Happy 2nd Birthday Alaina!

It's hard to believe that Alaina is already two years old! Our baby girl is not a baby anymore. The last two years have been such an adventure. We celebrated Alaina's birthday in style at McDonald's. It was really low-key, but Alaina had the best time. She loves McDonald's! We can't drive past one without her screaming "MiNomalls" (her version of McDonald's). We invited my parents and our good friends Paul and Anna to dinner. Of course we chose a McDonald's with a playland. That was another big hit for Alaina. She loved climbing up and down the slide with her good friend Parker. After playing for awhile we had a yogurt parfait and a chocolate milkshake, Alaina's absolute favorites! Below are some photos from our McDonald's birthday party.

After playing at McDonald's we went back to our house. I made birthday cupcakes for Alaina. We ate them while opening presents. Even Zoe tried to steal some of the birthday cake!

Celebrating Mother's Day

What a beaufitful day to celebrate Mother's Day! We finally had some sunshine and warm weather! Nate made me an excellent breakfast this morning- homemade french toast. Thanks Nate! Then we all went to church togehter. Afterwords we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the nice weather. For dinner we had steaks at my parents house. A simple, fun day spent with family. What a special Mother's Day!

French Toast breakfast. YUM!!

Shamrock Shuffle

Ready to RUN...with some new pink compression socks I picked up at the fitness expo!

I ran in my first 8k race on Sunday, April 10th. I ran in the Shamrock Shuffle in Chicago with my good friends Anna and Kate. We drove in to Chicago on Saturday afternoon and spent the night downtown. Although rain was predicted for Sunday, it was a beautiful sunny day and actually quite hot. The temperature was almost 75 degrees that day. I was not used to running in such warm and humid weather, but I still did ok. I enjoyed being part of such a huge event. There were close to 40,000 runners! The whole experience was so much fun and much different from the small scale Jingle Bell Run I ran in the fall. I'm nowhere close to being an Olympian runner, but I do the best I can. I'm a slow runner and my shins and knees hurt more often than not. However it still feels great to cross that finish line knowing that when I started running I could not even run for a full two minutes.

Picking up my registration packet at Navy Pier

Check out our cool Shamrock Shuffle T-shirts

Morning of the race, pinning on bib numbers

Kalli, Kate, and Anna minutes before the race

Wish me luck!
Let the race begin... here come Kate and Kalli!

Three hot and tired girls after the race. We did it!

Spring Break Part 2

Sadly, spring break is coming to an end. It is now Sunday evening and I start back at work tomorrow. Alaina and I had a fun week together. We had some nice weather towards the end of the week and were able to play outside. Today the temperature got up to 70 degrees! We are loving the warmer weather. Alaina loves to play outside so much that sometimes it is difficult to get her to come inside. Below are some pictures from our afternoons in the sun! We are looking forward to spending more time outside now that spring is officially here!

Spring Break Part 1

Spring break is this week. I am so happy to be off work and spending time at home with Alaina. I can't believe it's already Wednesday! The week is flying by. Alaina and I have been keeping busy. We've read several books together, played with blocks, gone for walks, etc. We are enjoying every minute. Below are some pictures of some of our spring break activities so far.

Alaina loves to empty the kitchen cupboards. Especially the tupperware cabinet.

Tupperware is so fascinating!

Entertainment for hours...

Swimming at the YMCA pool

Hooray for pool toys!

The heated pool is so nice. Alaina didn't want to leave.

St. Patty's Day!

What a beautiful day! The weather was warm and the sun was shining... for most of the day anyway. It started raining during the evening, but it was so nice having some early spring weather. I could not stay indoors today! Alaina and I went for a walk with my friend Jenny. Alaina has been to Jenny's house before. Alaina frequently talks about Jenny's cat, Bixby. When I told Alaina we were going to Jenny's house she got so excited and started screaming "Kitty Bix!" As you can see from the pictures, Alaina loves Bixby. In fact she loves all animals. Too bad we couldn't take the cat on the walk with us. I'm sure Alaina would have loved that. Instead Jenny and I took Alaina to a nearby park. It won't be long before spring is officially here and we can go to the park more often! Hope everyone had a fun St. Patrick's Day!

Shedd Aquarium!

Watching the penguins swim by!

We took a family trip to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago last Saturday. Alaina absolutely loved it! I as a little nervous about going on an all-day adventure with her. I thought she might get crabby without her nap, but she did great! She loved looking at all the fish. Her pointer finger was out all the time, pointing to everything she saw. She kept saying "Hi fish, hi fish!" It was so cute. Her favorite part was the penguin exhibit and watching the beluga whales swim in their giant tank. We also watched a dolphin and whale show at the end of our day. Afterwords we bought a mini stuffed animal dolphin for Alaina from the gift shop. She's been taking a nap with her dolphin since our trip. Below are some pictures from our fun day at Shedd.

Watching the penguins walk on the rocks

Alaina wanted her face right on the glass of the penguin tank so she could get a good look!

More swimming penguins, Alaina's favorite

"Look, Momma, more fish!"

Some friendly turtles

Mesmerized by a school of fish