"Hey Porter...."

Last night before bed time, before I even thought about what I was saying...IT HAPPENED! I always thought I would take more thought into helping Porter say goodbye to his Binky's. I thought I would take him to the store and find something that would take the place of saying goodbye, or better yet a REWARD for being a big boy. But it happened all to quickly.

Sunday May 24th 8:15 P.M.

Me: "Hey Porter, do you want to throw away all of your Binkys?"
Porter: "OKAY!"
With out looking back he ran into my room and put his hand up reaching for his "Binky bucket" when I set it down he took every last Binky in the bucket (six total) and ran to the kitchen.
Me: Okay Porter, if you throw your binkys away that means we are a big boy and CAN NOT get them out.
And with out hesitation there he went one at a time throwing them into the garbage! And the whole time Jason and I were holding our hands over our mouths and holding back the sadness WE felt. We loved our BINKY BOY, and HE loved his binkys!!!
As soon as they were in the garbage he ran and sat on his blanket he was cuddling with earlier and said CHEESE, PICTURE! He KNEW what he had done was a big thing and wanted to celebrate with a picture!

I LOVE this boy, and I really loved his little binky face! I am so sad about this event. He had the CUTEST binky face in the world. My boy is growing up (tears!) this is just one of those small steps he is taking into becoming a big kid and I hate it. I want to freeze time and not let my babies grow up any more!

How PORTER is handling all of this.....well Sunday night he was a little wound up, we could hear him in his room gabbing away when all of a sudden we heard "GINKY, GINKY....WHERE ARE YOU????" So cute, yet so sad. He did end up falling asleep shortly after that. Today nap time was tough and bed time he was just plain sad, it only lasted for about 15 minutes. I just keep telling myself this is a good thing. I am so proud of my little man for doing it all on his own! Other than Sunday's "binky call" he has not mentioned them since. Now he just needs to figure out his own way to sooth and get himself to sleep with out the MUCH loved BINKY!!!!

FAMILY NIGHT!

BOWLING!!!!

The bowling ally by our house has $1.50 games on Mondays so a few of our friends got together for some fun!

I loved the Porter sized shoes!

Here are all the kids taking their turns!

Porter aka "Po-Jo"

Madelyn aka "Mad Mad"

Leah aka "La-lu"

Porter was obsessed with the ball machine and the vent that blew air out the front.
Same with Lindsay's boys!! (These boys are 19 days younger than Ellery!)

Ellery was such a good girl and loved cheering EVERYONE on!
Madelyn's cute new haircut!!!

Once the kids were done, the men decided to play another round and Mary and I let Porter and Madelyn run (crawl?) around!
THE END!

Thanks for the fun night friends!

Suprise ADVENTURE!

A trip to the CITY!

(My own photog skills, thank you very much!)

Jason called me at about 10:08 this morning saying that his boss is out of town until Monday and he has nothing to do. He also said there is a train leaving our house at 10:30. Ya, under 20 minutes (once the phone call was over) to get Ellery up from her nap, get both kids ready to leave, (snacks, sippy's, jackets, etc.) get to the train station (good thing it is in our front yard) and wait in line with all the CUBS fans to get a ticket and be on the train. But I did it!!!! (BTW, since the train was full of CUBS fans, they turned our train into an express train heading straight to the city with no stops. Meaning I would arrive in Chicago much sooner than expected. That means Jason had to race from work to make it to the station to meet me. It scares the day lights out of me to think I would be headed to the station with no one there to meet me. And I know what you are all thinking, what a baby. You can call me that all you want. With 2 little ones and so many exits and not knowing the city AT ALL, I would be lost in .01 minutes!

Once we arrived we headed strait to lunch. Jason and I grabbed these massive slices of Pizza and got the kids some McDonalds. I know it's not deep dish, but it was so good. I actually have half of it left over for dinner YUM!

I love watching Ellery eat french fries, I give her them just to see this face. She has not failed me yet!
And what a lucky boy Porter is, he got to ride on some of his absolute favorite things in the world today! He was so good on the train, he had his own bench and was as happy as can be. Most of the time was spent with "CHUGGA CHUGGA, CHUGGA CHUGGA, CHOO CHOO!" And staring out the window!

And my personal favorite is the WATER TAXI! It is so nice to start the day walking around and heading to all your destinations, there were lots today! And by the end of the day we are so tired and it is so nice to hit the water taxi that drops you off right at the train station!

What a great day. Thanks Jason for getting out of work and enjoying the day with us! Can't wait to do it again!!

Happy Mother's....OH wait......

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY ELLERY!

Cutest one year old on the planet!
Here she is this morning opening her presents! (Please don't mind Porter no pants behind her) She loves her Princess figurines!
And Piglet
And we are working on her walker/stroller!
Last night we had some friends over to celebrate and our AWESOME friend Erin brought her camera. She got some fabulous pictures of her devouring her CAKE! I think these pictures speak for themselves!!

What Ellery is doing at one year......

*Crawling and Cruising, I think walking is a ways away.

*Has 6 teeth

*Says...Mama, Dada, HI, ball, book, shoe, ALL DONE, yum, and if you ask her a question she will say YA!
*Loves to sleep on her tummy!
*Loves to sleep with her bunny.
*ONLY food we have found she will refuse a second bite is COTTAGE CHEESE! We fed her some zucchini that you could tell she did NOT like she kept giving us a silly face and kept on chewing!
*She loves anything that Porter is playing with (Surprise, Surprise!)

*She loves holding Porters hand in the car. (So STINKING cute! No one ever told them to do it, but they hold hands and giggle at one another all the time.)
*She loves to dance.

*She will grunt at you when you aren't giving her the attention she wants.
*Has the best gut laugh you will EVER hear!
*We call her our Sour Patch Kid. (If you have ever seen the commercials you will know what I am talking about. She can be so SASSY and the next thing you hear is the sweetest little voice!
*Some nick names....Ellers, Porter calls her Re-Re, Eepers, Sour Patch Kid, Dyson (our little vacuum, eating anything and everything!), Ellerphant (It's all out of LOVE!), and Pancake!

Ellery this last year has been the best. Our family would not be complete without you. We love your guts and can't wait to see what you have in store for us in the future. You bring so much happiness into our lives. I love getting you out of bed each morning with a big bright smile on your face. You are such a silly and spunky girl! LOVE you LOTS and LOTS!

And of course all you MOTHERS out there have a wonderful Mother's Day! I know I am!

COSLEY ZOO!

Cosley FARM is what it should really be called. But hey it is FREE and the kids LOVE it! Let me just say Porter is NOT afraid of any of these animals! he will go right up to their cages or fences and try and touch them. He had cows "mooing" at him and birds flaring out their wings "squawking" at him and couldn't care less!

There is a train that he is OBSESSED with. He would see it and forget all about the animals.

Here he is patting the goat and calling it a Dog! (Guess we need to work on the goat with him:)

I could not get enough of the BABY lambs there were 3 of them! And I loved the ugly spotted Llama. Some of the other animals were: horses, foxes, coyote, owls, rabbits, ducks, chickens, pigs, hawks, deer, peacock, turtles, and raccoons.