Merry Christmas!

Gratitude...

We all have so much to be thankful for... Thanksgiving is a great time to reflect on all of the blessings we have. Our most exciting blessing we have to share is that I'm pregnant!!! My due date is June 3rd. Addie is very excited to be a big sister. She is very into the idea there will be a baby around (she is baby obsessed!). She told me the other day that she wants the baby to come out now so she can kiss it... I told her the baby had a lot of growing to do :) So that's my excuse for having been MIA from blogging and life in general the past few months :) I have much to update on and will get around it it one of these days...

Oxford, MS

Cor, Addie, & I did a roadtrip to Oxford, MS to go visit our dear friends Jim, Mitzi, & sweet Mia back in October. It was so much fun to go down there and visit and to get a dose of southern hospitality and Ole Miss football. If you have never experienced a football game in The Grove you're missing out! I have never seen anything like it. The girls were decked out in dresses and wearing 3in+ heels even though it was muddy and cold out- crazy to someone who's all about comfort! The tents were southern to the max- with chandeliers, Rebles decor, food on silver and ceramic platters, and some even had flat screen TVs. It was quite an experience... Addie loved the football game, but was a HUGE fan of the band. Perhaps we have a marching band girl in our future? We went to a pumpkin patch and the girls had a blast running around. Thanks so much to the Morrison's for hosting us for the weekend. It's always a blast to catch up and get together.

Halloween Fun

Addison was a strawberry for Halloween this year. She loved trick or treating despite the wind and cold. She loved carving pumpkins with Grammy last week (thanks for coming out Mom!) and loved to sport her strawberry costume in the days leading up to Halloween. She yelled that she wants to be spider man next year- we have an interesting little girl on our hands! She did see a few spider mans out this year so I hope her mini obsession fades quickly and by next year we can be something a little bit more fitting for Miss Addie.

Fun with pumpkins


Proud of her pumpkin creations


A Park Playdate in Costume


Our little strawberry


Trick or Treating


Out and about


Fun with Luke


Addie eating her Loot

Fun in the Windy City

Last weekend we had a blast taking Addison on the el and having fun downtown. She is obsessed with trains and was so excited to go back on the el. We went to the American Girl Place and she went crazy running all around and was mesmerized by all the dollies everywhere. She enjoyed the great Magnificant Mile street performers and kept yelling "more more" each time we tried to leave. We finished our night off at Portillos and she was a big fan of her hat. The next day my dad flew into town for business and came a day early to hang out. Addie is smitten for Pappy and Pappy is quite smitten with Addie as well!

Hallelujah for finger puppets!

I walked into the room and found Cor and Addie singing a song and having their finger puppets dance a jig! PRECIOUS!!!

Rain rain go away...

I got some fun pics of Addie a few weeks back when it rained non stop... I decided to let her go out and splash in the puddles the first chance we got when the rain finally broke. Addie LOVED every minute of it... We were out visiting Addie's Aunt Jessy and she had a great umbrella Addie was playing with in the back yard. She loves "umbellas" lately and I captured the moment.

Labor Day Fun

We spent Labor Day weekend up in Holland, MI at Cor's parents house. They were out of town (thanks for letting us stay!) and we had a great weekend of family fun. We went to GR on Friday hoping to see Meredith's baby but no such luck (come soon baby Kent)!!! We went to the beach the past two days and had amazing weather. Addison had a blast at the beach building sand castles, getting sand everywhere, jumping over the waves with Dad, going into the water (although it was icy cold), and climbing up the infamous Lake town beach stairs. She is one determined little girl! This is the last weekend we'll be able to be at the beach. Where did summer go? Good bye white shoes... hello fall.

Proud of my hubby

This past Sunday Cor did the Chicago Triathalon. We're so proud of him... We left the house by 4:30 in the morning and headed downtown to watch the race. We had been talking about it with Addison and when we went to get her up at 4:15 she sat right up and said "Watch Daddy race". She loved watching the swimmers, bikers, and runners. Nate (one of Cory's college roommates) and his wife, Courtney, came into town and stayed with us on Friday night. His siblings did a relay at the triathalon. It was nice to see them and catch up. Addie and I did a lot of walking around the city when Cor was on his bike ride. We had a great time but were exhausted from the early morning....

First trip to the ER

There's a first for everything and Miss Addison had a trip to the ER a few weeks back. We were in the Providence Airport returning from my cousin's wedding in Boston (pics to come) and Addie tripped into a metal beam along the windows while enthusiastically looking at the airplanes. She got a good slice across her forehead, and the blood started to flow! Someone called 911 (without our knowledge) so the police, firemen, ambulance, and EMTs all came to the "scene" and made quite a scene! We decided to hop on our flight and get back to Chicago instead of going to a random hospital in the area by ambulance. Yes they thought we were slightly crazy! She did great on the flight and we headed straight to Children's from the airport. They were able to glue it instead of doing stitches, and it is healing up nicely. We are so proud of how brave she was about her owie. The past few weeks she has reminded us to be careful with her owie and not to touch it! Kids are so funny. We survived our first major owie to our girls sweet face. Thanks Jessy and Jared for the cute "I'm okay set" to commemorate Addie's first ER trip! Now you'll know why she has a weird bandaid on her face in many of the pictures to come...

We're back!

I finally got a new computer, long overdue! We went with a mac and so far I am really happy with the switch from a PC to a Mac. I have lots to catch up on and now that I am officially done with school, as of two days ago, I will have some free time on my hands! Praise the Lord! I have to still study for boards, but am going to take the month to study. I am so excited to catch up on life, reconnect with friends, spend much needed time with Addison and Cory, and catch my breath!

Down and out...

My computer died a few weeks ago, so I have not been able to post any pictures. Trying to figure out the whole computer situation, but hopefully we'll be back up and running soon.

A busy week!

My parents came out to spend some time with Addison and to help us celebrate my graduation. We went out to dinner to an amazing place, ZED 451, which I would highly recommend. Graduation was somewhat anti-climactic because I still have clinical hours to finish and a 2 credit class, but will be officially done in August. We can't wait! Cor's parents came down for the day on Saturday to be part of graduation too so it was really fun to have all of Addie's grandparents here all at once. After church, my mom and I went downtown and did some shopping (which was a total treat to shop without Addie!) and then we met the guys at Millennium Park. It was a fun filled past few days. Thanks for coming out and loving on Addison!!!

Addie is excited to have her mom back soon!

My parents

Cor's parents


Some more pics of the weekend...

A green thumb?

Addie and I spent the past few days in Michigan with Oma and Opa. While I was working on a paper, they were all outside planting some flowers. I had to capture it because it was too cute. Addie LOVED gardening!

What a change 2 years bring!

Addie turned two on May 17th and we had a small birthday party for her on the 22nd. I know everyone says they grow up so fast but they really do! I can't believe we have a two year old! So far two has been anything but terrible- it has been so much fun! Addison says new words each day, has turned into a total goofball, and likes to ham it up. I am sure I will have a post on how frustrating a two year old can be, but for now we are soaking up this sweet phase! How much they change...

Addison's birth day!


Addison at 1!


Addison at 2!

We had a ice cream sundae themed party and it went over well with the kids. I think everyone left with a sugar high :)