Christmas

Christmas was super fun this year with a kid who knew what was coming and kept asking about Santa and wanting to make and wrap presents for people!  The only bad thing was that Kaylee's logic goes WAY beyond her years and she kept asking us if Santa was real.  What three year old does that??  I have issues with that because I don't want to lie straight to her face but I want the magic of Christmas to at least stay for a couple more years!  However I don't think we handled it very well.... poor Kaylee will never have a normal childhood.  Ha ha.  

This year she also had her Christmas program, which was super fun to see. She is not really into music and didn't know most of the words but she did every action.  I need to stop telling her about things before they happen because she was so excited and hyper all day that by the time the program came around she was so tired and could hardly stand up the whole program! 

 I'll have to keep things secret until right before...It was really fun to have a school function to go to, I can't wait until we have plays and concerts and games to attend too! The only bummer was that Kaylee didn't have any family we could invite, and that made her really sad. Luckily she invited her best friend and they were awesome and came to support her and she was thrilled about that. Can't wait to see her Easter program!

We were able to go to Indiana to be with Holly for Christmas.  Christmas Eve we did our own little nativity (that lasted 5 mins) and it was really special for us to see the kids do it since they are old enough to actually get it. McKenna was too distracted by the thought of Christmas cookies but all the other kids had a lot of fun making their own manger and playing all the parts.  (I only got a few horrible pics because we decided to turn all the lights off except the Christmas tree...)

Christmas morning was a flurry of wrapping paper and squeals of delight. Emery and Madeline are especially cute to watch because everything they get is, to them, the best thing ever!!  I hope their excitement rubs off on my kids for next year :) 

 Last year we couldn't come up with enough things to keep the kids busy but this time they had so much fun playing with their new toys (and each other) that the time flew by and we didn't even do half of the stuff we wanted to do!  

The day after Christmas we went to the mall playground to let the kids run out their energy before we left but that was seriously the only activity we did. That shows you how much fun we have just being together!

This is the best picture ever! McKenna did much better with her cousins than she ever has- there is hope that they will be friends!!!  We had a blast being with Holly and her fam and are so lucky they live close enough to do Christmas with them. 

Girls Photo Shoot

This is a little out of order because I forgot to add it to my November post. My super talented next door neighbor has been taking pictures of lots of newborn babies and needed some practice taking shots of older kids so I happily volunteered mine :)  Despite the fact that it was super cold and we constantly made the kids take their coats off, they were very cooperative (with some candy as bribes...) and I thought the pictures turned out so cute!!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really wanted some of McKenna since the last ones we took of her was around 7 months... Oops!  Kenna was definitely done by the time we got around to taking pictures of her in my favorite dress but she was still a trooper and tried her hardest to smile/ grimace at the camera.  

Thanks Meg! You are so talented in so many ways and have come to my rescue countless times!

Chicago!

I needed this trip to Chicago so bad. I needed to see my brother, sister, mom and a bunch of my nieces and nephews.  I needed Richard to take a break and be with us and I needed to get out of the house!  I wish I could say I really needed to see Chicago, but for some reason that was never on my list of cities I was dying to see.  However, I loved it so much that I wouldn't need much convincing to go back!!

My brother scored us a SWEET apartment in downtown Chicago and I am kicking myself that I didn't get any pictures of the inside. It was gorgeous to say the least. Staying in crappy hotels is going to be much harder now that we've been spoiled by our places in Cincinnati and Chicago :) But if you can't picture the inside, you can at least appreciate our view:

Don't think I could ever get sick of the skyline! 

It was magical and I think I could spend hours just staring out the window watching the bustle of the city below. The night we arrived, we just walked down to Millennium Park to take some pictures, stopping to play hide and seek in a swarm of leg statues just outside our complex (don't ask!).    

The bean was pretty cool and it was fun to see it at night, since I usually see pictures of people there in the day. It was so reflective that up close, in the dark it was hard to see where the bean started and the sidewalk ended; it was hilarious to watch people walk right into it!  Not so hilarious when I smacked my own daughter's head on it however....

 

These big towers are in the same area as the bean and we had fun watching them change colors (ignoring the huge creepy faces on the other side) and watching people ice skate. 

