Minnie Mania

Claire has been more obsessed with Minnie than ever before, it is so cute.

Minnie much?

Here are some pics of the week!

Selfie at the GAM closing

Cute Navy cheerleader outfit - hand me down compliments of PJ from Naval Academy alum cousin Warren

This Minnie had to come home with us from Target for Claire's birthday.  Reminded me of the story Katie told me how Isabelle had to have Olaf at Costco!  These sweet eyes cannot be denied!

Olivia and Trevor Bullock joint birthday party fun

We spent all day Sunday doing a professional photo shoot at the GAM to get images for our marketing.  Staging these shots (these are just with my phone) took hours and hours!  Go to our website to see the rest of them - there are a whole bunch in the gallery.  

Gurnee Antique Market

You won't believe it!  Matt and I bought an antique center.  Yes, we are the proud new owners of an antique retail store in picturesque(ish) Gurnee, IL.  Many people have asked us why we decided to buy an antique center.  That's a good question!  That's when I turn and say, "Matt?" for him to answer the question.  Yes, Matt is the Mastermind behind our diversified real estate endeavors.

I feel like I need to do a little bragging about Matt before I dive into the Antique Market story.  As most of you know, two years ago Matt stepped away from his 60+ hour a week successful construction management career to pursue a new career in real estate, which has always been his passion.  This was a little scary (at least I'll admit to it!) considering both of us have always worked for "the man" vs this entrepreneurial stuff.  But we knew with two kids and two parents working full-time, combined with Matt's crazy 6-day-a-week work schedule and long commute, something had to give.  It was only going to get harder as the kids grew up, and Matt knew he needed to have a more flexible career if he was going to be as involved in our kids' lives as he wanted to be.  So he took the plunge and has not looked back.  He is the most self-motivated, hard-working, positive-minded guy ever - I am in such admiration of him.  I could never do it!  While continuing to work a couple days a week at his old job (they won't let him go, and keep trying to lure him back with executive job offers) Matt has been extremely successful in his new career in such a short time.  He has established two small businesses, one for the real estate investment side and one for the construction portion of the business, which now has three employees.  The real estate side invests in the properties and then the construction business mostly works on the houses he buys to get them ready to flip or rent, but they also have done a couple small home renovation jobs for area families as well.  Matt also became a licensed realtor last year, and what started as a way to save money on his own investments, he found he really enjoyed and has put more and more time into it.  So that side job has grown into him being a serious realtor, a familiar face in the community, with listings and showings and open houses and everything, the whole thing.  The guy seems to be good at everything, it is disgusting!  (You know, like those people who, while eating a milkshake, proclaim "I can't gain weight!")  When it comes to properties he has flipped, renovated, rented out, bought, sold, invested in, you name it!  Each time his thoughtfulness, thorough due diligence on doing the business case, and attention to detail on all the financial intricacies has resulted in a positive investment.  So you can understand why when he told me that he wanted to buy an antique center, I of course thought he was crazy, but in the end I trust his judgement completely about real estate.  Oh, I should also mention that while doing all of the above, he has taken on all the grocery shopping, tennis lesson shuttling, errand running, laundry doing, kid haircut getting, etc. for the family.  Plus he's easy on the eyes!  Ladies, are you jealous?  You should be!

So anyway, back to the GAM (that's what we affectionately call the Gurnee Antique Market).  Matt first became interested in it because the model is similar to other properties he owns in that it really is all about rental income.  There are a bunch of booths and showcases that get rented out by dealers, so the business is actually a rental business, sort of like an apartment building for antiques.  He got to know the previous owners and they talked to him about the business, and how with antique expert on-site management of the antique side of things, the rest of the management was really more about knowing about business than knowing about antiques.  Plus, I think Matt is just interested in learning new things and trying new things so this whole idea intrigued him and excited him.  So when the deal mechanics showed it was a good investment, plus his interest was piqued in running an antique store, he persuaded me that we should buy it.  So after several months of due diligence, countless hours on Matt's part of getting all the loans and paperwork and appraisals and everything settled, we closed on January 20th.  Antique biz, here we come:)  Congratulations, Matt, and I'm so proud of you!

So that's the story!  More to come on the GAM, I'm sure, but in the meantime feel free to visit our new website (that Matt created) www.gurneeantiquemarket.com and please "Like" us on Facebook.  Or better yet, stop by and buy something, that makes us and our 100 dealers very happy.  Address is 5742 Northridge Drive, Gurnee IL.  As Matt says, "See you at the Market!"

Rebranding!

Dinosaurs

We had a weekend of normalcy finally.  We chose to spend it going to a nearby Convention Center to see a Dinosaurs exhibit.  I forgot to post last week that we finally got to meet our friends' Jeff & Sarah's baby Madeline.  Those two are completely over the moon about their baby, rightly so.  Madeline is definitely a cutie.  Jeff is the most smitten father I think I have ever encountered, it is so sweet!

Hat head!

Fort house time - that's when you use the cushions to make a house and then put a blanket over it like a fort.  Claire is currently inside this house.

