I love Christmas!!!

Well we've done quite a bit lately for the Christmas season.  We've had a lot of fun having people over and everything. Tonight, we had Josh, Laura and Charity over for a "Family Christmas." 

I made the traditional ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and rolls. Here's a picture of us eating... ;)

We also gave gifts to eachother. I got a new journal and Jake got an "office" trivia game, we'll be playing that a lot for the next few months;)

On Sunday, we had our usual crowd over for dinner, but this week we had a Christmas party! We had 12 people show up! Here's some of the crowd:) We had  a blast doing the $5 gift exchange game. 

For supper, I made Chili and "glorified" potato soup. And for dessert: Chocolate chunk cookies, sugar cookies, dipped pretzels and dipped ritz crackers and peanut butter. Almost everything was gone after the party. You can really tell they are a bunch of starving college students:)

On Saturday, Jake and I had to make all the treats for our Christmas party. Jake really wanted to help and had this amazing idea of making our own double pan so the chocolate doesn't burn. Notice the zip tie. What a smart husband:)

Here's Jake making the dipped ritz crackers and peanut butter. He did a great job! They turned out beautiful!

Jake caught in the act... eating his quadruple decker!!!!

The beautiful dessert Jake made:)

Laura and I at the Grand Luxe on our double date with the guys:)

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

Jake and I decorated our Christmas tree last night. We had so much fun. We turned up the Christmas Music and just enjoyed the cheerful spirit!

Putting on the star for the first time:)

Josh and Laura came and helped:)

Ahhh relaxation.... Christmas music, lights off, Christmas tree on, City lights on, coffee and the best of all Jake....

Our Tree!

Here's our Nativity set that Ann gave us! We love it! 

oops there's a snowflake ornament in the middle sorry!

Winter Wonderland

Jake and I had a wonderful time in Iowa for Thanksgiving. It was so good to see our family and friends. It was a weekend packed with food and fun! One night while we were at Matt and Shannon's house, it snowed! So we went out and played in it!

It was REALLY great to see Shannon. I've missed her so much!

Elliot, Matt and Shannon's dog, loved the snow! 

On Sunday, me and the girls went out and made a snowman and snow angels before we left.

They worked so hard on it:)

We didn't have any twigs to make his arms so Bekah hid behind Frosty to make his arms for the pictures:) 

Our finished project :)

What a fun weekend!

Haircut!

While I was in Iowa I decided to cut my hair and donate it to Locks of Love. I wanted to donate it in honor of Jessie. She is a friend of mine that has a brain tumor.

Here's the first cut.

There's all my hair! Hopefully it will make a beautiful wig :)

And here's the finished product!

After the haircut, I went and surprised Jessie to show her what I did in honor of her. It was perfect timing because she had just started losing her hair.

Michigan Lights Parade

Last weekend, Jake and I went to the Lighting of Michigan Ave. with Josh and Laura. It was a very fun night! There were a ton of people there!

The parade was great! It started with Mickey Mouse lighting all of Michigan and ended with Santa and Fireworks! And most of the music the whole night was live!

Here's a pic of the fireworks over the river. We had a perfect view :)

More Visitors!

My cousin, Jenny, and her husband, Rick, came to visit us this weekend. We had a blast! Rick had never been here, so even though it was bitterly cold, we walked down Michigan Ave. and of course had to go shopping:)

You can tell we're really cold! I love this picture though! It captured the moment really well. We were standing on Michigan before walking over the river just having fun together:)

We of course had to show Rick "The Bean." This is a very large "bean" shaped metal structure in Millenium Park that reflects the skyline really well! Here's Jenny and Rick in front of it.

And here's our reflection in the bean:) We look kind of scary!

After visiting "The Bean" and the Towers with the faces on them, we took pictures together in the park.

As you can see, they are newly married too:) They got married 2 weeks after Jake and I! I love this picture!

What a cute couple.

I am so thankful to have a cousin like Jenny. We have been friends since birth and it was SO fun to have her in town. I've really missed her! Love you Jenny! And you too Rick ;)

A Great Weekend

Max and Rita came to visit us last weekend. We had such a wonderful time with them! Friday we went out for dinner. Saturday we went to Ikea and then had supper at our place. We also went to Target and Chinatown! And Sunday they came to church with us! 

Moody does this great thing and lets parents of students stay in their extra apartments, if they don't have any pastors or missionaries staying there. So, Max and Rita were able to stay in the same building as us! It was great!

I told Max that he would get Continental Breakfast at the Hering's Apartment on Saturday morning. :) So, we had Pancakes, eggs, bacon and lattes (made by Java Jake). Here's a picture of me making the breakfast.

Sorry some of the pictures are blue, there was a setting wrong on the camera:(

Here's us ready to eat our breakfast, of course Jake's being goofy for the picture.

Saturday, we went to Ikea out in the suburbs. It was truly a field trip! We shopped in Ikea forever! It's huge! We ended up buying a book shelf  and ice cube trays! :) Here's Jake putting the book shelf together, what a man:)

Max took this picture of us. I really like it! Thanks Max!

We didn't get any pictures with Max and Rita, I was so bummed when I realized that. I guess its hard to set the timer and take a picture of all of us:) Hope you enjoyed the few pictures we did get! We really had a great time!

Look who Came to Town!

My parents and my sisters came to visit this weekend! We had so much fun! Friday night we went out for pizza and then the girls spent the night with Jake and I. Then, on Saturday my mom, my sisters and I went out shopping! Jake and my dad went to Navy Pier and the Guitar Store. Then we all had supper at our apartment! We had a wonderful time together. Enjoy the pictures!

Here's me and my girls walking to the pizza place. 

Rebekah and Elizabeth spent the night on Friday night with Jake and I. Elizabeth loved our comfy sac! It was fun to have our "slumber party" again just like when I lived in Iowa:)

Our first stop for Saturday was to the new American Girl store. The girls loved it! Their faces were so cute when they walked into the store. 

Rebekah and Elizabeth showing off their new "American Girl Chicago" shirts.

Us being silly after going to the Hershey store... mmmmm chocolate our favorite!

The last stop for our shopping trip was Lego Land! This store is so cool, they have big objects made out of legos everywhere! I think the girls could have stayed there playing with the legos all day!

We rode the train home after shopping and Rebekah and Elizabeth loved it!

We had such a great time with my family. It was a short but great trip! We can't wait to see them over Thanksgiving break. Now we're looking forward to Max and Rita coming!