children's museum halloween

My sister-in-law, Krystal, invited Sammi and me to come with her and her friend's kiddo, Lena, to the Children's Museum Tuesday evening for a halloween event. She was going to take Lena anyway and offered to take Sam (without me) so that we could have more time to work and pack, but I decided at the last minute that I was having a pretty good day as far as feeling well and getting work done, so I went too. :) 

I am so thankful Krystal is in my life. She is so giving, so caring, so good with kids, and one of the most understanding people ever. Without me ever asking she carried Sam all over the museum so that I wouldn't have to carry the extra weight. Sammi LOVES her Aunt Krystal so she's always happy to be with her!!! 
Our first adventure was the haunted house, where we saw ghosts and mummies and goblins and more! We also got a bag that we filled with treats as we went through! (We went during "friendly hours".) As long as Sam was carried she didn't seem to mind the spookiness. 
Our next stop was to the Witches' Feast, where we got to meet lots of witches with different colored hair while we ate dinner. Sammi gave this witch a high five, but I missed it in the photo. Some photographer I am! :)
I cannot believe---and I mean really cannot believe how much spaghetti Sam ate! She LOVED it!!! Seems like a messy thing to serve kids (probably why she doesn't get it at our house often) but it sure was a hit!
This witch did magic tricks for the kids! Lena loved this part, and Sam joined in when they all started jumping to try to reach the witch's hat. 
Sam is showing me one of the numerous goodie bags she got that night! 
I know it's really hard to see in this photo, but our last stop was to the theatre to see a halloween play. I was so impressed with how much Sammi watched and sat through it. She especially loved all of the singing and music, and she did all the hand motions when they prompted the audience to join in! This is her "starting the choo choo train". You can barely see the actors down on stage below. 
Thanks so much, Krystal, for taking us to Halloween at the Children's Museum! We loved it, and we always love seeing you!!!

A random but special thanks also to my awesome husband who is the most patient and wonderful person ever! I am writing this blog entry from the couch, laying on one side, typing with one hand because my right side of my stomach has been cramping up this evening (in a really weird way but I think everything is fine as of now---I could barely walk through Target tonight when I stopped to buy a last minute addition to Sam's Halloween costume) and shocker for those who talk to me often----I feel terrible! So, once again, even though he worked all day, has a million more things to do tonight for work and probably won't see the bed until 2am, and has a cold coming on, Dan is downstairs taking care of Sammi and cooking homemade taco pizza for us while I lay on the couch being very unhelpful! 

I LOVE YOU DAN!!! ONLY 11 WEEKS UNTIL THIS BABY IS BORN AND I CAN [HOPEFULLY] START BEING A BETTER WIFE/MOMMY AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love, love, love, love, love you!!!!

behind the scenes studio update

Here is a photo of our almost-finished fabulous new studio!!! We are SO excited that it is almost done and cannot wait to move in! Although there will be LOTS to do once we move in, we are close enough that we should get our temporary permit to allow us to get occupancy THIS FRIDAY! Hooray! Here are a few photos... (oh, and the above photo shows the wrap still on the front of the building. This will be covered in a glossy-coated cedar wood, which we are waiting on because the wrong wood came in the first time so now we have to wait a few weeks on the right wood to be ready!)

This is the studio where we will be taking lots of photos over the next several decades!
This is one of our changing rooms. Dan's dad and uncle built custom shelves that they installed today for these changing rooms as well as the bathrooms and makeup area and they look absolutely awesome. (So excited!!!) We will be putting in bamboo floors, some cool furniture, and possibly one wall of cool antique-ish wallpaper in this room. We have so much to do in every room! It's hard to believe we will be able to start moving in this weekend and working on the finishing touches.
This is what you see when you first walk in our front door. The hallway divides the offices which are all on the left and studio/waiting room/kitchen/viewing room which are all on the right. All the track lighting needs to go in, the plexiglass needs to go up above the offices, and the paint needs to be finished (by Friday !!!). Oh, and yeah, it needs to be CLEANED too! 
This is the waiting room. Frosted plexi will cover the area above the windows. The doors are 10' tall. The brick on the right is reclaimed brick that came from an old building. The area on the left is the kitchen. The kitchen won't go in until we've laid all of the bamboo floors, which are going in the hallway, waiting area, kitchen, cafe (red room left), viewing room (not shown, right), and changing rooms. All of our light fixtures that we've spent sooooo much time finding over the last few months will be hung before Friday too! (Those are all paint cans on the floor!)
The studio is wonderful and we are so happy with how it has turned out so far, and even more excited to put all of the finishing touches once we move in. This space has kept us so busy; it just seems to never end. There seem to be a million people working on this studio at the same time and we get calls daily for things we need to attend to. For example.....

"The toilet you bought for the front bathroom is ADA but the handle is on the left side and it will not be ADA compliant unless you return it and buy one with the handle on the right side---and by the way, those are special order and take 4 weeks to get in----and you won't get your permit to start moving until this is fixed! So---call every plumbing supply place in town, find one [on the far west side] that has one in stock, and go buy it now!!!" 

