Merry Christmas!

It has been a great pleasure working with all of you this past year. Wishing you all the blessings of the season. Merry Christmas!

Thing 1 Turns 7

Happy Birthday today to my firstborn, the child who is at the same time the light of my life and the reason for my gray hair. She wants to be Beethoven when she grows up, not really realizing that Beethoven was his last name. She thinks being Beethoven is a career choice.

Thing 2 Turns 4

Happy fourth birthday today to my sweet baby boy! He wants to go to dinner tonight at Sweet Tomatoes in honor of his birthday. That's his idea of fancy. :)

Happy Halloween!

My daughter wanted to be something scary this year. I love how it's so obvious it's her with those little red glasses showing right thru the mask.

Wall-e woke up with a fever this morning, so I am glad I shot this picture last weekend at the park district Halloween party.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween!

Vacation Highlights

I was fortunate to have a Wisconsin getaway last week with my best friend and her family. We went to the Blue Harbor Resort in Sheboygan. It's a waterpark hotel located right on the shores of Lake Michigan, so you can experience the crazy indoor waterslides, outdoor pool, and beach all in one place. The hotel was nice, but like all "family resorts" (think Wisconsin Dells), MacGyver and I were wishing our stay included a free chiropractor visit. Let's just say it's nice to be sleeping in my own bed again.

All in all it was a really fun trip. My BFF and I had a spa afternoon at Kohler Waters Spa at the American Club, and that alone made up for the nights spent on a lumpy old mattress.

I didn't even take my SLR on the trip so these highlight pics were shot with my little point and shoot.

So I am back in the groove now, catching up on orders and phone calls. Thanks for your patience. I hope you all are enjoying the final days of summer!

God Bless America

Peace and love to our troops. Happy 4th of July, everyone! (And Happy Birthday, Dad!)

Shot on the front lawn of Notre Dame High School for Boys, Niles, IL.

This post edited tonight to add my favorite shot from the Morton Grove fireworks show:

Chicago Sky WNBA Game

I need to shout out a big THANK YOU to my client and friend Ann who works for the Chicago Sky and gave my daughter and I VIP tickets to tonight’s game. We had so much fun at the game, and the special seats in the Skyline Club were simply awesome. We were on an elevated platform behind the basket with an unlimited supply of delicious food and drink.

Besides all of the fun, I saw this evening as an empowerment opportunity for my daughter. The WNBA games are not broadcast as widely as the NBA games, so I am glad that my daughter had a chance to see these incredible female professional athletes in action.

Thanks so much, Ann!

Here are a few snaps from tonight. (Gotta love the little point-and-shoot for times like this!)

The view from our table in the Skyline Club:

The Sky Guy:

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all of you wonderful moms had a fantastic Mother's Day! I had a busy weekend of Mother's Day parties with my side of the family yesterday and my husband side of the family today. I just got my little monkeys to sleep and am finally settling down to respond to all the emails and voice mails that came in while I was on vacation last week. So if you left me a message over the past few days, I will be getting back to you shortly!

I just thought I would share some of the cute Mother's Day things my kids made for me at school.

We are so proud!

My kindergartner has been participating in her school's accelerated reading program called "Read Up". This week she got her Cardinal Pin (school mascot is a cardinal), which is the first level of achievement in Read Up. The gist of the Read Up program is that the kids read books and then take comprehension tests about the stories to earn points. Once they reach a certain number of points, they get a Cardinal Pin. There are more prizes as the program goes along but this pin is the first milestone. We are so proud of her! Her teacher was proud too, explaining that in her 14 years of teaching kindergarten, Gracie was her first student to get a Cardinal Pin.

Here she is at the Science Expo with her teacher. The Science Expo just happened to be on the same night that she received her pin.

