FALL FUN!!!

Here are some pics of our FALL FUN !!!! The captions will say it all :)

One day we decided to go to a pumpkin patch with the kids, Kuipers Farm. We had a blast although we kind of picked a cool day, oh well

Beckham staying warm in the stroller while at the pumpkin patch

Dad and Blake on the giant pumpkin pillow

Tristen and Blake playing in the corn box

                Tristen had a blast feeding the goats/sheep, she had even more fun when they started chasing her!!

          So Halloween pictures didn't turn out too well this year, Tristen took some pretty funny pictures due    to having lip stick on. But she was all excited to dress up like a disney princess. 

                                

Blake was an army guy this year, I wanted to be something else, but he won't wear hats/masks/ or have anything touch his face

Preschool Theme day: Hopefully you can guess what the theme is. Yes, it was "country/cowboy" theme.

I think Tristen made a cute little cowgirl!!

Here' s a picture of Beckham, he's 7 months old now. He has 2 teeth and has started crawling (hence the lack of posts...yes I keep busy these days

Preschool + No Tears = Happy Mom

Well Tristen is back at preschool this year and thank heaven's she's loving it!!!!! What a difference 1 yr makes :)  I am sooo happy that she looks forward to it and she seems to enjoying socializing with kids her age.  There were a lot of tears last year...not sure who wanted to cry more Tristen or me (it was rough when Tristen didn't want to go, but I knew it would be really good for her)
Anyways, here are some pics of her first day of school.

Excited for her first day of preschool this year!!!

 

Not sure why Tristen is so serious in this pic (that rarely happens)!!!

 Good Luck hug from Blake, he is an affectionate little guy

Blake and Sister

We can't forget Baby Beckham, 6 months old

Pardon my lack of pants, but at least we have a smile right!

HaPpY 4tH BiRtHdAy TrIsTeN !!!!!!

Well our little girl turned 4yrs old today!!!!! Wow, it is crazy to think that she has been with us for that length of time!!! I can't imagine our life without her....Tristen is full of energy, life, and fun!!! We actually celebrated her birthday all weekend long... as per her request. It was actually a lot of fun and who can ever complain about good family time.

So Tristen's birthday celebration started Saturday afternoon when we headed to good old Chucky Cheese!!!! Tristen was really excited to go and things actually went really well there since it wasn't busy or overly crowded. After lunch we headed to downtown naperville where we went to a specialty candy store and let Tristen pick out some of her favorite treats. Then we went to a gourmet cupcake shop and picked out a couple more treats...mommy certainly wasn't complaining about this stop! Any ways, after that we headed to a hotel and spent the night there, we weren't too far away from home, but Tristen LOVES going to a hotel and spending the night, so why not??? It was a free stay with our credit card points. So the kids had a ball in our hotel suite, they played, watched tv, went swimming, and by 8:00pm they passed out from exhaustion!!! So it was a fun and relaxing weekend. Since we celebrated Tristen's birthday over the weekend, on her actual birthday (today), we had a relaxing day and went to walmart to pick out a toy with her money from far away Grandma/pa  and we had  nice dinner, cake, and gifts. Below are some

pictures of our weekend and of her b-day!!!

Chucky Cheese PaRtY

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Blake shouldn't be standing up there!!! Our bad ...oh well!

Ok, so I'm not sure who was having more fun a Chucky Cheese,  Jason or the kids !!!

Tristen at the hotel eating her gourmet cupcake.....yummers!!!!! She was nice and shared with Blake

Tristen picked out this special princess cd player with her $$ from" far away Grandma/pa"

Tristen's b-day cake I made her, I borrowed a mold from a friend, it was easy and took maybe 10 mins to decorate, now that is what I call my kind of  birthday cake!

Tristen and her Barbie cake

Poor Blake is going to hate me for this one when he gets older, I was trying to stall him before

cutting the cake/opening up gifts

 Flash back pose from a week ago for Jason's b-day pics!! lol

Tristen opening up one of her gifts, a cool barbie guitar with a mic....she loved it

After opening up a few small gifts, the door bell rang. Jason was outside with her big gift

A new princess bike!!!

