indiana.

We spent the second weekend in June at a gathering of Matt's stepmom's family in Indiana.  We gathered to pay tribute to Matt's stepgrandmother, Helen Gilchrist, who passed away nearly a year ago. We attended a wonderful service honoring the life of this very special woman. Family members, young and old, spoke from their hearts regaling us with fond memories and great stories of a life well lived and of a woman who touched many lives. I'm so glad we were a part of this very special day.

This was the first time in a very long time for the entire family to be together so a photographer was hired to take family photographs. We did individual family photos as well as a group photo with more than 30 people.  I can't wait to see how that one turned out.  Of course, Matt & I have the youngest kids so we were probably the most challenging family to capture. 

I grabbed my camera and snapped some photos while I could. Here are the highlights.

Matt, Granny, Grampa, Linc:

Cassidy Lois:

Granny, Gramps, and the grandkids:

Gramps and Linc. How sweet.

One of our best family portraits. Cassie is somewhat uncooperative being a 2-year-old and all so I had to have some fun with her.

Me and my sweeties:

Us with Uncle Dave (Matt's stepbrother):

birthday q's.

Beginning with Lincoln's 4th birthday, I put together a list of questions that I'll ask the kids each year on their birthday. Just a fun way to see how the responses change year after year.  Below, find the answers from 5-year-old Lincoln.

Name: Lincoln
Age: 5

1. What is your favorite color? Why? Red because it goes on superheros and I like superheros.

2. What do you like to eat? Pastitio (a greek lasagna-like dish). Um, actually, like ummmm…all dessert things.

3. What foods do you dislike? Tomatoes, cabbage, oatmeal.

4. What is your favorite toy? I don’t really have a favorite toy. I like all my toys ‘cause I don’t want to give any away. I also like my new Battleforce 5 cars.

5. What is your favorite book? Transformers, Pokemon, Dinosaur books.

6. What is your favorite tv show/movie? Pokemon, How To Train Your Dragon, Jake & the Neverland Pirates, Scooby Doo.

7. Who is your best friend? My cousin, Sam.

8. What are your favorite things to do? Go to the splash park, go to parks in our new city.

9. What are your least favorite things to do? Listen. Go inside when playtime is done. Stop playing the computer or watching a tv show.

10. What is your favorite thing to wear? Why? Batman pj’s. And comfy things. I don’t like jeans.

11. Who is the most important person in your life? Why? My family, counting all my friends. And my friend’s parents, too. Because they take care of me. We’re lucky to have them because some people don’t even have a mom and dad.

12. What would be the best thing someone could give to you? Nothing. Oh, wait, more Pokemon stuff.

13. What is your day like? (When do you get up? What do you do all day? When do you go to sleep?) I get up around 6:30/7:00 (mom isn’t working right now). I watch tv in the morning while mom gets ready then we go downstairs for breakfast with mom and Cassie. We do stuff around the house or run errands with mom or we go to the park or library. Then we have lunch, take a short nap, play, have dinner, play more, take a bath or shower, and go to bed. I go to bed around 8:30.

14. What do you want to be when you grow up? A superhero. Ironman. Because he has a lot of power. He keeps a lot of his power in his suit so other people can’t find it.

big brother turns five.

We made our first trip back to Michigan in June to celebrate Linc's 5th birthday with family and friends.

We gathered at Pump It Up, which is filled with a variety of bouncy houses and inflatable slides. Perfect for kids young and old. We didn't get my dad to go on the slide this time like we had a few years back at Alli & Nicole's party, but we did have plenty of parents jumping along with the kids. Love it.

Below, you can see Linc enjoying his time in the king's chair.


Here are the kids exhausted after jumping and ready for lunch!

On his actual birthday (a few days after the party), I took the kids to the local spray park. Linc had an absolute blast running through the sprayers and getting buckets of water dumped on his head. Cassie was content to sit on the sidelines with me and get her feet wet. She much prefers the swings on the playground.

Here is the new tree swing Linc got for his bday.

And the ever popular Razor scooter. Woohoo!

Happy birthday, my sweet boy.

momma's day.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the hard working, loving mommies I know.

I enjoyed a lovely day at home with the kids today, which is exactly what I wanted. We had gorgeous weather so we poked around our new yard (which needs some work - ugh!), played with some of the neighbor kids, organized some things inside the house, and had grilled burgers for dinner - my fave.

outside fun.

Matt's mom came for her first visit a few days ago. We had some nice weather and took advantage of it by walking down the block to the neighborhood park. Here they are enjoying the swings.

Here is Linc acting like king of the climber.

Cassidy is enjoying a little bike ride in front of the house.

I just loved the gorgeous color of Lincoln's hair in this picture.

in with the new.

We have arrived in the Land of Lincoln (yes, that is the official state slogan of Illinois). How great is that?

Here we are in our new home in Grayslake, IL. As you can see in the picture below, Lincoln is already enjoying the basketball hoop in the driveway. We are slowly, but surely settling in. It's a good thing that I enjoy unpacking and organizing because there is a lot of that to do!

Here are a few pics of the back of the house. I know, super exciting, right? Some of you haven't seen the place yet, though, so these are for you. We've got a nice, big deck to hang out on.

Because the deck is on the larger side, it actually takes up a fair amount of the back yard so this is what we've got for a back yard, which is much smaller than we're used to. We'll have to go to the park a lot with Linc's ball, bat, and bases so we can practice our baseball skillz.

This was taken from the deck.

My parents joined us for a few days when we first moved to help us get settled and to occupy the kids. Here are my mom and Linc watching a movie on the portable dvd player. Living without tv and internet even for a few days was not all that much fun!

Here is Little Miss Helper aiding Papou as he and Matt put our tv stand together.

And the hard part...saying goodbye. We got SO much done while my folks were here but the time came for them to return home to MI. This was an early morning shot of my dad and the kids snuggling. We're very grateful for Skype so we can see each other regularly.

All in all, the move went very smoothly. We are all adjusting well, are settling in, and are making the house our home. We have met a number of neighbors and all have young kids, which is great.

Here's to our new adventure...we hope you'll join us for the ride (if I can keep the dang blog updated!) as we explore our new surroundings.

out with the old.

We bought our first house in Livonia in Dec. 2002, just six months after we got married and were certain we wouldn't be there longer than five years. We'd either upgrade to a larger house in the metro-Detroit area or would move out of state for Matt's job. Over eight years have passed and the latter has option has arrived. We've moved to Illinois! While it was very, very difficult to move away from our family and friends, we know that we're just a 5-hour car ride away (really, everyone...it's a quick drive!).

Here are some pics as we exited our Barbara St. house, or should I say home? Yes, it was most definitely a home. We were newlyweds in this home. We had our first pet in this home. We had two kids in this home. Seriously, so many major life events and fond memories. Even though I often complained about the old kitchen and the tight quarters, I will miss so many things about this home.

Au revoir, Barbara St.

It was such an odd feeling watching all that we've accumulated being loaded onto the moving truck.