Jack's just wild about Vivi

Jack and I had the pleasure of spending time with Vivi last night. Vivi is such a sweetheart!! We are thrilled to have this smiley, chill, darling girl in our family. God is incredibly good to us. 

Ellie likes letters and numbers

Check out this cute video of Ellie with foam letters and numbers. I especially love her love of Elmo. It's even greater than her love of letters and numbers ❤️

Vivi in the house!

Tonight we have Vivi sleeping here in our house at the foot of our bed in her portable bassinet. Ellie was here earlier tonight to see her cousin. She liked Vivi just fine. She was not, however, pleased when Grandpa Jack was holding her. Ellie immediately came over to them and said "no no no all done!  By the end of the evening, Ellie warmed up to the idea of a little cousin and actually kissed Vivi on the top of the head (unsolicited!) and said Bye bye. Might've made a difference that I was holding Vivi! 

 

 

Relaxing Rainy Spring Saturday

It is nice to take a breather from the busyness of the week and relax and enjoy a Saturday.
Jack and I have had a productive and relaxing day so far.
We had lunch at the new food court at Oakbrook Mall. Sally and Matt turned us on to it and it is a great place. There is a fast track parking ramp up to this new area of the mall, which includes AMC movie theaters and several upscale fast food restaurants. We had Greek Kitchen gyros and they were delicious! I am picky about gyros, so that is quite an endorsement coming from me.
The rest of the day has been spent napping, cleaning out closets and getting schoolwork done.
It's pouring rain and about 40 degrees which makes it the perfect day to stay inside.
It is the simple things that bring joy!

Ellie, 20 months old

Speaking of joy, we got to spend some time with Ellie this past week. Beth went on a field trip with Abbie's class on Thursday, so Jack watched Ellie. Sally dropped her off around 6:45am so I got to spend some time with Ellie too. She is the sweetest little girl! Being 20 months old, everything is interesting to her, including the garbage trucks and trains and puzzles and songs and especially books. She LOVES her Grandpa Jack! I know she loves me too, but seriously? She has the most amazing bond with Jack. I love to watch them together. We are so looking forward to developing that relationship with Vivi. We still can't believe that we are so blessed to have 2 granddaughters. God is so good to us.

watching HoHo with Grandpa Jack

my favorite makeup consultant

Perfect Spring Weekend!

(Sunshine + tree blossoms + social time) - schoolwork = a great spring weekend

I am feeling the whole spring renewal, new life sort of feeling. I don't have a crazy beginning of the week at work which meant I was able to enjoy a beautiful spring weekend.

It started with a super fun Birthday Club happy hour at Jean's Friday afternoon. Jean invited the daughters and grandkids too. Sally and Ellie made an appearance and it was the best! Jean's daughters Deirdre and Grace were there and they were fabulous hostesses.

blossoms

Sally, Ellie, Grace and Deirdre

2 generations of Birthday Club girls

Easter 2017

We got to spend time today with both our granddaughters and their amazing parents. 

Matt, Sally and Ellie went to 7am mass with us then came back to our house for breakfast. 

 This afternoon, we stopped in Wayne and Julie's at the same time Lauren, Greg and Brendan were there. Super fun family time. No brunch or petting zoo like the Union League Club but there was an adorable 13 day old Vivian there. So blessed! 

 

 

Vivian Marie has arrived!

It's a girl!! Vivian Marie was born on Monday, April 3rd at 10:49am, weighing in at 9 lbs 14 oz, measuring 22 inches (the exact same as her father's birth stats!) Vivi (pronounced viv-ee) and Julie are doing well. Wayne is too!

 

It was an exciting day when Vivian was born. Jack was out of town all week for work and could not change that. Everyone understood. I used one of my personal days and took the day off work. I knew I would not be able to concentrate! Julie and Wayne were given the 4pm time slot for her c-section, but were told that it could possibly be earlier in the day. The night before, Julie found out that she would move up in the schedule, sometime between 10am and noon.
I fidgeted and tried to get some work done, but for the most part, I just stared at my phone, waiting for it to ring. Sally and Ellie came over after Sally got off of work so we could wait together.  We fed Ellie lunch and put her down for a nap around noon. At 12:27pm, we received the call! A girl!! And a big healthy one, praise God!!! Sally and I started making our plans. At around 2pm, we ran to Target and picked up some girly clothing for Vivi (forget newborn size! she is already 3 months!). While we were at Target, Wayne texted that Julie was having some blood pressure issues and was not out of recovery yet. We decided to head into the city with Ellie, with the hope that Julie would be feeling better, get settled in a room and be ready for visitors. It was a long slow drive into the city. It was raining and it was the early part of rush hour and we decided to get dinner at the hospital and wait to see how things were going with Julie. Ellie was a trooper, but it got to be 6pm and Wayne texted us an update that Julie's blood pressure still wasn't where it should be and they weren't sure when she would be moved. We felt so bad for Julie that she wasn't feeling great and decided the best idea was to head home. We were glad to have made the effort because we were so excited it was next to impossible to just sit at home!!! We made some great memories on Vivi's birth day. There are not many days like that in a person's life, the day a grandchild is born. 
I officially met Vivi on Tuesday night. Heaven! Amazing to hold my baby's baby!
They came home from the hospital on Friday, April 7th.  Wayne took two weeks off of work and the three of them have had a wonderful time learning how to be a family. Julie and Wayne are naturals!
Thank You, God for this precious new life!