A Big Catch Up

It's been awhile.....but I still want to backtrack and post some pictures of all our holiday fun!
We will start with Thanksgiving. I wish I had more pictures to give this trip justice, but it really was so much fun!
For the first time in 4 years my whole family was able to spend Thanksgiving together. All of us met at my brother's house in Mississippi. We did a lot of cooking and a lot of playing!
The kids had so much fun with their cousin Christian and their grandparents.
As for our Thanksgiving feast, it was out of this world GOOD! My brother has become quite the talented chef, and had us make everything from scratch. Seriously everything, all the way down to the cranberry sauce. It was a ton of work, but soooo worth it in the end!
We were so happy to be together!




After Thanksgiving, we started getting ready for Christmas! We baked and baked and the girls were a "Big" help!

We went to a fun Christmas parade in St Charles.



Then we headed to Utah! It was so much fun to see everyone again. The girls were beyond excited for Christmas! They got some fun gifts and loved getting to play with their cousins and grandparents.

We also got together with some old friends!

Then we came home and celebrated the new year!

A week later we celebrated my 27th birthday! I got the best gift of all, 70 degree weather! That's only happened one other time in my life, while we lived in Philadelphia.

So we took advantage went to the Zoo.

Then of course had some cake!

We are thankful for Grandparents!

During the past six months we've been blessed to have all the Grandparents come and visit. Even though we live far away, they always come as often as possiable. My girls are so lucky to have these special people in their lives and so are Greg and I.

Thanks for all you do for us! We love you.

A fun "Jenna" weekend!

Well for the first time, since having kids, I got to have a weekend all to myself! I went to Utah for my cousins wedding and also tried to fit in as many other people as possible. It was fun indeed, but I missed my little clan the whole time.

I flew out Friday evening at 6:00pm.
The flight was by far the most foreign for me, because I actually got to sit and read a book. Normally I'm bending twisting, grabbing, and stressing trying to occupy my little nuggets, but this time I actually got to be still.

When I got off the plane to meet my ride, (one of my best friends Heather and her husband Scott) I walked down the escalator and saw this!


My other best friend Kajsa and her new dog Max came to greet me too! It was so sweet of them!

Kajsa unfortunately had to leave right after the airport, but Scott, Heather and I got to hang out for a bit. It was about 9:45 by the time we got going, and it turned out we were all hungry so we went to Iggy's sports grill to get some dinner. 10:00pm dinner with Scott and Heath, felt just like our old college days! It was so much fun to talk and catch up. I love them both! Thanks guys for such a fun night!

After dinner I drove to my parents house and the next day we got up to go to my cousin Mythanne's wedding!

I loved every minute of it. She looked so beautiful and I was so happy I got to be apart of it. Everyone just loves her new hubby Jace. They are truly perfect together. It was also fun to hang out with my other cousins and family members.

The next day, after the wedding, I went to see my other best friend (I have a lot of best friends!) Holly and her adorable new baby Brody! I was excited! He is just as perfect as can be. I'm so happy for her. It's always so fun when such a good friend enters motherhood with you! I love them both and so happy I was able to see them.

After visiting with Holly, I went back home and chatted with my Mom and Dad for a bit, then headed over to Greg's brothers house for a family get together. I loved seeing all of them, we have so much fun.

After the get together, my father in law drove me to the airport and back to my real life I went! It was wonderful to come home to my family! I miss them so much when they're not with me!

Getting ready for Halloween

Brinley's pre-school had a Halloween party, so Julianne and I got to go help out. It was really fun and Julianne loved getting to go to school with sissy.

Julianne getting to eat snacks at the "big kid table".

Playing games

The Saturday before Halloween we did our annual pumpkin carve.

Julianne did NOT want to touch inside!
The girls and I while Greg actually carved the pumpkins.
The finished product!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was so much fun this year! We had a great time taking the little girls around trick or treating. We found the perfect place to go!

This awesome neighborhood in St. Charles, where we have some friends, goes all out.

There was a house that made homemade hot chocolate, another that did hot dogs, one that had chili, one that made s'mores, and then a guy that drove his tractor up and down the street giving people hay rides. Not to mention about 5 of the houses gave out full size candy bars!

It was a blast, my camera's battery died out so I wasn't able to get a ton of pictures, but we're always going to go to this place to trick or treat from now on.

Julianne went as Nemo!
She was darling!







Brinley went as Cinderella!


Her Princess pose

Being silly!

We had such a fun night!