Spring has sprung!

Hi everyone, it's been a LONG time since we last posted anything, and a lot has been going on in our world. Let's start with Caroline! She is talking up a storm, lots of new words every day ... and starting to use sentences now for a few weeks. Some of her favorites: "Oww that hurts!" "I'm cooking Mommy" "Cut pizza Mommy" "I brush my hair" "I want my shoes" she is getting good! Sometimes she can be hard to understand but we are learning and she is good at communicating what she wants:) Her favorite foods in no particular order: "roni" (any kind of pasta), veggies, waffles (w/syrup of course), sausage (any kind! she's a true Chicagoan) and YOGURT. This girl does not skip a beat, she's on from the second she wakes up to the minute she passes out in her crib at night. No sign of a big girl bed yet, she is perfectly content in her crib with 20-30 of her nearest and dearest friends (stuffed animals). She is still loving every minute of daycare, and now that the weather has gotten nicer, she's able to spend a lot of time outside with the kids at Miss Tami's. She loves riding around in her Cozy Coupe car, toting her Disney princess suitcase, making pretend coffee in her kitchen for Ben, and playing relentlessly with her puzzles, trying to count to 10 with all her effort. She is about as cute as they come, and really into everything. Just a sweet little girl with a great personality.

Now onto Ben ... he did some traveling for school at the beginning of March, with a nice two-week trip to South Africa. The first week of his trip was solely school related, while he and some classmates worked on a consulting project for a company in Swaziland. The trip was successful and he spent another week cruising Kruger National Park outside of Johannesburg with some friends - great pictures to come soon - but he had a blast. He was also able to visit with our good friends Lauren and Geoff Gursel who were fabulous hosts to Ben and some classmates, showing them the sights of Joburg, and shuffling Ben from place to place. He had an awesome time!! Ben is now in his FINAL quarter of school at Georgetown, and we find ourselves marveling at how quickly our time in DC has gone ... soon enough we will be making our next move ... which takes me to the big news! Ben accepted a job in NYC that starts in mid July. We are in the final process of first time home buying in New Jersey, and we'll be outside Manhattan about 30 minutes by train. We are really excited and will post more news about our new place soon!

All of this has obviously kept me very busy ... Ben's in charge of the finance stuff, and I've been glued to the New Jersey MLS listings searching for our perfect home! Now that we've found it, I'm on to bigger and better things ... paint colors, furniture, you name it! And finding Caroline a new daycare/nursery school, which has been pretty successful so far. If all goes according to plan, we will close on May 25 and move that weekend (Memorial Day!) ... really soon! We've got a few good weekends ahead of us enjoying the time we have left in DC and planning for our next stop. Stay tuned for more updates.

Ben and I also recently celebrated some birthdays ... I'll leave Ben's age out of this post but I hit the big 30! We had a great time celebrating with friends and family at an awesome Mexican fiesta followed by a night out on the town with drinks more friends. We are very lucky to have all that we do!

18 months and counting!!!

We realize it's been a while since our last post ... but so much going on! Thanksgiving in Chicago was a BLAST, and the month of December has seemingly flown by. Finally got all of the holiday cards mailed yesterday and now we're moving onto our next feat ... packing for Brazil. We take off Tuesday morning for our three-flight adventure, so here's to some vino for me/Ben, and some Benadryl for Caroline. This trip is gonna be a doozy - but we are so excited to see the Brites family! They've never met Caroline, and we already know they will just love her. She is thrilled to meet all of her many, many cousins!!

Speaking of C, she is 18 months today! Really the time has disappeared. Our little sweet baby has turned into a semi-sweet, very active, independent smart little cookie. This week her interests include: cereal, bubble baths and cooking up just about anything in her mini kitchen. It's adorable.

C is also really into anything Christmas-y ... the tree (read: shaking the tree), lights (read: pulling at the lights), Santa (ho ho ho!) and snow! This morning we had on GMA and the weather man was talking about all the snow we're anticipating in Washington this weekend and she promptly ran to the sliding door to look for the snow. She was sadly disappointed to not find anything just yet.

We wish everyone a very happy holiday season and promise to post some pics from our Brazil extravaganza once we're back in the new year! For now, enjoy some recent photos of C.

We're Tired of Being Sick!

The theme of this post is ... we've had it with being sick! From the stomach flu to the cold and flu, we're ready to be healthy again. Poor Caroline was out of daycare twice last week with a bad cold, then passed to both me and Ben. Here's hoping we've hit our quota for this cold and flu season!

Halloween weekend was great with a visit from Mimi. We had a blast playing and hanging out. Saturday, of course, was the big trick-or-treating trip to Centreville. C dressed as a little lioness (costume courtesy of Tim) and Timmy went as an adorable dinosaur. Both costumes were a hit with the toddlers, and although we had to bribe Caroline with a juice box to put her "mane" on, a good time was had by all.

