Jade is happy to say....

So far Jade seems excited to be a big sister, although I'm not sure she 100% understands. :)

She loves looking at the ultrasound picture!!

The big sister to be!!

We couldn't be more excited to share this news. I found out I was pregnant several days before Christmas, so keeping it a secret has been so hard!! So glad the secret is now out! :)

The Children's Museum

We got a family membership to the DuPage Children's Museum in Naperville for Christmas this year, which we were all super excited about it. It's a great activity for cold snowy days and Jade just loves it! Here are a few pictures of the things Jade enjoyed most today!

 

Giant black light board

Playing instruments

Coloring

 The gears, she is looking at the flags flying above when you spin the gears

 

The wind tunnel with daddy

Today was the first time she really wanted to go in the wind tunnel, and she loved it

Driving the big train

 

We had a great morning at the museum followed by lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Front Street Cantina, in downtown Naperville afterward! The opportunity for us to do something as a family during the week is so rare, so today was a treat for both Jade and I!



Snowed in

It has been absolutely freezing cold and very snowy around here. Although we haven't actually been snowed in, it sure feels like it. We have hardly gone anywhere the last few days. To say we are ready to get out is quite an understatement. We are however, very thankful for our very generous family and friends who gave Jade so many new toys to play with!

 

 

We did go outside for about 20 minutes so I could shovel and Jade could finally play in the snow! She loved it, and of course, didn't want to come in!

 

 



Christmas, just us three

Every year, Nate and I love driving around looking at Christmas lights. We discovered that Naperville has a website with all the "must see" houses. So this year, on the night of the 22nd, we got Jade in her jammies and headed out to look at as many of these houses as we could! Jade seemed to enjoy it, and stayed awake the whole time.

 

 

This was our favorite house on the tour!

 

Nate had a couple of very busy days at work between that night and Christmas Morning. Luckily he got home around 8 in the morning on Christmas Day, just in time to open presents and enjoy a cinnamon roll breakfast!

Santa came!

Love this one of Jade opening her present!

 

More presents!

 

Showing off her new stuff!

Trying to figure out her new potty...

 

Haha ;)

 

The Princess Castle was a big hit!

 

Santa

Today we took Jade to see Santa at the Bass Pro Shop as we did last year. They have a great setup that includes a free picture with Santa, coloring, a carousel and lots of exhibits. Here are a few pictures from our morning!

Coloring a picture!

Mailing it to Santa! 

Admiring Santa from afar.....

But not up close!!

Finishing up the experience on the carousel!

A bit of Jade

I finally got around to taking some pictures and video of Jade today. She loves wearing her name tag sticker from church pretty much the rest of the day, so she has it on in most of these pictures.

Weeeee

I told Jade to be silly...however I have seen her much sillier than this :)

Best friends (this photo was not enhanced, I do not know why Charcoal's tongue looks that pink)!!

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Jade was standing at the fridge looking at her letter magnets, so I thought it would be a good time to quiz her on her letter identification. She did pretty good considering half the letters were upside down!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We had a fun day putting up our Christmas tree together as a family. Here are a few pictures highlighting our afternoon.

Our traditional snacks!

Jade enjoying the tradition.

Daddy helping Jade hang some of the non-breakable ornaments.

 Loving the puppy ornament I selected for her this year.

Posing with her puppy.

A close up of the ornament. I made sure it went up high enough on the tree where she couldn't see it and ask to take it down! :)

The finished tree!