LZ Fire Station Visit

Sunday morning we went on a private tour of the Lake Zurich fire station and on a fire truck ride. We won this prize at a benefit that we went to. It was SOOO neat!!! Everyone was so nice and welcoming! We brought them pizzas so they could enjoy them during the Bears game as a thank you from us and they were very appreciative:) They took us on a tour of the fire station and we loved seeing where they sleep, eat and hang out while they wait for a call. Then we got to see the big fire trucks and all of the neat equipment that they use to help save lives and fight fires! Here is Colin all buckled in one of the firetrucks. Kaitlyn was trying out the mini hose!
This was pretty neat.....one of the firemen dressed up in all of the gear and even put on an oxygen tank. Here they are listening to him talk and they were also touching his jacket.

Family Pic with the fireman:)

Colin was checking out all of his gear....its SO heavy!!

The highlight of our trip was the fire truck ride!! We got to ride on one of their largest firetrucks which has a huge ladder.

Here we are on our ride.....Daddy and Colin were able to sit in the front seat!!! Made mommy a little nervous driving around town with Colin in the front!

Mommy and Kaitlyn sat in the back with the Lieutenant. Mommy was sitting backwards and Kaitlyn was in the jump seat. We had a nice ride though Lake Zurich! We never realized how bumpy a big firetruck ride could be so we had to hold on tight! :)

Here are some of the very nice firemen who spent the morning with us! They even gave us bags filled with goodies!

Colin had to try on his fireman hat on the way home. We had a great time.....thanks to the LZ Fire Department!!!!

K & C's 3rd Birthday Weekend!

We had such a fun birthday weekend!!!! We were SO excited to have our Grandma and Papa Willis along with Great Grandma Boots come up and stay with us for the night!! We miss them and wish they lived closer so we could see them more often!! We had a really fun sleepover! They played with us and read tons of books when then were visiting. Here is Kaitlyn with Grandma and Great Grandma Boots on Friday night...they were reading some books. Papa was reading Colin a book about tractors.....one of Colin's favorites!!
Saturday morning it was Lego building time!!!
Our party was Saturday night at Nicks Pizza in Crystal Lake. Grandma Young made our cakes and we thought she did a super job!!! How cute are these giant cupcake cakes?!?! Mommy made coloring books and we had pink and blue cookie favors for our friends too.
Birthday Boy and Birthday Girl!!!! Say cheese!!

Colin, Kaitlyn, Madi, Quintin and Abby being silly. We were missing Makenna in the picture. Also, Tyler who wasn't able to join us for the party.

Singing Happy Birthday to us:)

The fun part...opening presents....mommy and daddy were cracking up at the shrieks and screams that we made for every gift that we opened...it was too cute!!!

Yeah! The Tinkerbell Movie!!!

Wow! Jr. Razor Scooters! We missed you Auntie Jill, Uncle Craig, Reid & Jay...thanks for the cool gifts!!!

When we got home we were so excited to look at all of our new stuff. Mommy and Daddy let us stay up til 9:00 so we could play. Kaitlyn loves her new American Girl Bitty Twins!

Its Race Time!! Colin was enjoying his Matchbox race track.

Colin was having fun with his car accessories!

Kaitlyn loves her pink walkie talkie phones....she was talking to Daddy....we are in trouble with her and the phone!

She even had Daddy on the phone with her:)

Colin was getting ready build with his magnetic vehicles.

We had a great party and are enjoying all of our wonderful gifts!

3 year pictures

We attempted 3 year pictures today. Kaitlyn and Colin cooperated really well as far as listening where they needed to sit, stand and position themselves....but when it came to smiling they were giving cheesy smiles:) The photographer was laughing because we all knew they were "fake" smiles! Out of 100 pictures that I looked at I decided to only buy 2 poses and didn't even buy any of them individually. The funny thing is that my children are usually used to the camera and pretty much smile on demand. Oh well better luck at their 4 year pictures:) I even changed our blog header to this picture.....the old header was my absolute favorite but it was getting old and I figured we were due for a change. This was was too cute not to buy...Colin was told to give Kaitlyn a kiss on the cheek.....they gave each other a kiss right on the lips:)

Helping Move!

Yesterday we were gone for 9 hours helping Grandma and Papa Young clean out their storage area that they were renting and move some things to their new house that they built. They still are not quite ready to fully move in as they haven't sold their old house yet. The kids absolutely love going there as their really isn't much furniture in it and their is plenty of room to run around still:) Here they are playing in the grand kids bedroom. Grandma and Papa kept this table and chair set from when I was growing up to use for their grand kids. They colored in their room for an hour yesterday...grandma was nervous they would draw on the freshly painted walls as they were sometimes too quiet up there:) This was too funny....grandma was mopping the floors because as daddy and Uncle Randy were bringing in furniture lots of dust was being brought in too!! Kaitlyn and Colin were begging to mop too!!
Wish they would be as enthusiastic about cleaning up their toys at home as they were about cleaning Grandma & Papa's floors!! :)
Kaitlyn being a ham and dancing while poor Colin was cleaning:) They were too funny yesterday!!

