It's February!!

Thank heavens!  Is it just me, or is January the absolute longest month EVER?!?!?  Sheesh, I thought it would never end!  I really think it is my least favorite month of the year..... snow, cold, wind, below 0 windchills, a million days long (or maybe just 31 but it felt like a million?)..... not much to get excited about in January.

February, on the other hand, brings Valentine's Day, Jeremiah's birthday (!!!!!!!), only 28 days, and one month closer to spring-- yippeee! :)  I'm sure the snow, cold, wind, and below 0 wind chills will still be with us (in fact, I believe this week we will be enjoying them all), but other things to look forward to make those seem not as bad!

So what did we do in January?  Well, not a whole heck of a lot.  We obviously live for the weekends a LOT more than we used to, now that that is our only time with Adam.  J and I pray for Daddy every night, and remind ourselves that he'll be home again in 5 (or 4 or 3 or 2...) days.  This seems to help J when he's missing Daddy (which happens a lot at bedtime.... just about breaks my heart!).

School has been going well, and I really can't complain.  I am SOOOOO glad that we only had 1 snow day in January and our school year keeps trucking along (I'm sure I just jinxed it for February!).  Every time I heard about another snow/cold day in MI, I just said a little prayer of thanks that I'm not there (yet). :)  And my kids have been doing amazingly well on these many days when it is WAY too cold to go play outside! 

Anyway, some pics of our activities in January!

A happy weekend outing with Daddy!

They look a little bit alike, don't you think?

This is how we have dinner with Daddy every night! :)

Jeremiah started shaving.  He's gonna be 4, ya know.

A week and a half ago my parents came for a few days to help, and that was SO nice!  Just not having to get J up and out of bed so early made things a little easier for me (of course, the day they watched J, I ended up having a 2-hour delay for the cold anyway!).  But anyway, definitely just nice to have them here and J just loves hanging out with his Grandpa and Grandma!  Then Friday, I took a personal day, and we all took off for Wisconsin for the weekend.  My mom road with J and I, my dad drove their car, and Adam drove from MI to meet us in WI for the weekend.  It worked perfectly!

And our reason for heading that way for the weekend, was so that my mom and I could go down to Chicago for the day on Saturday to go bridesmaid dress shopping with Abby (she and Neil are getting married in June!  Yay!).

Friday night we met the Brassers for dinner at Panera (of course!).  J always likes to see "Hunka Noo" and "Jo-uh-ant." :)

No, that's not my mom.  That's Aunt JoAnne!

 The day in Chicago was FREEZING.  But, we braved the cold and took the train (from Abby's apartment in Bucktown) downtown to do some shopping!

Hats and ear warmers were a must!  It was SO cold!!

I love this city!

 It is weird for me to think that I actually used to live in Chicago.... seems like a lifetime ago!  And I used to know my way around!  Now every once in awhile I'd think (or say), "I know where we are!"  Kinda disappointing to realize how quickly I have forgotten and that I'm not that "city girl" anymore!

Sisters!

 We had lunch at one of my favorite places-- Potbelly's!

Oh yes, I did get a shake AND a dream bar!

 We did not find a dress on our shopping trip, but Abby did find one online that day, so we are all set with that!  We also were able to help Abby get a good start on putting together the invitations, too.

J had a fun "guys day" that day with Daddy and Grandpa!  They went to The Domes to see the train exhibit!

Look at all that green!

Last week our temps actually got above freezing (39 degrees, I think!), so J was just dying to go outside!  He used some of Daddy's tools to "chunk the ice" for awhile (I'm sure this is totally safe).

 This weekend J got to go to his first real "friend" birthday party.  His daycare buddy Connor turned 6 and had a party at SkyZone.  Jeremiah had so much fun!!

J and his best buddy Grady jumped together pretty much the whole time (once they both got comfortable with the trampolines!).

Best friends!

 And with 5 minutes left to jump...

J took a great nap that day! :)


So that's what we've been up to.  February looks to be busy and fun!  Of course, every February I get a little nostalgic as I realize my baby is turning yet another year older.  I'll be back sometime soon with a little trip down memory lane and then a re-cap of J's b-day!