Grandma J is in town!

Grandma J is in from Florida for a month visit. Lily gets to spend time with her every day! I'll have a lot more pictures to post soon.

Busy Weekend!

Bags!

mmm! cupcakes!what do you mean I can't have more?

Birthday Boy!!

Saturday - We had our block party on Saturday, it was a great time as usual. There was plenty of food and drink, the kids had a great time playing in the bouncy castle, got to meet a lot of new "neighbors" and yummy s'mores by the firepit! I brought the camera, but never took it out! We missed Gavin's 2nd Birthday party today, sorry Gavin! Happy 2nd Birthday!

Sunday - Happy 1st Birthday Ryder! We went to Ryder's 1st Birthday party at Aunt Judy & Uncle Bill's. It was great to see Cyndi, Ramsey and Ryder (as well as the rest of the family). :) Lily had a fun time playing with the kids, bags and another bouncy house. I took a few pictures, but not many.

VH Pool and Lazy River

Lazy River

Fun!

Emma being a good big cousin!

hand dada!

We took Lily to the Vernon Hills pool and Lazy River. She was a little apprehensive at first, but got better after a while. Just like the Spray park in Mundelein, she preferred the little fountains. She didn't mind the lazy river, but wasn't a fan either.

Summer fun!

We got together today for a "Count your blessings" day with Michael's family. Grandpa set up 2 slides for 3 pools and the kids were having a great time until...Lily got stung by a bee...twice! The good thing is now we know she's not allergic. I think we all felt worse than Lily did. She cried for a minute, and seemed to get over it pretty quickly. We were also lucky that the stinger wasn't stuck, as I couldn't imagine having to torture her to get it out.

Happy 4th Anniversary!

August 11th - Happy 4th Anniversary to Michael and I!

What's in a name?

August 9th - When we were pregnant with Lily we referred to her as Finly because we knew early if it was a girl her name would be Lillian (Lily) and if it were a boy, his name would be Finn. This time, we're not having as much luck, so we refer to the baby as Baby J. We set on a boy's name, but not on a girl's name. We also go back and forth about wanting to find out the gender this time. I'm still in the camp about not finding out, but Michael really wants to know this time. I think both of our families would also kill us if they had to wait until the end again. :) We have a few more weeks to make that decision, so stay tuned.

I'm starting to feel better, but still struggle when in the car for any length of time. I still dry heave or gag several times a day, but it is getting better. The nausea is pretty much gone at this point. YAY! I do agree when people say that each pregnancy is different. I did start on the Zofran for about another week, but had to stop again.

Lily's 18 month check up

August 7th - Lily 18 month Update - Lily is doing great! She's getting so big and talking so much. We went to see Dr. Lippman today for her 18 month check up. Lily is still in the 95th percentile for height, weight and head. She weighed in at 29lbs 11.3oz and is 34" tall. Dr. Lippman was impressed with her verbal skills and felt that she was advanced in that area. What did you expect, I'm always talking. :) There were no shots today, so we were very happy about that. Lily now has 16 teeth, the only ones we're expecting are her 2 year molars. We go back to see Dr. Lippman in February for her 2 year check up. She's becoming very adventurous and is really starting to develop such a personality.

Happy 1st Birthday Jack!

August 1st - Jack's Birthday Party! Today we celebrated Jack's 1st birthday. He had a Beach Boys themed party and the pools were a great relief for the kids. Jack, Emma, Lily, Trevor, Wesley and Anna all had a great time playing in the water. Jack of course didn't want to get out, even for cake. Jack did like his cake, and made a little mess. :)

Happy Birthday Shawn!

July 31st - Happy 22nd Birthday Shawn! I'm proud of the man you've become, and the person you want to be.

Group Outing

Pat getting ready to go on the Eli's Cheesecake Factory Tour

July 28th - Today was my department outing. We started off with a breakfast and a little meeting in one of the conference rooms and then headed out to the bus. I was a little worried about getting sick on the bus, since I'm not doing well on car rides. I was got a little nauseas, but it was tolerable. We played a "guess who this is" photo game of when we were all kids. There were some that were pretty obvious, some I thought were obvious, and some that were very hard. I think Julie and I got 18 of the 30, not too bad. We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo and had a scavenger hunt and lunch. Did you know that the Giraffe has the biggest heart of the animals at the zoo? It was really hot out today at the zoo, and I was having a hard time with the dry heaves and the weather, and of course some of the exhibits I couldn't see due to smell, but still had a good time. After lunch, we got back on the bus and headed to , Eli's Cheesecake factory. We had a little tour and then got to decorate our own cheesecake. Debbie Lo and I won for the best decorating. I look forward to whatever next year's outing will be, it's always a good time.

more doctor visits...

July 26th - We went to see Dr. Buccellato today (another Dr. in the practice with Dr. Tyler) and Michael and I had a bit of a panic. I'm almost 13 weeks and should've been able to hear the heartbeat on the Doppler. Dr. B couldn't find it. I kept telling myself "everything looked fine Thursday" while he went into the hall to get the ultrasound machine. Michael wouldn't look at me while we were waiting, I could tell he was thinking the same thing as me. Dr. B came in and I think he could tell by our faces that we were worried. He said not to be afraid, that it can still happen at this stage. He put the ultrasound on and all was well. The baby is VERY active (I wonder if that explains the nausea) and was moving around so much that he couldn't find the heartbeat. No picture today either…bummer!

