Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Davies. We have loved getting everyone's Christmas cards and hearing how all of our friends are doing. We are doing really well this Christmas and enjoying not having to travel anywhere. We are settling in and finally feeling ready for the baby to come, which is a good thing because it could be anyday. At my appointment on Monday my Dr. told me things were progressing and to make sure my bags were packed. That night we got everything together. I've had contractions on and off this week so who knows. My due date is Jan 16th so I could go longer. In the meantime, we are really enjoying our first Christmas in our house. The fireplace, stockings, and tree set the scene and the laughter of family and joy of Kate and her cousin Tommy fill the house. A great Christmas!

Surprise!

Brian's birthday is January 6th and he is turning 30. Brian's birthday often doesn't get its due because it's just after Christmas. I was nervous that this year would be especially so with our new bundle of joy arriving, and I didn't want to let this special occasion slip by. So with my Mom and sister's help, I planned a little surprise party at our house. With just moving in, Christmas upcoming, and being very pregnant it was a little ambitious, but so worth it! For cover Brian thought we were having an open house holiday party. I asked him to take Kate out to dinner and Chuck E Cheese so I could have two year old free party prep time. When he returned with Kate all the guests had already arrived, and we successfully executed the surprise. I think it took him half an hour to process that the party was actually for him. We made italian subs, dips, and desserts, and for a little extra fun and surprise, I rented a craps, blackjack, and poker tables with dealers. (Thanks Jason Gottschalk for the idea.) When our guests arrived they got players cards for $500 in chips. At 8 the tables opened and the guests started gaming. At the end of the night the guests "cashed in" their chips for raffle tickets. My Mom put together five beautiful wine, coffee, chocolate, baking, and man themed prize baskets that we raffled off. We made Brian a spice cake and he got some wonderfully thoughtful presents, including a new driver from Kate and myself. It was great night, and what I hope was a memorable Birthday for my wonderful husband who I appreciate so much!

CLICK HERE for Video of Brian's Party!

December Update

We have been just a little bit busy the last few weeks. With moving into a new house, preparing for Christmas, taking care of Kate, being 36 weeks pregnant, and Brian being in the middle of Advent its been a bit overwhelming. We are actually doing really well. We are out of boxes besides the basement and even have a tree up. It feels great to be in our house and we really love it. Kate loves her house and her room and sleeping great. We even managed to do something Christmas spirited on Saturday and went to the park district breakfast with Santa. Kate was very wary of Santa, but did good. Her favorite things were the games and getting to try a sprinkle covered donut.
Kate has changed so much in the last few weeks. She is chatting up a storm, counts to 20, and is singing complete songs. We can do our entire abcs, twinkle twinkle, itsy bitsy spider, row row your boat, and her repertoire keeps expanding. Some of her baby talk is disappearing which I'm kind of sad about. She used to say "Come on Daddy, tick Kate." Now she says "Come on Daddy tickle me." A slight change, but still very cute though. Kate has learned how to jump and shouts it as she leaps around the house. She exclaims, "reach, reach" when she wants something we have put above her grasp. We still limit TV but when she wants to watch something she says, "Mote, Mote, Ere are you?" (Remote, Remote, Where are You) and looks around the living room. When we find it she says, "Gotch You." or "Dere you are." She insists on saying."Bye, see you later (yater)," to everything as we leave a room. That includes all 8 of her Disney princesses before bed. My favorite is Snow White (Stow Whi). Somewhere amidst this crazy month our little baby has grown up on us. She is truly a toddler and just in time, because I'm not sure how many more weeks until we have another little baby in our house.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had an awesome Thanksgiving this year and only had to drive 5 miles to enjoy it! It was fun to get dressed in our own house and sleep in our own beds after, but the best part is always getting to enjoy the company of family. As you can see we had a great day!

Out and About in Chicago

While the boys were away, Kate, Nana, and I certainly had fun in Chicago! We have actually had a lot of fun around here the last few weeks. One of our favorite stops was Lincoln Park Zoo.

Kate loved the monkeys, piggies, and cows the best. She was a such a great age to take to the zoo as she had such cute amazement. Kate also loves the park. We go there just about everyday the weather cooperates. The "up-down" or see-saw is her favorite. Kate is not afraid of anything at the park. While other kids seem cautious on the equipment, Kate runs back and forth with her Mommy chasing. Another favorite stop we have is Independence Grove. The Grove is a beautiful forest preserve with walking trails and a park. The fall scenery has been beautiful. This is a place we will surely enjoy as the weather gets even better in the spring and summer. Another place we will enjoy very much is our new house! We got the keys on Thursday, our stuff arrived Friday, and we were unpacking all day today. The house is beautiful and we can't wait to get settled in. It is all very exciting, but very busy, like most of our life as of late.

