No Snow?!?

Well, it's winter in Chicago which means lots of cold and snow! BUT NOT THIS YEAR!! We have a had a very mild winter and didn't get any snow until half way through January! I am just loving this weather! Today the forecast is 50 degrees and sunny! I can live with that! When we finally did get snow in January Megan loved playing in it!

The only down part of having a mild winter was that on Christmas there was no snow which means that it did not feel like a real Christmas! But even with no snow we still had a great time with our family!

Christmas was great this year! Megan actually understood what was going on. She was so excited to see all the pictures under the tree at Grandma's house and wanted to spend ever waking minute staring at that tree when we were at her house! Santa was very good to Megan this year bringing her a kitchen play set and lots (6!!!) new baby dolls!

Grandma got Justin Bieber wrapping paper!

Megan opening one her new baby dolls! Every time she opened a present she handed it to me and yelled "OPEN IT! OPEN IT NOW!!!!"

After opening her picnic basket from Grandma Megan spent the rest of the day feeding her new babies a picnic!

It's really hard to believe that this was Megan's third Christmas! I remember her first Christmas when she was 6 months old and have a clue what was going on, she just loved to play with the paper! And now she gets so excited when she sees all the gifts and wants to help everyone open the up!

Long time no post!

Wow its been like 4 months since my last post! We have been so busy I just plum forgot to update!

Fall was full of lots of fun activities that Megan is finally old enough to have a blast with! Luckily I found a Groupon for a local pumpkin patch/ petting zoo so we did that on a beautiful Indian summer day in mid September with my sisters Stephanie and Mary.

There were chicks in a trough for everyone to pet and pick up! Megan literally squealed with joy while were were petting the chicks! Every time we would put one down she would give us this look and say "More!"!

Megan loved to feed the goats! Every time they licked her hand she would giggle and say that it tickled!

 Megan loved to pet the lamb since it was so soft and docile unlike the goat that kept trying to eat her shirt!

 The best part of the hay ride was throwing the hay!

Megan wasn't old enough to carve a pumpkin this year but she LOVED painting her pumpkin!

Her pumpkin all finished! Quite the artist!

I had bought Megan a cow costume but she was scared of it! So, I exchanged that for a tutu and some wings for her to wear. Well, she refused to wear the wings and the tutu was on and off all day! Megan's favorite part of Halloween  was waiting at Grandma's front door for all "the guys" to show up!

Patiently waiting!

Megan was a great helper with Grandma's leaves this year too!

Thanksgiving was pretty low key for us this year so I didn't take any pictures but with Christmas literally days away I will make sure to update with all the fun of a 2 1/2 year old opening presents!!

Morton Arboretum

When I was little my Grandparents lived on Route 53 in Lisle and we would often drive past the Morton Arboretum. I do not ever remember going there and could never see why people ever went to a tree museum! Last week I was looking for something for Megan and I to do because we were both bored of the pool and the park and it had to be something inexpensive. I had a friend recommend a blog for mom's in the western suburbs. The blog discussed the Morton Arboretum and all the fun things to do there. After checking out arboretum's website and seeing that they had reduced admission on Wednesday's,  I decided to check it out.

I am so glad we went! Megan had SOOOOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!! The Arboretum has an awesome children's garden with lots of hands on fun and learning. Megan was running from place to place checking things out I could barely keep up with her!

The first thing we came upon was two little log cabins. Megan had so much fun in a little house that was just her size she liked to sit in the house and watch the bugs fly around. Megan usually takes a bit to warm up to a new place so sitting in the house was the perfect opportunity for her to just take in this garden.

Megan really opened up when she saw what was next on the path! A frog fountain!! She had so much fun putting her hands in the water and taking the rocks out and seeing how the splash was different in each part of the pond and of course she kept telling me what a frog says!

After the frog fountain it was hard to keep Meg from running way ahead of me! At one point she ran ahead of me and found the toddler garden and found a path that was just her size and had so much fun trying to find her way back to her momma!

Anyone who knows Megan well knows how much she loves baths and playing in water. Megan would get so excited every time she would see a red water pump cause she just knew what came out of them!

Megan was super excited to see a park type area with lots of climbing and sliding to be done!

The Morton Arboretum is a great place to bring your kids of any age! I will definitely be bringing Megan back there soon!

Father's Day and July 4th!!

This year was Geovanny's 3rd Father's Day and I think it may have been his worst yet. I forgot to request the day off of work so Geovanny did not get to relax all day like he wanted to. Instead he got to play with Megan until I got off work at 4. Megan and I then went to my Grandpa Rob's house for dinner and left daddy at home to relax as he pleased!
We had a great time at Grandpa Rob's house and even got to see my grandpa (Megan's Great Grandpa) and his wife. Megan had a wonderful time playing in the backyard with her Aunt Stephanie and Aunt Mary and even got to pick flowers. After picking flowers with Miss Debbi, Megan had a great time arranging the flowers in a beautiful vase that we took home for daddy!

The Fourth of July was a very mellow day for us. In fact I worked on the 4th so we went to see the fireworks on July 3rd at a local festival. Bringing Megan to this festival reminded me so much of my childhood. When I was little we would go to my Grandma Schalkey's house and play all day with my cousins and my grandpa would get White Fence Farm chicken for us to eat. During the afternoon my uncles and dad would take all of us children to the carnival to ride the rides and play games and such. Then later in the evening we would all walk to the fireworks from my grandparent's house and play with sparklers afterwards. I think those memories are the reason I love the July 4th and fireworks so much!

Our Little Two Year Old

Crazy to think that Megan turned 2 on June 3. It seems like just yesterday I woke Geovanny up to tell him my water broke! We had no bags packed cause I was scheduled for induction on June 4 and figured nothing would happen before that! When we got to the hospital some nurse tried to tell us that I had just peed myself but she still ran some tests. Next thing I know another nurse comes in and tells us we are moving to a birthing suite! Eventually my doc started the pitocin and the contractions started shortly after that. Once I got an epidural I slept until noon and started pushing at 1:30. At 2:41pm on June 3, 2009 Megan Sydney was born 8 lbs 2 oz and 20 inches long.  Now she's two years old and is 34 inches tall and 28 lbs! It's been an amazing two years!

Of course we had a party for the birthday girl. This year the party was at Grandpa Rob's house and we had a blast. All our friends and family (including family from Iowa) was there to celebrate Megan. Megan spent the day running around the yard with her cousins and enjoying cake and ice cream with her aunts.

 Megan and I on her actual birthday!

Aunt Stephanie just HAD to dress her and Megan in Matching dresses!

And finally opening present was so much fun this year cause Megan actually participated!!

A trip to Iowa

The weekend of Mother's day we went to good ole' Denison Iowa to visit Geovanny's family.  Megan has so much fun when we go to visit. She loves to run around with her cousin's especially Amibelec whom Megan calls Mimi. Megan is 3 moths older than Amibelec so they are great friends when they get to see each other.

Megan and Mimi were always hugging and kissing each other!

The girls had their own special club house under the kitchen table!
We had a great time visiting family and we were so happy that the weather was beautiful while we were there!

Brookfield Zoo

About a month ago (I know I'm super late!) Megan and I went to Brookfield Zoo with our friends Lisa a Madi. Megan and Madi had so much fun running around and watching the animals. Megan especially liked the fish and when we got home kept pointing to fish in her books and saying "Fishy!"

This is pretty much the only pose we could get out of the girls all day!

Megan liked to ride the giraffe