Hard to believe Thanksgiving weekend is wrapping up. It has been a long and busy few days, that’s for sure! Thanksgiving on Thursday: A trip with Evie to the American Girl doll store on bustling Michigan Avenue on Friday: A cookie party at my Aunt Sheila’s house on Saturday: Christmas brunch with Santa and gingerbread […]

It isn’t even December yet, and already I feel like our holiday season is already jam packed.  I love the busyness of this time of the year, though.  It makes the cold weather just a bit more bearable. We’ve got an advent calendar that I fill with Christmas-themed activities to do with the kids.  It […]

I’ll never forget my first experience with Maker’s Mark Bourbon. My college roommate Laura returned from summer break with a bottle she had hand-dipped herself at the Maker’s Mark distillery in her native Kentucky.  We drank it straight.  Luke warm. In martini glasses.  We still laugh about it to this day! So, when the folks […]

We waited as long as we could. But, the kids were just too excited. While I normally like to wait until after Thanksgiving to set out our Christmas decorations, my three little ones just couldn’t wait another day.  And, I suppose I couldn’t, either! So, this morning Chris and Mack went down to the freezing […]

Today on our walk home after picking Evie up from school, we found the *coolest* thing in our alleyway: an empty bird’s nest. In perfect condition. To my 3 and 5 year old city kids, the day got instantly awesome! Mack leaped from the stroller to gently retrieve it.  He was concerned: where would the […]

A few weeks ago, Evie had her friend Bella over for a play date after school.  The girls came through the front door giggling and marched right upstairs to the bedroom where Vivian had just awoken from her nap.  After a couple minutes, I went up to retrieve Sleeping Beauty, only to find that she […]

Here in our house, Veteran’s Day is a pretty important holiday.  Chris served as a Captain in the Army, and even though he returned from his deployment 8 years ago, we still feel a very real connection to that time in his life. To make the day extra special this year, I employed the kids […]

For the past couple months Trader Joe’s has had a shortage of almond butter.  Lately my husband has been using it every day in a smoothie, so the shortage at TJ’s was becoming an issue! Ha! I’m not sure why I continued to buy almond butter when we’ve prepared homemade peanut butter for so many […]

Over the past couple months, the news has slowly emerged that we are expecting our fourth baby.  I’m not a big “announcer” and I don’t like attention directed at me, so I am always a little quiet about sharing news like this.  Plus, I am guarded and anxious when it comes to the baby growing […]

Thanks to the time change last weekend, the kids have been waking up a bit earlier than usual.  Their normal wake-up time is 7:00, and this past week they’ve been waking up around 6:30.  But, I know I shouldn’t complain: plenty of my friends have kids who wake up waaaaay earlier even without the time […]