Warm Weather has Arrived!!

We are pleased to announce that warm weather has finally arrived in Chicago! We have been outside non-stop for the past two days, soaking in all the warm weather we can. We went to the lake (Lake Michigan for those geographically-challenged) and enjoyed some time on the beach on Sunday afternoon. And we played at the park both in the morning and again in the afternoon today. We have been grilling out and all-around enjoying the nice weather. We also signed a contract today to purchase a new home!! Unless something goes south during the home inspection or closing, we will be first-time homeowners in just a few short weeks! We are SUPER excited. The house is a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom Cape Cod on a basement. It is exactly 5 minutes from Ed's work to our front door. And we are only 7 houses down from the neighborhood park. It is just perfect for us! Here is a picture of our (hopefully) new abode:

Samuel continues to change each day. He is talking more and more and is really getting into playing games with us. He is putting together phrases and sentences like crazy. And he still loves to be silly. Here he is surprising Ed:

And Samuel's favorite thing continues to be: DIGGERS. He is crazy about all things construction. We took him up to Ed's work on Saturday to see the digger they currently have in the warehouse. Samuel was so excited to touch all the parts and sit in the driver's seat. (PS, Samuel also got to play a ton on my Grandpa's diggers and tractors the other week, but my MOM has those photos and I haven't gotten them yet!). Here is Samuel enjoying the digger:




Joel is growing by leaps and bounds. He is still eating about every 1.5 to 2 hours during the day. I am really trying to stretch him out to 3 hours because I am getting TIRED, but he is a real horse and likes to eat! He got a new pair of shoes this past weekend and I am just crazy about them. So cute!! These are my best attempts at taking his picture. He kept falling over!




And finally, here we are enjoying the lake on Sunday. Samuel LOVED to dig in the dirt. And Joel LOVED laying around, nursing! (Go figure!). Thank God for nursing covers! (PS, Ed was with us, too, but he was the photog