The Summer Adventures Continue...& School begins...

When baseball finally ended for the Bain Boy's, we had about 9 days until Scott & I, completely surprised the boys with a trip to Tampa. I had been doing laundry over the weekend, taking clothes and packing them when they weren't looking. The night before we left, I had a back pack with activities for them along with a DSi & PSP. We had the truck packed up before we woke the boys. We told them they were going on an adventure, Logan assumed we were going to Brookfield Zoo. On our way, Logan says, "This isn't the way we go. Where are we going?" This is as we started heading North on I-294/Tri-State. Surprisingly, he knows his way around the Chicago area. Then when we parked in long term parking at O'Hare, Logan again says, "Why are we parking here, the zoo is that way." He points South, which was correct.
We got the boys out of the truck and asked, "What would you think if we told you we are going to the beach and a baseball game?" They both started jumping up and down, screaming. It was cute. We met my friend Susan, from Charolette, SC.
We met Susan at the airport and headed to Tropicana Field. Susan is a native, Bostonian, and therefore a die hard Red Sox fan. We scheduled our trip by seeing the Red Sox play Tampa Rays and Scott was able to check off another stadium of our tour we started two years ago.

The beloved Boston Red Sox, for my dear friend, Susan. We were trying to find Daniel Bard, her good friends son. Daniel pitched for the Red Sox and Susan has known him since he was a little boy. We couldn't really see him but she got to see one of her favorites: The Big Boppi, Ortiz.
The next morning, the boys were extremely excited to get out on the balcony. We stayed on Sand Key, our hotel was on the inner bay but across the street from our hotel was the Gulf of Mexico. It was very nice.
This was the view of the pool and the inner bay.
You can totally tell who tans in our family! The beach was so nice. I just LOVE the Gulf!! The water is so nice and warm, not to mention the beach is so soft compared to the Atlantic coast. Any beach is nice, don't get me wrong, I love the Gulf! So all this fun lead us to two weeks of playing around. The time has come for the Bain Boy's Summer Adventures to conclude as they begin the 2009-2010 school year. It was raining on their first day of school. They boys were happy and ready to leave at 6:30 am.
Hopefully this post finds you doing well. I will post some other adventures soon.

Lov,
Hol

Bain Boys Summer Adventures Continue...

Finally, I've uploaded some pictures of our adventures of Spring & Summer 2009.

Celebrating the boys' birthdays with their friends bowling. The had a ball...turning 6 & 7, can't believe it! Time is flying!



Logan is above with a pretty good swing. He is our "Little Rudy," the smallest kid on his team but he had more heart than five of those kids put together. He was always the first one on the field, the first on off and ready to bat. I pray he continues with that enthusiasm. Coulson is batting in the picture below. Don't you just love his stance? This child bats and throws BOTH lefty & right. Most of his season he batted left but threw right...go figure, its Coulson.

Coulson thought Magic needed to see the fish he caught.

Enough!
The new neighbor's puppy, Bandit, loved tugging on Logan.

The boys with Rachel and my dad otherwise known as "Papa PJ" at The US Cellular Field to see the Chicago White Sox. It pained me to buy Chicago White Sox items, it was ok for the Thome shirt as I went to high school with him. If Jim wasn't on the team any longer...it would have been very difficult for me to purchase a shirt let alone a hat. This was my niece's First Major League Baseball game. It's a shame I couldn't have taken her to see the Cubs. Anyway, look at their smiles.

High School friend, Jim Thome. The boys were able to receive his autograph. Jim will more than likely be in the Hall of Fame one day.

It's Been Awhile

It has been Easter since my last post. Time has flown by...School finished and it has been off to the races. We've taken several day trips, lots of birthday parties and trying to sqeeze in everything we can through this crazy rainy summer. One would almost think that are area could become like Seatle. Would it be possible? Since the middle of June we have had baseball, FOUR nights of the work week. The Bain Boys are on seperate teams which require four nights. They love it so much and that's what it is all about! In the next week, I'm hoping to post some pictures of our summer adventures to date.

Holli

Easter 2009

The Bain Boy's, Easter 2009

It was a beautiful day!


AJ & Ella Iwiniski with Logan & Coulson.


Coulson just loves Ella.

Another Round of Strep Throat...

How many times do your children need to have Strep Throat before their tonsils are removed?

It feels like every time I turn around they are POSITIVE! I feel horrible that they are sick and don't want to see them sick. This is being selfish and I'm sorry but now I have to take another vacation day because they are sick.

God forgive me for the selfish comment but I have so much to do this week with work. After all, it is only work and things will just have to be rescheduled/postponed.

In an hour when I can pick up the prescriptions, I hope it will take them a short period of time before they both feel better. Their eyes are so sad.

I hope that you and your families are all healthy.

Love,

Holli

A Day of Laundry...

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you had so much going on that laundry was the least of all priorities?

It seems that the last several weeks have been that way for the Bain Family. Although, I have managed to do some laundry but have never completely caught up. Today was the day! Whoo Hoo! Today it was finished.

The boys played outside most of the day, everything from baseball, scooters, football, soccer, digging in the mulch to playing on the "fort." It was a beautiful day, the sun was out, it was crisp but still beautiful!

I don't know about you but I'm so thankful that Spring is here. I'm very excited to see all my daffodils, tulips, crocus ( and the duck hasn't found them!) and hyacinths are all popping our of the ground. It's a beautiful sight.

