July 4, 2014

This year we got to celebrate July 4th Chicago style. Which really means, we weren't at the beach in Destin this year, but we still had a wonderful time! Chris' parents, Ed and Cheryl, flew up on the evening of July 2 and spend 5 nights with us. Thursday was just a day to hang out and let the girls enjoy time with their grandparents while Chris was at work.

Thankfully, Chris was off this year on July 4th (his boss so graciously covered the hospital so that Chris didn't have to!) and we got to enjoy the day as a family. That morning our neighborhood had a parade. We loaded the girls into their red wagon and walked to the main street in our subdivision to enjoy the parade.

The girls had a blast catching the candy and waving to all of the parade participants.... especially our neighbors, Lucy, Henry and Charlie!

After the parade we decided to head into downtown Naperville for "Ribfest" and had a blast. We listened to live bands, ate yummy pulled pork and ribs, and Avery and Kinsley even got to enjoy some carnival rides for the first time. They got a little panicked on some of the rides- even Kinsley, which surprised me since she is always so fearless! It was HOT HOT HOT and my back may have gotten FRIED, but we still had fun. The highlight for Avery was getting to ride the yellow school bus to and from our car to the event.

 We made it home for a late nap for the girls then grilled out for dinner. Chris planned and cooked our entire menu and it was delicious. Steak, baked potatoes, a summer salad with corn, avocado, tomatoes, red onion and a cilantro dressing, and cauliflower sticks. Avery called his bluff on the cauliflower sticks almost immediately.... "Daddy, this is not bread" but we eventually got her to eat one. :) That night we went to an open field and watched the fireworks. It was a long, exhausting, and yet really fun day. I love nothing more than spending the day with my husband and our girls and getting to see the excitement on their faces when they experience something new for the first time.

On Saturday the 5th, Ed and Cheryl babysat while Chris and I went to a friends house for a shrimp boil. We then went to Downers Grove to an Irish pub called Balydoyles for a late dinner. It was so fun getting to spend adult time with our friends for a day. Too bad I didn't take any pictures to document that we actually did this! ha!

Sunday was another great day that started with church and then lunch in downtown Naperville. During the girls' nap, Chris and I went for a long walk through the McDowell forest preserves just up the street from our house. I enjoyed just being able to walk and talk with him without any distractions. Sunday night included Giordianos stuffed pizza (of course!) and later, a rented movie with Chris' parents.

We had such a wonderful holiday weekend and are so thankful that we have family that can so easily come up for a visit. Our time with Ed and Cheryl is always so nice and always too short... as it is with all our family and friends.

I hope your holiday weekend was wonderful, too!

Halloween 2013

Our first Halloween in Chicagoland was a great one! 

We had a little baby chick.....

and Izzy the Pirate from Jake and the Neverland Pirates....

It was a rainy day, but we had about 30 minutes of no rain so we hit the sidewalks of our new neighborhood for some trick or treating.

Avery loved trick or treating and would rush up to the doors without waiting on her sister. haha. She was having a blast and would have kept going had it not started raining and her mom and dad forced her to go inside! (We aren't too fun, the rain came and we were ready to go inside!! It was COLD!)

They got a lot of goodies!! (Mommy has eaten most of it over the last month.....)

We think Avery had more fun waiting on the kids to come to our house, which was so sweet!

That's a quick post on our first thanksgiving in Illinois!  Everyone really only cares about the pictures anyway!!! :)

Our Chicago move

The last several months have been quite life changing for our family. On Thursday, June 20th, Chris had his monthly meeting with his boss and they were discussing different options within the company.... including the new expansion into the Chicago area. His boss offered him a position to help get things started in the Chicago suburbs and after hearing that we were expecting our third, he really didn't think we would take it. Chris texted me that day asking if I wanted to move to Chicago and I literally laughed out loud and said "doesn't he know it's cold in Chicago!?!". After I responded he texted back saying that his boss had offered him a job there to which I was shocked and simply said that we would have to talk about it when he got home. I thought about it all day and was really intruiged with the possibility of moving. Of course, first thing is first-- I had to look up the Chick-Fil-A locations and be sure that there was one in the area!! There was!!! :)

Chris and I spent that entire weekend in prayer and serious conversation- all while our house was full of family and friends for Kinsley's first birthday. We didn't tell anyone about the offer, but had a very short deadline to decide. Basically, we were offered the job on Thursday and on Tuesday we accepted! Then, the hard part of telling our parents came. While they know this is a great opportunity for us, they were still shocked and emotional. We still had to keep our move a secret due to some work logistics in Destin, so only our parents and siblings knew for a month that we were moving.

