Off We Go! (and an 8 week Birthday!)

To Chicago!!!

We are leaving tomorrow morning and returning on Thursday night. It is going to be an experience...for sure!

It is Eloise's first big trip, as well as for us as Mommy and Daddy.

We are actually going to Schaumburg, IL which is northwest of downtown Chicago and it is where Willow Creek is located. We have been to Willow Creek before for the SHIFT Conference which is for youth/youth group leadership. This time we are going to a conference called Reveal; it is for small groups (I believe). I am more going just for the fun of it because Willow Creek doesn't allow babies in their auditorium during conferences (they are ageists!...kidding). We were told there are TV's throughout the lobby for Eloise and I though.

I am just happy to do something a little out of the routine, and it will be good to see how Eloise travels. Since we have some other big trips coming up this fall.....FRANKENMUTH!!!, for example. :)

Also, another bonus to the trip: we get to go to Ikea. Ted and I have never been there..we are excited! We have absolutely no money to spend there, but excited all the same!

And, now...what you have all been waiting for...because I told you to check here for them!...pics of Eloise on her 8 week birthday! We took her down to Michigan Beach and let her experience the sand and wind for he first time. I think she loved it!! :)

We had so much fun!

Cute Things!

While reading a blog that I follow, I discovered another blog called Fabulous-K and I love it! First of all, she is doing MAJOR giveaways this week, (and so of course, I entered) and I found a website that is one of my new favorites!

***(My friend Maggie has a giveaway going on through her Etsy site as well!!)***

It is called The Vintage Pearl and it has sooo many AMAZING items on it. :)

For example:

I definitely want the baby spoon for Weezy, it's such a neat keepsake. Eloise Iden woulde be so pretty on it!

Oh, and Weezy is doing great!

She smiled for the first time on July 27th! It was one in the morning and we were trting to get her to go to sleep, and all of the sudden she looked up at her daddy; smiled and stuck out her tounge and made the cutest baby-talk noises! Her first time baby-talking too! Ted and I were jumping around in the hallway, laughing and practically crying! Who knew we could love a person so so much!

Here are some recent pics that were taken during Venetian Festival! The first one here is one my first attempts to catch her smiling on camera.

Baby Eloise!

For the latest pics of Eloise Iden Polleys, check out either my or Ted's Facebook page. We are waaaay too busy to update this site as well. As soon as I get more into the swing of things I will be posting here all the time.

We are taking tons of pics, don't worry! Also, Eloise has had a lot of "first's" lately, including:

a Beach Bums baseball game
trip to Traverse City
the grocery store
a Family Reunion
an Art Fair
the Fourth of July

and much more! :)
She is very adventurous!

Just a Thought..

Have you ever been in church and in the middle of a worship song you realize you have no idea what you are even singing about?? Well, that happened to me this morning. Here was the particular verse that got my brain starting to question how much I really do (or don't) know when it comes to hymns. The title of the hymn is The Holy Trinity by Reginald Heber who lived from 1783 to 1826. (Which might explain a little bit..c'mon Reginald, get with the program!) ;)


Holy, holy, holy! all the saints adore Thee,

Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.

Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,

Which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.

I get the gist of the verse, but I just thought it would be funny to note that how sometimes song lyrics can get in the way of worshiping God. At least they do for me, because then I get all distracted and wonder what Cherubim and Seraphim are. Maybe that has a really simple answer, but I am going to have to go look that up. (Blogger's spell check doesn't even recognize the word Seraphim!)

I don't why that got to me so much today...oh well. Happy Sunday! It's gorgeous out. :)

New and Improved

During this past weekend and week, Ted and our friend CJ painted our dining room a new, fresh, Sierra Red. It is soooooo GREAT! For those of you who have never seen our dining room before it was painted...well, just picture beige, bland, blah! It was really getting to us that it was so boring. It didn't even feel like a place to eat. The people who lived at our house before used it as an office. It had metal shelving screwed into the walls, and for some reason lots and lots of pin pricks from little tacks. (I don't think they owned a bulletin board!)

So, while I was out of the house all weekend working, Ted and CJ bought stuff to fix the holes in the walls and then got to painting. They also painted the stairwell to our basement the same color. The stairwell used to have green ivy sponge paint accents on it...but not anymore. I don't have pics of that, because it still needs a second coat. But, the dining room is AMAZING! I can't wait to use it now. We are going to get some art for the walls and an area rug for the floor to "hide" the fact that it is carpeted...until we can afford to replace the flooring someday. :) Curtains are on the way as well, courtesy of Mom Polleys!

So..here it is...TA DA!

