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I'm thankful for the wonderful friends we have made here in Illinois and that last week I got to spend extra time with several of them.

On Monday and Tuesday I did a lot of shopping with Melissa Ricks at the craft store and the mall. I am thankful for my super smart friend Melissa and her beautiful smile and fun personality; she is a joy to be around. I'm grateful she and Trevor moved here and that we all get along so well.

On Wednesday, after preschool, Missy McConkie and her kids came over so we could make turkey cookies with the girls. This mostly consisted of the girls staying out of the way while we made the cookies and the boys eating the decorations, but it was a lot of fun. Missy suggested we take the cookies to our Thanksgiving dinners the next day and then take the left-over cookies to the assisted-living center down the road from us for the residents there. We did take the girls to Cordia Senior Residence on Friday morning and my heart was full as we visited with the people there and had the girls "perform" some songs for them. I am thankful for my wonderful and talented neighbor Missy for being an awesome VT partner, for her wonderful spirit of charity and selflessness, and for always being there for us in a pinch.

On Thursday morning Kyle went and played football with the Elders in our ward and had a really fun time. I'm grateful for all the good friends he has in our ward and for the fun they have together. When Kyle came home he brought a surprise - a movie for us to watch together as a family. We enjoyed spending time together since he did not have to work.

On Thursday afternoon we headed over to Jeremy&Amy Curtis' house for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was a great feast which included a "turdunkin" (a duck in a chicken in a turkey) and many wonderful pies! I'm sad I don't have any pictures because I forgot my camera and Kyle forgot his phone. The Curtis's have been our good friends for the past 3 years as well. I'm thankful for the easy fun we always have when we're together and for Will and his "lick-kisses"! Amy is an awesome friend and co-teacher. I love her easy-going nature and am so excited for her to have a baby GIRL in just a few short weeks.

Also at the Curtis's house were Liz and Alan Ricker. Liz has been living in Indiana for the past few weeks on a rotation and poor Alan has been home alone but she got to come home for Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for Liz's friendship; for late nights talking, shopping trips, "just girls" get-away's, and for lazy Thursday afternoons hanging out doing nothing at all. She's been a blessing I'll always be grateful for.

Last, but certainly most important - Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were spent with my bestest friend of all - Kyle. He's been working so hard it's sometimes difficult to spend much time together when we're both awake, but he had the whole weekend off and we spent nearly all of it together, just the way I love it. I'm grateful for Kyle - for his positive attitude, hard-working nature, and loving kindness for me and our children. He's the best friend a girl could hope to be married to and I'll forever be grateful I was lucky enough to find him.

Thankful

Ok, so these pictures are from March, but I love how they turned out and they capture what I'm most thankful for this year - a wonderful (and oh, so handsome) husband and my cute kids who keep every day interesting.

Party 'Til We Drop!

Halloween came early to the Robinette household with TWO parties on the 28th of October. Sadly, Kyle was scheduled to work the night shift at the hospital in Chicago, so he wasn't able to come with us to the festivities.

This year Meg wanted to be a Monarch Butterfly. At first, I found a monarch butterfly costume at the store for $20, but when we got it home I was really disappointed with it...it wasn't worth the money and didn't look nearly as cute as the picture on the package. So, I decided to get crafty...I bought a pattern, some black and orange fabric, and some adult-size monarch butterfly wings and got busy. I knew I wanted our family to go with a theme, so I made Logan a spider costume out of the left-over black fabric and some glitter paint and I went as a Bug-Catcher. I had a vest with plastic bugs crawling all over my back and my "gear" hanging on the front including an over-sized magnifying glass (thanks Missy!), giant tweezers, and a clear jar for my collections. I made a big butterfly net too! We had a really fun time.

The first party was the Halloween Carnival at Midwestern University. Megan loved playing all the games and collecting candy. The last thing she did was color a great picture of a jack-o-lantern. Logan was really a good sport - he wore the spider costume and sat in his stroller the entire time just people watching. I was a little nervous that some of the costumes would freak him out, but he did great.

