Fun with Jack

The day after we went to the pumpkin patch, we drove downtown for a delicious dinner with Katie, Dana and Jack Rice. Katie never fails to disappoint with her outstanding cooking skills and this time was no different with bruschetta, stuffed shells, and a delicious salad. I love getting Ethan and Jack together since they are so close in age and play extremely well together. This allows Katie and I have have a few glasses of wine and catch up and Dana and Matt to enjoy a few beers and talk sports, sports, sports. The boys left the Rice's house looking like a tornado had passed through, but I know they had a great time running around, pulling out all of Jack's toys, and eventually pushing each other around on various carts and trucks. Thanks for a fun evening and yummy dinner!

Corn

During summertime visits, Matt's mom and dad always bring us corn from the corn wagon in Lafayette. This is some of the best sweet corn you will ever had and last night Ethan decided it was time for him to have a taste. While my mom was husking the corn for dinner, Ethan grabbed an ear and started gnawing on it...raw! He loved it so much that we had a tough time getting the ear away from him. Guess we know what his new favorite vegetable is!

Weekend Update

Last weekend was such a great weekend, the perfect way to cure the mid January blues. I (Ali) kicked it off with an early morning trip to Naperville to have breakfast with Heather, Sarah, and Shannon and meet Jackson and Ellie Nickoloff for the first time. The twins are so sweet and just beautiful. They were perfect angels and slept through the entire meal so I didn't get to hold them, but it was great to finally meet them. I can't wait for Ethan and Matt to see them, they are just precious. Breakfast at Egg Harbor was delicious and it was great to catch up with the girls, I have missed them!

After breakfast I made a quick drive back to the city to pick up Matt and Ethan and head over to Kaitlyn Dill's first birthday party. Sarah and Nathan hosted a great party at the Garfield Park Conservatory. It was our first time to the conservatory; what a beautiful place and such a great place to have a party. Kaitlyn was not really interested in her birthday cupcake, but enjoyed the party nonetheless. Thank you to the Dill's for including us and Happy Birthday Kaitlyn. We can't wait to return to the conservatory in the spring and check out all the gorgeous plants and flowers.

The Dill Family

Ethan and Jack partying it up!After the party, we headed to Union Park with the Rice's and some of their friends to have a late lunch/early dinner and a few beers (for some of us, it was more than a few). It was a blast to spend time with Katie, Dana, and Jack and get to know Lindsay, Bob, and Ben better. Such a fun group! The big boys had fun playing Golden Tee Putt Putt, while the girls chatted and the little boys snoozed. I think this is about the only time in your life when it is alright to fall asleep at a bar!

All tuckered out from too many games of Putt Putt and way too many Sam Adams

After a very busy Saturday, we decided to have a lazy Sunday morning. We all slept in a little bit and then Ethan helped his dad make raspberry chocolate chip pancakes. After all Ethan's hard work in the kitchen, I decided he could have a few bites of pancake. You would have thought they were candy, he loved them!

Helping Dad make pancakes The rest of Sunday was spent cleaning up around the house and getting ready for my first business trip to Cleveland. My mom and dad were kind enough to drive down Sunday late afternoon so my mom could watch Ethan while I was away and Matt was at work on Monday. My sister and Ben hosted dinner on Sunday night; chili and Dea cake....yum!

We were thrilled to have such a fun weekend in the city and so glad we were able to spend it with family and friends. We are so grateful to have such wonderful people in our lives.

See more pictures from the weekend here.

Thanksgiving 2008

We hope everyone had a very safe and Happy Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of year and this year was extra special as we celebrated Ethan's first Turkey Day. While this year was crazy and unexpected, we really have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season. We have been blessed with great family and friends and a beautiful little boy that brings more joy to our lives than we could ever imagine.

