Happy Thanksgiving

Wow, what a week. We decided before Stella was born that no matter what we would be going to Chicago for Thanksgiving. We rotate years between St. Louis and Chicago and this year was our year to be in Chicago. We thought that we might as well make it worth our drive so we decided to stay for a week. We were not sure how the drive would be so we might as well stay.

The day we were leaving for Chicago Stella decided to sleep for her first 4 1/2 hour stretch, which threw our game plan off. Of course leave it to a baby to do that! She woke us up at 4:15, so as Peter was feeding her and I was pumping we decided to get the car packed when we were done and go. We didn't want to wait until after her next feeding because Peter wanted to get there before the Bears game and we didn't know how the drive was going to go. So we packed up put two sleeping children in the car and headed on our way. We got on the road at 5:30 am. Stella did a great job! We see the makings of another great traveler. Nora is an awesome traveler and hopefully Stella will be the same way. We made it to Grandma and Grandpas house in 5 1/2 hours, which was great time!

We had no plans for most of the week. It was really nice to see both sides of the family. A lot of family got the chance to meet Stella and we are so thankful that you came to meet her!  Tuesday Grandma, Nora and I headed to the American Girl store. Grandma got Nora a bitty baby for Christmas. Nora picked out a baby with reddish hair and blue eyes and named her baby Stella. Now, it has been a little confusing, but you just have to make sure you ask which Stella she is referring to, her sister or her baby. I think it is pretty sweet that she named her doll after her sister. It just goes to show how much she really does love her sister. More about that when I post an update on Stella and Nora after Stella goes to the doctor on Wed.

On Thanksgiving Day the Harrigan side of the family came over. I got to meet Peter's cousins baby, Emily. There were 3 girls under 7 months! It was fun to have Nora be able to play with her cousins, Shamus and Molly. They had a blast playing together and Nora now refers to Molly as her "new friend".

On Friday I did a little shopping, but nothing too crazy. I hit Kohls up at around 10:00 and then went to Old Navy and Carsons, which was all in the same mall. That evening we had dinner with friends, which was great as always.

We headed back on Saturday around noon time and it took a little longer to get home, but not much longer. The ride home was 6 hours, but still not bad considering we were traveling with an infant. We had a great week in Chicago!!!