After we spent an hour and a half at the carnival we got in the car and headed to the Primary Trunk-or-Treat. It was only 7 pm, but I was exhausted and ready to go home, but there was no way we could miss it. The nice part was they had a bouncy slide in the Primary room and once Meg saw that she stayed in there for an hour (minus the wings)! She did the Trunk-or-Treat and made a haul but would you believe that the only thing she wanted to eat out of all the candy was a bag of goldfish crackers? I was so proud. I talked her into taking a cupcake home and on the way she decided she'd like to eat it, so I let her.

So, now the kids are in bed and I'm alone with a bucket full of Megan's chocolate...hmmm...

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My Birthday

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I had a wonderful birthday this year. Kyle got home from work and, after we shared a birthday cupcake with candles with the kids, he whisked me away for a romantic dinner at Capri Ristorante. It was so nice to go on a fancy date with my wonderful man. It was good food and had a nice atmosphere with candles, nice table linens, and quiet music. I loved it!

On Friday, the 24th, Megan had been sick all day. When Kyle got home he really wanted us all to go over to my friend Liz's house so he could get something for our printer. I really did not want to go, especially because I had a puking child, but somehow he talked me into it (funny how he can do that). So we arrived and then I knew why Kyle was insisting we all go - it was a surprise birthday party for me with all my best buds! I was so surprised and almost cried to see my sweet friends all dressed in leis and the "cruise" decor. We had some awesome food and listened to island music, then we ate a GIANT chocolate cake. It was so great. Thank you to Liz&Allan, Melissa&Trevor, and Amy&Jeremy&Will for making me feel so loved!! You guys are awesome!

On Saturday, the 25th, our little family participated in the Glen Ellyn P.S.S. (pediatric stroke survivor) We Love You 5K. This was my idea. I chose this particular 5K because it met my criteria - around my birthday, close to home, inexpensive, and NOT on a Sunday (almost all events out here like this are on Sundays).

I am NOT a runner and have never been very fond of exercise but a few months ago Weight Watchers started a program where if you participate in a 5K they'll give you a charm to put on your keyring. I found a great deal on some walking shoes and started my program. I increased my speed and distance each day and worked really hard. The day of the race came and I was really nervous that I was just making a fool of myself but I was really excited too. I was so glad that Kyle and the kids were there to do it with me. I don't think I could have done it without them.

We had a great run/walk and finished at just over 48 minutes. We found out our race results - I came in 19th in my age division and Kyle came in 8th in his age division. I'm really glad we did it and now I'm considering doing another 5K in November (but we'll see).

The next bit of news - Logan is WALKING! My baby is just not a baby anymore. He has also learned his first word! Nope, not Mamma. Not even Dadda. It's "cah-cah" (cracker). Figures that my big eater's first word would have something to do with food.

Kyle has LOVED his rotation in pediatrics and Megan has been enjoying preschool. We are enjoying an "indian summer" this week with highs of 80 degrees. It's hot but the leaves are all falling off the trees and blowing around...pretty fun. We're all doing well and we still love our life here in the Windy City.

We've had some kitchen chairs since we moved to Chicago that I just haven't been a huge fan of; so I decided to do something about it! I really enjoyed learning a new skill and creating something beautiful out of something, well, not so beautiful. It was not as difficult as I thought it would be but it did take longer than I'd planned because whoever put these chair cushions together the first time had been a maniac with the staples. It took me about 4 hours to get all the staples out and about 1 hour to put all the chairs back together again. I couldn't have done it though without my friend Melissa and her snazzy staple gun. We had a fun time picking out the perfect fabric and just hanging out together doing something crafty. (Oh, and thank you to Kyle and Trevor for watching the kids while we had our fun!) I feel quite empowered now and can't wait to find more DIY projects to do around the house.

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