First Meeting With Santa

So Kade had his first meeting with Santa here at our community center!

He was a bit skeptical at first...

but warmed up to him pretty quick!

And a few fun pictures of Kade and dad on the walk back home...

...this one is my favorite!

We went on a trip to Cincinnati over the weekend to visit Proctor & Gamble (Drew received an offer from them). I really want to talk to whoever designs hotel rooms. There really should be a few that have some kind of a small area for kids to sleep. Of course he was not going to sleep when he could see us hanging out without him! Let's just say we didn't sleep much.

Despite the lack of sleep, we had a great time! Kade loves all the friends he makes traveling and spending quality time with dad!

And Happy Sinterklaas!

So we got to celebrate Sinterklaas with a great group of friends and our awesome buddies from Holland! Sinterklaas is kind of like Santa but from Spain, a lot skinnier, and a total poet! He brought us all gifts with cute poems about us attached. We absolutely loved it and hope he comes every year!

We started the night with a little Rock Band.

Here's a few Zwarte Piets. They are Sinter's little helpers and these are the hats they wear.

Kaden rocked out to the music with Augusta.

Then after a fabulous dinner (of some traditional favorites and few great dishes made by our friends from Panama) Sinterklaas came and dropped off a big bag of gifts on the front doorstep.

We had a great time watching everyone open their presents and read their sweet poems from Sinterklaas. We actually got to secretly write them to each other making it much more personal and fun!

Even Kade got a sweet poem and a fun toy which he attacked immediately.

And Drew's came with illustrations! Jon helped Sinterklaas with this one. It says:

There once was a man from Utah - He always kicks me in the butah! - But he's fun and he plays - we talk and laugh all days - and he shoots me all day.

And Cat's mom sent us a bunch of Sinterklaas treats and cute finger puppets (or chewing toys).

After I got Kade to sleep, we hung out...

and played a little Tennis on the Wii. No...I'm not doing the funky chicken despite how stupid I look.

We had such a fabulous time and thanks to Lisa for always being such a great hostess...

and a big thanks to Cat for putting it all together and to her cute mom who sent us treats, gifts, and wrote a lot of the cute poems!

Merry Christmas!

My favorite part about the holidays is the parties (and of course, the good food)! A few nights ago we went to a Christmas party with the fellow students of Drew's MBA program and their families and had a blast!

Here we are with some of our favorite people!

And here's Kade with a few of his best buddies. It's pretty clear that bedtime was a few hours ago...

But he totally worked through it! He's our party animal in training!

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!