"Throw it away!"

Normally people do a spring cleaning. I did a little bit of that too, but the cleaning bug bit me a couple weeks ago. I was sick and tired of organizing and re-organizing and saying I was going to throw things away but always coming up for some excuse to keep all of it...or most of it.

So I decided that I was going to actually throw it away, or give it to good will, or set aside for a garage sale. We have filled a lot of trash bags, and we have two huge boxes in the garage almost completely full of stuff to sell. I looked at them tonight, and couldn't believe that we had all that stuff in our house (and garage)! I am feeling lighter and lighter every day the more I get rid of stuff. This whole process is stressful for Joel, but I love it!!! Once it is finished he will love it.

Come to our garage sale...date TBD

Hummus

I have descovered Hummus! I have known that it existed, but have not usually been a fan of it. But when I had some garlic hummus at a friends that was delicious, I decided to buy my own. It has opened a whole bunch of meal ideas for Izzy as well, because he loves it too. I was especially joyful today when I realized I was out of mayo and needed to make some egg salad for him to eat. No, that is not something to be joyful about, but my remedy was! Instead of mayo I decided to use hummus to mix with it. It was great! I tasted it because I felt bad making my son eat it when I didn't even know if it was good or not. But it was! The consistency was great, and for sure a lot healthier. I felt like I should teach a health class or something just for that one creative solution! Try it and if you are a hummus lover, you will not be disappointed!

Another milestone

Since May, we have been slowly taking bottles away from Izzy's eating schedule. He has kind of been weening himself and I have just observed when he wasn't eating much of a certain bottle, and then I would take it away. the morning bottle was the easiest, and then three weeks later I took the afternoon bottle. That took a couple days for him to get used to. It wasn't that bad, just a few shorter naps. I would give him a snack and he would be fine. So tonight was the last night for the bottle before bed. He doesn't know what is going on, but I do, and I cried. This evening bottle has been so special to me...and to him.  I love the short time of cuddling, and that quiet moment after a busy day. I love how he gets so excited when I mention it, or show it to him. The other night he couldn't get to me fast enough. He literally triped over himself trying to turn around faster that his little body would. I love that I can give him that little moment of pleasure and it is going to be a hard night tomorrow when I have to put him to bed without it. I am hoping that he won't notice, since he has accidentally gone to be bed without it before. Joel cried with me as we realized yet again that our little guy is growing up, and sometimes way to fast for our liking. I love being a mom!

#1

Israel David Kelley turns 1 today! Joel is taking the day off and we are going to spend it doing fun things. I can't believe that it has already been a whole year! We have gone through so many changes, good and difficult but none of it I would change. Israel is the joy of our lives and we love watching him grow and learn new things every day. We look forward to see how God is going to use him as he grows.

Tuesday we had a party with family. So I baked a cake, we bought a present (legos) and got ready to party! It was a blast. He didn't really dive into the cake, but once we gave him his own peice, he had at it! Thursday night we celebrated with Melody who turned one on Wednesday. We gave them another piece of cake and again they devoured! Fun, Fun, Fun!

Chitown

Okay, this is take two of this post, because after I had spent like 3 days writing and posting pics, I lost it all!

So here it goes. Vacation this year was a trip to Chicago! It was a vacation from our every day lives, but it wasn't that restful. We had a blast though, and boy did we fit a lot in.



We arrived in Chicago on Wednesday June 9th. We stepped off the plane and onto the train into downtown. We stepped off the train onto a platform that only had stairs. So Joel with 3 bags of luggage, and me with a stroller and a baby, we made it down the stairs....I don't know how really, but we did...Oh, I carried the stroller down WITH Izzy in it, and somehow Joel made it down with 2 roller bags and a duffle. Joel didn't know which way to go exactly, so we headed out one way, then thought we should turn around. So we did, then he dicided that we were going the right way the first time, so we turned around again, and finally made it to our hotel. That afternoon we loaded up the stroller and hit Michigan ave in awe of the tall buildings and nice fancy shops! We saw the old water tower, stopped by the Hershey's store ate some chocolate, walked some more, went in and out of stores, oohing and ahhing over the very high priced items, and of course, visited the Drake hotel.