Parties!

July 24th - Happy Graduation Kelly! Today was Kelly's High School Graduation Party! The poor kid ended up with Kidney stones earlier this week, but is a trooper. We didn't make the party due to Michael's family reunion. We've very proud of you Kelly!

July 24th - Lencioni Family Picnic - Today was Michael's family picnic, which was held at Mark & Liz's house in Green Oaks. We headed over to the picnic after Lily's nap, which was nice having it in the next town. Lily was a champ and had so much fun playing in the pool (special thanks to Patti) and on the swing set. It was so nice to see everyone and catch up. All the kids are growing up so quickly. We were also excited to see Lily go to Uncle Jack. Every time he sees her, he tries and she won't go or will cry. Today, she went with him and let him hold her for a while. I hope we're at the end of her stranger danger phase. Thank you to everyone who put so much work into planning this gtg, we had a great time. See you next year!

Doctors...

July 22nd - Today we had a Dr's appointment at Highland Park hospital for a level 2 ultrasound (BUN screening). The ultrasound tech said that the measurements looked great, and we'd have the results back in about a week to 10 days. We did get pictures of the baby this time. :) The baby is very active, it was so different from Lily's ultrasound (she slept through it). Due to the pregnancies being different, everyone is saying Boy this time, but I'm not so convinced.

Happy Birthday Gwen!

July 21st - Happy Birthday Gwen! We didn't get to see Gwen today, but celebrated with her on Sunday. It was a nice day, so we were able to spend some time outside.

Libertyville & Venon Hills Days

merry-go-round

duck! duck!

deep fried snickers...oddly good

yum! ice cream

didn't want to sit on the horses this time, so we sat on the bend to ride

grandpa and emma went for a ride

lily watching the rides

yum! my turn for ice cream

Lily got to ride her first Merry-Go-Round at Libertyville days, she wasn't so excited about her second ride at Vernon Hills days. She did enjoy the ice cream more than the rides.

Hollister Picnic

Pony ride

Instead of face painting, we had it done on the arm

Fishin'

Thinking about going into the maze...we didn't

bouncy house

July 17th - Today was my company picnic again, and it was HOT out there. Lily did enjoy herself on the ponies like last year, but we pretty much hung out in the shade all day. I wasn't feeling so great, and the heat wasn't helping either. We did make it into the bouncy house before it got crowded and too hot, I think Lily liked it.

Relay for Life - 2010

J sporting his 12 (we didn't get our 13th yet) pin from past Relay's

Luke found the pretzels

Luke entertaining Michelle and Jenny (mom)

July 10th - Today I participated in the Relay for Life. Our team "Triskaidekafundia” (13 years of fun and fund raising) participated this year in Gurnee. We were a little light on team members this year, but our team did consist of J Buell, Steve Steres, Jenny & Dave Randolph (and Luke & Kaitlyn), Jennifer Rattner, Michelle Rice, Terri Miller, Steve & Toni Steres (and Carly, Addi, and Luke) and myself. Jen Rattner wasn't able to walk with us this year due to a previous engagement, but still helped raise money for our team. Christy & James didn't make it out this year due to the birth of their twins just a few weeks earlier.

Come the late wee hours it was just J and I. When the dew really start to hit around 1am and the bugs were taking over, J and I called it a night. Thank you to everyone who supported us in the event this year, and all the years in the past.

To see previous years visit www.justj.net\relay

ick!

July 11th - I'm still not feeling so great. I stopped taking the Zofran, because the side effects made me feel worse than being without them. We'll see what Dr. Tyler says when we go in a few weeks. I gag all the time and have terrible dry heaves. The nausea is getting a little better, but I still have some pretty rough days. This pregnancy is very different than Lily.

Happy Birthday Jimy!

July 5th - Happy Birthday Jimy! Today is my brother's birthday, but I'll be kind and not post his age. :)

4th of July Weekend

I like sand!

This was Lily's favorite part of the Spray park. She would cover up the little fountain and then it would shoot up.

Waiting for the parade

Black Bart

Fireworks!!!

We started the 4th of July weekend with a trip to the Spray park in Mundelein, Brookfield Zoo, the Parade in Vernon Hills and then Fireworks.

Lily really liked the Zoo, but I think she actually prefers Lambs Farm because she can touch the animals. :)

Lily was a little apprehensive of the spray park at first so we went to the sand area, she loved it. We went back to the water park, and she got more comfortable.

On the 4th, we had breakfast at Chris & Gwen's and then walked over to the parade. Lily loved it! She sat on the curb like a big girl and had fun putting everything in her basket.

Getting ready for the fireworks, we realized that we brought only long sleeve pj's for Lily and it was 80 degrees out, so we had to borrow a pair of Jack's. The pants were fine, but the shirt was a little small. I think at one point we called her "Black Bart", from A Christmas Story. We were a little worried about keeping Lily up for the fireworks since she usually goes to bed around 7:30. but she did great.