No time to blog

We have a new baby at our house. He requires a lot of attention. He's been so good. I love his name, Tucker. I guess if it couldn't be Cooper I'll be happy with Tucker. We got him from an amazing family who loved him a lot. I was sad to take him away from his parents and brother and sister. I'm hoping that we're loving him enough that he barely notices. Mya is doing great with him, I can tell she's jealous but she's been nice. Sarah has been the best helper. She cleans up after him and does whatever she needs to for him. I'm trying to let her do everything so she learns some responsibility from the experience. And I just love him to death, how could you not. Look at that face.

Jacob's birthday

Jacob on his 1st Birthday!

I couldn't end the day without posting about Jacob's 12th birthday.

Today was pretty uneventful. We did go to Captain Luey's for dinner. Jacob loves the hush puppies. Jeremy was laughing because it is a seafood restaurant and we all ordered a chicken dish.

We had already celebrated Jacob's birthday a couple weekends ago in Chicago and also this past weekend in Bay City. He got presents tonight and dinner and carrot cake.

I've been thinking all day about him being 12. I really can't believe it. It does seem like yesterday that he was born. Time goes by so fast. So cliche' I know but I can't help it.

I'm so very proud of him, he has been/is a wonderful son. I thank God that I was chosen as his mom, I'm the lucky one.

Jacob 3/21/12

Happy 12th Birthday Jacob Daniel!

Random Tuesday

I've got the Disney depression going on right now.

Need to plan a trip, asap!

This was just last year, look how little Sarah looks.

With this spring like weather I'm finding that parents aren't quite sure how to dress their children. Shorts/pants? snow boots/tennis shoes. Throw on some swim trunks and this little guy is ready for the pool, minus the boots.

In all the years I've gone to Chicago I've never seen anyone do the Hershey's Magnificent Machine. SO we did it. It was either let the kids each pick a bag of $3.99 candy with 8 oz in the bag or pay $9.99 and pick three of our favorite candies and fill a huge bucket. Not to mention the Hershey's man was quite friendly. Man next time I go whether I'm with the kids or not I'm going with the machine!!
Anybody need a bow???

Sarah claims she's into legos. They've come out with "girl" legos.

These things are expensive. I'm a little iritated that I even let her get involved with them. She couldn't wait to go to the Lego store in Chicago and buy the house. Granted its really cute but it was $70.00. She bought it, with her own money. Her dad and her put it together over a three day period and it's been sitting there since. She hasn't touched it. I'm pretty sure she isn't going to. This is the treehouse, next on her "I want" list. UGH

Speaking of the "I want" list. Saw this at the Hallmark store.

Vera Bradley beach bag, soooo cute, sooo expensive.

Doubt they'll have this at the outlet sale next month, creeps.

I would enjoy drinking my moscato from one of these. I only need one, glass, not bottle of wine.

Growing up too fast.
Yesterday her and I went shopping together. I won't say what for since I don't really know who reads this blog since NOONE comments. I will say I think she is too young for needing "one" but those dang chemicals they put in food is making our little girls grow up too fast.

And this dude, 12 in another 2 weeks.

I'm old, I can't take it.

I need to go to Disney!

Dinner Rut

I stood in the soup aisle for a really long time trying to think of something new to make. Some of the soup cans have recipes on the backs of them.

Nothing sounded good.

Which is kind of depressing because after about 15 minutes of standing in the soup aisle reading the backs of cans you would think I would find something to make.

We had pizza from Pizza Sams for dinner.

Crafty Day

I was supposed to clean and do laundry today.

I did ONE load of laundry and a whole lotta crafting.

Along with the Mickey Mouse board for our Disney pins I worked on these projects.

I'm giving this one to my in-laws for Easter. Don't tell. I'm still not sure about the ribbon.

And this one I totally can't get right. At first I just had a yellow B, no dots. Then I added the dots and I wished I hadn't.

I had a different bow on it and asked the bffs what they thought cause it just didn't look right to me and they agreed that I needed a different bow.

I'm pretty sure they weren't talking about this one cause I don't like this one either.

