Photos by Lillian

Lillian has been having so much fun with her new camera, I thought I'd post some of her pictures for you all to see! A lot of her pics are on the blurry side as she's still figuring out that she has to hold the camera still! She's always in such a hurry to look at the picture!

One down, One to go!

Lillian finally lost 1 of her 2 loose teeth. Wouldn't you know it, she pulled out the least loose of the 2 in the car on the way home from Iowa! You try to figure out how to stem the flow of blood when you're traveling down I-80 with 20 minutes to the next rest area! Anyway, here she is, missing 1 tooth and proudly showing off her new big girl hair cut!

Fun in the snow!

Uncle Dan took these pics/video but they were absolute too cute so I had to share! The kids had so much fun playing in the snow and sledding that day!!

Christmas Round 2

Well, round 2 of Christmas is over and done with! My kids are going to grow up thinking that Christmas lasts a whole week! The kids had a lot of fun and of course loved having grandma, grandpa, great grandma, great grandpa, and all those aunties and uncles! James got a work bench complete with "working" power tools that he absolutely loves. Lillian got more Polly Pockets (mommy says we have officially reached the "Polly Pocket Limit" for this house!) a Disney Princess Oven and her favorite gift.....a pink digital camera! I'll have to post some of the pictures she took! She's not too bad and she absolutely loves it!

Zoo Lights!

On the Wednesday night after Christmas we met Uncle Patrick and Auntie Kutu at Brookfield zoo to see the Holiday Magic lights. Mema and Bapa gave us a year membership for Christmas and the kids thought it was so cool to be at the zoo in the dark! One of the really cool things was that some of the animals who were usually outdoors very far away where indoors and much easier to see! The elephant was maybe 10 feet from us and the hippo as well! You don't realize how big those animals are! James was just fascinated. So anyway, we have lots of free guest passes so if you're in Chicago and want to hit the zoo with us just let us know!!

Merry Christmas part 1!

Merry Christmas!!

We've got round 1 of Christmas down with 1 more round to go! On Sunday my parents came down to celebrate Christmas with us! On Christmas eve we went to Patrick and Kutu's church to hear their Christmas Eve service (they even surprised us by singing a beautiful duet!!). After getting home we let the kids open their gifts. My cousin Heidi stayed with us Christmas eve as well! On Christmas morning we opened our overflowing stockings and then headed off to our church. It was a treat to be in our own church on Christmas since we've never had that luxury. After a huge Christmas dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and all the appropriate side dishes we opened presents. James's favorite gift was a $1 cars notebook and crayons, although he also got 2 little Star Wars action figures that he won't put down! I think Lillian's favorite so far is her Strawberry shortcake dolls but Sequence for Kids is running a close second. We all had to laugh when my parents gave Jason and Patrick matching suits. Of course, I am just now realizing that I didn't get a picture of the kids sitting together under the tree, or a picture of all 4 of us together.

Live Nativity

Lillian's class went to the Children's farm today to take part in a live nativity! Lillian got to be one of the shepherds...a fact she wasn't too excited about! I'm going to try to post a video of it, you can hear Lillian say "I had to be a shepherd" and everyone laughs!

Afterwards they got to walk around and see all the animals. James was very excited to see especially the pigs, cows and bunnies.