Another Baby party at the Mowry household - this time with dogs too!

On the second Sunday in December, we had another big baby party at the Mowry household in Lakeview!  This time it was with Charlie's friends.  Charlie's friend Craig, who moved from Chicago to North Carolina a couple of year ago, was back in town for the week.  Craig and his wife Allison just had a baby - daughter Harper - in late September.  Our friends Kris and Tina also came over with their baby Tessa, who was born in June.

That put Brady smack dab in the middle age wise.  It was neat to see one baby who had been as small as Brady had been a few months earlier, and another baby who could do more "advanced moves" like sitting up and rolling over!  Brady thought Tessa was so cool that he put the moves on and grabbed her hand!  Slow down there big guy, you guys aren't even half a year old...

The other thing that was really cool was that this "baby party" involved not only 3 babies - but 3 dogs, too!  Both couples had dogs that they brought with them - so we had quite the group running around our house!  Griffey enjoyed playing with Marley (Craig's "big dog") and Kirby (Kris's dog - about Griffey's size).  It meant he wasn't passed over for all the attention, for sure!  If you recognize the name Kirby, you might be thinking of the Minnesota Twins center fielder.  Kris is a Twins fan, so we actually had two dogs in the house named after Hall of Fame center fielders.  Maybe the only household in America to have that as a true statement?  Charlie sure hoped so!

The day involved watching a Bears loss (much to Craig's disappointment) to the Vikings (to Kris's excitement) and then we saw the Bengals lose to the Cowboys (to Charlie's chagrin).  But Katie cooked a great meal for the occasion - Italian Pork and potato casserole that everyone agreed was excellent!  And the others brought snacks and drinks, so we had a great time meeting new additions to our friends' growing families.  It's amazing how many new babies their are - Brady will have many friends to hang out with as he goes through those first few years!

Thanksgiving weekend

Well we are yet again a whole holiday behind on this blog because it is almost Christmas time as we write this one about Thanksgiving weekend.  Since we had just seen both sets of grandparents the previous two weekends, we stayed in Chicago and had a quiet Thanksgiving with just Brady and Griffey.  Charlie had a few days off of work, which was really nice to just relax and hang out all together.  Most people like to go shopping on the day after Christmas but for us this year, we decided to go the day before Thanksgiving on Wednesday.  We both scheduled eye doctor appointments downtown near Charlie's work and then afterwords we went out to lunch and took Brady shopping for his first time on Michigan Ave.  The weather has been unseasonably warm so far and was a great day for walking.  Brady fell asleep right before we went through the Disney Store, which he is too young to remember anyways but we got some Christmas shopping done for the little man.

Thanksgiving morning, Charlie cooked a big breakfast for us but we had a slight problem with the bacon.  After having the heat up a little too high on the burner, the bacon started sizzling way too fast and created a bit of smoke in the kitchen, which set off the fire detector.  It was just a little smoke that cleared out once we opened the window, but we had forgotten that the smoke detectors are linked into the security system and before we could call the security system to tell them everything was fine and no need for the fire department, the Chicago Fire department was already at our door.  We were a little embarrassed and felt bad for making them make the trip for a false alarm, but I guess it is nice to know that if a real fire ever broke out, the Chicago Fire department doesn't mess around.

Since Brady keeps us so busy, Katie decided to make our Thanksgiving meal really easy and order a precooked rotisserie turkey from the grocery and Katie just made the side dishes including Charlie's favorite sausage stuffing (him mom's recipe), roasted tomatoes and mashed potatoes.  This all worked out great and was very yummy.

On Friday, the weather was still very warm so we decided to take the family over to The Lake for a stroll.  One of the perks of living in Lakeview, is that we are only a few minutes from the Lake.

Even more popular than Thanksgiving day and Black Friday in our house, is the Saturday after Thanksgiving because it is the OSU/Michigan football game.  Charlie's best friend from high school, Jason, and his girlfriend, Kate, came over to meet Brady and watch the game with us.  Much to Brady and Charlie's dismay, Michigan lost (26-21) . And then afterwords, we went to a nearby bar - The Crossing (yes we bring Brady to Bars..as long as they are baby friendly)  to get some food and hangout.

