Sneak Preview

Although you'll all be receiving your very own copies of Peyton's 6 month pictures shortly, here is a sneak preview of some of the shots.

Mommy finally gave into the hospital photo company's 6 months of harrassment to take advantage of our "free" home photo shoot.

They turned out really great and you can't beat the convenience of staying home and using your own props!

Say cheese!

All in a Sunday morning's work

We headed out for breakfast at the crack of dawn this morning. We wanted to try a place that had been voted the best for breakfast in the area this year. The place is Mothers and it was about a 15 minute drive from us. It was pretty much your average pancake house in my opinion but it was a good find to add another breakfast option to the list apart from IHOP and Cracker Barrel.


Daddy, "Now where is that waitress with the coffee pot?!"
Kylie, "Mommy can I please eat my pancakes in peace and no cameras? No? Then I guess I'll force a smile for you to make that darn camera go away!"

Peyton, "Maybe if I just dream about a pancake..."

After breakfast we went across the street to Home Depot and then to Lowes as Daddy is installing a new ceiling fan in our family room and needed a few more things for the project.
Daddy must have been bored riding in the back with the little ones because he encouraged Kylie to to pull out all of her silly tricks and do her standup act for the video and was taking random pictures of Peyton smiling also.

Here are the fruits of his labor as I was chauferring!

Check out me and my dessert of Swedish fish!

This extreme close up let's you not only get a peek at my cute smile but my first tooth too!

And last but not least, here's Kylie sharing some of her best material:

Great season Royal Blue team!

Kylie's first t-ball season wrapped up on Saturday. I think overall she had a great time but I also think it ended at just the right time. All of the kids on both teams weren't quite as enthusiatic at the end of the season as they had started out of the gate being!

After the final match, Royal Blues vs Greens, there was a trophy ceremony complete with cupcakes and drinks! It was very special for us to see how proud and excited Kylie was when she received her trophy! It was a great season and I know she made some new friends that are also neighbors and learned a thing or 2 about sportsmanship and teamwork. Not to mention it was nice to have a reason to get outside bright and early on Saturday mornings!

Here are some pictures from the last day of Stonebridge Sandlot 2008- see ya again next year?!

Team Royal Blue (yes that's Kylie in the pink Cubbies skirt!)

Kylie and proud Daddy (ya gotta love the purple mitt!)

Go Kylie Go! Can we go watch the Cubs game after this?

Good game, good game...

The trophy

Hangin' with Chloe

Chloe next door invited Kylie over to her little pool and to play outside for a little while before the storms hit this afternoon.

As you can see these 2 are quite a pair!

Taste of Chicago 2008

Little did Daddy know but after Mommy got home from work yesterday the secret b-day plan was to pick up the little ones from school and catch the 5:00 train downtown! Going to the Taste of Chicago has become a family tradition since Kylie was born- we've gone every year since!

The train ride downtown is half the fun! Kylie of course loves riding "Thomas" and Peyton was so excited I could barely pull her from the window the whole time!

We had a great time at the Taste. Daddy had his traditional breaded steak sandwich from Ricobene's and cheesecake from Eli's. Kylie and Mommy enjoyed things together like corn on the cob, Chicago style dogs, a cup of rainbow ice cream and a sampler of a chocolate covered strawberry, piece of fudge, and chocolate covered frozen banana - yum! Peyton had a few tastes of things here and there, including trying as hard as she could to eat our tickets :), but for the most part stuck to her normal fare.

Kylie rode the merry-go-round and had a great time playing in Milennium Park in the water fountain displays. She was a huge hit as she had her Disney Princess umbrella to protect her from the fountains and looked as cute as can be in front of the huge water structures. Tons of random people were taking pictures of her as she was such a little sight! Good thing Old Navy was still open on the walk back to the train b/c Kylie was soaked after having so much fun in the water!

Unfortunately my camera batteries died shortly after we arrived downtown but here are a few shots for you...

The gang was still wide awake on the 10pm train ride home. That didn't last for long though as an hour or so later everyone was home and tucked snug in bed. Peyton slept until 6AM!!! and we had to wake Kylie up around 7:30 to get going for t-ball! It was a much needed restful night for Mommy and Daddy too.

We hope you had a great birthday Daddy!

You don't look a day over 25!

Daddy-
We wish you a very Happy Birthday and hope you have a very relaxing day at home! Get lots of rest because we'll be ready to "celebrate" with you when we get home tonight- hee hee hee!

