How to keep a preschooler busy...

Shortly after Leah went to sleep for her morning nap today, I sat down and realized that I had a few phone calls to make. There are times when Caleb is great at entertaining himself, but for whatever reason he seems to know that when I'm on the phone, it's a great chance to get into trouble. Needless to say, I had to come up with a plan.

Several months ago I bought a box of fruit loops with the hope of making fruit loop necklaces with Caleb. As with many of my great plans, they were put on the back burner. Partially because I kept forgetting, but also because Tyler managed to eat 2 of the 3 boxes of fruit loops that I have now purchased. I knew today would be a great chance to bust out that box (before Tyler got his hands on it). It turned out to be a great activity for Caleb and kept him very busy. First was the stringing, which required plenty of concentration. His favorite part was eating all of the pieces that were broken and couldn't be used. When he was all done, he was SO proud of his work. He told me that he couldn't wait to show his daddy his necklace. I'm sure daddy would've been happy to know that his son was wearing a necklace all morning long! Unfortunately, the evidence of all his hard work was gone within about an hour. He devoured every bit of the necklace. I let him wear the string for awhile, but eventually told him he had to part ways with it.

Our Love Story

Today is Valentine's Day. What better day could there be to share the story of how we went from....

THIS (our first date)

TO THIS

Before we get from point A to point B, there is a little bit of explaining to give regarding how we even arrived at point A. The story varies a bit depending upon who is telling it. For the sake of this being our "family" blog, I'll try to give it from the most neutral point of view!

It all started back in August of 2002. A few of my sorority sisters were planning on going to hang out at a fraternity house down the street. I decided it would be fun to get out and enjoy the college life before all the craziness of classes, project, exams, and so forth got into full swing. While at the fraternity house, we decided that a drinking game was the only appropriate way to pass the time. As the hours passed on, we had our share of fun! Soon enough it was time to head back to the Alpha Phi house. As fate would have it, I was walking downstairs to go home and a very attractive guy caught my attention. As ironic as it was, I was holding tightly to the stair railing so as not to lose my balance and he was holding tightly to his Bible. Upon first noticing the large Bible in his hand, I knew I didn't stand a chance so I figured I'd just keep walking. To my surprise, he started talking to me. After a brief conversation (and finding out that I was an Alpha Phi), he suggested that I consider going to the bible study that our two houses would be hosting together on a weekly basis.

Fast forward a few weeks. My roommate and I were chatting about our upcoming plans. She mentioned something about leading a bible study with the SigEps. She invited me to come. Hmmmm, that would be the same bible study that the cute guy was going to. Sure, why not? I'm not really into the Bible, but I'll go. And I went. And I went the next week. And the next week. And just about every week that semester. But guess who didn't come? Yep, the cute guy! I saw him every once in awhile when we were there. He wasn't carrying his Bible, he was carrying a basketball. Instead of the bible study, he decided playing basketball would be much more worth his time.

On one of those occasions as he was heading out the door to play basketball and I sat admiring from the couch, he was stopped by a fraternity brother who was attempting to corral some guys for an upcoming philanthropy event. They needed to enter a fraternity brother into a "best eyes" contest for another sorority's philanthropy. Who better to judge than the bible study girls sitting on the couches? With butterflies in my stomach, I headed over to stand face-to-face with this guy that I'd noticed for months (the same guy that I'm pretty sure didn't know I existed after our August encounter). Needless to say, I placed my vote and stated that he clearly had the best eyes.

About a week or two later, the Alpha Phis and SigEps had an exchange together. At this point, several of my sorority sisters were well aware of the crush that I had on the cute SigEp. As the night progressed, they of course thought it was necessary to make sure I didn't leave without first talking to the cute guy. We ended up spending time chatting and of course I realized that this guy was not only cute, but full of personality! At the end of the night, we parted ways and I knew I would have to see Tyler again.

A few days later, I worked up the courage to ask him out on our first date. My sorority semi-formal was coming up and I knew that I wanted him to come. Since instant messenger was the equivalent of "texting" during our college days, I sat myself down at the computer and sent him an IM. I just about jumped out of my chair when he said he'd be my date.

That brings us to point A (the first picture) on our first date. We ended up having an awesome time at the dance. I'd never met such an all around awesome guy....so much personality, a true gentleman, and incredibly handsome. I figured my chances of actually dating him were slim. But, after a little over a month of getting to know each other better we decided to officially be boyfriend and girlfriend.

During our two years of dating, we definitely had a lot of ups and a few downs. We spent so much time together just hanging out and enjoying our college days. We had sorority/fraternity events, walks around campus at night, meeting each other's families, church on Sundays, dates off campus, spring break trips, graduation, and so much more! There were also the days of making a long distance relationship work. We both did our share of traveling to see each other. And to this day I still remember the feeling I'd get when Sunday rolled around and that meant at least one whole week would pass until we'd hang out again. The saying is so very true, "when you've found the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible".

That leads us to October 23, 2004. I drove down to spend the weekend in Champaign (Tyler still had one year left after I graduated). Everything about the weekend seemed just like any other weekend together. We decided to go out and enjoy the beautiful day by taking a walk at a local park that we spent many days jogging and walking at. On our walk, we got into a pretty serious conversation about what our plans were for the future. Since Tyler planned on graduating with an agriculture degree, it didn't seem as though he'd be able to move anywhere near suburban Chicago where I was living and working. In the back of my mind, I thought that we'd end up drifting apart. Little did I know, he had a much different idea. Towards the end of our walk, we headed off the path to a bench. When we sat down, he didn't waste a minute and was down on his knee asking me to marry him. Although I was COMPLETELY shocked, I instantly said yes!