Sun in his eyes so he wore my sunglasses

The dinosaur exhibit, like many experiences with young kids, was better in my head than in reality.  It was kind of a hassle and kind of expensive for what it actually ended up being for us.  There were TONS of bouncy houses though, so that was fun for the kids.  

Luke cruised right there all the learning areas. 

Luke liked the dinosaur ride, it actually moved.

Row upon row of dinosaur inflatables!  No adults allowed though, which made for some nervous Claire parents!  She's not quite old enough to be completely on her own, but not young enough not to want to go into everything.  All's well that end's well!

Luke "helping" Claire climb the ladder.  He was great that way, we could send him in after her.

Random concrete floor mini golf was a hit with Luke.

A little snow playtime

of course followed by hot cocoa

Filling in his "Book About Me" book some more

The Meyers Family

Proud Poppa!

Kid Update

With all the holiday stuff to talk about, I haven't had much chance to update on the little things that consume our lives raising these kids.   Just a few things to document, lots of Claire things and a couple Luker things:)

Claire has such a personality, with a fiercely independent and wild side.  She has so many expressions that will just crack us up at any turn.  I swear she rolled her eyes at Matt today!  It starts already!  Speaking of starting, we have started time outs with her and they're pretty effective.

She is talking so much it is crazy, especially if you compare her verbal development to Luke who barely had 5 words at this age (23 mo).  Claire's vocabulary is pretty extensive and we are really trying to have her "use her words" instead of whining as much as possible.  You can actually have full conversations with her back and forth and she understand what you're saying and responds appropriately.

Unlike Luke (who according to my my memory was sleeping through the night at this point, although I could have blocked it out - I should check the blog archive!)) Claire is waking up ALL THE TIME at night.  We made the mistake of letting her sleep with us in the middle of the night, desperate for sleep ourselves, and now it is hard to break her of that.  She wants you to put her arm over her to snuggle her in, and if you move your arm she'll lift your arm and try to put it back over her like she likes it to be.  But even if she's not sleeping with us she's waking up and wanting to be walked around the house.  We have to actually show her, as if to prove to her, that everyone is asleep and she should be too.  I told Kristin that I think we need to Ferberize her again, but it seems strange to Ferberize somebody that you can actually have a logical conversation with.  Like you try and let her cry it out and she's saying "Mommy, come here!" Not sure about how this will go, but we need to do something.  I really thought that by 2 we would have this kid sleeping through the night.  At least it is good birth control for having another one! I also have to say that we're really lucky that Luke sleeps through all of this hullabaloo like a champ.

In hair twirling news, the only reason she still has long hair is because she recently learned how to untwirl her hair when she's wrapping it around her finger so that it doesn't get caught on her fingertip to cut off blood flow anymore.  So while she's still twirling her hair into tons of knots that need to be worked/cut out all the time - she's not in danger of losing a digit so we haven't cut all of her hair off yet.  She'll just continue to work on the right side of her head going completely bald.  That's a good look, I think.  She's starting a new trend!

Luke has been really good about expressing his emotions lately.  Like if you do/say something he doesn't like he tells you about it. Example:  "Mommy, can I watch shows?"  "No, Luke."  "Mommy, when you told me no when I asked you if I could watch shows, that made me feel sad."  Or else he makes a noise in the back of his throat that we have called "Luke's angry noise".  If he's making his angry noise you know he's mad/frustrated and he doesn't even need to say the words.  Except every time he makes the noise it makes us laugh, which makes him laugh, so then he's not mad anymore.

Luke was really upset that he didn't have school for a couple weeks for Christmas break.  He was almost in tears when we told him how many days he wouldn't have school for.  So I asked him what he likes the most about school.  He thought for a long time and then answered "asking questions!"

Luke is such a great helper in the kitchen and a budding chef!  He likes to help make dinner, bake things, set the table, unload the dishwasher, load the dishwasher, you name it.  He is such a monkey climbing up on the counter to get dishes or put them away.  He is so interested in food - and plays with his toy kitchen all the time.  He likes to play restaurant in the play kitchen and named his restaurant "The Hungry Hippo".  Our neighbors gave the kids aprons with their name on them for Christmas, and Luke asked if he could add the word "Chef" before his name on his:)

He goes to the bathroom now and shuts the door, "I need privacy, Claire!"

Luke likes to pick out outfits for Claire and proclaim "She would look adorable in this!"

Putting him to bed....Me:  "I love you Stinky"....  Him: "I love you more!"  What a snuggle-buggle my little Luker-Dukersons is:)

And that's it for updates, here are a few pics from the week and a couple videos too!

Snowball fight

This is a video of Matt spinning Luke around on the tube, which he loved, but also shows Claire's usual reaction to being out in the snow - not happy.  She seems to have a 5 minute tolerance for the snow - must be Grandma Mary's genes, just kidding:)

Walking in Mommy's shoes

Spumoni has been wanting a lot of attention lately - sometimes he can be kind of a loner, but he has been sticking around us like glue, always wanting to be where we are.

He always has to sleep on something - be it clothes, pillows, what have you - his dog bed is usually a last choice location.

Our first sledding of the year at G&G's - super fun

 This is a video of Luke jumping over Matt via a snow ramp they built.  We don't have a video of it, but after this he jumped both Matt and I - monster truck style!