The Blog has been hijacked!

Beth, I finally got the password to the Blog!!! We have been having a great time in San Francisco with Brian and your Dad. Yesterday we went to the Bears game..... We were on the field with the Bears prior to the game!! Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the Bears that the game started, and before we knew it, the game was over and the Bears lost 10-6. Hey, at least your Dad and Brian saw history, its the first time that a Bears QB threw (while I forgot the exact stat) but a lot of interceptions in one season! Anyways, we kept the boys happy with some spicy chicken wings after the game and even watched "Tailgate Warriors" Buffalo vs Chicago! I hate to admit it, but the Bears won the tailgate (The Fix was in!!!) This morning we played golf on the Ocean Course at Half Moon Bay. We have lots of pictures that we are going to post. Brian and I went up to our old stomping grounds (you know what I'm talking about) RACOON! We had a great time, even though the Davies-Bundalo team won 1-up. Obviously you are letting Brian play way to much golf, he shot a 43 on the front 9!!! Well, thanks for letting the boys travel, we can't wait to visit Lake Geneva, we were planning the trip over dinner. Addison says hello. Wish that you were here!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Tuesday was my 29th Birthday, and it was a great week of celebration. There is something comforting about knowing I still have an entire year to be in my twenties. As you can see from the picture, I am progressing along in pregnancy and am now 31 weeks. All is going smoothly and I can't believe I have single digit weeks left! Maybe all the changes in our life have made this pregnancy go faster or maybe its just chasing around our adorable almost 2 year old.

For a special birthday treat Brian arranged an overnight for himself and I in Downtown Chicago. We stayed at Hotel 71 on the corner of Michigan Ave and Wacker Dr. The location was fabulous, and the views spectacular. It was great to spend time together. We had gorgeous weather and walked the city Friday from Millennium Park, to the Magnificent Mile, and to Navy Pier. For dinner Brian went out of his way to get us a table at Frontera Grill, Rick Bayless's Mexican Restaurant. He is from one of our favorite shows, Top Chef and it is next to impossible to get a table. The food was outstanding! When we walked in for our 7 o'clock reservation they were on a four hour walk-in wait. On Saturday Morning my pregnant self was a little walked out and we took an architectual boat tour of the city. All the planning that Brian did was just wonderful and made for a wonderful birthday getaway.

Happy Halloween!

The week of Halloween is over, but certainly enjoyed by the Davies bunch. Kate had two costumes a warmer weather Tinkerbell costume. "T-Bell" is now her favorite treat to watch on TV. She even got a new T-Bell DVD to watch with Pa Halloween night. She was Tink around the house this week and for the Halloween Event on Tuesday in Central Park Grayslake. Kate and Katie Politzki made it out for some Halloween Fun that included painting "pun-kins" and feeding "ah-mils". Saturday we went to the Grayslake Family Fun Fest for trick or treating and rides, and at night to the Martins from Church for Trick-or-Treating. Then Brian and I headed to Mike's apartment for an adult Halloween Celebration. It was a lot of fun. It's hard to think of costumes when you are 7 1/2 months pregnant so I went as an oven and Brian as the baker. It was a great week of fun!

Fun, Games, and Chit Chat

Well, we've made it four weeks living at my parents' house and nobody has been voted out yet.... Really things are going very well and we're having a great time.

Kate loves all the extra attention and calls for her Nanny and Pa whenever we return home. We are about 20 days from moving into our own home and I think her and I will miss the company. We've been keeping ourselves busy with park time, library time, and visiting all our friends in the area. Kate is getting more independent in play and more girly. Her new thing is plastic jewelry. I really don't wear much jewelry so I'm not sure where this affinity comes from, but it certainly occupies some time. Thank you very much to Gammy and Pop Pop for this great new collection.

With the colder weather setting in, we have been looking for more activities especially at night. One particularly rainy evening we took Kate to Chuck 'E Cheese. I'm not sure who had more fun Kate or Brian. Brian taught her to play the horse racing game and he himself enjoyed a few of the sports games. I guess it truly is a place for a kid to be a kid, or a kid at heart in Brian's case.

