Easter in Chi-Town

Easter weekend in Chicago was actually a celebration trifecta. It was a jam-packed weekend but all of us had a blast, especially the boys who absolutely loved hanging with their Chicago family.  First we celebrated Amanda and Baby Girl Mazza at her baby shower in the city.  Mandi is due 2 weeks before me so the family will be blessed with two little princesses in June!  We were so happy to have Grandma Lucy, Aunt Nancy and Christian's cousin Angela join us from Ohio....of course Uncle Ralph and Eric were there too.  Gigi, Melanie and Dani hosted a fabulous shower for Amanda.  She looked amazing and so stylish as a preggo and little Payton got so many adorable outfits.  She's going to be a fashionista just like her mommy!

Next up was Easter!  Of course, Christian's family spoiled the boys with cool baskets filled with toys, books and candy.  Then, Gigi and Papa were so generous and treated us to an amazing brunch at a french bistro...I think there were 20 of us so it was crazy fun.  The boys actually behaved so we got to enjoy our meals...it was an Easter Miracle!  Later that night Mel made a delicious dinner and we stuffed our faces once again!  I think I gained 10 lbs that weekend.

Finally, Christian spent the following day with his buddies at their annual White Sox home opening partay.  I don't ask too many details but I know there is a lot of beer, brauts and bromances involved. So I'm sure he had a great time. While he was there the rest of us trekked downtown to the Field Museum of Natural History.  The boys loved seeing all the dinosaurs and exotic animals.  But mostly I think they just loved being with their cousins.  They really had such an awesome weekend being with their cousins...Sami, Carson and Sophia.  Jack especially had a blast with Carson, who he really admires and looks up to.  He still talks about all three of them all the time.  I know he would love for them to live closer.  I would love that too!  The entire David family are amazing with my boys and it would be fun to have them around more.  Gavin still talks about his Gigi and Papa every day! I know he misses them a lot because he walks around the house looking for them.  Its adorable.

We had a really fantastic visit and I took tons of pictures so there were a lot of great ones to post.  So sit back and enjoy...

Amanda looked so beautiful at her baby shower and received tons of great gifts for her baby girl...

Jack was obsessed with seeing snow in Chicago but most of it had melted.  Luckily, Melanie's front yard had one pile left so Jack was thrilled!

Easter Sunday family time!  It was great to have the entire family (minus Mandi's husband Mike) in town.  It's nice when we can all get together and capture some great pictures...

The David Family!  Boy how we've grown...

Grandma and her great-grandkids...

Gigi and Papa with their grandkids...

The cousins!  They had so much fun just being wild every night before bed.  The boys were in heaven...

The field Museum in downtown Chicago...

All tuckered out!  I guess all that fun really wore them out...

Easter Fun...West Coast Edition!

The boys were lucky enough to enjoy two Easter celebrations last month.  Since were going to be in Chicago for the actual holiday, my mom wanted to have everyone over the week before to have brunch and have an egg hunt for the kiddos.  We had a great day with gorgeous weather, yummy food and plenty of fun cousin time.   Before we went there we gave the boys their baskets in the morning and the candy-fest began!  I'll do another blog on our Chicago trip, but for now here's a bunch of cute pictures of the West Coast family...

30 Weeks!

Just wanted to do a quick update on Baby #3, seeing as how I missed my 28 week one.  I am officially in the 30s but with 10 weeks left to go it still feels like an eternity.  I'm at the point in the pregnancy where I am a little over it...ok, a LOT over it!  I have passed the craziness of the first trimester and the cuteness of the second and am well into my third trimester, complete with all the rapid growth, aches, pains, discomfort, heartburn and exhaustion.  But I still have a long way to go before I can say I am in the home stretch so I just need to settle in and deal with it.  But the great news is that my 28 week appointment went really well and so far my little body is holding up just fine....no bed rest for this mama!  Needless to say I was beyond relieved since that's the point where I was put on bed rest with Gavin.  So overall I am doing great and loving all the movement and kicks from my little girl!  So I'll be ok as long as I can endure 10 more weeks of comments like, "you're huge!" "are you giving birth tomorrow?!" and my personal fave "wow, you sure you don't have two in there?!"  Really people? 

On another note, I have to share an interesting tidbit about the hubs.  With Jack and Gav he never had any sort of sympathy pains, cravings, etc.  He never really had any sympathy for me at all but that's another blog.  Anyway, for whatever reason, this time around he's pretty much had every symptom, aside from the puking, which I wouldn't wish on anyone.  It started with the cravings and sweet tooth....the other day he told me to make cookies because he was craving milk.  The man only drinks milk in his cereal while I can drink 4 glasses a day.  Along with that came minor weight gain, moodiness, exhaustion and forgetfulness.  He also can't sleep at night, has crazy dreams and terrible heartburn.  A few weeks ago he even told me he had pelvic pain....do men even get that? 

But the best one yet was his changing look over the past 7 months.  I think that since he can't grow a baby belly, he decided to grow a beard.  Man, can he grow a beard!  He's always grown one during my pregnancy's but this one really crossed the line.  It went from George Michael's scruff to the Uni-bomber to Duck Dynasty and I was just over it.  I didn't see his lips for a months.  I told him there was no way he was going to kiss our sweet little princess with that Brillo pad, so today, it came off!  I was so happy to see his face again.  But Gavin had a strange reaction to it.  He was actually a little afraid of Christian and started crying.  He just kept putting his head on Christian's shoulder then looking at him and whimpering.  And we realized that he's only known his daddy with that beard since he was basically one year old.  So it was a big change for him.  But he's already used to it.  Anyway, here's the before and after pictures I took today.  Here's hoping we never have to see the first one again!

Ok, in his defense, he had just come back from a run so he was very sweaty!  But I swear when he came to the back door I thought we were being robbed!  But this is still a good indication of how out of control his beard was.  It measured almost 2 inches from his chin and he could curl the sides of his mustache like a member of a barber shop quartet...

 

 

Ahhh, my handsome man is back!  He looks 10 years younger...