Christmas

This is the cool quilt that Aaron's mother made us for Christmas. So if any of you are wondering what to do with your old T-shirts, this is what we did. Isn't it great? It's so fun to look at because each square has such a memory with it.
The rest of the pics are just from our family Christmas that I thought were fun. The couples:

Aria with her new little bunny, though you can't tell in this pics she really loved it and started giggling at it!
Drewber was totally stoked about his "Cars" book that made all the noises of the cars, horns honking, wheels squeeling, engines roaring. He was so excited!

Love you all!
Booxy

Experiences in Chicago

This first pic is Aaron and I at the "do it yourself Messiah." Please see Aaron's blog for details....it's really fun so if anyone wants to come up next year, we'll see about getting tickets!









Last Weekend the Young Group came downtown to skate at Millennium Park. We had a blast (too bad Aaron was working, we missed him). This was Andrea's first time ever skating....she did a great job!












Here's the whole group that came down (yes there was only 6 of us, but for Chicago YG that's a great turn out!)











The girls, Kaitlyn Isaia Andrea Luthi and I.

Winter in Chicago

Snow "waves" on the beach. It was cool to see the snow drifts over the sand...you never knew when you'd step on a sand pile or sink knee deep in snow!












This is why I do not drive a car in this city. Public transportation for me. I love trains!










Just in case you thought I'd miss out on snow angels....I did find plenty of untrodden snow to leave my mark on the world.















Our place decorated for Christmas....it's great we get the lights and decorations without having to put them up ourselves!
ps that's Aaron standing outside our door.


Love you all! Booxy

This is for you, Grandma!

Hi All! We enjoyed last weekend!

Thanks again, Grandma (& Rebekah, of course), for the AMAZING gift. I still can't believe it...absolutely priceless! Believe it or NOT: I've already used it!!

Here's some pics...

Love to you all! Sarah

Christmas in Chicago

Here's a cheesy pic of Spencer and I decorating our "cute wittle twee." It's fun to have a tree again! I love Christmas in Chicago. We're all bundled up, scurrying around the city, buying Christmas gifts, listening to the street carolers and enjoying the brisk winter snowfalls.
We had both sets of parents up this last weekend for the Moody Candlelight Carols. It was a beautiful concert again this year, and we enjoyed a Saturday of shopping and seeing the city lights. A new discovery this year is the Zoo Lights. The Lincoln Park Zoo puts up a beautiful light display for the holidays, so Sat. night we headed over there to see them. It was very well done and quite impressive!
I'll miss you all this weekend. Have a wonderful Christmas...I'll be directing the 1-3rd graders for their song as well as the whole Sunday school's song, but I'll be missing you!
luv ya
booxy

Here's another oldie...

Isn't this just precious of Clarky?

Love, Sarah

Dave Jr....Uh, I mean Baby Willis...

Hi gals,

Mom & I visited Christa, Jack, & Baby Willis yesterday. Willis, looks so BIG for only being 2 weeks. Isn't he darling? We think he definitely looks like a little Kaeb!


Christa seems to be doing very well chasing a 14-month kiddo and taking care of a newborn. Whew! Wears me out! :)

Emitt watching Jack open Will's (yep, Christa is already calling him Will) gift.Emitt & Jack "playing" together. Mom & Will...
Sweet little Jack.

We'll miss seeing you all at Thanksgiving (Leah, Klint & I will be in Mexico visiting Seth)!

Love, Sarah

Too cute for words...

Love, Sarah

The last two weekends

This first pic is of Aaron and I in Minneapolis last weekend. We went up to Minn/St Paul for a getaway and spent time with some old friends swinging through Madison Wisc to eat dinner with Nick Steffen on our way home. It was a wonderful weekend, beautiful weather and much to do.

This last weekend we had Aaron's brother Brett's family and his cousin Brandon's family as well as Holly here. We had a great time going to the zoo, wandering through the conservatory and shopping (of course, always shopping in Chicago). This first pick of of Colette watching the baby chicks at the "farm."

Misha was exploring the egg.

And our walk back from the zoo. Mason was very disappointed not to see the Tigers. They were in the Lion house which was closed for trick or treaters. (We didn't want to wait in the long line)

Things I bet you didn't know Chicago Has!

This first picture is of the Lincoln Park Arboretum. Most people don't Even know it exists, and neither did Aaron and I until we moved into the area and ran across it while we were out biking. So last weekend we went down here to study for a while. Sorry the first picture didn't do well with colors, it was a gloomy day. But I played around with my camera to take the rest of these.

In addition to the garden there's the zoo (which everyone's heard of) and the conservatory. They are all great places to visit...and all free. What more could you ask for! And we'll even supply 2 bikes for the ride (though it's only a mile from our place).
So come visit!
Booxy

Need An Opinion..for Hoffmann eyes only

Hopefully this doesn't totally spoil our Christmas card but I need some opinions. I'm going to post a few pictures on the blog. Please respond with which one you like best. Number 1 is the top picture.

Wrigley Field

Aaron and I took Joe to a Cubs game for his Birthday....yes I know his birthday was in April....but this is when we got tickets for the game. We had a great day. Andy and Joe picked us up from work. We dropped the car at our place and jumped on the EL. We ate dinner at a place called Minnie's. It's a fun restaurant in which all your food is miniature, so instead of one hamburger you get to pick 3 sandwiches or pizzas that are all small. Joe enjoyed is tall root beer and pizzas. We then jumped back on the EL and headed up to Wrigley

The Cubs didn't win against the Brewer's that night, but we still had a great time. Wrigley is a great stadium and Joe was fascinated by the game. I've never seen anything hold his attention so long! Luv ya Joe! Thanks for coming up to visit us!
A. Booxy

Cute kids!

Thought you'd appreciate these cute pics of a few of your great grandchildren Grandma. They're awefully cute! Hudson pointing out his Pizza and showing me how to blow on it.
Drewber being ornery
Emitt, well, being Emitt

For those of you who wondered where we headed off to so quickly. Aaron and I had made plans to entertain Joel and Amber Virkler for the weekend. We did one of those, we new we had plans Labor Day weekend but didn't assosiate Labor Day with the last weekend of August. So over booked ourselves for the weekend. This was their last weekend in the area and were so excited to spend it in the city we could hardly turn them down. So we came home from the picnic, picked them up at the train station and then showed them the town. A very nice day which ended in ordering sushi (which is suprisingly good).

Love you all and miss you, I wish we could have stayed longer last weekend! Hope you had a great end of the day!

Booxy