the Willbug

I'm in a reminiscing mood, so bear with me for this long post. A few weeks ago I looked at Will and wondered how he grew up so fast on me.  I remember wondering this summer if he would ever fit into the pants we'd bought him for the fall; now those same pants that I rolled up a few months ago are pretty short on him.  He has really started to be a chatterbox and I love hearing what he says next.  The other morning I had my normal crazy hair (mixing curly hair with wet hair at night before you go to sleep can be scary) and came out to see Jeremy and Will eating breakfast.  He looked at me and said, "Hi mama, your hair a mess!"  I laughed and agreed.  Then he said," You fix it?"  Apparently I was quite scary that morning.

He has also totally embraced Christmas and loves looking for lights and decorations as we drive.  Depending on what he sees, he'll sing "O Christmas Tree" ,"Frosty the Snowman" , "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" or "Jingle Bells".  I love it.  

I think this picture is hillarious, he was mad at me for taking a picture of him.  Maybe because he knows people don't usually bath with Mardi Gras beads on.

He loves climbing.  He's had many time outs for scaling our furniture.

He's a great sport when Jeremy and I get the sight seeing bug.  Today we went to the Christkindlmarket downtown. 

Will thought this angel was pretty cool.  We let him give her some change.

Checking out the nativity.  For some reason he loves sheep and loves to pretend to be one, then will say"You try a sheep Mama!"  So we pretend we're sheep.  It's cool to be home playing sheep instead of working.

He sometimes will even take a nap.  It was a sad day when I realized he doesn't need one every day anymore.  Guess we'll just start some quiet time so I keep my sanity this winter.  He sure is cute when he's asleep.

 His reward for being good in the car while we drove home through the rush hour traffic.  Isn't a happy meal the univeral bribe for little kids?

Will and his dog Festus.  Yes, they eat breakfast together.  They do everything together.  

 Can you believe this was him just a year ago?  Last year he was happy to just play with the beads, now he wants to climb the tree.  I sure love this kid. 

Fun in the Snow

We finally got our first snow last Saturday.  It snowed enough that we broke out the snow tube and headed outside.  Thanks to Mom, Will had warm enough snow clothes we were outside for a couple of hours.

Will was checking out the hill and watching other kids and his Dad go down.

Can you see Will hanging on for dear life?  He actually loved it, but we had to persuade him to go down each time, sometimes we just threw him into the tube and pushed him down.

I can't deny it, I love sledding and tubing probably more than the kids do.  I could have done it all day.

 Will took a break from tubing and started running around in the snow, so Jeremy took the opportunity to show him how to make a snowman.

 For some reason Jeremy and I thought an angry snowman would be hillarious.  I think it might have been too angry because the next day he was knocked down.

Will loved climbing up the hill and just sliding down on his bum.  He made some friends with some neighbors and took turns sharing tubes and sleds.  At one point Jeremy and I were talking to our neighbor and saw Will starting a snowball fight with all of the kids.  They all were laughing and rolling in the snow while throwing it at eachother.  It was awesome. 

Jeremy also pulled Will and I on our tube and then started spinning us in circles.  We were laughing so hard, until Will fell off, then he decided he'd had enough and he would be in charge and pull his Dad.



Turkey Day Turducken

Ever since I've known Jeremy, he has wanted to make a Turducken for Thanksgiving dinner.  For those of you wondering what a Turducken is, it's a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey with stuffing in between each layer. This year since we had the opportunity to cook the turkey ourselves and invite some friends over, we decided to finally go ahead and do it (I say "we" like I helped cook or something, ha ha).   A couple days before Thanksgiving, Jeremy deboned all three birds and then brined them the night before.

When I woke up Thanksgiving morning around 7:00, Jeremy had already put all 3 birds together and was finishing up the surgery by closing up the turkey. 

He had whittled his own needle out of one of Will's sticks to sew them up with since let's face it, a sewing needle just wouldn't cut it.

Jeremy was very happy with the outcome, and was excited to go play some football.

