WHAT A WEEK: BABY'S GENDER & CONCERT IN CHICAGO

Last Saturday night, I looked at Samuel and said, "It's been a really big week."

And it was. We found out the gender of baby #2 and went to a long-awaited concert in Chicago!

20 WEEK ANATOMY SCAN
I'll start with the baby gender because, oh my!!!!!!





Ready for it....

IT'S  A  GIRL!

Surprise!! surprise!! surprise!!! We were so shocked and thrilled to find out that baby number two is a little girl!

We were both kind of thinking it was another boy, to be honest, just because this pregnancy hasn't been drastically different from my first pregnancy. But this is the second time I have been completely wrong on predicting the gender. I was so confident that Charlie was a girl. I'm 0 and 2 on that!

The ultrasound technician started out checking the heartbeat and trying to wake the baby up. :) I told her I had been feeling a lot of movement, but mostly at night. Just a few minutes later, the baby woke up and stayed moving around the entire time (very unlike big brother's anatomy scan. he stayed rolled into a ball the whole time and didn't even let us finish the whole checklist at that appointment!). Then the nurse said, "It's looking like a girl!" and I said, "What! Are you serious?"And sure enough, she could see very clearly that it was a GIRL. Samuel and I were thrilled by this happy news!

All of her measurements and photos during the scan looked great. We are so thankful for her health thus far. Her heart rate is now around 144 bpm.

Crazy enough, I did have a dream that it was girl a few months ago! My dream was that we had arrived home from the hospital with a baby girl and I could remember NOTHING about the delivery or even being at the hospital. So I guess you could say, I had a gender prediction dream! But let's hope that last part doesn't happen in real life.

Over the course of the day we found out, we called and texted family and shared our gender reveal photos above with them. Our family was just as surprised (and happy) as we were! I had several close friends who guessed girl, but most of our immediate family was also thinking it would be a boy. But it goes without saying that everyone, especially Samuel and I, was over the moon thrilled to hear that we are having a little girl. We are so thankful for her precious life and cannot wait to meet our new baby girl sometime near the end of February.

BEN RECTOR CONCERT
Samuel and I also went to a really special concert in Chicago last week!

For my birthday back in August, my wonderful + amazing + sweet + thoughtful + husband got me surprise tickets to see Ben Rector in Chicago!! The concert was at the Chicago Theatre and we were pumped. It was our first time going to Chicago alone, too, soo we were really up for an adventure!

We only live 25 miles from Chicago according to the map, buuuuttttt it definitely takes over an hour to get there. Always. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the concert venue, but thankfully we left about 2 hours prior to the concert start time.

The show was so good, y'all. He sang all my favorite songs from the new album and there were a lot of really special surprises in it too. And we loved being inside the Chicago Theatre! It's so beautiful.

October is off to a really fun start. We have family coming in next weekend and Halloween right around the corner (one of my personal favorites, as you may or may not know).

In the mean time, I'll just be sitting here letting it sink in that we are having a baby G I R L.
I can't believe it.

Emily

APRIL ADVENTURES: TAKING FAMILY TO CHICAGO

I'm back with more April adventures as promised!

If you read my last post about our two week trip to see family, you would know that my sister-in-law and her family will be moving very soon to a new state. They told us a while back they wanted to come see where we live now before they moved, so they came up for the last weekend of April for a quick weekend trip. Samuel's parents came too because they had not visited Wheaton since the weekend we moved here. We had 6 adults, a 6- month-old baby, and a 21-month-old all staying in our two bedroom place. It was pretty cozy, but oh so fun.

They, of course, wanted to go to Chicago while they were in town! We've lived in our new town for TEN months now, which seems so hard to believe, and we had not been to Chicago since last August. It's only about an hour away from us so that's kind of crazy, right?! It was about time we went back. 

The first time we went last year it was only Samuel, Charlie, and I who rode the train in for the day. Let me tell yall. This second trip with family was WAY more successful, enjoyable, and eventful. So keep reading for some tips and details of fun things we loved doing. 

1. Choose the right travel method. First things first, we drove instead of taking the train this time. Don't get me wrong, riding the Metra was a super fun experience that I hope to do again soon, but for a big group (we had 6 adults and 2 infants) it was just so much easier to drive exactly where we wanted to go because of strollers, diaper bags, babies, a nursing mother, etc. 

The drive into the city was not terribly bad. I had always heard how awful the traffic would be. My husband, the driver, might disagree with me but I didn't think it was all that bad. The hardest part was trying to find parking, but once we realized most places were about the same price we just settled on one. 

