Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the kick-off for the holiday season and since we had to take a pass on all the fun last year, we're making up for it this year. 

We spent a couple nights with the Miller family in the Chicago suburbs, including a quick up-and-back to visit baby Ivy in Milwaukee, then finished with a couple nights with the Twanows in Spring Valley. 

It was a lot of fun for Linden to play with her cousins, Bea and Wes during the Miller Thanksgiving. 

Aside from Liz's wedding over the summer, they hadn't had a chance to play together and this was the first time we got to see Wes on the move. 

The Twanow Thanksgiving provided another chance for Linden to visit and play with cousins -- this time with Chapin and Gibson. We arrive one night before they did though, which meant that Linden had her own personal lullaby from "Bumpa" Twanow. 

The next day, we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with family and Linden was perhaps the most satisfied of us all. :-) 

Rough and Tumble

In December 2013, Linden was still so little. We handled her with kid gloves as she was still on a monitor, recording her heart rate and breathing. What a difference one year makes.

Here she is one year later with a head full of blonde hair and a fully developed attitude. We love her all the more for it.

Around this time last year we had a snowstorm and I remember wishing I could dress Linden up in a snow suit and toss her into a pile of snow. Of course there was no way that was going to happen last year. But this year...I don't think I'm going to have a chance to toss her in. I think she's going to beat me out there. :-)

Minivan

I'm excited to announce that my sister Alison and brother-in-law Eric had their first child, a boy, and named him Van Orion Singley. I couldn't be more proud to share my name with this little guy, especially after having had the chance to meet him this past weekend. Let's go ahead and diffuse that "mini-van" joke from the start. It's unoriginal and not even that funny. :-)

Laine, Linden and I flew out to San Francisco to visit our 6-week-old nephew/cousin a few days ago. Unlike Linden, he was born in the typical Miller size -- 9lb 8oz, 22in.

Flying with a 14-mo-old is quite an experience, but Linden was a champ. Airport transit was aided by this amazing contraption that Laine found on the internet and purchased before our trip -- it's a chair that attaches to a carry-on piece of luggage. So Linden got to ride in style through ORD and SFO.

We stayed with Alison, Eric and Van for a couple nights and had a blast. Van's interests include eating, sleeping, and laughing at his cousin. Linden already loves her cousin Van and also thoroughly enjoyed practicing her stair climbing and descending at her aunt and uncle's place.

Here are a couple amazingly cute photos of the cousins caught on camera. There's really nothing to say about them because they are so dang cute on their own, so that's what I'll leave you with.