Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve we went to a friend's house and went to church with them. We had a really great time, but we didn't get home until after 11:00 p.m. We put Emma to bed in a pack and play there and she slept like a champ until we woke her up to come home to sleep in her bed. I am so thankful that she'll sleep anywhere at anytime. We had a great time with a white elephant gift exchange and a Chinese gift exchange. Since we were out so late, we didn't do any of the traditional cookies and milk for Santa, etc. Cade still woke up at 6:00 a.m. and was excited to open presents. We sent him downstairs to watch t.v. until Emma and Maddi were awake about an hour later. Here they are coming down the stairs.

Checking out the presents!

Stockings! Emma has a big gash in her nose from slipping on the kitchen rug and crashing into a chair the day before.

Emma was really excited about the presents and enjoyed opening them. She wanted to play with each gift after opening and I had to encourage her keep opening more gifts.


Cade with one of his favorite gifts, a hunting game for the Wii.



After all the gifts were opened, there was an envelope that said "open last". It was a note from Cody, our elf. He helped Santa with the last gift and left clues ALL over the house to find the last gift. It was upstairs, downstairs, upstairs, etc. The kids were worn out after 14 clues making them go up and down the stairs!

Even clues in the freezer! Silly elf!

The last clue led them to the basement where they found a ping pong table!

That made them all smiles!

Then we opened our gifts from family. Maddi girl learned how to make scarves with a neighbor and she made me one. She is the sweetest little girl. She helped Emma make us all a handmade gift too. Love that Maddi.

Yeah, Aggie dress!

Cowboys gear! Hopefully soon we will be back in Texas where we can buy our own Texas team gear whenever we want.

Emma was so happy all day! She was running around and singing and just so happy.

Time to play with the new loot.




It was a wonderful Christmas day. Maddi and Cade both said it was their best ever. We spent a lot of time hanging out together and playing games together and stayed in our pjs most of the day. Happy Birthday baby Jesus!

Things to Remember

There are so many things that have happened lately and I know I'll never remember them if I don't write them down. So here goes:

1. Emalyn has officially been off the bottle for a few weeks. Poor baby. She took it really well, actually, but on occasion she'll ask for a bottle. We told her we were giving her bottles to a baby and she said "otay". Then she would randomly ask "Baby all done ba-ba?" She wanted her bottles back. I would tell her no, the baby still needed the bottle but she was a big girl so she didn't need it. She never cried or anything, she'd just ask for it so sweetly. From the day we "gave" her bottles to the baby, she has not had a sip of milk. She refuses to drink it. I even bought her a special Hello Kitty cup that was "from the baby" since she was a big girl now. It was a gift from the baby to drink her milk in. She said "I don't like it." Now, she has had a few random bottles here and there (maybe 3 times) in the middle of the night or when she was sick and just wouldn't drink anything all day. She had one Christmas morning because she woke up at 5:00 a.m. and we were too exhausted to let her get up that early. Gave her a bottle and she went back to bed until almost 7:00. She saw the bottle later in the day and said "Memma's ba-ba" and I said "no, that's for the baby" and she said "otay". She is offically all grown up and we are all a little sad about that.

2. Cade got "attacked" by a bunny. He was outside playing football with friends. (thank goodness it's still warm enough to play outside even at the end of December) He was by the bushes and a ball was thrown into the bush and a bunny ran out and scratched Cade's leg. He was wearing shorts, not warm enough for shorts to me (but whatever), so he got some pretty deep scratches. When it first happened, I was concerned he could get rabies but then realized it was only a scratch, not a bite, so he wasn't at risk for rabies. It freaked Cade out a bit. Brett was teasing him that his ears were getting pointy and his teeth were getting really long and then he has been eating so many carrotts since it happened. That freaked Cade out too. We told him he for sure wouldn't get rabies but he could turn into a rabbit. It's so funny because rabbits are usually so timid so it's not often that a human has contact with a wild rabbit. I think it was so afraid of the ball in the bush that he ran out and accidentally ran into Cade. I'm thinking that bunny might have had a heart attack later that day.

3. Funny things Emma says/does.
"I don't like it" or "I don't want it"-She says this in one breath and then is asking for said item in the next breath. She is just trying to assert her opinions.

"Memma's otay"-When she's crying about something and we redirect her to something else and she stops crying she'll say this. As if we were really worried about her fake crying. Silly girl.

"I wanna say hi Cocoa"-She says this several times a day and she wants us to make Cocoa sit by her so she can pet (beat) her. She always puts her head down to hug Cocoa and says "Cocoa haircut", "Cocoa's tail". It's been a few weeks since Cocoa got a haircut but Emma talks about it every day.

"Sissy/Bubba run"-She is really loving having her brother and sister home from school. She likes to chase them and have them chase her.

