Trip to Chicago

Oh my goodness, January has practically come and gone with hardly any documentation! I am going to attempt a slew of posts...

A couple weekends ago we took a quick trip to Chicago. We drove down Friday afternoon and stayed in a hotel. I went to the temple that night and Richard went on Saturday morning. While Richard was in the temple the kids and I walked around outside. It was a chilly morning, so we only did one lap, but Marshall loved it. This was his first time seeing the Chicago Temple in person.

After the temple we went to the Kohl Children's Museum. It was awesome! I have always loved the children's museum in Milwaukee, but we have now been to two more this last month in other states and I hate to admit it, but they blow Betty Brinn out of the water. Anyway, it sure was a fun time, both of our kids loved it.

This next exhibit warmed Richard's heart. A little hospital set-up complete with x-rays. Marshall was fascinated with this and spent quite a while here. Since then Marshall has asked Richard quite a few times to "look at bones on the computer". Ah, father and son bonding time reading x-rays.

Such a fun place! We will definitely need to go there again!

Hodge-Podge

Here is a quick catch-up on our last week...

Marshall's first day of Primary.

Despite his memorable quotes from two weeks ago, Marshall's first day in primary couldn't have been better. He woke up excited, willingly walked in, and while he was hesitant to let me leave, I only stayed for about two minutes, and he did just great when I walked out. He has now had two Sundays in there and I've heard nothing but glowing reports and he is loving it.

Last Monday we woke up to our first snowfall, about one inch. Marshall was excited to get out and put a Christmas present to use, his Lightning McQueen shovel. He pretty much shoveled the entire driveway by himself.

I am completely in love with this little girl. What's not to love, I mean really, look at that face.

It really doesn't get much cuter.

At almost ten months Bridget's current loves are: creeping along furniture, clapping, waving bye-bye, blowing kisses, screaming in the middle of the night, looking at books, and spitting out almost all table food we put in her mouth even though she has six teeth.

The other night I asked Marshall to clean up his stuffed animals. When I came back in his room he had not only cleaned them up but wedged himself in the basket.

Bridget's hair is getting long. If she was a boy, the first haircut would have been done by now. This is how her hair looked the other morning when she woke up. Again, I love her face, crazy hair and all.

Favorite Food

Tonight during our delicious dinner of waffles, bacon, eggs, and smoothies (Richard's favorite meal) Richard had a little conversation with Marshall...

Richard: Marshall, what is your favorite food?
Marshall (without a second of hesitation): Grass.

Interesting. Didn't know he had been eating that.

Poor Bridget

This little one is on day eight of a stomach bug. Diarrhea for a week now. (I'm sure you wanted to know this.) I think she is on the verge of recovery though, hopefully. Yesterday she had her first poop in days that stayed in her diaper. She was even able to wear the same outfit all day long. It was great. Ah, the simple joys of motherhood. :)

Get better soon B.

Fun With Daddy

We have been lucky enough to have Richard around a lot this week. He is on radiology this month, which meant he spent most of the month working five to six hours a day. But, this week after Christmas has been even better. He's been home by noon every day. Love it.

All of this time with the four of us together has been wonderful. Richard is much more spontaneous than me and there is rarely a dull moment when he is around. The other afternoon Richard heard Marshall coming up the stairs and he quickly put three of his stuffed animals up on the wall where our stockings had been hanging.

Marshall thought this was funny for about three seconds. Then, his laughter quickly turned to tears.

Ah, it was such a good laugh for us. But, do not worry. Marshall got his stuffed animals back pretty quickly and his world was right again. Silly Dad.

Lawn Mowers

Santa Clause brought Marshall a lawn mower for Christmas. On Monday, it was almost 50 degrees outside (what?!) so we got Marshall outside with his lawn mower. He was in heaven. He pushed that thing around for almost an hour. When he was done he had me open the garage so he could park it right next to the real lawn mower.

Christmas Day

Hello Christmas morning!

This picture just cracks me up. Poor Bridget on day three of stomach issues.

Anyway, we thought this might be the year that Marshall was so excited for Christmas that he would wake up at 5:00 am. Not so! Instead we got to sleep in until 7:00 when this little girl woke up. Marshall still slept for about 20 more minutes so she got some extra picture time in. Not that it did any good.



Fast forward 20 minutes and here's Marshall! Yes, he did spend the last half of the night on our floor, and yes, we still have not completely unpacked our bedroom.


Marshall then spent the next 5 minutes doing this. He refused to open his eyes.

He FINALLY ventured off of my lap. But, of course he went straight to Bridget's present.

He finally realized that his presents were pretty cool too.

Bridget eventually perked up after some breakfast. It was so wonderful to see more of her personality after a few sick days.

Dressed and already for church. Darling.


After church we opened the presents under the tree. Bridget was asleep for all of this so it was just the three of us. Marshall was in heaven. He kept the pace quick and unwrapped all of his presents and then some.


Every single present that we knew Marshall was getting we were so excited about. We were convinced he would be ecstatic about each one. Not so. He liked them all, but he did not appear to be over-joyed about anything. I must admit, I was somewhat disappointed by it all. But then, he opened this...

And I finally saw that excitement I had been waiting for. It made me happy. :)

Round two of presents came a couple of hours later after Bridget was awake and happy. Marshall was such a good helper and pretty much opened every single present for her.

Marshall helping.

Marshall taking over.

So happy.

The kids and their loot. We really need to work on evening things out next year. :)


As always, Christmas was good to the Leakes. We are so blessed. We enjoyed spending the remainder of our day talking on the phone and skyping with family and spending the evening with wonderful friends. A pretty much close to perfect day.