Mommy's Day 2012.

Mother's Day this year was great! Matt's mom was here visiting and neither of us lifted a finger in the kitchen on Sunday - what a treat. Matt put his chef hat on and made us a fancy breakfast pizza as well as strawberry stuffed french toast. Yum. For dinner, he grilled feta-stuffed burgers. Another yum!

We had gorgeous weather and spent part of the day planting a few flowers in the front yard. Really, we bought a flat of flowers because Linc had Earth Day homework that involved us taking a picture of him planting something or picking up trash and writing about what he did and why he did it.

Homework = done. 

Me and my babies. 

Mom and Grandma with the kids.

Grandma with all three of her babies.

In the afternoon, we went for a walk on the savanna. It was gorgeous.

The trail from the blue park to the savanna. This is about a block from our house. 

Wide open space. How can a kid NOT run? 

Waiting on the bench for the grown ups to catch up (because we weren't running the whole time). 

Little girl tired from running. Piggy back please, dad! 

We made our way to one of the lookout spots.

Lincoln.

Cassidy.

Trying to see some birds through the viewer. 

Family photo op. 

Piggy back with mom on the way home. 

I loved spending the day with the kids and not worrying about work, laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.  Can we do Mother's Day once/month?

Wipeout.

With Linc being nearly 6-years-old, we've had surprisingly few injuries. I had to take a pic of this one as it's really his first face scrape. He was going full speed down the sidewalk on his Razor scooter and just totally bit it. He was a pretty good sport about it. I expect far worse to happen as childhood endures.

Road rash.

On our way to the library we pass the Grayslake skate park and often see kids on their skateboards and scooters doing all sorts of cool things. I always ask Linc if he's interested in doing that kind of stuff and he always says, "no way". Must be Matt's cautious side coming out in him because I'd kind of like to try the skate park myself!

Rockin out.

This was a rainy spring day and the kids were "rockin out" (as Cassie says) in the house. Very loudly. The guitar that you see is what Cassie asked Santa for. I'm afraid the kids didn't inherit their dad's musical talents. Time will tell.

First Communion.

We headed to Michigan in April to witness my niece (and Goddaughter), Zoe, take her First Communion. What a special day for her. We were happy to be a part of it. 

Cassie, Zoe, and Zoe's American Girl doll.

Easter Weekend 2012.

We had a great Easter weekend this year as my brother, Jeff, and his family (Suzy, Alli, and Nicole) as well as my parents came to visit. The house was full and it was wonderful!

Good Friday was spent on an adventure to the city. It's the first time that the kids have been. We took the Metra in, got to ride in a few taxi cabs, visited Shedd aquarium, and took a nice walk down Michigan Avenue on our way to the American Girl store.

The Gough's at the aquarium. 

This is the whole gang walking along the water. It was a crisp day (ok, it was freezing along the water), but it was a bit nicer when we got inland a bit.

We went to the Lake County Fairgrounds for an Easter Egg Hunt and this is the bunny that we saw -- a Boy Scout with a bunny head. How weird. Notice that Cassie is not posing with this thing! 

My adorable nieces -- Allison and Nicole. 

Cassie coloring eggs. 

Linc coloring eggs. 

Check out all of the pics from the weekend here: Easter Weekend 2012.

A visit to the children's museum.

In early March, Becca, Tony, and Jack came to visit. It was so great having them here for the weekend. We spent one day at the Kohl Children's Museum.

Here are the three kids lined up, along with Matt & Tony.

Lincoln creating a Lego something-or-other.

Dr. Cassidy doing a newborn checkup.

Jack jamming on the guitar at our house. 

I also remember Jack spending much of the weekend using our toy vacuum and broom to clean the floors in the house. I'm not sure if I should be thankful that he was cleaning or offended because he thought our house needed the cleaning!

More pics from the weekend can be found here: Friend/Museum weekend. There's nothing like having close friends and family come to visit!

Teddy Bear Day.

The Kindergarten classes had a Teddy Bear parade in February. Lincoln had to make a float for his bear to ride in. Because he's obsessed with Super Mario, he decorated a little wagon with Mario stuff, complete with a Mario flag.

Here it is:

The license plate reads BR LVS MARIO and comes complete with the Illinois "Land of Lincoln" slogan. 

Cassidy and I went to the school to watch the parade. We were all serenaded with  the song "I've Never Met a Teddy Bear I Didn't Like".

Winter Wonderland.

February brought the one and only snow day for the kids this winter. We got out and enjoyed it!

Here are more wintery pics: Winter Wonderland

Chop chop.

When my parents were here for a visit in February, we finally took Cassie to get her first "real" haircut. She is 3 years old and I had cut her hair several times to avoid her having a mullet but we thought it was high time for a real cut. It seems like it's taking forever for her thin, wispy, static-filled hair to grow into a nice mane but it's getting there. She went to a specialty kids place where she got to sit in a seat that looked like a car and she got to choose a video to watch while her hair was cut. Good times.

Here is the result. The hairdresser even did a little loopy-do that looked so cute. Cassie generally hates having her hair up in ponytails, barrettes, or even tucked behind her ears. She runs away from me when she sees me grab a rubber band to put in her hair.

She even got a "First Haircut Certificate" with a picture and a lock of hair to keep as a memento.

Little Hoopsters.

Lincoln played in his first basketball league during the winter months.

Here, he is doing jumping jacks to warm up. I wish I had video of him doing them because he could never quite get the hands and feet coordinated as one is supposed to to do a proper jumping jack. It was hilarious to watch.

Ready to play. 

Doing some serious blocking. 

At the end of the season with his buddy, Ben.  

The team.  

All in all, it was pretty darned fun and cute to watch the kids learn to play. Go Little Hoopsters!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Matt celebrated his 37th birthday in January. He loves malt-flavored things so I attempted to make a chocolate malt cake for him, topped with Whoppers. Yum.

Here's how it turned out.

Here are the little lovies cuddling with their dad.

And here are Matt & his mom.

Happy Birthday to my favorite husband!

Go Lions!

Here are the kids showing their Detroit Lions spirit!

Christmas 2011.

Christmas was a whole new experience for us this year now that we live away from our family. We stayed at a couple of different houses (and are grateful for the hospitality offered to us). We saw family and friends, we ate, we celebrated when Santa remembered to deliver gifts to Grandma's house, we opened mounds of gifts (far too many, really). We also experienced strep throat (just one of us, thank goodness - thanks for taking that one for the team, Matt). We also had a friend break her leg just before the new year. What a way to end the year.

A couple of holiday pics:

Cassidy making silly faces in front of the Christmas tree.

Lincoln had the best reactions as he opened gifts. This one is a set of mini NFL football helmets, which Linc loved. Every Sunday he'd have the helmets set up in front of the tv so we'd know which teams were playing each other.

Check out more pics here: Christmas Pics 2011.