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Monday, March 29, 2010

Happy, Happy Birthday, Auntie Meg!!


Whooaaa... Auntie Megan is 23 years young today!  Wishing her a beautiful day full of smiles.  XOXO



Friday, March 26, 2010

New Baby Update.

Wow, I can't believe I haven't blogged about the new nugget in a while.  Let's get caught up.  Baby #2 is growing at the speed of light.  Our last appointment included a remark from my OBGYN that went a little something like this as he was examining me... "Kim, had you not had an ultrasound already I would have assumed you were having twins." Awesome.  What you mean doc is that I'm on the larger side?!  He assured me that it was just my uterus that was larger, not necessarily me.  We had a brief moment of panic when he couldn't find the baby's heartbeat during the routine exam, so we popped in to ultrasound and found that this little pumpkin was doing somersaults and his/her strong heartbeat was very clear!  Phew.  That was a moment I would rather not relive again... EVER.  We will be finding out the sex of Michael's sib in about two weeks.  We do have a boy's name ready to go, yet, as we did with Michael, we are having issues settling on a girl's name.  The second trimester is treating me very well, compared to the first.  No real complaints other than I'm the size of a house already.  They do say #2 pops.  I'VE POPPED!  I have found myself recently just sitting back and trying to imagine what my life would be like without our babies and I can't for the life of me picture it.  What would I do without them.  I am the luckiest girl in the world.  I truly believe that.  We can't wait to meet this little one and introduce him/her to Mikey!  


17 weeks and counting.

Coupon Clipping.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in a post or not, but I have recently become a little obsessed with coupon clipping as of late.  I did my big grocery shopping trip this week (which includes formula, diapers and all that good stuff).  With all of the coupons and deals I found I saved $101.25!!  Not kidding.  That was just the coupons I had cut out of Sunday's paper and a few I found online.  Just two stores and over a hundred bucks.  Although I spend a little time organizing my trip I think I can say it was worth it.  This weekend's great deal... Baby Einstein DVDs for $2.50 a piece.  Check out http://mylitterofsix.blogspot.com/ to find out how!!  I'm addicted to this lady's blog now.  She posts new deals five to six times a day.  She must be great at time management. She is out west, and sometimes her posts don't apply to us here in the midwest but a ton of them do!  Off to Toys 'R' Us this weekend to scoop me up some of these great educational DVDs.

Snapshots of the Week (41)



Hello.


After bath time play.

Week Forty-One!!


I'm 41 weeks old!!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Happy 50th, Papa!!

Today marks my Dad's 50th Birthday!!  Here's to you, Dad.  May the next 50 be as wonderful as the first.  We love you!  ~ Kimberly, Dennis and Michael Lincoln




sWINging!!

What a busy couple of weeks it has been.  Dennis and I have been in "FIND A HOUSE!" mode and it is a bit distracting to say the least.  There have been many developments, but I'll get you up to speed later next week on that.  I must say that Michael seems to make me forget all about the hunt for the perfect home.  We've spent a ton of time outside this week.  60* weather and sunny!!  Can't beat it, perfect park and play weather.  So, that's what we did together all week.  Walks, parks and picnics.  How awesome it was to have Friday afternoon to spend with Daddy and show him Michael's new favorite past time... SWINGING!!  We topped the afternoon off with a sweet treat in Hinsdale, another favorite thing of Michael's.  I think we have an ice cream fan on our hands.  Thank goodness we got outside when we did.  Today we woke up to SNOW!  Not a little snow, a lot of SNOW!!  You can't win 'em all.  











"Mmmmmm."


Ice cream mustache.


Wrestling with Daddy.




And, now he's done.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Snapshots of the Week (40)


Maybe his new favorite thing.



Without a doubt his new favorite hobby.


"Higher, Mom!"


Roaming around the park.

We're Going to the Zoo!!

Today marked Michael's first visit to Brookfield Zoo!  How awesome for us that it is so very close.  His favorite... THE GORILLAS!  He loved standing at the bamboo fence and roaring at them.  Our little monkey.




































Week Forty!!