All in all it was a great weekend and we are soo thankful to have Tristen in our family. She definitely keeps us on our toes, but we can't imagine life without her or any other way. Happy 4th birthday Tristen!!!!!

HAPPY 35th !!!!!

So we celebrated Jason's birthday just last week, we did it a day early since Jason and I

were going on a quick out of town "Happy Belated 5th Anniversary" trip just for the 2 of us.

So we had a nice dinner, opened presents, and  then we had cupcakes.

 The picture above is of Jason's (not Blake's...my 2 yr old)  Birthday Cupcakes....I thought the kids would appreciate these more than a traditional cake. If  Tristen had her wish the above pic would be one of an underwear cake...so I think I went the safer and less offensive route.

Any ways, Jason loved his dinner, gifts, and his cupcakes...he laughed when he saw them. Oh the

things we do for kids when they get a bigger kick out of our birthdays than we do :)

Tristen is already asking about Santa and the Easter Bunny, she keeps on asking when they

are coming!!!!

                     

                         Just a quick pic of Tristen and Beckham, not the greatest pic
 of her but a cute one of  Beckham

Just another pic of Jason and the kids, just trying to get Blake in some of these

pics, it is sooo hard trying to get a good pic of everyone.

A Picture's worth a 1000 words.....let's hope so :P

Okay, so my title says it all....in the sense that I'm feeling a little tired/lazy/overwhelmed (you take your pick) these days and I'm not too much in the mood to write a lot....oh well, c'est la vie right?

To sum up the past few weeks, Vacation, Family & Fun.

Spent Canada day in Canada: Parade, family, fireworks,

animal farm/beach/playing with cousin for the kids, shopping for mom, golfing for dad,

baby blessing for little Beckham, 

 & another fun Hotel stay in Lansing, MI.

Lots of Positives!!! Especially a shout out to all the family that came to Beckham's Blessing. It was a nice surprise to have family travel as far as they did for the blessing, I know it especially meant a lot to Jason!!!!

THANKS AGAIN!!!!

Only downside to vacation: Blake learned to climb out of his crib......BOYS!!!!!

& Trying to get the kids back into a routine, especially bedtime....fun stuff, eh?

Blessing = Kids = Sacrifice

Lastly: Sneek peek of the basement....still finishing touches, trim, outlets, doors trimmed, shelves to put up in the inset behind couch..and much much more I'm sure.

P.S Wish we had more pics, bad camera = no battery life = no pics...bummer, need to get a new one

Add another thing to the never ending TO DO LIST :

Tristen at the animal farm, she had a great time with

 all 4 of her boy cousins at the farm

Blake getting practice climbing...no comment :s

Just a quick pic of basement, we just had carpet installed but have not had the time to do anything else. So anxious to get it done!!!

HAPPY...HAPPY...HAPPY

Birthday Boy!!!! Playing at his cousins house in MI.

So what can I say... besides the fact that we have had a  few HAPPY DAYS around our neck of the woods. Last week (June17th) we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary!!!! It feels like we have been married for so much longer...hey this is a good thing  :)  For our mini anniversary celebration we decided to go out for a date night (dinner, a walk down the naperville river front, and to run a few errands). It was great, but we are planning a downtown over night  trip with no kids (maybe Beckham...we'll see..not sure if I can part with my little man yet) to really get a break and celebrate our anniversary, I'm really looking forward to it!!!!! Also a few days later (Sat./19th) we decided last minute to go surprise my niece Stephanie in Michigan who was having her graduation party. We had a wonderful day and it was really nice seeing/spending time with family. My parents also surprised my niece and made the trip and got to meet baby Beckham for the first time as well. So the next day was Sunday, Blake's 2nd birthday and Father's day. Wow...lots of celebrating huh? So we headed back to chicagoland and I threw together dinner, a cake, and a few decorations for a little last minute b-day celebration for Blake. I feel a little bad that we didn't have a lot of time to do more for his birthday, but he is still at the oblivious and doesn't really get his birthday stage. He was more than happy with a piece of cake and a few toys to unwrap and play with.

Any ways, it was a wonderful week in which many wonderful memories were made!!!! Here are just a few pics of our recent happenings.  Side note: We finally had our new carpet installed in our family room and in our basement....it is sweet!!! Also the basement is in the "finishing touches phase", which those too add up, but at least it is at the fun stage when you see everything come together. Pics to follow soon .

