And On To The Next Great Crawford Adventure ...

Hello Everyone,

Well, we don’t know when it happened but the time has come and we are East Coast bound!

Many of you know that Chicago was not an easy start for this family and although we are excited for our new adventure, it is indisputable the amazing and life changing events that have happened during our time as Chicago residents!

Shannon and I moved here at the end of November 2011. It was his new job with UBS that allowed us the opportunity to finally live in the same place and take our relationship to the next level. We got our very own downtown apartment!

That following May, on the second anniversary of us meeting, Shannon got down on one knee under the Navy Pier fireworks and proposed!

We got Tilly here in Illinois. We flew home 2 days after our wedding and immediately drove to get her and make her the newest member of the newly established Crawford Family.

I got my first real teaching job, post grad school at FXW. It was such an amazing positions and my colleagues, students and their parents were fabulous. I learned so much about myself as a teacher and made so many good friends, I could not have asked for anything more from a job.

We applied for, interviewed and got Shannon’s green card which was such an accomplishment! It made us feel so good knowing he had that for our family!

And finally and most importantly, it was here in Chicago that we made the decisions to have a baby! On our third anniversary, over dinner at Petterino’s, Shannon and I made the decision to start trying for a family in the fall. Little did we know how quickly that would happen and Jack Francis would be conceived immediately! 41 week and 1 day later, on July 6, 2014 the most wonderful gift came to us here in Chicago, our sweet baby boy, Jack!

Chicago, it has been a wild ride. You have truly put this family to the test in more ways than one but you have also given so many of our most important memories to date and for that, WE THANK YOU!

And now, it is on to our new great adventure. A new chapter for The Crawford Family is right around the corner and we cannot wait to see all that it has in store! 

All Our Love,

Katie, Shannon, Jack & Tilly

Welcome To The World Jack Francis!

Hello everyone!!!!!

Our beautiful Jack Francis has arrived!!!!! Jack came into the world on July 6, 2014 at 12:27 am. Jack weighed 8 pounds 15 ounces and was 22 ½ inches long! My labor nurse said it was the longest baby she had seen in some time.

It was amazing how quickly he came once he made the decision that he wanted to be here! We spent Saturday, July 5, taking Tilly to the park and running errands. We knew that we would be induced the night of July 6 if Jack hadn’t arrived earlier so we thought it would be a good idea to do some last minute errands. While we were walking around Target I started to feel a little funny and when we go home I had started showing signs of early labor. We called my doctor and he agreed that I was in labor and we should head to the hospital.

We arrived at triage around 7pm, checked in and was in my labor and delivery room by 830. By 10 my water was broken and by 1045 I was feeling the contractions about 3 minutes apart and asked to get my epidural. They had not even gotten my epidural when I kept saying that I needed to push. The nurse said that only 1% of women need to push that quickly however she checked me and said she couldn’t believe it, I needed to start pushing. The nurse paged the doctor and called Shannon back into the room (they don’t allow husbands in the room while you get your epidural). The epidural wouldn’t even take effect by the time I started pushing! Shannon had no idea what was going on because when he stepped out of the room only a few minutes before, they assured him we had plenty of time! Well, Jack had a different story in mind. I pushed for an hour and then our beautiful and perfect son came into the world!

Our time at the hospital was wonderful! We had the greatest nurses and our view of the lake was amazing! We could not have asked for a better experience. From how I went into labor, to how quickly Jack came to us, to the lovely stay, we were truly blessed by the experience. The details truly make no difference, we have Jack Francis Crawford! 10 fingers, 10 toes and loved like no little boy has been loved before.

We have had a great few weeks of transitioning from a family of 3 to a family of 4! Tilly has been loving her little brother … we love watching our 2 babies interact! We have even been toying with the idea of making a purely picture blog … The Adventures Of Jack & Tilly! We shall see!

Now, we look onward to the next big adventure … MOVING! We are figuring out the details but we will be with mom and dad for part of the time and will be looking for a place ASAP! We will keep everyone posted! It will all work out, as life always seems to! Jack is here, healthy and happy … everything else we will deal with!

 

All Our Love,

Katie, Shannon, Jack & Tilly