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So I suppose I should be all professional like and pretend I'm not super excited but I just gotta say I'm feeling a bit totally pumped to have the opportunity to show some of my photographs at a coffee shop this month.  For a gal that spends most of her day wiping butts and cleaning spit up off my neck it just feels a bit surreal that I am able to move forward with Hawa Images and make some of my dreams a reality.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to develop my craft and learn and grow.  Please come by and check out some select images for sale! Any and all purchases are also support my upcoming trip to India with the International Guild of Visual Peacemakers (more soon cuz seriously soooo excited). If you are interested in purchasing any prints or greeting cards but cannot make it to the show let me know or visit my website.


So, join me for a latte at The Common Cup in our old 'hood Rogers Park, If you can brave SnowMageddon in Chiberia that is.  

We spent Christmas Eve night & Christmas Day with my family in the burbs. Of course we were late to the service since my MO these days is a mix of ridiculous poor planning panic & last minute chaos. Case in point I did not even pick out "Christmas outfits" for the kids (or myself for that matter) until about 3pm on Christmas Eve and which point Annikah decided she would wear one of Evy's sweaters (cuz that makes perfect sense).  I instructed her to go upstairs to get her black leggings on and when she emerged from her room I noticed huge holes in the knee where the fabric had apparently disintegrated on its own since one Miss A had no memory of how it happened (to leggings that were less than 2 weeks old..ahem).  Evy also decided she wanted to wear her cowboy boots and there was no reasoning with her so we just rolled with it. Abishai pooped two minutes before we were planning to leave just to add some excitement to the mix.  No wonder I walked out of the house with only one earring in. Such is life.

Abishai loves his Auntie Katy

Jason Dad also joined us on Christmas Day since Justin & Annie went and had a baby on Christmas Eve :) (yeah for baby Charlie!!) so Bibi Rhoda had to jet plane it down asap. The girls showed their appreciation for having Babu around by pestering and tackling him.

My sister took the girls to see Zoo lights at Brookfield. It was crazy beautiful & chilly!

We made use of the wagon the kids got for Christmas (thanks Mom!) and sang carols to the animals and enjoyed the lights with breaks every so often to drink hot chocolate or eat guacamole.

I love that my brother's dog photo bombed this picture and that Abishai is completely NOT feeling it. Such is life. Not picture perfect but real and blessed.

Our last days of Advent were full and I don't want to forget a second. We headed downtown for a day of traditions; we bundled up and went to see the Christmas windows (although since Macy's took over they are the same as last year..boo), checked out the huge tree inside, and sipped fancy coffee (and hot chocolate for the younger set) while walking through the Christkindlmarket.  Thanks to Groupon we got a great deal on a hotel and stayed a block off Michigan Ave.  This was a tradition we used to do every year before we had kiddos and decided we need to bring it back.  It is so awesome to be downtown and the kids loved the pool and unlimited jumping on the bed.  I loved walking down Michigan Ave in the wee hours with my early to rise son strapped to my chest.  Even with the crowds, grit, and inconveniences of this city it is an awesome place to live.

El train ride downtown


downtown!!

Abishai's first time to the windows

Macy's tree

we are blessed

it wouldn't be Chicago unless you had to squeeze your way through crazy crowds of people


we highly recommend the pretzels & roasted sugary almonds (even if Annikah's face says otherwise)


hotel craziness

Abishai's first time in a swimming pool. He was unimpressed.

I love these pictures.  Not because they are perfect but because they are us right now.
Full disclosure: After the El ride Evy had to pee so bad that she managed to pee all over her chupis and pants while going to the bathroom so she ended up wearing her sister's chupis and her PJ pants the rest of the day.  Packing light seemed like a good idea until that moment.  And 30 seconds after the family picture was taken Abishai spit up all over himself, me, and the floor (you are welcome folks who work at Macy's).  Life with small kids.  A crazy, chaotic, beautiful mess.  Never boring though.

One the 23rd we had some newly arrived refugees over for a meal.  They all arrived mid December and had not been out until coming over to our place. Moving to Chicago in the winter must be so overwhelming!

It was so awesome to eat with our hands, talk, and share Advent time with our new friends from Pakistan and Iraq.  Even with limited language communication you can share so much and we were so blessed by our time together.  The family from Pakistan had a little boy who turned 4 that day and Evy decided to give one of her birthday gifts to him as a present.  I was so proud of her for sharing and she reminded me of the importance of giving of what you have.  There is something special about welcoming folks who are new to a place at Christmas.  It reminds us that Mary and Joseph were also weary travelers in a new place and relied on the hospitality of others.  Our prayer, "May we show a glimpse of God's rich love."

We had our family celebration on the morning of the 24th and after reading the last page of the Advent book and lightening all the candles we had a big breakfast and opened presents.


