Catching up

I'm sure most of you have seen Josh's homecoming video that went viral, and that landed us a trip to Chicago! The Steve Harvey Show invited us to come on. We hadn't ever watched it before, Josh didn't even know who he was! But there was no way we were going to turn down a free trip to Chicago, and the opportunity to be on national television!

 

 

And so began the LONG train ride

 

Thankfully the girls were free to walk around and there are no seat belts, much more laid back than an airplane! And there were a lot of open seats for the girls to spread out on.

This was after the train stopped, don't worry!

 

 

 

Mackenna found a great little sitting place under the vanity in our hotel bathroom!

 Our car wasn't coming to get us until 1:00 so we had all morning to kill. We walked in the frigid cold

 to explore a nearby mall called the Vertical Mall. The girls had fun going on all the escalators and elevators! It wasn't exactly a kid friendly mall, so we weren't there long.

Except for the Lego store...

 Then we finally got to the studio, where we waited....and waited...and waited for about 3 hours.

 Thankfully there was a T.V. and plenty of snacks.

Then it was finally time to get ready! Here is Bridget getting her hair done!

All ready for the camera!

Mackenna and I got to watch on a screen backstage. I was shoving Mackenna's face full of food to keep her quiet! Everyone was so worried about having a toddler backstage since they have a very strict noise policy!

As Steve was leaving the studio, we got to take a quick picture with him!

My favorite part of the whole experience was as we were leaving the studio, the audience members were being ushered out of the studio as well and as we walked by they were all gushing over Bridget saying "She's so cute!", "Look she has a baby sister!", "What a cute family!" and "Thank you for you service". It all made me a bit teary eyed! While Josh didn't actually serve in a military branch, all of the work he did there was for the military and he did it well!

 

After leaving the studio, we decided to try some Chicago-style deep dish pizza!

 

Bridget was very tired. It ended up not being the greatest idea to take kids, because it took 30 minutes to get our pizza out. So by the time our food actually came, the kids were done. So we boxed it up, and went back to the hotel!

 

 

While the trip was full of very cold temperatures, little sleep and lots of tantrums, I'm glad we went and it is definitely one that we will never forget!!

Dentist

Bridget also went to the Dentist for the first time in January. We brought her along to just meet our hygienist and see the office, not intending for her to get her teeth cleaned. We didn't want to push her if she wasn't ready, but when we asked her if she wanted to she said YES! And she did awesome! She just laid there with her mouth opened and was so good! The hygienist could not get over how well she was doing, and couldn't believe she is only 3!

January

January was full of A LOT of snowy days, but we tried to make the best of it.
We wrestled

Made jewelry

 Played at play places

 

 

Played dress-up

Built forts

 

Went to the Magic House- an awesome kids museum.



Took rests 

 Went to our FREE Science Museum!

 

 

Played in boxes

January was a LONG month and I'm so glad it's over! Can't wait for Spring when we can go to parks and enjoy the outdoors a little more!

 



My Bridget Girl

I'm going to take a quick minute to tell you about my Bridget. So far 3 has been my favorite age. While she still has her meltdowns, (what 3 year old doesn't?) they are far and few between!
Today was her first Sunday as Sunbeam(last Sunday was cancelled due to a snow storm), and she LOVED it! When I dropped her off, she ran right to her teacher and sat with her class. When I went to pick her up, she was wearing the crown pictured above that says "I am child of God" and exclaims "MOM, I'M A CHILD OF GOD!!!" It made me so happy to hear everything she did, and how happy she was. The icing on the cake was tonight, while I was putting her to bed she said "Mom, I love going to church with you! Thank you for taking me." It melted my heart, so I decided to lay there on her floor next to her bed, listening to her church music play and waiting for her to fall asleep. And I couldn't help but be reminded how sweet of a spirit I have been entrusted with, and we have been blessed to have in our home. I love her so much and I'm so thankful to be her mom!

Rock Climbing

Last week Josh took Bridget to go rock climbing for the first time.

She had a blast and still keeps telling me about how she went "All the way to the TOP!!"

I think these two have found they're future daddy-daughter date activity!

Other December happenings

The girls got snowman outfits in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa Carr

We decorated sugar cookies!

Saw Frozen with Dad

Christmas preschool program, with one of her good friends Matthew!