After 8 months of planning, we got to point B and were married on July 1, 2005. Just as with our dating days, we definitely have our ups and downs. Thankfully, we have many more moments of joy than sorrow. After 2 years of dating, 8 months of being engaged, and 5 years of marriage I know that I have found the most amazing guy in the world. As a boyfriend, fiance, husband, and daddy he has proven himself to by loyal and loving. I don't know what I did to deserve such a wonderful partner for life. God has been so good to me!

Toy Story on Ice

On Friday night, my mom called and randomly asked if Caleb would like to see Toy Story on Ice. Considering the fact that our almost 3-year-old has a slight obsession with the movie, I figured he'd love to see the characters in real life! Of course I said yes and she started searching for tickets right away (I think the show is only in town for a few more days). It turns out that she found tickets and we were set to go on Saturday at 11:30. It's probably a good thing we didn't have much time to wait between deciding to go and actually going....in just the 12+ hours that he had to wait, Caleb asked about a million times when we'd be going!

Caleb got to go with just Mommy, Daddy, and TiTi (the little sis stayed home with Grandma).

Can you tell he stayed up too late the night before and was going to miss naptime for the show?

Somehow he pushed through the tiredness and was GLUED to the show from the minute it started!
That's Slinky (or as Caleb calls him "Swinky")...his favorite character.

Our seats were AWESOME...we were only a few rows back from all the characters!

Thanks so much to Grandma and Grandpa for once again making it possible for Caleb to have the experience of a lifetime. We are so blessed by your generosity!

What do you get....

......when you have a child who has been desperate for independence from the day she was born?

ANSWER: Many moments of frustration on the part of her loving parents. The most recent of these frustrations is her absolute REFUSAL to let anyone feed her with a fork or spoon. She would much rather try using utensils on her own.

She is DANG lucky to be such a cutie!

Blizzard 2011

When you spend your whole life growing up in Chicago, snow isn't all that interesting. You get used to it. You love it much more when you're younger, and by the time you're older you start to realize why so many retired folks head south for the winter. I'm still at the point where I like it. Not love, just like....there are definitely times when I'd rather not be driving with extreme caution, shoveling, bundling up, and doing so many of those extra things that come with a decent snowfall.

Apparently, there have been a few big blizzards in Chicago over the years. My dad always had stories of one when he was in high school. It's said that there was a blizzard when I was a junior in high school, but I can't remember it to save my life! This past week, we had another one...one that I'm sure I won't soon forget! There's no need to go into detail considering every bit of this storm was broadcasted for the nation to see. I should've taken more pictures, but the following sum up the storm from our perspective.

Tyler spent nearly two hours tackling the snow on the driveway...only to have another 3 inches fall on it within a few hours after he had it cleared. Thank.God.for.Snowblowers!

We all enjoyed looking at the snow from inside of our warm house. With the wind as bad as it was, there was no hope of going out to play in it :(

My parents (who skipped out on the storm with a trip to Florida) left their two dogs with us. They had a blast running through the yard and jumping through snow drifts. Chesney, our dog, had NO interest in being part of this.

Being Intentional

This morning I managed to sneak in a few minutes of reading. Yes, I said reading. An actual book. For those of you who know me well, this is quite uncommon. I have many factors that work against me when it comes to reading books (of the chapter kind...I spend plenty of time reading picture books and my Bible). First, I have kids that keep me extremely busy. Add to that a house and husband to care for. Top that with my attention span which equals that of a gnat. And the cherry on top is that I have never been much of a reader and have a hard time finding a book I like. This has lead to me opening, but never finishing, countless books. The book that has been beside my bed for several months now is about mothering.....shocker, I know. It is one of those books that I could read over and over again without getting bored. Every short chapter has something that I can connect with. Many times, I find myself in tears as I read through the stories and advice that the mother/author of this book gives.


This morning was yet another morning of tear-filled reading. As I read, I was reminded of how quickly these early years of mothering will pass. My kids, as trying/needy/dependent/etc./etc. as they can be, will only be this way for so long. I want to stop time. I want to cherish every.single.moment of these precious years. I know I can't do that though, so my hope is to be more intentional with the time I have. Not only do I want to be intentional about how we spend these days, but I also want to make certain that I document as much as I can so that years down the road we'll have plenty of ways to remember these days that can often be a blur. Having said that, I am making a list of the ways I plan to be more intentional with capturing our memories.

1. Blog more: This blog is not only a great way to keep family/friends updated, but it also serves as a means of documenting the days and years that are quickly flying by. I love to look back on former posts just to remember what was going on during a certain season of our lives.

2. Take more videos: In this age of technology, we are so lucky to have a way to record everything from the ordinary to the extraordinary moments of child rearing. Some of my favorite videos are ones that I've filmed of the kids just being themselves on a typical day.

3. Journal more: For Mother's Day, I received a journal for each kid. It's not a baby book, just a journal filled with blank pages. I want to fill those pages with all of the milestones, phrases, and moments that make this journey so memorable.

4. Scrapbook: I've never been one to get hooked on traditional scrapbooking, but I really enjoy using the computer. I hope to become more familiar with my digital scrapbooking software and start using it much more frequently. I certainly take enough pictures, so I shouldn't have a problem finding scrapbooking ideas!

Well, there you have it. My list of 4 (huge and seemingly impossible-to-keep-up-with) goals. I will try, and in the back of my mind I'll remember the quote I read from my book this morning:

"Consciously or not, we are always making memories for our children. We can aim for making a quilt of memories that, little by little, creates in our children a sense of belonging, or what it means to be a family, of security and continuity of life."