Holiday Baking with my little Helpers

I had today off work, and I'm also off tomorrow. Just to spend a few days at home with Emma and Drew, and try to get prepared for Christmas... even if it is just mentally. Our lives are so crazy, day in and day out. We are constantly running from here to there, and sometimes it feels like we're just going through the motions. We did decorate for Christmas, put our tree up, Andrew did the lights outside.. and most of our shopping is done, but I just didn't have that usual holiday feeling. I never stopped to enjoy it or take any of it in. So that was my goal over the last few days. I wanted to just slow down, spend quality time with the kids, stay home and enjoy all of our Christmas decorations... listen to Christmas music, do some holiday baking... and I thought that's just what I needed. It's my favorite holiday, and I started to get a little sad thinking it would come and go without me even realizing it because of how busy our lives are right now.

So we did just that today! We cuddled on the couch and watched the Grinch that Stole Christmas, and later we put on Christmas music and sang and danced around and baked cookies.

First, we started our day with Christmas pancakes for my kiddos!

Then we got into the baking....

My little baker elfs!

Flour face!

Drew spent more time throwing flour around (To make it snow) than anything else. He is definitely a boy. Which... is why we do these types of activities while daddy isn't home. Because I'm sure Andrew would have had a heart attack had he seen the condition of the kitchen during this operation.

(This was about 1/3 of them)

And... Our MESS!!

On tomorrow's agenda: Cake Balls. (Sort of like a cake pop, but smaller- bite size, and not on a stick.)

We have a few errands to run if I'm brave enough to go to the stores the week before Christmas with crazy crowds and two crazy kids. ;-)

We will just have to see how the day goes.

Chicago - A Day in the City

My cousin Will is in town this weekend visiting. The kids love it when he comes... because he likes to play with them. (And he gives in to carrying Emma around all the time, so she likes that.)
Yesterday we went into the city. This is probably going to be one of those 'picture blogs' because I took a lot of pictures.
We brought the kids to check out the lights and decorations and stuff. My dad wanted to check out a German fest they had going on also. And we went over to Millennium park and watched the ice skaters for a bit, let the kids have fun with the 'bean', walked around for a little bit and then Andrew and I headed home with the kids and stopped for dinner on the way home.
We were all going to try to do dinner in the city but it was tough with the kids, everywhere had a wait and they were cold, so we started to drive home and went somewhere that wasn't as crazy and let the rest of them stay down there. I just knew having the kids wait 40+ minutes just to get a table wasn't going to be fun for any of us.

We brought the little folding strollers, because we figured our huge double stroller would have been obnoxious trying to maneuver through the crowds, but I hate the little ones. I think I would have rather dealt with the obnoxiousness of the big stroller to have the real tires and easier glide.

Emma and her fishies.

Drew gettin a lift with his Pop

Emma & Cousin Will

My beautiful Mother!

Drew & Pop having a serious conversation. Drew had a lot to say.

Horse & Carriage

Michigan Avenue

The 'Bean' in Millennium Park

Em & Drew checking themselves out in the bean

I love this one of Drew. He looks so tiny... and then you can see the reflection of the skyline at the top

Watching the ice skaters

Andrew & The kids at dinner:

These pictures make me laugh.

They have fun with their dad

This morning Emma and I went on a breakfast run... Andrew was craving an omelet from a breakfast place up the street so we called it in and took a quick ride. I'm glad I did... it was breathtaking outside. Every single branch on every tree was covered in snow/frost or ice, and the sun was shining. It was beautiful.

Our neighborhood looked like a winter wonderland