December Highlights

Sledding: We have only had one good snow so far this year, so we made sure we got the kids out to go sledding! This was really the first time Jemma has gotten to go and she loved it!!

Putting up the Christmas Tree: We had our traditional feast of snacks as we decorated for Christmas! I had fun decorating this year using some of the Rae Dunn pottery items I collected!

Winter Wonderfest at Navy Pier: One of our annual traditions is going to the Winter Wondefest at Navy Pier with Nate's parents, and this year was no exception! We had a great time and ended the day with a ride on the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel and dinner at Texas Roadhouse!

Santa Visit: We tried a new Santa location this year, The Santa House in downtown Naperville! We went after school, so it was fun to see the downtown lit up for Christmas! Jemma is definitely not a fan of Santa, so we all ended up in a picture!

Christmas Lights: Quite possibly one of my favorite traditions is driving around looking at lights! Naperville has such amazing displays that we spent 2+ hours driving around town. We didn't even cover half of the houses on the list! A highlight for the girls is getting chocolate shakes at McDonald's, this year we got fries too!!

Thanksgiving

We unfortunately had to separate from Nate for Thanksgiving this year! He worked both the night before, and the night of. So, for the sake of his well being, he stayed home to sleep while the girls and I headed to Crystal Lake for Thanksgiving at my parents house! He did celebrate that evening with his family at his Aunt's house on his way to work!

The table was gorgeous and festive!

So special to celebrate with Aunt Mar (my mom's sister) and GeeGee (my dad's mom)!

Dinner and dessert were delicious too! Thanks for hosting Mom and Dad! 

Just wanted to share what Jade wrote that she is Thankful for this year! I love her sweet little heart! :)

Fall Happenings Part 2

Pumpkin Patch

After school one afternoon we hit our local pumpkin patch for some fun before picking out pumpkins and getting apple cider donuts! :)

Observation Day at Ballet/Tap

Jemma was so excited to have Grammy come watch her during her classes observation week at her dance! Here is a video of the little dancer! Jemma is in the hot pink tutu. Follow this link here to See Jemma Tap Dance!


Halloween Fun

The weekend before Halloween was our Church's Annual Trunk or Treat event. Unfortunately Jemma was under the weather with a bad cough (we're thinking it might have been a mild case of croup) that kept her home from the event with daddy. Jade had a blast palling around with friends Grace and Sarah, and was sure to grab plenty of goodies for Jem.

Jemma was recovered in time to return to school on Halloween for her class parade and party! 

If you weren't sure, the girls were both LOL Surprise Dolls for Halloween. Jade was Queen Bee and Jemma was Curious QT. We had such a fun time walking all around the neighborhood with lots of friends!