As Husband and Wife

It's hard to remember what life was like before children-especially after three of them.  But it didn't take long for Mark and I to remember when we were away from the kids.  This past weekend we had a friend's wedding to attend up in Chicago.  When we learned about this wedding we thought it would be exciting to go one night early and stay downtown (Mark had never been). 

One of my most favorite hotels is the Palmer House Hilton!  It's old and beautiful and right in the middle of everything.  We arrived Friday night and got ready to go out to dinner (we were very excited to sit and eat all by ourselves).

 This was our view!

 After an enormous dinner we decided to walk the 16 blocks back to our hotel on Michigan Ave. I was tickled to have Mark see downtown this way.  It was an excellent way to kick off our weekend together (alone).

The next day it was on to our friend's wedding.  We enjoyed catching up with friends and meeting new people.

So you may wondering how the heck we could get away and where were our children!  This was the hard part of the whole trip-preparing to leave them.  I was super excited, but really emotional.  Lucky for us we have very special people in our lives that wanted to help make this weekend happen and realized we needed the time together.

Each child went somewhere different to experience some alone time.  I packed each bag (except Lincoln because he stayed home) and prepared a folder with phone numbers, medical releases and any other information.

Avery went to St. Louis and stayed with my parents.  The following pictures are all text messages sent to us during our trip.

Avery spent a lot of time shopping and received multiple dolls and multiple new outfits.  She also had Mum and Papa wrapped around her finger-even talked Mum into having a sleep over with her every night.

She also got to "participate" in a bike race downtown with her cousins.  I write "participate" because she just rode her bike on the side.

When we picked her up today she immediately fell asleep in the car.  We were thrilled she got this special time with her grandparents and are so thankful-they are amazing people!

 

Speaking of other amazing people-Nanny and Papa H.!  They were generous and took Macklin.  He got special time with his cousins and was spoiled rotten with attention.

We didn't hear much from Mack because he was not sad about us being gone at all.  This little boy loves being alone.

Wouldn't you?  Look at the stuff he got to do.

Below is a video of Mack in his cousin on Cohan's new ride.  You can decide from watching this video if he is ready for his own...

Then our youngest little pumpkin stayed home with my best friend and her future hubby.  There were no phone calls asking what to do because they did an amazing job and he was so happy the whole time.  He also LOVED his alone time.

Mark and I knew he was being loved with these two!  They are great with him and he smiles a lot for them.  He even slept in for them a few mornings!  What fabulous friends and we can't wait to return the favor for them some day.

 

It's hard work to find alone time and just be husband and wife!  I know we won't be doing it again for a while, but this was an amazing bonding time for us.  We had so much fun being together with no interruptions from the kids.  I missed them every second (and might have cried a bit), but knew it's healthy for them to see their parents together having fun.  This took a village of friends and family and we are more than thankful. 

 

I enjoed taking the time to see us more than parents-we started as husband and wife and that is the foundation to our family!  Much love to you Mark! And much love to our special people!!!!!!

Love and Marriage-Plus Kids

When you first get married life is carefree and you and your partner can go and do whatever you want. Then you are so excited to add little additions into your life and man are they the MOST precious/fun/amazing additions in the world. They also bring you and you partner closer together.

I will never forget watching an Oprah episode discussing the difference between loving your children and being in love with your husband. Now that we have kids it really makes more sense to me. If you are a parent you know what I am talking about! How hard is it to get consumed with your child and get into a routine? When you have two children it is even harder because you have one for each person (not to mention having more). It's easy to say you will take time for each other and get a babysitter or use family members. We have both of these, but a babysitter is so expensive and we never want to take advantage of family members-plus we love being with our kids.

Since we have been back from Italy life has been crazy. Mark has been working late and we have been on the go. This weekend since we had nothing planned we had thought about having a date night, but instead (to make it more affordable) we put the kids down and helped ourselves to ice cream (and maybe some popcorn) and put a movie in and snuggled on the couch. I don't have many pictures and Mark will probably not be happy with the two I am including (hahaha). I wanted to enjoy the night! I know it may seem silly to some people, but it meant a lot to us and made me remember I am in love with my husband! Today we are attempting the Cardinal's game and then the zoo tomorrow where I will be reminded (just like every second) that I love my children...there are many different kinds of love!

Serving up two different kinds of ice cream!

Have great weekend!