The cost of parking was ridiculous, so be prepared for that if you decide to drive your own car. We were there from about 11 am - 4 pm and it ended up being $37. To be fair, we parked at probably the most popular parking garage directly under Millennium Park, compared to my sister-in-law who parked about a mile away from Millennium Park and only paid $12. It truly was nice to be in a convenient spot that day even though we paid a little more for that convenience. Just to give you some perspective, when we rode the Metra it was still over $20 for our tickets. 

2. Pick just a few main destinations. Our main destination for the day was Intelligentsia Coffee. My sister-in-law was a beast at mapping out everywhere we wanted to go. The first time we went to Chicago this was not the case. We failed at planning. People, planning is the KEY to an amazing Chicago trip  because you really have no conception of just how BIG this city is. It can seriously take 30 minutes to go from top to bottom of the city. So you have know where you want to go in order to survive. 

The location of Intelligentsia we picked was just a block away from Millennium Park. Look at it HERE on the map as a reference. It was so so good, you all. I wasn't sure if I was going to love it (because I think Quills coffee back in Louisville is the worst, and I thought it would be similar) but I really loved Intelligentsia. I'm so glad we stopped in there for coffee first thing because the temperature was in the 50s, which felt like the 40s. In April!!!! Chicago winter never ends. It was nice to have a warm cup to walk around with.

After we got our coffee, we walked back over to Millennium Park for those who had not been. Is that place ever not crowded!? It kind of is one of the best photo spots, though. We grabbed a quick Panarea Bread lunch across from the park to take care of the babies diapers/feedings. 

 

Which brings me to my next tip: 

3. Plan your destinations based on what's nearby. Make your plans doable. It's not realistic to plan to go to place A, then drive to B and C. That will waste your money and your time. We walked to a nearby shopping area (essentially an indoor mall) called Block 37 which we found on the maps app. It was just a short walk from where we already were and it had a lot to see and do! We went to the Disney store, a two story Anthropologie, Magnolia Bakery (no relation to Chip and Joanna's Magnolia, but they had the BEST whipped chocolate banana pudding. Oh my.), and got a break from the cold wind being inside.

4. Go to Garret Popcorn. That's the last tip. Just go there. Get the Garret Mix with caramel and cheddar popcorn, and you will have pretty much guaranteed a successful Chicago trip. It's DELICIOUS. 

I'm definitely not an expert at Chicago travel by any means yet, but our experience from the first time was just so night and day I wanted to share the things we found helpful. 

I still have some other things on my Chicago bucket list like:

Stan's Donuts

Go to a Cubs Game

The Navy Pier 

The Skydeck at Willis Tower 

Lincoln Park Zoo

Chicago Children's Museum

Firecakes 

Oz Park 

Garfield Conservatory

Drop anything else you think we would like in the comments. I'd love to know what other things you recommend doing! 

-Emily 

HOMEMADE PIZZA NIGHT + DELISH NO YEAST DOUGH RECIPE

I need to talk to y'all about pizza. My family could have pizza night once a week (and often times, we do haha). Anybody else? I guess it's pretty fitting that we moved to the pizza capital of the US - Chicago. Deep dish pizza really is all that it's talked up to be, guys. If you are ever in the Chicago area you n e e d to try Lou Malnati's or Geno's East for some amazing Chicago style pizza. It's so different than your regular pizzas out there. But that's not what this post is about. ;) It's about the fantastic pizza you can make at home!

I have made homemade pizzas in the past that were just average. Too much plain-tasting sauce. The crust was soggy in the middle. Not a whole lot of flavor. But THIS pizza was way way tastier and so easy, and definitely not average! My husband (who is a big pizza l o v e r) could not stop raving about my homemade pizza on Friday night. That's the best feeling as a wife!! And I do have to admit, I was really surprised myself because I have always been a canned pizza crust kind of girl but this was BETTER. 

What was so different about this pizza, you ask? 

The first thing we loved more about this pizza was the dough! 1) You don't need yeast!!! (so many praise hands), 2) it was fluffy and fully baked in the middle, 3) golden crispy on the bottom (not burnt or white/underbaked), and 4) it didn't taste like flavorless cardboard (as homemade dough sometimes does). Also, you don't have to pre-bake the dough before putting toppings on which is just another plus.

The second thing we loved was the sauce and it was so simple to put together. It was the most delicious, flavorful companion to that perfect dough. Here's how to make it!