The caption here has gotta be "bed head rocks!"

The joy of the unwrapping

The girls bought special gifts for each other and opened thoughtful gifts from their girl cousins

Do we really have to wait a whole year for Advent again? As we took down the tree and decorations today and made space in our home and hearts for all that 2014 will bring I was glad the snow kept us inside and together for one more day of family time.  I want to wrap up these memories; all of them, and open them again and again.  Hope your Christmas was a blessed one.
 

Christmas Fun Night at First Free was a blast!  We invited some friends from the girl's school and Evy's bestie came along with her parents. It was a cookie decorating, craft making, movie watchin' sugar fest in your PJ's; seriously what is not to love?

I already miss Christmas fun.

Miss Evy turned four on December 21st and when your birthday is a few days before Christmas it means that celebrating can get overlooked.  We wanted to make her day special and after much discussion she decided a "rainbow horsey party" was just the way to celebrate the big 4! She invited a few friends from school, our neighbor, and the only boy to join in was her long time partner in crime Wesley. It was fun to plan this special day for our little Evy girl and it was the perfect way to kick off Christmas break too (even if it was crazy to add party planning to  busy December).

these sisters love any excuse to dress up

but Abishai was thoroughly unimpressed with the festivities

We had a rainbow fruit and veggie tray and horse shoe pizza. We take our theme seriously people.

Games were simple but fun: pin the tail on the horsey & "bozo buckets" with cowboy boots

Prayers by Papa thanking God for our Evy and asking His continued blessing on her life (I loved watching her face as Jason prayed- so sweet)

Singing 'Happy Birthday' to our big girl

Check out the inside of the cake! The girls' helped me make a tie-dyed cake the night before and it turned out pretty good and it was MUCH easier than Anni's rainbow cake from last year.


After Evy opened her gifts she gave everyone their goodie bag and a big thank you hug. I think it was my favorite part of the whole party.

One of our favorite things was posing everyone in the little "Wanted" poster Evy helped me make that morning (amazing what you can do with a cardboard box and some paint last minute). I love these pictures. Seriously adorable.

Bibi joined us and was on baby brother holding duty (we don't think she minded)



and even Joy stopped by!!

and even J & I had to get in on the fun!

All the cowpoke that helped Evy celebrate showing off their horses they made! And yes, this was teh best picture we could muster. Evy loved her party and we are so blessed that this little girl has been in our lives for 4 years.

Happy 4th to our feisty, hilarious, sweet, and funny little cowgirl!
 

The kids and I were sure to experience the CTA holiday train this year as our Advent activity one night.  You gotta love the CTA.  The city tries so hard to have Christmas spirit but between the freezing temps, crush of people, and "the elves" on the train handing out candy canes that looked like they needed a few days off from their making merry duties it was hilarious.  But we just had to do it what with our love for all things urban transportation.

It approaches to many excited cheers of other cray cray kids & parents (and  few poor unsuspecting actual commuters)


This blurry shot was the best I could muster considering I was holding A's car seat, the hands of both girls and pushing our way through the crowds (and trying to make sure no one fell to their death on the tracks).

"Mama, this is WAY lots of people!" Welcome to Chicago kid.

When we finally got on this was all I could see and the girls who are considerably shorter had views of people's butts and dirty boots.  Umm, also Abishai who was apparently not feeling the holiday train (or his mama who forgot his pacifier) and was screaming the entire ride.  But can I just say I love this random bitter holiday train commuter? I seriously could not stop laughing at the utter ridiculousness of it all.

In the end we waited in the freezing cold for 20 minutes to ride the train one stop in a crush of humanity all while holding a screaming Abishai in his car seat and then waited again for 15 minutes in the frigid temps to ride it back to our stop.  But it was still worth it for the extra swag in our steps because we rode the CTA Holiday Train.

My memory cards are full of Christmas pictures and you can barely walk through our kitchen because of the gifts, suitcases, and mounds of dirty laundry but since the baby in napping in his swing I am enjoying a few minutes of couch time.  This year we had a blast with our Advent activities! Of course I had big plans for things that never happened in the chaos of the daily but when we started to pack up the advent wreath this morning and both girls were so disappointed we would not have our special time of reading and activities tonight I knew this past month was truly awesome.  Waiting and celebrating Jesus' arrival every day during Advent was a blessing to us and as I packed up the Advent book this morning I knew I will miss that time as well.

We went to Come to Bethlehem again this year and it is now officially a favorite tradition. Really an amazing free activity (unless you count the 2 bucks we spent on pumpkin bread at the market because that is just necessary!!)





The girls got to participate in the concert after by playing the bells. Well, Anni played and Evy mostly starred at the young woman trying to get the kids to pay attention and play together. Bless it.
Great tradition and way to celebrate Jesus coming to our world by walking through the story together.