Believe it or not, Quinn turned ONE last week. It seems as though our baby isn’t a baby anymore. She’s growing and changing everyday and it’s hard to imagine that before long she’ll be running around after Sloane and Reese.

We stayed close to home for her big day and didn’t actually celebrate until this weekend. Sloane and Reese happily “assisted” in opening Quinn’s gifts and then couldn’t wait to “share” them with her. For a second, we had to question whose birthday it actually was! Obviously Quinn didn’t mind and relished in all the fun everyone was having.

She’s just now showing an interest in walking and is taking steps behind push toys and making her way through the loft quite well. She loves saying “Da-da” and waving bye bye and has an absolute love for baby dolls. She squeezes them with delight! At night she puckers her lips and makes a “kiss sound” that is just darling and a perfect way to end the day.

The year has flown by, but what a great first year it has been. It’s a bit sad to think that this is our last “first” birthday, but at the same time, we look forward to seeing these happy, sweet, giggly girls grow up and continue to make each day incredible and exciting.

Happy Birthday Miss Quinn!

Well, Quinn is approaching the big ONE on August 29th, but thankfully she has already decided to give up her bottle and formula!
I have been counting down the days to when I could say, “This is the last can of formula we have to buy!” and it’s finally here.
It’s taken her about 2 days to transition and she seems so pleased with her big girl cup and straw.
There’s no looking back now!

We just recently celebrated Reese’s 3rd Birthday! I know I sound like a broken record…but why is it that these kids are growing so fast! Enough already!

Since I can’t stop time or keep her little forever, Reese did turn 3 and we had a fun little family “party” to celebrate! We decorated with (her favorite) Berenstain Bears and had a great time. We had a friend make her amazing cake, which really pulled everything together and put a big smile on Reese’s face.

Keeping with our tradition that the birthday girl picks a fun activity for the day, Reese chose to ride the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier. I was surprised by her choice (and a bit nauseous at the thought of having 3 littles ones high in the sky), but happy to join in on the birthday fun!

Reese is such a big girl these days and spends most of her time doting on Quinn or playing with her big sis! She never ceases to amaze us with the stuff she comes up with or says, but she sure does keep things interesting! Now, if I could only keep her 3 for longer than a year!

It’s hard to believe that the end of summer is closing in on us already. We’ve been making the most of it (both indoors and out) and are enjoying some lower temps in Chicago this week.

Sloane has just finished up 6 weeks of summer camp and really had a nice time. She made some new friends and enjoyed all the activities that were offered. Reese finished up gymnastics after perfecting her balance beam walking and jumping & (like Sloane) is gearing up for swim lessons in a few weeks & maybe some golfing or theatre too. The Parks and Rec in the city is great and offers so many activities. What lucky girls!

We have a few more things planned before fall, but are really looking forward to Football Season around here! Go Irish!

Well, by our definition, settled means that we have all of our cooking and craft supplies accessible so that we can get messy and have some fun! And by the looks of the pictures, we are definitely settled.

The girls and I are really enjoying the city quite a bit. We are so fortunate to have a handful of parks, museums and beaches within walking distance. We’re learning our way around and having a blast exploring our new “backyard!”

Sloane is currently doing a summer camp a few times a week and Reese is enrolled in gymnastics. They are both having so much fun, making friends, being independent and growing up way too fast.

Quinn has become quite the crawler and is into everything. She’s excited to be able to keep up with her big sisters too. This past week she cut her two top teeth, making for a total of 4! Hard to believe she’ll be ONE at the end of next month.

We hope everyone is enjoying their summer and this post finds everyone well. Check back next week, Reese is turning 3 and I’m sure I’ll be snapping tons of pictures on her big day!

Suzi sent me a picture of a craft the girls were working on this morning—it’s pretty great. Although with those feet, I’m not sure this guy is going to get very far…

First of all, Suzi deserves some serious kudos for keeping this blog alive with the sights and sounds of our kiddos as the birthdays and years keep rolling by. And man, do they roll by fast. Hard to believe that Sloane is four, Reese nearly three and Quinn is approaching the big 0-1. Taking a look back through our older posts over the past few years is a lot of fun. We’ll do our best to keep our little online archive updated.

Speaking of updates, the whole fam has recently moved to Chicago! It’s been a long time coming as about 6 months ago I accepted a position with a large design firm in Chicago. It was a difficult decision to leave South Bend and put our house on the market but it was time. So, when the opportunity presented itself we made the move! Well, I made the move. After a lot of logistical figuring, we decided the best way to transition while trying to sell the house was for me to live in Chicago during the week and be back home on the weekends. We guessed (and mostly hoped) that a four month sublet would be enough time to deal the house and get everyone back together full-time. We were pretty close; we closed on our house a week before my lease in Chicago was up.

Those four months in Chicago were tough, no matter how much we relied on iChat video calls. I hated missing all the story time at night and my bath time skills totally suck now. But, if being a military brat taught me one thing, it’s that all the crazy moves make for great adventure. Which is pretty much what we have now. When we started looking for a place to rent—we’re done with the homeowner thing for a while—we thought it would be fun to try out the urban lifestyle. We’ve never done it and figured it would be a great experience for the kids. So, we’re currently being adventurous in our two bedroom, one bath loft in downtown Chicago. A bit different from our ranch in the burbs with a (once in a lifetime) circle driveway, but after being in the space for a few weeks, we can truly say that we’re enjoying it. The girls are stacked, err…, cozy in the master bedroom (Suzi and I obviously took the smaller room) and are enjoying the wide open space in the loft. For me, work is a bike ride or L ride down the street.

So, come visit us in Chicago! We can recommend some great hotels. Seriously though, Suzi will resume the more entertaining posts in the very near future. She’s had this on my honey-do list for a while and I suspect there are some good pics and videos queued up.

Hope everyone is well. Give us a shout and let us know what’s going on in your neck of the woods!

I’m finally uploading a bunch of photos from the last 2 months. We’ve been extremely busy with selling our house, finding a new place, cleaning & moving to Chicago. It’s been a whirlwind, but it seems as though things are beginning to settle a bit.

With that said, enjoy the photos and stay tuned for all the latest dirt on our move to Chicago! I’ll update again (very) soon.

Okay, okay, I know Easter was nearly 6 weeks ago, but I’m just now getting around to posting our photos.

We dyed a lot of eggs this year and even tried silk dyeing using men’s ties. They turned out great and it is something we’ll definitely try again. The girls also grew their own Easter basket grass. It was a lot of fun ended up being much less mess than the faux grass from the store!

We hope everyone enjoyed their Easter (and any other holidays we may have missed) and is gearing up for Fourth of July!

I came across some great shoes for the girls the other day. Yellow Patent Leather for Sloane and Red Canvas Boat shoes for Reese. They were a huge hit and sparked some serious posing for the camera!