Grandma and Grandpa B Visit:)

My folks came out for two weeks in December and it was awesome. I feel like I/we were running almost the whole time. I thought I had most of my Christmas done but after changing my mind on several gifts it was apparent I wasn't as close to done as I had hoped. While they were here the kids helped papa with puzzles, my mom helped me finish my Christmas cooking, went shopping, hung interior doors (thanks dad:), made a cloth nativity set(my favorite), went to a play, picked kids up from school and more!

It was awesome having my mom's eager, helping hands.

Going to A Christmas Carol. Amazing! We were three or fours from the front so we didn't miss any facial detail. It was great! And the best part was leaning over and seeing a huge grin on my dad's face. It was a little too scary for Spencer, especially when Marley visited, but he made it through unscathed.

Breakfast at Bongo Room:

Zoo Lights:

Dolphin Show at the Shedd:

The Wise men from the nativity we made.

I grew up with this same nativity and loved it as a child. Last year my mom brought out the material she had bought for each of us to one day make our own. I've been wanting to make it sense then but I've been afraid to attempt it in fear I would ruin it. (I also didn't have a sewing machine until this Christmas where I used some of the money my mom gave me for it, thanks mom!) This was my chance to knock it out with my mom's help! And we did too. We whipped it out in all but a night and day with exception to the wise men and camel that took a lot longer because of the bead work. I love how it turned out and I already can't wait for next Christmas.

Thanks mom and dad for coming. I thoroughly enjoyed it and we all went through withdrawals after you guys left. My mom played so hard with the kids, especially Spencer, that we all missed that special interaction. And I missed my dad when I had to finish hanging the doors by myself (Chris would've helped if I would've waited for him). We love you guys, can't wait till you come back!!!

Grandma and Grandpa M Visit:)

I l.o.v.e when we have visitors, especially grandparents! Chris' mom came out last Monday and his dad on Thursday. Right away I took advantage of having grandma here and cut the boys hair while she helped distract them:) We went to the Science and Industry with Grandma and the Field Museum with grandma and grandpa later in the week. Chris had a one-on-one lunch with both parents. We ate a good variety of food (thai, american, seafood, chinese, pizza, and Ann Sathers (love the cinnamon rolls!)

I didn't take lots of pictures but here's some:

Playing in the rain

Doing worksheets

The week before Cherie and Jim came Spencer had told me he wished his grandma could pick him up from school. Lucky for him his grandma was coming in a week and she picked him up every day she was here along with Grandpa on Friday and he loved it!

Jared's pick up.

We finished off the week at Jared's school fall festival, Fallapalooza. It would have been perfect if it was warmer but it was still fun with lots of mini activities, soccer, pumpkin decorating, and a really fun DJ.

We miss you guys! Wish we weren't so far away.

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

This last Wednesday through Sunday we had Chris' parents in town. I LOVE visitors and so do my boys. Jim had meetings and stayed at the hotel downtown while Cherie stayed with us and spent time with the boys. We had fun hanging out, eating good food, and playing the wii. Grandparents are the best!

I Miss You Already!

I seriously have the best mother-in-law. This time round I wasn't able to have my mom come help me out after Miles was born seeing she is serving a church mission. There's nothing quite like having your mom take care of you. You don't have to tell her what to do she does everything plus more and she already knows all my faults and weaknesses and loves me in spite of it all. I missed not having her.But... lucky me Cherie is my second mother and loves me in spite of me as well. I can be a difficult person to live with, just ask my husband, but Cherie never complained or commented on my bad days. She let me rest and nap when I needed it and carried Spencer whenever I needed it. Seriously by the end of the day I know she was worn out but she never complained. The only time she'd say anything is if we asked her if she was tired. She cooked, cleaned, changed dirty diapers (Spencer's are horrible!), made Spencer's AweSomE halloween costume (stay tuned) and loved my boys. We are all missing her, especially Spencer who spent most early mornings sleeping with her. I am so appreciative to this wonderful lady who gave me two exhausting weeks of her life to devote to our family. How did I luck into marrying into such a good family? I cried as I dropped her off at the airport on Saturday. She truly is a blessing to me and my family. We love you!!!

