shake your cake shake, jake!

we have been so loved during november and december because not only did we get a visit from kelly, then kathy and paul, but shari, maddy, kevin, rach and jake all came to visit us in december! how lucky for us! we did a lot of fun stuff, but the highlight of the visit was definitely meeting our adorable, adorable, adorable, adorable nephew, jacob morrill! he is too precious to put in words, so i will let the pictures speak for themselves. aside from ogling at jake all day, we got to stay at the sheraton, swim in their high rise pool, show everyone the sites of chicago, watch the nutcracker ballet, go to a downtown christmas market, see frozen, attend church, make ugly sweater cookies, go shopping and cozy up in our little home. basically...just way too much fun! i wish we lived close because i sure love my in-law family. i'm the luckiest.

rich meeting jake for the first time! look at rich's eyes--he is so proud it is adorable!

ooohhhhh my goodness! too cuute to handle!

another special reunion

i get to hang with all these reunited hipsters!?! saaaweeeet!

these two boys melt my heart!

he always smelled amazing. rach puts some smelling drug on him. 

two peas in a portillo's pod

nom, nom, and nom. rich was impressed with rach's new feeding baby jake appetite!

fog=creepy cool photos

if he ever needs to be kidnapped/adopted, rach can call me! :)

roads on top of roads on top of roads

kev and rich on stroller duty...lookin' so fine

you may not know it, but i am standing next to the energizer bunny! i love how this girl never stops having fun! i recall an after midnight ice cream trip!

hey!

we now know why jake is so cutey pie!

on our way to lou malnattis.

we love you lou! yummy in our tummy.

sister bears and brother bear

 

the energizer bunny does crash! :)

rach is very strong

we just need kelly, makayla and daniel and this pic would be the coolest chicago pic ever!

madison=#1coolestsmartprettyorangescarfpersoniloveheralot

the bean, rich and the beanpole! :)

chi-town chicas

he makes everything look good

best friend lover forever

rich insisted on a kissing pic. ;)

before going back to the hotel to get ready for the ballet, madison insisted on this stop.  thank you madison.

we have banana pudding!!!

on our way to the ballet!

maddy will probably be on that stage someday!

rich and rach give each other e
elves, gnomes and many different magical creatures. weird but truly entertaining. i am slowly catching the vision of their fairy world, and if you look at jake in his elf hat, you will know why. ahah he is cute.

this face that madison made, i like.

rach really does put addictive smelling drugs on him. i'm a nurse and i know it.

my beautiful mother in law. thanks for helping get us all together, shari. she is awesome!

i miss little naked baby!

handsome fella

i found some ugly christmas sweater cookie cutters...

definitely the most fun i have ever had making cookies, but my family-in-laws makes everything fun and crazy. love them.

Santa is Comin' to Chicago!

to get in the spirit of christmas, we went and saw the christmas lights at the lincoln zoo. fun fun fun!

Runnin' Outta Moonlight!

rich had me listen to randy houser's song "runnin' outta moonlight" earlier, and i don't know why exactly, but this song put me right back in college--when rich and i first started dating, and i would literally always sit by in him, in the middle of his tacoma (even if we were on a ten hour road trip) and we would go anywhere and do anything, day or night. :) we sold his truck before we came here, and school/work has kept us on a rather set schedule, so i haven't sat in the middle for a while, but i still would.  i would also probably make rich sing this song to me...on repeat! ;)

even though we can't go all country here in chicago...we were able to see randy houser live and that was almost just as good. 

show time!

a li'l arrow shotting legolos experience before the conert. thanks cabelas!

