quote of the day...love this....

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles." 

— Audrey Hepburn

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

with only a few, short days left until Christmas, i figured it was time to send out Christmas cards! so you can now consider this your Christmas card for this year, folks! we have SO much to be thankful for and to celebrate this holiday season. may your days be merry & bright :)

love, jae & mara

quote of the day

"Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life. If you continue to believe as you have always believed, you will continue to act as you have always acted. If you continue to act as you have always acted, you will continue to get what you have always gotten. If you want different results in your life or your work, all you have to do is change your mind."

left barely alive...

for the past 5 days, jae and i took over being parents for four kids, ages 17 (boy), 13 (girl), 8 (boy), and 5 (another boy). they're friends of my sister and her family, so we've known them for awhile. i stayed with them for a few days last year, too. i was hoping they'd be a bit more able to take care of themselves and CLEAN UP after themselves and such. maybe even slightly less picky than last year? but no. they're not. they're exactly the same. jae and i are pretty sure that their VERY sweet mother pretty much does EVERYTHING for them. hence, ben, the 8 year old, basically told me i'm not very nice and his mom is nicer. haha. well, i just told ben i'm not as nice because i'm not his mom :) anyway, it really wasn't too bad. they're definitely a busy bunch of kiddos. but the money was WELL worth it (as jae kept reminding me when i was about to pull my hair out on various occasions...) and now it's all over and their parents are home. i'm drained.

and yes, in case you wondered, i WILL be refilling my birth control for the next few years...

straight from heaven

baby H was born! this past sunday. Jae's brother Jens and his wife Audree had their beautiful baby boy at 133pm sunday afternoon, and he is perfect. and what's even better, he finally has a name :) hehe

INTRODUCING Benjamin William Horrocks

he is just so ridiculously adorable

aww :) he loves uncle jae



he was mad at Jae for a minute for sitting down (how dare he!), but then went right to sleep



i could sit there and cuddle with him for hours.

congrats again to mommy and daddy  :)  we love you!

so many things, so little time

the last few weeks have been a blur. this time of year always seems to be, anyway, but add in a couple friends having babies, a sister-in-law having a baby, a friend getting married, a work/play trip to Chicago, moving (not to mention refinishing floors and such at the house we moved into) along with Thanksgiving and Christmas, i'm exhausted. and i've been a serious blogging slacker so far in this month of December. so here's a picture overload to update you on various activites...

best part of leslie's shower...nummy cupcakes

my scrumptious spread for leslie's shower!

heather's present - she made that cute beanie!

yes, we played the measure your belly game. and yes, i sucked. sorry les!



here are my two fav prego friends, Lisa and Leslie






wedding lingerie shower for Bekah
(leslie, lisa, me, bekah, heather)

silly sign in Chicago

out on the end of the Navy Pier

it really is the windy city....my eyes were crying

the bean!

moving. boo. all i got was a pic at the end when our apt was all empty

thanksgiving pies

post-thanksgiving dinner. happy.