Happy 80th Birthday Grandpa!

My grandpa, Gwen's great-grandpa, celebrates his 80th birthday on New Year's Day. Him and my grandma spend the winter in Florida, so they always stop in Morton on their drive there to see everyone for a little late Christmas celebration. This year, Grandpa didn't know that not only my family and the Bates family were there, all of his kids and grandkids were there to surprise him. He is a quiet, kind of low key type man that doesn't like too much attention, but you could tell he was really excited and touched that everyone came. It was a fun celebration...Gwen's very lucky to still have 3 of her great-grandparents around!

Christmas 2011

Gwen was excited for her 2nd Christmas

Gift Opening at Grandma and Grandpa Erwin's

Erwin Cousins

Santa Came!

Bad reaction to Santa

Ralph Christmas...Gwen's cousins and Adam's cousin's kids

Bad Reaction to Mall Santa

Mall Playland with Ellie and Sylvie...she LOVES her big girl cousins

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!!!

"Berry Piss!"

As I said in my last post, Gwen has really started to talk...well, for the last week or so she has been looking me straight in the eye saying what seems to be "Berry Piss". I know she knows the word "berry" because she loves the food, but "piss"???...that's not exactly a word I use to her or even at all. She kept saying it and I could tell she was getting frustrated that I could not figure out what she was telling me.

The other day we were at the grocery store and we saw a picture of Santa. I said, "Look Gwen, it's Santa. Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!" in a Santa like voice impression. She said right back "Ho Ho Ho, Berry Piss!"

So, if I don't get a chance to see you before the 25th:

BERRY PISS!!!!

Gwen's Lingo

Gwen has started coming up with different words and phrases that are so funny and cute to hear come from her little high pitched voice. Some of my favorites are:

"Oh, hi guys" when she holds a phone to her ear

"Oh no!" when she purposely spills milk from her sippy cup

"Diggy go?" when she searches for Diggy

"Stir, Stir, Stir" when she's eating anything in a bowl with a spoon

"Go Bye Bye" as she puts one of my huge purses on her shoulder

She's getting so big and learns so much every day. I feel like every night when Adam comes home I'm trying to remember all the new things she did or said that day. She's at such a fun age.

In other news, our house is progressing. I haven't taken a picture for a week or so but these are pictures taken in the last few weeks or the progress.

It's exciting to be able to actually see something that resembles a house rather than just a hole now :)

Thanksgiving and Other November Events

Like most months, November went so fast! We have had a good month and had lots of time with our friends and family!

Gwen and Adam lounging

Gwen's playdate with Tucker and Paisley

Playland with Scarlett and Sylvie

Thanksgiving morning with Addi and Sam

We had a great Thanksgiving and got to spend it with both sides of our family, the morning with Adam's family at Jay's house in Dunlap, and the afternoon with my family at my parent's in Morton. My grandma who will be 81 this year plus 3 of my aunts and their families also came. We got lots of quality time with the Boekers in (and are getting sad that their move is approaching) and spent lots of time together at our home. I love holidays and love family get togethers. Now soooo excited that the Christmas season has begun!

Baby Boy!

We found out yesterday that our baby is a boy!!! I was almost certain it would be a girl, I guess because my pregnancy has been so similar to when I was pregnant with Gwen, but I was wrong! I am so excited to see how having a boy compares to a girl.

Besides finding the sex out, everything looked great and healthy! I got a lot of comments about how he can't sit still and he's busy...just like with Gwen. I also feel him moving around a ton...just like with Gwen. If this is an indication of what he will be like once he is born, I think I will have TWO very busy, very active, young ones to keep their mom very busy :) Can't wait!

Kitchens Kitchens Kitchens

We have been spending a lot of time at kitchen stores. There is so much to pick out; cabinets, floors, counters, sinks, faucets, hardware, appliances, etc. Gwen HATES these errands, haha. Our visits to these stores usually start out okay, then she starts getting bored and starts whining in the cart, then we give her a toy and she gets bored, then we give her a snack and she gets bored, then we finally resort to letting her run loose. We always leave stores with her looking like a complete rugrat-black hands and knees from playing on the gross floors, food usually on her face, clothes dirty, hair messy, the whole works. There is one store, however, that she can NOT get enough of and is sad when it's time to leave....

This store has an 11 week old puppy that comes to work with the owners. Gwen LOVES to play with it and they chase eachother around. Lucky for us, this is the place that we are buying from, so I hope they keep bringing that dog to work for our future visits. Isn't it cute??? Makes me think maybe we should get another puppy :)

Ironically, this is where she goes to sit when we get home, ontop of her kitchen. Maybe I should get her a potty chair for when we start picking out bathroom items.