One of the neatest things as of late has been Kate's exploding language. She pretty much repeats anything we say and it is very fun to have little conversations with her. It always surprises us what she recognizes and comes up with. You can hear a little of her chatting in the link below though the truly spontaneous lines are the cutest.
CLICK Here for Video of Kate "Reading" Her Books!

Sunday Night in Chicago

We have two new Chicago Bears fans in the area! I don't know who's cuter? We've had a busy week traveling to Wisconsin and D.C. , but it is so great to be back in Chicago. We had a great pot roast dinner, went for a beautiful fall walk, caught a few fish, and are know enjoying the Bears Sunday night football game with the company of Nana, Pa, Aunt KK and Uh-Beh (Uncle Ben). KK is teaching Kate to shout, "Go, Go, Bears!" as I type. It's a great Sunday! Brian is having fun sporting his new Cutler jersey. The board of elders at Lord of Glory gave it to him at the beginning of the service last week to help his allegiance along. It is a very nice jersey and he loves sporting it.

On Friday and Saturday Brian, Kate, and I traveled to D.C. for Brian's grandfather's memorial service. Brian's grandfather Roy Sr. passed away at the age of 94 a few weeks ago. Losing someone is always sad but Roy Sr. certainly led a full life. It was a nice service that honored his memory and celebrated his rich life. Brian was able to preach and we were able to visit with many relatives, which was certainly a positive of the weekend. Though Kate was tough to keep occupied on the flight, it was really nice to have the opportunity to be there. Unfortunately, I dropped the ball on the picture front and do not have any of our D.C. family. The only pictures I have are below of Kate playing with two straw hats after the church service.

Kate is certainly making her desires known. She insisted that I wear a hat as well.

"Hat Kate, hat Mommy!"she told me.

It's fun how silly your kids can make you, and how rewarding their smile of accomplishment can be.

Our Little Princess

Kate has all of a sudden really taken to the Disney Princesses. It started with a pop-up book and has quickly evolved. She loves her new "fin-cess" figurines, and takes great joy in setting them up around the house. Who knew my little girl would be such a girly-girl?

Say Cheese!

Brian's first week in his new church went great and week two seems to be going equally as well. He has pretty much gotten his office set-up and is in the swing of things. The church posted some pictures of the installation which you can check out below by following the link on the church's website.

CLICK HERE for pictures from Brian's installation!

Kate is adjusting well to her new surroundings. She really likes church, but since the worship space is in a gym has a hard time distinguishing church behavior from running around like a mad woman at open gym. I'm working on it though. Her sleeping has been so-so with all the transition, but this weekend the late-night partying is over. Her favorite activities as of late are puzzles, stickers, coloring, and reading. Kate also just recently started to love having her picture taken. Whenever she sees the camera she says, "Cheese!" and demands to see the picture. The one above is a product of just such an occurrence. It's baffling to me the things she picks up. I don't even think we say cheese when we take pictures, but as I'm learning kids can certainly surprise you.

Return to Regularly Scheduled Broadcasting

To say the last few weeks have been crazy for our family is an understatement. I've now learned how different a move with children is. In fact, I would almost say our four other moves before Kate, don't even count compared to this one. It was a lot of work, but was very successful. Our last move included the arrival of our truck 8 hours late, the knocking down of power lines in front of our house affecting the electricity of our entire street, and the damage of a good 40% of our belongings. This move thankfully went a lot smoother. The moving truck arrived shortly after the determined time of 9, the wonderful gentlemen carefully packed our belongings, and sent them to storage. The condition of our items is yet to be determined, but I am hopeful.
We are now nicely settled in at my Parents house and have all survived the first 10 of our 60 days together. Actually, Kate and I are both getting rather spoiled with all the attention and help. Kate is enjoying the lakehouse as you can see in the picture at the top of the post. She has a new little house on my parents deck and loves to take her book and color out there. "Kate co-lor," she orders us.

We have also really enjoyed getting to know Grayslake. We've driven by our house many times, met the current owners, and are going to see the inside again later this afternoon. We went to the weekly Wednesday farmer's marked in downtown Grayslake which is very quaint. We picked up some honeycrisp apples and Kate enjoyed the kids activities including the hula hoop.

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate doing the hula hoop!

Brian's installation was very nice. The church gave us a very warm welcome. His vicarage supervisor, Dean Nadasdy, came from MN to preach and did a wonderful job. Brian's first week of work went equally as well. So far so good. Considering what a tremendous change in our lives this has all been, its gone relatively smoothly.

