Thanksgiving in Minnesota

      We drove up to Minnesota to see Ben's family for Thanksgiving. Being in driving distance is a  real perk of living in IL, and we need to take advantage of it more! This was Paige's first road trip and first visit to Minnesota. She did pretty well the way there, although we discovered she doesn't like being in the back in the dark when she's awake, but once we turned the light on she was happy the rest of the drive. We had fun seeing his parents and 5 (which is only half of them) of his siblings.
      We stopped at the "orange moose" in Wisconsin on the way....apparently a place Ben's family would stop for pictures when he was little.

 Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, and included some adorable pilgrim seat cards.

 Paige got to meet her Great Grandma and Grandpa May.

      That night Ben and I decided we would attempt Black Friday/Thanksgiving night shopping. At 5:00 we went to the gas station to get a newspaper (online adds weren't cutting it, we like to hold it in our hands), but they were completely sold out. We decided to venture out to Walmart anyways. We arrived at 10:00 pm and it was crazy! I couldn't even really move, and was getting bumped around by people. Thank goodness Ben's a giant so I knew I wouldn't lose him in a crowd. I've never seen a store that crowded. We ended up deciding there was nothing we wanted that was worth standing in the ridiculously long line, but we were glad we went just for the "experience".
      The next day we made a family trip to the Minnesota Zoo. This was Paige's first trip to the zoo, and she slept almost the entire time, waking up just in time for a few pictures at the end.

Mosquito...also referred to as the state bird

       Saturday we went with Casey, Cari, and Andi to Eddingtons, a soup and sandwich place Ben has been wanting to take me to. Then that night we all headed downtown to the Hollidazzle parade. It's a fun parade of people and floats with Christmas lights, and always a great way to make Chicago weather seem warm (I don't know how people aren't frozen year round in Minnesota).

Piper, Cari, Andi, & Michelle

Michelle and I, after getting a good laugh at some of the "interesting" people downtown

      After church on Sunday we wanted to get some pictures of Paige with the Holms.

Aunt Michelle

Uncle Tommy

We had a great time spending time with family, especially the Crookstons and Michelle who are moving to the Caribbean- we'll miss them! We felt very thankful this Thanksgiving for all we've been blessed with, especially our families. Ben and I had a great drive home and Paige was so worn out from all the Minnesota fun (and not sleeping well for 3 nights), that she slept just about the entire drive.

Birthday Boy and Anniversary

November is a fun month in our house! We celebrated Ben's birthday by going out to Cheesecake Factory (I know, I know, big shock). Ben can't resist their red velvet. He was most excited this birthday to buy an Ipad off his brother with his "running money" he earned, and upgrading his Iphone. Then we got him a few clothes, made him german-chocolate cupcakes, and he was a happy boy.

We also celebrated our 2 year anniversary! We left Paige at my brother's and enjoyed a fun dinner at Benihanas. I had never been there and it was quite the experience to watch all the crazy cooking. We had fun reminiscing about the past year, and decided it was basically summed up with being pregnant and having a baby- pretty good use of a year :) It's still weird for us to go out without a baby, but I always love a good date with my hubby. We have so much fun together, I still feel like one lucky girl.  Excited for year 3 of marriage!

4 months

Paige's sweet little personality is really starting to come out.
   -She laughs a lot, especially at Ben when he's trying to get her to roll over (which she refuses to do again)
   -Smiles all the time
   -Loves her toys (especially the strange cat stuffed animal) and really loves her exersaucer
   -Drools a lot and sucks on everything
   -Is still a great eater and sleeper
   -Wakes up very happy, content just hanging out in her crib, and then gets very excited when we get her
   -Can now take her binky out, play with it, and then put it back in (her favorite trick)
   -Is "talking" a lot and has a new growling noise
   -Wants to sit up and stand and only wants to be held like a baby if she's eating or sleepy
   -Rubs her eyes when she's sleepy (it's adorable, I love it)
   -Has started reaching at our food a lot...I'm not ready for solids yet
   -Discovered her feet
   -Learning how to hold her own bottle
   -Likes to pull her headbands down and either get them stuck over her eyes or suck on them. One time I took it off her and she reached around her head for it and then burst into tears when she realized it wasn't there to try to pull down

             4 month stats:
Weight: 15 lbs- 75 percentile
Height: 25 3/4 in- 95 percentile
Head: 17 in- 95 percentile

The exersaucer is our new best friend! And I just love the way her little legs and tutu look in it :)

 She stills loves a good snuggle, especially in our bed after we get her in the morning.

Sleeping in Saturday morning with daddy

Exhausted from church

Halloween and Mom's visit

Having a baby to dress up for Halloween was great! And to add to the excitement, my mom flew out here to play with us for a few days! I have so much fun with my mom when she comes....we hit the outlets, made Claire's birthday decorations, shopped some more, and did a lot of Halloween activities.

Camille convinced us to carve pumpkins (Ben, my mom, and I...not the most artistic people). So we busted out the "easy level" tracing shapes for pumpkins and got to work. We were quite pleased with our results :)

Our ward had a Halloween get-together and trunk-or-treat (and so did Bryce's ward...yes, we hit up both :), so Paige had multiple opportunities to wear her ladybug costume. My sister had this costume for Grace and we were more than happy to keep the look going.

Hanging with Delaney

My niece, Claire, had her first birthday while my mom was here, so we had a great time helping (with the pathetic crafty skills we have) with the adorable decorations and enjoying the party.

Claire chose Olive Garden for her birthday dinner ;)

My cousin Jordan and his girlfriend Megan drove down for the party

One happy birthday girl!

 Halloween night we got the kids all dressed up and headed out. Graham was an excellent trick-or-treater and the girls were happy to be along for the ride.

Can't wait for more fun Halloweens with our little girl and more fun visits from mom!