CHICAGO!!

I had the opportunity to go to Chicago for 10 days to babysit my twin nieces Emilia and Avery and my nephew Carter. My brother and sister-in-law went on a cruise so I got to go take care of their kids while they were gone. Kelsi got to come with me and I was so grateful that she was there. I definately couldn't have done it without her. We got to get out and do a lot of fun things and have some awesome adventures. Here are some pictures of the good times we had together. The first place that we visited was The Willis Tower (which was previously known as the Sears Tower). We went up 103 floors to the skydeck. It was crazy!!

A view from the top

This is the skydeck. There are little glass squares that you can step out onto and look straight down. It was a little scary at first but it was pretty awesome.

Carter and Melissa on the skydeck

Me and Kelsi

Our next adventure took us to the Museum of Science and Industry. I loved this museum. It was huge with so many amazing things to see.

Kelsi and Carter on the big John Deere

We watched some baby chicks being born. I hadn't ever seen baby chicks being born and I thought it was pretty cool to see.

My favorite part of the museum was the trains. They had life sized cabooses and a huge room filled with minature cities and train running through them. Carter loved the trains and didn't want to leave that room.



Kelsi and I had our Birthday on February 8th while we were in Chicago so Lindsy got a babysitter for the kids so we could go downtown to hang out for our Birthday. We rode the train downtown, which was an intersting experience. As we got off the train and headed down the street we stopped to go down a street and saw a million cop cars and a guy told us that someone had just gotten shot on that street. SCARY!! Anyways we shopped, went to Memorial Park and walked around the streets of Chicago.

Chicago stuffed pizza. One of the best things that I've ever eaten!!


The day before we went home we headed to the Brookfield Zoo. It's one of the biggest zoo's in the world. The monkeys were by far the best part of the zoo.

CHRISTMAS VAC-A

We had a wonderful holiday season and we were so blessed to be able to spend time with family. We went to Nate's parents in Oklahoma for the majority of the Holiday season. We were also lucky enough to drive down to Texas for four days to visit Britt and her family. My parents were even there for a few days. It was great to see them since we haven't seen them since they left for their mission in April.

Christmas started a little early for us. Nate and I decided to open our presents from one another before we left for Oklahoma. Nate totally spoiled me as usual and gave me some amazing gifts. Just to name a few: cricket cartridges, clothes, boots and movies. Thanks babe!!

Christmas morning at the Hartsocks. Man are we looking fabulous. Don't ya think?

New ornaments from Leslie....love them!!

Leslie sporting a beautiful snowflake necklace she gave all the sister-in-laws

Pretty snappy shirt Dan!!

Jake will be fighting off the chicks smelling great with his new cologne

Jo with her new "black boy" earings

A few days before Christmas we started mass producing cupcakes. We made them for a dinner to be served on Christmas day to less fortunate families. We made about 350 chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. We had a great time making and decorating them together.

On Christmas day we headed to the Church of Christ to serve dinner to the less fortunate. It was a special experience and helped us to think of others and remember our Savior. It was awesome to see how grateful the people were as we served them dinner. This is what Christmas is all about and I'm so glad that Leslie signed us up to help do this.

Serving dinner on Christmas Day

Then it was off to Texas to visit Britt and Rod and their four beautiful children and my parents.

The kids got a tramp for Christmas. They had a blast jumping on it with us and wanted to play out on it for hours.

Sisters

Marley

Azzy

The Twins: Zareya and Z

Hanging with my girls

Me and Azzy

Nate and his buddy Z

I love these babies. They are so fun!!

We had so much fun in Texas and I was sad to leave my little nieces and nephew. We had a blast playing with them and wished that we lived closer to them. I admire my sister and all the hard work that you does. It is a lot of work taking care of 4 little kids. Thanks for letting us visit Britt and Rod!!

I had one last visit to make in Texas. My trainer Dory now lives about an hour from my sisters house with her husband and baby boy Alexander. I hadn't seen her in 5 years so it was great to catch up and finally see one another.

As you can see we had a busy but wonderful Christmas vacation. We had an amazing time going home to Oklahoma. Nate loves to go home and doesn't get to do it very often. Thank you for making our stay so fun David and Leslie and for flying us home for Christmas. We love you!!

Winter is HERE!!

This is November 9. It took me a little while to get this post up. This is in our backyard and all the snow that you see here came in one day. It started snowing at about 6 am and didn't stop until 9 pm. It snowed about 15 inches in just that one day. It was crazy. School was let out early so we decided to play in the snow. We had a lot of fun.

We aren't really sure what this little creature was suppose to be but we had fun making it.