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween! Gwen is at an age where everything scares her, so this year she hasn't been the biggest fan of Halloween :) She does really like pumpkins though, so we baked a "pumpkin" and she dressed up as a pumpkin.We visited the Trick-or-Treating Adam's work had this afternoon. Initially she was having a horrible time...between the strange men saying hi to her, some of the decorations, and some of the older kids scary costumes, she basically cried for the first half hour. After someone gave her a juice box, and she got into some candy, she started thinking Halloween was pretty great.

Hope everyone else had a good Halloween. I think Gwen will be a bigger fan next year!

The Start of Our New Home

We decided a few months ago when we were in Morton that we were going to build a house here in Mahomet. My dad just finished a house in Morton that he walked us through, said it was easy to build, it has plenty of room so we won't grow out of it anytime soon, and we thought it was really cute. After working on lining everything up, it finally was started at the end of last week. All that's happened is the basement was dug, but I am excited that the process has begun!

Even though we just dug a hole, we already had to spend the weekend at various stores talking with people about what we like for cabinets, counters, bathrooms, hardware, flooring, etc. We are waiting on a lot of quotes and actually already purchased tile for 2 bathrooms. It is a bit overwhelming, but we are excited and had fun!

October's Ending

I can't believe October is already almost over. As you can tell, the weather at the beginning of the month when we got our pumpkins was hot and sunny. It has slowly been getting colder and colder, but we still try to make it outside as much as we can to play! Adam's been traveling to Alabama a lot for work, and since Gwen's cousins, the Boekers, are moving to Texas around Christmas, we have been going to Morton more often for her to play with them. She LOVES Sylvie, and her and Scarlett have just started to get to an age where they play. Gwen's great grandparents (my dad's mom and dad) were in Morton this past weekend, so we also got to see them this month. Besides that, we are looking forward to November. We are excited to find out if our baby's a boy or girl and for Thanksgiving!

An Anniversary, a Birthday,and a New Bed

This past week Adam and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. In some ways it seems like we've been married forever, but in some ways it seems like the wedding was yesterday! We had our babysitter stay late and the two of us met after work at Kofusion (where we had our first date) for an appetizer, then went next door to Jim Gould's for dinner. GREAT food and nice to be able to eat a leisurely meal at a nice restaurant!

Then Saturday, Diggy celebrated his 4th birthday. I always knew he was a great dog and we love him soooo much, but this past year seeing how good he is to Gwen has made me feel even more lucky to have found him. Any dog that will let a toddler yank his ears, wrestle him, sit on him, etc. but still snuggles her and barks at her door if she's crying should win an award if you ask me! We got him some dog bones from the butcher counter and he has been in heaven gnawing away.

Since it was both his birthday and our anniversary, we got a present that benefits the 3 of us-a nice new huge comfy bed. Last round of my pregnancy, I had to sleep on the futon half of the time because there just wasn't room for Adam sleeping normally, Diggy laying completely horizontally, and me on my side with about a zillion pillows. So this time, we aren't living in a tiny condo and had room to get the 3 of us a nice big bed. It felt great to have so much room last night. I'm going to enjoy sleeping sprawled like a starfish on my back until the side sleeping has to start!

Gwen's First Sick Day

We had a great, relaxing fall weekend. Adam, Gwen and I had Shawna over for dinner, we went to the farmers market, we made a nice dinner Saturday night, we took walks, I got to have a "day off" to go to Oakbrook to shop with my cousin Emily, etc.

Gwen has been working on getting her K-9's for awhile now, so she has been getting up pretty early and been a little fussier than usual. She's already been a bit fussier from teething, so when she got a slight cold Monday, it didn't really seem to make her act any different. Then Tuesday morning, her cold was worse and she was kind of uncomfortable when we went to storytime, but she was still acting happy, laughing, dancing, trying to take other kids' toys, etc, so I assumed she just had a cold. I laid her down for her nap, the babysitter got here, and I left for work.

When I got home, she was on the couch not playing, liquid was running out of her eyes with green goop in the corners, she was coughing, and had green snot dripping down to her lip. She looked so miserable. We took her temp and when it went to 99, we didn't even wait to finish the reading and headed to prompt care.

I assumed we would get there and they would give us something to help with her cold, but it didn't occur to me that she would have an ear infection or pink eye (I have never really seen what pink eye looks like). I felt sooooo bad! I just assumed the tiny bit of fussiness was from teething, but she had ear infections in both ears :( And I felt bad also that I had taken her to storytime and had the babysitters come, when pink eye is so contagious (I have no clue where she got it from).