I knew there was a possibility that we would not be here for Chris' 30th or for Avery's 3rd birthday, so I threw them an early birthday party in August. I think we told my grandparents and family the week before the party why we were having to celebrate early. Their reactions were all pretty much the same. STUNNED! They all said they were excited for us, but I could hear the emotion in their voices, too.
We were finally able to start telling friends around the same time. To all of them, it seemed that this move was happening so fast, but it's just that we had to keep it a secret for so long.

Everything went so quickly during our decision process and then seemed to stop completely. We went an entire month not knowing when our move would take place and we were pretty much just in waiting. We couldn't prepare for a move at all. Then, the first week of August we finally got news of a move. From that point on we knew God's hand was in everything. We literally had everything fall into place within a weeks time. What a relief that was after a month of silence. Chris got a start date in Chicago, we rented our house within 15 minutes of posting it online, we sold our 4-Runner.... all in a week! God made it clear that this is what we were supposed to be doing. I've never felt more sure about  such a life change for our family. It's really so neat to see God's hand at work in situations.

Chris posted our house on a Friday night at 8pm on a military website and within 15 minutes we had a call from a lady who was interested. We of course thought she must be a realtor who was going to offer to help us rent the house. However, she asked if they could come look at the house the next day. We weren't available until Sunday so we set up a time on Sunday for her to come by. Saturday morning she called back and said that they had seen the additional pictures Chris had posted and wanted for us to have a lease prepared for when they came by on Sunday. We couldn't believe it! God is so good!
We packed up our "forever" house and moved in with my parents three weeks later.


Chris left on Septemper 7th for Illinois. His dad flew down to FL on Friday evening and they left at 6am on Saturday morning. They made it to Bolingbrook, IL on Sunday morning at 8:30am. Chris gave his Dad a quick tour of the area he would be working and then took him back to the airport that afternoon. It's so great that we have family willing to help us in any way and that his Dad was willing to drive up with him so he wouldn't have to do it by himself.

Chris was in IL for THREE weeks working and house hunting before he came back to FL to get his family. He found us a house in Naperville, which is the area we were hoping to live. It was a little weird for me to be moving into a house that I had never seen before. I know it was a lot of work for him and he probably felt a little pressure, but he did great! My biggest concerns were that we were in a good part of town and that it was convenient for his work travels. In case you didn't know- IL traffic is horrendous! (and I'm from the Atlanta area!!)

Anywho- Chris flew back to FL on Thursday night, September 26th. His 30th birthday!!! Poor guy had to work all day and then fly from Chicago to Atlanta to Ft. Walton all on his 30th birthday. He got in at 11pm and we were up and in the car by 8:30 am on Friday morning. It was so great to have my family back together and we were so excited to begin our new adventure together. So, we loaded up our van and tow behind u-haul and off we went. We were able to meet up with Justin, Adriane, Micah and Ansley for lunch on our way through Birmingham. It was a great stop and fun to see them one more time before we left. Our goal for Friday's drive was to make it to Nashville, TN. We ended up making excellent time and continued past Nashville into Bowling Green, KY. The girls were fantastic on the first day of driving. They were only fussy around lunch and dinner time- but then again- we all get a little fussy when we're hungry! Our van also has a DVD player in it and we only used it twice that day. I honestly thought we would have to resort to the movies a lot more than we did. The girls were troopers!

Saturday we got up and were hoping to make it to Indianapolis, Indiana. Well, we were able to make it all the way to Chicago by 5pm! The girls were a bit more fussy this day, but we can't blame them. It's hard to be in the car for 16+ hours for anyone.... especially a 15 month old and an almost 3 year old.

Chris took us by our new house that we will be renting for the next year and I was pleasantly surprised. It's smaller than we had back in FL, but it's a fantastic location. We stayed that night at Matt's apartment- where Chris had been living the past 3 weeks. Sunday we got up and started moving into our new house and have been here ever since! We are going on 2.5 weeks! That's the story of our move- more to come soon!