I know this blog is mostly about our kids, but I'm going to write some about us too this time. We have been planning on going to see Dave at Wrigley Field ever since he announced at he was ending his summer tour there. We had SWA gift cards from our birthdays, plus our anniversary was in July as well. So we figured it would be our anniv/b-day celebration. Well, there were lots of obstacles to be able to go. At certain points we didn't think we were going to get to go. However, we made it! At the last minute, we didn't think we were going to go because Jack had been screaming for 2 and a half days, which isn't like him at all. Finally, Saturday morning, we took him into the doctor and found out he had a nasty ear infection. He's on antibiotics for that and is doing much much better, thank goodness. We flew into Chicago on Saturday afternoon, met my sister at the airport, took the train to our hotel, dropped our stuff off, then walked about 2 minutes to Wrigley Field for the concert. We had fan club tickets, so we had early admission, and we were on the field. We were about 7 rows of people back, right in the front and center. I think we were all in shock that we got to be so close. We could see all of his facial expressions. I won't go into details about it because I know most people aren't crazy fans like us, but it was AMAZING to say the least. We were packed in there so tightly that we couldn't budge though. We got there around 4:30 and left at 11:30, so our legs and backs were burning from not being able to stretch or walk. We went to eat after the show, and then out and about. I think we got back to the hotel around 2:30. The place had an amazing location for what we needed. However, it was the filthiest thing you've ever seen! Pictures below...that's all I will say. We all kept a sense of humor about it, so that was good. And we did manage to pull of a few hours or sleep there. The next morning, we had to meet my parents at the airport to drop my sister off since she had to work that afternoon. Then Colin and I had a small amount of time to explore while we waited on our flight. It was a GREAT trip, and very refreshing to get away and leave our daily responsibilities even for just a short time. We missed the babies terribly, and I think I told Colin that I was ready to go back before our plane even landed in Chicago.

Gracie is seriously about to start crawling. Last night Colin noticed that she was pushing her feet up into like a push-up ready position. Then today, she has been getting up on all fours and swaying around. I keep trying to take videos of it, but none of them really show what I'm talking about. However, I'll post a couple just for fun. She has had two days at Ms. Paula's house. She's done really well. She even took her first formula bottles today like a champ. I had to dump all the milk I pumped in Chicago because it wasn't going to keep, and I didn't have a cooler. Therefore, I had no milk for her today. I was glad she wasn't too picky about it. Also, she gave her an entire thing of stage 1 baby food carrots which she loved. I also gave her another one tonight mixed in with oatmeal cereal. She had squash last week, but she definitely likes the carrots better. Colin and I both think she grew and changed just in the 2 days that we were away! She is being much more vocal than before plus, like I said, about to crawl! What a big girl!

Jack has been doing so well at school lately. I have to brag and post his school report today. :)

When I got there to pick him up today, they were in the middle of singing. I watched for a few minutes before he caught me. He was just staring at his teacher so attentively while doing the motions to the songs with her. Proud, proud teacher/mommy moment!!! Jack has been loving Finding Nemo lately. He has several lines memorized, and he can watch the entire thing without getting side tracked. We are thinking about getting him a small fish aquarium with a clown fish. He would love it! His language continues to progress. He talks in sentences and sentence phrases most of the time now.

Duel bath time, which happens every night that Colin is at work. :)

Miss Grace:

*Note: Jack is yelling Mama because he wants out of time-out. :)

I have a break today, as I'm home with sick babies. Well, Jack has had a cough and runny nose for about a week. Grace started to catch it yesterday. By last night she had a fever almost up to 103. We had her sleep in bed with us until it broke, so I was up most of the night. Enter back to preschool, enter land of germs. Anyway, it's nap time, so I thought I would catch up a bit.

