After Thanksgiving Kirsten, Sam and the kids came up to our house. At 3 am Kirsten and I headed to the stores. Mark had to go to Best Buy (the fun part of working as a seasonal employee. Mark loves the discount but on Friday he wasn't sure it was worth it.), so we dropped him off and went to Toys R Us. I always go there because the sell diapers at 10 bucks a box. So I am stocked up for the next year. I also had to get Mark a new portable DVD player. I thought I got all of my Christmas shopping done, but when I went to wrap the gifts today I realized I had only bought 2 Nintendo wii games and I wanted to get Luke and Levi two each. I think I will get the Sims creator and I don't know what other one. After we were done shopping Sam went to Lake Geneva to go fishing and then we headed down to Woodridge AMC. Mark used to work for AMC so we get free movies because his friend is GM there. We went and saw Twilight it was a good movie, we all enjoyed it. Michelle, Kim's sister, is taking care of Erik during the day so I talked with Steve to see if he could get her a job in the evening at Yorktown. He said that would be fine, so hopefully everything works out. We stayed the night at my grandparents and then I was able to get their tree out and decorate it. Grandma thinks I should start a business with Kirsten doing that. I said the only reason I do it for her is "I love her!" While we were there we went to Yorktown so Hans could ride the train, and I could get my father in law his gift. Hans was a little monster. I always hear that Hans is the best kid, but it was nice to hear he is the best because he has a great mom. The moment he has difficulty I usually stop what I am doing and think about what he needs. The two times I haven't done this I regret it once was a Target. I ran into my friend Jen from college and didn't realize I had missed dinner time and Hans was starving. Then there was Saturday. I should have had him take a nap and then gone out. Live and Learn!

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving! We spent the day at my grandparents. Sam's family was there it was so nice to see them. Erik was unable to be there and we missed him, but he was with his in-laws. He was unable to be with all the people. We had a wonderful dinner and then went outside the men and boys played baseball while the women went for a walk. Then when I got back I played ball a little more with Hans. He loves baseball. We all went around the table and talked about what we are thankful for and it was a moment to hear what everyone had to say. Mark and I said we are especially thankful for our family, and each other. Mark, Sam and I also decided to go to the park with the kids. It was such a blessing to be with everyone.

Elle is dressed in her Thanksgiving outfit. She was supposed to go for a nap but she just wanted to be up. This was the first time I got to see her standing in it. She has been doing it for a while, but only Mark had seen her. It is amazing to me how she is growing so quickly!