Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Trip to Illinois - Day #1 :)

We were so excited to be able to go to Illinois for 4 nights from Dec 20-24 to see family and friends. However, the night before we were supposed to leave for the airport at 6:30 in the morning, Charlotte was up screaming/crying most of the night. She finally fell back asleep at about 4:45 and my alarm was going to go off at 5. Terrible night of sleep... for both mommy and daddy. SO, the Christmas cheer was lacking that morning as we began our journey. But once we got off of the plane at Midway airport, we had all of our frustrations, rude comments to each other, and emotional breakdowns done and were ready to celebrate Christmas.

Since both my mom and dad were picking us up at the airport that morning, we decided to tell them about Baby #2 by wearing T-shirts that we had made proclaiming our news. Alex's shirt said "08/12", my shirt said "Baby on Board due in August", and Charlotte was wearing a onesie that said "Big Sister".  They were standing at the end of security peeing their pants with excitement over us being back for Christmas. Mom didn't notice our shirts at all until dad and Alex pointed them out. Dad finally noticed. They were ecstatic :) We were proud of ourselves. It was too hard to take pictures, video tape, and carry the 18 bags we illegally took on the airplane with us.

After being picked up from the airport, we stopped by Jewel (I really wish they had those in South Carolina) and got some delicious food to take to my fabulous friend Ashley's house. Each time I am back, I try to meet up with my GDI friends from college. I was so excited that even though it was the middle of the week, I was able to meet up with three of them :)

We were finally able to meet sweet Nicholas. He was absolutely perfect, like I knew he would be.

Addelyn had just celebrated her first birthday! Look at that sweet face :) And she is always dressed to perfection. Ashley makes sure of it :)

Again, Charlotte has issues with personal space so once there was someone that was almost exactly her size, she was all over her like white on rice. 

Charlotte was in heaven having 2 kids to play with and follow around. She normally is one on one during our playdates with friends.

My beautiful friends. Amy and Tammy have been very best friends since high school... and we are all turning 30 this year. It's so impressive. Amy is 6 months pregnant and looking adorable. Tammy just had that handsome little guy and she looks amazing.

Such a proud mama.

These two girls are so hilarious. I wonder what they were conversing about...???

And Grayden is one of my favorite children ever. He can sing Justin Beiber songs for you and his bandaid reminds me of Nelly. He and Alex spent a bit of time playing together.

I'm pretty sure we are going to get this for our next child. Charlote LOVED it. (Since we are moving soon, no need to add more large toys to our stock pile.)

A few moments of Daddy-Daughter time.

Alex saw this hat at Jewel and felt that Grayden needed it. He loves Grayden... thinks he is one of the coolest kids he has ever met.

GiGi and Papa were so nice to drive to the Windy City to pick us up from the airport.

My friends. As a whole, we've been friends for almost 10 years. I don't know what I'd do without them.

Nicholas is all set to go brave the cold weather outside! All bundled up :)

Once we made it to mom and dad's that evening, Charlotte got to enjoy playing with the 20 year old Fisher Price kitchen they brought up from their basement. Hilarious.

She was so serious about her kitchen... but she loved it.

It was a great beginning to our trip. We were so excited to be back for a few days. Christmas always feels more complete making a trip back "home".

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