Have a great week.

Hol

Disney Photos

Our trip to Disney 2009 starts off with the fact The Bain Boy's have no idea that we're going. They think mommy is going on another business trip when they see the suitcase. On Friday, Feb. 20 we picked the boys up from school at lunch time. They are shocked they we picked them up so early and then were jumping out of their skin when the stretch limo comes to pick us up. Then they are under the assumption we're going to Papa PJ's house. As we get close to Midway, they think we're flying to Papa PJ's house. They are so fasicnated with the planes they don't even hear "Orlando" on the PA for boarding. Once we're on the plane, they start talking with a little girl behind us. She asks the simple question, "Are you guys going to Disney too?" Logan looks at me and his eyes are like saucers, asks, "Are we?" I just nodded. They started jumping in their seats. It was awesome. We had a great trip.







Coulson loves music, especially the drums! Look at his face.


This just shows a little bit of the fun we had on our trip.

St Patrick's Day already?

The boys like to show off their Scot-Irish heritage, so they helped me put the flags out tonight. Although I didn't get to it earlier in the evening, I have attempted to take a few new photos with the new camera.



I'll take a few photos during the day so they show up better and you can see their other flags.

Have a great evening.

Holli

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all who celebrate.

Scott & I joke about this day and as much as one says they don't care, deep down we all do. I admit, I'm one of those. This year, I had to help with the boys get their valentine's all ready for school, I bought a couple of little things for them, they loved it.

Scott was sick. We originally planned to go to the Chicago Auto Show and out for a nice lunch with the boys. The boys and I ran errands to stay out of the house for Scott so he could sleep.

Today, Scott was better. We went to the auto show and had an early dinner. The boys were thrilled. Their entire dinner consisted of bread and calamari. Whatever...as long as they eat.

I'm very excited because after dinner we stopped in to Best Buy and I lucked out. Was able to purchase a really nice Sony camera that was marked down and because it was an open ticket item with no manual, they knocked off more money. This Friday we leave for Disney. They boys have no idea. I will be able to use my camera. I'm so excited.

Have a great week.

Holli

Bain Boys, Papa & the Hospital

God Bless the small miracles through modern medicine. Isn't it amazing how the medical world continues to evolve and improve almost on a daily basis? I find it extremely fansinating.

Last night, Papa (Bill, my father in law) went to the ER. As a family, we rallied in support of being there to show our love and devotion to Papa. Logan & Coulson were amazing! I am so proud of them! They handled themselves so well as they witnessed Papa being hooked up to the various monitors as well as watching him receive blood and medicine via IV. They asked a lot of questions but fully understood their roles as little people in the room.

Coulson told the RN, Ida that he was an artist and showed her a pictured he colored for Papa so he could have something happy to look at.

Logan was very serious and asked all kinds of questions to make sure that Ida wouldn't do anything wrong to hurt Papa.

As we stayed passed their bedtimes, Papa was transported to another area of the hospital, the boys were sad that they couldn't see where Papa was going next. We prayed for Papa many times last night and today. That seemed to help them a lot. It is very comforting knowing that our faith in God, will help us deal with ANYTHING!!!

God Bless you Papa! We hope you feel better and can come home soon!

We love You!

Holli, Scott, Logan & Coulson

Bain Boys & Cleaning...Toilets

How is it that guys can not seem to hit the rather large target of an inside of a toilet? I get so disgusted at the toilets that today, I made them clean all three toilets! One for the MOMMY!!! I think any mother who has boys hears me loud and clear.

Logan, "Ah, this is disgusting! It stinks!"

Mommy, "Yes, that's right Logan and this is how you are going to learn to pee in the pot."

He moaned but yet marveled at the amount of spots that they hit. Coulson was just excited to help clean, he could have cared less as to WHY he was cleaning the toilets. He is my party boy that I'm going to go insane over.

I hope that you are having as great of a Saturday as we are. It is amazing how the sunlight can have such an effect on you!

Well, I'm off to finish some tidying up as we're having Brad & Denise over for a Wii Throw Down and pizza.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Holli

Enough Snow Already!!!!!

This is what I'd rather being doing than receiving another 5 inches of snow. Look at the fun!





The days of summer...




Happy Thoughts! Warm Thoughts to you and your families!

Love,
Holli

Sledding

Saturday we received 11 inches of new snow. We live in the Midwest, not in the mountains! It's funny because we've been so spoiled over the last ten years in Chicago really with not a lot a snow fall, at least that is my opinion. Yesterday, as the boys and I headed to see my niece Jenelle play basketball against McHenry County College, I promised the boys I'd take them sledding today, Sunday. Here are some pictures, they made a few new friends and sledded with some school friends.








Logan with a 2 yr old, Tyler. He loves the little kids. They went down several times.


Leave it to Coulson, he loves the ladies...offering to help her. She told him "NO, I can do it myself!" A strong little girl.

Tomorrow they boys would like to make a snowman, we'll see if the snow holds up. It sounds like we could get a high of 42 degrees before the big chill.

Enjoy the family time you have and stay warm!

Hol

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Can you believe it is 2009? I'm still in disbelief but we plan to make the best of 2009.

We ended 2008 spending time with our friends down the street, the kids played for hours as the adults played games and Rock Band. It is so funny to see people play Rock Band. Everyone had a great time!

I hope you all had a great time bringing in the New Year.

Holli