Six!

Marc and I celebrated six years of marriage yesterday!
How I thank and praise God for the amazing husband He gave me.

We celebrated at Hugo's Frog Bar, a place we went on one of our first dates. :)

Turkey Day

Marc and his mom preparing for the big meal!

The Domicos: Marc's cousin Donn, his wife Meg, and their 4 kids - taking their photo for their Christmas card. We tried to do the same. Let's just say - it didn't go so well for one member of our family. (Who could that be?)

Dylan and cousin Noah.

Gavyn just loved Dylan and couldn't get enough of him.

------------------------------------------------------------

THANKSGIVING DRAMA

Before the meal, Meg put Morgan in the highchair to feed her. It's the same highchair that Dylan uses, when he eats at Nana's. We learned that he's a bit "territorial." Even though his high chair from home was at the table, he really thought that another baby should not be in "his" chair. Below is the "stare down" soon to be followed by the loud crying soon to be followed by Meg moving Morgan from the high chair so Dylan could sit there.

Giving Thanks

1 Timothy 6:17 says that it is God who "richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." May our thanks and praise be directed to Him this holiday for His earthly blessings, and His spiritual ones too -

"Because of the LORD's great love we are
not consumed, for his compassions never
fail. They are new every morning; great is
your faithfulness."

-Lamentations 3:22-23

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

A Thanksgiving Week Chuckle

A couple of pictures that made me laugh this week......

These are pics from my sister Nicole. My 4 year old niece Olivia thought that her baby brother should have a costume for Halloween, and Nicole hadn't planned on that. So....Olivia made him one.

Trick-or-treat!

----------------------------------

Dylan has 2 kinds of tired: crabby tired, and "zoned out" tired. Can you guess which one this one is? (He is not staring at anything.)

Quite A Show

Marc went to what he described as "possibly the greatest concert of his life" on Sunday night. He took a spontaneous trip to Milwaukee to see The Boss. His good buddy Tom was also there, along with Tom's neighbor. It turns out his neighbor knows Max Weinberg (Bruce and Conan O'Brien's drummer), and had a connection that led to the neighbor's son being pulled onstage to sing a song with Bruce.

Here's a link to the second song of the night, where Bruce went crowd-surfing....at age 60. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sORHJquzZ0k&feature=channel

Little Mozart

Dylan's Papa and Nana are both piano teachers, and made his day by playing his most favorite song - "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." The video melts this mommy's heart.

Meeting Baby Nathan

I flew to Seattle this past weekend to meet my newest nephew, Nathan. He is such a little peanut! Sooooo cute and soooo tiny. As always, I was blessed with wonderful, refreshing time with my sister. And loved every minute of time with my niece Olivia, who is consistently kind....and totally makes me laugh. (Loved my time with you too, Craiger.)

This is actually a shot from a couple of weeks back, but thought it "showed off" my nephew and his visibly proud older sister.

Craig, Nathan and Nicole at the "Meet Nathan Cocktail Party" that some friends of theirs threw for them.

At the party - Nic was just served the blue "Nathan" drink, specially made by Steve.

Post-party bottle.

Olivia was often curious about her little brother.When one of us was holding him, she kept asking, "Can I see him?"

OE wanted to dress like me for church, so she borrowed one of my scarves.

While checking out at the grocery store, the clerk gave Olivia a strand of "Thank You" stickers. She stuck one on Nate. Nicole joked that this was going to be her way of getting thanked in the early years.

I gave Olivia these glasses as a silly gift, and she wanted all of us to try them on. Sadly, we realized that this was the only picture we got all weekend of me holding Nathan. Nice.

Family Grounds

One of our new favorite spots in the city is Family Grounds, a coffee shop with a fabulous play area for kids. A couple of pics from our trip last week:

Dylan (in the distance) enjoyed the live music. Just like his daddy.

Dylan's attention span did not last long. Just like his mommy. He soon moved on to playing with the lid of the garbage can.

Blocks and Shapes

Dylan loves to stack blocks, and is doing very well at learning his shapes!

Hooray for Craig's List!

One of the items we were considering getting Dylan for Christmas was the Laugh-N-Learn Kitchen. (As most of you know, he's obsessed with opening and shutting things, and this gives him plenty of opportunity to do so.) I found it on Craig's List for el cheapo - in great condition. When I ran the idea by Marc, he hesitated at first, thinking it was more of a girl toy. But then he renamed it the "Manly Chef's Play Kitchen" and said it was ok.

Indian(ish) Summer

This last weekend was warm, so Marc and I visited our "things we wanted to do over the summer but never did" list. It included going to Andersonville for ice cream. We were laughing that it took us until November for our ice cream run. It turned into quite a lovely "stroll"....

"Puppet bike" man was out on his usual corner. It really is quite a show! (I secretly think Marc likes it a little bit more than Dylan.) Our neighbors Erin and Gerry joined us as we spectated.

At the park - wearing SHORTS.

We passed by a film set on our way home. Somebody was filming at a home in the Lakewood-Balmoral neighborhood.

Fa La La La La

My mom sent Dylan a couple of Christmas outfits in the mail this week!

Making Us Laugh

When a program on our Mac needs attention, its icon bounces up and down on our dock, to let us know. The other day, Marc caught Dylan looking at the computer, jumping up and down with the icon. :)

And....Dylan discovered his shadow last week:

Free Fun

Dylan got in on the "throwing leaves" action today at the park. In the picture above - yes, he is about to get doused with leaves from the little boy in green.

Leaf shower.

Proof

If you needed proof that Dylan steals other girls' strollers at the park, here you go:

Trick or Treat!

Dylan was a dinosaur this year for Halloween!

The back of D's costume.

His cute little butt.

Family pic in the Andersonville neighborhood where we went trick-or-treating. It is the best "trick-or-treating" neighborhood we could ask for! Everyone decorates their houses, even some adults dress up, there's music playing outside - everyone gets into it.

We went out with our friends Jen and Cortt, and their baby Connor, the pumpkin. (So cute!!)

Our neighbors Cass and Naomi and their little girl Rina also joined us. Rina was the prettiest little Snow White I've ever seen.

People (including myself) kept referring to Dylan as: a crocodile, an alligator, and a frog.

A shot of all the action. I am probably smiling because I...um, I mean Dylan....just scored a Snickers bar.

When we got home, Dylan just headed on in and started playing with his toys. He had no idea he had a dinosaur costume on.

Strollers

Confession: Dylan is attracted to doll strollers. At the park, he loves to push them around, and is always taking one little girl's stroller or another. Well, I recently met not one, but two moms of little boys Dylan's age, who said the same thing, and they each went out and just bought their sons their own strollers. So....when I was at a resale shop yesterday, and saw one for $1, I thought why not?

The pictures below are from when Dylan woke up from his nap to discover that a stroller of his own had landed in the dining room. He just stood there and smiled for like 5 minutes.

As you can imagine, Marc is not overly excited about his PINK stroller, but he does admit that Dylan oddly looks very good posing next to it in the picture below.

Downtown Oak Park

Marc sold this downtown Oak Park project (pavers, bluestone) last year, and recently made it out to the site to take some pictures. He helped with the design!