Sears Tower

We went to the Sears Tower last week and it was a beautiful day to go, the visibility was amazing! While we were in downtown we also saw Chinatown, the Navy Pier, and the Buckingham Fountain. The other family that we went with have pictures of those other sites so I will post those as soon as I get them.

This is for you Heber!

This is at the top of the tower. The highest the public can go is the 103rd floor, it only took us 1 minute and 5 seconds to get to the top though, it was one fast elevator!
Emma really enjoyed looking out all the windows.

At the end of the day Emma was pooped!

Opa and Grammy's Visit

My mom and dad came out for a visit the end of June and it was so fun to have them here! Dad went and knocked doors with Mitch for two days while the girls enjoyed the pool, park, and just relaxing. While they were here, Emma would wake up from her naps and would call for Opa or Grammy to come get her. It was a sad day when I was the one to come and get her from her nap! Though she didn't give up easy, she called for them after her naps for a good week til she finally accepted that they were gone!

I love this picture that my mom took of Kenzie!

This is outside the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, it was really fun to go there. Emma still loves the turtles!

Kenzie's new trick is to stick her tongue out and leave it there, it always makes me laugh!
Emma loves her lifejacket. She wore it that entire day!

Kenzie, happy as can be.

Here is Emma waiting patiently for Opa and Grammy to call back on Skype.
Emma was so proud of herself because she was able to dig a hole through the middle of the pickle and put her finger in it. She makes me laugh!

Here are Uncle Dave and Aunt Mary Beth with the girls. They were in Chicago for a business trip and took time out of their busy week to come and visit us. It was so fun to see them! They currently live in Oklahoma and I hadn't see them for about 5 years before now so it was crazy that we met up in Chicago of all places.



Jenni is so sweet! She heard that I was getting a little bored out here because during the girls naps there isn't too much to do, so she sent this kit to make hair clips for the girls. It has been so fun! Here is a sample of what I have put together so far. Thanks Heber and Jenni!!!

Picture Overload :)

So this is mostly for the benefit of all the grandparents who miss the girls (Although, I don't think they have mentioned yet that they miss Mitch and I....should we be offended?). So here are a TON of just random pictures for your enjoyment!

While Daddy was taking a nap!
Mitch tickling Kenzie, trying to get a smile out of her

Emma wanted to try out the shower cap after I was done
Kenzie happy as ever
Emma helping herself!

Emma playing with the happy/sad faces that Heber and Jenni made for her.
Kenzie is reaching and grabbing things now, which is a really fun stage. I was able to get this shot before she put it in her mouth!
And to think Emma used to fit in that!

And my favorite by far! Emma desparately needed a diaper change! We like to call it SDS, which stands for Saggy Diaper Syndrome.

Beautiful Chicago

There are some beautiful sites here! Maybe I think they are so pretty just because I'm used to Utah and how dry everything is there but I am just blown away at the every day things here. This picture is of a little lake and there is a 3-mile running trail that surrounds it. I actually have been running on this trail every morning with some of the other moms from the ward and it is so much fun to be able to run in such an amazing location. This is about 3 miles from our apartment.



Last Saturday I went to downtown Chicago with Nikisha, another mom that is out here for the summer. She has twins that are just a few months older than Emma so it is fun to hang out with her since the kids can play together. This is of us on the train on our way to downtown.

This is right outside the train station. We had our hands full with 4 kids! It was a crazy but fun day!

We got to ride on a water taxi on our way to the Navy Pier. This is a shot from off the front of the boat.

The girls and I on the boat. (Sorry it's a little washed out)
We passed this on the boat ride and I thought it was an interesting concept. I don't know if you can tell but those are cars parked in those little holes, and above the cars there are apartments. Those look like they would be fun to live in! This is just in one of the shopping areas in downtown. This is at the Navy Pier. We are going again sometime and when we do I will get better pictures. At this point in the day the kids were crazy and we were just trying to keep them happy so I wasn't too worried about getting any good pictures! :)

Miss You!

Well, we've been out here for about three weeks now and even though we have made a smooth transition and things are going well, we still miss everyone and hope your summers have been great so far. Mitch is doing great so far with his new job. Our computer was out of commission for the last week and a half so let me catch you up on things here. Last week he was in the top 7 salesmen for the office here in Chicago (there are about 30 people total) and then he got sick and was out for 4 days so he is now back and trying to catch back up to all that he missed out on. Kenzie is almost 5 months old and is sorta getting the hang of sitting up, which is a HUGE milestone that I can't wait for!! She is all smiles and loves being held by anyone, which is nice for me! Depending on the night, she will sleep all through the night, which is also really nice for me! Emma is going to be 21 months at the end of this month and she is getting better with talking. She still likes to use sign language a lot but is starting to say the word while she signs it. She is all over the place and full of energy. I call her my little monkey because it seems like she can climb onto anything! I actually have a picture to illustrate my point, unfortunately. The other day I put her down for her nap (currently she is sleeping on a normal bed because we weren't supplied with a crib) and she had done pretty well with the bed up until this point. I thought she was taking a nap because all was quiet until I thought I heard a little noise so I was curious and poked my head in. Boy was I shocked when I saw this...



I don't know if you can tell but the bottom drawer is open, so what she had done was pull the drawer out, stand in it, open the top drawer, reach her little hand in and found the Desitin! So then it was a joy trying to get the desitin out of her hair as well. Since Desitin is water resistant, washing her hair with just her normal shampoo wasn't doing the trick. It wasn't until my mom told me to try dishwashing soap (which luckily worked) that I was able to get the greasey look out of her hair! But in this picture, before all the Desitin had been washed out, she was laying on the bed and when she sat up her hair was straight up in the air, I thought it was funny so I took a picture! Her hair looked like this for about 3 days so I was way excited when we were able to get the Desitin all out with the dishwashing soap!

The Windy City

Just thought I'd let everyone know that we are here in Chicago now (and will be until the end of August) and I will get some pictures on as soon as I can get the camera cord mailed out to us. ( Of all the things to forget, I forgot the cord that allows me to put pictures on our blog! Blogging is one of the few things I can do here because I can't really go anywhere when I'm car-less and have two girls!) Oh and Mitch has sold 3 accounts so far! Yea Mitch, I'm so proud of him! (For those who may not know, Mitch is selling home security systems door-to-door this summer in Chicago, Illinois.) It's been a pretty great adventure so far though. I've lived in Utah basically my whole life so Chicago is quite a change for me. It's also been fun coming up with creative ways to do things, like using baby diaper boxes as laundry baskets. We only had the trunk of our Honda Civic to transport our stuff we would need for 4 months so it was a tight fit just for the basics, especially when you have to pack for a 20-month old and a 4-month old because they are still growing and changing at such a rapid pace. We will miss you all this summer!!!