December 31, 2013: Happy New Year! Rang in 2014 with the Knuths and Sprinkles with a #fancydinnerfeast. Did some karaoke, some YouTube fun, and toasted to 2013 at the strike of 12.

December 30, 2013: We drove home today and went straight to the Dr. as Annelise wasn’t off of her fever after 4 days. Turns out she’s had the flu! :( My Dad went in the hospital today with pneumonia after his flu so we’re hoping it doesn’t progress into that.

Good to be home!

December 29, 2013: Left Bloomington for Peoria to see Becky and Jim and their brand new bundle of joy! 2 days old. So precious. We’re so happy and excited for them!

Poor A is so, so sick. :( Sounds like it might be croup, high fever and up through the night. Staying in Springfield 1 more night before we hop in the car and head home! 

December 28, 2013: #heathsgethitched!!!!! What a glorious day.  It was so fun to be with Emelyn and love on her and make her feel special for her big day. 

She ended up getting nervous and scared when it was time to walk down the aisle. Our friend Dan was an usher and had been standing with her at the back and she took a few steps down the aisle… paused, looked back at Dan, stuck her hand out and said … “Walk with me!”  It was so sweet and a collective “awwwww” echoed through the room. The ceremony was great, the reception was fantastic, and we spent the day surrounded by so many terrific friends.  What a great day.

December 27, 2013: A had a fever last night when she went to bed, and woke up pretty solemn this morning so I cuddled with her for about 2 hours. We’ve decided to leave her behind in Springfield while we go to Bloomington for the weekend.  Emelyn is the flower girl in Isaac and Shelby’s wedding!  We did the rehearsal and she did so well. Fingers crossed for tomorrow :)

Model S sighting in the garage. Waiting for Justin to arrive tomorrow so we can go check out the Tesla Supercharger together :)

December 26, 2013: Last Christmas party of the season, in St. Louis. Emelyn played all day in the basement playhouse.  I snuck down and listened to her for about 15 minutes, and it was simply precious.  

We also re-did a shot of Marc and I from 6 years ago (2007) - haha!

December 25, 2013: Family Christmas #3 of 4! The girls are soaking up all of this family time (we are too!).  They love being with their aunts and uncles and grandparents. We had an amazing saragota roast for dinner, mouthwatering.

December 24, 2013: Christmas Eve! Gave the rollers a test-run on Em’s hair for the wedding this weekend, and spent some more time with the grandparents!  We went to Christmas Eve service and Emelyn was absolutely adorable. ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ and ‘Silent Night’ are the two songs she’s learned this year, and we sang both.  To be next to her, watching her stare at that candle, singing Silent Night as loud as she could… heart melting.

Annelise was more interested in the boxes when we opened gifts, of course. :)

December 23, 2013: Low-key, small town living :)  The movie theatre played free movies in the afternoon so we took Em to watch Frosty. She had a blast!  We also had Pizza U twice, which is always a hit with the kids. 

December 22, 2013: Family Christmas #2 of 4!  It’s incredibly icy here, I’m glad we got in yesterday.  Em enjoyed watching Lassie with Grandpa. The only episode they have DVR’d is the one where Lassie gets hit by a car.  So that’s been fun to explain 100 times.

Every year we play a game where you write a sentence on a card and pass it left. The person then reads the sentence, and draws a picture on the next index card.  Pass to the left, where the person looks at the picture, and writes the sentence to describe it.  Repeat all the way around. It’s always fun to see where the sentence starts… and where the sentence ends up :) Had a few great ones this year!

For 20-something years, Uncle Doug has always brought scratch-off lotto tickets for each person.  This year Jen won $30 and I won $10! Whoo hoo!