This post is also the blog debut of my new "diaper bag camera". After my point-and-shot bit the dust in Florida, I wanted another little pocket sized camera for everyday snaps so that I didn't have to carry my big pro camera everywhere. I recently bought the Olympus Stylus 1030W, and so far it's been great. It's no SLR, but it's a handy little gadget indeed. Since my last point-and-shoot suffered humidity damage, the fact that this little Olympus is waterproof to 33 feet was a big selling point for me. I will keep you posted on how well it really works underwater.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had some new Webkinz join the family this Valentine's Day courtesy of Grandma & Grandpa and Auntie Cindy & Uncle Tom. Thank you!

I wish you all a great Valentine weekend with your families!

Merry Christmas!

From my family to yours!

Thing 1 Turns 6

Yep, I know this post looks familiar. My kids’ birthdays are the same week. My daughter was born the day before Thanksgiving in 2002, my son was born two days before Thanksgiving in 2005, and I got to experience hospital turkey twice. Blech!

Wow, my firstborn is six. Five years and 364 days ago, I thought I knew it all and honestly had no idea what I was in for. I never knew I could love someone this much until I became a mom. I never knew I could be driven this insane until I became a mom (LOL). You think you understand how much a parent can love a child, but you really don’t get it until it happens to you. And then overnight your life is changed forever.

My daughter is smart as a whip and stubborn as hell. She can drive me to my wits end, and then a minute later says something to make me melt. Everyday she amazes me, and the true highlight of my life has been watching my children grow.

I have to thank my daughter, for her arrival allowed me to follow my dream. I spent many years in school to get my graduate degree in engineering, and I had a lucrative career in engineering. Still, photography was always my passion. I actually looked forward to getting out of engineering school so that I would have time to take more photography classes…how crazy is that? Once I held my baby daughter in my arms, I knew that I could not go back to the corporate world - stress, travel, corporate politics, 60 hour work weeks. I decided to turn my passion into a business, and I have not looked back since.

Happy Birthday, G! (( HUGS!!)

Thing 2 turns 3

I really cannot believe that my baby is 3. The time has gone so fast! Today he woke up and said "Hey, I'm 3 now!" We have been telling him all week that 3-year-olds use the potty and don't wear diapers anymore, so we'll see how that goes.

When I think back to three years ago, I am reminded of the rough entry H had into this world. I had complications with my c-section, H was a miserable colic-y baby, and his older sister who was three at the time was not too thrilled about his arrival and made life somewhat miserable at our house for a brief time. It's amazing how the good times outweigh and overshadow the bad. It didn't take long for G to learn to love her little brother, and now it's impossible to imagine life without him. His smile is contagious, and he is perpetually happy. He's a total boy - loud and crazy. My husband jokes that H only has two volumes - loud and louder.

So hugs to you H, and a big fat Happy Birthday!!

P.S. Don't forget the deal about 3-year-olds and the potty!

Happy Halloween!

It's been a big week at the Gwozdz house!

Thing 1 has lost her fourth tooth. Since it's not her first tooth, you may ask why the fourth tooth is such a big deal. Well this one is a big deal because she SWALLOWED IT. I was a little panicked, imagining a perforated intestine from that little tooth, but a call to Papa Don put me at ease (for those of you who don't know, my Dad is a dentist). Since then we have been teasing her not to let it bite her on the tush on its way out. LOL! She was pretty upset because she thought the Tooth Fairy would not come without an actual tooth to put out, but she was happy this morning to find a golden dollar and a duckie key chain on her nightstand.



The big news for Thing 2 this week the arrival of the BIG BOY BED. We didn't want to transition him out of the crib until he was done napping, and didn't want to go bed shopping until the Carson's warehouse was having their big annual furniture sale. As fate would have it, both of those things came together this month and hence - the big boy bed is here! He loves to help his father work with tools, and could not wait to help take apart his crib. I must admit to getting a little choked up watching my baby take apart his own crib. He picked out a monster-themed comforter and is so excited with it. And I am happy to say that the transition has gone rather smoothly.