Opening Presents

Grammy's house:



Abigail with Grammy and Jimmy (step-grandpa):

Aunt Jana's house:




Also while visiting Arkansas, the cousins had a blast at Chuck E. Cheese and playing outside in 60 degree weather.

Thanksgiving

What a spread, thanks to Grammy in Arkansas! We ate heartily and relaxed with family.

Abigail's cousin, Max (also 3 1/2):

Cousin Karli (5 1/2):


Once again Justin's sister Jana (pictured above) and I are both expecting, due within weeks of each other!

New Haircut

Proving to Mom and Dad she's a big girl now, Abigail experience her first haircut without tears in her eyes. She actually seemed to enjoy the process!


The cut on Abigail's nose/lip is from an incident with a laundry basket. She decided it would be a good idea to climb in it while dressed in her "Larry the Cucumber" costume, resulting in falling and catching an edge on the basket. Funny thing is, when her Sunday school teacher saw her marred face and asked if she had a cat at home, Abigail responded, "Yes." There seems to be a disconnect between desire and reality!

Visiting Santa

This is the first year that instead of running with tears in the opposite direction, Abigail actually sat on Santa's lap and had a little chat.




"Thank you for the coloring book!"

This is where Santa told me how he remembered me when I was a child and how proud he is of the way I turned out; he added that he recalled I loved books and Justin loved cars. :) Hee hee - cute.

Afterwards we did a little shopping at the mall...


...and ate at a Mexican restaurant.

Decorating for Christmas

Since we would be gone for Thanksgiving, we decorated our house the previous weekend. Abigail is finally old enough to help with the ornaments - and she derived SO much delight from this activity!

Somehow we neglected to photograph our big tree, but here is the small one above the fireplace.

Kohl's Children's Museum

My mother purchased an annual "grandmother's" pass at her local children's museum. We were able to join MY childhood friend's daughters there for an afternoon of playing!






(about 18 weeks pregnant here)

The Circus

Since Justin had a business trip to NY this week, Abigail and I took our own little trip to Chicago. On the spur of the moment, my mother decided to take us to the circus, and my brother Lawrence was able to join us after work. (Since returning last June from his year in Mexico, he has been living at Mom's and working as an engineer in another Chicago suburb.)

We were enthralled by the acrobats, animals, clowns and various circus stunts... "The Greatest Show on Earth" - right?


Lawrence was actually in a college circus where he concentrated on developing his juggling, tight rope walking and unicycling skills. He's a regular hero to his many nieces and nephews.

Brown County

While our friend Cindy was visiting from Wyoming, we drove through Brown County state park. We were a few weeks late for the famous fall foliage, but it was beautiful nevertheless. Most of all, I appreciated spending time with my dear friend and "auntie" to Abigail.