Willis/Harvey Christmas

Friday night we had our Willis/Harvey Christmas. We decided to celebrate at Portillo's which the guys were embarrassed about since we were opening presents in the restaurant:) Then we went to the Vernon Hills Winter Wonderland light show. Its been a tradition every year that we go to it since Cam and I started dating which was in 1996!! Now its fun to carry that tradition on with our kids:) Usually we get in our PJ's and pick up dinner and have a picnic on the car while we go through the light show and listen to Christmas music. Here are Kaitlyn, Madi and Colin at dinner. Makenna was hiding behind her Portillo's hat:)
Opening presents.....Kaitlyn and Colin got some really neat stuff!
Kristina and I changed the kids into their PJ's in Portillos bathroom...which was a production in itself:) Here are K & C watching the light show from the car.

They loved the lighted tunnel that we drove through!

Here is a lighted town......they were pointing to the red barn saying that Papa Willis has a barn.

Don't know if they were more excited about the light show or the fact that daddy let them steer.

Riding the Polar Express

On Wednesday we rode the Polar Express train with some of our play group friends. It went from Lake Villa to Buffalo Grove. We got of the train at the BG train station and that was the "North Pole". Here are lots of pics from our day! The 4 amigos showing off their Polar Express train tickets.

Here comes the Polar Express train...Hi train!!!
Their was an elf who rode with us on the train. She was Little Miss Lake Villa:) She was really good with the kids and they liked her!
Looking out the window for the North Pole!

Some of our playgroup friends who joined us. We were at the train station having lunch, listening to the Polar Express story and waiting for Santa.

Santa's arrival...he gave Kaitlyn high five on the way in!!

Big hugs for best friends!

Sitting on Santa's lap. This was too funny....Kaitlyn was showing Santa her red painted nails:)

The kids received goodie bags from Santa and the elf.

We played some games...this was pass the Santa(similar to the Hot Potato game). Kaitlyn was passing the Santa quickly before the music went off. Notice Colin in red vest in the background. Out of about 50 kids sitting in the circle the music stopped on Colin the first time around and he was out of the game:( He seemed more confused than upset when he got up..he was a good sport!

We sang Christmas songs and shook our bells. Here is video of the 3 kiddos who were hopping up and down and enjoying the Jingle Bells song:)

Getting ready to board the train back home. Bye North Pole!

Poor Barclay....all of the kids wanted to sit with the elf so she had all of the kids in her seat on the ride back:) Thanks Barclay for sitting with all of the kiddos!!

Kaitlyn's 6 month Post-Op Appt

We took Kaitlyn to see Dr. Vicari(her plastic surgeon) tonight. The two of them have this bond which is too cute. Since we were his last patients they let K & C play in one of their play areas down the hall. As soon as Kaitlyn saw Dr. Vicari she went running to him which is so cute! She always jumps right on his lap and they chat:) Hard to believe he has been seeing her since she was 3 months old and she is now 3 years old! He said her skin transplant looks great! He is happy with the progress she is making. The lower part of her lip is still pretty hard so we need to continue massaging it to soften the tissue. That same area has a pretty red scar line still. Its because that was an incision that was opened up twice in 2 different surgeries. She will probably need laser treatments there to help blend the scar line or completely make it disappear. The thing that sticks out to him the most is the faint red outline around the new skin. Again, its still healing and will fade in color. That would be another area to laser if it doesnt completely fade. Being that its only 6 months post-op it is too early to do any laser and we need to soften that lower lip tissue. So we will continue to massage the area with Aquaphor and schedule another follow up visit for this summer. At that point we will discuss possibly doing her laser treatment in the Fall of 2009. He said it takes about 20 seconds to do but based on her age, the discomfort and how much needs to be lasered he would probably put her to sleep under general anesthesia. Also, it will take a few treatments which means more general anesthesia which we dont like but it will be short! So all in all it was a great appointment! We are all happy with how well our little princess is healing:)

Twins Calendar

Kaitlyn and Colin made the Twins Magazine 25th Anniversary Calendar for 2009! I could not scan the entire calendar page because it is too large so here is a small portion. I sent this pic of them when they were about 7 1/2 months old on the 4th of July. Its one of our favorite pictures that I took from when they were little:) Its such a fun keepsake for them!

Such serious, chubby faces:)

Another Santa Visit

We went to see Santa again today:) We just cant get enough of him! Mommy and Daddy get such a kick out of seeing how much we love him and are not afraid at all! The Harvey family came with us too! We have seen this Santa the last 2 years at the bank by our house. He is, by far, the most realistic Santa we have ever seen! Plus he is so personable! Here we are before we left. Friday night we wrote our letters to Santa. Mommy typed the letter and then she used a highlighter to write Dear Santa and signed our names. We traced over the highlighter with a crayon so our letters would be personally written and signed by us to Santa! We brought them with us today and Santa read what was on our list while we were on his lap!
Here we are arriving at the bank. "Hi Santa" Kaitlyn was yelling! Notice the 3 Amigos up front and Makenna staying back because it seemed safer back there:)

Smiling with Santa:)

Family Pic!

