A lot to be thankful for...

Our Thanksgiving celebration started last weekend with a get together with the Eddins side of the family! We spent some good time as a family, eating good food and catching up. Lila enjoyed being passed around, but really enjoyed some super special time with Grandpa Wayne!

Tuesday marked a big event in Miss Lila's life, her first airplane ride! Yes, at 7 months old she flew the friendly skies to Nashville, TN to spend Thanksgiving with her Grammy. Jason, Jen, Celia, Ruby, Mike, Lila and I all packed up and headed south to celebrate the holiday.

Once again, Lila amazed us with how good she did on the plane! She is quite the traveler! Her favorite part of flying was looking out the window at everything going on outside the plane. She is really very inquisitive and always in awe of everything going on around her, so it is pretty easy to keep her busy.

We got to my Mom and Terry's house Tuesday afternoon and spent some time getting settled in. We had 6 adults, 3 kids and 3 dogs...the house is big enough for all of us, but we were cozy! We ordered pizza and got rested up for the next day.

The Three Amigas!

Lila on display!

Wednesday we all got cleaned up and headed to Green Hills Mall (Lindale eat your heart out) for some lunch and shopping. I could have gotten in a lot of trouble there, but with a little one the days of browsing all day are long gone! We got a few good things and managed to get a few things for under the Christmas tree as well. When we finished up shopping we headed to Franklin, a suburb of Nashville, to visit my Uncle Tom and Aunt Genie. We have all been to Nashville several times, but haven't made it to their house and I am so glad we made the trip. Their community is absolutely beautiful and it was wonderful to visit with them!

All tuckered out!

Thanksgiving Day brought all sorts of excitement! It was Lila's first Thanksgiving, it was Jen's birthday and it was all of our first time making a Thanksgiving meal...including cooking a turkey! We all took our part in making the meal. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn casserole, broccoli cheese casserole, bread and salad! Oh, and lets not forget, birthday cake and ice cream! Low and behold, it was a masterpiece!

Baby's 1st Thanksgiving

Martha Stewart eat your heart out!

Happy Birthday Jen!

This Thanksgiving was different, not one like our normal tradition of being home, bouncing from one family celebration to the next. Even though it was different, what we are thankful for remains the same. We are thankful for each other, for our beautiful daughter, for our wonderful family and friends, for our health and for our freedom, geography doesn't change any of that!

Friday was our last full day in Tennessee. We headed to an authentic Mexican restaurant for lunch and then the girls split up from the guys and kids and went shopping at a boutique store called A Thousand Faces and the boys took the little girls to a car show downtown. After we were all done we met up on Broadway at Mike's Ice Cream Shop for a sweet treat!

Enjoying the sunshine!

Saturday we packed up our things and headed back to the airport to begin our travels towards home! We had such a nice time in Nashville, I swear I love that city more and more each time we go. But, Mike and I were discussing the fact that there really is no place like home!

Home at last!

A Baby Shower

This weekend we helped our very good friend Monica celebrate the upcoming arrival of her baby girl! We had been planning this shower for quite some time and none of can believe that it was finally here...that means the baby is fast approaching!

The shower was held on Saturday from 2:00 - 4:00 at Daniel Arthur's. They have a penthouse that worked perfect for the group. We used Baby Hahn's bedding as the theme of the shower. We used it on the invitations, the favors, the banner, we designed the flowers and even the cookies around it as well, all of it turned out cute!

We had a big surprise in store for Monica, we got her the rocking chair for the baby's nursery. This chair color had been kind of a toss-up down to the last minute, so we had to wing it and hope that what we picked was going to be okay. Needless to say, about a week ago she had decided that she did indeed want a pink chair, thank goodness because we already had the pink chair for the shower! She was SO shocked and we were SO happy we were able to pull off the surprise!

No peeking!

Okay, you can look!

The PINK chair!

Lila's special gift for her friend...baby girl Hahn!

It was a beautiful shower and we were so happy to plan it for such a wonderful friend. We are all (im)patiently waiting for the arrival of this special little girl, especially Lila...she hears all the time how they are going to be bestest buds! We are so thrilled that Monica and Brandon will be going through parenthood with us, it will be truly awesome to watch the girls grow up together!

Speaking of little girls...Lila spent Saturday afternoon at home with Mike. She was all decked out in her Hawkeye gear, ready to cheer on the Hawks against Ohio State. Our quarterback still isn't 100% yet, so this was going to be the first time the 2nd string, freshman quarterback would start, needless to say there was a lot of negative opinions on how the game would end up. But wouldn't you know?! The Hawkeyes had it tied up in the 4th quarter and took the game into overtime. Unfortunately it wasn't a victory, but at least we can be proud that they showed up and gave it their all, inspite of all of the negative press and the odds against them. They truly are a good football team. It has been a great season to watch and one we can't wait to relive with Lila when she sees all the pictures from when she was a baby!

Happy Hawkeye!

Lila was also able to show her Hawkeye pride on Thursday when we had pictures taken with her, Celia and Ruby in their Iowa Hawkeye cheerleading uniforms! The pictures turned out great and they will definitely be ones that the guys in our lives cherish! When the girls were all smiling for the camera, Jen looked over and said "I just think about all of the fun things they are going to do together, girls trips, etc. and it makes me smile!" It makes us smile too...and wince a bit because with fun I am sure there will be trouble! We'll take it!

Weekend Away...

