Christmas Trip to Illinois- Day #4 - Part #2

The Weber Family Christmas kicked off with a "Shootout" at Aunt Kathy's house. It was great! All of the guys...and a few of the girls... got together with lots of guns, lots of ammo, and some happy drinks. Most of the ladies sat in the kitchen with the babies and hung out. It was fabulous.

This was our view pulling into Aunt Kathy's house... trucks and trucks and trucks :)

Guns, cool hats, ammo, and ear protection. Merry Christmas!

The third youngest was even learning to take aim.

Our Christmas Photo :) Merry Christmas from the farm!

Mary and Chad. Love his carharts.

My southern boy all bundled up for the chilly day of shooting.

The Perkins. Crazy to think they are married!

Aunt Kat was so happy to see her little girl. Charlotte loves her Auntie K.

Charlotte went on a fourwheeler ride with Daddy. Look at that closed mouth grin :)

Get ready!!!

SHE LOVES IT :)

What a great way to kick off our Christmas celebration! Aunt Kathy said that next year there will be more ammo and more targets :) HOLLA!

Christmas Trip to Illinois- Day #4 - Part #1

When we are in Illinois visiting, it is so difficult to see everyone that I want to see. I don't just fly in and set up shop in one place and remain there for 5 days. I fly in, drive all over the state, and fly back home. It is not a vacation. I am actually more tired by the time I get back home. However, it is all worth it.

One person I really try hard to see everytime that I come back is one of my very best friends in this entire world, Brianne. Brianne and I met on the very first day of college, in our very first Chemistry class. We were both nursing majors and we just so happened to sit next to each other. We were from the same county, both small town girls, both with serious CRAPPY boyfriends, both good students. We were a perfect pair. It's been love ever since :)

We have been through so very much together. We've been through being roommates, nursing school, bar crawls, vacations, boyfriends, break ups, moves, job changes, deaths in the family, difficult friends, weddings, weight gain, weight loss, love for food, hate for food, you name it. We know each other so well. I am so proud of her and the person that she is. She has come a long way in the last 8 months. She is a rockstar.

SO anywho, we met for breakfast on the way to the Weber Family Christmas. We met at Cracker Barrell... always a favorite.

Charlotte was so excited to see her Aunt B.

So, Brianne was coming from seeing her boyfriend and his parents when we met up with her for breakfast. Her boyfriend, unbeknownst(sp?) to her, has been calling me talking to me about he was planning to propose to her. I knew that he was going to propose this night when she got off of work. I wanted to be the first person to congratulate her on their engagement so I decided to get her a card and put it somewhere in her car. My mom and sister were in on it bc Brianne is one of the most observant people I know. I had to be sneaky. So my mom pretended she wanted to see Brianne's BMW and sit in it and drive it. This is why we have a pic of Charlotte. Mary went over to the passenger seat and put the card under the seat. I then texted her boyfriend and let hime know where to find the card. :) And he even remembered to give it to her immediately after.

I can't wait until August 31st to celebrate the most important day of her life with her. I love this girl and don't know where I would be without her.

Thanks for getting up and meeting us, B. WE LOVE YOU! I love that I saw you on the day you became engaged!!!!

Christmas Trip to Illinois- Day#3

Day #3 started off with us having lunch with Dad and his agents. My dad's agency was named the #1 agency in his entire company... nationwide... it was a HUGE accomplishment and we are so very proud of him!! Dad and his agents have this lovely whole in the wall bar that they love to go to so the whole fam (minus Anne and Jare) went as well. He also invited a few of him and mom's close friends. I felt pretty bad this particular day. I looked like and felt like I had been hit by a truck so I went ahead and let the cat out of the bag about me expecting Baby #2 to mom and dad's friends that were there. Chris, Chris, Dale and Diana were SWORN to secrecy until after my ultrasound :) But I was super pumped to tell them in person.

Charlotte was so proud of her Papa and all of his hard work. She also loves bars.

She was totally loving her dad... and the chicken strips we ordered for her.

