Happy New Year-2008!!!!

Well we are back! We had an amazing christmas break but are now happy to be home. Our baby shower in texas went AWESOME!!!! Ben and I got so many wonderful things that we needed for Aiden. We got really big items which we then returned to babies r us and got the credit so we can buy them here and go ahead and set them up in aiden's room, bathroom, etc. All the little things we got (onesies, washcloths, blankets, etc.) we brought back in our suitcases. Adien really racked up. Thanks to everyone who came, it was truly amazing and meant so much to us. I will be posting pictures just as soon as we get all the stuff set up and ready to go. Other than the shower (which was on the 23rd) we had 2 full days in dallas. On the 24th we went over to mamaw's (like we do every year) and had a wonderful christmas dinner, followed by singing of christmas carols, reading of the christmas story, and the mass hysteria of presents. Again Ben and I got so much stuff and Aiden even got a few christmas presents of his own. My family spent the night at mamaw's house along with Kimberly's family so we had a full house for christmas morning. Mamaw made monkey bread for christmas morning and then we went over to dale and angie's for a christmas brunch type thing that they have every year. We had a very fun and exhausting day. After we got back from dale and angie's I took a christmas nap! On the 26th we all got up and got ready to head to chicago!! Other than a few minor flight delays we got to chicago without any hitches and as soon as we got there and unpacked in our house we went out for deep dish chicago pizza. Then walking around the city. Oh so fun. The 27th we went to navy pier (where it was freezing cold) and then we went to see the buckingham fountain which turned out to be more of a summer tourist attraction since it wasn't on due to the freezing weather. We went walking around the city and to the sears tower and then to eat at a yummy italian restaurant for dinner called dinotto. The 28th we went to the natural history musuem and to the planetarium. It was snowing so hard this day that we needed to be inside most of the day. Then we went to eat at the Foundation room at the house of blues for dinner. The 29th we went to see the bean in millenium park which was awesome. Then the girls went shopping and the guys went off to find some game on TV. We spent close to 2 hours in marshall fields and it was great! Then we went to hershey store on the magnificent mile where we had wonderful hot cocoa and the biggest cupcake I have ever seen. This night we had the best dinner any of us have ever had. It was truly amazing. It was this really fancy place called spiaggia restaurant. Most of the things on the menu I didn't understand, and I didn't really understand how to order but when it all came it was amazing. After dinner we went to the hancock observatory to look at all the lights of the city at night. The 30th we got up and had church at our little house and then got ready to be picked up for the airport. We had such a wonderful time and loved the house we stayed at. It was a 4 bedroom house in the middle of chicago and it was great to have the congregating areas. The website is www.oldtownchicago.com if you want to look at it. All in all we had an excellent time not just getting to go to chicago but getting to spend so much time with our family. The next time we see everyone aiden will be with us!!! My mom uploaded all the photos we took to walgreens.com so I am going to put the link in so you can see all the pics if you care that much, there are 168 so it would take way too long for me to put them on here. Unfortunately, I don't know how to insert links so you will have to copy and paste into your browser. If you don't have a walgreens account you can create one really quickly to be able to see the pics, don't worry you don't go on any mailing list or anything.

http://photo.walgreens.com/share/p=857311199159599979/l=16094061/g=10748237/cobrandOid=1009/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Just FYI the pic where I am holding a drink that looks like a cocktail, it is a sherley temple because I obviously can't have cocktails but I wanted to feel fancy. Don't think I'm a bad mother!

I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL christmas and a happy new year!!! I am so excited for 2008!