Thanksgiving weekend in review

I love having a nice, long break from our norm.  It's so refreshing and does our family good.  Claire and Emma had the entire week off of school and Justin was off starting Wednesday for the rest of the week.  It was a great combination of relaxing, working, fun, and connecting.

Claire had been saving her money for the last few birthdays to make the big American Girl doll purchase.  With the price tag of those dolls, her mom and dad were definitely NOT going to be buying her one.  She decided to follow her bigger cousin Anni's lead and save up her own money for one!  It was a great lesson in saving vs spending and she was so proud when she finally could buy her doll.  On Wednesday, we made the trek to the big city and Claire made the purchase.

Claire and Isabelle

On Thursday we headed to Justin's brother's house for the day.  Did you read that... FOR THE DAY! It is so amazing that we have family close enough that we can just go for the day!  What a blessing!  Both of Justin's brothers and their families were there, as well as his mom and step dad.  My sister in law graciously hosted all 19 of us.. what a gal!

All of the cousins.  That's a lot of kiddos!  #shoefam is quite the crew!

On Friday, we had to deal with the van in our garage that refused to start, even after trying to jump it.  

At least it provided some temporary entertainment!  ;)  

We Justin spent lots of the day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday ripping out our kitchen backsplash and putting in a new one.  The old one was bad.  So so bad.  It was an obvious DIY by the previous owner.  Haha, we somehow think our DIY will be better.  ;)  But it was not only super ugly, but just so terribly done.  We were inspired by some friends who just did theirs themselves and said it was pretty easy!  We found a tile saw to borrow and the rest is history!  

Destruction!

New tile is up. All that is left is the grout.. then it will be done!  

On Saturday we had a fun and unexpected visit with old friends.  You know those kind of friends who you don't see often, but who know you so well and you just pick up where you left off?  Yeah, it was those kind of friends.  I'm bummed I didn't take a picture of our crew, but it was a short and sweet visit.  We met the Hwangs when we were living in Chattanooga, both of us before having kids.  Then we both moved to Atlanta around the same time for jobs, both HATED it (this was our first move to the ATL in 2007), and then both moved back to the Midwest around the same time. Crazy, right? They now have two girls, close to our girls' ages and were back in the Chicago area for Thanksgiving.  It was so fun catching up and our girls acted like they've been friends forever!  Justin and I reflected on how thankful we are for friends like Phil and Kristen!  It was a great visit.  

It was a fun and full weekend!  We have so much to be thankful for!