The End of 2012 :)

I LOVE that this sweet face still falls asleep in my arms every once in a while :)

On Friday, my mom was moved to a rehab center to begin therapy on her leg and shoulder.  Jackson, Graham and I hung out with our friend, Kim (and her baby bump!!!) in the morning, but then we visited Mimi after she was all settled in.  After visiting for a bit we went out to dinner, and Graham fell asleep right on me!!!  I was SO excited--that's such a fabulous feeling!  He was pretty fussy since it was past his bedtime, and I tried rocking him, but nothing much was working.  We finally decided I would hold him and jiggle him while Josh ate, and then we would switch.  All of a sudden, Graham layed his head on my shoulder and was OUT!  SUCCESS!  I was more than happy to sit and hold him like that.  Unfortunately, I had ordered fried chicken--not exactly one-hand friendly.  But we managed!

These two are quite the pair.  Jackson asked if he could have ice cream and Josh told him he could at home.  I was eating pretty slowly, and Dad asked if he could get Jackson some ice cream.  Sure, that would be a good time killer!  To his credit, Dad asked the waitress for just a little ice cream with chocolate sauce.  When his dessert came, it was a huge amount of ice cream with loads of whipped cream and a cherry!  Jackson was in heaven :)

 

I don't have any pictures, but on New Years Eve Eve, we ate an early dinner at Village Inn and then went for a drive in this fantastic neighborhood that has wonderful decorations!  We have been going there to look at the lights for ages--one of my favorite traditions :)

During the day on New Years Eve, we met the Buerstattes for lunch at Big Herms--SOO good, as always!  It was really nice to hang out with such good friends before we welcomed in the new year...  No clue why Kaitlyn has this look on her face, but it cracks me up!

CANNOT believe we are approaching Liam's THIRD birthday!!!

More silliness :)

Just playing around!

Snow Play and a Winter Wedding!

We did have quite the white visit to Evanston!  We got a pretty good snow on Christmas morning--such good timing!  Then it snowed most of the day on Thursday.  Jackson was more than excited to play in the snow and build a snowman :)

Of course, Josh and Jackson immediately began playing some kind of tackle game in the snow :)

We went down the street to the school, so there was just tons of untouched snow!

We even bundled Graham up for a few minutes to go play in the snow!

For the couple of minutes he had contact with it, he thought it was fine :)

Sliding down the slide was super fun!

Snow Buggle :)

Josh and Jackson built this snow friend.  His name was Frosty!

Giving him "five."

Checking him out

"Dap."

Frosty, the Snow Friend, complete with ear muffs, scarf, broccoli eyes, carrot nose and radish-slice mouth.

A little playtime with Daddy between playing in the snow and Mommy and Daddy getting ready to leave for our good friend, Abbey's, wedding!

Abbey wanted a winter wedding in Chicago, and she certainly got her wish!  Her wedding to Dan was at the Crystal Garden at Navy Pier.  It was just beautiful (and magical)!

Date Night!!!

With Dad ;)  We were SO glad he came with us!

Charlotte and Ryleigh, Abbey's nieces, were the flower girls, and they were so stinkin' cute!  Here they are enjoying beverages--I totally flashed back to this summer when Jackson was a ring bearer and was so entertained by his "fancy" drink!

The inside of the Crystal Gardens

Beautiful centerpiece

Awesome ceiling

First dance :)

Father-daughter dance!

 

Everything about the evening was beautiful!  I hope Abbey and Dan thought it was perfect!  The ceremony was lovely, the food was delicious, and any party thrown by the Tadelmans is sure to be a good time!  We were so glad we could celebrate with Mr. & Mrs. Erlenbaugh :) :) :)

Hanging Out at Mimi and Bampa's!

On Wednesday, Mom had her surgery on her shoulder.  It was scheduled for 3:30, I believe, but they didn't take her until 4:15, and then she didn't get out until almost 10!  Apparently they discovered they could NOT go in arthroscopically, so they had to take time to change out all their stuff before continuing with the more invasive procedure.  I didn't see her right after her leg surgery, but she seemed pretty uncomfortable after her shoulder surgery :(  They had thought she might move to rehab the next day, but that was definitely not happening.

Just hanging out, playing with some toys :)

Silly brothers!  Yesterday morning we went to Woodfield Mall to the play area to meet the Wiedemanns!  Jackson had such a good time playing with Ashley and Alyssa!  Jane, Graham, Alex and I had a good time catching up.  

I was trying to get a shot of Graham grabbing his feet, but this shot of his thighs is pretty good!

Go Northwestern!  I thought it would be fun to take a picture of Larry, Michelle, and the boys wearing NU clothes Larry and Michelle had gotten them.  CUTE!

We took the above picture before heading out to celebrate Josh's belated birthday!  We decided to go as planned to Jameson's Charhouse with my friend, Amanda, babysitting.  We did invite Brandi and Scott to come with us.  That was really fun, and a MUCH NEEDED time away from the kids!

Belated Christmas present for Josh: Sam Adams Octoberfest turned into reindeer bottles with a card attached gifting my very own made-up Beer of the Month Club from Wegmans :)

Larry got Coke bottles turned into reindeer with a few gift cards attached for movies and food!

Santa and his fleet!

Santa Came!

Merry Christmas Morning!  Santa came!!!  Jackson found a note from Santa right by the presents he left.  It explained that Santa knew Mimi was not at home, but he had brought her presents to the house.  He asked Jackson and Graham if they could help him and take them to Mimi.  The letter also explained that Sal went "home" with Santa to the North Pole and he would come back next Christmas.  So, we packed all the presents into Rubbermaid tubs and loaded them in the car and went to celebrate with Mimi!

Dad hadn't even seen most of these presents added to the pile when he was nervous about taking them all to Mom.  Once we packed them up, it didn't seem as overwhelming, and it worked out just fine :)

Jackson showing Graham his new dragon

Snuggles with Aunt Michelle

Jackson was a great helper passing out presents!  While we were waiting for everyone to get their presents, Graham started eating his :)

Nom, nom, nom!

Jackson opening his Santa present!  We didn't open this until we got home, but he was entertained playing with it still in the box all morning!

Graham got a cute Leap Frog play house from Santa!

He is starting to sit up some on his own now, so he was happy to prop himself up on Daddy's legs and check out his new toy

There is a restaurant my family likes to go to called Valley Lodge.  My mom and dad got Larry and Josh each a nice glass with the restaurant's logo on it.  BUT, one glass broke, so I wrapped the other glass and put both of their names on it.  Josh took the good glass, and my parents will take Larry his replacement when they go visit next.

Graham checking out his cute, soft book from Aunt Michelle and Uncle Larry

Graham loved hanging out with Aunt Michelle

Case and point :)

Posing with their decorative blocks

We got Dad a big mug/small owl to eat his popcorn snacks out of.  It says: Bampa's Popcorn

After Michelle got Graham mostly to sleep, he conked pretty much right out in my arms.  

Larry and Michelle turned one of the pictures of us from their wedding into a canvas!  It is beautiful, and I think it is going to be the centerpiece for the photo collage wall I want to put on the wall in the family room!

Sweet Christmas morning hugs!  Check out the snow outside!  It snowed while we were opening presents!

And hugs for Uncle Larry too :)

I am SO glad we took Christmas to my mom!  It definitely wasn't the same, but such a good decision.  We ended up doing all of the presents at once since it took quite a while for the nurses to get a wheelchair for Mom to come down to the waiting room that we hung out in.  We didn't know how long it would take if we came back later...  We went home for lunch and quiet time, Josh and Larry went to play basketball at Roycemore, and then we pretty much just hung out for the rest of the day.