And after loads of attention, she was exhausted and it was time to take a nap on Aunt Bare.

After lunch we went to Kohl's to run a few errands. My mom was feeling pretty terrible... I asked if she was pregnant, she said no. She thought it was the lunch she had (automatically assumes the hole in the wall bar gave her some bad food.) :) So we made a quick trip into Kohls and as we were coming out, it was snowing!!! Charlotte's first real snowflakes! It didn't stick and it didn't last very long but I wish I could have gotten a good picture of her with some snowflakes.

Once we got home, we got ready, mom spoke to the porcelain gods (and felt better), and then we opened presents... just the ones we bought everyone and the ones they bought us. They were going to do all of their presents on Christmas Eve.

The first and only grandchild in front of all of the presents.

Mom and dad's tree... oh the fancy picture ornaments I see of Mary and Anne in the background :)

GiGi and Papa and their favorite born grandchild.

Oh the Jacksons. Alex, look up, not at Charlotte :)

Look! It's my birthday dress!!!!

I'm a whiz at this thing. Just give me a second...

Charlotte with some of her favorite people :) Two of her uncles and her aunt. She's loving life, right?

For dinner we went to Alexander's Steakhouse... an oldie but a goodie. Alex is a fan and he looks forward to going there when we go back to Illinois. Naturally all of the men love them some steak. And we actually had the house chefs cook the food for us. It was lovely.

Mom and Charlotte took a nap in the car for a bit... mom emerged a new person! And she loves Chad.

So for some reason, Charlotte is really scared of Chad. This started in October when we came back to visit. She cries when he gets closer to her. We have no idea why. It's kind of humerous. Here Alex is trying to make her like him.

Alex and Charlotte got me a present. How cute does she look here???

I love pictures that Mary looks a bit creepy in.

I look like a water buffalo here but Charlotte looks so sweet.

Papa telling Charlotte about all of the creepy people at Alexander's :)

It was a great night. Naturally pregnancy nausea and exhaustion plagued me the whole day and night but it was still great. We were going to go to the Festival of Lights but mom and I both felt so sick that we decided it would be best to just go home and watch a movie. Next year we are not missing them though.

Christmas Trip to Illinois- Day #2

Surprisingly enough it wasn't freezing cold during our trip back to Illinois. I bought Charlotte gloves, a hat, a scarf, and she had her little pea coat and I was questioning whether or not to buy her a snowsuit. I sure am glad that I didn't! Don't get me wrong, it was way colder than Charleston, but I was expecting single digits or teens and snow everywhere.

Our second day in Illinois was spent wrapping Christmas presents, finishing up some last minute Christmas shopping, and eating... always eating.

A MUST eat everytime I go back to Illinois is Avanti's... excellent somewhat fast Italian food.

This was Charlotte's first Avanti's experience and first tomatoe-based pasta experience... she loved it!

We ventured to the Northwoods Mall for last minute shopping. Oh the memories that mall holds :) We saw the cheap little train thingy with no one in line so Charlotte and I rode the train. She's pumped. Can you tell????

This is an action shot. She really isn't sure what to think. So serious.

All done! We made it. She was a bit relieved... I mean this train does go pretty fast.

For dinner, my best friend from high school came over to mom and dad's house for dinner. She brought her husband and beautiful Ella with her... along with her bun in the oven. We were so excited to be pregnant together. Jodi looked absolutely gorgeous as always. We are so happy that we are still friends, still close. Our only wish is that we lived in the same town so we could see each other all of the time :(

This is a really good picture of me. I put on my best outfit...and lots of make-up. But this is the only pic that we have of us four together. We need to work on that.

Both girls ready for bed in their jammies. Ella's made her look like an elf! SO CUTE. Charlotte is just a cheetah...on the prowl.

Charlotte loves her Jodi :)

And Aunt Bare can't resist these adorable jammies!

It was a successful second day of our trip. My main job every Christmas is doing all of the wrapping of the presents. So the first and second night I wrapped my rear end off to get everything wrapped to be opened. I LOVE wrapping so I don't complain.

On to day #3...

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".