Champaign County Fair

Friday night, Shonn, Beckett, and I went to Champaign to visit our good friends, The Waldens.  Chris, Allison, Hadleigh, and Hampton will be on the road until October, so we wanted to grab the opportunity to hang out before they hit the road. We had an awesome time - Beckett even rode his first ride AND won a prize in the duck pond game. (Pretty sure it was rigged for him... :) )  We are so thankful for great friends like the Waldens, and I've loved seeing our kids spend time together as much as I've enjoyed spending time with them myself.



As soon as we arrived, Beckett got a bracelet for entry, which he thought was the coolest thing ever.  He kept showing it to us!  Then, he noticed the ferris wheel and kept saying, "Round and round!"  Then we got to ride the elephant, which he kept saying, "Boom, boom" as he pointed to it.



As you can see, Beckett and Hadleigh are such good buddies!  In the lower right picture, I know he's saying..."Don't go!"  They had a great time on the boat ride and in the duck pond. We will miss them until we see each other again in October!

Love Lanterns

Saturday night, Shonn and I went to Lorie (Dalby) Storm's wedding reception at Castle Finn Winery in Marhsall.  It was a beautiful evening for many reasons, including that Lorie was a gorgeous bride radiating happiness!  She is a wonderful person, teacher, and mom, and she deserves it!  The winery is a very beautiful place; it reminds me a lot of Willow Ridge Winery in Westervelt. 

These pictures were taken from the end of the night, when guests were to light paper lanterns and release them.  Once the lanterns fill with hot air, they will float into the sky.  It's beautiful - they look like stars!  We were a little nervous, though, since the winery IS in a field and it hasn't rained in about 2 weeks...  There were some close calls, but luckily no one had to stop, drop, and roll.

Shonn with our lantern

One lantern flying above the winery

Congratulations, Lorie and Nick!

Wrigley Concert

For our anniversary, we went to Wrigley Field for the Summer Country Concert, featuring Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert, The Band Perry, Chris Young, and someone else...  Anyway, it was so much fun!  We stayed at Maria's because she's such a good friend. We had a great time - Chicago is a beautiful city in the summer, and the concert was over six hours long!

Miranda Lambert was amazing.  I love her!

Brad Paisley is also really, really fantastic.  He has so many hits and he gave away four guitars duirng the show. He sings so many songs about his wife, which I think is so sweet.

Happy Birthday, Grammy!

The birthday girl!

Today is Mom's birthday! She said all she wanted for her birthday was a strawberry pie, so I made my first one today! :) We went out on the lake with Mom and Dad around 4:00 on a relaxing cruise around Lake Shelbyville, which Beckett LOVED. Then we ate at Skeeters and came back to our house for the pie. It was a beautiful afternoon!

Heading out on the lake with Mom and Grammy!

WHEEE! The wind made Beckett laugh, which made Shonn laugh. I love this pic!

Look, Dad! No hands!

Check my cool shades! (He calls them GUS)

Happy birthday to you!

Thanks, Shonn! (What is up with my crazy hair?! Yikes!) I like how Beckett is kind of cheese-ing it up here.

Family Weekend Trip

Last weekend, we headed to Chicagoland for a little getaway. Shonn attending a farming/landowners convention and Beckett and I hung out during the day on Saturday.  Saturday night, we went to a cool restaurant/brewery called Gordon Biersch.  We both had amazing meals, and Beckett enjoyed the evening, too.  It was so nice to get away, and I'm so thankful Shonn planned the weekend for us to enjoy.

Seriously - a cool place.  Highly recommend. http://www.gordonbiersch.com/

Super Superbowl

We went to Casey and Smitty's for the Superbowl this year. It was so nice to see them both - I hadn't seen Casey since before Beckett stopped going to her house, which was in November.  The kids had a great time, and it was wonderful to see Joni and Jason, too.  Lots of good food, talking, AND Madonna. :)  The game was pretty good, too.

Kaylee took such good care of Beckett when he was a little peanut.  I think he wants her to know he appreciates it. :)

Kiptyn and Beckett are already crusing in some pretty sweet wheels.

Smitty is thinking, "I just want to watch the game, people!"

Laundry

Someone wants to help...

Shonn and I went out on a date Saturday night and my parents were nice enough to come over and play with Beckett.  I felt guilty about how nice it was to have a conversation with Shonn alone!  We went out for dinner with the Stuarts and had a delicious meal at Texas Roadhouse, with some great conversation.  While we were gone, Mom and Dad were great about sending me pics throughout the night, and I thought this one was hilarious.

Date Night

Date night!

We had a great night with Cory, Kristin, and Ava. We met them in Effingham to eat at Lonestar - it was packed! We even met early, to work around the kids' eating schedules, and there was only one parking spot when we arrived.

Shonn and I had a few minutes to talk before the Kleisses arrived, and we were seated pretty quickly after that.  Everyone's meals were good, and then we went to Cory & Kristin's to hang out and let the kids play.  (We joked that we were going to make the guys watch Miss America, but the Broncos/Somebodies were on, so it had to remain a joke.)

Beckett and Shonn at the bar, watching football while we waited.  Cuties!

Beckett was really into the activity table.