We were taking pictures and then a bell man came up to us and in all seriousness said "we have a policy...that when we see a pretty family, we have to take a picture." The policy part scared us. We thought that we were in trouble.

After the Drake, we headed to the lake. It was a warm day, so Izzy and I waded in the water while Joel took pictures. It was gorgeous. It is a lake that looks like an ocean.We at at Uno's that night after waiting an hour for our pizza to cook, and Izzy didn't have enough patience, so he fell asleep.


Thursday we hit the road runny pretty early and headed to the train station. But not without stopping by one of the many Starbucks. We took an hour train ride into Lake Bluff where my mom grew up. It is a very quaint little town that you could walk through in 2 hours. We saw both houses that she grew up in, saw the lake again, and took lots of pictures. We had a great time!

Lake Forest was another stop, where we walked around the cute little square and had lunch in a quaint sandwich cafe. By this time the weather was moving in, so it was getting a little cool. Then we missed our train. We were actually there at the station, but on the wrong side of the tracks! So we killed another hour before we took the hour long train ride back to the city!

Once back in the city we hit the library, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography that left us completely depressed, but we were quickly cheered up by Degas, and Monet at the Art Institute. Dinner was at the Italian Village where Frank Sinatra supposedly ate. It was good, but we were all tired, and Israel wouldn't stop moving. We dropped dead that night.

Friday we woke to the whole city in front of our hotel. There was a parade for the hockey team who had just won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 49 years. We had to walk a little farther to catch a bus to the zoo because of it! We missed our Starbucks that morning, so we were a little sluggish at the zoo, but it was still a good time. The next stop was Wrigley Field, and to get there we had to walk a little was, and then wait for a bus that wasn't already full. We found out that the Cubs and White Socks were doing an exhibition game and it was the first one. Wrigley field was alive and hoppin'. It was so much fun. We took the El back to the city to visit the man eating lions at the Field Museum. On the way back to the hotel we walked through Grant Park and then saw the Bean. We then took a sheet from the hotel, stopped and picked up some Chicago hot dogs and headed back to Grant park to enjoy some Blues with thousands of other Chicago poeple. It was so much fun!

Saturday it was raining, so in between the rain we finished up seeing the sights, and taking pictures and eating yummy burgers at the world famous Billy Goat's Tavern. Then we started the long trek home which ended at 10:00 that night!

We had a blast...came home tired, but we miss it already!

Highlights

I started writing this in may with the intention of mentioning some wonderful red shoe days of May. But I am a mom and a wife, and I was unable to finish the post and now it is June 5th. But I feel like there has been so much going on that I must document, even if it is just for my sake.

May 9th Izzy started signing "more"! We have been doing it for him for months, and I was overjoyed to see him finally catch on! It has made meal time a lot better (less screaming)

Mother's Day was a special day, and Joel made it very special. He made me a nice breakfast, and gave me some 8x10 pics of Izzy, once of which Izzy had colored the matt for it! Precious


We went to the Renaissance Fair this year with some dear friends, and despite the awkwardness of it all and how it totally freaked Joel out, we were able to make some really good memories.

We had several graduations this year that made life really busy, but it also called for a lot of partying! It was fun to acknowledge Abbie's college degree, and Sam's Highschool degree!

Weddings happened and along with it car trouble. Those were not red shoe days, but they were reality, so I guess I should mention them too. 

Birthdays followed and were very special as well. We had a big family party and everyone got really good gifts! I share a birthday month with Joel and two siblings, so we always have one big joint b-day party. We had the traditional strawberry shortcake for dessert and just had a all around good time.

Utica Square Summer Fifth Night started! We will enjoy every Thursday evening that we can out at our happy place listening to some cool music with a picnic and friend. Israel has started dancing and clapping when he hears music, so it is so fun to watch him.

Even though May caused us to almost pull our hair out with business. It was a good business, so we loved it. I love being busy with parties and such, so it will be kind of a let down in July when we don't have any more of those. What will I do with myself....Swim!!!!!

Have a wonderful Red Shoe day