So this is a work in progress. I had to walk away from it tonight and maybe tomorrow I can figure out a better bow. I'm thinking I need a solid color instead of a print. Maybe green....

Stay tuned..

If I fix it I'll repost a pic...

Who?

Ummmm who buys this???

A bosom buddy

Found this in the back of an AllYOu Magazine...interesting.

lunch time visitor

Mr. Mason likes to come down to my office at lunchtime to hang out.

I've been keeping M&M's for him to snack on.

I told him he had to give me a big smile before I would give him any.

Ask and you shall receive.

He sits and visits with me. We discuss Mickey Mouse and Clubhouse Disney.

He tells me that his mom makes him take a nap or he can't watch it.

I told him if he lived at my house we would watch clubhouse Disney all day, lol.

Hot Dog Hot Dog Hot Diggity Dog!!

Chicago

We took the train....that's about all I have to say about that.

Kalamazoo Train Station

I think the kids enjoyed it.

I won't do it again, unless it's my only choice.

It was late. It was dirty. It made me a little motion sick.

So I guess I did have something to say about it.
Once we got to Chicago we went to our hotel. It was really nice.
The Courtyard Marriot on Ontario St.
Right off of Michigan Ave.
For lunch we walked to Ed Debevic's. Not too impressed, definitely go for the atmosphere but not for the food, just average diner food.
But we had a good time.

From there we took a cab to the Shedd Aquarium.
We really liked it. I think the prices are ridiculous but we still had a great time.
The view from there looking into the city is awesome.

I love the jellyfish.
I am not fond of them in the water when I'm swimming but they are amazing creatures.

There were a lot of people there but we were able to see and do everything we wanted to in about 2 1/2 hours.

For dinner that night we went to Ginos East. Jacob really wanted to try Chicago style deep dish pizza. So after waiting about 30 minutes outside we sat down and ordered only to wait another 45 minutes to get our food. Thats standard with the deep dish. It was good.

After we ate we rushed down to Water Tower Place only to have 5 minutes to shop.

So we decided to come back on Sunday to shop.

My favorite place of the weekend was the Museum of Science and Industry. I wasn't feeling very well but I loved it. I think the kids did too. I think that we could've spent a full day here. Because we had other things to do and a train to catch we only were able to spend about 3 hrs here.

Next stop the Sears Tower......well its called something else now but I can't remember what.

It will always be the Sears Tower to me.

I LOVE the glass floor.

So did the kids. Jeremy stepped out on it for a second but had no desire to take pictures lol.

FINALLY, the Lego Store. Jacob has been wanting to head to the lego store since I told him about it years ago. We shopped for a little bit but once again we were in a hurry.

And the Hershey store. The kids enjoyed using the chocolate machine and picking out some favorite candies. Fun!

All in all it was a wonderful trip. Not long enough. We needed a whole day to just walk (not run) around on Michigan Avenue. We also could've spend more time at the museum. I think they would've enjoyed the Cheesecake Factory, the Disney store, Crate and Barrel (well that was for me), and several other places.

I hope Jacob enjoyed his 12th birthday trip.

I've been meaning to do this.....

When we go to Disney we collect pins. Some people are die hards. They have to get all the pins for a particular series or every character pin that was ever made. Not us. We all just pick the pins we like. The last time we went I ordered a bunch of pins off of ebay for really cheap. We took all our favorite pins off our lanyard and put all the pins we didn't like on the lanyards and off we went to trade pins. But what should we do with the pins we like, the ones we'll never trade. I wanted to make a someplace we could put them with our Disney stuff so we could enjoy them.

This is what I came up with.

This is just a piece of cork board covered in this cute Mickey material that I found at Hobby Lobby. I used thumb tacks to hold the material on.

Here is the finished product with some of our pins. I have to check with the kids to see which ones they want to leave on there and which ones they'll want to trade on our next trip, which will hopefully be soon. : )

Now I just have to find a place to hang it by our other Disney stuff.

Flu

Who was it? Which one of these parasites gave me the flu? Riding the train to Chicago was an adventure, not one I'll chose to do again. Stay tuned for trip blog.