Kate has asked several times for her friend Abby and for our friends the Starks (Katie, Matt, Boots, Cheri, and Troy) as you can see in the video below. It's sad for me to hear, but we weren't going to be in MI forever and the longer we were there the sadder this move would have been. There are things we certainly miss about Michigan especially our good friends, but we are excited about how things are going here, and being close to family has already been wonderful. We'll keep you all updated as to our progress. I know the break in our Kate updates was too much for some to take, but no need to worry as our regularly scheduled broadcasting has returned.

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate asking for her Friends!

Welcome Alec John

This afternoon our nephew Alec John Libutti was born. He is 9lbs 3oz and 23 inches! The Mommy, Brian's sister Cheryl, and baby are doing well. What excitement. You can check out the LIBUTTI BLOG for a pic of this little blue bundle of joy.

Our New Home

Things are very busy at the Davies house. We are making great progress with packing and relocating. Brian and I, however, are both exhausted. I don't think we have ever been more emotionally or physically fatigued, but the end is in sight. Our friends the Starks have been such a help with Kate, and I can actually say I feel like we will have everything ready for our move next Wednesday. On a fun note, Brian and I have gotten well under way in purchasing our first home. We are so excited about the beautiful colonial that's a mile north of church, 4 blocks from the grade school, 6 blocks from the actual Grays Lake, 8 blocks from the high school, a mile west of the cute downtown, and a half mile to the Metra stop. To say that it was a good time to buy your first home is an understatement. We got a great deal, and really feel blessed to be able to be in the middle of everything. Our move-in date will be in Mid-November, so until then we will be living with my parents. It is very wonderful of them to accommodate us, and after living away for years we are looking forward to the time together. By the way our adorable Kate turned 20 months today, but with the craziness here the documentation of her every move will have to take a back seat, at least for a little while.

Two, Five, Six, Seven

The other day Kate floored Brian and I when she started counting the number of puzzle pieces. "One, Two, Free, Four, Fi, Si, Seben," she said in the cutest voice imaginable. The most surprising thing is that neither Brian nor I have particularly worked with her on counting. We'll have to give the credit to either Mickey Mouse or our Mother's Helper, Caty. Either way her counting is cute and increasing. We can now make it up to ten, though our favorite sequence is two, five, six, seven, (note the omission of three and four) and if we ever get lost we start back at two. I think the way she says seven (seb- en) is particularly endearing.

That little number se-ben has certainly been stuck in our heads lately, because of Kate and a few other things. It has been seven years since Brian and I were married, seven years since Brian started the seminary, and seven years since we've lived in Chicago. Well, seven year later and we are headed back. Brian has accepted the call to be pastor of Lord of Glory Lutheran Church in Grayslake, IL. We are very excited, quite overwhelmed, and a little sad to leave our life in Michigan, but we really feel that this call is a great fit for us both in ministry and in family. We are very thankful for this wonderful call and what it means for us.

We've started the process of finding housing, moving states, packing our current house for our fifth move in seven years, and departing St. Peter. The people in Michigan have been very understanding. We are thankful for that, and the excitement of everyone in Chicago. We have a lot to do in the two weeks before our move date, but I'm sure we'll manage.

Our little girl has been great and even been better as of late at entertaining herself. Her favorite thing to do is to set up her figurines, count them, and put them back in the bag as we caught in the picture above. I am very very very thankful for those characters and our adorable little girl who gives me a mental break from our big to do list.

Talking, Drinking, and Other "Big Girl" Things

I caught our little girl chatting away the other day and got some good video. She has gotten so much more talkative in just the last two weeks! Kate is also one of the most people pleasing children I know. If you clap for her she will do just about anything. It is a great way to encourage new skills as you can see in our second video. Speaking of encouraging new skills, Kate has been showing quite the interest in potty training. The other day she ran into the bathroom, pointed at her potty seat, and shouted repeatedly, "Ah-Mo Potty." We put it on for her, sat her down, and to our amazement she actually went #1! We gave her great encouragement, attention, clapping, and praise. I'm not sure we are really ready for full blown potty training with all the current upheaval at our house, but I'm not discouraging anything.

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate Talking!

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate Drinking!

