The Big Move

Well, this post will bring me up to date with the blog. At the beginning of January we moved because of Eric's job. He was promoted and transferred to the headquarters of his company which is just outside of Chicago, Illinois. I have never made a move like this one. Prior to now all the moving we did was basically local and besides renting a truck for one day to move all the big stuff, we could always take a few trips in our cars with smaller stuff that we didn't want to box up. This time, however, we had to box up literally everything we owned. It was crazy! Eric's work paid for a moving company to load and drive all our stuff to our new home, so it wasn't as crazy as it could have been. Still, this isn't something I want to do very often.

We were able to make the drive in 2 days. Two very long days. We are now mostly settled, and hope to be completely settled in another couple of weeks. Eric is enjoying working with his new co-workers, Emma is getting used to her new schedule (all day Kindergarten here) and starting to make some new friends. We like our new ward and are awaiting callings.

We arrived a couple days before our stuff did, so we didn't have much to do except become familiar with our new surroundings. We drove around Chicago and saw quite a bit, including Wrigley Field and the Sears Tower.

We also toured a Jelly Belly Factory which Emma loved.

Coming from a cold place helped us to adjust to the cold here. The wind is a bit stronger and more frequent, and it's more humid of course. That happens when you move from a desert. I will just have to recall my mission days (it's fairly humid in Austria) to help me.

Emma has found her own way to enjoy the sun without going outside. She was laying on our piano bench enjoying the sun shining in the window.

And then, just to make sure we were sufficiently introduced to the winters here, Mother Nature decided to send a blizzard our way. The news crews here were referring to it as "snowzilla". Officially we received 23.5 inches of snow. But add really strong winds and we ended up with huge snow drifts effectively shutting down everything and blocking many people inside their homes. Since we didn't have to be out in it (schools were closed and Eric didn't have to go into the office), I actually loved it. I thought it was so much fun! And Emma loved playing in it.

If you look closely, you can see my hands sticking up above the snow. I was standing just outside our front door reaching as high as I could. That's how much snow was blocking our door! Eric had to go out through the garage on the side to take the picture.

So we are here, trying to get settled and adjusted, and looking forward to what comes in our new home.

Christmastime

I love Christmas. It's such a fun time of year. We have many Christmas traditions and each year it's fun planning and following through with them. Time together with family is the best though. We had a great Christmas even though we were in the middle of packing and getting ready to move. Emma understands the real meaning of the holiday, which is so nice to talk to her about. Among other things, we loved seeing the lights at Temple Square, eating at the Lion House with my family, and of course, Christmas day itself. I love how festive my mom's house is during the holidays. LOVE it! It just makes me happy being there and seeing all her decorations and enjoying the warm, cozy, festive feeling.

Here are my parents with all of their current grandchildren at the Lion House.

I always love seeing presents under the tree during the month, and then seeing the explosion that occurs after Santa comes.

Emma with her Great-Grandmother on Christmas day.

Emma with most of her Christmas gifts.

I think this was Emma's favorite Christmas song this year. They learned sign language for it in primary.

Fall & Winter Happenings

I love the Fall. There are always so many things to do. Since I'm just catching up here (and I'm almost done!!) I'll just include some of the highlights of what we did.

We always go to Gardner Village to see all the witches.

One of her many Halloween scary faces.

Um, need I say more? Emma's face says it all!!

With some of her cousins sporting their team colors.

Eric and Brad were dancing on the Wii.

We love games in my family. We get together quite often just to play. This was at our white elephant and game night extravaganza hosted by my brother and his family. Here they're playing Bang! which is really fun. And apparently Jill is the sheriff this time. The hat doesn't come with the game. You'll have to provide your own, just fyi. This one was courtesy of my brother.

Not to be left out the kids also love playing games. Emma has just as many games as Eric and I do.

Here is Emma's teacher gift for Christmas. It was a Pringles can that we decorated and then filled with Hershey's Hugs and Kisses.

Timothy came over for a sleepover in December. The kids had lots of fun.

Here are some of the cookies created at the sleepover. What kid doesn't like making and frosting cookies?

Summer and Fall Hiking 2010

Last summer and fall we did some hiking together as a family. None of it was too hard core or anything since Emma was with us (at least that's my excuse!). We love being out in nature and exploring. We found a hiking stick for Emma and she loves using it. Here are some highlights.

For some reason Eric always loves to get into really cold mountain streams.

I just love her expression here. So much excitement and enjoyment!

Emma with her new found hiking stick. Eric has since sanded it down and added a nice leather strap.

Teaching moment! Ahhhhh! I love it!