Trick or Treat!

We had tons of fun this year for Halloween! Since Delaine came down for the weekend, she was able to bring Hannah up to school for my parade and Halloween party. It was a beautiful day for a parade and my students had a lot of fun at the party. It was a great kick off to Halloween.

Mommy & Hannah before the parade.Nana & Gwannie giving Hannah a special Halloween cupcake with green icing.

Then, tonight we went on Hannah's first official trick or treating where she could really participate. We decided to just do part of our block. She did so good! She loved walking down the street and going up to the houses. I was so proud of our little bumble bee! Once we got home, she helped hand out candy to the boys and girls who came by the house. Overall it was a super fun night!

She took right off down the street and buzzed right down to the first house!

The Great Pumpkin

We made another trip to Eckert's this weekend for some pumpkin picking. We decided to wait until today because Nana and Aunt Nikki were here for the weekend. We met my mom there in the morning and started our outing with a wagon ride. We headed out to the patch so Hannah could pick her own pumpkin. Because it was a little late in the season, there wasn't tons of options, but plenty for us. We settled on a smaller one then got back on the wagon and went back to the country store. We had a great time and once again enjoyed visiting our local orchard for some fall fun.

Hannah finds a pretty good pumpkin in the patch -- just her size! Hannah's favorite part of the pumpkin patch was finding "bigger" pumpkins and sitting on them. Here we are with our pumpkin out in the patch.

Back at the country store, Hannah found this cute bike/flower pot to pose at.

Fun with Fall

Fall is probably my favorite season! This year has had some crazy weather and it hasn't felt much like fall lately. However, it's still my favorite time of the year! While I was working on dinner tonight, Tim and Hannah took the boys outside. When I looked out, I couldn't help but snap some super cute pictures of Hannah playing in the leaves. Once again, we see just how much Hannah LOVES being outside!

Halloween Treats

Something new that I've been able to do with Hannah lately is cook and bake. As soon as we get home from school, we usually start working on dinner for the night. Lately, at least once a week we have also baked something yummy to satisfy our sweet tooth (yes, our whole family has developed this!). Tonight, we made some Halloween Funfetti cupcakes for Hannah to take to her friends at the sitter's house (and I guess we can help take care of the rest). I decided to document our cupcake making adventure!

Here we are at the beginning - cake mix is dumped in and we are ready to go!

After some help from Mommy putting the water, oil and eggs in the bowl, Hannah wanted to mix the batter. It was a little tough, but she did a great job!

Hannah's favorite job of the whole thing was putting the Halloween paper cups in the cupcake tin. Even while I was pouring the batter in, she kept taking them in and out.

Of course, while we were waiting for the cupcakes to bake, Hannah helped me lick the spoon (she learns quickly the best part of baking!)

After they were baked and cooled, Hannah helped me put on some festive orange icing.

Before heading to bed, Hannah wanted to taste-test her creations -- I think we all agreed they were fabulous!

Before heading to Miss Sarah's for the day, we got a quick snapshot Hannah with her finished project!

Half a Decade

Tim & I celebrated our 5th anniversary today! This picture was taken last weekend in Chicago on our date night Saturday. What an amazing five years it has been. Although our life has been full of ups and downs, I wouldn't ask for anything to be different. It has been a great time to reflect on our time together (eight years!) as well as what our future goals are. We are in such an exciting time right now being able to be parents to our wonderful daughter Hannah as well as waiting for God to bring another blessing to our family. I love how we have grown as seperate people as well as in our marriage. I truly feel like our marriage is stronger than it's ever been and we have so much to look forward to.

Timmy-I love you so much and thank God daily for allowing me to be your wife! Here's to many more!!

Hello Chicago!

We decided to spend our long weekend in Chicago quite some time ago. Last spring, Tim decided to register for the Chicago Marathon on 10-10-10. He was very excited with this being his first full marathon after completing two half marathons. The whole fam (my mom, Ken & Delaine, Kyle & Nikki) decided to make it a weekend in Chicago. Spring turned into summer and Tim's training wasn't going quite the way he planned (or really not at all). Tim finally decided that it would be best to not run this year because of the lack of training. Since everyone was already booked for the trip, we stuck with our original plans and all ventured to the city!

We all got in Friday night and were able to hang out some after Hannah went to bed. It was nice to catch up with each other for a few hours. Saturday morning we were up bright and early and ready to hit the city! My college roommate (and wonderful friend), Tif, met us at our hotel with her darling little one, Jacob, and her momma since they were going to join us for the morning. We left the 'burbs and made it to our first stop, Shedd Aquarium. It was a great morning! Here are some fun pictures of our time together.

My wonderful college roommate (all four years!) and our very sleepy children. What a great time we had catching up!
Our little family after spending a few hours at Shedd Aquarium.

After visiting Shedd, we said good-bye to Tif, Jacob & Sandi and went to the downtown Portillo's to feast on some fabulous Chicago food. We then made our way to the one and only Michigan Ave. for some shopping. Our shopping trip included Hannah getting her very first American Girl doll - a Bitty Baby. She absolutely loves it!

Here is Hannah inspecting her new baby. It's been so fun watching her take care of her baby! I know she will be such an awesome big sister one day!

When we were all tuckered out, Hannah went back to the 'burbs with the family and Tim and I checked into our downtown hotel for the night. This was our hotel all along when thinking about going to the marathon, so we decided we'd keep it and celebrate our anniversary a weekend early. We got ready and ate dinner at the Chicago Chophouse. The food was outstanding and we had a nice anniversary dinner. (I'll post pictures in the next post). What a fun night!

Since Sunday was the marathon, we made plans to go to the outlet mall in Aurora for some shopping. There were tons of good deals! We were able to get some Christmas shopping done as well as some stuff for us. We ate lunch and then made the trek home. I didn't have school on Monday, so it was nice to rest and recouperate after a busy time in the city. We had a fabulous weekend and loved spending the time with our family!