Thanksgiving in Chicago!

Our friend, Blythe, hooked us up with a sweet condo right in downtown Chicago for free! She also got him some cute shirts like this one that fits him perfectly!

The weather was good so we hit the "Magnificent Mile" which has awesome shopping. First stop..the "American Girl Place"! The girls got an early Christmas and picked up some cute dolls that looked just like them! The store was a lot of fun for most of us....

but not so much for Kade!

We went out for some great Sushi...

and the girls were excited to get back to play with their dolls! Here's Brin with her doll Brita...

Emri with her doll Emily...

And Maleia with her little Julie doll and her kitty named "Licorice".

You gotta love the bath tub pic.

We went on a really cool river tour the next day through the Chicago River and out into Lake Michigan.

Kade had fun looking out over the water...

but got pretty pooped after awhile!

Here's the cute Smith fam...

and cute pic of Brin!

We then hit up the Sears Tower. Here's Kade on the way up having a great time with his aunt Julie!

Kade was pretty stoked looking out over the city!

We went to the Shedd Aquarium the next day and started out with a sweet "Sponge Bob" show in 4-D!

Nice shades!

Kaden played some more with Julz...

Walked around with dad...

And then they both pooped out!

The rest of us moved on to check out the sharks...

And Maleia was excited to find a Nemo fish!

We went a woke Drew up and went to the movie "Bolt", which was totally cute!

And finally...the Thanksgiving feast! We went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and here's Drew and Kaden enjoying some mashed potatoes.

It was good...minus the frozen pumpkin pie we received at the end! I was pretty ticked and had to wait to eat it at home when it thawed out. But I promise I was still thankful for all the many blessing we have and for great family and friends! Thanks to the Smiths for spending this last week with us and we are so appreciative to them for coming!

The Smith's in South Bend!

So I've been stoked out of my mind about my fam coming over Thanksgiving! Especially this year since we are away from everyone and can't come home for every holiday! We had such a great time and I'm excited to see them again next month!

The night they arrived we woke Kade up to play with his cousins and we got a video of him laughing so hard at them throwing darts! It's great and I'm trying to figure out how to get it on the blog...stay tuned! They brought him lots of fun toys so it was like Christmas morning for him!

The next morning, we all bundled up and headed up to campus for the last Notre Dame football game.

It was crazy cold and these kids were total troopers!

So after seeing fun stuff and hitting up the alumni tailgate, Julz & I ended up skipping the game! It was miserably cold and by the time Julie and I dropped off the kids and got back to campus it was half-time and Drew and Elliott had had it! We pretty much decided nothing is fun when you can't feel your limbs. So we went out for dinner and watched the Utah/Byu game, which was totally awesome! At one point, Drew jumped up on his chair and cheered!

We went to church, ate dinner, and kind of took it easy the next day. We made brownies and watched a movie while we stuffed our faces. Here's Brin, my oldest niece, who is the best helper and is pretty much 9 going on 27.

Here's little Emri, 7, who is a lot like her aunt Jenny which means she is totally awesome!

And the funniest little two year old ever....Maleia.

On Monday, we went to the South Bend Chocolate Company for a tour of the factory. Our neighbors, the Evans, came with us and we had a great time! Here's all the cute kids with their hair nets on!

Kade wasn't quite sure what was going on but thought I looked pretty funny.

This was his first experience with chocolate! He got a taste of some white chocolate...

and some milk chocolate. He was really ticked when I took it away!

The kids got to make chocolate spoons and we were pretty sick by the end of the day with all of our delicious samples and purchases!

We continued the day with some fun restaurants, played with neighbors and watched the Jazz game later that night before heading up to Chicago the next day!

Wild Man

So this is pretty much where Kaden spends a good chunk of his time while at home. He likes to cruise back on forth on this couch and a bench that is usually next to it. His favorite past time is pulling everything out of my purse and trying to eat it. It's so fun to watch his little mind work and when he sees something on the ground he wants, he slowly lowers himself down and takes off! He's got the crawling thing down pretty good now and has become quite destructive to anything in his path. He is also now pulling himself up on the bars of his crib, which is really making it hard to get him to sleep. I woke up at 2 in the morning last night to him talking to himself and walked into his room and was greeted by Kaden standing up with a big grin on his face. It was a long night. Despite the no sleep again (I thought that was over after 3 months), he has been so fun to interact with and to watch learn and grow.

Dad's been crazy busy with school and traveling around the country every week for job interviews so Kaden sometimes has to help him wake up in the morning! One of my boys is definitely not a morning person but the other one is...can you guess which one?

I took this picture today to capture the face I get pretty much everytime I shut the door after strapping him in before we drive anywhere.

This is how he occupied himself on the drive...by finding the zipper and chewing on it leaving slobber everywhere.

Fun Weekend With The Tenney's!

We were so excited to have Drew's sister and husband, Haylee & Thomas, come to South Bend last weekend! We had a great time and were so grateful to them for coming! It's great to have family here since we don't see family too much and Kaden had a great time getting to know his Aunt & Uncle Tenney.

We went out to eat the first night (Thomas is taking the picture!). Then we went back to our luxurious apartment and I'm sure Haylee and Thomas got a great nights sleep with our paper thin walls! Kaden has decided he doesn't want to sleep through the night anymore and wakes up every few hours to hang out.

I love this pic of Kaden and Haylee in the Halloween shirts! He loved Haylee and pretty much melted into her face right here!

Haylee & Thomas went to a class with Drew that was supposed to be pretty interesting and then to a luncheon up on campus. Afterward, I took them to the South Bend Chocolate Co., which is pretty much my favorite place in South Bend! Haylee and I both love bubble gum and have a crazy sweet tooth that Thomas was so nice to buy lots a candy to satisfy!

We went to Notre Dame's pep rally that night and had a special surprise guest....Bon Jovi! Unfortunately, he didn't break out into "Bad Medicine" or anything but it was awesome to see him there with his two sons who, apparently, are big Notre Dame fans. The band stepped up though with some great Jovi hits. We went and chowed on some wings and burgers at "Between the Buns".

Drew thought he'd see if Kaden liked lemons...and the result is pretty apparent.

The next day, we suited up in our Irish gear and headed up to campus to get some lunch, listen to the band and get to the game by kick-off.

I pretty much just like this picture of my little Notre Dame student.

Haylee & Thomas had the pleasure of meeting many of Drew's classmates..

and we had a great time at the game even though they lost in quadruple overtime!!

Another visit from Bon Jovi sure helped!! And we still treated ourselves (well...Thomas actually did!) to some ice cream and then took it easy that night.

We were sad to see them go the next day but were so happy to have had the chance to hang out with them! Big thanks to the Tenney's for coming, treating us often, and for taking these great pics!