4. Somehow I have been blessed with 2 kids that love to go to sleep. I have also been blessed with a child who doesn't love to go to sleep, but will sleep forever if you let her. Maddi is the one who will sleep forever. Cade and Emma love to go to sleep. Emma will even tell me she wants to take a nap or go ni-night. I don't know many kids that do that. She has even clapped a few times "yeah, ni-night". The down side is that Emma and Cade are morning people and are up at the crack of dawn. Cade wakes up the earliest, and on occasion, Emma will sleep in. However, the are both usually super happy to wake up and start their day.

Chicago Christmas

We made our annual over night trip to downtown this week. I went with the kids and did some shopping and ate lunch and things and then Brett met us after work. It was so much fun with plenty of pictures for us to remember it by.
The Lego store moved from its old location and is now right next to American Girl. This is the new display of the Chicago skyline. The kids were less than thrilled that I made them get a picture with it. Ha!

Cade doesn't play with Legos much anyomre, but he decided he needed to buy some new Legos while he was there. He won $25 on lottery tickets and the money has been burning a hole in his pocket. The girls enjoyed playing with the Legos while Cade shopped.

We had a yummy lunch at Cheesecake Factory and then watched the trains at the Hancock for a while. Emma LOVED it. She especially loved the "Shoesta" (how she says Santa) climbing up and down the ladder. Then she found the candy store...

...and then had a meltdown when I wouldn't buy her any candy. It was way past nap time so we headed back to the hotel where she took a nice nap and woke up super happy.

We went to the pool for a while and the kids had a blast. I didn't bring a swimsuit for myself because I was thinking we'd swim when Brett was with us. We ended up going before Brett got off work so the kids helped out with Emma in the water. They are such great big brothers and sisters. Emalyn is one lucky little girl.

After swimming, Brett made it to the hotel and we were off to dinner. Emalyn LOVED the halls and would run up and down them.

The kids had fun running with Emma too!


This is exhibit A of why Emma doesn't usually enjoy Cade holding her!

After dinner, we went for a family horse and carriage ride to see the Christmas lights.

Emalyn is munching on some Twizzlers that Daddy bought while we were waiting for our horse.

The kids were all smiles!



These pictures were taken from our carriage ride. This is the tree at the plaza at the Hancock.

Emalyn's chubby little hand reaching for the ornaments on our carriage.

Water tower.

The city is especially pretty at Christmas.

The family with our horse, Fiona.

Then it was back to the room for some popcorn and to warm up from the cold carriage ride.


The next morning, we made our way to Navy Pier for Winter Wonderfest.

Three kids who were very excited and ready for Winter Wonderfest to open.

Emma riding horsies.

Cade on the hangglider, one of the kids favorite rides.

When it first opened, the kids had the rides to themselves, but soon after, it was quite crowded and they had to wait in some lines.


I love this picture. The kids reactions to watching Emma and Brett getting on the ferris wheel.

Brett's camera phone picture of Emma on the ferris wheel. I'm not sure that she loved it, but she didn't cry.

Brett's camera phone picture of the kids above him.

Brett and Emma on top and Maddi and Cade below. Ferris wheels are pretty boring if you ask me.

Next stop was ice skating. Emma's ice skates were ADORABLE!

She was pretty excited to do this ice skating thing.


She walked in them really well.


She even did great on the ice for about...20 seconds. Then she said "I don't like ice skating." She became spaghetti legs.


And just like that, Emma's ice skating debut was over.

She wanted nothing to do with a picture either and kept looking away from the camera. Gotta love 2 year olds. Ha!

Maddi was done ice skating too because she wasn't doing as well as she would have liked to. She was grumpy, Emma was grumpy. Daddy made them happy by letting them decorate a cookie. Cade and I continued to skate and Cade did great.


Everyone is happy again and back to riding rides.

Even Emma was happy and was running around with Daddy. She ran over the jail and took Daddy with her.

Love this picture!

Emma's running fast! Then we left Wonderfett and headed to the Navy Pier food court for some lunch.

After lunch, Maddi took Emma to see Santa. This is Emma checking out Santa while they were in the short line. I had been asking Emma for weeks if she wanted to see Santa. She always wanted to see him, but never wanted to sit with him. Maddi asked Emma if she wanted to sit with Santa and she said "yes". I was shocked, so they got in line to sit with him. Cade refused to sit with them because I told him Santa wasn't real.

This elf asked if we wanted him to smile or look goofy. Maddi said smile and this was his smile. I'd hate to see his goofy look.

This is Emma first sitting with Shoesta, checking each other out.

No smile, but no tears either. Woo hoo!

This is where Shoesta was asking Emma what she wanted for Christmas. Her response "yellow dink".

Maddi translated Emma's response to Shoesta that she likes yellow and pink. Emma has been saying all month that she wants "yellow dink" everytime we ask her what she wants. Sweet Maddi girl, such a good big sister. She said it was kind of embarrasing that she had to sit with Santa. I guess she's all grown up. Sad! That Maddi girl, as usual, doesn't have anything she's really asking for. She says Christmas isn't about the presents. A girl who gets it and is so thankful for everything in her life. The sweetest little girl I could ever imagine.

We were all exhausted and Cade and Emma fell asleep in minutes after getting on the road back home. I am so thankful we are able to do such fun things together as a family.