Hats and Shoes

Tessa has taken a liking to hats and shoes. Here she is with her new favorite hat from Grandma Sassy. She asks for it first thing in the morning and wears it for hours at a time.


Here she is after Thanksgiving wishing she could wear mamas "boos" (boots).

The Holidays are Here!

We put up our holiday decorations last night after the kids went to bed and took a few pics of the kids coming out to see everything this morning. They didn't notice anything at first, but once we pointed them in the direction of the tree, they spent quite a bit of time looking at it, smelling it (this is funny because it's a fake tree) and touching all the ornaments they could reach. We strategically placed a few non-breakable ornaments within their reach. They gave Santa, an elf, Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman lots of kisses. So far they haven't pulled the tree over or broken any ornaments, but it's still early. We're working on getting them to say HO HO HO while jiggling their bellies.

We took a quick trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo today. We went thinking the kids could see Santa, but I must have must have read the flyer wrong. Santa didn't start until 5pm. Oops! Oh well, it was actually really fun. We practically had the place to ourselves. Max and Tessa loved watching the monkeys and the lions and wanted to touch everything in the gift shop. It was chilly, but a beautiful sunny day. We even took a ride on the carousel!

Happy Turkey Day

Max and Tessa with their first turkey hats! We have so much to be thankful for this year, most of all our friends and family. We hope you are enjoying Thanksgiving with your friends and families. We are off to Duke's brother's house later this afternoon.

Jump Around!

Max and Tessa have developed a love for dancing over the past month or so. We have little dance parties several times a day. Their favorite type of music is rap/hip-hop and it's just a complete riot to watch. Check out our favorite video so far.

Hoosier

This year was the 20th anniversary of the Indiana University Dance Marathon and 10 years ago, I was lucky enough to be involved in planning the event. I headed back to IU on Saturday to celebrate the anniversary and catch up with some college friends. The picture above is of our 4:00 am Mad Mushroom cheese sticks! Visiting the Marathon was a blast and it was an evening full of laughs with some old friends. It was a short trip, but it was packed full of fun! And, to top it all off, IUDM raised over $1.6 million dollars for Riley Hospital for Children. I'm hoping that Duke and I can head back together next fall with some friends for some more college fun.

For my fellow IU Alumni reading the blog, here are a few things I noticed/learned while back on campus:

Kilroys on Kirkwood has been totally renovated and now has a top floor with big leather booths where kids order bottle service. Yes, bottle service.

La Bamba is gone. No more "burritos as big as your head." Several people had a hard time accepting this news this weekend.

The fanny pack is back! I didn't get the memo, but apparently neon fanny packs are all the rage with college girls. We saw them. Lots of them.

It's not a s fun to sing the fight song at the bar on the day your team looses 83 to 20.

Happy Halloween

We had so much fun this weekend. I'm sad it's over! Friday night, we had a sleepover with the Oskay girls and I wish we could do it more often. It was so fun to see all the kids play together. Tessa loved having a little dance party with Emme and Delanie.

Saturday we all headed to Glen Ellyn to the Beaumont's for Keely and Spencer's baby shower. They are expecting TWIN GIRLS in early 2011!!!! Keely looked amazing and it was so good to see both Keely and Spencer. We wish we could see them more often. We took all the kids to the Glen Ellyn halloween parade and then headed back to the Beaumont's for food, cheesecake and gifts. The weather was gorgeous and everyone got great pics of the day. I especially love the shot of all the girls. We've gotten one at every baby shower so far. The monkey in the group shot is little Charlie Wells (you can't see them in this pic, but his cheeks are super pinchable!) and the butterflies are Ainsley and Emery Beaumont (I'm going to have to post some other close ups of these girls...adorable!)

Sunday, we headed to Duke's parent's house to show off our little lions to grandma and grandpa. We had some fun play time outside, a great lunch and a little shopping for M&T. Our little babies were exhausted by Sunday night and barely made it to 6:30 pm!

I can't wait until next year when we can take them trick or treating for the first time!

Tessa's First Haircut

Here is a picture of Tessa's first haircut. She was such a big girl! No crying or fussing. I can't stand the thought of Max loosing his curls, so I decided I'd let him cut his hair when he goes to college.