This weekend marked our annual trip to Galena with our good friends Brandon and Monica to celebrate our anniversaries! This has become a tradition we all look forward to and the beauty of this weekend was the weather was stunning! We left for Galena on Saturday morning, bright and early, so the guys could get their spot at Gobbie's Sports Bar to cheer on the Hawkeyes. When we pulled in there wasn't much open yet, but Monica and I managed to hit a few stores before heading to Gobbie's ourselves to get some food with the boys and watch the dreaded 2nd half of the Iowa game. We were all trying to maintain positive attitudes, but when our quarterback, Ricky Stanzi, got hurt a sense of warning went through every Iowa fan in the bar. Unfortunately their 9-0 streak was broken on Saturday against Northwestern, but what an amazing season so far! They have broken a record in Hawkeye history and we have a few more games left in the season to determine whether or not we are the Big 10 Champs and what bowl game we end up at. We are still VERY proud to be Hawkeyes!

After the game we did a little more shopping on Main Street and then headed towards Eagle Ridge where we had a condo for the evening. We checked in and took advantage of the beautiful weather by hanging out on the patio, it isn't very often you can say you did that in November! We had reservations at a restaurant called The Flying Horse. The restaurant used to be called Backstreet, it is the same place that catered Monica and Brandon's wedding dinner. We had a nice dinner and then headed back to Main Street in search of a fun atmosphere with some live music...well, we found live music, but not so sure about the overly fun atmosphere. We decided to head back to the condo where we all relaxed and caught up a bit.

This morning Monica and I got up early for a girls breakfast and then headed to Stone Drift Spa for massages! They were delightful! That is one treat I don't give myself often enough! We had another beautiful day to enjoy so we once again headed back downtown to have lunch and then we headed back to Cedar Rapids.

Being out of town this weekend means this was our first time with both of us away from Lila for the night. It was kind of hard, but we were so lucky to have my brother and sister-in-law agree to take her. She had a great time with Jason and Jen and of course the girls...they were built in entertainment! We got home and as I am sure you guessed...everything was JUST FINE! Mommy and Daddy missed her like crazy, but she had a great time and from what Jason and Jen say they enjoyed every minute of having her! Thanks guys!

All snug at home!

Happy Anniversary...

to Monica and Brandon on the 10th of November! You guys are a wonderful couple with many adventures in store for you over the next year and we are so honored to be such a big part of it! We wish you nothing but the best and a lifetime of love and happiness! Thanks for a great weekend!

To Have and To Hold...

from this day forward,

for better, for worse,

for richer, for poorer,

in sickness or in health,

to love and to cherish

’till death do us part.

And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.

Three years ago today we pledged our love to one another in front of our family and friends...

it was BEAUTIFUL and it gets BETTER everyday!

11.03.06

Trick-or-Treat!

This Halloween weekend was one spent with family and friends! Friday, Lila and I played hookie, her from daycare and me from work, with plans to get together with my sister-in-law and nieces for a day of fun. Unfortunately Ruby came down with a bad cough and fever, so a wrench was thrown into our plans, but Lila and I took advantage of the quiet time that morning and enjoyed the Mommy and Me time.

We met my Aunt Kathy and Grandma Smith for lunch at Zepplin's and then headed home after that to meet Daddy who had gotten off work a little early to meet us for the TrueNorth Halloween party! This is a TrueNorth tradition and we were both excited to partake this year with a little ladybug in tow!

After the TrueNorth festivities we went up to my Dad's house for a family dinner. It was nice to sit back and relax, enjoy some salad and pizza and catch up. For the most part we all live in the same town or surrounding area, but life gets going so fast that we really don't see each other all that often.

Halloween day brought many surprises! Mike had decided to head to the Iowa game with the boys, so he headed out early Saturday morning to get in some tailgating before the 11:00 kick-off. Lila and I were bumming around when we got a call from Jen asking if Celia could come over and hang out while she took Ruby to the doctor. So...we had our first guest for the day! It was a lot of fun having Celia over, we played with all of her loot from the party the day before, skyped with Grammy, had a snack, watched Hannah Montana, and snuggled on the couch. We sure did miss Ruby though and are hoping she gets better quick!

Jen sent us a picture of Ruby while she was at the doctor's office. Luckily she is a resilient little girl who takes it all in stride! We got a good giggle out of her sweet little face in this picture.

Feel better soon, Ru!

Our next visitor was Taylor, who brought us lunch from Panera. She hasn't seen Lila in quite some time, so it was nice for her to come by and hang out for a bit. She helped us cheer on the Hawks for the 1st half of the game...they needed all of the support they could get, they were really struggling at halftime. Monica stopped by to help us cheer the Hawks on for the last half and luckily that is just what they needed to turn the game around. They continued their winning streak and are now 9-0 with a 42-24 win against Indiana.

When Mike got home we put Lila back in her costume and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Eddins house for a visit. They were thrilled to see Lila all decked out in her costume and were happy to give her all kinds of snuggles in lieu of candy this year. After their house we came home and had dinner and then put Lila in her Halloween jammies and sent her off to dreamland...hoping that the time change didn't screw up her sleep schedule.

This morning Lila woke up at 6:15, which was surprisingly better than what we thought she would do. She is completely enamored with the dogs right now, so we spent a fair amount of time giggling at the puppies as they would get closer and closer! We are so thankful that the dogs and Lila love each other because we can't imagine having an issue with that considering our dogs are a huge part of our family.


We had a nice afternoon spent with family again, having lunch in honor of Carson's First Communion and then we met my Grandma and Grandpa Harvey at the mall to do some shopping for my birthday and some pre-Christmas shopping. Tonight we spent some quality time playing on the floor with loads of toys! One of Lila's favorite things at the time is cold teething rings, okay, it is really ANYTHING that goes in her mouth!

Jammin' out to my radio!

So, I mentioned that we were thinking we were pretty lucky with the time change, tonight was a different story! See for yourself...

Time Change?!?!

One last thought...A special Happy Birthday to Luca!!!

She turned 5 years old on Halloween! We love you Luca!