Visiting friends in Pekin

This past weekend we got to stay with our friends the Glesne's and visit with all of our Pekin friends!  Their girls are about the same exact age as Reese and Piper, so it worked out so well, the girls played so nice together, which meant we actually got to visit with our friends!  A win for everybody :)  We went to the pool on Saturday and had a really good time.  The girls loved it and Reese jumped off a diving board for the very first time!  I can't believe she is 5 1/2 already!  Were has the time gone?!  Then Saturday night we cooked out with everyone!

 It's so nice to see everyone and have the kids play together!  I think this is a pretty awesome time in life.  It's hard but it's so fun!

  

Family Portraits - Jacklyn Byrd Photography

I am totally ruining the surprise for our Christmas  card this year but I can't help to share these beautiful pictures that Jackie took for us last weekend!  Reese looks like such a big girl!  thanks Jackie - we love them :)

We have been getting ready for our Housewarming Party this weekend...I can't wait for all of our friends and family to see our house!  It should be a really good time.

Hope you are all having a great week with this cooler weather!

Pekin Peeps

This past weekend we headed down to Pekin to see our friends and meet baby Hunter for the first time!  we had such a great time and it was so nice to see everyone and all of our babies get to play together!  Seriously...children grow up way too fast.  Where does the time go?  Friday was a little bit of a dreary day which didn't make for good driving weather but Reese did well on the over 4 hour ride - I am so thankful that she does good in the car. Girlfriend just loves to travel!  We met some family friends for lunch at Monical's Pizza on Friday - it was so good!  I miss Monical's!  Then we just headed to Blake & Ashley's to get settled in.  I knew we were in for a fun weekend when I asked Ashley if they had ever had any friends stay at their house for the weekend with a baby/toddler and she said "no"!!  they were such good sports about it though.  Blake and Ashley had a banquet dinner that night so we headed over to Kurt & Stacey's house for dinner where we got to see little Miss Elle!

Her & Reese had a blast playing in the backyard before it started to rain and we got chased inside!

Thanks so much Stacey & Kurt for making us such a yummy dinner - and to Elle for sharing her toys with Reese!

Saturday morning we were off to the Peoria Zoo with Logan, Andrea, Elsa, Doug, Jackie & Baby Hunter!!  I have been looking forward to seeing Hunter and I just love his baby smell and his awesome facial expressions!  He gives me baby fever!!

And seriously?!?!  how did Elsa get this big!  She is too cute!  

 That's a good-looking family right there :)

Apparently I forgot to take any pictures during our Mexican dinner/after dinner play date with our 8 friends and our 4 kids...that was a crazy fun time!  It actually went well - everyone played with all of the kids and no one had a melt down, so I consider that a success.  After dinner we went back to Blake & Ashley's (thanks again guys for hosting all of our friends!)  I really like how all of our friends down in P-town get along with each other and we can hang out with everyone together when we visit.  I miss our friends :(  but I do like visiting for the weekends!  We will be back soon!

We are gearing up for our Housewarming Party this Saturday.  We are really excited to be able to have everyone over!  We have a few friends coming in from out of town - AND - Blake & Ashley are coming up!  We get to see them 2 weekends in a row!  We are pumped!

Happy Monday Night!

Date Night

Shaun and I had date night on Tuesday.  It was my turn to figure out something to do....

What to do...

What to do...

I know!  I thought we would go grab some dinner and then take it down to the Illinois River in Pekin.  I had never been down there before and we had talked about it before but never ventured down there.  Now, I will admit, the city did a nice job with all of the benches and the piers...but let's just be honest, it's the Illinois River and it's down town Pekin.  Not that I am dissing on Pekin REALLY...I'm not but I just thought it would be a little nicer.  

This is the view we had while eating dinner:

And THIS is what I had in mind when I picked the Date Night location:

Not so much what it looked like :)  BUT my husband was a very good sport and saved the day/date night and brought me to the cute little candy store in downtown Pekin where I indulged in some chocolate covered caramel and some chocolate covered raisins.....mmmmmmm yummy!  

My favorite part of the date was when we were driving home and I said, 

"I'm sorry that my date night was kind of lame and not much fun."

then Shaun said, 

"It's okay, it doesn't have to be fancy."

I love him :)

Today I stood up for Pekin :)  I was working out this morning and a woman told me that she liked my tattoo and that she has been wanting to get a tattoo for years and years!  She asked me where I got my tattoos and I told her I got a couple in Lake Geneva and one in Colorado.  She said, "I heard of a few good places in Pekin."  

There was this other lady who was sitting on one of the benches, who overheard our conversation and kind of said under her breath - "Oh I wouldn't go there for a tattoo."  I quickly looked at her and said to the other lady, "well I live in Pekin and I have also heard of a few places that are good too, I'll ask around for you!"  

It was just sort of entertaining because I usually complain about Pekin but this time, I stood up for Pekin :)  The lady kind of just looked away and didn't say much more after that :)  

It just goes to show you that you should watch what you say because you never know who you may be offending!  I was not offended but I was surprised that that came out of my mouth...I guess I am developing a sort of pride towards Pekin....SHHHHH don't tell anyone!!!

I need to catch up on some of my posts!  Look forward to posts from:  Melody's wedding, weekend in Wisconsin with my Mom and skydiving/Colin's bday party!

HaPpY   ThUrSdAy !!!!!!!