Happy Birthday Maguire!

Maguire's cake - a monkey for a monkey!

The cupcakes I made were a big hit!

The night before the party, Ashlyn stayed at my parents' house. Papa and Mimia always love to give her baths! Isn't this picture so sweet?

She loves her bathtime!

We forgot to bring a highchair to the church (where the party was) so Mac sat like a big boy at the kids table. He thought he was pretty cool :)

We had yummy food - soups (made by me, Mom and Mom-in-law), crackers/cheese, veggies, Coco-Krispy treats, bananas (and little mini 'nanas!) & clementines (two of Mac's favorites), and monkey cupcakes.

We played "monkey in the middle" with Maguire. Whoever he walked to first (no family members and no talking allowed) got a prize.

After looking to his left, then to his right, Maguire was sure in his decision to walk directly to Becky! Her prize was "A Barrel of Monkeys" :) When asked how she got him to walk to her, Becky said that, looking around the circle, she looked the most like me :)

Again, forgetting the highchair proved to be quite messy for Kyle!

Maguire loved his cake and LOVED all the attention!

What a mess!

After cleaning Maguire up, we changed him into his--yep, you guessed it!--MONKEY pajamas! Too bad we didn't plan ahead and bring a change of clothes for Kyle!

The party for Mac was great! We hosted it in the church basement and the decor was perfect--the kids' area downstairs is already decorated in a jungle theme. Even though we lost quite a few people to bad roads and illness (hello cold and flu season!), there were still 50 people at the party! Not quite as big as Ashlyn's 1st birthday party, but who's keeping track? ;) We are blessed to have so many good friends and family who care so much about our kids!

When eating his cake, Maguire dug into the frosting first and loved it. When he finally got a really good fistful of cake he got a good cheer from the "crowd". Being the little performer that he is, he loved the reaction and kept grabbing fistsful and throwing them back into Kyle's lap. Of course we were all laughing about it and that just egged Maguire on. He didn't stop throwing cake until the plate was completely empty! What a mess! Thank the Lord that Katie & Jordan, Mom & Dad, Jim & Judy stayed to help us clean up. You guys are the best!

NYE Wedding

For New Year's Eve this year my good childhood friend Lindsay got married. What could be more fun than having a big ol' "black tie optional" party with all of your closest friends and family?! And George definitely should be able to remember their anniversary ;)

After the wedding--and before the reception--we stopped off at Mom and Dad's

Just before midnight they broke out the hats and noisemakers. It was all sort of a black-white-red-1920s theme. SO fun!!

Aren't my parents the cutest?!

I love dancing with my daddy! I can't help but smile and laugh the whole time :) The wedding/reception was a lot of fun and so good to catch up with old friends. Unfortunately, the next day Kyle came down with strep throat. I wasn't too far behind and got it the day after he did. Luckily we had been staying at his parents' house since they had taken care of the kids while we were at the wedding. So, Jim and Judy were able to take good care of us and the kids while we were sick. Thanks Mom and Dad W!

Christmas in Chicago!

Here's Ashlyn's makeshift bed in the living room of my parents' suite--she loved sleeping on the floor :)

The other thing she loved...the water. She cleaned us all out of all of our change so she could throw it in the fountain each time she passed it.

Britt and I -- dinner at Shaw's

Kyle and Nate at dinner

Oddly enough, this was the only thing that would calm Maguire down on the long car ride home. Thanks Uncle Nate!

We took our annual Christmas trip to Chicago with my family. This family trip is a favorite for all of us. We always stay in the Embassy Suites since it's close to everything and has yummy breakfast in the morning :) My parents were kind enough to let Ashlyn sleep in the living room of their suite while Maguire slept in the living room of ours. We brought old sheets to hang up around their beds so that we'd be able to sneak in and out of the room and so that Ash wouldn't get woken up by my dad when he goes for a run in the morning. It worked really well!
Christmas evening we went to my aunt and uncle's house for Christmas with my mom's side of the family. This year we played a "Christmas Greed" type game; it was a lot of fun! Maguire slept through most of it -- praise God! -- and Ashlyn held up extremely well considering she hadn't had a nap. They have a water cooler at their house and Ashlyn was entertained for about 45 minutes getting water and serving us all. I think we all drank a LOT more water than we wanted to, just to keep her occupied! It was a fun time with the Cory aunts, uncles and cousins.
The next day we went down for breakfast with the kids and then--since it was so warm--decided to take the kids for a walk around downtown. I, of course, had to make Starbucks my first stop! It was a good thing it was so warm because I was a bad mommy and forgot to pack Maguire's coat. I remembered his hat and mittens...but not a coat?! We grabbed lunch on our way back to the hotel and then put Maguire down for a nap. After that my parents came back to take over. Kyle and I did some shopping on Michigan Ave. then came back to change for dinner. My parents gave us the gift of a night out with Nate and Brittany. They watched the kids while the 4 of us went to Shaw's for dinner. It was fabulous! I had sushi for the first time and loved it :) After dinner we walked around downtown looking for a "loungy" place to have dessert and coffee while we played cards. Who knew that was such a hard thing to find?? We ended up at the Luxe Cafe. The service was horrible, but the dessert, company and cards were fantastic! It was great to be able to spend time with Nate and Britt without the kids. Almost never happens, so it was huge gift from my parents--THANKS Mom and Dad!!
The next day we headed home and stopped in Michigan City at the outlets. By this time it was windy and freezing and my stupidity (forgetting Mac's coat) was quite evident. Poor kid!
Definitely another fun Christmas in Chicago!

Some Christmas pics

Kyle and I at Keystone's staff Christmas party--always a good time!

Eating a yummy Christmas breakfast with Daddy and Eliani

Jimbo!

A quick family pic in the midst of all the gift opening at Grandma and Grandpa W's

Ash and Olivia checking out the photobook we all made for Grandma and Grandpa--so cool!

Our cute little tree

Maguire's Birthday party invitations

These were the pictures we used on Maguire's 1st birthday party invitation. Since he's such a monkey--he gets into and climbs on EVERYTHING--we decided to go with a MONKEY theme :)

Cutting down our Christmas tree!

I love this picture of Ashlyn and me

Do you see the chicken nugget Mac won't let go of? He held that thing almost the entire time we were tree hunting!

This is the mini-tree Ashlyn picked out for us--all by herself

Our little family with our little tree :)

Ashlyn wanted to "count" the letters on the sign. She knew all of them except for the "F" and "I"

We took our annual trip to Hart's Tree Farm to find and cut down our Christmas tree. We almost didn't get one this year because of how much Mac gets into things. Instead of being scrooges and not getting a tree we decided to get a small tree and put it up on a low coffee table. Ashlyn--literally all by herself--picked out the perfect tree! It was the perfect height, shape and everything. Anytime anyone came into the house she'd tell them that she "made" the tree :) Our outing was such a good one--both kids did well, we didn't take too long to find our tree and it was small enough to fit in the back of the van! And our trick for avoiding all the craziness and long lines for shaking/baling the tree is to go on a Monday. Fortunately Kyle has Mondays off, so this works perfect for us.
We loved our little mini-tree this year!

Some Thanksgiving pics

Brittany and me

The Spoelman side of the family - Kyle, Mac, me, Ashlyn, Britt, Nate, Dad & Mom

Isn't he the cutest?

Papa giving Mac a bath in the sink