Tooth Fairy...FINALLY!

It has been a LONG wait.  Most of Drew's friends have lost their first tooth (multiple teeth in many cases).  He has been asking us for over 9 months when he would lose a tooth.  He has had a loose tooth for awhile, but nothing was really happening.  Yesterday, he told Andy it seemed really loose so Andy said, "just pull it out."  And Drew did.  It bled for awhile, but he was so excited he didn't even notice. 

After that excitement, the rest of the weekend seemed kind of boring!  Andy golfed in a tournament yesterday so it was just me and the kids for most of the day.  We took Sox on a walk after breakfast and then went to the park. 

Everyone had a good time and a certain someone wasn't happy when it was time to go home.  He is not crying because he had just fallen and scraped his knee.  He is mad we had to go home!

During lunch, I decided to get adventurous and let Ryan eat with a spoon and bowl.  He thought it was great.  Too bad he still doesn't get it and most of it ended up on the floor!

Last night, my friend Dawn came to visit so we went out for a girls night.  We had a great time and I definitely miss her.  We worked together for about a year and half and then she moved back to Chicago.

Dawn left this morning and then Kayley and I headed out to shop for new bedding.  Andy and I finally bought nice bedroom furniture and it was time to get nice bedding to go with it.  We have had Andy's crappy bedroom furniture that he bought in 2001 and it was more than time to get rid of it!  We always had other things to spend the money on, but this year I put my foot down and I talked him into new stuff.  I love it!  But, I HATE decorating so it immediately stressed me out to have to pick out new bedding.  Big thanks to Angela for helping by texting and emailing with me while I was out shopping!  I am very happy with the end product and will have to post a few pictures once I get the bedspread dry cleaned and everything else washed.  Next, decorating the room...

When Kayley and I got back to the house, I took Drew to the driving range.  He can't get enough and I need serious practice before our golf tournament in a couple of weeks!  I am happy to say I am much improved over last week (the bar was really low though!).  Drew had a great time as always.  Here is a video from last weekend and two from this week. 

Fun on the Farm

Drew and Kayley went to the farm with Mom and Dad on the Sunday after the Fourth of July.  Our house was really quiet to say the least.  Ryan kept it a little lively though!  He had free reign of the toy room so he enjoyed himself.  I didn't realize how much he missed Drew and Kayley though until we pulled into my parents' driveway the following weekend and he saw them.  He went CRAZY with excitement!  It was so cute!

Happy to be at the farm.

The kids had a great time on the farm as they always do.  They were very excited to take Ryan on a ride on the golf cart as soon as we arrived. 

Helmets?  Do Kayley and Drew know something
about Kayley's driving that Grandma and Ryan don't?!
They jumped off their bikes and went straight to the
golf cart when Ryan and I arrived!

Kayley's favorite thing to do on the farm?  Drive the golf cart!

Nick and Sarah brought their kids, Gracie and Owen, to my parents on Saturday for dinner.  The kids played and I had a great time catching up with Nick and Sarah. 

Time for S'mores!

Owen liked the chocolate

Drew didn't like his s'more so Kayley
took it off of his hands

Gracie and Kayley

Owen...future state wrestling champ!

This past week we have been busy.  We started Drew and Kayley in swimming lessons a few weeks ago.  Drew was a little fish when we lived in Phoenix, but he hasn't had any swimming lessons since we moved so he needed to get back into it.  Kayley was in the water a lot when we were in Phoenix, but she didn't have as many lessons as Drew did so she wasn't as comfortable in the water.

Drew has picked it up again pretty quickly.

Kayley is still getting comfortable, but she is getting there!

We had friends over for dinner Friday night.  The kids had a great time and we had fun with the adults. 

Yesterday, I took Kayley to a birthday party, but it didn't go well.  It was at Jumpstart gymnastics, which is where she goes for gymnastics and also where she had her birthday party.  The night before she didn't go to bed until 10:30 because we let her stay up late because we had friends over.  However, she got up at her normal time.  I knew she was going to be tired for the party so I made her take a nap.  I knew I would have to wake her up to get her to the birthday party on time and she doesn't do well if she is woken up from a nap, but I thought that would be better than not having her take one at all.  Well, I woke her up and she woke up CRABBY.  We finally got to the birthday party and she cried and refused to go out on the floor without me.  Let's just say it went from bad to worse and she participated for all of 30 seconds during the hour they had on the gymnastics floor.  She miraculously recovered from her shyness in time for cake.  I should have just taken her home. 

I took the kids school supply shopping today.  They are so excited and are asking to pack their backpacks already for their first day.  Let's see how excited they are when it is time to get on the bus on their first day!