I'm 40 weeks old!!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

9 Month Shoot with Nancy!!

We had another wonderful trip to Freeport on Monday to visit one of our favorite people, Nancy, for Michael's 9 month photos.  It just so happened that three of our other favorite people, Kelby, Erin and Dawn, were in town visiting, too!  How lucky are we that we got to spend some unexpected time with them?!  Michael had a great shoot.  Not too many smiles, but lots of good shots.  Kelby and Erin are so wonderful with him.  They tried to make him smile for the camera with funny faces and dances.  It was very adorable.  Hopefully it won't be too long before we get to play again.  Thanks, Nancy, for all of your hard work!!  As you can see, it is wonderful work!!  We do love our time with her.  (Photos belong to www.nmbphotography.com).


Our little Hawkeye!


Could this be any sweeter?


Argh, decisions, decisions.

The Luck of the Irish!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Breiers!!



Sunday, March 14, 2010

Saturday Snapshots.


Auntie Laura is home for spring break.


We are very much into building towers...


One block at a time...


And then knocking them down.


The crawling and drooling machine, Michael.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Happy Birthday, G.G.!!

Today is Michael's Great-Grandma Wojcik's (aka G.G.) 72nd Birthday, and she happens to be spending it in the hospital.  We want to wish her a healthful day!  

We LOVE you, G.G.!!  Get well soon!!


How I found Mikey this morning.

For Our Super Squirmy 9 Month-Old...

Our sweet Michael,

You light up our life, do you know that?!  Your smile is a permanent fixture on that cute chubby face of yours.  You often clap for yourself when you discover you can do something new.  A proud tot you are.  You are eager to master a new skill, maybe even a little impatient.  You make us laugh until our bellies hurt.  You also wear us out.  You can't sit still.  You have an eagerness about you that cannot be matched.  You make our day!!  Until you came along time moved at the pace of a snail.  Now, I can't seem to keep what day it is straight.  I want to wrap you up just as you are and freeze time.  I know this is not possible.  So, we wake up every morning knowing that today is so incredibly special for our family.  You have been here so brief a time, but you seem to make each day brighter without knowing you have done so.  You are just going about your business, playing and giggling your way through a day.  We love you with all that we have and couldn't be prouder of our sweet baby boy.  Here we are just three months from celebrating your first birthday.  Where did the year go?  We sure are excited to see what the next few months have in store for us.  I'm sure there will laughter involved :)

Here's to 9 months of being thankful for you.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

ARIZONA!! (and Snapshots of the Week 39)

Sweet home, Chicago.  We just got back from our five day adventure in Arizona.  Lots of firsts for this Breier family.  Michael's first airplane ride.  Our first family SPRING TRAINING!  Our first time seeing the mountains.  Michael's first 14 1/2 hour night of sleep (more on this in a bit).  Mikey's first time in a pool.  Daddy's first vacation where he went to bed before 9:00!  What a great time we had.

Let's start off by saying that we spent the day before we went trying to cure Mikey of his cold.  We also spent the afternoon at Dr. Matray's office ruling out ear infections and getting the green light to take Michael on the trip.  Michael had had a fever for two days and a runny nose.  I contributed it to teething, Daddy was panicking.  After Dr. Matray confirmed that Mikey was coming down with a little something he gave us the green light to head out west.  We just had to pay attention to his fever and made sure he stayed hydrated.  So, we were off.  4 AM Thursday morning and Michael is wide awake.  This boy was excited for his trip.  Off to Midway to catch our 7:00 flight, with a still wide awake baby.  How this happened I'm not exactly sure.  He finally slept the second we were taxiing in the plane.  He was incredible on the flight to AZ.  Only a few moments of weepiness when the pressure was changing.  He loved the trays, the head of the guy sitting in front of him and the flight attendants.

