A Storybook of Grace

Hailey celebrated her 8th birthday on Friday!   We also woke up to about 5 inches on Friday.  And this is just cuteness :)   Let’s see.  I’m almost five weeks out from surgery.  Still relaxing as much as possible, but starting to do more.  We took the 4 girls down to the city (Chicago) yesterday to go to the American Girl store.  They loved it.  It is so much fun to drive down there and see all the tall buildings and the Mag Mile and the restaurants and the river. It really is a beautiful city; too bad it has so many problems.  The girls are so excited with their dolls.  Then we took them to Cracker Barrel.  We had wanted to go to Rain Forest Cafe, but the wait was too long.  We did a little birthday celebration with the 4 of them.  It was a good day.  The boys stayed at home and did a great job here.  💝

So cute and SO NOT potty trained :(  Hailey’s birthday is coming up, but she got an early celebration with her great aunt.  She got her nails done and got to go shopping and they made a cake. It was special.  Made her feel special I know!  And oh my, the icing on this cake is actually Nutella!!!!    

  Happy Valentine’s Day (yesterday)!  We celebrated on Sunday with a gnome, building a V-Day LEGO, V-Day cups, plates, napkins, flowers, fried ravioli, chicken nuggets, salad, and cheesecake bites.  And the Super Bowl.   Our 17th wedding anniversary was on Saturday, which we celebrated on Friday - part 1.  We ordered food from the Shanty and key lime pie from Captain Porky’s and had candles, a fire, Prosecco (I think), and watched Netflix movies.  Part 2 will be an overnight in Gatlinburg in March 💝 My Aunt Dana flew in from FL on Saturday and has been a huge blessing, helping with the kiddos while I am still resting and recovering from the hysterectomy.  And of course it’s been nice to see her. 💕 Connor is keeping us busy with cuddling, potty training, and playing.  The cats are less than thrilled, but Autumn has been pretty brave about it.  Scarlet has been terrified and not brave at all.   We ended the weekend celebrations with ordering hot chicken sandwiches from Johnny’s Snack S

  Well, what a big day!  I got out of bed today and out of the house for the first time since my surgery.  And we also got our puppy, Connor!  He was about two hours north of us up in Wisconsin.  He is adorable.  He cuddled with me the whole way home.  He has also already had two accidents in the house and the kids are all beside themselves about that.  This is our first family dog.   Sean and I got a puppy a week into our marriage, but we had already had sweet Allie for four years before we had our first child.  He’ll be 8 weeks tomorrow.  He’s so tiny still!  Any way, everyone over here is so excited.  I have found my way back to my spot in my bed.  Recovery so far is going well.  The kids have picked up on doing my chores and making breakfast and lunch  everyday for all of us while I rest and they have been great about it.  We thanked them with a surprise  DIY ice cream bar Friday and they loved that.  Sean of course has been so helpful and doing a lot of things I usually do.  I am