Aunt Sil Visits

Aunt Sil came to visit us this past Sat and Des just loves him some Aunt Sil.  Here he is showing some love by way of a kiss.

Stella at the Dentist

Stella loves going to the dentist.  She and Dada had their semi-annual cleaning/check up today.  This time, Stella sat in the dentist chair all by herself (previously, she laid on Dada).  She was very excited to put on the sunglasses to protect her eyes from the bright light. 

 

The dentist informed us that Stella has 24 teeth (her 6 year molars all came in).  So she has to go back in August to get them sealed as a preventative measure against cavities.  Dada said that Stella was a chatterbox at the dentist's office, telling the hygienist and dentist about the impending arrival of her baby sister and other important matters =:)

Note:  Dada didn't take his camera, so these are iPhone pictures.

20 Week Ultrasound

I had my 20 week ultrasound today and we are thrilled to let you all know that we are having a...little girl! 

Stella is super excited because she wanted a baby sister.  In fact, she and Des would argue over the sex of the baby leading up to this week.  Des would say that it's a boy and Stella would say that it's a girl.  But Des just loves babies in general and he said that he "will love and take care of his little baby sister!" when I told him that the baby growing in my belly is a little girl.  What a great big brother he is going to be!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

After the rain shower today, mother nature treated us to a double rainbow.  The kids were beyond excited to see this rare treat!

July 4th 2010

We completed the second leg of our trip back to Arkansas from Chicago today.  For lunch, Stella insisted we go to Steak-n-Shake, one of her favorite places to eat because of their yummy milkshakes.  Here they are enjoying their dessert at the end of lunch.

We finally got home around dinner time.  We quickly unloaded our stuff from the car, went to a pizza place for dinner (whereby Des flirted with 2 college girls...one of the girls said that "he is such a ladie's man already!") and then drove up to the ball park to see the fireworks.

When we got home, a lot of our neighbors were putting on their own fireworks display, which we got to enjoy from our driveway and front porch.

Key Lime Cove Indoor Water Park

We checked out of our Chicago townhouse yesterday (Friday) morning and went up north to Gurnee, Illinois to spent a day at the Key Lime Cove Resort, which has an awesome 65,000 square foot indoor water park.  We didn't take any pictures yesterday because we were all in the water enjoying ourselves.  But today, I managed to take some pictures since I didn't go in the water while everyone else did prior to checking out of the hotel.  Here are a few shots I took of the kiddos having a splashing good time in the water (the quality of the pix aren't the greatest since I was using our small point and shoot camera which does not have the best flash for low light level conditions).

Des spent most of his time in the toddler section of the water park which had about 2 feet of water at the most.  It was perfect for him.  Yesterday, this is also where I spent most of time...with him, while Dada was with Stella.  Besides the toddler pool, Des also managed to go around in the lazy river a few times and enjoyed the waves in the wave pool.  

Stella spent some time in the toddler section playing with her brother, but she spent most of her time yesterday at the wave pool, the lazy river, and going down some of the really big twisty slides on tandem tubes with Dada and with Ommy.  I, unfortunately, don't have any pictures of those because I didn't go on any of the tube slides.

Here's a picture of the heart of the water park and you can see a part of the orange and yellow tube slide (on the left side of the pic) that Stella went down.

Unfortunately all good things come to an end and so it was with our vacation.  We said goodbye to our cousins, Aunt Tara and Uncle Tommy, and to Ommy and Poppa and headed home around 11:30 AM.  Until next year...

Chicago Trip, Day 6

Today was our last full day in Chicago and after a week chock full of excursions and sightseeing activities, we decided to take it easy in the morning.  After breakfast, most of the kids watched a movie while Stella and Eli played on Poppa's laptop.   Stella LOVES playing on the computer so she was in heaven.

Here are Ian, Eva, Zoe, and Des hanging out on the couch watching a movie together.

After lunch at home, we headed out to the Adler planetarium where the kids had lots of fun exploring.  They especially loved the interactive, hands-on area specifically designed for kids.

 

Usually, Des and Ian are partners, but on this day, Des and Eva were partners in crime.  Here's Eva trying to carry Des around.  So cute!

Here's a group shot of all of the kids outside of the planetarium.  Again, my two were the least cooperative when it came to smiling for the camera.

After we left the planetarium, we headed to the Sears Tower,or as it is currently known, the Willis Tower.

Here we are at the top of the Sears Tower on the Skydeck.

 

It's been awhile since I've been to the Sears Tower, but they have this new thing called the Sky Ledge, a four-sided glass box that extends out 4.3 feet from the Skydeck so that as you step out onto the ledge, it feels like you are hovering 1,353 feet (103 stories) above downtown Chicago with nothing but glass beneath your feet.  It's pretty wild!

Here are some pix of us on the Sky Ledge.

 

After the Sears Tower, we were off to Auntie Marisa's place for dinner.  Auntie Marisa was sweet enough to get a cake for Stella and Eli's birthday and as usual, Stella loved the cake, the singing, and blowing out the candles.

The kids  had a great time at Auntie Marisa's playing with bubbles, and balls, and most of all, with sidewalk chalk.