Meservy Girls Visit the Windy City

We've had a real treat these past couple of days of having all three of Chris' sisters visit us! I decided I don't need one nanny, I need three and they all need to be these girls:

Bailey, Ashley, Mallory

They too decided it's nice to have three of them. One can play with the boys and exhaust themself then switch off with another sister to rest while the boys go full steam ahead. How do I do it they asked? I don't! The boys simply have more fun when company is around and are sad when they leave:(

While they've been here they've mainly played with the boys and we've managed to fit shopping in on magnificent mile and the zoo. While at home Jared has enjoyed playing Candy Land, Simon Says, and doing homework with Bailey (he sat by her doing his "homework" for well over 10 mins if not 20. During which he innocently asked Bailey, "Can I keep my homework? I don't want to turn it in.)While they were here we enjoyed good food, home cooked and eat out. We tried a new place, Smoke, suggested by friends and loved it, and of course took them to Unos for my favorite pizza here four cheese and pesto, YUM!We also went to the zoo, did more shopping, tried to work off the food to p90x ab ripper, and played games together. These girls love our boys so much and we really will miss them already! When I picked up Jared from his friends after dropping the girls off at the airport he told his friends, "I'm going to see my aunts!" He wasn't too happy when I explained they had to go home. Please come back often!

Say Oprah and They Will Come!

At the beginning of December Chris called from work informing me that day was the day to get Oprah tickets for January. He gave me the number and said I had an hour left to try. Yeah right, with only an hour left this would be impossible. But since he went through the effort to let me know I decided I'd at least try. After about 10-15 mins of ringing, busy, hang-up and ringing again I got through and now had access to four tickets! I decided to go with the end of the month giving anyone more of a chance to get out here. All five wanted to come but due to conflicts, three of my sisters couldn't make it, but Heidi and Camille did!

(many of the photos seen below are taken from Camille's camera)

(Camille in agreeance to yummy pizza:)

They flew in on the 29th the day before the showing. That night we had my favorite pizza from Unos, four cheese and pesto, and then headed off to the Children's Museum (free night).

Jared and Camille

Heidi and Spencer

Heidi and I being silly then normal below Man that man was attractive!

Camille in little archaeologist clothes and in action below Below Camille was trying to get her head out of the head from a previous picture and I snapped an extra shot and got an even better expression.

By the time we got home we were exhausted and ready to go to bed since we had to leave my house by 6:20ish to get to Oprah's studio on time.

The day of the showing happened to be the coldest days they were here. Camille wore boots but these weren't warm boots. In fact she wore no socks at all! CRAZY!!!! Plus she had no gloves and we didn't wear hats because we didn't want to mess up our hair, of course:). We didn't have to wait too long for the bus since we were able to track it but we waited long enough. Once off the bus we ran to the studio (partly cause we were later than we wanted and because you're warmer when running). At the studio we met up with my friend Beth who gladly filled our 4th spot.

Beth and me

me, Heidi, Camille

We had to be there at 7:00 and it was to last till 11:00. That means a lot of sitting and waiting. While you're waiting there's lots of posters and clips of past shows. Of course these are the big give away shows so you get a little excited, what if....:) We finally make it into the studio where you wait some more while they fill time. During this time we got a gift... an Oprah pen found under our seats. Unfortunately we didn't have the lucky pens with an additional gift.

FINALLY Oprah comes out on stage with Lisa Ling and here's the gist of the show. It was a follow up show of stories Lisa had done in the past. The first was of heroine addicts. One a family of 5 where everyone was addicted except for the toddler and the other story of a pregnant teen. The family was currently receiving treatment and so far was a success story. The girl ended up having a healthy baby who she gave up for adoption but since has relapsed and is in prison.

The next story was on the FLDS church in Texas where all the children were taken away. She went back and "for the first time" talked to the children that were involved. So I guess that was a little interesting when she talked to the kids but besides that, not too interesting. I've heard so much on this topic that it would've been nice to hear something different.

So we left... disappointed, but hey! We saw Oprah right?! I'll have to try again next season and hopefully I'll get a fun show. Who cares about gifts, I just want to it to be more interesting!



Our wait for the bus on the way home was very long. We didn't have Internet access so we had no idea how long we'd have to wait. I didn't time it but it was too long. We were all cold and poor Heidi's nose was too many shades too red.


Once at home we were hungry had pizza leftovers and picked up the kids to take them to Jared's Basketball.



That evening we started Pride and Prejudice. The long one. Camille has that movie memorized! We were only able to stay up for an hour of it before we zonked. The next day we had things planned but decided to just enjoy sitting and watching the movie. It felt especially good for Heidi to just sit (she's used to running after 6 kids, who dearly missed her while she was gone).


That night we headed off to a ballet of Cinderella. It was fun but we decided we'd definitely like the nutcracker more. My favorite Characters were the step sisters. I thought they had some fun dances.

Camille, Me, Heidi

Heidi by the sign with her son's name

As for the rest of the time I just thoroughly enjoyed laughing, talking, and crying with my sisters. We missed the other three and wish they could've been there. I'm so grateful for my sisters, they really are some of my best friends!

Camille and me