The finished product.

Delicious!  It was so fun to have our friends come over and share one of my most favorite holidays, and even more fun to see them enjoy Jeremy's cooking.  This definately was the juiciest and tastiest turkeys I've ever eaten.  Did I mention Jeremy made the stuffing from scratch so it would be gluten free for me?  What a man.  I am so thankful for him and for all that he does for our family.

Date night

Jeremy and I have been able to go out a few times since we've moved to Chicago, thanks to some great friends.  But we've never really ventured downtown because we didn't want to be gone too long.  So, while my mom was in town, downtown we went and took a tour on the Tall Ship Windy while listening to ghost stories.

Waiting to board.

I had been wanting to go on this ship since last August.  But we kept deciding it cost too much.  But when you have a free babysitter, it's pretty hard to pass up.

It was a gorgeous night, a littly chilly, but what else do you expect in October?  The sky was absolutely clear and we were able to see quite a few stars once we pulled away from the city a little bit.

After our ride on the ship, we decided we'd go for a ride on the ferris wheel at Navy Pier.  Jeremy thinks it's hilarious to rock the car while I am freaking out about the chance of falling to my death.  We had a lot of fun, and it was nice to come home and have Will in bed and find out all the fun he and his grandma had while we were gone.  Thanks Mom!

Visit from my Mom (part 2)

While my mom was here we had to go downtown Chicago.  It was a perfect day, it had rained in the morning so it was nice and cool and being on a weekday the tourist attractions weren't busy at all.

My mom and I trying to keep up with Will and Jeremy.

We went up the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower).  Will thought it was pretty cool.

Will couldn't believe how many yellow taxis and yellow boats he could see being up so high.  I just wished that there was a slot for me to drop a penny out the window.

My mom on the other hand, thought it was cool, but didn't like being on the ledge at all.  When we left the tower, she bought I t-shirt that said "I went over the edge" because she was proud of herself for stepping out onto the ledge.  She told me that night as she took out the t-shirt to look at it again, she just about had a panic attack thinking about it.

In front of Buckingham fountain.

We drove by the temple on the way home.  We couldn't remember where it was, so luckily my sister Alyse was home and gave us the address.  My mom was able to borrow my temple clothes and go through the Chicago temple.

Will showing off for Grandma singing "a cowboy needs a horse, needs a horse..."

We went to our favorite forest preserve.  Will was yelling to my mom "Grandma!  I stuck!"  And he was.

Making Aunt Debbie's chocolate chip cookies.

My Mom relaxing for a minute at Cantingy Park.  It was a cool place that had tanks for boys to climb on, a war museum and lots of different gardens to go venture into.

We had a lot of fun with my mom and treasured every moment.  We are grateful we were able to spend so much time together and that she was able to come out and visit us.

Visit from my Mom (part 1)

My Mom came to visit us last week and was here for ten fun filled days.  Will loved showing off for his Grandma and loved having someone to always play with.  It was incredibly nice to have her all to ourselves, I don't recall ever being able to just sit back and relax with her since before I was married and we'd have our long late night conversations.  It was great to be able to spend so much time together.

Will and Grandma watching a movie and having some popcorn.

We went to Bengston's Farm and had a lot of fun.  I'm not sure how excited my Mom was since she is by farms everyday, but I think that she had fun being with Will and seeing him so excited.  Will is sitting on a 1400 pound pumpkin.

 

Grandma was nice and bought some overpriced carrots so that Will could feed the animals. I think it was his favorite part of the whole farm. He giggled whenever the animals licked his hand.

 Going on a hayride to the pumpkin patch.

 

Grandma being brave sitting by Will and his stick.  Just like most boys, he likes to find them and swing them like a baseball bat.  Someday he'll learn to be careful, in the meantime I hope he doesn't hurt anyone.

Grandma loves to spoil her grandkids, Will got to ride on the train twice and he was in heaven.

Will thought it was pretty nice to have a buddy in the backseat, especially when Grandma buys really tasty popcorn to share with everyone.