Anyways, we headed to the pharmacy to get prescriptions and I called into work today to stay home with her. She has slept a lot today, is still coughing and stuffed up, but her eyes look WAY better (still a little red, but no green and not as much liquid).

I guess getting her first sickness at 14 months isn't too bad, but I wish it wasn't all of this at once!

U of I Homecoming and Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend, we had lots of fun with family and friends enjoying the BEAUTIFUL fall weather in the Midwest!

Saturday was U of I's homecoming football game. A lot of my college girlfriends and their husbands/boyfriends/kids came to celebrate together. We tailgated on campus for most of the day. The game started early, so we had lots of good food, drinks, and catching up (oh yeah, and listening to the football game :).

Gwen sneaking into the adult drinks cooler, yikes!
Paisley 8 months, Tucker, 6 months and Gwen 13 months "playing"

All of the girls (and Tucker)

After some tailgating, us girls went and toured our old sorority house (looks the exact same, ha) and the men were brave and took the little ones to the end of the football game! The rest of the afternoon we all did our own thing, but we met up for dinner that night. It was a great day and something that we decided should be a tradition!

Today, we met the Boekers at Rader Family Farms (a big pumpkin patch). We got there before it opened, so ended up at Avanti's for lunch to kill time. After an hour, we met my mom and dad at the farm and had a fun day.

Kristie, Cal, Sylvie, and me jumping on the huge balloon, so much fun ha!

Hayrack Ride

Gwen and Scarli in the wagon (at lunch they were sitting across from eachother going "Yaaah" and "Mmmmm" back and forth, it was so cute)

Scarlett went down the big slide!

Sylvs and Cal on a ride

Playing in the corn

We all had a really fun weekend. It's rare that all 3 of us find the same activities really fun, but I think we were successful the past 2 days!

Fall Fun!

We had a great weekend full of fun fall activities! Adam got back from Alabama after 2 weeks there (minus two days home last weekend, and he has to go back tomorrow) late Thursday night, so Friday he only worked half day. We got to enjoy the weather and go for a long walk in the sun and out for lunch. After he got home for work, we met the Pletchers for Indian food at a really good little place they discovered.


Saturday morning the weather was beautiful again, so we made it to Reese's soccer game. It was cute to see her team "The Blueberries" play their game. Gwen had fun playing with all of the spare soccer balls and watching the part of the game when the parents could go out and play soccer with the kids.

After the soccer game, we picked up Shawna and Makayla to go to Curtis Orchard. It was really fun, we let the girls swing and see the little animals, we had snacks, we picked apples, etc. Makayla is about 6 months older than Gwen, but she's a little peanut and Gwen's big for her age, so they are about the same size.

Makayla was not scared to feed the goat right out of her hand, it was so cute!

Today we went to church, out for lunch, ran errands, and entered into a new phase of parenting. We think today might have been the day where Gwen entered the "Terrible Thirteen Months" (an early version of the Terrible Twos). She hit Adam a couple of times and pulled my hair. She yelled "No No No" to us after about everything we said. She fussed at everything if she didn't get her way. The grand finale was when she had her first one minute time out in her high chair, haha. We felt like we had to do something after she pulled Adam's lip, he said no, and she bit his shoulder as hard as she could. I always used to think kids learned to hit or bite from older siblings or other kids, but it is definitely instinct because she has never witnessed these types of naughty behaviors. Don't get me wrong, she was sweet and good for most of the day and is currently smiling and playing happily, but I think we have a sweet yet very feisty one on our hands :)

13 Months and Getting into Everything...Literally

Gwen's busy, busy, busy and has been "getting into" things ever since she was old enough to crawl and pull herself up. Lately, though, her hobby has been REALLY getting into things. She must like to sit in small snug places because I have found her playing in suitcases, trying to get into open drawers, crawing into her armour, etc. Below are a few of the times we have actually caught her with the camera when she gets into things.

Watching TV in the toybox

Lounging in the laundry basket at Grandma and Grandpas

I have a feeling she's going to be the type of kid that has a lot of childhood injuries because she's pretty daring. Her other newest hobby is climbing. She can get onto things like beds, chairs,couches, etc. This past week she was playing with the toys in her room and I was in the living room folding laundry. I heard her start laughing and squealing happily, so I went into her room and found her standing up and bounding on the chair in her room! She was clapping and so proud, haha. I had my phone in my hand, so quick snapped a picture before I told her "No No No!" and got her down.

Never a dull moment :)