe Lincoln while we were up there....

Then, we had some fabulous girl time. Mary came over to watch the kids so that we could go shopping and go get lunch. We ate some pub food and browsed the stores at Grand Prairie. No matter how much I LOVE my kids, it is sometimes nice to get to hang out with friends without have kids around.

 

We then headed home to get ready for a get together Alex had planned. He was having friends over from his work and I had invited Jodi and her family over as well. He had spent the past few nights getting the food ready for it. Such a good host.

 

Alex got home early from work and got the grill started. Us girls helped out as much as we could but Alex pretty much had everything under control :)

 

Even Papa came over to visit after he had gone to a different party first.

We got a bunch of the toys out for the kids that had come. We looked so fancy with a bus in the front yard...

The big man in charge of the grill.

This is serious stuff.

Callie and Emily became best friends :)

That's one thing about Em, she attracts lovers from everywhere :)

One of Alex's masterpieces...

Jodi loved it.

Clearly.

We. Are. Cool.

We all stayed inside with the babes while mostly everyone else was outside. Regardless, it was a blast of a night.

 

Sawyer finally got close to someone besides me :)

And I am pretty sure I am going to frame this and give it to Derrick. This is the only time Sawyer has ever gone to him :)

Love these two ladies so much.

Such a fun weekend and fun night.

This was in between finding our favorite bootie shake songs and while we creeped on the internet.

On Sunday morning, we got up BRIGHT and early. We loaded up the Avengar and headed to the Windy City. We took a pit stop at Panera for bagels and kept on going. We went to the Tory Burch outlet first. Callie is so hilarious. She had two requirements on this trip....to see me and to go to the Tory Burch outlet in Chicago. Done and Done. So we did the outlets first. So many great deals. So many great stores. AND they were all inside.... nice and warm.

 

Then we headed to Uncle Julio's for lunch in the city on our way to Michigan Avenue. The food was delicious.

 

We then headed to Navy Pier to park.

Here was our view as we got out from the parking garage!

HELLO CHICAGO!

In the city....

 

 

We browsed lots of stores. We ended up at Water Tower Place where were did a bunch of browsing.

 

Legos. Duh.

 

I mean, that's cool. He's in the Windy City. See his scarf flying???

The million dollar store. :)

I feel like I could climb this....

We had dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. Yummmm

No idea. I mean, why wouldn't I make that face?

After lots and lots of shopping and lots and lots of calories, we headed back to the car.

 

The girls had a very early flight out in the morning so they had booked a hotel to stay in that night near Ohare. I ended up bringing clothes and just sleeping at the hotel. We had lots of girl talk and Diane's fabulous sister was able to join us for a few hours of girl talk. We all slept like logs and were on the road to the airport by 5:45 in the morning.

 

It was such an awesome weekend. I loved every minute of having them here. When I lived in Charleston and didn't have family there, these girls were my family (still are.) They (along with some others) were the ones that were always there....whether to talk, go shopping, go out, lay around in jammies....whatever.

 

D and Callie, thank you so much for taking the time and money to come visit us. Illinois at the beginning of May is NOT exciting but seeing you WAS! Love you and I am so thankful for you.