A few stressors around here

The kitchen remodeling continues at our house. Mark has successfully completed his portion of taking out the upper kitchen cabinets and sofits. Now we are ready to have some pipes moved and new drywall put up before the arrival of the new cabinets. So at this point we are about 1/3 through the project, which still feels like we are far from completion.

Just to add to the stress, I have started my second year of coaching Badminton at our local high school. This makes for a busy March & April around our house, as Zach goes to a neighbor's house and Mark is responsible for pick up.

Then on top of that stressor, we have been telling Zach that on his 3rd birthday his pacifier takes a permanent vacation with the 'pacifier fairy' and that he will no longer wear diapers. Well, potty training is going nowhere so we thought we would tackle the pacifier with some hope it might be a success. So last night was our first night of tears and begging for his 'pipe.' He was up during the night for about an hour crying for it. It was just heartbreaking as we so easily could have caved in and given it to him. Even though we felt like the cruelest parents in the world, we stayed strong. We will see how tonight goes....

A Wintery Birthday Celebration

Despite the snowy and blustery winter conditions outside, we had a great time celebrating Zachary's birthday. He was so excited when he woke up (5.30am!) that it was his birthday, he was ready to start celebrating, even though we were far from ready to start the festivities at that time of day. We thoroughly enjoyed the company of his friends, Grace & Blake, and partied the afternoon away. Zach was blessed with many gifts and toys from family and friends, which now help pass the time away as we are still stuck playing indoors! Thanks for all the presents....















Food coma setting in, well at least for a few minutes, before the sugar buzz from the frosting came through

Might shed a tear or two today

Blame it on the pregnancy homormones, but I might shed a tear or two today. Today is Zachary's 3rd birthday! Its hard to accept the fact that he was born three years ago and as all parents say, "they grow up so quickly and where has the time gone?" We had big birthday celebration plans with both sets of grandparents coming for his birthday party. However, my parents are stuck in Phoenix unable to get a flight out due to weather issues here in Chicago and Mark's parents are buried under a foot of snow and blizzard like conditions in Wisconsin. We are sad and disappointed that plans fell through, but I guess that's the way it goes when you have a February birthday. So, instead we are making the most of it and celebrating with friends!

No turning back now

So, kitchen demolition/remodeling begun at the Leys household last night. I thought it was an ideal time to remodel our kitchen while being 7 months pregnant! Am I crazy or what??? Anyway, there is no turning back now as half of our upper kitchen cabinets are sitting outside in the snow waiting for our friendly Waste Management garbage man to pick them up. I went upstairs last night to give Zach a bath and put him to bed and came down a little while later to find half of my kitchen missing and the dining room filled with plates, glasses, etc... Despite the stress of it all, I am very excited about this project as we have wanted to do this since the day we moved in. Now, if I can just live through the demolition, mess, chaos, and remodeling without going in to labor it will be a success. Project completion date should be by the last week of March, which for me, can't come soon enough. Which then means that baby's birthday is coming up real soon after that... yikes, whose feeling stressed?

Phoenix... the perfect escape

Boy, did we pick a great week to be gone! Chicago land was under blizzard conditions this past Tuesday and received almost a foot of snow! Somehow Mark miraculously managed to catch one of the only few flights going out of Chicago on Tuesday and arrived safely in Phoenix. We were blessed with superb weather and spent all of our afternoons in the pool. We also enjoyed the company of my sister's 3 kids which gave the cousins quality time together. All in all it was a great week away from the chilly weather and now we ready for March to come with some warmer temps! We can hope anyway. Enjoy a few of the highlights of our trip.

Enough's enough, we are out of here!

This picture was taken October of last year, the last time were in Phoenix. I did post it on my old blog site, but this picture plus my blog are floating off in cyberspace somewhere so I thought I would post it again. Especially since I am hoping to repeat this image.... blue skies, warm temperatures for swimming, me lounging at the pool taking pictures while the boys swim. Zachary, my pregnant belly, and I head out later today to escape the bitter cold for a week. Mark joins us later in the week for a long weekend. Needless to say I am very excited to go as this will be our last vacation before baby #2 comes. I am only hoping it will be more spring like around here when we return.

A trip downtown

We were supposed to have our friends, the Kreiders, come down from Grand Rapids for the weekend, but due to some sickness floating around their house, the trip was cancelled. We were disappointed it was postponed, but decided to make the most of our weekend. So as planned we headed downtown to Chicago's Children's Museum and met up with some other friends from Calvin, Duke & Kristin Zandstra and their 8 month old, Mica. They recently moved back to downtown Chicago from NY, so it was great to get together with them again. After the museum they had us over for lunch and to check out their new house. Thanks for having us over Zandstras' and hope to see you soon!

Superbowl fun for all ages

Even though we (well, Mark) is completely dedicated to the Green Bay Packers, we went to a Superbowl party yesterday to support the Chicago Bears. The end result wasn't one that Bears fans were hoping for, but none the less it was fun to get together with old friends to celebrate the event. We headed over to friends of mine from high school, Chad & Amanda, who also have a 3 year old. Brilliantly thinking on their part, to keep all the kids occupied during the game, the set up a Jump N' Slide bouncer in their bedroom. It was a great success as the kids absolutely loved it and were fully entertained. Maybe we will host a Superbowl party next year when the Packers are playing.... we can hope right?

Longing for the warm days of summer

With a temperature of 4 degrees but feels like -18, we are longing for warm summer days around here. Even though it looks beautiful outside as the sun is shining brightly and we have clear blue skies, it is absolutely freezing! And tomorrow's supposed to be even colder...bbrrrr... The only good news about the forecast is the 'official meteorologist', a.k.a. the Pennsylvania groundhog, did not see his shadow yesterday. So supposedly, that means we don't have 6 more weeks of winter coming our way. We will see how accurate that little groundhog is and if his prediction holds true, I sure hope so!