Basketball and Porch Pooch

Here is the 37 week Porch Pooch. I took my coat off for the picture but it was COLD! We woke up to snow again today and it is so beautiful! I love it even if waiting for the train is a bit chilly now. The doctor's appointment went well today. I am not dialated any but she could feel Marin's head. Yikes. They changed up the adjective today and instead of saying "big baby" she went with "solid baby". Burke asked her to feel my stomach and tell us what body parts we were seeing/feeling. She felt Marin's behind and that's when she said, "Yeah, you've got a solid baby here." We laugh.


You can't see the snow but here is a beginning of winter-ish picture of our street. I'm sure we will see a much better view of winter on our block soon.

Burke and I went to the Northwestern/GA Tech game Tuesday night. We thought we should try and squeeze in a game before the little one arrives. It was a lot of fun and I forgot that I make weird noises and jump a lot during basketball games. But don't worry, Burke was quick to make fun of me. And....Northwestern WON!

(Heather, I can post a lot because I'm not teaching like you are. I have a family that is slightly obsessed with this thing. And I don't write deep thoughts like you....I just post pictures with captions. I'm lazy.)

A Christmas Date!

Burke treated me to a little pre-Christmas date last night. Now, this is amazing because it is important to Burke not to skip Thanksgiving. So it was extraordinarily sweet of him to treat me to this date!!

We had lunch/dinner at the Walnut Room next to the beautiful tree.

My handsome date...(he looked real good.....)

In front of the tree after we could not eat any more food....we were so FULL!!!

Marin's "first" picture in front of the tree. We decided to make this a little Christmas tradition.

Then we went upstairs and wrote a letter to Santa for Marin. (Sorry, for some reason the picture won't turn the correct way.)

Delivering our Santa letter!! For every letter written and mailed, one dollar is donated to the Children's hospital.

A family picture at the top of the tree. I realize that I am huge. I thought I could manage to fit into a non-maternity sweater. Hahahahha. Oopsie.

Then we looked at all the windows outside at Macy's. Each window told a part of the story, Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus....

Then to finish the date off....he took me to see A Christmas Carol at the Goodman Theatre. It was soooo good! The stages were beautiful! We both loved it!

Thank you, Burke, for a wonderful evening! I love you.

Northwestern Game...Go Wildcats!

Last Saturday Burke and I went to the Northwestern/Illinois game at WRIGLEY FIELD! It was a lot of fun....even though they lost.


Wrigley Field gone purple...


No more baseball field...


It didn't get cold until 4:30 when the SUN WENT DOWN.

Parenting Practice...or...Babysitting

A couple of weekends ago, Burke and I babysat for a friend one night. Aubrey is the most adorable little girl. We really did enjoy it and it gave us lots of opportunities to talk about the things we feel are important about parenting, etc. We read books, were the human jungle gym, watched her play with diaper wipes for at least an hour longer than any of her toys....and when the night got later...she crawled into my lap and snuggled with me. I won't lie. That was my favorite part.

I have been babysitting/working with children for oh, about 15 or so years. Man, that makes me sound really, really, reeeeaaaaaaallllllllyyyyyy old. I've learned a lot about children from classes and experiences. Burke, on the other hand, is just a natural. He had a respected father friend (thanks, Courtley) give him the advice "get on the floor with them and play" and that's exactly what he did. I love how important it is to him that Marin feels loved and not only that but he wants to give her the attention to prove it. That's one of the reasons we don't have cable (that and we are cheap). But he does worry he will be to distracted by television. He works hard for us and his job isn't the typical 9-5 job. So when he is home, he makes his time at home count....with me now....and I know even more once our little one arrives. I love him. And I have a ton to learn from this man.

Story time...

A wagon ride....

Just so cute!

(Sorry if I am a little sappy in this post...Burke is away this week and I may be missing him a just a little bit this morning.....:o)

A Pottery Date

A few weeks ago we got a Groupon deal for a paint your own pottery place. So today we had a little pottery date. This was Burke's first time to paint pottery. (I am really thankful that Burke will do things like this with me because I know he would have rather been throwing the football at the park.....love him....) Burke picked a hippo bank to paint for Marin and I chose a pumpkin for Halloween (have I mentioned I'm excited about fall???). Here are some "action" shots...

The artist at work...on his 18th coat...

Gloppy the Hippo Bank

Love the goggles and love Marin's name....


And the pumpkin almost complete...

Trick or Treat!

We go back in a week to get the glazed, shiny pieces!

Then we ate lunch at a cute little cafe in a fun part of town. The weather was PERFECT so we sat outside! Again, I am so excited about fall in Chicago. It was delicious, but I ate too much and Marin didn't like it.

The Big 3-1

I turned 31 on Sunday and Burke treated me to a fantastic day. First, we went to the Field Museum. Our public libraries have bought passes (to everything here...Shedd Aquarium, Plantatarium, etc.) and they let you check them out with your library card. So cool. So, we got to spend the morning there for FREE!!! It was fun but there is a LOT of stuff there. I got pretty tired pretty quickly. But here are some pictures from the morning.

The big attraction was Sue. The biggest skeleton remains of a T-rex.

There were tons of animals and then tons of animals.

After the Field Museum we went and saw the musical Million Dollar Quartet. It was so much fun!! We loved the music from Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. Again, so much fun. (Mom and Mary Beth, you guys have to see it. You will love it!)

And there's more. Because I have the greatest most spectacular husband in the world, he got me this....

Look at all those fun stitches!!!!

A little sewing machine history: I have used the same sewing machine since middle school. It survived many moves, but the move to Austin was its last. I finally had to get rid of it and get a new one. So I did. Then the next day my car broke down and I just couldn't keep my new sewing machine when I had car repairs, so I returned it. I have waited (somewhat) patiently for this day!!!

This is what the lady lets us do in the store to try it out.

And this was our first joint effort sewing project. I think Burke may actually like sewing. I'm not sure if I am allowed to post that on the blog, but he is just as fascinated as I am with all the cool buttons and stitches that it can do.

Don't look too closely because we ran into some bobbin issues. I got frustrated and Burke ran and hid from me. But we managed to finish something. I do get to go to a free sewing class on Thursday so I can make sure I know what all it can do and we can really get our money's worth! It is supposed to last a lifetime! Yay!!! I can't wait for more projects. Now, if I could only finish graduate school....so many better things to be doing!!!

Fourth of July

We had a great fourth of July! We went to a new pizza place downtown with some friends. Then we watched fireworks from the Navy Pier. It was fun night but I was exhausted!

More Taste of Chicago

Burke and I had some Taste tickets leftover from Friday so we decided to save them until today. The Steve Miller Band was performing today so Burke really wanted to go see them. I, of course, had never heard of him. But I am a music idiot. It was a lot of fun and very, very hot. Unfornately we both are a little red tonight.

Here we are in front of the Buckingham Fountain.

At the concert, people watching was just as much fun as the show.

Here we have Billy Ray Cyrus' Asian cousin. Loved. the. mullet. And there were about two other mullets we tried to sneak pictures of but they kept sitting down. Lots of mullets.

Ok, this guy was probably 17 and his dance moves were hilarious. Now, I can say hilarious because I have zero dancing capabilities....can't even clap on rhythm. I am pathetic in whole different category. But this kid was having the time of his life and his dancing was a mixture of the funky chicken and gangster rapper moves. Very entertaining.

And this was our view. The lovely ladies there in the photo wanted to protect themselves from the sun the entire show. Needless to say, there was a lot of yelling at them. But still...the umbrella stayed up.

Fun, fun day! Now where's the aloe vera?