Uncle John and Aunt Linda's old neighbors, Karoline and Gary, were gracious hosts and served up a spooky Halloween meal especially for the little ones! Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets and ABC tater tots (and helping after helping of "dip" aka ketchup) were enjoyed by all. The adults tasted three varieties of chili, and drank a lot of wine. Poor Gary's wine cellar will certainly need to be restocked ... he is probably wondering where did all the white wine go?

Sunday we went to watch the Bears battle out the Browns at Thirsty Bernie (luckily one game they actually DID win). We made a trip to Toys R Us before Mimi had to head to the airport and overall, had a really fun trip. Come back to visit soon!

Will upload some more photos soon. This weekend ... Ben and Caroline hang out while I hit up the Long Island wineries with the crazy NYC crew! Stay tuned and have a great week.

Pumpkin farm pictures

Blog Hiatus

Well ... it's been a while ... but we're back! Caroline is creeping up on 16 months (this weekend) and in full-time daycare, Ben is nearly finished with his first quarter of year #2 of school, and I'm still busy working away. We had a great summer and now settling back into the school/Fall routine.

It's amazing how much Caroline has changed over the past few months. For those of you that haven't seen her in a while - she has a great disposition and personality. Very easy-going and all-around cute (of course, we're biased) and curious. She has about 20 "favorite" words ... from cheese, shoes, socks, Bo-Bo to Go Gators! (her latest from Aunt Shelley), Mimi, cookie and doggie ... she is chatting up a storm. She loves the daycare (Timmy is there three days a week - what's not to love?) and has enjoyed making some new friends.

Ben and I have been busy - trying to take advantage of nights out and hanging with friends. We've enjoyed entertaining at our new place (yes, we moved AGAIN at the beginning of August) and drinking vino and grilling up steaks on the patio. We've had a few weddings (congrats to Tim & Jo, Ed & Erin, and Luke & Arianne!) since the end of August ... and of course Ben has tons to do for school. Between "Finance Day," recruiting and networking events, being a TA for an old professor this year, and general schoolwork, Ben's a busy guy with lots of late nights and Monster drinking. But through it all, he keeps a great attitude and we are so proud of him. Hard to believe he'll be back in the workforce in no time!

The latest addition to our family was a new (gently used) car purchase in September. Aunt Susie sold us her Saturn VUE and we're thrilled to have more space for the ever-growing Caroline and all of her things! Jim bought our old car and flew out to pick it up a few weeks back. It was a short trip, but good to see him before his last CPA exam and the start of his new job. Many of you know that Jim was laid off during the summer, but he's working with Uncle Jerry at Altom Transport as the "CFO's right-hand man." He's in week 2 and seems to be doing great so far.

Here are a few recent photos of Caroline and Timmy's trip to the pumpkin patch last weekend - the weather was fabulous and they really had a fun time running around and checking out all the cool things (e.g., slides, Noah's ark, petting zoo, tunnels, pumpkin picking area, etc.). What a great way to end the weekend!

This Saturday we're gearing up for Maggie's birthday bash ... YMNO (Young Mom's Night Out). We've already prepped the pull-out couch for Maggie and Kaylee to spend the night. Break out the vino ... the Trader Joe's appetizers ... we're ready to party!

Have a great week everyone. Stay tuned for more updates!

The Weekend in Photos!

Daddy can't believe what a big girl I am!

Left: I am six months old today! (Dec. 18)

Middle: Mommy, Santiago, Dora and me enjoying Saturday night!

Right: Me and Mommy on a lazy Saturday morning.

Cute as a Christmas Elf.

So, I'm headed to Chicago tomorrow night for the holidays! I can hardly believe Christmas is this Thursday. I wasn't able to get any shopping done, but maybe next year.

This weekend was really busy. Friday night Mommy and I went to Uncle Chris and Aunt Maggie's to exchange gifts with Timmy. That was fun! I won't see Timmy until he gets to Chicago on New Years Day for the wedding. Good times! Saturday night Daddy's friend from school Carlos and his wife Dora had us over for a fantastic dinner. I, of course, was stuck eating rice cereal and pears, but I didn't care. I got to meet their son, Santiago, and he's a cutie pie! I was pretty tired so slept the night away. Today was busy too. Had to go get my pictures taken AGAIN at the mall. I like going there because there is sooooo much to look at. Lots of people to watch. We got home and spent the rest of the day packing and finishing up everything before we leave tomorrow night. Oh yeah, and I tried sweet potatoes for the first time - boy were they yummy! I almost ate the whole jar.

Okay, it's late and I need to get my beauty sleep! I will write more from Chicago... hope everyone had a great weekend.