Andy's shadow Drew got to mow the lawn this afternoon.  Seriously, Drew is at Andy's side all day, every day!  I think it is cute, but Andy rarely has a moment to himself.  :-)

 

After Drew got done cutting the grass, I took him and Kayley to the driving range.  Drew loves to golf and Kayley loves to walk around with her golf clubs.  Andy typically takes them, but he gently suggested it would be a good chance for me to get to the range before we golf in a tournament together on the 9th!  I am not sure what he was worried about...I golfed once last summer and haven't been out yet this year...I should golf great in the tournament!  We had fun at the range.  Drew hit farther than me more times than I would like to admit and Kayley spent a lot of her time happily cleaning her clubs!

4th of July

We had a fun 4th of July weekend and finally the weather was beautiful!  Mom and Dad came on Wednesday and my brother came on the 4th.  The kids were very excited for fireworks and swimming in their new pool.  Yes, new pool.  Every year, Andy has to buy a new $20 pool because they never last longer than a year.  :-)

We spent the day of the 4th outside.  Drew and Kayley rode their bikes and spent a lot of time jumping in their pool.

 

 
We drove downtown for the Fireworks pretty early.  I think we got there around 7pm.  They are the largest fireworks in Illinois (supposedly in the top 3% of fireworks in the country...according to their own website!) and always draw a big crowd so we wanted to get their early.  And plenty early we were!  I was the driving force behind the time we got there so I could feel all the looks from Andy and my family when we got there and there were tons of options for parking and places to sit.  Oh well, lesson learned.  We can go a little later next year! 

The fireworks didn't start until 9:30pm so we had a lot of time to kill.  The kids did great for most of it.  Considering Ryan goes to bed between 7pm and 7:30pm, he did really well, but eventually got a little crabby.

But, he is a pacifier addict and we knew this would make it all better:

Here are a few pictures while we were waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the fireworks to start:

Andy and I had to work for awhile on Friday while my family entertained the kids.  Matt took Drew fishing and Drew got a little surprise on his hook!

On Saturday, we went to Bicycle Safety Town.  The kids spent a lot of time on their bikes and then went to the little kids' playground.

After everyone got tired of playing, we went to Lou's for lunch.  Kayley spun around too much on one of the pieces of playground equipment and was sick to her stomach so she didn't eat.  With her motion sickness (she also got airsick on our flight home from Phoenix), she definitely takes after her Daddy!

Matt took us out for dinner Saturday night.  Kayley dressed up as the little princess that she is!  Ha!  She did leave the tiara at home.  :-)

Drew and Kayley went home with my parents on Sunday to spend a week in Iowa.  The house is pretty quiet, but Ryan keeps things pretty lively.  He has had the run of the house for a day so far and seems to be loving it!  No brother and sister to get in his face! 

Tonight, Ryan decided he didn't want to eat his dinner so I resorted to braunschweiger on crackers.  He LOVES it!  Definitely my kid.

End of June Already?!

Where did the month of June go?  Summer is going way too quickly.  Our weeknights have been busy with baseball, gymnastics and swimming lessons and the weekends bring more baseball and other fun activities. 

I have several videos of Drew playing baseball, but it takes awhile to upload the video and edit it to put it on the blog so I took the easy way out and had Andy send me a video from his phone.  Drew is a pretty good hitter and he should be with how much he practices!  He is Andy's little shadow and always asks Andy to play baseball with him.  Being the great dad he is, Andy always says yes.  Here was his final at bat for the season on Saturday:

We were supposed to watch fireworks with some friends Saturday night, but Mother Nature had other plans so we changed ours and went to their house.  They recently moved out to an acreage next to a pond.  Our kids were in heaven!  They fished for over an hour and loved it.  I hate fishing and I don't think Andy is that into it either so we may need to take the kids to Nate and Jennie's more often!

Nate took the kids for a ride on "Bill."

Drew even got to drive.

Andy took Drew to the White Sox game in Chicago on Sunday so I spent the day with Kayley and Ryan.  We ran a lot of errands and Kayley was very helpful with Ryan - always ready to give him a snack or a toy or his pacifier when we needed it!  She loves being the big sister. 

Ryan got up from his nap before Kayley so I took some videos of him.  He is definitely in the phase of dropping things from his highchair.  The sippy cup hits the ground 3 or 4 times every meal and snack and if you don't watch him closely, the second he is done eating, he starts throwing the food over for Sox.  I forgot how fun this phase is.

After Kayley woke up from her nap, we loaded up the car and headed to Bicycle Safety Town.  Kayley had a lot of fun and obeyed most of the traffic signals and signs.  :-)  While Kayley rode all around with her baby, I pushed Ryan in the stroller and listened to him babble.  He is very talkative these days!