Sunday we went to church at the local ward, which met in an elementary school. And then that night we went to check out the zoo lights.  All it took was a walk down to the Subway station, a train ride and a couple of bus stops and we were there! It wasn't a huge zoo (although we are spoiled with the one in Columbus) but the lights were fabulous!  The girls even met Santa there, which is good because that was the only time they saw him the whole holiday season. 

Monday we went to the Field Museum and spent most of the day there.

The guys had a boy's night and went to try some disgusting Chicago dogs and other famous Chicago food.    

Tuesday we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. It was huge and so much fun! We probably only saw half of it and definitely could have spent more time in each place.    

Wednesday morning we went to the Planetarium.  There wasn't a ton for kids to do there so we only stayed for a little bit. 

We did stop at the Bean again and this time we saw it in the rain, which wasn't quite as cool because it made the surface cloudy but couldn't resist taking more goofy pictures.

We wanted to walk down to the other side of the Magnificent Mile and go to Ghiradelli and the Christkindlmarket.  However, the kids were exhausted and we seriously stopped every other minute for one thing or another so it took us FOREVER to get there! It was gorgeous so we really didn't mind the walking but with whiny kids and hours of walking we were all tired and grumpy. Luckily our stop at Ghiradelli rejuvenated us all :)

Holly and I only had a few minutes to walk around the Christkindlmarket and then we headed to the Chinese Theater for Wicked.  BY FAR the best part of the trip.  That was the best present from Mom and it was a blast to be alone with Holly for a while.  I can’t go on enough about how much we loved it! I'll just leave it as, it was the best night ever!!!!

 

Thursday was our last full day and we went back to the Museum of Science and Industry and had even more fun because we discovered the anatomy section which had TONS of fun stuff for the adults to do.  Not sure if the kids had as much fun but they had their turn on Tuesday :) 

We found this machine that showed you what you will look like when you get old.  I just look like I have crap on my face and apparently Richard is going to gain a lot of weight. Don't worry, we will still take good care of each other!

 

Friday morning we pretty much got up and left.  It was so hard to say goodbye after such a fun trip. The trip home took TWO hours longer than it should have because we ran into bad weather but the girls were angels and we were happy to get home safe.  SO VERY happy we got to Chicago and more importantly that I got to see so much of the family all together. Can't we go back to that week and just stay like that forever??

All of November

I can't believe how much has happened since the last time I posted! So much so that I don't even want to blog about it all....but I know I will regret it if I don't! Mid-November, McKenna decided she was a big girl and kept begging me to go potty in the toilet. 

 I REALLY did not want to start potty training but thought I might as well give it a shot since she was so determined. She really was the easiest kid ever to potty train, I wish a kid like her on every parent out there!  It was no work at all and we love not having to buy diapers anymore :)

A random fun night came in the form of a big box of packing peanuts!  At first I just let the girls jump in the box and play 

but then I decided to just go for it and we dumped it all out and went crazy!!! 

We even invited some friends over to be crazy with us. 

It was an insanely huge mess and took forever to clean up (we're still finding peanuts in random places) but it was worth every second!  

 At the end of November, our sweet little rascal turned two!! 

She has given us the highest highs and the lowest lows.  She is the funniest, sweetest, cutest little girl and will give you the biggest hugs, cuddles, kisses and smiles that will melt your heart.  She has also caused us the most anxiety and has made us question whether we will ever be ready for another kid!  But that is what makes us love her so much- you never know what you are going to get but there will be plenty of laughs along the way :) :)  We decided not to do a party for a couple of reasons but had a good day together as a family and ended up at Chuck-E-Cheese for dinner that night where she was mesmerized by the characters on the stage! Ha ha. Most of the games were a little too old for her but she still had a blast following Kaylee around and watching her play. 

Thanksgiving was a blast this year.  We had our good friends, the Schellenberg's, over for their last Thanksgiving here (don't even get me started on how we will not survive when they move away from us next year!!) and after dinner the girls danced their hearts out on the Wii while the parents all relaxed. 

We also had the Burtis's over for dessert and there were SO many delicious pies, we had more than one pie per family.  Gotta love holiday food! (Can you tell I have also been really bad at taking pictures of all the fun stuff we've been doing??) We only had a one day break after Thanksgiving and then we took off for the best part of my whole year- CHICAGO!!