(as you can see, Brady gets just as excited as his Daddy when watching the Wolverines)

Wedding in Kansas City

We followed up two weddings on the weekend of November 10th with another one over the weekend of the 17th.  For this one, Charlie's friend Jon was getting hitched in Kansas City.  Brady had his first night away from mom the weekend before, staying with Charlie's parents in Cincinnati.  For this weekend, Katie's parents came up and he got to hang out with different grandparents on back to back weekends.  We stayed in Chicago Friday night and went out to dinner for Katie's dad's birthday.  We went to Crosby's kitchen, which is a restaurant over on Southport Avenue (an area Katie really likes) that we've been wanting to try.  It was very good, and even Brady had a good time, too!  We met another couple who had 2 kids at home and was expecting another on the way, and Katie traded notes :)

Saturday morning we flew to Kansas City.  Jon's wife Katie is from there originally, and we were excited to try some authentic KC barbecue on our trip.  We were with 2 other friends of Jon's, and after the 2:00 ceremony we had some time to kill - so we stopped at Oklahoma Joe's, which seemed to be the most famous of all the (many) KC BBQ places.  Despite the fact that it was 3:30 - not lunch or dinner time - the line was still out the door.

Oklahoma Joe's is known because there's also a gas station and convenience store in the same location as the barbecue.  But it was ad advertised - one of the best barbecue restaurants you could have.  After being stuffed on barbecue, we made our way to the wedding reception which was at the Hobbs building in Kansas City.  We had a great time dancing (and even eating a little bit more) and hanging out with some old KPMG Columbus friends that we hadn't seen in a while.  We didn't stay the next day for the Bengals game - they just happened to be playing in town that weekend - but they did get a win!

We wish all the best to Jon and Katie, and to all the other friends of ours who tied the knot in 2012!

Back to Cincy - 2 weddings in one weekend

During the weekend of November 10th, we had an interesting dilemma.  We had two weddings in the same weekend.  We'd had this happen before, but not in quite a while.  You usually have to pick one.  Luckily, one of the weddings was on Saturday, one on Sunday.

The Saturday one was in Indianapolis for Ryan (Charlie's friend from Miami U.) and Emily.  We met Emily for the first time a couple of years ago at another one of our friends' weddings, and she is the perfect match for "Schwalby".  We had new logistics for this wedding, however!  This was the first time Katie was going to a wedding after having Brady.  We drove down to Cincinnati Thursday night and stayed with Charlie's parents.  This also meant we got to see family (Brady saw his Great Grandfather Chuck for the 2nd time) and we got to eat La Rosa's, Gold Star and Graeter's ice cream all in one trip on Friday.  Brady's first experience at these Cincinnati restaurants was good - he behaved himself at La Rosa's so long as he got his milk when it was time!

Then Saturday morning, we got up and left Brady and Griffey to hang out with Grandparents Tom and Leslie.  Katie was a bit nervous as this was our first night away from Brady - but he did fine.  And we had a good time.  The reception was at the Indiana State Museum in downtown Indy.  The wedding and reception were beautiful, and we had fun seeing so many of Charlie's old college friends.

Despite having such a good time, we were still excited to see Brady and Griff the next morning as we'd missed them both!  Tom and Leslie drove them up to Indy, which was much appreciated, because it allowed us to get back to Chicago in time for the other wedding.

The next wedding was far from the usual church type wedding.  The bride and groom are Chicago residents and very big Bears fans; their first date was in fact at a Bears game.  So they decided to do something unique and have their nuptials at their tailgate before the Sunday night Bears vs. Texans game.  Jay was Charlie's roommate junior year, and he's about the biggest Bears fan around.  In fact, when Katie and Charlie first started dating, Katie thought his last name was "Ditka" because that's what everyone called him.

Katie was going to attend and bring Brady in the Baby Bjorn but once we got back to Chicago, the weather turned cold and rainy, so we thought it would be better for Brady to skip this one.  And instead Brady got to meet one of Katie's college roommates, Maggie (sorry, we forgot to take pictures).

Charlie went to the wedding, however, and got "front row" seats:

The rain stayed away just in time for the nuptials, and then there were 3 or 4 hours to try some of the best tailgate food you'll find and celebrate before the Bears game!