the 847

we were in chicago last weekend for cousin colleen's wedding and also enjoyed seeing tim's brother dan and his wife, melissa who made the trip in from boston. it was an awesome weekend!

a tired declan, uncle dan, aunt melissa

so fun watching these two grow up together!

mom paparazzi taking pictures!

looks like we'll have to teach declan that his cousin can not be his girlfriend!

what do YOU think about the healthcare bill?

yeah, we're screwed.


mary kate turns 2! making sure declan doesn't put his hand through the $47 dora cake!

on saturday morning in between brooke's baby shower and colleen's wedding, declan and i fit in a little visit to downtown lake forest. trying to soak up every last day of summer!

i'm certain this child has a built in magnet toward fountains and water features!

mesmerized (and later mad i wouldn't let him in)

we were having a fun time at the toy store and then watching the nearby metra train. then a really nice lady came by with her dog and she offered to take our picture. she must have been a mom too, knowing we don't make it in photographs much in the early years! too bad declan was more interested in the dog, could have been a cute one!

log cabin living

a few weeks back we scored a vintage little tykes log cabin for declan from a nice family selling theirs on craig's list. i had been wanting to buy him a playhouse for quite sometime having a feeling he would be into a house his own size with a door and shutters to open & close and his own telephone.

here are a few photos from the first days of having the cabin. it was hard for me to get the perfect shot as he doesn't stop moving! he definitely likes it!

marching back to his new house

about to tackle mama and the camera!


it is very large as playhouses go, still plenty of room for this big boy to grow into.

playing in the dirt! we tucked the cabin in our back treeline which is a large mulched bed with 10 pine trees. while it looks really cool back there, he tends to come out a lot dirtier than he went in. i'm considering moving it onto the grass for the remainder of the season and we can put it back in the "forest" for winter.

labor day weekend

we spent labor day weekend in michigan visting family and relaxing. it was great except i was sick almost the whole time with a sore throat,achiness and eventually a terrible cough and general tiredness.
so needless to say, i wasn't good about taking pictures over the weekend.

great grandma betty, doesn't she look fabulous for 80-something? not that anyone is counting :)

spent a day in grand haven with grandpa and mimi. the classic dairy treat. thanks to mimi for feeding declan his ice cream so the rest of us could concentrate on our cones! poor kid, looks like he might be pushing the weight limit on that umbrella stroller!

it was a gorgeous day by the lake. we walked around downtown and along the boardwalk.

enjoyed a wonderful summer dinner al fresco. mimi has a very beautiful garden!


my rocking chair from when i when i was his age. he loved it and sat in it the whole time as soon as it was brought out of storage. my mom would like to paint it white for a future granddaughter someday, but i kind of like it in its original 70s form!

things that go

while i was away at west baden resort with the girls a few weekend ago, tim took declan to the "things that go" exhibit at the carmel library. they had a real firetruck, police car, school bus, garbage truck, street sweeper, ambulance, and other vehicles that kids can tour and see up close. it will be a really cool event to visit in upcoming years, this year he was kind of into them but we did suspect he might be a bit young. that suspicion was confirmed during the school bus meltdown.

he's always been very patriotic, pointing to the American flag

i wasn't there but can almost guarantee he's saying "truck"


scoping things out


hard to believe his LOVE for school buses from this photo! bus was one of his first words and a school bus can not drive by without him noticing and pointing it out.

back to school shoes

it was time for some new tennis shoes since sandal season has sadly come to a close. also this guy's feet have been GROWING like the rest of him!!! tim and i have these same shoes for ourselves so i thought it only appropriate that declan should have his own pair. i love them b/c they meet all my criteria for his shoes in one pair: comfortable, velcro, neutral color, can wear to school, and can dress up or down. here is declan modeling them for the first time. i can not believe what a little giant we have, these shoes are 7.5 wide which is pretty impressive for a 21 month old!

indiana state fair, a hoosier rite of passage

i'm two weekends behind on this post, but better late than never. mid-august we went to the indiana state fair with brad, jenna and parker. they are state fair pros having grown up in the area. apparently tim is also a state fair pro having frequented the WI state fair with his grandpa as a younger boy. it was my first time, as well as the little boys. we enjoyed lots of delicious and unhealthy fair food, experienced some interesting people watching and tried to beat the heat. it was about 95 in the shade so that was hard, but a great time was had by all! we look fw to next year and will strategize to pick a cooler day!

some food items enjoyed that day: peach cider slush, taco in a bag, pork tenderloin sandwich, corn dog, frozen custard, deep fried milky way, cotton candy, lemon slush, a giant sweet tea, and a bbq'd turkey leg.

turkey leg, i think i'm a pretty good sport for posting this one of myself, yes???

the "walking taco"... basically taco ingredients on top of crushed fritos served in the bag, it was fabulous!

tim was the proud consumer of a deep fried milky way

he was in food heaven all day! i could see his mind working as he plotted each next food tent...

i have never been within touching distance of cows and pigs so it was pretty neat! pretty smelly too! my favorite animals were the little white woolly lambs that were yelling baaa baaa baaa loudly. and there was a pen of little pink pigs all sleeping on each other that was pretty cute too.


declan is saying "cow" here

coloring with pen

now i've done it. one time declan experienced coloring with a ball point pen because we were at a restaurant and it was all i had in my purse. he loved coloring on the paper menu and it bought us a cherished 10 minutes!

now he prefers to color with a pen instead of crayons. and he pushes away the coloring book, demanding my cute notepads instead! he loves it and i know it makes him feel like a big boy, if only it weren't so messy!


look at the grip on this pen, what perfect form!