Grace is now sitting up like a pro. She pushes up so far on her arms, but hasn't got her knees up for crawling yet. She LOVES Jack, and he can make her laugh just by getting in her face. Same as usual - she's happy, laid back, and go with the flow. She has a great personality. Very rarely does she ever get worked up about anything. Colin and Jack stayed home and napped this weekend while us girls went shopping. We ran to TJ Maxx, BJ's, Target, and Dollar Tree. Gracie is my little shopper! She behaved perfectly the entire time. She still has milk every 3 hours. We've been trying to give her oatmeal cereal daily. After her 6 month well visit, we will start her on baby food. Hopefully she will like it. She loves to sit in her high chair. Jack upgraded to a booster seat, and she took over his high chair. She sleeps from about 7:30 until 6:00, sometimes a little later if I'm lucky. She is usually somewhat apprehensive about dogs. She just likes to stare at them, but doesn't feel really comfortable when they get too close. Recently, she and Roi have really been bonding. I feel like Roi knows that she isn't too sure about him because he eases her into it. I put the pictures in order to show what he did to get her used to him before getting in her face. As much as he drives us crazy, he really is a great dog, especially with the kids. Please ignore my carpet that needs to be vacuumed along with my unmade bed :)

Poor little girl is sick, and mommy is still taking pictures. She was very hard to get to smile today!

Jack is doing great. We had open house at their school the other night, and his teacher said that he loves to help her with everything and that he picks up on things so fast. They are working on colors, and they got to make colored water in bottles. She said he knew all his colors when they were making them. He can count to 4 now. Colin and I heard him count to four for the first time a couple days ago. Usually he stops at 3 and then skips around out of order. He knows the names of all his classmates, and he continues to really enjoy going to school. However, they are cutting out part time care in the infant room, so that left us with less than 2 weeks to figure out the best setting for Grace. Luckily, I know a lady who used to work at Cypress Ridge and is willing to take her on part time. We are going to go meet with her tomorrow and then Grace will start part time at the sitter on Friday. Once she turns a year, she will be able to enter the toddler program and return to Children of Promise. She most likely will go to Ms. Paula for the rest of this school year.

Here are some pictures of the two of them together. Jack loves to get her toys from her dresser and pile them up in front of her so that she can play with them. Such a good big brother!

Here's a cute video I took this morning. Jack was trying to entertain Grace while watching Finding Nemo and eating a snack at the same time. He had no clue I was even watching him. He did get a little rough with his "gentle touches" at the end, but I don't think he meant to.

Lastly, the first word he can read/identify. Proud momma!!

Labor Day 2010

Yesterday we were boilerin' up around here for the PU/ND game. It turned out that it wasn't such a great game AT ALL, but Colin thought it was funny to talk a lot of smack to me. He even left for a short bit and came home with Jack wearing a ND t-shirt. Needless to say, that only stayed on for about a second after they walked through the door.

Our friends Mike and Heather stopped by this morning for a little while, and brought Jack this sweet treat as a surprise. It was like a sheet cake, but instead a giant rice krispie treat. I would've loved this when I was a kid. I didn't like cake, so my mom would decorate a giant sugar cookie for my birthday parties.

After they left, we spent some time outside. Jack was in his swing for quite awhile. I told him to put his arms up and say, "no hands!!" He actually started to doze off at one point in the swing, but couldn't get comfortable enough.

Colin took the day off today so we could enjoy a long weekend together. We wanted to get out of the house and do something fun that wouldn't cost a lot of money. We thought about going to Gatorland, but it was way too hot, so we decided to just head to Monkey Joe's. Jack loved it so much. We went a few months ago, but he wasn't nearly as coordinated to do most of the things. This time he could maneuver around different obstacles. The one that surprised us the most was how he climbed up this wall. He would climb through the tunnel, go over some bouncy parts, come give me a kiss through a little window, climb up the wall, go down the slide, then go kiss Colin...repeat over and over! I'm sure he will sleep good tonight. I wish the pictures were all in the right order to show the obstacle, but I have Gracie on my lap, Jack ready to get out of the bath, and Colin calling for me to get Jack... and it's an hour past their bedtime.

I've been wanting to get a picture of Jack with his monkey leash. This is how I manage to get them both in and out of school on days when we are both at work. It's so funny! He always carries in both of their lunch boxes for me. He loves to hand them to the teachers when we get in there. I think it is a great distraction because he never cries anymore when I drop them off. But anyway, that's why he has both of their diaper bags in the picture! It's because whenever he is on the leash, he is carrying a lunch box on each arm.

I did a little photo shoot with Gracie because I thought she looked so pretty in her dress today. She can sit up for tiny seconds at a time, but then would topple over.

We hope everyone is enjoying a long weekend. The weather looks perfect in the midwest!!!