Thankgiving celebrations kicked off a little early with dinner at my aunt and uncle's on Wednesday followed by a mini Crystal Lake bar crawl with Matt, my sister, Ben and my two dear cousins, Adam and Megan. We had to celebrate Megan's BIG 2-1 with a few drinks and lots of laughs. I was also able to catch up with some girls from high school that I have not seen in a while, which was great. We were up fairly early (not as early as we should have been....those 1:30 am nights really get you when you are 30) on Thursday to begin preparations for the big meal. My sister was in charge of "dressing" the turkey and while I don't think it was her favorite thing to do (see picture below) she did a great job. My sister, dad, and I hit Sterne's Woods for a quick walk and then headed back to get ready for company and dinner. Festivties started around 3 when the Livermore's, my grandma, and a few of my mom's friends joined us. After a few glasses of wine and some yummy appetizers, we sat down for dinner around 6. I absolutely love Thanksgiving dinner and this year did not disappoint. Everything was delicious! Ethan was extremely well behaved and enjoyed a little turkey in his own special way. We ended the evening with 3 great pies that Bev made and a visit from the McArdle's that included a fabulous bundt cake. Friday Matt, Ethan and I headed to Virginia (more on that in another post), but not before putting Christmas lights up at my mom and dad's to kick off the holiday season!

Here are all the pictures from Thanksgiving. I apologize for several duplicates, we were trying to capture some good Christmas card photos. A couple of my favorites though......

Halloween Weekend

Ethan had a great 1st Halloween and looked so cute in his costume, if I do say so myself. He didn't get to wear it nearly as long as I would have liked because the weather was just too gorgeous for Halloween and I picked the hottest fleece footed costume!

The weekend kicked off with my mom, sister, and Ben coming over Friday night for some yummy chili. We enjoyed the gorgeous night and about 20 trick or treaters. We had special visits from the 3 chicks (Abbie, Lauren and Ellie) that live below us and Amy, Patrick, and Lindsay Forebaugh. I love seeing all the kiddies dressed up so I was thrilled to have a lot more visitors than we did last year. I even used most of the 6 lb. bag of candy I bought. Thank goodness or I would be eating all the leftovers and believe me, that would not be a good thing!

Saturday my mom and I went for a long walk around the neighborhood. Can the weather be any nicer for the end of October/beginning of November? I am loving this! While I went to the airport to pick up Matt, my mom made her infamous Vidalia Onion Dip and Rice Krispie Treats (only this time we added Candy Corn and drizzled chocolate on top). Just a side note, I am so glad Matt is home from Russia....Ethan and I really missed him while he was gone. We then headed over to Gibson's for a Halloween party. Really, it was just an excuse for all of us to get together, have a few drinks, and dress up all the kiddos again. The costumes were so so cute and all the food was delicious. Thank you to the Gibson's for having us all over, I know it was a lot of work, especially with Laura not feeling well. After the party, Matt and I went to see Miranda Lambert (more on that in another post) and my mom and dad got to spend some quality time with Ethan (aka...babysitting!).

Sunday, Matt tried to catch up on some sleep and get over his jet lag, while I tried to get some things done around the house (tried being the key word in that sentence!). That evening, we had a dinner date with the Dill's and the Rice's. Katie really out did herself with a great Italian meal....Caesar salad, spaghetti and meatballs, and then apple crisp. It was so delicious (even if it was more like spaghetti and meatloaf!). Thanks to the Rice's for having us over for dinner....it was so much fun!

I have posted some of the images from the weekend, but you can see them all here. Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Sunday Night Dinner Date

A couple of weekends ago, the Dill's and the Rice's came over for fajitas. While dinner didn't turn out quite as good as expected (too many things going on and not enough attention paid to the food), the company made the evening well worth over cooked tortillas and flat jalapeno corn bread. It was great to catch up with Sarah, Nathan and Kaitlyn and Katie, Dana, and Jack and have all the little ones together.

I met Sarah and Katie through Junior League and have since introduced the boys to each other. The Rice's and Dill's have become great friends and ones we love hanging out with. We had such a great time with everyone and are looking forward to our next Sunday Night Dinner Date.

Belly Picture...sort of!

Here are a couple more pictures from last night. I will try to take some more belly pictures tonight and post them for those of you that have been asking.

Thank You

A huge thank you to everyone for all the birthday wishes. I received so many nice e-mails and phone calls yesterday from friends and family. It is wonderful to be surrounded by so many great people. I don't know what I would do without each and every one of you in my life.

