Evan was lucky enough to spend some time with his cousins recently...I've been told he had the time of his life :) Too bad I had to work and couldn't be there to play as well.

trains, trains, and more trains.

Sunday we went to Olbrich Botanical Gardens with my parents, Kate, the Young's and Aunt Kit to see the train display. Evan was in heaven!

christmas day at the ripple house.

Just like every other Christmas day, we all gathered at the Ripple's for presents, dinner, and quality family time. Even spent most of his time playing the drums or running around in the basketball court under Tom's garage :)

christmas morning.

We had to wake Evan up in order to get to my parents for breakfast, and normally Evan does not like to be woken up. But Christmas morning I poked my head in his room and said "Evan, do you want to see if Santa ate the cookies and drank the milk we left out?" He sat straight up with a huge smile on his face and said "YES!" We came out to the kitchen to check out the clean plate and then did stockings.

He was a little anxious for me to get the toy opened.

christmas eve.

We spent Christmas Eve with friends and family, and Evan was somewhat the center of attention as the only person under 21 :) Let's just say he got lots of presents and and enjoyed the holiday. After 4:00 church we headed over to my parents house for dinner and then to open presents. Evan did really well even though we surpassed his bedtime by 2 1/2 hours.

Wrigley liked her presents as well!

santa @ the library.

Evan was really excited to see Santa and to tell him all about the train DVD we were about to rent.

Hmmm...instead of calling me Mamma, Evan has decided that today I am "Beth". It sure made Grandma laugh when he first did it.

winter wonderfest, downtown chicago.

Over the weekend we all crammed into Howard & Kylie’s car (4 adults, 3 kids, 2 pack-n-plays...you get the idea) and headed to Chicago’s Navy Pier for Winter Wonderfest. It was more than we expected! The festival featured 750,000 sparkling lights, 25,000 holiday ornaments and hundreds of beautifully decorated trees. Dozens of rides, games, music and live entertainment for all to enjoy, plus an indoor ice rink for skating. Bennett & Evan had a great time.

We had a quick birthday party for Kylie and the kids had fun with the decorations and games. Oh, and I have to say that 6-week-old Tate was as good as could possibly be expected - we didn't hear a peep out of him the entire 2 days!

Sunday the weather was perfect - almost warm for December, so we walked around on Michigan Avenue, visited the train display in the Hancock Building and had a great lunch. Oh, and we saw a few famous people - Rasheed Wallace and Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics.

We hope to make it an annual Christmas tradition!

colbie caillat live from Studio M