When we landed in Arizona it was 69* and BEAUTIFUL.  Because our room, and by room I mean personal casita, wasn't ready right away (we were early getting in) we spent a few hours laying poolside and Michael played in a sandbox.  LOVED THE SAND!  He covered his legs with it and started crying when we had to change locations.  By the time our room was ready we were exhausted.  Dinner lasted about three and a half minutes and we were all in bed and asleep at 8:30.  Pathetic?  Maybe.  But we were spent.  This also happened to be the evening I was informed that MANAGER LOU PINELLA was staying at the resort, as he does every spring training, and that we were basically neighbors.  I was prying information out of maintenance men and bus boys trying to land myself in the perfect position to meet Sweet Lou.  I shall end the day one story with this...  I saw him.  It may have been from our bedroom window while I was lying Michael down for bed, but I saw him.  He had pulled up outside of our casita, hopped out of the car and opened the door for his wife and an older gentleman who looked a lot like our new batting coach and he was gone.  It was him.  No one walks like Sweet Lou, or can carry a front porch like that man.  Needless to say I spent the next four days trying to get myself in a position where we would cross paths and it never happened.  We hung out outside of his casita, walked about screaming his name and nothing.  Also at the resort, Ron Santo staying right across the street.  A dream vaca for any Cubbies fan.

Everyone up at 6:00 the next morning and it was a day of rest and relaxation by the pool.  Mikey's first pool experience was wonderful.  He laughed and giggled his way through two pools and a lazy river.  His favorite part was floating down the lazy river in his personal floatation device.  76* and a sun tan later we were dining on "the only reason [Jane] wanted to return to Arizona."  Flour tortilla chips at Aunt Chiladas.  You can tell from the picture she was pretty excited to be reacquainted.

Saturday was a GORGEOUS day of Cubbies spring training baseball.  They were playing the Sox, and it was 76* and not a cloud in the sky.  Perfect for baseball.  Let me tell you about HoHoKam Park.  Tailgating a wonderful experience.  Michael hung out with Cubbie fans, we got some moore sun, Daddy and Gramma were maybe the only Sox fans in the parking lot.  It was beautiful.  We had grass seats for the game, thought it'd be better with Michael and his stroller and all the luggage needed to get him through a eight hour outing.  Not such a great idea.  The grass is just like the bleachers at Wrigley.  Packed with drunks and people without morals.  Not exactly the place for a 9 month-old with a cold.  Not to mention, it was packed.  Filled to the brim!  It was the first game of spring training.  So, after seven innings and two Carlos Quintin home runs we were ready to call it a day.  We were heading back for some sun deck time and for Michael's late nap.  His late nap turned into a 14 1/2 snooze and he was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:30 AM... NO COLD IN SITE!  I guess it's all he needed to enjoy the rest of his vaca.

Sunday... not so good.  It rained all day and was 53*.  We spent most of the day inside, tried to venture out to Old Scottsdale and were rained out of baseball games for the day.  We were supposed to see the Cubs play at the Sox at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, but it was not a day for baseball.  So funny, in Arizona because, you know, it is a dessert they really aren't prepared for any rain whatsoever.  People act as they do when it's a blizzard here in Chicago.  They drive slow, the streets flood and people stay in.  It was a little out of the ordinary for us Midwesterners.

Monday was supposed to be our day of rest before traveling home on Tuesday, but because we had missed the game the day before we swapped our tickets for a Sox/Mariners game in Glendale.  A gorgeous facility they have there.  Really.  We were ten feet away from the team at batting practice and three inches away from AJ Pierzynski (I am not a fan of him, but Den and Jane were excited by it).  There were maybe 3,000 people there which made it wonderful to watch baseball.  Really no one around us and Michael liked crawling about in the soft grass and spending time with Daddy and the Sox.    A great day despite the temperature.

Here comes Tuesday, travel day back to Chicago and still no Lou.  What's a girl to do?  We had a wonderful, WONDERFUL time.  It's always nice to just get away for a bit.  Thanks to Gramma Jane for the amazing idea and for planning the trip.  If you're ever interested in visiting the Phoenix area check out the Pointe Hilton at Squaw Peak Resort.  It was spectacular.  Michael and Gramma took morning walks and discovered new things (like babbling brooks).  The accommodations were great (the breakfast buffet was a big hit with us).  It's really a beautiful resort tucked away in the mountains of Phoenix.  Check it out.

I took a few pics while we were there... 461 to be exact.  I'd like to share a few of them with you.