I had such and amazing 30th birthday. I was lucky enough to be able to take the day off work and spend the afternoon with my mom. After lunch at The Goddess and Grocer, we headed out to look for fabric for the nursery. After 3 unsucessful tries, we finally found some at Bellini. Thank goodness, I was starting to get very discouraged. My mom and I then met up with my dad, Matt, my sister, and Ben at Piazza Bella in Roscoe Village for dinner. Dinner was great, minus a small flub up with my dad's entree. I was then surprised with a yummy cake from Sweet Mandy B's, which was delicous, as always! I am so glad that I was able to have such a lovely dinner on my birthday with my family (if only the Hunt's could have been there).

It was a truly wonderful birthday, one I will never forget. Thank you to all my family and friends for making it so special.

Friend In Low Places

For me, this weekend was all about spending time with friends, which is something I don't get to do that often. I love seeing my girlfriends because we always have so much to catch up on, which means there will be lots of laughing and great stories.

Saturday started out with a trip to Cary to see Jaime and Mike and meet A.J. There are not enough words to describe how precious A.J. is. He was wide awake during our visit and didn't make one peep. It was great to see Jaime and Mike as well. Parenthood is definitely something that is treating them right; they are just so enamored with their little guy. We can't wait to see them again in a few short weeks! As soon as I have some pictures from the visit, I will post them (Jaime and Mike...hint, hint!). After the visit, my sister and I had lunch with my mom at Deer Park, which is always fun.

Saturday night was dinner with Shannon, Heather, Carolyn, and Laura. We headed back to the old hood and ate at Tarascas. While we were all in great company and the food was quite good, the restaurant was just a little too loud. Is this a sign that we are getting old or just the fact that we were seated next to an obnoxious party of about 10?!?!? Regardless, we were able to catch up, dinner was fun, and it was great night out for us girls.

Sunday, a friend of mine from my old job at Prairie came down to visit for lunch. While we talk quite a bit via e-mail and the phone, it was great to see Gina, as it has been about 6 months since we last saw each other. We headed to Jerry's for one of the largest selections of sandwiches you will ever see. We had a nice long lunch and were able to chat about everything from work to baby stuff. It was so good to see Gina, I miss her a ton.

All in all, it was such a good weekend. I truly enjoyed seeing everyone and can't wait for the next time we all get together. I cherish each and everytime I get together with friends as lives are busy and we don't get to see each other as often as I would like.

Baked Garlic Fries

After two days of scouring the refrigerator for something to eat because we didn't have dinner planned, Matt and I thought it was about time to get back into our dinner routine. Before heading to the grocery store, we raided the freezer to see what we had because most of it is starting to get old and needs to be used in the next couple of weeks. We found plenty of main dishes that just need an accompaniment, which made for an easy shopping trip.

I remembered I had found a recipe for baked garlic fries that sounded tasty on Made Healthier, which seemed like the perfect side to go with our brats. We decided to give these a try and they were delicious. While they take quite a long time to bake (about an hour), the wait was well worth it. We used regular salt instead of the garlic salt, which did not seem to take away from the flavor. I do think I will try the garlic salt next time just to see if there is a difference. If you are looking for an easy side with lots of flavor, I highly recommend trying these fries, they are so good! We will be making them again in the near future!

St. Patrick's Day Dinner

As Matt mentioned in his last post, we made Corned Beef and Cabbage for the first time last night and it was pretty good. Our original plan was to make it on Sunday night because the corned beef has to be boiled for several hours. But after a lot of good food over the weekend, we decided to hold off until St. Patty's Day. I was concerned about making it during the week because of the cooking time; however, I found a recipe to cook it in the crock pot for 12 hours and it turned out really good. I think Matt enjoyed it more than I did, but it was still tasty. I can't say that I will be making it again before next St. Patrick's Day, though. To accompany our corned beef and cabbage, we made Irish Soda Bread compliments of Shannon. Even though I was 2 Tbsp short of sour cream, it was still delicious and I will be making this again!!! Thanks Shannon for the recipe! If anyone would like the crock pot recipe for corned beef, let me know, it is a cinch to make.