Christmas Happenings

We had an awesome Christmas week. On Christmas Eve we went to our friend's, the Goates, for dinner. There was great food. The kids played and the adults visited. It was so fun.

While we were gone, the Elves had dropped off our new Christmas Eve pajamas.

Christmas morning was very fun! Hayden was so excited to open presents. She loved unwrapping them. Then she wanted them completely unpackaged right then so she could play with it. She would play with that toy until it was her turn again. It was so fun watching her excitement! Later in the day we went to my Bro's house and had dinner and played Mexican Train.

The day after Christmas we went to the Kohl's Children's Museum with our friends, the McMillans. They have a daughter Hayden's age and they both had so much fun. After about 1 1/2 hours we were all exhausted and starving, but it was such a fun day.

Ryan had the whole week off so we really enjoyed being together. It was such an awesome Christmas and I realized again how blessed our little family is.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoy the beginning of 2009!

Happy Anniversary!

Ryan had to go to China again. He left on the 6th and just got home last night. So, I've been without a computer for a while. We're so glad to have Ryan home. I'm starting to get bugged by the frequency of his trips. It's job security though, right? That's what I keep telling myself at least.

Today is our anniversary. We have been married for 4 years. It seems so crazy that it's been that long. They've been 4 great years. We've had a lot of fun and enjoyed so much together and are still excited to be together forever!

We got married at 8 in the morning in the middle of December. It was so incredibly cold. My nose is red in every picture and we just look cold. So sad. But here are a couple pictures from that day

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

This post is a little late but we had such a great Thanksgiving and have so so so much to be grateful for. Ryan's sister Camille came to visit and we ate at my Bro's house. I cooked the turkey for the first time this year. It turned out okay but my gravy was not so good. Sorry guys.It was a fun day full of food, games and watching "Hancock."

I love holidays. It is so great to just relax. I just realized that Hayden isn't in any of the pictures I took. She was there, I promise.

We went out shopping on Black Friday. We're not really dedicated shoppers, though. We left the house about 8 so we still got to sleep in a bit.

Hayden had a great time with Camille here. She loves all of the extra attention and did her best to keep Camille busy.

We hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving too!

Twilight at Midnight

Yep, that's right I went with my mom and Shylo to see Twilight at midnight on Thursday. Us and a bunch of middle school girls. We got to the theater at 10 that night expecting to wait in line in the lobby. But, I made the mistake of getting us tickets at the ghetto theater so we had to wait in line outside. Yes, we waited for almost 2 hours in below freezing weather. I really think I was reaching points of hypothermia by the time they let us in. I wanted to get a picture of Shylo huddled on the ground trying to rub some feeling back into her toes, but I couldn't feel my fingers well enough to get my camera out of my purse. We eventually made it inside and got to see the movie. I thought it was ok but I was a little disappointed. I want to see it again to see if maybe I was too concentrated on thawing out and missed the greatness of the movie. Maybe when it hits a Redbox near me....

Can I just say, I love the fact that I have a mom that will go to a midnight showing of a movie based on a book that she didn't really even like......what a fun mom!!

Anika's Big Day

My niece Anika was baptized yesterday. It was such a great event. It was awesome to see how excited she was. It was also awesome to see my brother baptize and confirm her. We're so proud of her. Congratualtions Anika!

Bye Mom

My mom went home today. So sad! We had a great time having her here and she helped out so much. Hayden absolutely loves her and would yell "Grammy" when she couldn't find her. Thanks for coming to visit mom. Thanks to my dad too for parting with her for 3 weeks. We missed having him here but appreciate his willingness to be single for a while. We love you both!

Hayden loved my mom's purse. She carried it around everywhere. We went to the dollar store and my mom got Hayden her own little purse with sunglasses, a comb and chapstick. Hayden wanted nothing to do with it. She only wanted Grammy's purse. Now that my mom's purse is gone, Hayden has been more excited about her own.

Aquarium Fun and other stuff too

Hayden is loving having Grammy here. Grammy is so fun. She plays games with Hayden, gives her treats, bathes here, holds her....... the list goes on. I'll admit it, it's been nice for me too :)

The Shedd Aquarium in downtown Chicago is free a bunch of days this month. Ryan had Tuesday off and my mom has never been so we headed down. It was so fun! The really cool stuff like the dolphins and whales weren't free so we just saw fish, but it was still great. All of the museums in Chicago are awesome.

This was Hayden's favorite part. They had this canoe out for kids to play in and she thought it was the greatest thing.

Ryan had fun showing Hayden all the different kinds of fish.
This was my favorite. The pictures bad because you can't use flash there. So, if you can't tell, it's a whacked out seahorse. So cool....

Then on Friday night my niece and nephew slept over. Hayden loves her cousins. She was asleep when they came on Friday but she was so excited to see them there when she woke up. Good times...