Hello Chicago, 2011 and Rose Bowl Champs!

First, I'm so sorry that it takes me so long to post. We had a busy January.

The whole Argue clan went to Chicago to celebrate New Years and my Dad's birthday. We went to visit the Biddles, our best family friends, who live just outside the city in St. Charles. On New Years Eve, Jud, Miller, Evan, Blake and I took the train into the city for the day. The weather wasn't bad for Chicago, but it was a little rainy.

Miller and I on the train. He had so much fun on the hour long ride.

We went straight to the Aquarium and after waiting in line for about 45 minutes to get tickets we had a great time exploring until...

We were waiting in line to see the Dora 4-D movie and decided to have a little snack. Jud and I were eating Granola Nut Clusters and Miller was begging for a bite. As mentioned in my November Fall Festival post, we had figured out that Miller is allergic to pistachios. The clusters didn't contain pistachios so I gave Miller a small piece of granola (against Jud's advice). I should of listened to Jud. Within two minutes, Miller was puking all over the aquarium. Poor guy handled it really well. He was even crying once we made it to the bathroom. I wasn't quite sure what to do. I didn't have any Benadryl and I didn't think he needed the Epi Pen. Jud walked around and asked about 15 different families if they had any Benadryl and a super sweet family did and gladly shared. After about 20 minutes, he was fine and never had a hard time breathing, but it's scary none the less. We have now been to the allergist and he is very allergic to pistachios and cashews (yep - the best tasting nuts). We have decided we are just going to try to avoid tree nuts in general and now we carry Benadryl wherever we go.

After the episode, we decided to leave the Aquarium and we headed to Gino's East to experience Chicago style deep dish pizza.

We chose this place because it was on Man vs. Food (one of our favorite shows).

We took the Man vs. Food recommendation and got the Meaty Legend. Yes, it was amazing! Like a meat explosion in your mouth.

Outside Gino's East stuffed.

Miller had a long day in the city and passed out on the train ride home.

That night we stayed at the Biddle's and had a great dinner, played games, celebrated JoJo's birthday and welcomed the New Year!

Donna got this great cake for JoJo's birthday - so cute and yummy!

On New Year's Day we had so much fun watching TCU win the Rose Bowl! It was a bummer not to be at the game, but we are so proud of our Frogs!

One Cool Dude

Miller found a pair of his old sunglasses that he wore when he was almost one. They fit Miles perfectly. Miller thought it was so funny and made me take a picture.

Over the River and Through the Woods...

...well not exactly to grandmother's house, but the Argue clan made a road trip to Lufkin (East Texas) the day after Christmas to see the Jumper/Noni's side of the family. My grandmother, Grandy, is in a rehab facility as she fell and broke her other hip (she broke the first one about a year before).

She loved seeing the boys and all of us. We really should make the trip more often.

Miles wearing Uncle Phil's cowboy hat. While we were there we went to lunch with my aunt, two uncles and cousin. Not quite a Christmas dinner, but it was good to visit with them.

Christmas Day

This year, Christmas was so much fun! Miller understood everything and was so excited for Santa to come.

Here are the stockings, milk and cookie (actually a huge snowman rice crispy treat that Miller and I made for Santa). We even put a big bowl of water and an apple on our front porch for the reindeer. Of course Miller's favorite reindeer is Rudolf.

Walking in and seeing what Santa left - his very own set of golf clubs in a red bag so he can play with daddy and a ton of Toy Story stuff (complete with a Slinky Dog and a Buzz Lightyear that talks).

Me and my boys on Christmas morning. We gave Miller a bike with training wheels this year. We've been so busy since Christmas and the weather hasn't been great when we have been home, that we haven't even had time to go out and ride it yet. He did ride it around the house several times.

After we did Santa and our gifts at our house, we headed over to Noni and JoJo's for Christmas morning there.

The Christmas of the matching footed pj's.

Yep, the whole Argue clan had matching footed pj's. The boys were in plaid and the girls in red (we couldn't find all of our sizes in one pattern). I loved that Miller and Miles even matched. The funniest part was that Blake and Jud busted out of theirs and ripped the crotch. We should have taken a picture - too funny!

