Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend I went with Logan on a business trip to Chicago. He had to work 13 hour days on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, but Carli and I had a lot of fun wandering the city. I, of course, didn't take any pictures. My excuse is that it was too hard with just me and Carli. Besides, I found pictures that are way better than any I would have taken (except that they don't have Carli in them). We stayed at a hotel on the Magnificent Mile and we got there Saturday night. My first Chicago experience was deep dish pizza. I found out why we call them "pizza pies". Mmmmm. . .

Sunday we walked around Navy Pier. It was a cool place and it was perfect weather. At Navy Pier we walked through the stained glass museum. It had beautiful artwork. We also went to a "beach" on the lake.
Monday we walked the Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue. It was fun to "shop". Logan said I'm ruining Carli's idea of shopping - she's never heard the "ding" of the cash register. I should have come home with some $300 Prada sunglasses or something. . .

This picture isn't very clear, but I saw this guy on Michigan Avenue. I wouldn't have taken a picture of him anyway since he charged for pictures. Ha ha, I got one anyway. He was pretty good, but he certainly was serious about no photos until he got paid.
Tuesday we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Not my thing. I like the old stuff. Don't get me wrong, I love art, those were some of my favorite classes in college. But, I'm not really into the stuff I feel like I (or Carli) could do myself or that makes me feel really uncomfortable. Call me shallow, but I'm a feel-good type. I don't particularly like to ponder drugs, or school masacres, or other such things the way those artists portray them. I feel like they often try to blame society and me as an individual for the horrible things in life instead of calling for change through their art. I suppose I just don't have the mind of an artist, I just don't comprehend what they're point is a lot of the time. Anyway, I guess it made me think, either way.
I also went to American Girl Place Tuesday. It was one of my favorite places, as I was very much into American Girl when I was younger. It of course had a store where you could buy the dolls and the books and everything. (There are a lot more girls than there were when I was into it!) It also had a photo studio where you could get your picture on the cover of the magazine. There was a theater with live characters, a doll hair salon, and a place where you and your doll could dress alike. I almost envied the little girls carrying their dolls around in the store because I had always wanted a doll - not that I ever could have decided which one I wanted anyway. It was a fun trip down memory lane.

Otherwise we ate a lot of pizza, walked a lot and I took Carli to dip her toes in the pool. She absolutely loved it. In fact, she splashed her feet so much that the bottom of her onesie was soaked, so I took it off and dipped her in the pool up to her shoulders. She gasped a tiny bit but then shrieked with delight. All in all it was a great time for Carli and me. It sure beat being alone all weekend without Logan. And, fun for us, he gets a 3 day weekend this weekend to compensate.

Carli is growing up and is so much fun. She is becoming incredibly social and she gets so sad if you walk away even just a little. Then she giggles when you come back into view. She does this cute little chirp when she "talks" to you now and she can hardly get to sleep because she has so much fun talking, wrestling her blankets and trying to grab the little bunny and kitty in her crib. What a cutie! I'll post pictures of her soon.

Family Fun

It was a fun week around here last week with Grammie and Aunt Aubrey here. We did quite a few things and they helped a lot with Baby Rory, Haven and Carli. I only captured a few of the moments, but we were sure glad to spend time all together.

Carli with her Aunt Aubrey.

Grammie and her girls. (Yes, Carli has a binki. It was either that or screaming.)

Mother's Day was great. Everyone stayed at our house Saturday night and we woke up to a wonderful breakfast made by Logan and Ben. Logan spoke in church and I led the primary (I'm the primary chorister) in singing "Mother Dear". Lori was great to take care of Carli during all of the meetings. Afterwards we ate a great Mexican meal, Logan, Ben and Aubrey showered Lori, Rachel and me with lots of fun gifts - new clothes, chocolates, jewelry, etc. It was also so thoughtful of Tom to also give us chocolates. It's been a little while since I've had chocolates mmmmmmm. . . I was reminded how wonderful it is to be a mother and to have such great examples of mothers in my life. It seems I owe so much of my happiness to those two things alone. Thank you to all of the mothers who have helped to shape me, especially my own mother.

Here's to our moms. (Sorry Dads, for the purose of this post you got cut out of the picture.)

And here's to the little girl who makes me a mom - who, by the way, became officially mobile today. She rolled across the room until she was stopped by the tv stand. Child proofing, here we come!

Our House

A few people have asked for pictures of our house. I have some, (I took some to use on a virtual decorator on the internet, so they're not great) but please realize we have done almost no decorating. I can't make up my mind - maybe some of you have some ideas and suggestions?

These two pictures make up our front room. I'm taking the picture from the entryway. To my left are the stairs to the basement. The doors lead out to our back deck. The archways lead to the kitchen. To my right is the hallway to the bedrooms.

Above is our kitchen. This is my favorite room in the house. To the right is the entrance to the great room. Behind me is the mud room and garage.

This is the master bedroom. To the left and back is the master bathroom. Behind me is the door to the hallway.

I didn't take pictures of the nursery or the guest bedroom or bath. And, as you can see I don't have a wide lense to take good architectural pictures, but hopefully these will do for those of you who were curious. Like I said, I'd love your ideas on how to decorate - as of now it is lots and lots of white - we need some color and personality.

Carli Q

Welcome Aurora May!

Our little niece was born last Thursday and we are so excited to welcome her here! It's so fun to live close to Ben and Rachel and their two little girls. I think Aurora May is such a beautiful name! Good thing, 'cause she is a beautiful girl.

We're happy to have Grammie and Aunt Aubrey come to visit the three little girls. It's amazing how watching this tiny baby has made me look at Carli so differently. She's so big and old! She's growing up and seems to be cuter and cuter everyday. I just can't get enough of her!