"When we changed the bathtub in your private bath from tile, we adjusted the wall, which adjusted the door, which now swings directly into the vanity you purchased, so what would you like to do about that?"

"Your pendant lights came in for the kitchen bar and 3 of the 5 are broken----okay, no big deal, call the company, send them back, but then receive ONLY the glass and not the fixtures to replace them---but we sent the fixtures back too because it wasn't specified on the return instructions---soooooo, call the company again to get another shipment!" 

Oh my....I think you would be really, really surprised how many examples of us running around town for various reasons I could put on this blog, just like the ones above. We have learned SO MUCH through this process. And, as much as we are constantly exhausted, the most important thing is that the end result will be amazing and to say we feel blessed to have this opportunity IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT!!!!!!! 

And on a different note, after we went to the studio and I snapped these photos, we stopped by my parents house for some homemade delicious chinese food. After dinner Sammi opened her Halloween gift bag from grandma & grandpa. :) Had to throw in a couple photos of that too! 
She LOVED her stickers and pumpkin straws and Dora fruit snacks and glow sticks! :) Thanks, mom and dad, for having us over! We REALLY appreciated a nice meal with no cleanup! :) 

the pumpkin patch

Last weekend we went to Smith Family Farms, which is not only right down the street from us, but is also owned by the family of Sammi's school's owners, who we consider our friends! It was so fun to take Sammi there and hang out for a couple of hours!

We started with lunch. We got Sam a hotdog and as I started cutting a few bites of the hot dog off the end, she picked up the entire thing and started stuffing into her mouth like a big girl! She has also been asking to sit in seats like a big girl to eat lately too. I don't think our high chair will be used much more by her!

We took a capri sun with us and said hello to the cow in the petting farm...

Gave the pony a little pet...

Of course, played with the kittens (Sammi LOVES cats! She loves to chase them around, much more than she likes dogs. I think they're more her size.) :)

She also REALLY liked this goat! She pet him for a long time. 

Daddy helped her up the steps because they were really tall.

And Sammi went down the slide....again, and again, and again....

The last time she even got brave and decided to go down backwards!

We finally headed out to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins.

Sammi had a good time picking out one for daddy, one for mommy, and one for her.

Then we headed back to the farmhouse...

but on the way we looked for a special pumpkin for SLS. We found a perfect little tiny one and handed it to Sammi. We told her, "Samantha, this is for your little sister!" She looked at it, thought about it for a few seconds, and then launched it as far as she could out of the cart back into the patch!!!!  

Luckily SLS's pumpkin was okay and Sammi agreed to accept the pumpkin back and take better care of it this time!!!! How hilarious... Samantha will be having supervised visits only with SLS when she comes!!!

Thank you, Smith Family Farms! We had a great day at the farm eating hotdogs, visiting the petting farm, playing on the playground, (watching the hayrides and corn maze), and picking out our pumpkins!!! 

cutest school picture ever

I wish I would have stayed at school the day this was taken to see how in the world these photographers keep every kid happy and attentive in such a short time period!!! This is not the kind of photography we ever want to do and we are so happy to have someone else take Sammi's school photos!!! Aren't they the cutest school pictures ever?! And yes, many people said to us "You're going to buy those photos when you can take them yourself?" YES!!! We love them and bought them because there's nothing quite like looking back on each year of your school photos when you're older. They're priceless. And like I said...this is not the same kind of photography that we take and you can't NOT have school pictures!
I was able to post these photos (which we also purchased) with written consent from LifeTouch Photography, who specializes in school photography. We are so thankful they allowed us to post these photos for our friends and family out of town to see! Thank you, LifeTouch, for taking this job on!!! We love them!
On the day these were taken I actually had totally forgotten it was school picture day, so didn't pay attention when I dressed Sammi and she had a runny nose that day too----needless to say I am impressed with the result! (I'm sure if you are reading this right now you are gagging thinking, "Oh goodness, you are obsessed with your kid! It's just a school photo!" :) Call me obsessed....I love her!!!

We've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to post much, which is usually my relaxing time in the evenings... I'm hoping to have a baby update very soon, although I can't say there's much new or exciting news that you don't already know! I do know that I desperately need more sleep and haven't been feeling well so I'm off to bed now!!!!!

Love and hugs!!!

russ and erin's wedding

Saturday our friend Russ married his sweetheart Erin & we had SO MUCH fun going to the wedding!!! My parents watched Sam for us all day (thanks, mom and dad!) and we went to the wedding in the afternoon and to the rockin' reception later at the Upper Room in Broad Ripple. 

(Photo Above) Left: Dana and Chris...Chris went to high school and college with Dan and was in our wedding. Dana and Chris are getting married in February at a beautiful resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico---3 weeks after SLS is born! We are so happy for them but SO BUMMED we will not be able to make it so close after delivery. Right: Russ and Erin, the bride and groom! Russ and Chris are brothers and they are both hilarious! We are so happy for Russ and Erin...they seem perfect together and we were honored to be there celebrating Saturday!