A Momentous Week

Well, we have had quite the week in the Davies house. Wednesday was our ultrasound for Baby #2. It was a wonderful experience to actually see the baby and know that he or she was doing well and healthy. We are waiting to find out the sex of this baby until the end, but I am suspicious that its a boy. All of our heartbeats with Kate were 160 or higher. All of the heartbeats with #2 have been lower and at the ultrasound it was 138, so who knows. Our doctor is cute and says of the old wives tale, "Its 50% accurate and 100% unreliable." We will see. The good news is the baby is doing well and is VERY VERY VERY active. It was almost comical to see how squiggly this little one was with feet kicking and shoulders jerking everywhere. The doctor had a hard time taking measurements. We were hoping for a more mellow second child, but it doesn't appear the case. It was certainly the highlight of the week.

Some other big news we received on Sunday was that Brian received a call to be the Pastor of Lord of Glory Lutheran Church in Grayslake, IL. The call has certainly made the last week interesting. We are headed there tomorrow to check things out and get a better feel for everything. So after traveling 3,200 miles this summer we are again packing and preparing to drive. Soon, I think, I hope, I will get a little rest.

Kate, on the other hand, is seeing to it that her Dad and I get very little rest. We have realized that having a 1 and a half year old is the best and busiest time of your life. Kate has been too cute for words. She has added a lot of phrases to her repertoire lately. This week has been a language explosion for our little girl and some of my favorites are:

Dar you go Mommy (There you go Mommy)
Cheers Mommy
I Faass (I'm fast)
I See Doggy
I See Kitty etc.
Mi - E Mou (Mickey Mouse)
The stringing together of syllables has been too cute.

We have some cute pics as of late and some adorable video below to enjoy.

We'll update you soon as the next week unfolds.

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate at Partridge Creek!

Our Massachusetts Stop

As part of our journey last week we headed to Massachusetts. We stayed with Brian's good friends Chris and Annette Gerber. Their house is adorable and we loved seeing them. While there, we also got a visit from Erin Svare and their new little girl Nuala. Kate was very interested in Nuala and was a little jealous if her Daddy or I were holding the adorable 5 month old. Hopefully Kate will be over that phase by January. It was really awesome to visit with everyone. Chris and Annette also watched Kate for us on Friday for Eric and Chera's wedding rehearsal (the other reason for our Massachusetts visit.) They were great with Kate and we were so grateful. On Saturday Brian officiated, and Kate and I attended the storybook wedding. The bride and groom beamed, and the party was great. Kate was a dancing fool and was very good the entire night. She tuckered out about 10 and we actually put her to sleep under the table on Brian's suit coat. As always we had a blast.

NY Trip

Our most recent adventure to NY was an awesome time. It started with a trip to the new restaurant, Dale Miller the art of dining, with Cheryl and Dan. To say the food was excellent, is an understatement.

Then we were off to Saratoga race track with the Libuttis, the Hunters, and Chris Gerber. It is a beautiful park, where the adults and kids alike had a great time.

Of course, we also got in some great pool time, and Kate loved seeing her cousins.

Kate was a real trooper this last month of traveling. She is quite the road tripper. The DVD player helps, as well as our stops. On the way back from New York (after Kate dumped a box of Cocoa Crispies on her lap) we stopped in Niagara Falls for a little lunch and a walk.

It was a great trip with a few extra stops that I'll blog about in later posts!

Summer Vacation

Ishnala Restaurant

Our Little Fishy

The Infinity Pool

Feed the Deer

Kate's 1st Kiddie-Cocktail

After Katie's wedding we managed to get away to Wisconsin for some much needed rest. Brian, Kate, and I were joined by my parents, Brian's parents, my aunt and uncle, their new son Tommy, my brother Mike, cousin David, and our family friend Sophie. We had a fabulous time. We stayed at the Wilderness Resort on the Lake, and it was beautiful, complete with a kiddie pool for Kate and Tommy, an infinity pool overlooking Lake Delton, and access to their other water park properties. We are already talking about our return trip next year. We had some great days by the pool, enjoyed great dinners at our favorite restaurants, walked the downtown strip, ate lots of Wisconsin cheese, sausage, and fudge, played mini-golf, visited the feed the deer park, the boys went on a few real golf outings, and we even made a trip to the casino. The best part was getting to spend all that time with family. Kate had quite the time with all her grandparents' doting attention, hanging with her cousin Tommy, and the fun of water slides with Uncle "Ikey" and David. We couldn't have had a better time as you can see from all of our vacation pictures below.

CLICK HERE to see all our Wisconsin Dells Vacation Pictures 2009!