4th of July

We spread 4th of July out over two days. Our town had a fireworks show over the lake on Sunday night. Then Monday we went to the Vernon Hills Parade (still the best 4th of July Parade I have ever been to), to mom and dad's for a barbecue, and then the Vernon Hills Fireworks show. The kids had so much fun but we were all exhausted- it took Nate and I a full 24 hours to recuperate!

Linc trying to get in a little extra sand time

Enjoying the parade and the candy!

Linc with the creepy Buzz Lightyear that made Reagan scream!

Reagan fell asleep during fireworks

Linc made himself very comfy

Spending time with Grandma and Grandpa was the best part

Concert in the Park

We made our way to Arlington Heights one Tuesday afternoon for a kids concert in the park. We ate a picnic lunch, danced to the music, and played at the playground- a pretty fun day!

Why I love summer

Waking up late,

heading to the beach for two hours,

coming home to eat PB&J's,

showering all the sand off,

followed by a little of this...

and this...

watching movies all afternoon while a thunderstorm rolls through,

Pot roast cooking in the crock pot,

BEST DAY EVER!!

A warm sunny day

Today we woke up to thunder, lightning, and 50 deg temps so I decided to post about a lovely sunny day we had a few weeks ago- if only to remind myself that we do see the sun every now and then here in Chicago. My friend Laura invited us over for an impromptu playgroup with a couple other moms in the ward. Laura has a huge backyard and a sprinkler so my kids put on their swimsuits for the first time this year...

Such a sweet face

Linc and his buddy Bryson

Reagan was gifted this Dora purse and carried it around with her all day!

Reagan and her little friend Imogene, who I think at this moment is

thinking "why am I standing next to this crazy girl?"

Trying to get a decent picture of all the kids together

Why I haven't been blogging...

Don't let the innocent look fool you...

...she has been a holy terror for three weeks now. Reagan thinks she doesn't need to sleep anymore (naps, nighttime, nothing!) and if she does sleep it has to be right in the middle of Nathan and I in the "big bed". It has been a rough three weeks, nobody but Lincoln is sleeping and we are all walking around like zombies. I think I got more sleep when she was a newborn!

General Conference Weekend

I really wanted to make an effort this year to have our family sit down and watch all four sessions of General Conference (or at least sit in the same room). I found that the internet has a wealth of information for mom's trying to keep kids entertained during Conference and armed with a load of coloring pages, activities, toys, and food I set up on Saturday morning

We cleared everything out of the living room and let the kids

occupy whatever space they wanted

Can you tell who my easygoing kid is? At this point Lincoln was

running in circles around the room

Food, Food, and more Food- that was my trick for getting the

kids to stay in the living room with me :)

Mom and dad came over Sunday morning and we had a big brunch (complete with ham and cheese souffle- made me miss the Devlins). The kids loved having Grandma and Grandpa to play with all morning although I think Linc distracted Grandma through most of the session! All in all I would say we did pretty well, hopefully it will continue to get better as the kids get older!

Catch-up

So far I have been really bad about posting, always room for improvement. We had a fun time last week with Mom during her Spring Break (makes me long for the summer when we can play together all the time!) We took the kids to the mall playplace...

Lincoln found Yertle the Turtle

(thank you Grandma for teaching him that- now every turtle is named Yertle!)

Playing together - they seem to do this a lot lately, SO NICE!

Reagan was playing in the car with another little girl when a little boy decided

to join them- he sat right down in Reagan's lap!!

She didn't cry or anything, just kind of looked at us like, what the heck??

Playing at Grandma's school- we love going there for lunch!

Finally warm enough to go outside, this was Reagan's first time on a bike- she was pretty good!

Lincoln won't even touch his big boy bike that Santa brought him,

we'll have to work on that this summer!

More to post later...

The kids in the last three months

I know it has been a very long time since I have blogged but no internet means no blog. We finally got connected today so here is the update for the last few months...

Linc continues to get bigger, sillier, and more lovable... we are almost done with the terrible 3's

Reagan is so big now- no longer my baby...makes me miss having a tiny little thing around the house. She is starting to learn more words- her favorites are "No" and "Book". She can't say Lincoln yet so she just calls him "Bubba"

We went to the ward "Minute to Win It" party- it is always fun to see all our friends

Linc tried really hard to blow up a balloon but never quite succeeded.

He was much better at the puzzles

We took the kids to a party at the Library (we have an awesome one here). Linc got his face painted- a dog. Don't feel bad if you didn't recognize that from this picture, I thought it looked more like an orange cat with horns

Reagan got a tattoo but she wasn't too sure about it

This is Reagan's new horsey that Santa brought her, she loves to sit on it and listen to it sing. It's a little creepy- we didn't realize it sang (and moved it's mouth) when we bought it!

Combining her two favorite things, her horsey and her books. All she needs to be happy!

Nate found a really fun kids indoor playplace and took the kids there one weekend, they both loved it! Nate and I got super sweaty trying to help Reagan through the mazes and slides.

In February we had the most amazing visit with Aunt Marcia. She spoiled our kids (and us) rotten and now our house looks amazing! We always love having her in town, Lincoln keeps asking when Grandma Marcia is going to come back. We will definitely miss being a three hour drive from her home :(

Goodbye Facebook, Hello (again) Blog!!

So due to some privacy issues that I was having with Facebook, mainly that several friends accounts had been hacked, I decided to leave it behind once and for all. As nice as it was to catch up with old friends, I think it was sapping too much of my time away from better pursuits. Having made that decision I also realized that we still have many friends and family across the country who would like to keep up with our lives (or at least the kids lives). So back to blogging I go. Hopefully, this will become a more regular thing and we can put up pictures and funny stories about our mostly mundane life. Love you all!