Random Christmas Pictures...

Some fun pre-Christmas pictures that I enjoy looking at:



At "Winter Wonderland" at Navy Pier - the kids were pretty ticked that I made them pose - they just wanted to go ride the rides (it's a big, indoor carnival)



Putting up the Christmas tree! Every year I swear I am going to just go get a pre-lit tree, but what fun would that be? My kids love sorting the color-coded branches and putting up the tree themselves! Just like I did as a kid. All we were missing was that hilarious "12 days of Christmas" tape that I am determined to get a copy of some day...



This picture makes me laugh because they look like they are being forced to work or something! Really, they were having fun, I swear!!



Finally done, time to pose!



And then mob dad to look at the picture before texting it to the grandparents!!!

Back in December...

I wanted to post some pics of some of my friends here in Chicago and the fun Christmas party we had! I am so lucky to have such awesome friends here, and we always have such a great time! And since I talk about them a lot, now everyone can finally put a face with the name!

The girls - me, Sarah, Nicole, and Danica. Yes, I am a total baby hog. I admit it. But I really love this little girl, and I think she loves me back!!!

Yes, Delaney is still mine!!! :) Look at how cute she is!!! And Nicole looks gorgeous, as always! I have very pretty friends!

The guys - Joe, Scott, Kevin, and of course Dave in back. It is so great that our husbands like eachother as much as we do! It's always a bummer when couples don't mesh, you know?

I can't believe I don't have any pictures of the kids, they were having so much fun playing that we hardly saw them, which makes for a great party!!

him + me + 10 years = perfect!

This past month Dave and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary!!! It was such a perfect day! We had an amazing date night too - I met him downtown for dinner at a local sushi restaurant, which was the best sushi I have ever had (and the coolest location!) It was perfect! Then we walked down to attend a concert for our favorite singer ever, Linda Eder!!! She just happened to be in Chicago on our anniversary. How perfect is that??? And our seats were incredibly close - we could reach out and touch the stage (but we didn't because the people in front of us would probably not have liked it too much) This is the only picture I took that night. I am not good at remembering to take pics when the kids are not involved, unfortunately!

But, anyway, she was fantastic!!!! It was a great show! Afterward, we hopped in a cab and headed to our hotel, the PERFECT Allerton Hotel on Michigan Ave. It is a great place, an older hotel with a lot of character and history! I love it! Our room was beautiful! Dave pulled a few strings and got us upgraded a few times to a gorgeous suite on the 23rd floor with a beautiful view. It was such a perfect evening!

1st Snow of the Season

So I am totally playing catch-up, as usual, so this is a quick one :) This was back in Nov, the first morning of snow, and Araleigh just had to play in it!

Well, ok, mostly she just ate it...

And dusted it off of the raspberry plants! But it was fun and magical :)

Ugly Sweaters and Roller Skating!

My friend, Sarah, turned 30 and had an awesome 80s ugly sweater roller skating party!!! What a blast! It really took me back to the good ol' days of Classic Skating :) We had so much fun!

I did not go to the trouble to find an ugly sweater for the party, but I was so lucky, I was one of the winners to get one as a door prize!!! Yes!!! (I can't prove it, but I think Sarah rigged the "drawing"...)

We had to get a train going when we heard the "Locomotion"!!! It got to be pretty big, but this is the only picture of it I have!

The kids had a great time as well! Traeden fell down about every 10 seconds but he would not give up! Araleigh and Jax took it nice and slow, and they had fun! They are all begging to go back! I am thinking that's a great idea!!!

14 hours in NYC

In general, this blog is about my kids, but they haven't done anything super exciting lately, and I have, so today it's about me :) So, I have always wanted to go to NYC, but had never been there, until now! Dave was very involved in putting together an event for customers to use their miles to purchase a super extravagant 5 course meal with Chef Charlie Palmer in Grand Central Station, and we were able to attend!! It was a whirlwind trip, but it was a lot of fun! So arriving at Ohare, we found that our flight to La Guardia had been canceled due to high winds from the hurricane, so we scrambled to find another flight, which ended up being one to Newark at about the same time. Well, there were high winds there, too, so we were delayed. A lot. And even once we actually took off, we had to hang out, circling the sky for a while. It took forever! But we finally landed, jumped on the train to Penn Station, hopped in a cab to Grand Central, and made it late but in time for the end of the first course. Once we were there, it was fabulous!!!!! The food was AMAZING, it was so fun to get to know a lot of really great people, and the setting was beautiful!


Grand Central Station is huge and absolutely gorgeous. It was the only NYC "attraction" that we saw so we will definitely be heading back. But, hey, I can finally say that I've been to New York!


Charlie Palmer was the nicest guy, so friendly and personable. I had barely met him, but by the end of the night he felt like an old friend. I felt totally comfortable asking him to pose with me for a picture, which is normally very hard for me.

After dinner, we were tired and it was pretty late, plus we had all our stuff with us, so we didn't do any sight-seeing. Just jumped in a cab, which got lost on the way to the hotel :) Then we were up bright and early to fly home the next morning. 14 hours! Whew! But it was a lot of fun and a great night away from my lovely kids :)

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! From Cinderella, Michael, and Frank

We couldn't get Jax to do any MJ moves or sing or anything... but Cinderella would give us a song, and Frankenstein would groan at us, and every stranger we passed while trick or treating :)

Araleigh got to attend 2 Halloween parties - the 1st at school, where they took the kids trick or treating around to all the classrooms!!! and at her friend, Alex's house with all her friends from church. Lucky girl!

The annual candy train :)

Araleigh was happy to join in this tradition also! She did this all herself!