Home Sweet Home

Let me tell you, it’s good to be home.

My brother’s wedding was beautiful and we had a wonderful time with our family and friends this past weekend, but travelling (and being out of your home environment) with a toddler is not easy. The last time I flew with her (by myself, mind you) I vowed it would be a LONG time before we did it again. The carseat proved to be a must-have, so the airlines must know what they’re doing by making it mandatory to buy a seat for your child after they turn 2. To Charlie’s credit, she actually did very well, and slept almost the whole way home this afternoon, which left Vann and I the ability to do more important things, like browse through the SkyMall catalog and get a little shut-eye ourselves.

Once we were safely on the ground, I told Vann that I was so happy we didn’t have to travel for awhile. Don’t get me wrong, I love the holidays and it will definitely be an adjustment to be here on our own for Christmas, but for the first time in 10 years I won’t have to hold my breath that a blizzard is going to stop me from getting out of town.

The grandparents are coming up for the birth of Baby B and staying Thanksgiving week, but Christmas is another story. It will just be the four of us, and we’ll have to come up with our own traditions…which is a wonderful thing and also a scary thing. I do love the fact that we won’t have to pack, or fight traffic to the airport, or stand in line at the security checkpoint. I also love the fact that Charlie will get to experience snow on Christmas Day, and the Christmas Eve service at our church, and having Santa come down HER chimney (we don’t have a chimney, but you get the gist). All in all, it feels great knowing that we are grounded for the forseeable future.

Here is a picture of Dali and Charlie in their matching dresses, being snuggled by Dali’s grandfather, Bud. Don’t they look sweet??

Blogging from Texas

Here they are!! So happy with the results of our photo shoot with Leigh. We were SO hoping for a fantastic family shot and we got it. 🙂 I’m blogging from my parent’s hotel room in Dallas. We’ve had a lazy day recovering from the rehearsal dinner last night…suffice to say we gorged ourselves on fajitas and queso, yum!! Charlie is having so much fun hanging out with her cousins, and I know the rest of the weekend is going to go by fast.

Don’t forget to go to Leigh’s blog and comment on our pics so we can bring home a beautiful 11 x 14 print (thanks to those of you have)!! Plenty of pictures to post when we get back to Chicago next week…

Sneak Peek

It’s midnight, and our cab comes to pick us up at 4 am. Vann just went to bed, and it probably makes sense to at least TRY to get a few hours of sleep…seeing as how we have a VERY busy weekend ahead of us. I just wanted to post quickly about our new header, our first “sneak peek” from the photo shoot we had with the wonderful Leigh last weekend.

I just received the link to our proofs and we think they turned out beautifully. She is graciously allowing us to post a few here on our blog, so I will be anxious to get those up when we get back next week. A little sidenote: She’ll be doing a blog posting here with our pics sometime in the next couple of days, and if ten people drop a comment under our blog post, we receive a free 11 x 14 print, which you know is a total prize!! If you are surfing by and care to drop a comment, we’d be thrilled!!

Please keep us in your prayers tomorrow as we travel and manuever our very active toddler through security, etc. Please also pray for Uncle Erik and his bride-to-be Didi as they walk down the aisle on Sunday!!

A Fight to the Finish

So here I am again. I had to take an hour long nap halfway through the day today to recover from LAST night’s case of insomnia…and was so determined to get to bed earlier tonight…and yet it’s already 11 pm and I’m blogging. Ah well…I will leave the majority of it for tomorrow but I will say that I am completely unmotivated to pack for our trip to Texas on Friday morning. I’m just feeling so SUPER lazy!!

I also wanted to say that Vann and I are now stuck between a few names for Baby B #2. We thought we had settled on one (a really good one, if I do say so myself), but I’ve started to doubt it hearing it said out loud. Now I totally understand why people wait to name their child until they actually SEE them…it’s just so hard to know if the name is going to stick, you know? Here’s what I DO know about this little girl:…she’s a major mover and shaker. I’m talking all the time, day and night. That whole “bowl full of jelly” reference about Santa? Uh, yeah, that’s what it feels like sometimes….considering my first is turning into somewhat of a tomboy, I have this “mother’s intuition” that this one is going to be girly all the way. Don’t ask me why. I really hope she’s a snuggle bunny, as a lot of the time you-know-who can take me or leave me….she likes marshmallows. I know this because this is all I have been craving.How these things will help us decide on a name, I don’t know. It might be a fight to the finish. Which, did I mention, is 60 days from now??

Loving Fall

Today I had some errands to run at the mall, so we spent the morning braving the 50-60 degree weather…yippee!! FINALLY!! Charlie loved climbing on the dragon tunnel with all the big kids. She’s wearing her Baby Gap “Treehouse” dress that I scored on eBay LAST fall…I think it fits her much better this year…and it has a hood, which you know is always a plus in her book.