Jacob is 4yrs. old!

Jacob woke up with a smile on his face. He usually wakes up happy but he knew today was his BIRTHDAY!!! He was SO excited. He started off with pancakes..his favorite breakfast.
Than daddy was able to come home early and spend most of the day with us. Daddy even took Jacob to get a haircut. Doesn't he look so handsome?

Then we went to Jacob's favorite place to eat. All aboard diner...the train restaurant. He was so excited he could barely handle it.

Watching all the fun trains..on the ceiling, at the big train table and even at the counter. Trains everywhere!

Here comes the train!

This was daddy's first time coming here so he thought it was pretty fun too!

At the end of our dinner. The whole place started singing and clapping for Jacob's birthday and the train came with a cupcake and candle all for Jacob. He smiled ear to ear!

Our waitress was very nice and offered to take our picture! A happy fed crew!

We came home and opened a few presents. This is a favorite. A welder tool and mask!

The day was so fun and exciting it just wore that sweet boy right out. We love you Jacob and can't believe you are already 4 years old. Happy Happy Birthday!

******* Here are a few fun facts of Jacob and some Q and A's we did with him earlier today!***

Jacob is 32.8 lbs. He LOVES T-Ball and Basketball. He also loves to wrestle. BUT he loves to cuddle too. He has the biggest smile and loves to hear "Jakey stories". He loves primary and wearing his suit. He can say all his abc's and count to 20. He cuts with scissors and can draw most shapes. He is practicing writing his name and recognizing letters.

What is your name? Jacob Theodore fox
How old are you? I’m 4.
What’s your favorite food? Salad
What’s your favorite color? Green and orange
What’s your favorite toy? Trains
What’s your favorite movie? Polar Express
What’s your favorite treat? Sucker
What’s your favorite thing to do outside? Go on my lightning mcqueen bike.
How many people are in your family? Lots
Who’s your big sister? Genna, jillian and Jolie
Who’s your baby? Giselle
Who’s your best friend? Sienna ( friend from preschool)
Where do you live? In Chicago. In Michigan, in Virginia!
What does Daddy do for work? He does the computer!
What do you want to be when you grow up? A train engineer! And Play!

The little Cub's!

A tornado did some pretty big damage in an area of Illinois a few weeks ago. So the girls school was doing a fundraiser...wear a hat and bring a dollar. The girls REALLY wanted to do it. So I surprised them with Chicago Cub's hats. They LOVED it...not sure if Brett did..hahaha!!! Jacob also really likes the hat and was very upset that he didn't have one to wear. I told him when they get home he can have a turn. Now we just need to go to a game!

St. Patrick's Day in Chicago!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We started the fun off with a green lunch! The kids loved it except Genna wasn't a fan of the sno balls and gave hers away!

after school. They came home to a fresh fruit rainbow..well at least it was supposed to look like a rainbow..but not so much. They ate the whole platter ( except the pineapple) in record time!

Saturday morning we woke up and got ready to head downtown. Wearing all green and even green ribbons in our hair. Giselle ripped hers out in the car...:(

When we got out of the car and started walking we ran into this group performing Irish songs on bagpipes and a big band. There must have been someone pretty important there..I think in the Catholic church because there was tons of security all around!

When we first got to the river. It was still it's regular water..kinda green but not the right green we were looking for. That boat in the water looks like fun. We are definitely going to do that sometime!

OK, now we are at the right green river. We did TONS and TONS of walking today. We first got to the spot of the parade about 11:15ish and it was already pretty crowded. I really wanted the kids to see the green river but we knew if we left the parade area we probably wouldn't be able to see anything. Well we decided green river.

It was a monster of a walk. The kids did GREAT! poor Jacob was so tired and Giselle was tired of the stroller but there was sooo many people so it was hard to let her down! Finally, we made it to the river and WOW...it is very GREEN!

It makes me think we are in the land of OZ. It also just so happened to be the warmest St. Patty's day in years. So we were loving it. No coats..some of us even wore shorts. It was 82 degrees! LOVE that temp!

I was VERY glad to have Brett there. He has been really busy at work and I wasn't sure if he would be able to come but thank goodness he did.

Taking some fun pictures in front of the green river! The kids thought the river was so cool!

Daddy's turn with the crazy kiddos. aren't they just too cute?

Jacob kept making silly faces. It was such a beautiful day to be downtown!

For some reason Giselle just couldn't stop squeezing poor Brett's head. She was just so happy to be with daddy and be out of the stroller and be in the warm sun!