Quintin, Kaitlyn and Colin being silly with their hoods on:)

Grandma and Papa put a crib in the grand kids bedroom for Quintin so K, C and Auntie Kelly they were taking a break and relaxing on it....how many people can you fit on a crib mattress???

Poor Grandma....they were building a human tower on her!! We had fun hanging out at the new house....I know it looks like all we did was play but we did actually get work done while we were there:)

Bowling Benefit

Today we went to a bowling benefit. We were so happy to help contribute to the police family in need! Kaitlyn and Colin enjoyed the cosmic bowling!! Here they were with Grandma Young enjoying some fruit snacks. Auntie Kelly was helping Colin bowl...he was going for a strike!!

Smiling with Auntie Kelly:)
The benefit was during nap time so Auntie Kelly brought the mini DVD player which was a lifesaver for the kids who were waiting for their turn to bowl. Colin looked away to smile but Quintin was way too interested in Elmo!!
The highlight for K & C was the raffle prize that we won. I jumped out of my seat when Cam said we won, after I realized he wasn't teasing me, because he knew I wanted to win this prize for the kids!! We received this laminated certificate signed by the LZ fire chief that is good for a firetruck ride!!!! The kids are BEYOND excited!! They wanted to go tonight! It is really supposed to be for a child to be picked up at home and be driven to school. Since K & C are not in school yet we are going to meet at the Lake Zurich fire dept, get a tour and get a ride around Lake Zurich in a real fire truck!! We met the fire chief and K & C thanked him! We met his secretary too who I need to call and set everything up with....we hope to schedule the date sometime this month. So we were super excited about winning this prize!!

Little Artist:)

Colin really enjoys to draw as of just recently. It is so cute to see what he creates! We have been working on drawing people. He was so proud of his drawings that I thought I would let him share them with you! He loves to use markers like a big boy but as you will be able to see in the video they can be messy:) Here he is sharing his juice box and dog. Its funny to me that he thought to draw a juice box as he doesn't drink juice!!

Chuck E Cheese

Auntie Kelly finally sent mommy the pictures from Chuck E Cheese! Thanks Auntie Kelly for taking me as I had so much fun with you and Quintin!! Here I am on the Barney ride. This was too cute. Auntie Kelly said that she did not say to put my arm around Barney...how cute!!

Here I am climbing up to go in the tunnels....this is my favorite thing to do at Chuck E Cheese!!

Quintin and I had a lot of fun playing back at their house! We were just relaxing here.

I love my cousin so much:)

My Cookie Monster!

It must be the day for my kids to say and do funny things! Tonight Colin wanted some Ritz crackers. He lined them up on the table and started to eat them like an animal! There were crumbs flying everywhere!!!!!!! He must have known I was getting upset by the mess because he looked at me with a serious face and said that he was eating his "cookies like Cookie Monster". I just had to laugh...he was pretending his crackers were cookies! My floor and table was covered in crumbs!! He doesn't even watch Sesame Street anymore but he remembered how Cookie Monster ate his cookies and made a huge mess! How could I get upset at his cute face full of crumbs!! :) I should have grabbed my camera but I was just enjoying the moment for a minute before I grabbed my vacuum!

Excuses, Excuses!

Did you ever know that pigtails can hurt?? This was too cute that I had to post it....sorry but I don't have a picture...isnt that a surprise!! :) Today Kaitlyn, Colin and their best buddy Madi had gymnastics class. They are so big that they take class without the moms and go in with their teacher Miss Nicole. Its only the 3 of them in the class so they really receive alot of 1:1 with her. After class Miss Nicole came out and said that during stretches Madi said that she could not do them because they hurt and then Kaitlyn chimed in and said that they do hurt and make her "pigtails hurt" too. How cute is that!!!! I just had to smile when I heard that! Miss Nicole said that was a new one as she had not heard that excuse before:)

Play Group

Today we had play group at our house. We love playing with all of the kids and mommy enjoys hanging out with all of the mommies who she used to teach with at Woodland!! One thing we forgot to do was get a group shot since we have a few new kids in our playgroup. It was a beautiful day and so we played inside for a little while and then were able to let the kids run around outside before lunch. Here are Kaitlyn and Madi drawing some pictures on the Doodler! Colin was playing soccer with a golf club.....its a new sport!! :)

These two pics crack me up as the kids were just so happy running around the yard doing their own things that none of them really payed attention to each other:)

The little siblings were smart and stayed aways from all of the big kiddos so they didnt get trampled on!!

Abby and Brynn watching from the sidelines:) We were still missing a few of the little onlookers.The big kids waiting patiently for lunch!

With Kaitlyn and Colin's birthday near we had make your own sundaes and sang Happy Birthday. Here they are picking out their toppings! Yum!!
Look at my 2 big smiling kids!!! Hard to believe that they will be 3 years old soon! Makes me emotional thinking about it:) They were so excited to have candles in their sundaes and have everyone sing to them!!!