Wicked Thankful

hospitals don't close on holidays, so i was scheduled to work this thanksgiving. rich and i were pretty down about spending the holidays alone, but my amazing in-laws, paul and kathy, flew in and said they would celebrate thanksgiving on friday with us! genius sweethearts. amazingly, a couple days before thanksgiving, one of my coworkers asked me if i wanted to switch thanksgiving for black friday...ummm, yes please! thanks to joe and crazy consumerism, we were able to celebrate thanksgiving on thanksgiving! the day did start out very early and very frigid--mr. husband signed us up for a turkey trot downtown. it seemed like a fun way to start the day, but the ten degree fahrenheit weather made it not so fun. i think paul and kathy thought we were trying to torture them. last thanksgiving, it was in the fifties. i'm glad it was rich's idea and not mine, cause i still feel bad! sorry! i promise we will never do that again to them. hopefully the meal made up for the rough start. the food was awesome--thanks to the first time turkey baking education the wise ones' provided. kathy and paul are also the most wise because they had the idea of going and seeing wicked, the musical, and that was simply phenomenal. what a great week. love them! 

 me: yea...this is so fuuuu....ffffreezing...cold...can't think...can't move...

rich: let's do this. i have an abnormally elevated internal temp. suckas! ;)

kathy: my children hate me

paul: i hate my children

we finished! ...never again.

turkey with spices, herbs and butter made it all better

puma is so excited she looks like crazy dog

dinner at the signature room before wicked!

lookin' fly!

let's do this every month!

one word: wow!

we be like copycats

Notre Dame with the Dad

mr. kelly cat came to chicago for a business trip, and he was able to come party with us for a bit! kelly got some tickets to a notre dame/byu game, so we all drove up to northbend, indiana and had a fabulous li'l party! the campus and stadium were spectacular.  the weather was spectacularly FRIGID! it was one of the coldest games ever.  we ended up leaving early because it was so cold and because byu was losing! :p  still glad we went.  we also all went to the museum of science and industry.  My favorite parts were the WWII U505 submarine exhibit, the christmas trees from around the world and toymaker 3000...SCORE! :)  chicago knows how to make a great museum.  as you will see from the pictures below, kelly and rich were thoroughly entertained.  it was a super weekend--thanks kelly!  we miss already! come back! :)

Notre Dame Cathedral

under the golden dome!

they have a cool trumpets under the dome tradition before the game

we are sporting some fabulous notre dame gems and jewels, but because of the weather--you can't see them under our coats. 

so so so so so cold. my jaw was frozen. i look high.

gary, indiana=scary abandoned town.  i think kelly took us on this little detour to try and get us killed! yikes.

these two....i love them...

I LOVE THEM. A LOT. REALLY. A LOT.

after the toymaker 3000...these two needed a little r & r.  this mindball/relaxation competition game was calling their name.

byu vs badgers

last weekend, rich and i met up with some fabulous friends (drew, michelle, jenna and aj) in madison, wi and watched the cougars and badgers game. :p besides the loss, it was a great time.  the drive was gorgeous, the weather almost perfect (a little too cold, but tolerable), the stadium was amazing, the badgers fans were very entertaining, and rich and drew especially loved the bucky burger (burger with a bratwurst on it).  definitely a guy thing! ahah!  i loved seeing this awesome family, and i know rich especially loved seeing his buddy from mapleton.  the only problem with the trip was that it was definitely not long enough! drew works for proctor and gamble in cincinatti, so we will all meet up in indianapolis sometime hopefully super soon! thanks for the fun time guys!

my byu boy :)

i love going to football games!

ahahah look at aj! gotta love it!

camp randall was an awesome stadium!

michelle is so pretty!

;) so hottttt (the other self pics only get worse...)

hot chocolate race

richy ricardo and i are pretty much olympian runners now! :) for real though, we ran another race! and we rocked it rockstar style! ;) granted, this was a shorter distance than our last race, but we did better overall.  rich ran the 5k and placed in the top 14% of like 6000 male runners and i ran the 15k and placed in the top 4% of about 6000 female runners! :) it was my best pr and i ran it in the 7 minute per mile range, so i think running with my hubby must have motivated me to exceed my record! :) also...i had to keep up with him because he was cruising so fast! after the race, we got delicious hot chocolate and hung out with some friends who ran it too.  it was a way super adrenaline filled fun day!

we had to wake up at like freakin' 5am but i t was worth it!

we got matching hot chocolate shirts.  presh.

rich had to capture the moment. lol!

minutes before we started...

minutes after we finished!

the chocolate was so rich and smooth!

leanne, maryann and ana (ana runs in every single freakin' race!)

ana, maryann, mary and leanne