Chicago

Jeremy and I headed to Chicago this weekend for some quality time together! I originally planned on going to Chicago for my roommate Carissa's baby shower. Jeremy and I then decided it would be fun for us to both go and spend the night downtown. I attended Carissa's shower on Saturday, and then we headed in to Chicago Saturday afternoon.

We stayed at the River Hotel, right on Michigan Avenue.

Our first stop was the Billy Goat Tavern. We both enjoyed a beer and hoped to have some fries, but were told "No fries, just chips" :) so we finished our beer and headed to Pizzeria Uno for an appetizer, pizza and a few more drinks. The pizza was AWESOME! After dinner we went to a piano bar called "Howl at the Moon" we were shocked by the $10 cover, but were pleased with the entertainment and atmosphere.

It was a great weekend in the city, we had so much fun! Although we were happy to get home to Ellie and Owen!

Graduation

It is official...I'm a Master Teacher! :) Not sure about that, but I did graduate with my Masters in Collaborative Education this past weekend!

It was a long two years, with a few bumps in the road (bed rest, NICU, etc) but I made it! I feel very accomplished and proud of my end project. This past summer we started writing our thesis as our final requirement for graduation. My thesis was: The Effects of Self Monitoring Academic Goals of 6th Grade Level I Students in order to Improve Academic Achievement, (mouth full). Throughout the process of writing my thesis I was pushed to the limit many times, cried a few times, and wanted to give up once :), but I'm very proud of my end project and happy to say I did it!

Here are a few pics of the ceremony:



Joel speaking on behalf of our class



Receiving my "Hood" and degree

 



 

The whole fam came to celebrate

My mom and dad came to help celebrate and took us out to dinner. I also bought a Kindle with money from my generous family, something not expected at all!



Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas from the Daughetee's!

I cannot believe it is already here. I started Christmas shopping very early this year and got the majority of it done over Thanksgiving Break. What a relief! I was then able to enjoy this month without the frazzle of fighting the crowds with two kids in tow.

Jeremy worked all Christmas weekend, so Santa came to our house the 23rd. Ellie and Owen were so excited to see what Santa had brought them. Each of them loved opening up their presents! I was pleasantly surprised to the kids reaction for each present. It felt as if we were opening presents all day. Ellie and Owen wanted to immediately play and ooo and ahh over each individual present. They were not in a big rush to get to the next one. It was great to see!

Cookies for Santa and Carrots for Rudolph

Santa Came!

Filled our Stockings

Unwrapping

Santa knows about Owen's love of trucks

Movie time

Christmas Program 2010

The kids had their Christmas Program at Daycare today. They each had on a festive Christmas shirt and were ready to celebrate. Ellie had been singing Christmas songs at home for weeks that she learned at daycare and was very excited to sing them with her friends for all their parents to hear.

Standing with her friends

Singing (look at the animation :)

Santa also made a surprise appearance!!! He came in with a bag of toys and called each kiddo up one by one to give them their toy. (parents brought these in the week before the program:)

Owen's name was called first, I brought him up to get his gift, and this was his reaction to Santa:

He was not happy

Then Santa called Ellie's name a little while later, she ran up to him and jumped up on his lap. She was very excited to meet Santa.

Excited!

Concentrating on opening her gift from Santa

Santa brought Owen a firetruck and Ellie a "My Little Pony". He knows them very well! :)

Ellie's 2nd Birthday Party

Ellie turned 2 years old on July 15th! Where has the time gone?
We decided to have people over to the house to celebrate. She loved having so many people come over to hang out with her. Ellie is very social and likes to be around others. Yia Yia, Papa, Grandma and Grandpa, Josh, Lindsay, Aunt Julie, Amy, Shep, April, Hosh and Emerick all came to help Ellie celebrate.

Ellie and the boys

Ellie and Aunt Julie

We first opened presents (which she is totally in to now) then had pizza and cake. Ellie was a little shy when everyone sang her "Happy Birthday" and wanted mommy to hold her, but she quickly got over that and devoured her cake.

She stayed up a bit late and watched her new Abbey Caddaby movie once everyone left.
Here are some more pictures of her party:

Birthday at Happy Joes!

Ellie turned 2 years old! We had a party at the house, but we also had to go to Happy Joes in DBQ and get a free ice cream sundae (along with pizza of course)! Aunt Aundrea joined us, it was a great time!
Ellie and Mommy at Happy Joes...she reluctantly shared the ice cream with Daddy! :)

Splash Pad

Splash Pad in Center Point

We have found a brand new splash pad in our own little town of Center Point. I complain and complain about living here,, but they are finally starting some new initiatives for the better of the town. Splash pad and new park is one of them (we can only hope sidewalks will be next:)
We went on Father's Day for the first time. Ellie LOVED it, and Owen had a pretty good time as well. Ellie has no fear and at one point told a much older boy who had bumped into her,"no pushing, it's not nice!" she can definitely hold her own :)


Happy Father's Day Daddy! Daddy and Owen hung out at the splash pad while I chased Ellie around. They had a great time! We made Jeremy a steak dinner for supper with apple pie for dessert, it was a wonderful day filled with family time!