June

Ok, I will continue in chronological order.  Charlie turned 2 on June 6th.  I can't believe our little guy is already two.  He is talking up a storm, and as of this morning, weighed exactly as much as Reese.  Dude is a beast.  He enjoyed opening his birthday gifts (although Reese really kind of took over the process), but he was not at all pleased to wait for us to sing Happy Birthday before digging into his cupcake.  He's not exactly the most patient kid in the world. :)

The next day, we officially moved out of our house.  Leaving our house is one of the hardest, most emotionally gut wrenching things I (we) have ever done.  This house has meant so much to us. I wasn't attached to our floor plan, our pretty floors, or our nice cabinets.  But I was extremely attached to everything our home represented.  When Matt and I moved into our house, we were dating, with an exciting and optimistic outlook on the future.  Shortly after, we got engaged and then married.  And, ultimately, we became a family in our house.  We brought our babies home here and formed our earliest family memories.  Leaving our first home behind was nothing less than gut wrenching.  There have been many, many tears shed over this goodbye.  Our first home will always mean SO much to us.

So, we are now living in a town home on the north side of Yorkville.  There is plenty of space here for us, and it's really a nice place, but it's not home.  But, it's not meant to be, so that's okay for now.  The kids have been amazing, and have adapted exceptionally well to all of the change.  I'm so proud of them.

The kids are also enjoying having a new park down the road and a new neighborhood to walk around and explore.  The other day when we went to the park, Reese insisted on pulling Charlie in the wagon by herself on the way home.  She freaked out if I tried to help, and she pulled him the entire 1/4 mile home!

Most of the time, our big boy is insisting on a big boy swing.  How did he get so big?

We celebrated Father's Day a couple weeks ago.  The kids and I took Matt out for dinner the night before, and then on Father's Day, we had a nice dinner with Matt's Dad at Chuck and Mary's.  It was a pretty laid back day, which was much needed at this point.

Emily was home with the girls a couple weeks ago, and we went to the water park with Emily, Jen, Eva, & Claire.  The kids were having so much fun until thunder shut the park down.

In the middle of all of our craziness, I have also been training for my first half marathon.  I am registered to run the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in Chicago on July 20th. It's a race I have wanted to run for about 3 years, and I have finally made it a priority to train for it.  I found a local running club, and it has been so much fun (and stress relieving) to find an awesome group of people to run with.  Last Sunday, I ran my first 10 mile run, which was a huge milestone! I'm looking forward to the half marathon as somewhat of a farewell to Chicago, as the course travels through many neighborhoods of the city. This was a picture of me with 2 running buddies after finishing my first 10 mile run. :)

And speaking of our farewell to Chicago, we have a little Chicago bucket list we are trying to check off before leaving.  Our awesome friends, Tara and Jay, helped us mark one box off the checklist by inviting us to Ravinia to see John Legend.  The concert was amazing, and Ravinia was so. stinking. cool.  I'm glad we were able to experience it!

Last week, Matt and I headed down to South Florida to house hunt.  The market is moving crazy fast down there, and we discovered before we left that houses are usually sold within 2-3 days of them being listed on the market.  We knew that once we found something that felt right, we would need to act quickly.  We actually even put a bid in on a home the weekend before we left, because we loved it so much when we viewed it online (and we also had the advantage of being able to send Brian and Jacqi to screen it for us).  But, alas, in this competitive market, we lost that home, and started on a fresh slate when we arrived in Florida.

We had already narrowed our search down online a lot before our arrival.  We viewed 5 homes of interest on our first day there, and found one that felt like a really good fit.  We put in an offer (the 3rd offer the home received that day!), and our offer was accepted the next morning.  So, we are under contract on our (hopefully!) new home, and we are set to close on July 31st.  The home was built in 1979, and it definitely needs some updating, but we feel the home has real potential with some TLC, and it definitely has good space for our family.  We call it our Brady Bunch house because it's definitely a little retro looking, but we really feel it's going to be great.  The location is amazing--there are 3 malls within 10 miles, every restaurant you can imagine is around the corner, and we have great proximity to major highways.  And, most importantly, the schools are fantastic.  :)

How awesome is this giant mirrored wall? ;)

The kitchen…needs some work.

And so does the master bathroom.  Check out this tile! 

The kids rooms are nice sized, and their closets have nice organizers.

The most exciting part of the house is the backyard. :)

We are excited to do some updating and make this home our own. :)

I interviewed at two offices while we were down there, and I don't want to jinx anything, but one of the offices seems extremely promising, and the doctors have been in contact a few times since we have been back in Illinois.  I am really hoping to have a position secured next week.  We toured several preschools/daycares while we were there, and finally found a place that felt like a great fit there as well.   Reese is really excited about a new school and keeps asking questions and asking to see pictures of the school.

We are in such an emotional cyclone right now.  We are SO excited about our future, and our adventure that lies ahead, but it is SOOOOOO hard to make this change, and it is heart wrenching to leave so much family and great friends behind.  This final month will be filled with lots of tears and anxiety.  We hope you all know that you have a free room and good meals at your disposal any time you want to visit; and we hope you do. :)

On a final and happy note, we took the kids out last night so I could take their 2/4 year photos.  (Early on one, late on the other…can we still call it a win?)