Nice hair dad!!!Swimming at the hotel

Beckham chilling at our pad "hotel room"

Ok, so last minute throw together cake...it's a snake...next year I will plan a little better and do something way cool.

Birthday Boy and his snake cake, wow I love my little Bud, he is such a mama's boy and I love it!!

Happy Anniversary/Belated Father's Day shout out to Jason,

You are a wonderful person, Father, Husband & Friend,

Love ya!!!

Quick Update!!!!

Here are some pictures of the last couple of weeks. Before I jump into posting the pics, I just wanted to let everyone know that we are all alive and doing well :) Baby Beckham is a happy little guy for the most part, he is way more alert and he is already smiling :) Tristen also finished up preschool a couple weeks ago and has been busy running around the yard and enjoying her many play dates. As far as  updates on the rest of us, to keep it brief, Jason is almost done another MBA class, the basement is coming along REALLY WELL (drywall is all up, mudded, primed, carpet ordered), I'm back at the gym (good old baby weight.....need I say more), and Blake is just smiling away like he usually does, except when he is yelling at his sister saying "MINE". Oh the "Mine Phase", how fun. Oh well I will take it over the potty training phase ANY DAY!!!!! Any ways I just wanted to keep this entry brief, nothing too exciting sorry....hey we have a newborn, sleep is exciting to us at this point in the game :)  I will post more pics on the finished basement later and with Blake's birthday next month, father's day, and a trip to Canada at the end of next month, I'm sure I'll have plenty to blog about (let's just hope I have enough energy to blog...lol).

Tristen on her last day of preschool this year, all the kids got certificates of completion. Tristen is a

TOTAL HAM at home but put her in a crowd and she is shy, hence her shoulder all hunched up. I was soooo proud of her for walking up and taking her certificate, I wasn't sure if she would even to do that.

Tristen and the other preschoolers

 

 Beckham 7 weeks old :)

Tristen and Baby Beckham

Ok....so, I notice a theme with Blake pics, "eating shots"....the main reason for this is: 1) Blake is a very active little guy and normally I get just the back of his head in the picture or very squinty eyes b/c he can't sit still for a momment unless he is strapped in  2) He is napping when I'm taking pics  3) He is less demanding, unlike big sister, who insists she must either be in the pics or take the pics..... :) I will try a get better pics

of Blake maybe for my next post. 

    

Living La Vida LOCA!!!!

So I just wanted to post a few more pics for friends and family that haven't met our new little guy yet. It's hard to believe that he is 3 weeks old today. So far Beckham is a pretty good baby. I am doing pretty good as well these days, besides the lack of sleep (which come with the territory) I would say life with 3 kids is going better than expected. I am not down playing or in denial that I will have those melt down moments and ask myself what were we thinking???? (especially since I haven't taken them in public all by myself yet....not really looking forward to that). However, overall I would say that  life is just BUSY  :)  Between chasing the older 2 kids and making sure their needs are met, feeding the baby, cleaning the house, laundry, meal times, meltdowns, nap times, bath times, and squeezing in an occasional phone call,  that pretty much eats up most of my day :) I know this feels a little overwhelming and exhausting at times (mainly in the beginning w/ a newborn), but I am trying to embrace it! I love having 3 kids and I recognize they are only young for a short period of time. I want them to have lots of good memories with mom and dad and as a family. Any ways, enough said . Below are some pics of the past few weeks.

Tristen and Blake have been really good with Beckham. The only thing I have to watch is Blake giving the baby too many hugs...yes, he isn't a feather weight either.

Blake on the Trampoline...aka the EXHAUSTER!!! I love trampolines, after lots of play the kids are tired and ready for bed, very helpful when mommy has to tend to the baby

BIG SISTER on the trampoline

Baby Beckham 2 weeks old

You forget how little babies are until you have another one...

Yes, so Blake feels sooo much bigger these days, yes my baby is no longer the baby of the family. Even though it is a little sad to think about this, it is fun seeing Blake's little personality develop. Yes, he looks a little silly in his chair w/ a tray , but he loves trying to push over the other chairs at the big table, hence his own "private" eating area ;) It keeps the peace.