Big hugs for Santa from Colin

Here is a video clip of Santa talking to us. When we got in the car Kaitlyns exact words were "That Santa was SO, SO awesome!".....Cam and I were cracking up because I was saying how awesome he was when we were inside and then she started saying it:)

Little Angels Visit

Today we went to visit Little Angels Preschool. We absolutely love it there! The teacher, Ms. Maureen, is so sweet and seems like a very caring person! Mommy would feel very comfortable with us being in her hands:) We are SOOO excited to go to school and we talk about it all of the time. August seems so far away til school starts but registration will be here right after the holidays! We are excited that our best friend Madi likes the school too. It will be so much fun being in school together!

Here we are after our visit standing outside of the classroom:) When we arrived the class was sitting in a circle and doing show and tell. Each child brought in his or her favorite ornament. We sat like the big kids on the rug and listened so well! Then it was free play and art time. Ms. Maureen was so sweet and let us paint a picture too. Here we are showing off our pictures when we were back home! We talked all about our visit during lunch. We cant wait to go back in the fall! We felt like such big kids today which makes mommy realize that we are growing up way too fast!!

Twins Go To Bed

We have been reading the book Twins Go To Bed to Kaitlyn and Colin since the day they were born. Its their favorite bedtime book! Of course I had it laminated and bound so they each could have a nice copy as a keepsake. We keep them on book stands in their rooms and read them every night. Our new bedtime routine now consists of them reading the book to us. Its so cute that we had to post 2 videos of them reading their books. We had to cut the beginning of the video off because it was too long and wouldn't post. Here is Colin proudly reading to us!!

Kaitlyn proudly reading her book!!

Snow Play...Brrrrr!

Yesterday the kids were begging me to go outside and play in the snow so I caved. It was SO cold out and their L.L. Bean snowsuits were keeping them nice and warm while I stood in the garage and froze:) We are stretching the life on these snowsuits as they are from last year and still fit well enough to work this winter. Colin was showing off his snow that he was using to make a snowman. Kaitlyn made a ball of snow too. It was the smallest snowman I have ever seen:)
Kaitlyn was showing Colin how to make a snow angel.
For some reason this was really fun....jumping up and down and throwing the snow up in the air and it would land on them!
We came in and had some hot chocolate with marshmallows in our cozy pj's. Kaitlyn was not a fan of it at all and said it tasted yucky while Colin drank the entire cup! K & C are only milk and water drinkers and wont drink juice at all....guess it was too sweet for Kaitlyn.

Pics From Last Week!

We were lucky enough to see Santa twice in one week. We are even going to see him again this Saturday....we just cant get enough of visiting with the guy in the red suit:) We went to the mall with Grandma Young last week and had a lot of fun! Here we are waving to Santa from the 2nd floor. We couldn't wait to get down there and see him! I took video of the kids talking to Santa but it wont upload. The video clip is too funny so I will see if I can get it to work and add it later. Smiling with Santa:)

Big hugs for Santa!

Grandma bought 2 new dress up outfits at the mall for her new house. Colin was so excited to try on the new construction worker outfit. The kids have so much fun visiting the new house as they have their own closet thats full of just dress up stuff. When we get there they head right up to their room and start changing into their dress up stuff....its too funny!

Kaitlyn had her new blue tutu and fur tiara on!

The outfit wouldn't be complete without jewelry. She knows just where the bag is of Grandmas old jewelry....the gaudier the better for her!!!

Saturday we went to have breakfast with Santa at a local school. Its our 2nd year attending it and we enjoy going the book fair and picking out a new book too! Daddy went downtown Chicago to the Illini game so we tagged along with Auntie Kelly, Uncle Randy and Quintin. Here are the kids waiting in line.

Auntie Kelly had to pose with us too.

Quintin says "Santa" all of the time and this was his first time seeing him in person. He wasn't too sure of him but took a quick family picture.

K & C sitting on Santa's lap before breakfast.....they were curious why he didnt have a mustache like the Santa at the mall.....we are already having questions at the age of 3!!!!

How Many More Days Mommy?

Cam and I were having a hard time explaining that Christmas is still a month away to K & C. Wouldn't you get confused if you have been seeing Christmas stuff in stores since October! :) So we decided to make a Countdown to Christmas chart to help them understand the concept of how many more days til Christmas! Here is Colin coloring his Santa.

Kaitlyn was working very hard coloring as well!

Here they are showing off their Santa's!

22 more days til Christmas as of yesterday!! They cant wait for Santa's beard to be full of cotton balls because that means he will be visiting our house!!

Moms Night Out!

Last night some of the moms from our play group went out for dinner and drinks. We all taught together at Woodland and enjoy getting together every other Wednesday with the kiddos! Last night it was SO nice to get out and actually be able to have a conversation without having a kid pulling at my leg:) Here we are: Kelli, Holly, Laura, Stacey & Kristina. We missed Carrie and Barclay who weren't able to make it last night. Looking forward to the next night out ladies!! See you Wednesday!