Yes, my belly is getting BIG! :)

My girls: Becky and Michelle! Love them!

And the whole gang...Mike and Becky, Dan and Brooke, and Michelle and Travis. :)

Dan and Travis pimpin' it out! :)

Here is a photo of the ever-so-cute Becky and Mike bustin a move together!!! Doesn't Becky look amazing....who would know she's had TWO babies in the last 21 months!!!! She will be my inspiration next year. :)

It was really nice to have an adult night out with some of our best friends... thanks for the night, guys! Congratulations, Russ and Erin!!!!! 

wicked chicago trip

Dan and I got home today from a fun and relaxing trip to Chicago to celebrate my 30th birthday! We left on Friday morning and headed straight to Ikea in Schaumburg to load up on a few things for the new studio. After a road closure, accident (not us), more construction, then rush hour traffic, we finally made it! We ate at Sweet Tomatoes before shopping, which was my first meal choice on our agenda. It is a HUGE salad bar (over 60 ingredients), soup bar, with pizza and baked goods...all you can eat! Turns out we weren't as hungry as we'd thought and I was trying to be careful because of my gall bladder ---so we really didn't eat as much as I was thinking we would---but we did love what we ate! I was a little worried we didn't take advantage of it, but Dan made a good point when he said "If you feel like you've come out ahead at a buffet, I'm not sure that's a good thing!"

We picked up a countertop to go with some cabinets we purchased on our last trip and it BARELY fit into the car!!! We also got 2 full size mirrors for our changing rooms and a few other smaller things. I can't believe it fit!!! :)

After going to Ikea and before driving to the hotel, we had just enough time to squeeze in a movie. We wanted to see Eagle Eye but we were too late, so we saw Burn After Reading. I truly enjoyed going to the movies with my sweet hubby (a treat we don't do much anymore)...but I have to say about the movie.....UM, WEIRD!!!!! Dan liked it, but I will just say......HUH??? I liked the premise of the movie but it was slow and weird and I prefer happier movies than depressing ones! But---it was really fun to go and have a weird movie to chat about on the way to the hotel!

A photo of our hotel, the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place (from their website)...

And a very accurate photo of our room (from their website)...

On Saturday we didn't have many plans. Plan #1: SLEEP IN! And we did. It was great. We took a cab to the Magnificent Mile, ate at a very cool tea shoppe called Argo Teas, stopped in Ghiradelli for a free chocolate sample, waved at all the beautiful expensive stores from the street, enjoyed the perfect weather, strolled hand in hand down the street sipping on our favorite Starbucks drinks, and made our way to an awesome park full of cool statues and places to sit and watch people. (We saw two wedding parties, a comical amateur model photo shoot, and a man in a kilt saluting each person that passed him.)
I don't know what this sculpture thing is called but it is AWESOME! It reflects the entire city of Chicago in the bubble!
It's kinda like "Where's Waldo?"....can you find us?!?!
A better photo of what is actually looks like...
Okay, am I the only one who is blown away by the fact that we were celebrating my 30th birthday and our hotel room number was 3030?!?! How cool is that?!
My request for dinner was to get steak. I didn't care where it came from or what came with it but I wanted to get a steak for dinner! After many last minute calls to steak houses near the theatre district who were all full, we decided to take advantage of the fabulous restaurant in our own hotel before leaving for a show. We went to Shor and split a steak, mushrooms, and mashed potatoes...YUM! Unfortunately my gall bladder (after several weeks of no pain and lots of cheating) was really hurting all week, so we skipped dessert. As much as I love food and would have loved to have pigged out all weekend, this was much better for my hips and the double chin I've been forming lately!!!! I'm just looking at it like that......
Then on to the show......WICKED!!! It was soooo great! Aside from Dan not being able to see well from his seat, it was perfect! Funny, clever, entertaining, wonderful. We loved it!!!

Sunday morning we decided to leave somewhat early to make it back to Indy to watch the Colts game at Steve and Krystal's house. This was the view from our hotel room...

And our drive home with the Ikea countertop over our heads! I still can't believe how well it fit! We dodged a bunch of road closures for the Chicago marathon but otherwise it was a very uneventful quiet drive home. :)
What a way to end the weekend but with the HUGE win from the Colts!!! I don't have photos of the game with Steve and Krystal but we had a great time seeing them and hanging out before driving to get Sammi!

Danny, thanks so much for taking me to Chicago for the weekend! Thanks so much Kathe and Orlie for taking Sam and our dogs for the weekend! (I swear Sam has grown like 3 weeks worth in 3 days!)

It was so nice to get away and relax---to not work at all for three days----and just reset before this week starts! It's a funny thing hitting these milestone birthdays. I am thankful and proud of where I am in life, I have minimal regrets, and love my life just the way it is. But there is a little sadness that comes with realizing how many years have gone by. Sometimes I feel like it's just going way too fast and I want it to slow down because I am enjoying it so much. On the other hand...I think my 30s are going to be some of the best years of my life. I'm looking forward to the ride.