I love my three boys!

Love the rents too - so cute!

Miller has on google eye glasses and a reindeer nose that blinks. He loves stuff like this. I am going to say it again...I think we have a class clown on our hands.

Noni and JoJo gave Miller a new pair of tennis shoes. JoJo called them his fast shoes and told Miller they would make him run really fast. Miller immediately took off his footed pj's so he could put his "fast shoes" on and run around.

Yep, we had a streaker. We laughed so hard.

Then he hid in a box. Boys will be boys.

Super Miller...this was one of his favorite gifts from Noni & JoJo. He's also super excited to have his own bounce house to jump in. Thanks for always spoiling us Noni & JoJo!

Miles in all the bows after all the presents were opened. We have taken this picture of Miller the last few years and we decided it was time to turn it over to Miles.

This may be my only chance to have a bow head.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we had a great dinner at my parents and then headed to church for the candlelight service. Here are a few pictures we snapped before we left for church.

This is the best picture we could get of the boys with the little time we had. I'll have to dress them in these matching outfits again and try to get some better ones.

Miles Eating Rice Cereal

Since we switched from breast milk to formula at four months, we decided to wait to give him rice cereal until after Thanksgiving. Then the craziness of the holidays started so we just tried it last week for the first time. We know he's not lacking in the size department so we figured it wasn't a rush.

He actually opened his mouth like he knew what to do...

...but this is how the rest of the process went. Now that we are a week into it, he's doing a little better and actually seems to enjoy meal time. We are just going to keep it at rice cereal once a day until we get back from our New Years trip. Then the we will work in fruits and veggies. My goal is to make them this time around.

Miles - Five Months

Miles is growing fast. Here are a few things he can do/milestones:

• Rolls over both ways
• Has two teeth
• Loves to play with all sorts of toys and they usually end up in his mouth
• Smiles and laughs constantly. Everyone always says, "is he this happy all the time?" Yes, he is.
• Can almost sit up on his own
• Loves playing in the exersaucer
• Just started eating rice cereal for the first time (pictures to come soon)
• Babbles all the time
• Plays with his feet all the time and loves to put them in his mouth
• Sleeps about 11 hours at night and take three naps during the day

Santa #3

Every year our church has Breakfast with Santa. This year was especially fun because Miller really enjoyed all the fun crafts and activities.

Miller with Frosty. He said, "that's not the real Frosty, because he's furry."

Miller telling Santa that he wants real golf clubs in a red bag.

Wow - they are both looking at the camera and smiling.

The Holy Family

For the last three years, our church has recreated Old Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth. It's a really cool experience. The whole church is transformed and everyone participating is in character. Visitors walk through and see everything from store merchants, a wedding feast, people stomping grapes to make wine, a funeral processional, the inn and the stable with live animals and of course Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. That is where we came in. We were asked to be the Holy family for two hours on Sunday night. Of course we couldn't pass it up.

Miles made a great baby Jesus. He slept for about 45 minutes and only fussed for about 15 minutes. Baby Jesus cried, right? I think he was just a little overwhelmed with all the people that followed the star to come and see him.

Noni and JoJo brought Miller up to see Old Bethlehem and us. Noni told him to go see baby Jesus and he said, "that's not baby Jesus, that's Miles."

What a special memory to share with Miles when he gets older.

Christmas Party with Santa

Some good friends of ours, the Holtons, had a Christmas party in early December. It was crazy with all the kids running around but so much fun. Santa even stopped by to visit...so exciting!

I just love this little boy! We were walking into the party and Jud snapped this.

He was super excited.

Both boys with Santa. Too bad neither one of them were looking at the camera.

Six out of the eight girls that are in my Tuesday night Bible Study were there. We all have kids under four. It's amazing to see the difference in this group from when I joined 3.5 years ago when no one had kids. What a great group...I love these girls and their families!

BABIES! The three babies in the group - Miles, Abigail Hilgers and Louis Macey. I can't wait to see what they will all look like in a year from now.