Cousins

Mary and I grew up together.  Her mom and my dad were twins and we lived 10 minutes from each other.  We saw each other all the time and were really close growing up.  We have kept in touch as we both graduated high school, went onto college and got married.  Her family visited KC last weekend and we kept her two kids for the evening.  The kids had so much fun together.  And the best news is they are moving to KC next month so hopefully we will see more of them.  

I have got to find some pics of Mary and I at this age because these two look just like us!

Mary text me later and summed it up perfect - It's nice to see that some things don't change even after 30 years!

Christmas

This is my favorite time of the year.  I love the lights, the music, the Christmas movies, the baking, the wrapping.  I love teaching my kids about the birth of Christ and the joy of giving.  I only wish this season didn't go by so quickly!  These are random pics from the last few weeks. We took the kids to see the lights on Chicago street.  They are so neat- they tell the story of Jesus' life in lights.  We have done some baking, had friends over to make a gingerbread house.  The Santa bus visited our house last week too!

Basketball

The boys had their first basketball game tonight.  They are playing on the same team and Jerry and our friend Scott are coaching.  It was so much fun to watch them. 

Tree



 

8 months

My baby girl turned 8 months last week.  She is growing so fast.  She is eating her baby food really well.  This helps me to see the light at the end of the tunnel with buying formula!  Although that too makes me sad as well, to see how quickly they grow.  She continues to be a very big momma's girl although she has started to like Dad a little more!  Kate and the boys can always make her smile, she thinks everything they do is funny.  She brings so much joy to our family.

She has 4 teeth and as you can tell by all the drool we are expecting more anyday now!

Black Friday

I have to admit this is my 2nd favorite holiday of the year after Christmas!  I have two friends that have become my Black Friday Friends and we are a team to be reckoned with!  We have done this I believe 5 yrs now so we felt this year it was appropriate to take it to the next level.  Therefore matching shirts and scarves were in line! 

The front of the shirts say BFF but we didn't get a good shot of that!  We got lots of compliments on the attire and the scarves were great for finding each other in the crowd- the pink was easy to spot!  Here we are making our game plan for the next stop!
















We always have good stories following our shopping adventures.  One year we saw the police tazer a person at Toys R Us and then haul them off!  This year a lady was hit by a car when we were inside Target.  So when we walked out we were greeted with 5 cop cars, an ambulance and a fire truck.

I have no update on how the lady is doing- praying she was not seriously injured.  The sad part is rumor was it was an unlicensed 15 yr old driver.  We had a great night of shopping although my night was cut short.  Lesson learned- never go 14 hrs without eating and then drink large coffee and a Diet Dr Pepper.  Combination of sugar/caffiene and empty stomach almost made me pass out.  I tried to keep going but couldn't get to feeling better so my friends brought me home around 4:00 this morning.  They continued on until 9am.  Overall the trip was a success,  many great gifts including a couple for me!

What to do??

I have so many projects that need to be finished/started that I don't even know where to begin.  I spent my afternoon with a great friend making Black Friday shopping shirts (pics to come later!)  Now tonight I have a little bit of everything I am working on.  The joys of multitasking!!

So now I had better get off the computer and get to working on these projects!