Oh, and here's another cute pic that I couldn't pass on posting. :) Ted and I were trying out our new baby carrier we got. And, since Eloise isn't actually here yet, we had to find a substitute.

After trying out this new baby carrier, Ted flat out denied that he would ever wear it in public, even though the packaging shows guys wearing it too. We will see. Carrying a real baby will be more manly than carrying a Pooh Bear.

Happy Birthday Izabella!

This girl turned three yesterday!

I almost forgot to post about how yesterday was Izabella's 3rd birthday! She is getting so big and sooooooo cute! Ted and I couldn't be there, but Sam and Bill took Izabella and Olivia to the zoo and then had cake. I wish I could have been there. :(

Sam sent me some pics of the festivities. These are some of my favorite girls in the whole world! (Izabella is the monkey, and Liv is the frog.)

Izabella loves, and I mean LOVES Spiderman. One of her gifts was that Spiderman backpack she is sporting at the zoo. And, her mom even made her a Spiderman cake! How cute!

A Happy (yet Slightly Moody) Anniversary

Well, as I said in my last post, Ted and I celebrate our anniversary whenever Memorial Day weekend happens to fall (for now). So, in anticipation of our 2 year anniversary, Ted gave me his present early!!! How could he not, when it came in the mail just dying to be opened??

This year, Ted got me something so cute, perfect and unique...and the best part is that it was made by Gussy herself! For those of you that don't know Maggie, you should click on that link and see all the amazing things she makes.

Here are some pics of my new purse and wallet (a.k.a. Ruffle Gus). These pics are from Maggie's Picasa website, where you can see all of her work. Very talented.

Thanks Ted!! Thanks Maggie!!

So, you would think that then it would be my turn to give my gift to Ted...well, you see, I had such a hard time deciding what to get him, that now it is going to be here late. Boo. :(

But, it's okay, because he knows what it is anyways, because we are both horrible at keeping secrets and we love to play guessing games. He is soooo excited to get this present. This is from Simple. Ted LOVES Simple stuff, he's already got some shoes from there, as do I. :)

Isn't it funny that we both got each other bags?? (Well, a purse and a satchel.) We are so alike sometimes...I guess two years will do that to you. :)

Our official anniversary isn't until May 27th, but we have a Baccalaureate Service to attend that night, so I believe we are going to go out for dinner and such on the 28th...we have to be flexible. :) Who knows when we will go, it doesn't matter to me what day it falls on, just as long as we get a chance to celebrate what we have.

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the 'slightly moody' part of this post's title...Let me just explain that the pregnancy is getting to me and once in a while (okay probably more like at least once a day) I take it out on Ted somehow. Even though, it is definitely not his fault that I am uncomfortable, tired, sad, hungry, uncomfortable some more, or just plain unsatisfied with whatever is going on around me. It's crazy what hormones do to me, I would want to steer clear of me, too. :)

So, a big, huge, fat, sorry goes out to Ted along with all my love on our anniversary.

Eloise will be here soon enough. :)

Kickoff to Summer

Memorial Day Weekend is when I feel like I can offically say that summer is beginning! I ab-so-lute-ly LOVE summer! Here are all the little signs I have come to know and love:

Ted and I celebrate our marriage, even if the 27th doesn't exactly fall on the weekend. 2 years this year!!!

The people of Charlevoix get together and plant over 1200 flats of petunias along the city limits of US-31. Where else can you drive down the road and get scents of flowers all the way through town?

Road workers sweep the streets and then paint fresh white and yellow lines, which makes the streets seem like new. ...Only a person who likes things super neat and clean would take the time to acknowledge this! haha

You can be 90% sure that you have seen the last frost so you can begin planting flowers in your garden. Me, I planted some petunias around our little porch and then bought some baskets of flowers. We aren't doing much this year, because 1) Eloise, and 2) Ted's aunt, Mary Fox, is coming in late June to help me plan out what I even want/need. Let's just say I am not really a gardener....yet.

The lawn is mowed for the first time. And, this year, it was mowed with our brand new moterless lawn mower. You know, the old fashioned kind, that wheels around and makes almost no noise and doesn't contribute any pollution! yay! It was a great buy. :)

Kilwin's, an ice cream shop, is actually open past 4pm, so you can get some yummy ice cream after dinner.

People fill up our town and the population practically triples. I love the busyness and hustle and bustle...Ted, not so much. But, with the people come all the festivals (and boats, and golf carts on city streets, and lots of traffic, especially when the bridge goes up). But, I wouldn't want it any other way.

Summer is what makes it worth it to live in Northern Michigan!