Christmas in Chicago

This year I didn't have a Christmas break so we had to stay in Chicago for the Holidays. This was our first Christmas away from home, luckily Krista's brother Karson and his wife Bridget couldn't go home either so we were able to spend the whole weekend with them. Karson and Bridget and Thatcher arrived at our house Christmas eve morning and they stayed until Saturday. We had a lot of fun. We were able to make some good meals, play some games and just hang out. It really was a good time.



Driving around looking at Christmas lights and drinking hot chocolate on Christmas Eve.



Putting out our stockings on Christms eve.

Andee was excited to open a present on Christmas eve (one of my childhood traditions).

We recieved a lot of great gifts from our family's.


The Howard's checking out their stockings.

Isn't she a cutie.

Andee and her new doll.

Andee received some disney princess dress up that she loved.

We attempted to go sledding, but there wasn't very much snow and it was freezing.

Decorating the Tree

Here we are decorating. Andee loved to decorate the tree. She still decorates it everyday. She pulls off the ornaments and then puts them back on. She can't keep her hands off the tree. Luckily she hasn't broke any ornaments yet. It was really fun to watch her decorate. She had a lot of focus and concentration in her face. The first thing Andee does every morning is go turn on the Christmas Lights. She loves Christmas Lights. If we drive at night she points them out and wants to see "mo mismis ights" (More christmas lights).

Adam's the big 3-0!

Adam is 30 this year. I asked him what he wanted to have for dinner and this is what he chose: a HUGE steak and shrimp. We then had some friends over to play games and have cake and ice cream.

Opening presents, The Office season 1.

Jeff Zimmer sang the prettiest Birthday song we had ever heard!

Happy Birthday Adam!

Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving was in Chicago with my brother Karson and his fam. I made my first apple pie. I tried to make a turkey in the crust. I also made my first rolls. It was fun to have Thanksgiving with family. This is the first time in the four years we've lived in Chicago.

Andee loving the food eating on her chair on the floor. We only had four chairs.

Eating dinner.

Thatcher and Andee played all day long! They love eachother!

Andee's 2!

Andee is 2! We had two parties this year for her. We had one early while my parents were here that was combined with an early one for Adam. Her second one was later after she was actually 2. She liked being sung to. She is growing up too fast. Here are some pictures of the partay. They are out of order. I couldn't get them to move.

My cute little 2-year-old!

Kissing Grandma Howard, Thank you!

Andee cheesing it with Daddy.

Andee's Birthday Cake. Adam made a two tier cake for her. It was cute. I did the writing. We forgot to take a picture before so here it is half eaten.

Halloween Fun

This is a long post of all the October happenings. First is Trick-or-Treating! Andee's first year trick-or-treating and she loved it. My parents were in town and my brother Karson lives here now so it was a big family affair.
Ladybug Andee and Giraffe Thatcher ready to go trick-or-treating.
Andee with "papa howa"



Adam and Andee trick or treating.

Andee would always stand there after she got a piece of candy expecting more. They'd have to say goodbye ladybug or she would stand there and wait for more candy all day.
Karson, Mom and I. I could barely zip this jacket up. My belly is getting big.
Thatcher slept for actual trick-or-treating so he tried to steal Andee's hard work. She got tons of candy!
Here is Thatcher stealing a piece.

----CARVING PUMPKINS-----


Final Product

------Halloween Party with Friends------

Adam dressed up as Michael Jackson for a friend party this year. He won the costume contest. Andee was a little ladybug.

The Zimmers, they always have the best costumes.
Adam, Andee and I at a friends Halloween party.
The hosts of the party, Dave and April.
Here is Garrett(The horse) giving all the kids a ride! Halloween was really fun and busy! It came and went too fast!

New Ride!!

We've wanted to buy a car for quite a while now but we've never had enough guts or money to do it. I have to drive downtown everyday for the next three months and our car hasn't been the most reliable so we decided to seriously start to shop. After much resarch we decided to look for a Honda Pilot, so we started checking dealerships and test driving cars in our budget. A few test drives and a pushy salesman later we found a Pilot in Milwaukee that fit our criteria. We made the hour journey to only find that the asking price quoted to us on the phone and the sticker price was $8,000 different. The salesman told us the price quoted was a mistake. So after nearly an hour the manager agreed to give us the price quoted on the phone. So we made the purchase. We feel like we got a steal. We were even able to meet the previous owner, a little old lady who would only drive the car a few blocks every day and "babied the car", in her words. The car is a silver 2006 Honda Pilot EX with 31,000 miles and seats 8. Krista's favorite part is the keyless starter. We love it and we feel pretty lucky to have found it.