Jake's Baptism Day

Happy Birthday and Happy Baptism Day Jacob! We love you and wish we could have been with you to celebrate your wonderful day. You have grown up so much and we are so proud of you!

Welcome to Katie's Kandy Korner!

It's time to deliver a few yummy treats to our new friends and neighbors here in Illinois. This year we made toffee, carmels, turtles, pb cups and fudge! I had lots of helpers so the work was fun. Wish I could send some to all of you----Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday x2

Two of my favorite people had birthdays on Friday--James and Amelia! They share December 21st as their Happy day. I hope Amelia had fun, fun, fun at her woof, woof party--wish we could have been there. We had fun here celebrating with James. We had dinner at home--lasagna, cheese bread and a BIG salad--then we sent him on a treasure hunt for his favorite things (swedish fish, Cracklin Oat Bran, Levis, movies, a new atlas) and ended the hunt with tickets to see National Treasure. It was the first time we have ever seen our little theatre here packed--they sold too many tickets--but we had a great evening and enjoyed being together!

A Happy Meg

I felt bad that all my pictures of Meggie were sad ones, so I thought I would post this gem from Thanksgiving day! I think that is one of Grandma Jane's famous orange rolls. They bring a smile to many a face! Such a cute little lady!

Look what we woke up to!

This morning we woke up to sunshine, blue skies and THIS! The sun has been MIA for several days and we were happy to welcome it back. All the added sparkle of the newly fallen snow was a bonus! We are loving the weather changes here. It is such a novelty to all of us--though Max is AFRAID of the snow!

Here's a few GOOD girls!

aren't they the cutest! Love these ladies and their friends--making life in Mount Vernon fun!

A wonderful Christmas Party

We had a touching and sweet Christmas party in our ward on Friday night. I'm a little partial to the primary kids and they performed BRILLIANTLY! We acted out the nativity to Dolly Parton singing (loved it! You know I adore Dolly!though I didn't choose the song this time) a nativity song (actually very reverent--I know hard to believe) It reminded me of the "No room in the inn w/ Wallace Purling"story or even the "Best Christmas Pageant Ever"--sometimes the most simple things are the best. Thought I'd share some pics from the night. Enjoy!

A few more Thanksgiving memories!

I wanted to share a few more Thanksgiving pictures--for those of you who don't know these adorable kids--they are my sister Kelly's children--Jacob, Nicholas, Meg and Mariah. Meg and Mariah celebrated their third birthdays this weekend along with my very cute nephew Ethan (he turned 6). We had a fun dinner and lots of dessert and presents at Aunt Julie and Uncle Tom's house.

The girls love all things princess and were dressed up a lot of the weekend. Grandpa John bought them fancy princess shoes and Grandma Jane gave the best gift of the birthday in pink tutu skirts. When Mariah opened hers, she said "It is so bootiful!" and they were. The funniest expression was that they called Sleeping Beauty--"Sipping Booty"--we all had a chuckle. So much fun to spend time with the cousins!

Coming back home we found the animals well taken care of , our house safe and that Illinois is COLD in December. We jumped right into Christmas preparations and put up our tree. We also attended the "official start to the Christmas season"---yes--you guessed it--the downtown Mount Vernon Christmas parade! An exciting and unique experience to one and all. James and Eliza kept cozy and warm while we watched and I took lots of pictures!

Has it really been 20 days since my last blog? YES!

Well for those of you who are regular

"blog-checkers"--I must apologize! I can not believe how long it has been since my last post. It seems like life just went from slow motion to fast forward for me. I will try to do a quick catch-up---(if you are interested ??!??)

Thanksgiving was wonderful. It was so nice to come back to Las Vegas for a few days and reconnect with friends and family. It was a good break for all of us and helped us to get ready to face going back to school and work for a few weeks before Christmas break. It was great to see so many cousins and friends--enjoy some of our cute pictures!