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!

Let's Go 'Necks!

Yes, that's another football cheer which means another football weekend for the Casey's. This weekend, we traveled again, but this time to Macomb for WIU Homecoming. Last year, we went to a WIU football game and met some of our college friends for the day. We decided we liked it so much we would make it an annual tradition. This time, we left our kiddos at home and had some adult time. It was such a great day!

Friday after school, we made our way to Macomb to meet the Windham's. Sarah hooked us up to stay at the local Christian camp (that we had many retreats at) for the night at the low, low cost of FREE! Not only was that a huge perk, it was great to relax and hang out with the Windham's and we all got to sleep in the next day because we didn't have kids.

Saturday morning, we drove back to Macomb to meet the Gorsch's and the Knopp's for a fun-filled WIU day. It was homecoming, so our day started off with the parade. It was quite comical at times and there were many laughs already happening. After the parade, we went to one of the yummy local eateries (Rocky's) for lunch. We had a great time and as we were leaving, Luke said something about hoping it wasn't cold and rainy out. Well, that must have jinxed us because that was exactly what was going on. Bummer! And I thought it would be nice to pre-order tickets so we were all a little hesitant to watch some football.

Before heading to the game, we hit up the bookstore for some new Leatherneck gear and made our way (in the rain) down to the stadium. Needless to say, we didn't make it the whole game. The girls made it just over a quarter before we retreated to the Union to chit-chat. The guys stayed through the half and then came and picked us up. Even though it was early, we went to our FAVORITE pizza place, Auerilo's, for some dinner. We sat and visited and ate lots of yummy food before deciding it was time to get going. We went back to the campus house to get our cars and said our good byes.

The only group picture is on another camera, but here is Hannah sporting her new Leatherneck T-Shirt: This is definitely something that will be a yearly tradition with our amazing college friends. We love you all so much and are so thankful to be a part of your lives! Let's go 'Necks!

Go Pack Go!

What an exciting day for the Casey's! Today, Tim and I had the awesome opportunity to go the Lambeau Field for a Green Bay Packer's game! This was my first time to experience this and it was really fun! Let me back up a bit...

Last winter, Tim bought tickets online for a Green Bay game and went with his dad, brother-in-law Kyle and Kyle's brother Ryan. It was a very cold, Monday night game in December. Tim made a whirlwind trip up and back which included overnight transportation and some long days. But, it was all worth it for him to experience his first-ever Packer game.

Fast forward a bit...this summer, a family at church offered Tim two tickets to a game as a thank you for working with their daughter the last few years (she was a varsity basketball player at OTHS). Tim was so stoked and wanted us both to go if possible. I told him I would love to go but preferably a game when it wasn't super cold. We gave the guy a few options and he gave us this game. We've been looking forward to it for quite sometime. Here we are at the game:
We took advantage of our trip up north to spend some time with family too. We left Friday after school and drove to Nikki & Kyle's where Ken & Delaine were already there. We had a lot of fun spending time as a family on Saturday. That night after Hannah went to bed, we watched a movie (the first in a long time for us). Sunday morning, Tim & I got up early to get ready to head to Green Bay (it's about two hours from Lake Mills). Uncle Kyle & Aunt Nikki loved spending the day with Hannah while we were at the game. After the Packer's won, we headed back to pick up Hannah and then made the long trek back to Illinois.

It was a wild and crazy weekend, but worth every minute of it! Hopefully this won't be our only Packer game!

A is for Apple

After church, we met some friends (and our former neighbors) the Scaiefe's at a local orchard, Eckert's. Apple picking is in it's prime and we wanted to take advantage of a beautiful day to be outside. We decided to do the whole she-bang and pick our own apples. Before we headed out, we got a few shots of Hannah and Liam. They were pretty cute sitting on this bench together.We started on a tractor ride out to where we were picking that day. Here is Tim & Hannah on our way out to the apples.Hannah had a fun time with all the apples she found. She preferred to pick them off of the ground, but we were able to coax her into trying to pull a couple off of the tree.

We each had an apple out in the orchard and we tried to give Hannah some bites too. She wasn't too interested in eating the fresh, yummy apples, however she did eat a bite or two.We also got a family shot before we left the apple orchard.

We had a lot of fun with John, Kelli & Liam at Eckert's! We can't wait to take Hannah back next month to go pumpkin picking!

Our BIG Girl

Lately, it seems like everything Hannah does reminds me more and more of what a big girl she is getting to be! We are just a few months shy of planning and celebrating Hannah's 2nd birthday. Here are some highlights of some of Hannah's latest "big girl" accomplishments:

*We've been practicing using the potty before bathtime each night. We've had a few successful attempts, but most of the time we just sit and practice. I think Hannah is getting more and more aware of what may be going on so I think we may give it a real go over Christmas break.

Hannah LOVES to be outside! Every day after school we play outside until dinner and then usually go back out until it's time for a bath. One of Hannah's favorite things to do outside is to walk the dogs. Sometimes her little legs have to move pretty quickly to keep up with the "boys" but rarely will she stop walking them!
*Speaking of outside, when we were at the park recently Hannah really enjoyed swinging on the big swing by herself. She has always enjoyed swinging, but she seemed so big on the big girl swing!*Sometimes it's the little things that make her look so big. A few weeks ago we got Hannah her first pair of Crocs. Also, her hair is getting so long. When we put it up in pig tails our little toddler looks pretty big!
*This weekend, we also started transitioning her to a "big girl" bed. We converted her crib to a toddler bed and she has done so great! Both Saturday morning and when her Saturday nap ended, she got up on her own. However, we told her she needed to stay in bed until we came and got her and she has stayed there until that time ever since. We are going to keep working on her room and get it completed with a big girl twin bed, new paint and new bedding when Nana visits in October.