Merry Christmas

We hope everyone had a great holiday season. We miss getting to see all of our friends and family in Utah, but had a Merry Christmas here in Illinois with Grandma and Grandpa Jeppsen. We got to see Santa at our ward Breakfast with Santa. Brandon and Emma were right up there making sure he got their letter, but for some reason Cait was a little bit shy...I guess she has some facial hair issues.

The Nutcracker

The girls and I wanted to start a new Christmas tradition this year. We went to go see The Nutcracker in downtown Chicago. The girls loved the whole thing and they each said their favorite dancer was the sugarplum fairy. Altough I have to giggle because during the sugarplum fairy's dance with the "prince," Caitlyn turns to me and says with this concerned look on her face, "It's ok for boys to wear tights huh." Then on the train ride home Emma came to the conclusion that the boys in tights weren't wierd, just different.

So I learned two lessons from our little excursion towntown. Number 1--Always know the ADDRESS of the place you are going and how to get there (Of course I would happen to catch the taxi that has never heard of the Chicago Ballet's Atheneaum theater) and Number 2---Always carry enough cash for that extra long taxi ride in case the taxi driver doesn't know where the heck he is going. :)

I think this was the girl's first train ride since we have moved here. Of course after about the first 10 minutes the coolnes wore off and they were wondering if we were there yet---um yah, just 70 minutes left.

Where's KBYU?

I thought this was a cute picture. Everyone is gathered around the computer watching the Christmas devotional broadcast. You never know how much you appreciate those "Utah" stations until you don't live in Utah. Thank goodness for the internet though right?

Happy Birthday, Brandon!

Brandon turned 5 on November 11th. We had a quiet little family party at Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's house. He is totally in to Transformers this year and was so excited for his Transformers cake.

Happy Birthday, Caitlyn!

For Caitlyn's 4th birthday she got to have a princess party at the Sugar and Spice Party center. She and about 15 of her little friends got to dress up in their favorite princess dresses and spent the afternoon at the salon getting the royal treatment. They got their hair done, a little lip gloss and some pretty finger nails.

After everyone was all princessed up, we had cupcakes, opened presents and finished off the party with a walk down the runway. It was a perfect party for a pretty princess!

We Got our Wings!

So in November Matt got to fulfill one of his lifelong goals: learn to fly an airplane. OK, OK, so he wasn't totally flying by himself, but it looks pretty cool anyway. Our family was able to ride on a private jet out to Utah to attend the temple sealing of Jordan and Kylie and Jaxon (which was a wonderful experience), and the pilots were telling Matt about all the controls and let him actually fly it a little bit.




Everyone got to check out the cockpit.