Ava is such a cutie, and she has really cool toys, including this activity table:

 One of my friends from work, Jenny, told me to get Beckett an activity table, and we never did.  I guess we should have, because he loved it!

Ava also has a ball princess castle thing, which is like a mini, germ-free version of the McDonald's/Hardees playland things.  It was so cute!  Ava is crawling all over the place and she really isn't afraid of anything! She tipped the ball castle over while she was inside and just laughed. 

More activity table action.

Ava has the same Dino walking toy Beckett got from Grammy. She loves it and can really move!

Someone's a little tired...

...but has just enough energy for a little more investigating of that activity table.

As expected, Beckett put the moves on Ava again. He loves babies' faces! Especially girl babies!  We were talking on the way home and we have no idea how he learned this, but he also "kisses" us sometimes at night, and when we read books with pictures of real babies in them, he kisses the book, too.  Ava didn't seem to mind!

It doesn't seem too long ago that we left them with Katelynn and Ashley while we watched Footloose at the Little Theater, but then I watch this video and I can't believe how much they have grown! 

New Year's Eve

Here's our family, ready for some exciting adventures in 2012!

Beckett, Shonn, and I celebrated New Year's Eve with our friends the Waldens, the Holts, the Johnsons, and the Uppencamps.  We looked around and commented on how much can change in a year... Last year at this time, Jayme and I were both pregnant, Adam and Abbie were on a cruise, and Heath and Heather weren't even in our group yet.  Now, Adam and Abbie have moved to Indy, Allison and Chris are expecting number 2, and Jayme and I were chasing little rascals all night.  This is the third year we have all been in small group together, and we've become very close.  2012 promises to be a year full of new surprises and additions - I can't wait to see what's in store for all of us!

It was a wonderful evening.  We got there around 6:30, and Allison had all the decorations ready to go.  It was super-cute - very pinterest-worthy, as you will see in the following exhibit: (Need I remind you that Allison is the one who did the adorable M&M Holiday party just a few weeks ago? Talent, I tell ya.)

There was a ton of food, including my disastrous, and very UNpinterest worthy Ball-Drop Cupcakes.  I saw the idea on pinterest and chose to ignore the fact that they were created by a lady who makes cupcakes FOR HER JOB.  In my "project", I had all the wrong supplies and failed to read the full directions, so my cupcakes and cake pops remained separate desserts.  (You'll see the softball-sized cake pops in the upper right corner.  Softball similarity was one of the problems.)  Cute idea.  Major Fail.  Oh well - there was plenty to go around!
We had a great time watching the kids and playing my all-time favorite, Would You Rather.  If you aren't familiar with this game, you must immediately check it out. 
Here are some pics from the night.

Beckett was very interested in Hadleigh and Braylon. He loved playing with them both.

"Hey, cutie...Want a ride? I get 100 miles to the gallon on this hog."

"Where's Chris?"

Beckett: "Alright, c'mon! He isn't looking!" Hadleigh: "But your Ice Cream Truck doesn't match my outfit!"

Beckett: "This thing has some power!" Hadleigh: "Please."

THEN THINGS GOT SERIOUS...  Beckett leaned over, pushed Hadeigh down, and being the excellent parent that I am, I grabbed my camera instead of helping the poor girl up.  This is what ensued... And it wasn't even midnight yet...

Luckily, Aunt Abbie intervened.  Isn't she pretty?

 Before I knew it, Beckett was back on his Ice Cream Truck, cruising for more interesting activities.

He and Braylon found something exciting in the popping ball toy Jayme brought. (Again, in display of my superior parenting skills, I didn't bring any toys, which is probably why my child kept taking everyone else's. He did share his food, though...For the record...)  Here is Jayme and Braylon. Such cuties - both of them!

After a while, the toys got boring and Beckett needed to PARTY! He was walking all over the place, having a great time, singing and screaming with the party hat Aaron found and so lovingly placed on his head.  It definitely made for some cute pics!

  Shonn had some exciting party activities up his sleeve, too.  As you can see, Beckett is screaming. (In delight.)

Back on his feet, crusing for some more games and friends. With his eyes closed.

And he lost the Ice Cream Truck. (Hetold me he thought it made him look a little creepy.)

I love this picture. :)

Dad was leading Beckett to the yummy snacks in the kitchen...

...and then he realized Beckett was just following Hadleigh:

But his Number One Girl (at least for another year or two?), MOMMY, was there to intercept and give him a New Year's squish. (And some smooches.)

Sadly, I didn't get any kisses quite like Hadleigh did...

After a few more rounds of walking through the house, Beckett and Braylon got in their jammies.

The grown-ups laughed and made some very important decisions in Would You Rather...

Here's Heather and Abbie! Heath and Heather had a date night dinner before joining us. Their kiddo, Braylon, was at his Grandma's house.

Approximately 3 hours past his bedtime, Beckett was pretty much over the whole New Year's Eve celebration. (Plus Hadleigh was no where to be found.)

And not too long after, he crashed. (Please note that even though I forgot to bring toys to the party and neglected to prevent my child from attacking the other little people in the room, his hair did look pretty amazing...)

What a great night.  We are so blessed and are lookiing forward to what 2012 may bring!
xo