Life's Little Blessings

I would like to say congradulations to my friend Zulema and her fiancee Aaron as they welcome their first child and son into the world.  They named him Levi Lucas and he was born on July 13th @ 6:06pm.  He was 8lbs 9oz and so adorable.

Welcome to the world and to our family Audrey Rose!  Today my cousin Elizabeth had her first child and daughter.  She was born weighing 5lbs 2.7 oz and 19 inches long.  My cousin Elizabeth and Audrey

By one of the parks that is walking distance to our house has a little forest presevation.  It is really beautiful walking throught it in the fall when leaves are beginning to change.  The girls today wanted to go through it on our way to going to the park and I was up for the extra distance for getting more exercise.  Eva and Maggie both call it "the jungle,"  but they were willing to let me snap a few pictures of them.  They also had so much fun at the park.  The only thing I wish this park would have are swings both for infant/toddlers and older children and a seesaw.

So today Jim and I decided to do a family day since it was Jim's first day off in about a month and half.  So we went to church as family like we do every Sunday and then headed to Chicago.  The girls knew we were going to "the Big City," which is what they refer to Chicago, but they didn't know what we were doing.  I didn't even know what Jim had planned to do.  Once we got into the city we drove all the way to the lake.  So the girls got to see Buckingham Fountain and Lake Michigan before we got to our destination.  Once we got to our destination, which was NAVY PIER, the girls were so excited.  We went on the Ferris Wheel first and while we were waiting in line they took a family photo of us.  The girls were so fascinated in all the sights that they could see while riding the Ferris wheel.  Then we went to lunch at Bubba Gump, while we waited for our table we watch a performance of pirates.  It was really interesting.  They would...

The girls got a new toy today from Grandma Kathy and Aunt Beth.  They each got a FRISBEE!  They were pretty cute with it and I was pretty impressed with how well they both did with throwing it since they never had one before today. 

There is this techinque that Eva has been learning in her Leadership class on friday nights and it is called Sparring.  The first time she did it, I wasn't there to watch her but today I was.  It was pretty funny seeing her in the protective equipment and watching her fight with other children in her Leadership class.  She was paired up with a boy and her instructor Mr. Amir was trying to encourage him to fight back.  I think his father has told him not to hit or fight with girls.

Today was a friend of Jim's and one of the lead singers in the band Red 70 Blackstar, his and his girlfriends baby shower.  They are expecting a baby girl in the middle of August. I think they are naming her Arabella Milan, not quite sure if that is the proper spelling of it.  I like it and her middle name is a combination of Katreena's mom's name Mila and Ray's mom's middle name Ann.  They was a lot of food there including a pig roast.  The entire PIG was just sitting there.  I was a little grossed out by it, I think I would not have been so grossed out if the head wasn't still attached to the rest of the body.  There were a lot of children there and it was nice for Eva and Maggie to have something to do.  Katreena's parents had a lot of games for the children including a baby shower pinata.  Ray and Katreena received a lot of gifts and showed us the baby's room, it is a girlie safari theme.  The baby's room is Katreena's old baby room....