By this time. The crowd had gotten so huge. It was insane trying to walk let alone get even close enough to see the parade. We walked a little ways down to maybe see but decided to go get something to eat. Jacob was exhausted. Giselle was losing it. The big girls were tired.

It's hard to tell but we are actually quite far from the parade and that mass of people behind us are still walking to see the parade where an even bigger mass of people are waiting to see it.

You can see Jacob is so done at this point!

We ended the day with shamrock shakes and lunch. Probably the best part for some of the kids. Brett and I had a great time. We would love to be able to spend more time downtown but these little kids could only handle so much walking. I am happy to say my knee never hurt..but left foot KILLED...err. if it's not one thing it's another!

Chicago Brett and I think you are a pretty fun town! Can't wait until we go back for some other adventure!

A painting pinterest fun afternoon!

The sun is shining..the sun is shining. Can you just feel the sun through these pictures?

After the gym we came home and made some yummy smoothies to go with lunch. Then ran outside. I found this great way to paint from pinterest: click HERE!

Giselle sat right down and got to work. She wouldn't even put her shoes on. She's a free spirit!

The artist's busy at their masterpiece!

This is Giselle's OK, I will look at the camera but I really am busy, OK Mom!

There is just nothing better than painting outside and feeling the warm sun on your head!

Well of course if you are Jacob than there is nothing better than making animal prints with your hands on the driveway..now that is fun!

As you can see paint didn't really stay ONLY on the driveway..a little on the clothes..a little on the hair.. A LOT on the hands but most of all...a LOT of FUN!!!

The 1st BBQ of the year!

Who would have ever thought that we would be grilling in the middle of March in ILLINOIS!! Not us, that's for sure! Thank You for the wonderful weather. We went on a family walk and landed at the playground. We then found a baseball field where we had many races and mommy and daddy realized we are old. We had such a great afternoon. We had the kids tell us how to get home from the park. We are trying to get them to pay attention and learn how to get around the neighborhood. They did OK except we went the super long way..not on purpose. Then Brett grilled chicken, burgers and hot dogs. It was absolutely wonderful! Yay for spring!!!

Fight Club

I was at the gym one day when a trainer approached me and asked me to box with her for a minute. I said "right here"? We were right in the middle of the main floor. She said yup and I said, ok. I don't know these people, why not? So she taught me a basic 1, 2. I really liked it. Than she invited me to try a class. I went and it was the hardest work out I have ever done. I LOVED it! I have been taking the class for a month now and thought it would be nice to show you guys some of the things I do.
This monster is the tire flip. It's not easy and graceful but sure is good for you!

A look like i'm going slow..that's because I do go slow..I have a weak back and so I go a little slower than I would like but I do, do it!

The Towel push! Push a towel and run up and down the floor. I am already red.

It gets really hard after a few times. You can see how crazy red I am.

Meet a trainer: Atilla is one of the two trainers I work with. They are very patient with us. So far I have learned: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. plus a combination! Atilla likes to call them out really fast.
( by the way, world's worst picture of me!)

I belive this is a 5...supposed to be a jab to the ribs!

You can see my concentration. I concentrate so hard and I still will mess up. One of these days I will go through a whole session and not mess up once...I HOPE!

This is at the very end. We have already gone 2 rounds with both trainers. I asked if I could take a few pics...Tricia had to leave but Atilla stayed for a minute. I was pretty tired but I have to say. I LOVE IT! It is so fun and totally different than anything I have tried. Each class is something new and challenging. Thanks for the great work out guys!

Giselle's BIG girl hair!

As you can see Giselle's hair was a wispy mess. Little hairs all over the place. So I decided to take her over to a hair place right by my house.

She sat very happily unknowing what was to be. She liked the magazines in the waiting room.

Her turn. Not sure about this whole cape thing!

Yup, DON"T LIKE IT!!! Not at all, not a little bit. She freaked.

Once promises of lollipops were brought up the tears slowed. The eyebrows never went down though! Thankfully the hairdresser was super nice and patient because Giselle moved her head around a million times and yes she did get that cape off of her.

She has always loved her hair being brushed so at the end she was very happy to have her brushed and blow dried!

Eyebrows are still in action but you can see her cute new "do".

Look at those lips..the most perfect little lips..eyebrows are STARTING to come down!

Another side view. She has pretty fine hair and one side has a lot less. Most likely the side she sleeps on the most.

Are we done now?

OK, I guess I like it. Actually, that wasn't too bad. A quick thank you and she was done!

The BIG girl's new hair cut! Still so cute!