We just got home from a very very busy week!

Last weekend (11/19), we traveled up to the twin cities for my birthday where we spent some time visiting Grandma and Grandpa Schmitt and Benjamin's aunt, uncles and cousin. Mike and I had the whole week off of work for the holiday so we got to spend a little time at home before heading off to Illinois. On Wednesday, we drove down to Grandma and Grandpa Andrews's house where we stayed until Sunday. We celebrated Thanksgiving with them, visited with two Santas and went to the Chicago Marshall Fields where we ate in the famous Walnut Room. We also visited my Aunt Cookie and Uncle Scott, my friend Tracy (from high school) whom I had not seen in about 8 years, and the Coopers and Murphys. We also squeezed in a quick visit with my Great Aunt Mollie at her nursing home. Unfortunately, Benjamin was sick the whole week with a nasty cold, but he seems to be recovering finally. We had a great time visiting with everyone! I have posted a few pictures on our photo website and will be adding more tonight. Benjamin is really anxious to get the Christmas tree and decorations up, so we are planning to do that tonight, too!

We are on the mend! Finally.

As many of you know, Benjamin has had some serious skin issues with his eczema the last couple of weeks and because of it, hasn't been sleeping very well at night. Mike and I were at the point of desperation yesterday when we went for our sixth doctor appointment related to his skin. The doctor gave us a plan of action to not only fix his skin but to get him to sleep through the night once again. Well, we started our regimen last night and we already saw an improvement. Benjamin only woke up 3 times last night!! I think I see a light at the end of this tunnel.....

Other than a serious lack of sleep lately, we are all doing great! During the day Benjamin is smiley and laughs all of the time. He is really doing well on his tummy and can actually sit by himself for a short period of time. Mike put his highchair together this weekend so we could start to eat at the dining room table again like human beings! This way, Benjamin can sit up high with us and enjoy our company! We won't be using the chair for solid foods for a while, but he enjoys playing with all of its toys and musical features!

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is just over one week away. We are really looking forward to our visit to Illinois and can't wait to dig into that turkey and stuffing!!

Last weekend we drove up to the Twin Cities to visit Benjamin's Uncle Joe, Aunt Jen, and Cousin AJ. We started a new annual tradition of going to the Marshall Fields Auditorium in Minneapolis to see the Christmas display and Santa. It will be annual as long as when Fields changes over to Macy's, they don't stop having the event. This year the display is Cinderella and it was very very neat! Ben and AJ sat on Santa's lap for pictures and thankfully we were allowed to snap a few of our own. Our pictures from the weekend are on our new photo site...see the box at the top right column or go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/familieschmitt

Here is a little shot of the cousins that Jen took...they really do look related here! AJ is 7 months old and Benjamin is 4 1/2 months old.

P.S.: I have made a change again to who is allowed to leave comments. Now anyone can leave them, but there will be one of those funky word verifications which I am using to stop automated spammers from leaving us nasty comments.

So, comment away!!!!!!