Christmas in Chicago....

Our "Midwest Tour 2010" kicked off in Chicago this year.  We were able to be with my family before Christmas until Christmas Day and because of the baby shower my Aunt, Uncle, Cousin and Grandma were also in town a little longer this year so it seemed like we all got to spend a little extra time together which was VERY nice!!

We got to see some friends as well but most of the time we just hung out with family which is always the best part about Christmas especially being so far from family the rest of the year! 

Here are some pics from Christmas Eve, we used to always open all our presents on Christmas Day but I think when Tyler was little at some point and he just could not stand to wait we changed that tradition and started opening all our gifts Christmas Eve!

Getting ready for Christmas Eve dinner wanted to put up a picture of Libby in the kitchen where she spend most of her time, my parents said they needed to practice spoiling for their future grandson...haha! They really  just loved having a dog around since theirs passed away a few months ago and have already requested her to come back and visit....wish that was easier to do because she would love it as much as we would ;)

Here is my dad with the George Washington book that we got him for Christmas, Tyler going to give him a high five probably!

Tyler showing off one of his favorite presents an Elvis & Johnny Cash shirt, what could be better!

Mom showing off her new camera which she REALLY needed ;)  Just in time for the new baby to arrive!

Here is a Christmas Eve pic of the whole family, last year before a younger one joins the group :)

 A family pic :)

 A group shot, set up my camera and Tyler instisted that Libby be in the picture.  Was a little low and Libby didn't quite cooperate but nice to have a picture with everyone it it!!

 The pricess on one of her perches...she was so tired during this whole trip since she is used to sleeping so much of the day and with people always around didn't do that...something we were hoping would happen when the baby comes and glad to see that it will probably be the case :)

Christmas Day my mom's good friend Mag had us all over for dinner, which was so nice of her and the food was fabulous!  Here is a picture of me and Tyler in front of her tree, the whole time we were in Chicago Tyler would put his hand on my stomach and say "Hi Baby, I your Uncle!" So cute, he is soo excited about the baby and so good with kids espcially when then get to playing age, he will sit there for hours so very exited about that!!

Mag always has so many wonderful decorations, here is one picture of one of the very cute ones!!

Next up our Christmas in Fort Wayne which was wonderful as well!  We are so lucky that the last few years we have been able to get away for awhile to spend time with our families!!

Finally some pics of our little boy and 30 Week Photos

With our insurance we really only had two sonograms scheduled one at 7 weeks and the other at 20 weeks so we wanted to go ahead and have a 3D sonogram done.  Also, we wanted to make sure our little one was a boy since our doctor never got to show us ;)  It was very cool and he did show us that he was a boy....but had his hands by his face so it was harder to get some pictures of just his face. Oh well the tech said everything still looked really good and we saw that he had all his fingers many times ;) 

He is also becoming very, very active but of course wanted to sleep through the sonogram...haha!

Enjoy a few pictures of our little boy, exactly 10 weeks before his due date! Oh my lots to do before then!!

 Like I said here is a pic of his hand up by his face, love this one though he just looks like he is all cuddled up so comfy :)

 His umbilical cord was also up close to his head/face which she said was not in a bad spot(and not near his neck) just got in the way of the pictures sometimes...here is a good one though of his fingers....crazy how well you can see if you can get a good angle! So fun though...

 One more pic for you all to see...can't wait to meet him in 2 and a half months!

Here are my 30 week pictures as well so you can see how he is growing from the outside!

Baby Shower in Chicago

First I am sorry for such a lag in posts, please note I will be posting for the next 5 days or so to fill in all that I have missed ;)

I had a wonderful baby shower in Chicago over Christmas that was thrown by my mom, aunt, best friend Kerry and her mom.  It was soo much fun and I was so excited that so many people were able to make the shower even so close to Christmas!  Since we live in Texas and were driving had a "book" shower and most other gifts were mailed to me in Texas, it was so fun to receive them in the mail at home and wonderful to start building our little boys library of books!  So many people brought some of their favorite books from when they were little which was wonderful and we all had a little time remembering how much we all loved many of these books.

A picture of the dessert table, my mom and I made the cupcakes and were pretty proud that they matched the gluten free ones that we bought...haha!

 Kerry put up these cute onesies, love them and they were perfect decor!!

 Kerry and I who have been best friends since the age of 6 months and 3 months, I love that I have known her my whole life and can not believe we will both now have little boys of our own! Wish so much we lived closer so our boys could get to know each other as well as we do!!

 Mom's and daughters, our moms have also been wonderful friends for 30 years now! 

 A picture of 4 generations, well one has not debuted yet ;)  A wonderful picture of my Aunt Jannean, me, my grandma and my mom!

 Showing off one of the many books that I received at the shower...

 Another book, this one has a rattle in the side too...

 Growing up one of our (my mom, Kerry's mom, Kerry and I) favorite books was one called the Little Fur Family, just and adorable book which always made Kerry's mom cry since it was just so cute.  They could not find a copy in time for the shower so we had Kerry's son's and my mom read a few pages.  Moira, Kerry's mom started to tear up on command, pretty cute but hope to get one and have it be one of my little one's favorites too!

 A favorite book by just about everyone that was there...thank you Hartzog family ;)

This was a gift from my dad :) He found it this fall, so cute and will be soo true considering our little man will not only be the first grandchild on both sides but the first great grandchild on both sides of our family ;)  Although he is just following in his parents footsteps as that is the case for both Jared and I!

A picture with all of the family who were able to make it from the Burke side, was so glad they were all there to celebrate with me!

My friend Heidi made the trip all the way to Chicago from Grand Rapids, it was WONDERFUL to see her and have her come all that way especially since they just recently moved to Orlando so was not sure when the next time I would get to see her would be!

My mother-in-law and I ;)  She also traveled quite a long way to be there and was so glad she was able to make it!!

I had such a wonderful time and thank you soo much to everyone that came and all the wonderful gifts that I received!!