First Week = Success

We have survived our first week at our new house.  Ryan was touch and go for awhile.  He kept saying he wanted to go "bye bye" whenever we were at the house.  He is now doing much better and enjoys running around the basement playing baseball.  Unfortunately, we have not taken many pictures the last few weeks due to packing, unpacking, etc.  Here are a few pictures from April including Ryan's last week at Kids' Work.

Children's museum in Naperville

 Loving the slide

 Future Picasso

4055 N. Wolcott, Adieu

After around 8 years in the Lakeview/North Center neighborhood, the time has come to say goodbye to Chicago.  On April 20^th, we will trade in our city dwellings and officially become La Grange, IL residents.  

As excited as we are for a little extra breathing room, the last few weeks have been filled with mixed emotions as we’ve packed up the condo.  We’ve definitely had our fair share of gripes about Chicago (traffic, parking, etc.), but I suppose that’s to be expected in the third most populous metropolitan area in the United States...

But we’ve also experienced some of our biggest/special moments as a family at 4055 N. Wolcott…a marriage, our first home purchase, and the place Ryan has called home for nearly two years and where he experienced many of his “firsts”…smiling, crawling/walking, saying “mom and dad”, and more bumps and bruises than we can count.  Although far from a sprawling estate, Ryan has always been happiest here at home.

While we can’t wait to move into the new house, we’ll always have a very special place in our hearts for the little condo where it all started.

And the good news, the new house is only about 20 miles from Chicago, so we’ll still be able to hit all of our favorite haunts…and speaking of favorite haunts, here’s a list of establishments that have made our lives special over the last 8 years (most of which also stretched our waistlines a bit - Becki told me to speak for myself):

·           Scooter’s Frozen Custard

·           Lincoln Park Zoo

·           The Local Option

·           The Art of Pizza

·           Sola

·           Coonley Elementary School Park

·           Our local CVS and Jewel

·           Half Acre Brewery

·           Stauber’s Hardware

·           Rockwell’s

·           Lakeview YMCA

·           KidsWork (Ryan’s daycare that took GREAT care of him for a year and a half

A    Although we won’t be in the neighborhood, we have a feeling we’ll be seeing most of them soon…

    

       So as we trade in our CTA cards for Metra cards, and our condo for our first house, we’d just like to say, “Thanks, Chicago.”

 Stay tuned for our new adventures as suburbanites……..

Crazy Month

March was a crazy month...work, family time, illnesses.  April is shaping up to be just as crazy.  In the meantime, here's what Ryan has been up to...

rock, rock, rock

 hugging friends at school

Go Hawks!!

D-Town

We headed to Dwight last weekend to hang out with Uncle Mike and enjoy the weather.  Kate and Erin joined us and the Flotts stopped by to visit.  We even got to see Aunt Carrie and Uncle E.  It was fun to see the kids interact with each other.  I imagine it was similar to when the Sands and Flotts played together 30 years ago!!

 Shooting hoops with Dad

 Life lessons from Uncle Mike

Laughing with Clara 

It was really hard to get all 3 kids in the same picture 

Plotting against us

Your Wish is My Command

Our last post asked for spring to hurry up...seems we got our wish.  The last few days have been great...trips to the zoo, park, Scooters.

C'mon Spring

We're all going a bit stir crazy in the condo.  And for Ryan, spring can't some soon enough.  In the meantime, he's been practicing his jumper and getting ready for bathing suit season.

Nice form.....notice the bent knees, "L" shaped arms,  and shoulders square to the basket. 

My winter abdominal workouts will pay dividends this summer....

Suit, check.  Towel, check.

Big Guy!!

It has been so much fun to watch Ryan change week to week, month to month, etc.  In the past few weeks, he has started to show some independence.  He likes putting clothes in the hamper, hanging his coat up and choosing what he wears (see picture below).   He loves sports...basketball, football and hockey (or hock as he calls it) are his favorites.  He is alway running around with some sort of ball in his hand.  February was also a big month for family birthdays...Grandpa Scott, Uncle Mike, Cousin Kate and someone's 30th.  We celebrated with some chocolate cake which Ryan loved!!

KC

Happy 1st birthday to the one and only Kate Eder!! We love you and can't wait to see you on Saturday!!

Ryan also sent Kate a special happy birthday video today...

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Road Trip!

On Saturday, we made a trip to Wenona, IL to watch Uncle Mike coach his 7th grade basketball team in the Elite-8.  Even though the team didn't win, it was a great game and Mike did a great job coaching all season long!!