Thanksgiving and Chuck E Cheese's

No. We didn't go to Chuck E Cheese's for Thanksgiving! We enjoyed a really nice Thanksgiving at my Grandma Haglin's house. She always puts on a feast for all my aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and their families. It ends up being about 40+ people! I don't know how she does it! I always enjoying going to "the farm" and seeing everyone. Growing up my family would go over to the farm for the day every Sunday after church, along with all my aunts, uncles and cousins. They still continue this tradition every Sunday but being we're about 2 hours from Grandma's, we don't get there every Sunday. I do miss seeing everyone. I can't believe that my cousins, who I remember being BORN, are turning 19 this month! Am I really getting that old? Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving...

I really wanted to try and get a nice family picture to maybe use for Christmas cards. This ended up being the best one we got. It was SO windy and cold. This was taken on the lake at my Grandma's house. Lillian even got to walk on the ice!





Look what Grandpa picked up in the field! What a great find!




Look out Dad! Looks like you've got some future farming helpers!

This is my entire family. My oldest brother, Mike, and his family are on the left; Dad and Mom in the middle; my other brother, Dan, and his family infront; and our family on the right. How do you like my brothers' matching shirts...

This is where Chuck E Cheese's comes in... My sister-in-law, Beth, turned 30 on the 2nd and Dan surprised her with a party at Chuck E Cheese's. It ended up being a total surprise! The girls had such a blast. Lillian now wants to have her birthday there (thanks, Dan!). Happy 30th Birthday, Beth!

Lillian and Chuck

Riding in a jeep

We got SNOW on Saturday! The girls were so excited to wake up and see snow. They couldn't get outside fast enough to go sledding! It snowed even more today - it looks like a winter wonderland! We're hoping that it stays so Daniel's brother and family from Florida will get to see it when they come up the end of this month.

Abigail was even in on the sledding action this year. Last year she only wanted to watch from inside the house. They were forced to come in yesterday because it was SO cold... only about 10 degrees! I think they could have stayed out there all day!

Our First Video

I finally took the time to figure out how the video mode works on our camera (and it probably took one minute, if that!)! I now wish I had taken the time 4 years ago when we got the camera! Anyway, I asked Lillian to sing "Jesus Loves Me" for the camera so I could see if I had figured it out correctly. She did such a great job singing that I thought I'd post it (you can also hear Lillian's back-up singer, Abigail, in the background). I hope it actually works for you and that you're able to watch and hear our first video! :)

These next pictures are from today. The girls helped make some fun Thanksgiving "hats" to take over to Grandma's house tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy 3rd Birthday Abigail!

Three years ago today I went to my scheduled prenatal check-up. Little did I know that while at that appointment my doctor would discover I was 5 cm dilated and in labor (and to top it off, Abigail was born on her due date - right on time!)! My doctor said that was only the second time in her career she found a patient to be in labor during a routine check-up! Oh the memories... How can that be three years ago? Where has the time gone? How can our little Abigail Evangelyn be 3 already?!!

Well, she is 3 and what a fun 3 years we've had! We've done some "celebrating" these past couple of days as you'll see in the following pictures:

This was right after I had finished her Curious George (or as she would say, "Curious Gorge") cake. I wanted to get a picture before any of my little monkeys got too curious!

On Friday the girls and I met my mom, sister-in-law Susann, and her three girls, Mikayla (8), Serena (5), and Lydia (1 - she's only one month younger than Rebecca!) at a mall. This mall has an indoor 2 level carousel! Mom treated the girls to a birthday ride - they loved it! Well, all but Rebebcca. She cried the entire ride after she was (accidentally!) put face to face with a horse! Although, she wasn't the only one who didn't like the horses. Abigail (another one of my daughters, of course) didn't want to be on a horse either. She was more than happy to ride in the sleigh thing. Oh well, it was still a fun treat!

Birthday girl

This was today. We stopped for lunch at Sonic before heading to our birthday destination. Daniel has been itching to get to a Sonic ever since they finally appeared in Minnesota! I guess there were a few by his college in Florida and he loves their real juice lime slushes. This is like an "old time" drive-in restaurant where you order from your car and then eat in your car. The guy even brought our food out to us on rollerblades (but the food was in a bag and not on a tray - the temp outside was around 34 degrees!). If you've never been to a Sonic, GO! It's very, very good!!

This was our birthday destination. A huge indoor playground! They loved it! They even had an area for kids 3 and under. Being it was Saturday, it was a little more crowded than we would have liked. BUT, the girls didn't seem to mind at all.

Ok, well, Rebecca didn't like the ball pit very much. Other than that she had a blast!

Lillian is definitely our athletic one. She scaled this wall like a pro!




Stopping for a picture while playing in one of the high mazes.




Here's Rebecca trying to catch up to her big sisters. Maybe next year, Rebecca!




Taking a 3 second break.



After getting home we finally got to eat some of that cake!





Happy Birthday to you!!!













Happy 3rd Birthday Abigail!
We love you!!

Finally - A New Post!

We haven't had much going on lately - we've just been trying to stay warm! It's cold! The pictures I've included for this post are just various ones from the past couple of weeks. Nothing too exciting. Our big outing for this week will be bringing Rebecca to her 15 month well check-up. Oh! Can't forget Abigail's 3rd birthday on Saturday! I guess that will be next week's post! So until then, here are some pictures of our 3 giggling girls:

This was Halloween night. The girls all cuddled with Daddy (well, long enough to get this picture anyway!) while we watched a movie.

I'm not sure what she was doing here. Just being Abigail, I guess!

These funky pigtails were too fun!

Rebecca's really becoming quite the monkey. Now that she's walking 90% of the time she thinks she can do anything! She has to keep up with those big sisters!

Our second year Awana Cubbie. Last year she was a "Jumper," this year a "Hopper!"

Lillian wrote the entire alphabet all by herself! Some of the letters aren't exactly right, but I'd say that's pretty good for a 4 year old!

Lately Rebecca's been looking at books while sitting in the book basket. This was taken last Sunday after church. Do you like the leopard print dress with matching boots? She's stylin'!

Thanks for looking!

Fun Dressing Up

Ok, so we're not the biggest fans of Halloween, but I've had these two costumes and thought I'd try them on Rebecca...

I was extra careful about not letting her see the giraffe's face while putting this on her. I knew that would only result in tears and screams.

These are the tears and screams I was talking about!

Lillian and Abigail wanted in on the action too ...

This is a size 12-24 month costume. Need I say more?

After this picture was taken, Abigail proceeded to chase after Lillian saying, "The zebra (yes, zebra) is going to get you, Lil-lin! The zebra is going to get you!" They both went running and screaming around the house... too bad you couldn't be here to enjoy :) it with me!

More Leaves

Here is our leaf maze! The girls played with this for a long time! I don't know what gave me the idea for this, but they loved it!

Come on, Rebecca, let's go to Grandma's!

Traffic jam

Awe... so cute!





Guess what? The girls and I bagged all the leaves this weekend! Now what am I going to take pictures of?!




Here's Shirley ready for church this morning. She was just too cute so I had to take a picture. The outfit is from a family from church. That's actually a coat she's wearing and under is a matching dress. She wore the hat the entire time we were at church. Really, too cute.