(Daddy hasn't had more than a few hours of sleep in 3 nights :(! )

Love,
Peyton, Kylie & Mommy

See this beauty was born the same year you were - lookin' good :)!

I love cars

Living in Naperville, you see everything. There is an orange Lamborhini somewhere in the subdivision and I just want to hunt it down so I can ask the guy if I can sit in it. Anyway, here is one of my favorites, picture taken last Sunday downtown Naperville. For those of you that just don't know, it's a Roush Mustang...........

Now where is he?

That's the question I ask myself about Spike all morning long while trying to get ready for work. I leave him out of his crate as long as possible in the morning since he's then in it for practically the rest of the day.

He's found a new spot to hang out in while I'm in the shower- guess where? Is he trying to tell me something?

Poor thing!

As trying as Kylie has been these days, this approach hadn't crossed my mind. Hmmm...:)

To all Sux fans we may have................

Old purple, new purple, should it be purple :)?

Some months ago we decided to use purple as the accent color for our family room that is primarily black and silver. I thought the shade I picked was the one I wanted but after living with it for several months I think I may have been a bit too ambitious :).

The one I picked to tone it down a bit is still in the purple family but is part of a more neutral pallet. Pete did a great job of adjusting the color :). I think everything will look really great once we finish the rest of the painting and updating of the fixtures, etc.

What do you think?

Original condition - blah white!

Purple #1 and the jury's still out?

Purple #2 and final answer!

Fun Family Time

Here are a few more shots of our time at the Riverwalk today. Mommy was feeling a bit under the weather but seeing the little ones having so much fun made me feel much better by the time we were on our way home!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

Ducks...and geese..and fish...and water moccasins?

This morning we headed over to the Riverwalk after doing a few errands. Kylie loves to feed the duckies and it's a nice place to walk around and get some fresh air and sunshine!
Today's duck feeding turned into a feeding of multiple creatures - take a look!

Look what I can do!

It feels like just a short while ago I said that Peyton had just started crawling...now look at her! Now that crawling is no longer a challenge she has moved on to practically pulling herself up and playing with toys that she can stand up for! As Peyton was 7 months on the 16th, all of the people telling us she'll walk around 9 months are probably pretty right on!

A Girls Day Out

Daddy was going to do a bit of painting in the family room this afternoon so that meant the rest of us were going to make ourselves scarce to give him the space and sanity to do it! So the 3 of us girls headed out to see just what we could do :)! As you can see, initially it was quite difficult convincing Peyton to come with us as she was all set to be Daddy's assistant painter!

After starting out at the McDonalds playland for at least an hour or so I thought we would attempt to do some walking around Hobby Lobby since it's not exactly on my path during the week so I never pop in. It turned out to be a pretty uneventful hour or so after changing Peyton's very messy diaper as soon as we arrived! She ended up dozing off and apart from wanting to touch everything in the store, Kylie was pretty good herself. Since she wanted to bring the whole store with us, I did let her choose one thing to buy. We ended up with a set of WASHABLE watercolors and some paper. Kylie's choice was a great fit with our last stop of the afternoon- Starbucks.

Kylie had a snack and painted several priceless works of art - all in the amount of time it took Mommy to bring her caffeine level back up to where it needed to be :). Peyton was pretty content people watching and eating her crackers and water!

We headed home to find that Daddy had just finished up. I love it when a plan comes together!

Great job Daddy- third time's definitely a charm ;)!

Taking Shelter

While the t-ball team was enjoying their animal crackers and juice drinks under the picnic table area of the park, Peyton and I took shelter inside the Jeep. I jumped on the chance to take a few more pictures of course:


C'mon Mommy let's hit the road- I'll drive!

The Zerbes girls' signature crossed feet - so cute!

Our Weekly Stonebridge Sandlot Recap

This morning's match was the Royal Blues vs. Reds. Kylie had a good time playing again in between when she felt the need to go hang out and play in the sandbox of the playground. Good thing her team could manage without their third basewoman :) for at least half of the time! We squeezed the game in and the snacks and drinks we brought for the team to enjoy just before the downpour came! One more week and that closes out t-ball 2008...



Daddy says "Pay attention Kylie, this ones yours!"

We know one thing Kylie has learned this season- to keep her eye on the ball!

Kylie running to first base after another great hit!

Kylie running in to home plate (her favorite part because everyone claps for her :)!

Graham Crackers are my Friend

Sisterly Sharing

Here's an example of how we share..on a good day :)!