Joys of my Job!

Some days my job can be be very hard, and for most days I wouldn't trade it for anything (except for my own children of course)! This is Joey, my Mon-Wed baby. He loves hockey, frozen corn, squirrels, and giving his dog kisses! Together we like to play hide n' seek, take walks to the park, play at Gymboree, and take frequent quick trips to Target. When I compare him with Ruthie (Thurs baby) I've discovered that I prefer little girls, they are less of a handful. Joey has all the energy in the world and never stops running around, so some days I feel like I've been hit by a truck!

So at work we have a new little friend living in the garage. Paul, (yes, he's been named) spends his days poking around looking for food, and posing for pictures. Isn't he cute?

Catch-up

Hey everybody! So we were finally able to upload pictures from the past 3 months so we have a little sharing to do. We'll save you the boring details and just post them because we know some of you have been waiting to see these.

As for currently, Allen has his last week before spring break, so he's been pretty anti-social these past few days. Contrary to common belief, he's actually been diligent with his work and not using study as an excuse to not to hang out with friends! It's been a couple of weeks since he's been able to sit down and play guitar, so he's looking forward to getting together with his buddies to a jam session or two...

Liz and Garrett, we played Twister...not as fun as we remembered playing with jr. high crushes, but I don't think we'll bother heeding your strategical advice next time.

This last Thursday, Chicago had one of the nicest days this year (about 52 degrees), so Allen ditched his one class and went to work with me! Driving their family's car and taking Ruthy (my Thursday baby) to 'play group' and driving around with a 'baby on board' made us feel like old folks. It was a neat little adventure nevertheless. We spent some time at the Lincoln Park Zoo and realized we won't be counting on Allen to watch our kids while we're at the zoo, he gets easily distracted by the animals...

These past couple of weeks have also been a time for visits from friends. There's no question of our Chicago pride, so we always enjoy showing others how awesome city life is. Olivia came in from Southern California for a couple of days and loved every minute of it. I finally got the opporrtunity to go see Wicked, because I wasn't going to go alone (Allen wouldn't go without a trustworthy approval). Loved it! Here's a couple pics for Olivia, I have more to send.

And one last little visit we got recently was from one half of the Chandace duo. It was great to see Chad as we went on a little expedition to the north side and checked out Aloha Eats, a little Hawaiian grub. De-lish! (shout out to our fav. tv host...RR). Then we ventured next door to Molly's Cupcakes. A $4 cupcake, are you serious? If anything, the Sock 'Em Bop 'Em Robots was worth what the cupcake wasn't. A heated battle, but Chad was the victor. 'Good-night'!

"Nature!"....'Gou-let'

Midnight Medicine

We wanted to share this video with those who find themselves frequently waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom......Cami.....

(okay, we all know your pregnant....)

Not Good at Clever Titles

Allen here... unlike Heather, who works much harder than I do, I have some quiet time in our one-room house to get this thing going. I think it's funny, at least with our family, there are so many different ways we keep in touch: facebook, family websites, texting, and the occasional phone call. Well, in an effort to consolidate time and energy, we've created "The Patin Palace," named after our apartment in downtown Chicago, "The Patin Place," but with a typo, so we left it. So in an effort to keep our online correspondence with our family & friends relatively personal, Heather and I hope to keep this blog updated with all the fun stuff going on in our lives......and in our heads. We frequently find ourselves lying in bed at night laughing at some of each days' events to which we usually make fools of ourselves, so maybe we'll share those with you, along with other funny stuff we come across.

FYI: Dad is sending our camera cable so we can upload pics onto the computer. Grandma: Sorry for the wait, it will be up shortly!