Big Birthdays and Smooches!

Our nephew, Dylan, celebrated his first birthday last weekend! It is hard to believe that he (and our other nephews and nieces) are getting so big. Dylan had a yummy cupcake to celebrate, which took almost the entire party to finish up! He had lots of family and friends there to celebrate the big day with him and received lots of cool gifts. A few of his favorites were very musical - perhaps we've got a future musician in the family!! Another fun part of the party was that our cousin, Taylor, who I haven't seen in probably 8 years, came by for a visit! Check out the link to the photos of the party.

And speaking of nephews and nieces getting big, we also celebrated birthdays with Luke and Cade over the weekend. Joe and I took the two of them on the train into the city for the day. We went to the Willis (Sears) Tower and checked out the new viewing area, called the "ledge." It was wild! Luke and I went right out, but Joe was a little nervous, and Caden took a lot of convincing! The picture on the right is him looking down over the glass floor trying to figure out if he should try it out! We also attempted to go to Millenium Park, despite the crazy heat and humidity. We didn't stay long - just long enough to see the Bean and the cool fountains. Afterwards, we headed to the Lego Store on Michigan Avenue, which Caden loved. The only downfall was that Aunt Laura and Uncle Joe wouldn't buy him something right before his birthday ;) Check out those pictures, too!

Last, but not least, Miss Julia has learned how to give kisses! They aren't the gentle, sweet smooches you might expect, but they are so precious :) A smooch starts with Julia grabbing onto your face - specifically any flabby cheekiness you might have to offer! She then pulls you in while squeezing you almost to the point of pinching. The smoochy moment then ends with a wet, potentially tongue-ful, encounter with her mouth. It's pretty fun! I don't have a picture of her kissing anybody yet, so this one of Julia modeling her new high chair will have to do!