HOMEMADE PIZZA SAUCE

Ingredients

1 jar of marinara sauce 

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp Italian seasoning

Directions

1. Bring all ingredients to a simmer in a sauce pan. 

Note: I actually had about 1/4 cup of sauce left over that I didn't put on the pizza. My husband likes to have a marinara dipping sauce so it worked perfectly to have some left over! Just use your own judgement on whether to use it all or not based on the size of your pizza - be generous with covering the dough minus about 1 inch around the edges, but as a general rule less is more here. 

NO YEAST PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup milk (plus 2 tbsp more if your dough seems too dry to combine)

1/4 cup room temp/softened unsalted butter  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prepare baking sheet or pizza pan with nonstick spray.

2. Combine all dough ingredients in a bowl and mix until dough ball forms. I like to use my hands to crumble up the butter into pea-sized crumbles of butter + dough. (This is something I learned from my mother-in-law when making homemade biscuits. ;)

3. Roll dough ball out onto a floured surface with a rolling pin. This dough can be quite sticky at first! I rolled mine to be about 1/4 inch thick. (I didn't have the prettiest edges on this pizza, but I'll make that better next time!)

4. Move dough onto prepared baking sheet or pizza pan. Now it's time to add your pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings. 

*For toppings I used my homemade pizza sauce, a blend of Mexican and mozzarella shredded cheese, diced onions, green peppers, and pepperonis.*

5. Bake for 15 minutes until underneath dough is golden brown. 

And that's it! This recipe has officially been added to our favorites list and I can't wait to try it with other toppings. Stock up on your favorite pizza toppings and get this pizza cooking on your next Friday night, guys. You won't be disappointed!

Emily 

THE PUMPKIN PATCH

Last Saturday the forecast called for rain, but we had a sunny enough morning to decide last minute to go to the zoo for their pumpkin festival!

Cosley Zoo is a small zoo nearby with all kinds of farm animals, bobcats, foxes, owls, hawks, rabbits, and a duck pond. Charlie loves it, and it's free for Wheaton residents - so it's one of our favorite outings. This was Daddy's first time going to the zoo with us!

There were piles of pumpkins big and small, a mound of hay bales, and a few kiddie rides. Charlie was only interested in the pumpkins for about a half a second and then he spotted it. THE RIDES. If this kid ever gets a wiff of something fun happening nearby, he will sniff it out. He is all about F-U-N.

After a few minutes of watching him stare longingly at the trade ride, Samuel and I looked at each other knowing we had to get him a ticket. It was his first ride!!! I can't believe he's already old enough to go on a kiddie ride. Time, slow down! I was pretty confident he would love riding the train. But I will admit I got a little worried when the train pulled away and he looked backed with wide eyes and said, "Dada!?" But by the end of one time around the loop, he realized he loved it! What a big boy.

Here are some pictures from our day. Enjoy Charlie's very wind-blown hair.  😆 

This is when it happened. 

Me: Charlie, look at these fun pumpkins!

Charlie: OMG RIDES, MOM

Happy October, y'all! 

BEING TOURISTS - BUT WE LIVE HERE.

Saturday we took our first train ride into Chicago. Yay, adventure! It was quite the learning experience - good and bad. I was nervous about the logistics (like way too nervous for no reason, sorry Honey) and nervous about how Charlie would do. We felt all the "we're from out of town" vibes during the first hour or two of navigating haha. Both of us had been to Chicago before, but it was our first time relying on public transportation and being on our own.  

We caught the Metra at the station in our town and made our way on for the hour long train ride to Chicago. I had my arsenal of board books, toys and gadgets, snacks, bottles, and the baby wrap juuuust incase. Charlie did like the train itself- he liked looking out the window, the crowd, the noise (and making his own), and all of the people nearby he could charm. However, he has never been what you would call a "lap baby." So, having to sit with us for an hour was not the most fun thing for him, but we survived. 

The original plan was to meet up with some friends from KY who were in the town for the weekend, but that would have meant taking the L (Chicago's elevated subway) another 30 minutes north to get to the Lincoln Park Zoo (have I mentioned Chicago is HUGE?). And after riding for an hour already, we just knew Charlie would not be happy about another train ride immediately following. So we had to scrap those plans and make new ones - parents gotta be flexible!

Thankfully he conked out in his stroller after walking around for a little bit, and we were able to make the 25 minute walk over to Millennium Park with him snoozing! The weather could not have been better. We honestly didn't do much more than ride the train, walk, hangout in the park, walk back, and then ride the train home, but it was a lot fun.  

We'll be back for more, Chicago - we're already planning the next trip. :) 

Waiting at the train station. This is his response to almost everything right now - it's ADORABLE.

Millennium Park

Heading home!