Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Eleven Months Old

Abigail is eleven months old. She is pulling up to stand and trying to walk. She's still under 20 pounds, I think 18. She has four teeth.
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She really hates wearing bows.
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She still has a smile that can melt my heart.
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Monday, December 27, 2010

Family Trip to Chicago

Part of our Christmas gift to one another was a quick family trip to Chicago. We window shopped and spent a little of our Christmas money.
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Went to the American Doll store.
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Looked at the beautiful downtown Christmas decorations.
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Swam in the slightly cold hotel pool
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Watched our friend, and fellow church planter, Ken Schultz, perform at Navy Pier.
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Finally, we made a quick visit to the Children's Museum before heading home.
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Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas

Following the road of lights Santa made for us!
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Santa left alot of goodies and decorated our house again this year!
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Honestly, I just really loved the lights in this picture and had to share it.
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Abby's first baby doll
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Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve 2010

We had a very traditional Christmas Eve dinner of Kentucky Fried chicken before going to the service at our church. I love taking a picture of our family on Christmas Eve.
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Abby is wearing the same outfit Aiden and Anthony wore for their first Christmas. Well, the boys didn't have to wear the bow.
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We made oatmeal raisin cookies for Santa earlier in the day, because Daddy insisted those were Santa's favorite!
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We wrote a note and left out the cookies and milk.
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Then we sprinkled the "magic reindeer food" on the ground outside our door.
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We opened up our new pajamas, our first present.
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We opened our last book for the Christmas season. This one was the Bible! We read the most important story of Jesus' birth and talked about why we celebrate Christmas.
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But the real story of this night, I don't have a picture of at all. You see, we were late to that Christmas Eve service. We barely skidded into the parking lot. Patrick and I were just too busy leading Aiden to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ to get there on time! It was a Christmas Eve I will Never forget! My greatest joy is to help usher children into the family of God. I've never experienced joy quite like listening to my son pray and admit that he did things wrong and wanted Jesus to take away all of his wrong things and be the boss over his life. Joy to the World!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Blessed

In case you haven't noticed . . .

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God gave me some beautiful babies!
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Sunday, December 19, 2010

Polar Express

In the book/movie, Polar Express, all of the children board the train to the North Pole. It's a sweet story. All of the children are in their pajamas, robes, and slippers. They travel to see Santa Claus. It's one of my favorite Christmas movies. So, when I heard that a local place was doing a Polar Express with their train, I jumped at the chance to take the children. I prepped them by showing them the movie and off we went!

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i was searching for that child like magic from my children. I can assure you, not one of those children in that movie are from Illinois!!! Instead of magic, I got chattering teeth! We happened to attend on the Coldest night of the year! Even though we were very bundled up, we were freezing! The train was open, letting that cold air just whip through our layers. Anthony was still smiling though! He loves Blackberry Farm and that train!
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Abby was Not amused at this adventure!
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At the end of the night we were rewarded with getting to talk to Santa. Aiden asked for Ham from Toy Story.
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Anthony asked for a box with a key in it.
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Abby, well, she didn't cry, but once again, she was not really amused with this adventure!
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Now, we're off for our hot cocoa!!! Hopefully it will thaw us out!
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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Chaney Christmas

Nan, Aunt PJ, and CJ arrived at our house to celebrate Christmas with us!
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We took them sledding!
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Aiden
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Nan coming down!
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All dressed up for a picture!
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Every night we opened a book and read a story together
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Just look at all these gifts! There's some fun Christmas presents there too!!!
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Nan's Christmas train project
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CJ learns to shovel snow
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Santa Cow!
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Grandaddy and Uncle Mark were hunting, but they are finally here! They are both just "resting their eyes" I'm sure!
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The night before Christmas I decided to finally work on my Christmas gift to the kids
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One down and one very late night ahead of me!
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Four sock monkeys!
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When Aiden saw his sock monkey he hugged me and said, "You're the Best Mommy ever!"
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It was worth no sleep!!!
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Opening Christmas presents
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Hershey's Kiss for Hershey
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Time to make Christmas dinner, working on the dressing
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Family
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One of the new toys, a Giga Ball, was a huge hit!
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Look at that hair!
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Snowcream before they hit the road back to Texas
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CJ likes it!
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We had an amazing time with our family for Christmas! We also went to the movies to see "Tangled," did a little shopping, and made some amazing memories together!