Chicago

We headed to Chicago to visit Sarah over Memorial Day weekend. Other than some health issues with Olivia that resulted in a trip to urgent care, we had a great time! We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo twice, went to Sarah's friends' stoop party, and checked out the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum for the first time. We stayed at Sarah's apartment, which allowed us more time for visiting and of course, was much cheaper than a hotel. ;) Overall, it was a very fun, relaxed trip.

breakfast at Ann Sather

we lucked out with beautiful weather

Lincoln Park Zoo

if you only knew the battle we fought to get her to take this breathing treatment... :(

outside the cool nature museum we visited

bird viewing area

beautiful Japanese garden

April Phone Pics

Natalie these days

Natalie is getting funnier and spunkier by the day. Here are some of the funny things she says and does.

-"I do it self." (about everything from climbing into her own carseat to putting on her own shoes)
-"Stay dere." (while holding her hand up towards you)
-Counts "2, 1" if Olivia is misbehaving or crying
-Calls her sister "Owivia"
-Asks for just a "bit" of something she wants and says "peas" (please)
-She shushes people when they are trying to sing or Lucy when she's barking.
-She loves baby dolls and has recently been enjoying her play kitchen, bringing us pretend cupcakes to eat.

Kitchen Renovation

What started with a leaky pipe in the wall, turned into tearing up two layers of flooring and then a total renovation. The water from the pipe had actually gotten under the top layer of flooring (laminate) so I was glad to have that torn up so that we didn't end up with mold and mildew under there. Underneath the laminate was a layer of linoleum and underneath that was hardwood floor. Yusaku pulled up everything himself including all of the many staples in the hardwood (a process that involved lots of bloody knuckles).

The work continued as Yusaku eventually pulled out all of the cabinets and countertops and then assembled and installed new cabinets from Ikea. We also painted the walls. Still need to have countertops and sink installed, put up backsplash, wait on out-of-stock cabinets and door fronts to come in and build/install them, and put down new flooring by back door. It's a long process but Yusaku has been working hard on it every chance he gets. Can't wait to see it when it's all done!